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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 127 records · Page 7
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Advances in Integrally Formed Metallic Structures

NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) is applying flow forming technology to aerospace aluminum alloys for the manufacture of integrally stiffened cylinders that meet aircraft fuselage or launch vehicle specifications. High-strength 2xxx series alloys, in various temper/product form conditions, are being compared with medium-strength, very formable AA 6061 as the benchmark. Screening of candidate materials traditionally relies on empirical forming trials, but more recently on metrics derived from constant nominal strain rate tensile testing. In this work, the established hierarchy of formability metrics is adopted as the baseline; tensile area reduction, work hardening exponent, and modulus of resilience. The suite of metrics can be expanded based on phenomenological and mechanistic considerations of plastic flow instabilities to incorporate anisotropy ratio, rate of work hardening, and dynamic strain aging effects. Separate research thrusts at LaRC are aimed at formulating a protocol for scalable production of fully formed, defect-free components: 1) quantifying the extended set of formability metrics from constant and jump strain rate tensile tests with digital image correlation (DIC); 2) using statistically designed experiments on a vertical spin/flow forming facility (WF VUD-600®) to isolate the effect of convenient process variables, such as axial feed rate and thickness reduction; and 3) predicting the effect of feed ratio (roller translation relative to mandrel rotation speeds) on material response via process modeling using the DEFORM® simulation software. Current results will be discussed in terms of correlating intrinsic material properties with the bulk workability characteristics to successfully fabricate cylinders with complex cross-sections.

Aluminum↗
NASA NTRS2024

Pull-off Behavior of Stitched Composite T-Joints

T-joints are key structural elements that connect opposing surfaces, thereby providing the load path between flat or curved panels (i.e., upper and lower wing skins) and transverse components (i.e., stiffeners). Due to the low interlaminar strength of polymer matrix composites and their geometrical discontinuities, these joints are vulnerable to pull-off loads. To address these issues, through-thickness reinforcements can be employed to enhance the interlaminar capability of these type of joints. In this study, T-joints were manufactured using through-thickness stitching in dry carbon preforms and cured using the vacuum-assisted resin transfer molding (VARTM) process. Stitched and unstitched T-joints were tested under pull-off loading conditions, and surface strain fields were obtained using a 3D digital image correlation system. The ultimate load, displacement, and absorbed energy of the stitched T-joints were greater than their unstitched counterparts by approximately 16%, 34%, and 58%, respectively. Failure mechanisms were identified by examining fracture surfaces using optical microscopy. Results demonstrate that through-thickness stitching significantly improves the damage tolerance of T-joints, which highlights the effectiveness of stitching to enhance the structural integrity of large aerospace components.

VARTM↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Using DIC for Long Slender Structures

High-strain composite deployable structures have been developed for systems such as solar arrays, camera masts or solar sailing propulsion elements. Composite booms in such applications are often flattened and then rolled into a small footprint for low-packaged volume and are then deployed in space. There is a need to obtain deformation for long, slender composite booms on earth through gravity offloading by suspending them vertically and applying distal end (tip) loads. Three-dimensional digital image correlation (3D-DIC), along with other measurement techniques, were used to obtain strain and displacement along the length of a 7.5 m subscale composite Triangular, Rollable, and Collapsible (TRAC) boom in preparation for full scale testing of a 30 m boom. However, incorporating 3D-DIC as a primary measurement tool on long, slender, high-aspect-ratio boom structures presents significant challenges. Challenges include small correlated area due to high aspect ratio, limited standoff distance due to size of test area, coordinate system alignment of multiple camera systems along the length of the boom, nodal mesh extraction for adequate test/analysis correlation, as well as measurement comparison between DIC and other instrumentation used such as fiber optic strain sensing (FOSS) and laser displacement tracking. The contents of the proposed paper will focus on techniques and methods for overcoming the previously mentioned challenges associated with applying 3D-DIC to long, slender boom structures. Results from subscale test along with lessons learned will be discussed.

