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Introduction

WORKSHOP OVERVIEW AND ORGANIZATION OF THE PROCEEDINGS

The Defense Materials Manufacturing and Infrastructure (DMMI) standing and planning committee convened a workshop on May 19-20, 2016, to discuss the value of collaboration between the materials and civil engineering communities in addressing the following problem: People and equipment are continuously monitored through multiple organizations and instruments, but the physical infrastructure where they live, train, and deploy receives little attention until it fails or is shown to be inadequate.

The DMMI standing committee is organized under the auspices of the National Materials and Manufacturing Board of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and with the sponsorship of Reliance 21, a group of professionals that was established in the Department of Defense (DoD) sciences and technology community to increase awareness of DoD science and technology activities and improve coordination among DoD services, components, and agencies.

To conduct this workshop on service life assessment and predictive modeling for an aging critical infrastructure, the DMMI standing committee organized a workshop planning committee to identify workshop topics, agenda items, speakers, and guests. The planning committee also consulted with Reliance 21 and members of the community to develop and organize the workshop. The workshop was held at the Keck Center of the National Academies. Approximately 40 people, including speakers, members of the DMMI standing committee, Reliance 21, invited guests, and members of the public, participated in the 2-day workshop.

The workshop was organized into three sessions: (1) highway infrastructure, (2) waterways infrastructure, and (3) railways infrastructure. Within these three sessions, individual speakers gave presentations on technical, functional, and economic paradigms and answered questions from workshop participants. Following these sessions, a panel discussion was held to discuss existing gaps as well as ways to overcome challenges. It should be pointed out that this workshop not only discussed service life prediction but also focused on assessment techniques, something that can produce data to further improve predictions.

This proceedings has been prepared by a workshop rapporteur as a factual summary of the presentations and discussions during the workshop. Appendix A contains the statement of task for the workshop, Appendix B lists the workshop participants, and Appendix C contains the workshop agenda. The planning committee’s role was limited to planning and convening the workshop. The views contained in this proceedings are those of individual workshop participants and do not necessarily represent the views of the workshop participants as a whole, the planning committee, or the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

OPENING REMARKS AND WORKSHOP OBJECTIVES

Michael McGrath, McGrath Analytics, LLC, and chair of the DMMI standing committee, welcomed participants to the Workshop on Service Life Assessment and Predictive Modeling for an Aging Critical Infrastructure. McGrath noted that prior workshops in this particular series published reports, and these reports are available for download from the National Academies Press. These reports focused on such topics as materials and manufacturing capabilities for sustaining defense systems,¹ novel processes for advanced manufacturing,² big data in materials research and development,³ limited affordable low-volume manufacturing,⁴ materials state awareness,⁵ lightweighting through materials,⁶ paradigm change in performance

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¹ National Research Council (NRC), 2013, Materials and Manufacturing Capabilities for Sustaining Defense Systems: A Summary of a Workshop, The National Academies Press, Washington, D.C.

² NRC, 2013, Novel Processes for Advanced Manufacturing: A Summary of a Workshop, The National Academies Press, Washington, D.C.

³ NRC, 2014, Big Data in Materials Research and Development: A Summary of a Workshop, The National Academies Press, Washington, D.C.

⁴ NRC, 2014, Limited Affordable Low-Volume Manufacturing: A Summary of a Workshop, The National Academies Press, Washington, D.C.

⁵ National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), 2015, Applying Materials State Awareness to Condition-Based Maintenance and System Life Cycle Management: A Summary of a Workshop, The National Academies Press, Washington, D.C.

⁶ NASEM, 2018, Combat Vehicle Weight Reduction by Materials Substitution: Proceedings of a Workshop, The National Academies Press, Washington, D.C.

and design metrics,⁷ and high-entropy materials, ultra-strong molecules, and nanoelectronics (forthcoming).

McGrath introduced the chairs of the workshop planning committee: General Paul Kern, The Cohen Group, and Jesus de la Garza, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Kern noted that the goal of the workshop was to discuss how to assess, model, and consider life cycle projections for infrastructure in the coming years. He explained that civilian infrastructure investment is crucial in order to sustain defense operations. After presentations and discussions related to highway, waterway, and railway infrastructures, Kern said that a panel would look toward the future to discuss how to model, measure, and prepare for future security requirements.

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⁷ NASEM, 2019, 21st Century Paradigm Change in Performance and Design Metrics: Proceedings of a Workshop, The National Academies Press, Washington, D.C.