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Abstract

A regeneratively cooled combustion chamber of a cryogenic liquid rocket engine is exposed to a large temperature difference between a combustion gas and a liquid hydrogen coolant. The large temperature difference induces large thermal stress in the chamber wall, and the strain is accumulated throughout the cyclic firing tests. Evaluation of the stress and the strain distribution in a chamber wall is essential for chamber life prediction because the chamber life is related to such stress and strain. A feasibility study on a neutron diffraction method for evaluation of residual strain distribution in a chamber wall was conducted. A method of positioning cooling channels inside a combustion chamber was established. The measurement time was adjusted to improve the fluctuation of the diffraction data. The measured data were compared with the numerical data by finite element analysis.

Keywords

non-destructive evaluation residual strain neutron diffraction method combustion chamber

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Feasibility study on a neutron diffraction method for non-destructive evaluation of residual strain distribution of a combustion chamber

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