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Federal Initiatives VEXTEC engineers and scientists have conducted research in conjunction with many significant Federal programs or initiatives. This is especially true for the Department of Defense (DoD) who is a well established VEXTEC partner. Through this relationship, tomorrow’s products will
The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) at Dayton, Ohio provided VEXTEC with initial VLM development seed funding. Challenged with the ever-increasing maintenance cost of turbine disk replacement, AFRL recognized the higher fidelity lifing potential from VLM simulations for duty service extension. Originally developed for low cycle fatigue analysis, AFRL associated VLM development with the Science and Technology High Cycle Fatigue Initiative and the Versatile Affordable Advanced Turbine Engine program for technology extension. Thereafter, in support of the Long Range Strike Fighter Development, VLM was further expanded for creep-fatigue analysis. VEXTEC is currently working with the Air Force (and major OEMs) in development of algorithms that allow for combined onboard data filtering, compression, storage and life prediction as embedded software. Our new scaled turbine test facility is being used to accelerate the collection and process of probabilistic life data sets on turbine engine components at a fraction of the conventional cost. Additionally for the first time, VEXTEC has developed a process for the rapid life assessment of one off repaired (welded) components to be used within operating engines.
Our association with the Navy was spurred by technological needs under the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) development program. JSF is a joint US and UK initiative to develop the next generation of military aircraft. VEXTEC is associated with several JSF prime contractors and is working on several technological advancement initiatives. In particular, VEXTEC is validating several of the life prediction algorithms to be utilized within the JSF reasoner system architecture. VEXTEC has developed a methodology for predicting the life degradation in metallic components due to the impact of foreign objects (FOD). Given that future onboard systems can detect a FOD event, our modeling and simulation software can predict the impact on remaining useful life. Concerned with the long-term durability of electronic systems, the Navy also initiated VEXTEC’s application of VLM for reliability prediction of electronic systems.
VEXTEC was initially engaged to support of the missile defense system (star wars) program. Given the high cost of manufacturing highly reliability composite missile structures, VEXTEC demonstrated feasibility for relating reliability prediction, performance requirements and cost or manufacturing controls under a comprehensive software environment. VLM is now being used to support development of industrial equipment engines of the future. These engines are incorporating new materials that perform under increased operating temperatures and improve fuel efficiencies.
The Defense Advanced Research Project Agency within DoD launched a major initiative to develop embedded prognosis technology for use in future military products. VEXTEC was selected as a participant under the initial seedling effort and our work was later affiliated with three different major industry OEM prime contractor programs. These programs address the fact that overall product failure prediction must derive from the physics of failure described at the ever-evolving material microstructure level (the smallest practical scale with today’s technology).
Our research for NASA was initiated following the failure of a prototype test of a reusable launch vehicle (RLV) composite fuel tank. Although manufacturers maintain tolerance controls over processes – slight variation in part geometries, hole sizes, material batches, etc., are all realistic despite these controls. Our work established a software framework for implementing systematic trade-studies between performance and reliability while considering real world processing variability.
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