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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 181 records · Page 10
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1991

Advanced thermoplastic resins, phase 1

Eight thermoplastic polyimide resin systems were evaluated as composite matrix materials. Two resins were selected for more extensive mechanical testing and both were versions of LaRC-TPI (Langley Research Center - Thermoplastic Polyimide). One resin was made with LaRC-TPI and contained 2 weight percent of a di(amic acid) dopant as a melt flow aid. The second system was a 1:1 slurry of semicrystalline LaRC-TPI powder in a polyimidesulfone resin diglyme solution. The LaRC-TPI powder melts during processing and increases the melt flow of the resin. Testing included dynamic mechanical analysis, tension and compression testing, and compression-after-impact testing. The test results demonstrated that the LaRC-TPI resins have very good properties compared to other thermoplastics, and that they are promising matrix materials for advanced composite structures.

Hendricks, C. L.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Flight vehicle thermal testing with infrared lamps

The verification and certification of new structural material concepts for advanced high speed flight vehicles relies greatly on thermal testing with infrared quartz lamps. The basic quartz heater system characteristics and design considerations are presented. Specific applications are illustrated with tests that were conducted for the X-15, the Space Shuttle, and YF-12 flight programs.

Fields, Roger A.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Building an intellectual infrastructure for space commerce

Competition in commerce requires an 'intellectual infrastructure', that is, a work force with extensive scientific and technical knowledge and a thorough understanding of the business world. This paper focuses on the development of such intellectual infrastructure for space commerce. Special consideration is given to the contributions to this development by the 17 Centers for the Commercial Development of Space Program conducting commercially oriented research in eight specialized areas: automation and robotics, remote sensing, life sciences, materials processing in space, space power, space propulsion, space structures and materials, and advanced satellite communications. Attention is also given to the Space Business Development Center concept aimed at addressing a variety of barriers common to the development of space commerce.

Stone, Barbara A.↗
NASA NTRS1997

Thermal Conductivity Database of Various Structural Carbon-Carbon Composite Materials

Advanced thermal protection materials envisioned for use on future hypersonic vehicles will likely be subjected to temperatures in excess of 1811 K (2800 F) and, therefore, will require the rapid conduction of heat away from the stagnation regions of wing leading edges, the nose cap area, and from engine inlet and exhaust areas. Carbon-carbon composite materials are candidates for use in advanced thermal protection systems. For design purposes, high temperature thermophysical property data are required, but a search of the literature found little thermal conductivity data for carbon-carbon materials above 1255 K (1800 F). Because a need was recognized for in-plane and through-the-thickness thermal conductivity data for carbon-carbon composite materials over a wide temperature range, Langley Research Center (LaRC) embarked on an effort to compile a consistent set of thermal conductivity values from room temperature to 1922 K (3000 F) for carbon-carbon composite materials on hand at LaRC for which the precursor materials and thermal processing history were known. This report documents the thermal conductivity data generated for these materials. In-plane thermal conductivity values range from 10 to 233 W/m-K, whereas through-the-thickness values range from 2 to 21 W/m-K.

Ohlhorst, Craig W.↗
NASA NTRS2001

An Approach to Establishing System Benefits for Technology in NASA's Hypersonics Investment Area

NASA's has established long term goals for access-to-space. The third generation launch systems are to be fully reusable and operational around 2025. The goals for the third generation launch system are to significantly reduce cost and improve safety over current systems. The Advanced Space Transportation Program (ASTP) Office at the NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, AL has the agency lead to develop space transportation technologies. Within ASTP, under the Hypersonics Investment Area, third generation technologies are being pursued. The Hypersonics Investment Area's primary objective is to mature vehicle technologies to enable substantial increases in the design and operating margins of third generation RLVs (current Space Shuttle is considered the first generation RLV) by incorporating advanced propulsion systems, materials, structures, thermal protection systems, power, and avionics technologies. The paper describes the system process, tools and concepts used to determine the technology benefits. Preliminary results will be presented along with the current technology investments that are being made by ASTP's Hypersonics Investment Area.

Hueter, Uwe↗
NASA NTRS1985

Stress Corrosion Testing

Advanced testing of structural materials was developed by Lewis Research Center and Langley Research Center working with the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM). Under contract, Aluminum Company of America (Alcoa) conducted a study for evaluating stress corrosion cracking, and recommended the "breaking load" method which determines fracture strengths as well as measuring environmental degradation. Alcoa and Langley plan to submit the procedure to ASTM as a new testing method.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS2003

Computational Simulation of Composite Behavior

Significant improvements in aerospace and terrestrial propulsion and power systems for the next century will require revolutionary advances in materials and structures. Much effort is being dedicated to improving performance, reliability and service life of propulsion systems. To achieve these goals, the development of a new class of high temperature materials and transition-to-use technologies has been identified as a national need.

