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Nondestructive test determines rind thickness of polyurethane foam. Surface harness of foam measured by Shore durometer method: hardness on Shore D scale correlates well with rind thickness. Shore D hardness of 20, for example, indicates rind thickness of 0.04 inch (1 millimeter). New hardness test makes it easy to determine rind thickness of sample nondestructively and to adjust fabrication variables accordingly.
Jet of hot water removes material quickly and safely. Simple, environmentally sound technique found to remove polyurethane foam insulation from metal parts. Developed for (but not limited to) use during rebuilding of fuel system of Space Shuttle main engine, during which insulation must be removed for penetrant inspection of metal parts.
USBI Company, a Division of Pratt & Whitney Government Engines and Space Propulsion, is involved in corrosion and environmental research and development activities both at their headquarters in Huntsville, Alabama and their Florida Operations at Kennedy Space Center, Florida. The programs involve the development of environmentally compatible materials that improve the corrosion protection of expensive Solid Rocket Boosters (SRB) that are part of the Space Shuttle systems developed and managed by Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Coatings For Industry, a paint manufacturer in Souderton, PA helped formulate and produce the first lot of BOOSTERCOAT paint. High strength aluminum aerospace flight hardware exposed to harsh seacoast environments and seawater immersion presently uses high volatile organic compound (VOC) chromated and lead bearing primers and epoxy topcoats for corrosion protection. Epoxy paint tends to be brittle and has relatively low ultraviolet (UV) exposure resistance. A unique, environmentally compatible, non-leaded/non-chromated, low VOC polyurethane single coat (primer/topcoat) trade named BOOSTERCOAT has been developed for excellent corrosion protection, flexibility, adhesion, chemical and solvent resistance properties. This report will discuss the development of BOOSTERCOAT and the potential opportunities for commercial use in the energy, transportation, chemical, maritime, structural fields.
The object of this work was to utilize laser-induced fluorescence technique to characterize several samples of space-exposed polyurethane. These samples were flown on the Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF), which was in a shuttle-like orbit for nearly 6 years. Because of our present work to develop laser-induced-fluorescence inspection techniques for polymers, space-exposed samples and controls were lent to us for evaluation. These samples had been attached to the outer surface of LDEF; therefore, they were subjected to thermal cycling, solar ultraviolet radiation, vacuum, and atomic oxygen. It is well documented that atomic oxygen and ultraviolet exposure have detrimental effects on many polymers. This was a unique opportunity to make measurements on material that had been naturally degraded by an unusual environment. During our past work, data have come from artificially degraded samples and generally have demonstrated a correlation between laser-induced fluorescence and tensile strength or elasticity.
This report summarizes the condition of polyurethane thermal control coatings subjected to 69 months of low earth orbit (LEO) exposure on the Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF) mission. Specimens representing all environmental aspects obtainable by LDEF were analyzed. Widely varying changes in the thermo-optical and mechanical properties of these materials were observed, depending on atomic oxygen and ultraviolet radiation fluences. High atomic oxygen fluences, regardless of ultraviolet radiation exposure levels, resulted in near original optical properties for these coatings but with a degradation in their mechanical condition. A trend in solar absorptance increase with ultraviolet radiation fluence was observed. Contamination, though observed, exhibited minimal effects.
Experimental observations are presented of the effect of the flow velocity and oxygen concentration, and of a thermal radiant flux, on the transition from smoldering to flaming in forward smoldering of small samples of polyurethane foam with a gas/solid interface. The experiments are part of a project studying the transition from smolder to flaming under conditions encountered in spacecraft facilities, i.e., microgravity, low velocity variable oxygen concentration flows. Because the microgravity experiments are planned for the International Space Station, the foam samples had to be limited in size for safety and launch mass reasons. The feasible sample size is too small for smolder to self propagate because of heat losses to the surrounding environment. Thus, the smolder propagation and the transition to flaming had to be assisted by reducing the heat losses to the surroundings and increasing the oxygen concentration. The experiments are conducted with small parallelepiped samples vertically placed in a wind tunnel. Three of the sample lateral-sides are maintained at elevated temperature and the fourth side is exposed to an upward flow and to a radiant flux. It is found that decreasing the flow velocity and increasing its oxygen concentration, and/or increasing the radiant flux enhances the transition to flaming, and reduces the delay time to transition. Limiting external ambient conditions for the transition to flaming are reported for the present experimental set-up. The results show that smolder propagation and the transition to flaming can occur in relatively small fuel samples if the external conditions are appropriate. The results also indicate that transition to flaming occurs in the char left behind by the smolder reaction, and it has the characteristics of a gas-phase ignition induced by the smolder reaction, which acts as the source of both gaseous fuel and heat.
