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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 55 records · Page 3
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1980

Simulation and evaluation of latent heat thermal energy storage

The relative value of thermal energy storage (TES) for heat pump storage (heating and cooling) as a function of storage temperature, mode of storage (hotside or coldside), geographic locations, and utility time of use rate structures were derived. Computer models used to simulate the performance of a number of TES/heat pump configurations are described. The models are based on existing performance data of heat pump components, available building thermal load computational procedures, and generalized TES subsystem design. Life cycle costs computed for each site, configuration, and rate structure are discussed.

Sigmon, T. W.↗
NASA NTRS1985

New eutectic alloys and their heats of transformation

Eutectic compositions and congruently melting intermetallic compounds in binary and multicomponent systems among common elements such as Al, Ca, Cu, Mg, P, Si, and Zn may be useful for high temperature heat storage. In this work, heats of fusion of new multicomponent eutectics and intermetallic phases are reported, some of which are competitive with molten salts in heat storage density at high temperatures. The method used to determine unknown eutectic compositions combined results of differential thermal analysis, metallography, and microprobe analysis. The method allows determination of eutectic compositions in no more than three steps. The heats of fusion of the alloys were measured using commercial calorimeters, a differential thermal analyzer, and a differential scanning calorimeter.

Farkas, D.↗
NASA NTRS1962

RE-ENTRY MATERIALS

The major requirement for a re-entry material is that it protect the vehicle from the aerodynamic heating associated with re-entry. A relatively short time ago, the term re-entry brought to mind a ballistic type trajectory and its characteristic heat pulse. Today, however, a variety of thermal re-entry conditions are common due to the various types of vehicles currently of interest. Extremes of re-entry heating-time conditions vary from the relatively low heat flux-long time pulse associated with glide and shallow orbital re-entries through high flux-short time ballistic re-entry to the very high heat flux-moderate time pulse associated with super orbital re-entry. Materials for providing thermal protection, therefore, vary considerably depending upon the type of reentry heat-time pulse. From a functional standpoint, thermal protection materials may be divided into two types; absorptive and radiative. The absorptive material dissipates heat by storage (heat sink) or mass transfer and chemical change (ablation, transpiration or sublimation).

Thermal protection↗
NASA NTRS1995

A Unique Facility For Metabolic and Thermoregulatory Studies

A unique exercise facility has been developed and used to perform tipper body ergometry tests for space applications. Originally designed to simulate the muscular, cardiovascular and thermoregulatory responses to working in zero gravity, this facility may be used to conduct basic thermoregulatory investigations applicable to multiple sclerosis patients. An environmental chamber houses the tipper body ergometer and permits control of temperature, air now and humidify. The chamber is a closed system and recirculate-s air after conditioning if. A Cybex Lipper body ergometer has been mounted horizontally on the wall of the environmental chamber. In this configuration, the subject lies underneath the arm crank on a supine seat in order to turn the crank. The supine seat can be removed in order to introduce other equipment into the chamber such as a stool to allow upright arm cranking, or a treadmill to allow walk-run experiments. Physiological and environmental signals are fed into a Strawberry Tree data acquisition system while being monitored and logged using the Workbench software program. Physiological monitoring capabilities include 3-lead EKG using an H-P patient monitor, 5 site skin temperature and core temperature using YSI thermistors, and O2 consumption and CO2 production using AMFTFK Applied Electrochemistry analyzers and sensors. This comprehensive data acquisition set tip allows for calculation of various thermoregulatory indices including heat storage, evaporative heat loss, latent heat loss, and metabolic rate. The current system is capable of adding more data acquisition channels if needed. Some potential studies that could be carried out using the facility include: 1) An investigation into the efficiency of cooling various segments of the body to lower Tc 1-2 F. 2) A series of heat and mass balance studies comparing various LCG configurations.

