Multi-Physics, Multi-scale Ground Vehicle Reliability Prediction

Design of US Army ground vehicles, especially those that operate in combat environments, faces increasingly challenging requirements. The vehicles should be capable of operating in contrasting rough terrains and must support a wide range of optional equipment and payloads. Component and system durability /reliability are critical to mission success. Ground vehicle systems reliability is a function of the reliability of its sub-assemblies and their individual components. A multi-scale, multi-physics computational system is needed to address the complexity of the overall vehicle design. The proposed computational tool will evaluate component reliability, and eventually an entire Army vehicle. A multi-physics approach will evaluate the reliability of different components to various factors: mechanical fatigue, thermal stress, erosion, corrosion and other degradation effects, usage history, maintenance history, and manufacturing processes, including defects. The computational capability will be inclusive of: component modeling, finite element analysis, material degradation modeling, damage progression and damage tracking, and reliability evaluation. To dramatically increase computational efficiency, a parallel computing capability will be incorporated to concurrently assess reliability of multiple components prior to determining the overall system reliability. This capability will enable engineers to assess the reliability of a whole vehicle system and to eventually optimize the design for desired reliability.