The
Richard P. Feynman Visualization Laboratory
located at the Materials Science Laboratory is named after one of Los Alamos's
most distinguished alumni. It is a general purpose facility supporting the
visualization needs of MST Division. The hardware ranges from UNIX-based
SGI Origin boxes supporting legacy stereo-vision fracture mechanics graphics
to state-of-the-art LINUX-based Dell PowerEdge servers with dual 2 GHz Xeon
processors supporting atomistic, microscopic, and continuum simulations
to a set of 180 GB Seagate Barracuda disk drives (0.7 TB total capacity)
with video caching. The facility is connected via fiber to Los Alamos's
Central Computing Facility. Recent emphasis has been on animation, especially
portable animation. Portability is supported with free, shared, and custom
software options. Portability allows the rest of the world see what we see.
Atomistic simulations include radiation damage cascades in metals, phase
change behavior in Ni-Al alloys, Zr, and Ti, viscosity properties of
Ni-Al alloys, and shock dynamics in metals and polymers. Microscopic
simulations include dislocation dynamics and texture evolution. Continuum
simulations include classical thermodynamics, shock-response of fluid
interfaces, properties of nanolayered composites, and shock induced
chemical kinetics.
The following QuickTime movies show examples of a radiation damage cascade
in Pu, a compressive loading process, and an end-on collision of stiff
polymer chains.
The Pu cascade at 100 eV, in a relaxed fcc crystal, at 300 K
and constant volume shows the formation of interstitials and vacancies
that lead to materials fails after long periods of time.
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Alamos • Established 1943
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