Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “Centrifugal compressor”

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.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 217 records · Page 12

Characterization of Ni19.5Ti50.5Pd25Pt5 High-Temperature Shape Memory Alloy Springs and their Potential Application in Aeronautics

Shape memory alloys (SMAs) have been used as actuators in many different industries since the discovery of the shape memory effect, but the use of SMAs as actuation devices in aeronautics has been limited due to the temperature constraints of commercially available materials. Consequently, work is being done at NASA's Glenn Research Center to develop new SMAs capable of being used in high temperature environments. One of the more promising high-temperature shape memory alloys (HTSMAs) is Ni19.5Ti50.5Pd25Pt5. Recent work has shown that this material is capable of being used in operating environments of up to 250 C. This material has been shown to have very useful actuation capabilities, demonstrating repeatable strain recoveries up to 2.5% in the presence of an externally applied load. Based on these findings, further work has been initiated to explore potential applications and alternative forms of this alloy, such as springs. Thus, characterization of Ni19.5Ti50.5Pd25Pt5 springs, including their mechanical response and how variations in this response correlate to changes in geometric parameters, are discussed. The effects of loading history, or training, on spring behavior were also investigated. A comparison of the springs with wire actuators is made and the benefits of using one actuator form as opposed to the other discussed. These findings are used to discuss design considerations for a surge-control mechanism that could be used in the centrifugal compressor of a T-700 helicopter engine.

Stebner, Aaron↗

NASA Tech Briefs, September 2007

Topics covered include; Rapid Fabrication of Carbide Matrix/Carbon Fiber Composites; Coating Thermoelectric Devices To Suppress Sublimation; Ultrahigh-Temperature Ceramics; Improved C/SiC Ceramic Composites Made Using PIP; Coating Carbon Fibers With Platinum; Two-Band, Low-Loss Microwave Window; MCM Polarimetric Radiometers for Planar Arrays; Aperture-Coupled Thin-Membrane L-Band Antenna; WGM-Based Photonic Local Oscillators and Modulators; Focal-Plane Arrays of Quantum-Dot Infrared Photodetectors; Laser Range and Bearing Finder With No Moving Parts; Microrectenna: A Terahertz Antenna and Rectifier on a Chip; Miniature L-Band Radar Transceiver; Robotic Vision-Based Localization in an Urban Environment; Programs for Testing an SSME-Monitoring System; Cathodoluminescent Source of Intense White Light; Displaying and Analyzing Antenna Radiation Patterns; Payload Operations Support Team Tools; Space-Shuttle Emulator Software; Soft Real-Time PID Control on a VME Computer; Analyzing Radio-Frequency Coverage for the ISS; Nanorod-Based Fast-Response Pressure-Sensitive Paints; Capacitors Would Help Protect Against Hypervelocity Impacts; Diaphragm Pump With Resonant Piezoelectric Drive; Improved Quick-Release Pin Mechanism; Designing Rolling-Element Bearings; Reverse-Tangent Injection in a Centrifugal Compressor; Inertial Measurements for Aero-assisted Navigation (IMAN); Analysis of Complex Valve and Feed Systems; Improved Path Planning Onboard the Mars Exploration Rovers; Robust, Flexible Motion Control for the Mars Explorer Rovers; Solar Sail Spaceflight Simulation; Fluorine-Based DRIE of Fused Silica; Mechanical Alloying for Making Thermoelectric Compounds; Process for High-Rate Fabrication of Alumina Nanotemplates; Electroform/Plasma-Spray Laminates for X-Ray Optics; An Automated Flying-Insect Detection System; Calligraphic Poling of Ferroelectric Material; Blackbody Cavity for Calibrations at 200 to 273 K; KML Super Overlay to WMS Translator; High-Performance Tiled WMS and KML Web Server; Modeling of Radiative Transfer in Protostellar Disks; Composite Pulse Tube; Photometric Calibration of Consumer Video Cameras; Criterion for Identifying Vortices in High- Pressure Flows; Amplified Thermionic Cooling Using Arrays of Nanowires; Delamination-Indicating Thermal Barrier Coatings; Preventing Raman Lasing in High-Q WGM Resonators; Procedures for Tuning a Multiresonator Photonic Filter; Robust Mapping of Incoherent Fiber-Optic Bundles; Extended-Range Ultrarefractive 1D Photonic Crystal Prisms; Rapid Analysis of Mass Distribution of Radiation Shielding; Modeling Magnetic Properties in EZTB; Deep Space Network Antenna Logic Controller; Modeling Carbon and Hydrocarbon Molecular Structures in EZTB; BigView Image Viewing on Tiled Displays; and Imaging Sensor Flight and Test Equipment Software.

