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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 469 records · Page 26
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1989

Aerobraking characteristics for several potential manned Mars entry vehicles

While a reduction in weight is always desirable for any space vehicle, it is crucial for vehicles to be used in the proposed Manned Mars Mission (MMM). One such way to reduce a spacecraft's weight is through aeroassist braking which is an alternative to retro-rockets, the traditional method of slowing a craft approaching from a high energy orbit. In this paper aeroassist braking was examined for two blunt vehicle configurations and one streamlined configuration. For each vehicle type, a range of lift-to-drag ratios was examined and the entry angle windows, bank profiles, and trajectory parameters were recorded here. In addition, the sensitivities of velocity and acceleration with respect to the entry angle and bank angles were included. Also, the effect of using different atmosphere models was tested by incorporating several models into the simulation program.

Tartabini, Paul V.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Evaluation of two transport aircraft and several ground test vehicle friction measurements obtained for various runway surface types and conditions. A summary of test results from joint FAA/NASA Runway Friction Program

Tests with specially instrumented NASA Boeing 737 and 727 aircraft together with several different ground friction measuring devices were conducted for a variety of runway surface types and conditions. These tests are part of joint FAA/NASA Aircraft/Ground Vehicle Runway Friction Program aimed at obtaining a better understanding of aircraft ground handling performance under adverse weather conditions and defining relationships between aircraft and ground vehicle tire friction measurements. Aircraft braking performance on dry, wet, snow and ice-covered runway conditions is discussed as well as ground vehicle friction data obtained under similar runway conditions. For a given contaminated runway surface condition, the correlation between ground vehicles and aircraft friction data is identified. The influence of major test parameters on friction measurements such as speed, test tire characteristics, type and amount of surface contaminant, and ambient temperature are discussed. The effect of surface type on wet friction levels is also evaluated from comparative data collected on grooved and ungrooved concrete and asphalt surfaces.

Yager, Thomas J.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Fatigue crack initiation and small crack growth in several airframe alloys

The growth of naturally-initiated small cracks under a variety of constant amplitude and variable amplitude load sequences is examined for several airframe materials: the conventional aluminum alloys, 2024-T3 and 7075-T6, the aluminum-lithium alloy, 2090-T8E41, and 4340 steel. Loading conditions investigated include constant amplitude loading at R = 0.5, 0, -1 and -2 and the variable amplitude sequences FALSTAFF, Mini-TWIST and FELIX/28. Crack growth was measured at the root of semicircular edge notches using acetate replicas. Crack growth rates are compared on a stress intensity factor basis, to those for large cracks to evaluate the extent of the small crack effect in each alloy. In addition, the various alloys are compared on a crack initiation and crack growth morphology basis.

Swain, M. H.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Evaluation of several micromechanics models for discontinuously reinforced metal matrix composites

A systematic experimental evaluation of whisker and particulate reinforced aluminum matrix composites was conducted to assess the variation in tensile properties with reinforcement type, volume fraction, and specimen thickness. Each material was evaluated in three thicknesses, 1.8, 3.18, and 6.35 mm, to determine the size, distribution, and orientation of the reinforcements. This information was used to evaluate several micromechanical models that predict composite moduli. The longitudinal and transverse moduli were predicted for reinforced aluminum. The Paul model, the Cox model and the Halpin-Tsai model were evaluated. The Paul model gave a good upper bound prediction for the particulate reinforced composites but under predicted whisker reinforced composite moduli. The Cox model gave good moduli predictions for the whisker reinforcement, but was too low for the particulate. The Halpin-Tsai model gave good results for both whisker and particulate reinforced composites. An approach using a trigonometric projection of whisker length to predict the fiber contribution to the modulus in the longitudinal and transverse directions was compared to the more conventional lamination theory approach.

Johnson, W. Steven↗
NASA NTRS1990

Experimental investigation of rotor-stator interaction in a centrifugal pump with several vaned diffusers

Steady and unsteady diffuser vane pressure measurements have been conducted with a two-dimensional test impeller, in an experimental investigation of rotor-stator interaction within a centrifugal pump having several vaned diffusers, under conditions of different flow coefficients and different radial gaps between the impeller blade trailing edge and the diffuser vane leading edge. The largest pressure fluctuations on the diffuser vanes and the impeller blades were found to be of the same order of magnitude as the total pressure rise across the pump. Increasing the number of diffuser vanes was found to result in a significant decrease of impeller blade pressure fluctuations.

