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Completed TRL 4 (started at 2, targeting 4)
The dream in stress and fracture analysis has always been to be able to simulate cracks initiating and then propagating in a stress field in a metal or composite structure. To date, the engineer is only able to see a stress plot that identifies highly stressed problematic areas. Only a stress and fracture expert may be able to accurately figure out where cracks will initiate and in which direction it will propagate. The latest tools now give this ability but have not been widely used or accepted in aerospace. This effort would benchmark the latest tools with accepted standards in aerospace and seek to develop appropriate techniques to develop highly visual simulations of cracks initiating and propagating. These techniques will help us to engineer far more robust aerospace structures mitigating risk to the mission and crew. This is critical for a Mars mission where reliability of hardware is paramount.
NASGRO (NASA Crack Growth Software) is the globally used (Boeing, Lockheed, NASA, ESA, Airbus, Bombardier, Embraer,..) aerospace standard for fracture analysis. It uses an extensive test data base to develop predictive crack growth models. Finite element models of these crack cases will be built and analyzed using Marc's new powerful crack initiation and propagation features. These will be compared to NASGRO results and techniques will be developed to ensure greatest correlation. These techniques will be applied to complex geometry with the final goal of making a crack, when it occurs, grow in a benign direction. These techniques and results will be published enabling the aerospace industry to develop far more reliable structural components. Marc also simulates delamination in composites very visually.
A report detailing the crack cases studied, correlations between NASGRO and Marc FEA, videos showing how the cracks grow. For complex geometries, the video showing how the cracks grow will be very educational in designing such crack arresting features. Crack growth rates and growth directions may be studied for different applied loads. The Marc analysis settings that will give the best correlations will be documented.
Ideas learned from this work may be used to propose funding to improve NASGRO, collaborate with Marc, or may see other revolutionary techniques in stress and fracture analysis. Meanwhile, the intent is to begin using this technology on flight hardware at JSC (the principal investigator is Chief Engineer for Structural Analysis at Jacobs) and gain experience before publishing the findings in technical journals. Experience gained here will help qualify the methods for future use.
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This is early/mid-stage (TRL 4) — the most realistic path in is NASA SBIR/STTR, which funds small businesses and research institutions to develop technology aligned with NASA's needs (equity-free, phased funding). Check whether a current SBIR/STTR solicitation topic overlaps with this project's technology area, or contact the project directly (above) to ask.
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