DARPA awards university team grant to develop AI-powered turbines

Revolutionizing aerospace engineering: DARPA has awarded a multi-university team a grant to develop AI-enhanced design tools and high-throughput testing methods for next-generation turbomachinery, with a focus on bladed disk (blisk) geometry.

Project overview and objectives: The Multiobjective Engineering and Testing of Alloy Structures (METALS) program brings together researchers from MIT, Carnegie Mellon University, and Lehigh University to optimize shape and compositional gradients in multi-material structures.

• The project aims to develop novel design tools that complement new high-throughput materials testing techniques.
• Researchers will focus on blisk geometry, commonly found in turbomachinery such as jet and rocket engines, as an exemplary challenge problem.
• The team seeks to enable more reliable, reusable rocket engines for the next generation of heavy-lift launch vehicles.

Innovative approach to material design: The project merges classical mechanics analyses with cutting-edge generative AI design technologies to overcome limitations of traditional manufacturing and design procedures.

• Current methods often require a single material to meet “one part-one material” constraints, leading to inefficient design tradeoffs and compromises.
• The team aims to leverage advancements in additive manufacturing processes that enable voxel-based composition and property control.
• This approach allows for optimizing different locations in blisks with varying thermomechanical properties and performance requirements.

Collaborative expertise: The multi-university team brings together a diverse range of expertise to tackle the complex challenges of the METALS program.

• The project is led by Zachary Cordero, the Esther and Harold E. Edgerton Associate Professor in MIT’s Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
• Collaborators include experts in hybrid integrated computational material engineering, machine learning-based material and process design, precision instrumentation, metrology, topology optimization, deep generative modeling, additive manufacturing, materials characterization, thermostructural analysis, and turbomachinery.

Potential impact and implications: The research could have far-reaching consequences for aerospace technologies and beyond.

• Insights from the project may enable the development of more reliable and reusable rocket engines for heavy-lift launch vehicles.
• The team’s work could unlock the plastic reserve of compositionally graded alloys, allowing for safe operation in previously inaccessible conditions.
• The project’s outcomes may have applications beyond aerospace, potentially influencing various industries that rely on advanced materials and manufacturing techniques.

Challenges and opportunities: The METALS program addresses several key challenges in the field of materials engineering and design for aerospace applications.

• Different locations in blisks require varying thermomechanical properties and performance characteristics, such as resistance to creep, low cycle fatigue, and high strength.
• Large-scale production necessitates consideration of cost and sustainability metrics, including sourcing and recycling of alloys in the design process.
• The rapid advancement of additive manufacturing processes offers unique opportunities for leap-ahead performance in structural components.

Educational impact: The project provides valuable learning opportunities for graduate students and postdoctoral researchers involved in the METALS program.

• Students and researchers will gain hands-on experience in developing new computational approaches and building test rigs operating under extreme conditions.
• The project offers a unique opportunity to contribute to breakthrough capabilities that could underlie future propulsion systems.

Funding and disclaimer: The research is funded by DARPA under contract HR00112420303, with the views and opinions expressed being those of the authors and not necessarily representing official policies of the Department of Defense or the U.S. government.

Looking ahead: As the METALS program progresses, it has the potential to reshape the landscape of aerospace engineering and materials science.

• The integration of AI-enhanced design tools with advanced manufacturing techniques could lead to more efficient and capable aerospace components.
• The project’s focus on optimizing multi-material structures may pave the way for new design paradigms across various engineering disciplines.
• Future research may build upon the insights gained from this project to further push the boundaries of materials engineering and propulsion system design.