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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 523 records · Page 29
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2002

Evaluation of an Aircraft Concept With Over-Wing, Hydrogen-Fueled Engines for Reduced Noise and Emissions

This report describes the analytical modeling and evaluation of an unconventional commercial transport aircraft concept designed to address aircraft noise and emission issues. A strut-braced wing configuration with overwing, ultra-high bypass ratio, hydrogen fueled turbofan engines is considered. Estimated noise and emission characteristics are compared to a conventional configuration designed for the same mission and significant benefits are identified. The design challenges and technology issues which would have to be addressed to make the concept a viable alternative to current aircraft designs are discussed. This concept is one of the "Quiet Green Transport" aircraft concepts studied as part of NASA's Revolutionary Aerospace Systems Concepts (RASC) Program. The RASC Program seeks to develop revolutionary concepts that address strategic objectives of the NASA Enterprises, such as reducing aircraft noise and emissions, and to identify enabling advanced technology requirements for the concepts.

Guynn, Mark D.↗
NASA NTRS2007

TBCC Fan Stage Operability and Performance

NASA s Fundamental Aeronautics Program is investigating turbine-based propulsion systems for access to space because it provides the potential for aircraft-like, space-launch operations that may significantly reduce launch costs and improve safety. Studies performed under NASA s NGLT and the NASP High Speed Propulsion Assessment (HiSPA) program indicated a variable cycle turbofan/ramjet was the best configuration to satisfy access-to-space mission requirements because this configuration maximizes the engine thrust-to-weight ratio while minimizing frontal area. To this end, NASA and GE teamed to design a Mach 4 variable cycle turbofan/ramjet engine for access to space. To enable the wide operating range of a Mach 4+ variable cycle turbofan ramjet required the development of a unique fan stage design capable of multi-point operation to accommodate variations in bypass ratio (10X), fan speed (7X), inlet mass flow (3.5X), inlet pressure (8X), and inlet temperature (3X). The primary goal of the fan stage was to provide a high pressure ratio level with good efficiency at takeoff through the mid range of engine operation, while avoiding stall and losses at the higher flight Mach numbers, without the use of variable inlet guide vanes. Overall fan performance and operability therefore requires major consideration, as competing goals at different operating points and aeromechanical issues become major drivers in the design. To mitigate risk of meeting the unique design requirements for the fan stage, NASA and GE teamed to design and build a 57% engine scaled fan stage to be tested in NASA s transonic compressor facility. The objectives of this test are to assess the aerodynamic and aero mechanic performance and operability characteristics of the fan stage over the entire range of engine operation including: 1) sea level static take-off, 2) transition over large swings in fan bypass ratio, 3) transition from turbofan to ramjet, and 4) fan windmilling operation at high Mach flight conditions. In addition, the fan stage design was validated by performing pre-test CFD analysis using both GE proprietary and NASA s APNASA codes. Herein we will discuss 1) the fan stage design, 2) the experiment including the unique facility and instrumentation, and 3) the comparison of pre-test CFD analysis to initial aerodynamic test results for the baseline fan stage configuration. Measurements and pre-test analysis will be compared at 37%, 50%, 80%, 90%, and 100% of design speed to assess the ability of state-of-the-art design and analysis tools to meet the fan stage performance and operability requirements for turbine based propulsion for access to space.

Suder, Kenneth L.↗
NASA NTRS1983

Advanced propfan engine characteristics and technology needs

A comparative study is presented for two of the advanced gas turbine engine designs developed in the course of a proprietary research effort for the NASA Advanced Propfan Engine Technology research program. In these engines, a cycle pressure ratio of 32.5:1 and a 2500 F maximum turbine temperature provide fuel efficient operation in the 32,000-ft altitude, Mach 0.72 cruise speed regime stipulated. Both of the engine configurations incorporate three spools, of which the compressors are dual-spool and the power turbines are free. A major design challenge for axial compressors in the 10,000-shp class was the maintenance of adequate blade heights in the later stages.

