Ex situ and in situ Investigation of the Thermomechanical Behavior of Shape Morphing Materials from Room Temperature to Ultra-High Temperatures
Abstract
The proposed instrument acquisition will be used to accelerate the discovery and deployment of novel ultrahigh temperature alloy-ceramic interfaces with superior thermo-mechanical impact performance using data-driven exploration approaches. The proposed instrument system is designed to support collaborative work with DoD funded projects to advance surface engineering technologies in support of the Surface Morphing and Adaptive Structures for Hypersonics (SMASH) Essential Research Program (ERP) to enable the creation of materials with adaptive geometries and that operate under extreme temperature-speed conditions. The PIs propose to purchase a custom-made one of a kind X-ray diffraction (XRD) thermomechanical/environmental testing machine to allow the team to perform static testing, including tensile, compression, and bend tests in various environments and at extreme temperatures, while simultaneously collecting diffraction patterns to extract in-situ information on phase evolution, phase transformation behavior, and strain-stress states during the ultra-high temperature mechanical tests of shape morphing materials. The proposed XRD instrument is equipped with interchangeable mechanical testing and a high temperature furnace, which are combined with a localized laser system, that provides the capability to study the mechanical properties of various materials and components over a wide range of temperatures up to 4000 ?C in air or other environments. Both the mechanical testing and high temperature furnace systems will be modified with an IR transparent port to allow for the attachment of a 1064 nm Nd:YAG high power laser system that will locally heat the sample to temperatures up to 4000 ?C, which can be measured by an additional port with a pyrometer. The proposed equipment will allow us to test novel ultrahigh temperature ceramic matrix composites (CMCs) and metal matrix composites (MMCs) that the PIs are developing through DoD funded projects, with a focus on investigating their shape morphing capability under extreme temperatures and addressing the fundamental challenge of bonding ceramic and metal materials in hybrid shape morphing material systems. Experiments will be coupled with machine learning to expedite the X-ray mapping analysis process by developing software which can recognize diffraction patterns and allow for high-throughput combinatorial experiments. Experiments will also be coupled with computation and simulation efforts including ABAQUS Finite Element Analysis for thermo-mechanical modeling, ThermoCalc?s CALPHAD for thermodynamics, COMSOL for thermokinetics, and DFT and MD for atomic and molecular simulations. Furthermore, the proposed system is also designed for in-house experiments to serve as a testing ground for material systems for further study using more advanced faster data acquisition and higher resolution at synchrotron radiation X-ray diffraction facilities, which are in very high demand, limited to only a few days of experimental time, and cannot provide the targeted ultra-high temperatures. The acquisition of this custom-made X-ray diffraction thermomechanical/environmental testing machine with a localized laser heating system will enable our group and UNT, a Hispanic serving institution, as a whole to educate and train future scientists to test the thermo-mechanical properties of materials that operate in extreme environments (ultrahigh temperatures in air, vacuum, and inert environments). Very few institutions have facilities for testing materials ex situ and in situ in such extreme environments and correlating the thermo-mechanical data to phase evolution and transformation. The proposed equipment will give UNT and collaborating DoD and academia organizations a unique edge to explore and test materials for hypersonic applications and for other applications that require very high temperatures (aerospace as well as directed energy materials processing and other engineering technology field
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Aug 16, 2023
- Source ID
- W911NF2310368
Entities
People
- Marcus Young
Organizations
- Army Contracting Command
- United States Army
- University of North Texas