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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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42 records · Page 3

NASA Tech Briefs, November 2010

Topics covered include: Portable Handheld Optical Window Inspection Device; Salience Assignment for Multiple-Instance Data and Its Application to Crop Yield Prediction; Speech Acquisition and Automatic Speech Recognition for Integrated Spacesuit Audio Systems ; Predicting Long-Range Traversability from Short-Range Stereo-Derived Geometry; Browser-Based Application for Telemetry Monitoring of Robotic Assets; Miniature Low-Noise G-Band I-Q Receiver; Methods of Using a Magnetic Field Response Sensor Within Closed, Electrically Conductive Containers; Differential Resonant Ring YIG Tuned Oscillator; Microfabricated Segmented-Involute-Foil Regenerator for Stirling Engines; Reducing Seal Adhesion in Low Impact Docking Systems; Optimal Flow Control Design; Corrosion-Resistant Container for Molten-Material Processing; Reusable Hot-Wire Cable Cutter; Deployment of a Curved Truss; High-Volume Airborne Fluids Handling Technologies to Fight Wildfires; Modeling of Alkane Oxidation Using Constituents and Species; Fabrication of Lanthanum Telluride 14-1-11 Zintl High-Temperature Thermoelectric Couple; A Computer Model for Analyzing Volatile Removal Assembly; Analysis of Nozzle Jet Plume Effects on Sonic Boom Signature; Optical Sidebands Multiplier; Single Spatial-Mode Room-Temperature-Operated 3.0 to 3.4 micrometer Diode Lasers; Self-Nulling Beam Combiner Using No External Phase Inverter; Portable Dew Point Mass Spectrometry System for Real-Time Gas and Moisture Analysis; Maximum Likelihood Time-of-Arrival Estimation of Optical Pulses via Photon-Counting Photodetectors; Handheld White Light Interferometer for Measuring Defect Depth in Windows; Decomposition Algorithm for Global Reachability on a Time-Varying Graph; Autonomous GN and C for Spacecraft Exploration of Comets and Asteroids; Efficient Web Services Policy Combination; Using CTX Image Features to Predict HiRISE-Equivalent Rock Density; Isolation of the Paenibacillus phoenicis, a Spore-Forming Bacterium; Monolithically Integrated, Mechanically Resilient Carbon-Based Probes for Scanning Probe Microscopy; Cell Radiation Experiment System; Process to Produce Iron Nanoparticle Lunar Dust Simulant Composite; Inversion Method for Early Detection of ARES-1 Case Breach Failure; Use of ILTV Control Laws for LaNCETS Flight Research;and Evaluating Descent and Ascent Trajectories Near Non-Spherical Bodies.

Source record↗

Accelerated crack growth, residual stress, and a cracked zinc coated pressure shell

During a partial inspection of a 42 year old, operating, pressurized wind tunnel at NASA-Ames Research Center, a surface connected defect 114 in. long having an indicated depth of a 0.7 in. was detected. The pressure shell, constructed of a medium carbon steel, contains approximately 10 miles of welds and is cooled by flowing water over its zinc coated external surface. Metallurgical and fractographic analysis showed that the actual detect was 1.7 in. deep, and originated from an area of lack of weld penetration. Crack growth studies were performed on the shell material in the laboratory under various loading rates, hold times, and R-ratios with a simulated shell environment. The combination of zinc, water with electrolyte, and steel formed an electrolytic cell which resulted in an increase in cyclic crack growth rate by as much as 500 times over that observed in air. It was concluded that slow crack growth occurred in the pressure shell by a combination of stress corrosion cracking due to the welding residual stress and corrosion fatigue due to the cyclic operating stress.

Dittman, Daniel L.↗

Development of Eddy Current Technique for the Detection of Stress Corrosion Cracking in Space Shuttle Primary Reaction Control Thrusters

A recent identification of stress corrosion cracking in the Space Shuttle Primary Reaction Control System (PRCS) thrusters triggered an extensive nondestructive evaluation effort to develop techniques capable of identifying such damage on installed shuttle hardware. As a part of this effort, specially designed eddy current probes inserted into the acoustic cavity were explored for the detection of such flaws and for evaluation of the remaining material between the crack tip and acoustic cavity. The technique utilizes two orthogonal eddy current probes which are scanned under stepper motor control in the acoustic cavity to identify cracks hidden with as much as 0.060 remaining wall thickness to the cavity. As crack growth rates in this area have been determined to be very slow, such an inspection provides a large safety margin for continued operation of the critical shuttle hardware. Testing has been performed on thruster components with both actual and fabricated defects. This paper will review the design and performance of the developed eddy current inspection system. Detection of flaws as a function of remaining wall thickness will be presented along with the proposed system configuration for depot level or on-vehicle inspection capabilities.

