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NASA NTRS1991

Sensing and actuation in a liquid propellant rocket engine

Equations describing the conservation of mass, momentum, and energy, and multicomponent transport and chemical reaction in a liquid propellant rocket (LPR) engine are given, along with appropriate boundary conditions. The formulation includes a detailed description of the two-phase (gas/liquid) flow in terms of a moving boundary problem, with droplets and vapor occupying time-dependent subdomains of the LPR chamber. Several sensor and actuator types are considered in detail, and their mathematical descriptions are incorporated into the differential equations and boundary conditions.

Bentsman, Joseph↗

NASA NTRS2007

Metallic Hydrogen - Potentially a High Energy Rocket Propellant

Pure metallic hydrogen is predicted to have a specific impulse (Isp) of 1700 seconds, but the reaction temperature is too high for current engine materials. Diluting metallic hydrogen with liquid hydrogen can reduce the reaction temperature to levels compatible with current material limits and still provide an Isp greater than 900 s. Metallic hydrogen has not yet been produced on earth, but experimental techniques exist that may change this situation. This paper will provide a brief description of metallic hydrogen and the status of experiments that may soon produce detectable quantities of this material in the lab. Also provided are some characteristics for diluted metallic hydrogen engines and launch vehicles.

Cole, John↗

NASA NTRS1991

STV engine design considerations

The topics covered include the following: (1) engine design criteria and issues; (2) design requirements for man rating; (3) test requirements for man rating; (4) design requirements for space basing; (5) engine operation requirements; (6) health monitoring; (7) lunar transfer vehicle (LTV) feed system; (8) lunar excursion vehicle (LEV) propellant system; (9) area ratio gimbal angle limits; (10) reaction control system; and (11) engine configuration and characteristics. This document is presented in viewgraph form.

Source record↗

NASA NTRS2014

Propulsion System Models for Rotorcraft Conceptual Design

The conceptual design code NDARC (NASA Design and Analysis of Rotorcraft) was initially implemented to model conventional rotorcraft propulsion systems, consisting of turboshaft engines burning jet fuel, connected to one or more rotors through a mechanical transmission. The NDARC propulsion system representation has been extended to cover additional propulsion concepts, including electric motors and generators, rotor reaction drive, turbojet and turbofan engines, fuel cells and solar cells, batteries, and fuel (energy) used without weight change. The paper describes these propulsion system components, the architecture of their implementation in NDARC, and the form of the models for performance and weight. Requirements are defined for improved performance and weight models of the new propulsion system components. With these new propulsion models, NDARC can be used to develop environmentally-friendly rotorcraft designs.

Propulsion System Models↗

NASA NTRS1985

Ignition-Spark Detector for Engine Testing

Optical fiber views sparks directly. In fuel or oxidizer tube, optical fiber collects light from ignition spark. Fibers also used to collect light from combustion reactions for spectrographic analysis. Useful in engine testing, detector helps determine reason for engine failure.

Kuhr, G.↗

NASA NTRS2000

Atomic-Based-Combined-Cycle Analysis

Atomic-based-combined-cycle (ABCC) engine combines an air-breathing ramjet engine with an atomic reactor to increase the mission-averaged specific impulse and thereby increasing the dry-mass ratio. ABCC engine is similar to RBCC engine except that energy needed for the propulsive power is derived from nuclear reaction rather than chemical combustion used in the RBCC engine. The potential performance improvement of an ABCC engine over a RBCC engine comes from two factors. Firstly, the energy density of nuclear reaction is several order of magnitudes higher than the chemical combustion. Secondly, hydrogen can produce much higher nozzle exit velocity because of its small molecular weight. A one-dimensional, transient numerical model was used to analyze a generic scramjet engine and it is used as a baseline to evaluate an imaginary ABCC engine performance. A nuclear reactor is treated as a black box energy source that replaces the role of the primary rocket and the chemical combustion chamber in a RBCC engine. Hydrogen is heated by the reactor and accelerated to produce high-speed ejection velocity. The ejection velocity up 10,000 m/sec is theoretically possible because of high energy density from the reactor and large gas constant of the hydrogen. Oxygen contained in the entrained air reacts with hydrogen and produces propulsive power for ejector mode operation. To provide enough thrust for initial acceleration, relatively large amount of hydrogen must be pumped through the reactor. Amount of oxygen contained in the entrained air may not be sufficient to burn all hydrogen and consequently combustion could occur at the end of exit nozzle. It is assumed that this combustion process is constant-pressure combustion at 1.0 atmospheric pressure and thus not affects the nozzle exit condition.

