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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 217 records · Page 12
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2023

The DNA glycosylase NEIL2 is protective during SARS-CoV-2 infection

SARS-CoV-2 infection-induced aggravation of host innate immune response not only causes tissue damage and multiorgan failure in COVID-19 patients but also induces host genome damage and activates DNA damage response pathways. To test whether the compromised DNA repair capacity of individuals modulates the severity of COVID-19 infection, we analyze DNA repair gene expression in publicly available patient datasets and observe a lower level of the DNA glycosylase NEIL2 in the lungs of severely infected COVID-19 patients. This observation of lower NEIL2 levels is further validated in infected patients, hamsters and ACE2 receptor-expressing human A549 (A549-ACE2) cells. Furthermore, delivery of recombinant NEIL2 in A549-ACE2 cells shows decreased expression of proinflammatory genes and viral E-gene, as well as lowers the yield of viral progeny compared to mock-treated cells. Mechanistically, NEIL2 cooperatively binds to the 5’-UTR of SARS-CoV-2 genomic RNA to block viral protein synthesis. Collectively, these data strongly suggest that the maintenance of basal NEIL2 levels is critical for the protective response of hosts to viral infection and disease.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
NASA NTRS1990

An apparatus for bearing-bypass testing of bolted joints

A dual-control test system measuring the strength of graphite/epoxy specimens under tension and compression for a wide range of bearing-bypass load ratios is presented. The bearing-bypass strengths of single-fastener specimens are measured for damage onset and ultimate failure and are plotted against one another. The results indicate that an initiated damage grows to failure in the same mode for most cases. However, if the damage is initiated in the compression-reacted-bearing mode, the specimens fail in the offset-compression mode. It is concluded that this type of transition can occur in multi-fastener joints under compression and complicate the strength predictions.

Crews, J. H., Jr.↗
NASA NTRS2011

Continuum Damage Mechanics Models for the Analysis of Progressive Failure in Open-Hole Tension Laminates

The performance of a state-of-the-art continuum damage mechanics model for interlaminar damage, coupled with a cohesive zone model for delamination is examined for failure prediction of quasi-isotropic open-hole tension laminates. Limitations of continuum representations of intra-ply damage and the effect of mesh orientation on the analysis predictions are discussed. It is shown that accurate prediction of matrix crack paths and stress redistribution after cracking requires a mesh aligned with the fiber orientation. Based on these results, an aligned mesh is proposed for analysis of the open-hole tension specimens consisting of different meshes within the individual plies, such that the element edges are aligned with the ply fiber direction. The modeling approach is assessed by comparison of analysis predictions to experimental data for specimen configurations in which failure is dominated by complex interactions between matrix cracks and delaminations. It is shown that the different failure mechanisms observed in the tests are well predicted. In addition, the modeling approach is demonstrated to predict proper trends in the effect of scaling on strength and failure mechanisms of quasi-isotropic open-hole tension laminates.

Song, Kyonchan↗
NASA NTRS1989

Mechanisms controlling fatigue damage development in continuous fiber reinforced metal matrix composites

Damage in continuous fiber reinforced metal matrix composite materials can be quite complex since there are a number of different constituents (fiber, matrix, and the fiber/matrix interface) that can fail. Multidirectional lay-ups have an even greater number of possible damage orientations and mechanisms. Based on the simplifying assumption of equivalent constituent strain states in the absence of damage, a strain based failure criteria may be applied to determine when and where initial damage will occur. Based on the relative strain to fatigue failure of the fiber and matrix, the possible damage mechanisms of an MMC can be grouped into three categories: (1) matrix dominated, (2) fiber dominated, and (3) self-similar damage growth. A fourth type of damage development, fiber/matrix interface failure, is dependent on the relative strength of the fiber/matrix interface and the matrix yield strength. These four types of damage are discussed and illustrated by examples.

