Characterization of GRCop-42 Additively Manufactured Material (CSCO-2017-03 rev A)

The overall goal of this study is to complete material property and evaluation testing on a dispersion strengthened copper-alloy, GRCop-42, a low-cost alloy developed for additive manufacturing. GRCop-42 was developed as a higher conductivity version of GRCop-84 by dividing the amount of chromium and niobium in half. This material is being developed for use as a main combustion chamber liner, which is necessary for all expander cycle engines because this component requires high thermal conductivity. Initial testing shows the conductivity of GRCop-42 is significantly higher than GRCop-84, but there is a small but statistically significant sacrifice in low cycle fatigue strength, which is the main failure mode for main combustion chamber liners. This study will increase the body of knowledge of GRCop-42 by conducting micrograph characterization (before and after heat treatment and/or HIP), SEM characterization (before and after heat treatment and/or HIP), a wide variety of mechanical property testing (both at room temperatures and several elevated temperatures up to 1300F), characterization of virgin powder, computer tomography, surface roughness, x-ray fluorescence for chemical alloy analysis, and LXRD testing for residual stress analysis.

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