Long Life Testing of Oxide-Coated Iridium/Rhenium Rockets

TITLE AND SUBTITLE:
Long Life Testing of Oxide-Coated Iridium/Rhenium Rockets

AUTHOR(S):
Brian D. Reed

REPORT DATE:
September 1995

FUNDING NUMBERS:
WU-232-02-03

PERFORMING ORGANIZATION NAME(S) AND ADDRESS(ES):
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Lewis Research Center
Cleveland, Ohio 44135-3191

PERFORMING ORGANIZATION REPORT NUMBER:
E-9902

SPONSORING/MONITORING AGENCY NAME(S) AND ADDRESS(ES):
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Washington, D.C. 20546-0001

REPORT TYPE AND DATES COVERED:
Technical Memorandum

SPONSORING/MONITORING AGENCY REPORT NUMBER:
NASA TM-107054

SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES:
Prepared for the 31st Joint Propulsion Conference and Exhibit cosponsored by AIAA, ASME, SAE, and ASEE, San Diego, California, July 10-12, 1995. Responsible person, Brian D. Reed, organization code 5330, (216) 977-7489.

ABSTRACT:
22-N class rockets, composed of a rhenium (Re) substrate, an iridium (Ir) coating, and an additional composite coating consisting of Ir and a ceramic oxide, were tested on gaseous oxygen/gaseous hydrogen (GO2/GH2) propellants. Two rockets were tested, one for nearly 39 hours at a nominal mixture ratio (MR) of 4.6 and chamber pressure (Pc) of 469 kPa, and the other for over 13 hours at a nominal MR of 5.8 and 621 kPa Pc. Four additional Ir/Re rockets, with a composite Ir-oxide coating fabricated using a modified process, were also tested, including one for 1.3 hours at a nominal MR of 16.7 and Pc of 503 kPa. The long lifetimes demonstrated on low MR GO2/GH2 suggest greatly extended chamber lifetimes (tens of hours) in the relatively low oxidizing combustion environments of Earth storable propellants. The oxide coatings could also serve as a protective coating in the near injector region, where a still-mixing flowfield may cause degradation of the Ir layer. Operation at MR close to 17 suggests that oxide-coated Ir/ Re rockets could be used in severely oxidizing combustion environments, such as high MR GO2/GH2, oxygen/hydrocarbon, and liquid gun propellants.

SUBJECT TERMS:
Rhenium; Iridium; Ceramic oxides; Radiation-cooled rockets

NUMBER OF PAGES:
16

PDF NOT AVAILABLE VIA WEB:
Reports not available in PDF can be purchased from the Center for AeroSpace Information at:
http://www.sti.nasa.gov select Order Information

This page contains an Adobe® Acrobat® Reader PDF file. The PDF documents have been created to show thumbnails of each page. If the thumbnails do not display properly, download the file to the hard drive and view through Acrobat® Reader. You can download Acrobat® Reader for free.

A service of the NASA Glenn Research Center Logistics and Technical Information Division

Suggestions or questions about this site can be directed to:

NASA official: Technical Publications Manager, Sue.E.Butts@nasa.gov

Web curator: Caroline.A.Rist@grc.nasa.gov

Privacy Policy and Important Notices