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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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The Boeing Commercial Airplane Company developed an inviscid three-dimensional lifting surface method that shows promise in being able to accurately predict loads, subsonic and supersonic, on wings with leading-edge separation and reattachment.
This Technical Collaboration Project focused on packaging large tow (≥ 10 grams/meter) textile carbon fibers, for which currently there is no suitable method. Prior to this project, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) used a crude packaging approach to deliver (approximately) 100-meter packages for evaluation by intermediates producers, composites fabricators and other collaborators. That packaging approach was simply a hoop wrap on a standard 75 mm (3 inch) cardboard tube, with paper interleaved between layers and little or no tension control during spooling. While this approach was very effective for initial fiber development and sample fiber and small composite sample evaluation, these packages were inadequate for larger-scale demonstrations and more extensive applications development. The paper-interleaved packages were inconsistent, wasteful, and too small for commercial utilization; they were designed as a quick and simple means to package material for delivery into prototyping operations and were never expected to satisfy industrial requirements for commercial production. This project aimed to develop a commercially relevant approach for packaging large tow textile carbon fibers for robust delivery into downstream commercial intermediates and composites production operations. The development of robust packaging equipment that delivers packages meeting industrial requirements is essential to commercial implementation. In this project, the team identified packaging requirements, created a design, and prototyped a new packaging concept at ORNL’s Carbon Fiber Technology Facility (CFTF) and resulting packages were tested in production of non-crimp fabric (NCF).
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Building Technologies tasked Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to develop construction weights for various commercial building categories for the purpose of estimating weighted national energy savings from the development of ANSI/ASHRAE/IESNA Standard 90.1-2019 compared to ANSI/ASHRAE/IESNA Standard 90.1-2016. Disaggregate construction volume data was acquired from the McGraw Hill Construction Database for the years 2003-2018 and analyzed to develop detailed construction weights by climate zones, subzones and by states. These weights are provided in this report and will be subsequently used in developing a weighted national energy savings estimate for the impact of the 2019 standard. For the current update, PNNL reviewed the same data source with the latest construction data for the years 2003-2018.
The mission of the NASA Microgravity program is to utilize the unique characteristics of the space environment, primarily the near absence of gravity, to understand the role of gravity in materials processing, and to demonstrate the feasibility of space production of improved materials that have high technological, and possible commercial, utility. The following five goals for the Microgravity Program are discussed: (1) Develop a comprehensive research program in fundamental sciences, materials science, and biotechnology for the purpose of attaining a structured understanding of gravity dependent physical phenomena in both Earth and non-Earth environments; (2) Foster the growth of interdisciplinary research community to conduct research in the space environment; (3) Encourage international cooperation for the purpose of conducting research in the space environment; (4) Utilize a permanently manned, multi-facility national microgravity laboratory in low-Earth orbit to provide a long-duration, stable microgravity environment; (5) Promote industrial applications of space research for the development of new, commercially viable products, services, and markets resulting from research in the space environment.
The Visiting Investigator Program (VIP) developed at NASA-Stennis' Science and Technology Laboratory (STL) allows U.S. industry to use the specialized resources of STL in the fields of remote sensing and GIS, with a view to the development of new commercial processes and improved services. Attention is given to the novel agreement mechanisms developed by NASA to implement VIP. These agreements encompass a memorandum of understanding, a technical exchange agreement, a sponsored-transfer agreement, a proprietary work agreement, and a joint endeavor agreement.
For over 10 years, NASA has been working with U.S.-based commercial companies to support the design, development, and operations of new commercial space vehicles. The purpose of these vehicles is to provide cargo and crew transportation services to the International Space Station (ISS) and to stimulate the commercial space transportation industry to Low-Earth Orbit (LEO). Along with the ability to provide a couple tons of cargo to the ISS each mission, the commercial visiting vehicles also provide the ability to transfer NASA payloads to and from the ISS in an active, powered state. To take advantage of this capability, NASA requirements for the data services that payloads need while they are integrated into the visiting vehicles have grown with each set of commercial contracts. Today, NASA desires for payload data services encompass a variety of capabilities including payload health and status (H&S) telemetry monitoring, visiting vehicle environment data monitoring, and payload commanding. The intent of these capabilities is to provide payload developers with situational awareness and the ability to quickly diagnose any problems with payload operations prior to vehicle docking or post-landing to support immediate troubleshooting response. As new requirements for payload data services have emerged over the years, the ISS Payload Operations Integration Center (POIC) at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) has established ground segment interfaces to the visiting vehicle control centers to enable payload developers to use these services. Many technical and programmatic challenges have been faced while establishing these interfaces. The most significant challenge faced has been in finding the right balance amongst providing interfaces to payloads that are compatible with the ISS so that payload hardware or software changes are not necessary to ensure compatibility with the visiting vehicles; keeping POIC ground system development costs low by standardizing implementation approaches across commercial vehicle partners; and fostering commercialization through supporting vendor-unique implementations that are commercially economical. This paper will first detail the data services that will be available to payload users under each commercial visiting vehicle contract. Secondly, this paper will offer discussion of the most significant technical and programmatic challenges faced to-date in offering these new data services to payload developers.
