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Axial tension and compression are transmitted between end fittings and fiberglass tube without depending on glass-to-metal bonding, conventional fasteners or combination of these things. Joint design significantly reduces both structural weight of strut and its cross-sectional area.
Damaged fiberglass structures are repaired by substantially filling the irregular surfaced damaged area with a liquid, self-curing resin, preferably an epoxy resin mixed with chopped fiberglass, and then applying to the resin surface the first of several woven fiberglass swatches which has stitching in a zig-zag pattern parallel to each of its edges and a fringe of warp and fill glass fibers about the edges outward of the stitching. The method is especially applicable to repair of fiberglass rocket engine casings and is particularly advantageous since it restores the repaired fiberglass structure to substantially its original strength without any significant changes in the geometry or mass of the structure.
In the Native Village of Tununak, located on Nelson Island in Southwest Alaska,buildings are exposed to wind-driven rain and snow throughout the year. The Cold Climate Housing Research Center (CCHRC) and Knauf Insulation partnered with the community in 2018 to design a residence for a public safety officer. Construction began in fall 2021 and is scheduled to conclude in summer 2022. The house will use integrated trusses with floor, attic, and wall cavities filled with blown-in fiberglass insulation. Hygrothermal models of the building envelope system demonstrate that the high ambient moisture load will wet the outer edges of the insulation annually regardless of the extent and integrity of exterior weather sealing measures; blown-in fiberglass is expected to be more resilient to this wetting than blown-in cellulose. To verify this, researchers will embed temperature, relative humidity, and moisture sensors in the two windward walls of the house to monitor the ability of the blown-in fiberglass insulation to dry out after wetting events that may have occurred during the transport of the insulation to the building site, storage of the insulation on site, construction process, or after installation in the wall. Sensors will remain in place for two years,documenting the wall's performance over time and verifying the design's potential for use in buildings located in climates where the chance for moisture damage is high. Here, we describe the wall system , design criteria, and the results from the hygrothermal modeling. We share details on the monitoring system's components and the planned management and analysis of data. Finally, we explain how the experiences and data from this project will inform future builds in similar locations.
The paper describes the method of manufacturing fiberglass molds for vacuum pressure impregnation (VPI) of high-voltage insulation of superconductive magnetic systems (SMS) with epoxidian hot-setting compounds. The basic advantages of using such vacuum volumes are improved quality of insulation impregnation in complex-shaped areas, and considerable cost-saving of preparing VPI of large-sized components due to dispensing with the stage of fabricating a metal impregnating volume. Such fiberglass vacuum molds were used for VPI of high-voltage insulation samples of an ITER reactor’s PF1 poloidal coil. Electric insulation of these samples has successfully undergone a wide range of high-voltage and mechanical tests at room and cryogenic temperatures. Some results of the tests are also given in this paper.
Ceramic aerogels are attractive for thermal insulation due to its lightweight and low thermal conductivity, while it is indispensable to address the obstacle of its brittleness nature and large-scale manufacturing for building efficiency applications. The economical manufacturing of large-scale elastic thermal insulation aerogels has remained challenging. Herein, we report a universal manufacturing of the fiberglass reinforced aerogel composites where the architectured three-dimensional fiber networks with the cross-linked silica aerogel exhibit superinsulation and mechanical elasticity. These remarkable performances are obtained through in-situ cross-linking reaction between molecular assembly induced aerogel and fiberglass under ambient pressure drying environment, in which the interfacial interactions are verified from its infrared spectra. The resulting ultralight aerogel composite sheet exhibits a density of 0.1 g cm -3 , large strain recovery (>50%), and low thermal conductivity (0.0253 W m –1 K –1 ). Here, the thermal insulation aerogel composites shed light on the super-elastic aerogel manufacturing with scalability for energy saving building applications.
In this collaborative research project between ORNL and the Composites Division of Owens Corning (a world leader in the production of glass-fiber reinforcement materials), non-contact ultrasonic drying was studied as a way to enhance the drying of Dry-Use Fiberglass Products. Current methods of drying fiberglass products utilize traditional convection ovens with relatively low efficiency. Enhancing the drying process through the use of different techniques is highly desirable to reduce the overall energy consumption attributed to drying.
