FY06 Engineering Research and Technology Report

This report summarizes the core research, development, and technology accomplishments in Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's Engineering Directorate for FY2006. These efforts exemplify Engineering's more than 50-year history of developing and applying the technologies needed to support the Laboratory's national security missions. A partner in every major program and project at the Laboratory throughout its existence, Engineering has prepared for this role with a skilled workforce and technical resources developed through both internal and external venues. These accomplishments embody Engineering's mission: ''Enable program success today and ensure the Laboratory's vitality tomorrow''. Engineering's investment in technologies is carried out primarily through two internal programs: the Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) program and the technology base, or ''Tech Base'', program. LDRD is the vehicle for creating technologies and competencies that are cutting-edge, or require discovery-class research to be fully understood. Tech Base is used to prepare those technologies to be more broadly applicable to a variety of Laboratory needs. The term commonly used for Tech Base projects is ''reduction to practice''. Thus, LDRD reports have a strong research emphasis, while Tech Base reports document discipline-oriented, core competency activities. This report combines the LDRD and Tech Base summaries into one volume, organized into six thematic technical areas: Engineering Modeling and Simulation; Measurement Technologies; Micro/Nano-Devices and Structures; Precision Engineering; Engineering Systems for Knowledge and Inference; and Energy Manipulation