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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 NTRS2019

Human Performance Contributions to Safety in Commercial Aviation

Every day in aviation, pilots, air traffic controllers, and other front-line personnel perform countless correct judgments and actions in a variety of operational environments. These judgments and actions are often the difference between an accident and a non-event. Ironically, data on these behaviors are rarely collected or analyzed. Data-driven decisions about safety management and design of safety-critical systems are limited by the available data, which influence how decision makers characterize problems and identify solutions. Large volumes of data are collected on the failures and errors that result in infrequent incidents and accidents, but in the absence of data on behaviors that result in routine successful outcomes, safety management and system design decisions are based on a small sample of nonrepresentative safety data. This assessment aimed to find and document “safety successes” made possible by human operators. With many Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate (ARMD) Programs and Projects focusing on increased automation and autonomy and decreased human involvement, failure to fully consider the human contributions to successful system performance in civil aviation represents a significant risk — a risk that has not been recognized to date. Without understanding how humans contribute to safety, any estimate of predicted safety of autonomous capabilities is incomplete and inherently suspect. Furthermore, understanding the ways in which humans contribute to safety can promote strategic interactions among safety technologies, functions, procedures and the people using them. Without this understanding, the full benefits of an integrated, optimized human/technology or autonomous system will not be realized. Historically, safety has been consistently defined in terms of the occurrence of accidents or recognized risks (i.e., in terms of things that go wrong). These adverse outcomes are explained by identifying their causes, and safety is restored by eliminating or mitigating these causes. An alternative to this approach is to focus on what goes right and identify how to replicate that process. Focusing on the rare cases of failures attributed to “human error” provides little information about why human performance routinely prevents adverse events. Hollnagel has proposed that things go right because people continuously adjust their work to match their operating conditions. These adjustments become increasingly important as systems continue to grow in complexity. Thus, the definition of safety should reflect not only “avoiding things that go wrong” but “ensuring that things go right.” The basis for safety management requires developing an understanding of everyday activities. However, few mechanisms to monitor everyday work exist in the aviation domain, which limits opportunities to learn how designs function in reality. This concept of safety thinking and safety management is reflected in the emerging field of resilience engineering. According to Hollnagel, a system is resilient if it can sustain required operations under expected and unexpected conditions by adjusting its functioning prior to, during, or following changes, disturbances, and opportunities. To explore “positive” behaviors that contribute to resilient performance in commercial aviation, the assessment team examined a range of existing sources of data about pilot and air traffic control (ATC) tower controller performance, including subjective interviews with domain experts and objective aircraft flight data records. These data were used to identify strategies that support resilient performance, methods for exploring and refining those strategies in existing data, and proposed methods for capturing and analyzing new data.

Null, Cynthia H.↗
NASA NTRS2018

Evaluating the Suitability of Commercial Clouds for NASA's High Performance Computing Applications: A Trade Study

NASA’s High-End Computing Capability (HECC) Project is periodically asked if it could be more cost effective through the use of commercial cloud resources. To answer the question, HECC’s Application Performance and Productivity (APP) team undertook a performance and cost evaluation comparing three domains: two commercial cloud providers, Amazon and Penguin, and HECC’s in-house resources—the Pleiades and Electra systems. In the study, the APP team used a combination of the NAS Parallel Benchmarks (NPB) and six full applications from NASA’s workload on Pleiades and Electra to compare performance of nodes based on three different generations of Intel Xeon processors—Haswell, Broadwell, and Skylake. Because of export control limitations, the most heavily used applications on Pleiades and Electra could not be used in the cloud; therefore, only one of the applications, OpenFOAM, represents work from the Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate and the Human and Exploration Mission Directorate. The other five applications are from the Science Mission Directorate.

High Performance↗
NASA NTRS2019

Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration in the National Airspace System Project - Phase 2 Abstracts - FY2017 to FY2019

There is an increasing need to fly Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) in the National Airspace System (NAS) to perform missions of vital importance to national security and defense, emergency management, science, and to enable commercial applications. However, routine access by UAS into the NAS remains unrealized. The UAS community needs routine access to the global airspace for all classes of UAS. Based upon that need, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate (ARMD) Integrated Aviation Systems Program (IASP) UAS Integration in the NAS Project identified the following goal: To Provide research findings, utilizing simulation and flight tests, to support the development and validation of Detect and Avoid (DAA) and Command and Control (C2) technologies necessary for integrating UAS into the NAS. Because this is such a broad reaching challenge facing the UAS community, the UAS-NAS Project recognizes the importance of working together with others in Industry and Other Government Agencies to overcome the technical, operational, and public perception barriers.

