CFD RESEARCH CORPORATION — Department of Defense STTR Phase I: The overall objective of this effort is to identify, and validate a suitable methodology a

Description

The overall objective of this effort is to identify, and validate a suitable methodology and the associated multi-scale computational technique for predictive assessment of corrosion fatigue damage in Naval aircraft. Annual costs for corrosion inspection and repair of military aircraft are estimated to exceed $1B. Predictive modeling of corrosion fatigue damage is challenging since it has to capture the interactions between cyclic loading and electrochemistry across disparate time and length scales. Several approaches ranging from atomistic Molecular Dynamics, kinetic Monte Carlo, and Density Functional Theory to continuum mass transport were reported. However, the coupling of these methods to address multi-scale nature of corrosion problem has fundamental problems and requires intensive computational resources and time requirements. CFDRC teamed with Sandia National Laboratories in this STTR project to develop alternative multi-scale computational technology using peridynamics theory for predicting assessment of corrosion fatigue damage from the first principles. Key chemical reactions in proposed technology will be modeled using ab initio-based ReaxFF approach introduced by Prof. van Duin. During Phase I, we will (1) assemble preliminary software and (2) demonstrate the feasibility of our software for selected case studies. The Phase II work will produce the final software implemented in a continuum code and a library of demonstration and validation cases for damage prediction in simulated service conditions.