Objectives:

• Develop integrated design approach for cast airframe components (design, casting process, inspection)
  

• Understand capabilities of cast components to carry design loads in presence of damage before catastrophic failure (or next inspection interval) and assess structural integrity with consideration of damage tolerance and residual strength
  
  
• Understand fatigue crack growth and ductile tearing in monolithic castings compared to built-up structures extension
  
  
• Establish technical plan for to other alloy systems
  

Approach:

• Develop and validate casting models to determine size and location of voids
  
  
• Develop and validate fatigue crack growth and residual strength models to predict component lifetimes and durability
  
  
• Use probabilistic methods to assess component reliability and determine inspection intervals
  
  
• Couple with inspectability and POD models to predict detectability of a given defect morphology (type, size)

Products:

• Working model for static strength optimization for cast aerospace component with optimization scheme
  
  
• Working model for damage tolerance approach for cast aerospace component with optimization scheme
  
  
• Working model for an integrated (static strength, damage tolerance, and optimization) design approach for cast components
  
  
  

Links:

• Radiographic Inspection