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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

An electromechanical actuation system for an expendable launch vehicle

A major effort at the NASA Lewis Research Center in recent years has been to develop electro-mechanical actuators (EMA's) to replace the hydraulic systems used for thrust vector control (TVC) on launch vehicles. This is an attempt ot overcome the inherent inefficiencies and costs associated with the existing hydraulic structures. General Dynamics Space Systems Division, under contract to NASA Lewis, is developing 18.6 kW (25 hp), 29.8 kW (40 hp), and 52.2 kW (70 hp) peak EMA systems to meet the power demands for TVC on a family of vehicles developed for the National Launch System. These systems utilize a pulse population modulated converter and field-oriented control scheme to obtain independent control of both the voltage and frequency. These techniques allow an induction motor to be operated at its maximum torque at all times. At NASA Lewis, we are building on this technology to develop our own in-house system capable of meeting the peak power requirements for an expendable launch vehicle (ELV) such as the Atlas. Our EMA will be capable of delivering 22.4 kW (30 hp) peak power with a nominal of 6.0 kW (8 hp). This system differs from the previous ones in two areas: (1) the use of advanced control methods, and (2) the incorporation of built-in-test. The advanced controls are essential for minimizing the controller size, while the built-in-test is necessary to enhance the system reliability and vehicle health monitoring. The ultimate goal of this program is to demonstrate an EMA which will be capable of self-test and easy integration into other projects. This paper will describe the effort underway at NASA Lewis to develop an EMA for an Atlas class ELV. An explanation will be given for each major technology block, and the status of each major technology block and the status of the overall program will be reported.

Burrows, Linda M.↗

Economic viability of photovoltaic power for development assistance applications

This paper briefly discusses the development assistance market and examines a number of specific photovoltaic (PV) development assistance field tests, including water pumping/grain grinding (Tangaye, Upper Volta), vaccine refrigerators slated for deployment in 24 countries, rural medical centers to be installed in Ecuador, Guyana, Kenya and Zimbabwe, and remote earth stations to be deployed in the near future. A comparison of levelized energy cost for diesel generators and PV systems covering a range of annual energy consumptions is also included. The analysis does not consider potential societal, environmental or political benefits associated with PV power. PV systems are shown to be competitive with diesel generators, based on life cycle cost considerations, assuming a system price of $20/W(peak), for applications having an annual energy demand of up to 6000 kilowatt-hours per year.

Bifano, W. J.↗

An electromechanical actuation system for an expendable launch vehicle

A major effort at NASA-Lewis in recent years has been to develop electro-mechanical actuators (EMA's) to replace the hydraulic systems used for thrust vector control (TVC) on launch vehicles. This is an attempt to overcome the inherent inefficiencies and costs associated with the existing hydraulic structures. General Dynamics Space Systems Division, under contract to NASA Lewis, is developing 18.6 kW (25 hp), 29.8 kW (40 hp), and 52.2 kW (70 hp) peak EMA systems to meet the power demands for TVC on a family of vehicles developed for the National Launch System. These systems utilize a pulse population modulated converter and field-oriented control scheme to obtain independent control of both the voltage and frequency. These techniques allow an induction motor to be operated at its maximum torque at all times.

Burrows, Linda M.↗

ACTS Battery and Solar Array Assembly On-Orbit Measured Performance

The Advanced Communications Technology Satellite (ACTS) is a NASA experimental communications satellite system designed to demonstrate on-orbit Ka-band communications and switching technologies that will be used by NASA and the commercial sector in the 21st century. The ACTS was launched on September 12, 1993, and has performed over 10 years of successful experimental operations. The purpose of this report is to describe the ACTS power subsystem and the ACTS solar array and battery assemblies located within the power subsystem and then to document on-orbit measured performance from launch to mission end on April 28, 2004. Solar array and battery performance data is presented, and respective conclusions are drawn. The total solar array power available to the spacecraft was measured each year at the same time, and battery voltage performance was measured twice per year at the same times during peak solar eclipse. At the highest spacecraft power demand, the ACTS uses approximately 1113 W of electrical power during the low-burstrate experiment to operate all six satellite subsystems. After 10 years of on-orbit operation, solar array available output power normal to the Sun measured 1508 W, which represents 395 W of excess margin. The ACTS batteries have successfully supported the ACTS experiment program for over 10 years and operated in excess of 900 charge and discharge cycles through 21 eclipse seasons.

