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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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NASA NTRS2010

The HYTHIRM Project: Flight Thermography of the Space Shuttle During the Hypersonic Re-entry

This report describes a NASA Langley led endeavor sponsored by the NASA Engineering Safety Center, the Space Shuttle Program Office and the NASA Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate to demonstrate a quantitative thermal imaging capability. A background and an overview of several multidisciplinary efforts that culminated in the acquisition of high resolution calibrated infrared imagery of the Space Shuttle during hypervelocity atmospheric entry is presented. The successful collection of thermal data has demonstrated the feasibility of obtaining remote high-resolution infrared imagery during hypersonic flight for the accurate measurement of surface temperature. To maximize science and engineering return, the acquisition of quantitative thermal imagery and capability demonstration was targeted towards three recent Shuttle flights - two of which involved flight experiments flown on Discovery. In coordination with these two Shuttle flight experiments, a US Navy NP-3D aircraft was flown between 26-41 nautical miles below Discovery and remotely monitored surface temperature of the Orbiter at Mach 8.4 (STS-119) and Mach 14.7 (STS-128) using a long-range infrared optical package referred to as Cast Glance. This same Navy aircraft successfully monitored the Orbiter Atlantis traveling at approximately Mach 14.3 during its return from the successful Hubble repair mission (STS-125). The purpose of this paper is to describe the systematic approach used by the Hypersonic Thermodynamic Infrared Measurements team to develop and implement a set of mission planning tools designed to establish confidence in the ability of an imaging platform to reliably acquire, track and return global quantitative surface temperatures of the Shuttle during entry. The mission planning tools included a pre-flight capability to predict the infrared signature of the Shuttle. Such tools permitted optimization of the hardware configuration to increase signal-to-noise and to maximize the available dynamic range while mitigating the potential for saturation. Post flight, analysis tools were used to assess atmospheric effects and to convert the 2-D intensity images to 3-D temperature maps of the windward surface. Comparison of the spatially resolved global thermal measurements to surface thermocouples and CFD prediction is made. Successful demonstration of a quantitative, spatially resolved, global temperature measurement on the Shuttle suggests future applications towards hypersonic flight test programs within NASA, DoD and DARPA along with flight test opportunities supporting NASA's project Constellation.

Horvath, Thomas J.↗
NASA NTRS2010

Application of a Near Infrared Imaging System for Thermographic Imaging of the Space Shuttle during Hypersonic Re-Entry

High resolution calibrated near infrared (NIR) imagery was obtained of the Space Shuttle s reentry during STS-119, STS-125, and STS-128 missions. The infrared imagery was collected using a US Navy NP-3D Orion aircraft using a long-range infrared optical package referred to as Cast Glance. The slant ranges between the Space Shuttle and Cast Glance were approximately 26-41 nautical miles at point of closest approach. The Hypersonic Thermodynamic Infrared Measurements (HYTHIRM) project was a NASA Langley led endeavor sponsored by the NASA Engineering Safety Center, the Space Shuttle Program Office and the NASA Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate to demonstrate a quantitative thermal imaging capability. HYTHIRM required several mission tools to acquire the imagery. These tools include pre-mission acquisition simulations of the Shuttle trajectory in relationship to the Cast Glance aircraft flight path, radiance modeling to predict the infrared response of the Shuttle, and post mission analysis tools to process the infrared imagery to quantitative temperature maps. The spatially resolved global thermal measurements made during the Shuttle s hypersonic reentry provides valuable flight data for reducing the uncertainty associated with present day ground-to-flight extrapolation techniques and current state-of-the-art empirical boundary-layer transition or turbulent heating prediction methods. Laminar and turbulent flight data is considered critical for the development of turbulence models supporting NASA s next-generation spacecraft. This paper will provide the motivation and details behind the use of an upgraded NIR imaging system used onboard a Navy Cast Glance aircraft and describe the characterizations and procedures performed to obtain quantitative temperature maps. A brief description and assessment will be provided of the previously used analog NIR camera along with image examples from Shuttle missions STS-121, STS-115, and solar tower test. These thermal observations confirmed the challenge of a long-range acquisition during re-entry. These challenges are due to unknown atmospheric conditions, image saturation, vibration etc. This provides the motivation for the use of a digital NIR sensor. The characterizations performed on the digital NIR sensor included radiometric, spatial, and spectral measurements using blackbody radiation sources and known targets. An assessment of the collected data for three Space Shuttle atmospheric re-entries, STS-119, STS-125, and STS-128, are provided along with a description of various events of interest captured using the digital NIR imaging system such as RCS firings and boundary layer transitions. Lastly the process used to convert the raw image counts to quantitative temperatures is presented along with comparisons to the Space Shuttle's onboard thermocouples.

