Sintering of hierarchically-structured boron carbide for toughening and multi- functionality

Boron carbide is light-weight, is thermally stable, has high hardness/stiffness, and is multi-functional (semiconducting, thermoelectric, and high neutron absorption cross-section). Boron carbide has been of interest for applications in extreme environments, including turbine engines, protection armor against impact, heat, and radiation, but such application is currently limited due to its brittleness and low sinterability. The toughening of ceramics has been investigated for many years as a light-weight, thermally/chemically stable alternative to structural materials. Among many methods, ceramic micro-fibers implementation has been effective, and further toughening is expected though engineering of matrices, specifically by implementing intentionally weak interphases to provide locally controlled deformation and thus energy dissipation within matrices. For example, in the past we experimentally studied the potentials of nano-porosity introduction into ceramics on deformation behaviors, by indenting on a model system of anodic aluminum oxide. Normally, porosity in ceramics is regarded as the defect, but we identified that, when pore size is below 100 nm, nanopores deform in a controlled manner (collapse or shear band, see Figure 1a), contributing to fracture toughness increase. Meanwhile, introduction of nano-porosity resulted in stiffness and hardness decrease. Please download the PDF file for full content

Antidiabetic activities of Cassia occidentalis

The present investigation was carried out to evaluate the anti-diabetic activities of Cassia occidentalis (Seena, coffee weed), a well known medicinal plant commonly found in India and other tropical countries. Various medicinal properties have been attributed to this plant in the traditional system of Indian medicine. The aqueous and methanolic extracts of aerial parts, viz. leaves, stem and seeds of the plant, Cassia occidentalis possessed anti-hyperglycemic/ anti-diabetic activity against alloxan-induced animal model. All aqueous-treated rats showed no discernible behavioral changes up to 3000 mg/kg by oral route. No mortality was observed at this dose during 72 h observation period. Amongst all the extracts, potent anti-diabetic activity was observed in aqueous extracts of leaves of C. occidentalis followed by aqueous extracts of seeds and aqueous extracts of stem. In normal animals, significant (p<0.05) reduction in the blood glucose level was observed by the aqueous extracts as compared to the control and methanolic extracts. However, treatment of methanolic extracts of aerial parts of C. occidentalis could not bring back the sugar to normal levels. Acute and chronic treatment of the aqueous extract of aerial parts of C. occidentalis (3000 mg/kg) in alloxan-induced diabetic rats resulted in a significant (p<0.05) decrease in the elevated blood glucose levels as compared to the control, there was significant reduction in blood glucose level in the group treated with glibenclamide at 0.5 mg/kg. The results showed that blood glucose level gets decreased after varying the dose level. Thus the findings confirmed that level of blood glucose gets normal in dose-dependent manner

High Thermal Conductivity NARloy-Z-Diamond Composite Combustion Chamber Liner For Advanced Rocket Engines

Advanced high thermal conductivity materials research conducted at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) with state of the art combustion chamber liner material NARloy-Z showed that its thermal conductivity can be increased significantly by adding diamond particles and sintering it at high temperatures. For instance, NARloy-Z containing 40 vol. percent diamond particles, sintered at 975C to full density by using the Field assisted Sintering Technology (FAST) showed 69 percent higher thermal conductivity than baseline NARloy-Z. Furthermore, NARloy-Z-40vol. percent D is 30 percent lighter than NARloy-Z and hence the density normalized thermal conductivity is 140 percent better. These attributes will improve the performance and life of the advanced rocket engines significantly. By one estimate, increased thermal conductivity will directly translate into increased turbopump power up to 2X and increased chamber pressure for improved thrust and ISP, resulting in an expected 20 percent improvement in engine performance. Follow on research is now being conducted to demonstrate the benefits of this high thermal conductivity NARloy-Z-D composite for combustion chamber liner applications in advanced rocket engines. The work consists of a) Optimizing the chemistry and heat treatment for NARloy-Z-D composite, b) Developing design properties (thermal and mechanical) for the optimized NARloy-Z-D, c) Fabrication of net shape subscale combustion chamber liner, and d) Hot fire testing of the liner for performance. FAST is used for consolidating and sintering NARlo-Z-D. The subscale cylindrical liner with built in channels for coolant flow is also fabricated near net shape using the FAST process. The liner will be assembled into a test rig and hot fire tested in the MSFC test facility to determine performance. This paper describes the development of this novel high thermal conductivity NARloy-Z-D composite material, and the advanced net shape technology to fabricate the combustion chamber liner. Properties of optimized NARloy-Z-D composite material will also be presented

