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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 NTRS1992

Failure risk assessment by analysis and testing

The sources of information on which to base an evaluation of reliability or failure risk of an aerospace flight system are (1) experience from tests and flights and (2) engineering analysis. It is rarely feasible to establish high reliability at high confidence by testing aerospace systems or components. Moreover, failure prediction by conventional, deterministic methods of engineering analysis can become arbitrary and subject to serious misinterpretation when uncertain or approximate information is used to establish analysis parameter values and to calibrate the accuracy of engineering models. The limitations of testing to evaluate failure risk are discussed, and a statistical approach which incorporates both engineering analysis and testing is presented.

Moore, N.↗
NASA NTRS1998

RSRM Nozzle Anomalous Throat Erosion Investigation Overview

In September, 1996, anomalous pocketing erosion was observed in the aft end of the throat ring of the nozzle of one of the reusable solid rocket motors (RSRM 56B) used on NASA's space transportation system (STS) mission 79. The RSRM throat ring is constructed of bias tape-wrapped carbon cloth/ phenolic (CCP) ablative material. A comprehensive investigation revealed necessary and sufficient conditions for occurrence of the pocketing event and provided rationale that the solid rocket motors for the subsequent mission, STS-80, were safe to fly. The nozzles of both of these motors also exhibited anomalous erosion similar to, but less extensive than that observed on STS-79. Subsequent to this flight, the investigation to identify both the specific causes and the corrective actions for elimination of the necessary and sufficient conditions for the pocketing erosion was intensified. A detailed fault tree approach was utilized to examine potential material and process contributors to the anomalous performance. The investigation involved extensive constituent and component material property testing, pedigree assessments, supplier audits, process audits, full scale processing test article fabrication and evaluation, thermal and thermostructural analyses, nondestructive evaluation, and material performance tests conducted using hot fire simulation in laboratory test beds and subscale and full scale solid rocket motor static test firings. This presentation will provide an over-view of the observed anomalous nozzle erosion and the comprehensive, fault-tree based investigation conducted to resolve this issue.

Clinton, R. G., Jr.↗
NASA NTRS2000

Slow Crack Growth Analysis of Advanced Structural Ceramics Under Combined Loading Conditions: Damage Assessment in Life Prediction Testing

Slow crack growth analysis was performed with three different loading histories including constant stress-rate/constant stress-rate testing (Case I loading), constant stress/constant stress-rate testing (Case II loading), and cyclic stress/constant stress-rate testing (Case III loading). Strength degradation due to slow crack growth arid/or damage accumulation was determined numerically as a Function of percentage of interruption time between the two loading sequences for a given loading history. The numerical solutions were examined with the experimental data determined at elevated temperatures using four different advanced ceramic materials, two silicon nitrides, one silicon carbide and one alumina for the Case I loading history, and alumina for the Case II loading history. The numerical solutions were in reasonable agreement with the experimental data, indicating that notwithstanding some degree of creep deformation presented for some test materials slow crack growth was a governing mechanism associated with failure for all the test material&

Choi, Sung R.↗
NASA NTRS2000

Slow Crack Growth Analysis of Advanced Structural Ceramics Under Combined Loading Conditions: Damage Assessment in Life Prediction Testing

Slow crack growth analysis was performed with three different loading histories including constant stress-rate/constant stress-rate testing (Case 1 loading), constant stress/constant stress-rate testing (Case 2 loading), and cyclic stress/constant stress-rate testing (Case 2 loading). Strength degradation due to slow crack growth and/or damage accumulation was determined numerically as a function of percentage of interruption time between the two loading sequences for a given loading history. The numerical solutions were examined with the experimental data determined at elevated temperatures using four different advanced ceramic materials, two silicon nitrides, one silicon carbide and one alumina for the Case 1 loading history, and alumina for the Case 3 loading history. The numerical solutions were in reasonable agreement with the experimental data, indicating that notwithstanding some degree of creep deformation presented for some test materials slow crack growth was a governing mechanism associated with failure for all the test materials.

Choi, Sung R.↗
NASA NTRS2001

Slow Crack Growth Analysis of Advanced Structural Ceramics Under Combined Loading Conditions: Damage Assessment in Life Prediction Testing

Slow crack growth analysis was performed with three different loading histories including constant stress- rate/constant stress-rate testing (Case I loading), constant stress/constant stress-rate testing (Case II loading), and cyclic stress/constant stress-rate testing (Case III loading). Strength degradation due to slow crack growth and/or damage accumulation was determined numerically as a function of percentage of interruption time between the two loading sequences for a given loading history. The numerical solutions were examined with the experimental data determined at elevated temperatures using four different advanced ceramic materials, two silicon nitrides, one silicon carbide and one alumina for the Case I loading history, and alumina for the Case II loading history. The numerical solutions were in reasonable agreement with the experimental data, indicating that notwithstanding some degree of creep deformation presented for some test materials slow crack growth was a governing mechanism associated with failure for all the rest materials.

