DARPA is soliciting innovative proposals to rethink and accelerate distributed additive manufacturing of critical structural parts, by demonstrating an alternative path to the current machine-focused paradigm of part qualification in additive manufacturing.
SURGE will develop methods to predict part life directly from data collected during additive manufacturing (AM) in a way that is transferable across disparate machines, materials, locations, and geometries. It will explore the convergence of in-situ sensing technologies, process modeling, and microstructure-based fatigue life methods to predict the life of additively manufactured metallic parts in real time. Predictions will be backed by extensive experimental validation demonstrating a new paradigm for efficient part qualification.
Projects will be structured with 2 phases:
Phase 1 – Base – 24 months – fundamental method development and experimental validation
Phase 2 – Option – 24 months – application of developed methods to complex parts, demonstration of transferability, stakeholder transition.
Abstracts (encouraged but not required) are due 9 May 2024, with full proposals due 1 July 2024.
Document
Broad Agency Announcement – SURGE: HR001124S0018
