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NASA NTRS1999

Heat Transfer Issues in Thin-Film Thermal Radiation Detectors

The Thermal Radiation Group at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University has been working closely with scientists and engineers at NASA's Langley Research Center to develop accurate analytical and numerical models suitable for designing next generation thin-film thermal radiation detectors for earth radiation budget measurement applications. The current study provides an analytical model of the notional thermal radiation detector that takes into account thermal transport phenomena, such as the contact resistance between the layers of the detector, and is suitable for use in parameter estimation. It was found that the responsivity of the detector can increase significantly due to the presence of contact resistance between the layers of the detector. Also presented is the effect of doping the thermal impedance layer of the detector with conducting particles in order to electrically link the two junctions of the detector. It was found that the responsivity and the time response of the doped detector decrease significantly in this case. The corresponding decrease of the electrical resistance of the doped thermal impedance layer is not sufficient to significantly improve the electrical performance of the detector. Finally, the "roughness effect" is shown to be unable to explain the decrease in the thermal conductivity often reported for thin-film layers.

Barry, Mamadou Y.↗

NASA NTRS1999

A New Approach to Measure Contact Angle and Evaporation Rate with Flow Visualization in a Sessile Drop

The contact angle and the spreading process of sessile droplet are very crucial in many technological processes, such as painting and coating, material processing, film-cooling applications, lubrication, and boiling. Additionally, as it is well known that the surface free energy of polymers cannot be directly, measured for their elastic and viscous restraints. The measurements of liquid contact angle on the polymer surfaces become extremely important to evaluate the surface free energy of polymers through indirect methods linked with the contact angle data. Due to the occurrence of liquid evaporation is inevitable, the effects of evaporation on the contact angle and the spreading become very important for more complete understanding of these processes. It is of interest to note that evaporation can induce Marangoni-Benard convection in sessile drops. However, the impacts of the inside convection on the wetting and spreading processes are not clear. The experimental methods used by previous investigators cannot simultaneously measure the spreading process and visualize the convection inside. Based on the laser shadowgraphic system used by the present author, a very simple optical procedure has been developed to measure the contact angle, the spreading speed, the evaporation rate, and to visualize inside convection of a sessile drop simultaneously. Two CCD cameras were used to synchronously record the real-time diameter of the sessile drop, which is essential for determination of both spreading speed and evaporation rate, and the shadowgraphic image magnified by the sessile drop acting as a thin plano-convex lens. From the shadowgraph, the inside convection of the drop can be observed if any and the image outer diameter, which linked to the drop profile, can be measured. Simple equations have been derived to calculate the drop profile, including the instantaneous contact angle, height, and volume of the sessile drop, as well as the evaporation rate. The influence of the inside convection on the wetting and spreading processes can be figured out through comparison of the drop profiles with and without inside convection when the sessile drop is placed at different evaporation conditions.

Zhang, Nengli↗

NASA NTRS1984

Method for the preparation of thin-skinned asymmetric reverse osmosis membranes and products thereof

A method for preparing water insoluble asymmetric membranes from water soluble polymers is discussed. The process involves casting a film of the polymer, partially drying it, and then contacting it with a concentrated solution of a transition metal salt. The transition metal ions render the polymer insoluable and are believed to form a complex with it. Optionally, the polymer is crosslinked with heat or radiation. The most preferred polymer is poly(vinyl alcohol). The most preferred complexing salt is copper sulfate. The process and the metal ion linked membranes are discussed. The membranes are reverse osmosis membranes.

Wydeven, T. J.↗

NASA NTRS1996

The Development of a Full Field Three-Dimensional Microscale Flow Measurement Technique for Application to Near Contact Line Flows

The goal of this paper is to present details of the development of a new three-dimensional velocity field measurement technique which can be used to provide more insight into the dynamics of thin evaporating liquid films (not limited to just low heat inputs for the heat transfer) and which also could prove useful for the study of spreading and wetting phenomena and other microscale flows.

He, Qun↗

NASA NTRS1985

Tribological properties of boron nitride synthesized by ion beam deposition

The adhesion and friction behavior of boron nitride films on 440 C bearing stainless steel substrates was examined. The thin films containing the boron nitride were synthesized using an ion beam extracted from a borazine plasma. Sliding friction experiments were conducted with BN in sliding contact with itself and various transition metals. It is indicated that the surfaces of atomically cleaned BN coating film contain a small amount of oxides and carbides, in addition to boron nitride. The coefficients of friction for the BN in contact with metals are related to the relative chemical activity of the metals. The more active the metal, the higher is the coefficient of friction. The adsorption of oxygen on clean metal and BN increases the shear strength of the metal - BN contact and increases the friction. The friction for BN-BN contact is a function of the shear strength of the elastic contacts. Clean BN surfaces exhibit relatively strong interfacial adhesion and high friction. The presence of adsorbates such as adventitious carbon contaminants on the BN surfaces reduces the shear strength of the contact area. In contrast, chemically adsorbed oxygen enhances the shear strength of the BN-BN contact and increases the friction.

