INTEGRATED CAD VENTING ANALYSIS PACKAGE

REMTECH, INC. PROPOSES TO DEVELOP A STANDARDIZED COMPUTER CODE TO ANALYZE THE VENTING OF COMPONENTS FOR WHICH PRESSURETRANSIENTS EXIST, RANGING FROM PRESSURIZED TO FREE-MOLECULARVACUUM CONDITIONS. THIS CODE WILL ELIMINATE THE NECESSITY THAT ITS USER BE A SPECIALIST IN VENTING METHODOLOGIES AND WILL USE CONVENTIONAL CAD TECHNIQUES IN ITS EXECUTION. VENTING OF PAYLOADS AND STRUCTURES ON FLIGHT VEHICLES HAS LONG BEEN A CRITICAL ISSUE FOR NASA (EVIDENCE THE APOLLO XIII ACCIDENT). PRESENTLY, EACH PAYLOAD VENDOR AND VEHICLE DESIGNER RELIES UPON HIS OWN METHODOLOGIES FOR DETERMINING VENTING REQUIREMENTS. A STANDARDIZED CODE IS NEEDED TO ASSURE ADEQUATE ATTENTION IS GIVEN TO THE VENTING REQUIREMENTS OF SPACE HARDWARE FOR SAFE DEPLOYMENT. DEVELOPMENT OF A STANDARDIZED VENTING ANALYSIS PACKAGE WILL REQUIRE THE INTEGRATION OF A VENTING CODE FOR CONTINUUMFLOW, ANOTHER FOR RAREFIED FLOW, A CAD PACKAGE TO PROVIDE A USER INTERFACE, AND A DATA BASE OF FLOW CHARACTERISTICS FOR COMPLEX VENT STRUCTURES. SUCCESSFUL COMPLETION OF THIS SBIR PROGRAM WILL PROVIDE A TOOL FOR PRE-FLIGHT CERTIFICATION OF ALL FLIGHT HARDWARE AND FOR THE DESIGN OF SPACE-BASED EXPERIMENTS AND MANUFACTURING PROCESSES. IT WILL ALSO FIND APPLICATION IN VACUUM DEPOSIT RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT, CRYSTAL GROWTH STUDIES, AND PHARMACEUTICAL PRODUCTION RESEARCH.