Anderson, R. D.↗
NASA NTRS1987

Analysis of an advanced technology subsonic turbofan incorporating revolutionary materials

Successful implementation of revolutionary composite materials in an advanced turbofan offers the possibility of further improvements in engine performance and thrust-to-weight ratio relative to current metallic materials. The present analysis determines the approximate engine cycle and configuration for an early 21st century subsonic turbofan incorporating all composite materials. The advanced engine is evaluated relative to a current technology baseline engine in terms of its potential fuel savings for an intercontinental quadjet having a design range of 5500 nmi and a payload of 500 passengers. The resultant near optimum, uncooled, two-spool, advanced engine has an overall pressure ratio of 87, a bypass ratio of 18, a geared fan, and a turbine rotor inlet temperature of 3085 R. Improvements result in a 33-percent fuel saving for the specified misssion. Various advanced composite materials are used throughout the engine. For example, advanced polymer composite materials are used for the fan and the low pressure compressor (LPC).

Knip, Gerald, Jr.↗
NASA NTRS1992

A Segmented Ion-Propulsion Engine

New design approach for high-power (100-kW class or greater) ion engines conceptually divides single engine into combination of smaller discharge chambers integrated to operate as single large engine. Analogous to multicylinder automobile engine, benefits include reduction in required accelerator system span-to-gap ratio for large-area engines, reduction in required hollow-cathode emission current, mitigation of plasma-uniformity problem, increased tolerance to accelerator system faults, and reduction in vacuum-system pumping speed.

Brophy, John R.↗
NASA NTRS2005

Demonstration, Testing and Qualification of a High Temperature, High Speed Magnetic Thrust Bearing

The gas turbine industry has a continued interest in improving engine performance and reducing net operating and maintenance costs. These goals are being realized because of advancements in aeroelasticity, materials, and computational tools such as CFD and engine simulations. These advancements aid in increasing engine thrust-to-weight ratios, specific fuel consumption, pressure ratios, and overall reliability through higher speed, higher temperature, and more efficient engine operation. Currently, rolling element bearing and squeeze film dampers are used to support rotors in gas turbine engines. Present ball bearing configurations are limited in speed (<2 million DN) and temperature (<5OO F) and require both cooling air and an elaborate lubrication system. Also, ball bearings require extensive preventative maintenance in order to assure their safe operation. Since these bearings are at their operational limits, new technologies must be found in order to take advantage of other advances. Magnetic bearings are well suited to operate at extreme temperatures and higher rotational speeds and are a promising solution to the problems that conventional rolling element bearings present. Magnetic bearing technology is being developed worldwide and is considered an enabling technology for new engine designs. Using magnetic bearings, turbine and compressor spools can be radically redesigned to be significantly larger and stiffer with better damping and higher rotational speeds. These advances, a direct result of magnetic bearing technology, will allow significant increases in engine power and efficiency. Also, magnetic bearings allow for real-time, in-situ health monitoring of the system, lower maintenance costs and down time.

DeWitt, Kenneth↗
NASA NTRS2011

Improving Engine Efficiency Through Core Developments

The NASA Environmentally Responsible Aviation (ERA) Project and Fundamental Aeronautics Projects are supporting compressor and turbine research with the goal of reducing aircraft engine fuel burn and greenhouse gas emissions. The primary goals of this work are to increase aircraft propulsion system fuel efficiency for a given mission by increasing the overall pressure ratio (OPR) of the engine while maintaining or improving aerodynamic efficiency of these components. An additional area of work involves reducing the amount of cooling air required to cool the turbine blades while increasing the turbine inlet temperature. This is complicated by the fact that the cooling air is becoming hotter due to the increases in OPR. Various methods are being investigated to achieve these goals, ranging from improved compressor three-dimensional blade designs to improved turbine cooling hole shapes and methods. Finally, a complementary effort in improving the accuracy, range, and speed of computational fluid mechanics (CFD) methods is proceeding to better capture the physical mechanisms underlying all these problems, for the purpose of improving understanding and future designs.

