Going to Extremes
Meeting the Emerging Demand for Durable Polymer Matrix Composites
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS
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NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competences and with regard for appropriate balance.
This study was supported by Contract No. MDA972-01-D-001 between the National Academy of Sciences and the Department of Defense. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the organizations or agencies that provided support for the project.
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COMMITTEE ON DURABILITY AND LIFETIME PREDICTION OF POLYMER MATRIX COMPOSITES IN EXTREME ENVIRONMENTS
L. CATHERINE BRINSON,
Northwestern University,
Chair
KENNETH L. REIFSNIDER,
University of Connecticut,
Vice Chair
PAUL A. BARTOLOTTA,
NASA Glenn Research Center
MATTHEW B. BUCZEK,
GE Aircraft Engines
JOHN W. DAVIS,
The Boeing Company
NORMAN J. JOHNSTON,
NASA Langley Research Center (retired)
ANN MARIE SASTRY,
University of Michigan
SANFORD S. STERNSTEIN,
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Staff
TONI MARECHAUX, Study Director
LAURA TOTH, Senior Program Assistant
NATIONAL MATERIALS ADVISORY BOARD
KATHARINE G. FRASE,
IBM,
Chair
JOHN ALLISON,
Ford Motor Company
PAUL BECHER,
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
CHERYL R. BLANCHARD,
Zimmer, Inc.
BARBARA D. BOYAN,
Georgia Institute of Technology
L. CATHERINE BRINSON,
Northwestern University
DIANNE CHONG,
The Boeing Company
FIONA DOYLE,
University of California at Berkeley
HAMISH L. FRASER,
Ohio State University
JOHN J. GASSNER,
U.S. Army Natick Soldier Center
SOSSINA M. HAILE,
California Institute of Technology
THOMAS S. HARTWICK, Consultant,
Redmond, Washington
ARTHUR H. HEUER,
Case Western Reserve University
ELIZABETH HOLM,
Sandia National Laboratories
ANDREW T. HUNT,
nGimat Company
FRANK E. KARASZ,
University of Massachusetts
CONILEE G. KIRKPATRICK,
HRL Laboratories
TERRY LOWE,
Los Alamos National Laboratory
HENRY J. RACK,
Clemson University
LINDA SCHADLER,
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
LYLE H. SCHWARTZ, Consultant,
Chevy Chase, Maryland
JAMES C. SEFERIS,
University of Washington
SHARON L. SMITH,
Lockheed Martin Corporation
T.S. SUDARSHAN,
Materials Modification, Inc.
Staff
GARY FISCHMAN, Director
JAMES KILLIAN, Senior Program Officer
MICHAEL MOLONEY, Senior Program Officer
TAMAE MAEDA WONG, Senior Program Officer
BONNIE SCARBOROUGH, Program Officer
HEATHER LOZOWSKI, Financial Associate
TERI THOROWGOOD, Administrative Coordinator
MARTA VORNBROCK, Research Assistant
COLLEEN BRENNAN, Senior Program Assistant
LAURA TOTH, Senior Program Assistant
Preface
The Department of Defense (DOD) Reliance Panel on Materials and Processes requested that the National Materials Advisory Board conduct a study to identify the barriers and current limitations on the use of polymer composites in extreme environments and recommend thoughtful strategies to enable increased reliable insertion and use of these materials in future critical applications. The emphasis was on issues surrounding methodologies for predicting the long-term performance of polymers in aggressive environments.
This is not a new question. In a previous study by the National Materials Advisory Board,1 the government was encouraged to
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Support development and facilitate implementation of advanced analysis and computational methods to predict residual strength as a function of time; and
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Support programs to better understand basic failure mechanisms in advanced materials and their structures. Include the interactions at the various length scales of a material, from the microstructural to the macrostructural.
The committee set out to address both recommendations with increased specificity. It was charged with conducting a workshop to assess the current scope of the scientific and technical challenges associated with the use of polymer matrix composites (PMCs) in extreme environments and to assess the advances necessary to predict their behavior with greater precision than is now possible. The committee was charged expressly to carry out the following tasks:
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Assess the limitations of current durability design practices for use of PMCs in extreme environments.
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Identify future durability and life prediction needs that would permit the expanded use of PMCs in extreme environments.
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Identify novel or recent advancements for life prediction of PMCs not yet adopted or accepted by industry and develop any lessons learned.