Williamson, Rebecca C.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Microencapsulated Phase-Change Materials For Storage Of Heat

Report describes research on engineering issues related to storage and transport of heat in slurries containing phase-change materials in microscopic capsules. Specific goal of project to develop lightweight, compact, heat-management systems used safely in inhabited areas of spacecraft. Further development of obvious potential of technology expected to lead to commercialization and use in aircraft, electronic equipment, machinery, industrial processes, and other sytems in which requirements for management of heat compete with severe restrictions on weight or volume.

Colvin, David P.↗
NASA NTRS1982

Comparison of advanced thermal and electrical storage for parabolic dish solar thermal power systems

Parabolic dish solar concentrator cluster concepts are explored, with attention given to thermal storage systems coupled to Stirling and Brayton cycle power conversion devices. Sensible heat storage involving molten salt (NaOH), liquid sodium, and solid cordierite bricks are considered for 1500 F thermal storage systems. Latent heat storage with NaF-MgF2 phase change materials are explored in terms of passive, active, and direct contact designs. Comparisons are made of the effectiveness of thermal storage relative to redox, Na-S, Zn-Cl, and Zn-Br battery storage systems. Molten lead trickling down through a phase change eutectic, the NaF-MgF2, formed the direct contact system. Heat transport in all systems is effected through Inconel pipes. Using a cost goal of 120-150 mills/kWh as the controlling parameter, sensible heat systems with molten salts transport with either Stirling or Brayton engines, or latent heat systems with Stirling engines, and latent heat-Brayton engine with direct contact were favored in the analyses. Battery storage systems, however, offered the most flexibility of applications.

Fujita, T.↗
NASA NTRS1977

Thermal storage for electric utilities

Applications of the thermal energy storage (TES) principle (storage of sensible heat or latent heat, or heat storage in reversible chemical reactions) in power systems are evaluated. Load leveling behind the meter, load following at conventional thermal power plants, solar thermal power generation, and waste heat utilization are the principal TES applications considered. Specific TES examples discussed include: storage heaters for electric-resistance space heating, air conditioning TES in the form of chilled water or eutectic salt baths, hot water TES, and trans-seasonal storage in heated water in confined aquifers.

Swet, C. J.↗
NASA NTRS2026

Performance Evaluation of Intravehicular Activity Spacesuit Without the Use of a Liquid Cooling Garment

The Orion Crew Survival Systems (OCSS) suit is equipped with safety technology that protects the crew during launch and re-entry and Intravehicular Activities (IVA). It was designed to be used with a Liquid Cooling Garment (LCG), an undergarment with tubes that circulate water to remove excess heat from a crew member. The objective of this study is to determine if the Modified Advanced Crew Escape Suit (MACES), which has very similar material, assembly, and pressure characteristics as the OCSS suit, can be used without the LCG to maintain the crew within their heat storage requirements where exceedances can lead to cognitive and physiological impairment. Testing was completed for both hot and cold environments where test subjects wore varying configurations of the MACES suit ensemble without the LCG. The tests were conducted in a temperature and humidity-controlled chamber with four test subjects ranging from extra small to large. Target metabolic rates were reached using an arm ergometer. To represent the different suit configurations seen in the concept of operations, the suit was tested with visor-down, visor-up, and without helmet and gloves. The test data was analyzed to determine how the environment, test subject size, metabolic rate, and suit configuration affected heat storage. Furthermore, the test data was used to correlate the METMAN model, a transient metabolic man program that simulates the heat transfer within a crew member’s body and from a crew member to the surrounding environment. The METMAN correlation showed good agreement between predicted heat storage and test data at the end of the test duration, with a coefficient of determination (R 2 ) value of 0.8999 for visor-down cases and R 2 of 0.8902 for visor-up and helmet off cases. A correlated METMAN model allows for the analysis and prediction of IVA suit performance without an LCG in additional scenarios.

