TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Materials/Processes

ACQUISITION PROGRAM: PEO ships, NAVSEA 05P

The technology within this topic is restricted under the International Traffic in Arms Regulation (ITAR), which controls the export and import of defense-related material and services. Offerors must disclose any proposed use of foreign nationals, their country of origin, and what tasks each would accomplish in the statement of work in accordance with section 3.5.b.(7) of the solicitation.

OBJECTIVE: Develop and validate the computational tools necessary to simulate microstructural evolution and resultant mechanical properties in marine grade aluminum alloys. Specifically, to develop and validate the computational tools to predict the effects of composition, deformation and heat treatment on the microstructure, the types and size distributions of precipitates that form within the microstructure, and the mechanical properties (strength, ductility, toughness, fatigue, etc.) that are exhibited by those microstructures, as well as the tools to integrate the above components into a single, cohesive computational package, in a specific marine-grade alloy system.

DESCRIPTION: Current efforts to reduce certification times for introduction of a new material in naval construction (or the application of an existing material for a new application) by developing computational tools to simulate microstructures and predict final material properties are limited by the capabilities of currently-available computational packages. If adequate computational tools were available, simulation of the microstructures produced through various deformation and processing procedures, and prediction of the mechanical properties expected from such microstructures, could replace much of the effort that is currently required for certification. Only verification tests of appropriately processed material would be required to check the validity of the models, rather than the much more extensive effort that is currently required.

To meet this goal, it is necessary to develop computational tools to simulate the full microstructural development that occurs during processing (including the effects of deformation, heat treatment, diffusion, phase transformations, precipitate reactions, and recrystallization), the mechanical properties (strength, ductility, toughness, fatigue, etc.) exhibited by that microstructure, and the computational tools to integrate these sometimes disparate components.

In addition to developing the computational tools that can perform some or all of these simulations, it is also required that those computational tools accurately predict the characteristics of interest. Thus, this program also requires a validation component to support the development of the computational tools.

Technical hurdles that remain are alloy- and design-requirement-specific. Such issues are best resolved through the concurrent engineering approach enabled by the STTR program. A small business that currently produces similar computational tools is best suited to developing the components required for this effort, but is not likely to have the appropriate resources to validate the model predictions. Alternatively, university performers are well suited to developing the processing-microstructure-property relationships that are required for the different computational tools. The small business would benefit immensely from the university-led research and could guide that research in a focused and productive manner in the process of developing the appropriate computational components.

PHASE I: Demonstrate feasibility of approach and identify means of integrating computational tools into a larger protocol. Identification of challenge problem (specific alloy and application) that would be attempted in Phase II.

PHASE II: Demonstrate effectiveness of computational tools for the alloy system identified, showing ability to accurately predict microstructure and mechanical properties for a range of realistic compositional variations and relevant processing parameters. Fully integrate system with other relevant computational tools and databases. Develop business case analysis to support adoption of system by DoD commercial industry.

PHASE III: Phase III will be marked by comparison of the developed protocol against the conventional certification requirements and demonstration of a 70% reduction in required mechanical tests for a given alloy and application.

PRIVATE SECTOR COMMERCIAL POTENTIAL/DUAL-USE APPLICATIONS: Private sector, commercial applications are numerous throughout the transportation industry. General principals developed in this project could be readily applied to components for civilian shipping, aerospace, train, automotive and public transport vehicles.

REFERENCES:
1. J. Allison, D. Backman, and L. Christodoulou "Integrated Computational Materials Engineering: A New Paradigm for the Global Materials Profession" and other articles in this issue, JOM 58(11) 2006.

2. Accelerating Technology Transition: Bridging the Valley of Death for Materials and Processes in Defense Systems. National Research Council, The National Academies Press, Washington, DC 2004.

3. H.-J. Jou, P. Voorhees, and G.B. Olson, "Computer simulations for the prediction of microstructure/property variation in aeroturbine disks", Superalloys 2004. Proceedings of the Tenth International Symposium on Superalloys, TMS, Champion, PA, pp. 877-886 2004.

KEYWORDS: certification, aluminum, cost reduction, simulations, materials, prediction

TPOC: Richard Fonda
Phone: (202)767-2622
Fax:
Email: [email protected]
2nd TPOC: David Forrest
Phone: (301)227-5033
Fax:
Email: [email protected]