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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 73 records · Page 4
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1988

Overview of numerical codes developed for predicted electrothermal deicing of aircraft blades

An overview of the deicing computer codes that have been developed at the University of Toledo under sponsorship of the NASA-Lewis Research Center is presented. These codes simulate the transient heat conduction and phase change occurring in an electrothermal deicier pad that has an arbitrary accreted ice shape on its surface. The codes are one-dimensional rectangular, two-dimensional rectangular, and two-dimensional with a coordinate transformation to model the true blade geometry. All modifications relating to the thermal physics of the deicing problem that have been incorporated into the codes will be discussed. Recent results of reformulating the codes using different numerical methods to increase program efficiency are described. In particular, this reformulation has enabled a more comprehensive two-dimensional code to run in much less CPU time than the original version. The code predictions are compared with experimental data obtained in the NASA-Lewis Icing Research Tunnel with a UH1H blade fitted with a B. F. Goodrich electrothermal deicer pad. Both continuous and cyclic heater firing cases are considered. The major objective in this comparison is to illustrate which codes give acceptable results in different regions of the airfoil for different heater firing sequences.

Keith, Theo G.↗
NASA NTRS1987

Theories of multiple equilibria and weather regimes : A critical reexamination. II - Baroclinic two-layer models

Previous results based on low- and intermediate-order truncations of the two-layer model suggest the existence of multiple equilibria and/or multiple weather regimes for the extratropical large-scale flow. The importance of the transient waves in the synoptic scales in organizing the large-scale flow and in the maintenance of weather regimes was emphasized. The result shows that multiple equilibria/weather regimes that are present in lower-order models examined disappear when a sufficient number of modes are kept in the spectral expansion of the solution to the governing partial differential equations. Much of the chaotic behavior of the large-scale flow that is present in intermediate-order models is now found to be spurious. Physical reasons for the drastic modification are offered. A peculiarity in the formulation of most existing two-layer models is noted that also tends to exaggerate the importance of baroclinic processes and increase the degree of unpredictability of the large-scale flow.

Cehelsky, Priscilla↗
NASA NTRS1992

Standard solar model. II - g-modes

The paper presents the g-mode oscillation for a set of modern solar models. Each solar model is based on a single modification or improvement to the physics of a reference solar model. Improvements were made to the nuclear reaction rates, the equation of state, the opacities, and the treatment of the atmosphere. The error in the predicted g-mode periods associated with the uncertainties in the model physics is predicted and the specific sensitivities of the g-mode periods and their period spacings to the different model structures are described. In addition, these models are compared to a sample of published observations. A remarkably good agreement is found between the 'best' solar model and the observations of Hill and Gu (1990).

Guenther, D. B.↗
NASA NTRS1998

Otoconia biogenesis, phylogeny, composition and functional attributes

This work consolidates data about these interesting organic crystals of vertebrate inner ears. It addresses 5 aspects of inner ear otoliths not completely understood to date: 1) embryological data that explains the formation of the crystals, 2) the significance of the organic and the inorganic phase of the otolith and the changing patterns of otoconia formation along the evolutionary tree, 3) otoliths contribution for detecting linear acceleration, 4) the effect that altered gravity and aminoglycosides have on the development and adult shape of the crystals, and the evolutionary significance of a changing shape of the crystals from primitive forms (lamprey) to high vertebrate birds and mammals is discussed, 5) functional attributes of the otolithic organs and morphological modifications of the otoliths by physical and chemical insults are presented with an extensive discussion of the most relevant literature published and available to us.

