This poster summarizes potential test opportunities in Ames' EAST facility that would benefit studies of meteor and asteroid entry into Earth's atmosphere. The Electric Arc Shock Tube (EAST) facility produces high speed (up to Mach 50) shockwaves at prescribed velocities, densities and atmospheric compositions

Bogdanoff, D. B.

Cruden, B. A.

NASA Technical Reports Server

I’m not going to this 
asteroid without seeing the 
EAST validation data
End of Test
Shock Front
Preshock Region
Post-Shock 
(Radiative Cooling)
Di
re
ct
io
n 
of
 S
ho
ck
 T
ra
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l
Meteor Entry Characterization in the Electric Arc Shock Tube
B. A. Cruden, D.B. Bogdanoff
ERC, Incorporated at NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA 94035, USA
1st International Workshop on PHA Characterization, Atmospheric Entry and Risk Assessment
7 – 9 July 2015, NASA Ames Research Center, California 
The Electric Arc Shock Tube (EAST) facility produces high speed (up to Mach 50) shockwaves at prescribed velocities, densities and atmospheric compositions. 
I’m Batman
The EAST has been used to validate radiative heating predictions for 
numerous planetary entries.  For MPCV, uncertainty was reduced from 
200 to 32% using EAST as a Validation Source
An Asteroid entering Earth 
presents more extreme 
conditions than are 
typically studied in EAST
However, the Historical 
Operation Envelope does 
include tests that would be 
representative of 
Chelyabinsk’s entry 
trajectory
Testing at conditions 
between those employed 
in recent tests and those 
required for meteor entry 
can validate physical 
mechanisms at higher 
enthalpy which are 
otherwise unvalidated
Proposed Material-Shock Interaction Configuration
A planned facility modification in FY16 is intended to 
enable testing material response under short 
duration, high pressure/temperature reflected shocks
Estimated Characteristics : 10 MPa, 25,000K 
Driver
Main 
Diaphragm
Blank-off
Cables 
To Cap 
Bank
Driven tube
Test section
Material 
under Test
Beyond EAST:
The Voitenko Compressor (ca. 1970) produced up to 67 km/s 
shock waves.  The tube was destroyed and rebuilt with each 
test
0.01
0.1
1
10
100
1 10 100
Pr
es
su
re
 (T
or
r)
Shock Velocity (km/s)
10 cm Tube 
Air, N2, CO2, etc.
Historical Envelope
10 cm Tube
H2, He
60 cm, Air
Under Development
Break-up Events
Recent 
Testing
C
he
ly
ab
in
sk
Peak Heating
* Adding Xe to the shock can increase the shock temperature without requiring higher velocities
EAST Operatio  Envelope
CONCLUSION
The EAST Facility presents multiple opportunities for simulating meteor entries in a 
laboratory (ground test) environment and improving/validating predictive models
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The present work was supported by Entry Systems Modeling program of NASA’s Space 
Technology Mission Directorate and NASA contract NNA10DE12C to ERC, Inc.
Further Information:
Brett.A.Cruden@nasa.gov
https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20190027601 2019-09-26T20:03:03+00:00Z


Meteor Entry Characterization in the Electric Arc Shock Tube

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