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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 739 records · Page 41

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DOE OSTI2022

In-situ optical monitoring of gas turbine blade coatings under operational extreme environments

High temperature material systems consisting of thermal barrier coatings and the underlying superalloys are key to achieving higher gas temperatures which in turn control engine efficiencies and reduce emissions. With engine temperatures in excess of the limits that metallic blades and vanes can endure, advanced monitoring techniques that ensure the integrity and durability of these coatings are paramount to continuous and safe operation. Optical methods have the benefit of being non-invasive and are able to capture data under limited access available for monitoring the hot-section of turbines. Addressing Topic 5 on Advanced Instrumentation, the research and development effort for this project titled “In situ optical monitoring of gas turbine blade coatings under operational extreme environments” was completed by University of Central Florida researchers, including Raghavan (PI) and Ghosh (co-PI). In this project, the research team leveraged intrinsic properties of coatings and rare-earth dopants as active and intelligent “sensors” through their optical properties. The outcomes of this project pave the way for diagnostics of turbine blade coatings, under operating environments, through the development of the sensing thermal barrier coating configurations, calibration and associated instrumentation while ensuring coating integrity and durability goals are concurrently met.

42 ENGINEERING↗

NASA NTRS2004

Software for Analyzing Laminar-to-Turbulent Flow Transitions

Software assurance is the planned and systematic set of activities that ensures that software processes and products conform to requirements, standards, and procedures. Examples of such activities are the following: code inspections, unit tests, design reviews, performance analyses, construction of traceability matrices, etc. In practice, software development projects have only limited resources (e.g., schedule, budget, and availability of personnel) to cover the entire development effort, of which assurance is but a part. Projects must therefore select judiciously from among the possible assurance activities. At its heart, this can be viewed as an optimization problem; namely, to determine the allocation of limited resources (time, money, and personnel) to minimize risk or, alternatively, to minimize the resources needed to reduce risk to an acceptable level. The end result of the work reported here is a means to optimize quality-assurance processes used in developing software. This is achieved by combining two prior programs in an innovative manner

Chang, Chau-Lyan↗

NASA NTRS2004

Software for Optimizing Quality Assurance of Other Software

Feather, Martin↗

DOE OSTI2018

Conceptual Design of a Large Aperture Dipole for Testing of Cables and Insert Coils at High Field

© 2017 IEEE. Advances in the performance of low- and high-temperature superconductors enable the development of advanced magnets for a range of applications, including tokamaks for fusion energy, dipoles, and quadrupoles for hadron colliders, and solenoids for nuclear magnetic resonance studies. The capability of testing prototype cables and insert coils at high field is critical to these developments. We present here the conceptual design of a test facility dipole with features suitable to support the advanced magnet development efforts of both Fusion and HEP communities. In particular, a background field of 15 T is provided over a minimum homogeneous length of 1000 mm, and the magnet clear bore of approximately 144 × 94 mm can accommodate large fusion conductors as well as prototype coils for high field dipoles, along with flexible cryogenic and mechanical provisions for sample characterization. Two technical solutions are considered. The first uses a forced flow cable-in-conduit conductor and follows the design developed by EFDA for the EDIPO magnet. The second uses a bath cooled Rutherford cable and follows a block-coil design similar to the CERN FRESCA2 dipole, and the LBNL HD and LD1 dipoles. Following a comparison between the two approaches, we present two designs for the Rutherford cable approach including performance objectives, key parameters, and preliminary magnetic, mechanical and quench protection analysis.

Bruzzone, Pierluigi↗

NASA NTRS1988

Application of a Comprehensive Analytical Model of Rotor Aerodynamics and Dynamics (CAMRAD) to the McDonnell Douglas AH-64A helicopter

A model of the AH-64A helicopter was generated in a Comprehensive Analytical Model of Rotorcraft Aerodynamics and Dynamics (CAMRAD) in an effort to validate its analytical capabilities for modeling a current advanced Army helicopter. The initial phase of the effort involved the generation of CAMRAD input files necessary for the complete aerodynamic, structural, and dynamic definition of the production AH-64A helicopter. The input files were checked by making comparisons of CAMRAD full helicopter trim and main rotor blade natural frequency predictions with those of full helicopter trim program, Blade Element Trim (BETRIM), and dynamic analysis code, Dynamic Analysis Research Tool (DART), respectively. The main thrust concerned the application of the AH-64A CAMRAD model thus developed and verified for main rotor blade structural loads predictions and comparison with DART analytical results. The investigation provided insight not only into the usefulness of CAMRAD for the AH-64A performance and dynamics prediction, but also into the limitations of the program for modeling advanced rotor and fuselage systems. The model development effort is discussed, the results of the CAMRAD correlation studies presented, and some general conclusions are offered on the applicability of CAMRAD for rotor aeroelastic loads prediction for current and future rotorcraft configurations.

