The Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft (www.fraunhofer.com) currently operates 76 institutes and research units throughout Germany and is a leading applied research organization. Around 32 000 employees work with an annual research budget of 3.4 billion euros.
At the Fraunhofer IWM, 330 employees conduct research on materials and components with the aim of better understanding, developing, processing and using them. In our projects, we bridge the gap between the properties of materials and the durability, safety and function of technical systems.
We show ways and solutions for more energy efficiency and sustainability. After all, materials are crucial for climate neutrality, for the careful use of our planet’s limited resources and for the sustainable transformation of our economy.

Steels are commonly used as materials in components for storage and transportation of gaseous compounds due to their high strength and affordability. However, steels, when exposed to hydrogen, exhibit hydrogen embrittlement (HE) that results in reduced lifetime and safe use of the material through crack initiation and growth. In this context, you will help develop a state-of-the-art finite element modelling (FEM) framework that simulates crack growth and hydrogen diffusion. During your employment, you will write your master’s thesis and a publication on creating a multiscale FEM which combines materials characterization, diffusion kinetics, fracture mechanics and fatigue.
A wide variety of tasks await you:
You will be responsible for the development of two Finite Element Models (FEM), the first exploring the mechanistic interactions of microstructure information, residual stress, and hydrogen diffusion and solubility responses of steel alloys. This will include calibration, validation and verification of the model to experimental testing. The insights from this model will be incorporated into a cohesive zone model (CZM) for crack propagation. You will use the CZM to explore varying loading conditions and assess the effect of material properties on crack growth rates and compare with experimental results.