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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 109 records · Page 6
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2023

Characterization of Low-Velocity Impact Damage in Thermoplastic Laminated Composites

The impact damage response of two thermoplastic material systems were compared over a range of impact energies. Eight-inch-square impact specimens with a 24-ply quasi-isotropic layup were manufactured from TC1225 LMPAEK T700G from Toray Industries and APC AS4D/PEKK-FC from Solvay. The effect of the degree of crystallinity (DOC) on the damage response was also investigated using a third set of specimens from the Toray material manufactured with reduced crystallinity. Using a combination of data obtained from X-ray computed tomography (CT) scans and ultrasonic testing (UT), detailed damage maps were created for every interface and ply for selected specimens. Using these damage maps, the delamination size, shape, and area were evaluated at each interface. The presence of fractured fibers was also identified on each ply. The LMPAEK material was found to have fewer and smaller delaminations than the PEKK specimens for impacts at the same energy. However, the LMPAEK specimens contained a larger number of fiber breaks. A similar trend was observed when comparing the baseline LMPAEK specimens with the low-crystallinity LMPAEK specimens. The low-crystallinity specimens had very little delamination but had a large number of plies with fiber breaks. In addition, the LMPAEK specimens often contained lines of fiber fractures in near-surface plies emanating from the contact region that were not present in the PEKK specimens.

Composite Materials↗
DOE OSTI2025

DOESC Remote Canister Closure System UT Inspection Couplant Solutions

The DOE Standard Canister (DOESC) Remote Canister Closure System is a remotely operated welding and inspection mechanism designed for the packaging of DOE-managed spent nuclear fuel into canisters. The ultrasonic testing (UT) inspection, included in the system, requires the use of water tanks that are opened to act as a couplant between the canister and the sensors. With the couplant, the UT inspection can guarantee accurate results determining imperfections in the weld.

12 - MGMT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTE↗
NASA NTRS2004

Characterization of C/Enhanced SiC Composite During Creep-Rupture Tests Using an Ultrasonic Guided Wave Scan System

An ultrasonic guided wave scan system was used to nondestructively monitor damage over time and position in a C/enhanced SiC sample that was creep tested to failure at 1200 C in air at a stress of 69 MPa (10 ksi). The use of the guided wave scan system for mapping evolving oxidation profiles (via porosity gradients resulting from oxidation) along the sample length and predicting failure location was explored. The creep-rupture tests were interrupted for ultrasonic evaluation every two hours until failure at approx. 17.5 cumulative hours.

Roth, Don J.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Initial Testing of a Full-Scale Ultrasonic Clothes Washer/Dryer for Moon, Mars, ISS and Beyond

This study investigates the effectiveness of an ultrasonic-based combo garment washing and drying system for space applications. The system leverages our technological innovations in direct-contact ultrasonic fabric drying in combination with ultrasonic fabric washing. The main objective of this investigation is to gauge the effectiveness of washing and drying medium-size T-shirts ultrasonically. This paper will report the results of experiments conducted to assess the effectiveness of washing clothes ultrasonically, including ultrasonic intensity testing, stain removal testing, and fabric degradation testing. The outcome of this study could lead to the design and development of the first ultrasonic clothes washer and dryer for space applications that would reduce clothing resupply costs for crewed missions to the moon, Mars, and micro-gravity space stations.

Crew systems↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Initial Testing of a Full-Scale Ultrasonic Clothes Washer/Dryer for Moon, Mars, ISS and Beyond

This study investigates the effectiveness of an ultrasonic-based combo garment washing and drying system for space applications. The system leverages our technological innovations in direct-contact ultrasonic fabric drying in combination with ultrasonic fabric washing. The main objective of this investigation is to gauge the effectiveness of washing and drying medium-size T-shirts ultrasonically. This paper will report the results of experiments conducted to assess the effectiveness of washing clothes ultrasonically, including ultrasonic intensity testing, stain removal testing, and fabric degradation testing. The outcome of this study could lead to the design and development of the first ultrasonic clothes washer and dryer for space applications that would reduce clothing resupply costs for crewed missions to the moon, Mars, and micro-gravity space stations.

Crew systems↗
NASA NTRS2011

Development and Certification of Ultrasonic Background Noise Test (UBNT) System for use on the International Space Station (ISS)

As a next step in the development and implementation of an on-board leak detection and localization system on the International Space Station (ISS), there is a documented need to obtain measurements of the ultrasonic background noise levels that exist within the ISS. This need is documented in the ISS Integrated Risk Management System (IRMA), Watch Item #4669. To address this, scientists and engineers from the Langley Research Center (LaRC) and the Johnson Space Center (JSC), proposed to the NASA Engineering and Safety Center (NESC) and the ISS Vehicle Office a joint assessment to develop a flight package as a Station Development Test Objective (SDTO) that would perform ultrasonic background noise measurements within the United States (US) controlled ISS structure. This document contains the results of the assessment

Prosser, William H.↗
NASA NTRS1966

Ultrasonic water column probe speeds up testing of welds

Ultrasonic device consisting of a coaxial rod and transducer enclosed in a cylindrical probe which is filled with deionized or distilled water speeds up the testing of welds. Rubber diaphragm is molded to produce the desired test beam angle.

