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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 289 records · Page 16

Aerosol Radiative Forcing in Asian Continental Outflow

Aerosols in elevated layers were sampled with FSSP-probes and wire impactors over the Pacific ocean aboard the NASA DC-8 aircraft. Analyses of particle size and morphology identifies two distinctly different aerosol types for cases when the mid-visible extinctions exceed 0.2/km. Smaller sizes (effective radii of 0.2 um) and moderate absorption (mid-visible single scattering albedo of.935) are typical for urban-industrial pollution. Larger sizes (effective radii of 0.7 um) and weak absorption (mid-visible single scattering albedo of 0.985) identify dust. This aerosol classification is in agreement with its origin as determined by airmass back trajectory analysis. Based on lidar vertical profiling, aerosol dominated by dust and urban-industrial pollution above 3km were assigned mid-visible optical depths of 0.50 and 0.27, respectively. Radiative transfer simulations, considering a 50% cloud-cover below the aerosol layers, suggest (on a daily tP C)C> basis) small reductions (-4W/m2) to the energy budget at the top of the atmosphere for both aerosol types. For c' 0 dust, more backscattering of sunlight (weaker solar absorption) is compensated by a stronger greenhouse effect due to larger sizes. Forced reductions to the energy budget at the surface are 12W/m2 for both aerosol types. In contrast, impacts on heating rates within the aerosol layers are quite different: While urban-industrial aerosol warms the layer (at +0.6K/day as solar heating dominates), dust cools (at -0.5K/day as infrared cooling dominates). Sensitivity tests show the dependence of the aerosol climatic impact on the optical depth, particle size, absorptivity, and altitude of the layers, as well as clouds and surface properties. Climatic cooling can be eliminated (1) for the urban-industrial aerosol if absorption is increased to yield a mid-visible single scattering albedo of 0.89, or if the ocean is replaced by a land surface; (2) for the dust aerosol if the effective radius is increased from 0.7 to 1.2 um. The removal of low-level clouds doubles the cooling at the top of the atmosphere to about -8W/m2.

Pueschel, R.↗

An experimental investigation of the aerodynamics and cooling of a horizontally-opposed air-cooled aircraft engine installation

A flight-test based research program was performed to investigate the aerodynamics and cooling of a horizontally-opposed engine installation. Specific areas investigated were the internal aerodynamics and cooling mechanics of the installation, inlet aerodynamics, and exit aerodynamics. The applicable theory and current state of the art are discussed for each area. Flight-test and ground-test techniques for the development of the cooling installation and the solution of cooling problems are presented. The results show that much of the internal aerodynamics and cooling technology developed for radial engines are applicable to horizontally opposed engines. Correlation is established between engine manufacturer's cooling design data and flight measurements of the particular installation. Also, a flight-test method for the development of cooling requirements in terms of easily measurable parameters is presented. The impact of inlet and exit design on cooling and cooling drag is shown to be of major significance.

Miley, S. J.↗

Operating Temperatures of a Sodium-Cooled Exhaust Valve as Measured by a Thermocouple

Report presents the results of a thermocouple installed in the crown of a sodium-cooled exhaust valve. The valve was tested in an air-cooled engine cylinder and valve temperatures under various engine operating conditions were determined. A temperature of 1337 degrees F. was observed at a fuel-air ratio of 0.064, a brake mean effective pressure of 179 pounds per square inch, and an engine speed of 2000 r.p.m. Fuel-air ratio was found to have a large influence on valve temperature, but cooling-air pressure and variation in spark advance had little effect. An increase in engine power by change of speed or mean effective pressure increased the valve temperature. It was found that the temperature of the rear-spark-plug bushing was not a satisfactory indication of the temperature of the exhaust valve.

