SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “thrust distribution”

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.

SourceResearch connectionFrom yearThrough year

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

At least 271 records · Page 15

All sources NASA NTRS DOE OSTI

NASA NTRS1978

Effects of solid-propellant temperature gradients on the internal ballistics of the Space Shuttle

The internal ballistic effects of combined radial and circumferential grain temperature gradients are evaluated theoretically for the Space Shuttle solid rocket motors (SRMs). A simplified approach is devised for representing with closed-form mathematical expressions the temperature distribution resulting from the anticipated thermal history prior to launch. The internal ballistic effects of the gradients are established by use of a mathematical model which permits the propellant burning rate to vary circumferentially. Comparative results are presented for uniform and axisymmetric temperature distributions and the anticipated gradients based on an earlier two-dimensional analysis of the center SRM segment. The thrust imbalance potential of the booster stage is also assessed based on the difference in the thermal loading of the individual SRMs of the motor pair which may be encountered in both summer and winter environments at the launch site. Results indicate that grain temperature gradients could cause the thrust imbalance to be approximately 10% higher in the Space Shuttle than the imbalance caused by SRM manufacturing and propellant physical property variability alone.

Sforzini, R. H.↗

NASA NTRS1981

Spacecraft contamination prediction and testing techniques

Techniques used in the prediction of spacecraft contamination for the Galileo Jupiter Orbiter and in the determination of the effects of such contamination are presented. Following a quick-look assessment of the contributions of ground-based initial contaminant loading, launch vehicle interface effects, vacuum-exposed outgassing deposition and attitude control thruster impingement and venting to the spacecraft contamination burden, the evaluations centered on the effects of the attitude control thruster on the scan platform optics, including calculations of thruster flowfields and a high-fidelity computer simulation of contaminant distribution. The evaluations revealed a considerable problem with thruster contamination, which could be solved by the use of a thrust shield and the avoidance of thruster operation at certain scan platform orientations. The effects of the various possible contaminants on spacecraft thermal and optical system performances were also investigated in studies of the optical transmittance of deposited monomethyl hydrazine nitrate, vacuum optical degradation due to contaminant outgassing and re-emission outgassing, and an operational satellite contaminant monitor on the NOAA-C satellite. It is concluded that with a good evaluation and testing program, contamination control may become a necessary portion of system design procedures, and recommendations for the implementation of various practices and tests to minimize contamination effects are presented.

Jeffery, J. A.↗

NASA NTRS1982

The design and technology development for A 150 mlb resistojet for H2 or NH3

A 150 mlb thrust level hybrid resistojet which may operate on either H2 or NH3 is described whose design technique allows temperature distribution forecasting by means of a microcomputer-implemented mathematical model. The longer computer run times that accompany the exclusive use of BASIC, relative to assembled languages, are offset by the flexibility offered and the reduction of reprogramming and debugging efforts. The integration of a compact first-stage coiled heater with a concentric tubular gas heater offers direct matching of the 28 V terminal of the spacecraft system, while keeping maximum heater wall temperatures to less than 60 K over that of the gas temperature at the throat. Among the novel materials employed are grain-stabilized rhenium for heating elements and high purity aluminas for insulators.

Page, R. J.↗

NASA NTRS1989

Computer Control For Ion Engines

Computer system controls start-up, steady-state operation, throttling, and shutdown of pair of xenon-ion propulsion engines. Controls direction of thrust of each engine through operation of gimbal stepping motors. Controls valves in propellant-storage and propellant-distribution system. Control software establishes and maintains efficient, stable operation over entire range of operating variables, and throttles engines to any point within range. Computer operates power supplies, valves, and flow controllers of two ion engines, ion-neutralizer subsystem, and other equipment. Designed for use in interplanetary flight, system adaptable to industrial use in ion-beam deposition of thin films.

