Please join us on Monday, April 13 for our next HEMI Seminar, held in collaboration with CISMMS.
Speaker: Lyle Levine
AM Bench Founder and Co-Chair
CM4QC Founding Member and Lead Editor
National Institute of Standards and Technology
Title: Providing a Rigorous Benchmark Measurement Foundation for Modeling-Informed Qualification and Certification of Metal AM Components
Abstract: Additive manufacturing (AM) is a transformative set of technologies that are increasingly being used for aviation applications. Although considerable scientific and technological advances for AM have been made in recent years, difficulties with qualification and certification (Q&C) have drastically limited the introduction of AM parts within the aviation industry. Computational Materials for Qualification and Certification (CM4QC) is a tightly focused collaboration of aviation OEMs, research and regulatory government agencies, and universities that have spent five years developing a comprehensive strategy for broadly incorporating computational approaches into the aviation AM Q&C process. Conclusions from the recently released CM4QC Strategy Document will be discussed. One critical aspect is model validation which will be discussed with reference to the NIST-led Additive Manufacturing Benchmark Test Series (AM Bench), which provides challenge problems and rigorous measurement test data for guiding and validating AM simulations for a broad range of AM technologies and material systems. AM Bench operates on a three-year cycle and has just completed nine broad sets of benchmark measurements with corresponding challenge problems for the AM modeling community, covering topics such as laser powder bed fusion (PBF-LB), laser hot-wire directed energy deposition, vat photopolymerization, fatigue behavior of PBF-LB Ti-6AL-4V, microstructure evolution during post-build processing, time-resolved phase transformations, in process monitoring, residual strain/stress, and many others.
For further information on CM4QC, including a download link for the CM4QC Strategy Document, please visit the CM4QC website at https://www.nist.gov/programs-projects/cm4qc. For information on AM Bench, including links to all AM Bench papers and measurement data, please visit the AM Bench website at https://www.nist.gov/ambench.
Bio: Dr. Lyle Levine is a physicist in the Material Measurement Laboratory (MML) of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in the USA, where he leads MML’s Additive Manufacturing of Metals Project. Dr. Levine founded and co-leads the Additive Manufacturing Benchmark Test Series (AM Bench), a NIST-led organization that has built collaborations with more than 35 US and European research organizations to provide rigorous AM benchmark measurement data and challenge problems to the AM modeling community. In addition, Dr. Levine led the experimental validation effort for ExaAM, the DOE-funded Exascale Computing Project’s effort to develop codes for simulating AM processes on the first generation of exascale high-performance computing systems. Dr. Levine is also a founding member of Computational Materials for Qualification and Certification (CM4QC), which includes representatives from major US aerospace companies, government regulatory agencies, national laboratories, and universities working to establish a focused and coordinated path for the development of computational materials-enabled qualification and certification of AM materials and components for aviation applications. Dr. Levine is the Lead Editor for CM4QC and co-chaired the working group focused on developing strategies for maturing and transitioning fundamental research to engineering applications. The CM4QC Strategy Document was jointly published by NASA and FAA in March 2026 and is available for download on the CM4QC website. Dr. Levine also developed and leads the new CM4QC / AM Bench Pathfinder Exercise, a broad collaboration to accelerate commercialization of AM for aviation by validating a computational materials approach to AM part qualification as part of AM Bench 2028. In addition to his work on AM, Dr. Levine founded the Dislocations Conference Series and is highly active in synchrotron X-ray science, where he develops and uses new diffraction, scattering, and imaging measurement methods for studying material microstructures in situ and in operando. For further information on AM Bench and CM4QC, please visit our websites at www.nist.gov/ambench and www.nist.gov/programs-projects/cm4qc.
Dr. Levine received his B.S. in physics from Caltech and his Ph.D. in physics from Washington University in St. Louis. In addition to his role at NIST, Dr. Levine is an adjunct professor of Mechanical Engineering at both Northwestern University and the University of Southern California. Dr. Levine’s awards include NIST’s highest honors for innovations in measurement science, the Allen V. Astin Measurement Science Award, and for building ties between NIST and industry, the William P. Slichter Award. Dr. Levine has also received the U.S. Department of Commerce Silver Medal for developing innovative in situ synchrotron X-ray measurement methods and the ASM Henry Marion Howe Medal for his work on AM heat treatments.
