The Applied Chemicals and Materials Division (ACMD) of the NIST Material Measurement Laboratory (MML) carries out measurement science research in high-impact science and engineering fields for gas/vapor, liquid, or solid materials. Our experimental scientists focus on developing fundamental measurements and novel methodologies that can characterize complex materials. These material structure and property measurements require interpretation that is aided by numerical multi-physics modeling. Such virtual modeling experiments become guide tools to provide not only a deeper understanding of any phenomenon characterized but also a quantified estimate of the uncertainties encountered in the physical experimental and analytical approaches used. In the ACMD, the continuum numerical modeling required is multiscale, interdisciplinary, and based on finite element (FE), computational fluid dynamics (CFD), and coupled fluid-solid interaction methods, including computational fluid particle dynamics (CFPD). These methodologies are oriented to serve a variety of projects that include nanorheology in photopolymerization 3-D printing [1], liquid metal rheological analysis for additive manufacturing and laser-based manufacturing, human breath particle analysis for forensic data, the diffusion of hydrogen and carbon dioxide into solid matter, vapor-liquid equilibrium analysis [2], near sub-surface mechanical properties and composition of nanocomposites [3], and micro-scale systems. Numerical modeling and simulations are aimed to capture, in detail, the phenomena encountered when using ACMD measurement instruments such as atomic force microscopy (AFM), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and mass spectrometry as well as micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) devices such as micro-pumps, micro-compressors, and micro-resonators.
References
1) Brown, T.E.; Malavé, V.; Higgins, C.I.; Kotula, A.P.; Caplins, B.W.; Garboczi, E.J.; Killgore, J.P., ACS Appl. Polym. Mater., 2021, 3 (1), 290–298.
2) Suiter, C.L.; Malavé, V.; Garboczi, E.J; Widegren, J.A.; McLinden, M.O., J. Chem. Engr. Data., 2020, 65 (7), 3318–3333.
3) Malavé, V.; Killgore J.P., Garboczi, E.J; Nanotechnology, 2019, 30(28): 285703.
multiphysics simulations; numerical continuum modeling; finite element analysis; computational fluid dynamics; computational fluid particle dynamics; complex material virtual measurements