A perspective on modeling materials in extreme environments: Oxidation of ultrahigh-temperature ceramics

The broader context of this discussion, based on a workshop where materials technologists and computational scientists engaged in a dialogue, is an awareness that modeling and simulation techniques and computational capabilities may have matured sufficiently to provide heretofore unavailable insights into the complex microstructural evolution of materials in extreme environments. As an example, this article examines the study of ultrahigh-temperature oxidation-resistant ceramics, through the combination of atomistic simulation and selected experiments. We describe a strategy to investigate oxygen transport through a multi-oxide scale - the protective layer of ultrahigh-temperature ceramic composites ZrB2-SiC and HfB2-SiC-by combining first-principles and atomistic modeling and simulation with selected experiments.