Date: Jan 15, 2010 Source: ARMY SBIR Success Stories (
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Until now, Army vehicle component durability forecasting has been limited to oversimplification of the true manufactured material responses to stress. For instance, when predicting durability for an Army fleet of thousands of units, no two vehicles are operated in exactly the same way or under the same conditions. Many Army vehicles being operated today in extreme environmental conditions in Iraq and Afghanistan were originally designed and tested for operations in Western Europe.
These two very different operational environments impose extremes in mission severity, operating conditions, and maintenance requirements, and ultimately, create extreme durability variations in the Army's fleet.
VEXTEC's Virtual Twin simulator addresses this issue by creating a 3-D digital recreation of microstructural grain arrangements for every single critical component in a manufactured fleet. Therefore, when a commander moves a 100,000 unit fleet from the forests and highways of Europe to the deserts of Iraq or the mountains of Afghanistan, the Virtual Twin simulator can be exercised to evaluate the physics change impacting the 100 million grains that make up each unit for all 100,000 units in the fleet.
VEXTEC can complete this analysis within a few hours of computational processing, whereas current methods of analysis based on physical testing and data collection could take months, if not years, assuming they could be completed at all.
Having this knowledge in a timely manner could enhance the way fleet logistics are managed, and also provide a tool for assessing the priorities for future Army R&D investment for optimum budget allocation.
Phase III Impacts
VEXTEC was awarded $500K in U.S. Army Commercial Pilot Program funding to demonstrate a proof of concept VLM simulator for the Army Tactical Truck program. Sales to the private sector are over $620K.