Callahan, Cynthia B.↗

NASA NTRS2006

YAM- A Framework for Rapid Software Development

YAM is a software development framework with tools for facilitating the rapid development and integration of software in a concurrent software development environment. YAM provides solutions for thorny development challenges associated with software reuse, managing multiple software configurations, the development of software product-lines, multiple platform development and build management. YAM uses release-early, release-often development cycles to allow developers to incrementally integrate their changes into the system on a continual basis. YAM facilitates the creation and merging of branches to support the isolated development of immature software to avoid impacting the stability of the development effort. YAM uses modules and packages to organize and share software across multiple software products. It uses the concepts of link and work modules to reduce sandbox setup times even when the code-base is large. One side-benefit is the enforcement of a strong module-level encapsulation of a module s functionality and interface. This increases design transparency, system stability as well as software reuse. YAM is in use by several mid-size software development teams including ones developing mission-critical software.

simulations↗

NASA NTRS2007

Continued Development of a Global Heat Transfer Measurement System at AEDC Hypervelocity Wind Tunnel 9

Heat transfer rates are an extremely important consideration in the design of hypersonic vehicles such as atmospheric reentry vehicles. This paper describes the development of a data reduction methodology to evaluate global heat transfer rates using surface temperature-time histories measured with the temperature sensitive paint (TSP) system at AEDC Hypervelocity Wind Tunnel 9. As a part of this development effort, a scale model of the NASA Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) was painted with TSP and multiple sequences of high resolution images were acquired during a five run test program. Heat transfer calculation from TSP data in Tunnel 9 is challenging due to relatively long run times, high Reynolds number environment and the desire to utilize typical stainless steel wind tunnel models used for force and moment testing. An approach to reduce TSP data into convective heat flux was developed, taking into consideration the conditions listed above. Surface temperatures from high quality quantitative global temperature maps acquired with the TSP system were then used as an input into the algorithm. Preliminary comparison of the heat flux calculated using the TSP surface temperature data with the value calculated using the standard thermocouple data is reported.

Kurits, Inna↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

A Future for Rotorcraft that Engages with New Application Domains

The objective of this paper is to present ideas related to possible new application domains to consider for future rotorcraft research and development efforts. Some of these application domains have been points of discussion in an earlier body of work at NASA Ames Research Center, but some are anticipated to be wholly new. The goal is to aid in securing a robust and expansive rotorcraft research community for the next four decades at least. To achieve that goal and to pursue the identified new application domains, it will be essential to engage in collaborative networking with other research communities such as intelligent systems developers and roboticists.

Vehicle Autonomy↗

NASA NTRS1991

A three-dimensional finite-element thermal/mechanical analytical technique for high-performance traveling wave tubes

Current research in high-efficiency, high-performance traveling wave tubes (TWT's) has led to the development of novel thermal/ mechanical computer models for use with helical slow-wave structures. A three-dimensional, finite element computer model and analytical technique used to study the structural integrity and thermal operation of a high-efficiency, diamond-rod, K-band TWT designed for use in advanced space communications systems. This analysis focused on the slow-wave circuit in the radiofrequency section of the TWT, where an inherent localized heating problem existed and where failures were observed during earlier cold compression, or 'coining' fabrication technique that shows great potential for future TWT development efforts. For this analysis, a three-dimensional, finite element model was used along with MARC, a commercially available finite element code, to simulate the fabrication of a diamond-rod TWT. This analysis was conducted by using component and material specifications consistent with actual TWT fabrication and was verified against empirical data. The analysis is nonlinear owing to material plasticity introduced by the forming process and also to geometric nonlinearities presented by the component assembly configuration. The computer model was developed by using the high efficiency, K-band TWT design but is general enough to permit similar analyses to be performed on a wide variety of TWT designs and styles. The results of the TWT operating condition and structural failure mode analysis, as well as a comparison of analytical results to test data are presented.

Bartos, Karen F.↗

NASA NTRS1992

A three-dimensional finite-element thermal/mechanical analytical technique for high-performance traveling wave tubes

Current research in high-efficiency, high-performance traveling wave tubes (TWT's) has led to the development of novel thermal/mechanical computer models for use with helical slow-wave structures. A three-dimensional, finite element computer model and analytical technique used to study the structural integrity and thermal operation of a high-efficiency, diamond-rod, K-band TWT designed for use in advanced space communications systems. This analysis focused on the slow-wave circuit in the radiofrequency section of the TWT, where an inherent localized heating problem existed and where failures were observed during earlier cold compression, or 'coining' fabrication technique that shows great potential for future TWT development efforts. For this analysis, a three-dimensional, finite element model was used along with MARC, a commercially available finite element code, to simulate the fabrication of a diamond-rod TWT. This analysis was conducted by using component and material specifications consistent with actual TWT fabrication and was verified against empirical data. The analysis is nonlinear owing to material plasticity introduced by the forming process and also to geometric nonlinearities presented by the component assembly configuration. The computer model was developed by using the high efficiency, K-band TWT design but is general enough to permit similar analyses to be performed on a wide variety of TWT designs and styles. The results of the TWT operating condition and structural failure mode analysis, as well as a comparison of analytical results to test data are presented.

