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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 NTRS2009

Unbalanced-flow, fluid-mixing plug with metering capabilities

A fluid mixer plug has holes formed therethrough such that a remaining portion is closed to fluid flow. The plug's inlet face defines a central circuit region and a ring-shaped region with the ring-shaped region including at least some of the plug's remaining portion so-closed to fluid flow. This remaining portion or closed region at each radius R of the ring shaped region satisfies a radius independent, flow-based relationship. Entry openings are defined in the plug's inlet face in correspondence with the holes. The entry openings define an open flow area at each radius of the ring-shaped region. The open flow area at each such radius satisfies the inverse of the flow-based relationship defining the closed regions of the plug.

England, John Dwight↗
NASA NTRS2010

RCC Plug Repair Thermal Tools for Shuttle Mission Support

A thermal math model for the Space Shuttle Reinforced Carbon-Carbon (RCC) Plug Repair was developed to increase the confidence in the repair entry performance and provide a real-time mission support tool. The thermal response of the plug cover plate, local RCC, and metallic attach hardware can be assessed with this model for any location on the wing leading edge. The geometry and spatial location of the thermal mesh also matches the structural mesh which allows for the direct mapping of temperature loads and computation of the thermoelastic stresses. The thermal model was correlated to a full scale plug repair radiant test. To utilize the thermal model for flight analyses, accurate predictions of protuberance heating were required. Wind tunnel testing was performed at CUBRC to characterize the heat flux in both the radial and angular directions. Due to the complexity of the implementation of the protuberance heating, an intermediate program was developed to output the heating per nodal location for all OML surfaces in SINDA format. Three Design Reference Cases (DRC) were evaluated with the correlated plug thermal math model to bound the environments which the plug repair would potentially be used.

Rodriguez, Alvaro C.↗
NASA NTRS2012

Static Gas-Charging Plug

A gas-charging plug can be easily analyzed for random vibration. The design features two steeped O-rings in a radial configuration at two different diameters, with a 0.050-in. (.1.3-mm) diameter through-hole between the two O-rings. In the charging state, the top O-ring is engaged and sealing. The bottom O-ring outer diameter is not squeezed, and allows air to flow by it into the tank. The inner diameter is stretched to plug the gland diameter, and is restrained by the O-ring groove. The charging port bushing provides mechanical stop to restrain the plug during gas charge removal. It also prevents the plug from becoming a projectile when removing gas charge from the accumulator. The plug can easily be verified after installation to ensure leakage requirements are met.

Indoe, William↗
NASA NTRS2012

Damage Tolerance Assessment of Friction Pull Plug Welds

Friction stir welding is a solid state welding process developed and patented by The Welding Institute in Cambridge, England. Friction stir welding has been implemented in the aerospace industry in the fabrication of longitudinal welds in pressurized cryogenic propellant tanks. As the industry looks to implement friction stir welding in circumferential welds in pressurized cryogenic propellant tanks, techniques to close out the termination hole associated with retracting the pin tool are being evaluated. Friction pull plug welding is under development as a one means of closing out the termination hole. A friction pull plug weld placed in a friction stir weld results in a non-homogenous weld joint where the initial weld, plug weld, their respective heat affected zones and the base metal all interact. The welded joint is a composite, plastically deformed material system with a complex residual stress field. In order to address damage tolerance concerns associated with friction plug welds in safety critical structures, such as propellant tanks, nondestructive inspection and proof testing may be required to screen hardware for mission critical defects. The efficacy of the nondestructive evaluation or the proof test is based on an assessment of the critical flaw size in the test or service environments. Test data relating residual strength capability to flaw size in two aluminum alloy friction plug weld configurations is presented.

