Integration of Computational Tools for Accelerating Insertion of Aluminum Alloys in Navy Applications

DARPA’s successful Accelerated Insertion of Materials (AIM) initiative and QuesTek’s Materials by Design® technology have together demonstrated the benefit of an integrated methodology incorporating emerging computational materials simulations to reduce the time and resources required for developing new alloys and/or applications. To take full advantage of this approach, however, existing mechanistic material models require alloy specific calibration, validation and software integration, which is often unavailable for Navy applications. In this Phase I STTR program, QuesTek will collaborate with Northwestern University, both having extensive experience in AIM methodology development, to demonstrate the feasibility of applying integrated computational models/tools and a calibration/validation protocol for marine-grade 5000 & 7000 series aluminum alloys, with an ultimate goal to demonstrate AIM benefits in Phase II. In particular we will utilize PrecipiCalc™ software, which played a central role in the DARPA AIM program, to model strengthening dispersion, grain boundary precipitates and grain refinement microstructures in aluminum alloys. The mechanistic strength and toughness models developed in the ONR/DARPA Digital 3-D Microstructure initiative will be extended to aluminum systems allowing a full software integration of microstructure and property model predictions, and a protocol and experimental data set will be developed for accurate and efficient model calibration and validation.