The research activity is concentrated on the study of nature and quantitative description of the fatigue process in all fatigue stages. The main aim of research is to contribute to the understanding of the cyclic plasticity at low amplitudes, crack initiation process, threshold values for fatigue crack propagation and to the fracture-mechanical description of the fatigue crack behaviour on the basis of experimental and theoretical study of relation between the microstructure, its development during cyclic loading and macroscopic fatigue and fatigue/creep properties.

Systematic investigation of fatigue behaviour and basic mechanisms is performed both on advanced engineering materials used in industry and in limited extent on model materials.

The main projects solved in the group cover

• fatigue and fatigue/creep behaviour of single crystalline and polycrystalline superalloys,
• fatigue properties of ultrafine-grained materilas,
• effect of mean stress on cyclic stress-strain response and fatigue life,
• effect of notches and cracks on fatigue life and fatigue/creep life,
• determination of crack-tip stress biaxiality parameters using finite element method,
• application of two-parameter fracture mechanics to crack and notch analysis,
• fracture mechanics of composite materials.