Fabrication of High Thermal Conductivity NARloy-Z-Diamond Composite Combustion Chamber Liner for Advanced Rocket Engines

This paper describes the process development for fabricating a high thermal conductivity NARloy-Z-Diamond composite (NARloy-Z-D) combustion chamber liner for application in advanced rocket engines. The fabrication process is challenging and this paper presents some details of these challenges and approaches used to address them. Prior research conducted at NASA-MSFC and Penn State had shown that NARloy-Z-40%D composite material has significantly higher thermal conductivity than the state of the art NARloy-Z alloy. Furthermore, NARloy-Z-40 %D is much lighter than NARloy-Z. These attributes help to improve the performance of the advanced rocket engines. Increased thermal conductivity will directly translate into increased turbopump power, increased chamber pressure for improved thrust and specific impulse. Early work on NARloy-Z-D composites used the Field Assisted Sintering Technology (FAST, Ref. 1, 2) for fabricating discs. NARloy-Z-D composites containing 10, 20 and 40vol% of high thermal conductivity diamond powder were investigated. Thermal conductivity (TC) data. TC increased with increasing diamond content and showed 50% improvement over pure copper at 40vol% diamond. This composition was selected for fabricating the combustion chamber liner using the FAST technique

Fabrication of Lightweight Radiation Shielding Composite Materials by Field Assisted Sintering Technique (FAST)

Advances in radiation shielding technologies are needed to protect humans and electronic components from all threats of space radiation over long durations. In this paper, we report on the use of the innovative and novel fabrication technology known as Field Assisted Sintering Technology (FAST) to fabricate lightweight material with enhanced radiation shielding strength to safeguard humans and electronics suitable for next generation space exploration missions. The base materials we investigated were aluminum (Al), the current standard material for space hardware, and Ultra-High Molecular Weight Polyethylene (UHMWPE), which has high hydrogen content and resistance to nuclear reaction from neutrons, making it a good shielding material for both gamma radiation and particles. UHMWPE also has high resistance to corrosive chemicals, extremely low moisture sensitivity, very low coefficient of friction, and high resistance to abrasion. We reinforced the base materials by adding high density (ie, high atomic weight) metallic material into the composite. These filler materials included: boron carbide (B4C), tungsten (W), tungsten carbide (WC) and gadolinium (Gd)

High Thermal Conductivity NARloy-Z-Diamond Composite for Advanced Rocket Engines

No abstract availabl

Monitoring Delamination of Thermal Barrier Coatings by Near-Infrared and Upconversion Luminescence Imaging

Previous work has demonstrated that TBC delamination can be monitored by incorporating a thin luminescent sublayer that produces greatly increased luminescence intensity from delaminated regions of the TBC. Initial efforts utilized visible-wavelength luminescence from either europium or erbium doped sublayers. This approach exhibited good sensitivity to delamination of electron-beam physical-vapor-deposited (EB-PVD) TBCs, but limited sensitivity to delamination of the more highly scattering plasma-sprayed TBCs due to stronger optical scattering and to interference by luminescence from rare-earth impurities. These difficulties have now been overcome by new strategies employing near-infrared (NIR) and upconversion luminescence imaging. NIR luminescence at 1550 nm was produced in an erbium plus ytterbium co-doped yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) luminescent sublayer using 980-nm excitation. Compared to visible-wavelength luminescence, these NIR emission and excitation wavelengths are much more weakly scattered by the TBC and therefore show much improved depth-probing capabilities. In addition, two-photon upconversion luminescence excitation at 980 nm wavelength produces luminescence emission at 562 nm with near-zero fluorescence background and exceptional contrast for delamination indication. The ability to detect TBC delamination produced by Rockwell indentation and by furnace cycling is demonstrated for both EB-PVD and plasma-sprayed TBCs. The relative strengths of the NIR and upconversion luminescence methods for monitoring TBC delamination are discussed

