DEMONSTRATING THE EFFECT OF RESTORING THE FORM OF BILLETS MADE OF
CELLULAR POLYMER MATERIALS (MATI-75)
Research Area: Classroom Versions of ISS Investigations
Expedition(s): 16-18 and 33/34
Principal Investigator(s): ● Pyotr G. Babayevskiy, PhD, Tsiolkovsky Russian
State University of Technology, Moscow, Russia
RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
Demonstrating the Effect of Restoring the Form of Billets Made of Cellular Polymer Materials
(MATI-75) demonstrates the ability of polyurethane foam to restore and lock their shapes,
sizes, and the pore structure during heating and cooling in microgravity.
EARTH BENEFITS
Graduate students were involved in the creation of
the procedures for the MATI-75 investigation.SPACE BENEFITS
MATI-75 focuses on 2 areas: character and kinetics of
restoring the sizes and shapes of foam samples in
microgravity as well as the results of the subsequent
studies of their structure and properties on the
ground in comparison with the results of a similar
ground investigations. The data gained during the
investigation can be used during the development of
intelligent composite materials that have shape
memory for transforming large-scale space
structures.RESULTS
MATI-75 demonstrated the memory of the shape
and sizes of a cellular polymer material made of
polyurethane foam with a specified type of open
porous structure and porosity value in microgravity
conditions. An analysis of photographs showed that
shape restoration occurred practically the same
aboard the International Space Station (ISS) and in
ground conditions.A distortion of the shape of samples was observed both aboard the ISS and in ground
conditions due in large measure to a twist appearing in samples with a small cross-section
(cylinders with a diameter of 10 mm). The twist of the main axis of samples was 45 ± 5 °. The
twist of the shape was explained, most likely, by the uneven heating of the samples, caused by
Before shape restoration (top), after shape
restoration (bottom). Roscosmos image.