Springer Praxis Books

Astronautical Engineering
More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/5495
Barrie D. Dunn

Materials and Processes

for Spacecraft and High Reliability
Applications

123
Barrie D. Dunn
School of Engineering
University of Portsmouth
Portsmouth
UK

Published in association with Praxis Publishing, Chichester, UK

ISSN 2365-9599 ISSN 2365-9602 (electronic)

Springer Praxis Books
ISBN 978-3-319-23361-1 ISBN 978-3-319-23362-8 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-23362-8

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Talking of education, ‘People have now a-days, (said he,) got a
strange opinion that everything should be taught by lectures.
Now, I cannot see that lectures can do so much good as reading
the books from which the lectures are taken. I know nothing that
can be best taught by lectures, except where experiments
are to be shewn. You may teach chemistry
by lectures—You might teach making of shoes by lectures!’

Samuel Johnson, 1766

(from Boswell’s Life)
This book is dedicated to Cato and Dennis
Preface

This book, as implied by the title page, is an extensively revised version of the former
“Metallurgical Assessment of Spacecraft Parts, Materials and Processes” published in 1997.
The present title has been modified to set it apart from the previous work and describe its
expanded content. The book has become more voluminous, this reflects the huge advances
made during the past 20 years when we have witnessed the increased usage of modern
materials and manufacturing techniques that were unforeseeable when the former book was
written. Also, the number of case studies and amount of general information has been
extended to become a source for engineers, space scientists, laboratory experimenters and
technicians. Although much of the book considers metallurgical aspects of spacecraft engi-
neering, there is now basic advice covering organic and ceramic materials as well as tech-
niques available for assembling them into essential sub-systems, reliable parts and structures.
A good number of the original illustrations are retained but many new ones have been
added. Several images reflect the quite remarkable outcomes of space projects. These include
high resolution images of Earth taken by satellites which are relevant for surveillance and the
forecasting of weather. Also included are fly-by images of enigmatic little moons and comets
captured by spacecraft after many years of voyaging in search of life and the origins of water
in our own Solar System. Equipment on-board the International Space Station and
satellite-based communications are mentioned. These have all been made possible by
breakthroughs in materials, processes and electronic-engineering.
Plato saw engineers as “doers” not “thinkers”. From ancient times no one expected engi-
neers to question what they were asked to build and consider the consequences of such
achievements. Nowadays engineers are more confident in their social role and have learned to
say “no” when the products are questionable or environmental damage may occur—the
generation of space debris is one pertinent example. Hopefully, some “lessons learnt” guid-
ance may ensue from the case studies and failure analyses recorded in this book. In 1986
engineers said “go” to the Challenger launch—other engineers said “no” but were over-ruled
and the space shuttle exploded shortly after lift-off. It is only in hindsight that we understand
that decision making can be extremely difficult, but such decisions must consider input from
all engineering disciplines and the recognition of material properties is vital.
A casual review of the Contents and Index will suggest to the reader that the subject matter
is likely to be of interest not only to spacecraft engineers, but in the broader sense, to workers
in quite different areas where metals, organic materials, composites, ceramics and glass are
used under terrestrial conditions or within high vacuum systems. Advancements in technology
always produce questions related to the reliability of new systems. Materials testing to agreed
codes of practice have been shown to help maximise the reliability of new materials, pro-
cesses, and applications. Metallography (or “materialography”) has led to an increased
understanding of failure modes. Much emphasis of this book has been placed on failure
analysis investigations. Each case must be developed in a logical manner—large-scale

