Research examples from our business units

Destructive safety testing of large lithium-ion batteries

Skelettaufbau des Thorax vom PRIMUS Dummy.  ©PRIMUS Breakable Dummy der Firma Crashtest-Service GmbH.
© Fraunhofer EMI

A new laboratory for investigations on the safety of lithium-ion batteries has been established at Fraunhofer EMI — financed by the state of Baden- Württemberg, the federal government and by the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft.

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Breaking the ice cleverly — a contribution to fusion research

Skelettaufbau des Thorax vom PRIMUS Dummy.  ©PRIMUS Breakable Dummy der Firma Crashtest-Service GmbH.
© ITER Organization

Current forecasts predict a worldwide increase in primary energy and electricity demand. To meet this demand and at the same time meet the enormous challenges of climate change, CO2-neutral renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power play an important role. But nuclear fusion power plants could also make their contribution to electricity generation to cover the base load in the future.

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Dummy structures from additive manufacturing

Surrogate and model development of rib bone

© PRIMUS Breakable Dummy der Firma Crashtest-Service GmbH

How does the human thorax behave under the impact of dynamic loads? This question is of crucial importance for many areas of research. Be it in the development of new safety technologies in the automotive sector or the testing of new protective clothing in defense research. Researchers at Fraunhofer EMI are working on methods to make the results of such tests more accurate and meaningful.

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New cars – new crash tests: EVERSAFE

© Fraunhofer EMI

Electric cars are emission-free and quieter than their previous generation. But how safe are they compared to conventional cars? In order to find out, new test procedures are needed since e-cars do not have a fuel tank but carry a battery. The battery’s position in a car varies according to the manufacturer. Therefore, it is a crucial question whether and how current crash-test guidelines have to be adjusted. Read more 

Airline passenger screening – judging quality, comfort and efficiency

© Fraunhofer EMI

Security checkpoints are of special importance for the security of airports. Fraunhofer EMI develops a method to evaluate the quality, comfort and efficiency of airport security checkpoints. Read more

BESECURE – Best Practice Enhancers for Security in Urban Environments (EU project)

© Fraunhofer EMI

Urban security is a complex, multidimensional process which emerges from interactions of stakeholders which are getting more and more diverse. Read more

Damage propagation in glass

© Fraunhofer EMI

For analyzing the damage propagation in glass, a detailed understanding of the occurring physical mechanisms leading to damages is crucial. Read more

Risk and resilience analyses: risk analysis in terms of urban development

© Fraunhofer EMI
Figure 1: Result of the threat analysis concerning a city in southwestern Germany (Lörrach).

In the course of growing threats through terrorist attacks in Europe and Germany, the topic of constructional civil protection against terrorism is becoming ever more crucial. On the one hand, there is more need to quantify the potential hazards and risks posed by terrorist threats, and on the other hand, the constructional civil protection, especially of critical infrastructure, has to be implemented preemptively. Read more

How high is the risk of terrorist attacks on airports?

© Fraunhofer EMI

At Fraunhofer EMI, we conduct risk analyses for various kinds of infrastructure. Examples also include terrorist attacks on airports. Read more

Resilience indicators

© Fraunhofer EMI

The pilot project “Resilience Indicators for Optimization of Technical Systems” of the Sustainability Center Freiburg is about the determination of technical factors and metrics of resilience, which describe the availability of system performance and its temporal change before and after disruptive events, e.g., caused by environmental influences, subsystem failures or human errors. Read more

Protective effectiveness of a ceramic armor

© Fraunhofer EMI

In order to improve the protective effectiveness of armors it is crucial to understand the failure mechanisms of protective materials. Read more

Impact failure of a metal rod

© Fraunhofer EMI

Even relatively small impact velocities, the maximum loads of materials under impact processes are already exceeded at  which leads to material failure. Read more