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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 199 records · Page 11
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1989

The role of NDE in ceramic turbine engine component development

A systematic approach to the use of nondestructive evaluation (NDE) throughout the ceramic engine component development cycle is necessary to achieve the high reliability required for turbine engine applications. Specifically, NDE techniques must be developed and applied to component design, development, fabrication, and test to ensure adequate materials characterization. This approach has the potential of reducing ceramic component cost by optimizing the initial design and eliminating unacceptable components early in the fabrication cycle. Although research NDE techniques have been developed that have the potential to solve the problems of ceramic component inspection, systematic application of these NDE techniques for inspection and process control has not yet occurred. The application of NDE techniques for both material characterization and flaw detection is discussed as well as an approach for applying NDE throughout the fabrication process to achieve highly reliable ceramic components.

Minter, Janet↗
NASA NTRS2003

New Tools Being Developed for Engine- Airframe Blade-Out Structural Simulations

One of the primary concerns of aircraft structure designers is the accurate simulation of the blade-out event. This is required for the aircraft to pass Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) certification and to ensure that the aircraft is safe for operation. Typically, the most severe blade-out occurs when a first-stage fan blade in a high-bypass gas turbine engine is released. Structural loading results from both the impact of the blade onto the containment ring and the subsequent instantaneous unbalance of the rotating components. Reliable simulations of blade-out are required to ensure structural integrity during flight as well as to guarantee successful blade-out certification testing. The loads generated by these analyses are critical to the design teams for several components of the airplane structures including the engine, nacelle, strut, and wing, as well as the aircraft fuselage. Currently, a collection of simulation tools is used for aircraft structural design. Detailed high-fidelity simulation tools are used to capture the structural loads resulting from blade loss, and then these loads are used as input into an overall system model that includes complete structural models of both the engines and the airframe. The detailed simulation (shown in the figure) includes the time-dependent trajectory of the lost blade and its interactions with the containment structure, and the system simulation includes the lost blade loadings and the interactions between the rotating turbomachinery and the remaining aircraft structural components. General-purpose finite element structural analysis codes are typically used, and special provisions are made to include transient effects from the blade loss and rotational effects resulting from the engine s turbomachinery. To develop and validate these new tools with test data, the NASA Glenn Research Center has teamed with GE Aircraft Engines, Pratt & Whitney, Boeing Commercial Aircraft, Rolls-Royce, and MSC.Software.

Lawrence, Charles↗
NASA NTRS1984

Development of engineering prototype of Life Support Module (LSM)

The development of an engineering prototype of a life support system is discussed. The module consists of an electrocardiogram, a defibrillator, a resuscitator, and an aspirator, as well as body temperature and blood pressure measuring instruments. A drug kit is included.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS2000

Emergency Multiengine Aircraft System for Lateral Control Using Differential Thrust Control of Wing Engines

Development of an emergency flight control system is disclosed for lateral control using only differential engine thrust modulation of multiengine aircraft is currently underway. The multiengine has at least two engines laterally displaced to the left and right from the axis of the aircraft. In response to a heading angle command psi(sub c) is to be tracked. By continually sensing the heading angle psi of the aircraft and computing a heading error signal psi(sub e) as a function of the difference between the heading angle command psi(sub c) and the sensed heading angle psi, a track control signal is developed with compensation as a function of sensed bank angle phi. Bank angle rate phi, or roll rate p, yaw rate tau, and true velocity produce an aircraft thrust control signal ATC(sub psi(L,R)). The thrust control signal is differentially applied to the left and right engines, with equal amplitude and opposite sign, such that a negative sign is applied to the control signal on the side of the aircraft. A turn is required to reduce the error signal until the heading feedback reduces the error to zero.

Burken, John J.↗
NASA NTRS1981

Ceramic applications in turbine engines

Development testing activities on the 1900 F-configuration ceramic parts were completed, 2070 F-configuration ceramic component rig and engine testing was initiated, and the conceptual design for the 2265 F-configuration engine was identified. Fabrication of the 2070 F-configuration ceramic parts continued, along with burner rig development testing of the 2070 F-configuration metal combustor in preparation for 1132 C (2070 F) qualification test conditions. Shakedown testing of the hot engine simulator (HES) rig was also completed in preparation for testing of a spin rig-qualified ceramic-bladed rotor assembly at 1132 C (2070 F) test conditions. Concurrently, ceramics from new sources and alternate materials continued to be evaluated, and fabrication of 2070 F-configuration ceramic component from these new sources continued. Cold spin testing of the critical 2070 F-configuration blade continued in the spin test rig to qualify a set of ceramic blades at 117% engine speed for the gasifier turbine rotor. Rig testing of the ceramic-bladed gasifier turbine rotor assembly at 108% engine speed was also performed, which resulted in the failure of one blade. The new three-piece hot seal with the nickel oxide/calcium fluoride wearface composition was qualified in the regenerator rig and introduced to engine operation wiwth marginal success.

