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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 37 records · Page 2

An Experimental Study of the Fluid Mechanics Associated With Porous Walls

The fluid mechanics of air exiting from a porous material is investigated. The experiments are filter rating dependent, as porous walls with filter ratings differing by about three orders of magnitude are studied. The flow behavior is investigated for its spatial and temporal stability. The results from the investigation are related to jet behavior in at least one of the following categories: (1) jet coalescence effects with increasing flow rate; (2) jet field decay with increasing distance from the porous wall; (3) jet field temporal turbulence characteristics; and (4) single jet turbulence characteristics. The measurements show that coalescence effects cause jet development, and this development stage can be traced by measuring the pseudoturbulence (spatial velocity variations) at any flow rate. The pseudoturbulence variation with increasing mass flow reveals an initial increasing trend followed by a leveling trend, both of which are directly proportional to the filter rating. A critical velocity begins this leveling trend and represents the onset of fully developed jetting action in the flow field. A correlation is developed to predict the onset of fully developed jets in the flow emerging from a porous wall. The data further show that the fully developed jet dimensions are independent of the filter rating, thus providing a length scale for this type of flow field (1 mm). Individual jet characteristics provide another unifying trend with similar velocity decay behavior with distance; however, the respective turbulence magnitudes show vast differences between jets from the same sample. Measurements of the flow decay with distance from the porous wall show that the higher spatial frequency components of the jet field dissipate faster than the lower frequency components. Flow turbulence intensity measurements show an out of phase behavior with the velocity field and are generally found to increase as the distance from the wall is increased.

N Ramachandran↗

Wire Cloth as Porous Material for Transpiration-cooled Walls

The permeability characteristics and tensile strength of a porous material developed from stainless-steel corduroy wire cloth for use in transpiration-cooled walls where the primary stresses are in one direction were investigated. The results of this investigation are presented and compared with similar results obtained with porous sintered metal compacts. A much wider range of permeabilities is obtainable with the wire cloth than with the porous metal compacts considered and the ultimate tensile strength in the direction of the primary stresses for porous materials produced from three mesh sizes of wire cloth are from two to three times the ultimate tensile strengths of the porous metal compacts.

MATERIALS - TYPES↗

An Experimental Investigation and Correlation of the Heat Reduction to Nonporous Surfaces Behind a Porous Leading Edge Through Which Coolant is Ejected

A configuration of a wing segment having constant chord thickness, 0 deg. sweep, a porous steel semicircular leading edge, and solid Inconel surfaces was tested in a Mach number 2.0 ethlyene-heated high-temperature air jet. Measurements were made of the wing surface temperatures at chordwise stations for several rates of helium flow through the porous leading edge. The investigation was conducted at stagnation temperatures ranging from 500 F to 2,400 F, at Reynolds numbers per foot ranging from 0.3 x 10(exp 7) to 1.2 x 10(exp 7), and at angles of attack of 0, +/- 5, and +/- 15 deg. The results indicated that the reduction of wing surface temperatures with respect to their values for no coolant flow, depended on the helium coolant flow rates and the distance behind the area of injection. The results were correlated in terms of the wall cooling parameter and the coolant flow-rate parameter, where the nondimensional flow rate was referenced to the cooled area up to the downstream position. For the same coolant flow rate, lower surface temperatures are achieved with a porous-wall cooling system. However, since flow-rate requirements decrease with increasing allowable surface temperatures, the higher allowable wall temperatures of the solid wall as compared to the structurally weaker porous wall- sharply reduce the flow-rate requirements of a downstream cooling system. Thus, for certain flight conditions it is possible to compensate for the lower efficiency of the downstream or solid-wall cooling system. For example, a downstream cooling system using solid walls that must be maintained at 1,800 F would require less coolant for Mach numbers up to 5.5 than would a porous-wall cooling system for which the walls must be maintained at temperatures less than or equal to 9000 F.

Witte, William G.↗

Static Performance of a Fixed-Geometry Exhaust Nozzle Incorporating Porous Cavities for Shock-Boundary Layer Interaction Control

An investigation was conducted in the model preparation area of the Langley 16-Foot Transonic Tunnel to determine the internal performance of a fixed-geometry exhaust nozzle incorporating porous cavities for shock-boundary layer interaction control. Testing was conducted at static conditions using a sub-scale nozzle model with one baseline and 27 porous configurations. For the porous configurations, the effects of percent open porosity, hole diameter, and cavity depth were determined. All tests were conducted with no external flow at nozzle pressure ratios from 1.25 to approximately 9.50. Results indicate that baseline nozzle performance was dominated by unstable, shock-induced, boundary-layer separation at over-expanded conditions. Porous configurations were capable of controlling off-design separation in the nozzle by either alleviating separation or encouraging stable separation of the exhaust flow. The ability of the porous nozzle concept to alternately alleviate separation or encourage stable separation of exhaust flow through shock-boundary layer interaction control offers tremendous off-design performance benefits for fixed-geometry nozzle installations. In addition, the ability to encourage separation on one divergent flap while alleviating it on the other makes it possible to generate thrust vectoring using a fixed-geometry nozzle.