Keith, Theo G., Jr.↗
NASA NTRS2006

SACD's Support of the Hyper-X Program

NASA s highly successful Hyper-X program demonstrated numerous hypersonic air-breathing vehicle related technologies including scramjet performance, advanced materials and hot structures, GN&C, and integrated vehicle performance resulting in, for the first time ever, acceleration of a vehicle powered by a scramjet engine. The Systems Analysis and Concepts Directorate (SACD) at NASA s Langley Research Center played a major role in the integrated team providing critical support, analysis, and leadership to the Hyper-X Program throughout the program s entire life and were key to its ultimate success. Engineers in SACD s Vehicle Analysis Branch (VAB) were involved in all stages and aspects of the program, from conceptual design prior to contract award, through preliminary design and hardware development, and in to, during, and after each of the three flights. Working closely with other engineers at Langley and Dryden, as well as industry partners, roughly 20 members of SACD were involved throughout the evolution of the Hyper-X program in nearly all disciplines, including lead roles in several areas. Engineers from VAB led the aerodynamic database development, the propulsion database development, and the stage separation analysis and database development effort. Others played major roles in structures, aerothermal, GN&C, trajectory analysis and flight simulation, as well as providing CFD support for aerodynamic, propulsion, and aerothermal analysis.

Robinson, Jeffrey S.↗
NASA NTRS2009

Materials Aspects of Turboelectric Aircraft Propulsion

The turboelectric distributed propulsion approach for aircraft makes a contribution to all four "corners" of NASA s Subsonic Fixed Wing trade space, reducing fuel burn, noise, emissions and field length. To achieve the system performance required for the turboelectric approach, a number of advances in materials and structures must occur. These range from improved superconducting composites to structural composites for support windings in superconducting motors at cryogenic temperatures. The rationale for turboelectric distributed propulsion and the materials research and development opportunities that it may offer are outlined.

Brown, Gerald V.↗
NASA NTRS2011

Fuel Efficiencies Through Airframe Improvements

The factors of continuing strong growth in air traffic volume, the vital role of the air transport system on the economy, and concerns about the environmental impact of aviation have added focus to the National Aeronautics Research Policy. To address these concerns in the context of the National Policy, NASA has set aggressive goals in noise reduction, emissions, and energy consumption. With respect to the goal of reducing energy consumption in the fleet, the development of promising airframe technologies is required to realize the significant improvements that are desired. Furthermore, the combination of advances in materials and structures with aerodynamic technologies may lead to a paradigm shift in terms of potential configurations for the future. Some of these promising airframe technologies targeted at improved efficiency are highlighted.

Bezos-O'Connor, Gaudy M.↗
NASA NTRS2000

Structures and Materials Experimental Facilities and Capabilities Catalog

The NASA Center of Excellent for Structures and Materials at Langley Research Center is responsible for conducting research and developing useable technology in the areas of advanced materials and processing technologies, durability, damage tolerance, structural concepts, advanced sensors, intelligent systems, aircraft ground operations, reliability, prediction tools, performance validation, aeroelastic response, and structural dynamics behavior for aerospace vehicles. Supporting the research activities is a complementary set of facilities and capabilities documented in this report. Because of the volume of information, the information collected was restricted in most cases to one page. Specific questions from potential customers or partners should be directed to the points of contacts provided with the various capabilities. Grouping of the equipment is by location as opposed to function. Geographical information of the various buildings housing the equipment is also provided. Since this is the first time that such an inventory is ever collected at Langley it is by no means complete. It is estimated that over 90 percent of the equipment capabilities at hand are included but equipment is continuously being updated and will be reported in the future.

