Volume 4, Number 3 July/August 1996
Space Shuttle insulation reduced temperatures in the cockpit of NASCAR driver Rusty Wallace's Ford Thunderbird by 30 to 50 degrees during a recent high-speed test at the Daytona International Speedway. The car was outfitted with a heat reduction system that was designed and installed by NASA's Kennedy Space Center and made from scrap Space Shuttle Orbiter Thermal Protection System (TPS) blanket material.
This marked the first fully instrumented test to determine how well the heat reduction system would work under race track conditions. The car was outfitted with Flexible Insulation Blanket and Thermal Control System materials, which served as insulation pieces to shield the driver. Hybrids of the Flexible Insulation Blanket and Thermal Control System were used as well.
Under a Space Act agreement signed last year between the Kennedy Space Center and Penske Racing Inc., Rockwell Space Systems Division workers in the TPS Facility agreed to design and install a Penske racing car with the material, while the Penske team agreed to test the material in the car under racing conditions. The Rockwell TPS Facility team included TPS Facility manager Dave Sanders, project manager Martin Wilson, supervisor Mike Charvet and other TPS personnel. This team set a record pit stop of their own, custom-designing and installing the heat barrier system in Wallace's car in just 12 hours.
The data collected from thermocouples inside and outside the car indicate that the material really did its job. During the test, Wallace ran 20 2.5-mile laps with only the external elements of the TPS system in place to reach a constant temperature level. He then drove the same distance with the thermal barriers removed. Computer-based sensors and data recorders were in the car to measure temperatures at hot spots around the vehicle throughout the experiment.
"One critical point is just below the driver's foot, which rests on the floorpan above the car's exhaust system," said Martin Wilson. With the TPS material in place, temperatures of 108 degrees Fahrenheit were measured; without the blanket material, temperatures measured 145 degrees. Temperature reduction will be even greater when tests are run with the interior insulation in place. Another hot spot near the driver's left elbow recorded temperatures of 120 degrees with the external insulation in place and a blistering 260 degrees without the insulation.
Although drivers are cooled with forced air systems during the race and protected with fire-retardant suits, they have been burned and blistered by the tremendous heat transferred through the engine firewall, transmission tunnel and floor into the cockpit. Experts have estimated that temperatures inside the driver's cockpit during a race can reach up to 160 degrees. "Imagine sitting in an aluminum frying pan suspended four inches above a stove burner set on medium high, and you get a general idea of the problem," Wilson said. The Kennedy Space Center and Penske plan to conduct additional tests and to develop a thermal system that can be switched quickly from one car to another, said Bruce Lockley, NASA Manager of the TPS Facility. The additional work is necessary to provide enough data for NASCAR to determine whether the thermal system can be approved for use on NASCAR racing cars.
"We are sure that the system will significantly improve environmental conditions for race car drivers," Wilson said. "This is another good example of how technology developed for the space program can be used for applications on Earth."
Lockley worked with Suzanne Hodge of Rockwell Advanced Projects, the Kennedy Space Center's Chief Counsel and Kennedy's Technology Programs and Commercialization Office in helping bring together the elements of the Space Act Agreement.
For more information, contact Joni Richards at the Kennedy Space Center.
Phone: 407/867-3017, E-mail: joni.richards-1@kmail.ksc.nasa.gov
Please mention that you read about it in Innovation.
Curator: Joe Goldfus
