ATA ENGINEERING, INC. — Department of Defense STTR Phase I: AF19A-T021

Description

Carbon-carbon (C-C) composites are used in the fabrication of aeroshells and thermal protection systems (TPS) in hypersonic and atmospheric reentry applications because they maintain their strength at elevated temperatures and have desirable thermal conductivity properties. Although these materials have been used in mission-critical components for decades, the effects of variations in processing methods on overall performance of the composite are not fully understood, and it is currently not possible to predict the final physical and mechanical properties of 2D C-C components from knowledge of the composite constituents and manufacturing methods. To overcome these limitations, ATA Engineering, Inc., (ATA) and Southwest Research Institution (SwRI) propose to develop a software framework to predict the response of C-C composites for varying manufacturing and processing parameters. The toolset will use molecular dynamics techniques to make atomistic-scale material property predictions for varying manufacturing start materials, processes, and parameters. These predictions will be linked to microstructure-scale material properties using informatics technology techniques to define relationships between the atomistic and microstructure-scale properties. In Phase I, ATA/SwRI will develop and test the toolset and perform preliminary validation using existing test data. In Phase II, ATA/SwRI will refine the analysis toolset and execute a verification and validation program.