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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 433 records · Page 24
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1975

Analysis of operational requirements for medium density air transportation. Volume 1: Summary

The medium density air travel market was studied to determine the aircraft design and operational requirements. The impact of operational characteristics on the air travel system and the economic viability of the study aircraft were also evaluated. Medium density is defined in terms of numbers of people transported (20 to 500 passengers per day on round trip routes), and frequency of service ( a minumium of two and maximum of eight round trips per day) for 10 regional carriers. The operational characteristics of aircraft best suited to serve the medium density air transportation market are determined and a basepoint aircraft is designed from which tradeoff studies and parametric variations could be conducted. The impact of selected aircraft on the medium density market, economics, and operations is ascertained. Research and technology objectives for future programs in medium density air transportation are identified and ranked.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS2017

X-57 Power and Command System Design

This paper describes the power and command system architecture of the X-57 Maxwell flight demonstrator aircraft. The X-57 is an experimental aircraft designed to demonstrate radically improved aircraft efficiency with a 3.5 times aero-propulsive efficiency gain at a "high-speed cruise" flight condition for comparable general aviation aircraft. These gains are enabled by integrating the design of a new, optimized wing and a new electric propulsion system. As a result, the X-57 vehicle takes advantage of the new capabilities afforded by electric motors as primary propulsors. Integrating new technologies into critical systems in experimental aircraft poses unique challenges that require careful design considerations across the entire vehicle system, such as qualification of new propulsors (motors, in the case of the X-57 aircraft), compatibility of existing systems with a new electric power distribution bus, and instrumentation and monitoring of newly qualified propulsion system devices.

electric propulsion↗
NASA NTRS2013

Hybrid Wing Body (HWB) Slat Noise Analysis

This paper presents an analysis of the slat noise for Hybrid Wing Body (HWB) aircraft, based on a database from a 3% scale wind tunnel test. It is shown that the HWB slats are one of the dominant noise components, characterized by its broad spectral shape with a peak frequency that depends on both the mean flow velocity and the aircraft angle of attack, the former following the conventional Strouhal number scaling and the latter explainable by the dependence of the coherence length of the slat unsteady flows on the aircraft angle of attack. While the overall levels of the slat noise are shown to approximately follow the fifth power law in the flow Mach number, the effects of the Mach number manifest themselves in the noise spectra in both the amplitude and the spectral shape. The slat noise amplitude is shown to also depend on the angle of attack, assuming a minimum in the range of 3 to 5 degrees and increasing when the angle of attack moves away from this range. These features are all modeled and incorporated in slat noise prediction methodologies, extending the prediction capability from conventional aircraft designs to HWB configurations. Comparisons between predictions and data show very good agreements both in various parametric trends and in the absolute levels. The HWB aircraft is designed to operate at angles of attack much higher than those of conventional aircraft. This is shown to significantly increase the HWB slat noise. To further illustrate, the test data are extrapolated to full scale and compared with the slat noise of the Boeing 777 aircraft, showing that the former is higher the latter.

Guo, Yueping↗
NASA NTRS2001

Aircraft Optimization for Minimum Environmental Impact

The objective of this research is to investigate the tradeoff between operating cost and environmental acceptability of commercial aircraft. This involves optimizing the aircraft design and mission to minimize operating cost while constraining exterior noise and emissions. Growth in air traffic and airport neighboring communities has resulted in increased pressure to severely penalize airlines that do not meet strict local noise and emissions requirements. As a result, environmental concerns have become potent driving forces in commercial aviation. Traditionally, aircraft have been first designed to meet performance and cost goals, and adjusted to satisfy the environmental requirements at given airports. The focus of the present study is to determine the feasibility of including noise and emissions constraints in the early design of the aircraft and mission. This paper introduces the design tool and results from a case study involving a 250-passenger airliner.

