Publications

Abstract not provided.

Abstract not provided.

Abstract not provided.

Abstract not provided.

Abstract not provided.

Abstract not provided.

Abstract not provided.

Abstract not provided.

Abstract not provided.

Abstract not provided.

Abstract not provided.

Abstract not provided.

Abstract not provided.

Polymer foam encapsulants provide mechanical, electrical, and thermal isolation in engineered systems. In fire environments, foams, such as polyurethanes and epoxies, can liquefy and flow during thermal decomposition, and evolved gases can cause pressurization and failure of sealed containers. In systems safety and hazard analyses, heat transfer and thermo-mechanical response in systems involving coupled foam decomposition, liquefaction, flow, and pressurization can be difficult to predict using numerical models. This is particularly true when liquefaction and flow create inhomogeneous "participating media" that behave inconsistently and significantly impact radiant heat transfer to encapsulated objects. To mitigate modeling issues resulting from foam liquefaction and flow, a hybrid polyurethane cyanate ester foam was developed that has mechanical properties similar to currently used polyurethane foams. The hybrid foam behaves predictably, does not liquefy, and forms approximately 50 percent by weight uniform char during decomposition in nitrogen. The char forms predictably and is a relatively uniform "participating medium." Experimental and modeling approaches were developed to predict radiation and conduction heat transfer to encapsulated objects before, during, and after foam decomposition. Model parameters were evaluated from independent small-scale experiments. Largerscale radiant heat transfer experiments involving encapsulated objects were done to provide data for model evaluation. Model predictions were within the variation in experimental results for the major portion of the experiments. © (2009) by BCC Research All rights reserved.

Polymer foams are used as encapsulants to provide mechanical, electrical, and thermal isolation for engineered systems. In fire environments, the incident heat flux to a system or structure can cause foams to decompose. Commonly used foams, such as polyurethanes, often liquefy and flow during decomposition, and evolved gases can cause pressurization and ultimately failure of sealed containers. In systems safety and hazard analyses, numerical models are used to predict heat transfer to encapsulated objects or through structures. The thermo-mechanical response of systems involving coupled foam decomposition, liquefaction, and flow can be difficult to predict. Predicting pressurization of sealed systems is particularly challenging. To mitigate the issues caused by liquefaction and flow, hybrid polyurethane cyanate ester foams have been developed that have good adhesion and mechanical properties similar to currently used polyurethane and epoxy foams. The hybrid foam decomposes predictably during decomposition. It forms approximately 50 percent by weight char during decomposition in nitrogen. The foam does not liquefy. The charring nature of the hybrid foam has several advantages with respect to modeling heat transfer and pressurization. Those advantages are illustrated by results from recent radiant heat transfer experiments involving encapsulated objects, as well as results from numerical simulations of those experiments.

Abstract not provided.

Abstract not provided.

Abstract not provided.

Abstract not provided.

Abstract not provided.

Abstract not provided.

Abstract not provided.

An epoxy-based conformal coating with a very low modulus has been developed for the environmental protection of electronic devices and for stress relief of those devices. The coating was designed to be removable by incorporating thermally-reversible Diels-Alder (D-A) adducts into the epoxy resin utilized in the formulation. The removability of the coating allows us to recover expensive components during development, to rebuild during production, to upgrade the components during their lifetime, to perform surveillance after deployment, and it aids in dismantlement of the components after their lifetime. The removability is the unique feature of this coating and was characterized by modulus versus temperature measurements, dissolution experiments, viscosity quench experiments, and FTIR. Both the viscosity quench experiments and the FTIR measurements allowed us to estimate the equilibrium constant of the D-A adducts in a temperature range from room temperature to 90 °C. © 2007 American Chemical Society.

Abstract not provided.

Abstract not provided.

Abstract not provided.

Removable encapsulants have been developed as replacement materials for electronic encapsulation. They can be removed from an electronic assembly in a fairly benign manner. Encapsulants must satisfy a limited number of criteria to be useful. These include processing ease, certain mechanical, thermal, and electrical properties, adhesion to common clean surfaces, good aging characteristics, and compatibility. This report discusses one aspect of the compatibility of removable blown epoxy foams with electronic components. Of interest is the compatibility of the blowing agent, Fluorinert{trademark} (FC-72) electronic fluid with electronic parts, components, and select materials. Excellent compatibility is found with most of the investigated materials. A few materials, such as Teflon{reg_sign} that are comprised of chemicals very similar to FC-72 show substantial absorption of FC-72. No compatibility issues have yet been identified even for the few materials that show substantial absorption.

Abstract not provided.

Abstract not provided.

Abstract not provided.

Abstract not provided.

Abstract not provided.

Over the past two decades, Sandia has developed a variety of specialized analytical techniques for evaluating the long-term aging and stability of cable insulation and other related materials. These techniques have been applied to cable reliability studies involving numerous insulation types and environmental factors. This work has allowed the monitoring of the occurrence and progression of cable material deterioration in application environments, and has provided insights into material degradation mechanisms. It has also allowed development of more reliable lifetime prediction methodologies. As a part of the FAA program for intrusive inspection of aircraft wiring, they are beginning to apply a battery of techniques to assessing the condition of cable specimens removed from retired aircraft. It is anticipated that in a future part of this program, they may employ these techniques in conjunction with accelerated aging methodologies and models that the authros have developed and employed in the past to predict cable lifetimes. The types of materials to be assessed include 5 different wire types: polyimide, PVC/Glass/Nylon, extruded XL-polyalkene/PVDF, Poly-X, and XL-ETFE. This presentation provides a brief overview of the main techniques that will be employed in assessing the state of health of aircraft wire insulation. The discussion will be illustrated with data from their prior cable aging studies, highlighting the methods used and their important conclusions. A few of the techniques that they employ are widely used in aging studies on polymers, but others are unique to Sandia. All of their techniques are non-proprietary, and maybe of interest for use by others in terms of application to aircraft wiring analysis. At the end of this report is a list showing some leading references to papers that have been published in the open literature which provide more detailed information on the analytical techniques for elastomer aging studies. The first step in the investigation of aircraft wiring is to evaluate the applicability of their various techniques to aircraft cables, after which they expect to identify a limited subset of techniques which are appropriate for each of the major aircraft wiring types. The techniques of initial interest in the studies of aging aircraft wire are as follows: optical microscopy; mandrel bend test; tensile test/elongation at break; density measurements; modulus profiling/(spatially-resolved micro-hardness); oxygen induction time/oxygen induction temperature (by differential scanning calorimetry); solvent-swelling/gel fraction; infrared spectroscopy (with chemical derivatization as warranted); chemiluminescence; thermo-oxidative wear-out assessment; The first two techniques are the simplest and quickest to apply; those further down the list tend to be more information rich and in some cases more sensitive, but also generally more specialized and more time consuming to run. Accordingly, the procedure will be to apply the simplest tests for purposes of preliminary screening of large numbers of samples. For any given material type, it can be expected that only a limited number of the other techniques will prove to be useful, and therefore, the more specialized techniques will be used on a limited number of selected samples. Samples of aircraft wiring have begun to be released to the authors in late April; they include in this report some limited and preliminary data on these materials.