Laser Heated Tensile Test Method

Materials Research & Design, Inc. (MR&D) is pleased to submit this proposal to Missile Defense Agency (MDA) Phase I Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) topic MD241-009: High Temperature Tensile Testing. In the proposed effort, MR&D will work with Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) to develop a test method to measure the tensile strength of materials at elevated temperature. On past and on-going efforts, SwRI has demonstrated the ability to heat and grip specimens while accurately monitoring strain and temperature. SwRI will use laser heating to satisfy the solicitation requirement of leveraging a heating method that is not dependent on electrical or thermal conductivity. For strain measurements, a non-contact method will be studied. SwRI intends to mount high temperature markers / pins in the gauge section of the specimen. These markers will be tracked using lasers set to the appropriate wavelength to filter out the glow of the specimen. The initial approach for gripping will be to use a long specimen design allowing for the heat to dissipate prior to reaching the grips. If shorter specimen geometries are desired, SwRI and MR&D will explore alternative grip hardware fabricated from high temperature materials. Grip material selection will consider material compatibility at elevated temperatures. MR&D will develop physics-based models and validate them to the measured data. The models will then be used to design the test method for implementation in the Phase II. Approved for Public Release | 24-MDA-11906 (16 Sep 24)