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NASA Technical Memorandum 101386

Technology Issues Associated With


Fueling the National Aerospace
Plane With Slush Hydrogen

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Ned P. Hannum
Lewis Research Center
Cleveland, Ohio

Prepared for the


7th Joint Intersociety Cryogenic Conference Symposium
cosponsored by the ASME, AIChE, and IIR
Houston, Texas, January 22-26, 1989
TECHNOLOGY ISSUES ASSOCIATED NITH FUELING THE NATIONAL AEROSPACE PLANE HITH SLUSH HYDROGEN

Ned P. Hannum
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Lewis Research Center
Cleveland, Ohio 44135

ABSTRACT program is addressing these enabling technology areas


with strong programs in propulsion, materials, and in
The National Aerospace Plane is a horizontal take the use of slush hydrogen.
off and landing, single stage-to-orbit vehicle using The NASP X-30 requires a high energy propellant
hydrogen as the fuel. The first flights are planned and active cooling. Hydrogen is the fuel of choice
for the mid 1990's. The success of this important because of its high energy content and because of its
national program requires advancements in virtually cooling capability. Slush hydrogen is 16 percent more
every discipline associated with both airbreathing and dense and, due to the addition of the heat of fusion,
space flight. The high heating value, cooling capac- has 1B percent more cooling capability than liquid
ity, and combustion properties make hydrogen the fuel hydrogen. This Increased cooling capability is espe-
of choice, but the low density results in a large vehi- cially important for the NASP because during some por-
cle. Both the fuel cooling capacity and density are tions of the flight the cooling requirements exceed the
increased with the use of slush hydrogen and result in propulsion requlrement for hydrogen. The net effect on
significant reductions in size of the vehicle. A the NASP of using slush rather than liquid hydrogen is
national program to advance this technology and to find to reduce the gross lift off weight of the vehicle by
engineering solutions to the many design issues is now up to 30 percent. Most costing algorithms relate cost
underway. The program uses the expertise of the cryo- to weight and, therefore, the use of slush hydrogen on
genics production and services industry, the instrumen- the NASP represents an important new technology. Slush
tation industry, universities, and government. This hydrogen has been investigated by several researchers
program will be discussed to highlight the ma_or issues including the National Bureau of Standards. The advan-
and display the progress to date. tages of using slush hydrogen in space vehicles was
recognized and was considered for the Space Shuttle in
INTRODUCTION the early 1970's, Because the technology did not exist
beyond the laboratory level it was not selected. The
There are several compelling reasons to build and current NASP program is committed to advancing slush
test the National Aerospace Plane (NASP) X-30 research hydrogen technologies and demonstrating them on the
aircraft. A horlzontal take off and landing space X-30.
launch vehlcle would have greatly reduced launch opera- The current slush hydrogen program Includes, to
tlons cost. A slngle stage-to-orbit is the most eco- varying degrees, vehicle slush system design, flow com-
nomic alternative for full reusabillty by mlnlmlzlng ponent modeling, large scale production, ground storage
the navigational and propulsion systems for return to and vehicle servicing, instrumentation, and safety cri-
the launch site systems and by eliminatlng the stage teria. Models are being developed/modlfied and pre-
integration process. And, hypersonic cruise has many dicted results will be compared with experimental
appllcatlons in civil transportation and military results. The objective is to advance the fundamental
activity. The X-30 is, therefore, a test bed for understanding and to generate design information.
demonstratlng the advanced technologies that are
requlred for the next generation of flight. NASP OPERATION/ISSUES
The key enabling technology for hypersonic cruise
and single stage-to-orbit are air breathing propulsion Production
systems for the entire flight regime of zero to Mach 25.
But, even with these propulsion systems, the vehlcle Methods. Slush hydrogen has been produced in labo-
would be too large and too heavy using today's materi- ratories by several researchers. The National Bureau
