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Grants and Contracts Details
Description
Investigation of Material Surface Erosion and Failure due to High-Velocity Particle Impact
Investigation of Material Surface Erosion and Failure due to High-Velocity Particle Impact
Project Description
The NASA Kentucky EPSCoR Program’s mission is to enhance research and intellectual capacity
of the state’s universities and colleges through strategic investments in NASA-priority research
areas and to increase researcher competitiveness for non-EPSCoR NASA funding. Understanding
and being able to accurately predict materials surface erosion due to high-speed particle impact is
needed for NASA current and future missions. In the case of planetary entry application, the
thermal protection system (TPS) materials are susceptible to impact by highspeed particles such
as dust storm during Mars landing and sample return. Therefore, accurate assessment of surface
erosion is necessary to avoid over-design of the TPS. Another case is related to the aerospace
propulsion engine applications. When operating in dust-laden environments, engine components
are impacted by solid erosive particles entrained in the gas flow, which results in significant
material removal that can lead to deleterious effects in engine performance. All these must be
carefully studied to support NASA missions.
The primary goal of this project is to develop a set of validated multi-scale multi-physics
computational tools that provide fundamental insights on the nature of material surface erosion
due to high-speed particle impact. The overarching goal is to model and investigate the materials
surface erosion due to high-speed particle impact related to NASA TPS applications and next
generation aerospace propulsion engine applications. The knowledge gained and the tools
developed in this project will be useful for capsule and vehicle performance modeling and
simulation and materials design for TPS and gas-turbine engines for NASA current and future
missions. As a university program, this project will strive to train and prepare next generation of
aerospace scientists and engineers.
Status | Active |
---|---|
Effective start/end date | 7/1/24 → 6/30/26 |
Funding
- KY Economic Development Cab
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