Source record↗

NASA Tech Briefs, April 2004

Topics covered include: Analysis of SSEM Sensor Data Using BEAM; Hairlike Percutaneous Photochemical Sensors; Video Guidance Sensors Using Remotely Activated Targets; Simulating Remote Sensing Systems; EHW Approach to Temperature Compensation of Electronics; Polymorphic Electronic Circuits; Micro-Tubular Fuel Cells; Whispering-Gallery-Mode Tunable Narrow-Band-Pass Filter; PVM Wrapper; Simulation of Hyperspectral Images; Algorithm for Controlling a Centrifugal Compressor; Hybrid Inflatable Pressure Vessel; Double-Acting, Locking Carabiners; Position Sensor Integral with a Linear Actuator; Improved Electromagnetic Brake; Flow Straightener for a Rotating-Drum Liquid Separator; Sensory-Feedback Exoskeletal Arm Controller; Active Suppression of Instabilities in Engine Combustors; Fabrication of Robust, Flat, Thinned, UV-Imaging CCDs; Chemical Thinning Process for Fabricating UV-Imaging CCDs; Pseudoslit Spectrometer; Waste-Heat-Driven Cooling Using Complex Compound Sorbents; Improved Refractometer for Measuring Temperatures of Drops; Semiconductor Lasers Containing Quantum Wells in Junctions; Phytoplankton-Fluorescence-Lifetime Vertical Profiler; Hexagonal Pixels and Indexing Scheme for Binary Images; Finding Minimum-Power Broadcast Trees for Wireless Networks; and Automation of Design Engineering Processes.

Source record↗

3D Structured Grid Generation Codes for Turbomachinery

This report describes the research tasks during the past year. The research was mainly in the area of computational grid generation in support of CFD analyses of turbomachinery components. In addition to the grid generation work, a numerical simulation was obtained for the flow through a centrifugal gas compressor using an unstructured Navier-Stokes solver. Other tasks involved many different turbomachinery component analyses. These analyses were performed for NASA projects or for industrial applications. The work includes both centrifugal and axial machines, single and multiple blade rows, and steady and unsteady analyses. Over the past five years, a set of structured grid generation codes were developed that allow grids to be obtained fairly quickly for the large majority of configurations we encounter. These codes do not comprise a generalized grid generation package; they are noninteractive codes specifically designed for turbomachinery blade row geometries. But because of this limited scope, the codes are small, fast, and portable, and they can be run in the batch mode on small workstations. During the past year, these programs were used to generate computational grids were modified for a wide variety of configurations. In particular, the codes or wrote supplementary codes to improve our grid generation capabilities for multiple blade row configurations. This involves generating separate grids for each blade row, and then making them match and overlap by a few grid points at their common interface so that fluid properties are communicated across the interface. Unsteady rotor/stator analyses were performed for an axial turbine, a centrifugal compressor, and a centrifugal pump. Steady-state single-blade-row analyses were made for a study of blade sweep in transonic compressors. There was also cooperation on the application of an unstructured Navier-Stokes solver for turbomachinery flow simulations. In particular, the unstructured solver was used to analyze the flow through a centriftio compressor impeller.

