Aerospace Structural Integrity Research
Applied research to advance how aerospace structures are understood and engineered
Fidelis Aerospace conducts and supports applied research where better mechanics, models, methods, software, or evidence can improve the design, analysis, qualification, durability, fracture resistance, or sustainment of aerospace hardware.
Research is one distinct way Fidelis practices structural integrity engineering. Unlike Services, which apply established methods to current hardware decisions, or Consulting & Advisory, which applies senior judgment to decisions and evidence, Research focuses on capability creation: developing or validating an approach that can eventually make difficult structural decisions more reliable, more explainable, or more achievable.
When research is the right path
- Established engineering methods do not adequately represent the material, manufacturing process, defect population, loading, scale, or failure mechanism that governs the hardware.
- A promising computational or analytical method exists but needs implementation, verification, validation, calibration, or demonstration before it can support engineering decisions.
- A new material, process, architecture, or structural concept lacks a mature structural integrity basis for fatigue, fracture, durability, or damage tolerance.
- A research program needs an experienced structural integrity contributor who can connect mechanics, computation, experiment, and eventual engineering use.
- The objective is to create reusable capability—a method, model, workflow, data interpretation approach, or software prototype—rather than solve only one immediate calculation.
Research capabilities and technical directions
Fatigue and fracture method development
Develop, implement, compare, and evaluate methods for fatigue damage, crack initiation, fatigue crack growth, fracture, residual strength, damage tolerance, life prediction, and uncertainty where existing practice needs additional resolution.
Computational fracture and damage mechanics
Investigate and mature computational approaches for crack initiation and propagation, including higher-fidelity finite element methods and, where appropriate to the research question, extended finite element, phase-field, peridynamic, or other damage-mechanics formulations. Methods under development should be identified explicitly as research rather than production capability.
Additive manufacturing structural integrity
Study how defects, porosity, lack of fusion, surface condition, residual stress, anisotropy, microstructure, process variability, and post-processing affect fatigue, fracture, durability, and qualification-relevant structural behavior of additively manufactured aerospace metals.
Multiscale and microstructure-informed modeling
Connect microstructure, local fields, defects, constitutive response, and structural-scale behavior when continuum properties alone do not explain the observed fatigue or fracture response.
Verification, validation, and test-analysis correlation
Design verification cases, sensitivity studies, benchmarks, experiments, and correlation strategies that establish what a new model or method can predict, where it is reliable, and where its limitations remain.
Research software and engineering method prototypes
Develop computational prototypes, automation, data-processing workflows, or engineering tools that make a research method testable and repeatable before any decision is made about broader software commercialization or operational deployment.
How Fidelis can participate
Sponsored or contract research
Execute a defined structural integrity research work package for a client or research performer, including literature synthesis, method development, computational studies, validation planning, technical documentation, and transition recommendations.
Collaborative R&D
Contribute structural integrity expertise to multi-organization research efforts where another partner provides complementary materials, manufacturing, testing, sensing, software, or domain capability.
Research program technical support
Support R&D awardees, IRAD teams, and technology developers with structural mechanics, fatigue, fracture, computational modeling, method verification, test planning, and technical review tied to the research objective.
Method maturation and transition
Help move a promising research result toward engineering use by defining applicability, verification evidence, validation needs, sensitivity, uncertainty, workflow, documentation, and the boundary between a research result and a decision-ready engineering method.
Research remains anchored in structural integrity
Fidelis should not present itself as a general materials, manufacturing, software, or academic research organization. Research is pursued where it strengthens the ability to design, analyze, substantiate, qualify, understand, or sustain aerospace structures. Materials, manufacturing, computation, and experiment are brought into the work because they affect structural integrity.
Information commonly needed
- The research question, desired capability, and why current engineering practice is insufficient.
- Relevant hardware, materials, manufacturing process, loading, environment, scale, and failure mechanism.
- Existing literature, models, code, test data, material data, benchmarks, and prior program evidence.
- Expected research outputs, validation level, publication or data-rights constraints, transition target, schedule, and funding context.
Potential outputs
Research outputs may include literature and state-of-practice reviews, mathematical or computational method definitions, verified code prototypes, benchmark problems, parametric studies, sensitivity and uncertainty assessments, validation plans, analysis-test correlation, technical reports, conference or journal manuscripts where appropriate, research datasets, documented workflows, and recommendations for transition into engineering practice. Outputs are scoped to the research objective and applicable data-rights requirements.
Working on a structural integrity problem that established methods do not fully answer?
Describe the research question, the capability gap, the evidence available today, and what a successful result would make possible. Fidelis can help determine whether the work fits an applied research, method-development, validation, or collaborative R&D scope.
Frequently Asked Questions
How is Fidelis research different from normal engineering analysis?
Normal engineering analysis applies methods with a sufficiently established basis to support a current hardware decision. Research is appropriate when the method, model, evidence, or capability itself must be developed, tested, compared, or validated before it can be relied upon in the same way.
What research areas are the closest fit for Fidelis?
The strongest fit is structural integrity research connected to fatigue, fracture, damage mechanics, computational mechanics, additive manufacturing, defects, residual stress, multiscale behavior, and verification or validation of engineering methods. Adjacent materials or manufacturing work should be included only when it directly affects structural integrity.
Can Fidelis collaborate on government-funded or internally funded R&D?
Yes, when the scope is compatible with current capability, contracting requirements, data handling, export-control constraints, and availability. Fidelis can participate as a structural integrity contributor to client-funded research, collaborative programs, or work packages led by another organization.
Does the Research page mean every listed method is a production engineering capability today?
No. The page should explicitly distinguish mature methods from research directions and methods under development. Exploratory approaches such as advanced crack-propagation or multiscale formulations should not be represented as validated production capability until the required verification and evidence exist.