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Report presents results of tests of steels for use in gears and bearings of advanced aircraft. Spur-gear endurance tests and rolling-element surface fatigue tests performed on gear and bar specimens of M50NiL steel processed by vacuum induction melting and vacuum arc remelting (VIM-VAR). Compares results of tests with similar tests of specimens of VIM-VAR AISI 9310 steel and of AISI 9310 steel subjected to VAR only.
This study was conducted to characterize the microstructure and mechanical properties of Inconel 625 manufactured with laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF), electron beam melting (EBM), wire arc additive manufacturing (WAAM), electron beam directed energy deposition (EB-DED), laser powder directed energy deposition (LP-DED), and laser wire directed energy deposition (LW-DED) in both the as built and heat-treated condition. The heat treatment in this study included stress relieving, hot isostatic pressure (HIP), and solution treatment. The effects of the heat treatment on the grain widths and hardness of the alloy will be observed across the technologies before and after heat-treatment. At the end of this study there will be a comparative analysis of the alloy Inconel 625 across the six technologies.
The rolling element fatigue lives of AMS 5749 and AISI M-50 were compared in tests run in the five ball fatigue tester and the rolling contact fatigue tester. The effects of double vacuum melting and retained austenite on the life of AMS 5749 were determined in five ball fatigue tests. The double vacuum melting process consisted of induction vacuum melting followed by vacuum arc remelting (VIM-VAR). In the five ball tests, VIM-VAR AMS 5749 gave lives at least six times that of VIM-VAR AISI M-50. Similar tests in the rolling contact fatigue tester showed no significant difference in the lives of the two materials. The rolling element fatigue life of VIM-VAR AMS 5749 was at least 14 times that of vacuum induction melted AMS 5749. A trend toward increased rolling element fatigue life with decreased retained austenite is apparent, but the confidence that all experimental differences are significant is not great.
Tests were conducted at 350 K with three groups of 8.9 cm pitch diameter spur gears made of vacuum-induction melted (VIM), vacuum-arc remelted (VAR), AISI M-50 steel and one group of vacuum-arc remelted (VAR) AISI 9310 steel. The pitting fatigue life of the standard forged and ausforged gears was approximately five times that of the VAR AISI 9310 gears and ten times that of the bending fatigue life of the standard machined VIM-VAR AISI M-50 gears run under identical conditions. There was a slight decrease in the 10-percent life of the ausforged gears from that for the standard forged gears. However, the difference is not statistically significant. The standard machined gears failed primarily by gear tooth fracture while the forged and ausforged VIM-VAR AISI M-50 and the VAR AISI 9310 gears failed primarily by surface pitting fatigue. The ausforged gears had a slightly greater tendency to fail by tooth fracture than the standard forged gears.
This report presents a preliminary mechanical property and stress corrosion evaluation of double melted (vacuum induction melted (VIM), and vacuum arc remelted (VAR)), solution treated, work strengthened and direct aged Inconel 718 alloy bar (5.50 in. (13.97 cm) diameter). Two sets of tensile specimens, one direct single aged and the other direct double aged, were tested at ambient temperature in both the longitudinal and transverse directions. Longitudinal tensile and yield strengths in excess of 200 ksi (1378.96 MPa) and 168 ksi (1158.33 MPa), respectively, were realized at ambient temperature, for the direct double aged specimen. No failures occurred in the single or double edged longitudinal and transverse tensile specimens stressed to 75 and 100 percent of their respective yield strengths and exposed to a salt fog environment for 180 days. Tensile tests performed after the stress corrosion test showed no mechanical property degradation.
Conventional 'ingot' processing of highly alloyed compositions results in a cast product which suffers from extensive macrosegregation, hot tears, and heterogeneities. By controlling the solidification journey, one can produce a fine grained cast product. This is achieved by manipulating the melt in the mushy zone. Rheocasting and vacuum arc double electrode remelting (VADER) are two such technologies where the melt is processed in the mushy zone. IN-100, a nickel based superalloy, was rheocast as well as VADER processed. The resultant cast structures are analyzed, compared and discussed both onmicro- and macrostructural levels. The effect of the rheocast processing variables (stirring seed, time and temperature) on the cast microstructure are also discussed.
Island arc volcanism has contributed and is still contributing to continental growth, but the composition of island arcs differs from that of the upper continental crust in its lower abundance of Si, K, Rb, Ba, Sr and light rare earth elements. In their advanced stage of evolution, island arcs contain more than 80% of tholeiitic and 15% of ?island arc' calc-alkaline rocks with varied SiO2 contents. The larger proportion of tholeiitic rocks is in the lower crustal levels. The high stratigraphical levels of the island arcs are composed of tholeiitic plus calc-alkaline and/or high potash (shoshonitic) associations with higher abundances of K, Rb, Sr, and Ba. Stratification of the island arc crust is accentuated by another type of calc-alkaline volcanism (Andean type) originating at a late stage of arc evolution, probably by partial melting at the base of the crust. This causes enrichment of the upper crust in K, Rb, Ba and REE and accounts for upper crustal abundances of these elements as well as of SiO2.