Arndt, N.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Investigation of several passive and active methods for turbulent flow separation control

Relative performance of several passive and active methods for controlling two-dimensional turbulent separated flow associated with a curved backward-facing ramp were investigated at low speeds. Surface static pressure measurement and oil flow visualization results indicate that submerged vortex generators, vortex generator jets, elongated arches at +-alpha, and large-eddy breakup devices at +-alpha placed near the baseline separation location reduce flow separation and increase pressure recovery. Spanwise cylinders reduce flow separation but decrease pressure recovery downstream. Arches with alpha = 0 deg, Helmholtz resonators, and Viets' fluidic flappers examined so far have no significant effect in reducing separation. Wall cooling computation indicates that separation delay on a partially cooled ramp is nearly the same as on a fully-cooled ramp while minimizing the frictional drag increase associated with the wall cooling process.

Lin, J. C.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Spaceflight performance of several types of silicon solar cells on the LIPS 3 satellite

Results from exposure of several types of Solarex silicon cells to a space environment for nearly two years on the LIPS 3 satellite are presented. Experiments include standard thickness (10 mil) cells with and without back surface fields, and ultrathin (2 mil) cells also with and without back surface fields. A comparison between a widely used coverslide adhesive, DC 93-500 and a potential alternate is also presented. The major findings from the data are that the 2 mil cells without a back surface field show the smallest normalized short circuit current degradation and that the 10 mil back surface field cells show the greatest absolute power output for the radiation exposures and temperatures encountered. The new encapsulant (McGhan Nusil CV-2500) exhibits a degradation comparable to DC 93-500. A comparison is made with each of the cell types in this experiment with expectations based on JPL Radiation Handbook data.

Silver, J.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Suckdown, fountain lift, and pressures induced on several tandem jet V/STOL configurations

As part of a program to improve the methods for predicting the suckdown and hot gas ingestion for jet V/STOL aircraft in ground effect, a data base is being created that provides a systematic variation of parameters so that a new empirical prediction procedure can be developed. The first series of tests in this program was completed. Suckdown, fountain lift, and pressures induced on several two-jet V/STOL configurations are described. It is one of three reports that present the data obtained from tests conducted at Lockheed Aeronautical Systems-Rye Canyon Facility and in the High Bay area of the 40 by 80 foot wind tunnel complex at NASA Ames Research Center.

Bellavia, David C.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Observations of severe turbulence near thunderstorm tops

Data derived from the flight tapes of two airliners that experienced severe turbulence near thunderstorm tops are used to produce quantitative descriptions of the turbulence and its environment. The likely turbulence-producing processes include a three-dimensional turbulent wake in the lee of a squall line and an updraft in the top of a thunderstorm. Results suggest that current procedures for using surface and airborne weather radar for routing aircraft near thunderstorm tops should be reexamined. Also, although useful rules for safe flight near thunderstorm tops already exist, there is evidence that they are not universally applied.

Pantley, K. C.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Aircraft overflight measurements of midwest severe storms - Implications on geosynchronous satellite interpretations

The instrumented NASA ER-2 aircraft overflew severe convection with IR V features for the first time in the midwest United States during May 1984. Measurements taken by the ER-2 were: visible and IR imagery, high-frequency passive microwave (92, 183 GHz) imagery, nadir lidar backscattered return, and flight altitude information. The May 7 and May 13, 1984 cases are analyzed in detail and the various data sources are combined and compared with GOES imagery. The high resolution aircraft IR imagery shows that thermal couplets are considerably more pronounced than in GOES imagery. In one of the cases (May 7, 1984) the minimum cloud-top IR temperature was located upshear of the overshooting cloud top in the lidar height field. The IR temperatures in the downshear anvils were as much as 5 C warmer than the ambient air temperatures, implying that the upwelling IR radiance comes from about 0.5-1.0 km below the cloud top. The in situ ER-2 measurements of temperature and air velocity 3-4 km above the overshooting tops showed very intense temperature and vertical velocity, perturbations. These perturbations are suggestive of lee waves generated by the overshooting tops or a cold dome above the squall line possibly due to tropopause lifting by the storms.

Heymsfield, Gerald M.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Equilibrated moisture content of several carbon phenolics and their relationship to resin, fiber, and interface properties

This study focuses on the relationship between relative humidity and the equilibrated moisture content of several variants of two distinctly different carbon phenolic composites. One of the materials gives a typical exponential relationship between RH and equilibrated moisture content while the second gives an inverse sigmoidal relationship with the largest increase in moisture between 45-60 percent relative humidity. The possible relationship between the shape of the curves and the nature of the material constituents is discussed.

Stokes, E. H.↗
NASA NTRS1991

A comparative study of several compressibility corrections to turbulence models applied to high-speed shear layers

Several recently published compressibility corrections to the standard k-epsilon turbulence model are used with the Navier-Stokes equations to compute the mixing region of a large variety of high speed flows. These corrections, specifically developed to address the weakness of higher order turbulence models to accurately predict the spread rate of compressible free shear flows, are applied to two stream flows of the same gas mixing under a large variety of free stream conditions. Results are presented for two types of flows: unconfined streams with either (1) matched total temperatures and static pressures, or (2) matched static temperatures and pressures, and a confined stream.

