Joseph Pluscauskis
Program Manager
Education
B.E., Mechanical Engineering, Villanova University, 1998
M.E., Mechanical Engineering, Villanova University, 1999
Fundamentals of Solid Propellant Rocket Motors, University of Tennessee Space Institute, 2003
Experience
Mr. Pluscauskis has thirteen years of experience in composite materials, refractory metals, and refractory ceramics research and development. At Materials Research & Design he serves as a Program Manager for several government-sponsored (NASA, MDA, Navy, Air Force) as well as independent government contractor-sponsored design and analysis efforts supporting development of various advanced materials and concepts for extreme thermal-structural environments.
Mr. Pluscauskis recently completed a NASA MSFC-sponsored SBIR project that resulted in successful firings of the largest hafnia lined iridium/rhenium combustion chamber of its kind (throat inner diameter of 3.5 inches, chamber inner diameter of 5.66 inches). Although there were some gas leaks at the forward portion, a high chamber pressure (350 psi) and a high mixture ratio (LOX/CH4, 5420°F) were maintained for the firings, and the material system was appropriately challenged at high temperatures. The facts that hafnia coating did not spall off and the chamber itself did not crack due to the resulting mechanically- and thermally-induced stresses are good indicators that the material system does have a great deal of potential as an uncooled combustion chamber.
Mr. Pluscauskis is responsible for the designs of fourteen recent successful rocket motor firings with non-eroding ceramic throat inserts for the Air Forced-sponsored Integrated High Payoff Rocket Propulsion Technology (IHPRPT) ceramic boost nozzle assembly program. The motor sizes ranged from throat inner diameters of 0.24 - 1.0 inches, resulting in chamber pressures that ranged from 700 - 2800 psi. These were fired with highly-aluminized solid propellants that provided a combustion temperature of ~6200°F with burn times that ranged from 1.7 - 30 seconds. The designs included identifying the materials and geometries of the throat insert, throat insert support, inlet region, and exit cone to produce the nozzle section of the motor.
Mr. Pluscauskis has been an active member of the Air Force-sponsored IHPRPT Advanced Nozzles Materials team. During this program, we have designed non-eroding metallic throat inserts made with pure tungsten, tungsten-rhenium alloys, and tungsten-rhenium alloys doped with hafnium carbide. The motor sizes ranged from throat inner diameters of 1.0 - 2.6 inches, resulting in chamber pressures that ranged from 1550 - 2400 psi. These were fired with several aluminized solid propellants that provided combustion temperatures in the range of 5600 - 5820°F with burn times that ranged from 9.0 - 20 seconds.
Mr. Pluscauskis has worked on the Strategic Propulsion and Application Program (SPAP) and Defense Technical Objective (DTO) government working groups with Lockheed Martin, ATK-Launch Systems (Utah), and NAWC-China Lake assisting with the development of ceramic (TaC) lined tantalum (Ta) - 10 tungsten (W) solid rocket nozzles for the third stage D5 submarine launched missile. There have been three successful subscale ground tests which all survived 20 seconds of burn at about 900 psi (average). Additionally, there has been a long-burn subscale test to confirm/verify the creep performance of these materials. Finally, the full-scale throat insert behaved per design surviving for about 40 seconds at an average pressure of about 800 psi yielding 30,000 lb of thrust.
Mr. Pluscauskis has contributed to several additional designs that have been successfully tested at ATK-Utah, AFRL-Edwards, NAWC-China Lake, ABL-West Virginia, and ATK-Elkton. Mr. Pluscauskis has authored/coauthored well over 20 presentations given at various conferences including The Conference on Composites, Materials, and Structures (Cocoa Beach / Daytona Beach), JANNAF RNTS, and The National Space and Missiles Materials Symposium. His first paper publication has been accepted and approved for the JANNAF Journal of Propulsion and Energetics, Volume 4 (February 2011).