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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
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2020

In-Sodium Testing of a Prototype Thermoacoustic Power Sensor for Sodium-Cooled Fast Reactors

The ultimate goal of this project is to develop and demonstrate a thermoacoustic power sensor (TAPS) for Sodium-Cooled Fast Reactors (SFRs), with potential application also envisioned to other nuclear technologies such as Lead-Cooled Fast Reactors (LFRs), Molten Salt Reactors (MSRs), in addition to Light Water Reactors (LWRs). The project was led by Westinghouse Electric Company, LLC (Westinghouse) and carried out in collaboration with Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) and the University of Pittsburgh. A TAPS is a passive (self-powered), non-invasive (wireless) sensor envisioned for measuring key parameters, such as local temperature and neutron flux, in a nuclear reactor core. The sensor generates pressure waves (i.e., sound waves) with a frequency and amplitude dependent upon nuclear operating conditions (coolant temperature or power changes). The acoustic waves are able to travel through the core and associated structures, and reach to the sensor network placed outside and/or inside of the reactor vessel. These sensors require a very small amount of power which, during loss of power events, can be provided, for example, by harvesting gamma radiation energy, thus resulting in a monitoring system that can function both during normal operation and during loss of power events. Westinghouse and the University of Pittsburgh designed and fabricated TAPS prototypes for Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) to carry out in-sodium testing to evaluate the effects of sodium on the TAPS and the performance of the TAPS technique in sodium. Argonne received a TAPS prototype from Westinghouse, and the prototype was modified such that it can be installed into a test vessel and function in sodium at elevated temperature without potentially leaking. A water mockup test apparatus was constructed to validate proper working of the prototype. An instrumentation and control (I&C) system, running on the National Instruments (NI) LabView platform, was developed to: 1) operate both the water mockup test and the in-sodium test facility; and 2) process and analyze the received acoustic signals from an array of accelerometers and the Argonne sodium-submersible high-temperature acoustic sensor. The prototype was successfully tested in a water bath at different temperatures. Water mockup tests demonstrated that the TAPS prototype is working properly and its resonance frequency changes linearly with the coolant (water) temperature. A TAPS test apparatus was constructed and integrated with the upgraded Under-Sodium Viewing (USV) sodium test facility. The integrated USV-TAPS sodium test facility has been operational. The TAPS prototype and a high-temperature sodium-submersible acoustic sensor (SSAS) developed by Argonne were both installed inside the TAPS test vessel. Being operated within argon cover gas under ambient conditions, the TAPS prototype demonstrated that it was functioning properly with a resonance frequency at 1407.2 Hz, which was successfully detected by the accelerometers mounted on the external wall of the vessel and the high-temperature SSAS installed inside the vessel. After successfully transferring sodium into the vessel, in-sodium tests of the prototype were conducted. Tests of the TAPS prototype demonstrated that the resonance frequency of the TAPS changes linearly with respect to the temperature difference between the interior of the TAPS and bulk sodium. The early tests showed that the TAPS prototype could not establish a continuous and consistent resonance in sodium. The resonance diminished before the prototype reached its operating temperature. A signal postprocessor was added to the DAQ module latterly to isolate interferences, enhance signal conditioning, improve peak detection, and generate resonance frequency versus temperature plots. After testing in molten sodium and immersion at higher temperature for several weeks, the TAPS prototype was able to establish a continuous resonance. Performance evaluation of the TAPS prototype was then conducted in sodium. The tests included the investigation of 1) the effects of the temperature difference between the TAPS and bulk sodium, 2) the effects of sodium flowrate; and 3) the performance of the different sensor-receiver systems positioned inside or outside the vessel. Results of a test demonstrated that, with limited sodium circulation, a continuous and consistent resonance of the TAPS prototype was established occasionally. The tests also demonstrated that, because of the nature of detection principles and mounting methods, the high temperature SSAS is more affected by acoustic noise, while accelerometers are more affected by vibrations, in the test environment. It is unknown why the TAPS prototype only occasionally established a continuous and consistent resonance when the TAPS temperature reached its operating temperature in molten sodium, and why it ultimately failed to resonate at all. A failure modes assessment was conducted and a few potential causes of failure were identified. Different post in-sodium tests were conducted to obtain additional information potentially relevant to the cause of the failure. Nondestructive evaluation techniques are suggested to examine the internal integrity as well as the gas mixture of the prototype. If they prove inconclusive, the prototype should be cut open to conduct a thorough inspection of its internal integrity and determine the state of the gas mixture.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
NASA NTRS1993

Integration and evaluation of a simulator designed to be used within a dynamic prototyping environment