Human space missions generate trash with a substantial amount of plastic (20% or greater by mass). The trash also contains water trapped in food residue and paper products and other trash items. The Heat Melt Compactor (HMC) under development by NASA Ames Research Center (ARC) compresses the waste, dries it to recover water and melts the plastic to encapsulate the compressed trash. The resulting waste disk or puck represents an approximately ten-fold reduction in the volume of the initial trash loaded into the HMC. In the current design concept being pursued, the trash is compressed by a piston after it is loaded into the trash chamber. The piston face, the side walls of the waste processing chamber and the end surface in contact with the waste can be heated to evaporate the water and to melt the plastic. Water is recovered by the HMC in two phases. The first is a pre-process compaction without heat or with the heaters initially turned on but before the waste heats up. Tests have shown that during this step some liquid water may be expelled from the chamber. This water is believed to be free water (i.e., not bound with or absorbed in other waste constituents) that is present in the trash. This phase is herein termed Phase A of the water recovery process. During HMC operations, it is desired that liquid water recovery in Phase A be eliminated or minimized so that water-vapor processing equipment (e.g., condensers) downstream of the HMC are not fouled by liquid water and its constituents (i.e., suspended or dissolved matter) exiting the HMC. The primary water recovery process takes place next where the trash is further compacted while the heated surfaces reach their set temperatures for this step. This step will be referred to herein as Phase B of the water recovery process. During this step the waste chamber may be exposed to different selected pressures such as ambient, low pressure (e.g., 0.2 atm), or vacuum. The objective for this step is to remove both bound and any remaining free water in the trash by evaporation. The temperature settings of the heated surfaces are usually kept above the saturation temperature of water but below the melting temperature of the plastic in the waste during this step to avoid any encapsulation of wet trash which would reduce the amount of recovered water by blocking the vapor escape. In this paper, we analyze the water recovery rate during Phase B where the trash is heated and water leaves the waste chamber as vapor, for operation of the HMC in reduced gravity. We pursue a quasi-one-dimensional model with and without sidewall heating to determine the water recovery rate and the trash drying time. The influences of the trash thermal properties, the amount of water loading, and the distribution of the water in the trash on the water recovery rates are determined.
Repetitively pulsed plasma jets generated by a capillary arc discharge at high stagnation pressure (>15,000 psi) and high temperature (>10,000 K) are utilized to produce 0.1-10 .mu.m sized metal powders and decrease cost of production. The plasma jets impact and atomize melt materials to form the fine powders. The melt can originate from a conventional melt stream or from a pulsed arc between two electrodes. Gas streams used in conventional gas atomization are replaced with much higher momentum flux plasma jets. Delivering strong incident shocks aids in primary disintegration of the molten material. A series of short duration, high pressure plasma pulses fragment the molten material. The pulses introduce sharp velocity gradients in the molten material which disintegrates into fine particles. The plasma pulses have peak pressures of approximately one kilobar. The high pressures improve the efficiency of disintegration. High gas flow velocities and pressures are achieved without reduction in gas density. Repetitively pulsed plasma jets will produce powders with lower mean size and narrower size distribution than conventional atomization techniques.
An article made of a nickel-base superalloy having a nil-ductility range from the solidus temperature of the alloy to about 600.degree. F. below the solidus temperature is welded, as for example in the weld repair of surface cracks, by removing foreign matter from the area to be welded, first stress relieving the article, adjusting the temperature of the article to a welding temperature of from about 1800.degree. F. to about 2100.degree. F., welding a preselected area in an inert atmosphere at the welding temperature, and second stress relieving the article. Welding is preferably accomplished by striking an arc in the preselected area so as to locally melt the alloy in the preselected area, providing a filler metal having the same composition as the nickel-based superalloy of the article, and feeding the filler metal into the arc so that the filler metal is melted and fused with the article to form a weldment upon solidification.
An article made of a gamma titanium aluminide alloy is welded, as for example in the weld repair of surface cracks, by removing foreign matter from the area to be welded, first stress relieving the article, cooling the entire article to a welding temperature of from about 1000.degree. F. to about 1400.degree. F., welding a preselected region in an inert atmosphere at the welding temperature, and second stress relieving the article. Welding is preferably accomplished by striking an arc in the preselected region so as to locally melt the alloy in the preselected region, providing a filler metal having the same composition as the gamma titanium aluminide alloy of the article, and feeding the filler metal into the arc so that the filler metal is melted and fused with the article to form a weldment upon solidification.
