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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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Electrical continuity scanner automatically scans 50 wires in 2 seconds to correlate all wires in a circuit with their respective known ends. Modifications made to the basic plan provide circuitry for scanning up to 250 wires.
Cards representing a connector are punched, sorted, and then used to printout wiring documentation for that connector. When wiring changes are made, new cards are punched and the wiring documentation is reprinted to reflect the latest configuration.
Miniaturized positioner is installed in any electron beam vacuum chamber for use with wire feed applications requiring filler wire. Horizontal and vertical control of the positioner is maintained from a console while chamber is under vacuum. Device permits more positive positioning of welding filler wire.
Fabrication schedules were developed for producing wire, 0.25 mm to 0.51 mm diameter, from the refractory metal alloys ASTAR-811C, B-88 and W-Hf-C. Tensile properties were evaluated at room temperature and up to 1204 C. Also, the stress rupture properties of the alloys at 1093 C were determined. W-Hf-C and B-88 were found to have the best mechanical properties on a strength to density basis. The fabrication schedules for producing wire from these two alloys were further improved with regards to the wire quality and material yield under the optimization of fabrication schedule.
Disturbance levels were measured in the test section of a Mach 5 blowdown jet using a constant-current, hot-wire anemometer and a pressure transducer. The disturbance levels, measured by the two instruments and normalized by local mean values, agreed within about 30%, with the pitot data higher than the hot-wire data. The rms disturbance levels measured with the hot-wire anemometer and converted to pitot pressures using a quasi-steady flow analysis, were about two-thirds the levels measured with the pitot probe. The variation of the normalized rms disturbance levels with stagnation pressure indicated that transition occurred in the boundary layer on the nozzle wall and influenced the outputs of the instruments located at the exit of the nozzle when the total pressure was about 35 N/sq cm. Below this pressure the disturbance levels decreased markedly. At higher pressures the disturbances were predominantly aerodynamic noise generated by the turbulent boundary layer on the nozzle wall.
Designs provide such advantages as inspectable solder joints from both sides of boards; stress relief in lead wires; low-impedance thermal paths; matched coefficients of lead wire thermal expansion; minimum webbing of conformal coatings to lead wires; positive mounting of part bodies to boards; and conductive mass for transient heat sink requirements.
An advanced wiring system is described which achieves the safety/reliability required for present and future airplane and space vehicle applications. Also, present wiring installation techniques and hardware are analyzed to establish existing problem areas. An advanced wiring system employing matrix interconnecting unit, plug to plug trunk bundles (FCC or ribbon cable) is outlined, and an installation study presented. A planned program to develop, lab test and flight test key features of these techniques and hardware as a part of the SST technology follow-on activities is discussed.
The failure of wire bonds due to repeated flexure when semiconductor devices are operated in an on-off mode has been investigated. An accelerated fatigue testing apparatus was constructed and the major fatigue variables, aluminum alloy composition, and bonding mechanism, were tested. The data showed Al-1% Mg wires to exhibit superior fatigue characteristics compared to Al-1% Cu or Al-1% Si and ultrasonic bonding to be better than thermocompression bonding for fatigue resistance. Based on these results highly reliable devices were fabricated using Al-1% Mg wire with ultrasonic bonding which withstood 120,000 power cycles with no failures.
The design and characteristics of a gas radiation counter are discussed. The coaxial anode consists of an elongated central wire covered with an electrically insulating sleeve. Several longitudinally discontinuous segments of an electrically conductive coating are disposed about the insulating sleeve in a coaxial pattern along the length of the central wire. The conductive coating segments form a veto or rejection anode at each end of the central wire and a main or primary charge detecting anode between the ends. The segments are coupled together so that the primary charge detecting anode is connected to detection circuitry in anti-coincidence with the veto anodes. Background radiation detected by either of the veto anodes and the primary charge detecting anode is rejected and the sensitivity of the radiation counter device is increased.
A NASA program to develop digital fly-by-wire (DFBW) technology for aircraft applications is discussed. Phase I of the program demonstrated the feasibility of using a digital fly-by-wire system for aircraft control through developing and flight testing a single channel system, which used Apollo hardware, in an F-8C airplane. The objective of Phase II of the program is to establish a technology base for designing practical DFBW systems. It will involve developing and flight testing a triplex digital fly-by-wire system using state-of-the-art airborne computers, system hardware, software, and redundancy concepts. The papers included in this report describe the Phase I system and its development and present results from the flight program. Man-rated flight software and the effects of lightning on digital flight control systems are also discussed.