Antoine, Nicolas↗
NASA NTRS2019

Aircraft Conceptual Structural Design Using the AMMIT Structural Analysis Tool

Aircraft conceptual structural design is the process of developing and refining an idea for an aircraft into a feasible structural design. The process typically involves multiple evaluations of a single configuration and can require designers to examine thousands of concepts. Standard approaches to conducting structural analyses in this phase are either based on the use of historical or empirical data or often require significant expertise in structural analysis to perform these rapid assessments. The AMMIT structural analysis tool includes structural line models and handbook methods wrapped in a simple to use interface that can enable rapid, physics-based structural designs without requiring extensive structural expertise. The objectives of the present paper are to introduce AMMIT, describe the methods used in AMMIT, and present the results of the validation effort. Validation of the AMMIT methodology was performed on nine aircraft to determine the accuracy of the methods, highlight features of AMMIT, and guide future development of the methodology. Results of the validation effort indicated that AMMIT provides a prediction of primary structural weight for each aircraft with an acceptable level of error during the preliminary design phase with a minimal expenditure of computational resources.

Horvath, Bryce L.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Eagle RTS: A design of a regional transport

The Eagle RTS (Regional Transport System) is a 66-passenger aircraft designed to satisfy the need for accessible and economical regional travel. The first design objective for the Eagle RTS is safety. Safety results primarily from avoidance of the hub airport air traffic, implementation of anti-stall characteristics by tailoring the canard, and proper positioning of the engines for blade shedding. To provide the most economical aircraft, the Eagle RTS will use existing technology to lower production and maintenance costs by decreasing the amount of new training required. In selecting the propulsion system, the effects on the environment were a main consideration. Two advantages of turbo-prop engines are the high fuel efficiency and low noise levels produced by this type of engine. This ensures the aircraft's usage during times of rising fuel costs and growing aircraft noise restrictions. The design of the Eagle RTS is for spoke-to-spoke transportation. It must be capable of landing on shorter runways and have speeds comparable to that of the larger aircraft to make its service beneficial to the airlines. With the use of turbo-prop engines and high lift devices, the Eagle RTS is highly adaptable to regional airports. The design topics discussed include: aerodynamics, stability, structures and materials, propulsion, and cost.

Bryer, Paul↗
NASA NTRS1988

Air transportation systems for the California corridor of 2010

In 1986 NASA and USRA identified Cal Poly as one of seven 'Centers of Aircraft Design Education', and accepted a proposal from Cal Poly to conduct a three-year study of the potential for Lighter-Than-Air (LTA), Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL), and Short Take-Off and landing (STOL) aircraft concepts for air transportation within the California corridor. The project emphasizes configurations that are both innovative and unconventional in design for use in the 2010 time period. The topic of LTA/VTOL/STOL aircraft was selected because it is consistent with the mission of the NASA Ames Research Center and is a broad topic that succeeding classes at Cal Poly can continue to iterate and refine to produce meaningful results for NASA. Along with studying the technical issues normally involved in any aircraft design problem, the topics of safety, noise, public acceptance, and economic viability in commercial operations are also addressed.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1991

The Guardian: Preliminary design of a close air support aircraft

One design is presented of a Close Air Support (CAS) aircraft. It is a canard wing, twin engine, twin vertical tail aircraft that has the capability to cruise at 520 knots. The Guardian contains state of the art flight control systems. Specific highlights of the Guardian include: (1) low cost (the acquisition cost per airplane is $13.6 million for a production of 500 airplanes); (2) low maintenance (it was designed to be easily maintainable in unprepared fields); and (3) high versatility (it can perform a wide range of missions). Along with being a CAS aircraft, it is capable of long ferry missions, battlefield interdiction, maritime attack, and combat rescue. The Guardian is capable of a maximum ferry of 3800 nm, can takeoff in a distance of 1700 ft, land in a ground roll distance of 1644 ft. It has a maximum takeoff weight of 48,753 lbs, and is capable of carrying up to 19,500 lbs of ordinance.

