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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 379 records · Page 21
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NASA NTRS2017

Lessons Learned from Inlet Integration Analysis of NASA's Low Boom Flight Demonstrator

In 2016, NASA's Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate announced the New Aviation Horizons Initiative with a goal of designing/building several X-Planes, including a Low Boom Flight Demonstrator (LBFD). That same year, NASA awarded a contract to Lockheed Martin (LM) to advance the LBFD concept through preliminary design. Several configurations of the LBFD aircraft were analyzed by both LM engineers and NASA researchers. This presentation focuses on some of the CFD simulations that were run by NASA Glenn researchers. NASA's FUN3D V13.1 code was used for all adjoint-based grid refinement studies and Spalart-Allmaras turbulence model was used during adaptation. It was found that adjoint-based grid adaptation did not accurately capture inlet performance for high speed top-aft-mounted propulsion.

Adjoint-based Grid Adaptatio↗
NASA NTRS2021

Aircraft Engine Run-to-Failure Dataset Under Real Flight Conditions for Prognostics and Diagnostics

A key enabler of intelligent maintenance systems is the ability to predict the remaining useful lifetime (RUL) of its components, i.e., prognostics. The development of data-driven prognostics models requires datasets with run-to-failure trajectories. However, large representative run-to-failure datasets are often unavailable in real applications because failures are rare in many safety-critical systems. To foster the development of prognostics methods, we develop a new realistic dataset of run-to-failure trajectories for a fleet of aircraft engines under real flight conditions. The dataset was generated with the Commercial Modular Aero-Propulsion System Simulation (CMAPSS) model developed at NASA. The damage propagation modelling used in this dataset builds on the modelling strategy from previous work and incorporates two new levels of fidelity. First, it considers real flight conditions as recorded on board of a commercial jet. Second, it extends the degradation modelling by relating the degradation process to its operation history. This dataset also provides the health respectively fault class. Therefore, besides its applicability to prognostics problems, the dataset can be used for fault diagnostics.

CMAPPS↗
NASA NTRS1974

Engineering simulation development and evaluation of the two-segment noise abatement approach conducted in the B-727-222 flight simulator

Profile modification as a means of reducing ground level noise from jet aircraft in the landing approach is evaluated. A flight simulator was modified to incorporate the cockpit hardware which would be in the prototype airplane installation. The two-segment system operational and aircraft interface logic was accurately emulated in software. Programs were developed to permit data to be recorded in real time on the line printer, a 14-channel oscillograph, and an x-y plotter. The two-segment profile and procedures which were developed are described with emphasis on operational concepts and constraints. The two-segment system operational logic and the flight simulator capabilities are described. The findings influenced the ultimate system design and aircraft interface.

Nylen, W. E.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Research and development of high thermal stability fuels

Increases in aircraft performance are leading to increases in the thermal stress on the primary aircraft coolant--the fuel. Fuel thermal stability limitations may offset future aircraft performance gains. The Air Force's Wright Laboratory is sponsoring several research programs to address this problem. The development of an additive package for JP-8 to improve its thermal stability is the primary focus of this paper. This program involves extensive testing of fuels and additives in a variety of test devices, culminating in tests in a fuel system simulator and engine tests. These tests involve Air Force personnel, on-site contractors (University of Dayton Research Institute, Systems Research Laboratories), Pratt and Whitney Aircraft Co., additive manufacturers, and Sandia National Laboratory. The test devices include several flowing and static tests, where the behavior of a fuel is investigated in a wide variety of environments. The study of several baseline fuels in these devices has led to some new insights into the mechanisms of fuel thermal (in)stability. It is becoming clear that a fuel's tendency to oxidize (to form peroxides, for example) is often inversely proportional to its tendency to form insoluble deposits.

T Edwards↗
NASA NTRS2004

Research Capabilities for Oil-Free Turbomachinery Expanded by New Rotordynamic Simulator Facility

