Abstract
For a new balloon material, we have been studying the properties of an EVAL (Ethylene-Vinyl-ALcohol) film during a part of few years. The EVAL film is a product of Kurare Plastic Company, and has mechanical properties similar to that of a Mylar film. Besides this strong mechanical strength, we found that the EVAL film has several characteristics which seems to be suitable for the balloon material. Those are: 1. Sandwiched EVAL films laminated by polyethylene films can be heat-scaled, 2. Gas leakage through the EVAL film is extremely low, and for Helium gas, it is almost 100 times less than that of a Mylar film, 3. The EVAL film is transparent in the optical band, while it efficiently absorbs the infrared radiation from the earth. In 1997, we have carried out a test flight from the Sanriku Balloon Center using a small balloon with a volume of 1000 m 3 . The balloon reached an altitude of 22 km successfully and showed a maximum burst pressure of 2.1 g/cm 2 . In this paper, basic properties of the EVAL film and performance of the test balloon arc described.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1361-1364 |
| Number of pages | 4 |
| Journal | Advances in Space Research |
| Volume | 26 |
| Issue number | 9 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2000 |
| Externally published | Yes |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Aerospace Engineering
- Astronomy and Astrophysics
- Geophysics
- Atmospheric Science
- Space and Planetary Science
- Earth and Planetary Sciences(all)