Polyurethane foam plugs commonly are used as collars or supports to grow plants in solution culture. Despite their utility, these foam plugs can be quite toxic to plants, particularly to small seedlings. We have observed tissue injury in tests using plugs to support lettuce, red beet, and potato plants in solution culture. Typically, the injury is initiated on the hypocotyl or stem tissue in direct contact with the foam, and appears within 30 hr as a brownish discoloration on the tissue surface. This discoloration can be followed by complete collapse of affected tissue and eventual death of the seedling. When injury does not progress beyond surface browning, the seedling survives but growth is slowed. In this paper, we report on different treatments that can be used to remove the toxicity of these plugs so they can be used in plant research.
Closed cell foams are often used for thermal insulation. In the case of the Space Shuttle, the External Tank uses several thermal protection systems to maintain the temperature of the cryogenic fuels. A few of these systems are polyurethane, closed cell foams. In an attempt to better understand the foam behavior on the tank, we are in the process of developing and improving thermal-mechanical models for the foams. These models will start at the microstructural level and progress to the overall structural behavior of the foams on the tank. One of the key properties for model characterization and verification is thermal expansion. Since the foam is not a material, but a structure, the modeling of the expansion is complex. It is also exacerbated by the anisoptropy of the material. During the spraying and foaming process, the cells become elongated in the rise direction and this imparts different properties in the rise direction than in the transverse directions. Our approach is to treat the foam as a two part structure consisting of the polymeric cell structure and the gas inside the cells. The polymeric skeleton has a thermal expansion of its own which is derived from the basic polymer chemistry. However, a major contributor to the thermal expansion is the volume change associated with the gas inside of the closed cells. As this gas expands it exerts pressure on the cell walls and changes the shape and size of the cells. The amount that this occurs depends on the elastic and viscoplastic properties of the polymer skeleton. The more compliant the polymeric skeleton, the more influence the gas pressure has on the expansion. An additional influence on the expansion process is that the polymeric skeleton begins to breakdown at elevated temperatures and releases additional gas species into the cell interiors, adding to the gas pressure. The fact that this is such a complex process makes thermal expansion ideal for testing the models. This report focuses on the thermal expansion tests and the response of the microstructure. A novel optical method is described which is appropriate for measuring thermal expansion at high temperatures without influencing the thermal expansion measurement. Detailed microstructural investigations will also be described which show cell expansion as a function of temperature. Finally, a phenomenological model on thermal expansion will be described.
Experimental results are presented on the piloted transition from smoldering to flaming in the fire-retarded polyurethane foam Pyrell . The samples are small rectangular blocks with a square cross section, vertically placed in the wall of a vertical wind tunnel. Three of the vertical sample sides are insulated and the fourth side is exposed to an upward oxidizer flow of variable oxygen concentration and to a variable radiant heat flux. The gases emitted from the smoldering reaction pass upwards through a pilot, which consists of a coiled resistance heating wire. In order to compensate for the solid-phase and gas-phase effects of the fire retardants on the piloted transition from smoldering to flaming in Pyrell, it was necessary to assist the process by increasing the power supplied to the smolder igniter and the pilot (compared to that used for non-fire retarded foam). The experiments indicate that the piloted transition from smoldering to flaming occurs when the gaseous mixture at the pilot passes the lean flammability limit. It was found that increasing the oxygen concentration or the external heat flux increases the likelihood of a piloted transition from smoldering to flaming, and generally decreases the time delay to transition. The piloted transition to flaming is observed in oxygen concentrations of 23% and above in both low-density and high-density Pyrell. Comparisons with previous experiments show that the piloted transition from smoldering to flaming is possible under a wider range of external conditions (i.e. lower oxygen concentration) than the spontaneous transition from smoldering to flaming. The results show that the fire retardants in Pyrell are very effective in preventing the piloted transition to flaming in normal air, but Pyrell is susceptible to smoldering and the piloted transition to flaming in oxygen-enriched environments. Therefore, precautions should be taken in the design of applications of Pyrell in oxygen-enriched environments to reduce to the risk of a piloted transition to flaming.
