NASA BPS Reduced Gravity Integrated Computational Materials Engineering (ICME) Study Results and Path Forward

The Biological and Physical Sciences (BPS) Division of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate (SMD), and its predecessors, has sponsored extensive flight and ground experiments yielding benchmark datasets in many materials science research areas including thermophysical properties and solidification microstructure formation and evolution. The subject study sought to motivate and focus BPS’s engagement within the broader Integrated ICME community to understand the phenomena underlying material processing, structure, and properties in the microgravity environment of space and to support future space exploration efforts.

BPS-relevant physical phenomena including solidification kinetics, coupled solidification-fluids, and solidification microstructures up to the grain length scale (mesoscale) are critically needed to benchmark computational models that can enable rapid advances in materials for both terrestrial and space use – for example, through better predictions of in-space joining, welding, and additive manufacturing. Leveraging the wealth of experimental data obtained to anchor incipient advances in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI/ML) is a vital link towards efficient attainment of exploration goals. The computational means are finally becoming available to accurately model the complex (and inherently multi-discipline) phenomena involved in solidification. Making the most of the current and potential validation datasets available has never been more important.