About that Nuclear engine... (updated)

[TimePeriod]

These statements are not factual, just the impressions I have gotten after a series of tests on Kerbin Launch Pad:

- Wings/structural parts are not good at removing heat.

- Fuel tanks stores and keeps the nuclear engine cold, allowing longer duration burns.

- Linear size of fuel tanks determine how long a single nuclear engine can burn.

- Heat is dispersed linearly in a straight line upwards from the engine, with secondary objects attached to this line having a far reduced dispersion/storage of heat.

- (Removed) Updated

To this I conclude:

-Heat can be stored and slowed down, thou never totally negated.*¹

-FL-T400 in a line of tanks was the best option at preventing overheating.

*¹FL-T400 used in a line of 5 continued to rise in temperature, even after one hour of IRL-time burning, thou the acceleration of temperature had slowed down drastic.

- New info-

Temprature comes to a near-stop at 1850-ish.

You can find a better quality image, in my photobucket under Kerbal Space Program ~ See my Sig

Edited May 1, 2015 by TimePeriod

[Brotoro]

Results are different in space where the atmosphere is not there to help cool things.

Also, how do you burn for one hour? If you are using infinite fuel, you aren't going to see that the tanks heat up faster as the fuel is depleted.

[TimePeriod]

Results are different in space where the atmosphere is not there to help cool things.

Also, how do you burn for one hour? If you are using infinite fuel, you aren't going to see that the tanks heat up faster as the fuel is depleted.

I did the same experiment in space and the results were the same, the nuclear engine was being heated at a lower rate thou the tanks themselfs was not able to cope with the +2000 temperature and exploded.

As for fuel depletion, I didn't test for that. These tests were done at random to give myself some kind of bearing on what I could do with the new thermodynamics, engines and parts in general.