Work conducted on a basic technology development effort with the Westinghouse Sodium Ionization Detector (SID) sensor is reported. Included are results obtained for three task areas: (1) On-line operational response testing - in-situ calibration techniques; (2) Performance-reliability characteristics of aged filaments; and (3) Evaluation of chemical interference effects. The results showed that a calibrator filament coated with a sodium compound, when activated, does supply the necessary sodium atoms to provide a valid operational in-situ test. The life time of new Cr/sub 2/0/sub 3/-protected SID sensor filaments can be extended by operating at a reduced temperature. However, there also is a reduction in the sensitivity. Non-sodium species, such as products from a smoldering fire and organic aerosols, produce an interference response from the sensor comparable to a typical sodium response.

The laboratory development of an improved insulation material has led to the development of three types of low density silicone foam (Type IA, IB and II) and a composite foam (Type IA silicone foam/rigid polyurethane foam) that could be used in a flat plate solar collector. Type IA and IB foam are both crosslinked with SiOSi bond, the former being cured at room temperature using a platinum catalyst, whereas the latter being cured at 150/sup 0/C using a rhodium catalyst. Type II foam is a room temperature vulcanized foam, crosslinked with NCOS(CH/sub 2/)/sub 3/Si linkage. The density of Type IA and II foam has been reduced down to 2-3 lbs/ft/sup 3/ range whereas the lowest density of Type IB attained was 6 lbs/ft/sup 3/. Both IA and II low density silicone foam have a thermal insulation property comparable to those of commercially available insulation materials. TGA show that both Type IA and Type II foams gives only 1 to 2% weight loss at 200/sup 0/C. At higher temperature, however, Type IA foam shows less weight loss than Type II foam. A composite foam, where Type IA foam was used to protect a thermally less stable rigid polyurethane foam, was evaluated …

A computer model is described for predicting ductile fracture initiation and propagation. The computer fracture model is calibrated by simple and notched round-bar tension tests and a precracked compact tension test. The model is used to predict fracture initiation and propagation in a Charpy specimen and compare the results with experiments. The calibrated model provides a correlation between Charpy V-notch (CVN) fracture energy and any measure of fracture toughness, such as J/sub Ic/. A second simpler empirical correlation was obtained using the energy to initiate fracture in the Charpy specimen rather than total energy CVN, and compared the results with the empirical correlation of Rolfe and Novak.