Engineering topics

Frate, David T.

Publications and source records attributed to Frate, David T..

9 records

NASA NTRS2011

ARES I Upper Stage Subsystems Design and Development

From 2005 through early 2011, NASA conducted concept definition, design, and development of the Ares I launch vehicle. The Ares I was conceived to serve as a crew launch vehicle for beyond-low-Earth-orbit human space exploration missions as part of the Constellation Program Architecture. The vehicle was configured with a single shuttle-derived solid rocket booster first stage and a new liquid oxygen/liquid hydrogen upper stage, propelled by a single, newly developed J-2X engine. The Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle was to be mated to the forward end of the Ares I upper stage through an interface with fairings and a payload adapter. The vehicle design passed a Preliminary Design Review in August 2008, and was nearing the Critical Design Review when efforts were concluded as a result of the Constellation Program s cancellation. At NASA Glenn Research Center, four subsystems were developed for the Ares I upper stage. These were thrust vector control (TVC) for the J-2X, electrical power system (EPS), purge and hazardous gas (P&HG), and development flight instrumentation (DFI). The teams working each of these subsystems achieved 80 percent or greater design completion and extensive development testing. These efforts were extremely successful representing state-of-the-art technology and hardware advances necessary to achieve Ares I reliability, safety, availability, and performance requirements. This paper documents the designs, development test activity, and results.

Frate, David T.↗

NASA NTRS2004

Solid Fuel Delivery System Developed for Combustion Testing on the International Space Station

NASA initiated Bioastronautics and Human Research Initiatives in 2001 and 2003, respectively, to enhance the safety and performance of humans in space. The Flow Enclosure Accommodating Novel Investigations in Combustion of Solids (FEANICS) is a multiuser facility being built at the NASA Glenn Research Center to advance these initiatives by studying fire safety and the combustion of solid fuels in the microgravity environment of the International Space Station (ISS). One of the challenges for the FEANICS team was to build a system that allowed for several consecutive combustion tests to be performed with minimal astronaut crew interaction. FEANICS developed a fuel carousel that contains a various number of fuel samples, depending on the fuel width, and introduces them one at a time into a flow tunnel in which the combustion testing takes place. This approach will allow the science team to run the experiments from the ground, while only requiring the crew to change out carousels after several tests have been completed.

Frate, David T.↗

NASA NTRS2001

Interfacial Surgery Determination of Succinonitrile and Succinonitrile-Acetone Alloy Using Surface Light Scattering Spectrometer

The objectives of this ground based research is to measure the liquid/vapor interfacial surface energies of succinonitrile (SCN) and alloys of succinonitrile and acetone using Surface Light Scattering Spectrometer. Liquid/vapor interfacial energy measurements will be made near and above the melting point and are the primary goal of this proposal. A measurement of viscosity also results from the Surface Light Scattering technique employed. Interfacial free energies between the phases enters into many analysis of phase transformation and flow, including nucleation, dendritic growth, interface stability, Ostwald ripening, and Marangoni flow. Succirionitrile (SCN) is useful as a model for the study of metal solidification, although it is an organic material, it has a BCC crystal structure and solidifies dendriticly like a metal. It is also transparent and has a low melting point (58.08 C). Succinonitrile has been and is being used extensively in NASAs Microgravity Materials Science and Fluid Physics programs and as well as in several ground-based and microgravity studies including the Isothermal Dendritic Growth Experiment (IDGE) due to Glicksman and coworkers and subsequently in several theoretical and numerical studies of dendritic growth. Previous measurements of succinonitrile (SCN) and alloys of succinonitrile and acetone surface tensions are extremely limited. We believe the data sought through this proposal have significant basic physical property data value and thus the work proposed will provide needed data in support of NASAs Microgravity program research.

Tin, Padetha↗

NASA NTRS2001

FEANICS: A Multi-User Facility For Conducting Solid Fuel Combustion Experiments On ISS

The Destiny Module on the International Space Station (ISS) will soon be home for the Fluids and Combustion Facility's (FCF) Combustion Integrated Rack (CIR), which is being developed at the NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio. The CIR will be the platform for future microgravity combustion experiments. A multi-user mini-facility called FEANICS (Flow Enclosure Accommodating Novel Investigations in Combustion of Solids) will also be built at NASA Glenn. This mini-facility will be the primary means for conducting solid fuel combustion experiments in the CIR on ISS. The main focus of many of these solid combustion experiments will be to conduct basic and applied scientific investigations in fire-safety to support NASA's Bioastronautics Initiative. The FEANICS project team will work in conjunction with the CIR project team to develop upgradeable and reusable hardware to meet the science requirements of current and future investigators. Currently, there are six experiments that are candidates to use the FEANICS mini-facility. This paper will describe the capabilities of this mini-facility and the type of solid combustion testing and diagnostics that can be performed.

Frate, David T.↗

NASA NTRS1997

Candle Flames in Microgravity

This work is a study of a candle flame in a microgravity environment. The purpose of the work is to determine if a steady (or quasi-steady) flame can exist in a microgravity environment, study the characteristics of the steady flame, investigate the pre-extinction flame oscillations observed in a previous experiment in more detail, and finally, determine the nature of the interactions between two closely spaced candle flames. The candle flame is used as a model combustion system, in that in microgravity it is one of the only examples of a non-propagating, steady-state, pure diffusion flame. Others have used the candle to study a number of combustion phenomena including flame flicker, flame oscillations, electric field effects and enhanced and reduced gravitational effects in flames. The present work is a continuation of a small-scale Shuttle experiment on candle flames. That study showed that the candle flame lifetimes were on the order of 40 seconds, the flames were dim blue after a transient ignition period, and that just prior to extinction the flames oscillated spontaneously for about five seconds at a frequency of 1 Hz. The authors postulated that the gas phase in the immediate vicinity of the flame was quasi-steady. Further away from the flame, however, the assertion of a quasi-steady flame was less certain, thus the authors did not prove that a steady flame could exist. They also speculated that the short lifetime of the candle flame was due to the presence of the small, weakly perforated box that surrounded the candle. The Candle Flames in Microgravity (CFM) experiment, with revised hardware, was recently flown aboard the Mir orbiting station, and conducted inside the glovebox facility by Dr. Shannon Lucid. In addition to the purposes described above, the experiments were NASA's first ability to ascertain the merits of the Mir environment for combustion science studies. In this article, we present the results of that experiment. We are also in the process of developing a numerical model of the microgravity candle flame. The status and results of the modeling efforts to date are also presented.