Choi, S. R.↗
NASA NTRS2017

Temporary Thermocouple Attachment for Thermal/Vacuum Testing at Non-Extreme Temperatures - Test Results

Post-test examination and data analysis that followed a two week long vacuum test showed that numerous self-stick thermocouples became detached from the test article. The thermocouples were reattached with thermally conductive epoxy and the test was repeated to obtain the required data. Because the thermocouple detachment resulted in significant expense and rework, it was decided to investigate the temporary attachment methods used around NASA and to perform a test to assess their efficacy. The present work describes the testing that was performed in early and mid-2017. The test article and the temporary thermocouple attachment methods tested are described. During the first test, fully half of the thermocouples detached - although the detachment showed subtly in the data for some. The second test was performed to confirm the data from the first test and to investigate the effect of test article and thermocouple grounding. The results of the testing over temperatures ranging from -150 to 200degF are detailed and preliminary recommendations are made for temporary thermocouple attachment methods.

Wright, Sarah E.↗
NASA NTRS1996

Computational Pollutant Environment Assessment from Propulsion-System Testing

An asymptotic plume growth method based on a time-accurate three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics formulation has been developed to assess the exhaust-plume pollutant environment from a simulated RD-170 engine hot-fire test on the F1 Test Stand at Marshall Space Flight Center. Researchers have long known that rocket-engine hot firing has the potential for forming thermal nitric oxides, as well as producing carbon monoxide when hydrocarbon fuels are used. Because of the complex physics involved, most attempts to predict the pollutant emissions from ground-based engine testing have used simplified methods, which may grossly underpredict and/or overpredict the pollutant formations in a test environment. The objective of this work has been to develop a computational fluid dynamics-based methodology that replicates the underlying test-stand flow physics to accurately and efficiently assess pollutant emissions from ground-based rocket-engine testing. A nominal RD-170 engine hot-fire test was computed, and pertinent test-stand flow physics was captured. The predicted total emission rates compared reasonably well with those of the existing hydrocarbon engine hot-firing test data.

Wang, Ten-See↗
NASA NTRS2001

Further Studies of Materials Compatibility in High-Test Hydrogen Peroxide

Assessment of the compatibility of high-test hydrogen peroxide (HTP) with materials, in particular new materials such as composites, is critical to the development of new propulsion systems meeting requirements of reduced cost and environmental impact. While compatibility with HTP has been addressed previously, newer materials were not considered. The focus of this project was to develop a scheme for evaluation of HTP with all materials. In the previous summer, methods were developed for production of HTP on site, and preliminary steps were taken to evaluate materials. Methods investigated this summer have included accelerated aging by heating, coupled with assay of concentration and stabilization loss, observation of reactivity by means of Isothermal Microcalorimetry, and evaluation of changes to the materials by Short Beam Shear testing and by Photoacoustic-Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy. Various metals, polymers, and composites were examined in this study.

Gostowski, R.↗
NASA NTRS1978

Thermal performance of a hot-air solar collector

Report contains procedures and results of thermal-performance tests on double-glazed air solar collector. Four types of tests were carried out including thermal-efficiency and stagnation tests, collector time-constant tests to assess effects of transients, and incident-angle modifier tests. Data are presented in tables and as graphs and are discussed and analyzed.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS2013

Assessment Environment for Complex Systems Software Guide

This Software Guide (SG) describes the software developed to test the Assessment Environment for Complex Systems (AECS) by the West Virginia High Technology Consortium (WVHTC) Foundation's Mission Systems Group (MSG) for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate (ARMD). This software is referred to as the AECS Test Project throughout the remainder of this document. AECS provides a framework for developing, simulating, testing, and analyzing modern avionics systems within an Integrated Modular Avionics (IMA) architecture. The purpose of the AECS Test Project is twofold. First, it provides a means to test the AECS hardware and system developed by MSG. Second, it provides an example project upon which future AECS research may be based. This Software Guide fully describes building, installing, and executing the AECS Test Project as well as its architecture and design. The design of the AECS hardware is described in the AECS Hardware Guide. Instructions on how to configure, build and use the AECS are described in the User's Guide. Sample AECS software, developed by the WVHTC Foundation, is presented in the AECS Software Guide. The AECS Hardware Guide, AECS User's Guide, and AECS Software Guide are authored by MSG. The requirements set forth for AECS are presented in the Statement of Work for the Assessment Environment for Complex Systems authored by NASA Dryden Flight Research Center (DFRC). The intended audience for this document includes software engineers, hardware engineers, project managers, and quality assurance personnel from WVHTC Foundation (the suppliers of the software), NASA (the customer), and future researchers (users of the software). Readers are assumed to have general knowledge in the field of real-time, embedded computer software development.