Hoop, J. M.↗
NASA NTRS1986

Analytical Ultrasonics in Materials Research and Testing

Research results in analytical ultrasonics for characterizing structural materials from metals and ceramics to composites are presented. General topics covered by the conference included: status and advances in analytical ultrasonics for characterizing material microstructures and mechanical properties; status and prospects for ultrasonic measurements of microdamage, degradation, and underlying morphological factors; status and problems in precision measurements of frequency-dependent velocity and attenuation for materials analysis; procedures and requirements for automated, digital signal acquisition, processing, analysis, and interpretation; incentives for analytical ultrasonics in materials research and materials processing, testing, and inspection; and examples of progress in ultrasonics for interrelating microstructure, mechanical properites, and dynamic response.

Vary, A.↗
NASA NTRS2019

Ultrasonic Gear Steel Fatigue at NASA

Gear tooth bending fatigue life is one of the main drivers of rotorcraft gear box weight and maintenance cost. Depending on rotorcraft gearbox speed, 10,000 flight hours can easily mean reaching gear tooth bending fatigue cycles in the 10^10 cycle regime. Traditionally gear fatigue life in the 10^10 cycle regime is estimated based on empirical correction factors applied to the traditional fatigue limit of 10^7 cycles. In order to improve on this method of life prediction, enable better gear box design, and reduce gear box maintenance cost, NASA has started an ultrasonic gear steel fatigue program to quantify the 10^10 life of gear steels. Ultrasonic fatigue testing makes use of piezo electric actuators and resonance to generate stress-strain cycles at 20 kHz. The ability to test gear steals at 20 kHz reduces test time for 10^10 cycles from roughly 16 years with traditional 20 Hz testing to 6 days. In this presentation, the establishment of NASA's ultrasonic test capability, results to date, and future testing plans will be discussed.

Tallerico, Thomas F.↗
NASA NTRS1991

A preliminary investigation of acousto-ultrasonic NDE of metal matrix composite test specimens

Acousto-ultrasonic (AU) measurements were performed on a series of tensile specimens composed of 8 laminated layers of continuous, SiC fiber reinforced Ti-15-3 matrix. The following subject areas are covered: AU signal analysis; tensile behavior; AU and interrupted tensile tests; AU and thermally cycled specimens; AU and stiffness; and AU and specimen geometry.

Kautz, Harold E.↗
DOE OSTI2024

DOC-DICAM: Domain Aware One Class Defect Identification in Composite Aerostructure Material

Fiber-reinforced composites are a common material used in the design of aircraft structures due to their good tensile strength and resistance to compression. During the manufacturing process, these structures are thoroughly inspected for flaws and defects to ensure structural integrity during commercial use. Non-destructive testing (NDT) is a collection of inspection methods that allow inspectors to evaluate material without altering it. Due to the high safety standards in aerospace manufacturing, the NDT process is done manually and can be a significant bottleneck in the development workflow. In this paper, we develop an AI-based assistance tool to drastically reduce inspection time. Typical AI workflows require large amounts of annotated data, but defects rarely occur resulting in strong class imbalance. To overcome this, we formulate the problem of defect identification as an anomaly detection task in which our primary focus is learning non-defect characteristics. To do this, we develop a multi-task self-supervised learning framework that embeds problem specific domain knowledge into the deep learning model. We verify our method using fuselage data generated in a production environment. As a result, we show that our method can effectively identify defects and requires minimal training and inference time.

anomaly detection↗
NASA NTRS1972

Spark ultrasonic transducer

Nondestructive testing by spark transducer induces ultrasonic pulses in materials without physical contact. High power pulse generator connected to step up transformer produces sparking between two tungsten rods and ultrasonic energy pulses in test samples placed between rods.

Hoop, J. M.↗
NASA NTRS1980

Fresnel lenses for ultrasonic inspection

Ultrasonic Fresnel lenses are effective focusing elements with potential applications in ultrasonic "contact" testing for defects in materials. Ultrasonic beams focused on concave lenses are used successfully with immersion transducers, for which test object is immersed in water bath. However, for large objects, objects that are already installed, objects on production lines, and objects that can be damaged by water, contact testing is more practical than immersion.

Kammerer, C. C.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Signal processing methodologies for an acoustic fetal heart rate monitor

Research and development is presented of real time signal processing methodologies for the detection of fetal heart tones within a noise-contaminated signal from a passive acoustic sensor. A linear predictor algorithm is utilized for detection of the heart tone event and additional processing derives heart rate. The linear predictor is adaptively 'trained' in a least mean square error sense on generic fetal heart tones recorded from patients. A real time monitor system is described which outputs to a strip chart recorder for plotting the time history of the fetal heart rate. The system is validated in the context of the fetal nonstress test. Comparisons are made with ultrasonic nonstress tests on a series of patients. Comparative data provides favorable indications of the feasibility of the acoustic monitor for clinical use.

Pretlow, Robert A., III↗