MARCH 2021AEROSPACEDEFENSEREVIEW.COM9in a short span. Airplane engines and components are expected to go through multiple cycles of rest, thrust, and dwell before a planned maintenance cycle.Component performance in both design spaces requires customized microstructure and properties. For example, a component utilized in different design spaces and made of the same alloy is manufactured differently. The same basic process is followed, but the conditions vary to meet the requirement.Figure 1: Integrated Computational Materials and Manufacturing Engineering Approach at ATI. The production of component-specific customized properties requires research in material characterization, property response through various thermo-mechanical processing, development of predictive modeling tools to perform optimization studies, fine control of the equipment to manufacture the components consistently, and understanding the influence of component design features through sensitivity analysis. This is possible by using an Integrated Computational Materials and Manufacturing Engineering (ICME) framework for materials, components, and manufacturing technologies. Figure 1 shows the ICME framework at ATI. Within the framework, various materials, equipment, component design, process design, computational and statistical models are integrated to rapidly develop and deploy optimal products with proper validation to meet the performance targets. For a specific example, consider designing the manufacturing process of a jet-engine disc to determine the size of secondary gamma prime to balance various mechanical properties. We run a modeling simulation to determine the best physical conditions and help determine the likely repeatability of the process. Figure 2 shows the results of a solution-quench heat treat process modeling simulation focused on a specific section of the forging. This allows ATI to optimize the process before the component is made, importantly before resources are invested in producing components.Figure 2: Results from a modeling optimization technique utilized to customize the solution-quench heat treat process for an aerospace component. The optimized cooling environment was determined and applied to drive the microstructure in the component (a) objective to achieve cooling rate (ACR) within a discreet region of a component, (b) minimize a quantified measure of a structure (secondary gamma prime particle size) known to deliver required mechanical properties, (c) a specific calculated value of the structure is represented by a probability function to provide spatial distribution and uncertainty to our application engineers.Through this integrated approach, ATI has developed and produced complex material alloy systems and highly engineered and technologically advanced components, thus, transforming the global aerospace industry. Upfront optimizing during the development of new materials, components, and processes and connecting them to the performances in the applied environment enables engineers and technologists to continue to contribute to our commitment to advancing the aerospace industry.
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