Fully-Integrated Pressure and Temperature Sensitive Polymeric Nano-Coatings for Use in Hypersonic Facilities

ABSTRACT: As the geometry of test articles becomes more complex the demand for evolving instrumentation to make global, quantitative surface pressure and temperature measurements across a diverse spectrum of test environments continues to increase. Traditionally, pressure sensitive coatings called pressure sensitive paints (PSPs) have been oxygen sensors. The need for a polymeric pressure sensitive coating that was a true pressure sensor was initially addressed circa 2000 for use in marine environments. Since then work has focused on refining these formulations and extending them to other test environments, e.g. fuel cell internal design and development. Today, advances in associated technologies (cameras, lights, etc.) are producing a real opportunity for a fully-integrated, polymeric pressure and temperature sensitive coating. This proposal for a Phase I project focuses on three things. First, the material properties in current formulations will be tailored for use in high Reynolds number/high Mach number test environments. Second, temperature sensitive and additional compounds will be incorporated in the coating to produce a fully-integrated, polymeric pressure and temperature sensor. Third, the resulting coating will be evaluated to determine if it meets the requirements for quantitative pressure and temperature measurements in this environment. BENEFIT: Anticipated benefits of this project include extension of an existing product into new areas of use with associated new business development, contributions to new platform development (automotive, aerospace, rail and marine), and new sensor development, for example in computing hardware, fuel cells and more.