bibliographic report↗
NASA NTRS2017

NASA Advanced Supercomputing (NAS) Division

High Performance Computing (HPC) has become an integral part of NASAs Aeronautics research and application endeavors. HPC requirements for Aeroscience applications are increasing by leaps and bounds as scientists and engineers increase the fidelity of the simulations and the size of the engineering databases needed for NASA missions. In this talk we present several such applications and describe how they have benefited from the use of supercomputing. We provide an overview of the resources available at NASA Advanced Supercomputing (NAS) facility at Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, and also describe the progress in performance of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) codes on current and future HPC technologies. We also discuss some of the challenges in efficiently exploiting the underlying computational resources for such codes.

Mehrotra, Piyush↗
NASA NTRS2019

NASA's Role in Gas Turbine Technology Development: Accelerating Technical Progress via Collaboration Between Academia, Industry, and Government Agencies

Given the maturity of the gas turbine engine since its invention and also considering the limited and flattened level of resources expected to be allocated for NASA aeronautics research and development, we ask the question are NASA technology investments still needed to enable future turbine engine-based propulsion systems? If so, what is NASA’s unique role to justify NASA’s investment? To address this topic, we will first review the accomplishments and the impact that NASA Glenn Research Center has made on turbine engine technologies over the last 78 years. Specifically, this paper discusses NASA’s role and contributions to turbine engine development, specific to both 1) NASA’s role in conducting experiments to understand flow physics and provide relevant benchmark validation experiments for Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) code development, validation, and assessment; and 2) the impact of technologies resulting from NASA collaborations with industry, academia, and other government agencies. Note that the scope of the discussion is limited to the NASA technology contributions with which the author was intimately associated, and does not represent the entirety of the NASA contributions to turbine engine technology. The specific research, development, and demonstrations discussed herein were selected to both 1) provide a comprehensive review and reference list of the technology and its impact, and 2) identify NASA’s unique role and highlight how NASA’s involvement resulted in additional benefit to the gas turbine engine community. Secondly, we will discuss current NASA collaborations that are in progress and provide a status of the results. Finally, we discuss the challenges anticipated for future turbine engine-based propulsion systems for civil aviation and identify potential opportunities for collaboration where NASA involvement would be beneficial. Ultimately, the gas turbine engine community will decide if NASA involvement is needed to contribute to the development of the design and analysis tools, databases, and technology demonstration programs to meet these challenges for future turbine engine-based propulsion systems.

Suder, Kenneth L.↗
NASA NTRS2019

Supporting NASA Science with High-Altitude Long-Endurance Aircraft

NASA Earth Science and Aeronautics researchers have been involved in development and use of High Altitude Long Endurance (HALE) unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) since the 1990's. The NASA Environmental Research Aircraft Sensor and Technology Program (ERAST) demonstrated the promise of HALE aircraft for providing observations while also proving the importance of triple-redundant avionics to improve system reliability for large unmanned aircraft. Early efforts to develop an operational HALE capability for earth observations languished for nearly two decades owing to insufficient solar panel efficiency, battery power density, and light-weight, yet strong, materials. During this time NASA researchers focused on using the Global Hawk to demonstrate the utility of providing diurnal measurements over severe storms (ie. HS3) and to track stratospheric water vapor transport (ATTREX). Recent significant commercial investments are now leading to the realization of a long-held goal of week- to month-long sustained observations and measurements from the stratosphere. In addition to a historical review of NASA use and interest in HALE aircraft, this paper will present current concepts for exploiting current and planned HALE aircraft capabilities including in situ characterization of atmospheric composition and dynamics as well as imagery collection. NASA researchers anticipate HALE will provide a useful means to test smallsat instruments and components. Observations from HALE-based instruments might also provide useful gap-filler observations to flagship satellite missions where the repeat time doesn't allow for measurements of quickly changing phenomenon. HALE will likely also provide measurements and communications relay to facilitate other aircraft in multi-aircraft campaigns. We will also report on progress towards a NASA-funded flight test planned for summer 2019 of a solar-electric vehicle designed to carry 7kg (15lbs) for 30 days at 20km altitude.

earth observations↗
NASA NTRS2015

NASA-DLR Collaboration Follow-Up: B5 - Surface Management

This presentation iintroduces a very high level overview of NASA aeronautics research and Airspace Operations and Safety Program (AOSP) under ARMD. It also provides high level overview of Airspace Technology Demonstration Project (ATD) under AOSP Program. Finally, suggestions and ideas for future collaboration with DLR on the Surface Management topic (B5) are presented for further discussion.

