Non-magnetic battery case Patent
Nonmagnetic hermetically sealed battery case made of epoxy resin and woven glass tape for use with electrochemical cells in spacecraft
Hennigan, T. J.↗
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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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Ground Slope Effects on Lander Radiator Performance
Two sensitivity studies were performed to examine the drop in radiator heat rejection from slopes. Study #1 used a 5.5m tall reduced order asset to represent a small-lander/rover. Study #2 used a 20m asset represent a tall lander. The assets had body mounted horizontal, 45º inward-tilted, and vertical radiator orientations. The impact of slopes on different radiator orientations and on radiators pointing different directions (i.e., slope verses sun) was investigated. The studies were conducted at a polar location of -82.5ºS to capture the incident solar flux at the northmost, and therefore the hottest, range of potential Artemis landing sites (Mons Mouton Plateau).
Lunar Slope↗
Insertion Loss and Noise-Temperature Contribution of High-Temperature Superconducting Bandpass Filters Centered at 2.3 and 8.45 GHz
Two superconducting Tl-Ca-Cu-Ba-O bandpass filters were fabricated for JPL by Superconductor Technologies Incorporated, Santa Barbara, California. The filters were designed to operate at 2.3 GHz (S-band) with a 0.5-dB bandwidth of 60 MHz and at 8.45 GHz (X-band) with a 0.5-dB bandwidth of 150 MHz. The structure selected for both filters incorporates half-wavelength thin-film resonators in a stripline configuration. The S-band filter uses an edge-coupled interdigital design and the X-band filter uses an end-coupled design. The insertion loss and the noise-temperature contribution were measured at 12 K for both filters.
J L Prater↗
Design and Analysis of Battery Thermal Management Systems
Thermal management of battery cell packs is a critically needed technology. The purpose of this work is to design new and improved Battery Thermal Management Systems (BTMS) for use in electric airplanes. The BTMS should be 3D printable and hold twelve to sixteen 18650 batteries. To minimize aircraft’s weight, an actively air-cooled battery pack was chosen to avoid the excess weight of water-cooled and phase change material (PCM) cooled packs. As a result, significant changes were made to remove all metal in the pack and replace it with lower density polymer matrix composites (PMCs) which can be additively manufactured. Two air cooled battery pack configurations (traditional propeller fans & bladeless fans) were designed, modeled, and compared. These packs were first modeled in SolidWorks 2021 3D CAD, then imported into COMSOL MultiPhysics to be studied using the “Heat Transfer in Solids and Fluids” module. The design with the bladeless fans eliminated the need to use high conductivity heavy metal to remove unwanted thermal energy. These bladeless fans were designed entirely out of PMCs. This thermal pack design weighs 0.04 kg less than that of the traditional propeller fans design and has increased the battery pack energy density by 8.25 Wh/kg.
Thermal Management System for Battery Packs↗
The NASA Aerospace Battery Safety Handbook
This handbook has been written for the purpose of acquainting those involved with batteries with the information necessary for the safe handling, storage, and disposal of these energy storage devices. Included in the document is a discussion of the cell and battery design considerations and the role of the components within a cell. The cell and battery hazards are related to user- and/or manufacturer-induced causes. The Johnson Space Center (JSC) Payload Safety Guidelines for battery use in Shuttle applications are also provided. The electrochemical systems are divided into zinc anode and lithium anode primaries, secondary cells, and fuel cells. Each system is briefly described, typical applications are given, advantages and disadvantages are tabulated, and most importantly, safety hazards associated with its use are given.
Halpert, Gerald↗
Technology Demonstrator of an Americium-Fuelled Radioisotope Stirling Generator
Americium-241 is used as the fuel of choice in European Radioisotope Power Systems. The University of Leicester have developed a number of systems using this fuel type, including a 200 Wth heat source. To maximise the electrical output that can be generated from the heat source, the University of Leicester and NASA Glenn Research Center have collaborated on a radioisotope Stirling generator concept, building on the long heritage of dynamic power conversion developments at NASA GRC. Here we present the design of a technology demonstrator of the Americium-fuelled Radioisotope Stirling Generator (Am-RSG).
Americium-241↗
Feasibility Study of a Carbon Dioxide Breathing, Solid-Fueled Ramjet for Martian Descent and Landing of Human Class Payloads
This study analyzes the cross-range capabilities of solid-fueled ramjets in a Martian atmosphere for applications in entry, descent, and landing. Trajectories and engine operability are characterized using Mach and dynamic pressure operational points. It is predicted that use of atmosphere-breathing propulsion will enable access to additional surface latitudes without the need for orbital plane changes. Development of an integrated design environment facilitates preliminary ramjet design and analysis, and enables sensitivity studies to identify high impact areas of technology development. In addition, additive manufacturing supports prototyping, rapid ground testing, and allows for utilization of complex geometries.
