University Affiliates

Clarkson University

Clarkson University is collaborating with AlphaSTAR Corporation using GENOA to assess ply drop effects on composite airfoil durability. Professor Levon Minnetyan from the Civil Engineering Department and Professor Pier Marzocca from the Mechanical and Aeronautical Department ably supported by their student Glenn Crans, MS in MAE Department have successfully simulated test cases from Sandia National Laboratory under static and fatigue loading using GENOA software with two different approaches within the PFA to investigate these issues. The approaches used include the Virtual Crack Closure Technique (VCCT) and a user-based phenomenological approach. Constituent stiffness and strength properties for glass and carbon based fiber and matrix material systems are reverse engineered for use in D&DT evaluation of coupons with ply drops under static loading. Lamina and laminate properties calculated using manufacturing and composite architecture details are matched closely with published test data. Similarly, resin properties are also determined for fatigue life calculation. The simulations not only reproduced static strength and fatigue life as observed in the test, they also showed composite damage and fracture modes that resemble those reported in the test. The results show that computational simulation can be relied on to enhance the design of tapered composite structures such as the ones used in turbine wind blades.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

MIT Aeronautics and Astronautics prepares engineers for success and leadership in the conception, design, implementation, and operation of aerospace and related engineering systems. They achieve this through their commitment to: educational excellence; creation, development, and application of technologies critical to aerospace vehicle and information engineering; and to the architecture and engineering of complex high-performance systems.

Cooperative agreements between MIT & ASC began in 2009 and continue to date. The research activities include but are not limited to the investigation of progressive damage in composite structures utilizing optimization and probabilistic methods. The objective of this work is to be able to understand the roles of the probabilistic aspects of damage in the progressive damage, and resulting performance and ultimate failure of composite structures.

University of Southern California (USC)

At USC, the Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering (AME) Department's faculty prepares future engineers to design and build unique systems, ranging in scale from the international space station to micro-scale electric generators and pumping systems. The exploration of technologies in design and manufacturing are among the major Strategic Themes, at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Cooperative activities with USC include validation of analytical methods of GENOA against experimental tensile and compression tests provided by USC at varying temperatures.

Imperial College London

Structural Integrity (SI) assessment involves a number of disciplines that exist mainly in Aeronautics, Materials, Mechanical Engineering departments and the Composites Centre at Imperial College London. It is concerned with determining the performance, durability and safety of equipment that is subjected to a range of operating conditions during use. The principal disciplines involved are materials computational modelling, stress analysis, inspection techniques, advanced metallurgical investigations and experimental validation.

The Structural Integrity Group is fully involved with Alphastar Corp. to develop and improved the progressive failure methodologies offered by GENOA. The important research area of collaboration between the two at present is the life assessment predictive methods for metallic components under the creep and creep/fatigue failure mechanisms. Fracture Mechanics concepts and probabilistic methods are developed to produce a robust and safe lifing tool for industry.

Mississippi State University

Mississippi State University's Center for Advanced Vehicular Systems (CAVS) is an interdisciplinary center that provides engineering, research, development and technology transfer teams focused on improved human and payload mobility. CAVS projects generate short-term solutions relevant to regional manufacturers while the research builds longer-term knowledge needed for sustained economic development. At the same time students gain valuable project experience that leverages on their classroom learning. CAVS activities are clustered around material science, manufacturing process analysis and optimization, computational mechanics, computational fluid dynamics, multiscale modeling, multidisciplinary design optimization, human factors and ergonomics, vehicular systems engineering, alternative powered systems, and intelligent electronic systems. These include efforts on new power generation, vehicle weight reduction, improved crashworthiness, crash avoidance, autonomous vehicle control as well as advances in improved diagnostics, manufacturing, human interface, and design technologies. In the area of computational mechanics, CAVS researchers have been collaborating with AlphaSTAR in verification and validation of progressive failure dynamic analysis of composite materials and structures under impact loads, stiffness and strength modeling of nano-enhanced polymer matrix and hybrid multiscale composite materials, as well as design analysis and optimization of automotive structures made of composite materials. AlphaSTAR has supported a major DOE-sponsored research projects at CAVS by making its GENOA suite of software codes available as industry cost-share. Mississippi State University and AlphaSTAR have collaborated in developing joint research and development proposals. A number of graduate students at CAVS have conducted onsite research at AlphaSTAR through several internship programs.