University of Wisconsin-Madison engineers have received a $424,767 grant from the U.S. Department of Defense to develop multi-scale methods for simulating friction and wear of nanostructured metal alloys with the ultimate goal of designing materials that exhibit ultra-low wear. The research team, led by Izabela Szlufarska, Harvey D. Spangler Professor in materials science and engineering, will validate the predictions of the models against experimental results obtained using advanced materials characterization techniques. This is a collaborative project with Mechanical Engineering Assistant Professor Shiva Rudraraju, who is an expert in modeling materials at the mesoscale. Synthesis of wear-resistant materials is important both for efficient metal manufacturing processes and for engineering durable components in applications that involve sliding contacts.