Brophy, John R.↗

NASA NTRS2011

Lessons Learned from the Design, Certification, and Operation of the Space Shuttle Integrated Main Propulsion System (IMPS)

The Space Shuttle Integrated Main Propulsion System (IMPS) consists of the External Tank (ET), Orbiter Main Propulsion System (MPS), and Space Shuttle Main Engines (SSMEs). The IMPS is tasked with the storage, conditioning, distribution, and combustion of cryogenic liquid hydrogen (LH2) and liquid oxygen (LO2) propellants to provide first and second stage thrust for achieving orbital velocity. The design, certification, and operation of the associated IMPS hardware have produced many lessons learned over the course of the Space Shuttle Program (SSP). A subset of these items will be discussed in this paper for consideration when designing, building, and operating future spacecraft propulsion systems. This paper will focus on lessons learned related to Orbiter MPS and is the first of a planned series to address the subject matter.

Martinez, Hugo E.↗

NASA NTRS2016

Computational Study of Flow Interactions in Coaxial Rotors

Although the first idea of coaxial rotors appeared more than 150 years ago, most helicopters have used single main-rotor/tail-rotor combination. Since reactive moments of coaxial rotors are canceled by contra-rotation, no tail rotor is required to counter the torque generated by the main rotor. Unlike the single main rotor design that distributes power to both main and tail rotors, all of the power for coaxial rotors is used for vertical thrust. Thus, no power is wasted for anti-torque or directional control. The saved power helps coaxial rotors reach a higher hover ceiling than single rotor helicopters. Another advantage of coaxial rotors is that the overall rotor diameter can be reduced for a given vehicle gross weight because each rotor provides a maximum contribution to vertical thrust to overcome vehicle weight. However, increased mechanical complexity of the hub has been one of the challenges for manufacturing coaxial rotorcraft. Only the Kamov Design Bureau of Russia had been notably successful in production of coaxial helicopters until Sikorsky built X2, an experimental compound helicopter. Recent developments in unmanned aircraft systems and high-speed rotorcraft have renewed interest in the coaxial configuration. Multi-rotors are frequently used for small electric unmanned rotorcraft partly due to mechanical simplicity. The use of multiple motors provides redundancy as well as cost-efficiency. The multi-rotor concept has rarely been used until recently because of its inherent stability and control problems. However, advances in inexpensive electronic flight control systems have opened the floodgates for small drones using multirotors. Coaxial rotors have started to appear in some multi-rotor configurations. Small coaxial rotors have often been designed using a hundred year old approach that is "sketch, build, fly, and iterate." In that approach, there is no systematic way to explore trade-offs or determine logical next steps. It is neither possible to account for multiple real-world constraints up front in design nor possible to know what performance is possible with a given design. Since unmanned vehicles are sized and optimized for the particular mission, a modern low-fidelity conceptual design and sizing tool that has been used for the design of large helicopters can be used for design of small coaxial rotorcraft. However, unlike most helicopters with single main rotor, the interactions between the upper and lower rotors emerge as an important factor to consider in design because an increase in performance of a multi-rotor system is not proportional to the number of rotors. Interference losses and differences in thrusts between the upper and lower rotors were investigated by theoretical methods as well as a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method using the Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations. In this work, hybrid turbulence models are used to investigate the physics of interactions between coaxial rotors and a fuselage that are not well understood. Present study covers not only small-scale drones but also large-scale coaxial rotors for heavy-lifting missions. Considering the recently proposed FAA drone rules that require the flight only in visual line-of-sight, a large multirotor might be used as an airborne carrier for launch and recovery of unmanned aircraft systems with a human operator onboard. For applications to civil operations, their aerodynamic performance and noise levels need to be assessed. Noise is one of the largest limiting factors to rotorcraft operations in urban area. Since the high-frequency noise of multi-rotors may increase the annoyance, noise may turn out to be a key issue that must be addressed for market acceptability. One of the objectives of the present work is to study the effects of inter-rotor spacing and collectives on the performance, efficiency, and acoustics of coaxial rotor systems.

