Computer simulations for the prediction of microstructure/property variation in aeroturbine disks

In support of a new methodology of accelerated development and qualification of new materials, the PrecipiCalc™ software has been developed as an efficient, high-fidelity 3D multiphase precipitation simulator grounded in computational thermodynamics and multi-component diffusional nucleation and growth models incorporating interfacial dissipations. With extensive validation under a major federally sponsored program, the software has been successfully applied to the accurate and rapid simulation of multiscale (from nm to μm), multi-modal γ′ microstructure development in IN100 Ni-based aeroturbine disk alloys under complex commercial heat-treatment processing. Integration of PrecipiCalc with FEM heat transfer simulation and a strength model has demonstrated accurate prediction of property variation for accelerated process optimization and probabilistic modeling of design minimum properties.