Haag, Jonathan↗
NASA NTRS2025

Airports as Energy Nodes Activity Summary

Advanced aircraft concepts that use non-traditional aviation energy storage methods such as batteries or cryogenic hydrogen are in development and expected to enter regular service at airports worldwide within the next decade. The energy needs for these aircraft may quickly overwhelm the existing energy infrastructure at airports, particularly at smaller and more remote facilities. Without energy upgrades, these airports will not be able to host these advanced vehicles, but without the advanced vehicle traffic, these airports will not have the rationale or funding to build up their energy infrastructure. The Airports as Energy Nodes (ÆNodes) activity, a collaboration between the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), was executed to understand and model the energy needs that advanced aircraft concepts may levy on these smaller airports, determine cost-effective approaches to enhance the airport energy infrastructure, and demonstrate the enhanced resilience of these energy infrastructure upgrades to the airport and surrounding community via “digital twin” simulation at relevant energy and dynamic time scales. The ÆNodes team also investigated future reference aircraft designs and materials to enable cryogenic hydrogen storage for aircraft. The ÆNodes team conducted analysis at two U.S. airport partner sites — Winchester Regional Airport in Winchester, Virginia, and Tweed/New Haven Airport in New Haven, Connecticut. The goal of this partnership was to develop data and reference infrastructure designs that could accommodate advanced aircraft in the future at these airports while also enhancing the resiliency of the energy supply to the surrounding airport community, which could be used to capture funding to enable the infrastructure upgrades. Over the course of the study, a method was developed to estimate air traffic requiring advanced energy services over the course of a year using a mix of historical data and companion studies on advanced aircraft transportation networks. The study has concluded at NASA but continues at NREL, who will develop a final report discussing the energy infrastructure upgrades and digital twin results. Preliminary results indicate that unrestricted adoption of advanced battery-electric aircraft may double traffic at these airports and increase peak daily power usage by an order of magnitude, while increase electricity energy needs by a factor of two to four. The infrastructure upgrades necessary to accommodate these increased energy needs could be used to provide enhanced energy services to the airport community to offset the cost and increase the utility of the upgrades, which will be described in the NREL final report.

Airports↗
NASA NTRS1975

Challenge to Aviation: Hatching a Leaner Pterosauer

Modifications in commercial aircraft design, particularly the development of lighter aircraft, are discussed as effective means of reducing aviation fuel consumption. The modifications outlined include: (1) use of the supercritical wing; (2) generation of the winglet; (3) production and flight testing of composite materials; and, (4) implementation of fly-by-wire control systems. Attention is also given to engineering laminar air flow control, improving cargo payloads, and adapting hydrogen fuels for aircraft use.

Moss, F. E.↗
NASA NTRS1979

A multiple objective optimization approach to aircraft control systems design

The design of an aircraft lateral control system, subject to several performance criteria and constraints, is considered. While in the previous studies of the same model a single criterion optimization, with other performance requirements expressed as constraints, has been pursued, the current approach involves a multiple criteria optimization. In particular, a Pareto optimal solution is sought.

Tabak, D.↗
NASA NTRS1986

The impact of emerging technologies on an advanced supersonic transport

The effects of advances in propulsion systems, structure and materials, aerodynamics, and systems on the design and development of supersonic transport aircraft are analyzed. Efficient propulsion systems with variable-cycle engines provide the basis for improved propulsion systems; the propulsion efficienies of supersonic and subsonic engines are compared. Material advances consist of long-life damage-tolerant structures, advanced material development, aeroelastic tailoring, and low-cost fabrication. Improvements in the areas of aerodynamics and systems are examined. The environmental problems caused by engine emissions, airport noise, and sonic boom are studied. The characteristics of the aircraft designed to include these technical advances are described.

Driver, C.↗
NASA NTRS1988

Test results for composite specimens and elements containing joints and cutouts

A program was conducted to develop the technology for joints and cutouts in a composite fuselage that meets all design requirements of a large transport aircraft for the 1990s. An advanced trijet derivative of the DC-10 was selected as the baseline aircraft. Design and analysis of a 30-foot-long composite fuselage barrel provided a realistic basis for the test effort. The primary composite material was Hexcel F584 resin on 12 K IM6 fiber, in tape and broadgoods form. Fiberglass broadgoods were used in E-glass and S-glass fiber form in the cutout region of some panels. Additionally, injection-molded chopped graphite fiber/PEEK was used for longeron-to-frame shear clips. The test effort included four groups of test specimens, beginning with coupon specimens of mono-layer and cross-piled laminates, progressing through increasingly larger and more complex specimens, and ending with two 4- by 5-foot curved fuselage side panels. One of the side panels incorporated a transverse skin splice, while the second included two cabin window cutouts.

