Design of Energy Absorbing Ceramics for Rotating Detonation Engines
Abstract
A rotating detonation engine (RDE) is a high-efficiency engine where one or more high-pressure explosions or detonations continuously travel around a cylindrical channel. RDEs have the potential to be superior to gas turbines and rocket engines, and provide propulsion to hypersonic speeds. The shock waves produced by detonation, which occur at a specific and predictable frequency, cause large stresses and high temperatures in the channel. At these operational temperatures there are advantages to fabricating this channel of a ceramic material, however, the operating conditions are challenging for brittle elastic materials. It is well understood in the polymer community that near its glass transition, or Tg, a polymer can absorb great amounts of energy when the loading frequency is of the same rate as the re-alignment frequency of the polymer chains or its pendant groups. To exploit this fact in ceramics, we propose the development of a new class of ceramics that intentionally have discrete viscous phases added to a purely elastic matrix. In this approach, we will take advantage of the energy absorbing relaxation mechanisms associated with glassy phases near their Tg, primarily via translational and rotational motions of the silica tetrahedron and atoms. Thus, we propose to fabricate and investigate glass-ceramic composite materials where the Tg of the glassy phase is compositionally tuned to absorb energy for a specific loading frequency and operational temperature of interest. In addition, we will explore the nature of crack interactions at viscous-elastic interfaces using the same glass-ceramic composite materials, propagating cracks in samples near the Tg of the glass phase to evaluate how bridging viscoelastic ligaments can increase toughness.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Mar 06, 2024
- Source ID
- FA95502310341
Entities
People
- Rodney W. Trice
Organizations
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- Purdue University
- United States Air Force