Better Pressure Vessel Impact Resistance Utilizing Filament Wound Hybrid Fibers.

HyPerComp Engineering, Inc. proposes to develop filament wound composite pressure vessels with superior low and high velocity impact resistance as well as improved high temperature (fire) survivability. The current generation of high performance filament wound composite pressure vessels as utilized in solid propellant propulsion, space craft energy storage systems, launch tubes, self contained breathing apparatus, and other demanding applications utilize carbon fibers in order to obtain a high performance to weight ratio. While the impressively high tensile strength of these fibers provides for light weight pressure vessels, the resulting thin wall thickness combined with carbon fiber?s sensitivity to ?bruising? can result in significant risk of impact damage. Even relatively light and difficult to detect impacts can potentially degrade the capability of these pressure vessels.HyPerComp Engineering has recently completed a Phase I SBIR through NASA, MSFC demonstrating significant improvement in impact resistance in high performance pressure vessels (NAS8?01146). The effort proposed herein builds upon that knowledge, expands it into higher energy levels, and incorporates heat resistant materials currently under evaluation at NASA, MSFC to develop a ?next generation? filament wound pressure vessel with significant improvements in both high and low velocity impact capability as well as improved fire resistance