LDRD

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Accelerating multiscale materials modeling with machine learning
News Article, May 9, 2023 • Multiscale materials modeling fundamental insight into microscopic mechanisms that determine materials properties in nuclear stockpile applications that leverage radiation harden semiconductors, advanced manufacturing, shock compression, and energetic materials. This LDRD team including three postdoctoral researchers developed a new ML surrogate model for density functional theory using deep neural networks to...
A cube with balls represents atoms configured on a grid.

Biometric calcification for carbon sequestration from seawater 
News Article, June 7, 2023 • Numerous objectives are involved in helping researchers work on biomimetic calcification for carbon sequestration from seawater. An integrated data science and experimental approach is being taken to the challenges of direct capture of CO2 from the ocean. A large group of marine microalgae, coccolithophores, produce calcium carbonate (calcite) plates referred...
A circular diagram with the research project goal broken into three objectives being worked on by researchers.

Catherine Mageeney is seeking a “kill shot” in bacterial pathogens
News Article, January 17, 2023 • Catherine Mageeney, a senior member of Sandia’s technical staff in bioengineering and biotechnology, has expertise in phage biology and genetics with broad applications and implications for scientific research. Phages, or viruses that infect bacteria, are the most numerous and diverse biological-organism in Earth’s biosphere. With approximately 1031 existing phages to be...
Catherine Mageeney in front of Sandia’s Thunderbird logo.

Detonation in multilayer explosives: Effects of characteristic length scale of mixing
News Article, April 10, 2023 • Predicting explosive performance at length scales near the minimum needed for a detonation to propagate is often a challenge—surrounding materials, non-ideal interfaces, sample geometry, and local microstructure variations can all significantly impact explosive output. For accurate predictions of performance, reactive burn models are needed that can capture the details around...
A graphic indicates testing measurements

Enabling fully predictive simulations using disruptive computational mechanics and novel diagnostics
News Article, April 10, 2023 • Sandia Researcher Rekha Rao Accurately capturing solidification of fluids and the development of residual stress is critical for fully predictive simulations for numerous applications in geoscience, nuclear safety, manufacturing, energy production, and bioscience. Researchers on this LDRD project developed, implemented, and demonstrated advanced constitutive models with yield stress to represent...
A female engineer

Fin-ion tunable transistor for ultra-low power computing 
News Article, June 7, 2023 • Work on this project revealed fundamental principles of electrochemical random access memory and established a viable path toward its integration with complementary metal-oxide semiconductor. Data-heavy workflows such as AI require in to increase system efficiency. Work on this memory computing, so this LDRD team focused on creating analog resistive nonvolatile...
NM - 218372 - Ulta Low Power Computing.png

High-quality feedstocks address sustainability challenges associated with rising global demand for protein
News Article, January 23, 2023 • RuBisCO variants increase Methionine and Lysine content. (Graphic courtesy of Sandia Licensing and Technology Transfer.) Ryan Davis, a principal member of Sandia’s technical staff in Bioresource and Environmental Security, and his team developed a high-quality feedstock to address sustainability challenges to meet the growing global demand for protein. RuBisCO (Ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate...
Image of a male scientist looking at a test tube

Imaging the visible emissions from plasmas in pulsed power experiments
News Article, March 16, 2023 • The center section of Sandia's Z Machine Low density plasmas are predicted to impact Sandia’s Z machine experiments in a variety of ways. Magnetic Resonance Tomography instability development during the target implosion can lead to broad trailing density profiles and potentially redistribute current away from the on-axis stagnation region. Low...
A technician gets a target ready for the center section in the Z machine pulsed power facility

Improving predictive capability in REHEDS simulations with fast, accurate, and consistent nonequilibrium material properties 
News Article, June 22, 2023 • Sandia scientist Stephanie Hansen was elected Fellow of the American Physical Society by its Division of Plasma Physics. (Photo by Randy Montoya) Predictive design of experiments in Radiation, Electrical, and High Energy Density Science (REHEDS) requires knowledge of material properties (e.g., equations of state (EOS), transport coefficients, and radiation physics). Interpreting...
Sandia scientist Stephanie Hansen

Microbiome editing to improve economic viability of algae growth as a feedstock
News Article, June 27, 2023 • The major challenge with using algae as a feedstock is growing it economically, which hinges strongly on the ability to prevent pond crashes due to biotic factors, like bacteria. Phages, the viruses of bacteria, offer an unexplored solution to this problem. In contrast to antibiotics, phages are typically species-specific and...
Algae is shown growing from underneath the water.

New 2.5D neuromorphic discovery platform will enable AI-enhanced co-design 
News Article, June 7, 2023 • AI-enhanced co-design will be enabled through Sandia’s 2.5D neuromorphic discovery platform. Novel material and device concepts previously took years for iteration. Discoveries in this LDRD project will now allow them to be iterated on in weeks thanks to a new easy fabrication substrate platform for novel devices. The team designed...
A segmented graphic design showing six elements of Sandia’s 2.5D neuromorphic discovery platform.

New technology for heterogeneously integrated devices allows for underfilling of complex geometries using driven fluids 
News Article, June 7, 2023 • Underfilling is a widely used manufacturing process that helps stabilize and reinforce solder joints in electronic parts. However, heterogeneously integrated (HI) devices are challenging to underfill using standard capillary flow methods, due to large areas with narrow gaps—trenches that act as strong flow barriers, and high bump density that cause...

