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At least 1,441 records · Page 80

Thermal modelling of various thermal barrier coatings in a high heat flux rocket engine

Traditional Air Plasma Sprayed (APS) ZrO2-Y2O3 Thermal Barrier Coatings (TBC's) and Low Pressure Plasma Sprayed (LPPS) ZrO2-Y2O3/Ni-Cr-Al-Y cermet coatings were tested in a H2/O2 rocked engine. The traditional ZrO2-Y2O3 (TBC's) showed considerable metal temperature reductions during testing in the hydrogen-rich environment. A thermal model was developed to predict the thermal response of the tubes with the various coatings. Good agreement was observed between predicted temperatures and measured temperatures at the inner wall of the tube and in the metal near the coating/metal interface. The thermal model was also used to examine the effect of the differences in the reported values of the thermal conductivity of plasma sprayed ZrO2-Y2O3 ceramic coatings, the effect of 100 micron (0.004 in.) thick metallic bond coat, the effect of tangential heat transfer around the tube, and the effect or radiation from the surface of the ceramic coating. It was shown that for the short duration testing in the rocket engine, the most important of these considerations was the effect of the uncertainty in the thermal conductivity of temperatures (greater than 100 C) predicted in the tube. The thermal model was also used to predict the thermal response of the coated rod in order to quantify the difference in the metal temperatures between the two substrate geometries and to explain the previously-observed increased life of coatings on rods over that on tubes. A thermal model was also developed to predict heat transfer to the leading edge of High Pressure Fuel Turbopump (HPFTP) blades during start-up of the space shuttle main engines. The ability of various TBC's to reduce metal temperatures during the two thermal excursions occurring on start-up was predicted. Temperature reductions of 150 to 470 C were predicted for 165 micron (0.0065 in.) coatings for the greater of the two thermal excursions.

Nesbitt, James A.↗

Vacuum application of thermal barrier plasma coatings

Coatings are presently applied to Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME) turbine blades for protection against the harsh environment realized in the engine during lift off-to-orbit. High performance nickel, chromium, aluminum, and yttrium (NiCrAlY) alloy coatings, which are applied by atmospheric plasma spraying, crack and spall off because of the severe thermal shock experienced during start-up and shut-down of the engine. Ceramic coatings of yttria stabilized zirconia (ZrO2-Y2O3) were applied initially as a thermal barrier over coating to the NiCrAlY but were removed because of even greater spalling. Utilizing a vacuum plasma spraying process, bond coatings of NiCrAlY were applied in a low pressure atmosphere of argon/helium, producing significantly improved coating-to-blade bonding. The improved coatings showed no spalling after 40 MSFC burner rig thermal shock cycles, cycling between 1700 and -423 F. The current atmospheric plasma NiCrAlY coatings spalled during 25 test cycles. Subsequently, a process was developed for applying a durable thermal barrier coating of ZrO2-Y2O3 to the turbine blades of first stage high-pressure fuel turbopumps utilizing the vacuum plasma process. The improved thermal barrier coating has successfully passed 40 burner rig thermal shock cycles without spalling. Hot firing in an SSME turbine engine is scheduled for the blades. Tooling was installed in preparation for vacuum plasma spray coating other SSME hardware, e.g., the titanium main fuel valve housing (MFVH) and the fuel turbopump nozzle/stator.

Holmes, R. R.↗

Salt Filler For Making Covered Channels

In simple fabrication technique, metal salts used to create such subsurface channels as those for coolant in metallic heat exchanger. Layer of metal deposited on structure by vacuum plasma spraying, sealing channels. Metal salt or salt mixture has melting temperature higher than those of waxes and aluminum and withstands high temperature of plasma spraying. After plasma spraying, salt filler dissolved quickly and easily and flushed away with water or other appropriate solvent, leaving behind covered channels.

Mckechnie, Timothy N.↗

Heavy rain effects on airplane performance

The objective is to determine if the aerodynamic characteristics of an airplane are altered while flying in the rain. Wind-tunnel tests conducted at the NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) have shown losses in maximum lift, reduction in stall angle, and increases in drag when a wing is placed in a simulated rain spray. For these tests the water spray concentration used represented a very heavy rainfall. A lack of definition of the scaling laws for aerodynamic testing in a two-phase, two-component flow makes interpolation of the wind-tunnel test uncertain. Tests of a large-scale wing are to be conducted at the LaRC. The large-scale wing is mounted on top of the Aircraft Landing Dynamics Facility (ALDF) carriage. This carriage (which is 70-foot long, 30-foot wide, and 30-foot high) is propelled with the wing model attached down a 3000-foot long test track by a water jet at speeds of up to 170 knots. A simulated rain spray system has been installed along 500 feet of the test track and can simulate rain falls from 2 to 40 inches/hour. Operational checks are underway and the initial tests should be completed by the Fall of 1989.

