The capability of the Additive Manufacturing (AM) for rapid manufacturing of complex-shape and fully functional UAV parts directly in the battlefield, without rough post-processing, is such an exciting possibility that cannot be matched by any traditional manufacturing technologies.
The objective of this funded proposal is to establish a multiphysics computational framework and tool to predict the residual stresses and temperature map in the damaged key-parts of UAVs that are rapidly restored using AM without disassembling the parts from the system.
Although the proposed research will focus on utilizing AM for restoring the damaged parts, it can be also used for on-demand and customized manufacturing of the whole parts directly from the digital blue-prints; thus, the proposed research will enhance the utilization of AM for this purpose too.