Johnson, W. S.↗
NASA NTRS2016

Ultrasonic Nondestructive Evaluation of Pultruded Rod Stitched Efficient Unitized Structure (PRSEUS) During Large-Scale Load Testing and Rod Push-Out Testing

The Pultruded Rod Stitched Efficient Unitized Structure (PRSEUS) is a structural concept developed by the Boeing Company to address the complex structural design aspects associated with a pressurized hybrid wing body (HWB) aircraft configuration. The HWB has long been a focus of NASA's environmentally responsible aviation (ERA) project, following a building block approach to structures development, culminating with the testing of a nearly full-scale multi-bay box (MBB), representing a segment of the pressurized, non-circular fuselage portion of the HWB. PRSEUS is an integral structural concept wherein skins, frames, stringers and tear straps made of variable number of layers of dry warp-knit carbon-fiber stacks are stitched together, then resin-infused and cured in an out-of-autoclave process. The PRSEUS concept has the potential for reducing the weight and cost and increasing the structural efficiency of transport aircraft structures. A key feature of PRSEUS is the damage-arresting nature of the stitches, which enables the use of fail-safe design principles. During the load testing of the MBB, ultrasonic nondestructive evaluation (NDE) was used to monitor several sites of intentional barely-visible impact damage (BVID) as well as to survey the areas surrounding the failure cracks after final loading to catastrophic failure. The damage-arresting ability of PRSEUS was confirmed by the results of NDE. In parallel with the large-scale structural testing of the MBB, mechanical tests were conducted of the PRSEUS rod-to-overwrap bonds, as measured by pushing the rod axially from a short length of stringer.

Johnston, Patrick H.↗
NASA NTRS2015

Impact Behavior of Composite Fan Blade Leading Edge Subcomponent with Thermoplastic Polyurethane Interleave

Impact damage tolerance and damage resistance is a critical metric for application of polymer matrix composites where failure caused by impact damage could compromise structural performance and safety. As a result, several materials and/or design approaches to improve impact damage tolerance have been investigated over the past several decades. Many composite toughening methodologies impart a trade-off between increased fracture toughness and compromised in-plane strength and modulus. In large part, mechanical tests to evaluate composite damage tolerance include static methods such as Mode I, Mode II, and mixed mode failures. However, ballistic impact damage resistance does not always correlate with static properties. The intent of this paper is to evaluate the influence of a thermoplastic polyurethane veil interleave on the static and dynamic performance of composite test articles. Static coupon tests included tension, compression, double cantilever beam, and end notch flexure. Measurement of the resistance to ballistic impact damage were made to evaluate the composites response to high speed impact. The interlayer material showed a decrease of in-plane performance with only a moderate improvement to Mode I and Mode II fracture toughness. However, significant benefit to impact damage tolerance was observed through ballistic tests.

Damage Tolerance↗
NASA NTRS2001

Global Failure Modes in Composite Structures

Composite materials provide well-known advantages for space and aeronautical applications in terms of strength and rigidity to weight ratios and other mechanical properties. As a consequence, their use has experienced a constant increase in the past decades and it is anticipated that this trend will be maintained in the near future. At the same time, being these materials relatively new compared to metals, and having failure characteristics completely different from them, their damage growth and their failure mechanisms are not as well understood in a predictive sense. For example, while in metals fracture produces "clean" cracks with their well defined analytically stress fields at the crack tip, composite fracture is a more complex phenomenon. Instead of a crack, we confront a "damage zone" that may include fiber breakage, fiber microbuckling, fiber pullout, matrix cracking, delamination, debonding or any combination of all these different mechanisms. These phenomena are prevalent in any failure process through an aircraft structure, whether one addresses a global failure such as the ripping of a fuselage or wing section, or whether one is concerned with the failure initiation near a thickness change at stringers or other reinforcement. Thus the topic that has been under consideration has wide application in any real structure and is considered an essential contribution to the predictive failure analysis capability for aircraft containing composite components. The heterogeneity and the anisotropy of composites are not only advantageous but essential characteristics, yet these same features provide complex stress fields, especially in the presence of geometrical discontinuities such as notches, holes or cutouts or structural elements such as stiffeners, stringers, etc. To properly address the interaction between a damage/crack front and a hole with a stringer it is imperative that the stress and deformation fields of the former be (sufficiently well) characterized. The question of "scaling" is an essential concern in any structural materials investigation. For example, experiments in the past have shown that the "strength" of a composite depends on hole size. As a consequence the validity of traditional fracture mechanics concepts applied to composite materials failure must be questioned. The size of the fibers, the dimensions of the laminae, etc. together with the fact that, because of the layered anisotropy, the stress field is no longer two-dimensional, prevent the otherwise obviously confident use of "similarity concepts". Therefore, the question needs to be raised of whether in composites "size matters or not", i.e., whether the results obtained in a laboratory using small coupons are truly representative of the situation involving a full scale component.

