Original Date: 01/23/1995
Revision Date: 01/18/2007

The Engineering Sciences Center at Sandia has an analysis capability comparable to many engineering and manufacturing companies, and is currently integrating its computational capabilities into an engineering "toolkit" for both conventional and many leading-edge analysis problems. The Engineering Sciences Center performs work in manufacturing and environmental fluid dynamics, thermal and fluid engineering, thermophysics, engineering and manufacturing mechanics, materials and structural mechanics, energy and multi-phase processes, aerosciences and fluid dynamics, and fluid/structural interactions. Many computational codes have been developed from the weapons program requirements and can be used to analyze many engineering problems such as glass to metal seals. The Center can analyze non-linear large deformation mechanics and structural dynamics, non-linear response of polymers, as well as standard analyses of fluid dynamics, heat transfer, and metal damage and failure, including composite mechanics. The Center can also perform welding mechanics analysis under dynamic conditions such as laser welding, metal forming, material removal, and coating processes. An experimental mechanics group complements the analyses groups in helping to benchmark computational codes.

The Center's capabilities in engineering mechanics have already been applied in investment casting, induction hardening, coating, microelectronics manufacturing, foam processing, polymer processing, liquid metal processing, metal forming, and material joining processes. An example of the unique computational capabilities is stress analysis for a hole punching operation. For a quick and accurate model, Sandia dynamically remeshed it using an analysis toolkit developed within the Center that provides rapid access to state-of-the-art mechanics codes. These codes interface through an in-house file format, Exodus II.

For more information see the Point of Contact for this survey.