Composites Affordability Initative Test Database Opens Information Flood Gates

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The Composites Affordability Initiative (CAI) team consisting of the Air Force Research Laboratory's Materials and Manufacturing Directorate and Air Vehicles Directorate, the Navy's Office of Naval Research, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman, has developed a relational database to archive all test data and make the data accessible to all team members for current and future use.

The CAI Test Database will provide company designers, engineers, and weapon system program offices with the data they require to consider introducing advanced technologies into future and current weapon systems. The database is expected to minimize the financial burden of testing required to implement a new technology as well as reduce the risk and accelerate the transition.

The vast majority of composites development and demonstration efforts develop data to support the technology transition. This data is critical to support the transition and is often only shared between the contractor and weapon system program office and goes no further. Programs that have been most successful have organized their data so that it could be used to support additional transition opportunities. In consideration of the large CAI team, it was imperative that data be generated that could be trusted by all of the organizations and that this data be available to aid in current and future technology transition opportunities and reduce the duplication of testing.

To accomplish this task the participants first came to an agreement on the test standards that would be followed. For the first time, the entire industrial base of aerospace primes as well as the Air Force and the Navy agreed to a single set of testing standards which was used to validate the performance of composite structures created with new materials and processes.

The CAI Test Database contains mechanical property test data that is traceable back to the process that produced it, including processing parameters used as well as the material and its integrity. This interrelationship between materials, processes and performance produces a legacy of data that elevates the integrity of the data and facilitates the transition of materials and processes.

The first 18 months of CAI generated data for more than 7,000 tests. Data from full-scale development projects that have resulted in transition to real systems such as the F-35, and continuing technology maturation efforts are continuing to be added to the database. These data offer the potential to minimize testing supporting additional technology transition opportunities.

If you would like further information regarding this Success Story, please email our Technical Information and Support Center (TISC) at techinfo@afrl.af.mil, or call them at (937) 255-4689.

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