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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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Manufacturing process produces molybdenum foil 0.002 cm thick and 305 m long, and forms foil into high-strength, thin-walled tubing which can be flattened for storage on a spool. Desirable metal properties include high thermal conductivity stiffness, yield and tensile stress, and low thermal expansion coeffecient.
As a result of the rapidly decreasing pressure in the topside ionosphere during twilight hours, a rapid downward flow of hydrogen plasma from the protonosphere takes place. In the case of steady state, isothermal, frictionless flow, the criterion for the existence of a critical point (transition to supersonic flow) above 1000 km is that the plasma temperature be lower than a certain limiting temperature which is a function of the field line considered. In the latitude region between 40 and 70 deg, this upper temperature limit varies from 963 to 1066 K. Since these temperatures are considerably lower than the observed temperatures, it follows that in the case of steady state, isothermal flow the velocities will always remain subsonic. When the effect of the neglected terms is examined, the temperature gradient is shown to exert the strongest influence on the nature of the flow. It is concluded that there is a definite possibility that supersonic downward flows in a post-sunset topside ionosphere may occur.
Particle motion in the secularly varying geomagnetic field is investigated in terms of a dipolar magnetic field with decreasing magnetic moment M. For dM/dt equal to the rate of decay of the earth's dipole component, we find there is drift in B-L space, resulting in an inward drift of particles accompanied with increased energy and unidirectional intensity. Secular variation of the geomagnetic field appears to be a dominant mechanism for radial drift in the inner radiation belt.
Moving and expandable parts of gun consist of pump-tube diaphragm, piston, launch-tube diaphragm, and saboted projectile. As a result of improved piston design, pressure cycle has been significantly improved by smoother buildup, increasing muzzle velocities up to 50%.
Four subjects completed five treadmill training sessions under comfortable to cool conditions and were calibrated to find an optimum combination of speed and grade on the treadmill which would produce a metabolic rate of 2000 Btu-hr. Dressed in an Apollo liquid cooling garment, each man underwent a total of four experiments in which the rate of heat extraction from the liquid cooling garment was adjusted to an amount which would cause a storage within the body of 1000 Btu/hr. Physiological measurements included skin temperature at 9 locations, rectal and ear canal probes, and heart rate. The increases in tolerance time for the various subjects and the various methods of emergency cooling, ranged from a low of six minutes to a high of 48 minutes, or from 8 to 102% of the baseline tolerance times. The largest gains were achieved in a subject whose tolerance endpoint was atypical, and whose baseline heat tolerance was unsually low.
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A methodology was presented so that realistic attrition prediction could aid in selecting an optimum design option for minimizing the effects of updated loads on the Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Booster (SRB) aft skirt. The updated loads resulted in water impact attrition rates greater than 10 percent for the aft skirt structure. Adding weight to reinforce the aft skirt was undesirable. The refined method treats the occurrences of the load distribution probabilistically, radially and longitudinally, with respect to the critical structural response.
The attrition assessment of the aft segments of Solid Rocket Motor due to water impact requires the establishment of a correlation between loading occurrences and structural capability. Each discrete load case, as identified by the water impact velocities and angle, varies longitudinally and radially in magnitude and distribution of the external pressure. The distributions are further required to be shifted forward or aft one-fourth the vehicle diameter to assure minimization of the effect of test instrumentation location for the load determinations. The asymmetrical load distributions result in large geometric nonlinearities in structural response. The critical structural response is progressive buckling of the case. Discrete stiffeners have been added to these aft segments to aid in gaining maximum structural capability for minimum weight addition for resisting these loads. This report presents the development of the attrition assessment of the aft segments and includes the rationale for eliminating all assessable conservatisms from this assessment.
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Voltages across diametrically opposite contact pairs on the outer surface of superconducting Nb tubes are found to depend dramatically upon the spatial configuration of the voltage-measuring leads relative to the positions of the moving magnetic flux lines. Experiments have been conducted to study these voltages for different wall thicknesses and for a variety of arrangements of the leads when flux in the hole and the wall of the Nb tube is made to exit or enter, completely or partially, by applying heat at a narrow strip along its length. Using the critical-state concept, a model for the change of flux and the resulting electric fields in the Nb tube on application of a heat pulse is presented. The resulting time-dependent and time-integrated voltages are calculated in excellent quantitative agreement with the experimental results. These results show that the flux-flow voltages across two contact points on a superconductor arise from the generation of an induced electric field over a chosen path in the superconductor between the contact points and from a change of magnetic flux through the surface bounded by the measuring leads and the chosen path in the superconductor.
Low-cost hollow module rapidly converts into elevated platform for field applications. Module can be used as support for communication antennas or for TV or movie cameras operated by news reporters. Alternatively, it can be used as extendible boom on vehicles.
The possibility is considered that there are two types of spiral for each spiral galaxy: an underlying spiral of relatively old stars seen in red and IR photographs and a spiral outlined by H II regions and young bright blue stars. The origin of the first spiral is attributed to large-scale spiral density waves, and the second spiral is identified as a stochastic spiral. It is suggested that there is a physical or causal connection between the two spirals and that dust lanes play the role of intermediary. An analysis is performed which shows that such a model can account for the formation and destruction of giant molecular cloud complexes and for observed spiral structure in one simple unified theory.
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Attenuation of the load transmitted to a vehicle occupant by the structure, either by modifying structural assembly, changing geometry of its elements, or adding specific load limiting devices to help dissipate kinetic energy was studied. General aviation aircraft have fuselage subfloors of a built up structure which are generally very stiff perpendicular to the floor of the cabin. The subfloor structure, designed to crush at an appropriate force level, can be used to advantage in a crash by dissipating energy through plastic buckling of the floor beams and frames. Simple closed form solutions to predict the mean crushing force levels of subfloor designs is useful in engineering practice. The crushing process of thin walled, plate formed, open structures with particular emphasis on L and cruciform shapes was analyzed. Lower and upper bound solutions for the mean crushing strength of cruciforms are obtained by considering modes of deformation which account for both bending and extensional deformation. It is the importance of extensional deformation to the energy absorption process, representing at least one third of the dissipated energy is shown.
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A procedure is developed for the analysis of the nonlinear transient response of an initially imperfect slender guyed boom having a concentrated mass at the tip. The analysis is compared with laboratory experiments, and the validated procedure is employed to study the transient response of a boom to suddenly applied step loads and prescribed initial velocities. Both cases approximate the transient conditions associated with commencing and terminating a slewing maneuver in space. Two nonlinear effects are examined, namely cable slackening and beam column behavior. It is shown that dynamic buckling of the boom may occur with excitations which result in slackening of a cable. It is also shown that transverse boom tip deflections are sensitive only to initial eccentricities when certain threshold values are exceeded. Design guidelines are established for combinations of pulse level and duration which meet performance requirements for allowable deflections.