tests↗
NASA NTRS2002

Apolipoprotein E expression and behavioral toxicity of high charge, high energy (HZE) particle radiation

Apolipoprotein E (apoE) is a lipid binding protein that plays an important role in tissue repair following brain injury. In the present studies, we have investigated whether apoE affects the behavioral toxicity of high charge, high energy (HZE) particle radiation. METHODS: Sixteen male apoE knockout (KO) mice and sixteen genetically matched wild-type (WT) C57BL mice were used in this experiment. Half of the KO and half of the WT animals were irradiated with 600 MeV/amu iron particles (2 Gy whole body). The effect of irradiation on motor coordination and stamina (Rotarod test), exploratory behavior (open field test), and spatial working and reference memory (Morris water maze) was assessed. ROTAROD TEST: Performance was adversely affected by radiation exposure in both KO and WT groups at 30 d after irradiation. By 60 d after radiation, the radiation effect was lost in WT, but still apparent in irradiated KO mice. OPEN FIELD TEST: Radiation reduced open field exploratory activity 14, 28, 56, 84, and 168 d after irradiation of KO mice, but had no effect on WT mice. MORRIS WATER MAZE: Radiation adversely affected spatial working memory in the KO mice, but had no discernible effect in the WT mice as assessed 180 d after irradiation. In contrast, irradiated WT mice showed marked impairment of spatial reference memory in comparison to non-irradiated mice, while no effect of radiation was observed in KO mice. CONCLUSIONS: These studies show that apoE expression influences the behavioral toxicity of HZE particle radiation and suggest that apoE plays a role in the repair/recovery from radiation injury of the CNS. ApoE deficiency may exacerbate the previously reported effects of HZE particle radiation in accelerating the brain aging process.

Non-NASA Center↗
NASA NTRS1984

A slotted test section numerical model for interference assessment

A numerical model of a slotted wind tunnel test section, intended for use with sparsely measured wall pressures in a wall interference assessment procedure, is described. The numerical model includes a discrete finite length wall slot representation and accounts for the nonlinear effects of the dynamic pressure of the slot outflow jet and of the low energy of slot inflow air. By using th numerical model in a wall interference prediction mode, it is demonstrated that accounting for slot discreteness is important in interpreting wall pressures measured between slots, and that accounting for finite slot length and nonlinear effects in the slot boundary condition can yield significant departures from the wall interference predicted using the classical linear homogeneous infinite-length wall representation.

Kemp, W. B., Jr.↗
NASA NTRS2012

Pilot Test of a Novel Method for Assessing Community Response to Low-Amplitude Sonic Booms

A pilot test of a novel method for assessing residents annoyance to sonic booms was performed. During a two-week period, residents of the base housing area at Edwards Air Force Base provided data on their reactions to sonic booms using Smartphone-based interviews. Noise measurements were conducted at the same time. The report presents information about data collection methods and about test participants reactions to low-amplitude sonic booms. The latter information should not be viewed as definitive for several reasons. It may not be reliably generalized to the wider U.S. residential population (because it was not derived from a representative random sample) and the sample itself was not large.

Fidell, Sanford↗
NASA NTRS1977

Results of baseline tests of the Lucas Limousine

The Lucas Limousine, an electric vehicle, was tested to assess the state-of-the-art of electric vehicles. All tests were made without the regenerative braking system and were conducted at the gross vehicle weight of 7,700 pounds. Over a 30 mph stop and go driving cycle the vehicle went 48.4 miles. The vehicle was able to accelerate to 30 mph in about 15 seconds with a gradeability limit of 16.5 percent. As determined by coast down tests the road power and road energy consumption for the vehicle were 2.92 kilowatts and 0.146 kWh/mi, respectively, at 20 mph. At 40 mph the road power requirement was 11.12 kilowatts and the road energy requirement was 0.278 kWh/mi. The maximum energy economy measured 0.45 kilowatt hours per mile at 30 mph and increased to 0.76 kilowatt hours per mile at 50 mph. Over the 30 mph stop and go driving cycle the energy economy was 0.92 kilowatt hours per mile.

Soltis, R. F.↗