Project Description:

Hypersonic technology will play a critical role in next-generation aerospace systems. Materials are often the limiting factor in these applications. Unfortunately, we presently lack methods of monitoring in-flight or in-operation material degradation because traditional sensors cannot survive extreme hypersonic loading conditions. This prevents us from both understanding the basic mechanisms of material degradation and conducting in-flight prognostics. Interestingly, many high-temperature hypersonic-candidate materials are electrically conductive and degrade into non-conductive species. This means that changes in the electrical signature of the material can be used for embedded sensing – the material is its own sensor. Deeply understanding electrical transport-degradation coupling in these materials may also lead to unprecedented material state awareness by inverting electrical observations to recover the precise condition of the material. Therefore, this work seeks to 1) create high-temperature electrode integration strategies for additively manufactured zirconium diboride/silicon carbide and carbon fiber/silicon carbide fiber composites; 2) discover basic dependencies of electrical transport on material degradation due to high-temperature ablation torch testing; and 3) estimate material condition based on electrical observations. An ideal applicant will have crosscutting experience in two or more of the following areas: electrical properties of materials, ceramic processing, oxidation of ceramics, high-temperature materials, inverse problems, and multi-physical modeling.

Start Date:

1/9/23

Postdoc Qualifications:

An ideal applicant will have crosscutting experience in two or more of the following areas: electrical properties of materials, ceramic processing, oxidation of ceramics, high-temperature materials, inverse problems, and multi-physical modeling.

Co-Advisors:

Tyler Tallman, ttallman@purdue.edu, AAE
Jeffrey Youngblood, jpyoungb@purdue.edu, MSE
Rodney Trice, rtrice@purdue.edu, MSE

Bibliography:

1. Costakis Jr, William J., et al. “Additive manufacturing of boron carbide via continuous filament direct ink writing of aqueous ceramic suspensions.” Journal of the European Ceramic Society 36.14 (2016): 3249-3256.
2. Rueschhoff, Lisa, et al. “Additive manufacturing of dense ceramic parts via direct ink writing of aqueous alumina suspensions.” International Journal of Applied Ceramic Technology 13.5 (2016): 821-830.
3. Zhang, Yulei, et al. “Ablation resistance of ZrB2–SiC coating prepared by supersonic atmosphere plasma spraying for SiC-coated carbon/carbon composites.” Ceramics International 40.9 (2014): 14749-14755.
4. Simonenko, Elizaveta P., et al. "Oxidation of graphene-modified HfB2-SiC ceramics by supersonic dissociated air flow." Journal of the European Ceramic Society 42.1 (2022): 30-42.