AbstractIn carbon based materials thermal stress due to pulsed heat loads results in breaking of lattice bonds. As a consequence of intense cracking macroscopic layers are destroyed and dust is produced. A phenomenological model for numerical simulation of brittle destruction in case of volumetric heating is used and results from different electron beam facilities are compared with numerical results. Melt layer erosion in metals is mainly due to melt motion. For description of melt motion, mountain formation at the crater edge and melt layer erosion a 1-D fluiddynamics model was developed and first numerical results are presented.