Polymers For Extreme Environments

POLYMERS AND ADDITVES IN EXTREME ENVIRONMENTS Uniquely catalogs polymers and additives for uses in extreme applications such as in high or low pressure, high or low temperature, deep water and other special applications. The book includes chapters on aqueous environments including polymeric membranes for water purification and wastewater treatment; extreme pressure environments such as oils and lubricants for combustion engines as well as materials used for deep drilling such as surfactants, scale inhibitors, foaming agents, defoamers, propellants, fracturing fluids; extreme temperatures is subdivided in high and low temperature applications including gasketing materials, fuel tank sealants, expulsion bladders, fuel cell materials, and on the other hand, cold weather articles and thermoregulatory textiles; electrical applications include solar cell devices, triboelectric generators, fuel cell applications, electrochromic materials and batteries; medical applications include polymers for contact lenses, materials for tissue engineering, sophisticated drug delivery systems; aerospace applications include outer space applications such as low temperature and pressure, also cosmic rays, outgassing, and atomic erosion, as well as materials for electrostactic dissipative coatings and space suits; a final chapter detailing materials that are used in other extreme environments, such as adhesives, and polymeric concrete materials. Audience Materials and polymer scientists working in manufacturing and plastics, civil and mechanical engineers in various industries such as automotive, aircraft, space, marine and shipping, electronics, construction, electrical, etc. will find this book essential. The book will also serve the needs of engineers and specialists who have only a passing contact with polymers and additives in industrial setting need to know more.

​This volume provides perspectives on the approaches, mechanisms, test methods, durability considerations, and environmental concerns for contamination mitigating coatings and polymers with emphasis on their use in more extreme aerospace and marine terrestrial environments. Parts of the Volume are devoted to application of biomimetics to contamination mitigation polymeric coatings, low ice adhesion surfaces, insect residue adhesion resistance coatings, and marine biofouling mitigation materials. By juxtaposing ice insect, and marine mitigation approaches, researchers and users may more easily identify threads of similarity that will assist in future developments and potential applications in these areas. The volume is of interest to chemists and material scientists in providing awareness of both the need for efficacy in mitigating contamination and for appropriate coating durability; to physicists in providing better understanding of the interaction between the contaminant, the coated surface, and the surrounding environment; and to engineers in describing the need for better scale-up tests between laboratory and field environments.

Advanced polymer matrix composites (PMC) have many advantages such as light weight and high specific strength that make them useful for many aerospace applications. Enormous uncertainty exists, however, in predicting long-term changes in properties of PMCs under extreme environmental conditions, which has limited their use. To help address this issue, the Department of Defense requested a study from the NRC to identify the barriers and limitations to the use of PMCs in extreme environments. The study was to focus on issues surrounding methodologies for predicting long-term performance. This report provides a review of the challenges facing application of PMCs in extreme environments, the current understanding of PMC properties and behavior, an analysis of the importance of data in developing effective models, and recommendations for improving long-term predictive methodologies.

As computing power increases, a growing number of macroscopic phenomena are modeled at the molecular level. Consequently, new requirements are generated for the understanding of molecular dynamics in exotic conditions.This book illustrates the importance of detailed chemical dynamics and the role it plays in the phenomenology of a number of extreme environments. Each chapter addresses one or more extreme environments, outlines the associated chemical mechanisms of relevance, and then covers the leading edge science that elucidates the chemical coupling. The chapters exhibit a balance between theory and experiment, gas phase, solid state, and surface dynamics, and geophysical and technical environments.

Degradation reactions grouped under the heading chemical attack include oxidation hydrolysis, halogenation and other reactions. They also include some purely physical interactions between materials and fluids, dominated by the absorption of fluid into the material or vice versa. One particular mechanism described in some detail is acid induced stress corrosion cracking, which is the most frequent cause of premature failure of GRP products, and where the principle degradation reaction is between the fluid and the glass fibres. An additional indexed section containing several hundred abstracts from the Rapra Polymer Library database gives useful references for further reading.

New technologies constantly generate new demands for exotic materials to be used in severe environments. The rapid developments of aerospace industries during the last two decades have required new materials to survive extreme high and low temperatures and various radiations. The exploration of new energy sources, e.g., solar and geothermal, has led us to develop new solar collectors and geothermal devices. Even the search for new oils has demanded that we study the corrosive environment of oil fields. In the telecommunication industries, optical fibers have been adopted broadly to replace metallic conductors. However, none of the optical fibers can survive abrasion or corrosion without the application of a coating material. For microelectronics, protection in terms of coatings and encapsulants is deemed necessary to prevent corrosion. One of the major causes of corrosion has been shown to be water which appears to be abundant in our earthly environments. Water can attack the bulk adhesive (or sealant), the interface, or the adherend. Water can also cause delamination of coating film, and it is definitely the major ingredient in causing cathodic or anodic corrosion. Thus, water becomes the major obstacle in solving durability problems of various materials in harsh environments.

This authoritative reference provides comprehensive coverage of the topics of damage and healing mechanics. Computational modeling of constitutive equations is provided as well as solved examples in engineering applications. A wide range of materials that engineers may encounter are covered, including metals, composites, ceramics, polymers, biomaterials, and nanomaterials. The internationally recognized team of contributors employ a consistent and systematic approach, offering readers a user-friendly reference that is ideal for frequent consultation. Handbook of Damage Mechanics: Nano to Macro Scale for Materials and Structures is ideal for graduate students and faculty, researchers, and professionals in the fields of Mechanical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Materials Science, and Engineering Mechanics.