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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 271 records · Page 15

A finite element analysis of the freeze/thaw behavior of external artery heat pipes

A two-dimensional finite element model was used to determine the freeze/thaw characteristics of an external artery heat pipe. During startup, the working fluid, which was located in the liquid channel and the circumferential wall grooves, experienced a phase transformation from a solid to a liquid state. The transient heat conduction equations with moving interfacial conditions were solved using the appropriate initial boundary conditions. The modelling results include the cross-sectional temperature distribution and the interfacial or melt front position as a function of time. A fixed grid approach was adopted in the model for the phase-change process during thawing of frozen working fluid. The interfacial position between the liquid and solid regions was found by balancing the latent heat caused by interfacial movement with the heat addition or extraction at the related grid points.

Lu, X. J.↗

Hydraulic calipers

Hydraulic calipers determine area of annular openings in irregular or concealed passages. With modifications the device could be adapted to investigations of cross-sectional changes in heat flow passages, ducts, conduits, and heat exchanger elements.

Benson, J. A.↗

Improved source of infrared radiation for spectroscopy

Radiation from a crimped V-groove in the electrically heated metallic element of a high-resolution infrared spectrometer is more intense than that from plane areas adjacent to the element. Radiation from the vee and the flat was compared by alternately focusing on the entrance slit of a spectrograph.

Burkhard, D. G.↗

Completely modular thermionic reactor ion propulsion system /trips/.

Description of a nuclear reactor powered ion propulsion system which is an advanced completely modularized system lending itself to development of prototype and/or flight type components without the need for complete system tests until late in the development program. This modularity is achieved in all of the subsystems and components of the electric propulsion system, including the thermionic fuel elements, the heat rejection subsystem (head pipes), the power conditioning modules, and the ion thrusters. The use of heat pipes for cooling the collectors and as a means of heat transport to the radiator allows early prototype or flight configuration testing of a small module of the heat rejection subsystem as opposed to full scale liquid metal pumps and radiators in a large vacuum chamber. The power conditioner (p/c) is arranged in modules with passive cooling which allows complete prototype testing. The ion engines are typically matched with one or more p/c modules and are the same size for any power level propulsion system of interest.

Peelgren, M. L.↗

Spacecraft thermal control

Guidance for the assessment and control of spacecraft temperatures is provided with emphasis on unmanned spacecraft in the space environment. The heat balance, elements of thermal design, and thermal control are discussed along with thermal testing, design criteria, and recommended practices.

Source record↗

Investigation of gaseous propellant combustion and associated injector/chamber design guidelines

Injector design criteria are provided for gaseous hydrogen-gaseous oxygen propellants. Design equations and procedures are presented which will allow an injector-chamber designer to a priori estimate of the performance, compatibility and stability characteristics of prototype injectors. The effects of chamber length, element geometry, thrust per element, mixture ratio, impingement angle, and element spacing were evaluated for four element concepts and their derivatives. The data from this series of tests were reduced to a single valued mixing function that describes the mixing potential of the various elements. Performance, heat transfer and stability data were generated for various mixture ratios, propellant temperatures, chamber pressures, contraction ratios, and chamber lengths. Applications of the models resulted in the design of procedures, whereby the performance and chamber heat flux can be calculated directly, and the injector stability estimated in conjunction with existing models.

Calhoon, D. F.↗

Petrogenesis in a modestly endowed moon

Four lines of recent evidence show that the moon is more modestly endowed in refractory elements and heat sources than previously thought. However, even this reduced endowment is adequate for the genesis of known lunar rock types. The thickness and nature of the initially molten zone and the structure of the crust and the lithosphere produced from it are the major uncertainties in models of lunar petrogenesis.

Hubbard, N. J.↗

Analysis of fatigue damage in composites

Finite-element heat-transfer analysis determines sites of potential failure in composite materials. Method is sensitive to matrix damage and fiber disbonding that occurs long before actual fiber breakage.

Whitcomb, J. D.↗

Lean stability augmentation study

An analytical conceptual design study and an experimental test program were conducted to investigate techniques and develop technology for improving the lean combustion limits of premixing, prevaporizing combustors applicable to gas turbine engine main burners. The use of hot gas pilots, catalyzed flameholder elements, and heat recirculation to augment lean stability limits was considered in the conceptual design study. Tests of flameholders embodying selected concepts were conducted at a pressure of 10 arm and over a range of entrance temperatures simulating conditions to be encountered during stratospheric cruise. The tests were performed using an axisymmetric flametube test rig having a nominal diameter of 10.2 cm. A total of sixteen test configurations were examined in which lean blowout limits, pollutant emission characteristics, and combustor performance were evaluated. The use of a piloted perforated plate flameholder employing a pilot fuel flow rate equivalent to 4 percent of the total fuel flow at a simulated cruise condition resulted in a lean blowout equivalence ratio of less than 0.25 with a design point (T sub zero = 600k, Phi = 0.6) NOx emission index of less than 1.0 g/kg.

Mcvey, J. B.↗

Reactor design and integration into a nuclear electric spacecraft

One of the well-defined applications for nuclear power in space is nuclear electric propulsion (NEP). Mission studies have identified the optimum power level (400 kWe). A single Shuttle launch requirement and science-package integration have added additional constraints to the design. A reactor design which will meet these constraints has been studied. The reactor employs 90 fuel elements, each heat pipe cooled. Reactor control is obtained with BeO/B4C drums in a BeO reflector. The balance of the spacecraft is shielded from the reactor with LiH. Power conditioning and reactor control drum drives are located behind the LiH with the power conditioning. Launch safety, mechanical design and integration with the power conversion subsystem are discussed.

Phillips, W. M.↗

Chemical composition of Mars

The chemical composition of Mars is estimated from the cosmochemical model of Ganapathy and Anders (1974) with additional petrological and geophysical constraints. The model assumes that planets and chondrites underwent the same fractionation processes in the solar nebula, and constraints are imposed by the abundance of the heat-producing elements, U, Th and K, the volatile-rich component and the high density of the mantle. Global abundances of 83 elements are presented, and it is noted that the mantle is an iron-rich garnet wehrlite, nearly identical to the bulk moon composition of Morgan at al. (1978) and that the core is sulfur poor (3.5% S). The comparison of model compositions for the earth, Venus, Mars, the moon and a eucrite parent body suggests that volatile depletion correlates mainly with size rather than with radial distance from the sun.

Morgan, J. W.↗

Models for the Archean thermal regime

Different regonalized thermal evolution models are presented. The models are used to determine the concentration of heat-producing elements such as U, Th, and K, which are required to have a present-day mantle potential temperature of 1350 C starting from a high temperature of 2000 C, 4.5 billion years ago and to calculate the thermal structure of the continental lithosphere through time. The parameterized equations for the various convective regimes considered, are discussed. It is shown that only the models with layered mantle convection and a continental lithosphere of fixed thickness (greater than or equal to 175 km) are able to satisfy the constraints of some part of the lithosphere being in the diamond stability field during the Archean and an interior temperature greater than 1600 C during the Archean to account for the high-magnesian komatiites of that period.

Richter, F. M.↗