Shi Broadwell↗
Turbomachinery Simulation Impact on Design, Understanding, and Optimization
This presentation shows the impact of Turbomachinery Simulation from simple analytical simulation to high fidelity CFD and Finite Element Analysis on the design of turbomachinery and the understanding of flow physics that is then used to improve design approaches. The impact of Optimization is also presented. The best approach for the tool development is to work with a compressor, fan, or turbine designer or to work on the design process directly. The presentation represents the work and impact of the author over his 45-year career and provides insight for both new and experienced engineers. The presentation explores applications of distortion from a downstream fan frame, the first uses of 3D CFD for fan, compressor and turbine design, and approaches to optimization for performance and structures.
optimization↗
Spray Forming of NiTi and NiTiPd Shape-Memory Alloys
In the work to be presented, vacuum plasma spray forming has been used as a process to deposit and consolidate prealloyed NiTi and NiTiPd powders into near net shape actuators. Testing showed that excellent shape memory behavior could be developed in the deposited materials and the investigation proved that VPS forming could be a means to directly form a wide range of shape memory alloy components. The results of DSC characterization and actual actuation test results will be presented demonstrating the behavior of a Nitinol 55 alloy and a higher transition temperature NiTiPd alloy in the form of torque tube actuators that could be used in aircraft and aerospace controls.
Aero-Surface Controls↗
Ares I-X Ground Diagnostic Prototype
Automating prelaunch diagnostics for launch vehicles offers three potential benefits. First, it potentially improves safety by detecting faults that might otherwise have been missed so that they can be corrected before launch. Second, it potentially reduces launch delays by more quickly diagnosing the cause of anomalies that occur during prelaunch processing. Reducing launch delays will be critical to the success of NASA's planned future missions that require in-orbit rendezvous. Third, it potentially reduces costs by reducing both launch delays and the number of people needed to monitor the prelaunch process. NASA is currently developing the Ares I launch vehicle to bring the Orion capsule and its crew of four astronauts to low-earth orbit on their way to the moon. Ares I-X will be the first unmanned test flight of Ares I. It is scheduled to launch on October 27, 2009. The Ares I-X Ground Diagnostic Prototype is a prototype ground diagnostic system that will provide anomaly detection, fault detection, fault isolation, and diagnostics for the Ares I-X first-stage thrust vector control (TVC) and for the associated ground hydraulics while it is in the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC) and on the launch pad. It will serve as a prototype for a future operational ground diagnostic system for Ares I. The prototype combines three existing diagnostic tools. The first tool, TEAMS (Testability Engineering and Maintenance System), is a model-based tool that is commercially produced by Qualtech Systems, Inc. It uses a qualitative model of failure propagation to perform fault isolation and diagnostics. We adapted an existing TEAMS model of the TVC to use for diagnostics and developed a TEAMS model of the ground hydraulics. The second tool, Spacecraft Health Inference Engine (SHINE), is a rule-based expert system developed at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. We developed SHINE rules for fault detection and mode identification. The prototype uses the outputs of SHINE as inputs to TEAMS. The third tool, the Inductive Monitoring System (IMS), is an anomaly detection tool developed at NASA Ames Research Center and is currently used to monitor the International Space Station Control Moment Gyroscopes. IMS automatically "learns" a model of historical nominal data in the form of a set of clusters and signals an alarm when new data fails to match this model. IMS offers the potential to detect faults that have not been modeled. The three tools have been integrated and deployed to Hangar AE at KSC where they interface with live data from the Ares I-X vehicle and from the ground hydraulics. The outputs of the tools are displayed on a console in Hangar AE, one of the locations from which the Ares I-X launch will be monitored. In a previous publication, we discussed how we selected the three tools based primarily on their ability to be certified for human spaceflight and described our plans for the prototype. This abstract is due October 23, 2009, and the Ares I-X launch is currently scheduled for October 27, 2009. If this abstract is accepted, then the full paper will describe how the prototype performed before the launch. It will include an analysis of the prototype's accuracy, including false-positive rates, false-negative rates, and receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curves. It will also include a description of the prototype's computational requirements, including CPU usage, main memory usage, and disk usage. If the prototype detects any faults during the prelaunch period then the paper will include a description of those faults. Similarly, if the prototype has any false alarms then the paper will describe them and will attempt to explain their causes. Also, the paper will describe the three tools and how they are used in the prototype. It will include a description of the TEAMS models of the Ares I-X first-stage TVC and associated ground hydraulics and how we adapted the TVC model for use in real-time diagnostics. It will describe the SHINE rules used for fault detection and mode identification and the software architecture that interfaces the various pieces of existing software that are part of the prototype to one another. It will describe how we selected the sensor values and commands that were used to train the IMS model and how we optimized the number of clusters in the IMS model. It will include screen shots of the graphical display that we developed in Java to display the outputs of the three tools. Because Ares I-X data was not yet available to us while we were developing the prototype, we used historical data from the Space Shuttle's Solid Rocket Booster (SRB) TVCs and the associated ground hydraulics to train IMS and to test the entire prototype. Because most of the failure modes that we modeled have never occurred in the Shuttle we inserted simulated failures into the Shuttle data. The Ares I-X first-stage TVC is very similar to the SRB TVC and we expect the data will be very similar. After the launch, we will determine how similar the data actually is and report how any differences in the data affected the diagnostic accuracy of the prototype. Finally, although we did not get the prototype certified, we designed it in a way that it could be certified and wrote a preliminary certification plan. The paper will include a brief summary of how we considered the need for certification in the design of the prototype, how we tested the prototype before deploying it to Hangar AE, and how we would propose to get it certified if it were deployed as an operational system. The paper will conclude with a description of some of the challenges we faced and some of the lessons learned in developing and deploying the prototype.
