A Hybrid Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) System for Damage Detection of Structural Composites

Principal investigator: Dr. Mohammad Azarbayejani, Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology
NASA Collaborator/NASA Center: Gregory F. Galbreath, Chief, Structures Branch/NASA Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center
Description: In recent years, advanced composite materials have been integrated extensively into aircraft structures. However, composite materials are very susceptible to hidden damage which makes it necessary to detect damage at its onset. To assess and monitor the performance of composite materials, an effective hybrid sensing system is proposed. The hybrid structural health monitoring (SHM) system is based on integrating piezoelectric (PZT) sensors and Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) technology using guided lambwaves for damage detection in composites. The proposed system also has the advantage of being able to embed all the sensors in the fiber composites. The objectives of this proposal are: 1) To develop a test set-up including composite laminate, ultrasonic piezoelectric actuators and sensors/receivers, network analyzer, FBG sensors and FBG data interrogator. 2) To introduce damage due to impact load and also delamination in composite plate. 3) To develop the hybrid monitoring system to detect different levels of damage severity induced by impact and delamination. The network analyzer will actuate the guided lamb waves for the cases of healthy and damage plate and the waves will be sensed by PZT and FBG sensors. I am planning to hire UG engineering students at NMTech to become familiar with conducting academic research and publish in upcoming conferences. I believe the proposed research topic will contribute to establishing future research and innovative activities in New Mexico and is aligned with ARMD NASA strategic thrust 5. This project has the potential for follow-on funding from NASA, department of defense and NSF.

High Performance Turbojet Engine Nano-Lubricant

Principal Investigator: Dr. Sayavur I. Bakhtiyarov, Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering Department, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology
NASA Collaborator: Dr. Beeson of NASA White Sands Test Facility
Description: Development of new class lubricants for turbojet engines is one of NASA’s high priority research and developments areas. It necessary to design high-quality lubricants based on low-viscosity oils and special high-performance additives. Application of common chemically active additives does not provide solution to the problem as in the environment of low-viscosity petroleum oils they cannot prevent the fatigue failure (pitting) of sliding surfaces. Our recent investigations showed that the amorphous fine carbon (AFC) additives, obtained, for example, via oxidizing pyrolysis of methane during production of acetylene, improves the resistance to mechanical, chemical and abrasive scuffing and fret. We performed the comparative SEM, TEM and Auger-spectroscopic investigations of structure of friction surfaces of several objects (rollers, bearings, racers, small balls, gears, and model test pieces working in the environment of oils with the AFC additives and the commercial oils) carried out on micro and sub-micron level showed a simultaneous presence of different structural states of carbon on the rubbing surfaces. After tribo-activated conversion of the AFC a specific, secondary, hetero-phase structure formed on the rubbing surfaces was analyzed. Based on obtained results we developed a method for surface film formation on the rubbing parts of mechanisms made of steel, cast iron and other iron alloys, in order to increase the resistance to wear and reduce friction. The new transmission motor oils could provide increase of the engine lifetime for 20% and the transmission efficiency at the temperatures up to -500C.

Energetic and Chemical Impacts of Lightning in the Earth System Inferred from Satellite Data and Computer Simulations

Principal Investigator: Dr. Caitano da Silva, Physics, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology
NASA Collaborator/NASA Center: William Koshak, Physical Scientist, Earth Science Branch/George C. Marshall Space Flight Center
Description: Lightning plays an important role in the atmospheric system: thunderstorms and lightning are the electrical current source for the global electric circuit, lightning is the main non-anthropogenic source of nitrogen oxide in the troposphere, lightning is an essential climate variable, being both a symptom and a cause of climate change.
The Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) is the proper instrument to estimate the impacts of lightning in our planet. GLM is the first lightning detection tool flown in geostationary orbit. It continuously detects lightning optical signals escaping the cloud tops of storms all over the Americas. GLM measures energy emitted at a specific wavelength of the visible spectrum. Substantial theoretical effort is required to translate this quantity into total energetic and chemical impact. In this project, we aim to develop research infrastructure at New Mexico Tech (NMT) to undertake this challenge and establish a collaboration between NMT and the GLM science team at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. We propose to develop a physics-based simulation tool to quantify the relationship between optical light measured by GLM and the total energy deposited by lightning in the atmosphere.

