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National Academies Report Makes a Case for ICME

By Kelly Roncone Zappas, TMS News Editor
Posted Date: 7/3/2008

Integrated computational materials engineering (ICME) is more than a way to coordinate materials information. It could lead to better solutions for national security issues and make the United States more competitive in the electronics, automotive, and aerospace industries. These are the findings of the Committee on Integrated Computational Materials Engineering of the National Research Council, which recently produced the report Integrated Computational Materials Engineering: A Transformational Discipline for Improved Competitiveness and National Security. The report clearly defines ICME, outlines its economic and technical benefits for materials development, and recommends a national strategy for promoting the development of ICME.

The committee defines ICME as the integration of materials information, captured in computational tools, with engineering product performance analysis and manufacturing-process simulation.

"The emphasis on ICME is on the 'I' for Integrated and 'E' for engineering. Computational materials modeling is a means to this end," the report states. "The grand challenge for the field of materials science and engineering is to build an ICME capability for all classes and applications of materials."

The committee determined that ICME is a technologically sound concept that shows significant potential for reducing component design and process development costs and cycle time, lowering manufacturing costs, improving the prognosis for material and component life, and ultimately, allowing for agile response to changing market demands.

"Until materials engineering, component design, and manufacturing engineering are integrated, designers will not attempt to optimize a product's properties through processing, and one route to improving competitiveness of U.S. manufacturers will be closed off," said the report. ICME has the potential to meet this challenge and transform the materials field.

For ICME to succeed, the committee determined, three things must happen:

It must be embraced as a discipline in the materials science and engineering community, leading to changes in education, research, and information sharing
It must be accepted by industry, where slow conversion of science-based computational tools to engineering tools, a lack of awareness and investment, and a shortage of trained computational materials engineers hinder its acceptance.
It must receive coordinated support for the initial development of the ICME tools, infrastructure, and education from government.

A considerable investment from government and industry will be necessary for ICME to mature and for the infrastructure needed to sustain it to be developed. The committee members believe, however, that there will be a substantial return on this investment.

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