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Assessing condition of turbine engine ceramic components through NDE technology.
Thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) and environmental barrier coatings (EBCs) are under development for hot-gas path components to allow higher gas-firing temperatures in advanced (high-efficiency, low-emission) gas turbines. Increasing dependence on the reliability of TBC and EBC components has driven the need for nondestructive evaluation (NDE) methods to assess the condition, or ''health status,'' of these coatings. NDE methods based on elastic optical scatter and thermal imaging have been applied to TBC-coated test specimens that were thermally cycled and to EBC-coated SiC/SiC components that were run in 4.5 MW(e) field-test turbines. One primary interest is to develop NDE methods that can predict a prespall condition. Resulting data suggest a correlation between laser scatter data and thermal cycles for TBC-coated specimens, and thermal imaging results have demonstrated prespall detection for an EBC-coated SiC/SiC combustor liner
SEPARATION OF THE INTERSTELLAR BOUNDARY EXPLORER RIBBON FROM GLOBALLY DISTRIBUTED ENERGETIC NEUTRAL ATOM FLUX
The Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) observes a remarkable feature, the IBEX ribbon, which has energetic neutral atom (ENA) flux over a narrow region ~20° wide, a factor of 2-3 higher than the more globally distributed ENA flux. Here, we separate ENA emissions in the ribbon from the distributed flux by applying a transparency mask over the ribbon and regions of high emissions, and then solve for the distributed flux using an interpolation scheme. Our analysis shows that the energy spectrum and spatial distribution of the ribbon are distinct from the surrounding globally distributed flux. The ribbon energy spectrum shows a knee between ~1 and 4 keV, and the angular distribution is approximately independent of energy. In contrast, the distributed flux does not show a clear knee and more closely conforms to a power law over much of the sky. Consistent with previous analyses, the slope of the power law steepens from the nose to tail, suggesting a weaker termination shock toward the tail as compared to the nose. The knee in the energy spectrum of the ribbon suggests that its source plasma population is generated via a distinct physical process. Both the slope in the energy distribution of the distributed flux and the knee in the energy distribution of the ribbon are ordered by latitude. The heliotail may be identified in maps of globally distributed flux as a broad region of low flux centered ~44°W of the interstellar downwind direction, suggesting heliotail deflection by the interstellar magnetic field.Poland. Ministry of Science and Higher Education (Grant NS-1260-11-09)United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Explorers Program (IBEX Mission