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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 37 records · Page 2
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1982

The effects of weld-repair and hot isostatic pressing on the fracture properties of Ti-5Al-2.5Sn ELI castings

The Ti-5Al-2.5Sn extremely low interstitial alloy employed in the large castings which form the critical attachment fittings of the Space Shuttle External Tank was selected because of its high fracture resistance at cryogenic temperatures. Casting was selected over alternative fabrication methods because of its lower cost and adaptability to design changes, although it was found necessary to weld-repair surface and subsurface casting defects in order to reduce the scrap rate and maintain the inherent cost advantage of the castings. Hot Isostatic Pressing was experimentally found to heal the surface and internal defects of the castings, but did not improve tensile or fracture properties and was therefore rejected as a production technique. Production castings are instead weld-repaired, without any mechanical property degradation.

Misra, M. S.↗
NASA NTRS1989

High density tape casting system

A system is provided for casting thin sheets (or tapes) of particles bound together, that are used for oxygen membranes and other applications, which enables the particles to be cast at a high packing density in a tape of uniform thickness. A slurry contains the particles, a binder, and a solvent, and is cast against the inside walls of a rotating chamber. Prior to spraying the slurry against the chamber walls, a solvent is applied to a container. The solvent evaporates to saturate the chamber with solvent vapor. Only then is the slurry cast. As a result, the slurry remains fluid long enough to spread evenly over the casting surface formed by the chamber, and for the slurry particles to become densely packed. Only then is the chamber vented to remove solvent, so the slurry can dry. The major novel feature is applying solvent vapor to a rotating chamber before casting slurry against the chamber walls.

Collins, Earl R., Jr.↗
NASA NTRS2001

A Winning Cast

Howmet Research Corporation was the first to commercialize an innovative cast metal technology developed at Auburn University, Auburn, Alabama. With funding assistance from NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, Auburn University's Solidification Design Center (a NASA Commercial Space Center), developed accurate nickel-based superalloy data for casting molten metals. Through a contract agreement, Howmet used the data to develop computer model predictions of molten metals and molding materials in cast metal manufacturing. Howmet Metal Mold (HMM), part of Howmet Corporation Specialty Products, of Whitehall, Michigan, utilizes metal molds to manufacture net shape castings in various alloys and amorphous metal (metallic glass). By implementing the thermophysical property data from by Auburn researchers, Howmet employs its newly developed computer model predictions to offer customers high-quality, low-cost, products with significantly improved mechanical properties. Components fabricated with this new process replace components originally made from forgings or billet. Compared with products manufactured through traditional casting methods, Howmet's computer-modeled castings come out on top.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1976

Method of making an apertured casting

An apertured casting is made by first forming a duplicate in the shape of the finished casting, positioning refractory metal bodies such as wires in the duplicate at points corresponding to apertures or passageways in finished products, forming a ceramic coating on the duplicate, removing the duplicate material, firing the ceramic in a vacuum or inert atmosphere, vacuum casting the metal in the ceramic form, removing the ceramic form, heating the cast object in an atmospheric furnace to oxidize the refractory metal bodies and then leaching the oxidized refractory bodies from the casting with a molten caustic agent or acid solution.

Terray, A.↗
NASA NTRS1976

Effect of casting geometry on mechanical properties of two nickel-base superalloys

An investigation was performed to determine mechanical properties of two rhenium-free modifications of alloy TRW, and to evaluate the suitability of the alloy for use in a small integrally cast turbine rotor. The two alloys were initially developed using stress rupture properties of specimens machined from solid gas turbine blades. Properties in this investigation were determined from cast to size bars and bars cut from 3.8 by 7.6 by 17.8 cm blocks. Specimens machined from blocks had inferior tensile strength and always had markedly poorer rupture lives than cast to size bars. At 1,000 C the cast to size bars had shorter rupture lives than those machined from blades. Alloy R generally had better properties than alloy S in the conditions evaluated. The results show the importance of casting geometry on mechanical properties of nickel base superalloys and suggest that the geometry of a component can be simulated when developing alloys for that component.

