Preliminary Results from the Riverside Research Plasma-Materials Interaction Experiment
Hypersonic vehicles are often exposed to extreme environments where heat fluxes to the vehicle’s surface can pose several challenges for the integrity of the shielding material. At hypersonic speeds the temperature surrounding the vessel can exceed 3000 °C and the local environment becomes partially ionized. Under these conditions oxidation effects become a significant concern. Despite the importance of understanding the role oxygen plays for materials testing, facilities capable of creating controlled oxygen plasma with sufficient plasma and material diagnostics and that can achieve sample temperatures of interest (i.e., >1800 ℃) are scarce.
Recently, our team began to develop a facility capable of heating small material samples to high temperatures in a controlled cold gas environment. Compact samples (i.e., 75mm×75mm×3mm) are heated to >1800 °C using a simple heating element. The heated sample is exposed to gas mixtures of various known concentrations and operating pressures to study oxidation effects in a controlled environment. The current suite of diagnostics available to our laboratory can measure electromagnetic properties of the heated samples in the X band (8 – 12 GHz) and mid infrared (IR) range (66−230 THz) as well as monitor global environment characteristics. Here we present an update on the progress of this facility and preliminary results of materials characterization after a controlled gas exposure to a heated sample. Planned plasma source and diagnostic upgrades are also shown.
- Year: 2024
- Category: Radar Systems
- Tag: Hypersonics, Plasma
- Author: T.E. Steinberger, Daniel Heligman, Rajind Mendis
- Released: American Physical Society Division of Plasma Physics Conference 2024
Featured Riverside Research Author(s)
T. E. Steinberger
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Daniel Heligman
Dr. Daniel Heligman is a research engineer in Open Innovations Center's Optics/RF group. He received his B.S in general physics at University of Central Florida and is Doctorate for Physics at The Ohio State University. His main focus is in optics with a specialization in THz spectroscopy.
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Rajind Mendis
Dr. Rajind Mendis is a Senior Research Scientist in the OIC and has been with Riverside Research since 2019. Prior to joining Riverside Research, he was a Research Professor at Brown University, and has over 27 years of research experience in THz Science and Technology.
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The above listed authors are current or former employees of Riverside Research. Authors affiliated with other institutions are listed on the full paper. It is the responsibility of the author to list material disclosures in each paper, where applicable – they are not listed here. This academic papers directory is published in accordance with federal guidance to make public and available academic research funded by the federal government.