Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
- Publication
Articles 1 - 2 of 2
Full-Text Articles in Entire DC Network
Nuclear Thermal Rocket Engine Control Autonomy Via Embedded Decision, David Sikorski
Nuclear Thermal Rocket Engine Control Autonomy Via Embedded Decision, David Sikorski
Doctoral Dissertations
This doctoral dissertation presents an investigation of embedded decision capabilities as a means for developing nuclear reactor autonomous control. Nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP) is identified as a high priority technology for development, and is the focus of this research. First, a background investigation is presented on the state of the art in nuclear thermal rocket (NTR) engine control and modeling practices, resulting in the development of a low order NTR engine dynamic model based on the literature. The engine model was used to perform the following investigation, and is intended to serve as a research platform for the future development …
Computational Investigations Of Characteristic Performance Improvements For Subkilogram Laser Micropropulsion, Richard Joel Thompson
Computational Investigations Of Characteristic Performance Improvements For Subkilogram Laser Micropropulsion, Richard Joel Thompson
Masters Theses
Experimental investigations have evaluated the feasibility of using laser-driven plasma microthrusters for small-thrust, high-specific-impulse space maneuvers, particularly for micro- and nanosatellite missions. Recent work made use of the Mach2 hydromagnetics code for the construction of an adequate computational model of the micro-thruster opera- tion. This thesis expounds on this previous work by extending the computational modeling capabilities, allowing for the determination of plasma plume properties and characteristic performance assessment of the microthruster; this allows for further computational investi- gation of the performance improvements achieved by new design considerations. Two par- ticular design changes are implemented and measured: (i) the simulation …