Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “time-temperature superposition”

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.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

Experimental and modeling studies of IPDI-based polyurea elastomers – The role of hard segment fraction

Segmented polyureas (PUa) are industrially important class of polymers widely used in coatings, sealant, and adhesive applications. Here, in this paper, we report synthesis, characterization, and modeling of Isophorone Diisocyanate-Diethyl-Toluene-Diamine-Polyether amine (IPDI-DETDA-PO PUa) with varied hard segment contents of 20, 30, and 40 weight percent. For each of the three materials, we study its structure and phase behavior using FTIR, DSC, and TEM, and clearly show the presence of microphase separation between the hard and soft nanodomains. We then measure the linear viscoelastic response of the PUa-s using DMA (frequency sweeps at multiple temperatures). The DMA data are shown to obey the time-temperature superposition. Finally, we develop a new micromechanical model describing the DMA results; the model describes a phase-separated PUa as two “Fractional-order Maxwell gels” branches, connected in parallel, with the first FMG branch representing the “percolated hard phase" and the second one modeling the “filled soft phase". In agreement with the earlier thermodynamic theories, the volume-fraction of the percolated hard phase is related to the hard segment weight-fraction (HSWF), defined as the combined mass of IPDI and DETDA normalized to the total mass of the polymer. The data and model are found to be in a good qualitative and quantitative agreement.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Microstructure homogenization of concrete used in nuclear power plants

Almost all nuclear power plants in the United States are operating past their intended lifetimes or are requesting lifetime extensions. Therefore, understanding changes to the concrete containment structure over time is crucial to evaluate the structure’s continued viability. Concrete materials are heterogeneous particulate composites that exhibit viscoelastic material properties, which can lead to slow deformation over time, causing stress redistribution and the potential for creep cracking. A code to generate random, three dimensional (3D) concrete microstructures has been developed and paired with finite element analysis to predict the long-term viscoelastic properties of concrete. Data from these simulations are used to develop constitutive equations for the viscoelastic behavior of the homogenized concrete. The codes in this work are used to virtualize laboratory experiments, to obtain long-term creep data in a faster, cheaper manner. To validate this work, the simulated creep behavior of concrete is compared to 800 d of experimental data that has been extended to 27 y of data using the Time-Temperature superposition (TTS) principal. Excellent agreement between the simulation results and experimental data is seen.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

H2 Materials Compatibility of Low Cost, High Pressure, Polymer H2 Dispensing Hoses

NanoSonic was recently awarded a DOE Phase IIB SBIR program for the commercialization of an innovative metal-free polymer based H2 dispensing hose to make H2 an economically viable fuel alternative to gasoline. During the Phase I and Phase II base programs, NanoSonic's H2 hose demonstrated ultra-high hydrostatic burst strength values > 31,000 psi where failure occurred due to fitting slippage, rather than hose burst. Additionally, our hoses survived > 51,000 pressure impulse cycles at 12,000 psi over a thermal cycle of -40 °C to 85 °C. These hoses also failed due to fitting slippage. Thus, our Phase IIB program is centralized on the addition of a new fitting, polymer hose refinement, and validation of a complete hose and fitting system certified for use with H2. While NanoSonic has partnered with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to test our hose on their robotic H2 dispensing system, we are also seeking durability with the H2 environment at the molecular level. Here, NanoSonic proposes a CRADA with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), who has expertise in H2 polymer materials compatibility. Together, we will determine the lifetime of our H2 hose polymer and composite constituents via: 1) time-temperature superposition (TTS) studies via dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) under H2, 2) friction and wear resistance under in situ H2 tribometry, and 3) multi-axis strain testing under cryogenic conditions. PNNL has the unique test equipment essential to gain this type of insight and lifetime prediction data. Importantly, the work conducted under the proposed CRADA will increase the safety and reliability of our H2 hoses while expanding the market for use of our low H2 permeation polymers and durable cryogenic composites to realize the H2@Scale objectives to reduce the cost of H2.

