Mechanical Components Branch
Research Areas
Gear Fatigue Studies:
Examples
- Life capacity of various gear steels (materials and processing)
- Effect of grinding method
- Effect of tooth profile
- Effect of contact ratio
- Effect of lubricant type
- Effect of lubricant viscosity
- Benefit of "extreme pressure" additives
- Effect of grinding method
Gear Noise and Dynamics Research
Examples
- Experimental and analytical research to reduce transmission error, noise and
vibration in gear transmissions.
- Includes developing and validating gear noise and dynamics codes.
Gear Crack Propagation Research
Details
- 2-D and 3-D modeling of gear cracks
- Uses finite element & boundary element analysis, with linear elastic fracture mechanics.
- Validated by gear and transmission experiments.
- Developed design guidelines for ultra-safe gears.
Drive Systems Health & Usage Monitoring Research
Examples
Transmission Components & Concepts Research
High Temperature Structural Seals and Thermal Barriers Research
- Develop advanced structural seals capable of extreme (1500 - 3500 °F) temperatures.
- Exploit novel design techniques to meet leakage, durability, and resiliency
(spring-back) goals across operating temperature range.
- Evaluate seal performance through compression, flow and extreme thermal tests.
- Develop/validate analytical models to predict leakage and resiliency performance.
- Demonstrate seal performance through prototype engine tests.
Key In House Facilities:
- High temperature (1500 °F) rope seal flow and compression test rigs.
- Engine components lab (>2000 °F) & HSR combustor rig (2200 °F).
Partners:
- Thiokol, Albany-Techniweave; GE; PW; Teledyne; Air Force; Boeing; Navy;
Rocketdyne; Williams; Other Industrial Partners.
Turbine Seals Research
Developing durable, low-leakage turbomachinery seals
to meet demands of next generation subsonic and supersonic engines.
Turbine Seal page
Specific Goals:
- Develop seal technology to reduce specific fuel consumption (SFC) > 2%.
- Validate seal performance and design models through laboratory testing
under simulated speeds to 1500 fps, temperatures (to 1500 °F) and pressures.
- Develop advanced CFD methods to predict seal performance under installed conditions.
- Demonstrate seal performance in full scale engine tests.
- Transition seals to engine service by 2005.
Key In House Facilities:
- Turbine engine seal test rig (capacity to 1500 °F, 1500 fps speed).
- Army T-700 & T-55 engines
Partners:
- GE; PW; Air Force; Allison; Army; UTRC; AlliedSignal; Williams; EG&G;
Stein Seal; Cross; B&C Eng. Assoc.
Space Mechanisms Research
Backup Bearings for Magnetically Suspended Flywheels
- Design and develop a mechanical bearing system to "catch" a flywheel spinning
60,000 rpm after magnetic bearing failure
- Design and develop testing equipment to evaluate bearing components
- Evaluate various components that make up the system
- Demonstrate bearing performance through "touchdown" testing
Solid Lubricants for High Speed Backup Bearings Operating in a Vacuum Environment
- Test commercially available solid lubricants
- Formulate new solid lubricant composites and coatings
- Evaluate tribologic performance of composites and coatings in air, inert
gas, and vacuum through accelerated testing
- Demonstrate performance through prototype testing
Magnetically Sealed Bearings for Space Applications
- Evaluate different sealing faceplates
- Evaluate different lubricant formulations
- Evaluate sealing ability under simulated spacecraft conditions
- Evaluate torque characteristics under simulated spacecraft conditions
- Demonstrate performance through long duration testing
Mars Pathfinder Abrasive Wheel Experiment Testbed
Image of Mars Pathfinder Abrasive Wheel Experiment
- Testbed simulates operation in a Martian environment
- Measures abrasive wear by measuring light reflectivity of test specimens attached to a wheel
- Testbed results compared with data from Mars Pathfinder rover
Space Mechanisms Failure Modes
- To determine analyses, tests, controls and prevention mechanisms that can
be performed before launch to avert space mechanism failures
- Literature survey performed to find past practices and lessons learned in failure prevention
- Questionnaire sent to industry, government and acedemia to learn opinions on failure prevention
Oil-Free Turbomachinery
Oil-Free Web Page
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Last modified 1 Mar 2007