Johnston, J. R.↗
NASA NTRS1977

Effect of carbon content on friction and wear of cast irons

Friction and wear experiments were conducted with cast irons and wrought steels containing various amounts of carbon in the alloy structure in contact with 52100 steel. Gray cast irons were found to exhibit lower friction and wear characteristics than white cast irons. Further, gray cast iron wear was more sensitive to carbon content than was white. Wear with gray cast iron was linearly related to load, and friction was found to be sensitive to relative humidity and carbon content. The form, in which the carbon is present in the alloy, is more important, as the carbon content and no strong relationship seems to exist between hardness of these ferrous alloys and wear.

Buckley, D. H.↗
NASA NTRS1980

Materials processing threshold report: 2. Use of low gravity for cast iron process development

Potential applications of a low gravity environment of interest to the commercial producers of cast iron were assessed to determine whether low gravity conditions offer potential opportunities to producers for improving cast iron properties and expanding the use of cast irons. The assessment is limited to the gray and nodular types of iron, however, the findings are applicable to all cast irons. The potential advantages accrued through low gravity experiments with cast irons are described.

Frankhouser, W. L.↗
NASA NTRS1984

The role of water in slip casting

Slips and casting are considered in terms of physical and colloidal chemistry. Casting slips are polydisperse suspensions of lyophobic particles in water, whose degree of coagulation is controlled by interaction of flocculating and deflocculating agents. Slip casting rate and viscosity are functions of temperature. Slip rheology and response to deflocculating agents varies significantly as the kinds and amounts of colloid modifiers change. Water is considered as a raw material. Various concepts of water/clay interactions and structures are discussed. Casting is a de-watering operation in which water moves from slip to cast to mold in response to a potential energy termed moisture stress. Drying is an evaporative process from a free water surface.

Mccauley, R. A.↗
NASA NTRS1986

Precision cast vs. wrought superalloys

While cast polycrystalline superalloys recommend themselves in virtue of better 'buy-to-fly' ratios and higher strengthening gamma-prime volume fractions than those of wrought superalloys, the expansion of their use into such critical superalloy applications as gas turbine hot section components has been slowed by insufficient casting process opportunities for microstructural control. Attention is presently drawn, however, to casting process developments facilitating the production of defect-tolerant superalloy castings having improved fracture reliability. Integrally bladed turbine wheel and thin-walled turbine exhaust case near-net-shape castings have been produced by these means.

Tien, J. K.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Improved ceramic slip casting technique

A primary concern in modern fluid dynamics research is the experimental verification of computational aerothermodynamic codes. This research requires high precision and detail in the test model employed. Ceramic materials are used for these models because of their low heat conductivity and their survivability at high temperatures. To fabricate such models, slip casting techniques were developed to provide net-form, precision casting capability for high-purity ceramic materials in aqueous solutions. In previous slip casting techniques, block, or flask molds made of plaster-of-paris were used to draw liquid from the slip material. Upon setting, parts were removed from the flask mold and cured in a kiln at high temperatures. Casting detail was usually limited with this technique -- detailed parts were frequently damaged upon separation from the flask mold, as the molded parts are extremely delicate in the uncured state, and the flask mold is inflexible. Ceramic surfaces were also marred by 'parting lines' caused by mold separation. This adversely affected the aerodynamic surface quality of the model as well. (Parting lines are invariably necessary on or near the leading edges of wings, nosetips, and fins for mold separation. These areas are also critical for flow boundary layer control.) Parting agents used in the casting process also affected surface quality. These agents eventually soaked into the mold, the model, or flaked off when releasing the case model. Different materials were tried, such as oils, paraffin, and even an algae. The algae released best, but some of it remained on the model and imparted an uneven texture and discoloration on the model surface when cured. According to the present invention, a wax pattern for a shell mold is provided, and an aqueous mixture of a calcium sulfate-bonded investment material is applied as a coating to the wax pattern. The coated wax pattern is then dried, followed by curing to vaporize the wax pattern and leave a shell mold of the calcium sulfate-bonded investment material. The shell mold is cooled to room temperature, and a ceramic slip is poured therein. After a ceramic shell of desired thickness has set up in the shell mold, excess ceramic slip is poured out. While still wet, the shell mold is peeled from the ceramic shell to expose any delicate or detailed parts, after which the ceramic shell is cured to provide a complete, detailed, precision ceramic article without parting lines.

