Final Report Summary - TAMER (Trans-Atlantic Micromechanics Evolving Research "Materials containing inhomogeneities of diverse physical properties, shapes and orientations") TAMER project addresses properties of materials with realistic - heterogeneous and anisotropic - microstructures that contain inhomogeneities (pores/cracks/inclusions) of diverse shapes, orientations and physical properties. An important feature of such microstructures, that complicates the analysis but has a profound impact on their overall behaviour, is their “irregular” character. For example, pores typically have highly diverse shapes and their orientational distribution is often neither ideally random, nor ideally parallel, but may lie in-between. The research planned within the project was to analyze a wide range of materials, both naturally occurring and man-made. The work was motivated by a number of open questions in materials science. They are related to the fact that real materials often have complex, "irregular” microstructures, comprising various sets of inhomogeneities of diverse shapes and orientations. These factors strongly affect material's overall performance, from the point of view of its mechanical, electric and thermal properties. The main research output of this project was a numerically verified and experimentally validated methodology for defining microstructure-property relations and cross-property connection that brings together the sources of information to provide a rapid, accurate and meaningful response to meet the requirements of applied science.The TAMER consortium consisted of five partners from the EU (two from UK, and one from each: Italy, France, Poland) complemented by five teams from the third countries: two teams from Belarus, one from each of: US, Russia and Ukraine.The main scientific objectives of the project were:• To develop and validate a methodology to express anisotropic effective properties – elastic, conductive, etc. - in terms of parameters of microstructure of real materials based on advanced modelling schemes (with account for shape diversity of constituents, their orientational scatter and mutual positions).• To establish - where possible - cross-property relations for different pairs of physical properties• To develop and validate the methodology of recovery of information on microstructure and its damage from the overall material properties. The same methodology can be applied for design of new materials with tailored properties.• To develop multi-scale modelling tools for heterogeneous materials with hierarchical microstructure.In terms of quality of the exchange programme, the overall aim of this proposed program was to establish an effective international network in the field of micromechanics of materials based on exchanges between institutions in the European Union, Eastern Europe and USA, in particular, to train early stage researchers, leading to a roadmap for establishing connection between mechanics and other branches of science – rock mechanics, biomechanics, materials science, design of materials with tailored properties etc.The following objectives related to this type of activities were:• To implement complementary investigations through the exchange of researchers with specific expertise and related staff within a global research context.• To train early stage researchers in general and applied micromechanics using a specific program of exchanges of postgraduates and research fellows, so that they can benefit from broader knowledge, skills and tools provided by the network.• To achieve knowledge transfer between the European Union, Eastern Europe and USA on the latest results and developments in general and applied micromechanics.• To develop joint research infrastructure to allow flexibility in sharing experimental and computational resources between the local teams.• To create links among the relevant professional societies and networks across the two continents, leading to joint applications to various funding bodies for research funding.• To generate high-quality publications through fundamental research collaborations and results-sharing from the collaborative activities.The research was organised in six Work-Packages where all the Partners participate actively. All planned milestones and deliverables were fully achieved. 34 researchers (41% ESRs, 26% females) were seconded from EU partners to the institutions from the third countries while 52 secondments (46% ESRs, 35% females) were implemented by the researchers from the third countries to EU. In total 169 papers in international scientific journals, 4 monographs, 12 book chapters and 51 papers in the refereed conference were published during the project life time. 56 invited lectures and talks at international conferences and research seminars as well as 177 presentations at international Conferences have been delivered by the members of the Consortium. All the publications and presentations had direct acknowledgements to the project. In terms of scientific achievements of the project one can mention:• The cross-property relations for different pairs of physical properties have been discovered.• Exact formulae have been obtained to express effective properties in terms of parameters of material microstructure• Effective numerical tools were developed to compute average properties of various composite materials.• Methodology to recovery of information on microstructure and its damage was proposed. • Software were created to reconstruct the structure of the composite material from the available images and, basing on the algorithms developed, compute mechanical, thermal and electrical properties of the composite.• Methodology has been designed to develop new materials with tailored properties.• International network in the field of micromechanics of materials has been established. The consortium organized the following major events:International conference on Micromechanics: “Advances in Micromechanics of Materials” in Rzeszów, Poland, 8-11.07.2014 International scientific conference “Progressive Technologies and Materials in Mechanical Engineering” (PRO-TECH-MA 2016), 22th June - 24th June 2016, Bezmiechowa, Poland Jointly organised International Conferences: 9th International Symposium on Mechanics of Materials and Structures and 2nd International Conference on Advances in Micromechanics of Materials, Augustów, Poland, 4-8 June, 2017 XXVII International Conference «Mathematical and Computer Simulation in Mechanics of Solids and Structures» MCM 2017. Fundamentals of static and dynamic fracture, St. Petersburg, Russia, 25-27 September 2017 International Workshop “Multi-Scale and Multi-Physics Testing”, TU Berlin, Germany, 18-19 February 2016 Numerous sessions and minisymposia related to TAMER activities were organised during other International Conferences (for details see http://fp7.imaps.aber.ac.uk/tamer_events.html) Summer School on Micromechanics took place in Bezmiechowa, Poland, 3-13.06.2015. Additionally, the ESRs participated in the TAMER project attended summers schools organised in the framework of other EU projects leading by the Consortium Partners.As a result of the project, 12 PhD students participated in research associated with project have already defended their PhD thesis. Support from the TAMER project has been acknowledged in their publications and the thesis. Full information on the TAMER project and its achievements can be found on the project webpage (http://fp7.imaps.aber.ac.uk/tamer.html). This page will be alive for at least 5 years where the progress and follow up from the Partners will be stored.
