Virtual stress testing machine and the cyber-infrastructure

The virtual stress testing machine (VSTM) project demonstrates the use of the cyber-infrastructure to integrate the algorithms of computational mechanics and supplement virtual environments with physics. The VSTM is not a tool, nor is it intended to be; rather it is a pedagogical presentation of new research paradigms that should be comprehensible to mechanical engineers. VSTM encompasses a real stress testing machine, a virtual stress-testing machine, and a server that initiates and regulates all component physics and visualization processes the server also controls the real Instron. A series of benchmark tests were conducted for analysis of reliability and to demonstrate how such tests can and should be conducted so as to foster communication between mechanical engineers and their colleagues across disciplines. These tests have demonstrated the concept of creating a physics-based virtual environment by revealing both the accuracy and real-time functionality of the simulation. The tests also exposed some system vulnerabilities in network communication and remote memory access processes. VSTM provides a description for mechanical engineers, of the necessary core network technologies needed to solve mechanics problems in new ways and join the community of computer scientists already at work in this arena.