Horta, Lucas G.↗
NASA NTRS1998

Constitutive Theory Developed for Monolithic Ceramic Materials

With the increasing use of advanced ceramic materials in high-temperature structural applications such as advanced heat engine components, the need arises to accurately predict thermomechanical behavior that is inherently time-dependent and that is hereditary in the sense that the current behavior depends not only on current conditions but also on the material's thermomechanical history. Most current analytical life prediction methods for both subcritical crack growth and creep models use elastic stress fields to predict the time-dependent reliability response of components subjected to elevated service temperatures. Inelastic response at high temperatures has been well documented in the materials science literature for these material systems, but this issue has been ignored by the engineering design community. From a design engineer's perspective, it is imperative to emphasize that accurate predictions of time-dependent reliability demand accurate stress field information. Ceramic materials exhibit different time-dependent behavior in tension and compression. Thus, inelastic deformation models for ceramics must be constructed in a fashion that admits both sensitivity to hydrostatic stress and differing behavior in tension and compression. A number of constitutive theories for materials that exhibit sensitivity to the hydrostatic component of stress have been proposed that characterize deformation using time-independent classical plasticity as a foundation. However, none of these theories allow different behavior in tension and compression. In addition, these theories are somewhat lacking in that they are unable to capture the creep, relaxation, and rate-sensitive phenomena exhibited by ceramic materials at high temperatures. The objective of this effort at the NASA Lewis Research Center has been to formulate a macroscopic continuum theory that captures these time-dependent phenomena. Specifically, the effort has focused on inelastic deformation behavior associated with these service conditions by developing a multiaxial viscoplastic constitutive model that accounts for time-dependent hereditary material deformation (such as creep and stress relaxation) in monolithic structural ceramics. Using continuum principles of engineering mechanics, we derived the complete viscoplastic theory from a scalar dissipative potential function.

Janosik, Lesley A.↗
NASA NTRS1976

Titanium and advanced composite structures for a supersonic cruise arrow wing configuration

Structural design studies were made, based on current technology and on an estimate of technology to be available in the mid 1980's, to assess the relative merits of structural concepts and materials for an advanced arrow wing configuration cruising at Mach 2.7. Preliminary studies were made to insure compliance of the configuration with general design criteria, integrate the propulsion system with the airframe, and define an efficient structural arrangement. Material and concept selection, detailed structural analysis, structural design and airplane mass analysis were completed based on current technology. Based on estimated future technology, structural sizing for strength and a preliminary assessment of the flutter of a strength designed composite structure were completed. An advanced computerized structural design system was used, in conjunction with a relatively complex finite element model, for detailed analysis and sizing of structural members.

Turner, M. J.↗
NASA NTRS1979

Research in structures and materials for future space transportation systems - An overview

The paper provides a review of some of the advances of the past decade in structures and materials that have application to future space transportation systems. The paper concentrates on metallic thermal protection systems and structures which could provide the structural efficiency, reliability, and durability dictated by future space utilization requirements. The need for completely reusable, on-board cryogenic fuel tanks is cited as the most challenging technical opportunity and potential thermostructural concepts for tanks are identified. Other critical areas needing technology advances are discussed. Finally, the unique research opportunities offered by the Shuttle Orbiter experiments program for testing structures and thermal protection systems are explored.

Kelly, H. N.↗
NASA NTRS2014

Nano-Magnets and Additive Manufacturing for Electric Motors

High power density is required for application of electric motors in hybrid electric propulsion. Potential path to achieve high power density in electric motors include advanced materials, lightweight thermal management, lightweight structural concepts, high power density power electronics, and advanced manufacturing. This presentation will focus on two key technologies for achieving high power density, advanced magnets and additive manufacturing. The maximum energy product in current magnets is reaching their theoretical limits as a result of material and process improvements. Future improvements in the maximum energy product for magnets can be achieved through development of nanocomposite magnets combining the hard magnetic phase and soft magnetic phase at the nanoscale level. The presentation will provide an overview of the current state of development for nanocomposite magnets and the future path for doubling the maximum energy product. The other part of the presentation will focus on the role of additive manufacturing in fabrication of high power density electric motors. The presentation will highlight the potential opportunities for applying additive manufacturing to fabricate electric motors.

materials↗
NASA NTRS2019

Experimental Methods in Materials for Structural Impact Dynamics

Over the past two decades significant technological advances have completely changed the way in which experimental testing is conducted in Structural Impact Dynamics applications. Probably the two most significant advances have been the advent of high speed digital video cameras and the use of Digital Image Correlation techniques to measure deformations and strains at high rates. These advances have led to significantly more accurate measurements of material and structural response under high rate loading, which has also led to advances in computational modeling techniques for Impact Dynamics. In this address we will review the past, present and what the future may hold for experimental methods in the field of Structural Impact Dynamics.

Structural Impact Dynamics↗