Physics-Based ICME Approaches for Fatigue Prediction in Aerospace Applications

QuesTek has over 25 years of experience applying physics-based ICME to solve materials challenges. In 2023, QuesTek launched the cloud-based ICMD^® platform to put its proven ICME capabilities directly in the hands of customers. These tools have been used in the aerospace industry to predict the impact of process conditions on critical properties, accelerate qualification timelines, and design novel alloys that push the limits of material performance.

QuesTek has developed models spanning the process-structure-property paradigm including models for properties like yield strength, toughness, and creep as well as models to predict process-specific microstructure and defects for casting, forging, and additive manufacturing. Critically for aerospace, microstructure-sensitive models of fatigue life can accurately consider the effect of microstructural features such as grain morphology and texture, phase fraction, inclusions, porosity, surface roughness, and pitting corrosion. Pairing these models with other tools like automated model calibration, machine learning regression, sensitivity analysis, and uncertainty quantification can significantly increase the impact of ICME for real engineering applications.

This talk will overview ICMD^® software capabilities and advancements in ICME at QuesTek including the modeling of fatigue, the use of uncertainty quantification to accelerate qualification, and the design of novel lightweight alloys, with a special focus on recent applications in the aerospace industry.