Sanders, J C↗

Summary of the 5th Propulsion Aerodynamics Workshop Nozzle Test Case: Heated Nozzle Exhaust Passing Over A Film-Cooled Plate

This paper summarizes findings from the fifth AIAA Propulsion Aerodynamics Workshop nozzle test case. The experimental configuration examined by workshop participants was a subsonic nozzle with a square exit blowing a heated exhaust over a film-cooled plate. Computational fluid dynamics solutions were obtained and compared to experimental measurements of flow velocities and temperatures, as well as plate surface temperatures. The heated nozzle operated with a Mach 0.3 exit flow at a static temperature ratio of 2.7. Cooling air blowing ratios of 0, 1, and 2 were considered. Computational meshes for the flow domain were provided for participants. Workshop participants from eight separate organizations represented government, industry, and academia. A variety of flow solutions were obtained: Most of the flow solutions employed a Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) approach, but scale-resolving simulations were used in some cases, including wall-modeled large-eddy simulation (LES), and a few hybrid RANS-LES approaches. One Lattice-Boltzmann solver was employed. For heat transfer to the test article, many participants used a conjugate heat transfer approach. Effects of mesh sensitivity, flow solution approach, and wall heat transfer approach are considered. In general, a fully three-dimensional conjugate heat transfer approach enabled better prediction of surface temperatures than simpler wall temperature boundary treatments. Also, the scale resolving approaches provided better prediction of static temperatures in the flow immediately above the plate consisting of the hot jet exhaust boundary layer interacting with the cooling film. Comparisons of plate surface friction drag and heat transfer obtained from the computations are also presented.

nozzle↗

Summary of the 5th Propulsion Aerodynamics Workshop Nozzle Test Case: Heated Nozzle Exhaust Passing Over A Film-Cooled Plate

This paper summarizes findings from the fifth AIAA Propulsion Aerodynamics Workshop nozzle test case. The experimental configuration examined by workshop participants was a subsonic nozzle with a square exit blowing a heated exhaust over a film-cooled plate. Computational fluid dynamics solutions were obtained and compared to experimental measurements of flow velocities and temperatures, as well as plate surface temperatures. The heated nozzle operated with a Mach 0.3 exit flow at a static temperature ratio of 2.7. Cooling air blowing ratios of 0, 1, and 2 were considered. Computational meshes for the flow domain were provided for participants. Workshop participants from eight separate organizations represented government, industry, and academia. A variety of flow solutions were obtained: Most of the flow solutions employed a Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) approach, but scale-resolving simulations were used in some cases, including wall-modeled large-eddy simulation (LES), and a few hybrid RANS-LES approaches. One Lattice-Boltzmann solver was employed. For heat transfer to the test article, many participants used a conjugate heat transfer approach. Effects of mesh sensitivity, flow solution approach, and wall heat transfer approach are considered. In general, a fully three-dimensional conjugate heat transfer approach enabled better prediction of surface temperatures than simpler wall temperature boundary treatments. Also, the scale resolving approaches provided better prediction of static temperatures in the flow immediately above the plate consisting of the hot jet exhaust boundary layer interacting with the cooling film. Comparisons of plate surface friction drag and heat transfer obtained from the computations are also presented.

nozzle↗

Initial operation of a solar heating and cooling system in a full-scale solar building test facility

The Solar Building Test Facility (SBTF) located at Hampton, Virginia became operational in early summer of 1976. This facility is a joint effort by NASA-Lewis and NASA-Langley to advance the technology for heating and cooling of office buildings with solar energy. Its purposes are to (1) test system components which include high-performing collectors, (2) test performance of complete solar heating and cooling system, (3) investigate component interactions and (4) investigate durability, maintenance and reliability of components. The SBTF consists of a 50,000 square foot office building modified to accept solar heated water for operation of an absorption air conditioner and for the baseboard heating system. A 12,666 square foot solar collector field with a 30,000 gallon storage tank provides the solar heated water. A description of the system and the collectors selected is given here, along with the objectives, test approach, expected system performance and some preliminary results.

Knoll, R. H.↗

Development of a Cryogenic Thermal Distortion Measurement Facility for Testing the James Webb Space Telescope Instrument Support Integration Module 2-D Test Assemblies

