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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 1,747 records · Page 97
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2011

Non-Contact Thermal Properties Measurement with Low-Power Laser and IR Camera System

As shown by the Phoenix Mars Lander's Thermal and Electrical Conductivity Probe (TECP), contact measurements of thermal conductivity and diffusivity (using a modified flux-plate or line-source heat-pulse method) are constrained by a number of factors. Robotic resources must be used to place the probe, making them unavailable for other operations for the duration of the measurement. The range of placement is also limited by mobility, particularly in the case of a lander. Placement is also subject to irregularities in contact quality, resulting in non-repeatable heat transfer to the material under test. Most important from a scientific perspective, the varieties of materials which can be measured are limited to unconsolidated or weakly-cohesive regolith materials, rocks, and ices being too hard for nominal insertion strengths. Accurately measuring thermal properties in the laboratory requires significant experimental finesse, involving sample preparation, controlled and repeatable procedures, and, practically, instrumentation much more voluminous than the sample being tested (heater plates, insulation, temperature sensors). Remote measurements (infrared images from orbiting spacecraft) can reveal composite properties like thermal inertia, but suffer both from a large footprint (low spatial resolution) and convolution of the thermal properties of a potentially layered medium. In situ measurement techniques (the Phoenix TECP is the only robotic measurement of thermal properties to date) suffer from problems of placement range, placement quality, occupation of robotic resources, and the ability to only measure materials of low mechanical strength. A spacecraft needs the ability to perform a non-contact thermal properties measurement in situ. Essential components include low power consumption, leveraging of existing or highly-developed flight technologies, and mechanical simplicity. This new in situ method, by virtue of its being non-contact, bypasses all of these problems. The use of photons to both excite and measure the thermal response of any surface material to a high resolution (estimated footprint = 10 square centimeters) is a generational leap in physical properties measurements. The proposed method consists of spot-heating the surface of a material with a low (less than 1 W) power laser. This produces a moderate (5-10 K) temperature increase in the material.

Hudson, Troy L.↗
NASA NTRS2013

Arcjet Testing of Micro-Meteoroid Impacted Thermal Protection Materials

There are several harsh space environments that could affect thermal protection systems and in turn pose risks to the atmospheric entry vehicles. These environments include micrometeoroid impact, extreme cold temperatures, and ionizing radiation during deep space cruise, all followed by atmospheric entry heating. To mitigate these risks, different thermal protection material samples were subjected to multiple tests, including hyper velocity impact, cold soak, irradiation, and arcjet testing, at various NASA facilities that simulated these environments. The materials included a variety of honeycomb packed ablative materials as well as carbon-based non-ablative thermal protection systems. The present paper describes the results of the multiple test campaign with a focus on arcjet testing of thermal protection materials. The tests showed promising results for ablative materials. However, the carbon-based non-ablative system presented some concerns regarding the potential risks to an entry vehicle. This study provides valuable information regarding the capability of various thermal protection materials to withstand harsh space environments, which is critical to sample return and planetary entry missions.

Agrawal, Parul↗
DOE OSTI2023

Differential Scanning Calorimetry Calibration and Heat Capacity

The Differential Scanning Calorimeter(DSC) is used to find multiple properties ofmaterials such as heat capacity, melting points, crystallization, and more. Fermilabowns the NETZSCH DSC 404 F3 Pegasus to test novel material for a high poweredtargetry components. The DSC heats up to 1500 C, uses a platinum furnace, and Al 2 O 3 crucibles. In order for the DSC to produce consistent and correct data,calibration of the machine was necessary. Testing with the given calibration kit ofknown metals. Once calibrated, testing on novel materials for their specific heatcapacity ensues.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
NASA NTRS1973

Reuseable lightweight modular multi-layer insulation for space shuttle

The adaptation of the Self Evacuating Multilayer Insulation System to the space shuttle orbiter liquid hydrogen tanks was investigated. Small scale material screening tests and subscale panel tests demonstrated the potential of the insulation to withstand the anticipated 100 flight cycles. The composition of the material and the process for producing the finished insulation are described. Results of the various tests to determine the durability of the material are presented.