The design, fabrication, and testing of filament-wound, fiberglass cryogenic tank supports for a LH2 tank, a LF2/FLOX tank and a CH4 tank. These supports consist of filament-wound fiberglass tubes with titanium end fittings. These units were satisfactorily tested at cryogenic temperatures, thereby offering a design that can be reliably and economically produced in large or small quantities. The basic design concept is applicable to any situation where strong, lightweight axial load members are desired.
A lathe tool and holder combination for machining resin impregnated fiberglass cloth laminates is described. The tool holder and tool bit combination is designed to accommodate a conventional carbide-tipped, round shank router bit as the cutting medium, and provides an infinite number of cutting angles in order to produce a true and smooth surface in the fiberglass material workpiece with every pass of the tool bit. The technique utilizes damaged router bits which ordinarily would be discarded.
Analysis, design, fabrication, and test activities were conducted to develop additional technology needed for application of filament-wound fiberglass struts to cryogenic flight tankage. It was conclusively verified that monocoque cylinder or ogive struts are optimum or near-optimum for the range of lengths and loads studied, that a higher strength-to-weight ratio can be achieved for fiberglass struts than for any metallic struts, and that integrally-wrapped metallic end fittings can be used to achieve axial load transfer without reliance on bond strength or mechanical fasteners.
A conceptual design is presented for fiberglass production systems in both lunar and space environments. The raw material, of lunar origin, will be plagioclase concentrate, high silica content slag, and calcium oxide. Glass will be melted by solar energy. The multifurnace in the lunar plant and the spinning cylinder in the space plant are unique design features. Furnace design appears to be the most critical element in optimizing system performance. A conservative estimate of the total power generated by solar concentrators is 1880 kW; the mass of both plants is 120 tons. The systems will reproduce about 90 times their total mass in fiberglass in 1 year. A new design concept would be necessary if glass rods were produced in space.
Acoustical performance and pressure drop were measured for two types of splitters designed to attenuate sound propagating in ducts - resonant-cavity baffles and fiberglass-filled baffles. Arrays of four baffles were evaluated in the 7- by 10-foot wind tunnel number 1 at Ames Research Center at flow speeds from 0 to 41 m/sec. The baffles were 2.1 m high, 305 to 406 mm thick, and 3.1 to 4.4 m long. Emphasis was on measurements of silencer insertion loss as affected by variations of such parameters as baffle length, baffle thickness, perforated skin geometry, cavity size and shape, cavity damping, wind speed, and acoustic field directivity. An analytical method for predicting silencer performance is described and compared with measurements. With the addition of cavity damping in the form of 25-mm foam linings, the insertion loss above 250 Hz of the resonant-cavity baffles was improved 2 to 7 db compared with the undamped baffles; the loss became equal to or greater than the insertion loss of comparable size fiberglass baffles at frequencies above 250 Hz. Variations of cavity size and shape showed that a series of cavities with triangular cross-sections (i.e., variable depth) were superior to cavities with rectangular cross sections (i.e., constant depth). In wind, the undamped, resonant-cavity baffles generated loud cavity-resonance tones; the tones could be eliminated by cavity damping.
The concept of using foam and fiberglass reinforced plastic to modify airfoils and fairings was applied successfully to high-speed aircraft at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center. An on-aircraft installation method was used to modify an F-15 wing glove and wing leading edge and an F-104 flap trailing edge in support of the Shuttle tile airload tests. A combination of methods, both an on-aircraft installation and an off-aircraft fabrication for installation on the aircraft, was used to modify a section of an F-111 supercritical wing with a natural laminar flow airfoil. Techniques, methods, problem areas, and recommendations are presented which indicate that using foam and fiberglass to modify airfoils and fairings on high-speed aircraft is a viable means of quickly developing airfoils and fairings with desired aerodynamic characteristics with little risk to the parent or carrier aircraft.
The compressor driving the flow in the National Transonic Facility, which is nearing completion at the Langley Research Center, has 25 fiberglass blades. E-glass cloth with a pre-impregnated epoxy resin has been selected as the material for the fan blades because of its low cost, high damping, and fatigue resistance. A complete characterization is presented of this fan blade fiberglass system at temperatures of 367 K, room temperature, and 89 K. The characterization test results suggest that the material follows the general trends of metals and other glass-reinforced plastics at cryogenic temperatures. A slight diminution in strength was observed at the elevated temperature. The tests included the following: tensile, compression, fatigue, inplane shear, interlaminar shear, thermal expansion, creep, and thermal cycle.
