EVALUATION OF TWENTY FIRST CENTURY PROPULSION CONCEPTS USING A MICRO-PROCESSOR BASED SYSTEM SIMULATOR

A NUMBER OF CONCEPTS HAVE BEEN PROPOSED FOR NUCLEAR POWERED PROPULSION SYSTEMS. THE EVALUATION OF CONCEPTS AND SELECTION OF CONCEPTS FOR FURTHER CONSIDERATIONS WILL UNDOUBTEDLY BE OF GREAT IMPORTANCE. A MEANS OF DEVELOPING, SIMULATING AND EVALUATING THESE CONCEPTS IS PROPOSED HERE. GREAT EMPHASIS HAS BEEN PLACED ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF MEANS FOR THE EVALUATION OF CONCEPTS IN DETAIL AT REASONABLE COSTS WITHIN A RESONABLE TIME. IN ORDER TO DESCRIBE THE BEHAVIOR OF SPECIFIC PROPULSION SYSTEMS UNDER A VARIETY OF TRANSIENT CONDITIONS, A SIMULATION MUST BE DEVELOPED. WITH THE ADVENT OF MINI OR MICRO-COMPUTERS, AN APPROACH TO MODEL THE PHYSICAL PROCESSES IN EACH COMPONENT IN SIGNIFICANT DETAIL IS TO BE INVESTIGATED. COMPUTATIONS ARE THEN DONE IN A PARALLEL MODE, AND DETAILED SIMULATION CAN BE APPROACHED ECONOMICALLY AND EFFICIENTLY.