Knauss, W. G.↗
NASA NTRS2020

Microscale Characterization of Damage Accumulation in CMCs

The developing roles of damage mechanisms in the failure response of SiC/SiC minicomposites was investigated by the characterization of microscale damage accumulation with respect to microstructure. A multi-modal approach combining spatially resolved acoustic emission (AE) with tensile testing in-SEM (scanning electron microscope) was used to simultaneously examine surface (observed in-SEM) and bulk damage (monitored via AE). Strong agreement was shown between the evolving crack density estimated by AE and in-SEM measurements. The following were observed: (i) in-plane matrix content and distribution impacted crack growth; (ii) spatially-distributed matrix cracks generated varying stress-dependent AE; and (iii) certain individual cracks became more probable failure locations due to unique combinations of damage mechanisms that drove their growth. This approach enabled characterizing potential failure determinants and suggests that early damage behavior is related to certain microstructural features (e.g. surface flaws), while subsequent damage behavior is coupled to interactions of local mechanisms evolving with stress.

ceramic matrix composites↗
NASA NTRS2011

Approaches for Tensile Testing of Braided Composites

For angleply composites, lamina tension and compression strengths are commonly determined by applying classical lamination theory to test data obtained from testing of angleply composite specimens. For textile composites such as 2D triaxial braids, analysis is more complex and standard test methods do not always yield reliable strength measurements. This paper describes recent research focused on development of more reliable tensile test methods for braided composites and presents preliminary data for various approaches. The materials investigated in this work have 0deg+/-60 2D triaxial braid architecture with nearly equal fiber volume fraction in each of the three fiber directions. Flat composite panels are fabricated by resin transfer molding (RTM) using six layers of the braided preform aligned along the 0deg fiber direction. Various epoxy resins are used as matrix materials. Single layer panels are also fabricated in order to examine local variations in deformation related to the braid architecture. Specimens are cut from these panels in the shape of standard straight-sided coupons, an alternative bowtie geometry, and an alternative notched geometry. Axial tensile properties are measured using specimens loaded along the 0deg fiber direction. Transverse tensile properties are measured using specimens loaded perpendicular to the 0deg fibers. Composite tubes are also fabricated by RTM. These tubes are tested by internal pressurization using a soft rubbery material sealed between the inside diameter of the tube and the load fixtures. The ends of the tube are unconstrained, so the primary load is in the hoop direction. Tubes are fabricated with the 0deg fibers aligned along the tube axis by overbraiding the preform on a mandrel. Since the loading is in the hoop direction, testing of the overbraided tube provides a measure of transverse tensile strength. Previous work has indicated that straight-sided coupons yield a transverse tensile strength that is much lower than the expected material strength because of premature edge-initiated failure. Full-field strain measured during transverse tensile tests clearly showed accumulation of edge damage prior to failure. In the current work, high speed video and testing of single layer specimens are used to investigate potential failure mechanisms in more detail. High speed video clearly shows the edge initiation in six layer transverse tensile test coupons. Specimens with the bowtie geometry and the notched geometry minimize this edge effect and yield significantly higher transverse tensile strength values compared to the straight-sided coupons. However, bowtie and notched specimens geometries are not ideal because of the non-uniform stress and strain fields in the region of failure. Testing of tubes using internal pressurization eliminates edge-initiated failure and provides a more uniform state of stress and strain. Preliminary results indicate that bowtie, notched, and tube specimens yield comparable values for transverse tensile strength and that these values are much higher than the strength measured using a straight-sided coupon.