Shalkhauser, Kurt A.↗

NASA NTRS1977

Evacuated load-bearing high performance insulation study

A light weight, vacuum jacketed, load bearing cryogenic insulation system was developed and tested on a 1.17-m (46-in.) spherical test tank. The vacuum jacket consists of 0.08 mm (0.003 in.) thick 321 stainless steel formed into a wedge design that allows elastic jacket movements as the tank shrinks (cools) or expands (warms up or is pressurized). Hollow glass spheres, approximately 80 micrometers in diameter with a bulk density of 0.069 g/cc (4.3 lb cubic foot), provide the insulating qualities and one atmosphere load bearing capability required. The design, fabrication, and test effort developed the manufacturing methods and engineering data needed to scale the system to other tank sizes, shapes, and applications. The program demonstrated that thin wall jackets can be formed and welded to maintain the required vacuum level of .013 Pa yet flex elastically for multiple reuses. No significant shifting or breakage of the microspheres occurred after 13 simulated Space Tug flight cycles on the test tank and a hundred 1 atmosphere load cycles in a flat plate calorimeter. The test data were then scaled to the Space Tug LO2 and LH2 tanks, and weight, thermal performance, payload performance, and costs were compared with a helium purged multilayer insulation system.

Parmley, R. T.↗

NASA NTRS2004

Overview of NASA's Pulsed Plasma Thruster Development Program

NASA's Pulsed Plasma Thruster Program consists of flight demonstration experiments, base research, and development efforts being conducted through a combination of in-house work, contracts, and collaborative programs. The program receives sponsorship from Energetics Project, the New Millennium Program, and the Small Business Innovative Research Program. The Energetics Project sponsors basic and fundamental research to increase thruster life, improve thruster performance, and reduce system mass. The New Millennium Program sponsors the in-orbit operation of the Pulsed Plasma Thruster experiment on the Earth Observing 1 spacecraft. The Small Business Innovative Research Program sponsors the development of innovative diamond-film capacitors, piezoelectric ignitors, and advanced fuels. Programmatic background, recent technical accomplishments, and future activities for each programmatic element are provided.

Pencil, Eric J.↗

NASA NTRS2019

Technologies to Enable the Next Great Observatory

The Large Ultraviolet/Optical/Infrared Surveyor (LUVOIR) is one of four mission concepts being studied by NASA for the 2020 Decadal Survey in Astronomy and Astrophysics. Enabling a mission as ambitious as LUVOIR requires an array of technologies. Critically, a systems-level approach must be taken to developing these technologies, guided by architecture studies to place each technology in the appropriate system context. Three technology systems enable the LUVOIR science objectives: the system, the system, and the system. Each of the technology systems comprise the individual technology components that must be developed and demonstrated as a system. Supporting engineering manufacturing development efforts are also identified for early risk reduction. It is important to note that the high-contrast coronagraph instrument and ultra-stable segmented telescope technology systems are tightly coupled; the performance capabilities of one system drive the requirements of the other. Similarly, the ultraviolet instrumentation technology system is loosely coupled to the other two; while the relative performance affects each system, they do not necessarily drive one another. This coupling between systems requires continuous cross-validation between the technology development paths. It is therefore critical that the technology development plan be executed in parallel with a detailed Pre-Phase A Architecture Study to provide the necessary systems-level perspective and cross-validation.

Bolcar, Matthew R.↗

DOE OSTI2024

An Evaluation Framework for State Energy Offices' Energy Efficiency and Clean Energy Workforce Programs

Historic levels of funding for energy efficiency and clean energy projects from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act will be flowing through State Energy Offices (SEOs) in the coming years, including funds specifically for supporting workforce development efforts. This report offers a workforce evaluation framework that they can use to track and measure the progress, performance, and effectiveness of energy efficiency and clean energy workforce programs that they fund and/or implement. This evaluation step is essential to ensuring that SEOs' workforce efforts remain relevant to the evolving needs of the energy efficiency and clean energy sector and advance a workforce that is inclusive and diverse thus maximizing the success of their programs.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