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Identify approaches and candidate tool sets that could accelerate the development of robust scientific methods to accurately predict the state of PMCs as they are exposed to their operating environment during their service life.
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Prepare a workshop report with recommendations for advancing the ability to predict the behavior of PMCs in extreme environments.
1 |
National Research Council. 1996. New Materials for Next-Generation Commercial Transports. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press. p. 75. Available at <http://books.nap.edu/catalog/5070.html>. Accessed February 2005. |
A workshop was held on July 26-27, 2004, that included committee members, experts, and DOD representatives; the committee also met on that occasion. Technical topics were presented and then discussed. The topics covered the design considerations, the suitability of current modeling practice, the influence of processing and materials, and accelerated testing. The DOD representatives also provided a useful overview and rationale to set the stage for the discussions. Formal presentations were brief to allow committee members and guests to interact and focus on the answers to the questions raised by the above tasks. By the conclusion of the meeting, the committee had agreed on several overarching recommendations. It remained for the committee to assign individuals to gather additional information and then to summarize their findings through e-mail exchanges and regular teleconferences. The recommendations and supporting information that resulted from this process are presented in the body of the report.
This report has been reviewed in draft form by individuals chosen for their diverse perspectives and technical expertise, in accordance with procedures approved by the National Research Council’s Report Review Committee. The purpose of this independent review is to provide candid and critical comments that will assist the institution in making its published report as sound as possible and to ensure that the report meets institutional standards for objectivity, evidence, and responsiveness to the study charge. The review comments and draft manuscript remain confidential to protect the integrity of the deliberative process. We wish to thank the following individuals for their review of this report:
Scott W. Case, Virginia Tech,
Thomas S. Gates, NASA Langley Research Center,
Gail Hahn, The Boeing Company,
John L. Kardos, Washington University,
Frederick J. Lisy, Orbital Research, Inc.,
Hugh L. McManus, Metis Design,
Richard Stein, University of Massachusetts, and
John Thesken, NASA Glenn Research Center.
Although the reviewers listed above have provided many constructive comments and suggestions, they were not asked to endorse the conclusions or recommendations, nor did they see the final draft of the report before its release. The review of this report was overseen by William G. Agnew, General Motors Corporation (retired). Appointed by the National Research Council, he was responsible for making certain that an independent examination of this report was carried out in accordance with institutional procedures and that all review comments were carefully considered. Responsibility for the final content of this report rests entirely with the authoring committee and the institution.
The committee acknowledges the speakers from the government and from industry who took the time to share their ideas and experiences. The following individuals also greatly assisted the work of the committee through their participation in many of the committee’s activities: Linda Schadler, liaison to the National Materials Advisory Board, and Tia Benson-Tolle and Ozden Ochoa of the Air Force Research Laboratory. Finally, the committee acknowledges the contributions to this report by the staff of the National Academies, including Rachel Fezzie, Laura Toth, and Toni Marechaux, and by Carol Schutte, a consultant to the committee.
L. Catherine Brinson, Chair
Committee on Durability and Lifetime Prediction of Polymer Matrix Composites in Extreme Environments
Tables, Figures, and Boxes
TABLES
1-1 |
Characteristics and Applications of High-Performance Fibers in Polymer Matrix Composite Materials, |
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1-2 |
Capabilities and Limitations of Some PMC Applications in a Variety of Extreme Conditions, |
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2-1 |
Papers Published in Selected Composite Areas, 1955-2004, |
FIGURES
1-1 |
Specific stiffness and strength of a variety of PMCs in comparison to some metallic materials, |
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1-2 |
Percentage of composite components in commercial aircraft, |
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1-3 |
Production primary and secondary structure for the Boeing 777, an example of 1990s commercial application of composites, |
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1-4 |
Projections for composite use in the Boeing 787, |
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1-5 |
The aft strut fairing heat shield on the Boeing 777, |
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2-3-1 |
Cryogenic conformal fuel tank, |
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3-1 |
Teaming paradigm, |
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3-2 |
A new teaming paradigm, |
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3-3 |
The desired modeling paradigm showing teaming relationships and the replacement of an uninformed knockdown factor by mechanistically and physically based models and design, |
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4-1 |
Example of a technology roadmap implementation, |
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5-1 |
Parallels between bioinformatics data and materials data, |
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6-1 |
The Boeing 787 as designed will utilize composite materials and new manufacturing techniques, |