Dunham, R. E., Jr.↗

LOX/hydrogen coaxial injector atomization test program

Quantitative information about the atomization of injector sprays is needed to improve the accuracy of computational models that predict the performance and stability margin of liquid propellant rocket engines. To obtain this data, a facility for the study of spray atomization is being established at NASA-Lewis to determine the drop size and velocity distributions occurring in vaporizing liquid sprays at supercritical pressures. Hardware configuration and test conditions are selected to make the cold flow simulant testing correspond as closely as possible to conditions in liquid oxygen (LOX)/gaseous H2 rocket engines. Drop size correlations from the literature, developed for liquid/gas coaxial injector geometries, are used to make drop size predictions for LOX/H2 coaxial injectors. The mean drop size predictions for a single element coaxial injector range from 0.1 to 2000 microns, emphasizing the need for additional studies of the atomization process in LOX/H2 engines. Selection of cold flow simulants, measurement techniques, and hardware for LOX/H2 atomization simulations are discussed.

Zaller, M.↗

Ceramic coatings on smooth surfaces

A metallic coating is plasma sprayed onto a smooth surface of a metal alloy substitute or on a bond coating. An initial thin ceramic layer is low pressure sprayed onto the smooth surface of the substrate or bond coating. Another ceramic layer is atmospheric plasma sprayed onto the initial ceramic layer.

Miller, R. A.↗

Container Prevents Oxidation Of Metal Powder

Sealed high-vacuum container holds metal powder required free of contamination by oxygen from point of manufacture to point of use at vacuum-plasma-spraying machine. Container protects powder from air during filling, storage, and loading of spraying machine. Eliminates unnecessary handling and transfer of powder from one container to another. Stainless-steel container sits on powder feeder of vacuum-plasma-spraying machine.

Woodford, William H.↗

LOX/Hydrogen Coaxial Injector Atomization Test Program

Quantitative information about the atomization of injector sprays is needed to improve the accuracy of computational models that predict the performance and stability margin of liquid propellant rocket engines. To obtain this data, a facility for the study of spray atomization is being established at NASA-Lewis to determine the drop size and velocity distributions occurring in vaporizing liquid sprays at supercritical pressures. Hardware configuration and test conditions are selected to make the cold flow simulant testing correspond as closely as possible to conditions in liquid oxygen (LOX)/gaseous H2 rocket engines. Drop size correlations from the literature, developed for liquid/gas coaxial injector geometries, are used to make drop size predictions for LOX/H2 coaxial injectors. The mean drop size predictions for a single element coaxial injector range from 0.1 to 2000 microns, emphasizing the need for additional studies of the atomization process in LOX/H2 engines. Selection of cold flow simulants, measured techniques, and hardware for LOX/H2 atomization simulations are discussed.

Zaller, M.↗

Description of Liquid Nitrogen Experimental Test Facility

The Liquid Nitrogen Test Facility is a unique test facility for ground-based liquid nitrogen experimentation. The test rig consists of an insulated tank of approximately 12.5 cubic ft in volume, which is supplied with liquid nitrogen from a 300 gal dewar via a vacuum jacketed piping system. The test tank is fitted with pressure and temperature measuring instrumentation, and with two view ports which allow visual observation of test conditions. To demonstrate the capabilities of the facility, the initial test program is briefly described. The objective of the test program is to measure the condensation rate by injecting liquid nitrogen as a subcooled spray into the ullage of a tank 50 percent full of liquid nitrogen at saturated conditions. The condensation rate of the nitrogen vapor on the subcooled spray can be analytically modeled, and results validated and corrected by experimentally measuring the vapor condensation on liquid sprays.

