Modeling & Simulation

Video: Engineering anarchy? Termite robots build complex structures without a leader

By April Gocha / February 18, 2014

Harvard engineers designed termite-like robots that can work together to build complex structures without a leader, and other robot advances inspired by nature.

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NIST team wins 80M hours of supercomputer time for concrete rheometer study

By Eileen De Guire / December 6, 2013

A NIST team has been awarded 40 million hours of computer time per year for two years to support the study of the design of rheometers for large-particle dense suspensions such as concrete.

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IBM’s Watson, unchained for materials discovery

By Jim Destefani / October 18, 2013

IBM is working hard to harness the firepower of its Watson computer system to solve real-world problems, including materials discovery.

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Novel ceramic could conduct heat better than diamond

By Jim Destefani / August 16, 2013

Local temperature increases occurring as a result of current flow in active regions of electronic devices can lead to decreased performance. Materials with high thermal conductivity are used to conduct…

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New way to determine thermal shock behavior of ceramics

By Martin Grolms / July 29, 2013

Comparison of  experimental results with simulated results to determine the thermal shock behavior of ceramic materials shows excellent agreement. Credit: Wiley Materials Views. (Editor’s note: This article was originally published in…

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Other materials stories that may be of interest

By Eileen De Guire / July 15, 2013

  What is glass? Keck Foundation award supports University of Akron research Three University of Akron researchers hoping to uncover the mysteries of glass formation have received a $1 million…

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Simulation, 3D printing combine to duplicate (or improve!) natural materials

By Jim Destefani / June 25, 2013

The brick-and-mortar pattern of MIT’s simulated bone and nacre material doesn’t look much like the real thing. Credit: M. Buehler/MIT; photo by Graham Bratzel. For an observer of science and…

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3D printing of microbatteries

By Jim Destefani / June 21, 2013

Micro Li-ion battery (SEM view above) is manufactured using 3D printing to deposit anode and cathode materials (red and purple, respectively) on gold contacts. The stack is then encased and electrolyte…

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Other materials stories that may be of interest

By / June 18, 2013

A diagram of proposed new solar panel design. The top layer of each photovoltaic cell is a conventional photo electrode. While most electrons flow out of the device to support…

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Aerodynamic levitation, modeling and new analytical techniques leads to cement-to-semiconductor advances

By / June 13, 2013

  One type of cage structure around the spin-density of one electron in a model of cement-based semiconducting metallic glass (gray=Al; green=Ca; and red=O). Credit: Akola et al.; Argonne National Lab.…

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