The Space Shuttle is a conventional aluminum aircraft covered with a permanent thermal insulation in the form of over 30,000 individual 6 x 6 tiles made from a loose compaction of silica fibers. In order to insure the thermal survival of this structure, each tile must be nondestructively tested for its inherent strength as well as for the quality of its attachment to the structure. To accomplish this, special transducers and measurement procedures have been developed. A five element elastic modulus tensor describes the angular dependence of the velocity of sound of the finished tile. It has also been found that the value of the minimum velocity of sound can be used as a measure of the tensile strength of the tile.
Ultrasonic characterization of the thermal protection tiles for the space shuttle
Ultraschall-Charakterisierung der Platten fuer das Waermeschutzschild der Raumfaehre
Ultrasonics Symposium (IEEE) ; 894-897
1980
4 Seiten, 5 Bilder, 5 Quellen
Aufsatz (Konferenz)
Englisch
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