Zalameda, Joseph N.↗
NASA NTRS2010

Comparing Spray Characteristics from Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) National Combustion Code (NCC) Calculations Against Experimental Data for a Turbulent Reacting Flow

Developing physics-based tools to aid in reducing harmful combustion emissions, like Nitrogen Oxides (NOx), Carbon Monoxide (CO), Unburnt Hydrocarbons (UHC s), and Sulfur Dioxides (SOx), is an important goal of aeronautics research at NASA. As part of that effort, NASA Glenn Research Center is performing a detailed assessment and validation of an in-house combustion CFD code known as the National Combustion Code (NCC) for turbulent reacting flows. To assess the current capabilities of NCC for simulating turbulent reacting flows with liquid jet fuel injection, a set of Single Swirler Lean Direct Injection (LDI) experiments performed at the University of Cincinnati was chosen as an initial validation data set. This Jet-A/air combustion experiment operates at a lean equivalence ratio of 0.75 at atmospheric pressure and has a 4 percent static pressure drop across the swirler. Detailed comparisons of NCC predictions for gas temperature and gaseous emissions (CO and NOx) against this experiment are considered in a previous work. The current paper is focused on detailed comparisons of the spray characteristics (radial profiles of drop size distribution and at several radial rakes) from NCC simulations against the experimental data. Comparisons against experimental data show that the use of the correlation for primary spray break-up implemented by Raju in the NCC produces most realistic results, but this result needs to be improved. Given the single or ten step chemical kinetics models, use of a spray size correlation gives similar, acceptable results

Iannetti, Anthony C.↗
NASA NTRS2010

HyBoLT Flight Experiment

HyBoLT was a Hypersonic Boundary Layer Transition flight experiment funded by the Hypersonics Project of the Fundamental Aeronautics Program in NASA's Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate. The HyBoLT test article mounted on the top of the ALV X-1 rocket was launched from Virginia's Wallops Island on August 22, 2008. Unfortunately a problem in the rocket's flight control system caused the vehicle to veer off the designed flight course. Launch officials activated a self-destruct mechanism in the rocket's nose cone after 20 seconds into flight. This report is a closeout document about the HyBoLT flight experiment. Details are provided of the objectives and approach associated with this experimental program as well as the 20 seconds flight data acquired before the vehicle was destroyed.

Chen, Fang-Jeng (Frank)↗
NASA NTRS2010

Hardware Implementation of COTS Avionics System on Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Platforms

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) can serve as low cost and low risk platforms for flight testing in Aeronautics research. The NASA Exploration Aerial Vehicle (EAV) and Experimental Sensor-Controlled Aerial Vehicle (X-SCAV) UAVs were developed in support of control systems research at NASA Ames Research Center. The avionics hardware for both systems has been redesigned and updated, and the structure of the EAV has been further strengthened. Preliminary tests show the avionics operate properly in the new configuration. A linear model for the EAV also was estimated from flight data, and was verified in simulation. These modifications and results prepare the EAV and X-SCAV to be used in a wide variety of flight research projects.

Yeh, Yoo-Hsiu↗
NASA NTRS2010

Tracking the Short Term Planning (STP) Development Process

Part of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration?s mission is to pioneer the future in space exploration, scientific discovery and aeronautics research is enhanced by discovering new scientific tools to improve life on earth. Sequentially, to successfully explore the unknown, there has to be a planning process that organizes certain events in the right priority. Therefore, the planning support team has to continually improve their processes so the ISS Mission Operations can operate smoothly and effectively. The planning support team consists of people in the Long Range Planning area that develop timelines that includes International Partner?s Preliminary STP inputs all the way through to publishing of the Final STP. Planning is a crucial part of the NASA community when it comes to planning the astronaut?s daily schedule in great detail. The STP Process is in need of improvement, because of the various tasks that are required to be broken down in order to get the overall objective of developing a Final STP done correctly. Then a new project came along in order to store various data in a more efficient database. "The SharePoint site is a Web site that provides a central storage and collaboration space for documents, information, and ideas."

Price, Melanie↗
NASA NTRS2010

ARMD Fundamental Aeronautics Program

This slide presentation focuses work of the Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate (ARMD) with particular interest on the work being done to address the environmental and energy efficiency challenges. Particular interest is on the Subsonic Fixed Wing (SFW) project, though there is discussion of the rotorcraft and the supersonics environmental challenges.

Dryer, Jay↗
NASA NTRS2010

The Air We Breathe

Topics discussed include NASA mission to pioneer the future in space exploration, scientific discovery and aeronautics research; the role of Earth's atmosphere, atmospheric gases, layers of the Earth's atmosphere, ozone layer, air pollution, effects of air pollution on people, the Greenhouse Effect, and breathing on the International Space Station.