Roberts, Gary D.↗
DOE OSTI2022

High energy X-ray diffraction and small-angle scattering measurements of hydrogen fatigue damage in AISI 4130 steel

Accurate lifetime predictions are critical for repurposing existing pipelines for hydrogen transmission as well as for developing novel steels which are minimally susceptible to lifetime degradation by hydrogen. Ultimately, lifetime prediction models assess the amount of damage a material undergoes during a typical service cycle and the cumulative damage a material can withstand prior to failure. However, not all damage processes are equal, and neither is the manner in which mechanical loading translates to damage the same when materials are in inert environments compared to in hydrogen environments. For example, in the three leading proposed mechanisms of hydrogen embrittlement (Hydrogen-Enhanced Decohesion (HEDE), the Hydrogen-Enhanced Localized Plasticity (HELP), and the Nano-Void Coalescence (NVC)), hydrogen is proposed to enhance the manifestation of grain separation, dislocation generation/movement, and void coalescence, respectively. A full understanding of the damage modes requires a measurement capable of probing all three mechanisms at once. Here we present simultaneous High Energy X-ray Diffraction (HEXRD) and Small-Angle X-ray Scattering (SAXS) during fatiguing of steel in hydrogen. HEXRD measurements probe strain and dislocation density; SAXS measurements probe nano-pore generation and coalescence. We will discuss the differences in damage modes between steels fatigued in air and in hydrogen and the role these difference play in lifetime predictions.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
NASA NTRS1980

Damage tolerance research on composite compression panels

The damage tolerance of composites was investigated. Results show that severe degradation in material strength may occur due to impact damage and that reduced strain allowables should be considered to compensate for possible impact damage. The mechanisms of failure involved in impact so that local damage will be reduced and arrest of propagating fracture initiated at impact locations are examined. Compression strength reductions for damage due to impact by a 1.27 cm diameter spherical projectile in thick laminates representative of wing skin panels are presented. Also discussed are the results of concepts recently evaluated to improve damage tolerance. These concepts range from improvements at the materials level to advanced structural configurations designed to arrest or limit the growth of propagating fractures. The results indicate that substantial improvements in the damage tolerance of graphite-epoxy composite structures can be achieved through the proper combination of materials and structural design.

Rhodes, M. D.↗
NASA NTRS1988

Damage initiation and growth in fiber-reinforced MMCs

On the basis of the simplifying assumption of equivalent constituent strain rates in the absence of damage, a strain-based failure criterion can be applied to the phenomena of damage-initiation and growth in fiber-reinforced MMCs to ascertain when and where the initial damage will occur. The failure modes fall into four categories, depending on the relative fatigue behavior of the reinforcing fibers and their matrix. Attention is given to experimental results illustrating current understanding of fiber-dominated damage, self-similar fatigue damage growth, and fiber/matrix interface failures, for such MMCs as B/Al alloy, SiC/Al alloy, and SiC/Ti-15-3 alloy.

Saff, C. R.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Role of delamination and damage development on the strength of thick notched laminates

A large, comprehensive program is being conducted at Virginia Tech to study the effect of laminate thickness on the fracture strength of notched laminated composites. Part of this program has been the study of the chracteristics and development of subcritical crack-tip damage prior to failure. The study has concentrated on the center-cracked tension specimen geometry. Subcritical crack-tip damage has been studied using enhanced X-ray radiography and the laminate deply technique. This paper examines he role that delamination plays in affecting the fracture of (0/+ or - 45/90)ns and (0/+ or - 45)ns laminates at various values of n. The study has found that delaminations do occur in thin laminates (n = 1) and affect the strength of the laminate. However, in thick laminates such as (0/+ or 45)90ns, and (0/+ or - 45)20s, there is sufficient constraint to prevent delaminations from occurring in the interior region of he specimen. The final fracture surface is uniform in the interior and self-similar (collinear with the original starter notch), with 'shear-lip' type damage in the form of delaminations and matrix cracking in the first several plies at the surface. These differences in the type of fracture of the thin and thick laminates greatly affect the fracture strength.