The James Webb Space Telescope Instrument Support Integration Module (ISIM) is being designed and developed at the Goddard Space Flight Center. The ISM Thermal Distortion Testing (ITDT) program was started with the primary objective to validate the ISM mechanical design process. The ITDT effort seeks to establish confidence and demonstrate the ability to predict thermal distortion in composite structures at cryogenic temperatures using solid element models. This-program's goal is to better ensure that ISIM meets all the mechanical and structural requirements by using test results to verify or improve structural modeling techniques. The first step to accomplish the ITDT objectives was to design, and then construct solid element models of a series 2-D test assemblies that represent critical building blocks of the ISIM structure. Second, the actual test assemblies consisting of composite tubes and invar end fittings were fabricated and tested for thermal distortion. This paper presents the development of the GSFC Cryo Distortion Measurement Facility (CDMF) to meet the requirements of the ISIM 2-D test. assemblies, and other future ISIM testing needs. The CDMF provides efficient cooling with both a single, and two-stage cryo-cooler. Temperature uniformity of the test assemblies during thermal transients and at steady state is accomplished by using sapphire windows for all of the optical ports on the radiation shields and by using .thermal straps to cool the test assemblies. Numerical thermal models of the test assemblies were used to predict the temperature uniformity of the parts during cooldown and at steady state. Results of these models are compared to actual temperature data from the tests. Temperature sensors with a 0.25K precision were used to insure that test assembly gradients did not exceed 2K lateral, and 4K axially. The thermal distortions of two assemblies were measured during six thermal cycles from 320K to 35K using laser interferometers. The standard deviation for all of the distortion measurements is less than 0.5 microns, which falls within the ISIM requirement of 3 microns.

Miller, Franklin↗

Drag and Cooling with Various Forms of Cowling for a "Whirlwind" Radial Air-Cooled Engine I

This report presents the results of an investigation undertaken in the 20-foot Propeller Research Tunnel at Langley Field on the cowling of radial air-cooled engines. A portion of the investigation has been completed, in which several forms and degrees of cowling were tested on Wright "Whirlwind" J-5 engine mounted in the nose of a cabin fuselage. The cowlings varied from the one extreme of an entirely exposed engine to the other in which the engine was entirely inclosed. Cooling tests were made and each cowling modified, if necessary, until the engine cooled approximately as satisfactorily as when it was entirely exposed. Drag tests were then made with each form of cowling, and the effect of the cowling on the propulsive efficiency determined with a metal propeller. The propulsive efficiency was found to be practically the same with all forms of cowling. The drag of the cabin fuselage with uncowled engine was found to be more than three times as great as the drag of the fuselage with engine removed and nose rounded. The conventional forms of cowling, in which at least the tops of the cylinder heads and valve gear are exposed, reduce the drag somewhat, but the cowling entirely covering the engine reduces it 2.6 times as much as the best conventional one. The decrease in drag due to the use of spinners proved to be almost negligible. The use of the cowling completely covering the engine seems entirely practical as regards both cooling and maintenance under service conditions. It must be carefully designed, however, to cool properly. With cabin fuselages its use should result in a substantial increase in high speed over that obtained with present forms of cowling on engines similar in contour to the J-5. (author)

Weick, Fred E↗

Thermal-Transient Testing Of Turbine Blades

Testing apparatus applies pulses of heat to turbine blade to determine resistance to thermal fatigue. Uses nonintrusive inductive heating and records distribution of temperature on blade with infrared video camera. Allows precise control of heating and cooling. Designed for testing blades used in advanced high-pressure, high-temperature turbines.

Wagner, William R.↗

Seal Investigations of an Active Clearance Control System Concept

In an effort to improve upon current thermal active clearance control methods, a first generation, fast-acting mechanically actuated, active clearance control system has been designed and installed into a non-rotating test rig. In order to harvest the benefit of tighter blade tip clearances, low-leakage seals are required for the actuated carrier segments of the seal shroud to prevent excessive leakage of compressor discharge (P3) cooling air. The test rig was designed and fabricated to facilitate the evaluation of these types of seals, identify seal leakage sources, and test other active clearance control system concepts. The objective of this paper is to present both experimental and analytical investigations into the nature of the face-seal to seal-carrier interface. Finite element analyses were used to examine face seal contact pressures and edge-loading under multiple loading conditions, varied E-seal positions and two new face seal heights. The analyses indicated that moving the E-seal inward radially and reducing face seal height would lead to more uniform contact conditions between the face seal and the carriers. Lab testing confirmed that moving the balance diameter inward radially caused a decrease in overall system leakage.

