@inproceedings{b49029fe42354624a73afa93133a57c5,
title = "Fabrication and testing of a frozen pebble bed tungsten fuel element utilizing spark plasma sintering and the nuclear thermal rocket element environmental simulator",
abstract = "Non-nuclear analogs to frozen pebble bed type fuel elements for a nuclear thermal rocket composed of spherical tungsten pebbles were fabricated using a spark plasma sintering(SPS) furnace at Idaho National Laboratory(INL) and subsequently tested in the Nuclear Thermal Rocket Element and Environment Simulator (NTREES) at Marshall Space Flight Center. Preliminary fabrication results indicate favorable necking between the pebbles was achieved for two samples of 2.94 mm diameter pebbles encased within an alumina tube and held at 400 A for 5 and 10 minutes, respectively. Several more samples were fabricated under similar conditions and analyzed by a scanning electron microscope (SEM) to determine sinter joint composition. The samples were then inserted into a refractory tube to construct a 25 cm long simulated fuel element which was emplaced within NTREES to characterize the heat transfer of a hydrogen flow and to provide benchmark data for the PRONGHORN multiphysics software developed by the INL Multiphysics Methods group.",
author = "Gross, \{Brian J.\}",
year = "2009",
language = "English",
isbn = "9781615673506",
series = "American Nuclear Society - 3rd Topical Meeting on Nuclear and Emerging Technologies for Space 2009, NETS 2009",
pages = "86--90",
booktitle = "American Nuclear Society - 3rd Topical Meeting on Nuclear and Emerging Technologies for Space 2009, NETS 2009",
note = "3rd Topical Meeting on Nuclear and Emerging Technologies for Space 2009, NETS 2009 ; Conference date: 14-06-2009 Through 19-06-2009",
}