Today the U.S. Department of Energy announced $1.87 million for seven projects to advance innovation in U.S. manufacturing through high performance computing. Part of DOE’s High Performance Computing for Manufacturing (HPC4Mfg) program, the seven new public private partnerships will enable greater collaboration between DOE national labs and the U.S. manufacturing industry.
The HPC4Mfg program leverages world-class technical expertise with high performance computing to tackle manufacturing challenges uniquely solved by computer modeling. By applying modeling, simulation, and data analytics to key manufacturing problems, the program can aid in decision-making, optimize processes and design, improve quality, predict performance and failure, reduce or eliminate testing, and shorten the time to market.
Each of the seven projects will receive up to $300,000 to support modeling and simulation subject-matter experts at the national laboratories and provide the needed supercomputing power. Industry partners will provide 20% to 50% cost-share, including the technical know-how and manufacturing data needed to tackle the project goals.
The HPC4Mfg Program expands its impact with following new awards:
- PPG Industries, Inc. will partner with LBNL to continue the modeling of an electrostatic rotary bell atomizer used to paint automobiles in a follow-on project titled “Optimizing Rotary Bell Atomization.”
- Vitro Flat Glass LLC. will partner with LLNL to develop real-time glass furnace control using a neural net-based reduced order model of a CFD simulation of molten glass flow in a follow-on project titled “Advanced Machine Learning for Glass Furnace Model Enhancement.”
- Caterpillar Inc. will partner with ANL to increase efficiency and reduce emissions on optimizing heat transfer in diesel engines through simulations of piston and spray geometry in a project titled “Heavy-duty Diesel Engine Combustion Optimization for Reduced Emissions, Reduced Heat Transfer, and Improved Fuel Economy.” Project will be co-funded by the Vehicle Technology Office and the Advanced Manufacturing Office.
- Eaton Corporation will partner with ORNL to develop waste heat recovery (WHR) technology that can be applied to industrial manufacturing processes and vehicle operations in a project titled “High Performance Computing to Enable Next-generation Low- temperature Waste Heat Recovery.”
- General Motors LLC will partner with LLNL to reduce cycle time in composite manufacturing in a project titled “Computational Modeling of High Pressure Resin Transfer Molding (HP-RTM) for Automotive Structural Carbon Fiber (CF) Composites.” Project will be co-funded by the Vehicle Technology Office and the Advanced Manufacturing Office.
- Arconic Inc. will partner with LLNL and ORNL to develop advanced understanding of the non-equilibrium metallic phases established during metal additive manufacturing (AM) processes in a project titled “Multiscale Modeling of Microstructure Evolution During Rapid Solidification for Additive Manufacturing.” Project will be co-funded by the Office of Fossil Energy as an HPC4Materials for Severe Environments seedling project and by the Advanced Manufacturing Office as part of the HPC4Mfg portfolio.
- Vader Systems, LLC will partner with SNL to understand the physics needed to apply transition MagnetoJet (MJ) 3D printing technology to a higher melting point metals and higher ejection rates in a project titled “Computational Modeling of MHD Liquid Metal 3D Printing.”
The HPC4Mfg program has supported 47 projects and provided more than $15 million for these public-private partnerships. Led by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in partnership with Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the program includes projects with Argonne National Laboratory, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the National Energy Technology Laboratory, and Sandia National Laboratories. Sandia is a new participant in the program.
The High Performance Computing program has expanded to include projects focused on advanced materials. Two seedling projects are part of DOE’s Fossil Energy High Performance Computing for Materials (HPC4Mtls) Program, which develops new or improved materials that can withstand extreme conditions.
EERE’s Advanced Manufacturing Office (AMO) supports early-stage research to advance innovation in U.S. manufacturing and promote American economic growth and energy security.
