ALBERT

Description: The Solar Space Power Analysis Code, SOSPAC, was developed to examine the solar thermal and photovoltaic power generation options available for a satellite or spacecraft in low earth orbit. SOSPAC is a preliminary systems analysis tool and enables the engineer to compare the areas, weights, and costs of several candidate electric and thermal power systems. The configurations studied include photovoltaic arrays and parabolic dish systems to produce electricity only, and in various combinations to provide both thermal and electric power. SOSPAC has been used for comparison and parametric studies of proposed power systems for the NASA Space Station. The initial requirements are projected to be about 40 kW of electrical power, and a similar amount of thermal power with temperatures above 1000 degrees Centigrade. For objects in low earth orbit, the aerodynamic drag caused by suitably large photovoltaic arrays is very substantial. Smaller parabolic dishes can provide thermal energy at a collection efficiency of about 80%, but at increased cost. SOSPAC allows an analysis of cost and performance factors of five hybrid power generating systems. Input includes electrical and thermal power requirements, sun and shade durations for the satellite, and unit weight and cost for subsystems and components. Performance equations of the five configurations are derived, and the output tabulates total weights of the power plant assemblies, area of the arrays, efficiencies, and costs. SOSPAC is written in FORTRAN IV for batch execution and has been implemented on an IBM PC computer operating under DOS with a central memory requirement of approximately 60K of 8 bit bytes. This program was developed in 1985.

Description: Slush hydrogen, a mixture of the solid and liquid phases of hydrogen, is a possible source of fuel for the National Aerospace Plane (NASP) Project. Advantages of slush hydrogen over liquid hydrogen include greater heat capacity and greater density. However, practical use of slush hydrogen as a fuel requires systems of lines, valves, etc. which are designed to deliver the fuel in slush form with minimal solid loss as a result of pipe heating or flow friction. Engineers involved with the NASP Project developed FLUSH to calculate the pressure drop and slush hydrogen solid fraction loss for steady-state, one-dimensional flow. FLUSH solves the steady-state, one-dimensional energy equation and the Bernoulli equation for pipe flow. The program performs these calculations for each two-node element--straight pipe length, elbow, valve, fitting, or other part of the piping system--specified by the user. The user provides flow rate, upstream pressure, initial solid hydrogen fraction, element heat leak, and element parameters such as length and diameter. For each element, FLUSH first calculates the pressure drop, then figures the slush solid fraction exiting the element. The code employs GASPLUS routines to calculate thermodynamic properties for the slush hydrogen. FLUSH is written in FORTRAN IV for DEC VAX series computers running VMS. An executable is provided on the tape. The GASPLUS physical properties routines which are required for building the executable are included as one object library on the program media (full source code for GASPLUS is available separately as COSMIC Program Number LEW-15091). FLUSH is available in DEC VAX BACKUP format on a 9-track 1600 BPI magnetic tape (standard media) or on a TK50 tape cartridge. FLUSH was developed in 1989.

Description: Accurate simulation of nuclear thermal propulsion systems using computational methods will permit reductions in testing and, thus, the time and cost of achieving a flight ready status for systems utilizing this advanced technology. An accurate simulation must maintain a "balance-of-plant" where the required pump work equals the supplied turbine work. This turbopump assembly balancing must be integrated into the overall system analysis models. TPA was developed to balance turbine and pump work using performance maps. It requires the inlet properties, performance maps, and shaft speed. TPA then computes the exit conditions and work terms. The work terms can then be balanced by varying the input shaft speed. The objective of the pump analysis is to determine the propellant state properties at the pump exit and the pump work. The pump analysis algorithm for liquid flow assumes that the shaft speed, the propellant state properties at the pump entrance, the propellant flow rate, the pump entrance and exit areas, as well as performance curves, are all known. The analysis of both the pump pressure rise and pump efficiency curves is required. The objective of the turbine analysis is to determine the propellant state properties at the turbine exit and the turbine work. The turbine analysis algorithm assumes that the shaft speed, the propellant state properties at the turbine entrance, the propellant flow rate, the turbine root mean square blade diameter, the turbine entrance and exit areas, as well as performance curves, are all known. The analysis also requires the turbine flow parameter curve and the turbine total efficiency curve. TPA is written in FORTRAN 77 to be machine independent. The TPA package includes the NBS+_PH2 code, which is also available separately (LEW-15505). TPA has been successfully implemented on a DEC VAX series computer running VMS, a Sun4 series computer running SunOS, and an IBM PC compatible computer running MS-DOS. Lahey F77L3 EM/32 v. 5.01 or higher is required for compilation on an IBM PC compatible computer; however, a PC executable is included on the distribution diskette. The standard distribution medium for this program is one 5.25 inch 360K MS-DOS format diskette. The diskette's contents have been compressed using PKWARE's archiving tools. The utility to unarchive the file, PKUNZIP.EXE, is included. Alternate distribution media and formats are available upon request. TPA was developed in 1993.

Description: To provide the transportation of lunar base elements to the moon, large high-energy propulsion systems will be required. Advanced propulsion systems for lunar missions can provide significant launch mass reductions and payload increases. These mass reductions and added payload masses can be translated into significant launch cost savings for the lunar base missions. The masses in low Earth orbit (LEO) were compared for several propulsion systems: nitrogen tetroxide/monomethyl hydrazine (NTO/MMH), oxygen/methane (O2/CH4), oxygen/hydrogen (O2/H2), and metallized O2/H2/Al propellants. Also, the payload mass increases enabled with O2/H2 and O2/H2/Al systems were addressed. In addition, many system design issues involving the engine thrust levels, engine commonality between the transfer vehicle and the excursion vehicle, and the number of launches to place the lunar mission vehicles into LEO will be discussed. Analyses of small lunar missions launched from a single STS-C flight are also presented.

