Study of plate-fin heat exchanger and cold plate for the active thermal control system of Space Station

Plate-fin heat exchangers will be employed in the Active Thermal Control System of Space Station Freedom. During ground testing of prototypic heat exchangers, certain anomalous behaviors have been observed. Diagnosis has been conducted to determine the cause of the observed behaviors, including a scrutiny of temperature, pressure, and flow rate test data, and verification calculations based on such data and more data collected during the ambient and thermal/vacuum tests participated by the author. The test data of a plate-fin cold plate have been also analyzed. Recommendation was made with regard to further tests providing more useful information of the cold plate performance

Study of Ceramic Slurries for Investment Casting with Ice Patterns

Ice patterns generated by rapid freeze prototyping or a molding process can be used to make ceramic investment molds for metal castings. Due to the use of ice, the ceramic slurries must be poured around the pattern and cured at sub-freezing temperatures. Success of this process depends greatly on the mold strength after the gelation of the slurries. This paper describes the experimental results of the mold strength after the gelation of the slurries under different compositions. The parameters considered include mixing time, alumino-silicate vs. fused silica ratio, volume of binder, and volume of catalyst. The strength of the gelled slurries is examined by breaking test bars on a four-point bending apparatus. Weibull modulus for each trial is calculated based on the breaking strength from four-point bend tests. Analysis of variance for breaking strength and Weibull analysis is performed to evaluate the significance of the effect of each parameter. The casting of a bolt is used to demonstrate that metal castings of complex geometry can be fabricated using investment casting with ice patterns.Mechanical Engineerin

Modeling and Validation of Temperature and Concentration for Rapid Freeze Prototyping

Rapid Freeze Prototyping is a solid freeform fabrication process that uses water as the main build material in a cold environment to create three-dimensional parts. A eutectic sugar-water solution (C6H12O6 – H2O) has been used as a sacrificial material in order to create complex 3D parts with features such as overhangs. A study of the interaction of the build and support materials is presented in this paper. The temperature of both materials during deposition and subsequent cooling is modeled using a semi-empirical model and a theoretical model. A concentration model is used to predict the concentration in the fabricated parts around the interface of the two materials with predicted temperatures as input. Experiments are conducted to validate both the temperature and concentration models.Mechanical Engineerin

Study on Incorporating Support Material in Rapid Freeze Prototyping

Rapid Freeze Prototyping (RFP) is a rapid prototyping method that uses water freezing into ice to make three-dimensional parts. Each layer of a geometry is deposited and allowed to freeze before the next layer is added. Using a support material in RFP is a relatively new addition to the process. Validating the successful use of a support material in conjunction with the main build material of water is presented in this paper. The support material selected for use is a eutectic sugar solution. The selection criteria, properties, and characteristics of the support material are discussed. Of particular interest is the diffusion between the support and main build material, which must be minimized to an acceptable level for producing good quality, reproducible, complex parts.Mechanical Engineerin

Shell Cracking In Investment Casting with Laser Stereolithography Patterns

This paper presents an investigation of ceramic shell cracking during the burnout process in investment casting with internally webbed laser stereolithography patterns. We hypothesize that shell cracking will occur when the rupture temperature of the ceramic shell is lower than both the glass transition temperature of the pattern material and the web· link buckling temperature. The hypothesis is validated by our experimental observations which confirm the numerical predictions from our fillite element analysis. This provides a basis for design of the internal web geometry of a lithography pa.tternand evaluation ofthe burnolltprocesswithsuch a pattern. We show the shell cracking and web link buckling temperatures to be functiollsofthe pattern geometry (including the cross~sectional dimensions and span length of the web link) and the shell thickness.Mechanical Engineerin

The Finite-time Ruin Probabilities of a Bidimensional risk model with Constant Interest Force and correlated Brownian Motions

We follow some recent works to study bidimensional perturbed compound Poisson risk models with constant interest force and correlated Brownian Motions. Several asymptotic formulae for three different type of ruin probabilities over a finite-time horizon are established. Our approach appeals directly to very recent developments in the ruin theory in the presence of heavy tails of unidimensional risk models and the dependence theory of stochastic processes and random vectors.Comment: 25page