What Boeing Wants from Integrated Computational Materials Engineering for Metallic Materials

Abstract

The steady increase in computing power and the recognition that computational models operating at different scales may begin to be combined into meso-models of materials behavior has produced a new discipline: Integrated Computational Materials Engineering (ICME). Formal recognition of this discipline has spurred research to develop and populate effective models, as well as the commercialization of codes to facilitate research and problem-solving. For research organizations, and for companies marketing commercial software platforms, guidance as to desirable model and code capabilities is critical to creation of a product that is useful and addresses problems of commercial importance. For industry, this means that ICME tools need to account for existing materials and processes, as well as those that are new and innovative. This paper examines ICME from the inside of an airframe materials organization, to clarify aspects of ICME methods and products that would be desirable for an original equipment manufacturer. This includes short-term benefits, such as assessing the impacts of process deviations, to the mid-term, such as estimation of material design allowables, to long-term benefits—the design of the next generation of airframe structural materials. The airframe industry is appropriately riskadverse, and replacement of experiential with computational methods represents a challenge that must be balanced by the creation of benefit that the ICME discipline promises. The intent of this paper is to communicate these benefits and challenges, in hopes of spurring discussion and the maturation of effective materials design tools to rival those in the structural disciplines.