Burr, K. F.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Fuel containment and damage tolerance in large composite primary aircraft structures. Phase 2: Testing

Technical issues associated with fuel containment and damage tolerance of composite wing structures for transport aircraft were investigated. Material evaluation tests were conducted on two toughened resin composites: Celion/HX1504 and Celion/5245. These consisted of impact, tension, compression, edge delamination, and double cantilever beam tests. Another test series was conducted on graphite/epoxy box beams simulating a wing cover to spar cap joint configuration of a pressurized fuel tank. These tests evaluated the effectiveness of sealing methods with various fastener types and spacings under fatigue loading and with pressurized fuel. Another test series evaluated the ability of the selected coatings, film, and materials to prevent fuel leakage through 32-ply AS4/2220-1 laminates at various impact energy levels. To verify the structural integrity of the technology demonstration article structural details, tests were conducted on blade stiffened panels and sections. Compression tests were performed on undamaged and impacted stiffened AS4/2220-1 panels and smaller element tests to evaluate stiffener pull-off, side load and failsafe properties. Compression tests were also performed on panels subjected to Zone 2 lightning strikes. All of these data were integrated into a demonstration article representing a moderately loaded area of a transport wing. This test combined lightning strike, pressurized fuel, impact, impact repair, fatigue and residual strength.

Sandifer, J. P.↗
DOE OSTI2015

Effects of Irradiation on Material G347A: Prepared for Tokai Carbon Co., Ltd. (Final Report)

This joint program between Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and Tokai Carbon Co., Ltd., began in 2009 with the final objective being the preliminary qualification of graphite grade G347A as a candidate material for use in the Generation-IV high temperature gas-cooled nuclear reactor (HTGR). The first segment of this program involved the planning and design of the irradiation program, and the investigation of the feasibility of using specimens smaller than recommended in the pertinent American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) International test standards. The results from the first segment were provided to the program sponsor in the document titled “Graphite Pre-Irradiation Specimen Size Validation and Testing Program – Results – Tokai Carbon Japan” [1]. The second segment of this program included the irradiation of the graphite and the measurement of the changes to a set of predefined physical, mechanical, and thermal properties.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2017

Report on Effects of Irradiation on Material IG-110 - Prepared for Toyo Tanso Co., Ltd.

This joint program between Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and Toyo Tanso Co., Ltd., began in 2010 with the final objective being the creation of qualification data of graphite grade IG-110 as a candidate material for use in the Generation-IV high temperature gas-cooled nuclear reactor (HTGR). The first segment of this program involved the planning and design of the irradiation program, and the investigation of the feasibility of using specimens smaller than recommended in the pertinent American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) International test standards. The results from the first segment were provided to the program sponsor in the document titled “ Graphite Pre-Irradiation Specimen Size Validation and Testing Program-Results-Toyo Tanso Japan ” [1]. The second segment of this program included the irradiation of the graphite and the measurement of the changes to a set of pre-defined physical, mechanical, and thermal properties. The third segment of this program studies the irradiation-induced creep due to an applied compression stress.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2020

Benchmarking materials property prediction methods: the Matbench test set and Automatminer reference algorithm

Abstract We present a benchmark test suite and an automated machine learning procedure for evaluating supervised machine learning (ML) models for predicting properties of inorganic bulk materials. The test suite, Matbench, is a set of 13 ML tasks that range in size from 312 to 132k samples and contain data from 10 density functional theory-derived and experimental sources. Tasks include predicting optical, thermal, electronic, thermodynamic, tensile, and elastic properties given a material’s composition and/or crystal structure. The reference algorithm, Automatminer, is a highly-extensible, fully automated ML pipeline for predicting materials properties from materials primitives (such as composition and crystal structure) without user intervention or hyperparameter tuning. We test Automatminer on the Matbench test suite and compare its predictive power with state-of-the-art crystal graph neural networks and a traditional descriptor-based Random Forest model. We find Automatminer achieves the best performance on 8 of 13 tasks in the benchmark. We also show our test suite is capable of exposing predictive advantages of each algorithm—namely, that crystal graph methods appear to outperform traditional machine learning methods given ~10 4 or greater data points. We encourage evaluating materials ML algorithms on the Matbench benchmark and comparing them against the latest version of Automatminer.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2020

A Comparative Study of Two BAM Designs for Friction Sensitivity Testing of Explosives

A new commercial design of BAM friction tester that utilizes a programmable servo motor was tested in comparison to the traditional cam-driven model. Displacement and velocity profiles were analyzed for both designs; significant differences were found between the two designs, most notable of which is that the traditional cam-driven unit has plate velocities that can be 50–75 % greater than those seen on the servo-driven model. Five energetic materials were also tested on each machine, including PETN, RDX, HMX, CL-20, and HNAB. Finally, results from the servo-driven model generally showed slightly less sensitivity when compared to the cam driven model, though the magnitude of the difference is not significant enough to require modification of safe handling procedures for the materials tested.