Loellbach, James↗

An examination of gas compressor stability and rotating stall

The principal sources of vibration related reliability problems in high pressure centrifugal gas compressors are the re-excitation of the first critical speed or Resonant Subsynchronous Vibration (RSSV), and the forced vibration due to rotating stall in the vaneless diffusers downstream of the impellers. An example of such field problems is given elsewhere. This paper describes the results of a test program at the author's company, initiated in 1983 and completed during 1985, which studied the RSSV threshold and the rotating stall phenomenon in a high pressure gas compressor.

Fozi, Aziz A.↗

Comparisons of Rig and Engine Dynamic Events in the Compressor of an Axi-Centrifugal Turboshaft Engine

Steady state and dynamic data were acquired in a T55-L-712 compressor rig. In addition, a T55-L-12 engine was instrumented and similar data were acquired. Rig and engine stall/surge data were analyzed using modal techniques. This paper compares rig and engine preliminary results for the ground idle (approximately 60% of design speed) point. The results of these analyses indicate both rig and engine dynamic event are preceded by indications of traveling wave energy in front of the compressor face. For both rig and engine, the traveling wave energy contains broad band energy with some prominent narrow peaks and, while the events are similar in many ways, some noticeable differences exist between the results of the analyses of rig data and engine data.

Owen, A. Karl↗

Performance of Compressor of XJ-41-V Turbojet Engine: Performance Analysis Over Range of Compressor Speeds from 5000 to 10,000 RPM - 4

An investigation of the XJ-41-V turbojet-engine compressor was conducted to determine the performance of the compressor and to obtain fundamental information on the aerodynamic problems associated with large centrifugal-type compressors. The results of the research conducted on the original compressor indicated the compressor would not meet the desired engine-design air-flow requirements because of an air-flow restriction in the vaned collector. The compressor air-flow choking point occurred near the entrance to the vaned-collector passage and was instigated by a poor mass-flow distribution at the vane entrance and from relatively large negative angles of attack of the air stream along the entrance edges of the vanes at the outer passage wall and large positive angles of attack at the inner passage wall. As a result of the analysis, a design change of the vaned collector entrance is recommended for improving the maximum flow capacity of the compressor.

John W R Creagh↗

A Thermodynamic Study of the Turbojet Engine

Charts are presented for computing thrust, fuel consumption, and other performance values of a turbojet engine for any given set of operating conditions and component efficiencies. The effects of pressure losses in the inlet duct and the combustion chamber, of variation in physical properties of the gas as it passes through the system, of reheating of the gas due to turbine losses, and of change in mass flow by the addition of fuel are included. The principle performance chart shows the effects of primary variables and correction charts provide the effects of secondary variables and of turbine-loss reheat on the performance of the system. The influence of characteristics of a given compressor and turbine on performance of a turbojet engine containing a matched set of these given components is discussed for cases of an engine with a centrifugal-flow compressor and of an engine with an axial-flow compressor.

Pinkel, Benjamin↗

Method of reducing hydraulic instability

The present invention is directed to a method and apparatus for improving the flow range in centrifugal pumps and compressors. Bleed holes are introduced into a volute tongue of a centrifugal pump or compressor thereby providing a double acting means of boundary layer control at the volute tongue.

Veres, Joseph P.↗

Electropneumatic transducer automatically limits motor current

Pneumatic controller regulates the load on a centrifugal freon compressor in a water cooling system, thus limiting the current input to an electric motor driving it. An electromechanical transducer monitoring the motor input current sends out air signals which indicate changes in the current to the pneumatic controller.

Lovitt, T. F.↗

Turbo fluid machinery and diffusers

The general theory behind turbo devices and diffusers is explained. Problems and the state of research on basic equations of flow and experimental and measuring methods are discussed. Conventional centrifugation-type compressor and fan diffusers are considered in detail.

