Publications

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Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) conducted accelerated atmospheric corrosion testing for the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) to help further the understanding of the development of corrosion products on conductor materials in household electrical components exposed to environmental conditions representative of homes constructed with problem drywall. The conditions of the accelerated testing were chosen to produce corrosion product growth that would be consistent with long-term exposure to environments containing humidity and parts per billion (ppb) levels of hydrogen sulfide (H{sub 2}S) that are thought to have been the source of corrosion in electrical components from affected homes. This report documents the test set-up, monitoring of electrical performance of powered electrical components during the exposure, and the materials characterization conducted on wires, screws, and contact plates from selected electrical components. No degradation in electrical performance (measured via voltage drop) was measured during the course of the 8-week exposure, which was approximately equivalent to 40 years of exposure in a light industrial environment. Analyses show that corrosion products consisting of various phases of copper sulfide, copper sulfate, and copper oxide are found on exposed surfaces of the conductor materials including wires, screws, and contact plates. The morphology and the thickness of the corrosion products showed a range of character. In some of the copper wires that were observed, corrosion product had flaked or spalled off the surface, exposing fresh metal to the reaction with the contaminant gasses; however, there was no significant change in the wire cross-sectional area.

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There are commercial and military applications in which a material needs to serve as a barrier that must subsequently be removed. In many cases it is desirable that once the barrier has served its function that it then be reduced to small pieces. For example, in pipelines and in downhole drilling applications, valves are needed to function as barriers that can sustain high pressures. Later the valves must be removed and essentially disappear or be rendered to such a small size that they do not interfere with the functioning of other equipment. Military applications include covers on missile silos or launch vehicles. Other applications might require that a component be used once as an actuator or for passive energy storage, and then be irreversibly removed, again so as not to interfere with the function or motion of other parts of the device. Brittle materials, especially those that are very strong, or are pre-stressed, are ideal candidates for these applications. Stressed glass can be produced in different sizes and shapes and the level of strength and pre-stress, both of which control the fragmentation, can be manipulated by varying the processing. Stressed glass can be engineered to fracture predictably at a specific stress level. Controlling the central tension allows the fragment size to be specified. The energy that is stored in the residual stress profile that results from ion exchange or thermal tempering processes can be harnessed to drive fragmentation of the component once it has been deliberately fractured. Energy can also be stored in the glass by mechanical loading. Energy from both of these sources can be released either to perform useful work or to initiate another reaction. Once the stressed glass has been used as a barrier or actuator it can never be ''used'' again because it fragments into many small unrecognizable pieces during the actuation. Under some circumstances it will interfere with the motion or functioning of other parts of a device. Our approach was to use stressed glass to develop capabilities for making components that can be used as barriers, as actuating devices that passively store energy, or as a mechanical weaklink that is destroyed by some critical shock or crush load. The objective of this project was to develop one or more prototype devices using stressed glass technology and demonstrate their potential for applications of interest. This work is intended to provide critical information and technologies for Sandia's NP&A and MT&A customers, and is relevant to commercial applications for these same materials. Most of the studies in this project were conducted using the Corning 0317 sodium aluminosilicate glass composition.

This paper discusses the design and use of low-temperature (850 C to 950 C) co-fired ceramic (LTCC) planar magnetic flyback transformers for applications that require conversion of a low voltage to high voltage (> 100V) with significant volumetric constraints. Measured performance and modeling results for multiple designs showed that the LTCC flyback transformer design and construction imposes serious limitations on the achievable coupling and significantly impacts the transformer performance and output voltage. This paper discusses the impact of various design factors that can provide improved performance by increasing transformer coupling and output voltage. The experiments performed on prototype units demonstrated LTCC transformer designs capable of greater than 2 kV output. Finally, the work investigated the effect of the LTCC microstructure on transformer insulation. Although this paper focuses on generating voltages in the kV range, the experimental characterization and discussion presented in this work applies to designs requiring lower voltage.

