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Wright, S. A.

Publications and source records attributed to Wright, S. A..

Direct-Drive Gas-Cooled Reactor Power System: Concept and Preliminary Testing

This paper describes the concept and preliminary component testing of a gas-cooled, UN-fueled, pin-type reactor which uses He/Xe gas that goes directly into a recuperated Brayton system to produce electricity for nuclear electric propulsion. This Direct-Drive Gas-Cooled Reactor (DDG) is designed to be subcritical under water or wet- sand immersion in case of a launch accident. Because the gas-cooled reactor can directly drive the Brayton turbomachinery, it is possible to configure the system such that there are no external surfaces or pressure boundaries that are refractory metal, even though the gas delivered to the turbine is 1144 K. The He/Xe gas mixture is a good heat transport medium when flowing, and a good insulator when stagnant. Judicious use of stagnant cavities as insulating regions allows transport of the 1144-K gas while keeping all external surfaces below 900 K. At this temperature super-alloys (Hastelloy or Inconel) can be used instead of refractory metals. Super-alloys reduce the technology risk because they are easier to fabricate than refractory metals, we have a much more extensive knowledge base on their characteristics, and, because they have a greater resistance to oxidation, system testing is eased. The system is also relatively simple in its design: no additional coolant pumps, heat exchanger, or freeze-thaw systems are required. Key to success of this concept is a good knowledge of the heat transfer between the fuel pins and the gas, as well as the pressure drop through the system. This paper describes preliminary testing to obtain this key information, as well as experience in demonstrating electrically heated testing of simulated reactor components.

Wright, S. A.↗

Measured and predicted vortex-induced leeward heating on a biconic at Mach 6 and 10

Detailed longitudinal and circumferential heating distributions were measured on a spherically blunted, 13 deg/7 deg biconic at angles of attack from 0 deg to 27 deg. The measurements were made in the Langley 20-inch Mach 6 tunnel and 31-inch Mach 10 tunnel to provide heating distributions at Mach 6 and 10 in air. The free-stream Reynolds number based on model length varied from 0.4 to 4.8 million at Mach 6 and 0.3 to 1.3 million at Mach 10. The basic trends in leeward heating are found to be described by a single parameter, the viscous interaction parameter. A decrease in this parameter results in a decrease in leeward heating for attached flow, an increase in heating for separated flow, and a forward movement of the separation region. The parabolized Navier-Stokes code for laminar flow qualitatively predicted the longitudinal and circumferential heating distributions.

Miller, C. G.↗