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New Technologies Advancing ThermophysicsResearchers at NASA Ames in California have built a new facility that uses multiple 50-kW continuous wave lasers to add the capability for simulating radiative heating on thermal protection materials. The new facility, the Laser Enhanced Arc-jet Facility (LEAF-Lite), was added to NASA Ames’s Interaction Heating Facility arc-jet and now allows for test articles to be heated by both convective and radiative heat flux, making the facility more like flight. Using this new system, researchers can now simulate radiant heating with the laser and convective heating with the arc-jet simultaneously on a single test article. During its initial test in October 2017, the lasers radiatively heated a 6” x 6” Avcoat wedge sample to 405 W/sq.cm while the arc-jet simultaneously provided 160 W/sq.cm of convective heat, resulting in a total heat flux of 565 W/sq.cm. Radiative heating is more prevalent in missions with higher atmospheric entry speeds like the Orion space capsule or interplanetary scientific probes. Later this year, scientists will expand the spot size to cover 17” x 17” to test an Orion TPS panel.
Document ID
20190002187
Acquisition Source
Ames Research Center
Document Type
Preprint (Draft being sent to journal)
Authors
Brandis, Aaron (Analytical Mechanics Associates, Inc. Moffett Field, CA, United States)
Burt, Jonathan (NASA Glenn Research Center Cleveland, OH, United States)
Taft, Brenton (Aerospace Medical Research Labs. Wright-Patterson AFB, OH, United States)
Date Acquired
April 5, 2019
Publication Date
January 1, 2018
Subject Category
Fluid Mechanics And Thermodynamics
Report/Patent Number
ARC-E-DAA-TN60998
Funding Number(s)
CONTRACT_GRANT: NNA15BB15C
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Public Use Permitted.

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