Accurately Validated High-Speed Wear Prediction Code

The Holloman High Speed Test Track (HSTT) requires the ability to accurately predict the amount of wear occurring on rocket sled slippers during testing. The sliding interface speeds and pressures experienced by slipper materials on the HSTT rail far exceeds any phenomena studied and documented to date. During the Phase I effort, a math model was developed to predict slipper wear using the free body loads and slipper reaction forces generated from commonly used HSTT test planning, design and analysis methods. The proposed Phase II effort includes designing and fabricating a wear testing machine to simulate steady state wear conditions as well as dynamic loading scenarios. This will enable the researchers to better understand the physics and thermal phenomena involved in such high speed, high pressure loading environments. The data from the tests will be used to refine the math model developed in Phase I and compiled into a software tool to provide accurate wear prediction.