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At least 217 records · Page 12
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1978

Thick section aluminum weldments for SRB structures

The Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Booster (SRB) forward and aft skirts were designed with fracture control considerations used in the design data. Fracture control is based on reliance upon nondestructive evaluation (NDE) techniques to detect potentially critical flaws. In the aerospace industry, welds on aluminum in the thicknesses (0.500 to 1.375 in.) such as those encountered on the SRB skirts are normally welded from both sides to minimize distortion. This presents a problem with the potential presence of undefined areas of incomplete fusion and the inability to detect these potential flaws by NDE techniques. To eliminate the possibility of an undetectable defect, weld joint design was revised to eliminate blind root penetrations. Weld parameters and mechanical property data were developed to verify the adequacy of the new joint design.

Bayless, E.↗
NASA NTRS2014

Development of New Dielectric NDE Techniques for Spaceflight Materials

Dielectric Spectroscopy is a relatively new technique for non-destructively measuring material properties. The goal for this project is to extend the use of state-of-the-art dielectric spectroscopy systems to measure the spectra of spaceflight materials and develop non-destructive evaluation (NDE) sensors based on dielectric material properties. This work may lead to a new class of material density, moisture, temperature, and defect sensors providing structural integrity and health measurements for future spacecraft and launch structures.

Project↗
NASA NTRS2020

Desorption Kinetics of O and CO from Graphitic Carbon Surfaces

The desorption of O/CO from graphitic carbon surfaces is investigated using a one-dimensional model describing the adsorbate interactions with the surface phonon bath. The kinetics of desorption are described through the solution of a master equation for the time-dependent population of the adsorbate in an oscillator state, which is modified through thermal fluctuations at the surface. The interaction of the adsorbate with the surface phonons is explicitly captured by using the computed phonon density Of states (PDOS) of the surface. The coupling of the adsorbate with the phonon bath results in the transition of the adsorbate up and down a vibrational ladder. The adsorbate-surface interaction is represented in the model using a Morse potential, which allows for the desorption process to be directly modeled as a transition from bound to free (continuum) state. The PDOS is a property of the material and the lattice; and is highly sensitive to the presence of defects. The effect of etch pits along with random surface defects on the PDOS is considered in the present work. The presence of defects causes a redshift and broadening of the PDOS, which in turn changes the phonon frequency modes available for adsorbate coupling at the surface. Using the realistic PDOS distributions, the phonon-induced desorption (PID) model was used to compute the transition and desorption rates for both pristine and defective systems. Mathissen’s rule is used to compute the phonon relaxation time for pristine and defective systems based on the phonon scattering times for each of the different scattering processes. First, the desorption rates of the pristine system is fitted against the experimental values to obtain the Morse potential parameters for each of the observed adatoms. These Morse potential parameters are used along with the defective PDOS and phonon relaxation time to compute the desorption rates for the defective system. The defective system rates (both transition and desorption) were consistently lower in comparison with the pristine system. The difference between the transition rates is more significant at lower initial states due to higher energy spacing between the levels. In the case of the desorption rates, the difference between the defective and pristine system is more significant at higher temperatures. The desorption rates for each of the system shows an order of magnitude decrease with the strongly bound systems exhibiting the greatest reduction in the desorption rates.

Swaminathan-Gopalan, Krishnan↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Carbon Nanotube – Polysiloxane Nanocomposites for Ablative Thermal Protection Systems

Ultra-high temperature resins (UHTR) such as polysiloxane possess excellent characteristics for ablation including low thermal conductivity, lightweight composition, high thermal resistance, and the ability to form a durable char layer. To enhance its mechanical strength, the aerospace industry utilizes fiber reinforcement, such as carbon fiber reinforced polysiloxane (CF-polysiloxane), due to its high strength-to-weight ratio. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have advantages over microfibers including higher specific strength, lower density, and customizable thermal conductivity. Their nano-scale dimensions allow for a more homogenous material compared to traditional microfibers. Conventional methods of incorporating CNTs into resins often have structural defects such as voids, CNT agglomerations, and randomly dispersed CNTs, resulting in marginal improvements in properties. A novel approach known as bulk nanocomposite laminating (BNL) has been introduced involving CNT densification, resin polymer infiltration, and pressurized curing to achieve a high packing density exceeding 35% by volume. Characterization and testing to simulate re-entry conditions is performed with a sample of CNT-polysiloxane nanocomposite cured onto a CF-polysiloxane backing. These samples are subjected to ablation by an oxyacetylene flame while collecting temperature data to evaluate thermal protection properties.

