Project Title:

Improved Temperature Measurement in Composite Material for Aerospace Applications

92-1-11.04-1756                                                   NAS08-39814
Improved Temperature Measurement in Composite
     Material for Aerospace Applications
Analysis & Measurement Services Corporation
AMS 9111 Cross Park Drive, NW
Knoxville, TN  37923-4599
H.M. Hashemian                                       (615-691-1756)

Abstract:

     In developing composite materials for aerospace applications,
the thermostructural material behavior is of paramount importance.
Efforts to measure temperature variations within this material,
during rapid transients when stresses may be critical, have been
hampered by the uncertainties in the thermal bond between the
thermocouples and the material. To date, no method is available to
evaluate the quality of a thermocouple installation in a solid
material. Consequently, it is not possible to determine how well
the output of a bonded or embedded thermocouple actually
represents the temperature of the surrounding material under
transient conditions. Neither is it possible to determine the
extent to which the transient outputs of separate thermocouples
are different due to actual existing material temperature
differences as opposed to differences in the integrity of the
installations. This project will develop technology to measure the
integrity of a thermocouple installation so that the actual
response time of the thermocouple can be identified and used for
correction of transient temperature data.

Potential Commercial Application:

Potential Commercial Applications:  The technology to be developed
will be useful to NASA, the U.S. Air Force, and for all scientific
and industrial applications that require timely temperature
measurements for process control, safety, or efficiency, such as
the steel industry, the chemical industry, and industrial manufac-
turing processes.

                                     ***