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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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NASA NTRS2012

Historical Evolution of NASA Standard Materials Testing with Hypergolic Propellants and Ammonia (NASA Standard 6001 Test 15)

The NASA Johnson Space Center White Sands Test Facility (WSTF) has performed testing of hazardous and reactive aerospace fluids, including hypergolic propellants, with materials since the 1960s with the Apollo program. Amongst other test activities, Test 15 is a NASA standard test for evaluating the reactivity of materials with selected aerospace fluids, in particular hydrazine, monomethylhydrazine, uns-dimethylhydrazine, Aerozine 50, dinitrogen tetroxide oxidizers, and ammonia. This manuscript provides an overview of the history of Test 15 over a timeline ranging from prior to its development and first implementation as a NASA standard test in 1974 to its current refinement. Precursor documents to NASA standard tests, as they are currently known, are reviewed. A related supplementary test, international standardization, and enhancements to Test 15 are also discussed. Because WSTF was instrumental in the development and implementation of Test 15, WSTF experience and practices are referred to in this manuscript.

Greene, Benjamin↗
NASA NTRS2009

A Summary of NASA and USAF Hypergolic Propellant Related Spills And Fires

Hypergolic fluids are toxic liquids that react spontaneously and violently when they contact each other. These fluids are used in many different rocket and aircraft systems for propulsion and hydraulic power including, orbiting satellites, manned spacecraft, military aircraft, and deep space probes. Hypergolic fuels include hydrazine (N 2H4) and its derivatives including monomethylhydrazine (MMH), unsymmetrical di-methylhydrazine (UDMH), and Aerozine 50 (A-50), which is an equal mixture of N2H4 and UDMH. The oxidizer used with these fuels is usually nitrogen tetroxide (N2O4), also known as di-nitrogen tetroxide or NTO, and various blends of N2O4 with nitric oxide (NO). Several documented, unintentional hypergolic fluid spills and fires related to the Apollo Program, the Space Shuttle Program, and several other programs from approximately 1968 through the spring of 2009 have been studied for the primary purpose of extracting the lessons learned. Spill sites include KSC, JSC, WSTF, CCAFS, EAFB, McConnell AFB, and VAFB.

Nufer, B. M.↗
NASA NTRS2010

Analysis of Possible Explosions at Kennedy Space Center Due to Spontaneous Ignition of Hypergolic Propellants

NASA's Constellation Program plan currently calls for the replacement of the Space Shuttle with the ARES I & V spacecraft and booster vehicles to send astronauts to the moon and beyond. Part of the ARES spacecraft is the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV), which includes the Crew Module (CM) and Service Module (SM). The Orion CM's main propulsion system and supplies are provided by the SM. The SM is to be processed off line and moved to the Vehicle Assembly Building (V AB) for stacking to the first stage booster motors prior to ARES move to the launch pad. The new Constellation Program philosophy to process in this manner has created a major task for the KSC infrastructure in that conventional QD calculations are no longer viable because of the location of surrounding facilities near the VAB and the Multi Purpose Processing Facility (MPPF), where the SM will be serviced with nearly 18,000 pounds of hypergolic propellants. The Multi-Payload Processing Facility (MPPF) complex, constructed by NASA in 1994, is located just off E Avenue south of the Operations and Checkout (O&C) building in the Kennedy Space Center industrial area. The MPPF includes a high bay and a low bay. The MPPF high bay is 40.2 m (132 ft) long x 18.9 m (60 ft) wide with a ceiling height of 18.9 m (62 ft). The low bay is a 10.4 m (34 ft) long x 10.4 m (34 ft) wide processing area and has a ceiling height of6.1 m (20 ft). The MPPF is currently used to process non-hazardous payloads. Engineering Analysis Inc. (EAI), under contract with ASRC Aerospace, Inc. in conjunction with the Explosive Safety Office, NASA, Kennedy Space Center (KSC), has carried out an analysis of the effects of explosions at KSC in or near various facilities produced by the spontaneous ignition ofhypergolic fuel stored in the CEV SM. The facilities considered included (1) Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) (2) Multi-Payload Processing Facility (MPPF) (3) Canister Rotation Facility (CRF) Subsequent discussion deals with the MPPF analysis. Figure 1 provides a view of the MPPF from the northwest. An interior view ofthe facility is shown in Figure 2. The study was concerned with both blast hazards and hazardous fragments which exceed existing safety standards, as described in Section 2.0. The analysis included both blast and fragmentation effects and was divided into three parts as follows: (1) blast (2) primary fragmentation (3) secondary fragmentation Blast effects are summarized in Section 3.0, primary fragmentation in Section 4.0, and secondary fragmentation (internal and external) in Section 5.0. Conclusions are provided in Section 6.0, while references cited are included in Section 7.0. A more detailed description of the entire study is available in a separate document.

Brown, Stephen↗
NASA NTRS2010

Analysis of a Hypergolic Propellant Explosion During Processing of Launch Vehicles in the VAB

NASA is developing launch vehicles to support missions to Low Earth Orbit (LEO), the moon and deep space. Whether manned or unmanned, the vehicle components will likely be integrated in the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) and typically include a fueled spacecraft (SC) that sits on top of one or more stages. The processing of a fueled SC involves hazardous operations when it is brought into the VAB Transfer Aisle and lifted a significant height for mating with lower stages. Accidents resulting from these hazardous operations could impact unrelated personnel working in buildings adjacent to the VAB. Safe separation distances based on the DOD Explosives Standards Quantity-Distance (Q-D) approach result in large IBD arcs. This paper presents site-specific air blast and fragmentation hazard analyses for comparison with the Q-D arcs as well as consequence and risk analyses to provide added information for the decision maker. A new physics-based fragmentation model is presented that includes: a) the development of a primary fragment list (which defines the fragment characteristics) associated with a hypergolic propellant explosion, b) a description of a 3D fragment bounce model, c) the results of probabilistic Monte-Carlo simulations (that include uncertainties in the fragment characteristics) to determine: i) the hazardous fragment density distance, ii) the expected number of wall/roof impacts and penetrations to over 40 buildings adjacent to the VAB, and iii) the risk to building occupants.