Palak B Patel↗
NASA NTRS1997

Nondestructive Evaluation of Adhesively Bonded Joints by Acousto-Ultrasonic Technique and Acoustic Emission

Reliable applications of adhesively bonded joints require an effective nondestructive evaluation technique for their bond strength prediction. To properly evaluate factors affecting bond strength, effects of defects such as voids and disbonds on stress distribution in the overlap region must be understood. At the same time, in order to use acousto-ultrasonic (AU) technique to evaluate bond quality, the effect of these defects on dynamic response of single lap joints must be clear. The stress distribution in a single lap joint with and without defects (void or disbond) is analyzed. A bar-Theta parameter which contains adherend and adhesive thickness and properties is introduced. It is shown for bonded joints with bar-Theta greater than 10, that a symmetric void or disbond in the middle of overlap up to the 70 percent of overlap length has negligible effect on bond strength. In contrast frequency response analyses by a finite element technique showed that the dynamic response is affected significantly by the presence of voids or disbonds. These results have direct implication in the interpretations of AU results. Through transmission attenuation and a number of AU parameters for various specimens with and without defects are evaluated. It is found that although void and disbond have similar effects on bond strength (stress distribution), they have completely different effects on wave propagation characteristics. For steel-adhesive-steel specimens with voids, the attenuation changes are related to the bond strength. However, the attenuation changes for specimens with disbond are fairly constant over a disbond range. In order to incorporate the location of defects in AU parameters, a weighting function is introduced. Using an immersion system with focused transducers, a number of AU parameters are evaluated. It is found that by incorporating weighting functions in these parameters better sensitivities (AU parameters vs. bond strength) are achieved. Acoustic emission (AE) activities of steel-adhesive-steel specimens with bar-Theta equal to 3.4 are monitored. Two different formats of energy vs. time have resulted, each corresponding to the perfect specimens or the specimens with void or disbond. The relative acoustic energy and the number of events at failure are found to be a means for predicting the bond strength.

Nayeb-Hashemi, Hamid↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Investigation of the Effect of Etch Pits on the Material Properties of Carbon Fiber Structures

It is well known that etch pits are formed on carbon surfaces during their consumption in reactive gas environments such as during ablation of carbon-based thermal protection system (TPS) materials. These pits start out from atomic defects on the carbon surface, grow in size and then ultimately lead to the complete removal of the solid carbon material. However, the effect of such etch pits on the material properties of carbon ablators such as FiberForm are poorly understood, as the maximum size of pits are on the order of microns in size, which makes them hard to observe experimentally. Hence, we have developed a module within the Porous Microstructure Analysis code PuMA that can generate etch pits on an arbitrary material surface, with a prescribed distribution of pit size and density. We use this newly developed module to calculate material properties of FiberForm, which is the base material for one of the most commonly used TPS materials - Phenolic Impregnated Carbon Ablator (PICA). The detailed microstructure of FiberForm in PuMA will either be generated synthetically or obtained from X-ray microtomography. Our simulations show that material properties such as the thermal conductivity and tortuosity decrease with increasing degree of pitting. This will be helpful to more accurately predict the degradation of carbon-based TPS during ablation, and furthermore may allow us to identify previously unknown TPS failure modes due to pitting.

PuMA↗
NASA NTRS2000

Temperature Distribution Within a Defect-Free Silicon Carbide Diode Predicted by a Computational Model

Most solid-state electronic devices diodes, transistors, and integrated circuits are based on silicon. Although this material works well for many applications, its properties limit its ability to function under extreme high-temperature or high-power operating conditions. Silicon carbide (SiC), with its desirable physical properties, could someday replace silicon for these types of applications. A major roadblock to realizing this potential is the quality of SiC material that can currently be produced. Semiconductors require very uniform, high-quality material, and commercially available SiC tends to suffer from defects in the crystalline structure that have largely been eliminated in silicon. In some power circuits, these defects can focus energy into an extremely small area, leading to overheating that can damage the device. In an effort to better understand the way that these defects affect the electrical performance and reliability of an SiC device in a power circuit, the NASA Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field began an in-house three-dimensional computational modeling effort. The goal is to predict the temperature distributions within a SiC diode structure subjected to the various transient overvoltage breakdown stresses that occur in power management circuits. A commercial computational fluid dynamics computer program (FLUENT-Fluent, Inc., Lebanon, New Hampshire) was used to build a model of a defect-free SiC diode and generate a computational mesh. A typical breakdown power density was applied over 0.5 msec in a heated layer at the junction between the p-type SiC and n-type SiC, and the temperature distribution throughout the diode was then calculated. The peak temperature extracted from the computational model agreed well (within 6 percent) with previous first-order calculations of the maximum expected temperature at the end of the breakdown pulse. This level of agreement is excellent for a model of this type and indicates that three-dimensional computational modeling can provide useful predictions for this class of problem. The model is now being extended to include the effects of crystal defects. The model will provide unique insights into how high the temperature rises in the vicinity of the defects in a diode at various power densities and pulse durations. This information also will help researchers in understanding and designing SiC devices for safe and reliable operation in high-power circuits.