Deployable Boom↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Simulating High Energy Dynamic Impact of IM7/PEKK Continuous Fiber Laminated Thermoplastic Composite using Open Hole Coupon Experiments

The use of advanced thermoplastic composites (TPC) for structural applications in the aerospace and automotive industries has grown increasingly popular due to their high performance, high manufactured part output, and sustainability. Enhancing verification simulations of the progressive failure in TPCs at the coupon scale is needed to better validate advanced composite material models at larger length scales, such as element level panels. MAT_213, a tabulated composite material model, has been applied to simulate high velocity dynamic impact (HEDI) and is integrated in the LS-DYNA explicit finite element (FE) software. Previous efforts using MAT_213 have calibrated HEDI simulated failures with experimental data. Traditionally simulations have relied on a structured mesh to represent quasi-isotropic panels. For this study, a continuous fiber unidirectional tape, IM7/PEKK, was analyzed through a series of verification studies of notched laminate coupons, then validation analyses of quasi-isotropic panels under HEDI were compared with experimental data. Experiments using unidirectional TPC were performed to obtain tabulated stress vs strain curves using Digital Image Correlation (DIC) for input into MAT_213. Next, notched coupon experiments were used as an intermediate step to calibrate the damage and failure behavior in MAT_213. Lastly, investigations into differences between HEDI simulations using a fiber aligned mesh were compared with experimental failure patterns and damage sizes. The use of experimentally generated material behavior along with selective mesh layout improved HEDI predictions with minimal material parameter calibration.

Polymer matrix composites↗
NASA NTRS2025

Direct Impact Split-Hopkinson Bar Experiment for Compression Testing at Strain Rate of 50,000 S-1

A direct impact Hopkinson compression bar experiment is used for compression testing at strain rates in the order of 50,000 s-1. A short specimen mounted on the cross-section surface of a transmitter bar is impacted directly by a projectile (the incident bar in the classical split Hopkinson bar is eliminated).The quantities measured in the test are the projectile impact velocity, the force in the transmitter bar and the strain on the surface of the specimen, which is measured using the digital image correlation method with high-speed cameras. The deformation measurements show a nonuniform deformation in the specimen. To study the strain rate sensitivity properties of the specimen’s material, the experiment is simulated using an assumed material model properties which is validated by comparing the calculated and measured quantities. For aluminum 2024-T351 the results show a small strain rate sensitivity (increase of stress with strain rate) at strain rates above 10,000 s-1.

Nathan Spulak↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

An Overview of Nuclear Thermal Rocket Element Environmental Simulator (NTREES) Capabilities, Upgrades, and Overlaps in Advanced Material Testing Areas

The Nuclear Thermal Rocket Element Environmental Simulator (NTREES) was designed to perform non-nuclear testing of nuclear thermal rocket (NTR) fuel elements and materials. NTREES can simulate the thermal hydraulic environment within the reactor of an NTR and has been leveraged to provide data on the thermochemical, thermomechanical and thermohydraulic performance of components and materials. Active upgrades to the NTREES facility include installing a DC power supply for DC powered joule heating, a supply gas chiller for a cryogenically cool gas supply, gas pre-heaters with sample holders for testing samples too small to be inductively heated by bathing them in hot gas, and a high temperature digital image correlation (DIC) capability for measuring high temperature strains real time. In addition to NTR testing, given the commonality of high enthalpy flow environments between the reactor of an NTP engine and the aerothermal heating of high-speed flight, the unique capabilities of NTREES to provide high temperature gas flows at high pressure without combustion or electrode spallation byproducts may lend itself to additional usage of the facility beyond the original intent.

Michael P Schoenfeld↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

In-Situ Scanning Electron Microscope Experiments for Microscale Mechanical Testing and Validated Modeling of Fiber Reinforced Thermoplastics