Asbury, Scott C.↗

Numerical Investigation of Flow in an Over-Expanded Nozzle with Porous Surfaces

A new porous condition has been implemented in the PAB3D solver for simulating the flow over porous surfaces. The newly-added boundary condition is utilized to compute the flow field of a non-axisymmetric, convergent-divergent nozzle incorporating porous cavities for shock-boundary layer interaction control. The nozzle has an expansion ratio (exit area/throat area) of 1.797 and a design nozzle pressure ratio of 8.78. The flow fields for a baseline nozzle (no porosity) and for a nozzle with porous surfaces (10% porosity ratio) are computed for NPR varying from 2.01 to 9.54. Computational model results indicate that the over-expanded nozzle flow was dominated by shock-induced boundary-layer separation. Porous configurations were capable of controlling off-design separation in the nozzle by encouraging stable separation of the exhaust flow. Computational simulation results, wall centerline pressure, mach contours, and thrust efficiency ratio are presented and discussed. Computed results are in excellent agreement with experimental data.

Elmiligui, Alaa↗

Conceptual Design of a Condensing Heat Exchanger for Space Systems Using Porous Media

Condensing heat exchangers are used in many space applications in the thermal and humidity control systems. In the International Space Station (ISS), humidity control is achieved by using a water cooled fin surface over which the moist air condenses, followed by "slurper bars" that take in both the condensate and air into a rotary separator and separates the water from air. The use of a cooled porous substrate as the condensing surface provides and attractive alternative that combines both heat removal as well as liquid/gas separation into a single unit. By selecting the pore sizes of the porous substrate a gravity independent operation may also be possible with this concept. Condensation of vapor into and on the porous surface from the flowing air and the removal of condensate from the porous substrate are the critical processes involved in the proposed concept. This paper describes some preliminary results of the proposed condensate withdrawal process and discusses the on-going design and development work of a porous media based condensing heat exchanger at the NASA Glenn Research Center in collaboration with NASA Johnson Space Center.

Hasan, Mohammad M.↗

Numerical Investigation of Flow in an Over-expanded Nozzle with Porous Surfaces

A new porous condition has been implemented in the PAB3D solver for simulating the flow over porous surfaces. The newly-added boundary condition is utilized to compute the flow field of a non-axisymmetric, convergent-divergent nozzle incorporating porous cavities for shock-boundary layer interaction control. The nozzle has an expansion ratio (exit area/throat area) of 1.797 and a design nozzle pressure ratio of 8.78. The flow fields for a baseline nozzle (no porosity) and for a nozzle with porous surfaces (10% porosity ratio) are computed for NPR varying from 2.01 to 9.54. Computational model results indicate that the over-expanded nozzle flow is dominated by shock-induced boundary-layer separation. Porous configurations are capable of controlling off-design separation in the nozzle by encouraging stable separation of the exhaust flow. Computational simulation results, wall centerline pressure, mach contours, and thrust efficiency ratio are presented and discussed. Computed results are in excellent agreement with experimental data.

Abdol-Hamid, Khaled S.↗

Electrochemical Method of Making Porous Particles Using a Constant Current Density

Provided is a particle that includes a first porous region and a second porous region that differs from the first porous region. Also provided is a particle that has a wet etched porous region and that does have a nucleation layer associated with wet etching. Methods of making porous particles are also provided.

Ferrari, Mauro↗

Tortuosity Computations of Porous Materials using the Direct Simulation Monte Carlo