ix
x Preface

(macroscopic) features are initially investigated, then the microscopic features of the materials
involved. Test specimen or samples of spacecraft hardware must be meticulously prepared,
then examined using both light and electron microscopy. It is amazing how these techniques
have evolved and how the recording of images has progressed. The author and his metallurgist
contemporaries may well remember early student days when contributions to reports were
exquisitely detailed hand drawn micrographs or images captured on photographic plates. The
digital revolution has now enabled all levels of detail to be recorded using super-resolution
microscopes and the future seems to be heading towards 3-dimensional microscopy.
In this book I have endeavoured to achieve a reasonable balance between general back-
ground knowledge and in-depth technical information. An elementary understanding of metals
and materials on the part of the reader is assumed. I have deliberately excluded a compre-
hensive account of the techniques employed in modern materials laboratories (unless
specifically related to unusual space material test methods). Many texts are available and cited
in the Reference section. The Appendices have been extended and include many Tables
related to: spacecraft materials’ properties; alloy comparisons as they may be procured in
different countries; a simplified M&P management guideline for universities; and, examples of
Declared Materials and Processes Lists.
The space industry is a key sector in driving economic growth and creating new jobs. By
2030, the global space economy is predicted to be worth £400 billion per annum. At the time
of writing, the European space manufacturing industry alone has an unprecedented overall
turnover at £6 billion and a total direct employment of 38,000 persons. New spaceports will be
established and spaceplanes are most likely to be the next generations’ means for transporting
commercial and scientific payloads into orbit. Many future spacecraft engineers, space sci-
entist and technologists, all specialists in their own fields, may be aghast that some funda-
mental, ‘old-hat’ information is contained in this book. But it is the lessons-learnt scenarios
that have brought us to where we are today. The industry is expanding and new employees
need to learn from our past mistakes and, at least, understand why certain design rules exist.
The wide acceptance of the previous book has been most welcome, and I hope the new
changes and additions will also find approval by my colleagues in the space industry and
others in the wider engineering community.

Bosham, West Sussex Barrie D. Dunn

December 2015
Acknowledgments

This book has been brought about by the blending of various published research and inves-
tigation projects that I have undertaken as a metallurgist for the European Space Agency, from
some written works of others and from personal friends. I am especially grateful to the late Dr.
Jacques Dauphin my former Division Head at ESA who gave the encouragement to undertake
the writing of the earlier book. He was a native of the French province of Lorraine, where the
motto is ‘Qui s’y frotte s’y pique’ which loosely translates to ‘gather thistles, expect prick-
les’—quite an apt maxim for those of us who have been involved with failure investigations.
I also acknowledge the help received from my former ESA colleagues: Dr. Ton de Rooij, Jack
Bosma, Guy Ramusat, Adrian Graham, David Collins and David Adams. Special thanks are
also given to Dr. Ernst Semerad, Dr. A. Merstallinger, Grazyna Mozdzen and Markus Fink
of the Aerospace and Advanced Composites GmbH (formally ARC), Wr. Neustadt, Austria,
with whom I have had many years of professional collaboration. As previously stated, there
has been a marked progress in this field of materials technology, resulting in significantly more
citations to references in this Edition, but even so, the bibliographic information certainly is
not complete. Where I have forgotten to cite a reference or credit an image I hope the author
will forgive my oversight.
I am also grateful to ESA and NASA for some of the illustrations used in the book. It
should be noted that the opinions expressed in this book are those of the author and do not
necessarily reflect the policy of the European Space Agency.
Let me add a special note of thanks to my late wife, Hanneke, my son, Martin, and my
daughter Harriet, for their patience through the spare-time hours that went into the making
of the previous Edition. Also, to Anne for her unswerving support and help editing this present
book. Stephen Hulcroft’s assistance at BlueFish Computer Services, Chichester is appreciated.
I also wish to thank Clive Horwood, and the staff at Springer Praxis Books in Germany
(Ms. Janet Sterritt) and India (Mr. Antony Raj Joseph and Ms. Sivajothi Ganesarathinam), for
their assistance during the publication of this book.
The author would like to thank all his colleagues and friends at the following organisations
who kindly supplied new information, reference material and photographs:
Torbjörn Lindblom, Celsius Materialteknik, Karlskoga, Sweden.
Dr. Michael Osterman, The Centre for Advanced Life Cycle (CALCE), University of
Maryland, MD, USA.
S. Clément, Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales, Toulouse, France.
Dr. H. Boving, Centre Suisse d’Electronique et de Microtechnique SA, Neuchâtel,
Switzerland.
H. Papenberg, DASA-ERNO Raumfahrttechnik GmbH (now Airbus Industries), Bremen,
Germany.
D. Bagley, ERA Technology, Leatherhead, UK.
Dr. A. Feest, The Harwell Laboratory, Metals Technology Centre, Harwell, UK.
W. Feuring, Heraeus GmbH, Hanau, Germany.
Massimo Bonacci, High Technology Center (HTC), Foligno, Italy.

xi
xii Acknowledgments

Poul Juul, Hytek, Aalborg, Denmark.