An experimental study is reported in which a nondestructive technique involving the use of a transparent fiberglass-epoxy composite birefringent material has been used to investigate compression failure mechanisms in graphite-epoxy laminates. It is shown that the birefringency and transparency of the fiberglass-epoxy material permits regions of high stress to be located and the mechanisms of local failure propagation to be identified within the laminate. The material may also be useful for studying stress fields and for identifying failure initiation and propagation mechanisms in a wide variety of composite-structure problems.
Fiberglass-epoxy composites are considered for use as structural members for the mast of the space station solar array panel. The low Earth orbital environment in which space station is to operate is composed mainly of atomic oxygen, which has been shown to cause erosion of many organic materials and some metals. Ground based testing in a plasma asher was performed to determine the extent of degradation of fiberglass-epoxy composites when exposed to a simulated atomic oxygen environment. During exposure, the epoxy at the surface of the composite was oxidized, exposing individual glass fibers which could easily be removed. Several methods of protecting the composite were evaluated in an atomic oxygen environment and with thermal cycling and flexing. The protection techniques evaluated to date include an aluminum braid covering, an indium-tin eutectic and a silicone based paint. The open aluminum braid offered little protection while the CV-1144 coating offered some initial protection against atomic oxygen, but appears to develop cracks which accelerate degradation when flexed. Coatings such as the In-Sn eutectic may provide adequate protection by containing the glass fibers even though mass loss still occurs.
The extent of degradation of fiberglass-epoxy composite masts of the Space Station solar array panel, when these are exposed to atomic oxygen environment of the low-earth orbit, was investigated in ground testing of fiberglass-epoxy composites in an RF plasma asher. In addition, several methods of protecting the composite structures were evaluated, including an aluminum braid covering, an In-Sn eutectic, and a silicone based paint. It was found that, during exposure, the epoxy at the surface of the composite was oxidized, exposing individual glass fibers which could easily be removed. The results of mass measurements and SEM examination carried out after thermal cycling and flexing of exposed composite samples indicated that coatings such as In-Sn eutectic may provide adequate protection by containing the glass fibers, even though mass loss still occurs.
Complaints characteristic of those for sick building syndrome prompted mycological investigations of a modern multi-story office building on the Gulf coast in the Southeastern United States (Houston-Galveston area). The air handling units and fiberglass duct liner of the heating, ventilating and air conditioning system of the building, without a history of catastrophic or chronic water damage, demonstrated extensive colonization with Penicillium spp and Cladosporium herbarum. Although dense fungal growth was observed on surfaces within the heating-cooling system, most air samples yielded fewer than 200 CFU m-3. Several volatile compounds found in the building air were released also from colonized fiberglass. Removal of colonized insulation from the floor receiving the majority of complaints of mouldy air and continuous operation of the units supplying this floor resulted in a reduction in the number of complaints.
Hollow-structured materials show promise in thermal insulation because the shells encapsulating gaseous voids can interrupt heat transport pathways. Here, in this study, we present two low-cost routes to fabricate hollow silica nanoshells, via gas-phase and liquid-phase methods. The gas-phase synthesis method generates hollow shells by a droplet surface precipitation mechanism in a flame aerosol reactor. The liquid-phase synthesis route forms hollow shells by removal of a carbon template, which is produced by hydrothermal reaction of glucose. Both approaches (gas- and liquid-phase) provide hollow silica with amorphous structure, low thermal conductivity (0.023 and 0.026 W m –1 K –1 ), small particle size (442 and 383 nm), thin shell (35 and 36 nm), and low density (0.015 and 0.033 g cm –3 ). We employed high shear mechanical mixing to fabricate hollow silica-fiberglass composite ceramics. The resulting three-dimensional network provides the ceramics with robust mechanical elasticity and fire-retardancy while maintaining low thermal conductivity, dramatically outperforming an analogous material using commercial silica gel in place of the hollow nanoshells. Our findings provide two practical routes to synthesize hollow silica, either of which can be used to manufacture a class of hollow shell-fiber nanocomposite soft ceramics for energy-saving applications.