A Multi-Fidelity ICME Workflow for Predicting and Mitigating Galvanic Corrosion in Aerospace Structures

The aerospace industry's specification of mixed-material designs to reduce weight, while beneficial for performance, creates severe and often underestimated multi-material corrosion risks that threaten structural integrity, safety, and fleet readiness. This challenge is particularly acute for Department of War (DoW) assets, which often operate in more aggressive environments, and for aging fleets forced to perform well beyond their original service life, driving up sustainment costs and compromising mission-critical availability.

Relying on late-stage physical testing to mitigate this risk is no longer a viable strategy; it is too slow and too costly to effectively screen the complex material interactions in modern designs. This presentation introduces a robust Integrated Computational Materials Engineering (ICME) framework that addresses this critical gap. The workflow shifts corrosion analysis "left," embedding it directly into the design cycle, from initial concept to downstream sustainment lifecycle.

This methodology integrates verified and validated computational tools for corrosion analysis at scaling levels of fidelity. This enables rapid, database-driven screening of material compatibility, providing an essential method for performing 'what-if' analyses. This allows engineers to virtually validate the replacement of hazardous materials (e.g., cadmium, chromates) with more environmentally benign alternatives even before committing to costly physical testing. It begins with rapid, database-driven screening of material compatibility. This is followed by automated risk analysis directly within the 3D CAD environment, allowing designers and M&P engineers to instantly visualize and mitigate problematic material couples. For high-consequence areas, the workflow enables high-fidelity, multi-physics simulations to precisely predict corrosion rates and validate design changes.

A case study on a relevant aerospace component will demonstrate this seamless workflow. The demonstration will illustrate how this ICME-driven approach enables a critical capability for developing safer, more reliable, and more sustainable platforms for both commercial and defense applications.