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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

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NASA NTRS1998

Key Issues for Aerospace Applications of Ceramic Matrix Composites

Ceramic matrix composites (CMC) offer significant advantages for future aerospace applications including turbine engine and liquid rocket engine components, thermal protection systems, and "hot structures". Key characteristics which establish ceramic matrix composites as attractive and often enabling choices are strength retention at high temperatures and reduced weight relative to currently used metallics. However, due to the immaturity of this class of materials which is further compounded by the lack of experience with CMC's in the aerospace industry, there are significant challenges involved in the development and implementation of ceramic matrix composites into aerospace systems. Some of the more critical challenges are attachment and load transfer methodologies; manufacturing techniques, particularly scale up to large and thick section components; operational environment resistance; damage tolerance; durability; repair techniques; reproducibility; database availability; and the lack of validated design and analysis tools. The presentation will examine the technical issues confronting the application of ceramic matrix composites to aerospace systems and identify the key material systems having potential for substantial payoff relative to the primary requirements of light weight and reduced cost for future systems. Current programs and future research opportunities will be described in the presentation which will focus on materials and processes issues.

Clinton, R. G., Jr.↗

NASA NTRS2004

ViDI: Virtual Diagnostics Interface: Unified File Format and Web Services as Applied to Seamless Data Transfer - Volume 2

The desire to revolutionize the aircraft design cycle from its currently lethargic pace to a fast turn-around operation enabling the optimization of non-traditional configurations is a critical challenge facing the aeronautics industry. In response, a large scale effort is underway to not only advance the state of the art in wind tunnel testing, computational modeling, and information technology, but to unify these often disparate elements into a cohesive design resource. This paper will address Seamless Data Transfer, the critical central nervous system that will enable a wide variety of varied components to work together.

Fleming, Gary A.↗

NASA NTRS2004

X-37 Flight Demonstrator Project: Capabilities for Future Space Transportation System Development

The X-37 Approach and Landing Vehicle (ALTV) is an automated (unmanned) spacecraft designed to reduce technical risk in the descent and landing phases of flight. ALTV mission requirements and Orbital Vehicle (OV) technology research and development (R&D) goals are formulated to validate and mature high-payoff ground and flight technologies such as Thermal Protection Systems (TPS). It has been more than three decades since the Space Shuttle was designed and built. Real-world hardware experience gained through the multitude of X-37 Project activities has expanded both Government and industry knowledge of the challenges involved in developing new generations of spacecraft that can fulfill the Vision for Space Exploration.

Dumbacher, Daniel L.↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

X-37 Flight Demonstrator Project: Capabilities for Future Space Transportation System Development

Daniel L Dumbacher↗

NASA NTRS1997

Developing Interim Systems

One of the recent challenges in the aerospace industry has been to smoothly transition operations-oriented computer systems to meet increasing demands on smaller budgets. Sometimes the best solution is not affordable, but the current situation is equally untenable.

limitations resource-scavenging↗

NASA NTRS2013

Test and Evaluation Metrics of Crew Decision-Making And Aircraft Attitude and Energy State Awareness

NASA has established a technical challenge, under the Aviation Safety Program, Vehicle Systems Safety Technologies project, to improve crew decision-making and response in complex situations. The specific objective of this challenge is to develop data and technologies which may increase a pilot's (crew's) ability to avoid, detect, and recover from adverse events that could otherwise result in accidents/incidents. Within this technical challenge, a cooperative industry-government research program has been established to develop innovative flight deck-based counter-measures that can improve the crew's ability to avoid, detect, mitigate, and recover from unsafe loss-of-aircraft state awareness - specifically, the loss of attitude awareness (i.e., Spatial Disorientation, SD) or the loss-of-energy state awareness (LESA). A critical component of this research is to develop specific and quantifiable metrics which identify decision-making and the decision-making influences during simulation and flight testing. This paper reviews existing metrics and methods for SD testing and criteria for establishing visual dominance. The development of Crew State Monitoring technologies - eye tracking and other psychophysiological - are also discussed as well as emerging new metrics for identifying channelized attention and excessive pilot workload, both of which have been shown to contribute to SD/LESA accidents or incidents.

Bailey, Randall E.↗

NASA NTRS2013

Earth Observations for Global Water Security

The combined effects of population growth, increasing demands for water to support agriculture, energy security, and industrial expansion, and the challenges of climate change give rise to an urgent need to carefully monitor and assess trends and variations in water resources. Doing so will ensure that sustainable access to adequate quantities of safe and useable water will serve as a foundation for water security. Both satellite and in situ observations combined with data assimilation and models are needed for effective, integrated monitoring of the water cycle's trends and variability in terms of both quantity and quality. On the basis of a review of existing observational systems, we argue that a new integrated monitoring capability for water security purposes is urgently needed. Furthermore, the components for this capability exist and could be integrated through the cooperation of national observational programmes. The Group on Earth Observations should play a central role in the design, implementation, management and analysis of this system and its products.

