NASA Finalizes COPV Damage Tolerance Guidelines for Spaceflight

NASA's NESC has finalized a set of guidelines intended for use by NASA civil servants and support contractors in their development or assessment of damage-tolerance demonstration data for COPVs. These vessels, which store high-pressure propulsion and life-support system fluids on launch vehicles and spacecraft, are ubiquitous at NASA, and failures have the potential to be catastrophic. The guidelines are based on the NESC’s experience in assessing agency-wide COPV applications and compiling the best practices for complying with the damage-tolerance requirements of AIAA S-081 and NASA-STD-5019. The guidelines touch on numerous aspects of damage tolerance life including COPV mechanics and model correlation, identifying worst case locations for damage tolerance, nondestructive evaluation (NDE), addressing crack aspect ratios, defining load spectra, addressing autofrettage crack growth, performing damage-tolerance life demonstration by analysis using a crack-growth analysis software like NASGRO, performing damage-tolerance life by coupon or vessel testing, and addressing sustained-load crack growth and environmentally assisted cracking. In determining the worst-case locations for damage tolerance evaluation, the guidelines offer a method for evaluating the contributing factors—stress/strain, material properties, thickness, and initial crack size.

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