45 MILITARY TECHNOLOGY, WEAPONRY, AND NATIONAL DEF↗
DOE OSTI2023

Transition in helium bubble strengthening of copper from quasi-static to dynamic deformation

Damage from low-temperature irradiation and the subsequent degradation of materials performance pose significant challenges for the storage of radioactive materials and for peripheral components in some nuclear reactor designs. Fully understanding the mechanical behavior of such materials requires test data for strain rates in both the quasi-static (< 10/s) and dynamic (>> 10/s) regimes. While dynamic testing has generally been avoided in the past for neutron irradiated (contamination concerns) and ion irradiated (insufficient volume) materials, surface-sensitive Richtmyer-Meshkov instability (RMI) tests were used in the present work to overcome these limitations. Here, nanopillar compression, nanoindentation, and RMI testing data from a helium implanted surface layer (~10 µm thick) were compiled to explore the effects of helium bubbles on the materials strength of high-purity copper at strain rates of 0.001/s – 10 8 /s. While nano-mechanical testing revealed increases in yield strength and hardness with increasing helium dose from 1000 to 4000 appm He, RMI indicated no significant changes in strength as compared to unimplanted copper. Here, this discrepancy in behavior was rationalized through a combination of recent literature and follow-on molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, leading to the conclusion that the nanoscale helium bubbles acting as dispersed barriers to dislocation motion at quasi-static strain rates collapse under shock loading and cease to be effective barriers at high strain rates.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
NASA NTRS2016

The Spacecraft Fire Experiment (Saffire) - Objectives, Development and Status

Since 2012, the Spacecraft Fire Experiment (Saffire) has been under development by the Spacecraft Fire Safety Demonstration (SFS Demo) project that is funded by NASA's Advanced Exploration Systems Division in the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate. The overall objective of this project is to reduce the uncertainty and risk associated with the design of spacecraft fire safety systems for NASA's exploration missions. This is accomplished by defining, developing, and conducting experiments that address gaps in spacecraft fire safety knowledge and capabilities identified by NASA's Fire Safety System Maturation Team. This paper describes the three Spacecraft Fire Experiments (Saffire-I, -II, and -III) that were developed at NASA-GRC and that will conduct a series of material flammability tests in low-gravity and at length scales that are realistic for a spacecraft fire. The experiments will be conducted in Orbital ATK's Cygnus vehicle after it has unberthed from the International Space Station. The tests will be fully automated with the data downlinked at the conclusion of the test and before the Cygnus vehicle reenters the atmosphere. The objectives of these experiments are to (1) determine how rapidly a large scale fire grows in low-gravity and (2) investigate the low-g flammability limits compared to those obtained in NASA's normal gravity material flammability screening test. The hardware for these experiments has been completed and is awaiting their respective launches, all planned for 2016. This paper will review the objectives of these experiments and how they address several of the knowledge gaps for NASA's exploration missions. The hardware development will be discussed including several novel approaches that were taken for testing and evaluation of these series payloads. The status of the missions and operational status will also be presented.

combustion↗
NASA NTRS1989

Some composite bearing and seal materials for gas turbine applications: A review

A review is made of the selection and tribological testing of materials for high-temperature bearings and seals. The goal is to achieve good tribological properties over a wide range of temperatures because bearings and seals must be functional from low temperature start-up conditions on up to the maximum temperatures encountered during engine operation. Plasma sprayed composite coatings with favorable tribological properties from 25 to 900 C are discussed. The performance of these coatings in simple tribological bench tests is described. Examples are also given of their performance in high-speed sliding contact seals and as Stirling cylinder liner materials, and as back up lubricants for compliant foil gas bearings.

Sliney, Harold E.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Some composite bearing and seal materials for gas turbine applications - A review

A review is made of the selection and tribological testing of materials for high-temperature bearings and seals. The goal is to achieve good tribological properties over a wide range of temperatures because bearings and seals must be functional from low temperature start-up conditions on up to the maximum temperatures encountered during engine operation. Plasma sprayed composite coatings with favorable tribological properties from 25 to 900 C are discussed. The performance of these coatings in simple tribological bench tests is described. Examples are also given of their performance in high-speed sliding contact seals and as Stirling cylinder liner materials, and as backup lubricants for compliant foil gas bearings.