Buck, Gregory M.↗
NASA NTRS1996

Producing Foils From Direct Cast Titanium Alloy Strip

This research was undertaken to demonstrate the feasibility of producing high-quality, thin-gage, titanium foil from direct cast titanium strip. Melt Overflow Rapid Solidification Technology (MORST) was used to cast several different titanium alloys into 500 microns thick strip, 10 cm wide and up to 3 m long. The strip was then either ground, hot pack rolled or cold rolled, as appropriate, into foil. Gamma titanium aluminide (TiAl) was cast and ground to approximately 100 microns thick foil and alpha-2 titanium aluminide (Ti3AI) was cast and hot pack rolled to approximately 70 microns thick foil. CP Ti, Ti6Al2Sn4Zr2Mo, and Ti22AI23Nb (Orthorhombic), were successfully cast and cold-rolled into good quality foil (less than 125 microns thick). The foils were generally fully dense with smooth surfaces, had fine, uniform microstructures, and demonstrated mechanical properties equivalent to conventionally produced titanium. By eliminating many manufacturing steps, this technology has the potential to produce thin gage, titanium foil with good engineering properties at significantly reduced cost relative to conventional ingot metallurgy processing.

Stuart, T. A.↗
NASA NTRS2000

Low Cost Al-Si Casting Alloy As In-Situ Composite for High Temperature Applications

A new aluminum-silicon (Al-Si) alloy has been successfully developed at NASA- Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) that has significant improvement in tensile and fatigue strength at elevated temperatures (500 F-700 F). The alloy offers a number of benefits such as light weight, high hardness, low thermal expansion and high surface wear resistance. In hypereutectic form, this alloy is considered as an in-situ Al-Si composite with tensile strength of about 90% higher than the auto industry 390 alloy at 600 F. This composite is very economically produced by using either conventional permanent steel molds or die casting. The projected material cost is less than $0.90 per pound, and automotive components such as pistons can be cast for high production rate using conventional casting techniques with a low and fully accounted cost. Key Words: Metal matrix composites, In-situ composite, aluminum-silicon alloy, hypereutectic alloy, permanent mold casting, die casting.

Lee, Jonathan A.↗
NASA NTRS2006

Metallurgical Design and Development of NASA Crawler/Transporter Tread Belt Shoe Castings

The NASA Crawler/Transporters (CT-1 and CT-2) used to transport the Space Shuffles are one of the largest tracked vehicles in existence today. Two of these machines have been used to move space flight vehicles at Kennedy Space Center since the Apollo missions of the 1960's and relatively few modifications have been made to keep them operational. In September of 2003 during normal Crawler/Transporter operations cracks were observed along the roller pad surfaces of several tread belt shoes. Further examination showed 20 cracked shoes on CT-1 and 40 cracked shoes on CT-2 and a formal failure analysis investigation was undertaken while the cracked shoes were replaced. Six shoes were cross-sectioned with the fracture surfaces exposed and it was determined that the cracks were due to fatigue that initiated on the internal casting web channels at pre-existing casting defects and propagated through thickness both transgranularly and intergranularly between internal shrinkage cavities, porosity, and along austenitic and ferritic grain boundaries. The original shoes were cast during the 1960's using a modified 861330 steel with slightly higher levels of chromium, nickel and molybdenum followed by heat treatment to achieve a minimum tensile strength of 11 Oksi. Subsequent metallurgical analysis of the tread belt shoes after multiple failures showed excessive internal defects, alloy segregation, a nonuniform ferritic/ bainitic/martensitic microstructure, and low average tensile properties indicative of poor casting and poor heat-treatment. As a result, NASA funded an initiative to replace all of the tread belt shoes on both crawler/transporters along with a redesign of the alloy, manufacturing, and heat-treatment to create a homogeneous cast structure with uniform mechanical and metallurgical properties. ME Global, a wholly owned subsidiary of ME Elecmetal based in Minneapolis, MN was selected as manufacturing and design partner to develop the new shoes and this paper describes the research, development, and manufacturing that resulted in the successful delivery of 1044 new Crawler/Transporter tread belt shoes all meeting rigid metallurgical and mechanical design criteria derived from finite element modeling of the stress loads required for safe space shuttle transport.

