Activation and Initial Test Operations, Large Rocket Engine - Thrust Chamber Test Facilities Technology Report
Activation and initial test operations of thrust chamber facility for NASA M-1 rocket engine
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Activation and initial test operations of thrust chamber facility for NASA M-1 rocket engine
The design philosophy, construction, integration, and activation of the high intensity acoustic test chamber for production acceptance testing of satellites are discussed. The 32,000 cubic-foot acoustic test cell consists of a steel reinforced concrete chamber with six electropneumatic noise generators. One of the innovative features of the chamber is a unique quarter horn assembly that acoustically couples the noise generators to the chamber. Design concepts, model testing, and evaluation results are presented. Considerations such as nitrogen versus compressed air source, digital closed loop spectrum control versus manual equalizers, and microprocessor based interlock systems are included. Construction difficulties, anomalies encountered, and their resolution are also discussed. Results of the readiness testing are highlighted.
Flight temperature simulation in spacecraft vacuum chamber test used for relay communications satellite
Shielding a test chamber for magnetic components enables it to maintain a constant, low magnetic field. The chamber is shielded from ambient magnetic fields by a lead foil cylinder maintained in a superconducting state by liquid helium.
LeRC has designed a heat pipe test facility which will be used to provide data for validating heat pipe computer codes. A heat pipe test chamber that uses helium gas for enhancing heat transfer was investigated. The conceptual design employs the technique of guarded heating and guarded cooling to facilitate accurate measurements of heat transfer rates to the evaporator and from the condenser. The design parameters are selected for a baseline heat pipe made of stainless steel with an inner diameter of 38.10 mm and a wall thickness of 1.016 mm. The heat pipe operates at a design temperature of 1000 K with an evaporator radial heat flux of 53 W/sq. cm.
Requirement specifications for environmental laboratory test chamber complex design, fabrication, and testing
Multiple compartment test chamber exposes several material specimens to various environmental conditions for prolonged periods. The specimens are individually mounted in chamber compartments, rotated to various positions, and measured through optical windows to determine progressive changes in the material properties.
Thermal vacuum optical test chamber design for ATM photoheliograph
Test chamber to simulate vacuum and heat sink characteristics of space, measuring optical constants of coatings
Contamination control requirements for the Wide Field/Planetary Camera II (WF/PC II) are necessarily stringent to protect against post-launch contamination of the sensitive optical surfaces, particularly the cold charge coupled device (CCD) imaging surfaces. Typically, thermal vacuum test chambers have employed a liquid nitrogen (LN2) cold trap to collect outgassed contaminants. This approach has the disadvantage of risking recontamination of the test article from shroud offgassing during post-test warmup of the chamber or from any shroud warming of even a few degrees during the bakeout process. By using an enclave, essentially a chamber within a chamber, configured concentrically and internally within an LN2 shroud, a method was developed, based on a design concept by Taylor, for preventing recontamination of test articles during bakeouts and subsequent post-test warmup of the vacuum chamber. Enclaves for testing WF/PC II components were designed and fabricated, then installed in three of JPL's Environmental Test Lab chambers. The design concepts, operating procedures, and test results of this development are discussed.
Space environment test chamber and solar radiation simulator
An altitude-test-chamber investigation was conducted to determine the operational and performance characteristics of a McDonnell afterburner with a fixed-area exhaust nozzle on a J34 engine. At rated engine speed, the altitude limit, as determined by combustion blow-out, occurred as a band of unstable operation of about 6000-foot altitude in width with minimum altitude limits from 31,000 feet at a simulated flight Mach number of 0.40 to about 45,500 feet at a simulated flight Mach number of 1.00. Considerable difficulty was experienced in attempting to establish or maintain balanced-cycle engine operation at altitudes above 36,000 feet. The fuel-air ratio for balanced-cycle operation and lean blowout of the afterburner, the augmented-thrust ratio, the total specific fuel consumption, and the afterburner combustion efficiency for balanced-cycle operation are summarized in a table. Satisfactory afterburner ignition was obtained over a range of flight Mach Numbers from 0.32 to 0.60 at altitudes from 10,000 to 30,000 and engine speeds from 10,000 to 12,500 rpm.
In view of the serious performance deficiencies inherent in conventional modular and welded shielding EMC test enclosures, in which multipath reflections and resonant standing waves can damage flight hardware during RF susceptibility tests, NASA-Goddard has undertaken the modification of a 20 x 24 ft modular-shielded enclosure through installation of steel panels to which ferrite tiles will be mounted with epoxy. The internally reflected RF energy will thereby be absorbed, and exterior power-line noise will be reduced. Isolation of power-line filters and control of 60-Hz ground connections will also be undertaken in the course of upgrading.
The solar array module plasma interactions experiment is a space shuttle experiment designed to investigate and quantify the high voltage plasma interactions. One of the objectives of the experiment is to test the performance of the Advanced Photovoltaic Solar Array (APSA). The material properties of array blanket are also studied as electric insulators for APSA arrays in high voltage conditions. Three twelve cell prototype coupons of silicon cells were constructed and tested in a space simulation chamber.
The analytical data obtained from both cryogenic and grab sampling of the atmosphere of the Skylab AM/MDA during an 84 hour unmanned chamber run are reported. The level of contaminants found at different points of the test chamber are tabulated. The results indicate that there was no clear trend of increasing or decreasing contaminant levels during the test run.
Multisample test chamber for exposing materials to X rays, temperature change, and gaseous conditions and determination of material effects
An altitude-test-chamber investigation was conducted to determine the operational characteristics and altitude blow-out limits of a Solar afterburner in a 24C engine. At rated engine speed and maximum permissible turbine-discharge temperature, the altitude limit as determined by combustion blow-out occurred as a band of unstable operation of about 8000 feet altitude in width with maximum altitude limits from 32,000 feet at a Mach number of 0.3 to about 42,000 feet at a Mach number of 1.0. The maximum fuel-air ratio of the afterburner, as limited by maximum permissible turbine-discharge gas temperatures at rated engine speed, varied between 0.0295 and 0.0380 over a range of flight Mach numbers from 0.25 to 1.0 and at altitudes of 20,000 and 30,000 feet. Over this range of operating conditions, the fuel-air ratio at which lean blow-out occurred was from 10 to 19 percent below these maximum fuel-air ratios. Combustion was very smooth and uniform during operation; however, ignition of the burner was very difficult throughout the investigation. A failure of the flame holder after 12 hours and 15 minutes of afterburner operation resulted in termination of the investigation.
Altitude-test-chamber investigation of effects of flame-holder blocked area and gutter width on performance of 28-inch diameter ram jet at simulated flight Mach number of 2.0 for altitudes from 40,000 to 55,000 feet was conducted at NACA Lewis laboratory. Ten flame holders investigated covered gutter widths from 1.00 to 2.50 inches and blocked areas from 40.5 to 62.0 percent of combustion-chamber area. Gutter width did not appreciably affect combustion efficiency. Increase in blocked area from 40 to 62 percent resulted in 5- to 10-percent increase in combustion efficiency. Increasing gutter width resulted in improvement in fuel-air-ratio operating range.