Davila, Dina↗
NASA NTRS2010

Airspace Systems Program: Next Generation Air Transportation System Concepts and Technology Development FY2010 Project Plan Version 3.0

This document describes the FY2010 plan for the management and execution of the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) Concepts and Technology Development (CTD) Project. The document was developed in response to guidance from the Airspace Systems Program (ASP), as approved by the Associate Administrator of the Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate (ARMD), and from guidelines in the Airspace Systems Program Plan. Congress established the multi-agency Joint Planning and Development Office (JPDO) in 2003 to develop a vision for the 2025 Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) and to define the research required to enable it. NASA is one of seven agency partners contributing to the effort. Accordingly, NASA's ARMD realigned the Airspace Systems Program in 2007 to "directly address the fundamental research needs of the Next Generation Air Transportation System...in partnership with the member agencies of the JPDO." The Program subsequently established two new projects to meet this objective: the NextGen-Airspace Project and the NextGen-Airportal Project. Together, the projects will also focus NASA s technical expertise and world-class facilities to address the question of where, when, how and the extent to which automation can be applied to moving aircraft safely and efficiently through the NAS and technologies that address optimal allocation of ground and air technologies necessary for NextGen. Additionally, the roles and responsibilities of humans and automation influence in the NAS will be addressed by both projects. Foundational concept and technology research and development begun under the NextGen-Airspace and NextGen-Airportal projects will continue. There will be no change in NASA Research Announcement (NRA) strategy, nor will there be any change to NASA interfaces with the JPDO, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Research Transition Teams (RTTs), or other stakeholders

Kopardekar, Parimal H.↗
NASA NTRS2011

Hardware Specific Integration Strategy for Impedance-Based Structural Health Monitoring of Aerospace Systems

The Integrated Vehicle Health Management (IVHM) Project, sponsored by NASA's Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate, is conducting research to advance the state of highly integrated and complex flight-critical health management technologies and systems. An effective IVHM system requires Structural Health Monitoring (SHM). The impedance method is one such SHM technique for detection and monitoring complex structures for damage. This position paper on the impedance method presents the current state of the art, future directions, applications and possible flight test demonstrations.

Owen, Robert B.↗
NASA NTRS2011

Into the Eye

NASA's aeronautical research not only encompasses advancing aircraft technology and aviation safety for today and the future, but it also has a branch that deals with Airborne Science. This Airborne Science branch possesses unique airborne flight vehicles (manned and unmanned) whose sole purpose is to take scientists and their experiments anywhere in the world, into nearly any climatic condition, to gather the data they need for their research. This research spans such fields as; global warming, weather analysis, air and water pollution, mineral and archaeology search, earthquake damage and prediction, and yes, hurricanes. The data we obtain will hopefully, one day, allow us to better understand our planet, its natural forces and man's interaction with them.

Ewers, Richard G.↗
NASA NTRS2011

Fuel Efficiencies Through Airframe Improvements

The factors of continuing strong growth in air traffic volume, the vital role of the air transport system on the economy, and concerns about the environmental impact of aviation have added focus to the National Aeronautics Research Policy. To address these concerns in the context of the National Policy, NASA has set aggressive goals in noise reduction, emissions, and energy consumption. With respect to the goal of reducing energy consumption in the fleet, the development of promising airframe technologies is required to realize the significant improvements that are desired. Furthermore, the combination of advances in materials and structures with aerodynamic technologies may lead to a paradigm shift in terms of potential configurations for the future. Some of these promising airframe technologies targeted at improved efficiency are highlighted.

Bezos-O'Connor, Gaudy M.↗
NASA NTRS2011

A Generalized Framework for Constrained Design Optimization of General Supersonic Configurations Using Adjoint Based Sensitivity Derivatives

The Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate (ARMD) sent out an NASA Research Announcement (NRA) for proposals soliciting research and technical development. The proposed research program was aimed at addressing the desired milestones and outcomes of ROA (ROA-2006) Subtopic A.4.1.1 Advanced Computational Methods. The second milestone, SUP.1.06.02 Robust, validated mesh adaptation and error quantification for near field Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), was addressed by the proposed research. Additional research utilizing the direct links to geometry through a CAD interface enabled by this work will allow for geometric constraints to be applied and address the final milestone, SUP2.07.06 Constrained low-drag supersonic aerodynamic design capability. The original product of the proposed research program was an integrated system of tools that can be used for the mesh mechanics required for rapid high fidelity analysis and for design of supersonic cruise vehicles. These Euler and Navier-Stokes volume grid manipulation tools were proposed to efficiently use parallel processing. The mesh adaptation provides a systematic approach for achieving demonstrated levels of accuracy in the solutions. NASA chose to fund only the mesh generation/adaptation portion of the proposal. So this report describes the completion of the proposed tasks for mesh creation, manipulation and adaptation as it pertains to sonic boom prediction of supersonic configurations.

