Design Support and Analysis Tool for Pyrotechnically Actuated Valves

Pyrotechnically actuated valves are triggered on or off by firing an explosive charge that rapidly releases large amounts of high-pressure, gas. Pyrovalves are generally used for critical safety functions in almost all liquid and solid rocket systems and are designed to be fail-proof and provide extremely reliable actuation. However due to the lack of mature analysis tools, current design practices and safety analysis are heavily based on empiricism and are testing driven. The innovation proposed here is a comprehensive design and analysis tool that can characterize the transient performance of pyrotechnic actuators and provide a virtual test bed to assess performance and functional margin of these systems. The objective under this effort would be to develop a comprehensive three-dimensional transient tool that would simulate the gas dynamic interactions with combustion, and model thermal effects in the valve material. For more complex initiator designs where multiple initiators may be fired, the tool could be used to identify "skew" effects resulting from the offset between the initiator firings. Since pyrovalves are ubiquitous and necessary for any rocket system, the tools and technology developed here would be useful to a broad variety of programs of core interest to NASA including the constellation program.

The commercial market for our product is large and includes the broad aerospace and defense industry as well as safety and fire-suppression devices in the general industry including the nuclear, chemical processing and oil sectors. Pyrotechnic actuators are extensively used in products such as fire suppression systems (for deployment and dispersion of suppressants), electric disconnects in safety systems (for high speed termination of electrical circuits), air-bags and safety restraint systems (as a rapid gas generator), cable cutters and explosive bolts among numerous other applications. For these applications, characterizing the transient performance of the system is vital and the availability of a well-validated, reliable computational tool can play a key role in the design process for these critical elements. In addition to these traditional markets, commercial space ventures ranging from space transportation systems (COTS) for the international space station (ISS), to low-cost satellite launch systems would be receptive to this product.

The end-product will be a high-fidelity, numerical simulation software (CRUNCH CFDREG code) that would predict the transient performance of pyrotechnic actuators, provide design support by supplementing current empirical rules, and diagnose system anomalies. Since pyrovalves are critical component of any space mission, our product addresses core needs of NASA missions including the Constellation program, the Mars science laboratory, as well as the new heavy lift rocket that may be designed. Pyrovalves are typically used for critical safety functions including emergency deployment of landing gears, chute deployment, and fuel flow control for thrusters. Consequently, pyrovalves have to be fail-proof and need to provide extremely reliable actuation with 99% reliability and 90% confidence interval level. However design and safety analyses have been largely testing driven and heavily based on empiricism since analysis and design tools are not mature. Our product addresses this critical need and would provide a reliable and well-validated tool.

This is early/mid-stage (TRL 3) — the most realistic path in is NASA SBIR/STTR, which funds small businesses and research institutions to develop technology aligned with NASA's needs (equity-free, phased funding). Check whether a current SBIR/STTR solicitation topic overlaps with this project's technology area, or contact the project directly (above) to ask.

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