The deformation behavior of steels is strongly influenced by their microstructure which is a result of the alloying elements and thermal treatments. In this work, the microstructure and the deformation behavior of a non-alloyed deep drawing DC04 steel was investigated. The microstructure was analyzed during heat treatment by EBSD, then microcompression experiments were performed on selected microstructural units and then bulk steel samples were mechanically tested by tensile experiments.

In the last two decades, the reliability of small electronic devices used in automotive or consumer electronics gained researchers attention. Thus, there is the need to understand the fatigue properties and damage mechanisms of thin films. In this thesis a novel high-throughput testing method for thin films on Si substrate is presented. The specialty of this method is to test one sample at different strain amplitudes at the same time and measure an entire lifetime curve with only one experiment.

The 1/2111 screw dislocations in bcc iron are studied by atomistic simulations. An analytical yield criterion captures correctly the non-Schmid plastic behavior. A model Peierls potential develops a link between the atomistic modeling at 0 K and the thermally activated dislocation motion. All predicted features agree well with experimental observations. This work establishes a consistent bottom-up model that provides an insight into the microscopic origins of the plastic behavior of bcc iron.

Ink-jet printed devices on the flexible substrate are inexpensive and large area compatible as compared to rigid substrates. However, during fabrication and service they are subjected to complex strains, resulting in crack formation or delamination within the layers, affecting the device performance. Therefore, it is necessary to understand their failure mechanisms by correlating their electrical or structural properties with applied strain, supported by detailed microstructural investigations.

Water diffusing into silica surfaces gives rise for several effectson diffusion behaviour and mechanical properties. Water added to silica glass increases its specific volume so that the silica expands near the surface. Mechanical boundary conditions give rise for compressive “swelling stresses”. This fact provides a tool for the interpretation of many experimental observations from literature.

Custom built setups were developed to investigate micro samples during quasistatic and cyclic testing in tension, compression and bending. Micro molded CuAl10Ni5Fe4-samples showed similar fatigue behavior compared to macroscopic samples due to both the sample size and microstructure being scaled down with the manufacturing process. Results from cyclic three-point bending tests on micro molded 3Y-TZP suggested that a minimum crack extension is necessary to develop cyclically degradable shielding.

The phase-field method is a powerful tool in computer-aided materials science as it allows for the analysis of the time-spatial evolution of microstructures on the mesoscale. A multi-phase-field model is adopted to run numerical simulations in two different areas of scientific interest: Polycrystalline thin films growth and the ferromagnetic shape memory effect. FFT-techniques, norm conservative integration and RVE-methods are necessary to make the coupled problems numerically feasible.