Silica aerogels are highly porous materials which exhibit exceptionally low density and thermal conductivity. Their "pearl necklace" nanostructure, however, is inherently weak; most silica aerogels are brittle and fragile. The strength of aerogels can be improved by employing an additional crosslinking step using isocyanates. In this work, dimethyldiethoxysilane (DMDES) is evaluated for use in the silane backbone of polyurethane crosslinked aerogels. Approximately half of the resulting aerogels exhibited a core/shell morphology of hard crosslinked aerogel surrounding a softer, uncrosslinked center. Solid state NMR and scanning electron microscopy results indicate the DMDES incorporated itself as a conformal coating around the outside of the secondary silica particles, in much the same manner as isocyanate crosslinking. Response surface curves were generated from compression data, indicating levels of reinforcement comparable to that in previous literature, despite the core/shell morphology.
Closed cell polyurethane and, particularly, polyisocyanurate foams are a large family of flexible and rigid products the result of a reactive two part process wherein a urethane based polyol is combined with a foaming or "blowing" agent to create a cellular solid at room temperature. The ratio of reactive components, the constituency of the base materials, temperature, humidity, molding, pouring, spraying and many other processing techniques vary greatly. However, there is no known process for incorporating reinforcing fibers small enough to be integrally dispersed within the cell walls resulting in superior final products. The key differentiating aspect from the current state of art resides in the many processing technologies to be fully developed from the novel concept of milled nano pulp aramid fibers and their enabling entanglement capability fully enclosed within the cell walls of these closed cell urethane foams. The authors present the results of research and development of reinforced foam processing, equipment development, strength characteristics and the evolution of its many applications.
The objective of this project is to qualify candidate alternatives to Aliphatic Isocyanate Polyurethane coatings under the specifications for the standard system. This project will compare coating performance of the proposed alternatives to existing coating systems or standards.
The primary objective of this effort is to demonstrate and validate alternatives to aliphatic isocyanate polyurethanes. Successful completion of this project will result in one or more isocyanate-free coatings qualified for use at AFSPC and NASA installations participating in this project.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Headquarters chartered the Acquisition Pollution Prevention (AP2) Office to coordinate agency activities affecting pollution prevention issues identified during system and component acquisition and sustainment processes. The primary objective of this effort is to demonstrate and validate alternatives to aliphatic isocyanate polyurethane coatings. Successful completion of this project will result in one or more isocyanate-free coating systems qualified for use at Air Force Space Command (AFSPC) and NASA centers participating in this study. The objective of this project is to qualify the candidates under the specifications for the standard system. This project will compare coating performance of the proposed alternatives to existing coating systems or standards.
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.
Shape memory polymers (SMPs) have been found to be promising biomaterials for a variety of medical applications; however, the clinical translation of such technology is dependent on tailorable properties such as gravimetric changes in degradation environments. For SMPs synthesized from amino-alcohols, oxidation resulting in rapid mass loss may be problematic in terms of loss of material functionality as well as toxicity and cytocompatibility concerns. Control of gravimetric changes was achieved through the incorporation of small molecule antioxidants, either directly into the polymer matrix or included in microparticles to form a SMP composite material. Direct incorporation of small molecule antioxidants, such as phenolic alcohols, was found to alter shape memory attributes and increase elastic modulus at the expense of the strain to failure. Such changes could not ensure retention of the antioxidants and therefore did not increase oxidative stability. However, the inclusion of antioxidants in microparticles was found to produce materials with similar thermomechanical and shape memory properties while increasing oxidative resistance compared to controls. The microparticle composite SMPs also act as a platform for environmental sensing, such as pH-dependent fluorescence shifts and payload release, as demonstrated by fluorescent dyes and the release of antioxidants. The use of polyurethane-urea microparticles in porous SMPs is demonstrated to increase biostability of the materials, by approximately 25%, and ultimately extend their lifespan for use in aneurysm occlusion as determined through calculated in vivo degradation rates corresponding to a porcine aneurysm environment.
Sonic impedance testing detects voids and unbonded regions as small as 1 inch in diameter by 0.03 inch thick. Measurements are made manually or by automatic scanning and the readout is made by meter or recorder.
Detailed description of the test program in which erosion of the spray foam insulation used in the S-II stage of the Saturn-V Apollo launch vehicle was investigated. The behavior of the spray foam was investigated at the elevated temperature and static pressure appropriate to the S-II stage environment, but in the absence of the aerodynamic shear stress.