Messrs G. Kudielka and W. Maier, IFE, Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany.
Luca Moliterni and Gianluca Parodi, Italian Institute of Welding (IIS), Genoa, Italy.
Norio Nemoto, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Tsukuba, Japan.
Dr. Suman Shrestha, Keronite International Ltd., Haverhill, UK.
P. Fletcher, Airbus (formally MMS-UK), Portsmouth, UK.
Dr. Christopher Hunt, Martin Wickham and Ling Zou, The National Physics Laboratory,
Teddington, UK.
Dr. David Bernard, Nordson DAGE, Aylesbury, UK.
Jo Wilson and Bob Hussey, RJ Technical Consultants, Juicq, France.
Messrs Jörgen Svensson, U. Berg and Hans Ollfors, RUAG (formally Saab Ericsson
Space), Gothenburg, Sweden.
M.P. Hayes, The Spring Research and Manufacturers’ Association, Sheffield, UK.
Ian Turner, Cathy Barnes and Malcolm Snowdon, Spur Electon Ltd., Havant, UK.
Dr. R. Eckert, Standard Elektrik Lorenz, Stuttgart, Germany.
Dr. P. von Rosenstiel, Stichting Geavanceerde Metaalkunde, Hengelo, The Netherlands.
Luca Soli and Ulisse Di Marcantonio, Thales Alenia Space Italia, Milan, Italy.
Dr. J.M. Motz, Thyssen Guss AG, Mülheim a.d. Ruhr, Germany.
Stephen Kyle-Henney, TISICS Ltd., Farnborough, UK
Bill Strachan and Dr. Asa Barber, The University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, UK.
K. Ring, Zentrum für Verbindungs Technik, Gilching, Germany.
Robert Wm. Cooke, NASA—Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX, USA
Pablo D. Torres, NASA—Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL, USA
Dr. Fabiola Brusciotti, Tecnalia, San Sebastian, Spain
Contents

1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

2 Requirements for Spacecraft Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... 7

2.1 General Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... 7
2.2 Considerations for Materials and Processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... 10
2.2.1 General Considerations During the Selection
of Materials and Processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.2.2 Some Futuristic Ideas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.2.3 Some Basic Considerations Regarding Corrosion Prevention . . . 17
2.2.4 Space Project’s Phases and Management Events . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
2.3 The Effect of a Space Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
2.4 Materials for Space Launch Vehicles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
2.5 Non-metallic Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
2.5.1 General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
2.5.2 Classes of Non-metallic Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
2.5.3 Novel Non-metallics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
2.6 The Potential for Welding and Joining in a Space Environment . . . . . . . . 49
2.6.1 Background Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
2.6.2 Potential Joining and Cutting Processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
2.6.3 Expectations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

3 The Integration of ‘Materials’ into Product Assurance Schemes . . . . . . . . . . 55

3.1 General Product Assurance and the Role of Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
3.1.1 Product Assurance Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
3.1.2 Quality Assurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
3.1.3 Reliability and Safety . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
3.1.4 Materials and Processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
3.1.5 Component Part Selection, and Procurement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
3.1.6 Control of Ground-Handling Facilities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
3.2 The Materials Laboratory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
3.2.1 Major Objectives of Laboratory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
3.2.2 Facilities and Instrumentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
3.2.3 The Use of New Laboratory Techniques for NDT . . . . . . . . . . 85
3.2.4 Organic Chemistry and Environmental Test Laboratories . . . . . . 98
3.3 Preparation of Materials and Metallographic Evidence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
3.3.1 The Metallographer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
3.3.2 Laboratory Records and Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
3.3.3 Report of Materials Data to Spacecraft Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
3.3.4 Training of Materials Engineers and Laboratory Staff . . . . . . . . 103
3.3.5 Ethical Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

xiii
xiv Contents

3.4 The Future for Materials Failure Investigations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

3.4.1 The Larger Company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
3.4.2 The Smaller Company. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
3.4.3 Product Liability. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
3.5 ‘Greener’ Spacecraft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
3.6 The Potential for Recycling Electronic Waste. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
3.6.1 General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
3.6.2 Elemental Distribution for Spacecraft Electronic Box . . . . . . . . 111