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Multi-step ion-exchange processing can produce complex stress profiles in glass surfaces, which can result in increased fracture strength, reduced strength dispersion, flaw tolerance and multiple cracking behavior. Glass displaying this set of properties is termed engineered stress profile (ESP) glass. Treatments at 400-450 °C in molten KNO3 and NaNO3 salt baths were used to create residual stresses in the surface of soda lime silicate float glass. Stress profiles were measured using optical stress birefringence, allowing derivation of apparent fracture toughness curves and prediction of crack stability over a range of flaw sizes. Specimens were tested in the four-point bend configuration to determine fracture strength and to study the multiple cracking which results from crack growth stabilization. The results were compared to predictions from the fracture toughness curves, in terms of the strength dispersion and crack stability criteria. Indented specimens were tested to determine the response of the glass to contact damage. © 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Glass can have lethal effects including fatalities and injuries when it breaks and then flies through the air under blast loading (''the glass problem''). One goal of this program was to assess the glass problem and solutions being pursued to mitigate it. One solution to the problem is the development of new glass technology that allows the strength and fragmentation to be controlled or selected depending on the blast performance specifications. For example the glass could be weak and fail, or it could be strong and survive, but it must perform reliably. Also, once it fails it should produce fragments of a controlled size. Under certain circumstances it may be beneficial to have very small fragments, in others it may be beneficial to have large fragments that stay together. The second goal of this program was to evaluate the performance (strength, reliability, and fragmentation) of Engineered Stress Profile (ESP) glass under different loading conditions. These included pseudo-static strength and pressure tests and free-field blast tests. The ultimate goal was to provide engineers and architects with a glass whose behavior under blast loading is less lethal. A near-term benefit is a new approach for improving the reliability of glass and modifying its fracture behavior.

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The purpose of the report is to summarize discussions from a Ceramic/Metal Brazing: From Fundamentals to Applications Workshop that was held at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, NM on April 4, 2001. Brazing experts and users who bridge common areas of research, design, and manufacturing participated in the exercise. External perspectives on the general state of the science and technology for ceramics and metal brazing were given. Other discussions highlighted and critiqued Sandia's brazing research and engineering programs, including the latest advances in braze modeling and materials characterization. The workshop concluded with a facilitated dialogue that identified critical brazing research needs and opportunities.

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The main objective of this project was to develop reliable, low-cost techniques for joining silicon nitride (Si{sub 3}N{sub 4}) to itself and to metals. For Si{sub 3}N{sub 4} to be widely used in advanced turbomachinery applications, joining techniques must be developed that are reliable, cost-effective, and manufacturable. This project addressed those needs by developing and testing two Si{sub 3}N{sub 4} joining systems; oxynitride glass joining materials and high temperature braze alloys. Extensive measurements were also made of the mechanical properties and oxidation resistance of the braze materials. Finite element models were used to predict the magnitudes and positions of the stresses in the ceramic regions of ceramic-to-metal joints sleeve and butt joints, similar to the geometries used for stator assemblies.

Computational materials simulations have traditionally focused on individual phenomena: grain growth, crack propagation, plastic flow, etc. However, real materials behavior results from a complex interplay between phenomena. In this project, the authors explored methods for coupling mesoscale simulations of microstructural evolution and micromechanical response. In one case, massively parallel (MP) simulations for grain evolution and microcracking in alumina stronglink materials were dynamically coupled. In the other, codes for domain coarsening and plastic deformation in CuSi braze alloys were iteratively linked. this program provided the first comparison of two promising ways to integrate mesoscale computer codes. Coupled microstructural/micromechanical codes were applied to experimentally observed microstructures for the first time. In addition to the coupled codes, this project developed a suite of new computational capabilities (PARGRAIN, GLAD, OOF, MPM, polycrystal plasticity, front tracking). The problem of plasticity length scale in continuum calculations was recognized and a solution strategy was developed. The simulations were experimentally validated on stockpile materials.