Towards Data-Driven Modeling and Simulation of Multiphysics Degrading Systems

Recently it is becoming more and more apparent that research and development (R&D) activities in developed economies are driven by motivations asserted by the various stake holders involved in the production and consumption processes. Producers are interested in tailoring R&D processes to drive various economic metrics such as total cost of ownership and return on investment towards their benefit. Consumers are interested in optimized utility-based metrics such as functionality, reusability, safety and maintainability, thus forcing producers to pay attention into building these properties into their R&D products. Furthermore, today’s cradle-to-grave engineering requirements for validated, safe, economic and maximally functional design, flexible manufacturing, qualification, certification, utilization and maintenance of system products have significantly raised the demand for validated, efficient and quick simulation of the behaviour of complex whole systems. In the particularly complex category of degrading systems that exhibit a time-varying behaviour for the large time scale where aging and maintenance are critical, life extension for usability purposes has become a focal area of interest. On the other hand, simulations inherit all of their utility and economic properties from those of the analytical and computational models they are based upon. Research conducted at NRL for the past forty years within the context of the material constitutive behaviour characterization has been both anticipating and exploiting the computational technologies evolution in a manner that is consistent with the previously mentioned motivational drivers.