Sumida, P. T.↗
NASA NTRS2006

Predicting Tail Buffet Loads of a Fighter Airplane

Buffet loads on aft aerodynamic surfaces pose a recurring problem on most twin-tailed fighter airplanes: During maneuvers at high angles of attack, vortices emanating from various surfaces on the forward parts of such an airplane (engine inlets, wings, or other fuselage appendages) often burst, immersing the tails in their wakes. Although these vortices increase lift, the frequency contents of the burst vortices become so low as to cause the aft surfaces to vibrate destructively. Now, there exists a new analysis capability for predicting buffet loads during the earliest design phase of a fighter-aircraft program. In effect, buffet pressures are applied to mathematical models in the framework of a finite-element code, complete with aeroelastic properties and working knowledge of the spatiality of the buffet pressures for all flight conditions. The results of analysis performed by use of this capability illustrate those vibratory modes of a tail fin that are most likely to be affected by buffet loads. Hence, the results help in identifying the flight conditions during which to expect problems. Using this capability, an aircraft designer can make adjustments to the airframe and possibly the aerodynamics, leading to a more robust design.

Moses, Robert W.↗
NASA NTRS2018

Examining the Conceptual Design Process for Future Hybrid-Electric Rotorcraft

Hybrid-electric propulsion systems introduce immense complexity and numerous design challenges not previously encountered in aircraft design. Traditional conceptual-level rotorcraft design approaches may not adequately capture the level of propulsion system detail desired for hybrid-electric vehicle conceptual design. As part of a NASA Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) Phase II contract, Empirical Systems Aerospace (ESAero) investigated the implementation of several hybrid-electric propulsion architectures onto three rotorcraft configurations. Unique hybrid-electric variants of these configurations were compared against their conventionally-powered counterparts using typical metrics such as payload, range, and energy efficiency. The feasibility and performance of these vehicles was also investigated in the +15 and +30-year timeframes based on third-party estimations for future component performance. Using the lessons learned during this trade study, ESAero then conducted a conceptual design effort for a hybrid-electric tiltrotor demonstrator based on the XV-15. A detailed integration of the hybrid-electric propulsion system into the vehicle airframe was also performed. The hybrid-electric XV-15 concept vehicle was estimated to achieve a 10% reduction in cruise fuel consumption compared to the original NASA XV-15 at the cost of increasing the vehicle empty weight by almost 25%. The success of this design effort suggests that the design of a manned, hybrid-electric tiltrotor is technically feasible at current technology levels.

Future↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

CFD2030 Grand Challenge: CFD-in-the-Loop Monte Carlo Simulation for Space Vehicle Design

Space vehicle design and certification differs widely from aircraft design relying more on probabilistic approaches than deterministic. Monte Carlo simulation plays an important role in the probabilistic design of space vehicles to ensure robust and reliable operation. Today, Monte Carlo flight simulation requires 1000’s of trajectory simulations that use databases to provide aerosciences models. These databases can be extremely expensive and time consuming to develop. Replacing these databases with unsteady computational fluid dynamics directly in the simulation loop has potential to significantly reduce the time required to analyze space vehicle concepts, improve simulation accuracy, and reduce the cost of space vehicle development. The CFD Vision 2030 Study outlined gaps and roadblocks to meeting the vision described in the study. The geometric, physical, and computational challenges associated with CFD-in-the-loop Monte Carlo simulation for space vehicle design are substantial and serve as an excellent grand challenge to advance the CFD 2030 vision.

CFD2030↗
NASA NTRS2010

Handling Qualities Prediction of an F-16XL-Based Reduced Sonic Boom Aircraft

A major goal of the Supersonics Project under NASA s Fundamental Aeronautics program is sonic boom reduction of supersonic aircraft. An important part of this effort is development and validation of sonic boom prediction tools used in aircraft design. NASA Dryden s F- 16XL was selected as a potential testbed aircraft to provide flight validation. Part of this task was predicting the handling qualities of the modified aircraft. Due to the high cost of modifying the existing F-16XL control laws, it was desirable to find modifications that reduced the aircraft sonic boom but did not degrade baseline aircraft handling qualities allowing for the potential of flight test without changing the current control laws. This was not a requirement for the initial modification design work, but an important consideration for proceeding to the flight test option. The primary objective of this work was to determine an aerodynamic and mass properties envelope of the F-16XL aircraft. The designers could use this envelope to determine the effect of proposed modifications on aircraft handling qualities.

Cogan, Bruce↗