Authorized by the Nuclear Energy Innovation Capabilities Act (NEICA), the National Reactor Innovation Center (NRIC) provides private sector technology developers access to strategic infrastructures and assets for commercial nuclear energy research, development, demonstration, and deployment activities. The mission is to support a timely and cost-effective path to the licensing and commercialization of new nuclear energy systems. To meet these needs, NRIC is developing two test beds at Idaho National Laboratory (INL). The ZPPR Test bed (ZTB) and the EBR-II Test bed (ETB). The EBR-II test bed will support the demonstration of systems that operate at less than 10 MWt. The baseline objective is for the EBR-II Dome to act as a safety significant containment structure capable of siting reactors that utilize Safeguards Category 4 material for operations. The major areas addressed in the pre-conceptual design include: • Installation of an access door • Electrical Power • Heat Removal • Ventilation in the Dome • Module handling system Along with the design for ETB a concept of operations (COP) has also been developed. The COP is intended to facilitate a common understanding of ideas, challenges, and issues. As systems continue to evolve in complexity System Engineers and Project Directors will utilize the COP to develop and sustain a common vision of the system for stakeholders.
Authorized by the Nuclear Energy Innovation Capabilities Act (NEICA), the National Reactor Innovation Center (NRIC) provides private sector technology developers access to strategic infrastructures and assets for commercial nuclear energy research, development, demonstration, and deployment activities. The mission is to support a timely and cost-effective path to the licensing and commercialization of new nuclear energy systems. To meet these needs, NRIC is developing two reactor demonstration test beds at Idaho National Laboratory (INL), the ZPPR Test bed (ZTB) and the EBR-II Test bed (ETB). ZTB will support the demonstration of systems that operate at less than 500 kWt. The baseline objective is for the ZPPR Cell to act as a confinement structure capable of siting reactors that utilize Safeguards Category 1 material for operations. The major areas addressed in the pre-conceptual design include: • Installation of an access door • Electrical Power • Heat Removal • Ventilation in the Cell • Reactor Installation Along with the design for ZTB, a concept of operations (COP) has also been developed. The COP is intended to facilitate a common understanding of ideas, challenges, and issues. As systems continue to evolve in complexity System Engineers and Project Directors will utilize and update the COP to develop and sustain a common vision of the system for stakeholders.
This report describes the development of a three-dimensional database of aircraft fuel use and emissions (NO(x), CO, and hydrocarbons) for the commercial aircraft fleet projected to 2020. Global totals of emissions and fuel burn for 2020 are compared to global totals from previous aircraft emission scenario calculations.
This talk described hardware developments to enable research on commercially-available vehicles at scale.
The paper reviews the evolution of the U.S. Materials Processing In Space Program, current materials processing in space program, and future programs. The discussion covers a summary of significant findings from previous flight experiments, a current assessment of the attractive areas for future experimentation, and a synopsis of the experiments accepted for future Space Processing Application Rocket (SPAR) and Spacelab flights. The ultimate goal is to develop a viable commercial interest in using space (1) to perform research for improving industrial technology or developing new products; (2) to prepare research quantities of material to serve as paradigms for comparing current earth-based technologies; (3) to manufacture limited quantities of a unique product to test market potential, or to fulfill a limited but compelling need; and (4) to produce materials in space of adequate quantity and value to be economically self-sufficient.
