Workshop: Mid-scale RI-EW: Knowledgebase of Mesoscale Modeling and Experimentation (KnoMME); Minneapolis, Minnesota; Fall 2022 or Spring 2023

This conference grant will support 30 researchers to attend a workshop that will be held at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, tentatively in Fall 2022 or Spring 2023 on mid-scale research infrastructure needs in mesoscale modeling and experimentation. Engineering design is undergoing a revolution sparked by the Materials Genome Initiative (MGI). Instead of making things out of existing off-the-shelf materials, engineers are now exploring ways for designing engineering components at the same time as the materials from which they are made. Advances in cyberinfrastructure and multiscale theoretical and computational materials mechanics frameworks offer pathways to in silico materials and component modeling and design. Yet, in the context of designing strong and damage-tolerant structural metals and products, there are several gaps in realizing the MGI vision, particularly at the critical mesoscale of material microstructure: (1) limited availability and access to high-fidelity experimental and computational datasets, (2) lack of co-design of experiments and modeling, (3) lack of on-demand access to verified and validated (V&V) codes for simulation and experimental analyses, and (4) limited opportunities for workforce training and educational outreach. This workshop will convene to address the feasibility of overcoming these shortcomings, which stifle major innovations in structural materials design, through the creation of a cyberinfrastructure— Knowledgebase of Mesoscale Modeling and Experimentation (KnoMME)—that engages experimental and computational experts in mesoscale plasticity, along with mathematicians and computer scientists with expertise in algorithms, data science and large-scale cyberinfrastructure initiatives.This workshop is a first step toward the vision of the mesoscale mechanics cyberinfrastructure KnoMME to bring together leaders with cross-disciplinary expertise (mechanics, materials science, data science) for a focused dialog on the design and long-term sustainability of such an effort. The intent is for this workshop to lead to a Mid-Scale Research Infrastructure submission to the NSF with aims to: (1) close existing gaps to advance the field of mesoscale modeling and experiments, (2) democratize educational access to materials-design knowledge, and (3) create a sustainable pathway for optimal materials modeling via advanced data-driven approaches. The application context of the workshop will be the infrastructural needs in mesoscale materials mechanics for material design and advanced manufacturing. The expected outcomes of the workshop include: (1) identifying an optimal structure for the KnoMME framework, (2) consolidating strategies for standardizing V&V and uncertainty quantification (UQ) protocols for mesoscale modeling codes, (3) identifying experiments and related software and data that serve as accepted benchmarks for computational codes, and (4) formulating approaches to integrate computational and experimental knowledge for mesoscale modeling of structural metals.This project is jointly funded by the Mechanics of Materials and Structures (MoMS) program in the Division of Civil, Mechanical and Manufacturing Innovation (CMMI) and the Office of the Assistant Director (OAD) in the Directorate for Engineering (ENG).This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.