McGill, Preston↗
NASA NTRS2012

Damage Tolerance Assessment of Friction Pull Plug Welds in an Aluminum Alloy

Friction stir welding is a solid state welding process used in the fabrication of cryogenic propellant tanks. Self-reacting friction stir welding is one variation of the friction stir weld process being developed for manufacturing tanks. Friction pull plug welding is used to seal the exit hole that remains in a circumferential self-reacting friction stir weld. A friction plug weld placed in a self-reacting friction stir weld results in a non-homogenous weld joint where the initial weld, plug weld, their respective heat affected zones and the base metal all interact. The welded joint is a composite plastically deformed material system with a complex residual stress field. In order to address damage tolerance concerns associated with friction plug welds in safety critical structures, such as propellant tanks, nondestructive inspection and proof testing may be required to screen hardware for mission critical defects. The efficacy of the nondestructive evaluation or the proof test is based on an assessment of the critical flaw size. Test data relating residual strength capability to flaw size in an aluminum alloy friction plug weld will be presented.

McGill, Preston↗
NASA NTRS2015

Eddy Current Minimizing Flow Plug for Use in Flow Conditioning and Flow Metering

An eddy-current-minimizing flow plug has an outer radial wall with open flow channels formed between the plug's inlet and outlet. The plug has a central region coupled to the inner surface of the outer radial wall. Each open flow channel includes (i) a first portion originating at the inlet and converging to a location in the plug where convergence is contributed to by changes in thickness of the outer radial wall and divergence of the central region, and (ii) a second portion originating in the plug and diverging to the outlet where divergence is contributed to by changes in thickness of the outer radial wall and convergence of the central region. For at least a portion of the open flow channels, a central axis passing through the first and second portions is non-parallel with respect to the given direction of the flow.

England, John Dwight↗
NASA NTRS2017

Porous Plug Phase Separator and Superfluid Film Flow Suppression System for the Soft X-Ray Spectrometer Onboard Hitomi

When using superfluid helium in low gravity environments, porous plug phase separators are commonly used to vent boiloff gas while confining the bulk liquid to the tank. Invariably, there is a flow of superfluid film from the perimeter of the porous plug down the vent line. For the Soft X-ray Spectrometer onboard ASTRO-H (Hitomi), its approximately 30-liter helium supply has a lifetime requirement of more than 3 years. A nominal vent rate is estimated as ~ 30 ug/s, equivalent to ~ 0.7 mW heat load. It is therefore critical to suppress any film flow whose evaporation would not provide direct cooling of the remaining liquid helium. That is, the porous plug vent system must be designed to both minimize film flow and to ensure maximum extraction of latent heat from the film. The design goal for Hitomi is to reduce the film flow losses to <2 ug/s, corresponding to a loss of cooling capacity of <40 uW. The design adopts the same general design as implemented for Astro-E and E2, using a vent system composed of a porous plug, combined with an orifice, a heat exchanger, and knife-edge devices. In this paper, design, on-ground testing results and in-orbit performance are described.

Porous↗
DOE OSTI2026

High-Temperature SiC Cladding End Plug Irradiation Design and HFIR Readiness

This report documents the design of a High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) irradiation experiment intended to evaluate irradiation effects on the hermeticity of silicon carbide (SiC) end plug specimens under a radial fast neutron flux gradient at representative light-water reactor (LWR) temperatures of approximately 300 °C. The overarching goal of this work is to statistically evaluate SiC end plug hermeticity and mechanical properties following irradiation using the high-throughput irradiation capability discussed here. Each specimen consists of a short section of SiC fiber–reinforced SiC (SiC/SiC) tube with a single monolithic SiC end plug joined to one end. The experiment allows up to 66 specimens to be irradiated in six different stacks within a dry, sealed irradiation capsule derived from the previously developed high-temperature SiC/SiC cladding bowing experiment. The neutronics basis, thermal analysis, and HFIR readiness of the experiment are discussed in this report for two possible design cases. The first design case is based on existing approval documentation and components that are on hand and approved for use, so the experiment insertion would require only specimen receipt, specimen pre-irradiation characterization, experiment assembly, and final fabrication package approval. The second design case provides improved thermal robustness and the preferred end plug geometry but requires fabrication of a modified holder and revisions to the HFIR approval documentation, in addition to the other activities required for the first design case, before insertion.