Kuczmarski, Maria A.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Investigation of the effect of etch pits on the material properties of carbon fiber structures

It is well known that etch pits are formed on carbon surfaces during their consumption in reactive gas environments such as during ablation of carbon-based thermal protection system (TPS) materials. These pits start out from atomic defects on the carbon surface, grow in size and then ultimately lead to the complete removal of the solid carbon material [1, 2]. However, the effect of such etch pits on the material properties of carbon ablators such as FiberForm are poorly understood, as the maximum size of pits are on the order of microns in size, which makes them hard to observe experimentally. Hence, we have developed a module within the Porous Microstructure Analysis code PuMA [3] that can generate etch pits on an arbitrary material surface, with a prescribed distribution of pit size and density. Figure 1 shows a FiberForm sample with artificially generated pits of varying radii and pit density. We use this newly developed module to calculate material properties of FiberForm, which is the base material for one of the most commonly used TPS materials - Phenolic Impregnated Carbon Ablator (PICA). The detailed microstructure of FiberForm in PuMA will either be generated synthetically or obtained from X-ray microtomography [4]. Our simulations show that material properties such as the thermal conductivity and tortuosity decrease with increasing degree of pitting. This will be helpful to more accurately predict the degradation of carbon-based TPS during ablation, and furthermore may allow us to identify previously unknown TPS failure modes due to pitting.

PuMA↗
NASA NTRS2006

Fracture Toughness Evaluation of Space Shuttle External Tank Thermal Protection System Polyurethane Foam Insulation Materials

Experimental evaluation of the basic fracture properties of Thermal Protection System (TPS) polyurethane foam insulation materials was conducted to validate the methodology used in estimating critical defect sizes in TPS applications on the Space Shuttle External Fuel Tank. The polyurethane foam found on the External Tank (ET) is manufactured by mixing liquid constituents and allowing them to react and expand upwards - a process which creates component cells that are generally elongated in the foam rise direction and gives rise to mechanical anisotropy. Similarly, the application of successive foam layers to the ET produces cohesive foam interfaces (knitlines) which may lead to local variations in mechanical properties. This study reports the fracture toughness of BX-265, NCFI 24-124, and PDL-1034 closed-cell polyurethane foam as a function of ambient and cryogenic temperatures and knitline/cellular orientation at ambient pressure.

McGill, Preston↗
NASA NTRS1976

Microscopic aspects of interfacial reactions in diffusion bonding processes

Microscopic aspects of interfacial reactions are discussed, such as interdiffusion, formation of intermetallic phases, generation and annihilation of lattice defects, effect of temperature, grain size, etc., which normally occur in diffusion bonding processes. Relationships between properties and microstructure in thin film couples are examined utilizing a unique combination of contact resistance measurements and characterization by transmission electron microscopy.

Shearer, M. P.↗
NASA NTRS1982

Semiconductor crystal growth and segregation problems on earth and in space

Semiconductor crystal growth and segregation problems are examined in the context of their relationship to material properties, and some of the problems are illustrated with specific experimental results. The compositional and structural defects encountered in semiconductors are largely associated with gravity-induced convective currents in the melt; additional problems are introduced by variations in stoichiometry. It is demonstrated that in near-zero gravity environment, crystal growth and segregation takes place under ideal steady-state conditions with minimum convective interference. A discussion of the advantages of zero-gravity crystal growth is followed by a summary of problems arising from the absence of gravitational forces.

Gatos, H. C.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Nonadiabatic and three-dimensional effects in compressible turbulent boundary layers

A defect stream function formulation for nonadiabatic flow with small crossflow is developed. The first-integral property of this formulation provides for two removal of the streamline curvature term in the governing equation so that the form of the reduced equation for small crossflow is the same as that for two dimensional flow. The combined law of the wall and wake is used in place of the no-slip boundary condition. The tangential velocity equation for law-of-the-wall flow is shown to be the same for three-dimensions as for two when the Boussinesq approximation applies, and a closed form solution for the crossflow angle in the inner region is obtained. Analytic solutions for nonadiabatic, compressible, equilibrium flow with a Clauser outer-region eddy-viscosity model are obtained, and excellent agreement with experimental skin friction and velocity profile data for nonadiabatic, compressible flat-plate flow is achieved. An analytic solution for a linear inner-region eddy-viscosity model is also obtained; the wake function part of this solution is found to be inconsistent with the empirically established law of the wake.

