NASA has defined goals for development of future reusable launch vehicles (RLV). Systems must be reliable with less than 1 flight failure in 10,000 missions with mission cost of 1000 dollars per pound per payload (or less). X-33 propellant tank incidents indicate need for improving state-of-the-art… More

This effort will develop probabilistic micromechanical fatigue life modeling software . The model will integrate material characterization information with turbine engine structural design methods in order to predict the scatter in the fatigue strength ofa component subjected to high cycle fatigue… More

This effort will develop probabilistic micromechanical fatigue life modeling software . The model will integrate material characterization information with turbine engine structural design methods in order to predict the scatter in the fatigue strength ofa component subjected to high cycle fatigue… More

Technology for extending the life of fielded systems offers the potential for signification savings in total ownership costs. Through on-board monitoring and analysis, our technology will instill increased confidence in prediction of fatigue or remaininguseful life. This, in turn, offers the… More

Technology for extending the life of fielded systems offers the potential for signification saving in total ownershipcosts. On-board monitoring and analysis offers the potential to instill increased confidence in prediction of fatigue or remaining usefullife on an individual system basis. This, in… More

"The commercial sector is developing stronger, lighter, and cheaper materials for use in structural applications. However it needs to be verified that the use of these materials will enhance missile defense systems reliability. Engineers generally do nothave a significant amount of data relative to… More

"Technology for extending the life of fielded systems offers the potential for signification savings in total ownership costs. On-board monitoring combined with physics-based analysis will instill increased confidence in prediction of remaining useful life.This, in turn, offers the potential to… More

The VAATE Durability Focus Area mission is to make high performance turbine engine technology affordable to the user through proactive development of advanced technologies to prevent component failure, increase engine life & reliability, enhancereparability and reduce costs for improved warfighter… More

Power supply failure can result in immediate JSF system shutdown. Power supply systems are highly susceptible to failure due to the high voltage and current conditions they routinely operate in. Mechanical system prognosis can take advantage ofconventional fault signals to be used as advanced… More

Technology for extending the life of fielded systems offers the potential for significant savings in total ownership costs. On-board monitoring combined with physics-based analysis will instill increased confidence in prediction of remaining useful life. The prime contractor OEM is currently working… More

Of particular consideration under VAATE I will be future requirements for long range strike aircraft. The sustained high mach usage requirements for the long range strike aircraft necessitate up to 10 times the requirement of F119. OEMs have indicated that in some cases the current fleet was flown… More

The 1999 HCF Probabilistics Steering Committee meeting indicated that material behavior is a leading root cause of HCF problems in blades, vanes, and seals. A conventionally used component lifing practice is to conduct a Goodman type analysis to estimate the resistance to HCF failure. However the… More

Power supply systems are - compared to other electronic systems - highly susceptible to failure due to the high voltage and current conditions they routinely operate in. JSF operational reliability could be greatly enhanced by ensuring power supply performance in fielded systems. A power supply… More

The proceedings from the 16 August 1999 HCF Probabilistics Steering Committee meeting indicate that material behavior is a leading root cause of HCF problems in blades, vanes, and seals. A conventionally used component lifing practice is to conduct a Goodman type analysis to estimate the resistance… More

This SBIR program will develop a novel software methodology for the management of gas turbine usage data in real time for accurate prediction of engine life. The approach will be flexible enough to allow for re-assessment of life consumption when subsequent knowledge provides a revised understanding… More

Electronic digital circuit boards are composites of organic or inorganic materials with external and internal wiring designed to electrically interconnect and mechanically support all of the components and dissipate heat. Digital electronic circuit failure is ultimately a material failure at either… More

OEMs have historically been forced into short term planning due to the nature of the market for their products; however they have increasingly turned to a new agile approach to planning of design and production. Tools for the development and exploitation of capabilities need to be developed to be… More

Broad-spectrum analysis engineering packages have shared a potentially crippling handicap: the inability to easily couple the results from multiple analyses under a user friendly graphical interface. This deficiency is significant because individual physical phenomena are often interdependent. The… More

This SBIR Phase I will demonstrate the feasibility for a unitized component structural design tool that allows for holistic risk assessment. The analysis will transform the FEA predicted stress (or strain) state into fully probabilistic assessment of uncertainty in geometry and loading throughout… More

This SBIR program will develop a novel software methodology for the management of gas turbine usage data in real time for accurate prediction of engine life. The approach will be flexible enough to allow for re-assessment of life consumption when subsequent knowledge provides a revised understanding… More

As the Army's current fielded ground combat and combat support systems continue to age, there are increasing performance and reliability issues being encountered by our troops. Vehicles and equipment once designed using the best practices available at the time, can now be better engineered through… More

Air Force engines are required to satisfy both safe-life and fatigue crack growth (damage tolerant) design criteria under the engine structural integrity program (ENSIP). To achieve this requirement, nondestructive inspection techniques are used to detect cracks that can potentially grow to failure… More

Through the traditional design and development cycles, prototype hardware components are built, tested, and the design is then modified for unforeseen shortcomings revealed in testing. These cycles are both too time consuming and costly. The cost of physical tests is rising while the cost of… More

