The development of power specific redlines for SSME safety monitoringOver the past several years, there has been an increased awareness in the necessity for rocket engine health monitoring because of the cost and complexity of present and future systems. A current rocket engine system, the Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME), combines a limited redline system with closed-loop control of the engine's thrust level and mixture ratio. Despite these features, 27 tests of the SSME have resulted in major incidents. An SSME transient model was used to examine the effect of variations in high pressure turbopump performance on various engine parameters. Based on analysis of the responses, several new parameters are proposed for further investigation as power-level specific redlines.
Document ID
19890065934
Acquisition Source
Legacy CDMS
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Maul, William A. (NASA Lewis Research Center Cleveland, OH, United States)
Bosch, Claudia M. (NASA Lewis Research Center; Sverdrup Technology, Inc. Cleveland, OH, United States)