Human Thermal Modeling↗
NASA NTRS2026

Performance Evaluation of Intravehicular Activity Spacesuit Without the Use of a Liquid Cooling Garment

The Orion Crew Survival Systems (OCSS) suit is equipped with safety technology that protects the crew during launch and re-entry and Intravehicular Activities (IVA). It was designed to be used with a Liquid Cooling Garment (LCG), an undergarment with tubes that circulate water to remove excess heat from a crew member. The objective of this study is to determine if the Modified Advanced Crew Escape Suit (MACES), which has very similar material, assembly, and pressure characteristics as the OCSS suit, can be used without the LCG to maintain the crew within their heat storage requirements where exceedances can lead to cognitive and physiological impairment. Testing was completed for both hot and cold environments where test subjects wore varying configurations of the MACES suit ensemble without the LCG. The tests were conducted in a temperature and humidity-controlled chamber with four test subjects ranging from extra small to large. Target metabolic rates were reached using an arm ergometer. To represent the different suit configurations seen in the concept of operations, the suit was tested with visor-down, visor-up, and without helmet and gloves. The test data was analyzed to determine how the environment, test subject size, metabolic rate, and suit configuration affected heat storage. Furthermore, the test data was used to correlate the METMAN model, a transient metabolic man program that simulates the heat transfer within a crew member’s body and from a crew member to the surrounding environment. The METMAN correlation showed good agreement between predicted heat storage and test data at the end of the test duration, with a coefficient of determination (R 2 ) value of 0.8999 for visor-down cases and R 2 of 0.8902 for visor-up and helmet off cases. A correlated METMAN model allows for the analysis and prediction of IVA suit performance without an LCG in additional scenarios.

Spacesuit↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Lapse-Rate Feeback: The Key to Reconciling TOA and Surface Attributions of Surface Warming

The impact of climate feedbacks on surface warming is conventionally evaluated using a decomposition of the top-of-atmosphere (TOA) energy budget. Alternatively, the climate feedback analysis can also be carried out using the surface energy budget. However, the two perspectives do not provide the same interpretation of process contributions to surface warming, particularly when executing a spatial analysis. The TOA energy budget is equal to the sum of the surface and atmospheric energy budgets. Using the CMIP5 RCP 8.5 model projections, we show that the major discrepancies between the surface and TOA climate feedback attributions of surface warming are due to non-negligible changes in the atmospheric energy budget that differ from their counterparts at the surface. Individual radiative and non-radiative processes cause vertically non-uniform energy flux perturbations, in response to an external forcing, that naturally lead to a vertically non-uniform temperature change. The TOA lapse-rate feedback is the manifestation of these multiple processes that produce a vertically non-uniform warming response such that it accounts for the asymmetry between the changes in the atmospheric and surface energy budgets. Using the climate feedback-response analysis method, we can decompose the lapse-rate feedback into contributions by individual processes. The negative lapse-rate feedback in the tropics is due to greater moist convection and condensational heating along with ocean heat storage. On the other hand, the positive lapse-rate feedback in polar regions is primarily due to the surface albedo and water vapor feedbacks. Combining the process contributions that are hidden within the lapse-rate feedback with their respective direct impacts on the TOA energy budget allows for a very consistent picture of process contributions to surface warming and its inter-model spread as that given by the surface energy budget approach. With the modified approach, both perspectives indicate water vapor feedback is the largest contributor in the tropics, while surface albedo feedback is the greatest contributor in polar regions. Dynamics and ocean heat storage are the main suppressors of surface warming, except over Antarctica. Both perspectives show there is large inter-model uncertainty in the contributions of water vapor, clouds, albedo, and dynamics plus ocean heat storage.

Sergio A Sejas↗
NASA NTRS1978

High temperature thermal energy storage in moving sand

Several high-temperature (to 500 C) heat-storage systems using sand as the storage medium are described. The advantages of sand as a storage medium include low cost for sand, widespread availability, non-toxicity, non-degradation characteristics, easy containment, and safety. The systems considered include: stationary sand with closely spaced tubes throughout the volume, the use of a fluidized bed, use of conveyor belt transporter, and the use of a blower rapid transport system. For a stationary sand bed, very close spacing of heat transfer tubes throughout the volume is required, manifesting as high power related system cost. The suggestion of moving sand past or around pipes is intended to reduce the power related costs at the penalty of added system complexity. Preliminary system cost estimates are offered. These rough calculations indicate that mobile sand heat storage systems cost less than the stationary sand approach.