Low-density carbon fiber preforms, used as thermal protection systems (TPS) materials for planetary entry systems, have permeable, highly porous microstructures consisting of interlaced fibers. Internal gas transport in TPS is important in modeling the penetration of hot boundary-layer gases and the in-depth transport of pyrolysis and ablation products. The gas effective diffusion coefficient of a porous material must be known before the gas transport can be modeled in material response solvers; however, there are very little available data for rigid fibrous insulators used in heritage TPS.The tortuosity factor, which reflects the efficiency of the percolation paths, can be computed from the effective diffusion coefficient of a gas inside a porous material and is based on the micro-structure of the material. It is well known, that the tortuosity factor is a strong function of the Knudsen number. Due to the small characteristic scales of porous media used in TPS applications (typical pore size of the order of 50 micron), the transport of gases can occur in the rarefied and transitional regimes, at Knudsen numbers above 1. A proper way to model the gas dynamics at these conditions consists in solving the Boltzmann equation using particle-based methods that account for movement and collisions of atoms and molecules.In this work we adopt, for the first time, the Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method to compute the tortuosity factor of fibrous media in the rarefied regime. To enable realistic simulations of the actual transport of gases in the porous medium, digitized computational grids are obtained from X-ray micro-tomography imaging of real TPS materials. The SPARTA DSMC solver is used for simulations. Effective diffusion coefficients and tortuosity factors are obtained by computing the mean-square displacement of diffusing particles.We first apply the method to compute the tortuosity factors as a function of the Knudsen number for computationally designed materials such as random cylindrical fibers and packed bed of spheres with prescribed porosity. Results are compared to literature values obtained using random walk methods in the rarefied and transitional regime and a finite-volume method for the continuum regime. We then compute tortuosity factors for a real carbon fiber material with a transverse isotropic structure (FiberForm), quantifying differences between through-thickness and in-plain tortuosities at various Knudsen regimes.

Tortuosity↗

Three-Dimensional, Porous Anode for Use in Lithium-Ion Batteries and Method of Fabrication Thereof

A three-dimensional, porous anode material suitable for use in a lithium-ion cell. The three-dimensional, porous anode material includes active anode particles embedded within a carbon matrix. The porous structure of this novel anode material allows for the expansion and contraction of the anode without the anode delaminating or breaking apart, thus improving the life-cycle of the lithium-ion cell. An example of this three-dimensional porous anode material is a porous silicon-carbon composite formed using a bi-continuous micro-emulsion (BME) template.

Laicer, Castro↗

Analytical Model for Steady Flow through a Finite Channel with One Porous Wall with Arbitrary Variable Suction or Injection

This paper presents an exact solution of two-dimensional laminar flow through a finite length channel with one porous wall. It improves upon previous solutions by (1) satisfying the no-slip boundary condition at the channel dead end, (2) adding a turbulent term to the porous wall boundary condition, (3) allowing for arbitrary variable suction or injection across the porous wall, and (4) model validation against new cryogenic liquid hydrogen and oxygen experimental data. Of particular interest in the current work is the modeling of cryogenic propellant flow through a porous liquid acquisition device (LAD) screen and channel inside a propellant tank. First, a detailed review of the literature is presented for previously attempted solutions to channel flow with one porous wall. Next, the governing equations, boundary conditions, and model assumptions are used to derive the analytical flow solution and present general model results for pressure and velocity fields within the channel. Then, the model solution is compared with horizontal LAD channel flow data in liquid oxygen as well as vertical LAD channel flow data in an inverted outflow configuration in liquid hydrogen. Model results are used to update the static cryogenic bubble point pressure model with a dynamic bubble point term which factors in enhanced convection and cooling at the screen during propellant outflow. Convective heat transfer at the LAD screen during outflow is also quantified by comparing model and data. The new analytical flow solution with the dynamic bubble point model is shown to compare well with available cryogenic experimental data

Navier Stokes Equations↗

Characterizing Porous and Nonporous Phenolic Resins from Molecular Dynamics Simulations

Phenolic resins are an important component of many ablative heat shield materials, which protect spacecrafts from the extreme temperatures reached during atmospheric entry. Examples include the high-density Heritage Carbon Phenolic (HCP) used in the Pioneer-Venus and Galileo missions, as well as the low-density Phenolic Impregnated Carbon Ablator (PICA) used in the Mars Science Laboratory and Mars 2020 missions. Additionally, recent developments within NASA have produced the mid-density Heatshield for Extreme Entry Environment Technology (HEEET) and its derivative 3D Woven Mid-Density Carbon Phenolic (3MDCP). Unlike the nonporous phenolic in HCP, PICA and HEEET/3MDCP are fabricated by infusing preforms with diluted phenolic formulations to obtain a lower density porous matrix. Despite the importance of the phenolic phase to the material response during entry, the variation in properties of porous and nonporous phenolic is not well understood. Here, we present an investigation of porous and nonporous phenolic resins using molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. Resin cure is mimicked in the simulations through the inclusion of representative reaction templates to generate accurate models of the complex crosslinked structures. To create porous models, explicit solvent molecules are included during the cure simulations. We observe nanoscale separation of the phenolic and solvent phases, which results in significant differences in the final structures of porous and nonporous models. In addition to a quantitative assessment of the network structure and porosity, we elucidate the effects of the phenolic formulation on the final material properties. These results are compared with experimental data as appropriate.

