DOE Announces HPC Initiative

HPC4Mtls will promote the use of high-performance computing in the search for new materials.

The US Department of Energy has announced a new initiative to encourage high-performance computing in the search to find “new and improved materials for use in severe environments.”

The High Performance Computer for Materials (HPC4Mtls) program will focus on developing materials for extreme conditions, including extreme pressure, radiation, and temperature, as well as for environments conducive to corrosion, vibration, fatigue, and other extreme effects.

According to the press release, “Through HPC4Mtls, the industry will be able to solve common materials issues, discover new or improved materials and structures, and enhance their products and processes using the labs’ world-class computational resources and capabilities. These capabilities include:

  • Access to HPC systems, including five of the world’s ten fastest computers
  • Higher-fidelity simulations to augment products or processes
  • Prediction of material behavior in specific severe environments
  • Modeling of missing physical phenomena to enable more realistic simulations
  • Development of more complex models to capture interactions between physical phenomena
  • Access to expertise in computational fluid dynamics, thermodynamics, kinetics, materials modeling, and additive manufacturing.”

The Department of Energy will host a workshop on October 12, 2017, in Pittsburgh, PA, to provide more information on the initiative and “engage US-based companies, industries, universities, and government stakeholders.”