Turner, R. H.↗
NASA NTRS1980

The SERI solar energy storage program

In support of the DOE thermal and chemical energy storage program, the solar energy storage program (SERI) provides research on advanced technologies, systems analyses, and assessments of thermal energy storage for solar applications in support of the Thermal and Chemical Energy Storage Program of the DOE Division of Energy Storage Systems. Currently, research is in progress on direct contact latent heat storage and thermochemical energy storage and transport. Systems analyses are being performed of thermal energy storage for solar thermal applications, and surveys and assessments are being prepared of thermal energy storage in solar applications. A ranking methodology for comparing thermal storage systems (performance and cost) is presented. Research in latent heat storage and thermochemical storage and transport is reported.

Copeland, R. J.↗
NASA NTRS1976

Study of a fail-safe abort system for an actively cooled hypersonic aircraft: Computer program documentation

The Fail-Safe Abort System TEMPerature Analysis Program, (FASTEMP), user's manual is presented. This program was used to analyze fail-safe abort systems for an actively cooled hypersonic aircraft. FASTEMP analyzes the steady state or transient temperature response of a thermal model defined in rectangular, cylindrical, conical and/or spherical coordinate system. FASTEMP provides the user with a large selection of subroutines for heat transfer calculations. The various modes of heat transfer available from these subroutines are: heat storage, conduction, radiation, heat addition or generation, convection, and fluid flow.

Haas, L. A., Sr.↗
NASA NTRS1998

Seasonal Cycles of Meridional Overturning and Heat Transport of the Indian Ocean

A general circulation model of the Indian Ocean is fitted to monthly averaged climatological temperatures, salinities, and surface fluxes using the adjoint method. Interannual variability is minimized by penalizing the temporal drift from one seasonal cycle to another during a two-year integration. The resultant meridional overturning and heat transport display large seasonal variations, with maximum amplitudes of 18 and 22 (x 10(exp 6) cubic m/s) for the overturning and 1.8 and 1.4 (x 10(exp 15) W) for heat transport near 10 S and 10 N, respectively. A dynamical decomposition of the overturning and heat transport shows that the time-varying Ekman How plus its barotropic compensation can explain a large part of the seasonal variations in overturning and heat transport. The maximum variations at 10 deg N and 10 deg S are associated with monsoon reversal over the northern Indian Ocean and changes of the easterlies over the southern Indian Ocean. An external mode with variable topography has a moderate contribution where the Somali Current and the corresponding gyre reverse direction seasonally. Contribution front vertical shear (thermal wind and ageostrophic shear) is dominant near the southern boundary and large near the Somali Current latitudes. The dominant balance in the zonally integrated heat budget is between heat storage change and heat transport convergence except south of 15 S. Optimization with seasonal forcings improves estimates of sea surface temperatures, but the annual average overturning and heat transport are very similar to previous results with annual mean forcings. The annual average heat transport consists of roughly equal contributions from time-mean and time-varying fields of meridional velocities and temperatures in the northern Indian Ocean. indicating a significant rectification to the heat transport due to the time-varying fields. The time-mean and time-varying contributions are primarily due to the overturning and horizontal gyre, respectively. Inclusion of TOPEX data enhances the seasonal cycles of the estimated overturning and heat transport in the central Indian Ocean significantly and improves the estimated equatorial zonal flows but leads 10 unrealistic estimates of the velocity structure near the Indonesian Throughflow region, most likely owing to the deficiencies in the lateral boundary conditions.

