Computer Equipment

In addition to the outstanding campus computer clusters, the department hosts a large number of individual machines and MSE personnel have 24 hour access to several departmental clusters containing an assortment of Macintosh, Windows, and Unix machines. All have access to the campus network, the internet, and a Novell server for internal communication and backup requirements. A highlight of departmental computing is the parallel computing cluster, in which 34 computers are dedicate to large-scale computations of 3D microstructure reconstruction, microstructural evolution, and mechanical properties. Codes used include numerous simulated annealing algorithms for reconstructions of 3D microstructures from 2D input, Monte Carlo simulation of grain growth and recrystallization, ab initio calculations of crystal structure (e.g. VASP), simulations of electron diffraction (for microscopy), and finite element simulations of both grain growth, and mechanical behavior. Also, the department maintains interactions with the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center for more computationally intensive problems.