Non-NASA Center↗
NASA NTRS2018

Creating Innovative Frameworks to Spur Cultural Change at NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center

Changing the culture of an organization is a monumental task that often takes years and has no set formula. Steps can be taken, however, to spur cultural change by creating spaces and infrastructure to serve as the initial driving force. An innovation space and a bicycle sharing (bike share) program were implemented at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Armstrong Flight Research Center (AFRC) (Edwards, California) with a vision toward connecting Center personnel, fostering collaboration and innovation, retaining newer employees, promoting flexibility, and improving the culture and workplace atmosphere. This paper discusses the steps taken, challenges faced, novel culture-change-focused design elements, lessons learned, acquired metrics, and how these initiated cultural change at AFRC. For both the innovation space and the bike share program, funding was negotiated and provided through the NASA Convergent Aeronautics Solutions (CAS) project, which was seeking to improve the innovation and collaboration capabilities at each of the four NASA aeronautics Centers. Key stakeholders across AFRC from upper management, facilities, safety, engineering, and procurement were identified early in the process and were consulted and included throughout execution to ensure that any encountered roadblocks could be easily navigated. Research was then conducted by attending conferences and visiting culture-changing organizations both inside and outside United States Government agencies. Distilling the research, identifying available space, and deciding on specific design elements for the space was conducted by a subset of individuals of diverse backgrounds to enable quick, effective decision-making. Decisions were made with the intent to increase usage and diversity of users of the space; care was taken to ensure a well-crafted atmosphere that would foster the desired culture change. The allocated physical space required major structural modifications, new furniture, and new capabilities that would bring people in. Decisions and desires underwent a rapid reiterative process in order to stay within budget and short deadlines, while holding firm to what was seen as fundamental elements of an innovation space. The framework for cultural change being established, the more difficult task began: incubating the desired culture. Intentional workday use of the innovation space was encouraged, and organized events coordinated in order to truly foster culture change. Such incubation supports the organic spread of culture change to all areas of AFRC. This framework was complemented and expanded by the implementation of the bike share program. Steps for implementation included bike selection based on lessons learned, creating bike stations and signage, implementing bike share rules, and building a volunteer maintenance infrastructure. A novel user-reporting feedback system at each bike station is a low-impact method of capturing usage metrics. Due to the nature of the work conducted at AFRC, the bike share program and feedback system were negotiated and vetted through various organizations including legal, safety, and operations. The innovation space and the bike share program together are an effective initial framework for innovation and collaboration. Culture change takes time, but the innovation space and the bike share program are already showing signs of making a positive impact on the AFRC workforce.

rooms↗
NASA NTRS2003

Cryoscout : a descent through the Mars polar cap

Recent discoveries on Mars -- from the numerous gullies seen by Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) to the vast expanses of near-surface ice seen by Odyssey -- draw attention to the importance of a modern hydrological cycle and the possibility of extreme climate variations driven by orbital forcing. The surface/atmosphere interactions that define this cycle are presumably reflected in the stratigraphy of the polar layered deposits (PLD), comprising a climate archive that possibly spans many millions of years. If a terrestrial ice sheet were so endowed it would be studied by coring, in order to retrieve the most pristine record of past chemical and physical properties, and to evaluate modification induced by time and stresses within the ice.

Saunders, R. S.↗
NASA NTRS1978

Modeling aerosol losses and clothing effects in fires

The described modification of a physiochemical fire model predicts physical effects in clothed humans exposed to elevated temperatures as well as gas and aerosol concentrations in the atmosphere of an aerospace vehicle. The modifications involve the reduction in aerosol concentrations caused by settling and some improvements in dealing with mass and heat transfer effects. Predicted skin temperatures are found to be within 2 C of experimental values for the cases studied, and model predictions of total body enthalpy seem to correlate with symptomology observed experimentally.

Cagliostro, D. E.↗
NASA NTRS1972

Gamma time-dependency in Blaxter's compartmental model.

A new two-compartment model for the passage of particles through the gastro-intestinal tract of ruminants is proposed. In this model, a gamma distribution of lifetimes is introduced in the first compartment; thereby, passage from that compartment becomes time-dependent. This modification is strongly suggested by the physical alteration which certain substances, e.g. hay particles, undergo in the digestive process. The proposed model is applied to experimental data.