A new test rig has been developed for simulating high-speed turbomachinery shafting using Oil-Free foil air bearing technology. Foil air journal bearings are self-acting hydrodynamic bearings with a flexible inner sleeve surface using air as the lubricant. These bearings have been used in turbomachinery, primarily air cycle machines, for the past four decades to eliminate the need for oil lubrication. More recently, interest has been growing in applying foil bearings to aircraft gas turbine engines. They offer potential improvements in efficiency and power density, decreased maintenance costs, and other secondary benefits. The goal of applying foil air bearings to aircraft gas turbine engines prompted the fabrication of this test rig. The facility enables bearing designers to test potential bearing designs with shafts that simulate the rotating components of a target engine without the high cost of building actual flight hardware. The data collected from this rig can be used to make changes to the shaft and bearings in subsequent design iterations. The rest of this article describes the new test rig and demonstrates some of its capabilities with an initial simulated shaft system. The test rig has two support structures, each housing a foil air journal bearing. The structures are designed to accept any size foil journal bearing smaller than 63 mm (2.5 in.) in diameter. The bearing support structures are mounted to a 91- by 152-cm (3- by 5-ft) table and can be separated by as much as 122 cm (4 ft) and as little as 20 cm (8 in.) to accommodate a wide range of shaft sizes. In the initial configuration, a 9.5-cm (3.75-in.) impulse air turbine drives the test shaft. The impulse turbine, as well as virtually any number of "dummy" compressor and turbine disks, can be mounted on the shaft inboard or outboard of the bearings. This flexibility allows researchers to simulate various engine shaft configurations. The bearing support structures include a unique bearing mounting fixture that rotates to accommodate a laserbased alignment system. This can measure the misalignment of the bearing centers in each of 2 translational degrees of freedom and 2 rotational degrees of freedom. In the initial configuration, with roughly a 30.5-cm- (12-in.-) long shaft, two simulated aerocomponent disks, and two 50.8-cm (2-in.) foil journal bearings, the rig can operate at 65,000 rpm at room temperature. The test facility can measure shaft displacements in both the vertical and horizontal directions at each bearing location. Horizontal and vertical structural vibrations are monitored using accelerometers mounted on the bearing support structures. This information is used to determine system rotordynamic response, including critical speeds, mode shapes, orbit size and shape, and potentially the onset of instabilities. Bearing torque can be monitored as well to predict the power loss in the foil bearings. All of this information is fed back and forth between NASA and the foil bearing designers in an iterative fashion to converge on a final bearing and shaft design for a given engine application. In addition to its application development capabilities, the test rig offers several unique capabilities for basic bearing research. Using the laser alignment system mentioned earlier, the facility will be used to map foil air journal bearing performance. A known misalignment of increasing severity will be induced to determine the sensitivity of foil bearings to misalignment. Other future plans include oil-free integral starter generator testing and development, and dynamic load testing of foil journal bearings.

Howard, Samuel A.↗
NASA NTRS1974

Roll plane analysis of on-aircraft antennas

The roll plane radiation patterns of on-aircraft antennas are analyzed using high frequency solutions. This is a basic study of aircraft-antenna pattern performance in which the aircraft is modelled in its most basic form. The fuselage is assumed to be a perfectly conducting elliptic cylinder with the antennas mounted near the top or bottom. The wings are simulated by arbitrarily many sided flat plates and the engines by circular cylinders. The patterns in each case verified by measured results taken on simple models as well as scale models of actual aircraft.

Burnside, W. D.↗
NASA NTRS1976

Study of a very low cost air combat maneuvering trainer aircraft

A very low cost aircraft for performing Air Combat Maneuvering (ACM) training was studied using the BD-5J sport plane as a point of departure. The installation of a larger engine and increased fuel capacity were required to meet the performance and mission objectives. Reduced wing area increased the simulation of the ACM engagement, and a comparison with current tactical aircraft is presented. Other factors affecting the training transfer are considered analytically, but a flight evaluation is recommended to determine the concept utility.

Hill, G. C.↗
NASA NTRS1969

The simulator to match the transports to come.

Flight simulator with large lateral motion for large and supersonic transport aircraft, emphasizing reproduction of cockpit accelerations due to supersonic engine thrust loss

Dusterberry, J. C.↗
NASA NTRS1981

V/STOL propulsion control technology

Results of a NASA sponsored study of V/STOL Propulsion Control Analysis are presented. The study involved propulsion control requirements, design concepts and procedures, and control designs for supersonic V/STOL. A variable cycle engine with a remote augmented lift system was used as a basis for establishing typical operating requirements and control concepts, and a nonlinear engine model was developed for control development as a precursor to a real-time simulation capability. A simplified aircraft model was also used to investigate transition requirements, and a long-range technology plan was developed to define subsequent program requirements for achieving a real-time piloted simulation capability.

Brown, H.↗
NASA NTRS1982

Wind tunnel tests of a zero length, slotted-lip engine air inlet for a fixed nacelle V/STOL aircraft

Zero length, slotted lip inlet performance and associated fan blade stresses were determined during model tests using a 20 inch diameter fan simulator in the NASA-LeRC 9 by 15 foot low speed wind tunnel. The model configuration variables consisted of inlet contraction ratio, slot width, circumferential extent of slot fillers, and length of a constant area section between the inlet throat and fan face. The inlet performance was dependent on slot gap width and relatively independent of inlet throat/fan face spacer length and slot flow blockage created by 90 degree slot fillers. Optimum performance was obtained at a slot gap width of 0.36 inch. The zero length, slotted lip inlet satisfied all critical low speed inlet operating requirements for fixed horizontal nacelles subsonic V/STOL aircraft.