Integrally bladed rotors (IBRs) have become prevalent in new military gas turbine engines. IBRs replace rotors with inserted blades. As with other types of unitized structures, IBRs greatly reduce part count and thus improve assembly and maintainability. This SBIR proposes innovative advanced… More

A comprehensive Air System PHM approach will be developed for avionics digital circuits. As a mission is flown, temperature and vibration data indicate the stresses imposed on the electronics. This technology translates global stresses onto individual circuit board components and even the materials… More

The objective of this Phase II program is to implement, demonstrate and validate the computational techniques that were developed in Phase I that can be used for materials-damage based prognosis of gas turbine engine components and component assemblies. This approach will consist of a probabilistic… More

PHM investments can successfully diagnose up to 70% of damage fault indications. The cost of empirically-based testing is very high and must be reworked for every gear system design change. Physics-based FEA combined with long crack modeling can be self-adapting and overcome the high cost of pure… More

This SBIR Phase II will demonstrate the feasibility for a unitized component structural design tool that allows for holistic risk assessment. The analysis will transform the FEA predicted stress (or strain) state into fully probabilistic assessment of uncertainty in geometry and loading throughout… More

Our commercial and military fleets operate safely but at a great cost. Downtime for structural inspections, elaborate sustainment equipment, long maintainer hours, expensive in-depot repair, continuous spectrum monitoring, and extensive component testing have effectively reduced the rates of… More

Investment in health and usage monitoring systems (HUMS) has proven to yield significant safety and cost benefits to the military. For instance, the Helicopter Integrated Diagnostic System (HIDS) has achieved a documented success rate of up to 70 percent in detecting faults. However, despite all… More

This proposal outlines the development of innovative technologies applied in a practical and cost effective methodology for determining gas turbine engine reliability. The approach is to produce a set of test procedures enhancing the processes and alternatives in adequately demonstrating the… More

Current aircraft design approaches incorporate the use of many high fidelity models for point solutions of individual disciplines. Sophisticated model integration techniques are not yet readily available and a significant amount of individual discipline stovepiping exists. Individual handoffs of… More

The overall objective of the proposed effort is to build a methodology and the associated multi-scale computational tools that enable the development of corrosion resistant alloys for use in Naval aircraft. This will be achieved by adding corrosion damage prediction capabilities to VEXTEC's existing… More

The proposed project will develop a structural analysis framework incorporating high performance composite design methodologies to predict the reliability of sandwich termination features. The sandwich core termination region offers many challenges to properly design and verify its structural… More

Reusable life models rely on a large empirical database and require a lengthy development process. The models must be reconstructed for each new geometric and loading application. Rather than using empirical fatigue data to fit the model, the VEXTEC approach uses the intrinsic microstructure… More

The proposed approach will build on existing probabilistic micromechanics model for failure analysis to include gradient microstructures. This effort will develop physics based damage models for the gradient microstructures focusing on complete damage evolution of the transition zone between the… More

The overall objective of the proposed effort is to build a methodology and the associated computational tools that predict component life for rotor wing drive systems. This will be achieved by adding mission load variability to VEXTEC's existing gear component life prediction tool. The goal is a… More

The JSF Program requires a probabilistic approach to high cycle fatigue (HCF) foreign object damage (FOD) limit determination. The current Goodman diagram based methods have a capability gap addressing the JSF probabilisitic requirements and are costly and time consuming due to the extensive bench… More

There is a critical need for integrated material prediction tools to assure the United States future competitiveness and national security. Extensive libraries of integrated computational tools are available for structures, heat transfer, fluid dynamics, electronics and manufacturing. These tools… More

The overall objective of this proposed effort is to build a gearbox system life simulator that is capable of estimating loads and life of components (e.g., recommended removal time) based on the users"drive system design parameters (dimension, weight, diameter, number of teeth, material, loads,… More

ABSTRACT: Current aircraft design approaches incorporate the use of many high fidelity models for point solutions of individual disciplines. Sophisticated model integration techniques are not yet readily available and a significant amount of individual discipline"stovepiping"exists.… More

The United States Air Force (USAF) operates one of the world"s largest fleets with an average age approaching 26 years. As the USAF transport fleet continues to age, costs of inspections, structural repairs, and component replacements will continue increasing. Given this large number of… More

Analysis methods are not available to predict the life of structures exposed to spectral loads containing large cycles of low amplitude loads. The challenge is developing a computational technique to predict damage accumulation in the ultra high cycle fatigue (UHCF) regime and then integrate that… More

Advanced computational tools capable of predicting the effects of fatigue corrosion on new alloys are needed to design the aircraft fleet of the future. The corrosion process is complex involving a combination of factors including material chemistry, processing history, microstructure, and… More

The proposed project will develop a structural analysis framework incorporating high performance composite design methodologies to predict the reliability of sandwich termination features. The sandwich core termination region offers many challenges to properly design and verify its structural… More

The Navy incurred approximately $3 billion in aircraft corrosion maintenance costs. Design analysis tools are largely empirical and are derived from physical testing of the basic material specimens, which do not have the capability to account for degradation of these properties due to operational… More