Innovative Approach to Rapidly Qualify Ti-6Al-4V Metallic Aircraft Parts Manufactured by Additive Manufacturing (AM) Techniques

This research focuses on establishing a simulation-enabled qualification procedure for additively manufactured metal parts which could replace the current requirement to execute a full factorial A/B basis for part qualification. The contemporary qualification principles are based on traditional manufacturing counterparts where the length scale of part fabrication is completely decoupled from the evolving microstructure, and continuum tests such as suggested in the A/B basis are good enough to characterize and qualify the part within reasonable level of confidence. If successfully completed, this program will, for the first time, enable the AM industry to go beyond the qualification metrics documented in the A/B basis for a quick and semi-automated qualification procedure which would increase accuracy for additively fabricated metal parts (since the energy source scale and length scale of part fabrication are strongly coupled with the microstructure). The test methodology related to this qualification procedure will be first analyzed with regard to parts of NAVAIR interest but could be generalized for any complex geometry manufactured using powder-bed metal AM technologies.