A leading edge heating array and a flat surface heating array: Final design

Abstract

A heating array is described for testing full-scale sections of the leading edge and lower fuselage surfaces of the shuttle. The heating array was designed to provide a tool for development and acceptance testing of leading edge segments and large flat sections of the main body thermal protection system. The array was designed using a variable length module concept to meet test requirements using interchangeable components from one test configuration in another configuration. Heat generating modules and heat absorbing modules were employed to achieve the thermal gradient around the leading edge. A support was developed to hold the modules to form an envelope around a variety of leading edges; to supply coolant to each module; the support structure and to hold the modules in the flat surface heater configuration. An optical pyrometer system mounted within the array was designed to monitor specimen surface temperatures without altering the test article's surface.