Miyoshi, K.↗

NASA NTRS1985

Tribological properties of boron nitride synthesized by ion beam deposition

Miyoshi, K.↗

NASA NTRS1990

Spatial conductivity measurements on high T(sub c) superconducting films

High T(sub c) superconducting thin and thick films have potential applications in future NASA flight projects. In anticipation of film use, the Materials Branch is developing a nondestructive, non-contact method of measuring the spatial variation of conductivity across a film sample. This method uses a computer-controlled, X-Y positioning table to scan a conventional eddy current probe across the surface of a film. The induced changes in impedance caused by variations in film conductivity are recorded during the scanning process. Ultimately the two-dimensional data set is displayed using imaging equipment on a personal computer.

Vansant, J. Timothy↗

NASA NTRS1979

A low-cost solar-cell front contact using trapped silver mesh and electrostatic bonding

A new system to provide a contact with a silver mesh trapped between the cell and an encapsulating glass cover is described. Borosilicate glass is joined to the cell by electrostatic bonding during which the glass is deformed around the silver mesh to form a permanent optically coupled integral bond to the cell. The hermetic seal prevents the silver from oxidizing and destroying the electrical contact formed during the bonding process. It is demonstrated that electrostatic glass/silicon bonds have excellent stability under a variety of accelerated environmental tests. Electrostatic bonds to thin films of AL2O3, Ta2O5, and ZrO2 on glass can be used to make antireflective coatings for solar cells manufactured by this process. Test solar cells were manufactured by electrostatic bonding with good curve fill factors and efficiencies of 10 percent.

Landis, Geoffrey A.↗

NASA NTRS2005

Chemically Deposited Thin-Film Solar Cell Materials

We have been working on the development of thin film photovoltaic solar cell materials that can be produced entirely by wet chemical methods on low-cost flexible substrates. P-type copper indium diselenide (CIS) absorber layers have been deposited via electrochemical deposition. Similar techniques have also allowed us to incorporate both Ga and S into the CIS structure, in order to increase its optical bandgap. The ability to deposit similar absorber layers with a variety of bandgaps is essential to our efforts to develop a multi-junction thin-film solar cell. Chemical bath deposition methods were used to deposit a cadmium sulfide (CdS) buffer layers on our CIS-based absorber layers. Window contacts were made to these CdS/CIS junctions by the electrodeposition of zinc oxide (ZnO). Structural and elemental determinations of the individual ZnO, CdS and CIS-based films via transmission spectroscopy, x-ray diffraction, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and energy dispersive spectroscopy will be presented. The electrical characterization of the resulting devices will be discussed.

Raffaelle, R.↗

NASA NTRS2004

Topographic variations in chaos on Europa: Implications for diapiric formation

Disrupted terrain, or chaos, on Europa, might have formed through melting of a floating ice shell from a subsurface ocean [Cam et al., 1998; Greenberg et al., 19991, or breakup by diapirs rising from the warm lower portion of the ice shell [Head and Pappalardo, 1999; Collins et al., 20001. Each model makes specific and testable predictions for topographic expression within chaos and relative to surrounding terrains on local and regional scales. High-resolution stereo-controlled photoclinometric topography indicates that chaos topography, including the archetypal Conamara Chaos region, is uneven and commonly higher than surrounding plains by up to 250 m. Elevated and undulating topography is more consistent with diapiric uplift of deep material in a relatively thick ice shell, rather than melt-through and refreezing of regionally or globally thin ice by a subsurface ocean. Vertical and horizontal scales of topographic doming in Conamara Chaos are consistent with a total ice shell thickness >15 km. Contact between Europa's ocean and surface may most likely be indirectly via diapirism or convection.

