Thesis
CRYOGENIC ACCELERATED FATIGUE TESTER FOR CHARACTERIZATION OF 3D-PRINTED POLYMER MATRIX COMPOSITES
Washington State University
Master of Science (MS), Washington State University
01/2021
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7273/000005467
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/119067
Abstract
A future in which humanity has full access to the resources of our solar system requires the infrastructure necessary to take the human experience off world at affordable costs comparable to the modern-day plane ticket. Since the early days of the Apollo program, advances in human spaceflight have been hindered by incredible launch costs that at one time ranged in the billions. However, privatization of the space industry has drastically reduced costs from billions to millions of dollars. Yet, privatization alone will not make spaceflight affordable for all. Reduction in mass is a continual goal for the design of aerospace vehicles. Implementation of additive manufacturing of new polymer composite materials has been identified as a pathway towards reducing mass, and by extension, launch costs. The research presented in this thesis details the design of the Cryogenic Accelerated Fatigue Tester (CRAFT) – a loading system capable of testing novel 3D-printed polymer composite materials for future liquid cryogen storage vessels. Understanding fatigue life of these materials has been determined as one of the greatest setbacks to the adoption of additive manufacturing for the aerospace industry. CRAFT can simulate liquid cryogen environments for accelerated fatigue life testing upwards of 100 Hz. Furthermore, this research evaluates the tensile and fatigue properties of selective laser sintered (SLS) materials at 20 K. The results indicate that specimens saw an increase in ultimate tensile strength exceeding 30% between 295 K and 20 K. Furthermore, it was determined that under fatigue loading at 100 Hz and 50% of the ultimate tensile strength, the specimens could survive greater than 107 cycles at 20 K.
Metrics
Details
- Title
- CRYOGENIC ACCELERATED FATIGUE TESTER FOR CHARACTERIZATION OF 3D-PRINTED POLYMER MATRIX COMPOSITES
- Creators
- Mathew Adam Hunt
- Contributors
- Jacob Leachman (Advisor)Lloyd Smith (Committee Member)Arda Gozen (Committee Member)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering
- Theses and Dissertations
- Master of Science (MS), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University
- Number of pages
- 202
- Identifiers
- 99900592159001842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Thesis