Hott, Daniel [Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL)↗
NASA NTRS1972

Comparison of Predicted and Experimental Heat-Transfer and Pressure-Drop Results for an Air-Cooled Plug Nozzle and Supporting Struts

A calculational procedure is presented to analyze the heat-transfer and fluid-flow characteristics of a convectively air -cooled plug-nozzle operating on an afterburning turbojet engine. Anderson's method was used to predict hot-gas static pressures in the supersonic stream with fully expanded flow (high nozzle-pressure ratios); the results were excellent. For low nozzle-pressure ratios, the flow was assumed to expand one-dimensionally and isentropically to the plug back pressure. Wall temperatures predicted using this latter pressure distribution agreed well with the wall temperatures predicted using the measured hot-gas pressures (maximum deviation was about 30 K (54 deg R)). Either an in tegral boundary-layer technique or a simple pipe-flow equation may be used to calculate convective heat transfer from the hot gas to the wall. The simple pipeflow equation results in the prediction of slightly higher wall temperatures than does the integral technique. Experimental wall temperatures were generally in good agreement with the two predicted wall temperature distributions. Excellent agreement was noted b etween measured and predicted coolant static-pressure distributions. The plug-coolant temperature rise was generally overpredicted by about 22.2 K (40 deg R); possible explanations are offered. Although an an alysis of the struts, which support the plug, was purposely kept simple, reasonable results were obtained. Potential flow over an ellipse was used to calculate hot-gas static pressure; the results were satisfactory.

Graber, E. J., Jr.↗
NASA NTRS1975

The Mach disc in truncated plug nozzle flows

The first shock reflection within truncated plug nozzle propulsive jets is investigated experimentally using a free jet blow-down facility. The locations and sizes of these reflections in axisymmetric plug nozzles, with cylindrical shrouds and conical truncated plugs, are presented. Data are presented for a range of ambient to nozzle total pressure ratios. The effects of Mach disk location and size resulting from changing plug length and from varying amounts of base bleed are documented.

Giel, T. V., Jr.↗
NASA NTRS1981

Ignitor plug erosion and arc initiation processes in a one-millipound pulsed plasma thruster

The results are presented of a one-millipound pulsed plasma ignition system study. The preliminary data indicate that inductively coupling the ignition plug cathode to the thruster cathode is more beneficial to ignitor plug longevity than resistive coupling. These benefits arise from the ability of the coupling conductor to control the build-up of a carbonaceous deposit on the plug face. The deposit build-up is a strong function of the peak coupling current experienced during thruster operation. The relationship between the ignitor plug discharge and thruster discharge is shown to be very complex with equivalent circuit elements which are dynamic in nature. A preliminary representation of this equivalent circuit is developed.

Aston, G.↗
NASA NTRS1981

Free-jet acoustic investigation of high-radius-ratio coannular plug nozzles. Comprehensive data report, volume 1

Six coannular plug nozzle configurations having inverted velocity and temperature profiles, and a baseline convergent conical nozzle were tested for simulated flight acoustic evaluation in General Electric's Anechoic Free-Jet Acoustic Facility. The nozzles were tested over a range of test conditions that are typical of a Variable Cycle Engine for application to advanced high speed aircraft. The outer stream radius ratio for most of the configurations was 0.853, and the inner-stream-outer-stream area ratio was tested in the range of 0.54. Other variables investigated were the influence of bypass struts, a simple noncontoured convergent-divergent outer stream nozzle for forward quadrant shock noise control, and the effects of varying outer stream radius and inner-stream-to-outer-stream velocity ratios on the flight noise signatures of the nozzles. It was found that in simulated flight, the high-radius-ratio coannular plug nozzles maintain their jet noise and shock noise reduction features previously observed in static testing. The presence of nozzle bypass structs will not significantly effect the acoustic noise reduction features of a General Electric-type nozzle design. A unique coannular plug nozzle flight acoustic spectral prediction method was identified and found to predict the measured results quite well. Special laser velocimeter and acoustic measurements were performed which have given new insight into the jet and shock noise reduction mechanisms of coannular plug nozzles with regard to identifying further beneficial research efforts.