International Space Station↗
Battery Evaluation Profiles for X-57 and Future Urban Electric Aircraft
Battery energy density is one of the most critical design parameters for sizing all-electric aircraft, however it’s easily overestimated. Establishing the effective, usable energy density is confused by varying degrees of margin needed to account for structural and thermal management between different cell chemistry and pack designs. Therefore, a better methodology is needed to fairly compare emerging battery technologies for electric aircraft. Currently, there is a loss of critical information when vehicle trade studies are performed using “nominal” published cell-level performance metrics. Aircraft power demands rarely match these nominal power profiles, and aircraft designers lack the ability to accurately simulate the battery performance and temperature off-nominally unless the battery chemistry is well established. Conversely, battery suppliers have no generalized reference cases to publish more realistic performance metrics. This can lead to poor assumptions, such as aircraft studies assuming a fixed discharge efficiency of a battery, when in reality the usable energy in a pack is dependent on the power and thermal profile. Information needed to properly assess weight penalties for thermal management is also typically poorly characterized when assessing candidate batteries. This paper serves to better inform battery development, and similarly, provide aircraft designers with more realistic assumptions for applying knockdown margins in their designs. Detailed power and thermal performance estimates are provided, which provide a starting point for sizing power and thermal budgets using experimentally derived battery models. Results show that the X-57 battery-to-shaft efficiency is 77.3% for a particular optimized mission. Considering a 25% reserve on the battery capacity, this means that only roughly half of the original 55.3kWh ‘nominal’ pack energy can be converted to useful work during a mission. Further estimates on a clean-sheet VTOL optimization show an average 82.7% battery-to-shaft efficiency, using 98% peak efficiency inverters and 97.4% peak efficiency motors. Although higher battery efficiencies are possible, the resulting weight penalty negates improvement in vehicle performance. These trade-offs and resulting power profiles are provided as a starting point to better assess future battery designs.
Battery↗
High voltage battery cell scanner development
Battery cell voltage scanners have been previously used in low voltage spacecraft applications. In connection with future missions involving an employment of high-power high voltage power subsystems and/or autonomous power subsystem management for unattended operation, it will be necessary to utilize battery cell voltage scanners to provide battery cell voltage information for early detection of impending battery cell degradation/failures. In preparation for such missions, a novel battery cell voltage scanner design has been developed. The novel design makes use of low voltage circuit modules which can be applied to high voltage batteries in a building block fashion. A description is presented of the design concept and test results of the high voltage battery cell scanner, and its operation with an autonomously managed power subsystem is discussed.
Lepisto, J. W.↗
High-Fidelity Modeling Approach for Coupling Thermal, Fluid, and Neutronic Analysis in an NTP Engine
Nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP), with its increased efficiency compared to traditional rocket engines, is a potentially enabling technology for space missions of higher complexity, such as delivering heavy machinery or crew to the moon or other planets. Thus, exploring modeling approaches that can effectively couple the thermal, fluid, and neutronic behaviors of NTP reactors is essential to mitigate cost and schedule challenges with hardware development. This paper details one such approach which utilizes Cardinal to unify reactor physics analysis performed using OpenMC, heat transfer analysis performed using the MOOSE framework, and thermal hydraulic analysis performed using the MOOSE Thermal Hydraulic Module. This approach is demonstrated with a proof of concept that focuses on a legacy reactor geometry from the historic NERVA program. This preliminary model found an overprediction in, when compared to the reference data, axial power peaking and the temperatures of both solids and fluids by roughly 20%. It is clear, however, that the model conserved a number of broad trends, and a few model refinements should reduce the observed error. This approach has definite merit and should enable the production of informative results for more modern NTP systems. This work is a first step in creating a transient reactor model that can be updated across a sequence of time steps based on continually fluctuating, time-dependent boundary conditions.
