Elementum 3D, collaborating with RPM Innovations, Inc. as part
of NASA's RAMFIRE (Reactive Additive Manufacturing for the Fourth
Industrial Revolution) project, designed, printed, and successfully
tested a new additively manufactured rocket nozzle made from the
company's A6061-RAM2 aluminum powder. This breakthrough advances
ongoing efforts to exceed current rocket performance and
efficiency.
ERIE,
Colo., July 25, 2024 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ --
Elementum 3D, a leading developer and supplier of metal additive
manufacturing (AM) advanced materials, print parameters, and
services, is pleased to share that, collaborating with RPM
Innovations, Inc. as part of NASA's RAMFIRE (Reactive Additive
Manufacturing for the Fourth Industrial Revolution) project,
designed, printed, and successfully tested a new additively
manufactured rocket nozzle made from the company's A6061-RAM2
aluminum powder. This breakthrough advances ongoing efforts to
exceed current rocket performance and efficiency.
This breakthrough supports efforts to make
large-scale nozzles, including aerospikes, available to industry.
This successful project positive result allows aerospace/space
engineers to see the nozzle as proof-of-concept that informs new
component designs.
In October 2023, at the Marshall
Space Flight Center, NASA performed what some thought was
impossible: a successful hot-fire test of an additively
manufactured aluminum rocket nozzle. The NASA-funded Reactive
Additive Manufacturing for the Fourth Industrial Revolution
(RAMFIRE) project's goal was to transition rocket engine technology
to a laser powder-directed energy deposition (LP-DED) process to
enable large-scale production. The prior approach used lightweight,
additively manufactured aluminum alloys printed with a laser-powder
bed fusion (L-PBF) process capable of experiencing huge temperature
gradients up to 6000 °F.
This breakthrough supports efforts to make large-scale nozzles,
including aerospikes, available to industry. The RAMFIRE project
printed a large-scale LP-DED aerospike demonstration nozzle with
integral channels made of Elementum 3D's A6061-RAM2. This
successful project positive result allows aerospace/space engineers
to see the nozzle as proof-of-concept that informs new component
designs.
For nearly seven decades, rocket engineers have sought an
alternate design to the standard bell-nozzle rocket engine. The
aerospike design breaks free from the traditional design, which is
efficient at only one point in the rocket's trajectory.
Why is this innovative nozzle a sought-after option, especially
since the bell nozzle is a proven design with adequate capabilities
throughout the history of human spaceflight?
The aerospike's inside-out rocket nozzle plume travels
externally, rather than exiting from within a traditional
bell-shaped nozzle. The main advantage is that, as the rocket
climbs, atmospheric and airstream pressure keep the plume at
optimum conditions along the entire trajectory. This allows highly
efficient engine performance, including better performance over a
range of pressures and altitudes, delivering higher payloads while
decreasing overall rocket weight.
If rocket launches are more efficient using the aerospike nozzle
design, why has it never been seriously tested on the
launchpad?
The lack of actual flight test data has precluded use of these
nozzles in current as well as next generation space launch
vehicles.
Moreover, the aerospike nozzle configuration presents unique
design and fabrication challenges. This and other factors have
meant limited test opportunities and a dearth of actual flight test
data, precluding use of the aerospike design on current and next
generation launch vehicles.
Additive manufacturing has changed perspectives about the
ability to test and implement the aerospike design in a
cost-effective manner. NASA recently validated data from hot-fire
tests on their 3D printed Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine (RDRE),
which is not a traditional combustion engine, and reported that
recent advancements in 3D printing can overcome some of the
engine's design challenges—specifically, how to manage its
temperature. The ability to print the aerospike demonstration
nozzle with a qualified high-strength, lightweight aluminum alloy
is a significant step toward developing a larger version.
NASA commissioned Elementum 3D to work closely with their
RAMFIRE project engineers and scientists and RPM Innovations, Inc.,
to develop and print a 36"-diameter aluminum aerospike rocket
demonstration nozzle out of Elementum 3D's A6061-RAM2 material. RPM
Innovations performed the build with its large-format LP-DED
process. DED uses a focused energy source to create 3D printed
parts with powder or wire feedstock. With DED, metal deposition and
fusion occur simultaneously. A nozzle deposits material into the
focused beam of a high-power laser under tightly controlled
atmospheric conditions. The feedstock melts and deposits as the
tool path progresses.
REM Surface Engineering supported the RAMFIRE project's
post-production with its Extreme ISF Process. They uniformly
removed ~400 µm of surface material from the aerospike nozzle
surface, which reduced surface roughness/waviness and hot-wall
thickness. The benefits of improving the hot wall surface texture
include extending the nozzle's fatigue life and creating a more
uniform surface for heat transfer/heat pickup properties. The wall
thickness reduction can also bring DED parts into final geometric
tolerances. While not performed on this unit, internal channel
finishing for rocket nozzles and similar components can reduce
particle shedding and pressure drop caused by as-printed
roughness.
Why has it taken almost 70 years to successfully produce a
lightweight, high-strength aluminum rocket engine?
For one thing, the design requires conformal cooling channels to
flow cryogenic propellants that keep the nozzle well below the
material's melting temperature. Internal channels are an additive
manufacturing specialty and are far too complex to create with
traditional machining processes.
Second, metal additive manufacturing via laser melting processes
only became industrialized in the past few decades as computer,
automation, and laser technology grew more sophisticated and
affordable.
Finally, the ability to additively manufacture aerospace-grade
aluminum has only become possible in the past decade. Since 2014,
Elementum 3D has gained extensive knowledge and experience
developing "impossible-to-print" high-strength aluminum feedstock
powders with its patented RAM (Reactive Additive Manufacturing)
technology.
Standard aluminum alloys are highly prone to a type of cracking
called hot tearing under the rapid heating and cooling conditions
inherent to laser welding processes. Industry considers popular
wrought aluminum alloys, including AA6061, un-weldable for this
reason. Elementum 3D's RAM chemistry controls the solidification
process, producing crack-free, fine-grained microstructures and
printed material with strength equal–and in some cases superior–to
wrought aluminum.
Will the combination of A6061-RAM2's optimized thermal and
mechanical properties and the design freedom of additive
manufacturing be the path to designing and manufacturing new,
innovative rocket engines that rival the efficiency of an aerospike
rocket engine?
Only time and further research can answer that question. The
research data acquired from optimizing A6061-RAM2 aluminum alloy
for large blown-powder DED improves engineers' confidence in the
ability to improve rocket efficiency to meet or exceed the
aerospike's performance.
About Elementum 3D, Inc.
Elementum 3D specializes in materials and process development
and creating advanced metal alloys and metal ceramic composites.
Elementum 3D developed and patented its reactive additive
manufacturing (RAM) materials technology, enabling high-performance
materials printing which has not been previously possible. The
company has several novel feedstock powders with printing
parameters available for purchase, and it excels in developing
custom materials tailored for specific applications. Elementum3D
provides the materials freedom to help companies around the world
in their quest to increase product strength, durability, and
performance, while reducing weight and cost. Find and follow
Elementum 3D on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube.
Media Contact
Patrick Callard, Elementum 3D, 1
720-545-9016 37, patrick@elementum3D.com,
www.elementum3D.com
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SOURCE Elementum 3D