Chrostowski, Jon D.↗
NASA NTRS2010

A Summary of NASA and USAF Hypergolic Propellant Related Spills and Fires

Several unintentional hypergolic fluid related spills, fires, and explosions from the Apollo Program, the Space Shuttle Program, the Titan Program, and a few others have occurred over the past several decades. Spill sites include the following government facilities: Kennedy Space Center (KSC), Johnson Space Center (JSC), White Sands Test Facility (WSTF), Vandenberg Air Force Base (VAFB), Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS), Edwards Air Force Base (EAFB), Little Rock AFB, and McConnell AFB. Until now, the only method of capturing the lessons learned from these incidents has been "word of mouth" or by studying each individual incident report. Through studying several dozen of these incidents, certain root cause themes are apparent. Scrutinizing these themes could prove to be highly beneficial to future hypergolic system test, checkout, and operational use.

Nufer, Brian↗
NASA NTRS2010

Hypergolic Propellants: The Handling Hazards and Lessons Learned from Use

Several unintentional hypergolic fluid related spills, fires, and explosions from the Apollo Program, the Space Shuttle Program, the Titan Program, and a few others have occurred over the past several decades. Spill sites include the following government facilities: Kennedy Space Center (KSC), Johnson Space Center (JSC), White Sands Test Facility (WSTF), Vandenberg Air Force Base (VAFB), Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS), Edwards Air Force Base (EAFB), Little Rock AFB, and McConnell AFB. Until now, the only method of capturing the lessons learned from these incidents has been "word of mouth" or by studying each individual incident report. Through studying several dozen of these incidents, certain root cause themes are apparent. Scrutinizing these themes could prove to be highly beneficial to future hypergolic system testing, checkout, and operational use.

Nufer, Brian↗
NASA NTRS2010

Hypergolic Propellant Destruction Evaluation Cost Benefit Analysis

At space vehicle launch sites such as Vandenberg Air Force Base (VAFB), Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) and Kennedy Space Center (KSC), toxic vapors and hazardous liquid wastes result from the handling of commodities (hypergolic fuels and oxidizers), most notably from transfer operations where fuel and oxidizer are transferred from bulk storage tanks or transfer tankers to space launch vehicles. During commodity transfer at CCAFS and KSC, wet chemical scrubbers (typically containing four scrubbing towers) are used to neutralize fuel saturated vapors from vent systems on tanks and tanker trailers. For fuel vapors, a citric acid solution is used to scrub out most of the hydrazine. Operation of both the hypergolic fuel and oxidizer vapor scrubbers generates waste scrubber liquor. Currently, scrubber liquor from the fuel vapor scrubber is considered non-hazardous. The scrubber liquor is defined as spent citric acid scrubber solution; the solution contains complexed hydrazine I methylhydrazine and is used to neutralize nonspecification hypergolic fuel generated by CCAFS and KSC. This project is a collaborative effort between Air Force Space Command (AFSPC), Space and Missile Center (SMC), the CCAFS, and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to evaluate microwave destruction technology for the treatment of non-specification hypergolic fuel generated at CCAFS and KSC. The project will capitalize on knowledge gained from microwave treatment work being accomplished by AFSPC and SMC at V AFB. This report focuses on the costs associated with the current non-specification hypergolic fuel neutralization process (Section 2.0) as well as the estimated costs of operating a mobile microwave unit to treat non-specification hypergolic fuel (Section 3.0), and compares the costs for each (Section 4.0).The purpose of this document is to assess the costs associated with waste hypergolic fuel. This document will report the costs associated with the current fuel neutralization process and also examine the costs of an alternative technology, microwave destruction of waste hypergolic fuel. The microwave destruction system is being designed as a mobile unit to treat non-specification hypergolic fuel at CCAFS and KSC.

Kessel, Kurt↗
NASA NTRS1992

Computational analysis of liquid hypergolic propellant rocket engines

The combustion process in liquid rocket engines depends on a number of complex phenomena such as atomization, vaporization, spray dynamics, mixing, and reaction mechanisms. A computational tool to study their mutual interactions is developed to help analyze these processes with a view of improving existing designs and optimizing future designs of the thrust chamber. The focus of the article is on the analysis of the Variable Thrust Engine for the Orbit Maneuvering Vehicle. This engine uses a hypergolic liquid bipropellant combination of monomethyl hydrazine as fuel and nitrogen tetroxide as oxidizer.

Krishnan, A.↗
NASA NTRS1977

Disposal of hypergolic propellants, phase 6 task 4. Disposal pond products

Waste monomethyl hydrazine scrubber liquor, consisting of aqueous solutions containing small amounts of CH4, Cl2, CH3Cl, CH2Cl2, and CHCl3 as well as large amounts of CH3OH is scheduled to be dumped in stabilization ponds along with nitrate and nitrite salt solutions obtained as waste liquors from the N2O4 scrubbers. The wastes are investigated as to the hazardous materials generated by such combinations of items as described as well as the finite lifetime of such materials in the stabilization ponds. The gas liquid chromatograph was used in the investigation. A series of experiments designed to convert nitrate and nitrite salts to the environmentally innocuous N2O and N2 using solar energy is reported. Results indicate that this solar conversion is feasible.

Cohenour, B. C.↗