Byrd, J. A.↗
NASA NTRS1977

Automation of the deep space network

Approaches to automating the radiofrequency system used in the deep space network (DSN) are discussed. The goal is to operate DSN, which communicates with U.S. space probes that travel beyond the moon, in an unattended mode in order to reduce operating costs. The philosophy of a hierachical automation plan, which emphasizes distributed control and the utilization of DSN hardware development engineers to develop automation software, is discussed, and software development as well as common software and common microcontroller hardware are considered. It is planned that a station controller will serve as the operator interface and control and coordinate the operation of three system controllers (RF system, digital system, and antenna system). These systems are described.

Crow, R. B.↗
NASA NTRS2011

The GOES-R Series Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM)

The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES-R) is the next series to follow the existing GOES system currently operating over the Western Hemisphere. Superior spacecraft and instrument technology will support expanded detection of environmental phenomena, resulting in more timely and accurate forecasts and warnings. Advancements over current GOES capabilities include a new capability for total lightning detection (cloud and cloud-to-ground flashes) from the Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM), which will have just completed Critical Design Review and move forward into the construction phase of instrument development. The GLM will operate continuously day and night with near-uniform spatial resolution of 8 km with a product refresh rate of less than 20 sec over the Americas and adjacent oceanic regions. This will aid in forecasting severe storms and tornado activity, and convective weather impacts on aviation safety and efficiency. In parallel with the instrument development (an engineering development unit and 4 flight models), a GOES-R Risk Reduction Team and Algorithm Working Group Lightning Applications Team have begun to develop the Level 2 algorithms, cal/val performance monitoring tools, and new applications. Proxy total lightning data from the NASA Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) on the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite and regional ground-based lightning networks are being used to develop the pre-launch algorithms, test data sets, and applications, as well as improve our knowledge of thunderstorm initiation and evolution. In this presentation we review the planned implementation of the instrument and suite of operational algorithms

Goodman, Steven J.↗
NASA NTRS2011

Design Considerations for Fusible Heat Sink

Traditionally radiator designs are based off a passive or flow through design depending on vehicle requirements. For cyclical heat loads, a novel idea of combining a full flow through radiator to a phase change material is currently being investigated. The flow through radiator can be designed for an average heat load while the phase change material can be used as a source of supplemental heat rejections when vehicle heat loads go above the average load. Furthermore, by using water as the phase change material, harmful radiation protection can be provided to the crew. This paper discusses numerous trades conducted to understand the most optimal fusible heat sink design for a particular heat load. Trades include configuration concepts, amount of phase change needed for supplemental heat rejection, and the form of interstitial material needed for optimal performance. These trades were used to culminate to a fusible heat sink design. The paper will discuss design parameters taken into account to develop an engineering development unit.

Cognata, Thomas J.↗
NASA NTRS2016

Optical Breath Gas Extravehicular Activity Sensor for the Advanced Portable Life Support System

The function of the infrared gas transducer used during extravehicular activity (EVA) in the current space suit is to measure and report the concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the ventilation loop. The next generation portable life support system (PLSS) requires highly accurate CO2 sensing technology with performance beyond that presently in use on the International Space Station extravehicular mobility unit (EMU). Further, that accuracy needs to be provided over the full operating pressure range of the suit (3 to 25 psia). Accommodation within space suits demands that optical sensors meet stringent size, weight, and power requirements. A laser diode (LD) sensor based on infrared absorption spectroscopy is being developed for this purpose by Vista Photonics, Inc. Version 1.0 prototype devices were delivered to NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) in September 2011. The prototypes were upgraded with more sophisticated communications and faster response times to version 2.0 and delivered to JSC in July 2012. The sensors incorporate a laser diode based CO2 channel that also includes an incidental water vapor (humidity) measurement. The prototypes are controlled digitally with an field-programmable gate array microcontroller architecture. Based on the results of the iterative instrument development, further prototype development and testing of instruments were performed leveraging the lessons learned where feasible. The present development extends and upgrades the earlier hardware for the advanced PLSS 2.5 prototypes for testing at JSC. The prototypes provide significantly enhanced accuracy for water vapor measurement and eliminate wavelength drift affecting the earlier versions. Various improvements to the electronics and gas sampling are currently being advanced including the companion development of engineering development units that will ultimately be capable of radiation tolerance. The combination of low power electronics with the performance of a long wavelength laser spectrometer enables multi-gas sensors with significantly increased performance over that presently offered in the EMU.