Investigation of High-Mass Protostars using SPITZER and NASA-IRTF

Principal Investigator: Peter Hofner, Associate Professor, Physics Department and Michelle Creech-Eakman, Assistant Professor, Physics Department, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology
NASA Collaborator: S. Fajardo-Acosta, Staff Scientist at the Spitzer Science Center, NASA’s IPAC
Description: Despite the important role which massive stars (M > 8 Msol) play in essentially all research areas of Astronomy, their formation mechanism is poorly understood. Observational and theoretical work of the last few years resulted in a database of massive protostellar candidates and several competing theories attempting to explain how the massive star is assembled within a dense molecular core. In particular, the surveys performed by NASA’s SPITZER infrared telescope allow a systematic investigation of the massive star formation process. This research combines existing ground-based radio and SPITZER infrared data to establish a target list to be subsequently observed with NASA’s Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF). The main goal of these observations is the detection of massive protostars at high angular resolution. A second IRTF observing run will focus on spectroscopy to obtain kinematic information. Putting together the stellar component (infrared) with the gaseous component (radio) will enable researcher to critically test existing theories of massive star formation. In the future, researchers plan to continue this research for a large sample. The proposed project is thus necessary as a proof of concept.

Geomicrobiology of the Deep Subsurface

Principal Investigator: Dr. Thomas L. Kieft, Professor, Biology Department, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology
NASA Collaborator: Dr. Chris McKay, NASA Ames Research Center
Description: This project will characterize the metabolic capabilities of microorganisms in deep groundwater environments, which serve as analogs for subsurface environments on other planets such as Mars. The objectives are (1) to characterize the microbial communities in the fracture waters of deep crustal environments in terms of their phylogenetic diversity and metabolic potential, (2) to compare the microbial communities from fracture waters at different depths and with different water chemistries, and (3) to examine the genes present in deep fracture water microbial communities for adaptations to extreme conditions, e.g., low organic carbon availability, The hypotheses to be tested are (1) that the novelty (evolutionary distance compared to known genes from surface environments) of genes from subsurface microorganisms increases with depth, and (2) that the occurrence of chemautotrophic organisms and genes for utilizing rockderived energy sources (e.g., genes encoding H2-oxidizing hydrogenases and CO2 fixation), increases with depth relative to genes encoding heterotrophic metabolism. Sampling will be carried out at multiple depths and times at the Sanford Lab in South Dakota, site of the proposed Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory.

A Novel Functional Composite Material for Radiation Protection for NASA Spacecraft and Astronauts

Principal Investigator: Dr. Ashok Kumar Ghosh, Associate Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, New Mexico Institute of Mining Technology
NASA Collaborator: Dr. Ram K. Tripathi, NASA Langley Research Center
Description: This research determines the radiation shielding characteristics of a novel MultiFunctional Composite Material (MFCM) that was developed for other characteristics under a grant from the Office of Naval Research. The material is exposed to radiation in a
“Tandem ion accelerator” at Los Alamos National Laboratory. The MFCM will be exposed to ion beam irradiation followed by characterization for hardness through Nano indentation and modulus through TEM analysis. On the basis of these tests, predictions will be made to determine how well the material would absorb radiation and provide shielding to astronauts and on-board electronics.

Development of an Efficient Planetary Exploration Algorithm for Future Multi-Rover Systems

Principal Investigator: Dr. Kooktae Lee
Affiliation/Dept.: New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, Department of Mechanical Engineering
NASA Collaborator: Ali-akbar Agha-mohammadi, Ph.D., NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Description:Although robotic technologies have enabled remarkable scientific achievements that are not otherwise achievable, developing a planetary exploration robot is time-consuming, costly, and human resource-demanding. This is because even a tiny defect in a planetary robot may cause irrevocable consequences to its mission. In an effort to reduce the risk of failure for a high-cost robot, JPL has worked on the development of small-size, multi-robot systems, providing future NASA missions with cooperative mobility, communication, and sensing to operate in ways that are not possible with a single rover. Dispatching a team of multiple robots has the potential to be a promising tool in a planet exploration mission with a goal to maximize information acquisition. This scenario sounds like a promising plan in future planetary explorations as it can lead to many benefits including a smaller and lighter model for each robot, manufacturing cost and time reduction, and efficient environment explorations with less prone to mission failure than a single robot case. One of the major thrusts in a multi-robot exploration scheme is to maximize efficiency by avoiding overlap between exploration areas. This requires an intelligent algorithm on how a team
of multiple robots will lead to the best performing results in planetary exploration. In this project, the PI will focus on the development of an efficient planetary exploration plan. The New Mexico NASA EPSCoR RID will serve as a stepping stone to develop such a plan, which will be an overarching goal in the near future.

