Modeling and Diagnostic Software for Liquefying-Fuel Rockets

Wednesday, June 01 2005 A report presents a study of five modeling and diagnostic computer programs considered for use in an integrated vehicle health management (IVHM) system during testing of liquefying-fuel hybrid rocket engines in the Hybrid Combustion Facility (HCF) at NASA Ames Research Center. Three of the programs — TEAMS, L2, and RODON — are model-based reasoning (or diagnostic) programs. The other two programs — ICS and IMS — do not attempt to isolate the causes of failures but can be used for detecting faults. In the study, qualitative models (in TEAMS and L2) and quantitative models (in RODON) having varying scope and completeness were created. Each of the models captured the structure and behavior of the HCF as a physical system. It was noted that in the cases of the qualitative models, the temporal aspects of the behavior of the HCF and the abstraction of sensor data are handled outside of the models, and it is necessary to develop additional code for this purpose. A need for additional code was also noted in the case of the quantitative model, though the amount of development effort needed was found to be less than that for the qualitative models.

This work was done by Scott Poll, David Iverson, Jeremy Ou, Dwight Sanderfer, and Ann Patterson-Hine of Ames Research Center. For further information, access the Technical Support Package (TSP) free online at www.techbriefs.com/tsp under the Software category.

Inquiries concerning rights for the commercial use of this invention should be addressed to the Innovative Partnerships Division, Ames Research Center, (650) 604-2954.
Refer to ARC-15341-1.