A NEW SENSING TECHNIQUE APPLIED TO AUTOMATIC POSITION CONTROL IN CERTAIN ABLATION EXPERIMENTS,
Abstract
A new sensing technique was devised that can be applied to automatic adjustment of the position of the ablating end of an NOL alpha-rod specimen of organic material which is being consumed endwise in a hot, corrosive atmosphere. The sensor is an ion collector which is located close to the edge of the ablating end of the rod and which is just barely immersed in some of the hot, weakly ionized gases near this end. The ion density in the vicinity of the collector depends strongly on how closely the ablating end of the rod approaches it. Ions neutralized on the collector give rise to a small current that can be used as a signal for control purposes, such as keeping the ablating region in a relatively fixed position in space so that the rod can be moved into the hot, corrosive s of the material of the rod. Read-out of position of the cold end of the rod with time gives a measure of the ablation rate. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Dec 04, 1964
- Accession Number
- AD0612505
Entities
People
- W. J. Mclean
Organizations
- Naval Ordnance Laboratory