The Nanoengineering Center at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga will use a $600,000 award from a U.S. Army research project to help develop materials that hold up in extreme environments.
UTC is collaborating on the project with the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, which brings experimental capabilities to the research, according to a press release from the university. Reston, Virginia-based Leidos, which according to Forbes serves the defense, intelligence, civil and health sectors, is also involved in the work, which is supported by the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command, or DEVCOM.
UTC said its researchers use computational modeling to predict how the materials change and degrade in response to severe operating conditions.
“Our capabilities help us understand the connection between the extreme environment and the material response,” Murat Barisik, director of the Nanoengineering Center and an associate professor of mechanical engineering, said in the release.
(READ MORE: UTC lands $3M federal grant to turn research into real-world uses)
Experiments sometimes show how materials react under extreme conditions without clarifying why. UTC’s modeling can help explain the results of experiments when physical and chemical effects take place simultaneously, the release said.
“By combining experiments and modeling, we can learn more from each experiment and use that knowledge to guide material development,” Barisik said.
For security reasons, researchers could not divulge the specific types of materials under development, he said by phone Tuesday.
The Nanoengineering Center connects simulations to predictive models by using high performance computing and AI-assisted upscaling.
(READ MORE: UTC Launches new Nanoengineering Center to fuel Tennessee’s tech corridor)
“High-fidelity calculations give us detailed physical information, but they are too computationally expensive to perform for every material and every condition,” Barisik said. “AI-assisted upscaling helps us use those detailed results in predictive models at the application scale much more efficiently.”
Mina Sartipi, interim vice chancellor for research and executive director of the UTC Research Institute, said the collaboration highlights the “growing research capacity across the Department of Mechanical Engineering, the Nanoengineering Center and the UTC Research Institute.”
“By pairing UTC’s advanced computational modeling expertise with UT Knoxville’s experimental capabilities, the team can accelerate the knowledge needed to develop and manufacture materials for demanding applications,” Sartipi said in the release.
Contact business editor Steve Barrett at sbarrett@timesfreepress.com.