Nuclear Thermal Propulsion↗
Risk Reduction Project in Pad Abort-1 Launch Vehicle Loads & Dynamics
The Pad Abort (PA-1) system includes the Launch Abort System (LAS) and the Command Module (CM). The PA-1 abort flight test will launch from the White Sands Missile Range. Prior to the ignition, the vehicle will be resting, without restraints, on a short support structure. The Launch Abort Motor will ignite and burn for less than 5 seconds before a 20 second coast. Then the LAS will separate from the CM and the CM will descend via parachute to a soil landing. The static firing of the Abort Motor (ST-1) for PA-1 Launch Vehicle resulted in unexpected higher levels that superseded the environment predictions and all the design and test loads of all subassemblies and components. A rapid project was put in place to develop the flight environments, loads and associated uncertainties for the Verification Load Cycle (VLC) of PA-1. An acoustic test and shaker test of the CM were planned and executed in support of the developments of damping and transfer functions. Instead of using the traditional structure-borne envelops, the actual ST-1 pressures and forces were used to develop the internal accelerations. The PA-1 motor was cooled to 60 Deg F using thermal conditioning to reduce the thrust profile. The plumes of the abort motor were studied to determine if the airborne environments would be reduced. The combination of all items, noted above, allowed a reduction in loads for VLC.
Sasan C Armand↗
New Lithium-ion Polymer Battery for the Extravehicular Mobility Unit Suit
The Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) suit currently has a silver-zinc battery that is 20.5 V and 45 Ah capacity. The EMU's portable life support system (PLSS) will draw power from the battery during the entire period of an EVA. Due to the disadvantages of using the silver-zinc battery in terms of cost and performance, a new high energy density battery is being developed for future use, The new battery (Lithium-ion battery or LIB) will consist of Li-ion polymer cells that will provide power to the EMU suit. The battery design consists of five 8 Ah cells in parallel to form a single module of 40 Ah and five such modules will be placed in series to give a 20.5 V, 40 Ah battery. Charging will be accomplished on the Shuttle or Station using the new LIB charger or the existing ALPS (Air Lock Power Supply) charger. The LIB delivers a maximum of 3.8 A on the average, for seven continuous hours, at voltages ranging from 20.5 V to 16.0 V and it should be capable of supporting transient pulses during start up and once every hour to support PLSS fan and pump operation. Figure 1 shows the placement of the battery in the backpack area of the EMU suit. The battery and cells will undergo testing under different conditions to understand its performance and safety characteristics.
Jeevarajan, J. A.↗
Nickel-cadmium Battery Cell Reversal from Resistive Network Effects
During the individual cell short-down procedures often used for storing or reconditioning nickel-cadmium (Ni-Cd) batteries, it is possible for significant reversal of the lowest capacity cells to occur. The reversal is caused by the finite resistance of the common current-carrying leads in the resistive network that is generally used during short-down. A model is developed to evaluate the extent of such a reversal in any specific battery, and the model is verified by means of data from the short-down of a f-cell, 3.5-Ah battery. Computer simulations of short-down on a variety of battery configurations indicate the desirability of controlling capacity imbalances arising from cell configuration and battery management, limiting variability in the short-down resistors, minimizing lead resistances, and optimizing lead configurations.
Zimmerman, A. H.↗
Thermal Design and Analysis of Green Propulsion Dual Mode CubeSat
Green Propulsion Dual Mode (GPDM) is a collaboration between NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) and Georgia Tech to create a 6U CubeSat demonstrating the use of the green propellant Advanced Spacecraft Energetic Non-Toxic (ASCENT) in two propulsion systems: using a traditional chemical thruster and an electrospray thruster system. The driving thermal considerations includes a planned orbit always in Sun view without any time in Earth’s eclipse, and a chemical thruster reaching 1300°C during firing. Thermal design and analysis on CubeSats are not always emphasized, particularly in experimental or academic environments. This paper will describe the thermal design and analysis performed on GPDM and the mitigations implemented for this mission, which will highlight some of the thermal challenges unique to experimental small satellites.
Thermal Analysis↗