Development of high temperature polyimide rod seals Final report
Development of high temperature polyimide rod seals for use with hydraulic fluids in advanced aircraft
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Development of high temperature polyimide rod seals for use with hydraulic fluids in advanced aircraft
Nuclear reactor control rod assembly with improved driving mechanism
High temperature polyimide actuator rod seals for aircraft hydraulic systems
Time dependence of laser rod focal length, measuring thermal lensing effects
Two types of polyimide seals are developed for hydraulic actuator rod in low pressure second stage of two-stage configuration. Each seal melts test objectives of twenty million cycles of operation at 534 K. Analytical and experimental study results are discussed. Potential applications are given.
Use of segmented rods in operation of quadrupole mass spectrometer
Sensitivity of quadrupole mass spectrometer with segmented rod geometry
Aircraft high temperature polyimide hydraulic actuator rod seals, discussing design and performance tests
A commercial quadrupole residual gas analyzer system has been upgraded for operation at extended cable lengths. Operation inside a vacuum chamber for the standard quadrupole nude head is limited to approximately 2 m from its externally located rf/dc generator because of the detuning of the rf oscillator circuits by the coaxial cable reactance. The advance of long distance remote operation inside a vacuum chamber for distances of 45 and 60 m was made possible without altering the quadrupole's rf/dc generator circuit by employing an rf link to drive the quadrupole rods. Applications of the system have been accomplished for in situ space simulation thermal/vacuum testing of sophisticated payloads.
Tool is inexpensive and gives repeatable results. It is modified commercially-available rod-type weld slag removal gun and is pneumatically operated by regulated compressed air supply.
Advanced high temperature hydraulic system rod sealing requirements can be met by using seals made of nonelastomeric (plastic) materials in applications where elastomers do not have adequate life. Exploratory seal designs were optimized for advanced applications using machinable polyimide materials. These seals demonstrated equivalent flight hour lives of 12,500 at 350 F and 9,875 at 400 F in advanced hydraulic system simulation. Successful operation was also attained under simulated space shuttle applications; 96 reentry thermal cycles and 1,438 hours of vacuum storage. Tests of less expensive molded plastic seals indicated a need for improved materials to provide equivalent performance to the machined seals.
The objective of this program was to determine the peening stress profiles of rod peened aluminum structural alloys versus shot peened material to define the effective depth of the compressed surface layer.
Machined polyimide second-stage rod seals were evaluated to determine their suitability for single-stage applications where full system pressure acts on the upstream side of the seal. The 6.35-cm (2.5-in.) K-section seal was tested in impulse screening tests where peak pressure was increased in 3.448-MPa (500-psi) increments each 20,000 cycles. Seal failure occurred at 37.92 MPa (5,500 psi), indicating a potential for acceptability in a 27.58-MPa (4,000-psi) system. Static pressurization for 600 sec at pressures in excess of 10.34 MPa (1,500 psi) revealed structural inadequacy of the seal cross section to resist fracture and extrusion. Endurance testing showed the seals capable of at least 65,000 1.27-cm (0.5-in.) cycles at 450 K (350 F) without leakage. It was concluded that the second-stage seals were proven to be exceptional in the 1.379-MPa (200-psi) applications for which they were designed, but polyimide material properties are not adequate for use in this design at pressure loading equivalent to that present in single-stage applications.
The radiation of sound through the open end of a cylindrical or conical pipe of any cross section, or through a hole in a plane wall, is analyzed theoretically. The scattering of a sound wave by the end of a rod or slab is also treated. Only the case in which the wavelength is large compared with a typical radial dimension of the opening or of the end is considered. The method of matched asymptotic expansions is employed. Results on end corrections and reflection coefficients previously obtained by Helmholtz (1860), Rayleigh (1945), and Bazer and Karp (1954), using intuitive arguments, are recovered and verified. Agreement is found with the exact results of Levine and Schwinger (1948) and Vainstein (1948), as well as with the small radial-dimension/wavelength results of Lesser and Lewis (1972), in the cases they treated. In addition various new results are obtained.
The first year of a two year experimental and analytical program is reported. The program is directed at the elastohydrodynamic behavior of sliding elastomeric rod seals for the Stirling engine. During the year, experimental and analytical tools were developed for evaluating seal leakage, seal friction, and the fluid film thickness at the seal/cylinder interface.
An analysis of thermal cycle life data for 22 thermal barrier coated (TBC) specimens was conducted. The Zr02-8Y203/NiCrAlY plasma spray coated Rene 41 rods were tested in a Mach 0.3 Jet A/air burner flame. All specimens were subjected to the same coating and subsequent test procedures in an effort to control three parametric groups; material properties, geometry and heat flux. Statistically, the data sample space had a mean of 1330 cycles with a standard deviation of 520 cycles. The data were described by normal or log-normal distributions, but other models could also apply; the sample size must be increased to clearly delineate a statistical failure model. The statistical methods were also applied to adhesive/cohesive strength data for 20 TBC discs of the same composition, with similar results. The sample space had a mean of 9 MPa with a standard deviation of 4.2 MPa.
The reported study had the purpose to examine variations in cyclic life and in adhesive/cohesive coating strength. Possible effects of heating rate, stress reversal, temperature level, and ceramic deposition methods on coating life were also investigated. Life cycle data for 22 thermal barrier coated rods were examined and found to be statistically modeled by normal or log-normal distributions. The sample mean was 1330 cycles with a standard deviation of 520 cycles. Adhesive/cohesive pulloff strength data for 20 thermal barrier coated flat head piston specimens were taken. The average pulloff stress was 9 MPa with a standard deviation of 4.2 MPa. It was found that variations in heating rate can produce significant variations in the life cycle data.
Plane strain fracture toughness measurements were made on Al2O3 using short rod and short bar chevron notch specimens previously calibrated by the authors for their dimensionless stress intensity factor coefficients. The measured toughness varied systematically with variations in specimen size, proportions, and chevron notch angle apparently due to their influence on the amount of crack extension to maximum load (the measurement point). The toughness variations are explained in terms of a suspected rising R curve for the material tested, along with a discussion of an unavoidable imprecision in the calculation of K sub Ic for materials with rising R curves when tested with chevron notch specimens.