There is a large team of researchers that is dedicating its energies towards development of a basic language that can support computer software tools in description of smallest scale materials. The final aim of these tools will be to design better and faster materials for regular use. These tools will be used for designing materials that will be used in a large range of structures and gadgets that stand by regular lives along with their in-depth understanding at macroscopic, electronic, and atomic scale.
All these developments are taking place in the Integrated Computational materials engineering that aims towards development of computational models. These modules are going to play a crucial role for scientists in understanding the nature of materials at various levels which will allow them to optimize and tailor microstructures with required properties for the tasks they are destined for. If you look at the science and engineering world closely, there is a large range of tools that is already available for users. But these vary from each other in terms of languages. These complicate the exchange of data difficult for scientists.
A research team at Access from Technical University of Aachen, Germany has been successful in development of a “common language” that can be used for simulation as well as modelling of tools that are used in study of materials microstructures. As per Georg Schmitz, the senior scientist at Access, “Such a common language will allow for a seamless communication between different commercial and/or academic tools. Such communication is necessary, as most of the current problems can’t be solved by a single tool alone, but need the interactions of different tools that also need to interact with experimental data.”
Materials undergo changes at a microstructural level as they get processed and materials get operated. Their specific description should be able to cover different changes that take place in materials over a period of time. Schmitz further explains, “ Similar to the jpeg (joint photographers expert group) format [for exchanging digital pictures], the group looked for a data scheme allowing the future exchange of complex simulation data as easily as digital pictures are exchanged nowadays. This provides a flavour of what can become possible in the area of materials science and engineering: faster developments of new processes and new materials, of processes and materials having a smaller ecological footprint, and of new materials with new functionalities for new or better products.”
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