Matis, J. H.↗
NASA NTRS1983

Three dimensional flow field inside compressor rotor, including blade boundary layers

The space marching code was modified in order to be able to predict the flow field inside a rotor passage, including the blade and hub wall boundary layers. The basic changes incorporated are modifications of the equations so that the code can handle three dimensional configurations with changes in the radial direction (for example changes in stagger angle, blade camber and thickness), extensions and modifications in order to implement a physically realistic turbulence model such as a k sigma model and an algebraic Reynolds stress model.

Pouagare, M.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Partial rotor-to-stator rub demonstration

A rotor radial rub typically occurs in seals or at a blade tip or shroud when there is insufficient clearance, high vibration, or the shaft equilibrium position has been displaced to effectively limit the clearance (eccentricity). There are two extreme cases of radial rubs: full annular rub, when the rotor maintains continuous contact with the seal, etc.; and a partial rub, when the contact occurs during a fraction of the precession period. They both involve similar physical phenomena such as friction and modification of stiffness. In partial rubs with consecutive impacts, a significant average value of radial force is generated. This results in shaft average displacement in the direction opposite the rub location. The rotor rig demonstrates the characteristics of a partial lateral rub of varying severity and location. These characteristics include: (1) subharmonic components as a function of rotative speed/first balance resonance ratio and radial force; (2) higher harmonic content as a function of severity; (3) increased average rotor stiffness resulting in increased first balance resonance speed; and (4) change in overall orbital pattern as a sum of the unbalance response (1x) and subharmonic response (1nx).

Grissom, R.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Ground-based simulation of telepresence for materials science experiments

A series of ground-based telepresence experiments have been performed to determine the minimum video frame rate and resolution required for the successive performance of materials science experiments in space. The approach used is to simulate transmission between earth and space station with transmission between laboratories on earth. The experiments include isothermal dendrite growth, physical vapor transport, and glass melting. Modifications of existing apparatus, software developed, and the establishment of an inhouse network are reviewed.

Johnston, James C.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Reduced size first-order subsonic and supersonic aeroelastic modeling

Various aeroelastic, aeroservoelastic, dynamic-response, and sensitivity analyses are based on a time-domain first-order (state-space) formulation of the equations of motion. The formulation of this paper is based on the minimum-state (MS) aerodynamic approximation method, which yields a low number of aerodynamic augmenting states. Modifications of the MS and the physical weighting procedures make the modeling method even more attractive. The flexibility of constraint selection is increased without increasing the approximation problem size; the accuracy of dynamic residualization of high-frequency modes is improved; and the resulting model is less sensitive to parametric changes in subsequent analyses. Applications to subsonic and supersonic cases demonstrate the generality, flexibility, accuracy, and efficiency of the method.

Karpel, Mordechay↗
NASA NTRS2005

Low Conductive Thermal Barrier Coatings Produced by Ion Beam Assisted EB-PVD with Controlled Porosity, Microstructure Refinement and Alloying Additions for High Temperature Applications

Various advanced Hafnia-based thermal barrier coatings (TBC) were applied on nickel-based superalloy coupons by electron beam physical vapor deposition. In addition, microstructural modifications to the coating material were made in an effort to reduce the thermal conductivity of the coating materials. Various processing parameters and coating system modifications were made in order to deposit the alloyed TBC with the desired microstructure and thus coating performance, some of which include applying coatings at substrate temperatures of 1150 C on both PtAl and CoNiCrAlY bond coated samples, as well as using 8YSZ as a bond layer. In addition, various characterization techniques including thermal cyclic tests, scanning electron microscopy, x-ray diffraction, thermal conductivity, and reflectivity measurements were performed. Although the coating microstructure was never fully optimized due to funding being cut short, significant reductions in thermal conductivity were accomplished through both chemistry changes (composition) and microstructural modifications.

