The Nubia plate is normally considered to be a rigid plate and as such used in the realization of terrestrial reference frame. Gondwana breakup plate reconstruction, the Cameroon volcanic line, seismicity, and the morphology of the Okavango rift zone (ORZ) suggest the presence of internal deformation within the Nubia plate. To test this hypothesis, six different reference frames were developed from the velocity field of three individual regions (West, Central and South), and of different combinations of them (West+Central, South+Central, and Nubia as a whole). The residual velocities with respect to these references frame help us understand the presence of the relative motion between the different regions thus the stability of the plate. To realize the reference frames, all the publicly available global positioning system (GPS) data within the “stable” Nubia plate was processed. Given the small relative velocity, it is important to eliminate eventual biases in the analysis and to have good estimates of uncertainty of the observed velocities. For this reason, velocities were analyzed, and rate uncertainties computed using the Allan variance of rate (AVR) technique, accounting for colored noise. Although geological and geophysical studies indicate the possibility of internal deformation within Nubia, the results of this study shows that the current GPS network is not capable to identify intraplate deformation and within uncertainties Nubia is a single plate. As final note, both the color of the noise and the amplitude of the annual signal of each time series as function of latitude and climatic region were analyzed. The study shows that the noise is approximately flicker for all the good stations independently of the location. On the contrary, the amplitude of the annual signal is strongly dependent on the climate of the regions.

Es werden hydrostatisch stranggepresste Aluminium/Magnesium-Verbunde untersucht. Mittels verschiedener Rissdetektionsmethoden wird die Beschaffenheit des Interface analysiert. Es erfolgt die Bestimmung von Fließkurven der verpressten Einzelwerkstoffe bei Raumtemperatur. Des Weiteren erfolgen Eigenspannungsanalysen mit dem Bohrlochverfahren und einer speziellen numerischen Auswertungsmethode, welche den Entstehungsprozess der Eigenspannungen berücksichtigt. Zur Analyse der Festigkeitseigenschaften und des Deformationsverhaltens des Interface werden Biegeversuche in einem erweiterten Temperaturbereich durchgeführt. Die Deformationsanalyse erfolgt mittels Digital Image Correlation. Des Weiteren finden in den Festigkeitsuntersuchungen Push-Out-Versuche Anwendung. In bruchmechanischen Analysen wird die Interfacerissspitze von speziell entwickelten Proben unter Mode I-Bedingungen, bezogen auf den homogenen Fall, beansprucht. Die bruchmechanischen Größen – kritischer betragsmäßiger Spannungsintensitätsfaktor und kritische Energiefreisetzungsrate – werden auf Basis der Experimente, der numerischen Simulation der Rissspitzenbeanspruchung sowie der für die linear-elastische Bruchmechanik des Interfacerisses geltenden Nahfeldgleichungen berechnet. / Hydrostatic coextruded aluminum/magnesium compounds are analyzed. By means of different methods of crack detection, the quality of the interface is investigated. Plastic behavior of the basic materials at room temperature is determined. Furthermore, residual stress analyses are performed using the hole drilling method and a special numerical evaluation procedure, which considers the formation process of the residual stresses. The strength and deformation behavior of the interface are determined by means of bending tests in an extended temperature range. Digital Image Correlation is used to analyze the deformation. Furthermore, push out tests are performed to determine the interface strength. In the course of fracture mechanical analyses, the crack tip of specially developed specimens is stressed under Mode I conditions (relating to homogeneous material). The fracture mechanical values – critical absolute value of the stress intensity factor and critical energy release rate – are determined by the use of experiments, numerical analyses of the crack tip fields as well as the equations of the linear elastic near field equations of interface fracture mechanics.