Knott, P. R.↗
NASA NTRS1983

Aeroacoustics of a porous plug supersonic jet noise suppressor

The aeroacoustics of a porous plug supersonic jet noise suppressor was investigated. The needed modifications of the existing multistream coaxial jet rig; the compressed air facility and pressure controls; the design, the fabrication, and the installation of the plenum chamber for the plug nozzle, and the design and the machining of the first contoured plug nozzle were completed. The optical and the aeroacoustic data of the contoured plug nozzles and of the conical convergent nozzle alone were discussed.

Dosanjh, D. S.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Tool for Inserting and Removing Tube Plugs

Simple handtool used with both straight and bent tubes. Plug consisting of two expandable O-rings pushed into or pulled out of tube with this flexible tool. Flexible shaft of tool threaded at inner (plug) end to engage or disengage plug when knurled handle turned. Results exceptionally low friction between shaft and tube. Allows insertion and removal of plug carefully controlled.

Molina, O. G.↗
NASA NTRS1982

Jet noise suppression by porous plug nozzles

Jet noise suppression data presented earlier by Maestrello for porous plug nozzles were supplemented by the testing of a family of nozzles having an equivalent throat diameter of 11.77 cm. Two circular reference nozzles and eight plug nozzles having radius ratios of either 0.53 or 0.80 were tested at total pressure ratios of 1.60 to 4.00. Data were taken both with and without a forward motion or coannular flow jet, and some tests were made with a heated jet. Jet thrust was measured. The data were analyzed to show the effects of suppressor geometry on nozzle propulsive efficiency and jet noise. Aerodynamic testing of the nozzles was carried out in order to study the physical features that lead to the noise suppression. The aerodynamic flow phenomena were examined by the use of high speed shadowgraph cinematography, still shadowgraphs, extensive static pressure probe measurements, and two component laser Doppler velocimeter studies. The different measurement techniques correlated well with each other and demonstrated that the porous plug changes the shock cell structure of a standard nozzle into a series of smaller, periodic cell structures without strong shock waves. These structures become smaller in dimension and have reduced pressure variations as either the plug diameter or the porosity is increased, changes that also reduce the jet noise and decrease thrust efficiency.

Bauer, A. B.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Aeroacoustics of contoured and solid/porous conical plug-nozzle supersonic jet flows

The acoustic far field, the shock-associated noise and characteristics of the repetitive shock structure of supersonic jet flows issuing from a contoured plug-nozzle and uncontoured plug-nozzle having a short conical plug of either a solid or a combination of solid/porous surface with pointed termination operated at a range of supercritical pressure are reported. The contoured and the uncontoured plug-nozzles had the same throat area and the same annular-radius ratio.

Dosanjh, D. S.↗
NASA NTRS1986

Aeroacoustics of contoured plug-nozzle supersonic jet flows

Experimental investigations of the acoustic far-field, the shock associated noise, and the characteristics of the repetitive shock structure of supersonic jet flows issuing from a plug-nozzle having an externally expanded contoured plug with a pointed termination, operated at a range of supercritical pressure ratios of 2.0 to 4.5 are reported. The supersonic jet flow from the contoured plug is shown to be shock-free and virtually wakeless at a pressure ratio of 3.60 (flow Mach number, 1.49). By comparison with the noise characteristics of underexpanded jet flows from an equivalent convergent nozzle, substantial reductions in the total (mixing and the shock associated) noise levels are obtained when the contoured plug nozzle is operated either in the fully-expanded (shock-free) mode or in the over- and the underexpanded modes.

Dosanjh, D. S.↗
NASA NTRS1988

Porous plug for reducing orifice induced pressure error in airfoils

A porous plug is provided for the reduction or elimination of positive error caused by the orifice during static pressure measurements of airfoils. The porous plug is press fitted into the orifice, thereby preventing the error caused either by fluid flow turning into the exposed orifice or by the fluid flow stagnating at the downstream edge of the orifice. In addition, the porous plug is made flush with the outer surface of the airfoil, by filing and polishing, to provide a smooth surface which alleviates the error caused by imperfections in the orifice. The porous plug is preferably made of sintered metal, which allows air to pass through the pores, so that the static pressure measurements can be made by remote transducers.

Elizabeth B Plentovich↗