STAT3 inhibitor mitigates cerebral amyloid angiopathy and parenchymal amyloid plaques while improving cognitive functions and brain networks

Previous reports indicate a potential role for signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) in amyloid-β (Aβ) processing and neuritic plaque pathogenesis. In the present study, the impact of STAT3 inhibition on cognition, cerebrovascular function, amyloid pathology, oxidative stress, and neuroinflammation was studied using in vitro and in vivo models of Alzheimer\u27s disease (AD)-related pathology. For in vitro experiments, human brain vascular smooth muscle cells (HBVSMC) and human brain microvascular endothelial cells (HBMEC) were used, and these cultured cells were exposed to Aβ peptides followed by measurement of activated forms of STAT3 expression and reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation. Further, 6 months old 5XFAD/APOE4 (5XE4) mice and age-matched negative littermates were used for in vivo experiments. These mice were treated with STAT3 specific inhibitor, LLL-12 for 2 months followed by neurobehavioral and histopathological assessment. In vitro experiments showed exposure of cerebrovascular cells to Aβ peptides upregulated activated forms of STAT3 and produced STAT3-mediated vascular oxidative stress. 5XE4 mice treated with the STAT3-specific inhibitor (LLL-12) improved cognitive functions and functional connectivity and augmented cerebral blood flow. These functional improvements were associated with a reduction in neuritic plaques, cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA), oxidative stress, and neuroinflammation. Reduction in amyloid precursor protein (APP) processing and attenuation of oxidative modification of lipoprotein receptor related protein-1 (LRP-1) were identified as potential underlying mechanisms. These results demonstrate the broad impact of STAT3 on cognitive functions, parenchymal and vascular amyloid pathology and highlight the therapeutic potential of STAT3 specific inhibition for treatment of AD and CAA

Process intensification for the small footprint compact heat transfer device

Process intensification for the development of compact heat exchanger with small footprint is greatest challenge of the heat exchanger technology today. In the present study, a heat transfer device, coiled flow inverter (CFI) is revamped for the better heat transfer efficiency with a smaller footprint. The proposed small foot-print coiled flow inverter (SFCFI) is fabricated by bending of helical coil at 90° with equal arm lengths before and after the bend with variable curvature radius. In integration to the improved centrifugal force due to variable curvature, the SFCFI additionally offers a complete 90 flow inversion caused by each 90 bend, which results in higher radial mixing and heat transfer. The velocity and temperature flow fields depict the improved radial mixing under the laminar flow regime for the Dean number ranges from 8 to 1581. The performance of existing CFI of same heat transfer area (0.17 m2) was studied and compared with the novel SFCFI device. The results suggest, the proposed SFCFI device provides three-fold heat transfer enhancement as compared to the straight tube of same heat transfer area at Dean number 400. Additionally, heat transfer coefficient in SFCFI enhanced by 48 % as compared to helical coil. Furthermore, SFCFI provides 18 % higher value of Nusselt number as compared to the CFI. The reason for improved heat transfer may be the enhanced centrifugal force due to additional curvature effect provided in each arm of SFCFI in the plane of vortex formation. It was interesting to note that the proposed device provides 11 % lower pressure drop as compared to the CFI. The present study may aids to the development of a novel design of compact coiled and small footprint heat transfer device.Papers presented at the 13th International Conference on Heat Transfer, Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics, Portoroz, Slovenia on 17-19 July 2017 .International centre for heat and mass transfer.American society of thermal and fluids engineers

Fabrication of High Thermal Conductivity NARloy-Z-Diamond Composite Combustion Chamber Liner for Advanced Rocket Engines

No abstract availabl