Schenk, Paul M.↗

NASA NTRS2011

Helium-Cooled Black Shroud for Subscale Cryogenic Testing

This shroud provides a deep-space simulating environment for testing scaled-down models of passively cooling systems for spaceflight optics and instruments. It is used inside a liquid-nitrogen- cooled vacuum chamber, and it is cooled by liquid helium to 5 K. It has an inside geometry of approximately 1.6 m diameter by 0.45 m tall. The inside surfaces of its top and sidewalls have a thermal absorptivity greater than 0.96. The bottom wall has a large central opening that is easily customized to allow a specific test item to extend through it. This enables testing of scale models of realistic passive cooling configurations that feature a very large temperature drop between the deepspace-facing cooled side and the Sun/Earth-facing warm side. This shroud has an innovative thermal closeout of the bottom wall, so that a test sample can have a hot (room temperature) side outside of the shroud, and a cold side inside the shroud. The combination of this closeout and the very black walls keeps radiated heat from the sample s warm end from entering the shroud, reflecting off the walls and heating the sample s cold end. The shroud includes 12 vertical rectangular sheet-copper side panels that are oriented in a circular pattern. Using tabs bent off from their edges, these side panels are bolted to each other and to a steel support ring on which they rest. The removable shroud top is a large copper sheet that rests on, and is bolted to, the support ring when the shroud is closed. The support ring stands on four fiberglass tube legs, which isolate it thermally from the vacuum chamber bottom. The insides of the cooper top and side panels are completely covered with 25- mm-thick aluminum honeycomb panels. This honeycomb is painted black before it is epoxied to the copper surfaces. A spiral-shaped copper tube, clamped at many different locations to the outside of the top copper plate, serves as part of the liquid helium cooling loop. Another copper tube, plumbed in a series to the top plate s tube, is clamped to the sidewall tabs where they are bolted to the support ring. Flowing liquid helium through these tubes cools the entire shroud to 5 K. The entire shroud is wrapped loosely in a layer of double-aluminized Kapton. The support ring s inner diameter is the largest possible hole through which the test item can extend into the shroud. Twelve custom-sized trapezoidal copper sheets extend inward from the support ring to within a few millimeters of the test item. Attached to the inner edge of each of these sheets is a custom-shaped strip of Kapton, which is aluminum- coated on the warm-facing (outer) side, and has thin Dacron netting attached to its cold-facing side. This Kapton rests against the test item, but the Dacron keeps it from making significant thermal contact. The result is a non-contact, radiatively reflective thermal closeout with essentially no gap through which radiation can pass. In this way, the part of the test item outside the shroud can be heated to relatively high temperatures without any radiative heat leaking to the inside.

Tuttle, James↗

NASA NTRS1984

Ceramic-coated metals can survive contact with hot working fluid

Thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) have been developed as a means of protecting turbine blades and other engine hot section components whose surfaces are exposed to the most extreme operating conditions. By adding a thin, insulating ceramic oxide layer to an air-cooled turbine blade, the difference between the gas temperature and the metal temperature is further increased as a function of ceramic coating thickness, heat flux, and oxide thermal conductivity. An 0.04-cm thick ceramic layer can typically yield a 100-300 C temperature drop. Of the various techniques available for the deposition of thermal barrier coatings, the most common is that of plasma spraying. Significant improvements have been made in TBC durability through the use of bond coat compositions with increased oxidation resistance.

Levine, S. R.↗

NASA NTRS1970

Improved heat shield/radiator

Thermally conductive metal shield is put in direct thermal contact with the mounting plate for the radiation detectors. External surfaces of the shield are insulated by an insulation blanket. The internal faces are covered with a thin layer of quartz with a metallic thermally conductive coating on the hidden faces.

Smith, J. W.↗

NASA NTRS1977

Detecting contamination on a metal surface

Thin layers of contaminant on metal surface are detected by measuring surface-potential difference between reference electrode and surface of interest. Procedure does not require mechanical contact with surface under examination.

Harris, J. M.↗

NASA NTRS1985

A fundamental study of the sticking of insect residues to aircraft wings

The aircraft industry has long been concerned with the increase of drag on airplanes due to fouling of the wings by insects. The present research studied the effects of surface energy and surface roughness on the phenomenon of insect sticking. Aluminum plates of different roughnesses were coated with thin films of polymers with varying surface energies. The coated plates were attached to a custom jig and mounted on top of an automobile for insect collection. Contact angle measurements, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and specular reflectance infrared spectroscopy were used to characterize the surface before and after the insect impact experiments. Scanning electron microscopy showed the topography of insect residues on the exposed plates. Moments were calculated in order to find a correlation between the parameters studied and the amount of bugs collected on the plates. An effect of surface energy on the sticking of insect residues was demonstrated.

Eiss, N. S., Jr.↗

NASA NTRS1990

Converting a carbon preform object to a silicon carbide object

A process for converting in depth a carbon or graphite preform object to a silicon carbide object, silicon carbide/silicon object, silicon carbide/carbon-core object, or a silicon carbide/silicon/carbon-core object, by contacting it with silicon liquid and vapor over various lengths of contact time in a reaction chamber. In the process, a stream comprised of a silicon-containing precursor material in gaseous phase below the decomposition temperature of said gas and a coreactant, carrier or diluent gas such as hydrogen is passed through a hole within a high emissivity, thin, insulating septum into the reaction chamber above the melting point of silicon. The thin septum has one face below the decomposition temperature of the gas and an opposite face exposed to the reaction chamber. Thus, the precursor gas is decomposed directly to silicon in the reaction chamber. Any stream of decomposition gas and any unreacted precursor gas from the reaction chamber is removed. A carbon or graphite preform object placed in the reaction chamber is contacted with the silicon. The carbon or graphite preform object is recovered from the reactor chamber after it has been converted to a desired silicon carbide, silicon and carbon composition.

