Bones, bread, coral reefs, concrete, ceramics, sponges, and even stars, are all made of porous materials. Found in everything from nature’s most delicate structures to humanity’s most advanced technologies, porous materials span an incredible range of forms and functions. Their tiny internal voids make them lightweight yet strong, great at absorbing shocks, filtering fluids, and insulating against heat or sound. But understanding how these materials behave and how to design better materials remains a major challenge. Their complex internal geometry and the way it evolves under stress makes them incredibly challenging to simulate across scales, even with today’s most powerful supercomputers.
A new National Science Foundation project is forging a path to that future. With it, Department of Mechanical Engineering’s Pania Newell will develop a hybrid computational approach that incorporates quantum algorithms for predicting the behavior of these porous materials. Determining how to best combine quantum and classical techniques in this field could significantly reduce the development time for innovations in high demand areas, including aerospace, construction, biomedicine, and others.
Newell aims to integrate cutting-edge quantum solvers with a well-established classical computing approach — finite element methods (FEM) — creating a hybrid approach to simulate and predict the behavior of porous materials. She will then use quantum topology and homogenization techniques to validate their predictions with high-resolution experimental imaging.
Read more about this award at the Price College of Engineering.