Office of Naval Research Continues Research Funding

Fatemi’s research on fatigue life prediction for additive-manufactured metallic components in Phase II

Dr. Ali Fatemi, professor and department chair of Mechanical Engineering, was recently awarded $209,824 incremental funding from Materials Resources LLC for Phase II of his STTR project “ICME-based fatigue life prediction for additive manufactured metallic components” with the Office of Naval Research.  The Small Business Tech Transfer Research (STTR) is a federal government program and requires a small business to formally collaborate with a nonprofit research institution to bridge the gap between the performance of basic science and the commercialization of resulting innovations. 

Although the relatively new additive manufacturing processes, otherwise known as 3D printing, offer many advantages in innovative materials and designs, their fatigue performance has been a bottleneck in applications to safety-critical components and structures such as aircraft. Fatemi joined on this project with Materials Resources LLC, a leader in implementing microstructure data science in metal additive manufacturing, to develop robust fatigue life prediction techniques for applications to additive manufactured metallic components. 

STTR projects are highly competitive and consist of three phases. The objective of Phase I is to establish the technical merit, feasibility, and commercial potential of the proposed research efforts.  The objective of Phase II is to continue the research efforts initiated in Phase I. Fatemi’s share of funding for his project in Phases I and II is $450,000. The funding also supports dissertation work of a doctoral student, Matthew Markham. In Phase III, the small business is expected to pursue commercialization objectives resulting from the Phase I/II research activities; however, the STTR program does not fund Phase III.

For more information, contact Fatemi at afatemi@memphis.edu.