Viegas, John R.↗
NASA NTRS1991

The impact of cockpit automation on crew coordination and communication. Volume 1: Overview, LOFT evaluations, error severity, and questionnaire data

The purpose was to examine, jointly, cockpit automation and social processes. Automation was varied by the choice of two radically different versions of the DC-9 series aircraft, the traditional DC-9-30, and the glass cockpit derivative, the MD-88. Airline pilot volunteers flew a mission in the simulator for these aircraft. Results show that the performance differences between the crews of the two aircraft were generally small, but where there were differences, they favored the DC-9. There were no criteria on which the MD-88 crews performed better than the DC-9 crews. Furthermore, DC-9 crews rated their own workload as lower than did the MD-88 pilots. There were no significant differences between the two aircraft types with respect to the severity of errors committed during the Line-Oriented Flight Training (LOFT) flight. The attitude questionnaires provided some interesting insights, but failed to distinguish between DC-9 and MD-88 crews.

Wiener, Earl L.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Fatigue crack initiation and small crack growth in several airframe alloys

The growth of naturally-initiated small cracks under a variety of constant amplitude and variable amplitude load sequences is examined for several airframe materials: the conventional aluminum alloys, 2024-T3 and 7075-T6, the aluminum-lithium alloy, 2090-T8E41 and 4340 steel. Loading conditions investigated include constant amplitude loading at R = 0.5, 0, -1 and -2 and the variable amplitude sequences FALSTAFF, Mini-TWIST, and FELIX/28. Crack growth was measured at the root of semicircular edge notches using acetate replicas. Crack growth rates are compared on a stress intensity factor basis, to those for large cracks to evaluate the extent of the small crack effect in each alloy. In addition, the various alloys are compared on a crack initiation and crack growth morphology basis.

Swain, M. H.↗
NASA NTRS1990

An evaluation of VAS-derived severe storm parameters

The Visible Infrared Spin Scan Radiometer (VISSR) Atmospheric Sounder (VAS) carried by U.S. meteorological satellites in GEO yield sounding parameters applicable to severe local storm forecasting. Discrepancies between VAS and radiosonde parameters are noted to increase with the number of computational steps required. It is found that VAS-derived parameters incorporating observed surface data yield results superior to those of parameters that do not incorporate them. VAS-derived parameters did not represent consistent improvements over 12-hour limited-area fine-mesh model numerical forecasts.

Olson, Steven R.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Examining several Southern Ocean data sets

Several datasets regarding the ocean in the Southern Hemisphere are combined into a coregistered format to analyze the use of the data in multidisciplinary research. The datasets are described detailing bathymetric climatological data on surface pigment concentration, eddy-kinetic-energy measurements, surface wind-stress magnitudes, sea-surface temperatures, surface densities, and nitrate concentrations. The data are combined in a common projection which facilitates the comparison of the fields, and the combined data yield insights regarding such phenomena as bottom topography, surface heat and moisture fluxes, and divergences in flow. The number of available datasets is shown to be good, and the data can be used to develop working hypotheses on the relationships between physical and biogeochemical processes.

Mcclain, Charles R.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Severe turbulence and maneuvering from airline flight records

Digital flight records from reported clear-air turbulence incidents are used to determine winds, to determine maneuver G loads, and to analyze control problems. Severe turbulence is found downwind of mountains and thunderstorms associated with vortices in atmospheric waves. It is also found in strong updrafts above thunderstorm buildups that are not detected by onboard weather radar. An important finding is that there are large maneuvering loads in over half of the reported clear-air turbulence incidents. Maneuvering loads are determined through an analysis of the short-term variations in elevator deflection and aircraft pitch angle. For altitude control in mountain waves the results indicate that small pitch angle changes with proper timing are sufficient to counter the vertical winds. For airspeed control in strong mountain waves, however, there is neither the available thrust nor the quickness in engine response necessary to counter the large and rapid variations in horizontal wind.

Wingrove, R. C.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Ceramic Composites Survive Severe Thermal Shocks

Ceramic-composite turbine blades and other components that must withstand severe thermal shocks developed for aerospace and, potentially, for terrestrial applications. Made of silicon carbide reinforced by continuous carbon fibers. Materials withstand high temperatures, exhibit high toughness, and fail gradually. Commercial applications include brake linings for fast trains and aircraft, industrial heat exchangers, and nozzles and other devices for handling molten metals.

Eckel, A. J.↗