GALCIT Colloquium

There is an ever-increasing demand to develop engineering materials that are more tolerant to harsh environments in a great many applications. Examples are found in cutting edge technologies, such as fusion and fission energy, batteries and fuel cells, severe marine environments, space propulsion and pulsed power, and high speed micro- and nano-electronics.  At UCLA, we have established a research program to develop resilient materials for applications in fusion energy and in the electric propulsion and pulsed power environments of space.  The common problem in these two applications is the necessity to develop materials that can last longer and perform better in a harsh plasma and energetic ion environment, often under pulsed and intermittent conditions.  I will present the elements of a multiscale materials modeling approach that is helping us at UCLA develop such materials, in conjunction with an experimental program to recreate these severe environments in the laboratory.  I will show specific research results based on new developments in computer simulations of material behavior at the atomistic, mesoscopic and continuum length scales. I will also show the capabilities and some results from two experimental research facilities at UCLA: the High Energy Flux Testing Experiment (HEFTE), and the UCLA-Plasma Interaction (UCLA-PI) facility.