Harris, C. E.↗
NASA NTRS2004

Progressive Damage Analyses of Skin/Stringer Debonding

The debonding of skin/stringer constructions is analyzed using a step-by-step simulation of material degradation based on strain softening decohesion elements and a ply degradation procedure. Decohesion elements with mixed-mode capability are placed at the interface between the skin and the flange to simulate the initiation and propagation of the delamination. In addition, the initiation and accumulation of fiber failure and matrix damage is modeled using Hashin-type failure criteria and their corresponding material degradation schedules. The debonding predictions using simplified three-dimensional models correlate well with test results.

Daville, Carlos G.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Cumulative creep damage for polycarbonate and polysulfone

Creep to failure tests performed on polycarbonate and polysulfone under single and two step loadings are discussed. A cumulative damage law or modified time fraction rule is developed using a power law for transient creep response as the starting point. Experimental results are approximated well by the new rule. Damage and failure mechanisms associated with the two materials are suggested.

Zhang, M. J.↗
NASA NTRS2017

Structural Health Management of Damaged Aircraft Structures Using the Digital Twin Concept

The development of multidisciplinary integrated Structural Health Management (SHM) tools will enable accurate detection, and prognosis of damaged aircraft under normal and adverse conditions during flight. As part of the digital twin concept, methodologies are developed by using integrated multiphysics models, sensor information and input data from an in-service vehicle to mirror and predict the life of its corresponding physical twin. SHM tools are necessary for both damage diagnostics and prognostics for continued safe operation of damaged aircraft structures. The adverse conditions include loss of control caused by environmental factors, actuator and sensor faults or failures, and structural damage conditions. A major concern in these structures is the growth of undetected damage/cracks due to fatigue and low velocity foreign object impact that can reach a critical size during flight, resulting in loss of control of the aircraft. To avoid unstable, catastrophic propagation of damage during a flight, load levels must be maintained that are below a reduced load-carrying capacity for continued safe operation of an aircraft. Hence, a capability is needed for accurate real-time predictions of damage size and safe load carrying capacity for structures with complex damage configurations. In the present work, a procedure is developed that uses guided wave responses to interrogate damage. As the guided wave interacts with damage, the signal attenuates in some directions and reflects in others. This results in a difference in signal magnitude as well as phase shifts between signal responses for damaged and undamaged structures. Accurate estimation of damage size, location, and orientation is made by evaluating the cumulative signal responses at various pre-selected sensor locations using a genetic algorithm (GA) based optimization procedure. The damage size, location, and orientation is obtained by minimizing the difference between the reference responses and the responses obtained by wave propagation finite element analysis of different representative cracks, geometries, and sizes.

Seshadri, Banavara R.↗
NASA NTRS1990

An expert system to perform on-line controller restructuring for abrupt model changes

Work in progress on an expert system used to reconfigure and tune airframe/engine control systems on-line in real time in response to battle damage or structural failures is presented. The closed loop system is monitored constantly for changes in structure and performance, the detection of which prompts the expert system to choose and apply a particular control restructuring algorithm based on the type and severity of the damage. Each algorithm is designed to handle specific types of failures and each is applicable only in certain situations. The expert system uses information about the system model to identify the failure and to select the technique best suited to compensate for it. A depth-first search is used to find a solution. Once a new controller is designed and implemented it must be tuned to recover the original closed-loop handling qualities and responsiveness from the degraded system. Ideally, the pilot should not be able to tell the difference between the original and redesigned systems. The key is that the system must have inherent redundancy so that degraded or missing capabilities can be restored by creative use of alternate functionalities. With enough redundancy in the control system, minor battle damage affecting individual control surfaces or actuators, compressor efficiency, etc., can be compensated for such that the closed-loop performance in not noticeably altered. The work is applied to a Black Hawk/T700 system.

Litt, Jonathan S.↗