Modelling and experimental facilities
High performance computing
IRIDIS 5 supercomputer
- 464 compute nodes with dual 2.0 GHz Intel Skylake processors.
- Each compute node has 40 CPUs per node with 192 GB of DDR4 memory.
- 20 Nvidia Tesla V100 enterprise graphics cards.
- 40 Nvidia GTX 1080Ti consumer graphics cards.
- 4 high-memory nodes, each with 64 cores, 768 GB of RAM and 9 TB of local HDD scratch space.
- 4 high memory nodes running a 36 TB Hadoop/Spark service.
- 8 high memory nodes providing a private cloud service.
- 2 data visualisation nodes with 22 usable cores, 384 GB of RAM and an Nvidia M60 GPU. These run both windows and Linux VMs.
- 3 login nodes with 40 cores and 384 GB of memory.
- In total more than 20,000 processor-cores providing 1,305 TFlops peak.
- 2.2 PB of storage run on IBM Spectrum Scale parallel file system.
- InfiniBand network for interprocess communication
IRIDIS 4 supercomputer
- 750 compute nodes with dual 2.6 GHz Intel Sandybridge processors;
- Each compute node has 16 CPUs per node with 64 GB of memory;
- 4 high-memory nodes with two 32 cores and 256 GB of RAM;
- 24 Intel Xeon Phi Accelerators;
- 3 login nodes with 16 cores and 125 GB of memory;
- In total 12320 processor-cores providing 250 TFlops peak;
- 1.04 PB of raw storage with Parallel File System;
- InfiniBand network for interprocess communication;
- 12 x GPU nodes (2.6 GHz Intel Sandybridge 16-core nodes with ~62 GB usable memory and 2 K20 GPU cards each)
Individual workstations
Dual Intel QuadCore/OctaCore PC workstations with nVidia GPUs (16 to 128 Gb RAM, Windows 10 64, high-performance Intel SSDs)
Synology drives
Computational physics simulation software applications
These applications are available on individual PC workstations, IRIDIS 4 and IRIDIS 3 supercomputer (Linux and Windows HPC)
- ABAQUS/Standard & ABAQUS/Explicit (www.simulia.com)
- COMSOL Multiphysics (www.comsol.com)
- ANSYS (www.ansys.com)
- ANSYS Fluent (www.ansys.com)
- STAR-CCM+, STAR-CD (www.cd-adapco.com)
Pre-processing, post-processing and scientific visualisation
- ScanIP, ScanCAD (www.simpleware.com)
- SolidWorks (www.solidworks.com)
- Rhinoceros (www.rhino3d.com)
- Tecplot 360 (www.tecplot.com)
- AVIZO Standard, Wind, Earth, Fire, Green (www.vsg3d.com)
- Paraview (www.paraview.org) | Our research is featured here
Programming and high-performance libraries
- Intel Fortran, C++, Python
- NAG
Symbolic and numerical mathematics
- Mathematica (www.wolfram.com)
- Global Optimization for Mathematica (www.loehleenterprises.com)
- Matlab (www.mathworks.com) & numerous toolboxes
Equipment
- Atomic Force Microscopy
- Nanoindenter
- RAMAN microscopy
- ZETA APS for particle characterisation
- Capillary electrophoresis for solution characterisation
- EDIC (Episcopic differential interference conhust microscope)
- TEM of 0.21nm resolution with EDS
- µ-VIS Computer Tomography Centre
- Optical microscopy & image analysis including 3D optical measurement of surface form
- Scanning electron microscopy (including high resolution field emission) with wavelength dispersive and energy dispersive X-ray analysis and EBSP
- Non-contact optical profilometry
- Atomic force microscopy (AFM) for topography and mechanical characterisation of surfaces
- Nanoindenter stylus calibration by metrological AFM
- X-ray diffraction at ambient and elevated temperatures
- Residual stress by RAMAN microscopy
- Nanoindenter (depth sensing indentation) for modulus and hardness measurement
- Micro indenter with depth sensing for hardness measurement
- Scratch testing for evaluation of coating failure. System has multi-pass facilities for examination of build-up of damage and acoustic emission for detection of failure events
- Bend/tensile testing for adhesion measurement and work of fracture at ambient and elevated temperature
- Residual stress measurement by X-ray diffraction at ambient and elevated temperature
- Rockwell indentation test for adhesion measurement
- Scratch test and model abrasion test system with friction and acoustic emission measurement to detect failure of coatings. Steady or ramped loads from 2-200 N with single or repeat pass testing