A novel, in-situ, scanning electron microscope (SEM) mechanical testing capability for materials at the microscale which provides experimental validation to a machine learning (ML) toolset for full-field validation of physics-based micromechanics models is being developed by researchers at NASA Glenn Research Center. These are enabling technologies for the integration of multiscale digital twins for materials into system level models which will result in the improved performance, material discovery, reduced production cost and time, rapid characterization, and prognostic structural health monitoring (SHM) for materials and structures for extreme environments in support of NASA space exploration missions. In order to bridge the material structure-to-system gap for digital twins, physics-based models must be experimentally validated at multiple length scales. Seminal microscale experiments, conducted at the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), were limited to transverse compression of single-layer, unidirectional thermoset polymer matrix composite (PMC) micropillar specimens [1]. The early phases of the current project followed those initial results and setup to reproduce the compression testing of PMC material on the custom-built piezoelectric actuated micromechanical testing rig built by MicroTesting Solutions LLC. In this work, samples of thermoplastic PMC material were first machined into 3 mm cubes, and then further machining and final milling was done using a Focused Ion Beam (FIB). The initial experiment was done on a pillar roughly 20 µm x 20 µm x 40 µm tall. Additional pillars were milled with final sizes ranging from 20 µm x 20 µm x 40 µm tall to 40 µm x 40 µm x 65 µm tall. A speckle pattern for in-situ full-field measurements using Digital Image Correlation (DIC) was applied with platinum, which was coated on the surface, and then the FIB was used to mill away some of the coating to produce an irregular pattern of Pt on the pillar surface. The samples were loaded into the custom testing rig and placed into the SEM and loaded under compression until failure. Images were collected in the SEM during testing. Post-processing of the images was conducted using DIC to obtain full-field displacement and strain measurements elucidating the role of the matrix as well as fiber-fiber interaction at the microscale within the composite subjected to compression loading well into the non-linear regime of the material. Moreover, the evolution of fiber-matrix debonding and matrix cracking is observed in-situ at the microscale. This data, along with images segmented with a newly developed ML toolset [2], was used to create and validate physics-based micromechanics models. An image of the failed micropillar is shown in Figure 1. The techniques developed in the initial compression experiment was tailored to the validation needs of the models and expanded to include different sized samples as well as possibly tension and fatigue.

Laura Wilson↗
NASA NTRS1988

Effects of subpixel image restoration on digital correlation error estimates

The results of initial studies to determine the key parameters influencing the performance of a computer-based measurement system are presented. The system components were modeled, and a representative intensity pattern was chosen and deformed by known amounts. The effect of varying different model parameters in the model was analyzed numerically. The most significant parameters were found to be: (1) the number of quantization levels in the digitization process, (2) the ratio of the frequency of the signal to the frequency of the sampling, and (3) the form of the intensity interpolation function.

Sutton, Michael A.↗
NASA NTRS1971

Pollution detection by digital correlation of multispectral, stero-image pairs.

Remote detection of air pollution circulation patterns is proposed to eventually predict the accumulation of hazardous surface concentrations in time for preventive emission control operations. Earth observations from space platforms will contain information on the height, mean velocity and lateral mixing scales of inversion layers and pollution plumes. Although this information is often not visible on photographs, it could conceivably be retrieved through a digital cross-correlation of multispectral stereo image pairs. Laboratory and field test results are used to illustrate the detection of non-visual inversion layers, the reduction of dominant signal interference, and the spectroscopic identification of combustion products.

Krause, F. R.↗
NASA NTRS1994

COSMIC monthly progress report

Activities of the Computer Software Management and Information Center (COSMIC) are summarized for the month of May 1994. Tables showing the current inventory of programs available from COSMIC are presented and program processing and evaluation activities are summarized. Nine articles were prepared for publication in the NASA Tech Brief Journal. These articles (included in this report) describe the following software items: (1) WFI - Windowing System for Test and Simulation; (2) HZETRN - A Free Space Radiation Transport and Shielding Program; (3) COMGEN-BEM - Composite Model Generation-Boundary Element Method; (4) IDDS - Interactive Data Display System; (5) CET93/PC - Chemical Equilibrium with Transport Properties, 1993; (6) SDVIC - Sub-pixel Digital Video Image Correlation; (7) TRASYS - Thermal Radiation Analyzer System (HP9000 Series 700/800 Version without NASADIG); (8) NASADIG - NASA Device Independent Graphics Library, Version 6.0 (VAX VMS Version); and (9) NASADIG - NASA Device Independent Graphics Library, Version 6.0 (UNIX Version). Activities in the areas of marketing, customer service, benefits identification, maintenance and support, and dissemination are also described along with a budget summary.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1996

Computing Displacements And Strains From Video Images

Subpixel digital video image correlation (SDVIC) technique for measuring in-plane displacements on surfaces of objects under loads, without contact. Used for analyses of experimental research specimens or actual service structures of virtually any size or material. Only minimal preparation of test objects needed, and no need to isolate test objects from minor vibrations or fluctuating temperatures. Technique implemented by SDVIC software, producing color-graduated, full-field representations of in-plane displacements and partial derivatives with respect to position along both principal directions in each image plane. From representations, linear strains, shear strains, and rotation fields determined. Written in C language.

