Micromodeling

Micromodeling is the practice of building and using models that represent processes at micro- or meso-scales to understand and predict the behavior of larger systems. By focusing on microstructure, individual components, or microphysical interactions, micromodels aim to explain how small-scale phenomena influence macro-scale properties such as strength, transport, and permeability.

Micromodeling spans disciplines including materials science, geosciences, chemical and mechanical engineering, biomechanics, and electronics. It combines data from high-resolution imaging, microfabrication, and experiments with computational simulations to capture geometry, heterogeneity, and interactions that are difficult to observe at larger scales.

Common approaches include physical micromodels (for example microfluidic chips and etched microstructures) and computational micromodels (simulations of micro-scale flow, contact mechanics, or diffusion). Techniques for bridging scales, such as homogenization and multiscale upscaling, translate micro-scale behavior into effective macro-scale laws.

Applications include predicting effective material properties, designing microstructured materials and metamaterials, studying transport in porous media, and informing biomedical implants and tissue scaffolds. In geoscience and petroleum engineering, micromodels are used to study pore-scale flow; in battery and catalyst research, they help optimize microstructure for performance.

Challenges include representing realistic microstructures, ensuring upscaling accuracy, managing computational demands, and validating models against experiments. As a bridging approach, micromodeling complements continuum models by linking micro-level processes to macro-level behavior.