Rapid Sustainment Analysis Tool to Enhance Aircraft Readiness

The Department of the Air Force (DAF) faces a critical challenge in enhancing aircraft fleet readiness especially for older aircraft past their design lifespan. Current methods for analyzing structural damage and propagating flaws are time-consuming and require highly skilled engineering labor, impacting aircraft availability and mission readiness. Improved sustainability workflows and more efficient digital engineering processes can go a long way towards mitigating these costs. SKY-STRUC, an advanced Finite Element Analysis (FEA) tool under development by Skyward, Ltd., addresses the Air Force's Operational Imperative #7 "READINESS to deploy and fight” by enabling rapid assessment of structural damage across hundreds of thousands of potential damage locations across the whole aircraft and effectively utilizing DoD-owned high performance computing resources. This capability is crucial for proactive maintenance, improved decision-making, and optimized resource allocation.The proposed Phase II effort will adapt SKY-STRUC for integration with the Aircraft Structural Integrity Program (ASIP), initially focusing on the B-1 bomber and leveraging their ongoing digital twin effort. This AFWERX program will also leverage significant previous SKY-STRUC development, originally for the purpose of analyzing combat threat damage. Modifications will be made to better integrate with and partially automate ASIP/B-1 sustainment processes, add sub-model output capabilities, ensure compatibility with ASIP, and validate the tool using B-1 program data. These advancements will significantly enhance the Air Force's ability to maintain operational effectiveness, reduce costs, and improve aircraft availability and safety.