08 HYDROGEN↗

Initial Testing of an In Situ Load Retention Aging Vessel

A thermal aging vessel instrumented with load cells was fabricated. The primary function of the vessel is to continuously monitor the in situ load retention of up to three compressed polymer coupons undergoing thermally accelerated aging under nitrogen. A secondary function is to enable gas sampling of the vessel headspace during thermal aging. Heating of the vessel is achieved using a custom heater jacket. To improve upon our conventional aging study methods which require periodic interruption of aging to perform load testing in an Instron machine at room temperature, this technology aims to automate/facilitate data acquisition/analysis, improve data quality, and enable uninterrupted compression of the polymer which represents the service condition. As an example case to assess functionality of the in situ vessel, the load retention of a siloxane elastomer material additively manufactured by direct-ink-writing (DIW) was measured at three different isothermal aging temperatures for ~1 month. Initial compression of the coupons while near the aging temperature was achieved by temporarily opening the heated vessel to access the interior chamber and manually tightening four nuts to drive the heated compression plate down onto the heated coupons. Initial testing demonstrated achievement of the primary load retention monitoring function. Unfortunately, the vessel leaked which prevented gas sampling; an active purge was used to maintain a nitrogen atmosphere. Welded or otherwise sealed joints, which could be implemented in a future design, would likely eliminate leak paths. To apply time-temperature superposition (TTS), a technique used to provide long-term prediction of the load retention from short-term isothermal data, the load retention needed to be calculated relative to the load at an estimated “equilibrium” time, after most of the transient viscoelastic physical relaxation occurred. The peak load immediately after compression could not be used as the load retention basis for two reasons: (1) age-related changes must be isolated from non-age-related physical relaxation before applying TTS and (2) the manual mechanism used to compress the specimens at the aging temperature was neither smooth nor repeatable which affected the peak load value. To better understand the effect of the mode of initial compression on the measured load, and possibly better estimate “equilibrium” physical relaxation times, systematic stress relaxation experiments were performed using an Instron machine with a thermal chamber. At a given temperature, the DIW polymer was compressed to a fixed strain in either a stepped or continuous manner at two different rates, then held at that strain for 24 hrs. The results indicated that, at a given temperature, the different stress relaxation curves appeared to converge to the same curve at some “equilibrium” time when the non-age-related physical relaxation was mostly complete. Though this observation suggests that the discontinuous manual compression employed by the vessel is feasible, a compression mechanism that is rapid, smooth, and repeatable would enhance its use.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Interpreting test temperature and loading rate effects on the fracture toughness of polymer-metal interfaces via time–temperature superposition

Here, in this letter, we present interfacial fracture toughness data for a polymer-metal interface where tests were conducted at various test temperatures T and loading rates $\dot{δ}$. An adhesively bonded asymmetric double cantilever beam (ADCB) specimen was utilized to measure toughness. ADCB specimens were created by bonding a thinner, upper adherend to a thicker, lower adherend (both 6061 T6 aluminum) using a thin layer of epoxy adhesive, such that the crack propagated along the interface between the thinner adherend and the epoxy layer. The specimens were tested at T from 25 to 65 °C and $\dot{δ}$ from 0.002 to 0.2 mm/s. The measured interfacial toughness Γ increased as both T and $\dot{δ}$ increased. For an ADCB specimen loaded at a constant $\dot{δ}$, the energy release rate G increases as the crack length a increases. For this reason, we defined rate effects in terms of the rate of change in the energy release rate $\dot{G}$. Although not rigorously correct, a formal application of time–temperature superposition (TTS) analysis to the Γ data provided useful insights on the observed dependencies. In the TTS-shifted data, Γ decreased and then increased for monotonically increasing $\dot{G}$. Thus, the TTS analysis suggests that there is a minimum value of Γ. This minimum value could be used to define a lower bound in Γ when designing critical engineering applications that are subjected to T and $\dot{δ}$ excursions.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Time-temperature-superposition analysis of diverse datasets by the minimum-arclength method: long-term prediction with uncertainty margins

In a recent publication, we carried out an extensive analysis of an unsupervised method of determining optimum shift factors in time-temperature-superposition of accelerated-aging data that involves minimizing the vertical arclength to obtain the master curve. For synthetic Arrhenius data with a variety of noise distributions, the work showed that, in conjunction with bootstrap-resampling, the method can produce reliable estimates of the mean activation energy along with uncertainty quantification. Here, we apply the above method to six different datasets taken from the published literature and demonstrate accurate prediction of mean activation energy from the data as-is without the need for any pre-processing or fitting. We also compare uncertainty margins computed by second-order bootstrap with that by linear regression theory and show that the former appears to provide consistent margins in the presence of common noise types in real data, including intra-isotherm measurement-errors, sample-to-sample variations, and intrinsic deviation from perfect Arrhenius behavior.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Accelerated Creep Testing of Inconel 718 Using the Stepped Isostress Method (SSM)

This paper demonstrates the stepped isostress method (SSM); an accelerated creep test (ACT) for the rapid assessment of metallic materials. The SSM test is based on the time-temperature-stress superposition principle (TTSSP) where temperature and/or stress are step increased to accelerate the time-to-rupture. The SSM test has proven successful for the ACT of polymers and polymeric composites but has yet to be proven for metallic materials. In this study, new test matrix design rules for the SSM of metals are established based on deformation mechanism, time-temperature transformation, and time-temperature precipitation maps. A test matrix of SSM and conventional creep tests (CCTs) are executed for alloy Inconel 718 at 750°C (1382°F) with stress levels ranging from 100 to 350 MPa. Validation CCT data is gathered from the Japan National Institute of Material Science (NIMS). Material constants for the Sine-hyperbolic (Sinh) constitutive model are calibrated using the SSM data and employed to predict the conventional creep response. Here, when blindly compared to the CCT data, the SSM calibrated Sinh model can accurately predict the conventional creep response across logarithmic decades and thus accelerate the capture of conventional creep data. Fractography indicates ductile fracture by transgranular microvoid coalescence (TMVC) with the same fracture mode observed in both SSM and CCT specimens. Creep cavitation is indicated by the population, smoothness, and size of microvoids.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