4D Taxi↗
NASA NTRS2019

Compositional and Microstructural Effects in the Protection of SiC Components in Water Vapor

Greater gas turbine engine efficiency is a major goal in aeronautics research often pursued through increased engine operating temperatures. However, it is necessary to replace the current hot-stage alloy components with more thermally robust parts, such as promising Silicon-based ceramics and composites. Unfortunately, these materials are still susceptible to the effects of oxidation, water vapor, and (Calcium-Magnesium-Alumino-Silicate) CMAS interaction, among other issues at high temperature. To mitigate these effects, environmental barrier coating (EBC) materials are employed to help control the rate of degradation to the underlying composite. Often, a thermally grown oxide (TGO) layer forms between the EBC and the composite which can act as a point of failure. The current study focuses on the combined effects of water vapor, composite composition, and microstructure in TGO formation on protected and unprotected SiC samples which have been produced under different processing conditions.

Kowalski, Benjamin↗
NASA NTRS2019

Materials and Processes for New Propulsion Systems with Reduced Environmental Impact

Aeronautics research at NASA Glenn Research Center includes development, characterization and modeling of high temperature, lightweight materials and fabrication processes for aircraft propulsion systems with increased efficiency and reduced emissions, fuel burn and noise. Current propulsion materials research includes Ceramic Matrix Composites and Environmental Barrier Coatings, Polymer Matrix Composites and Additive Manufacturing processes. This presentation will summarize recent progress and plans in these areas.

Propulsion↗
NASA NTRS2019

Building Foundations for International Collaboration Through Educational Outreach Initiatives

As human space exploration pursues journeying to the Moon and Mars, international and intercultural collaboration is key for the success of such ambitious goals. Since 2014, NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC) Hispanic Employee Resource Group (HERG) has established relationships and participated in outreach events with emerging space organizations in Latin America with educational and public outreach as a common goal. Such efforts align with strategic goals to empower the next generation of innovators and explorers and to champion the development of space exploration capabilities. This paper discusses the partnerships developed to introduce Spanish speaking populations to science, space technology, aeronautics, research and development through television, webcasts and social media. The authors share accomplishments, challenges, and lessons learned to build foundations for international collaboration to ignite research and innovation and propel human space exploration. The methodology makes use of Space Act Agreements to leverage existing outreach materials and programs and translate the content into Spanish for the benefit of students, educational organizations and the public in general. The plan is to apply the same model in other regions and countries to create a Latin American network of language translation and diffusion of science and space technology content targeting emerging space sectors. This model could be used to reach out to other international communities to provide cultural and educational outreach for space exploration and research.

Fontanot, Carlos↗
NASA NTRS2019

Scalable Traffic Management for Emergency Response Operations (STEReO)

The Scalable Traffic Management for Emergency Response Operations (STEReO) project aims to apply various NASA technologies, such as Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) Traffic Management (UTM) services, onboard-vehicle autonomy, novel approaches to communications and connectivity, and remote/virtual collaboration interfaces to current-day emergency response efforts to natural disasters. Today's emergency response efforts are based on long-standing procedures that are manaul in nature, and could benefit from modernization. In particular, the use of UAS vehicles is limited, primarily due to concerns surrounding dangerous interactions between manned/unmanned operations. STEReO hopes to introduce data exchanges that improve shared situation awareness, reduce manual coordination procedures, enable scalable and high-density air operations, collectivley bringing a positive impact to the incident response. When successful, STEReO technologies will improve efficiency and timeliness of the response and recovery phases of a disaster, resulting in substantial reductions to community harm, and will also accelerate NASA’s development of high-density resilient operations, benefitting other projects relying on increasing levels of autonomy and connectivity. The prepared material provides an overview of the STEReO project, for presentation at the 2019 Convergent Aeronautics Solution (CAS) Showcase event. The CAS showcase brings together all of the current CAS execution activities, highlighting NASA's high-risk investments in aeronautics research.

Mercer, Joey↗
NASA NTRS2018

Strategic Framework for NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate

In October 2016, NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) began adopting a new strategic framework that focuses investment prioritization and communication on impacts, outcomes, and challenges. The structure of the framework has been modeled after one successfully pioneered by NASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate over the past five years, incorporating lessons learned and changes where appropriate. The Framework is driven by two major factors: (a) dialogue with the community and (b) analysis of the overarching trends shaping the course of civilian space research. These factors are captured in the Framework as Mega-Drivers, which represent major axes of change within the space industry and are characterized by a collection of industry trends and projections. In response to these Mega-Drivers, STMD has developed its understanding of the vision for the future of civilian space relative to STMD space research, captured in five Strategic Thrusts that represent the major lines of investment within STMD’s portfolio. Within each of these Strategic Thrusts, multiple measureable, community-level goals have been established that STMD chooses to pursue as part of a joint effort across the community. STMD chose these goals based upon their potential impact, refers to them as Outcomes within the Framework. These Outcomes are decomposed into the products and/or capabilities that will be delivered by STMD, represented in the framework as Technical Challenges. This paper will further describe the framework structure and the progress that has been in defining each of the above elements to date.