4 Spacecraft Manufacturing—Failure Prevention and the Application

of Material Analysis and Metallography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
4.1 Sources of Failure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
4.2 Drawings and Workmanship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
4.2.1 Design and Manufacturing Drawings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
4.2.2 Workmanship Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
4.3 Mechanical Damage Revealed by Microstructure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
4.4 Hydrogen Embrittlement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
4.4.1 Interaction of Metal with Hydrogen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
4.4.2 Hydrogen Embrittlement of Spring Steel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
4.4.3 Blistering of Plated Aluminium Alloy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
4.4.4 Examination for Titanium Hydride Precipitates. . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
4.4.5 Embrittlement of Copper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
4.4.6 Future Developments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
4.5 General Corrosion Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
4.5.1 Bimetallic Corrosion-Related Failures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
4.5.2 Corrosion Resistance of Anodic and Chemical Conversion
Coatings on Al 2219 Alloy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 132
4.5.3 Evaluation of Alodine Finishes on Common Spacecraft
Aluminium Alloys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
4.5.4 Cleaning, Passivation, and Plating of Spacecraft Steels . . . . . . . 137
4.5.5 Launch Site Exposure and Corrosion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
4.6 Stress-Corrosion Resistance of Metals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
4.6.1 Stress-Corrosion Cracking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
4.6.2 SCC Evaluation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
4.6.3 The Properties of Spring Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
4.6.4 Bearing Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
4.7 Control of Printed Circuit Boards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
4.7.1 Chemical Composition of Tin-Lead from Microstructure . . . . . . 148
4.7.2 Grainy Solder Coverage on PCBs and the Effects of Rework . . . 150
4.7.3 Evaluation of Multilayer Board Internal Connections. . . . . . . . . 155
4.7.4 Flexible Circuits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
4.7.5 Hot-Air-Levelled Circuit Boards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
4.7.6 Solder Assembly of Component Packages onto Multilayer
Boards with High Heat Capacity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
4.8 Control of Composite Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
4.8.1 Metal–Matrix Composites for Space Structures. . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
4.8.2 Composite Contact Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
4.8.3 Fibre-Reinforced Plastic Composites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
4.8.4 Fibre-Reinforced Glass Ceramics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
4.8.5 Carbon–Carbon Composites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
4.8.6 Metal Matrix Composites for Spacecraft Pressure Vessels . . . . . 172
Contents xv

4.9 Control of Capillary Screens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .... 172

4.10 Examination of Electroless Nickel Deposits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .... 173
4.10.1 Microcracked Electroless Nickel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .... 173
4.10.2 Electroless Nickel Plating of Aluminium
Electronic Housings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
4.11 Control of Electroforming Processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
4.12 Dip Brazing of Aluminium Alloys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
4.13 Considerations for the Assembly of Subsystems by Welding . . . . . . . . . . 181
4.13.1 General Welding Methods and Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
4.13.2 Electron Beam Welding. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
4.13.3 Laser Beam Welding. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
4.13.4 Explosive Welding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
4.13.5 Welding of Aluminium–Lithium Alloys. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
4.13.6 Welding of Thermoplastics for Space Applications . . . . . . . . . . 188
4.14 Control of Power System Weldments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
4.14.1 General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
4.14.2 Welded Solar Arrays. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
4.14.3 Suitability of Welded Battery Cells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
4.15 Problems Associated with Residual Stresses in Weldments . . . . . . . . . . . 195
4.16 Electromagnetic Emission from TIG Welding Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
4.17 Titanium Aluminides for High-Temperature Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
4.18 Shape-Memory Alloys for Spacecraft Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
4.19 Foamed Aluminium for Damping Purposes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
4.20 Superplastic Forming and Diffusion Bonding of Metals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
4.20.1 Forming of Propellant Tanks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
4.20.2 Diffusion Bonding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
4.20.3 Superplastic Forming and Diffusion Bonding
in One Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
4.21 Cleaning of Mechanical Parts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
4.21.1 General Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
4.21.2 Metallic Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
4.21.3 Cleaning of Individual Parts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
4.21.4 Cleaning of Metallurgically Joined Assemblies . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
4.21.5 Maintenance of Cleanliness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216
4.21.6 Cleaning of Silicone Contamination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
4.22 Novel Thermal Management Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
4.23 Cold Sprayed Coatings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
4.24 Advanced Plasma Electrolytic Oxidation Treatment for Aluminium,
Magnesium and Titanium Alloys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
4.24.1 General Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
4.24.2 Characteristics of PEO Coatings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
4.24.3 Applications. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
4.25 Joining by “Friction Stir” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
4.25.1 Friction Stir Welding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
4.25.2 Friction Stud Welding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234
4.26 Selective Brush Electroplating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234
4.27 Control of Coatings and Bonded Items by Tape Testing . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
4.28 The Application of EB Welding Machine for Reflow Brazing . . . . . . . . . 239
xvi Contents

