Author : National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
Publisher : Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN 13 : 9781721823536
Total Pages : 32 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (235 download)
Book Synopsis Stirling Convertor Fasteners Reliability Quantification by : National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
Download or read book Stirling Convertor Fasteners Reliability Quantification written by National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2018-06-24 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Onboard Radioisotope Power Systems (RPS) being developed for NASA s deep-space science and exploration missions require reliable operation for up to 14 years and beyond. Stirling power conversion is a candidate for use in an RPS because it offers a multifold increase in the conversion efficiency of heat to electric power and reduced inventory of radioactive material. Structural fasteners are responsible to maintain structural integrity of the Stirling power convertor, which is critical to ensure reliable performance during the entire mission. Design of fasteners involve variables related to the fabrication, manufacturing, behavior of fasteners and joining parts material, structural geometry of the joining components, size and spacing of fasteners, mission loads, boundary conditions, etc. These variables have inherent uncertainties, which need to be accounted for in the reliability assessment. This paper describes these uncertainties along with a methodology to quantify the reliability, and provides results of the analysis in terms of quantified reliability and sensitivity of Stirling power conversion reliability to the design variables. Quantification of the reliability includes both structural and functional aspects of the joining components. Based on the results, the paper also describes guidelines to improve the reliability and verification testing. Shah, Ashwin R. and Korovaichuk, Igor and Kovacevich, Tiodor and Schreiber, Jeffrey G. Glenn Research Center NASA/TM-2006-213992, AIAA Paper 2005-5507, E-15316