als and fuels. Hydrogen is the fuel of choice, but of Standards has reported observations about slush
its low density produces a large vehicle. The NASP
hydrogen producedin smallglassdewarsusingtwodif- process must be found. These and other issues are
ferent productionmethods.Otherresearchers havepro- shown in Table Ii
posed,andin some casesdemonstrated,
other methods.
Themethods canbecategorized as evaporation
and Ground Operations
refrigeration. Theevaporation method
mostoften used
is referredto as the freeze-thaw
method.In this Requirements, The requirements for the ground
method the tank pressure is lowered to the triple point operations segment to support the NASP are function-
and solid hydrogen forms on the surface. The pressure ally the same as for any research aircraft, but with
is allowed to increase, heat leak through the walls added emphasis on developing the technology for rapid
melts the solid near the wa11, and the solid sinks into turnaround. The use of a cryogenic propellant .in a
the liquid. AS this process is repeated the solid research airplane is also new, but there is consider-
fraction is increased up to about 30 percent before the able experience wlth rockets. The quantity/distance
solid cannot be fully covered by the liquid. If the safety requirements are assumed to be the same, but
slush is maintained, the configuration (not the size) more study is required, The use of slush hydrogen does
of the solid crystals changes with time. This process add several new problems not treated in the use of liq-
is called aging. With time (aging) the solids pack uid hydrogen in space vehicles. The low latent heat of
more densely and more freeze-thaw cycles can increase fusion means that low heat leak into the system will
the solid fraction to nearly 50 percent before the cause the solid hydrogen to melt. The result is that
solid cannot be covered by the liquid. The freeze- the storage and transfer systems must be designed to
thaw method is well understood but has not been devel- have much lower heat leak than is required for liquid
oped at large scale. The disadvantages of the hydrogen systems. Starting with equal amounts of liq-
freeze-thaw method is that it has been a batch process uid and 50 percent slush hydrogen in similar systems
to date. Also, 16 to 20 percent of the liquid hydrogen the amount of heat which would completely melt all of
is evaporated in the process and is either lost or the solid in the slush would only vaporize 6.5 percent
requires additional equipment to reliquefy. Another of the liquid hydrogen. The slush systems require sim-
evaporation method For making slush is to spray liquid ilar insulation and handling technology as liquid
into a near vacuum (less than the triple point pres- helium systems. Because low heat leaks into the slush
sure) to form solid crystals. This method requires will cause changes in the density of the fluid, the
fluidizing with liquid to make slush and has not been slush systems are susceptible to acoustic instabili-
characterized. Both of these evaporation methods have ties, These instabilities may occur in the main flow
the additional disadvantage of requiring subatmospheric lines and also in the instrumentation lines.
equipment which introduces the possibility of leaking In the process of loading liquid hydrogen into a
oxygen into the system and creating an explosive spacecraft it is necessary to top off the liquid as
mixture. heat addition causes boiloff and the venting of gase-
Slush hydrogen has also been produced by refriger- ous hydrogen. The process of loading and holding a
ation methods. The most tested method is to flow liq- slush hydrogen tank is different because heat addition
uid through a tube whose wall is cooled with either melts solid, lowers the density and causes liquid to be
cold gas or liquid helium. The solid crystals that vented. The process of loading and holding a tank with
form on the surface are scraped off by an auger. The 50 percent solid will require considerably more turn-
advantages of the auger method are that it is a contin- over of product to upgrade the slush in the tank.
uous process (without aging) and that the equipment can Studies must be conducted but it seems apparent that
be operated above atmospheric pressure. The disadvan- the degraded slush must be recirculated and reproc-
tages are that the method is not well characterized essed. The thermal dynamics must be modeled and the
and, more importantly, requires an expensive refriger- equipment to accomplish this upgrading process must be
