Thesis (S.B.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 2011.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 21-22).Thermal cycling is a concern to those who use epoxy as an adhesion in space applications due to the mechanical and thermal properties of both the epoxy and adhered materials. These properties include the thermal expansion coefficient, a, and the stress at which the epoxy will yield fracture. An experiment was carried out to find out if failure would occur by thermal cycling of epoxy bonded components in the propulsion components of a small satellite. Failure did not occur due to shear stress attributed to the thermal expansion coefficient but unexpectedly to the liquefaction of epoxy in 3 of the 6 samples. The samples with thicker epoxy layers failed in contrast to the thinner epoxy layer samples. Overall, thermal cycling is still a concern for failure of the epoxy bond.by Michelle Burroughs.S.B
