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ICMD® Fatigue Toolkit: A Game Changer in Material Design

Introduction

QuesTek Innovations has announced the launch of a groundbreaking Fatigue Toolkit as a part of its ICMD® materials design and engineering platform. This innovative feature enhances the platform's ability to predict fatigue life based on various factors including material properties, microstructure, and loading conditions. Utilizing a physics-based modeling approach, the toolkit marks a major advancement in fatigue analysis, promising improved prediction accuracy and greater engineering efficiency.

Enhanced Prediction Methods

Traditional fatigue analysis often relies on empirical data fitting, which inherently limits predictive capabilities and necessitates large safety factors. QuesTek's new toolkit overcomes these challenges by integrating mechanistic models that focus on microstructure. This enables engineers to accurately forecast crack initiation and small crack growth, particularly critical in high-cycle fatigue contexts. By prioritizing the microstructural characteristics, the toolkit minimizes dependence on conservative safety margins, thus promoting safer and more cost-efficient engineering strategies.

Addressing Industry Demands

The Fatigue Toolkit has already been successfully employed across various industry applications, transforming how companies approach material selection and supplier qualification. Its capabilities have been instrumental in:

• - Conducting Material Selection Trade Studies in aerospace, which assess high-cycle fatigue performance among different alloys.
• - Supplier Qualification Optimization by providing OEMs with detailed qualification requirements that account for microstructural influences. This leads to reduced variability from suppliers and strengthens the supply chain.
• - Engaging in Accelerated Qualification for Additive Manufacturing, particularly in a collaboration with the Air Force Research Laboratory. This has notably cut down the required testing time from years to months and decreased costs by up to $2 million through significantly reduced experiments.

Key Features of the Fatigue Toolkit

The ICMD® Fatigue Toolkit is equipped with a suite of state-of-the-art features that give engineers a competitive edge in material performance assessment:

• - 3D Digital Microstructure Generation: This feature creates a statistical digital twin representing grain size, orientation, morphology, and porosity.
• - Material Model Calibration: Allows customization of plasticity models using cyclic stress-strain data.
• - Customizable Loading Scenarios: Supports a variety of strain states and fatigue cycles, accommodating both multi-axial and uniaxial scenarios.
• - Multi-Stage Fatigue Prediction: Tracks life stages from crack incubation to long crack growth, offering comprehensive fatigue life predictions.
• - Streamlined CPFEM Integration: Enhances computational efficiency in fatigue simulations based on physics.
• - Component-Scale Fatigue Analysis: Works with finite element simulations to provide real-world predictions.

Seamless Integration with Alloy Design

Beyond static material property analysis, the Fatigue Toolkit extends ICMD®’s functionalities to predict fatigue life directly from alloy compositions and processing conditions. It features verified models for critical engineering alloys including nickel-based superalloys, titanium alloys, high-strength aluminum, and martensitic steels. This integration facilitates a quicker and more efficient design process while ensuring reliability.

Commitment to Data Security

In an era where data security is paramount, QuesTek ensures that its innovative research is protected. The ICMD® platform adheres to rigorous security standards, being ISO 27001 and SOC 1 certified. Advanced encryption policies safeguard proprietary information, allowing researchers to focus on advancing material science without concerns about data breaches.

About QuesTek Innovations

As a pioneer in the field of materials design, QuesTek offers its Materials by Design® and ICMD® technologies aimed at expediting the development timeline and reducing costs for novel materials. It stands out as the only provider in the market capable of executing the entire cycle from concept to certification and operational use, outpacing traditional methodologies in both speed and cost-efficiency.

For inquiries about QuesTek or the ICMD® Fatigue Toolkit, contact Andrea Metzler at [email protected] or call (847) 328-5800.