Parker, Donald S.↗
NASA NTRS1980

A silicon sheet casting experiment

The casting of silicon blanks for solar cells directly without slicing is an exciting concept. An experiment was performed to investigate the feasibility of developing a machine that casts wafers directly. A Czochralski furnace was modified to accept a graphite ingot-simulating fixture. Silicon was melted in the middle of the ingot simulator in a boron nitride mold. Sample castings showed reasonable crystal size. Solar cells were made from the cast blanks. The performance is reported.

Bickler, D. B.↗
NASA NTRS1982

Alterations in mitochondria and sarcoplasmic reticulum from heart and skeletal muscle of horizontally casted primates

Horizontally body-casted rhesus monkeys are used as an animal model in order to study the physiological changes known as cardiovascular deconditioning which occur during weightless conditions. No difference was found between the experimental and control animals in heart mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation which indicates that no apparent changes occurred in the primary energy-producing system of the heart. A marked increase in cytochrome oxidase activity was observed in the casted primate heart mitochondria compared to controls, while a 25% decrease in respiratory substrate-supported calcium uptake was found in casted primate heart mitochondria compared to controls. Sacroplasmic reticulum isolated from the primate hearts revealed marked changes in calcium transport activities. It is concluded that the marked depression in cardiac sarcoplasmic reticulum functions indicates altered calcium homeostasis in the casted-primate heart which could be a factor in cardiovascular deconditioning.

Sordahl, L. A.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Effect of mild atherosclerosis on flow resistance in a coronary artery casting of man

An in-vitro flow study was conducted in a mildly atherosclerotic main coronary artery casting of man using sugar-water solutions simulating blood viscosity. Steady flow results indicated substantial increases in pressure drop, and thus flow resistance at the same Reynolds number, above those for Poiseuille flow by 30 to 100 percent in the physiological Reynolds number range from about 100 to 400. Time-averaged pulsatile flow data showed additional 5 percent increases in flow resistance above the steady flow results. Both pulsatile and steady flow data from the casting were found to be nearly equal to those from a straight, axisymmetric model of the casting up to a Reynolds number of about 200, above which the flow resistance of the casting became gradually larger than the corresponding values from the axisymmetric model.

Back, L. H.↗
NASA NTRS1983

Steps toward 8 m honeycomb mirror blanks. II - Experiments with waffleplate and honeycomb casting

A technique for fabricating large low-cost light-weight borosilicate-glass mirrors for ground and space-based astronomy is described. This technique involves the remelting of glass into complex molds for vacuum-formed ceramic fiber and is used to cast in one piece either waffleplate or full honeycomb sandwich blanks. The construction of molds and the cycle for melting and annealing are described in detail. A 1.1-m square blank with a 22.4-cm-thick face and 1.6-cm ribs, 15-cm deep on 15-cm squares, has been cast, and a 1.8-m circular blank of full honeycomb construction is scheduled for production. The casting of blanks of up to 8-m in diameter is anticipated, with densities of 200 kg/sq m (like that of the ST mirror) being typical of casting.

Hill, J. M.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Graphite Formation in Cast Iron

In the first phase of the project it was proven that by changing the ratio between the thermal gradient and the growth rate for commercial cast iron samples solidifying in a Bridgman type furnace, it is possible to produce all types of graphite structures, from flake to spheroidal, and all types of matrices, from ferritic to white at a certain given level of cerium. KC-135 flight experiments have shown that in a low-gravity environment, no flotation occurs even in spheroidal graphite cast irons with carbon equivalent as high as 5%, while extensive graphite flotation occurred in both flake and spheroidal graphite cast irons, in high carbon samples solidified in a high gravity environment. This opens the way for production of iron-carbon composite materials, with high carbon content (e.g., 10%) in a low gravity environment. By using KC-135 flights, the influence of some basic elements on the solidification of cast iron will be studied. The mechanism of flake to spheroidal graphite transition will be studied, by using quenching experiments at both low and one gravity for different G/R ratios.

Stefanescu, D. M.↗