Karman, Steve L., Jr.↗
NASA NTRS2011

Advanced Rigid Ablative TPS

NASA Exploration Systems Mission Directorate s (ESMD) Entry, Descent, and Landing (EDL) Technology Development Project (TDP) and the NASA Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate s (ARMD) Hypersonics Project are developing new advanced rigid ablators in an effort to substantially increase reliability, decrease mass, and reduce life cycle cost of rigid aeroshell-based entry systems for multiple missions. Advanced Rigid Ablators combine ablation resistant top layers capable of high heat flux entry and enable high-speed EDL with insulating mass-efficient bottom that, insulate the structure and lower the areal weight. These materials may benefit Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) vendors and may potentially enable new NASA missions for higher velocity returns (e.g. asteroid, Mars). The materials have been thermally tested to 400-450 W/sq cm at the Laser Hardened Materials Evaluation Lab (LHMEL), Hypersonics Materials Evaluation Test System (HyMETS) and in arcjet facilities. Tested materials exhibit much lower backface temperatures and reduced recession over the baseline materials (PICA). Although the EDL project is ending in FY11, NASA in-house development of advanced ablators will continue with a focus on varying resin systems and fiber/resin interactions.

Gasch, Matthew J.↗
NASA NTRS2008

Advanced Air Transportation Technologies Project, Final Document Collection

This CD ROM contains a compilation of the final documents of the Advanced Air Transportation Technologies (AAIT) project, which was an eight-year (1996 to 2004), $400M project managed by the Airspace Systems Program office, which was part of the Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters. AAIT focused on developing advanced automation tools and air traffic management concepts that would help improve the efficiency of the National Airspace System, while maintaining or enhancing safety. The documents contained in the CD are final reports on AAIT tasks that serve to document the project's accomplishments over its eight-year term. Documents include information on: Advanced Air Transportation Technologies, Autonomous Operations Planner, Collaborative Arrival Planner, Distributed Air/Ground Traffic Management Concept Elements 5, 6, & 11, Direct-To, Direct-To Technology Transfer, Expedite Departure Path, En Route Data Exchange, Final Approach Spacing Tool - (Active and Passive), Multi-Center Traffic Management Advisor, Multi Center Traffic Management Advisor Technology Transfer, Surface Movement Advisor, Surface Management System, Surface Management System Technology Transfer and Traffic Flow Management Research & Development.

Mogford, Richard H.↗
NASA NTRS2012

Performance and Environmental Assessment of an Advanced Aircraft with Open Rotor Propulsion

Application of high speed, advanced turboprops, or "propfans," to transonic transport aircraft received significant attention during the 1970s and 1980s when fuel efficiency was the driving focus of aeronautical research. Unfortunately, after fuel prices declined sharply there was no longer sufficient motivation to continue maturing this technology. Recent volatility in fuel prices and increasing concern for aviation s environmental impact, however, have renewed interest in unducted, open rotor propulsion. Because of the renewed interest in open rotor propulsion, the lack of publicly available up-to-date studies assessing its benefits, and NASA s focus on reducing fuel consumption, a preliminary aircraft system level study on open rotor propulsion was initiated to inform decisions concerning research in this area. New analysis processes were established to assess the characteristics of open rotor aircraft. These processes were then used to assess the performance, noise, and emissions characteristics of an advanced, single-aisle aircraft using open rotor propulsion. The results of this initial study indicate open rotor engines have the potential to provide significant reductions in fuel consumption and landing-takeoff cycle NOX emissions. Noise analysis of the study configuration indicates that an open rotor aircraft in the single-aisle class would be able to meet current noise regulations with margin.

Guynn, Mark D.↗
NASA NTRS2012

Nonlinear Aerodynamic Modeling From Flight Data Using Advanced Piloted Maneuvers and Fuzzy Logic

Results of the Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate Seedling Project Phase I research project entitled "Nonlinear Aerodynamics Modeling using Fuzzy Logic" are presented. Efficient and rapid flight test capabilities were developed for estimating highly nonlinear models of airplane aerodynamics over a large flight envelope. Results showed that the flight maneuvers developed, used in conjunction with the fuzzy-logic system identification algorithms, produced very good model fits of the data, with no model structure inputs required, for flight conditions ranging from cruise to departure and spin conditions.

Brandon, Jay M.↗