Engineering topics

Harris, Robert S., Jr.

Publications and source records attributed to Harris, Robert S., Jr..

2 records

NASA NTRS1962

Methods for Determining the Optimum Design of Structures Protected from Aerodynamic Heating and Application to Typical Boost-Glide or Reentry Flight Paths

General equations are developed for the design of efficient structures protected from thermal environments typical of those encountered in boost-glide or atmospheric-reentry conditions. The method is applied to insulated heat-sink stressed-skin structures and to internally cooled insulated structures. Plates loaded in compression are treated in detail. Under limited conditions of plate buckling, high loading, and short flight periods, and for aluminum structures only, the weights of both configurations are nearly equal. Load parameters are found and are similar to those derived in previous investigations for the restricted case of a constant equilibrium temperature at the outside surface of the insulation.

Harris, Robert S., Jr.↗

NASA NTRS1961

An Analysis of Exact and Approximate Equations for the Temperature Distribution in an Insulated Thick Skin Subjected to Aerodynamic Heating

The problem of calculating the temperature distribution in an insulated slab is investigated. Exact and approximate solutions are obtained, and the results are compared to determine the ranges of applicability of the approximations. The approximations are found to be within 5 percent of the exact solution when the ratio of the thermal capacitance of the metal to that of the insulation and the ratio of the conductance of the metal to that of the insulation are sufficiently large. The roots of the characteristic equation of the exact solution are generally applicable to the two-slab heat-transfer problem and are tabulated up to the first nine roots.

Harris, Robert S., Jr.↗