Scenario for Data Exchange at the Microstructure Scale

Microstructures represent the key to interoperability between continuum models operating at the process scale and discrete models and tools describing atoms/electrons. They also provide the link between experimental materials characterisation and the virtual world. The present paper introduces a microstructure state as the central information providing the link across different length scales and along the temporal evolution of a component. Different ways of generating and representing the microstructure state are categorized and related to different classes of models acting on that state. A pragmatic way of digitally storing the microstructure state being based on the hierarchical data format HDF5 is proposed.