Wincheski, Buzz↗

Oxynitride glass fibers

Research at the Army Materials Technology Laboratory (AMTL) and elsewhere has shown that many glass properties including elastic modulus, hardness, and corrosion resistance are improved markedly by the substitution of nitrogen for oxygen in the glass structure. Oxynitride glasses, therefore, offer exciting opportunities for making high modulus, high strength fibers. Processes for making oxynitride glasses and fibers of glass compositions similar to commercial oxide glasses, but with considerable enhanced properties, are discussed. We have made glasses with elastic moduli as high as 140 GPa and fibers with moduli of 120 GPa and tensile strengths up to 2900 MPa. AMTL holds a U.S. patent on oxynitride glass fibers, and this presentation discusses a unique process for drawing small diameter oxynitride glass fibers at high drawing rates. Fibers are drawn through a nozzle from molten glass in a molybdenum crucible at 1550 C. The crucible is situated in a furnace chamber in flowing nitrogen, and the fiber is wound in air outside of the chamber, making the process straightforward and commercially feasible. Strengths were considerably improved by improving glass quality to minimize internal defects. Though the fiber strengths were comparable with oxide fibers, work is currently in progress to further improve the elastic modulus and strength of fibers. The high elastic modulus of oxynitride glasses indicate their potential for making fibers with tensile strengths surpassing any oxide glass fibers, and we hope to realize that potential in the near future.

Patel, Parimal J.↗

Large area QNDE inspection for airframe integrity

Quantitative Nondestructive Evaluation (QNDE) technology is being developed to provide new options for cost effective inspection of airframes. An R&D effort based on five NDE technologies is addressing questions of structural bonding assessment, corrosion detection, multisite damage detection, and fatigue characterization. The research/applications are being conducted by prioritized focussing and staging of the following technologies: (1) thermal NDE; (2) ultrasonic NDE; (3) coherent optical NDE; (4) magnetic imaging NDE; and (5) radiographic NDE. The focus here is on the most recent applications of thermal NDE technology to large area inspection of lap-joint and stiffener bonds. The approach is based on pulsed radiant heating of the airframe and measurement of the surface temperature of the structure with an infrared imager. Several advantages of the technique are that it is noncontacting, inspects one square meter area in a period of less than 2 minutes and has no difficulty inspecting typical curvatures of the fuselage. Numerical models of heat flow in these geometries are used to determine appropriate techniques for reduction of the infrared images, thereby delineating regions of disbonds. These models are also used to determine the optimum heating and measurement times for maximizing the contrast between bonded and unbonded structures. Good agreement is found between these results and experimental measurements, and a comparison of the two are presented. Also presented are results of measurements on samples with fabricated defects which show the technique is able to clearly indicate regions of disbonds. Measurements on an airframe also clearly image subsurface structure.

Winfree, William P.↗

High Resolution Millimeter Wave Inspecting of the Orbiter Acreage Heat Tiles of the Space Shuttle

Presence of defects such as disbonds, delaminations, impact damage, in thermal protection systems can significantly reduce safety of the Space Shuttle and its crew. The physical cause of Space Shuttle Columbia's catastrophic failure was a breach in its thermal protection system, caused by a piece of external tank insulating foam separating from the external tank and striking the leading edge of the left wing of the orbiter. There is an urgent need for a rapid, robust and life-circle oriented nondestructive testing (NDT) technique capable of inspecting the external tank insulating foam as well as the orbiter's protective (acreage) heat tiles and its fuselage prior and subsequent to a launch. Such a comprehensive inspection technique enables NASA to perform life-cycle inspection on critical components of the orbiter and its supporting hardware. Consequently, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center initiated an investigation into several potentially viable NDT techniques for this purpose. Microwave and millimeter wave NDT methods have shown great potential to achieve these goals. These methods have been successfully used to produce images of the interior of various complex, thick and thin external tank insulating foam structures for real focused reflectometer at operating frequency from 50-100 GHz and for synthetic aperture techniques at Ku-band (12-18 GHz) and K-band (18-26 GHz). Preliminary results of inspecting heat tile specimens show that increasing resolution of the measurement system is an important issue. This paper presents recent results of an investigation for the purpose of detecting anomalies such as debonds and corrosion in metal substrate in complex multi-sectioned protective heat tile specimens using a real focused 150 GHz (D-band) reflectometer and wide-band millimeter wave holography at 33-50, GHz (Q-band).

Case, J. T.↗