Dietrich, Daniel L.↗

NASA NTRS1996

Hypervelocity Impact Testing of Nickel Hydrogen Battery Cells

Nickel-Hydrogen (Ni/H2) battery cells have been used on several satellites and are planned for use on the International Space Station. In January 1992, the NASA Lewis Research Center (LeRC) conducted hypervelocity impact testing on Ni/H2 cells to characterize their failure modes. The cell's outer construction was a 24 mil-thick Inconel 718 pressure vessel. A sheet of 1.27 cm thick honeycomb was placed in front of the battery cells during testing to simulate the on-orbit box enclosure. Testing was conducted at the NASA White Sands Test Facility (WSTF). The hypervelocity gun used was a 7.6 mm (0.30 caliber) two-stage light gas gun. Test were performed at speeds of 3, 6, and 7 km/sec using aluminum 2017 spherical particles of either 4.8 or 6.4 mm diameter as the projectile. The battery cells were electrically charged to about 75 percent of capacity, then back-filled with hydrogen gas to 900 psi simulating the full charge condition. High speed film at 10,000 frames/sec was taken of the impacts. Impacts in the dome area (top) and the electrode area (middle) of the battery cells were investigated. Five tests on battery cells were performed. The results revealed that in all of the test conditions investigated, the battery cells simply vented their hydrogen gas and some electrolyte, but did not burst or generate any large debris fragments.

Frate, David T.↗

NASA NTRS1993

Basic statistical analyses of candidate nickel-hydrogen cells for the Space Station Freedom

Nickel-Hydrogen (Ni/H2) secondary batteries will be implemented as a power source for the Space Station Freedom as well as for other NASA missions. Consequently, characterization tests of Ni/H2 cells from Eagle-Picher, Whittaker-Yardney, and Hughes were completed at the NASA Lewis Research Center. Watt-hour efficiencies of each Ni/H2 cell were measured for regulated charge and discharge cycles as a function of temperature, charge rate, discharge rate, and state of charge. Temperatures ranged from -5 C to 30 C, charge rates ranged from C/10 to 1C, discharge rates ranged from C/10 to 2C, and states of charge ranged from 20 percent to 100 percent. Results from regression analyses and analyses of mean watt-hour efficiencies demonstrated that overall performance was best at temperatures between 10 C and 20 C while the discharge rate correlated most strongly with watt-hour efficiency. In general, the cell with back-to-back electrode arrangement, single stack, 26 percent KOH, and serrated zircar separator and the cell with a recirculating electrode arrangement, unit stack, 31 percent KOH, zircar separators performed best.

Maloney, Thomas M.↗

NASA NTRS1991

Nickel-hydrogen cell low-Earth life test update

When individual pressure vessel (IPV) nickel-hydrogen (Ni/H2) cells were selected as the energy storage system for the Space Station Freedom in March of 1986, a limited database existed on life and performance characteristics of these cells in a low earth orbit (LEO) regime. Therefore, NASA LeRC initiated a Ni/H2 cell test program with the primary objectives of building a test facility, procuring cells from existing NASA contracts, and screening several cell designs by life testing in a LEO 35 percent depth of discharge (DOD) scenario. A total of 40 cells incorporating 13 designs were purchased from Yardney, Hughes, and Eagle-Picher. Thirty-two of the cells purchased were 65 A-hr nameplate capacity and eight cells were 50 A-hr. Yardney and Eagle-Picher cells were built with both the Air Force recirculating and the advanced back-to-back electrode stack configurations and incorporated 31 and 26 percent KOH. Acceptance testing of the first delivered cells began in March of 1988, with life testing following in September of that year.Performance comparisons of these cells are made here while specifically addressing life test data relative to the design differences.

Frate, David T.↗

NASA NTRS1991

Nickel-hydrogen cell low-earth-orbit life test update

When individual pressure vessel (IPV) nickel-hydrogen (Ni/H2) cells were selected as the energy storage system for Space Station Freedom in March of 1986, a limited database existed on life and performance characteristics of these cells in a low earth orbit (LEO) regime. Therefore, NASA LeRC initiated a Ni/H2 cell test program with the primary objectives of building a test facility, procuring cells from existing NASA contracts, and screening several cell designs by life testing in a LEO 35 percent depth of discharge (DOD) scenario. A total of 40 cells incorporating 13 designs were purchased from Yardney, Hughes, and Eagle-Picher. Thirty-two of the cells purchased were 65 A-hr nameplate capacity and eight cells were 50 A-Hr. Yardney and Eagle-Picher cells were built with both the Air Force recirculating and the advanced back-to-back electrode stack configurations and incorporated 31 and 26 percent KOH. Acceptance testing of the first delivered cells began in March of 1988, with life testing following in September of that year. Performance comparisons of these cells are made here while specifically addressing life test data relative to the design differences.

Frate, David T.↗