Jurns, John M.↗

Three-dimensional modeling of diesel engine intake flow, combustion and emissions

A three-dimensional computer code (KIVA) is being modified to include state-of-the-art submodels for diesel engine flow and combustion: spray atomization, drop breakup/coalescence, multi-component fuel vaporization, spray/wall interaction, ignition and combustion, wall heat transfer, unburned HC and NOx formation, soot and radiation, and the intake flow process. Improved and/or new submodels which were completed are: wall heat transfer with unsteadiness and compressibility, laminar-turbulent characteristic time combustion with unburned HC and Zeldo'vich NOx, and spray/wall impingement with rebounding and sliding drops. Results to date show that adding the effects of unsteadiness and compressibility improves the accuracy of heat transfer predictions; spray drop rebound can occur from walls at low impingement velocities (e.g., in cold-starting); larger spray drops are formed at the nozzle due to the influence of vaporization on the atomization process; a laminar-and-turbulent characteristic time combustion model has the flexibility to match measured engine combustion data over a wide range of operating conditions; and finally, the characteristic time combustion model can also be extended to allow predictions of ignition. The accuracy of the predictions is being assessed by comparisons with available measurements. Additional supporting experiments are also described briefly. To date, comparisons with measured engine cylinder pressure and heat flux data were made for homogeneous charge, spark-ignited and compression-ignited engines. The model results are in good agreement with the experiments.

Reitz, R. D.↗

Combustion instability analysis for liquid propellant rocket engines

The multi-dimensional numerical model has been developed to analyze the nonlinear combustion instabilities in liquid-fueled engines. The present pressure-based approach can handle the implicit pressure-velocity coupling in a non-iterative way. The additional scalar conservation equations for the chemical species, the energy, and the turbulent transport quantities can be handled by the same predictor-corrector sequences. This method is time-accurate and it can be applicable to the all-speed, transient, multi-phase, and reacting flows. Special emphasis is given to the acoustic/vaporization interaction which may act as the crucial rate-controlling mechanism in the liquid-fueled rocket engines. The subcritical vaporization is modeled to account for the effects of variable thermophysical properties, non-unitary Lewis number in the gas-film, the Stefan flow effect, and the effect of transient liquid heating. The test cases include the one-dimenisonal fast transient non-reacting and reacting flows, and the multi-dimensional combustion instabilities encountered in the liquid-fueled rocket thrust chamber. The present numerical model successfully demonstrated the capability to simulate the fast transient spray-combusting flows in terms of the limiting-cycle amplitude phenomena, correspondence between combustion and acoustics, and the steep-fronted wave and flame propagation. The investigated parameters include the spray initial conditions, air-fuel mixture ratios, and the engine geometry. Stable and unstable operating conditions are found for the liquid-fueled combustors. Under certain conditions, the limiting cycle behavior of the combusting flowfields is obtained. The numerical results indicate that the spray vaporization processes play an important role in releasing thermal energy and driving the combustion instability.

Kim, Y. M.↗

Description of liquid nitrogen experimental test facility

The Liquid Nitrogen Test Facility is a unique test facility for ground-based liquid nitrogen experimentation. The test rig consists of an insulated tank of approximately 12.5 cubic ft in volume, which is supplied with liquid nitrogen from a 300 gal dewar via a vacuum jacketed piping system. The test tank is fitted with pressure and temperature measuring instrumentation, and with two view ports which allow visual observation of test conditions. To demonstrate the capabilities of the facility, the initial test program is briefly described. The objective of the test program is to measure the condensation rate by injecting liquid nitrogen as a subcooled spray into the ullage of a tank 50 percent full of liquid nitrogen at saturated conditions. The condensation rate of the nitrogen vapor on the subcooled spray can be analytically modeled, and results validated and corrected by experimentally measuring the vapor condensation on liquid sprays.

Jurns, J. M.↗

Combustion experiments in reduced gravity with two-component miscible droplets

The combustion of liquid fuels is a topic worthy of scientific attention on practical and fundamental grounds. Most practical applications of liquid-fuel combustion involve the formation of spray diffusion flames, where droplets frequently burn in groups rather than individually. The combustion is typically complex, with interactions occurring between various physical mechanisms. Many efforts to understand liquid sprays have focused upon studying isolated droplets. Information gained from these studies is often not directly transferable to spray situations. However, isolated-droplet studies are useful in that they allow certain phenomena (e.g., extinction) to be studied under well-controlled and simplified conditions. When theory and experiment agree for simplified situations, predictions for more complex cases (where accurate experimental data may not exist) may be made with more confidence. The simplest droplet combustion scenario is that of an isolated droplet undergoing spherically-symmetric combustion in an environment of infinite extent. The idealization is approached only when forced and buoyant convection are negligible, the droplet is unsupported, and all foreign objects are far-removed from the combustion zone. Appreciable gravity levels compromise spherical symmetry by inducing buoyant convection.