Heidmann, James D.↗
NASA NTRS1975

Motion-base simulator study of control of an externally blown flap STOL transport aircraft after failure of an outboard engine during landing approach

A moving-base simulator investigation of the problems of recovery and landing of a STOL aircraft after failure of an outboard engine during final approach was made. The approaches were made at 75 knots along a 6 deg glide slope. The engine was failed at low altitude and the option to go around was not allowed. The aircraft was simulated with each of three control systems, and it had four high-bypass-ratio fan-jet engines exhausting against large triple-slotted wing flaps to produce additional lift. A virtual-image out-the-window television display of a simulated STOL airport was operating during part of the investigation. Also, a simple heads-up flight director display superimposed on the airport landing scene was used by the pilots to make some of the recoveries following an engine failure. The results of the study indicated that the variation in visual cues and/or motion cues had little effect on the outcome of a recovery, but they did have some effect on the pilot's response and control patterns.

Middleton, D. B.↗
NASA NTRS2000

Noise-Reduction Benefits Analyzed for Over-the-Wing-Mounted Advanced Turbofan Engines

As we look to the future, increasingly stringent civilian aviation noise regulations will require the design and manufacture of extremely quiet commercial aircraft. Also, the large fan diameters of modern engines with increasingly higher bypass ratios pose significant packaging and aircraft installation challenges. One design approach that addresses both of these challenges is to mount the engines above the wing. In addition to allowing the performance trend towards large diameters and high bypass ratio cycles to continue, this approach allows the wing to shield much of the engine noise from people on the ground. The Propulsion Systems Analysis Office at the NASA Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field conducted independent analytical research to estimate the noise reduction potential of mounting advanced turbofan engines above the wing. Certification noise predictions were made for a notional long-haul commercial quadjet transport. A large quad was chosen because, even under current regulations, such aircraft sometimes experience difficulty in complying with certification noise requirements with a substantial margin. Also, because of its long wing chords, a large airplane would receive the greatest advantage of any noise-shielding benefit.

Berton, Jeffrey J.↗
DOE OSTI2026

Tokamak Energy’s pre-concept design for a fusion power plant: an overview of ST-E1

Climate change and rapidly rising energy demand, driven in part by artificial intelligence and data-centre growth, create an urgent need for stable, low-carbon, and abundant power. Fusion is a promising long-term solution, yet its commercialisation faces a fundamental paradox in today’s investment environment: pilot plants are essential to de-risk physics, engineering, and operations, but their limited lifetime energy output and high upfront costs make them difficult to finance. This paper presents Tokamak Energy’s response: ST-E1, a pre-concept design for a low-aspect-ratio tokamak power plant engineered specifically to overcome this challenge. ST-E1 is designed from the outset for phased operation—pilot and commercial phases, with an upgrade phase in between—with emphasis on commercial viability, maintainability, nuclear engineering, modularity, and upgradability. A key design principle is the deliberate separation of long-lived assets, such as the magnet cage and vacuum vessel, from replaceable in-vessel systems. This provides an attractive and credible investment approach to generate operational data and de-risk key technologies while preserving most capital-intensive assets for later commercial phases. The architecture supports continuous optimisation toward high net electric power (targeting 800–1000 MW net electric), a normalised capital expenditure of $\$$ 12–14k/kW of net electric power, and high availability (targeting > 80%). A tokamak core with a 5 m major radius, aspect ratio of 2.3, and on-plasma axis toroidal field of 5.25 T was selected to meet these objectives. This paper summarises the ST-E1 design philosophy, principal features, and development methodology. It introduces a Focus Collection of 11 papers detailing the pre-concept design of the entire tokamak and corresponding plant.

ST-E1↗
NASA NTRS1972

Design and evaluation of an oxidant-fuel-ratio-zoned rocket injector for high performance and ablative engine compatibility

A method for temperature control of the combustion gases in the peripheral zone of a rocket combustor which would reduce ablative throat erosion, prevent melting of zirconia throat inserts, and maintain high combustion performance is discussed. Included are techniques for analyzing and predicting zoned injector performance, as well as the philosophy and method for accomplishing an optimum compromise between high performance and reduced effective gas temperature. The experimental work was done with a 1000-lbf rocket engine which used as propellants N2O4 and a blend of 50-percent N2H4 and 50-percent UDMH at 100-psia chamber pressure and an overall O/F of 2.0. The method selected to provide temperature control was to use 30 percent of the propellant to form a peripheral zone of combustion gases at an O/F of 1.31 and 2700 K. The remaining 70 percent of the propellant in the core was at an O/F of 2.45 to keep the overall O/F at 2.0.

