Virtual Design of Inhibited Primers

The paper reports on a collaboration between BOEING and CSIRO that aims to dramatically cut the time required to develop aircraft materials  . At present the time required to develop material can be excess of 15 years, much longer than that required to develop a new craft .. One way to cut the time for materials development is design  materials virtually. This virtual design does not eliminate the need for  actual materials  design and certification but it allows this process to focus only on material designs with a high probability of fulfilling their design function.  Virtual design requires a platform that links models from the molecular scale to the engineered object scale. The project has two typical components

1.     Developing a platform that permits models to be linked

2.     Selection and/or development of models across the relevant platform scales

The models developed include

a)     Molecular scale models to define corrosion inhibitor and surface interactions

b)    Molecular and continuum models to define inhibitor movement through a polymer and to a defect

c)     Models of pit initiation and propagation on structural aluminium

d)    Scenario builder to define the location and activity of an aircraft

e)     Microclimate models defining the conditions within and exterior to an aircraft in service and on the ground

f)     Damage accumulator that keeps track of the accumulation of damage

The models have been linked through the platform and the life of a range of primers with different inhibitors calculated for different flight patterns

Current and future activities consist of validating the models at each scale and validating the complete model by assessing how will it predicts the life in neutral salt spray tests. Future work will look at validating the model against life of components on actual aircraft and extending the model to composites.