5 Metallography Applied to Spacecraft Test Failures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247

5.1 Application of Electron Microscope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
5.1.1 SEM Examination of Fracture Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
5.1.2 TEM Examination of Metallic Failures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250
5.2 Fasteners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
5.2.1 Spacecraft Fasteners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
5.2.2 Fastener Failure Due to Forging Defect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254
5.2.3 Laps and Surface Irregularities in Threads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
5.2.4 Hydrogen Embrittlement of Steel Fasteners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
5.2.5 Embrittlement of Titanium Alloys. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
5.2.6 Galvanic Corrosion of Fasteners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
5.2.7 Contamination and Organic Fastener Lubrication Systems . . . . . 257
5.2.8 Metallic Particle Generation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258
5.2.9 Quality Assurance Controls for Fasteners. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261
5.3 Thermal History from Microstructure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262
5.4 Effect of Inclusions Within the Microstructure of Explosively
Deformed Material . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
5.5 Degradation of Passive Thermal Control Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266
5.5.1 General Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266
5.5.2 Low-Emissivity Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268
5.5.3 High-Absorption Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
5.5.4 Rigid Optical Solar Reflectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
5.5.5 Flexible Second Surface Mirrors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271
5.6 Sublimation of Metals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
5.6.1 General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
5.6.2 Sublimation of and Condensation of Cadmium and Zinc . . . . . . 274
5.6.3 Heater Sublimation Problem Associated with Thruster Motor . . . 276
5.6.4 Sublimation of Klystron Cathode-Heaters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276
5.6.5 Sublimation of Rhenium . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278
5.7 Beryllium for Spacecraft Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280
5.7.1 General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280
5.7.2 Health and Safety . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
5.7.3 Integrity of Machined Beryllium. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
5.7.4 Thermal Cycling on Work-Hardened Beryllium . . . . . . . . . . . . 284
5.7.5 General Etching Solutions for Beryllium . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
5.7.6 Investigation of Microcracked Thin-Foil Detector Windows . . . . 286
5.7.7 Aluminium-Beryllium Alloys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288
5.8 Deactivation of Catalyst Particles for Hydrazine Decomposition . . . . . . . . 288
5.8.1 Testing Procedure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288
5.8.2 Material Investigation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288
5.8.3 Mechanism of Particle Deactivation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290
5.9 Cathode Emitter Degradation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
5.10 Investigation of a Failed Spacecraft Antenna . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293
5.11 The Wear of Ball Bearings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296
5.12 Cold Welding of Mechanisms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304
5.12.1 General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304
5.12.2 Cold Welding Due to Cyclic, Impact Loading . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306
5.12.3 Cold-Welding Due to Fretting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307
5.13 Defective Black-Anodized Electrical Connector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308
5.14 Contaminant Particles—Identification of Their Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309
Contents xvii

5.15 Silicone Contamination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310

5.15.1 General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310
5.15.2 Contamination of Black-Anodized Finish. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311
5.15.3 Contamination of Invar Moulding Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312
5.15.4 Removal of Silicone Polymers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314
5.15.5 Contamination of Aluminium Tubes for Vacuum Pinch-Offs . . . 317
5.16 Magnetic Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317
5.17 Thermal Stress-Induced Dimensional Changes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319
5.17.1 General Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319
5.17.2 Stress-Relaxation by Thermal Gradients. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319
5.17.3 Thermally Induced Vibrations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321
5.18 Defects in Titanium Piece-Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323
5.18.1 General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323
5.18.2 Alpha-Case Embrittlement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323
5.18.3 Titanium Hydride Embrittlement. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324
5.19 Leaking Water Tank on Launcher. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325
5.20 Compatibility of Liquid and Solid Propellants with Components
and Subsystems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... 326