Lee, Tong↗
NASA NTRS2010

Investigation of Long-Term Impacts of Urbanization when Considering Global Warming for a Coastal Tropical Region

The overachieving goal of this project is to gain a better understanding of the climate impacts caused by the combined effects of land cover and land use (LCLU) changes and increasing global concentrations of green house gases (GHG) in tropical coastal areas, regions where global, regional and local climate phenomena converge, taking as the test case the densely populated northeast region of the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico. The research uses an integrated approach of high-resolution remote sensing information linked to a high resolution Regional Atmospheric Modeling System (RAMS), which was employed to perform ensembles of climate simulations (combining 2-LCLU and 2-GHG concentration scenarios). Reconstructed agricultural maps are used to define past LCLU, and combined with reconstructed sea surface temperatures (SST) for the same period form the PAST climate scenario (1951-1956); while the PRESENT scenario (2000-2004) was additionally supported by high resolution remote sensing data (10-m-res). The climate reconstruction approach is validated with available observed climate data from surface weather stations for both periods of time simulated. The selection of the past and present climate scenarios considers large-scale biases (i.e. ENSO/NAO) as reflected in the region of interest. Direct and cross comparison of the results is allowing quantifying single, combined, and competitive effects. Results indicate that global GHG have dominant effects on minimum temperatures (following regional tendencies), while urban sprawl dominates maximum temperatures. To further investigate impacts of land use the Bowen Ratio and the thermal response number (TRN) are analyzed. The Bowen ratio indicates that forestation of past agricultural high areas have an overwhelmingly mitigation effect on increasing temperatures observed in different LCLU scenarios, but when abandoned agricultural lands are located in plains, the resulting shrub/grass lands produce higher surface temperatures. The TRN (J/m^2/degC) is a surface property defined as the ratio of the surface net radiation to the rate of change in surface temperature, expresses how those fluxes are reacting to radiant energy inputs. Natural vegetated surfaces have a greater TRN than urban and barren surfaces because the net radiation processed by them is mostly used for latent heat and thermal storage heat rather than sensible heat (heating the air). Significant changes in TRN were observed in the metropolitan area of San Juan for the two analyzed periods reflecting a reduction of this variable in the present from the past consistent with increasing in thermal mass, or intense urbanization.

Gonalez, Jorge E.↗
NASA NTRS1980

Active heat exchange system development for latent heat thermal energy storage

Various active heat exchange concepts were identified from among three generic categories: scrapers, agitators/vibrators and slurries. The more practical ones were given a more detailed technical evaluation and an economic comparison with a passive tube-shell design for a reference application (300 MW sub t storage for 6 hours). Two concepts were selected for hardware development: (1) a direct contact heat exchanger in which molten salt droplets are injected into a cooler counterflowing stream of liquid metal carrier fluid, and (2) a rotating drum scraper in which molten salt is sprayed onto the circumference of a rotating drum, which contains the fluid salt is sprayed onto the circumference of a rotating drum, which contains the fluid heat sink in an internal annulus near the surface. A fixed scraper blade removes the solidified salt from the surface which was nickel plated to decrease adhesion forces. In addition to improving performance by providing a nearly constant transfer rate during discharge, these active heat exchanger concepts were estimated to cost at least 25% less than the passive tube-shell design.

Alario, J.↗
NASA NTRS1980

Active heat exchange system development for latent heat thermal energy storage

Various active heat exchange concepts were identified from among three generic categories: scrapers, agitators/vibrators and slurries. The more practical ones were given a more detailed technical evaluation and an economic comparison with a passive tube-shell design for a reference application. Two concepts selected for hardware development are a direct contact heat exchanger in which molten salt droplets are injected into a cooler counterflowing stream of liquid metal carrier fluid, and a rotating drum scraper in which molten salt is sprayed onto the circumference of a rotating drum, which contains the fluid heat sink in an internal annulus near the surface. A fixed scraper blade removes the solidified salt from the surface which has been nickel plated to decrease adhesion forces. Suitable phase change material (PCM) storage media with melting points in the temperature range of interest (250 C to 400 C) were investigated. The specific salt recommended for laboratory tests was a chloride eutectic (20.5KCl-24/5 NaCl-55.0MgCl 2% by wt.), with a nominal melting point of 385 C.

Alario, J.↗