Woollett, R. R.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Fighter aircraft flight control technology design requirements

The evolution of fighter aircraft flight control technology is briefly surveyed. Systems engineering, battle damage considerations for adaptive flutter suppression, in-flight simulation, and artificial intelligence are briefly discussed.

Nelson, W. E., Jr.↗
NASA NTRS1946

Comparison of Several Methods of Predicting the Pressure Loss at Altitude Across a Baffled Aircraft-Engine Cylinder

Several methods of predicting the compressible-flow pressure loss across a baffled aircraft-engine cylinder were analytically related and were experimentally investigated on a typical air-cooled aircraft-engine cylinder. Tests with and without heat transfer covered a wide range of cooling-air flows and simulated altitudes from sea level to 40,000 feet. Both the analysis and the test results showed that the method based on the density determined by the static pressure and the stagnation temperature at the baffle exit gave results comparable with those obtained from methods derived by one-dimensional-flow theory. The method based on a characteristic Mach number, although related analytically to one-dimensional-flow theory, was found impractical in the present tests because of the difficulty encountered in defining the proper characteristic state of the cooling air. Accurate predictions of altitude pressure loss can apparently be made by these methods, provided that they are based on the results of sea-level tests with heat transfer.

Neustein, Joseph↗
NASA NTRS1996

The Influences of Lamination Angles on the Interior Noise Levels of an Aircraft

The feasibility of reducing the interior noise levels of an aircraft passenger cabin through optimization of the composite lay up of the fuselage is investigated. MSC/NASTRAN, a commercially available finite element code, is used to perform the dynamic analysis and subsequent optimization of the fuselage. The numerical calculation of sensitivity of acoustic pressure to lamination angle is verified using a simple thin, cylindrical shell with point force excitations as noise sources. The thin shell used represents a geometry similar to the fuselage and analytic solutions are available for the cylindrical thin shell equations of motion. Optimization of lamination angle for the reduction of interior noise is performed using a finite element model of an actual aircraft fuselage. The aircraft modeled for this study is the Beech Starship. Point forces simulate the structure borne noise produced by the engines and are applied to the fuselage at the wing mounting locations. These forces are the noise source for the optimization problem. The acoustic pressure response is reduced at a number of points in the fuselage and over a number of frequencies. The objective function is minimized with the constraint that it be larger than the maximum sound pressure level at the response points in the passenger cabin for all excitation frequencies in the range of interest. Results from the study of the fuselage model indicate that a reduction in interior noise levels is possible over a finite frequency range through optimal configuration of the lamination angles in the fuselage. Noise reductions of roughly 4 dB were attained. For frequencies outside the optimization range, the acoustic pressure response may increase after optimization. The effects of changing lamination angle on the overall structural integrity of the airframe are not considered in this study.

Fernholz, Christian M.↗
NASA NTRS1999

NASA GRC's High Pressure Burner Rig Facility and Materials Test Capabilities

The High Pressure Burner Rig (HPBR) at NASA Glenn Research Center is a high-velocity. pressurized combustion test rig used for high-temperature environmental durability studies of advanced materials and components. The facility burns jet fuel and air in controlled ratios, simulating combustion gas chemistries and temperatures that are realistic to those in gas turbine engines. In addition, the test section is capable of simulating the pressures and gas velocities representative of today's aircraft. The HPBR provides a relatively inexpensive. yet sophisticated means for researchers to study the high-temperature oxidation of advanced materials. The facility has the unique capability of operating under both fuel-lean and fuel-rich gas mixtures. using a fume incinerator to eliminate any harmful byproduct emissions (CO, H2S) of rich-burn operation. Test samples are easily accessible for ongoing inspection and documentation of weight change, thickness, cracking, and other metrics. Temperature measurement is available in the form of both thermocouples and optical pyrometery. and the facility is equipped with quartz windows for observation and video taping. Operating conditions include: (1) 1.0 kg/sec (2.0 lbm/sec) combustion and secondary cooling airflow capability: (2) Equivalence ratios of 0.5- 1.0 (lean) to 1.5-2.0 (rich), with typically 10% H2O vapor pressure: (3) Gas temperatures ranging 700-1650 C (1300-3000 F): (4) Test pressures ranging 4-12 atmospheres: (5) Gas flow velocities ranging 10-30 m/s (50-100) ft/sec.: and (6) Cyclic and steady-state exposure capabilities. The facility has historically been used to test coupon-size materials. including metals and ceramics. However complex-shaped components have also been tested including cylinders, airfoils, and film-cooled end walls. The facility has also been used to develop thin-film temperature measurement sensors.