Han, Sam↗

NASA NTRS1999

Atomic-Based-Combined-Cycle Analysis

Atomic-based-combined-cycle (ABCC) engine combines an air-breathing ramjet engine with an atomic reactor to increase the mission-averaged specific impulse and thereby increasing the dry-mass ratio. ABCC engine is similar to RBCC engine except that energy needed for the propulsive power is derived from nuclear reaction rather than chemical combustion used in the RBCC engine. The potential performance improvement of an ABCC engine over a RBCC engine comes from two factors. Firstly, the energy density of nuclear reaction is several order of magnitudes higher than the chemical combustion. Secondly, hydrogen can produce much higher nozzle exit velocity because of its small molecular weight. A one-dimensional, transient numerical model was used to analyze a generic RBCC engine and it is used as a baseline to evaluate an imaginary ABCC engine performance. A nuclear reactor is treated as a black box energy source that replaces the role of the primary rocket and the chemical combustion chamber in a RBCC engine. The performance of a generic ABCC engine along a flight path (q0 =10 (exp 3) lbf per square ft) shows that the mission averaged-specific impulse is about twice larger than RBCC engine and the dry mass-ratio is about 50% larger. Results of the present ABCC engine performance are based on the assumptions that the flow passage of working fluids is identical to that of RBCC engine and that a nuclear reactor is treated as an energy black box. Preliminary heat transfer calculation shows that the rate of heat transfer to the working fluids is within the limit of turbulent convective heat transfer regimes. The flow passage of realistic ABCC engine must be known for a better prediction of ABCC engine performance. Also, critical heat transfer calculations must be performed for the ejector mode and ramjet mode operations. This is possible only when the details of a reactor configuration are available.

Han, Samuel S.↗

NASA NTRS1993

Simplified jet fuel reaction mechanism for lean burn combustion application

Successful modeling of combustion and emissions in gas turbine engine combustors requires an adequate description of the reaction mechanism. Detailed mechanisms contain a large number of chemical species participating simultaneously in many elementary kinetic steps. Current computational fluid dynamic models must include fuel vaporization, fuel-air mixing, chemical reactions, and complicated boundary geometries. A five-step Jet-A fuel mechanism which involves pyrolysis and subsequent oxidation of paraffin and aromatic compounds is presented. This mechanism is verified by comparing with Jet-A fuel ignition delay time experimental data, and species concentrations obtained from flametube experiments. This five-step mechanism appears to be better than the current one- and two-step mechanisms.

Lee, Chi-Ming↗

NASA NTRS2017

Thermochemistry of Calcium-Magnesium-Aluminum-Silicate (CMAS) and Components of Advanced Thermal and Environmental Barrier Coating Systems

There is increasing interest in the degradation mechanism studies of thermal and environmental barrier coatings (TEBCs) of gas turbines by molten CaO-MgO-Al(exp. 2)O(exp. 3)-SiO(exp. 2) CMAS). CMAS minerals are usually referred as silicon-containing sand dust and volcano ash materials that are carried by the intake air into gas turbines, e.g. in aircraft engines, and their deposits often react at high temperatures (greater than 1200 degrees C) with the engine turbine coating systems and components. The high temperature reactions causes degradation and accelerated failure of the static and rotating components of the turbine engines. We discuss some results of the reactions between the CMAS and Rare-Earth (RE = Y, Yb, Dy, Gd, Nd and Sm) - oxide stabilized ZrO(exp. 2) or HfO(exp. 2) systems, and the stability of the resulting oxides and silicates. Plasma sprayed hollow tube samples (outside diameter = 4.7 mm, wall thickness = 0.76 mm and = 26 mm height) were half filled with CMAS powder, wrapped and sealed with platinum foil, and heat treated at 1310 degrees C for 5h. Samples were characterized by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), X-ray diffraction, and cross-section electron microscopy analysis and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. It was found that CMAS penetrated the samples at the grain boundaries and dissolved the TEBC materials to form silicate phases containing the rare-earth elements. Furthermore, it was found that apatite crystalline phases were formed in the samples with total rare-earth content higher than 12 mol% in the reaction zone for the ZrO(exp. 2) system. In general, samples with the nominal compositions (30YSZ), HfO(exp. 2)-7Dy(exp. 2)O(exp. 2) and ZrO(exp. 2)-9.5Y(exp. 2)O(exp. 3)-2.25Gd(exp. 2)O(exp. 3)-2.25Yb(exp. 2)O(exp. 3) exhibited lower reactivity or more resistance to CMAS than the other coating compositions of this work.

degradation↗

NASA NTRS1981

Silicon production process evaluations

Chemical engineering analysis of the HSC process (Hemlock Semiconductor Corporation) for producing silicon from dichlorosilane in a 1,000 MT/yr plant was continued. Progress and status for the chemical engineering analysis of the HSC process are reported for the primary process design engineering activities: base case conditions (85%), reaction chemistry (85%), process flow diagram (60%), material balance (60%), energy balance (30%), property data (30%), equipment design (20%) and major equipment list (10%). Engineering design of the initial distillation column (D-01, stripper column) in the process was initiated. The function of the distillation column is to remove volatile gases (such as hydrogen and nitrogen) which are dissolved in liquid chlorosilanes. Initial specifications and results for the distillation column design are reported including the variation of tray requirements (equilibrium stages) with reflux ratio for the distillation.

Source record↗

NASA NTRS1990

Integrating planning and reaction: A preliminary report

The Entropy Reduction Engine architecture for integrating planning, scheduling, and control is examined. The architecture is motivated through a NASA mission scenario and a brief list of design goals. An overview is presented of the Entropy Reduction Engine architecture by describing its major components, their interactions, and the way in which these interacting components satisfy the design goals.

