Washington, DC - The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), in partnership with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), announced nearly $1.2 million for four new projects to support American steel and aluminum manufacturers in improving energy efficiency, increasing productivity, and accelerating manufacturing innovation.
The funding announced today will provide advanced computing capabilities to improve manufacturing processes and resolve key manufacturing challenges through the use of High Performance Computing (HPC). These projects were selected from the sixth solicitation for the High Performance Computing for Manufacturing (HPC4Mfg) program.
The HPC4Mfg program, supported by DOE’s Advanced Manufacturing Office, facilitates technical support from national laboratories, including access to supercomputing capabilities, high-end modeling and simulation software, and subject matter experts. From detailed atomic-level simulations to massive cosmological studies, researchers use HPC to solve science and technology challenges inaccessible by other experimental methods.
Selected projects will be awarded up to $300,000. Participating companies are required to contribute in-kind funds of at least 20% of DOE’s funding for the project.
The following companies were selected for awards:
- Alcoa (New Kensington, Pennsylvania) - This project will use HPC simulations to understand and optimize the performance of Alcoa’s new advanced smelting cell to make aluminum from ore.
- AK Steel (Dearborn, Michigan) - This project will use HPC simulations for real time modeling of hot-strip mill rolling to improve process operation.
- ArcelorMittal (East Chicago, Indiana) - This project will use modeling and machine learning to enable the production of cleaner, higher-quality continuously cast steel slabs.
- US Steel (Mumhall, Pennsylvania) - This project will use physics-based modeling to improve predictions of the behavior of steel during hot-strip mill rolling for better quality.