Department of Materials Science and Engineering Annual Report 2006 Table of Contents Editorial .................................................................................................................................................................. 3 Science Stories ............................................................................................................................................. 5 Publications ...................................................................................................................................................... 27 Equipment .......................................................................................................................................................... 34 Guest Lecturers ........................................................................................................................................... 36 Staff ............................................................................................................................................................................. 38 Graduate Studies ....................................................................................................................................... 41 Course Program ......................................................................................................................................... 46 M.Sc. Students .............................................................................................................................................. 47 Graduated M.Sc. Students with Titles of their Diploma Works ...... 49 Extracurricular Activities ................................................................................................................. 51 Picture on front page: Silicon solar cells. Photo: Hanne Hox. Annual report for Department of Materials Science and Engineering Norwegian University of Science and Technology NO-7491 Trondheim, Norway Internet address: http://www.ntnu.no/materialteknologi The editor thanks - Brit Wenche Meland, Åse Lill Salomonsen, Hilde Martinsen Nordø, Martha Bjerknes and Trond Einar Hagen for collecting the administrative data and taking care of the process of printing the report. - Skipnes AS for printing From the editors the annual report from the department of materials initiate a second international program in 2008. 33 master science and engineering (DMSE) consists of two parts. the students graduated from DMSE in 2007, and the number first part comprises short reports giving an impression is expected to increase in the years ahead. the number of of the current research conducted in the four research exchange students from european universities at NtNU is groups at DMSE, the annual list of publications and also increasing. this year the number of exchange students conference proceedings and the laboratory infrastructure at DMSE was 37. the first students were also enrolled in at DMSE. We hope that this first part of the annual report the new program in nanotechnology at NtNU in 2006, and give external readers an impression of the research being DMSE has ambitions to be one of the leading departments performed at DMSE. the second part, which comprises an in this new emerging field. overview of the staff, master students and Phd students, last years masters and Phd candidates and their thesis’ the annual number of publications in peer reviewed titles and finally extracurricular activities, is presenting journals has never been higher at DMSE than in 2006. in a comprehensive overview of the annual activity at DMSE fact DMSE is among the best departments at NtNU with and is more intended for the archives. regard to the annual number of publications per faculty member. We intend to continue to deliver research at a the rector at NtNU has in the last year focused on the high international level, but in order to do so our project new strategy plan for the university. NtNU has strong portfolio has to be maintained in order to keep the number ambitions and aims to be among the top 10 technical of Phd students and post docs at the current level. in universities in europe by 2020. NtNU has also entered a 2006 the Norlight program sponsored by the research strategic alliance with SINTEF to develop the technological Council of Norway and Norwegian light metal industry environment in trondheim internationally. the aim is to be came to an end. the light metals industry is one of the among the world leaders in selected areas of r&d. the largest industries in Norway and is consequently the recruitments of excellent faculty and students are maybe most important research fields for DMSE. the light metal the most important step towards future international industry is an important potential employer for our master competitiveness. this year we have recruited one new and Phd students. We expect that light metals will continue associate professor, while one has unfortunately left. As to be important for DMSE, and several new projects in this a part of the strategy at DMSE a new plan defining the field have recently been initiated. DMSE was also heavily research field of four new faculty members has recently involved in several proposals for the Centre for excellence been submitted to the faculty, and we hope to start the and the Centre for research-based innovation sponsored process of recruiting the four new faculty members in by the research Council of Norway. Unfortunately only one 2007. Unfortunately, the recruitment of both staff and of the initiatives was successful. despite the low success Phd students is challenging at the time being due to rate we will continue our efforts to strengthen our position the strong demand for new people from the Norwegian to the next call in about five years time. industry. recruitment of talented staff and students is probably the single most critical factor for our success in the international Course on Process metallurgy of the years to come. recruitment of both students and staff Aluminium celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2006. every members from foreign countries is expected to be much year more than 100 scientists and engineers are visiting more important in the future. At present 25 % of our Phd NtNU to attend this course. this year the 8th summer student, 40 % of our post-docs and 15 % of our faculty are school on Casting and solidification of Aluminium and non-native Norwegians. magnesium Alloys has also been arranged. DMSE, and particularly professor trygve Foosnæs, have also made the recruitment of good students is fortunately much important contribution for the success of the arrangement better when the demand for master and Phd candidates to “researchers Night”, where about 1000 pupils from the the Norwegian industry is very high. the students at DMSE vicinity of trondheim visit the campus on a Friday evening are enrolled via three different master programs. one of to learn about science and engineering. these is an international masters program, and we plan to From the editors several of our staff and students were awarded for colleagues at both national and international universities their outstanding contribution during 2006. Professor and institutions. Collaboration is the key element to Lars Arnberg was together with ragnvald mathiesen our success and we would like to acknowledge our (SINTEF) awarded the SINTEF research Award 2006 collaborators at home and abroad. Finally, we would like for their contribution in research on solidifications of to express our gratitude to our sponsors; the research metals. moreover, Phd Aaron marshall received the Council of Norway, the 6th eU framework programs and exxonmobil award in 2006 for outstanding Phd thesis on finally the Norwegian industry. electrocatalysis. Finally, MSc trine okstad was awarded for best MSc thesis in environmental technology. in several of the research fields we work closely together NtNU April 2007 with researchers at SINTEF, industrial partners and Tor Grande and Knut Marthinsen Anodized aluminium in polarized light Photo: Gaute Svenningsen Physical metallurgy dendrite fragmentation in aluminium alloys Columnar-to-equiaxed transition has been studied in situ by X-radiography. Fragmentation of columnar dendrites during growth is important for the formation of an equiaxed zone in castings. this phenomenon has been studied in situ by X-radiography during directional solidification of Al- Cu alloys. the observations demonstrate that different mechanisms promote dendrite detachment at different location on the mush and compare well with models proposed for fragmentat ion. Buoyant and settling motions of crystals and liquid play an important role for the detachment of crystal fragments, for their transport out of the columnar mush and for their possibility of survival in the melt and promote a columnar- to-equiaxed transition in the casting. Fragmentation close to the dendrite growth front in the sequence shown below is due to heavy Cu-rich melt that flows into the mush and causes secondary and ternary arms to melt at their roots, Photo: Lars Arnberg and Ragnvald Mathiesen see Fig. 1. other fragmentation mechanisms have also been Fig. 1 studied; coarsening and recalescence, but they occur Fragment (dark feature centre)­ that has just detached from deeper in the mush and the fragments can not readily be dendrite (dark feature lower)­. Distributions of alloying transported to the front and contribute to a columnar-to- elements are also shown (coloured background)­. equiaxed transition.