FiPyVirtual Kinetics of Materials LaboratoryΒΆ
The VKML is a set of simple FiPy examples that simulate basic aspects of kinetics of materials through an interactive Graphical User Interface. The seminal development by Michael Waters and Prof. R. Edwin Garcia of Purdue University includes four examples:
Polycrystalline Growth and Coarsening
simulates the growth, impingement, and coarsening of a random distribution of crystallographically oriented nuclei. The user can control every aspect of the model such as the nuclei radius, the size of the simulation cell, and whether the grains are homogeneously dispersed or only on one wall of the simulation.
simulates the anisotropic solidification of a single solid seed with an N-fold axis of crystallographic symmetry embedded in an undercooled liquid. The user can specify many material aspects of the solidification process, such as the thermal diffusivity and the strength of the surface tension anisotropy. Default values are physical but arbitrary. This model is based on the phase field method and an example shown in the FiPy manual.
Two-Dimensional Spinodal Decomposition
simulates the time-dependent segregation of two chemical components and its subsequent coarsening, as presented by John Cahn. The default values are physical but arbitrary.
Three-Dimensional Spinodal Decomposition
has the same functionality as the 2D version, but has an interactive Three-Dimensional viewer.
These modules provide a Graphical User Interface to FiPy, and allow you to perform simulations directly through your web browser. This approach to computing removes the need to install the software on your local machine (unless you really want to), allows you to assess current and potential FiPy applications and instead you only need a web browser to access it and run it. In other words, you can run these simulations (and simulations like this one) from a Windows machine, a Mac, or a Linux box, and you can also run the modules from Michigan, Boston, Japan, or England: from wherever you are. Moreover, if you close your web browser and leave your calculation running, when you come back a few hours later, your calculation will persist. Additionally, if there is something you want to share with a coworker, wherever he or she might be (e.g., the other side of the planet), you can grant him temporary access to your calculation so that the third party can directly see the output (or specify inputs directly into it, without having to travel to where you are). It is a great way to privately (or publicly) collaborate with other people, especially if the users are in different parts of the world.
The only requirement to run VKML is to register (registration is 100% free) in the nanoHUB.