NASA NTRS1999

Human Modeling Evaluations in Microgravity Workstation and Restraint Development

The International Space Station (ISS) will provide long-term missions which will enable the astronauts to live and work, as well as, conduct research in a microgravity environment. The dominant factor in space affecting the crew is "weightlessness" which creates a challenge for establishing workstation microgravity design requirements. The crewmembers will work at various workstations such as Human Research Facility (HRF), Microgravity Sciences Glovebox (MSG) and Life Sciences Glovebox (LSG). Since the crew will spend considerable amount of time at these workstations, it is critical that ergonomic design requirements are integral part of design and development effort. In order to achieve this goal, the Space Human Factors Laboratory in the Johnson Space Center Flight Crew Support Division has been tasked to conduct integrated evaluations of workstations and associated crew restraints. Thus, a two-phase approach was used: 1) ground and microgravity evaluations of the physical dimensions and layout of the workstation components, and 2) human modeling analyses of the user interface. Computer-based human modeling evaluations were an important part of the approach throughout the design and development process. Human modeling during the conceptual design phase included crew reach and accessibility of individual equipment, as well as, crew restraint needs. During later design phases, human modeling has been used in conjunction with ground reviews and microgravity evaluations of the mock-ups in order to verify the human factors requirements. (Specific examples will be discussed.) This two-phase approach was the most efficient method to determine ergonomic design characteristics for workstations and restraints. The real-time evaluations provided a hands-on implementation in a microgravity environment. On the other hand, only a limited number of participants could be tested. The human modeling evaluations provided a more detailed analysis of the setup. The issues identified during the real-time testing were investigated in the human modeling analyses. In some cases, the opposite was true where preliminary human modeling analyses provided the design engineers with critical issues that needed to be addressed further. This extensive approach provided an effective means to fully address ergonomic design considerations and accurately identify critical issues.

Whitmore, Mihriban↗

DOE OSTI2024

Advanced Energy Topics for Hill District Community Leaders [Slides]

Through Communities LEAP, a community coalition focused on the Hill District neighborhood of Pittsburgh is working with a technical assistance provider network led by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). The coalition includes community organizations, nonprofits, the city government, and the utility. Technical assistance provides analysis and information to support Hill District stakeholders in their goals to create informed residential energy efficiency and renewable energy transition strategies that improve housing conditions and lower energy bills, incorporate energy efficiency and renewable energy strategies into existing, community-driven development efforts, and generate quality local jobs. The Advanced Energy Topics resource is intended to support Hill District community leaders with strategic planning on energy-related topics. The topics included are intended to serve as a technical reference for community leaders to help inform decision-making around energy. The Advanced Energy Topics resource was informed by engagement through the Communities LEAP pilot program with three Hill District Registered Community Organizations: the Hill District Collaborative, the Hill District Consensus Group, and the Hill Community Development Corporation.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

NASA NTRS1994

Domain analysis for the reuse of software development experiences

We need to be able to learn from past experiences so we can improve our software processes and products. The Experience Factory is an organizational structure designed to support and encourage the effective reuse of software experiences. This structure consists of two organizations which separates project development concerns from organizational concerns of experience packaging and learning. The experience factory provides the processes and support for analyzing, packaging, and improving the organization's stored experience. The project organization is structured to reuse this stored experience in its development efforts. However, a number of questions arise: What past experiences are relevant? Can they all be used (reused) on our current project? How do we take advantage of what has been learned in other parts of the organization? How do we take advantage of experience in the world-at-large? Can someone else's best practices be used in our organization with confidence? This paper describes approaches to help answer these questions. We propose both quantitative and qualitative approaches for effectively reusing software development experiences.

Basili, V. R.↗

NASA NTRS2011

Safety and Mission Assurance for In-House Design Lessons Learned from Ares I Upper Stage

This viewgraph presentation identifies lessons learned in the course of the Ares I Upper Stage design and in-house development effort. The contents include: 1) Constellation Organization; 2) Upper Stage Organization; 3) Presentation Structure; 4) Lesson-Importance of Systems Engineering/Integration; 5) Lesson-Importance of Early S&MA Involvement; 6) Lesson-Importance of Appropriate Staffing Levels; 7) Lesson-Importance S&MA Team Deployment; 8) Lesson-Understanding of S&MA In-Line Engineering versus Assurance; 9) Lesson-Importance of Close Coordination between Supportability and Reliability/Maintainability; 10) Lesson-Importance of Engineering Data Systems; 11) Lesson-Importance of Early Development of Supporting Databases; 12) Lesson-Importance of Coordination with Safety Assessment/Review Panels; 13) Lesson-Implementation of Software Reliability; 14) Lesson-Implementation of S&MA Technical Authority/Chief S&MA Officer; 15) Lesson-Importance of S&MA Evaluation of Project Risks; 16) Lesson-Implementation of Critical Items List and Government Mandatory Inspections; 17) Lesson-Implementation of Critical Items List Mandatory Inspections; 18) Lesson-Implementation of Test Article Safety Analysis; and 19) Lesson-Importance of Procurement Quality.

Anderson, Joel M.↗