Standard forged and ausforged spur gears made of vacuum-induction-melted, consumable-electrode, vacuum-arc-remelted AISI M-50 steel were tested under conditions that produced fatigue pitting. The gears were 8.89 cm (3.5 in.) in pitch diameter and had tip relief. The M-50 standard forged and ausforged test results were compared with each other. They were then compared with results for machined vacuum-arc-remelted AISI 9310 gears tested under identical conditions. Both types of M-50 gears had lives approximately five times that of the 9310 gears. The life at which 10 percent of the M-50 ausforged gears failed was slightly less than that at which the M-50 standard forged gears failed. The ausforged gears had a slightly greater tendency to fail by tooth fracture than did the standard forged gears, most likely because of the better forging and grain flow pattern of standard forged gears.
This work is motivated by NASA plans to conduct welding experiments on the ISS. It is expected that deployment of welding and additive manufacturing technologies in the space environment has the potential to revolutionise how orbiting platforms are designed, manufactured, and assembled. However, the structure, composition and quality of a weld is extremely dependent on the environment and can be difficult to control in space. Shielding gases would also be tough to manage as gases behave differently in zero gravity and airless environments. Additional points of concern are related to the spatter and sparks dynamics in space. Therefore, there is a need for a more basic understanding of welding processes by computational modelling. To provide such an insight we developed state of art models of the ARC torch, droplet detachment and transfer, and the melt pool build up using magnetohydrodynamics approximation and level set method for two-phase liquid metal/-gas flow modelling. Two finite element models were built using 2D axisymmetric geometry in COMSOL Multiphysics®: (i) stationary model of the ARC torch and (ii) dynamical model of droplet detachment and transfer. Both models demonstrate reasonable agreement with earlier experimental observations and high sensitivity to the temperature dependence of the thermophysical parameters on the system materials. The models were used to provide physical insight into ARC welding in various environments and geometries. It was shown, in particular, that there is a significant probability of gas bubbles trapping in the meltpool and a possibility of unbounded wondering of sparks in the welding chamber in zero gravity. In addition, we estimated metal evaporation rate that may be hazardous in the confined environment of the ISS. These issues raise concern of quality of the weld and safety for ISS applications.
We present a rudimentary theoretical assessment of electrical discharge heating as a candidate mechanism for the formation of chondrules in the solar nebula. The discharge model combines estimates of the properties of the nebula, a mechanism for terrestrial thunderstorm electrification, and some fundamental electrical properties of gases. Large uncertainties in the model inputs limit these calculations to order-or-magnitude accuracy. Despite the uncertainty, it is possible to estimate an upper limit to the efficiency of nebular discharges at melting millimeter-sized stony objects. We find that electrical arcs analogous to terrestrial lightning could have occurred in the nebula, but that under most conditions these discharges probably could not have melted chondrules. Despite our difficulties, we believe the topic worthy of further investigation and suggest some experiments which could improve our understanding of nebular discharges.
The processing of yttria, zirconia, and alumina under weightless conditions is discussed. The process consists of levitation or position control, heating and melting, superheating, and supercooling. The use of arc imaging furnaces, lasers, induction heating, microwave, and electron beam methods are analyzed to show the advantages and disadvantages of each.
Technique yields joints with average transmissivity of 91.6 percent. Electric arc passed over butted fiber ends to melt them together. Maximum optical transmissivity of joint achieved with optimum choice of discharge current, translation speed, and axial compression of fibers. Practical welding machine enables delicate and tedious joining operation performed routinely.
Through the support of the NASA SBIR program, Control Vision, Inc. developed novel video techniques for clear, high resolution, real-time imaging of high temperature, high-energy industrial processes, such as welding, plasma arc spraying (coating), arc furnaces, metal casting and refractories (ceramics) melting. The Control Vision systems use reflected laser or strobe illumination, combined with ultra-short exposure times to create video, including the allowance of particle imaging velocimetry (PIV) of fast moving powder particles buried within a plasma stream.
Repair and refurbishment of flight and test hardware can extend the useful life of very expensive components. A technique to weld repair the main combustion chamber of space shuttle main engines has been developed. The technique uses the plasma arc welding process and active cooling to seal cracks and pinholes in the hot-gas wall of the main combustion chamber liner. The liner hot-gas wall is made of NARloyZ, a copper alloy previously thought to be unweldable using conventional arc welding processes. The process must provide extensive heat input to melt the high conductivity NARloyZ while protecting the delicate structure of the surrounding material. The higher energy density of the plasma arc process provides the necessary heat input while active water cooling protects the surrounding structure. The welding process is precisely controlled using a computerized robotic welding system.