Russell, Samuel S.↗
NASA NTRS1997

Neural Network Prediction of Failure of Damaged Composite Pressure Vessels from Strain Field Data Acquired by a Computer Vision Method

This effort used a new and novel method of acquiring strains called Sub-pixel Digital Video Image Correlation (SDVIC) on impact damaged Kevlar/epoxy filament wound pressure vessels during a proof test. To predict the burst pressure, the hoop strain field distribution around the impact location from three vessels was used to train a neural network. The network was then tested on additional pressure vessels. Several variations on the network were tried. The best results were obtained using a single hidden layer. SDVIC is a fill-field non-contact computer vision technique which provides in-plane deformation and strain data over a load differential. This method was used to determine hoop and axial displacements, hoop and axial linear strains, the in-plane shear strains and rotations in the regions surrounding impact sites in filament wound pressure vessels (FWPV) during proof loading by internal pressurization. The relationship between these deformation measurement values and the remaining life of the pressure vessels, however, requires a complex theoretical model or numerical simulation. Both of these techniques are time consuming and complicated. Previous results using neural network methods had been successful in predicting the burst pressure for graphite/epoxy pressure vessels based upon acoustic emission (AE) measurements in similar tests. The neural network associates the character of the AE amplitude distribution, which depends upon the extent of impact damage, with the burst pressure. Similarly, higher amounts of impact damage are theorized to cause a higher amount of strain concentration in the damage effected zone at a given pressure and result in lower burst pressures. This relationship suggests that a neural network might be able to find an empirical relationship between the SDVIC strain field data and the burst pressure, analogous to the AE method, with greater speed and simplicity than theoretical or finite element modeling. The process of testing SDVIC neural network analysis and some encouraging preliminary results are presented in this paper. Details are given concerning the processing of SDVIC output data such that it may be used as back propagation neural network (BPNN) input data. The software written to perform this processing and the BPNN algorithm are also discussed. It will be shown that, with limited training, test results indicate an average error in burst pressure prediction of approximately six percent,

Russell, Samuel S.↗
NASA NTRS2026

Evaluating Energy Absorption Methods for Integrated Composite Seat Designs

Composite materials have become ubiquitous in the aerospace industry due to their exceptionally light weight and high strength characteristics, as well as their unique ability to be engineered and tailored to meet specific loading conditions and performance requirements. These advanced materials offer superior strength-to-weight ratios compared to traditional metallic materials, making them particularly valuable in weight-critical aerospace applications where every pound saved translates to improved efficiency and performance. In currently operating fleets of commercial and military aircraft, composite materials have been successfully applied to critical structural components, including primary load-bearing elements such as the fuselage sections and flooring structures, which must withstand significant in-flight loads and provide passenger safety. Additionally, these materials have been specifically tailored and optimized for aerodynamic components such as wings and tail assemblies, where their ability to be molded into complex shapes while maintaining structural integrity is particularly advantageous. The application of composite materials extends beyond primary structural elements into the realm of internal cabin components, most notably in innovative seat designs where weight reduction and structural integration are paramount concerns. Modern composite seat structures can be designed to integrate multiple functions, including structural support, comfort features, and safety systems, all while maintaining the lightweight characteristics essential for aircraft performance.

Digital image correlation↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Fluid-Thermal-Structural Interactions Induced by an Asymmetric Shock-Wave/Boundary-Layer Interaction in a Mach-6 Compression Corner

An experimental study is conducted of the fluid-thermal-structural interaction of a clamped compliant panel exposed to a three dimensional shock-wave/boundary-layer interaction (SWBLI) induced by a Mach-6 compression ramp with a spanwise nonuniform incoming boundary layer. The nonuniform boundary layer was produced by placing trips on one side of the upstream flat plate, resulting in largely turbulent flow on the tripped side and transitional flow on the untripped side. Measurements of the flowfield confirmed that the tripped boundary layer contained elevated levels of unsteadiness, and the SWBLI was observed to vary from attached to fully separated as the ramp angle was increased from 10◦ to 38◦; the separation region on the tripped side of the panel was noticeably smaller, showing the elevated turbulence levels of the tripped-side flow to remain relatively localized rather than diffusing across the whole model. Full-field, time-resolved panel deformations were measured using high-speed photogrammetry and the vibrational response at each compression angle was characterized. Although the measured modes conformed largely to those from classical clamped-plate theory, some skewing of the mode shapes was observed. IR thermography highlighted regions of the compliant region where elevated temperatures were likely to promote thermal softening effects to the transient panel response. The quasi-static deformation and stress field was used to characterize the internal stress factor of each mode and showed a meaningful relationship between transient panel response and stress contained within each mode: modes with antinodes lying in high-stress areas of the plate tended to exhibit increases in vibrational frequency and decreases in vibrational power, whereas the opposite was true for modes with antinodes in low-stress areas.

