AF02-134 Virtual Nondestructive Evaluation (NDE): Computational Methods for Virtual Prototyping

"Assessment of the Requirements for a Virtual NDE Environmentand its Integration into a Virtual Design Process The recent advances in NDE modeling provide an opportunity to begin developing a Virtual NDE Environment. There are a number of issue, such as robustness of the NDE models, the availability of appropriate input to the models and the integration ofexpert knowledge systems that must be at a sufficient level to be used. Similarly the NDE Virtual Environment must have the ability to integrate into the larger Design Environment. We propose to build of significant past experience in NDE modeldevelopment, Virtual Design Environment development. In this work we propose to complete an assessment of the needs and provide a development framework for realizing the significant potential improvements in productivity, safety, and optimization thatthese Virtual environments promise. The market applications for Virtual NDE applications is in the millions of dollars annually.All manufacturing processes could benefit from the use of these simulation technologies--minimally anyone currently using CAD/CAM would be a likely customer.With Six Sigma reaching cult status Virtual NDE simulation applications would offer a real world opportunity to dramatically improve the design / manufacturing cycle.Our current experience marketing XRSIM, an X-ray simulation program and our associations with the Center for Non-Destructive Evaluation and other sim