Engineering topics
Publications and source records attributed to Kurland, R. M..
The paper continues the status reporting of the development of an ultraweight flexible blanket, flatlpack, fouldout solar array testbed wing that was presented at the First and Second European Space Power Conferences. To date a testbed wing has been built and subjected to a variety of critical functional tests before and after exposrue to simulated launch environments.
The latest design, fabrication and testing details of a prototype wing are discussed. Estimates of array-level performance are presented as a function of power level and solar cell technology for geosynchronous orbit (GEO) missions and solar electric propulsion missions through the Van Allen radiation belts. Design concepts are discussed that would allow the wing to be self-retractable and restowable. To date all testing has verified the feasibility and mechanical/electrical integrity of the baseline design. The beginning-of-life (BOL) specific power estimate for a nominal 10-kW (BOL) array is about 138 W/kg, with corresponding end-of-life (EOL) performance of about 93 W/kg for a 10-year GEO mission.
The background and development status of an ultralightweight flexible-blanket flatpack, fold-out solar array is presented. It is scheduled for prototype demonstration in late 1989. The Advanced Photovoltaic Solar Array (APSA) design represents a critical intermediate milestone of the goal of 300 W/kg at beginning-of-life (BOL) with specific performance characteristics of 130 W/kg (BOL) and 100 W/kg at end-of-life (EOL) for a 10-year geosynchronous geostationary earth orbit 10-kW (BOL) space power system. The APSA wing design is scalable over a power range of 2 to 15 kW and is suitable for a full range of missions including Low Earth Orbit (LEO), orbital transfer from LEO to geostationary earth orbit and interplanetary flight.
This paper provides details on the Advanced Photovoltaic Solar Array (APSA) wing design, fabrication, and testing. The impact of array size change on performance and mechanical characteristics is discussed. Projections for future performance enhancements that may be expected through the use of advanced solar cells presently under development are examined.
The effect of post irradiation test environments on tensile properties of representative advanced composite materials (T300/5208, T300/934, C6000/P1700) was investigated. Four ply (+ or - 45 deg/+ or - 45 deg) laminate tensile specimens were exposed in vacuum up to a bulk dose of 1 x 10 to the 10th power rads using a mono-energetic fluence of 700 keV electrons from a Van de Graaff accelerator. Post irradiation testing was performed while specimens were being irradiated (in situ data), in vacuum after cessation of irradiation (in vacuo data), and after exposure to air (ex situ data). Room temperature and elevated temperature effects were evaluated. The radiation induced changes to the tensile properties were small. Since the absolute changes in tensile properties were small, the existance of a post irradiation test environment effect was indeterminate.
Two weld bonding processes were developed for joining titanium alloy; one process utilizes a weld-through technique and the other a capillary-flow technique. The adhesive used for the weld-through process is similar to the P4/A5F system. A new polyimide laminating resin, BFBI/BMPM, was used in the capillary-flow process. Static property information was generated for weld-bonded joints over the temperature range of 219 K (-65 F) to 561 K (+550 F) and fatigue strength information was generated at room temperature. Significant improvement in fatigue strength was demonstrated for weld-bonded joints over spot-welded joints. A demonstration was made of the applicability of the weld-through weld-bonding process for fabricating stringer stiffened skin panels.