Earth↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

TPSAS-NF1676L-25778-DND

Testing required to design and certify aircraft structures has increased dramatically with the growth in use of composite materials, and the development time and cost have become an issue as industry looks towards the next generation of aircraft. To help address this challenge, NASA has formed an industry-spanning consortium with the goal of cutting by 30% today's 10-year timeline for developing and certifying composite aircraft structures. This goal is to be achieved by infusing leading edge, physics-based tools to improve the prediction of the response and failure of composite aerospace structures. The plan for the public-private partnership of NASA, the FAA, airframe manufacturers, aircraft engine manufacturers, and several universities is to conduct joint research under the five-year Advanced Composites Program (ACP). The emphasis of the ACP project is the development of damage prediction and non-destructive inspection methods capabilities that are sufficiently reliable to enable a reduction in the element and subcomponent testing necessary for design and certification. ACP also is expected to create rapid design tools to speed preliminary design and improve safety and performance. A critical element of this research concerns the residual strength of postbuckled stiffened panels with impact damage. This presentation will discuss different aspects of ongoing research on the prediction of structural collapse due to skin/stiffener separation. In particular, the presentation will examine issues that must be addressed in the analysis, such as R-curve toughening, delamination migration, bridging, as well as some unexpected effects of ply orientation.

Carlos G Davila↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Launch Vehicle and Spacecraft Transmitter Electromagnetic Compatibility

The Launch Services Program at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) is the primary gate for acquiring commercial vehicles to provide a cost effective ride to space for NASA spacecraft. With the lunar Gateway, more human tended elements are planned for launch. One challenge facing the space industry is the proliferation of communication and science transmitters at frequencies beyond the qualification of space avionics and instruments. Studies have ensued to examine the intricacies of performing radiated susceptibility testing and analysis above 18 GHz. Changes in the launch vehicle communications interface to the range have also lead to new launch vehicle antenna systems and more reliance on GPS and telemetry systems. Finally, research initiated at KSC in the area of predicted electric field distributions in launch vehicle payload fairings have spawned Small Business Technology Transfer initiatives for industry to investigate statistical algorithm and computational improvements in large payload fairing modeling of transmitters at frequencies in the GHz range. These topics, along with electromagnetic compatibility testing for launch vehicles will be discussed.

Electromagnetic Testing Cavity Statistics↗

DOE OSTI2020

Electrochemical Deposition of Aluminum-Based Coatings From Aqueous Systems

The electroplating of aluminum has represented a challenge for the coatings industry for decades. The reactivity of aluminum metal leads to a very negative reduction potential. This leads to abundant gas evolution instead of aluminum reduction in water. Current aluminum deposition technology overcomes this limitation by excluding oxygen and water from the process with rigorously dry solvent and airtight plating tanks. These adaptations yield metallic aluminum depositions with significant impurities affecting its properties. In addition, this approach requires a great capital investment and cost of process maintenance. An alternative approach to Al electrodeposition has been developed based on the the use of organic ligands to stabilize the Al3+ ion in water-based solutions. By using a ligation approach, we can create aluminum species that remain stable in water while lowering the reduction potential of the aluminum complex by 0.5V. This improvement in reduction potential gives the possibility for the deposition of aluminum without significant competition from hydrogen evolution. With this platform we can deposit highly adherent aluminum-based layers on metal surfaces. The aluminum/aluminum oxide layers appear as thin, coherent and highly adherent coatings. This aluminum/alumina layer can then be chemically treated to achieve desirable surface properties which were previously inaccessible. For example, the coating can be made hydrophobic, highly adherent to different polymer coatings or even dyed using common anodizing dyes.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

DOE OSTI2020

ELECTROCHEMICAL DEPOSITION OF ALUMINUM-BASED COATINGS FROM AQUEOUS SYSTEMS

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

DOE OSTI2020

NMDQi Nuclear Materials Discovery and Qualification Initiative Conference Overview

The Nuclear Materials Discovery and Qualification Initiative (NMDQi) is designed to accelerate nuclear materials qualification to fulfill the promises of early and advanced reactor technologies as a safe, clean, and low-cost baseload energy. Materials development and qualification in the nuclear industry is by definition challenging due to stringent safety requirements, limited availability of specialized facilities for materials irradiation and testing, and the challenging high-temperature, high-radiation environment. NMDQi will establish tools and capabilities that will greatly accelerate the nuclear fuels and materials development process. These tools will provide both computationally informed insights and high-throughput infrastructure with the goal of completing qualification in a single pass. In this approach, materials must be fabricated with a range of properties of interest so that materials performance can be examined in parallel, rather than with multiple discrete specimens. Advanced manufacturing (AM) techniques, which can produce complex component geometries, microstructures, and compositions, are ideal. The improved process monitoring and control that AM can provide are ideal for ensuring and reducing material variability, which will be particularly important as standards committees pursue regulations for AM components. However, gaining these benefits requires overcoming the substantial barrier of qualifying AM processes and the resulting materials and components for supporting research campaigns and eventually nuclear service.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