ant. A magnetic refrigerator has also been proposed developed.
but has not been characterized except at small scale. To keep the weight of the NASP as low as possible,
The production of slush hydrogen Is seen as an the fllght insulation system will not be as low In
engineering problem that Is manageable, The most heat leak as the storage system. Therefore, the long
energy efficient method has not been determined nor ground holds that are llkely to be required for such a
have trade studies been completed comparlng the capi- complicated research aircraft will be a problem, espe-
tal cost to the operating costs. Because of transfer clally after roll out from the servicing facility. A
and storage conslderations to be discussed later, it portable upgrade system may be required to solve this
seems apparent the slush should be produced at the problem.
vehicle loading site, Therefore, the logistics of sup- Even though many precautions are taken, debris is
plying the site will be the same as with liquid hydro- present in the liquid hydrogen. In loading space vehi-
gen. Certainly the production of slush hydrogen will cles, the liquid hydrogen is filtered both as it is
be more expensive than just liquid and the capital introduced into the vehicle and again just before the
equlpment will be rather expensive, but the payoff for engines. With slush hydrogen conventional filtering
the NASP and for many other space vehicles makes this methods cannot be used. Several alternatives have been
an important technology for our nation to develop. considered. The entire storage and transfer system
could be malntalned at extreme levels of cleanliness
Issues. The issues associated with the production and the fuel filtered as a liquid before it is made
of slush hydrogen are primarily englneerlng problems. into slush. Another method would be to design the
There are some very slgnifIcant technologles that are engine pumps such that they could tolerate larger
required. In subatmospheric systems where the contami- debris. Since the slush will be melted in the pumps,
natlon of the hydrogen with oxygen is a possibility, filters could then be placed downstream of the pumps
methods for detecting the presence of oxygen and exper- and ahead of the propulsion equipment.
iments to determlne acceptable amounts of oxygen must The method of transferring slush hydrogen from
be developed. The aging process that is required to the storage tanks to the vehlcle must be studied fur-
get the solid fraction up above 50 percent adds a sig- ther but initial studies indicate that pumped transfer
nificant tlme to the production which increases the is preferred because there will be less heat addition
storage requirements and/or lengthens the turn around to the fluid from the pumping than there will be to the
time between flights. Methods to speed this aging storage tank from a warm pressurant. The National
Bureau of Standardshaspumped slushhydrogen with no Two-phase mass flow meters will be required, at least
on the research flights where redundant engine perform-
apparentproblems but muchmoreinformationis needed. ance measurements will be desirable. The most promis-
Anothertransfer issueis maintaininga critical veloc-
ity to carry the solids alongwith minimalfriction ing types
thermal
are Coriolis
meters. Other
effect
desirable
meters
flight
and constant
instrumentation
power
heatingof the fluid. This critical velocity hasbeen
determined for smalllines but scalinganddesignrules would be liquid level sensors and fiber optic means for
muststill bedetermined.Pressure dropacrossorif- making direct observations into the tank.
ices andventurishasbeenobserved to bevirtually the The hydrogen must be pumped to high pressure to be
used as a coolant and as the propellant. The energy
same aswith triple point liquid. added to the fluid in the pumping process will melt the
solids and, therefore, the hydrogen downstream of the
Issues.Themajorissuesin storageandground
operationsare the lackof designcriteria andthe lack pump will be at a lower temperature than if liquid
of modelsfor the fluid dynamic
andthermaldynamic hydrogen would have been introduced at the pump inlet.
The National Bureau of Standards has pumped slush
processes.Thefiltering andthe fluid transfermeth-
odswill also requireconsiderabletechnologydevelop- hydrogen with no observable damage to the pump but the
ment. Otherissuesare shown in TableII. head rise was small and there are only limited data.
More work is required to fully establish this technol-

