ASC Image Library
Predictive Capability
Predictive capability is the ability to simulate with confidence the performance, safety, and surety of the nuclear stockpile. ASC will provide the models, codes, and computing infrastructure to visualize and understand the complex physics and engineering, and quantify margins and uncertainties. The outermost layer of the graphic above shows NNSA experimental facilities that provide the elements of discovery for the development of theoretical models—models that describe the physics of nuclear weapons. Within the next layer, these theoretical models represent the basis of sub-grid scale simulations. The third layer shows continuum-scale simulations of weapon components and sub-components that are validated by experimental data from the same or similar experimental facilities. Finally, the innermost layer depicts full-scale weapons to which system-level simulations are applied for assessing safety and reliability with quantified design margins and uncertainties.