Modelling and Simulation

Modelling and simulation of material and coating processes gain increasingly importance. Within the R&D groups, practise-oriented models for the simulation of in material science relevant processes, of coating technologies, are developed. These simulations help to understand the physical relations and the design of the processes. The basis of all simulation models is the systematic process analysis as well as the continuous verification with experimental analysis methods. Here, an extensive pool of diagnostic and analytical methods is available. Along with conventional application fields like the Finite Volume Method (FVM) for the simulation of flow phenomena in the framework of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), molecular dynamics and Monte-Carlo-Methods for simulation of the PVD sputter process strong progress was achieved in the application of the Finite Element Method (FEM) for structure simulation. In particular within the topic of plasma spraying and microsystem technology great technological advances were made. For the simulations, improved and modified version of commercial tools are applied as well as in house built simulation platforms, as for example a tool for particle trajectory tracing during the sputter deposition process and the simulation of particle properties during plasma spraying.