The human computer interface (HCI) prototyping environment is designed to allow developers to rapidly prototype systems so that the interface and functionality of a system can be evaluated and iteratively refined early in the development process. This keeps development costs down by modifying the interface during the requirements definition phase, thus minimizing changes that need to be made during and after flight code development. Problems occur within a system when the user interface is not adequately developed and when designers and developers have an incomplete understanding of the system requirements. A process has been developed for prototyping on-board payload displays for Space Station Freedom. This prototyping process consists of five phases: identification of known requirements, analysis of the requirements, development of a formal design representation and specification, development of the prototype, and evaluation of the prototype. The actual development of the prototype involves prototyping the displays, developing a low fidelity simulator, building of an interface (or communication) between the displays and the simulator, integration of these components, and testing to ensure that the interface does what the developer expects. This research integrates and evaluates a software tool which has been developed to serve as a simulator within the prototyping environment. The tool is being evaluated to determine whether or not it meets the basic requirements which are needed for a low fidelity simulator within this environment. In order to evaluate the architecture and its components, a human computer interface for and a simulator of an automobile have been developed as a prototype. The individual components (i.e., the interface and simulator) have been developed, and the current research was designed to integrate and test the complete working system within the prototyping environment. The following sections will describe the architecture and components of the rapid prototyping environment, the development of a system to assess the environment, and the integration and evaluation of PERCNET.

Moore, Loretta A.↗
NASA NTRS2010

Ares I-X Ground Diagnostic Prototype

Automating prelaunch diagnostics for launch vehicles offers three potential benefits. First, it potentially improves safety by detecting faults that might otherwise have been missed so that they can be corrected before launch. Second, it potentially reduces launch delays by more quickly diagnosing the cause of anomalies that occur during prelaunch processing. Reducing launch delays will be critical to the success of NASA's planned future missions that require in-orbit rendezvous. Third, it potentially reduces costs by reducing both launch delays and the number of people needed to monitor the prelaunch process. NASA is currently developing the Ares I launch vehicle to bring the Orion capsule and its crew of four astronauts to low-earth orbit on their way to the moon. Ares I-X will be the first unmanned test flight of Ares I. It is scheduled to launch on October 27, 2009. The Ares I-X Ground Diagnostic Prototype is a prototype ground diagnostic system that will provide anomaly detection, fault detection, fault isolation, and diagnostics for the Ares I-X first-stage thrust vector control (TVC) and for the associated ground hydraulics while it is in the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC) and on the launch pad. It will serve as a prototype for a future operational ground diagnostic system for Ares I. The prototype combines three existing diagnostic tools. The first tool, TEAMS (Testability Engineering and Maintenance System), is a model-based tool that is commercially produced by Qualtech Systems, Inc. It uses a qualitative model of failure propagation to perform fault isolation and diagnostics. We adapted an existing TEAMS model of the TVC to use for diagnostics and developed a TEAMS model of the ground hydraulics. The second tool, Spacecraft Health Inference Engine (SHINE), is a rule-based expert system developed at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. We developed SHINE rules for fault detection and mode identification. The prototype uses the outputs of SHINE as inputs to TEAMS. The third tool, the Inductive Monitoring System (IMS), is an anomaly detection tool developed at NASA Ames Research Center and is currently used to monitor the International Space Station Control Moment Gyroscopes. IMS automatically "learns" a model of historical nominal data in the form of a set of clusters and signals an alarm when new data fails to match this model. IMS offers the potential to detect faults that have not been modeled. The three tools have been integrated and deployed to Hangar AE at KSC where they interface with live data from the Ares I-X vehicle and from the ground hydraulics. The outputs of the tools are displayed on a console in Hangar AE, one of the locations from which the Ares I-X launch will be monitored. The full paper will describe how the prototype performed before the launch. It will include an analysis of the prototype's accuracy, including false-positive rates, false-negative rates, and receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curves. It will also include a description of the prototype's computational requirements, including CPU usage, main memory usage, and disk usage. If the prototype detects any faults during the prelaunch period then the paper will include a description of those faults. Similarly, if the prototype has any false alarms then the paper will describe them and will attempt to explain their causes.

Schwabacher, Mark↗
DOE OSTI2022

Prototype College Building Energy Model: Building Characteristics and Energy Simulation Results

