Materials Engineering

Staff

Facility/Equipment

Research and Capability Areas

In many and profound ways, engineers and scientists at the Laboratory are examining materials from the large-scale to the nano level to understand their characteristics and behaviors, oftentimes studying materials subjected to extreme conditions.

For example, one team is studying how crystals behave under high strains, which force them to deform; this is being done with the "Six Degrees of Freedom" approach. Others are measuring the mechanical responses of nanomaterials when stretched by using an LLNL-designed and fabricated cartridge and loading stage in a transmission electron microscope (TEM). Such studies serve to further the research goals and needs for nuclear weapons stockpile stewardship, asymmetric warfare responses, and energy and environmental problem solving.

Comparing experiment with theory through computer simulation, many of the efforts have come up with faster and sometimes new or unexpected results. For example, an effect first seen when using a dislocation dynamics computer simulation was then verified experimentally. Many materials engineering efforts at the Laboratory have been aided by such services and special capabilities as are found in our plastics fabrication shop, advanced composites laboratory, microtechnology clean rooms, and Center for Nondestructive Characterization.

  UCRL-WEB-232442 | Privacy & Legal Notice

December 1, 2011