QUESTEK INNOVATIONS LLC — National Aeronautics and Space Administration STTR Phase I: T12.04

Description

QuesTek Innovations, a pioneer in Integrated Computational Materials Engineering (ICME) and a Tibbetts Award recipient, is teaming with University of Pittsburgh, proposing to expand their Materials by Design technology and develop the essential ICME technologies that help optimize the additive manufacturing (AM) process of Inconel Alloy718. One of the biggest hurdles to the adoption of AM of metals is the qualification of additively manufactured parts while currently available systems are based largely on hand-tuned parameters determined by trial-and-error for a limited set of materials with significant uncertainty. A comprehensive ICME approach is needed to address this issue by modeling the process-structure-property chain to predict performance of AM parts. We propose to improve state-of-the-art modeling for AM by coupling FEM codes with materials phase transformation and precipitation simulation software. The Phase I focus on determining the ICME framework architecture and identifying the necessary models as building blocks, as well as key data and experiments for calibration and validation. The resulted ICME tools will enable engineers to develop efficient machines and to optimize and certify AM process and materials, with greatly reduced time, cost, uncertainty, and risk and improved reliability, confidence, and quality assurance.