Qualification Approach for the CMC Nose Cap of X-38

Details Qualification Approach for the CMC Nose Cap of X-38 Qualification Approach for the CMC Nose Cap of X-38

Jan 2002

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2002iaf..confe.455w&link_type=abstract

IAF abstracts, 34th COSPAR Scientific Assembly, The Second World Space Congress, held 10-19 October, 2002 in Houston, TX, USA.,

Computer Science

Scientific paper

In October 2001 the flight hardware of the TPS nose assembly of X-38 has been installed at the main structure of the X-38 V201 vehicle at NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston Texas. X-38 is a test vehicle for the planned Crew Return Vehicle CRV for the International Space Station ISS. Currently the flight of the X-38 is scheduled for 2005. Besides the Body flaps (MAN-T) and the nose skirt system (ASTRIUM, MAN-T) the nose cap system is one of the essential hot structure components that were developed within Germany's national TETRA (Technologies for future space transportation systems) programme. The integration of the hardware was an important milestone for the nose cap development which started approx. 5 years ago. DLR-Stuttgart is responsible for the design and manufacturing of the CMC based nose cap system, which has to withstand the extreme thermal loads during re-entry which will induce a maximum temperature up to 1750 °C on the surface of the cap. Thus, the shell of the cap system is designed and manufactured using DLR's C/C-SiC material which is a special kind of carbon based ceramic matrix composite (CMC) material produced via the in house liquid silicon infiltration process of DLR. This material has demonstrated its good temperature resistance during FOTON and EXPRESS re-entry capsule missions. Besides the design and manufacturing of the nose cap system, the qualification approach was an important effort of the development work. Missing a test facility which is able to simulate all loading conditions from lift off to re-entry and landing, is was necessary to separate the loads and to use different test facilities. Considering the limitations of the facilities, the budget and time constraints, an optimized test philosophy has been established. The goal was to use a full scale qualification unit including all TPS components of the nose area for most of the tests. These were the simulation of ascent loads given by the shuttle requirements and descent loads given by the predicted re-entry loads. Discrete tests on smaller samples representing cut outs of the structure were performed for further qualification which could not be done at the complete assembly due to the limitations of the test facilities (e.g. plasma channel test). In addition to the qualification of the material or coating capability, arc jet tests were performed to check the steps and gaps influence and qualify sealing function at the interfaces between the CMC parts. This paper will give an overview of the thermal and mechanical qualification of the nose cap system. This includes the vibration loads, thermal cycling, mechanical pressure and steps and gaps arc jet tests.

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