Levin, Harry↗

NASA NTRS1998

Tribometer for Lubrication Studies in Vacuum

The NASA Lewis Research Center has developed a new way to evaluate the liquid lubricants used in ball bearings in space mechanisms. For this evaluation, a liquid lubricant is exercised in the rolling contact vacuum tribometer shown in the photo. This tribometer, which is essentially a thrust bearing with three balls and flat races, has contact stresses similar to those in a typical preloaded, angular contact ball bearing. The rotating top plate drives the balls in an outward-winding spiral orbit instead of a circular path. Upon contact with the "guide plate," the balls are forced back to their initial smaller orbit radius; they then repeat this spiral orbit thousands of times. The orbit rate of the balls is low enough, 2 to 5 rpm, to allow the system to operate in the boundary lubrication regime that is most stressful to the liquid lubricant. This system can determine the friction coefficient, lubricant lifetime, and species evolved from the liquid lubricant by tribodegradation. The lifetime of the lubricant charge is only few micrograms, which is "used up" by degradation during rolling. The friction increases when the lubricant is exhausted. The species evolved by the degrading lubricant are determined by a quadrupole residual gas analyzer that directly views the rotating elements. The flat races (plates) and 0.5-in.-diameter balls are of a configuration and size that permit easy post-test examination by optical and electron microscopy and the full suite of modern surface and thin-film chemical analytical techniques, including infrared and Raman microspectroscopy and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. In addition, the simple sphere-on-a-flat-plate geometry allows an easy analysis of the contact stresses at all parts of the ball orbit and an understanding of the frictional energy losses to the lubricant. The analysis showed that when the ball contacts the guide plate, gross sliding occurs between the ball and rotating upper plate as the ball forced back to a smaller orbit radius. The friction force due to gross sliding is sensed by the piezoelectric force transducer behind the guide plate and furnishes the coefficient of friction for the system. This tribometer has been used to determine the relative lifetimes of Fomblin Z-25, a lubricant often used in space mechanisms, as a function of the material of the plates against which it was run. The balls were 440C steel in all cases; the plate materials were aluminum, chromium (Cr), 440C steel (17 wt % Cr), and 4150 steel (1 wt % Cr). As shown in the bar graph, the lifetime is greatest for the plate material with least chromium, thus implicating chromium as a tribochemically active element attacking Fomblin Z-25.

Pepper, Stephen V.↗

NASA NTRS2002

The Effects of Ultra Thin Films on Dynamic Wetting

Dynamic wetting, the displacement of one fluid by another immiscible fluid on a surface, controls many natural and technological phenomena, such as coating, printing, spray painting and lubricating. Particularly in coating and spraying applications, contact lines advance across pre-existing fluid films. Most previous work has focused on contact lines advancing across films sufficiently thick that they behave as simple Newtonian fluids. Ultrathin films, where the film thickness may impinge on fundamental length scales in the fluid, have received less attention. In this talk, we will discuss the effects of ultrathin polymer films on dynamic wetting. We measure the interface shape within microns of moving contact lines advancing across preexisting films and compare the measurements to existing models of viscous bending for interfaces advancing across dry surfaces and 'thick' (in the sense that they behave as liquids) films. In the experiments, we advance a contact line of 10-poise and 1-poise polydimethylsiloxane (silicone oil) across pre-coated films of the same fluid with thickness from a single chain thickness (approx. 10 A) through a couple of radii of gyration (100-200 A) to films so thick they are likely bulk in behavior (10(exp 3) A). All films are physisorbed, i.e. they readily rinse from the surface. Thus, molecules in the film are not anchored to the surface and can move within the film if the hydrodynamics dictate such motion. For films of the thickness of a single chain (approx. 10 A), our experiments indicate that the advancing fluid behaves just as it would if it advanced over a dry surface. For the thicker films (10(exp 3) A), we find behavior indicating that the molecules in the film are acting as a fluid with the bulk properties. In this regime, results for the two different fluids are identical when the experiments are performed at the same pre-existing film thickness and advancing capillary number, Ca. For film of thickness of a few radii of gyration (approx. 100-200 A), the behavior depends on Ca of the advancing meniscus. At low Ca, the viscous bending of the interface near the contact line does not behave as it would on a dry surface. It has a lower curvature than expected. However, at higher Ca, the viscous bending is described by the model for spreading over a dry surface. These results show that the fluid flow in the film does behave differently than bulk as the film thickness becomes comparable to molecular length scale. But even more intriguing is the unusual velocity dependence of that behavior where the film behaves more solid-like at higher contact line speeds. We will discuss these results in terms of the properties of confined polymer melts.

Chen, Xia↗