Hilderman, Don R.↗

The Aeroacoustics of Slowly Diverging Supersonic Jets

This paper is concerned with utilizing the acoustic analogy approach to predict the sound from unheated supersonic jets. Previous attempts have been unsuccessful at making such predictions over the Mach number range of practical interest. The present paper, therefore, focuses on implementing the necessary refinements needed to accomplish this objective. The important effects influencing peak supersonic noise turn out to be source convection, mean flow refraction, mean flow amplification, and source non-compactness. It appears that the last two effects have not been adequately dealt with in the literature. The first of these because the usual parallel flow models produce most of the amplification in the so called critical layer where the solution becomes singular and, therefore, causes the predicted sound field to become infinite as well. We deal with this by introducing a new weakly non parallel flow analysis that eliminates the critical layer singularity. This has a strong effect on the shape of the peak noise spectrum. The last effect places severe demands on the source models at the higher Mach numbers because the retarded time variations significantly increase the sensitivity of the radiated sound to the source structure in this case. A highly refined (non-separable) source model is, therefore, introduced in this paper.

Goldstein, M. E.↗

Silicon Valley as an Early Adopter for On-Demand Civil VTOL Operations

With high incomes, long commutes, severe ground geographic constraints, severe highway congestion during peak commute times, high housing costs, and near perfect year-round weather, the Silicon Valley is positioned to be an excellent early adopter market for emerging aviation On-Demand Mobility transportation solutions. Prior efforts have attempted to use existing aviation platforms (helicopters or General Aviation aircraft) with existing infrastructure solutions, or only investigated new vehicle platforms without understanding how to incorporate new vehicle types into existing built-up communities. Research has been performed with the objective of minimizing door-to-door time for "Hyper Commuters" (frequent, long-distance commuters) in the Silicon Valley through the development of new helipad infrastructure for ultra-low noise Vertical Takeoff and Landing (VTOL) aircraft. Current travel times for chosen city-pairs across urban and suburban commutes are compared to future mobility concepts that provide significantly higher utilization and productivity to yield competitive operating costs compared to existing transportation choices. Helipads are introduced near current modes of transportation and infrastructure for ease-of-access, and maximizing proximity. Strategies for both private and public infrastructure development are presented that require no new land purchase while minimizing community noise exposure. New VTOL concepts are introduced with cruise speeds of 200 mph, which yield a greater than three times improvement in overall door-to-door time when compared to current automobiles, and in some cases, improvements of up to 6 times lower trip times.

Antcliff, Kevin R.↗

The 30/20 GHZ net market assessment

By creating a number of market scenarios variations dealing with network types, network sizes, and service price levels were analyzed for their impact on market demand. Each market scenario represents a market demand forecast with results for voice, data, and video service traffic expressed in peak load megabits per second.

Rogers, J. C.↗

Overview of the Small Aircraft Transportation System Project Four Enabling Operating Capabilities

It has become evident that our commercial air transportation system is reaching its peak in terms of capacity, with numerous delays in the system and the demand still steadily increasing. NASA, FAA, and the National Consortium for Aviation Mobility (NCAM) have partnered to aid in increasing the mobility throughout the United States through the Small Aircraft Transportation System (SATS) project. The SATS project has been a five-year effort to provide the technical and economic basis for further national investment and policy decisions to support a small aircraft transportation system. The SATS vision is to enable people and goods to have the convenience of on-demand point-to-point travel, anywhere, anytime for both personal and business travel. This vision can be obtained by expanding near all-weather access to more than 3,400 small community airports that are currently under-utilized throughout the United States. SATS has focused its efforts on four key operating capabilities that have addressed new emerging technologies, procedures, and concepts to pave the way for small aircraft to operate in nearly all weather conditions at virtually any runway in the United States. These four key operating capabilities are: Higher Volume Operations at Non-Towered/Non-Radar Airports, En Route Procedures and Systems for Integrated Fleet Operations, Lower Landing Minimums at Minimally Equipped Landing Facilities, and Increased Single Pilot Performance. The SATS project culminated with the 2005 SATS Public Demonstration in Danville, Virginia on June 5th-7th, by showcasing the accomplishments achieved throughout the project and demonstrating that a small aircraft transportation system could be viable. The technologies, procedures, and concepts were successfully demonstrated to show that they were safe, effective, and affordable for small aircraft in near all weather conditions. The focus of this paper is to provide an overview of the technical and operational feasibility of the four operating capabilities, and explain how they can enable a small aircraft transportation system.