Flight Operations ogy. An alternative is to screen the outflow from the


vehicle tank such that only triple point liquid enters
the pumps. In this scenario the solids would be melted
Requirements. Because slush hydrogen is in equi-
librium with vapor-solid-liquid only at the triple by the addition of heat to the tank through the insula-
tion or from the pressurant.
point of ]3.8 K and 52.8 mm Hg (1.02 psia) the pressur-
ization of the flight tank to provide net positive suc-
Issues. Pressurization is the most significant
tion.pressure for pumps or to cause outflow presents a
difficult problem. If gaseous hydrogen is provided as single issue. Trades must be made for risk, weight and
volume using both hydrogen and helium or combinations
pressurant, cooling at the ullage-slush interface would
cause the pressurant to be condensed and result in a of the two as pressurant. Recirculation is the next
most significant issue. Models for the thermal dynam-
drop in the tank pressure. This process falls to
ics, stratification, tank motion and heat transfer must
produce the desired pressure or worse, can cause the
tank to collapse structurally if it is not designed to be developed for slush hydrogen and then these models
accommodate such loads. If temperature stratification must be verified with experiments. Several new instru-
could be maintained such that the slush-ullage inter- ments are also required including density gauges to
determine the quantity of slush in the tank, flow rate
face is slightly above the triple point temperature,
ullage condensation could be prevented. Vehicle meters for performance measurements, liquid level sen-
motion, and the perceived need to continually stir the sors and fiber optic methods of observing the slush in
the tank. The technology for pumping slush hydrogen
slush, complicate this approach. An alternative is to
pressurize with a noncondensable like helium. The without damage to the pump and with predictable knowl-
problem with this approach is the added weight of the edge of the thermal condition of the fluid must be
demonstrated. The flight operations issues are shown
helium systems and the inert gas itself. Much more
in Table III.
work must be done to determine the best way to pressur-
ize slush hydrogen tanks. This is especially true for
vehicle tanks where there is such a premium on low SLUSH HYDROGEN RESEARCH PROGRAMS

weight and low volume.


In addition to the contract specific work that the
In the NASP mission profile there are times when
major airframe and propulsion contractors are doing to
the cooling requirements for hydrogen exceed the pro-
advance the technologies for the National Aerospace
pulsion requirements. If, during these times, the
extra hydrogen is routed through the propulsion system, Plane, there is a large government-sponsored program to
mature those technologies which are of a more generic
the performance of the system is degraded even though
additional thrust is produced. An alternative is to nature. This group of tasks is called the Technology
route the extra hydrogen back to the vehicle slush Maturation Program (TMP). The development of slush
tank. Although the addition of this thermal energy to hydrogen technology is one of the major TMP tasks. The
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
the vehicle tank would degrade the cooling capability
Lewis Research Center has the lead role for the slush
of the fluid, it would be adequate at other times in
hydrogen TMP task. Several organizations are currently
the mission profile when the cooling requirements were
contributing to this effort. The National Bureau of
less demanding. This process is called recirculation.
Standards in Boulder, Colorado is working on instrumen-
The technology issues associated with introducing
warmed fluid into the slush tank, with net outflow tation and physical properties. There is a contract
with the McDonnell Douglas Corporation and their sub-
while maintaining pressure will require considerable
contractors, Wyle Laboratories, Martin Marietta Denver
experimental work and some sophistlcated models.
Vehicles are usually tanked such that the propel- Aerospace and Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. to do
lant mass at lift-off is known to an accuracy of large scale experimental work in production, pressuri-
zation, transfer, and modellng. NASA Lewis is also
I/2 percent. To achieve this kind of accuracy with
the slush hydrogen, two phase quantity gauges will be doing large scale experiments in productlon, storage,
required. Several techniques have been demonstrated in pressurization, transfer, slosh and instrumentation all
the laboratory but selecting the best type to be used with particular emphasis on varying many parameters and
in the NASP vehicle tank, which wlll have many internal verifying models. The University of Michigan is work-
obstructions, will be a significant challenge. Density ing on the gellation of both hydrogen and slush hydro-
gen and the University of California Los Alamos
gauging methods that have been demonstrated in the lab-
National Laboratory is leading the safety tasks.
oratory use radiation attenuation and changes in the
dielectric constant as indications of the density. The tasks being worked by this slush hydrogen team
are discussed below.
There has been significant progress but demonstrations
in large tanks with internal obstructions are required.
Vehicle Slush System Design being addressed by the individual airframe contractors.
The NASP alrframe contractors are currently inves- Tanking, topping and upgrading tests and the deflnltlon
tigating concepts for the slush hydrogen systems and of procedures and the correlation of models will be the
will be making selections and beginning preliminary primary focus. Trade studies of various ground opera-
designs during 1989. There Is a dire need for design tions scenarios as functions of cost, turnaround time
criteria and for refilled models. Figure I shows the and risk will be conducted. In 1990-91 ground hold and
vehicle system deslgn data and activities that are insulation schemes will be tested and the results will
planned. In 1989 the physical properties of slush and be correlated with the models.
gels will be defined experimentally and there will be a
thorough assessment of instrumentation. Pressurization Instrumentation
will be demonstrated with both hydrogen and helium, The instrumentation tasks planned are shown in
critical flow velocities determined and several system Fig. 5. A survey of available instruments and of vari-
applications simulated primarily using existing hard- ous laboratory methods to measure density, and flow
ware. In 1990-91 the emphasis will be on scale rate with s]ush hydrogen was'completed in 1988. Sev-
changes, broader ranges of critical parameters and the eral different density meters will be tested in 1989-90
simulation of critical vehicle operations. These data to determine the operating characteristics and applica-
will be used to verify models. The 1992-93 time frame bility to the obstructed interior of the NASP vehicle
will be focused on the demonstration of procedures tank. Line density meters, flow meters and liquid
using large scale hardware of the contractors design level sensors are also being tested and evaluated.
and/or concept. Calibrations of these instruments wi]] be completed in
the 1989-91 period.
Flow Component Modelinq
Flow component modeling activities and planned Safety Criteria
outputs are shown in Fig. 2. Many of the necessary The safety criteria for slush hydrogen will be
models are in place and have been used successfully for based on the extensive set of criteria that exists for
triple point and for subcooled hydrogen. Some modifi- liquid hydrogen. The planned activities are shown in
cations are being made to properly model slush. These Fig. 6. Studies will be conducted to determine what
include condensation, adding the option of considering different procedures might be required with slush. It
three phases and stratification in the ullage. Thermal is anticipated that some experimental work will also be
dynamic and heat transfer models are being developed/ required to establish additional criteria. One of
modified for both tanks and lines. Slush models are these may be to determine the explosive limits of fro-
also being modified. These models will be verified zen oxygen in s]ush hydrogen.
using the data from the various laboratory scale and
large scale experiments. CONCLUDING REMARKS

