Hill Engineering Blog

Prime Room Ribbon Cutting

by Adrian DeWald

Hill Engineering’s new facility in Rancho Cordova, CA features a combination of laboratory, research and development, and office space. We have proudly named the primary conference room in our facility the Prime Room, a fitting tribute to a special Hill Engineering collaborator, the inventor of the contour method, and inspirational figure, Mike Prime. We were recently honored to have Mike Prime stop by for a ribbon cutting ceremony celebrating the opening of the Prime Room. Continue reading Prime Room Ribbon Cutting

Engineered Residual Stress Implementation workshop

by Adrian DeWald

Hill Engineering is proud to support the USAF and their objective to advance damage tolerance analysis methods through the Engineered Residual Stress Implementation (ERSI) workshop. At the most recent ERSI meeting, Hill Engineering met with other stakeholders in the USAF aircraft community to review progress over the past year towards implementation of engineered residual stress in the USAF fleet. Continue reading Engineered Residual Stress Implementation workshop

Fatigue crack growth rate data fitting

by Adrian DeWald

Hill Engineering is presenting about material data and fitting processes for fatigue property assessment at the AFGROW Users Workshop 2017 in Layton, UT. The purpose of the workshop is to provide a forum for users to share ideas, demonstrate how AFGROW is being used for practical cases, and discuss future development. Hill Engineering’s presentation will include a summary of a structured material fitting process and how the fit to the fatigue crack growth property data can affect fatigue analysis results. If you are in Layton for the meeting, please feel free to make an appointment to stop by Hill Engineering’s new office. The abstract text is presented below. Continue reading Fatigue crack growth rate data fitting

AFGROW Users Workshop – The Future of BAMF

by Adrian DeWald

Hill Engineering is presenting about fatigue analysis at the upcoming AFGROW Users Workshop 2017 in Layton, UT (home of Hill Engineering’s new office). The purpose of the workshop is to provide a forum for users to share ideas, demonstrate how AFGROW is being used for practical cases, and discuss future development. Hill Engineering’s presentation will include a summary of the BAMF software and how it is used to support fatigue crack growth analysis. The abstract text is presented below. Continue reading AFGROW Users Workshop – The Future of BAMF

ERS-toolbox® at AFGROW Users Workshop

by Adrian DeWald

Hill Engineering is presenting an overview of our ERS-toolbox® software at the upcoming AFGROW Users Workshop 2017 in Layton, UT. The purpose of the workshop is to provide a forum for users to share ideas, demonstrate how AFGROW is being used for practical cases, and discuss future development. Hill Engineering’s presentation will include an overview of past work where ERS-toolbox® was used to support development of laser peening surface treatments to enhance performance of materials using compressive residual stress. The abstract text is presented below. Continue reading ERS-toolbox® at AFGROW Users Workshop

International Conference on Shot Peening

by Michael Hill

Hill Engineering is delivering a keynote presentation about the measurement of residual stresses near the surface of peened metals at the upcoming 13th International Conference on Shot Peening (ICSP-13) in Montreal, Canada. The purpose of this conference is to foster exchanges between academic and industrial scientists on processes inducing beneficial residual stress, as well as their effects, with an emphasis on traditional shot peening. Processes like deep rolling, laser peening, ultrasonic peening, cavitation peening, flapper peening and needle peening also fit within the conference’s scope. Hill Engineering’s presentation will include a summary of recent work demonstrating the use of measurements to quantify the near surface residual stress state and to understand its impact on material performance. The abstract text is presented below. Continue reading International Conference on Shot Peening

Evolution of USAF Damage Tolerance design philosophy

by Robert Pilarczyk

In the early days of aviation, the concept of fatigue life was not a prime consideration in design. Aircraft did not typically have a long service life and were designed based on ultimate strength. Early aircraft failures occurred due to component/system failures, combat damage, and pilot error. Aircraft did not typically last long enough for fatigue to become an issue. As the design of aircraft became more sophisticated and pilot skill increased, aircraft began to last longer and fatigue became a critical concern. Continue reading Evolution of USAF Damage Tolerance design philosophy

Happy birthday to the contour method

by Adrian DeWald

Today marks a major milestone in the field of residual stress measurement. The contour method, one of the most useful and advanced residual stress measurement techniques, was first successfully implemented on this date (August 16th) in 1999 by Mike Prime at Los Alamos National Laboratory. The most significant feature of the contour method is its ability to generate detailed two-dimensional residual stress maps like the one shown below. Please join us in wishing the contour method a very happy 18th birthday! Continue reading Happy birthday to the contour method

Tensile test

by Adrian DeWald

A tensile test is a standard method used by material scientists and engineers to determine important material strength and ductility properties. For example, tensile tests can be used to measure the yield strength of a material, which is defined as the stress at which a material begins to deform plastically. Hill Engineering has ample experience performing tensile tests, and other mechanical property tests, in pursuit of our passion to maximize the potential of materials.

Lincoln Award

by Adrian DeWald

The Lincoln Award is named in honor of Dr. John W. (Jack) Lincoln, the U.S. Air Force’s first Technical Advisor for Aircraft Structural Integrity. An internationally recognized expert in structural integrity, fatigue analysis, and aviation safety, Dr. Lincoln is credited with developing the Aircraft Structural Integrity Program (ASIP) that is now institutionalized throughout the Air Force and recognized worldwide as the foundation for aircraft structural safety. Continue reading Lincoln Award