Wood, William R.↗
NASA NTRS2019

Suited Ground Vacuum Chamber Testing Decompression Sickness Tiger Team Report

Suited vacuum chamber testing is critical to flight crew training, sustaining engineering, and development engineering. Most suited vacuum chamber testing at NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC) involves crewmembers or human test subjects working at a hypobaric pressure of 4.3 psia, which requires that an oxygen prebreathe be performed prior to decompression to reduce the risk of decompression sickness (DCS). Since 1986, NASA’s policy has been to require a 4-hour resting prebreathe for hypobaric chamber exposures of 4.2 psia lasting greater than 30 minutes. There have been no reports of Type II (i.e., serious, potentially life-threatening) DCS at NASA while using this prebreathe protocol. Several chamber runs, believed to be approximately 5% of all runs, are believed to have been terminated due to Type I DCS symptoms that were performance impairing; however, detailed records of DCS symptoms during suited vacuum chamber runs are not available. The adequacy of the 4-hour prebreathe protocol, as well as the processes by which prebreathe protocols and policies are established, became the subject of significant discussion in April 2018 when medical planning was initiated for chamber runs that were scheduled to occur later in 2018 that would last 8 hours or more with high metabolic rates.

Abercromby, Andrew F. J.↗
NASA NTRS2021

Lunar Auger Dryer ISRU (LADI) Breadboard Testing and Model Validation

In 2009, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO)and Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite(LCROSS) provided definitive proof of water in the Lunar’s southern permanently shadowed region (PSR)[1]. Both the 2020 NASA Technology Taxonomy[2] and the Lunar Surface Innovation Initiative (LSII) team identified capability gaps in icy regolith transfer and reactor processing in Permanently Shadowed Region(PSR) environmental conditions. A screw conveyor dryer system operating from inside the PSR can continuously process water (and volatiles) for both breathable air and propellant. NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC) began development of a similar sub-system for Mars operation in 2017 and fabricated a unique breadboard test stand for validating the feasibility of this concept. This testing was postponed with the redirection of NASA’s mission from Mars to Moon. A JSC led trade study[3] in FY20 formulated a plan to leverage existing hardware to test concept feasibility, developed a lunar auger dryer sizing tool, and identified that both a physical flow and thermal model is required to develop an Engineering Development Unit (EDU) for environmental testing. Beginning in FY21, the Game Changing Development Program (GCDP) funded a three-year technology development project to increase the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of the Lunar Auger Dryer ISRU (LADI) subsystem to TRL 5.

Lunar↗
NASA NTRS2021

Lunar Auger Dryer ISRU (LADI) Breadboard Testing and Model Validation

In 2009, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO)and Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite(LCROSS) provided definitive proof of water in the Lunar’s southern permanently shadowed region (PSR)[1]. Both the 2020 NASA Technology Taxonomy[2] and the Lunar Surface Innovation Initiative (LSII) team identified capability gaps in icy regolith transfer and reactor processing in Permanently Shadowed Region(PSR) environmental conditions. A screw conveyor dryer system operating from inside the PSR can continuously process water (and volatiles) for both breathable air and propellant. NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC) began development of a similar sub-system for Mars operation in 2017 and fabricated a unique breadboard test stand for validating the feasibility of this concept. This testing was postponed with the redirection of NASA’s mission from Mars to Moon. A JSC led trade study[3] in FY20 formulated a plan to leverage existing hardware to test concept feasibility, developed a lunar auger dryer sizing tool, and identified that both a physical flow and thermal model is required to develop an Engineering Development Unit (EDU) for environmental testing. Beginning in FY21, the Game Changing Development Program (GCDP) funded a three-year technology development project to increase the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of the Lunar Auger Dryer ISRU (LADI) subsystem to TRL 5.

