Jones Seminar: Aeroplastic Design for Space Structures

ZOOM LINK
Meeting ID: 937 4316 0035
Passcode: 411385

Turbine disks that are used in oxygen-rich turbopumps for reusable rocket engines are subjected to centrifugal forces from high-speed rotation and rapid cyclic thermal transients. These loading conditions are challenging to mitigate in order to maximize thermal performance for engine efficiency while avoiding burst, fatigue, and frictional ignition failures. Typically, yield-limited design rules are used to avoid thermal fatigue failures while still maximizing allowable thermal gradients in the disk.

In this study, alternative design rules are considered that leverage the plastic reserve while still safeguarding against burst and frictional ignition. In particular, both finite life design strategies and design rules based on the underused elastoplastic shakedown phenomenon are explored.

Hosted by Professor Ian Baker.

About the Speaker(s)

Natasha Vermaak
Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering & Mechanics, Lehigh U

Natasha Vermaak is an associate professor of mechanical engineering and mechanics at Lehigh University. She leads the Thermostructural Lab at the intersection of mechanics, materials, and design/ optimization. Her group uses experimental and computational techniques to address problems of structural and material degradation, durability, and resilience. She has unique expertise in inelastic design via shakedown and seeks to harness cyclic plastic behaviors for metals in extreme environments that span aerospace ("aeroplasticity") to energy applications. Professor Vermaak earned her doctorate in materials from UCSB, and before joining Lehigh, she served as a postdoctoral scholar at the University of Grenoble in France. She is the inaugural 2020 Frontiers of Materials Awardee of The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society, the Founding Chair of the Design of Engineering Materials (DEM) Technical Committee within the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), and a 2026 Fulbright scholar.

Contact

For more information, contact Joyce Xiao at joyce.xiao@dartmouth.edu .