Applied Materials

Thermal and Structural Materials Modeling and Simulations

Predicting the long-term reliability of materials in harsh environments.
Example of our work: Reliability calculation for a ceramic tubular Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) receiver. The model simulates the temperatures and stresses in the receiver caused by the diurnal solar cycle and then translates those thermal and mechanical conditions to model the reliability of the receiver as a whole. The reliability calculation provides the expected probability of component failure over time, which is a key input for designers and operators of CSP plants.

The Thermal and Structural Materials Modeling and Simulations group develops digital twin models for the long-term reliability of structural and thermal materials operating in challenging conditions including high temperatures, corrosive environments, and in neutron radiation.

The group actively develops and maintains several tools for developing such simulations, including NEML2, a GPU-enabled tool for constitutive model development, and pieces of the MOOSE framework related to structural reliability simulations. The group has applied these and other tools to modeling the long-term performance of materials in high temperature nuclear reactors, concentrating solar power facilities, and thermal energy storage systems.

Areas of Focus

Structural Materials
  • Reactor structural materials
  • Lightweight/propulsion materials
  • High temperature materials
  • Composites
  • Cementitious materials
  • Material design and optimization
Modeling
  • Multiscale/multiphysics modeling of reactor structural materials
  • Physically based material modeling – crystal plasticity
  • Reduced order modeling
  • Thermal modeling 
  • Integrated computational materials engineering
Multiphysics simulations
  • Solid state batteries
  • Thermal energy storage