Kawai Kwok, an associate professor in the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Purdue University, will be the principal investigator on a project with commercial software provider AnalySwift LLC. Source | Purdue University/Alan Caesar

AnalySwift LLC (West Lafayette, Indiana, USA), an affiliate of Purdue University, has been awarded a Phase I Small Business Technology Transfer (STRR) contract from NASA (Washington, DC, USA ) worth $156,424. The contract will fund two advances: processes and hardware to disassemble the spacecraft’s thermoplastic composite components and reassemble them for secondary use, and software for multiphysics simulation and analysis of the materials involved. Kawai Kwok, associate professor in Purdue’s School of Aeronautics and Astronautics, is the principal investigator.

According to Allan Wood, president and CEO of AnalySwift, long-duration crewed missions to the Moon, Mars and beyond require infrastructure, such as farms, to be built sustainably on these surfaces. But transporting heavy, bulky payloads to space poses immense logistical challenges.

“The AnalySwift project provides a new method for disassembling and reassembling thermoplastic composite joints in space,” says Wood. “The proposed method enables the reconfiguration of lattice structures in space, moving from the current single-use model to a scalable and sustainable approach.”

Kwok says the spacecraft components could be quickly and easily reused in very different geometries. “For example, a lunar lander support truss could become a vertical solar panel support truss,” he says. “There are other applications, depending on mission needs, using the same set of structural elements and innovative multiphysics modeling.”

“This multiphysics modeling framework will simulate the debonding and bonding processes of gasket-spacer interfaces in thermoplastic composites using integrated carbon nano-heaters.”

As part of the contract, AnalySwift will develop a composite heating layer for farms and other infrastructure, which will be embedded with nanostructured carbon fillers. The layer, made of the same thermoplastic matrix as the bonded composite parts, will bring the matrix to the processing temperature for interface debonding by mechanical forces.

“Lightweight, conductive and thin nanocarbon films will be encapsulated in semi-crystalline thermoplastics such as PEEK (polyetheretherketone),” says Kwok. “The disassembled spacers and joints will be reassembled into the reused configuration via resistance welding using the same or additional heating elements. The proposed in-situ heating and reassembly method allows spacecraft components to be reused, significantly reducing the logistics footprint required to deliver technologies to space.

Liang Zhang, principal research scientist at AnalySwift, says the company will also develop better engineering tools for composites, enabling reliable multiphysics simulation of their technique for reusing lightweight structures made from thermoplastics.

“Theoretical and computational developments will include a new tool or software module, Thermoplastic Composites Multiphysics,” adds Zhang. “This multiphysics modeling framework will simulate the debonding and bonding processes of gasket-spacer interfaces in thermoplastic composites using integrated carbon nano-heaters.”

Kwok says the framework has broader applications for thermoplastics. “Advancements include the development of multiphysics models and data for electric heating and welding, including establishing relationships between bond strength and process conditions of temperature, pressure and time. Specifically, the disassembly and assembly processes of a nanocomposite are simulated using third-party commercial finite element code with user routines defining the governing behavior of the material system.

Additionally, AnalySwift’s multiphysics simulation tool will determine force, pressure, and temperature histories during assembly and disassembly processes. “Specifically, it will gradually solve the constituent relationships as an initial value problem, extract the temperature distributions at specific times, and calculate the time and power required to complete them,” says Zhang.

Although processes and hardware advances for disassembly and reassembly are more applicable to space applications, the software has other potential uses, Wood notes. “This can be particularly useful when simulation tools can improve the possibilities for using high-performance thermoplastics,” he explains. “Additional applications could be considered in aerospace, defense, automotive, marine, energy, electronics, sporting goods and medical devices. Applications also extend beyond simulation and include the repair of thermoplastics.