Spectral Proper Orthogonal Decomposition↗
NASA NTRS2003

Digital Particle Image Velocimetry (DPIV) Used for Space-Time Correlations in Nozzle Flow

An optical measurement technique known as Digital Particle Image Velocimetry (DPIV) was used previously to characterize the first- and second-order statistical properties of both cold and hot jet flows from externally mixed nozzles in NASA Glenn Research Center's Nozzle Acoustic Test Rig. In this technique, an electronic camera records particles entrained in a flow as a laser light sheet is pulsed at two instances in time. Correlation processing of the recorded particle image pairs yields the two-component velocity field across the imaged plane of the flow. The information acquired using DPIV is being used to improve our understanding of the decay of turbulence in jet flows-a critical element for understanding the acoustic properties of the flow. Recently, two independent DPIV systems were installed in Glenn's Small Hot Jet Acoustic Rig, enabling multiplane correlations in time and space. The data were collected over a range of different Mach numbers and temperature ratios. DPIV system 1 was fixed to a large traverse rig, and DPIV system 2 was mounted on a small traverse system mounted on the large traverse frame. The light sheets from the two DPIV systems were aligned to lie in the same axial plane, with DPIV system 2 being independently traversed downstream along the flow direction. For each measurement condition, the DPIV systems were started at a fully overlapping orientation. A polarization separation technique was used to avoid cross-talk between the two systems. Then, the DPIV systems fields were shifted axially apart, in successively increasing steps. The downstream DPIV system 2 was triggered at a short time delay after the upstream DPIV system 1, where the time delay was proportional to the convective flow velocity in the shear layer of the jet flow and the axial separation of the two DPIV systems. The acquired data were processed to obtain the instantaneous velocity vector maps over a range of time delays and spatial separations. The velocity fields from the different DPIV systems were then cross-correlated to determine the degree of correlation remaining in the flow as the downstream convection distance was increased. The new data provide Lagrangian measurements of the convective turbulent structures in the shear layer of an exhaust nozzle. These measurements, obtained in both cold and hot flows, will be used to validate and correct models for space-time velocity correlations-long a missing key to predicting jet noise.

Wernet, Mark P.↗
NASA NTRS1983

Digital enhancement of SAR imagery as an aid in geologic data extraction

The geological data content of Seasat A SAR imagery was assessed by correlating images of the Southern Appalachians with optical and digital techniques using a digital enhancement algorithm. The evaluation was performed in terms of lithology, lineaments, and geological structure. Digital correlation of the images was found to be more effective than optical correlation as a geological mapping instrument when considered in the light of ground truth data. The digital enhancement algorithm consists of a mean square error analysis which preserves the edge structure in the SAR imagery and decreases the noise content. Additionally, digital correlations allowed for faster computer processing of the imagery.

Frost, V. S.↗
NASA NTRS1983

Amplitude calibration of spaceborne synthetic aperture radars

Problems encountered during attempts to calibrate SAR imagery, recent successful experiments conducted with SEASAT SAR data, and a proposed program for the calibration and validation of the radar imagery from the forthcoming SIR-B SAR are discussed. The SEASAT SAR data for 10 passes over Death valley, California, were processed with a modified digital correlator. The procedure included a preliminary screening of the data to check for raw data saturation, compensation of waveforms and estimation of the amplitude of the pilot tone. All data was normalized to this pilot tone signal to reduce the effects of variable gains in the data links and ground receivers. The digital correlation algorithm generated image data. Evaluation of 6 passes results in a maximum pass to pass gain variation of only 1.1 dB and a standard deviation amongst the passes of 0.35 dB.

Held, D. N.↗