6 Failure Analysis of Electrical Interconnections and Recommended

Processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
6.1 Material Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
6.2 Welded Lead Wire Interconnections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
6.3 ‘Purple Plague’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332
6.4 Mechanical Electrical Connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337
6.4.1 General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337
6.4.2 Wire-Wrapped Connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337
6.4.3 Crimped Joints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339
6.5 Soldered Interconnections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340
6.5.1 Introduction to Soldering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340
6.5.2 Inspection of Soldered Joints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341
6.5.3 The Effect of Thermal Fatigue on Solder-Assembled
Leaded Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ....... 344
6.5.4 Effect of Thermal Fatigue on Leadless Components . . ....... 351
6.5.5 The Effect of Thermal Fatigue on Semi-rigid
Cable Connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353
6.6 Problems Associated with Coatings for Soldering Applications . . . . . . . . 357
6.6.1 The Need for Coatings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357
6.6.2 Surfaces that Can Be ‘Soldered To’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357
6.6.3 Surfaces that Can Be ‘Soldered Through’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359
6.7 The Use of Indium Solder Alloys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363
6.8 Wires and Cables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369
6.8.1 Selection of Plated Finish on Copper Conductors . . . . . . . . . . . 369
6.8.2 Effect of Ageing on the Solderability of Tin-Plated
and Silver-Plated Wires . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ....... 371
6.8.3 ‘Red Plague’ Corrosion of Silver-Plated Copper,
and Plagues on Other Plated Stranded Wires . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375
6.8.4 Manganin Wire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379
6.8.5 High-Voltage Wires, Cables, and Connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380
6.8.6 Cold Welding of Stranded Wires and Cables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380
xviii Contents

6.9 Problems Associated with Soldering Fluxes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380

6.9.1 Purpose of a Flux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380
6.9.2 Heat-Shrinkable Sleeves Containing Solder Preforms . . . . . . . . 381
6.9.3 Stress Corrosion of Component Lead Material . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383
6.9.4 Flux-Corrosion of Silver-Plated Stranded Wires . . . . . . . . . . . . 383
6.9.5 Selection of a Soldering Flux or a Solderable Finish . . . . . . . . . 386
6.9.6 Control of Galvanic Corrosion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389
6.9.7 Cleaning of Flux-Contaminated Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389
6.9.8 Flux Residues, Their Ingress into Top-Coat of PCB Surfaces,
and Bake Out After Cleaning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 391
6.9.9 Conductive Anodic Filament (CAF) Formation
and Particulate Contamination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 394
6.9.10 Potential Health Hazards in the Electronic Assembly Area . . . . . 398
6.10 Problems Associated with Brazing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 399
6.10.1 Design Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 399
6.10.2 Brazeability of Materials and Braze Alloy Compositions . . . . . . 400
6.10.3 Brazing Fluxes and Their Removal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403
6.10.4 Atmospheres for Brazing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 404
6.10.5 Safety Precautions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 405
6.10.6 Produce Assurance Applied to Brazing Operations . . . . . . . . . . 405
6.10.7 Inspection Criteria for Brazed Aluminium Alloy
Waveguide-to-Flange Joints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 406
6.11 Diffusion Soldering/Brazing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 408
6.12 Effects of Rework and Repair on Soldered Interconnections . . . . . . . . . . 408
6.12.1 General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 408
6.12.2 Cosmetics of Solder Fillets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 410
6.12.3 Effect of Rework Electronic Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 410
6.12.4 Effect of Rework on Plated-Through Holes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 410
6.12.5 Effect of Rework on Composition of Joint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 412
6.12.6 Recuperation of Unsolderable PCBs and Component Leads . . . . 413
6.13 Electrical Conductive Adhesives. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413
6.14 Training and Certification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415
6.14.1 General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415
6.14.2 Certification for Electronic Assembly Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . 417
6.14.3 Understanding Process-Induced Failures
and the Importance of Workshops. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 418
6.15 Verification of Surface-Mount Technology and Prevalent
Failure Mechanisms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 419
6.15.1 Verification Testing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 419
6.15.2 Failure Under Mechanical Overloading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 422
6.15.3 Failures Due to Board Flatness Problems. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 422
6.15.4 Failure Due to Co-planarity Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 423
6.15.5 Solder Joint Failure Due to Thermal Mismatch
Between SMD and Substrate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 425
6.15.6 Conductor Track Failure Due to Thermal Mismatch . . . . . . . . . 428
6.15.7 Failure of RF Cables Connected by SMT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 428
6.15.8 SMT Solder Joint Failure Due to Conformal Coatings. . . . . . . . 428
6.15.9 SMT Problems Related to Flux and White Residues . . . . . . . . . 432
6.15.10 Area Grid Array (AGA) Packaging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 434
Contents xix

