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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 343 records · Page 19

Effects of H2O Vapor on Vibrational Relaxation in Expanding and Contracting Flows

As opposed to previous explanations based on the effects of anharmonicity of simple diatomic molecules, traces of water vapor are suggested to be the most likely cause of the anomalously fast vibrational relaxation of such gases observed in supersonic and hypersonic nozzles. The mechanism is the strong V-VR coupling with H2O molecules that dramatically facilitates the collisional transfer of vibrational energy. Slight moisture content is thus a real world aspect of gas dynamics that must be considered in characterizations of shock tubes, reflected shock tunnels, and expansion tubes.

Meador, Willard E.↗

Curvature-Based Wavefront Sensor for Use on Extended, Arbitrary, Low-Contract Scenes Final Technical Report August 2004

A small amount of work has been done on this project; the strategy to be adopted has been better defined, though no experimental work has been started. 1) Wavefront error signals: The best choice appears use a lenslet array at a pupil image to produce defocused image pairs for each subaperture. Then use the method proposed by Molodij et al. to produce subaperture curvature signals. Basically, this method samples a moderate number of locations in the image where the value of the image Laplacian is high, then taking the curvature signal from the difference of the Laplacians of the extrafocal images at those locations. The tip-tilt error is obtained from the temporal dependence of the first spatial derivatives of an in-focus image, at selected locations where these derivatives are significant. The wavefront tilt can be obtained from the full-aperture image. 2) Extrafocal image generation: The important aspect here is to generate symmetrically defocused images, with dynamically adjustable defocus. The adjustment is needed because larger defocus is required before the feedback loop is closed, and at times when the seeing is worse. It may be that the usual membrane mirror is the best choice, though other options should be explored. 3) Detector: Since the proposed sensor is to work on solar granulation, rather than a point source, an array detector for each subaperture is required. A fast CMOS camera such as that developed by the National Solar Observatory would be a satisfactory choice. 4) Processing: Processing requirements have not been defined in detail, though significantly fewer operations per cycle are required than for a correlation tracker.

LaBonte, Barry J.↗

Work Began on Contracts for Radioisotope Power Conversion Technology Research and Development

NASA has had a history of successful space flight missions that depended on radioisotope-fueled power systems. These Radioisotope Power Systems (RPSs) converted the heat generated from the decay of radioisotope material into useful electrical power. An RPS is most attractive in applications where photovoltaics are not optimal, such as deep-space applications where the solar flux is too low or extended applications on planets such as Mars where the day/night cycle, settling of dust, and life requirements limit the usefulness of photovoltaics. NASA s Radioisotope Power Conversion Technology (RPCT) Program is developing next-generation power-conversion technologies that will enable future missions that have requirements that cannot be met by the two RPS flight systems currently being developed by the Department of Energy for NASA: the Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator and the Stirling Radioisotope Generator (SRG).

Wong, Wayne A.↗

Endurance Evaluation of Sintered, Porous, Strut-Supported Turbine Blades made by Federal-Mogul-Bower-Bearings, Incorporated, under Bureau of Aeronautics Contract NOas 55-124-C

Four strut-supported, transpiration-cooled turbine blades were investigated experimentally in a turbojet engine. The blade shells were fabricated by the mold-sintering method with spherical stainless-steel powder. Two blades were investigated in order to evolve suitable capping methods for the blade tip. Two other blades were used to evaluate the durability of the porous-shell material. The blades were investigated at a turbine-tip speed of 1305 feet per second, an average turbine-inlet temperature of about 1670 F, and at a porous-shell temperature limited to a maximum of approximately 1040 F.

Hickel, Robert O.↗

Using SCOR as a Supply Chain Management Framework for Government Agency Contract Requirements

Enterprise Supply Chain Management consists of: Specifying suppliers to support inter-program and inter-agency efforts. Optimizing inventory levels and locations throughout the supply chain. Executing corrective actions to improve quality and lead time issues throughout the supply chain. Processing reported data to calculate and make visible supply chain performance (provide information for decisions and actions). Ensuring the right hardware and information is provided at the right time and in the right place. Monitoring the industrial base while developing, producing, operating and retiring a system. Seeing performance deep in the supply chain that could indicate issues affecting system availability and readiness.