Winter, J. M.↗
NASA NTRS1980

Rotary balance data for a single engine general aviation design having a high aspect-ratio canard for an angle-of-attack range of 30 deg to 90 deg

Aerodynamic characteristics obtained in a helical flow environment utilizing a rotary balance located in the Langley spin tunnel are presented in plotted form. The configurations tested included the basic airplane, various control deflections, two canard locations, and wing leading edge modifications, as well as airplane components.

Mulcay, W. J.↗
NASA NTRS1979

Experimental study of acoustic loads on an upper-surface-blown STOL airplane configuration

Fluctuating pressure levels were measured on the flap and fuselage of an upper-surface-blown jet-flap airplane configuration in a wind tunnel. The model tested had turbofan engines with a bypass ratio of 3 and a thrust rating of 10 kN. Rectangular nozzles were mounted flush with the upper surface at 35 percent of the wing chord. Test parameters were flap deflection angle, jet impingement angle, angle of attack, free-stream velocity, spanwise location of the engine, and jet dynamic pressure. Load levels were high throughout the jet impingement region, with the highest levels (about 159 dB) occurring on the fuselage and near the knee of the flap. The magnitude of the forward-velocity effect appeared to depend upon the ratio of free-stream and jet velocities. Good agreement was obtained between fluctuating pressure spectra measured at jet dynamic pressures of 7 and 22 kPa when the spectra were scaled by nondimensional functions of dynamic pressure, velocity, and the empirical relationship between dynamic pressure and overall fluctuating pressure level.

Willis, C. M.↗
NASA NTRS2014

ERA Advanced Core Compressor Technology Program

As part of the NASA Integrated Systems Research Program, Environmentally Responsible Aviation Project, NASA GRC and GE Aviation have partnered to investigate the technology barriers associated with improved fuel economy of large gas turbine engines. Crucial to improving fuel economy is the increase in Pressure Ratio (PR) of the core compressor. General Electric is in the process of defining new advanced technology engine concepts and related engine architectures for both commercial and military subsonic and supersonic flight applications. These new concepts and architectures offer the potential of providing substantial improvements in mission fuel burn, emissions, and noise levels relative to SOTA engines and support the needs and goals of future Air force, Navy, and NASA aircraft systems. A key aspect of many of these new engine concepts is an ultra high pressure ratio core compressor. Current SOTA engines such as the GENx utilize a 23:1 class pressure ratio core compressor to achieve an overall pressure ratio in the 50:1 class. Future engines with overall pressure ratios in the 70– 80:1 class will need core compressors with pressure ratios in the 30:1 class. These single spool, ultra high pressure ratio compressors will have inherent challenges. The goal of this work is to provide a dedicated component test vehicle to study the very challenging compressor front stage performance and operability issues that arise in these aggressive machines. With a view to providing highly detailed aerodynamic data that will provide, subject to the rights restrictions for test data afforded under NASA Contract NNC10BA06B/NNC10TA64T, an industry standard data set for CFD validation.

Axial Compressors↗
NASA NTRS2008

Flow Control Opportunities for Propulsion Systems

The advancement of technology in gas turbine engines used for aerospace propulsion has been focused on achieving significant performance improvements. At the system level, these improvements are expressed in metrics such as engine thrust-to-weight ratio and system and component efficiencies. The overall goals are directed at reducing engine weight, fuel burn, emissions, and noise. At a component level, these goals translate into aggressive designs of each engine component well beyond the state of the art.

Cutley, Dennis E.↗
NASA NTRS1974

Quiet engine from NASA

Engine designs resulting from the NASA sponsored quiet engine program are described in terms of their possible use on the DC-8. These engines have high bypass ratios for low jet noise and low-speed, low-noise fans. Experiments were carried out on various fan designs with different tip speeds. The advantage of low tip speeds and high lift coefficients has been demonstrated. The engines are equipped with flight-standard nacelles with acoustic suppression. It is estimated that these improvements will reduce DC-8 noise by about 26EPNdB-29EPNdB.

Sanders, N. D.↗