phenolic↗

(abstract) Alkali Metal Diffusion Through Porous Metal Electrodes in AMTEC Cells

The mechanisms of mass transport of an alkali metal through porous metal electrodes in alkali metal thermal-to-electric converter AMTEC cells is important in optimizing these high current density devices, but also affords the opportunity to investigate a variety of simple mass transport modes at high temperatures via electrochemical techniques. We have previously reported evidence of ionic, free molecular flow, and surface transport of sodium in several types of AMTEC electrodes. Quantitative investigations of Na transport through WPt(sub 3.5) via surface or grain boundary diffusion, and K transport through porous Mo electrodes by free molecular flow, over large ranges of temperature have been performed. WPt(sub 3.5) has especially low transport impedance over the 950 to 1200K temperature range. New results are the Na through porous WPt(sub 3.5) and K through porous Mo diffusion rates and mechanisms.

alkali metal mass transport porous metal electrode↗

Porous Plug Phase Separator and Superfluid Film Flow Suppression System for the Soft X-Ray Spectrometer Onboard Hitomi

When using superfluid helium in low gravity environments, porous plug phase separators are commonly used to vent boiloff gas while confining the bulk liquid to the tank. Invariably, there is a flow of superfluid film from the perimeter of the porous plug down the vent line. For the Soft X-ray Spectrometer onboard ASTRO-H (Hitomi), its approximately 30-liter helium supply has a lifetime requirement of more than 3 years. A nominal vent rate is estimated as ~ 30 ug/s, equivalent to ~ 0.7 mW heat load. It is therefore critical to suppress any film flow whose evaporation would not provide direct cooling of the remaining liquid helium. That is, the porous plug vent system must be designed to both minimize film flow and to ensure maximum extraction of latent heat from the film. The design goal for Hitomi is to reduce the film flow losses to <2 ug/s, corresponding to a loss of cooling capacity of <40 uW. The design adopts the same general design as implemented for Astro-E and E2, using a vent system composed of a porous plug, combined with an orifice, a heat exchanger, and knife-edge devices. In this paper, design, on-ground testing results and in-orbit performance are described.

Porous↗

Analysis of shape of porous cooled medium for an imposed surface heat flux and temperature

The surface of a porous cooled medium is to be maintained at a specified design temperature while being subjected to uniform heating by an external source. An analytical method is given for determining the shape of the medium surface that will satisfy these boundary conditions. The analysis accounts for temperature dependent variations of fluid density and viscosity and for temperature dependent matrix thermal conductivity. The energy equation is combined with Darcy's law in such a way that a potential can be defined that satisfies Laplace's equation. All of the heat-transfer and flow quantities are expressed in terms of this potential. The determination of the shape of the porous cooled region is thereby reduced to a free-boundary problem such as in inviscid free jet theory. Two illustrative examples are carried out: a porous leading edge with coolant supplied through a slot and a porous cooled duct with a rectangular outer boundary.

Siegel, R.↗

Study of porous surface microphones for acoustic measurements in wind tunnels

Porous surface sensors acting as directional microphones in subsonic airflow were investigated. The first part of the report deals with the design of a porous strip sensor set in an aerofoil. The second part presents the experimental results of frequency response, directivity, and flow noise of a porous pipe sensor and a porous strip sensor. For flow noise, these sensors were compared with the Bruel and Kjaer half-inch condenser microphone with a nose cone. The flow noise was examined under two conditions of flow: in a very quiet flow where the turbulence was approximately 0.3% and in a spoiled flow where the turbulence was approximately 5%.

Noiseux, D. U.↗

Supersonic turbulent boundary-layer flows with mass injection through slots and/or porous walls

An implicit finite-difference method was used to solve the compressible boundary-layer equations, and to study the effects of mass transfer through porous plates, slots, and a combination of the two. The effects of the external pressure field were also included by using a global pressure interaction scheme. Two different eddy viscosity models were used for the slot and slot-porous combination cases: one was a two-layer model with inner and outer laws, and the other was a multi-layer model with as many as five separate layers. Results of the present method were compared with experimental data at a Mach number of 2.8. Comparisons of the skin friction reduction and Mach number profiles gave good to excellent agreement. Pressure interaction had little effect on the slot injection skin friction but increased the skin friction of the porous and slot-porous combination markedly.

Murray, A. L.↗

Initial results of a porous plug nozzle for supersonic jet noise suppression

As part of a continuing study of possible methods of jet noise reduction, some tests have been made on a porous plug type noise suppressor. Very little information exists on the aeroacoustic performance of jet nozzles having porous elements designed to eliminate the shock wave in the exhaust stream and by so doing to eliminate the shock associated noise and screech. Some initial results on the aeroacoustic performance of a model porous plug type jet noise suppressor are presented. Included are shadowgraph pictures of the flow exhausting from the porous plug nozzle with the comparable acoustic far-field spectra and cross correlations which illustrate the benefits of the test device.

Maestrello, L.↗