High temperature materials for reusable spacecraft characterized under extreme conditions
Project Summary
Ceramics and ceramic composites provide highly sought-after capabilities that have the
potential to withstand extreme temperatures and heat fluxes, severe oxidation and high
mechanical stresses associated with next generation re-entry environments. The complexity
of these extreme operational conditions demands stringent tolerances on failure initiation
and consequently an extension of the boundaries of current characterization capabilities.
Proposed here is a real-time approach to elucidating the evolution of mechanical and
structural properties of these materials under load at ultrahigh temperatures that will pave
the way to much-needed significant advances in thermomechanical performance for
reusable spacecraft. Breakthroughs achieved by the PI in the i) initiation of in situ
techniques coupling thermo-mechanical testing with high resolution synchrotron x-rays as
well as the ii) advent of new techniques for data capture and analysis of complex
geometries, will be leveraged to determine real-time strain evolution and material
degradation under extreme environments. The outcome of the novel studies will unravel
fundamental mechanisms leading to failure under applied loads at high temperature through
real-time experimental investigations. In particular it is expected that the proposed approach
will provide high spatial resolution, real-time strain for the design of advanced materials with
superior performance in extreme environments.