Tripropellant engine study

The potential for converting the space shuttle main engine (SSME) to a dual-fuel, dual-mode engine using LOX/hydrocarbon propellants in mode 1 and LOX/H2 in mode 2 was examined. Various engine system concepts were formulated that included staged combustion and gas generator turbine power cycles, and LOX/RP-1, LOX/CH4, and LOX/C3H8 mode 1 propellants. Both oxidizer and fuel regenerative cooling were considered. All of the SSME major components were examined to determine their adaptability to the candidate dual-fuel engines

High-pressure LOX/CH4 injector program

Two injector types, either coaxial or impinging elements, for high pressure LOX/CH4 operation with an existing 40K chamber are examined. A comparison is presented. The detailed fabrication drawings and supporting analysis are presented

Mode-matching without root-finding: Application to a dissipative silencer

This article presents an analytic mode-matching approach suitable for modelling the propagation of sound in a two-dimensional, three-part, ducting system. The approach avoids the need to the find roots of the characteristic equation for the middle section of the duct (the component) and is readily applicable to a broad class of problems. It is demonstrated that the system of equations, derived via analytic mode-matching, exhibits certain features which ensure that they can be re-cast into a form that is independent of the roots of the characteristic equation for the component. The precise details of the component are irrelevant to the procedure; it is required only that there exists an orthogonality relation, or similar, for the eigenmodes corresponding to the propagating wave-forms in this region. The method is applied here to a simple problem involving acoustic transmission through a dissipative silencer of the type commonly found in heating ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) ducts. With reference to this example, the silencer transmission loss is computed, and the power balance for the silencer is investigated and is shown to be an identity that is necessarily satisfied by the system of equations, regardless of the level of truncation

Surface Analysis of OFE-Copper X-Band Accelerating Structures and Possible Correlation to RF Breakdown Events

X-band accelerator structures meeting the Next Linear Collider (NLC) design requirements have been found to suffer vacuum surface damage caused by radio frequency (RF) breakdown, when processed to high electric-field gradients. Improved understanding of these breakdown events is desirable for the development of structure designs, fabrication procedures, and processing techniques that minimize structure damage. RF reflected wave analysis and acoustic sensor pickup have provided breakdowns localization in RF structures. Particle contaminations found following clean autopsy of four RF-processed travelling wave structures, have been catalogued and analyzed. Their influence on RF breakdown, as well as that of several other material-based properties, will be discussed.Comment: 21 pages, 8 figures, 4 tables, Submitted to JVST A as a proceeding of the 50th AVS conference (Baltimore, MD, 2-7 Nov 2003

Electron Conditioning of Technical Aluminium Surfaces: Effect on the Secondary Electron Yield

The effect of electron conditioning on commercially aluminium alloys 1100 and 6063 were investigated. Contrary to the assumption that electron conditioning, if performed long enough, can reduce and stabilize the SEY to low values ($\leq 1.3$, value of many pure elements), the SEY of aluminium did not go lower than 1.8. In fact, it reincreases with continued electron exposure dose.Comment: 36 pages, 25 figures, submitted to JVST