Lunar↗
NASA NTRS2022

Lunar Auger Dryer ISRU (LADI) Mechanical Testing and Supporting Models

In 2009, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) and Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) provided definitive proof of water in the Lunar’s southern permanently shadowed region (PSR). Both the 2020 NASA Technology Taxonomy and the Lunar Surface Innovation Initiative (LSII) team identified capability gaps in icy regolith transfer and reactor processing in Permanently Shad-owed Region (PSR) environmental conditions. A water processing plant operating from inside the PSR can continuously process water (and volatiles) for both breathable air and propellant. NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC) began development of the primary sub-system for a Mars plant in 2017 and fabricated a unique breadboard test stand for validating the feasibility of this concept. This testing was postponed with the redirection of NASA’s mission from Mars to Moon. A JSC led trade study in FY20 formulated a plan to leverage existing hardware to test concept feasibility, developed a lunar auger dryer sizing tool, and identified that both physical flow and thermal models are required to develop an Engineering Development Unit (EDU) for environmental testing. Beginning in FY21, the Game Changing Development Program (GCDP) funded a three-year technology development project to increase the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of the Lunar Auger Dryer ISRU (LADI) subsystem to TRL 5.

Lunar↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

LISA EDU Status

LISA will be the first space-based gravitational wave observatory, enabling orders of magnitude greater sensitivity than the state-of-the-art LIGO facility. L3Harris is developing an engineering development unit (EDU) telescope in support of NASA, ESA and the LISA Consortium. The LISA EDU telescope validates a flight-like telescope design and reduces risks associated with stability, materials, assembly, integration, and testing. Mission requirements are unlike any other and require picometer-level stability across the entire telescope’s beam path, even in the presence of temperature variation and jitter. As a result, an all-glass telescope design was developed. The brittle structure represents a new state of the art for stable telescopes, but also introduces challenges with managing assembly, manufacturability, and survivability. From 2019-2024, the LISA EDU project has increased manufacturing readiness and technology readiness for the optical telescope element.

Brian VanRensselaer↗
NASA NTRS2004

Update on SLD Engineering Tools Development

The airworthiness authorities (FAA, JAA, Transport Canada) will be releasing a draft rule in the 2006 timeframe concerning the operation of aircraft in a Supercooled Large Droplet (SLD) environment aloft. The draft rule will require aircraft manufacturers to demonstrate that their aircraft can operate safely in an SLD environment for a period of time to facilitate a safe exit from the condition. It is anticipated that aircraft manufacturers will require a capability to demonstrate compliance with this rule via experimental means (icing tunnels or tankers) and by analytical means (ice prediction codes). Since existing icing research facilities and analytical codes were not developed to account for SLD conditions, current engineering tools are not adequate to support compliance activities in SLD conditions. Therefore, existing capabilities need to be augmented to include SLD conditions. In response to this need, NASA and its partners conceived a strategy or Roadmap for developing experimental and analytical SLD simulation tools. Following review and refinement by the airworthiness authorities and other international research partners, this technical strategy has been crystallized into a project plan to guide the SLD Engineering Tool Development effort. This paper will provide a brief overview of the latest version of the project plan and technical rationale, and provide a status of selected SLD Engineering Tool Development research tasks which are currently underway.

Miller, Dean R.↗
NASA NTRS1967

NERVA development status.

NERVA engine development, discussing NRX tests and Phoebus reactor tests for high temperature and power operation

PHOEBUS NUCLEAR REACTOR↗
NASA NTRS1992

Design of a prototype Advanced Main Combustion Chamber for the Space Shuttle Main Engine

Development of a prototype advanced main combustion chamber is underway at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. The Advanced Main Combustion Chamber (AMCC) project is being approached utilizing a 'concurrent engineering' concept where groups from materials, manufacturing, stress, quality, and design are involved from the initiation of the project. The AMCC design has been tailored to be compatible with the investment casting process. Jacket, inlet/outlet manifolds, inlet/outlet neck coolant flow splitters, support ribs, actuator lugs, and engine controller mounting bracket will all be a part of the one-piece AMCC casting. Casting of the AMCC in a one-piece configuration necessitated a method of forming a liner in its structural jacket. A method of vacuum plasma spraying the liner is being developed. In 1994, the AMCC will be hot-fired on the Technology Test Bed Space Shuttle Main Engine.

Lackey, J. D.↗