Bresina, John L.↗

NASA NTRS1983

Reactions of NaCl with Gaseous SO3, SO2, and O2

Hot corrosion of gas turbine engine components involves deposits of Na2SO4 which are produced by reactions between NaCl and oxides of sulfur. For the present investigation, NaCl single crystals were exposed at 100 to 850 C to gaseous mixtures of SO3, SO2, and O2. The products formed during this exposure depend, primarily, on the temperatures. The four product films were: NaCl-SO3; Na2S2O7; Na2SO4; and NaCl-Na2SO4. The kinetics of the reactions were measured.

Fielder, W. L.↗

NASA NTRS1984

Reactions of NaCl with gaseous SO3, SO2, and O2

Fielder, W. L.↗

NASA NTRS1974

Mariner Mars 1971 attitude control subsystem

The Mariner Mars 1971 attitude control subsystem (ACS) is discussed. It is comprised of a sun sensor set, a Canopus tracker, an inertial reference unit, two cold gas reaction control assemblies, two rocket engine gimbal actuators, and an attitude control electronics unit. The subsystem has the following eight operating modes: (1) launch, (2) sun acquisition, (3) roll search, (4) celestial cruise, (5) all-axes inertial, (6) roll inertial, (7) commanded turn, and (8) thrust vector control. In the celestial cruise mode, the position control is held to plus or minus 0.25 deg. Commanded turn rates are plus or minus 0.18 deg/s. The attitude control logic in conjunction with command inputs from other spacecraft subsystems establishes the ACS operating mode. The logic utilizes Sun and Canopus acquisition signals generated within the ACS to perform automatic mode switching so that dependence of ground control is minimized when operating in the sun acquisition, roll search, and celestial cruise modes. The total ACS weight is 65.7 lb, and includes 5.4 lb of nitrogen gas. Total power requirements vary from 9 W for the celestial cruise mode to 54 W for the commanded turn mode.

Edmunds, R. S.↗

NASA NTRS1979

Electromagnetic propulsion alternatives

Mass drivers can serve to propel massive objects by expelling any available material as reaction mass, however, mass driver engines have several limitations such as relatively large payload size and dynamic stability problems. A number of alternative acceleration mechanisms exist which offer advantages for certain applications, such as higher acceleration at a sacrifice in efficiency, smaller possible size and decreased complexity at a sacrifice in service life, etc. The alternative concepts include several variants of the railgun, a family of superconducting slingshot oscillators, a momentum transformer, an impulse induction motor, and a family of hybrid synchronous accelerators. A potential application of considerable interest is the earth-based launching of space cargo or nuclear waste by using off-peak generating capacity to accelerate one ton cargo cylinders at intervals of several minutes.

Kolm, H.↗

NASA NTRS1981

NASA V/STOL Propulsion Control Analysis - Phase I and II program status

NASA-Lewis Research Center initiated the V/STOL Propulsion Control Analysis Program in 1979 in order to take advantage of advanced electronic control technology for the next generation of V/STOL aircraft. The rationale, methods, and criteria developed during Phase I and Phase II of the program are discussed first. The development of an integrated flight and propulsion control system is then described. Most V/STOL aircraft under consideration depend on reaction thrusters or separate lift engines for attitude control and on engine thrust variations for height control. S/CTOL aircraft vector-thrust for pitch control during low speed operation. The baseline propulsion control system provides a thrust level response of 10 rad/sec and a vectoring response of 22 rad/sec. The requirements of the control components include: (1) redundant electronic control computers with minimum software and 100% Fault Coverage; (2) prime reliable electromechanical actuator interfaces; (3) miniature, digitally compatible sensors with easily detected failure modes; and (4) dual element, fail operational fuel pumps.

Miller, R. J.↗

NASA NTRS1982

Shuttle operational expectations

The results of orbital flight tests (OFT) of the Space Shuttle are reviewed, and modifications planned for upcoming operational flights are discussed. The performance of the solid rocket boosters, external tank, main engines, structural system, propulsion system, reaction control system, electric power system, heat rejection system, hydraulic system, avionics, and other systems is described and evaluated as generally highly satisfactory. Payload servicing and deployment were also successfully demonstrated by OFT. Additional facilities planned for the operational flights are briefly described, and improvements that will make the Challenger spacecraft lighter than Columbia, provide it with more thrust, and give it a larger payload are summarized. Some software modifications being introduced are also mentioned.

Abrahamson, J. A.↗

NASA NTRS1999

Human Mars Mission Performance Crew Taxi Profile

This timeline was generated on the Integrated Mission Program (IMP). All burn events over 2 seconds are finite with IMP solving a two point boundary value setup for begin burn time, burn time and control angles. Perigee and apogee shown above are mean orbital values. Significant events are listed. Each finite thrust event has two lines. The first is the beginning time showing the initial conditions, thrust and ISP used. The second has the end burn conditions and the delta v and time of burn. This case is an abort from the 750 x 750 phasing abort, using the taxi's main engines. An abort using the Reaction Control System (RCS) was also investigated but required a large increase in RCS propellant and was abandoned.

Duaro, Vince A.↗