Description: The conceptual design of a single-stage-to-orbit (SSTO) vehicle using a wide variety of evolutionary technologies has recently been completed as a part of NASA's Advanced Manned Launch System (AMLS) study. The employment of new propulsion system technologies is critical to the design of a reasonably sized, operationally efficient SSTO vehicle. This paper presents the propulsion system requirements identified for this near-term AMLS SSTO vehicle. Sensitivities of the vehicle to changes in specific impulse and sea-level thrust-to-weight ratio are examined. The results of a variety of vehicle/propulsion system trades performed on the near-term AMLS SSTO vehicle are also presented.

Description: A majority of the liquid-fueled rocket vehicles developed in the past have been plagued by an instability known as POGO. The POGO phenomenon involves dynamics of the vehicle structure, dynamics of the propellant in the feedline, and the engine dynamic transfer function. Each of these three items must be accurately known in order to determine stability. Metallic bellows are commonly used as segments of propellant feedlines for rocket-propelled vehicles to accommodate temperature-induced length variations, manufacturing tolerances, and gimbaling of the engines. These bellows sections deform radially and change volume when internal pressure varies, and the magnitude of such deformation is much higher than that for the straight, cylindrical segments of the line. The greater flexibility of the bellows decreases the frequency of acoustic oscillations in the line. Calculating elastic stiffness is difficult due to the radial deformation of a bellows section. SHELL was developed specifically to calculate changes in volume of a bellows due to changes in internal pressure. Input to the program consists of tables describing the material, the geometry of the convolutions and loading. The output gives displacements and volume change that can be used for POGO or waterhammer analysis. SHELL is written in standard FORTRAN 77. This program was originally developed on a Univac 1100 series computer and has been successfully implemented on IBM 370 series computers running MVS and DEC VAX series computers running VMS. The main memory requirement for running SHELL under VMS is 116K. The program source code, IBM JCL for compiling and running SHELL, and sample input are provided with the program. SHELL is available on a 9-track 1600 BPI ASCII CARD IMAGE magnetic tape. This program was developed in 1989. IBM is a trademark of International Business Machines Corporation. DEC, VAX and VMS are registered trademarks of Digital Equipment Corporation. Univac 1100 is a trademark of Unisys Corporation.

Description: This report focuses primarily on Japan's programs in liquid rocket propulsion and propulsion for spaceplane and related transatmospheric areas. It refers briefly to Japan's solid rocket programs and to new supersonic air-breathing propulsion efforts. The panel observed that the Japanese had a carefully thought-out plan, a broad-based program, and an ambitious but achievable schedule for propulsion activity. Japan's overall propulsion program is behind that of the United States at the time of this study, but the Japanese are gaining rapidly. The Japanese are at the forefront in such key areas as advanced materials, enjoying a high level of project continuity and funding. Japan's space program has been evolutionary in nature, while the U.S. program has emphasized revolutionary advances. Projects have typically been smaller in Japan than in the United States, focusing on incremental advances in technology, with an excellent record of applying proven technology to new projects. This evolutionary approach, coupled with an ability to take technology off the shelf from other countries, has resulted in relatively low development costs, rapid progress, and enhanced reliability. Clearly Japan is positioned to be a world leader in space and transatmospheric propulsion technology by the year 2000.

Description: Space Station Freedom requires the transmission of high power and signals through three different rotational interfaces. Roll ring technology was baselined by NASA for rotary joints to transfer up to 65.5 kW of power for 30 years at greater than 99 percent efficiency. Signal transfer requirements included MIL-STD-1553 data transmission and 4.5 MHz RS250A base and color video. A unique design for each rotary joint was developed and tested to accomplish power and signal transfer. An overview of roll ring technology is presented, followed by design requirements, hardware configuration, and test results.

Description: Three designs were considered to satisfy the design objective. These designs were the current design, a Land Based Pressurized Feed System, and a fuel recirculation system. A computer code was developed to analyze the current feed system and assist in the analysis of the two experimental systems. After comparing the three concepts, the land Based Pressurized Feed System seemed to be the most promising new development. This design coupled with the piping configuration described in the report provides a justifiable fuel feed system which satisfies all the necessary requirements.

Description: A major component of any liquid propellant rocket is the propellant injection system. Issues of interest include the degree of liquid vaporization and its impact on the combustion process, the pressure and temperature fields in the combustion chamber, and the cooling of the injector face and chamber walls. The Finite Difference Navier-Stokes (FDNS) code is a primary computational tool used in the MSFC Computational Fluid Dynamics Branch. The branch has dedicated a significant amount of resources to development of this code for prediction of both liquid and solid fuel rocket performance. The FDNS code is currently being upgraded to include the capability to model liquid/gas multi-phase flows for fuel injection simulation. An important aspect of this effort is benchmarking the code capabilities to predict existing experimental injection data. The objective of this MSFC/ASEE Summer Faculty Fellowship term was to evaluate the capabilities of the modified FDNS code to predict flow fields with liquid injection. Comparisons were made between code predictions and existing experimental data. A significant portion of the effort included a search for appropriate validation data. Also, code simulation deficiencies were identified.