Barnwell, Richard W.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Acousto-ultrasonics - Retrospective exhortation with bibliography

Major research on the acousto-ultrasonic (AU) technique (also known as the stress-wave-factor technique) encompassing aspects of acoustic emission and ultrasonic materials characterization methodology is reviewed. AU deals primarily with such factors as the assessment of the integrated effects of diffuse defect states, thermomechanical degradation, and population of subcritical flaws that influence AU measurements correlating with mechanical property variations. AU is used to evaluate fiber-reinforced composites, adhesive bonds, lumber, paper and wood products, cable and rope, and human bone. The AU technique has been demonstrated to be sensitive to interlaminar and adhesive bond strength variations and has been shown to be useful in assessing microporosity and microcracking produced by fatigue cycling. An extensive bibliography ranging from 1985 to 1991 is presented.

Vary, Alex↗
NASA NTRS1993

Growth experiment of narrow band-gap semiconductor PbSnTe single crystals in space (M-1)

An experiment on crystal growth of Pb(1-x)Sn(x)Te in microgravity is planned. This material is an alloy of the compound semiconductors PbTe and SnTe. It is a promising material for infrared diode lasers and detectors in the wavelength region between 6 and 30 micron. Since the electrical properties of Pb(1-x)Sn(x)Te depend greatly on the Pb/Sn ratio and crystalline defects as well as impurity concentration, homogeneous, defect-free, high-quality crystals are anticipated. Although many growth methods, such as the pulling method, the Bridgman method, the vapor growth method, etc., have been applied to the growth of Pb(1-x)Sn(x)Te, large, homogeneous, low-defect-density crystals have not yet been grown on Earth. The unsuccessful results were caused by buoyancy-driven convection in the fluids induced by the specific gravity difference between heated and cooled fluids on Earth. A crystal is grown by cooling the melt from one end of the ampoule. In crystal growth from the melt, about 30 percent of the SnTe in the melt is rejected at the solid-liquid interface during solidification. On Earth, the rejected SnTe is completely mixed with the remaining melt by convection in the melt. Therefore, SnTe concentration in the melt, and accordingly in the crystal, increases as the crystal grows. In the microgravity environment, buoyancy-driven convection is suppressed because the specific gravity difference is negligible. In that case, the rejected SnTe remains at the solid-liquid interface and its concentration increases only at the interface. If the growth rate is higher than the PbTe-SnTe interdiffusion rate, the amount of SnTe which diffuses from the interface into the melt increases as SnTe piles up at the interface, and finally it balances the amount of rejected SnTe during solidification, resulting in steady-state SnTe transportation at the interface. By using this principle, compositionally homogeneous crystals can be grown. Furthermore, low-defect-density crystals will be grown in microgravity, because convection causes crystalline defects by mising hot and cold fluids and generating temperature fluctuations in them.

Yamada, Tomoaki↗
NASA NTRS1995

Structural, transport and microwave properties of 123/sapphire films: Thickness effect

The effect of thickness and growth conditions on the structure and microwave properties has been investigated for the 123/sapphire films. It has been shown that in the conditions of epitaxial growth the Al atoms do not diffuse from substrate into the film and the films with thickness up to 100 nm exhibit the excellent direct current (DC) properties. The increase of thickness of GdBaCuO films causes the formation of extended line-mesh defects and the increase of the surface resistance (R(sub S)). The low value of surface resistance R(sub S)(75 GHz, 77K) = 20 mOhm has been obtained for the two layer YBaCuO/CdBaCuO/sapphire films.

Predtechensky, M. R.↗
NASA NTRS2021

Phase Diagram, Melt Growth and Characterization of Cd0.8Zn0.2Te Crystals for X-Ray Detector

In this study, the solidus curve of the Cd0.8Zn0.2Te homogeneity range was constructed from the partial pressure measurements by optical absorption technique which provided the information of the melt growth parameters to process crystals with the required electrical resistivity. The melt growth of Cd0.8Zn0.2Te crystals were then processed by directional solidification under controlled Cd overpressure. During the growth experiments, several procedures have been developed to improve the crystalline quality: (1) minimizing the contamination of impurities (2) improving the structural defects and (3) minimizing the Te-precipitates within the grown crystals to enhance charge transport properties. Additionally, the thermal conductivity, electrical conductivity, and Seebeck coefficient of a vapor-grown CdTe and two melt-grown Cd0.8Zn0.2Te crystals were measured between 190oC and 780oC to provide an in-depth understanding of the thermal and electrical conduction mechanisms of the crystals as well as the prospect of its thermoelectric applications.

x-ray detector↗