Shaw, Benjamin D.↗

Tank Tests of Models of Flying Boat Hulls Having Longitudinal Steps

Four models with longitudinal steps on the forebody were developed by modification of a model of a conventional hull and were tested in the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) tank. Models with longitudinal steps were found to have smaller resistance at high speed and greater resistance at low speed than the parent model that had the same afterbody but a conventional V-section forebody. The models with a single longitudinal step had better performance at hump speed and as low high-speed resistance except at very light loads. Spray strips at angles from 0 degrees to 45 degrees to the horizontal were fitted at the longitudinal steps and at the chine on one of the two step models having two longitudinal steps. The resistance and the height of the spray were less with each of the spray strips than without; the most favorable angle was found to lie between 15 degrees and 30 degrees.

Allison, John M↗

Optical Detection Of Flameout In A Combustor

Fuel supply shut down in time to prevent explosion. Optical flameout detector designed to signal control system of facility to cut off supply of fuel into combustion chamber if flame goes out. Combustor which optical flameout detector designed burns methane in air to provide hot gases for 8-ft high-temperature test chamber. Acoustical flameout detector for same combustor described in "Acoustical Detection of Flameout in Combustor" (LAR-14900). Fiber optic probes mounted to fuel-spray bar upstream of flame. No focusing optics used, and probes aimed across flow of gases at spot on combustion chamber wall downstream from spray bar. Arrangement enables flameout detection system to respond quickly to potential loss of flame since it detects movement of flame front away from spray bar face. Overall response time of detection system under 10 milliseconds.

Borg, Stephen E.↗

Coaxial airblast atomizers

An experimental investigation was performed to quantify the characteristics of the sprays of coaxial injectors with particular emphasis on those aspects relevant to the performance of rocket engines. Measurements for coaxial air blast atomizers were obtained using air to represent the gaseous stream and water to represent the liquid stream. A wide range of flow conditions were examined for sprays with and without swirl for gaseous streams. The parameters varied include Weber number, gas flow rate, liquid flow rate, swirl, and nozzle geometry. Measurements were made with a phase Doppler velocimeter. Major conclusions of the study focused upon droplet size as a function of Weber number, effect of gas flow rate on atomization and spray spread, effect of nozzle geometry on atomization and spread, effect of swirl on atomization, spread, jet recirculation and breakup, and secondary atomization.

Hardalupas, Y.↗

Measurement of intact-core length of atomizing liquid jets by image deconvolution

The investigation of liquid jet breakup and spray development is critical to the understanding of combustion phenomena in liquid propellant rocket engines. Much work has been done to characterize low-speed liquid jet breakup and dilute sprays, but atomizing jets and dense sprays have yielded few quantitative measurements due to their high liquid load fractions and hence their optical opacity. Focus was on a characteristic of the primary breakup process of round liquid jets, namely the length of the intact-liquid core. The specific application considered is that of shear-coaxial-type rocket engine injectors in which liquid oxygen is injected through the center post while high velocity gaseous hydrogen is injected through a concentric annulus, providing a shear force to the liquid jet surface. Real-time x ray radiography, capable of imaging through the dense two-phase region surrounding the liquid core, is used to make the measurements. The intact-liquid-core length data were obtained and interpreted using two conceptually different methods to illustrate the effects of chamber pressure, gas-to-liquid momentum ratio, and cavitation.

Woodward, Roger↗

Analysis of leading edge and trailing edge cover glass samples before and after treatment with advanced satellite contamination removal techniques

Two samples from Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF) experiment M0003-4 were analyzed for molecular and particulate contamination prior to and following treatment with advanced satellite contamination removal techniques (CO2 gas/solid jet spray and oxygen ion beam). The pre- and post-cleaning measurements and analyses are presented. The jet spray removed particulates in seconds. The low energy reactive oxygen ion beam removed 5,000 A of photo polymerized organic hydrocarbon contamination in less than 1 hour. Spectroscopic analytical techniques were applied to the analysis of cleaning efficiency including: Fourier transform infrared, Auger, x ray photoemissions, energy dispersive x ray, and ultraviolet/visible. The results of this work suggest that the contamination studied here was due to spacecraft self-contamination enhanced by atomic oxygen plasma dynamics and solar UV radiation. These results also suggest the efficacy for the jet spray and ion beam contamination control technologies for spacecraft optical surfaces.

Hotaling, S. P.↗