Viken, Sally A.↗

Demonstration of Four Operating Capabilities to Enable a Small Aircraft Transportation System

The Small Aircraft Transportation System (SATS) project has been a five-year effort fostering research and development that could lead to the transformation of our country s air transportation system. It has become evident that our commercial air transportation system is reaching its peak in terms of capacity, with numerous delays in the system and the demand keeps steadily increasing. The SATS vision is to increase mobility in our nation s transportation system by expanding access to more than 3400 small community airports that are currently under-utilized. The SATS project has focused its efforts on four key operating capabilities that have addressed new emerging technologies and procedures to pave the way for a new way of air travel. The four key operating capabilities are: Higher Volume Operations at Non-Towered/Non-Radar Airports, En Route Procedures and Systems for Integrated Fleet Operations, Lower Landing Minimums at Minimally Equipped Landing Facilities, and Increased Single Pilot Performance. These four capabilities are key to enabling low-cost, on-demand, point-to-point transportation of goods and passengers utilizing small aircraft operating from small airports. The focus of this paper is to discuss the technical and operational feasibility of the four operating capabilities and demonstrate how they can enable a small aircraft transportation system.

Viken, Sally A.↗

Overview of the Small Aircraft Transportation System Project Four Enabling Operating Capabilities

It has become evident that our commercial air transportation system is reaching its peak in terms of capacity, with numerous delays in the system and the demand still steadily increasing. NASA, FAA, and the National Consortium for Aviation Mobility (NCAM) have partnered to aid in increasing the mobility throughout the United States through the Small Aircraft Transportation System (SATS) project. The SATS project has been a five-year effort to provide the technical and economic basis for further national investment and policy decisions to support a small aircraft transportation system. The SATS vision is to enable people and goods to have the convenience of on-demand point-to-point travel, anywhere, anytime for both personal and business travel. This vision can be obtained by expanding near all-weather access to more than 3,400 small community airports that are currently under-utilized throughout the United States. SATS has focused its efforts on four key operating capabilities that have addressed new emerging technologies, procedures, and concepts to pave the way for small aircraft to operate in nearly all weather conditions at virtually any runway in the United States. These four key operating capabilities are: Higher Volume Operations at Non-Towered/Non-Radar Airports, En Route Procedures and Systems for Integrated Fleet Operations, Lower Landing Minimums at Minimally Equipped Landing Facilities, and Increased Single Pilot Performance. The SATS project culminated with the 2005 SATS Public Demonstration in Danville, Virginia on June 5th-7th, by showcasing the accomplishments achieved throughout the project and demonstrating that a small aircraft transportation system could be viable. The technologies, procedures, and concepts were successfully demonstrated to show that they were safe, effective, and affordable for small aircraft in near all weather conditions. The focus of this paper is to provide an overview of the technical and operational feasibility of the four operating capabilities, and explain how they can enable a small aircraft transportation system.

Viken, Sally A.↗

A handbook for the estimation of airside delays at major airports (quick approximation method)

The handbook contains a set of curves that allow estimation of the average number of total daily delay minutes at a major airport under a variety of conditions. Demand profiles at each airport are classified with respect to the number of daily peak periods, the percentage of daily flights during peak periods, and the number of peak period operations at the airport. When combined with the saturation capacity of the airport, these descriptors provide sufficient information to allow usage of the handbook. Examples illustrating the use of the handbook are provided, as well as a brief review and description of the technical approach and of the computer package developed for this purpose.

Odoni, A. R.↗

The Lunar Flashlight CubeSat Instrument: A Compact SWIR Laser Reflectometer to Quantify and Map Water Ice on the Surface of the Moon

The Lunar Flashlight (LF) mission will send a CubeSat to lunar orbit via NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) test flight. The LF spacecraft will carry a novel instrument to quantify and map water ice harbored in the permanently shadowed craters of the lunar South Pole. The LF instrument, an active multi-band reflectometer which employs four high power diode lasers in the 1-2 μm infrared band, will measure the reflectance of the lunar surface near water ice absorption peaks. We present the detailed instrument design and system engineering required to deploy this instrument within very demanding CubeSat resource allocations.

Shelton, Jacob↗

Electric load management and energy conservation

Electric load management and energy conservation relate heavily to the major problems facing power industry at present. The three basic modes of energy conservation are identified as demand reduction, increased efficiency and substitution for scarce fuels. Direct and indirect load management objectives are to reduce peak loads and have future growth in electricity requirements in such a manner to cause more of it to fall off the system's peak. In this paper, an overview of proposed and implemented load management options is presented. Research opportunities exist for the evaluation of socio-economic impacts of energy conservation and load management schemes specially on the electric power industry itself.

Kheir, N. A.↗

Solar potential inventory and modeling

Image processing procedures for calculating the energy that roof-mounted solar collectors can potentially supply in a metropolitan area are presented. Satellite multispectral imagery from which land cover types can be determined digitally was sampled in order to estimate the percentage of land area occupied by flat or south-facing roof tops in residential and commercial/industrial areas. Procedures were applied to the various power subdistricts of the western San Fernando valley of California, and it was found that on the average 120% of the existing power demand could be met if only half the useable rooftop area were utilized, amounting to 385 MW of peak power and indicating the applicability of solar cells to power generation in urban areas.