Robinson, R. Craig↗
NASA NTRS1995

Advanced Subsonic Combustion Rig Developed

The Advanced Subsonic Combustion Rig (ASCR), a unique, state-of-the-art facility for conducting combustion research, is located at the NASA Lewis Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio. The ASCR, which was nearing completion at the close of 1995, will be capable of simulating the very high pressure and high temperature conditions that are expected to exist in future, advanced subsonic gas turbine (jet) engines. Future environmental regulations will require much cleaner burning (more environmentally friendly) aircraft engines. The ASCR is critical to the development of these cleaner engines. It will allow NASA and U.S. aircraft engine industry researchers to identify and test promising clean-burning gas turbine engine combustion concepts under the pressure and temperature conditions that are expected for those future engines. Combustion processes will be investigated for a variety of next-generation aircraft engine sizes, including engines for large, long-range aircraft (with typical trip lengths of about 3000 mi) and for regional aircraft (with typical trip lengths of about 400 mi). The ASCR design was conceived and initiated in 1993, and fabrication and construction of the rig, including the buildup of an advanced control room, took place throughout 1994 and 1995. In early 1996, the ASCR will be operational for obtaining research data. The ASCR is an intricate part of the NASA Advanced Subsonic Technology Propulsion Program, which is aimed at developing technologies critical to the next generation of gas turbine engines. This effort is in collaboration with the U.S. aircraft gas turbine engine industry. A goal of the Advanced Subsonic Technology Propulsion Program is to develop combustion concepts and technologies that will result in gas turbine engines that produce 50 percent less nitrous oxide (NO_x) pollutants than current engines do. This facility is unique in its capability to simulate advanced subsonic engine pressure, temperature, and air flow rate conditions. Specifically, it will provide operating temperatures up to 3000 F and pressures up to 60 atm. Under these conditions, researchers will obtain detailed combustion temperatures, pressures, and flow velocities as well as the chemical compositions of the combustion exhaust. Researchers also will be able to obtain data by using nonintrusive laser diagnostic techniques. The ASCR facility will be used to test fundamental combustion configurations (flametubes) for detailed study of combustion processes, to test sectors of gas turbine combustors to study the process in configurations more like those of aircraft engines, and in some cases to test full annular combustors.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1974

Roll plane analysis of on-aircraft antennas

Roll plane radiation patterns of on-aircraft antennas are analyzed using high frequency solutions. Aircraft-antenna pattern performance in which the aircraft is modelled in its most basic form is presented. The fuselage is assumed to be a perfectly conducting elliptic cylinder with the antennas mounted near the top or bottom. The wings are simulated by arbitrarily many sided flat plates and the engines by circular cylinders. The patterns in each case are verified by measured results taken on simple models as well as scale models of actual aircraft.

Burnside, W. D.↗
NASA NTRS2014

Numerical Simulation of Boundary Layer Ingesting (BLI) Inlet-Fan Interaction

Future civil transport designs may incorporate engine inlets integrated into the body of the aircraft to take advantage of efficiency increases due to weight and drag reduction. Additional increases in engine efficiency are predicted if the inlet ingests the lower momentum boundary layer flow. Previous studies have shown, however, that efficiency benefits of Boundary Layer Ingesting (BLI) ingestion are very sensitive to the magnitude of fan and duct losses, and blade structural response to the non-uniform flow field that results from a BLI inlet has not been studied in-depth. This paper presents an effort to extend the modeling capabilities of an existing rotating turbomachinery unsteady analysis code to include the ability to solve the external and internal flow fields of a BLI inlet. The TURBO code has been a successful tool in evaluating fan response to flow distortions for traditional engine/inlet integrations, such as the development of rotating stall and inlet distortion through compressor stages. This paper describes the first phase of an effort to extend the TURBO model to calculate the external and inlet flowfield upstream of fan so that accurate pressure distortions that result from BLI configurations can be computed and used to analyze fan aerodynamics and structural response. To validate the TURBO program modifications for the BLI flowfield, experimental test data obtained by NASA for a flushmounted S-duct with large amounts of boundary layer ingestion was modeled. Results for the flow upstream and in the inlet are presented and compared to experimental data for several high Reynolds number flows to validate the modifications to the solver. Quantitative data is presented that indicates good predictive capability of the model in the upstream flow. A representative fan is attached to the inlet and results are presented for the coupled inlet/fan model. The impact on the total pressure distortion at the AIP after the fan is attached is examined.

Inlet Fan Interactions↗