Engineering topics
Publications and source records attributed to Domack, Marcia.
Reducing launch costs is essential to ensuring the success of NASA's visions for planetary exploration and earth science, economical support of the International Space Station, and competitiveness of the U.S. commercial launch industry. Reducing launch vehicle manufacturing cost supports NASA's budget and technology development priorities.
Electron Beam Freeform Fabrication (EBF3) is an additive manufacturing technique, developed at NASA Langley Research Center, capable of fabricating large scale aerospace parts. Advantages of using EBF3 as opposed to conventional manufacturing methods include, decreased design-to-product time, decreased wasted material, and the ability to adapt controls to produce geometrically complex parts with properties comparable to wrought products. However, to fully exploit the potential of the EBF3 process development of materials tailored for the process is required. Powder cored tubular wire (PCTW) technology was used to modify Ti-6Al-4V and Al 6061 feedstock to enhance alloy content, refine grain size, and create a metal matrix composite in the as-solidified structures, respectively.
With the goal of lower cost (simplified manufacturing and lower part count) and higher performance (higher strength to weight alloys) the NASA Technical Maturation Program in 2006 funded a proposal to investigate spin forming of space launch vehicle cryogenic tank domes. The project funding continued under the NASA Exploration Technology Development Program through completion in FY12. The first phase of the project involved spin forming of eight, 1 meter diameter "path finder" domes. Half of these were processed using a concave spin form process (MT Aerospace, Augsburg Germany) and the other half using a convex process (Spincraft, Boston MA). The convex process has been used to produce the Ares Common Bulkhead and the concave process has been used to produce dome caps for the Space Shuttle light weight external tank and domes for the NASDA H2. Aluminum Lithium material was chosen because of its higher strength to weight ratio than the Aluminum 2219 baseline. Aluminum lithium, in order to obtain the desired temper (T8), requires a cold stretch after the solution heat treatment and quench. This requirement favors the concave spin form process which was selected for scale up. This paper describes the results of processing four, 5.5 meter diameter (upper stage scale) net shaped spin formed Aluminum Lithium domes. In order to allow scalability beyond the limits of foundry and rolling mills (about 12 foot width) the circular blank contained one friction stir weld (heavy lifter scales require a flat blank containing two welds). Mechanical properties data (tensile, fracture toughness, stress corrosion, and simulated service testing) for the parent metal and weld will also be discussed.
Delamination fracture has limited the use of lightweight Al-Li alloys. Studies of secondary, delamination cracks in alloy 2090, L-T fracture toughness samples showed grain boundary failure between variants of the brass texture component. Although the adjacent texture variants, designated B(sub s1) and B(sub s2), behave similarly during rolling, their plastic responses to mechanical tests can be quite different. EBSD data from through-thickness scans were used to generate Taylor factor maps. When a combined boundary normal and shear tensor was used in the calculation, the delaminating grains showed the greatest Taylor Factor differences of any grain pairs. Kernel Average Misorientation (KAM) maps also showed damage accumulation on one side of the interface. Both of these are consistent with poor slip accommodation from a crystallographically softer grain to a harder one. Transmission electron microscopy was used to confirm the EBSD observations and to show the role of slip bands in the development of large, interfacial stress concentrations. A viewgraph presentation accompanies the provided abstract.
Recent applications in launch vehicles use 2195 processed to Super Lightweight Tank specifications. Potential benefits exist by tailoring heat treatment and other processing parameters to the application. Assess the potential benefits and advocate application of Al-Li near-net-shape technologies for other launch vehicle structural components. Work with manufacturing and material producers to optimize Al-Li ingot shape and size for enhanced near-net-shape processing. Examine time dependent properties of 2195 critical for reusable applications.
Tensile properties were evaluated for four aluminum alloys that are candidates for airframe applications on high speed transport aircraft. These alloys included the Al-Cu-Mg-Ag alloys C415 and C416 and the Al-Cu-Li-Mg-Ag alloys RX818 and ML377. The Al-Cu-Mg alloys CM001, which was used on the Concorde SST, and 1143, which was modified from the alloy used on the TU144 Russian supersonic aircraft, were tested for comparison. The alloys were subjected to thermal exposure at 200 F, 225 F and 275 F for times up to 30,000 hours. Tensile tests were performed on thermally-exposed and as-received material at -65 F, room temperature, 200 F, 225 F and 275 F. All four candidate alloys showed significant tensile property improvements over CM001 and 1143. Room temperature yield strengths of the candidate alloys were at least 20% greater than for CM001 and 1143, for both the as-received and thermally-exposed conditions. The strength levels of alloy RX818 were the highest of all materials investigated, and were 5-10% higher than for ML377, C415 and C416 for the as-received condition and after 5,000 hours thermal exposure. RX818 was removed from this study after 5,000 hours exposure due to poor fracture toughness performance observed in a parallel study. After 30,000 hours exposure at 200 F and 225 F, the alloys C415, C416 and ML377 showed minor decreases in yield strength, tensile strength and elongation when compared to the as-received properties. Reductions in tensile strength from the as-received values were up to 25% for alloys C415, C416 and ML377 after 15,000 hours exposure at 275 F.
This paper presents viewgraphs on the effects of thermal exposure on the mechanical properties of both developmental and production mature Al-Li alloys. The topics include: 1) Aluminum-Lithium Alloys Composition and Features; 2) Key Characteristics of Al-Li Alloys; 3) Research Approach; 4) Available and Tested Material; and 5) Thermal Exposure Matrix. The alloy temperatures, gage thickness and product forms show that there is no deficit in mechanical properties at lower exposure temperatures in some cases, and a significant deficit in mechanical properties at higher exposure temperatures in all cases.
Aluminum-Lithium (Al-Li) alloys offer significant performance benefits for aerospace structural applications due to their higher specific properties compared with conventional Al alloys. For example, the application of Al-Li alloy 2195 to the space shuffle external cryogenic fuel tank resulted in weight savings of over 7,000 lb, enabling successful deployment of International Space Station components. The composition and heat treatment of 2195 were optimized specifically for strength-toughness considerations for an expendable cryogenic tank. Time-dependent properties related to reliability, such as thermal stability, fatigue, and corrosion, will be of significant interest when materials are evaluated for a reusable cryotank structure. Literature surveys have indicated that there is limited thermal exposure data on Al-Li alloys. The effort reported here was designed to establish the effects of thermal exposure on the mechanical properties and microstructure of Al-Li alloys C458, L277, and 2195 in plate gages. Tensile, fracture toughness, and corrosion resistance were evaluated for both parent metal and friction stir welds (FSW) after exposure to temperatures as high as 300 F for up to 1000 hrs. Microstructural changes were evaluated with thermal exposure in order to correlate with the observed data trends. The ambient temperature parent metal data showed an increase in strength and reduction in elongation after exposure at lower temperatures. Strength reached a peak with intermediate temperature exposure followed by a decrease at highest exposure temperature. Friction stir welds of all alloys showed a drop in elongation with increased length of exposure. Understanding the effect of thermal exposure on the properties and microstructure of Al-Li alloys must be considered in defining service limiting temperatures and exposure times for a reusable cryotank structure.