H. J. Jou, QuesTek Innovations LLC, Evanston, IL
Dual Microstructure Heat Treatment (DMHT) technology optimizes nickel-based aeroturbine disks and achieves significant performance improvements for aeroturbine engines. DMHT generates gradient microstructures and a major hurdle to perfecting this technology is a lack of mechanistic microstructure and mechanical property modeling in the gradient region. Recent advancements in the development and refinement of physics-based model techniques for Ni-based superalloys extend the capabilities established in DARPA Accelerated Insertion of Materials (AIM) and ONR/DARPA D3D programs to address the gradient region of DMHT disks. These advancements include performance enhancements and the calibration/validation/implementation of PrecipiCalc® software to DMHT precipitation microstructure modeling for 3rd generation disc alloys through a NASA/QuesTek/Air Force/Rolls-Royce collaboration. The application of D3D 3D tomography techniques and a fatigue lifing model, developed in collaboration with Professor David McDowell of Georgia Institute of Technology, establishes a framework for the optimization of DMHT disks for next generation aeroturbines.
Summary: Recent advancements in the development and refinement of physics-based model techniques for Ni-based superalloys extend the capabilities established in DARPA Accelerated Insertion of Materials (AIM) and ONR/DARPA D3D programs to address mechanistic microstructure and mechanical property modeling in the gradient region of Dual Microstructure Heat Treatment disks. These advancements include performance enhancements and the calibration/validation/implementation of PrecipiCalc® software to DMHT precipitation microstructure modeling for 3rd generation disc alloys, and the application of a fatigue lifing model in collaboration with Professor David McDowell of Georgia Institute of Technology.
