Frictional ignition of metals in high pressure oxygen: A critical reassessment of NASA test data

Andres Garcia Jimenez and Prof. Zack Cordero (Aerospace Materials and Structures Lab) analyze the risk of frictional heating of metals under high-pressure oxygen environments and develop a material index for frictional ignition resistance in those environments.

Authors: Andres Garcia Jimenez, Zachary C. Cordero
Citation: AIAA SCITECH 2023 Forum

Abstract:
In this paper we analyze the risk of frictional heating of metals under high-pressure oxygen environments, which remains a critical challenge in the development of next-generation reusable rocket engines. We develop a material index for frictional ignition resistance in high-pressure oxygen environments. The previous ignition-resistance metric proposed by NASA WSTF varies strongly and unpredictably with test conditions, thus limiting its usefulness. By contrast, the material index developed here is a grouping of material properties that can be used to quantify frictional ignition resistance and predict material performance under any conditions. The material index was used to rank materials based on their intrinsic frictional ignition resistance revealing that nickel-based superalloys with low iron content are more ignition-resistant than ferrous alloys and nickel-based superalloys with high iron content. The results provide guidelines for design and selection of intrinsically ignition-resistant materials for high-pressure oxygen environments.