shuttle foam vs. tank drains ?

[radarredux]

In Jeffrey Bell's latest op-ed he refers to an Orlando Sentinel story (no longer available apparently) stating:<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p>It now appears that the expansion of the tanks when they are drained and warmed causes the frozen foam to crack. These cracks allow air to reach the metal tank during the next filling and liquify. The liquid air rapidly boils due to aerodynamic heating during launch and blows off large chunks of foam.<p><hr /></p></p></blockquote><br />I have seen some statistics on foam strikes on the shuttle before (apparently it has happened a lot). My question is this: <font color="yellow"><b>Has anyone performed (and made available) the number of foam strikes against the shuttle as a function of the number times the tank was drained?</b></font><br /><br />For example, is there a set of charts that show the number of foam strikes on the shuttle after the ET was not drained at all, another set of charts showing the number of foam strikes after the ET was drained once, another set for two ET tank drains, etc.?

 

[radarredux]

> <i><font color="yellow">BTW thermal cycles sause foam problem, we knew that back on the Saturn Five second stage days.</font>/i><br /><br />I remember your comments about fixing the side of the Saturn V facing Walter Cronkite. <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /></i>