Earle, Kevin D.↗
NASA NTRS2019

ARMD Workshop on Materials and Methods for Rapid Manufacturing for Commercial and Urban Aviation

This report documents the goals, organization and outcomes of the NASA Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate’s (ARMD) Materials and Methods for Rapid Manufacturing for Commercial and Urban Aviation Workshop. The workshop began with a series of plenary presentations by leaders in the field of structures and materials, followed by concurrent symposia focused on forecasting the future of various technologies related to rapid manufacturing of metallic materials and polymeric matrix composites, referred to herein as composites. Shortly after the workshop, questionnaires were sent to key workshop participants from the aerospace industry with requests to rank the importance of a series of potential investment areas identified during the workshop. Outcomes from the workshop and subsequent questionnaires are being used as guidance for NASA investments in this important technology area.

Ransom, Jonathan B.↗
NASA NTRS2020

Urban Air Mobility (UAM) Working Groups

The NASA Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate (ARMD) is bringing together public, private, and academic organizations to collaborate with NASA in Urban Air Mobility (UAM) working groups. The primary purpose of the working groups is to accelerate the development of safe, high-volume UAM flight operations in the existing and anticipated future national airspace system. In coordination with the Grand Challenge series, industry developments and other ARMD efforts, these working groups will contribute to the enablement of UAM markets. Working group activities will seek to align the community on concepts to enable UAM, including communicating industry demonstrations and R&D priorities. The collaborative efforts will facilitate the identification of critical parameters and standards necessary to develop the framework and approach for safety, certification, airspace, aircraft concepts, technologies, and architectures. The realization of the UAM vision will be possible only though the efforts and contributions of multiple stakeholders, each possessing the necessary authority, expertise, and/or resources to fulfill a critical role in UAM's development, approval, and implementation. The applicable participants will become integral to the UAM working groups and will provide a platform for those stakeholders to collaborate and impact the overall ecosystem.

Kopardekar, Parimal H.↗
NASA NTRS2020

Novel Environmental Barrier Coatings for the Protection of SiC Components

Greater gas turbine engine efficiency is a major goal in aeronautics research often pursued through increased engine operating temperatures. However, it is necessary to replace the current hot-stage alloy components with more thermally robust parts, such as Silicon-based ceramics and composites. Unfortunately, these materials are still susceptible to the effects of oxidation, water vapor, and (Calcium-Magnesium-Alumino-Silicate) CMAS interaction, among other issues at high temperature. To mitigate these effects, environmental barrier coating (EBC) materials are employed to help control the rate of degradation to the underlying composite, but must also survive the corrosive environment. The current study explores new design space in Mg-based EBC materials with respect to microstructure, high temperature phase stability, volatilization in water vapor, as well as structure-property relationships at high temperature.

Kowalski, Benjamin A.↗
NASA NTRS2018

Strategic Framework for NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate

In October 2016, NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) began adopting a new strategic framework that focuses investment prioritization and communication on impacts, outcomes, and challenges. The structure of the framework has been modeled after one successfully pioneered by NASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate over the past five years, incorporating lessons learned and changes where appropriate. The Framework is driven by two major factors: (a) dialogue with the community and (b) analysis of the overarching trends shaping the course of civilian space research. These factors are captured in the Framework as Mega-Drivers, which represent major axes of change within the space industry and are characterized by a collection of industry trends and projections. In response to these Mega-Drivers, STMD has developed its understanding of the vision for the future of civilian space relative to STMD space research, captured in five Strategic Thrusts that represent the major lines of investment within STMD’s portfolio. Within each of these Strategic Thrusts, multiple measurable, community-level goals have been established that STMD chooses to pursue as part of a joint effort across the community. STMD chose these goals based upon their potential impact, refers to them as Outcomes within the Framework. These outcomes are decomposed into the products and/or capabilities that will be delivered by STMD, represented in the framework as Technical Challenges. This paper will further describe the framework structure and the progress that has been in defining each of the above elements to date.

Kevin D Earle↗