Undulating clay

A UK computer simulation has revealed that, at a certain size, microscopic sheets of clay start to undulate, something that has never been observed in the material before.

The effect emerged from some of the largest computer simulations ever attempted which required the pooled resources of supercomputers on three grids across two continents.

The research is expected to provide insights into the properties of an important class of new materials, clay polymer nanocomposites, which are under investigation for many applications, for example as materials for use in car bodies.

Supercomputers on the UK National Grid Service, the US TeraGrid and DEISA (EU Distributed European Infrastructure for Supercomputing Applications), linked by dedicated high speed optical networks including UKLight, were pressed into service.

Prof Peter Coveney and colleagues from University College London (UCL) used these resources to produce simulations of five computer models of the platelets that lock together to form clay sheets, the difference between each model being its size and complexity.