Understanding the failure behavior of a great amount of different materials is currently among the most fascinating challenges lying at the interface between mathematics, physics, and materials science. Macroscopic phenomena such as plasticity, damage or fracture are considered to be the result of atomistic interactions and effects occurring on mesoscopic scales. Characterizing the interplay of such different material scales is therefore a key problem for the description of the physics behind the phenomena. This leads to a variety of interesting challenges spanning from fundamental modeling issues to rigorous mathematical foundations. A comprehensive mathematical understanding of material failure relies on a variety of different techniques including continuum mechanics, calculus of variations, geometric measure theory, partial differential equations, and nonlinear functional analysis. 

The aim of the workshop is to bring together internationally renowned mathematicians and promising young researchers. The workshop is expected to deal with different themes including (but not limited to): 

• Variational modeling of brittle, cohesive and adhesive behavior in fracture and delamination

• Free-discontinuity problems and phase-field models

• Effective theories for nonlocal-to-local, discrete-to-continuum limits, and dimension reduction

• Quasistatic and dynamic evolution of cracks

• Variational modeling of perfect, finite, and crystal plasticity

• Relation of dislocations and finite plasticity; multiscale aspects

• Modeling of defects in the passage from discrete-to-continuum

Banner image: Akriesch (wikipedia; CC BY 2.5)