Large Scale Production The challenge of flying an airplane using liquid


The large scale production activities are shown in hydrogen as the fuel, including take off and landing
Fig. 3. Because of the funding constraints in the pro- operations, has not been done. The National Aerospace
gram. the production activities are limited. Two dif- Plane will use slush hydrogen. The challenge is great
Ferent size augers are being tested. The major test but the benefit to both the NASP and to other space
facilities are being supported by freeze-thaw produc- vehicles makes this both an interesting and necessary
tion systems but the emphasis is not on studying this technology for our nation to acquire. No real road-
production method. Safety issues are being studied and blocks have been identified to date by the national
there is a contract effort to conduct trade studies on team working on the problem. There are many engineer-
production methods. ing problems but they all seem to have solutions that
do not require major technical breakthroughs. If
Ground Storage and Vehicle Servicinq these engineering problems can be solved in the next
The ground storage and vehicle servicing technolo- few years slush hydrogen will be the fuel of choice
gies are being addressed by the slush hydrogen team as for the National Aerospace Plane and for many other
shown in Fig. 4. Other more design specific issues are applications into the next century.

TABLE II. - SLUSH HYDROGENGROUND

OPERATIONS ISSUES

• Ground hold
TABLE I. - SLUSH HYDROGEN PRODUCTION ISSUES • Nith flight weight insulation
• Need for umbilicals
• Selection of slush production method
Energy efficiency • Transfer method
Capital investment
• Safety • Upgrading