Study↗

DOE OSTI2025

Precision e + e − hemisphere masses in the dijet region with power corrections

We derive high-precision results for the e + e − heavy jet mass (HJM) dσ/dρ and dihemisphere mass (DHM) d 2 σ/(ds 1 ds 2 ) distributions, for s 1 ~ s 2 , in the dijet region. New results include: i) the N 3 LL resummation for HJM of large logarithms ln n (ρ) at small ρ including the exact two-loop non-global hemisphere soft function, the 4-loop cusp anomalous dimension and the 3-loop hard and jet functions, ii) N 3 LL results for DHM with resummation of logarithms ln(s 1,2 /Q 2 ) when there is no large separation between s 1 and s 2 , iii) profile functions for HJM to give results simultaneously valid in the peak and tail regions, iv) a complete two-dimensional basis of non-perturbative functions which can be used for double differential observables, that are needed for both HJM and DHM in the peak region, and v) an implementation of renormalon subtractions for large-angle soft radiation to $\mathcal{O}$ (α$^{3}_{s}$) together with a resummation of the additional large ln(Qρ/Λ QCD ) logarithms. Here Q is the e + e − center-of-mass energy. Our resummation results are combined with known fixed-order $\mathcal{O}$ (α$^{3}_{s}$) results and we discuss the convergence and remaining perturbative uncertainty in the cross section. We also prove that, at order 1/Q, the first moment of the HJM distribution involves an additional non-perturbative parameter compared to the power correction that shifts the tail of the spectrum (where 1 ≫ ρ ≫ Λ QCD /Q). This differs from thrust where a single non-perturbative parameter at order 1/Q describes both the first moment and the tail, and it disfavors models of power corrections employing a single non-perturbative parameter, such as the low-scale effective coupling model. In this paper we focus only on the dijet region, not the far-tail distribution for ρ ≳ 0.2 beyond which the trijet factorization and resummation become important.

Factorization↗

NASA NTRS1988

Eigenstructure assignment for a thrust-vectored high angle-of-attack aircraft

Eigenstructure assignment is utilized to design flight control laws for a thrust-vectored aircraft at several different angles of attack. An interesting characteristic of the aircraft model is that the control distribution matrix is rank-deficient. Also, the effectiveness of the control inputs varies with the angle of attack. A pseudocontrol strategy is used to reduce the control space to two dimensions. After the eigenstructure assignment design is complete, the controller is mapped back to the original five-dimensional control space. The designs are shown to exhibit acceptable multivariable stability margins at the aircraft inputs.

Sobel, Kenneth M.↗

NASA NTRS2003

Large- and Small-Scale Ring Current Electrodynamic Coupling

In this talk we will address the two primary issues of ring current (RC) electrodynamic coupling: 1. RC self-consistent magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling that includes calculation of the magnetospheric electric field (large scale electrodynamic coupling); and 2. RC self-consistent coupling with electromagnetic ion cyclotron (EMIC) waves (small scale electrodynamic coupling). Our study will be based on two RC models that we have recently developed in our group. The first model by Khazanov et al. [2002] couples the system of two kinetic equations: one equation which describes the RC ion dynamics and another equation which describes the energy density evolution of EMIC waves. The second model by Khazanov et al. [2003] deals with large scale electrodynamic coupling processes and provides a self-consistent simulation of RC ions and the magnetospheric electric field. There is presently no model that addresses both of these issues simultaneously in a self-consistent calculation. However, the need exists for such a model, because these two processes directly influence each other, with the mesoscale coupling changing the drift paths of the thermal and energetic particle populations in the inner magnetosphere, thereby changing the wave interactions, and the microscale coupling altering the pitch angle distributions and ionospheric conductivities (through increased precipitation), thus changing the field-aligned currents and electric potential structure. The initial thrust of the work will be the development of a combined kinetic model of micro- and meso-scale RC electrodynamic coupling processes and to examine their interactions with each other on a global scale.

