About this Abstract |
| Meeting |
2026 TMS Annual Meeting & Exhibition
|
| Symposium
|
Advanced Materials for Reusable Rocket Engines
|
| Presentation Title |
Approach to Oxygen Compatibility - Material Selection and Testing for Lower Cost to Orbit |
| Author(s) |
Aleksey Volodchenkov, Kelly Lynch |
| On-Site Speaker (Planned) |
Aleksey Volodchenkov |
| Abstract Scope |
Access to space has historically been limited to a handful of countries due to overwhelming costs associated with space flight. While the average cost per kg to low earth orbit has decreased substantially, this cost is still prohibitively high to enable more open access to space and ultimately interplanetary travel. Obtaining the highest performance from oxidizer systems is critical to enabling cost effective and reliable launch vehicle operation. Steel alloy selection is attractive for relatively high cost to strength ratio. Unfortunately, steel is flammable at pressures commonly used in launch vehicle oxygen systems, requiring ignition mechanism specific testing to demonstrate safe operation. Particle impact is a common ignition mechanism in flowing GOX systems utilizing stainless steel. In this study, particle impact ignition testing of 316L stainless steel targets in heated gaseous oxygen is shown. Emphasis on the influence of flow impingement angle on ignition is presented. |
| Proceedings Inclusion? |
Planned: |
| Keywords |
Environmental Effects, Other, |