NC State University’s Department of Nuclear Engineering will lead an effort to provide advanced computational tools to aid scientists and engineers in enhancing the underlying science and engineering principles that will advance a more sustainable cycle for agricultural, water, and energy resources.  Partnering with NC State is the University of Illinois Department of Nuclear Engineering, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Idaho National Laboratory, and the 2018 Joint Conference on Plasma Physics and Gaseous Electronics hosted by the American Physical Society.

As the world moves toward a more sustainable life cycle for vital resources, new techniques for the synthesis, modification, or remediation of materials will be needed.  Techniques that utilize plasma discharges will make significant contributions to a more sustainable nexus spanning food, water, and energy.  To advance the fundamental understanding of these plasma-based systems and how they interact with the materials that will drive this higher level of sustainability, the ability to simulate both the complex interactions within the plasma itself and the complex interaction of the plasma with surrounding materials is needed. 

This project will provide a powerful simulation platform to the scientific community that will enable the study of plasma chemistry formation and plasma material interaction with a level of fidelity that is not currently available to researchers around the world.  The open-source framework for this platform will enable researchers from institutions around the world to contribute to the capabilities of this framework and advance the underlying science of these systems to move toward a more sustainable food, energy, and water nexus.

This project will be supported through the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Software Infrastructure for Sustained Innovation program.