Development of an Autonomous Nitrogen Analyzer for Low Nutrient Natural Waters

Principal Investigator: Dr. Michael Pullin, Professor, Department of Chemistry, Dr. Anders Jorgensen, Department of Electrical Engineering, and Dr. Penny Boston, Department of Environmental Sciences, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology
NASA Collaborator: Dr. Chris McKay, NASA Ames Research Center
Description: This research creates an inexpensive, compact, field deployable machine that is able to measure the concentrations and variations in three major classes of nitrogen‐containing compounds in the environment. These species are important indicators and controllers of the existence, type, and magnitude of biological life. This device will be developed and tested at New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology and then deployed in an extreme environment, one of New Mexico’s unique cave ecosystems. This device will allow scientists to better understand the limits and function of microbial life in our universe and to detect life and/or human contamination in extraterrestrial environments. This sensor system will have a wide range of applicability, from monitoring water supplies during space travel to understanding nitrogen pollution and biogeochemical cycling in caves and streams, to monitoring groundwater and runoff for nitrate and ammonia contamination from industrial and agricultural operations.

3D Impact Self-Sensing Composites (3D-ISSC)

Principal Investigator: Dr. Donghyeon Ryu, Ph.D., P.E.
Affiliation/Dept.: New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, Department of Mechanical Engineering
NASA Collaborator: Adam Irion, Jacobs Technology, Inc., NASA White Sands Test Facility
Description: Aerospace structures are exposed to extreme loading conditions in air and space. In air, there exist
raindrops, hailstones, and birds that can potentially impact aerospace structures. In space, micrometeoroid
and orbital debris (MMOD) can impact-damage aerospace structures due to high impact energy resulting
from high velocity (~10 km/s) of MMOD. Research objective of this proposal is to devise 3-dimensional (3D) self-sensing structural composites for detecting damage resulting from extreme loadings (e.g., impact and blast). The 3D impact self-sensing composites (ISSC) are designed by embedding fracto-mechanoluminescent (FML) crystals, which emit light upon being fractured, in honeycomb-cored sandwich composites. Each FML crystal is instrumented
with an optical fiber to guide light emission from the FML to data acquisition (DAQ) system. To achieve the research goal, PI plans one-year project to conduct three research tasks. First, FML crystal-based sensor network will be designed and embedded into honeycomb-cored composites. Second, impact selfsensing capability of the 3D ISSC will be validated using Kolsky bar. Last, analytical model of the 3D ISSC subjected to extreme loadings will be developed through close collaboration with Mr. Mark Leifeste at NASA White Sand Test Facility (WSTF). If this proposal is funded, the RID project will help improve research infrastructures, science, and technical capability of PI, NASA WSTF, and New Mexico jurisdiction. If the proposed research is successful, PI envisions to build competitive scientific and technical strengths to help address technical problems that NASA has encountered in Aeronautics
Research Mission Directorate (ARMD) as well as Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD).

Multifunctional Structural Composites Capable of Self‐Powered Sensing and Harvesting Energy for Next Generation Aerospace Structures

Principal Investigator: Dr. Donghyeon Ryu, Department of Mechanical Engineering, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology
NASA Collaborator: Matt Moholt, Structural Engineer, FLL of the Aerostructures Branch at the NASA AFRC.
Description: Design multilayered thin films capable of self‐powered strain sensing as well as harvesting energy using mechanoluminescent (ML) crystals and conjugated polymers (CP). The objective is that multifunctional structural composites will enhance the sustainability of aerospace structures. Expected outcomes from this research are: improvement of research infrastructure at New Mexico Tech as well as in the State of New Mexico, initiation of long‐term collaborative relationship with NASA AFRC, and high‐payoff technologies that can help success of NASA’s future missions.

