Unique Facility for High Resolution In Situ Three Dimensional Material Characterization
Abstract
The University of Texas Arlington (UTA) proposes enabling a unique CT facility for high resolution, up to less than a micron, in sit""u three-dimensional material characterization under mechanical load, up to 11 kip, and allowing for efficient scanning of up to 5 fo"ot long structures. This range of characteristics by far exceeds capabilities of any available instrument. The development of such versatile facility has been essential for understanding and characterizing materials performance and reliability for critical defense applications. Performance and reliability issues are found across the Services that impact current and new systems and the life extension of existing platforms.Such facility will be developed through essential upgrades of a customized X5000CT micro-focus CT sys"tem acquired by UTA six years ago from North Star Imaging, Inc. This large CT facility, able to inspect up to 5 foot long articles," offered reliable 10 micron resolution. In 2012 ONR DURIP modified this system to develop the CT integrated ability to mechanically load test articles up to 11 kip tensile/compressive forces while performing CT scanning and measure 3D subsurface structural behavior under load. This in situ ~-CT facility has been instrumental in achieving breakthrough in understanding complex deformation and failure mechanisms in composite materials and structures in military aircraft and rotorcraft. Due to a unique combination of maximum" size of test articles and in situ ~-CT ability, the UTA CT system became a national facility constantly used by Navy, Air Force, an""d Army research Programs and by therotorcraft OEM~s (Bell, Boeing, Sikorsky Lockheed Martin) as well as the fixed-wing aircraft OEM""~s (Boeing, Lockheed Martin).However, advanced materials, structures, and manufacturing processes for defense applications critica"l to sustain military superiority require significant improvement in the resolution capability of this facility. Many defense applications require further improvement in resolution to a single micron or less to accurately capture topology of the material structure including small flaws and manufacturing irregularities critical for understanding structural performance and uncovering reliability" issues. Fortunately, the latest advances in x-ray tube and detector technologies finally allow us to achieve sufficient resolution" while keeping the unique in situ capabilities and large structure size. The proposed instrumentation will support the multi-year Do"D Program in composite materials and structures at UTA, including current and future efforts. Among such efforts are upcoming three-""year ONR Project, Physics-Based Composite ProcessSimulation in collaboration with Bell; a new five-year Army Vertical Lift Research"" Center of Excellence Task, Novel High-Performing Materials through Integration of Process and Structure Modeling; a new Air Force C""omposite Airframe Life Extension Program in collaboration with Boeing, and other tasks.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Feb 20, 2018
- Source ID
- N000141812154
Entities
People
- Andrew Makeev
Organizations
- Office of Naval Research
- United States Navy
- University of Texas at Arlington