Khazanov, G. V.↗

NASA NTRS2004

Ring Current Electrodynamic Coupling

In this talk we will address the two primary issues of ring current (RC) electrodynamic coupling: 1. RC self-consistent coupling with electromagnetic ion cyclotron (EMIC) waves (small scale electrodynamic coupling); and 2. RC self-consistent magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling that includes calculation of the magnetospheric electric field (large scale electrodynamic coupling). Our study will be based on two RC models that we have recently developed in our group. The first model by Khazanov et al. [2002, 20031 couples the system of two kinetic equations: one equation which describes the RC ion dynamics and another equation which describes the energy density evolution of EMIC waves. The second model by Khazanov et al. [2003] deals with large scale electrodynamic coupling processes and provides a self-consistent simulation of RC ions, electrons and the magnetospheric electric field. There is presently no model that addresses both of these issues simultaneously in a self-consistent calculation. However, the need exists for such a model, because these two processes directly influence each other, with the mesoscale coupling changing the drift paths of the thermal and energetic particle populations in the inner magnetosphere, thereby changing the wave interactions, and the microscale coupling altering the pitch angle distributions and ionospheric conductivities (through increased precipitation), thus changing the field-aligned currents and electric potential structure. The initial thrust of the work will be the development of a combined kinetic model of micro- and meso-scale RC electrodynamic coupling processes and to examine their interactions with each other on a global scale. We also discuss the nonlinear coupling of EMIC and lower hybrid waves in the RC region during the May 2-7, 1998 storm period.

Khazanov, G. V.↗

NASA NTRS2010

Static Load Distribution in Ball Bearings

A numerical procedure for computing the internal loading distribution in statically loaded, single-row, angular-contact ball bearings when subjected to a known combined radial and thrust load is presented. The combined radial and thrust load must be applied in order to avoid tilting between inner and outer rings. The numerical procedure requires the iterative solution of Z + 2 simultaneous nonlinear equations - where Z is the number of the balls - to yield an exact solution for axial and radial deflections, and contact angles. Numerical results for a 218 angular-contact ball bearing have been compared with those from the literature and show significant differences in the magnitudes of the ball loads, contact angles, and the extent of the loading zone.

Ricci, Mario↗

NASA NTRS1946

Flight Investigation of the Cooling Characteristics of a Two-row Radial Engine Installation III : Engine Temperature Distribution

The temperature distribution of a two-row radial engine in a twin-engine airplane has been investigated in a series of flight tests. The test engine was operated over a wide range of conditions at density altitudes of 5000 and 20,000 feet; quantitative results are presented showing the effects of flight and engine variables upon average engine temperature and over-all temperature spread. Discussions of the effect of the variables on the shape of the temperature patterns and on the temperature distribution of individual cylinders are also included. The results indicate that, for the tests conducted, the temperature distribution patterns were chiefly determined by the fuel-air ratio and cooling-air distributions. It was possible to calculate individual cylinder temperature, on the assumption of equal power distribution among cylinders, to within an average of plus or minus 14 degrees F. of the actual temperature. A considerable change occurred in either the spread or the thrust axis, the average engine fuel-air ratio, the engine speed, the power, or the blower ratio. Smaller effects on the temperature pattern were noticed with a change in cowl-flap opening and altitude. In most of the tests, a change in conditions affected the temperature of the barrels less than that of the heads. The variation of flight and engine variables had a negligible effect on the temperature distributions of the individual cylinders. (author)

Rennak, Robert M↗

NASA NTRS1996

Computational Issues Associated with Temporally Deforming Geometries Such as Thrust Vectoring Nozzles

During the past decade, computational simulation of fluid flow around complex configurations has progressed significantly and many notable successes have been reported, however, unsteady time-dependent solutions are not easily obtainable. The present effort involves unsteady time dependent simulation of temporally deforming geometries. Grid generation for a complex configuration can be a time consuming process and temporally varying geometries necessitate the regeneration of such grids for every time step. Traditional grid generation techniques have been tried and demonstrated to be inadequate to such simulations. Non-Uniform Rational B-splines (NURBS) based techniques provide a compact and accurate representation of the geometry. This definition can be coupled with a distribution mesh for a user defined spacing. The present method greatly reduces cpu requirements for time dependent remeshing, facilitating the simulation of more complex unsteady problems. A thrust vectoring nozzle has been chosen to demonstrate the capability as it is of current interest in the aerospace industry for better maneuverability of fighter aircraft in close combat and in post stall regimes. This current effort is the first step towards multidisciplinary design optimization which involves coupling the aerodynamic heat transfer and structural analysis techniques. Applications include simulation of temporally deforming bodies and aeroelastic problems.