The problems and progress encountered in developing refractory-wire-reinforced superalloys for turbojet-engine applications at operating temperature within 1000-1200 C are reviewed. Particular attention is given to the problem of the compatibility of the fiber-reinforcement wire and the superalloy matrix and to the means of improving composite properties. Fiber development is described, since fibers with better properties would result in better composite properties. Matrix composition is discussed in terms of its functions, namely to enhance compatibility and provide strength, oxidation protection, and ductility. Advantages and shortcomings of different fabrication techniques are revealed, and the current state of development of wire-reinforced composites is outlined by indicating the properties achieved. Requirements for further development of the material and for application to engineering components are set forth.
The use of hot-wire anemometry for obtaining fluctuating data in transonic flows has been evaluated. From hot-wire heat loss correlations based on previous transonic data, the sensitivity coefficients for velocity, density, and total temperature fluctuations have been calculated for a wide range of test conditions and sensor parameters. For sensor Reynolds numbers greater than 20 and high sensor overheat ratios, the velocity sensitivity remains independent of Mach number and equal to the density sensitivity. These conclusions were verified by comparisons of predicted sensitivities with those from recent direct calibrations in transonic flows. Based on these results, techniques are presented to obtain meaningful measurements of fluctuating velocity, density, and Reynolds shear stress using hot-wire and hot-film anemometers. Examples of these measurements are presented for two transonic boundary layers.
An electrically thin dielectric insulating shell on an antenna composed of electrically thin circular cylindrical wires is examined. A moment method solution is obtained, and the insulating shell is modeled by equivalent volume polarization currents. These polarization currents are related in a simple manner to the surface charge density on the wire antenna. In this way the insulating shell causes no new unknowns to be introduced, and the size of the impedance matrix is the same as for the uninsulated wires. The insulation is accounted for entirely through a modification of the symmetric impedance matrix. This modification influences the current distribution, impedance, efficiency, field patterns, and scattering properties. The theory is compared with measurement for dielectric coated antennas in air.
Surface area, and consequently heat dissipation, is increased by using star-shaped, rather than round cross section, for aluminum wire. When used with modern high-temperature insulating materials, pointed-star wire is suitable for applications where low-cost light-weight wire is required.
The use of hot-wire anemometry for obtaining fluctuating data in transonic flows has been evaluated. From hot-wire heat loss correlations based on previous transonic data, the sensitivity coefficients for velocity, density, and total temperature fluctuations have been calculated for a wide range of test conditions and sensor parameters. For sensor Reynolds number greater than 20 and high sensor overheat ratios, the velocity sensitivity remains independent of Mach number and equal to the density sensitivity. These conditions were verified by comparisons of predicted sensitivities with those from recent direct calibrations in transonic flows. Based on these results, techniques are presented to obtain meaningful measurements of fluctuating velocity, density, and Reynolds shear stress using hot-wire and hot-film anemometers. Example of these measurements are presented for two transonic boundary layers.
Three laser wire strippers have been built for the stripping of Kapton-insulated wire, the baseline wire of the space shuttle orbiter. The strippers are: (1) a bench-model stripper powered with a cw CO2 10.6-micron laser, (2) a hand-held stripper powered with a cw 1.06-micron Nd-YAG laser with an output of 5-7 watts, and (3) a hand-held stripper with a five-inch-long CO2 laser inside the stripping head.
A development program has demonstrated that hot-wire anemometry can be used successfully on an aircraft in flight to make measurements of wake vortices produced by another aircraft. The probe, whose wires were made of platinum/rhodium, 10 microns in diameter, provides unambiguous results for inflow angles less than about 35 deg. off the probe axis. The high frequency response capability of the hot-wire system allows detailed measurement of the flow structure, and the study of aircraft hazards associated with wake turbulence.
Hot-wire measurements have been made in the boundary layer, the separated region, and the near wake for flow past an NACA 4412 airfoil at maximum lift. The Reynolds number based on chord was about 1,500,000. The main instrumentation was a hot-wire probe mounted on the end of a rotating arm. A digital computer was used to control synchronized sampling of hot-wire data at closely spaced points along the probe arc. Ensembles of data were obtained at several thousand locations in the flow field. The data include intermittency, two components of mean velocity, and twelve mean values for double, triple, and quadruple products of two velocity fluctuations. The data are available on punched cards in raw form and also after use of smoothing and interpolation routines to obtain values on a fine rectangular grid aligned with the airfoil chord. The data are displayed in the paper as contour plots.