Powering Breakthroughs for U.S. Industry

Through collaborations with industry partners, the ALCF provides access to powerful computing resources that drive technological advancements and strengthen the nation’s innovation infrastructure.

Contour plot of velocity magnitude on a vertical cut plane from wall-resolved large-eddy simulation of a canonical gas turbine film cooling configuration. The simulation was carried out at the ALCF as part of a collaboration between Argonne and RTX Technologies Research Center. Image: Argonne National Laboratory

The ALCF’s Industry Partnerships Program enables companies of all sizes—from startups to Fortune 500 corporations—to leverage leadership computing resources and expertise. These collaborations help industry partners to tackle R&D challenges that exceed the capabilities of traditional computing systems.

With state-of-the-art capabilities for simulation, AI, and data analysis, ALCF computing resources help researchers create higher-fidelity models, achieve more accurate predictions, and quickly process massive datasets. As a result, companies can accelerate breakthroughs, reduce uncertainties, and minimize the need for costly prototypes.

The ALCF continues to expand its industry outreach efforts by partnering with other Argonne divisions and user facilities, including the Science and Technology Partnership Outreach (STPO) division. This integrated approach provides a more comprehensive understanding of the laboratory’s capabilities and promotes broader, more impactful partnerships.

Collaboration Opportunities

The ALCF offers several avenues for industry partners to access its computing resources. These include the INCITE, ALCC, and Director’s Discretionary allocation programs, which provide researchers with opportunities to apply for computing time and collaborate on high-impact projects.

For companies focused on addressing energy-related challenges in manufacturing or materials development, DOE’s High Performance Computing for Energy Innovation (HPC4EI) program is another available option. HPC4EI provides access to DOE’s world-class supercomputing resources through two subprograms: HPC4Mfg, which focuses on optimizing manufacturing processes, and HPC4Mtls, which supports the development of advanced materials that perform well in harsh or complex environments.

Through these programs, the ALCF helps U.S. industries stay competitive in an evolving global market. By providing access to HPC and AI computing resources and expertise, these partnerships enable companies to tackle complex challenges, accelerate the R&D process, and drive technological innovation.

To explore potential collaboration opportunities with the ALCF, contact us at industry@alcf.anl.gov

Driving R&D Innovation

From AI-driven workflows to large-scale simulations, the following examples illustrate how companies are using ALCF resources to advance their R&D efforts.

MSBAI

Researchers at MSBAI are using DOE’s exascale supercomputers as part of an ALCC project aimed at enhancing GURU, an autonomous system designed to reduce modeling and simulation setup time from hours to minutes for a range of engineering applications. The team will use ALCF’s Aurora and OLCF’s Frontier to drive advancements in hybrid interaction, skills agent learning, and geometry search and synthesis – core components of GURU’s AI-driven workflow automation. By addressing key barriers in simulation and CAD data handling, the project aims to accelerate product development across industries such as energy, automotive, aerospace, and medical devices, while democratizing access to HPC resources.

RTX Technology Research Center

With support from DOE’s HPC4EI program, researchers from RTX Technology Research Center are working with Argonne to develop reduced-order deep learning surrogate models to capture the impact of manufacturing uncertainties on the performance of film cooling schemes used for thermal management of aviation gas turbines. Reliable film cooling drives durability and thermal efficiency in gas turbine engines but is greatly sensitive to variations in the shape of cooling holes due to surface roughness induced by the manufacturing process. To this end, the team leveraged ALCF supercomputers and Argonne’s highly scalable nekRS solver to perform morphology-resolved computational fluid dynamics simulations of gas turbine film cooling schemes incorporating surface roughness of the cooling hole. Detailed analysis of the numerical results was carried out to gain insights into the impact of various surface roughness parameters on the downstream film cooling effectiveness. High-fidelity datasets from these simulations will be combined with data from coarse-grained simulations to develop multi-fidelity deep learning surrogate models to predict the impact of surface roughness on film cooling effectiveness. The team’s framework aims to help the company improve the fuel efficiency and durability of aircraft engines while reducing design times and costs.

TAE Technologies

TAE Technologies is leveraging ALCF supercomputers to advance fusion energy research and accelerate the development of a commercially viable fusion-based electricity generator. By running high-fidelity simulations, researchers are gaining critical insights into plasma stability and the conditions needed to sustain fusion reactions. This work supports the development of field-reversed configuration plasma and neutral beam injection techniques, key to achieving the extreme temperatures required for fusion with proton-boron-11 fuel—a safer, low-waste alternative to conventional fusion methods. These advancements are accelerating the design of compact, efficient fusion reactors, moving the world closer to a transformative, near-limitless energy source.