The US Department of Energy supports the development of commercial building energy codes and standards. To support commercial building energy research activities and the development of commercial building energy codes and standards, continuous efforts have been made to convert 16 prototype building models, which cover 80% of US commercial building floor space, to OpenStudio prototype buildings. Additionally, the suite of prototype building models was expanded to include the addition of new building prototype models (e.g., courthouse, college building). Multiple sources, including databases, documented projects, and personal communications, were used to define the prototype college building, and a 4-story with 69,063 ft 2 building was considered as the prototype college building to represent an average-sized college building in the United States. To represent realistic occupancy schedules and increase the granularity of information, actual class reservation schedules were collected and used. This report documents the building and system characteristics of the prototype college building model combined with climate-specific and construction vintage–specific requirements for the building envelope and systems from ASHRAE Standard 90.1. The energy simulation results are presented for 4 construction vintages (2004, 2007, 2010, and 2013) and 15 ASHRAE climate zones. The site energy use intensity of the college building was compared with 2012 Commercial Building Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS) and ENERGY STAR data to verify the simulation results. The site energy use intensity of the college building ranged from 60 to 202.4 kBtu/ft 2 , and compared with the energy use intensities of Commercial Building Energy Consumption Survey (122.9 kBtu/ft 2 ) and ENERGY STAR (84.3 kBtu/ft 2 ) data, the prototype college building results are in a reasonable range.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
NASA NTRS1993

Characteristics of products generated by selective sintering and stereolithography rapid prototyping processes

The trend in the modern global economy towards free market policies has motivated companies to use rapid prototyping technologies to not only reduce product development cycle time but also to maintain their competitive edge. A rapid prototyping technology is one which combines computer aided design with computer controlled tracking of focussed high energy source (eg. lasers, heat) on modern ceramic powders, metallic powders, plastics or photosensitive liquid resins in order to produce prototypes or models. At present, except for the process of shape melting, most rapid prototyping processes generate products that are only dimensionally similar to those of the desired end product. There is an urgent need, therefore, to enhance the understanding of the characteristics of these processes in order to realize their potential for production. Currently, the commercial market is dominated by four rapid prototyping processes, namely selective laser sintering, stereolithography, fused deposition modelling and laminated object manufacturing. This phase of the research has focussed on the selective laser sintering and stereolithography rapid prototyping processes. A theoretical model for these processes is under development. Different rapid prototyping sites supplied test specimens (based on ASTM 638-84, Type I) that have been measured and tested to provide a data base on surface finish, dimensional variation and ultimate tensile strength. Further plans call for developing and verifying the theoretical models by carefully designed experiments. This will be a joint effort between NASA and other prototyping centers to generate a larger database, thus encouraging more widespread usage by product designers.

Cariapa, Vikram↗
DOE OSTI2022

Defining the Prototype Convenience Store Building Characteristics

The US Department of Energy supports the development of commercial building energy codes and standards. To support commercial building energy research activities and the development of commercial building energy codes and standards, continuous efforts have been made to convert 30 prototype building models (20 different building types), which cover 80% of US commercial building floor space, to OpenStudio prototype buildings. Additionally, the suite of prototype building models was expanded to include the addition of new building prototype models (e.g., courthouse, college building). This report documents the building and system characteristics of the prototype convenience store building model. Multiple sources, including databases, documented projects, and personal communications, were used to define the prototype convenience store building characteristics, and a one-story, 3,000 ft 2 building was considered as the prototype convenience store to represent an average-sized convenience store in the United States. The Oak Ridge National Laboratory team defined the operational hours of the convenience store as 17 hours per day. The types of exterior walls, roof, and floor were defined as brick wall, metal surfacing roof, and slab-on-grade floor, respectively. Double glazing was selected, and the window-towall ratio was set as 15% on the front side. For the system part, packaged system and centralized water heater were selected for the space heating and cooling system and water heater system, respectively. In terms of the refrigerator system, the number of refrigerators and freezers were determined as eight closed cases and two walk-in units.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
NASA NTRS2008

Review, Selection and Installation of a Rapid Prototype Machine

The objective of this paper is to impress upon the reader the benefits and advantages of investing in rapid prototyping (additive manufacturing) technology thru the procurement of one or two new rapid prototyping machines and the creation of a new Prototype and Model Lab at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC). This new resource will be available to all of United Space Alliance, LLC (USA), enabling engineers from around the company to pursue a more effective means of communication and design with our co-workers, and our customer, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The Rapid Protoyping/3D printing industry mirrors the transition the CAD industry made several years ago, when companies were trying to justify the expenditure of converting to a 3D based system from a 2D based system. The advantages of using a 3D system seemed to be outweighed by the cost it would take to convert not only legacy 2D drawings into 3D models but the training of personnel to use the 3D CAD software. But the reality was that when a 3D CAD system is employed, it gives engineers a much greater ability to conceive new designs and the ability to engineer new tools and products much more effectively. Rapid Prototyping (RP) is the name given to a host of related technologies that are used to fabricate physical objects directly from Computer Aided Design (CAD) data sources. These methods are generally similar to each other in that they add and bond materials in a layer wise-fashion to form objects, instead of machining away material. The machines used in Rapid Prototyping are also sometimes referred to as Rapid Manufacturing machines due to the fact that some of the parts fabricated in a RP machine can be used as the finished product. The name "Rapid Prototyping" is really a misnomer. It is much more than prototypes and it is not always rapid.

McEndree, Caryl↗