Wolfe, Douglas E.↗
NASA NTRS2010

The Umbra Simulation and Integration Framework Applied to Emergency Response Training

The Mine Emergency Response Interactive Training Simulation (MERITS) is intended to prepare personnel to manage an emergency in an underground coal mine. The creation of an effective training environment required realistic emergent behavior in response to simulation events and trainee interventions, exploratory modification of miner behavior rules, realistic physics, and incorporation of legacy code. It also required the ability to add rich media to the simulation without conflicting with normal desktop security settings. Our Umbra Simulation and Integration Framework facilitated agent-based modeling of miners and rescuers and made it possible to work with subject matter experts to quickly adjust behavior through script editing, rather than through lengthy programming and recompilation. Integration of Umbra code with the WebKit browser engine allowed the use of JavaScript-enabled local web pages for media support. This project greatly extended the capabilities of Umbra in support of training simulations and has implications for simulations that combine human behavior, physics, and rich media.

Hamilton, Paul Lawrence↗
NASA NTRS1986

Experimental evidence for modifying the current physical model for ice accretion on aircraft surfaces

Closeup movies, still photographs, and other experimental data suggest that the current physical model for ice accretion needs significant modification. At aircraft airspeeds there was no flow of liquid over the surface of the ice after a short initial flow, even at barely subfreezing temperatures. Instead, there were very large stationary drops on the ice surface that lose water from their bottoms by freezing and replenish their liquid by catching the microscopic cloud droplets. This observation disagrees with the existing physical model, which assumes there is a thin liquid film continuously flowing over the ice surface. With no such flow, the freezing-fraction concept of the model fails when a mass balance is performed on the surface water. Rime ice does, as the model predicts, form when the air temperature is low enough to cause the cloud droplets to freeze almost immediately on impact. However, the characteristic shapes of horn-glaze ice or rime ice are primarily caused by the ice shape affecting the airflow locally and consequently the droplet catch and the resulting ice shape. Ice roughness greatly increases the heat transfer coefficient, stops the movement of drops along the surface, and may also affect the airflow initially and thereby the droplet catch. At high subreezing temperatures the initial flow and shedding of surface drops have a large effect on the ice shape. At the incipient freezing limit, no ice forms.

Olsen, W.↗
NASA NTRS1998

Rapid Prediction of Unsteady Three-Dimensional Viscous Flows in Turbopump Geometries

A program is underway to improve the efficiency of a three-dimensional Navier-Stokes code and generalize it for nozzle and turbopump geometries. Code modifications have included the implementation of parallel processing software, incorporation of new physical models and generalization of the multiblock capability. The final report contains details of code modifications, numerical results for several nozzle and turbopump geometries, and the implementation of the parallelization software.

Dorney, Daniel J.↗
NASA NTRS1982

Plasma-sprayed self-lubricating coatings

One of the most important criterion for acceptable commercial application of a multiple phase composition is uniformity and reproducibility. This means that the performance characteristics of the coat - e.g., its lubricating properties, bond strength to the substrate, and thermal properties - can be readily predicted to give a desired performance. The improvement of uniformity and reproducibility of the coats, the oxidation behavior at three temperature ranges, the effect of bond coat and the effect of preheat treatment as measured by adhesive strength tests, coating examination procedures, and physical property measurements were studied. The following modifications improved the uniformity and reproducibility: (1) changes and closer control in the particle size range of the raw materials used, (2) increasing the binder content from 3.2% to 4.1% (dried weight), and (3) analytical processing procedures using step by step checking to assure consistency.

Nakamura, H. H.↗
NASA NTRS2000

The DAO Retrospective Data Assimilation System

The fixed-lag Kalman smoother of Cohn et al. (1994), or a version of a more computationally feasible approximation of it developed by Todling et al. (1998), is under implementation at the Data Assimilation Office (DAO) to build a retrospective data assimilation system (RDAS). The initial version of the RDAS uses the physical-space statistical analysis system and a modification of the incremental analysis update (IAU) procedure of Bloom et al. (1996); a follow up version of the RDAS Nill require the use of the adjoint of the DAO general circulation model (developed by Y. Yang and M Navon). The retrospective procedure is designed to produce improved analyses as well as improved assimilated fields consequently providing an improved climate representation through data assimilation.

Todling, Richardo↗