• Accelerating the aging process • Acoustic instability

• Oxygen contamination limits/detection • Critical velocity

• Design criteria/models

• Filtering

• Safety procedures
TABLE III. - SLUSH HYDROGEN FLIGHT

OPERATIONS ISSUES

• Pressurization methods/models

• Rec]rculation

• Thermal dynamic/heat transfer models

• Instrumentation
• Quantity (density) gauge
• Flow meter
liquid level sensor

• Pumps

• Screens

ICY-88 cv-8 ICY-9,ICY-9"ICY-- I cY-.J


FY-. FY..,_v-9o FY.91FY..,FT..
TECHNOLOGY SELECTION PHASE ili AWARD I _ OUT

PROGRAM MILESTONES
I I ',
liftS. STS. DSO. CRIT. I GEL TESTING LO. TANK LRG.•CALE CRYO EVAL
RATE.RESPNS..SLOSH
LeRC RECIRC,CONTAM,C.VEL. I--'----] _ _OF TECHNIOEB,INSTRUM.
_COMPI_lrl. AND FOR

INBTRMT. I ASSM'T I AVAILABLE


FACILITY FOROOV'T CNTRCTR-•PECIFIC WORK

NBS BOULDER ENOR. CALBRTH [_ ._ >EVALUATION OF

GEL TE•TING TECHNIDUE•,IN•TRUM,,

I COMPONENT8
CONTRACTOR OR
TESTING

MDAC WYLE ' MMAG _ _ MMAO TASK II

LAB, SCALE _ _ POINT TE•TING OF

SIMULATED APPLo TESTING

LOS ALAMOS

GELLATION

UNIV. OF MICHIGAN I ICAB


_AC_EXPt
LIT, EVAL.

OTHERS

Figure I. Programs in Vehicle Slush System Design

ICY-- I c,-s_ I cY-_cI cy-91I cY-921cv.._J


I "'" I "" "'" ""' I Fv'" ' _v""
TEC.NOLOG,
._.OH ,.A... AWARD NO''_
PROGRAM MILESTONES
'HCO"PONATIOH
V--_------_
oF PROPERTIES
=e.e_u _ LARGE SCALE VAUDATION DATA BECOMES AVAIL (K4ITE|

X;_I;;S_ME_ Jt . _f . . _¢_...---ADDiTIONAL DATA FROM K._MTE

LeRC COLLECTION _L, I I


I "_ ] " o, ..LICATIO.

FLOW UNE (INTERMED,) t Ik _ _REFiNEMENT AND UPDATING

NBS BOULDER I_JmPAcomPOHENT DROPS ,|| OF •UBROUTIHE•

//
ENGINEERING APPL DATA | |

MDAC (LAB • "ALL SCALE) j


EXPLORATION OF PROD'C'PH VARIABLE•

LIMITED PUMP • HOLD DATA,

LIMITED EXPULSION DATA,

LOS ALAMOS LIMITED PUMP DATA

UNIV. OF MICHIGAN

OTHERS

Figure 2. Programs in Flow Component Modeling


ICY-- Joy-. Icy-. ICY-9 ICY-- I cY-,__J
I FY'"IFY'OOIFY'_)OJFY'91 FY-*2I FY-S3
_Y 8ELECTiON PHASE m AWARO llOt.L OUT

_RO_RA.
M,LESTONEBI _
FABRICATION

LeRC

NBS BOULDER _o_::__

AP,TASK IV
wvLt, uunu ,.TnU._-)_ I----]._r_

LOS ALAMOS MMAG,UMITEO 'CAL' i_/

|AFETY 8TNGY

UNIV. OF MICHIGAN

OTHERS

Figure 3. Programs in Large Scale Production

I cy-eo J cy.oo Icy-so i cY-s: ICY-*= I cY....J


I FY-88 J FY-89 I FY-90 I FY-91 FY-92 I FY"S i

PROGRAM MILESTONES
r
TANKING TEBTB,TOPMNG I GROUNO HOLD INOUI. RCNEME8
LoRC

NBS BOULDER

MDAC

oNo.o._oTNG,
'1 AP,T_ IV._| ILCALE

PRO0, FACILITY r
LOS ALAMOS
I

SAFETY STUDY
!

