Lightweight Non-Corrosive Exhaust System

Touchstone proposes to build on past vehicle exhaust system experience to develop an innovative lightweight, corrosion-resistant, and low-cost system that provides an alternative to the heavy metallic exhaust systems that are currently being used on amphibious assault vehicles and that gives better corrosion performance than the aluminum and composite design envisioned for the EFV. This effort will be accomplished by utilizing an environmentally stable, tough, low thermal conductivity continuous fiber ceramic composite (CFCC) material. Mechanical and thermal modeling will be used to determine the optimal combination of materials, and these results will be tested at the sub-scale laboratory level. Results will be compared to existing amphibious vehicle exhaust system designs in order to demonstrate improvement.