Angelici, G. L.↗

The Effects of Very Light Jet Air Taxi Operations on Commercial Air Traffic

This study investigates the potential effects of Very Light Jet (VLJ) air taxi operations adding to delays experienced by commercial passenger air transportation in the year 2025. The affordable cost relative to existing business jets and ability to use many of the existing small, minimally equipped, but conveniently located airports is projected to stimulate a large demand for the aircraft. The resulting increase in air traffic operations will mainly be at smaller airports, but this study indicates that VLJs have the potential to increase further the pressure of demand at some medium and large airports, some of which are already operating at or near capacity at peak times. The additional delays to commercial passenger air transportation due to VLJ air taxi operations are obtained from simulation results using the Airspace Concepts Evaluation System (ACES) simulator. The direct increase in operating cost due to additional delays is estimated. VLJs will also cause an increase in traffic density, and this study shows increased potential for conflicts due to VLJ operations.

Smith, Jeremy C.↗

Carbon dioxide fluxes over a raised open bog at the Kinosheo Lake tower site during the Northern Wetlands Study (NOWES)

Measurements of carbon dioxide concentration and flux were made above a raised open bog at Lake Kinosheo in the southern Hudson Bay lowlands during the Northern Wetlands Study (NOWES) experiment in 1990. The flux measurements were made using micrometeorological techniques. They provide the first nondisturbing, larger-scale CO2 flux measurements for this ecosystem and are the first to integrate the exchange over the whole 24 hours of the day. Continuous concentration measurements by infrared gas analyzers (IRGA) and spot flask samples were taken over the period July 1 to July 29. Afternoon CO2 values were only 5 to 7 parts per million by volume (ppmv) lower than measurements over the same period at Canadian background monitoring stations. This suggested that there was little draw-down by local photosynthetic sinks. CO2 fluxes were measured at 8 and 18 m by Bowen ratio and eddy correlation methods, respectively. The methods produced comparable results on averaged data but often diverged considerably on individual half-hour results. Fluxes were small. Daytime values averaged to -0.068 mg/sq m/s by eddy correlation and -0.077 mg/sq m/s by Bowen ratio over the period June 25 to July 28 (negative denotes downward flux), while at night, flux densities were +0.062 mg/sq m/s and +0.085 mg/sq m/s. Integration of the mean diurnal curve gave a net flux of -1.7 g/sq m/d. Comparable data for this type of ecosystem were not found. However, Coyne and Kelley (1975), measuring near Barrow, Alaska, over wet meadow tundra dominated by sedges and grasses, found net fluxes of -7.2 g/sq m/d. Typical net CO2 fluxes from other active temperature ecosystems have been found to be -10 to -20 g/sq m/d (Monteith, 1976). Mean half hourly fluxes were almost constant at +0.06 mg/sq m/s through the nighttime hours. About one half-hour after sunrise the flux reversed direction. Uptake peaked about 0900 eastern daylight time (EDT) and then gradually declined but remained downward until near sunset. The early peak was interpreted to signify that the many plants in the bog experienced water stress during the day as evaporative demand increased and nighttime dew was evaporated.

Neumann, H. H.↗

Large-Eddy Simulation of a High Reynolds Number Flow Around a Cylinder Including Aeroacoustic Predictions

The dynamic subgrid-scale model is employed in large-eddy simulations of flow over a cylinder at a Reynolds number, based on the diameter of the cylinder, of 90,000. The Centric SPECTRUM(trademark) finite element solver is used for the analysis. The far field sound pressure is calculated from Lighthill-Curle's equation using the computed fluctuating pressure at the surface of the cylinder. The sound pressure level at a location 35 diameters away from the cylinder and at an angle of 90 deg with respect to the wake's downstream axis was found to have a peak value of approximately 110 db. Slightly smaller peak values were predicted at the 60 deg and 120 deg locations. A grid refinement study suggests that the dynamic model demands mesh refinement beyond that used here.

Spyropoulos, Evangelos T.↗

Pulsed power molten salt battery

It was concluded that carbon cathodes with chlorine work well. Lithium alloy chlorine at 450 C, 1 atm given high power capability, high energy density, DC + pulsing yields 600 pulses, no initial peak, and can go to red heat without burn-up. Electrochemical performance at the cell and cell stack level out under demanding test regime. Engineering and full prototype development for advancing this technology is warranted.

Argade, Shyam D.↗