Square lattice honeycomb tri-carbide fuels for 50 to 250 KN variable thrust NTP design

Details Square lattice honeycomb tri-carbide fuels for 50 to 250 KN variable thrust NTP design Square lattice honeycomb tri-carbide fuels for 50 to 250 KN variable thrust NTP design

Feb 2001

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2001aipc..552..828a&link_type=abstract

Space Technology and Applications International Forum - 2001. AIP Conference Proceedings, Volume 552, pp. 828-836 (2001).

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Ultrahigh temperature solid solution of tri-carbide fuels are used to design an ultracompact nuclear thermal rocket generating 950 seconds of specific impulse with scalable thrust level in range of 50 to 250 kilo Newtons. Solid solutions of tri-carbide nuclear fuels such as uranium-zirconium-niobium carbide. UZrNbC, are processed to contain certain mixing ratio between uranium carbide and two stabilizing carbides. Zirconium or niobium in the tri-carbide could be replaced by tantalum or hafnium to provide higher chemical stability in hot hydrogen environment or to provide different nuclear design characteristics. Recent studies have demonstrated the chemical compatibility of tri-carbide fuels with hydrogen propellant for a few to tens of hours of operation at temperatures ranging from 2800 K to 3300 K, respectively. Fuel elements are fabricated from thin tri-carbide wafers that are grooved and locked into a square-lattice honeycomb (SLHC) shape. The hockey puck shaped SLHC fuel elements are stacked up in a grooved graphite tube to form a SLHC fuel assembly. A total of 18 fuel assemblies are arranged circumferentially to form two concentric rings of fuel assemblies with zirconium hydride filling the space between assemblies. For 50 to 250 kilo Newtons thrust operations, the reactor diameter and length including reflectors are 57 cm and 60 cm, respectively. Results of the nuclear design and thermal fluid analyses of the SLHC nuclear thermal propulsion system are presented. .

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