Boyalakuntla, Kishore↗

NASA NTRS1983

Experimental results of a deflected thrust V/STOL nozzle research program

Four deflected thrust nozzle concepts, designed to operate at the low pressure ratio typical of high bypass-ratio turbofan engines for medium speed (subsonic) V/STOL aircraft, were studied. Maps of overall performance characteristics and exit velocity distributions are used to highlight similarities and differences between the four concepts. Analytically determined secondary flows at the exit of a 90 deg circular pipe bend are compared with the experimental results from the more complex three dimensional geometries. The relative impact of total-pressure losses and secondary flows on nozzle thrust coefficient is addressed by numerical integration of exit velocity measurements.

Burstadt, P. L.↗

NASA NTRS1983

Experimental results of a deflected thrust V/STOL nozzle research program

Burstadt, P. L.↗

NASA NTRS1972

An analytical investigation of the impingement jets on curved deflectors

Numerical solutions are obtained for the cases of straight circular jets impinging on axisymmetric curved surfaces and plane jets impinging symmetrically on two-dimensional curved surfaces. These geometries are representative of some types of thrust reversers for transport aircraft. The solutions are based on the assumptions of incompressible and potential flow. The velocity field, pressure distribution at the deflector surface and reverser effectiveness are predicted for deflector turning angles of 15 to 75 deg, deflector width to jet diameter ratios of 1.5 to 2.0, and ratios of deflector clearance to jet diameter of 1.0 to 3.0. Reverser effectiveness is found to be a maximum for a ratio of deflector clearance to jet diameter of about 2.0. The effect of back pressuring due to the presence of the deflector is predicted. Experimental verification of the theoretical predictions is obtained. A compressible solution obtained for a limited number of cases indicates that the incompressible solution is satisfactory for jet exit Mach numbers less than 0.8.

Schnurr, N. M.↗

NASA NTRS1972

An analytical investigation of the impingement of jets on curved deflectors.

Numerical solutions are obtained for the cases of straight circular jets impinging on axisymmetric curved surfaces, and plane jets impinging symmetrically on two-dimensional curved surfaces. These geometries are representative of some types of thrust reversers for transport aircraft. The solutions are based on the assumptions of incompressible and potential flow. The velocity field, pressure distribution at the deflector surface, and reverser effectiveness are predicted for deflector turning angles of 15 to 75 deg, deflector width to jet diameter ratios of 1.5-2.0, and ratios of deflector clearance to jet diameter of 1.0-3.0. Reverser effectiveness is found to be a maximum for a ratio of deflector clearance to jet diameter of about 2.0. The effect of back pressuring resulting from the presence of the deflector is predicted.

Schnurr, N. M.↗

NASA NTRS1978

Calculation of the longitudinal aerodynamic characteristics of upper-surface-blown wing-flap configurations

An engineering method for predicting the longitudinal aerodynamic characteristics of wing-flap configurations with upper surface blowing (USB) was developed. Potential flow models were incorporated into the prediction method: a wing and flap lifting surface model and a jet wake model. The wing-flap model used a vortex-lattice to represent the wing and flaps. The wing had an arbitrary planform and camber and twist, and the flap system was made up of a Coanda flap and other flap segments of arbitrary size. The jet wake model consisted of a series of closely spaced rectangular vortex rings. The wake was positioned such that it was tangent to the upper surface of the wing and flap between the exhaust nozzle and the flap trailing edge. It was specified such that the mass, momentum, and spreading rates were similar to actual USB jet wakes. Comparisons of measured and predicted pressure distributions, span load distributions, and total lift and pitching-moment coefficients on swept and unswept USB configurations are included. A wide range of thrust coefficients and flap deflection angles were considered at angles of attack up to the onset of stall.

Mendenhall, M. R.↗