Graphene Nano-Composites For Hypervelocity Impact Applications

The Low Earth Orbit (LEO) is a harsh environment cluttered with natural meteoroids and man-made debris, which can travel at velocities approaching 15 km/s. Most space activities within the LEO will encounter this environment. Thus, the spacecraft and its hardware must be designed to survive debris impact. This research introduces new procedures to produce a nano-composite material with mortar-brick nano-structure inspired from nacre. Nacre-like composites were successfully manufactured, based on three host polymers, with a wide range of graphene concentrations. The manufactured exfoliated graphene nano-platelet, embedded in a host polymer, provided good potential for enhancement of the hypervelocity impact (HVI) shield resistance. The nano-composites are suggested for use as a coating. Moreover, explicit dynamic finite element studies were conducted for further investigation of the hypervelocity impact of the graphene-based coatings in order to understand the effect of the coating on the crater formation and the exit velocity. This dissertation presents the results of the characterization and numerical sensitivity study of the developed material parameters. The numerical simulations were performed by implementing Autodyn smooth particle hydrodynamics. This study provides innovative, low-weight shielding enhancements for spacecraft, as well as other promising applications for the manufactured nano-composites.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D. in Engineering Science

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Civil Engineering

Year dc:date.available

2017

Author dc:creator

• Manasrah, Alharith

Contributors dc:contributor

• Ahmed Al-Ostaz
• Hunain Alkhateb
• Ellen Lackey

• Graphene
• Hypervelocity
• Nano-Composite
• Engineering

Repository record dc:identifier

https://egrove.olemiss.edu/etd/432

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:egrove.olemiss.edu:etd-1431