Advanced materials modelling – E.U. perspectives

Modelling of advanced materials has become a main tool in materials development. This is particularly the case for present developments in advanced nuclear materials. This paper reviews the current status of modelling fuels and structural materials in the EU and discusses future programs. At the microscale, fundamental physics issues such as magnetism are being included to build a robust modelling scheme and to understand microstructural stability. At the meso-scale, dislocation interactions with defect clusters, void/bubbles and dispersoids are shown to be the main cause of hardening. How such issues, as well as model validation experiments are emerging to verify these modelling schemes is presented.