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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.
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Governing differential equation, boundary conditions for the analysis on which computer program is based, and method of solution of resulting finite difference equations are discussed in the documentation.
It is shown that the theoretical maximum oxidation rate is limited in many cases even at temperatures much higher than 1650 deg K, not by oxygen transport, but by the kinetics of the carbon-oxygen reaction itself. Mass-loss rates have been calculated at air pressures of 0.01 atm, 1 atm, and 100 atm. It is found that at high temperatures the rate of the oxidation reaction is much slower than has generally been assumed on the basis of a simple linear extrapolation of Scala's 'fast' and 'slow' rate expressions. Accordingly it cannot be assumed that a transport limitation inevitably must be reached at high temperatures.
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Major advancements have been made in solid propellant pulsed plasma propulsion technology. A LES-6 microthruster has operated for 8900 hours in orbit. Millipound thrustors have been developed and tested at performance levels of as low as 112 watts/mlb. Efficiencies of up to 50% and specific impulse values up to 5000 sec have been measured. An improved microthrustor has operated at 207 watts/mlb continuously for 1440 hours. Correlations of design and performance data exist to allow thrustors to be built to meet a particular level of performance.
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Approximately 15% of E-glass fibers was added to compositions under test and greatly improved char stability. Use of these fibers also reduced thermal strains which, in turn, minimized char shrinkage and associated cracks, subsurface voids, and disbonds. Increased strength allows honeycomb core reinforcement to be replaced by equivalent amount of glass fibers.
The sorption of argon, carbon dioxide, and nitrogen on two heat shield composites (SLA-561 and SLA-561V) and on the SLA components was measured over the pressure range of 0.001 to 760 torr and in the temperature range of 30 to 50 C. The sorption of the gases by both the composites and the components varied directly with pressure. The sorption of CO2 by the phenolic spheres and the silicone elastomer and of Ar by the silicone elastomer varied inversely with temperature. The mechanism involved in the gas sorption was primarily absorption.
Equilibrium is determined by finding chemical composition with minimum free energy. Method of steepest descent is applied to quadratic representation of free-energy surface. Solution is initiated by selecting arbitrary set of mole fractions, from which point on free-energy surface is computed.
A computer program is described that will compute the transient response of a thermal protection material to a prescribed heat input at the surface. The program has the capability of analyzing pyrolysis gas chemical kinetics in detail and treating pyrolysis reactions-in-depth. Deposition of solid products produced by chemical reactions in the gas phase is included in the analysis. An outline is given for the theory. detailed operating instructions for the computer program are included.
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This paper presents results that describe the flow field and surface response conditions for a planetary probe entering the atmosphere of Jupiter. The results are obtained with a viscous-shock-layer analysis which includes mass injection, radiative transfer, diffusion, and viscous effects. Radiative transfer is calculated with an existing nongray radiation model that accounts for molecular band, atomic line, and continuum transitions. Particular emphasis is given to the effect of mass injection on the stagnation and downstream flow. Results for both specified and coupled mass injection are obtained for a carbon heat shield.
Computer code is used to determine heat transfer multiplication factors, special flow field simulation techniques, different heat transfer methods, different transition criteria, crossflow simulation, and more efficient thin skin thickness optimization procedure.
The effect of weave geometry on the onset of transition from laminar to turbulent flow around a sample of an orthogonally woven fine weave carbon-carbon material tested in an arc-jet is investigated. Seventeen post-test models which had undergone only partial transition around the circumference were examined as to location of turbulent regions relative to the weave axes. It was statistically shown that the weave axes had the lowest probability of being a position of initial transition onset. The probability generally increased with distance from a major axis, with some rays, notably the 45 deg rays, showing better transition resistance than the adjacent rays. The incidence of initial transition onset correlated well with the number of X or Y fibers that the flow passes over from stagnation point to the shoulder.