DOE OSTI2020

Tools Assessing Performance

For the distributed wind industry, it can be challenging to accurately predict the performance and annual energy production of projects prior to their installation. The U.S. Department of Energy’s Tools Assessing Performance (TAP) project aims to improve wind resource characterization, thereby reducing the uncertainty of project performance and financing costs, increasing consumer confidence, and lowering the levelized cost of distributed wind energy. A collaborative effort among DOE National Laboratories, TAP will create a computational framework that provides the distributed wind community with access to newly developed wind resource data and modeling capabilities. These capabilities will allow users to perform timely and accurate performance assessments for distributed wind projects at locations across the United States.

wind, distributed, tools, performance↗

DOE OSTI2021

Demystifying Power System Oscillations - Recent and Ongoing Efforts

Summary of recent and ongoing research efforts in power system oscillation analysis and techniques for locating the source of oscillations. Review of existing technologies, best practice in industry, as well as challenges.

41 EE - Solar Energy Technologies Office (EE-4S)↗

DOE OSTI2022

Reducing the cost of energy estimation in the variational quantum eigensolver algorithm with robust amplitude estimation

Quantum chemistry and materials is one of the most promising applications of quantum computing. Yet much work is still to be done in matching industry-relevant problems in these areas with quantum algorithms that can solve them. Most previous efforts have carried out resource estimations for quantum algorithms run on large-scale fault-tolerant architectures, which include the quantum phase estimation algorithm. In contrast, few have assessed the performance of near-term quantum algorithms, which include the variational quantum eigensolver (VQE) algorithm. Recently, a large-scale benchmark study [Gonthier et al. 2020] found evidence that the performance of the variational quantum eigensolver for a set of industry-relevant molecules may be too inefficient to be of practical use. This motivates the need for developing and assessing methods that improve the efficiency of VQE. In this work, we predict the runtime of the energy estimation subroutine of VQE when using robust amplitude estimation (RAE) to estimate Pauli expectation values. Under conservative assumptions, our resource estimation predicts that RAE can reduce the runtime over the standard estimation method in VQE by one to two orders of magnitude. Despite this improvement, we find that the runtimes are still too large to be practical. These findings motivate two complementary efforts towards quantum advantage: 1) the investigation of more efficient near-term methods for ground state energy estimation and 2) the development of problem instances that are of industrial value and classically challenging, but better suited to quantum computation.

Johnson, Peter D.↗

DOE OSTI2023

Reliability and Decarbonization Resource Adequacy and Resilience

The Electric Power Transformation: 2023 MEGA Symposium has a focus on the transition of the energy generation industry to cleaner and climate resilient electric power that can remain cost-effective and reliable. Electric power energy issues abound as the world and the industry address environmental policy challenges—climate change, air quality, waste and water policy, environmental justice, and Environmental Social Governance —and various technology issues related to energy production and delivery, including the latest cutting-edge options. This presentation discusses reliability and decarbonization of the power sector with a focus on resource adequacy and resilience.

Balash, Peter↗

DOE OSTI2024

Task 3.1: Research and Development Guiding Technoeconomic Analysis and Life-Cycle Assessment

Technologies under development aim to increase yields of desired end products, reduce overall raw material costs, and/or develop more energy-efficient strategies for product recovery. Techno-economic analysis (TEA) and life-cycle assessments (LCA) help assure that economic and sustainability predictions of the technologies are unbiased and compelling and provide guidance to experimentalists on areas that need focus. Building on previous work, the performance-advantaged bioproducts and bioprocessing separations project (SepCon) continues to use the integrated TEA and LCA to evaluate and guide technologies under development and target challenges relevant to the industry and the Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) priority pathways. The analysis team aims to provide credible, unbiased assessments for each technology under development, with ongoing assessments to guide experimental teams. Additionally, the team also supports journal publications highlighting key findings.

biofuels↗

DOE OSTI2024

CO2 Capture Using Amines Bound to Silica

One of the main culprits of global warming is the increased amount of carbon dioxide, or CO2, in the atmosphere. NASA's global climate reports a 13% increase in atmospheric CO2 from 2000 to present. Adsorptive CO2 capture by nitrogen groups of amine-containing solvents is one of the most mature technologies deployed in petrochemical and natural gas processing plants to purify industrial gases. However, key challenges in widespread application include solvent induced reactor corrosion, amine degradation, and high regeneration energy for repeated cycling. An alternative approach is to immobilize amines on solid supports. Key performance metrics of solid amine-based CO2 adsorbents include the CO2 adsorption capacity and stability to degradation over hundreds of thousands of regeneration cycles. Our research aims to develop descriptors for CO2 capture capacity and stability against oxygen-induced degradation for amines bound to porous silica supports using experimental and computational techniques. We experimentally measure the change in CO2-uptake using solid amine adsorbents with varying chemical compositions and exposure to varying gas streams and use high-performance computers to simulate the nature and strength of CO2-adsorption and oxidative degradation reaction mechanisms. Insights from our work can facilitate the development of stable solid amine adsorbents for large-scale CO2 capture processes.

amines↗