A -- AFOSR SPECIAL BROAD AGENCY ANNOUNCEMENT AFOSR BAA 2001-4 -- - MATERIALS ENGINEERING FOR AFFORDABLE NEW SYSTEMS (MEANS).

Notice Date

April 9, 2001

Contracting Office

Department of the Air Force, Air Force Materiel Command, AFOSR -- Air Force Office of Scientific Research, 801 N. Randolph St, Arlington, VA, 22203-1977

ZIP Code

22203-1977

Solicitation Number

AFOSR-BAA-2001-4

Response Due

June 1, 2001

Point of Contact

Harry Haraldsen, Chief Policy & Support Division (Location Adminstrator), Phone 703.696.5994, Fax 703.696.9733, Email

E-Mail Address

Harry Haraldsen (harry.haraldsen@afosr.af.mil)

Description

Over the last twenty years, developments in computer-aided design and manufacturing have dramatically reduced the product cycle time from initial concept to finished component. Unfortunately, progress in the development of materials and processes that optimize the performance and life expectancy of components has not kept pace with these developments. Currently, the interface between engineering design and materials science and engineering consists of a collection of empirically developed and verified material property databases obtained by ad hoc experiments. Recent developments in materials modeling and computation hold the promise of providing a critical link in the concurrent design of materials and processes. Development of computer simulation techniques that describe material properties in various regimes of length and time from nanometers and picoseconds through centimeters and years can reduce the domain of experiments that must be performed to qualify materials for use. The current challenge resides in the fusion of materials modeling and computational tools into a continuous spectrum that begins with ab initio principles and, complemented by selective experimentation, provides a seamless interface with databases required for current engineering design applications. Techniques for uncertainty modeling, lifetime assessment and prediction must accompany this development as an integral part of the overall design strategy. Now is the time for an interdisciplinary effort to exploit present computational capabilities by developing physics-based modeling techniques that are capable of closing the gaps between the regimes that separate both the time and size scale domains and selectively using experiments to verify the accuracy of predictions. This program envisions the development of generic techniques for coupling ab initio calculations of thermodynamic, structural and kinetic properties of materials with models of microstructural entities that determine macroscopic behavior, concepts that link microscale and mesoscale models with continuum descriptions of material behavior and techniques that employ these descriptions to calculate properties of materials in a format that can be integrated into engineering design software. Uncertainty modeling leading to lifetime prediction and assessment models will accompany this development. Modeling at all levels will be accompanied by critical experiments designed to verify analytical predictions and techniques for estimating the reliability and scatter of the computed properties. Emphasis throughout will be on the reduction of empiricism and ad hoc assumptions and the compatibility of each model with those for adjacent length and time scales. Principal goals of this effort are to develop improved structural materials, design methodologies and manufacturing processes by combining experimental and modeling tools from the atomic scale, through the meso scale, and up to the system scale while simultaneously controlling or predicting material reliability issues related to performance. See Numbered Note 26.

Web Link

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Record

Loren Data Corp. 20010411/ASOL007.HTM (D-099 SN50I6T4)