Sakurai, T.↗

Rotary-Wing Relevant Compressor Aero Research and Technology Development Activities at Glenn Research Center

Technical challenges of compressors for future rotorcraft engines are driven by engine-level and component-level requirements. Cycle analyses are used to highlight the engine-level challenges for 3000, 7500, and 12000 SHP-class engines, which include retention of performance and stability margin at low corrected flows, and matching compressor type, axial-flow or centrifugal, to the low corrected flows and high temperatures in the aft stages. At the component level: power-to-weight and efficiency requirements impel designs with lower inherent aerodynamic stability margin; and, optimum engine overall pressure ratios lead to small blade heights and the associated challenges of scale, particularly increased clearance-to-span ratios. The technical challenges associated with the aerodynamics of low corrected flows and stability management impel the compressor aero research and development efforts reviewed herein. These activities include development of simple models for clearance sensitivities to improve cycle calculations, full-annulus, unsteady Navier-Stokes simulations used to elucidate stall, its inception, and the physics of stall control by discrete tip-injection, development of an actuator-duct-based model for rapid simulation of nonaxisymmetric flow fields (e.g., due inlet circumferential distortion), advanced centrifugal compressor stage development and experimentation, and application of stall control in a T700 engine.

Welch, Gerard E.↗

Compressor Study to Meet Large Civil Tilt Rotor Engine Requirements

A vehicle concept study has been made to meet the requirements of the Large Civil Tilt Rotorcraft vehicle mission. A vehicle concept was determined, and a notional turboshaft engine system study was conducted. The engine study defined requirements for the major engine components, including the compressor. The compressor design-point goal was to deliver a pressure ratio of 31:1 at an inlet weight flow of 28.4 lbm/sec. To perform a conceptual design of two potential compressor configurations to meet the design requirement, a mean-line compressor flow analysis and design code were used. The first configuration is an eight-stage axial compressor. Some challenges of the all-axial compressor are the small blade spans of the rear-block stages being 0.28 in., resulting in the last-stage blade tip clearance-to-span ratio of 2.4%. The second configuration is a seven-stage axial compressor, with a centrifugal stage having a 0.28-in. impeller-exit blade span. The compressors conceptual designs helped estimate the flow path dimensions, rotor leading and trailing edge blade angles, flow conditions, and velocity triangles for each stage.

Veres, Joseph P.↗

Compressor Study to Meet Large Civil Tilt Rotor Engine Requirements

A vehicle concept study has been made to meet the requirements of the Large Civil Tilt Rotorcraft vehicle mission. A vehicle concept was determined, and a notional turboshaft engine system study was conducted. The engine study defined requirements for the major engine components, including the compressor. The compressor design-point goal was to deliver a pressure ratio of 31:1 at an inlet weight flow of 28.4 lbm/sec. To perform a conceptual design of two potential compressor configurations to meet the design requirement, a mean-line compressor flow analysis and design code were used. The first configuration is an eight-stage axial compressor. Some challenges of the all-axial compressor are the small blade spans of the rear-block stages being 0.28 in., resulting in the last-stage blade tip clearance-to-span ratio of 2.4 percent. The second configuration is a seven-stage axial compressor, with a centrifugal stage having a 0.28-in. impeller-exit blade span. The compressors conceptual designs helped estimate the flow path dimensions, rotor leading and trailing edge blade angles, flow conditions, and velocity triangles for each stage.

Veres, Joseph P.↗

Backswept impeller and vane island diffuser and shroud for NASA advanced-concepts compressor test rig

A centrifugal impeller based on an existing backswept design was defined. In addition, a vaned diffuser was designed to match this impeller and also to be compatible with an existing 6:1 compressor test rig. The mechanical integrity of this design was verified by analysis. Hardware was procured and inspected to insure conformity with design tolerances. An overspeed test was successfully conducted on one of the impellers fabricated under this program.

Perrone, G. L.↗