Realistic Testing of the Safe Affordable Fission Engine (SAFE-100) Thermal Simulator Using Fiber Bragg Gratings

The motivation for the reported research was to support NASA space nuclear power initiatives through the development of advanced fiber optic sensors for space-based nuclear power applications. Distributed high temperature measurements were made with 20 FBG temperature sensors installed in the SAFE- 100 thermal simulator at the NASA Marshal Space Flight Center. Experiments were performed at temperatures approaching 800 C and 1150 C for characterization studies of the SAFE-100 core. Temperature profiles were successfully generated for the core during temperature increases and decreases. Related tests in the SAFE-100 successfully provided strain measurement data.