Sliney, Harold E.↗
NASA NTRS2018

NASA ACC High Energy Dynamic Impact Methodology and Outcomes

High fidelity analysis methods known as Progressive Damage Analysis (PDA) methods, capable of reliably predicting the onset and progression of damage in composite materials, are being developed for HEDI event simulation. Four state-of-the-art PDA methods are being investigated: LS-DYNA MAT162, LS-DYNA MAT261, Smooth-Particle Galerkin (SPG), and EMU Peridynamics. Validation of these PDA models aims to follow a building block approach, starting with coupon- and component-level development. As part of the overall effort, material characterization testing was performed to bridge gaps between existing experimental data and the material property inputs required to predict ballistic impact behavior at the component-level. The material models were updated with the results of the coupon-level testing and were then used to predict panel behavior and damage in ballistic impact events. To assess the accuracy of the PDA methods, these pre-test predictions were compared to the results of ballistic impact testing.

Hunziker, Kenneth J.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Time dependent behavior of a graphite/thermoplastic composite and the effects of stress and physical aging

Two complimentary studies were performed to determine the effects of stress and physical aging on the matrix dominated time dependent properties of IM7/8320 composite. The first of these studies, experimental in nature, used isothermal tensile creep/aging test techniques developed for polymers and adapted them for testing of the composite material. From these tests, the time dependent transverse (S22) and shear (S66) compliance's for an orthotropic plate were found from short term creep compliance measurements at constant, sub-T(sub g) temperatures. These compliance terms were shown to be affected by physical aging. Aging time shift factors and shift rates were found to be a function of temperature and applied stress. The second part of the study relied upon isothermal uniaxial tension tests of IM7/8320 to determine the effects of physical aging on the nonlinear material behavior at elevated temperature. An elastic/viscoplastic constitutive model was used to quantify the effects of aging on the rate-independent plastic and rate-dependent viscoplastic response. Sensitivity of the material constants required by the model to aging time were determined for aging times up to 65 hours. Verification of the analytical model indicated that the effects of prior aging on the nonlinear stress/strain/time data of matrix dominated laminates can be predicted.

Gates, Thomas S.↗
DOE OSTI2017

Development of inert density mock materials for HMX

Inert surrogates or mocks for high explosives are commonly used in place of the real material for complex experiments or in situations where safety is a concern. We tested several materials as potential mocks for HMX in terms of density, thermal stability, and processability. Selection criteria were developed and a literature search was conducted primarily using the Cambridge Structural Database. Moreover, out of over 200 potentially acceptable materials, six were chosen for crystallization experiments and a suite of analytical characterization. Of these six, 5-iodo-2'-deoxyuridine, N,N'-bis(2,3,4,5,6-pentafluorophenyl)oxamide, and 2,3,4,5,6-pentafluorobenzamide all were found to be thermally stable at 150°C, matched HMX density as a pressed pellet, and could be crystallized to appropriate particle sizes. These three materials are considered suitable inert density mocks for HMX and will be the subject of future testing.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2015

In-situ tube burst testing and high-temperature deformation behavior of candidate materials for accident tolerant fuel cladding

The high resistance of cladding to plastic deformation and burst failure is one of the most essential properties of accident tolerant fuel (ATF) for maintaining structural integrity during a loss-of-coolant accident (LOCA) since the deformation and burst behavior governs the cooling efficiency of flow channels and process of fission product release. To simulate and evaluate such deformation and burst process of thin-walled cladding, an in-situ testing and evaluation method has been developed on the basis of visual imaging and image analysis techniques. The method uses a specialized optics system consisted of a high-resolution video camera, light filtering unit, and monochromatic light sources, and the in-situ testing is performed using a 50 mm long pressurized thin-walled tubular specimen set in a programmable furnace. In this study eleven (11) candidate cladding materials for ATF, i.e., 6 FeCrAl alloys and 5 nanostructured steels, were tested using the newly developed method, and the time-dependent images were analyzed to produce detailed deformation and burst data such as true hoop stress, strain (creep) rate, and failure stress. Relatively soft FeCrAl alloys deformed and burst below 800°C while negligible strain rates were measured for higher strength alloys and/or for relatively thick wall specimens.

Gussev, Maxim N.↗