An Intelligent Management System for Large Scale Cloud Data Centers

Principal Investigator: Dr. Hamdy Soliman, Professor, Department of Computer Science and Technology, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology
NASA Collaborator: Dr. Hussein Abdeldayem, Senior Scientist, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Description: Develop an intelligent management system (IMS) for lace scale cloud data centers (CDCs) that: better captures the effects of the system’s components on each other; take into account the data center’s history; is proactive ie. takes corrective measures before unwanted consequences get to materialize.

On Demand, Distributed, In-Memory Computing for Big Data Processing

Principal Investigator: Dr. Hamdy Soliman, Professor, Department of Computer Science and Technology, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology
NASA Collaborator: Dr. Abdelmounaam Rezgui, Computer Science, Virginia Tech, and Lora Bleacher, Education and Public Outreach Lead, Solar System Exploration Division, NASA
Description: As an application, this project will focus on processing space observation data. This project will build an open computing infrastructure that combine three powerful computing paradigms i) in-memory data grids ii) dynamic Hadoop clusters, and iii) on-demand computing. The infrastructure would enable users to have a streamlined, on-demand access to computing and storage capacities adequate to the needs of their big data applications.

Carbonate Dissolution in Mixed Waters Due to Ocean Acidification and Sea-Level Rise

Principal Investigator: Dr. John L. Wilson, Professor, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology
NASA Collaborator: Dr. Antonio Mannino, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Description: Much of the anthropogenically released atmospheric carbon dioxide has been stored in the ocean, causing a 0.1 decrease in ocean surface pH, with models predicting that by 2100 the surface ocean pH will be 0.5 below pre-industrial levels. In mixed ocean water – fresh water environments (e.g. estuaries, coastal aquifers, and edges of ice sheets), the decreased ocean pH couples with the mixed water chemistry to make water more undersaturated with respect to calcium carbonate than ocean acidification alone. Mixed-water calcite dissolution may be one of the first directly observable effects of ocean acidification, as the ocean water and the fresh water can both be saturated with respect to calcium carbonate while their mixture will be undersaturated. While the mixed-water effect is widely applicable, this research focuses on implications for coastal and island aquifers, and the potential for an increased rate of mixed water speleogenesis and porosity/permeability development. The research also accounts the indirect effects of rising sea level and a growing coastal population on these processes. The product will be a basic quantitative model that can predict mixed water dissolution in coastal freshwater aquifers, using temporally changing sea level, ocean pH, precipitation, acidity of precipitation, and groundwater pumping.

Evaluation of UltraBattery Technology for Potential Aerospace Applications

Principal Investigator: Hengzhao Yang, Ph.D.
Affiliation/Dept.: New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, Department of Electrical Engineering
NASA Collaborator: Erik J. Brandon, Ph.D., Power and Sensors Section, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Description: The goal of this project is to conduct a comprehensive, independent, and objective evaluation of the performance, reliability, and safety of the UltraBattery technology for potential aerospace applications. The UltraBattery technology is a hybrid energy storage technology incorporating the high power density supercapacitor and the high energy density lead-acid battery technologies into a single cell. As an emerging technology, UltraBattery aims to meet both the energy and power requirements of certain applications.

This project has three objectives. (1) Examine the charge, power, and energy characteristics of the UltraBattery technology. Various charging and discharging profiles in different modes (e.g., constant current charge, constant voltage charge, constant/pulsed power discharge, and variable resistance discharge) will be designed to test the charge and energy delivery capabilities of the UltraBattery technology. (2) Quantify the performance of the UltraBattery technology in terms of high-power pulse handling capability (with respect to supercapacitors) and long-term energy delivery capability (with respect to Li-ion and lead-acid batteries). (3) Evaluate the reliability and safety of the UltraBattery technology.

This project aims to provide a side-by-side evaluation of the UltraBattery technology to facilitate the design and implementation of next generation energy storage systems for potential aerospace applications. This project specifically addresses the following priority area identified by the 2020 NASA Technology Taxonomy: TX03.2.1 for electrochemical batteries with a focus on advanced secondary chemistries beyond lithium-ion.