6.15.11 High Voltage Interconnections and Influence

of Geometry (Workmanship) on Corona Discharge . . . . . . . . . . 442
6.15.12 Tin Pest. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 448
6.15.13 Mechanical and Electrical Properties of Electronic
Materials at Temperatures Down to 4.2 K . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 451

7 Whisker Growths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 461

7.1 The Problem of Whisker Growth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 461
7.2 Analysis of Failures Due to Whisker Growth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 462
7.2.1 Molybdenum Whiskers on Metallized Miniature Circuits . . . . . . 462
7.2.2 Tungsten Whisker Growth Within Travelling Wave Tubes. . . . . 466
7.2.3 Metal Oxide Whisker Precipitation in Glass Seals. . . . . . . . . . . 466
7.2.4 Integrated Circuit Failure Modes Due
to Electromigration—Aluminium Whisker Growth
and Solder Joint Voiding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .... 468
7.3 Tin Whisker Growths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .... 472
7.3.1 Tin Whisker Growth on a Plated Steel Housing . . . . . . . . .... 472
7.3.2 Tin Whisker Growth on PCB and Other Electronic
Materials During Thermal Cycling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .... 474
7.3.3 Tin Whisker Growth on Crimp Termination Devices. . . . . .... 479
7.3.4 The Nucleation, Growth and Mechanism of Growth
of Tin Whiskers—Results from a C-Ring Test Programme . . . . . 481
7.3.5 Some Properties of Tin Whiskers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 485
7.4 Precautions to Avoid General Whisker Growths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 491
7.5 The Creation of Lead-Free Control Plans. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 494
7.5.1 General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 494
7.5.2 Methods for Reprocessing Pure Tin Terminations . . . . . . . . . . . 495
7.5.3 Mitigation Approaches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 498

8 Assessment of Post-flight Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 501

8.1 General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 501
8.1.1 Hardware Return from Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 501
8.1.2 Raw Materials from the Moon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 501
8.1.3 Recent Investigations Using Retrieved Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . 503
8.2 Space Environmental Effects from Vacuum and Radiation. . . . . . . . . . . . 503
8.2.1 Organic Materials and Lubricants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 503
8.2.2 Radiation Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 507
8.2.3 Effects of Vacuum on Metals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 508
8.3 Temperature Cycling. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 509
8.4 Micrometeoroids and Debris . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 509
8.4.1 General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 509
8.4.2 Debris Emanating from Catalytic Bed Thruster Motors . . . . . . . 512
8.4.3 Returned Hardware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 514
8.4.4 Protection Shields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 515
8.5 Effect of Atomic Oxygen on Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 517
8.6 Decelerators and Heat Shield Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 524
8.6.1 General Examples. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 524
8.6.2 Beryllium as a Heat Shield . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 528
8.6.3 Alternative Heat Shield Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 531
8.6.4 High-Temperature Fasteners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 533
xx Contents

8.7 Manned Compartments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 535

8.7.1 General Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 535
8.7.2 Solder Assembly Defects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 538
8.7.3 Inspection of Spacelab Post-flight Hardware. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 542

Appendix 1: Coefficient of (Linear) Thermal Expansion for Selected

Materials (COE or CTE) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 557

Appendix 2: Properties of Printed Circuit Laminates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 559

Appendix 3: Reagents for Microetching Metals and Alloys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 561

Appendix 4: Conversion Table for Mechanical Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 565

Appendix 5: Aluminium Alloy Temper Designations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 567

Appendix 6: Metal Alloy Comparison Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 571

Appendix 7: Variation of Standard Free Energy of Formation

of Oxides with Temperature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 613

Appendix 8: Simplied Procedure for the Management of Materials,

Processes and Mechanical Parts—Possible Guidelines
for a Cubesat or Small University Spacecraft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 615

Appendix 9: Materials and Processes Standards Related to Space

(Released by ECSS, JAXA and NASA) as of 2015 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 619

Appendix 10: Examples of Declared Process Lists (DPL). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 621

Appendix 11: Examples of Declared Materials Lists (DMLs) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 625

Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 629

References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 639

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 655