Paxton, Joe↗

Self-Healing Composite of Thermoset Polymer and Programmed Super Contraction Fibers

A composition comprising thermoset polymer, shape memory polymer to facilitate macro scale damage closure, and a thermoplastic polymer for molecular scale healing is disclosed; the composition has the ability to resolve structural defects by a bio-mimetic close-then heal process. In use, the shape memory polymer serves to bring surfaces of a structural defect into approximation, whereafter use of the thermoplastic polymer for molecular scale healing allowed for movement of the thermoplastic polymer into the defect and thus obtain molecular scale healing. The thermoplastic can be fibers, particles or spheres which are used by heating to a level at or above the thermoplastic's melting point, then cooling of the composition below the melting temperature of the thermoplastic. Compositions of the invention have the ability to not only close macroscopic defects, but also to do so repeatedly even if another wound/damage occurs in a previously healed/repaired area.

Li, Guoqiang↗

The Corona Contracts in a Black-Hole Transient

The geometry of the accretion flow around stellar-mass black holes can change on timescales of days to months1–3. When a black hole emerges from quiescence (that is, it ‘turns on’ after accreting material from its companion) it has a very hard (high-energy) X-ray spectrum produced by a hot corona4,5 positioned above its accretion disk, and then transitions to a soft (lower-energy) spectrum dominated by emission from the geometrically thin accretion disk, which extends to the innermost stable circular orbit6,7. Much debate persists over how this transition occurs and whether it is driven largely by a reduction in the truncation radius of the disk8,9 or by a reduction in the spatial extent of the corona10,11. Observations of X-ray reverberation lags in supermassive black-hole systems12,13 suggest that the corona is compact and that the disk extends nearly to the central black hole14,15. Observations of stellar-mass black holes, however, reveal equivalent (mass-scaled) reverberation lags that are much larger16, leading to the suggestion that the accretion disk in the hard-X-ray state of stellar-mass black holes is truncated at a few hundreds of gravitational radii from the black hole17,18. Here we report X-ray observations of the black-hole transient MAXI J1820+07019,20. We find that the reverberation time lags between the continuum-emitting corona and the irradiated accretion disk are 6 to 20 times shorter than previously seen. The timescale of the reverberation lags shortens by an order of magnitude over a period of weeks, whereas the shape of the broadened iron K emission line remains remarkably constant. This suggests a reduction in the spatial extent of the corona, rather than a change in the inner edge of the accretion disk.

E. Kara↗

From Partial to Global Assume-Guarantee Contracts: Compositional Realizability Analysis in FRET

Realizability checking refers to the formal procedure that aims to determine whether an implementation exists, always complying to a set of requirements, regardless of the stimuli provided by the system’s environment. Such a check is essential to ensure that the specification does not allow behavior that can force the system to violate safety constraints. In this paper, we present an approach that decomposes realizability checking into smaller, more tractable problems. More specifically, our approach automatically partitions specifications into sets of non-interfering requirements. We prove that checking whether a specification is realizable reduces to checking that each partition is realizable.We have integrated realizability checking and implemented our decomposition approach within the open-source Formal Requirements ElicitationTool (FRET). A FRET user may check the realizability of a specification monolithically or compositionally. We evaluate our approach by comparing monolithic and compositional checking and showcase the strengths of our decomposition approach on a variety of industrial-level case studies

Anastasia Mavridou↗

Summary of The Contracted Deliveries of Nasa Payloads to the Moon via Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS)

NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative allows rapid acquisition of lunar delivery services from US companies for payloads that advance capabilities for scientific, technological, or commercial development of the Moon [1]. In conjunction with instrument development efforts within NASA, academia, and international partners, a considerable variety of payloads have been delivered to CLPS vendors or a rein the process of development. Note: Document attach contains extended abstract.

Paul B Niles↗