Optimizing machine learning decisions with prediction uncertainty
News Article, May 9, 2023 • Digital background depicting innovative technologies in (AI) artificial systems, neural interfaces and internet machine learning technologies While ML classifiers are widespread, output is often not part of a follow-on decision-making process because of lack of uncertainty quantification. Through this project, the team developed decision analysis methods that combined uncertainty estimates...
Digital background image of brain connectors

Predicting catastrophic failure and collapse in infrastructure
News Article, March 20, 2023 • The team, led by Sandia principal investigator Jessica Rimsza, developed new modeling capabilities for evaluating multiphase phenomena in cement-based materials in energy and infrastructure applications, a chemo-mechanical model for cement fracture, identified sources of uncertainty in cement degradation and concrete fracture, and created six new capabilities for modeling brittle fracture...
A large urban suspension bridge

Quantum-accurate multiscale modeling in highly compressed metals  
News Article, June 22, 2023 • Lasers are used to align diagnostics and hardware prior to shooting on Sandia's Z machine, the world's most powerful and efficient laboratory radiation source. The development of equations-of-state and transport models in areas such as shock compression and fusion energy science is critical to DOE programs. Notable shortcomings in these...
Lasers are aligning diagnostics and hardware.

Releasing, detecting, and modeling trace aerosols and gases in Earth’s stratosphere
News Article, May 1, 2023 • Proposed actions to reduce ever-increasing global temperatures include geoengineering the Earth’s climate by injecting matter into the stratosphere to reflect sunlight. This proposition, known as Solar Radiation Management, is based on global climate model studies averaged in space and time and Plinian-style volcanic eruptions observations from near-single points. By increasing...
The sun peering over the curvature of the Earth.

Researchers develop a tantalizing method to study cyberdeterrence
News Article, November 27, 2023 • TANTALUS — The online game simulates how success or failure is within a player’s reach. Experimental war gaming provides insightful data for real-world cyberattacks In Greek mythology, Tantalus was the king of Sipylus who so angered Zeus with his treachery that his punishment was to go thirsty and hungry while...
Three countries illustrated in a cyberdeterrence game

Revealing the kinetics of atmospheric corrosion damage through in-situ x-ray computed tomography and machine vision 
News Article, June 8, 2023 • In-situ XCT enables both the growth rate and morphology (yellow) of pits to be directly characterized in relationship to the evolving electrolyte (blue) and prior stages of pit morphology (black).  Atmospheric corrosion is a critical materials degradation problem, yet the ability to predict its kinetics remains elusive. Conventional approaches provide...

Smart materials for highly complex tags with environmental response 
News Article, June 22, 2023 • Cover of the Journal of the German Chemical Society Angewandte Chemie International Edition As counterfeiting methods become more sophisticated, countermeasures must be developed at the same pace. In this Sandia LDRD project, unique exemplars of next generation anticounterfeiting optical tags were developed that leverage the luminescent properties of materials for...
Cover of the Journal of the German Chemical Society Angewandte Chemie International Edition

Soil carbon working group: Collaborative science to enhance predictive understanding.
News Article, April 30, 2024 • Project Description Current Energy Earth System Models (ESM) representation of soil organic matter (SOM) and its response to future environmental changes are not certain. The objective of SOM working group is to enhance our predictive understanding of the response of SOM under future environmental changes. The team hopes to achieve...
Algae is shown growing from underneath the water.

Statistical earthquake models inform understanding of material degradation at the nanoscale
News Article, December 10, 2024 • Muscovite mica, used in many materials science applications, is known for its extremely flat and flaky layers, making it highly susceptible to hostile environmental conditions. (Photo by Anastasia Ilgen) Understanding how materials will interact with their environment is crucial when selecting components for engineering applications. To help inform material selection, geologists...

Stress intensity thresholds for development of reliable brittle materials 
News Article, June 22, 2023 • Cover of the Journal of the American Ceramic Society Brittle material failure can appear random and unpredictable at subcritical stresses. A fundamental understanding of how structural and environmental factors impact fracture propagation is necessary to predict fracture in these systems. Through this project, a physics-based model of glass fracture was...
The Journal of the American Ceramic Society featuring the Sandia research projects.

The study of Z-pinches with engineered defects
News Article, October 13, 2022 • 3D-magnetohydrodynamic simulations of electrothermal instability growth by studying Z-pinches with engineered defects Electrothermal instability (ETI) is driven by Joule heating and arises from the dependence of resistivity on temperature. When a metal is Joule-heated through the boiling point, ETI drives azimuthally correlated surface density variations or “strata,” which provide the dominant seed...
3D-magnetohydrodynamic simulations of electrothermal instability growth by studying Z-pinches with engineered defects

Understanding molecular-scale effects on fracture can inform resource extraction and help maintain the nation’s infrastructure 
News Article, June 8, 2023 • Three images show liquid nanoindentation setup, the indentation site, and water inside the crack tip in a molecular dynamics simulation. Subcritical fracture controls deformation and permeability of rocks and degradation of manmade materials. To further understand the chemical mechanisms controlling subcritical fracture, this three-year project created nanomechanical and continuum-scale mechanics...
Results 1–25 of 29