UNIV. OF MICHIGAN

OTHERS

Figure 4. Programs in Ground Storage and Vehicle Servicing


I
ICY-8,ICY--
FY-88 FY-89
I cY-RCcY.9,
I FY-90 FY-91
cY-. IFY-93
FY-92
cY.9:_

_ROORAM
M,LE_ONES V'--V _
I TECHrOGy RELECT_N PHASe I AWARD Ra_
_ICAL TECHWQUER, K-_TE CONT'D
Tm_ELe_ F_M_ER EVALUAT_N K.mTE CONrD

LeRC I I II l _ evALuAT,O.
,..TR.E.T
RUR.T.._'T
.e_ORT
AYA.-I
NRC TANK DEN_TOM.
NBS BOULDER 1 I J'm© UNe O(.SrTOIL

WYLE.MMAG
MDAC m.mPRAc'.o.
-,,_ _ I---7 ..AR STF
ENTHALPY M_ER I I I I CONrO EVAL
MITIGATE TAO'R

LOS ALAMOS

UNIV. OF MICHIGAN

OTHERS

Figure 5. Programs in Instrumentation

cv-aa I cY.a9 I cY-9O cy.91 I cy-g2 I cv-s3J


FY'88 FY-89 I FV-'O I FV-,, F,-,2 I FV-Oa
TECHNOLOGY 8ELECTION pHASE Ifl AWARD ROLL OUT

F'ROGR...,LESTONES_ _
I
LeRC \ (u,,_u,oeue_r oe 'me eeeoe'n

NBS BOULDER
\ MMAOoTARKIII,GRD.OPe,

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MDAC "--'-'--% \ \ ! ] AP.TARK|V.LO.RCAte.PROO.
% _ LiTERATURe /& I '¶ LF_ FACILITY

\\
_ T_N OF REP_IT
-- _ _ CO_ULTA_ON
TOPICAL MEEUNG8 (A_D. eY RE_
UNIV. OF MICHIGAN mVITATiON) UPDATING
A) PRODUCTION SCOMMeR_AL RECOMMeNDA_ONS

R) VE_CLE
TRANSFER GROUND flANDUNG
OTHERS c) AIRFRAME SUBSYSTEMS
SAFETY

Figure 6. Programs in Safety Criteria


National Aeronautics and Report Documentation Page
Space Administ ration

1. Report No. 2. Government Accession No. 3. Recipient's Catalog No.


NASA TM-101386

4. Title and Subtitle


5. Report Date

Technology Issues Associated With Fueling the National


Aerospace Plane With Slush Hydrogen
6. Performing Organization Code

7. Author(s)
8. Performing Organization Report No.
Ned P. Hannum E-4445

10. Work Unit No.

763-01-21
9. Performing Organization Name and Address
11. Contract or Grant No.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Lewis Research Center
Cleveland, Ohio 44135-3191
13. Type of Report and Period Covered

12, Sponsoring Agency Name and Address Technical Memorandum

National Aeronautics and Space Administration


14. Sponsoring Agency Code
Washington, D.C. 20546-0001

15. Supplementary Notes

Prepared for the 7th Joint Intersociety Cryogenic Conference Symposium cosponsored by the ASME, AIChE,
and IIR, Houston, Texas, January 22-26, 1989.

16. Abstract

The National Aerospace Plane is a horizontal take off and landing, single stage-to-orbit vehicle using hydrogen as
the fuel. The first flights are planned for the mid 1990's. The success of this important national program requires
advancements in virtually every discipline associated with both airbreathing and space flight. The high heating
value, cooling capacity, and combustion properties make hydrogen the fuel of choice, but the low density results
in a large vehicle. Both the fuel cooling capacity and density are increased with the use of slush hydrogen and
result in significant reductions in size of the vehicle. A national program to advance this technology and to find
engineering solutions to the many design issues is now underway. The program uses the expertise of the
cryogenics production and services industry, the instrumentation industry, universities, and government. This
program will be discussed to highlight the major issues and display the progress to date.

17. Key Words (Suggested by Author(s)) 18. Distribution Statement


Slush hydrogen Unclassified- Unlimited

Subject Category 20

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