Steinetz, Bruce M.↗

CFD Validation of a Methanation Reactor With Cooling Jacket Used in an ISRU Propellant Production System

A digital model of an OxEon Energy methanation reactor (with a cooling jacket) planned for use in a NASA designed In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) propellant production system was developed by the UTEP Aerospace Center using STAR-CCM+ software, a Siemens Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) package. The reactor digital model created includes two primary components: (i) a cooling jacket that maintains the required reactor chamber surface temperature and (ii) a reactor core chamber where the exothermic methanation reactions occur. The StarCCM+ digital model has two objectives: (i) maintain the surface temperature of the reactor below a set value so that the extra heat accumulation does not melt or crack the chamber, and (ii) produce the desired amount of methane (CH4) according to test cases completed by OxEon Energy for NASA JSC. The computational digital model was validated with the test data enabling the cooling jacket scale to be predicted based on the reactor's operating temperature. The StarCCM+ simulation of the digital model shows a good agreement with the cooling jacket performance and the CH4 production. One test case for the cooling jacket maintained the reactor wall temperature around 310 °C was validated and the reactor produced 185 g/hr CH 4 .

ISRU↗

LANDSAT-4 MSS and Thematic Mapper data quality and information content analysis

LANDSAT-4 thematic mapper (TM) and multispectral scanner (MSS) data were analyzed to obtain information on data quality and information content. Geometric evaluations were performed to test band-to-band registration accuracy. Thematic mapper overall system resolution was evaluated using scene objects which demonstrated sharp high contrast edge responses. Radiometric evaluation included detector relative calibration, effects of resampling, and coherent noise effects. Information content evaluation was carried out using clustering, principal components, transformed divergence separability measure, and supervised classifiers on test data. A detailed spectral class analysis (multispectral classification) was carried out to compare the information content of the MSS and TM for a large number of scene classes. A temperature-mapping experiment was carried out for a cooling pond to test the quality of thermal-band calibration. Overall TM data quality is very good. The MSS data are noisier than previous LANDSAT results.

Anuta, P.↗

Extending mARC II Arc-Jet Test Duration via Design and Implementation of Model System Cooling Sleeve

The mARC II is a 30 kW arc-jet facility at NASA Ames Research Center used to generate high-enthalpy flows for low-cost thermal protection system (TPS) technology development. Sustained operation of downstream instrumentation and material samples is constrained by thermal loading transmitted through the arc-jet test environment, limiting achievable run times and experimental throughput. This work presents the design, integration, and validation of a cooling sleeve implemented on the sweep arm drive motor feedthrough to mitigate thermal accumulation during testing. The addition of the cooling sleeve is a simple, robust upgrade that translates directly into enhanced facility capability by supporting longer run durations, reduced turnaround time, and higher throughput.

numerical simulations↗

Extending mARC II Arc-Jet Test Duration via Design and Implementation of Model System Cooling Sleeve

The mARC II is a 30 kW arc-jet facility at NASA Ames Research Center used to generate high-enthalpy flows for low-cost thermal protection system (TPS) technology development. Sustained operation of downstream instrumentation and material samples is constrained by thermal loading transmitted through the arc-jet test environment, limiting achievable run times and experimental throughput. This work presents the design, integration, and validation of a cooling sleeve implemented on the sweep arm drive motor feedthrough to mitigate thermal accumulation during testing. The addition of the cooling sleeve is a simple, robust upgrade that translates directly into enhanced facility capability by supporting longer run durations, reduced turnaround time, and higher throughput.

sting arm↗

Parametric study of rock pile thermal storage for solar heating and cooling phase 1

The test data and an analysis were presented, of heat transfer characteristics of a solar thermal energy storage bed utilizing water filled cans as the energy storage medium. An attempt was made to optimize can size, can arrangement, and bed flow rates by experimental and analytical means. Liquid filled cans, as storage media, utilize benefits of both solids like rocks, and liquids like water. It was found that this combination of solid and liquid media shows unique heat transfer and heat content characteristics and is well suited for use with solar air systems for space and hot water heating. An extensive parametric study was made of heat transfer characteristics of rocks, of other solids, and of solid containers filled with liquids.

Saha, H.↗

Parametric study of thermal storage containing rocks or fluid filled cans for solar heating and cooling, phase 2

The test data and an analysis of the heat transfer characteristics of a solar thermal energy storage bed utilizing water filled cans and standard bricks as energy storage medium are presented. This experimental investigation was initiated to find a usable heat intensive solar thermal storage device other than rock storage and water tank. Four different sizes of soup cans were stacked in a chamber in three different arrangements-vertical, horizontal, and random. Air is used as transfer medium for charging and discharge modes at three different mass flow rates and inlet air temperature respectively. These results are analyzed and compared, which show that a vertical stacking and medium size cans with Length/Diameter (L/D) ratio close to one have better average characteristics of heat transfer and pressure drop.

Saha, H.↗