There has recently been renewed interest in the development of instrumentation for making measurements on the surface of Mars. This is due to the Mars Environmental Survey (MESUR) Mission, for which approximately 16 small, long-lived (2-10 years), relatively inexpensive surface stations will be deployed in a planet-wide network. This will allow the investigation of processes (such as seismology and meteorology) which require the simultaneous measurement of phenomena at many widely spaced locations on the surface over a considerable length of time. Due to the large number of vehicles involved, the mass, power, and cost of the payload will be severely constrained. A seismometer has been identified as one of the highest priority instruments in the MESUR straw-man payload. The requirements for an effective seismic experiment on Mars place a number of constraints on any viable sensor design. First, a large number of sensors must be deployed in a long-lived global network in order to be able to locate many events reliably, provide good spatial sampling of the interior, and increase the probability of seismic detection in the event of localized seismicity and/or high attenuation. From a practical standpoint, this means that individual surface stations will necessarily be constrained in terms of cost, mass, and power. Landing and thermal control systems will probably be simple, in order to minimize cost, resulting in large impact accelerations and wide daily and seasonal thermal swings. The level of seismic noise will determine the maximum usable sensitivity for seismometer. Unfortunately, the ambient seismic noise level for Mars is not well known. However lunar seismic noise levels are several orders of magnitude below that of the Earth. Sensitivities on the order of 10(exp -11)g over a bandwidth of .04 to 20 Hz are thought to be necessary to fulfill the science objectives for a seimometer placed on the Martian surface. Silicon micromachined sensor technology offers techniques for the fabrication of monolithic, robust, compact, lower power and mass accelerometers. Conventional micro-machined accelerometers have been developed and are commercially available for high frequency and large acceleration measurements. The new seismometer we are developing incorporates certain principles of conventional silicon micromachined accelerometer technology. However, currently available silicon micromachined sensors offer inadequate sensitivity and bandwidth for the Mars seismometer application. Our implementation of an advanced silicon micromachined seismometer is based on principles recently developed at JPL for high-sensitivity position sensor technology.
Natural gas generators are now the largest producers of electricity in the United States and the largest single end-use consumer of natural gas. Natural gas markets, which first developed to meet commercial and residential heating demands during winter months, are now entwined with electricity markets, which developed when natural gas provided a much lower fraction of total fuel supply for the electricity market. More coordination, both in daily operations and long-term planning, is required to ensure the continued supply of reliable electricity and natural gas. This report provides an overview of the evolution and current state of electricity and natural gas markets in the United States and summarizes the ways in which the two industries interact. The report describes areas warranting greater coordination between the natural gas and electricity industries. This report also discusses the current state of natural gas and electricity models and the need for integrated models that include dynamic simulations of pipeline operations, especially when large amounts of variable generation exists in the electrical system. It outlines current modeling work being done to better simulate operations and planning of both systems.
The specific goal of the NSF geothermal program is the rapid development by industry of the nation's geothermal resources that can be demonstrated to be commercially, environmentally and socially acceptable as alternate energy sources. NSF, as the lead agency for the federal geothermal energy research program, is expediting a program which encompasses the objectives necessary for significant utilization. These include: acceleration of exploration and assessment methods to identify commercial geothermal resources; development of innovative and improved technology to achieve economic feasibility; evaluation of policy options to resolve environmental, legal, and institutional problems; and support of experimental research facilities for each type of geothermal resource. Specific projects in each of these four objective areas are part of the NSF program for fiscal year 1975.
During the grant period, several tasks were performed in support of the NASA Turbulence Prediction and Warning Systems (TPAWS) program. The primary focus of the research was on characterizing the preturbulence environment by developing predictive tools and simulating atmospheric conditions that preceded severe turbulence. The goal of the research being to provide both dynamical understanding of conditions that preceded turbulence as well as providing predictive tools in support of operational NASA B-757 turbulence research flights. The advancements in characterizing the preturbulence environment will be applied by NASA to sensor development for predicting turbulence onboard commercial aircraft. Numerical simulations with atmospheric models as well as multi-scale observational analyses provided insights into the environment organizing turbulence in a total of forty-eight specific case studies of severe accident producing turbulence on commercial aircraft. These accidents exclusively affected commercial aircraft. A paradigm was developed which diagnosed specific atmospheric circulation systems from the synoptic scale down to the meso-y scale that preceded turbulence in both clear air and in proximity to convection. The emphasis was primarily on convective turbulence as that is what the TPAWS program is most focused on in terms of developing improved sensors for turbulence warning and avoidance. However, the dynamical paradigm also has applicability to clear air and mountain turbulence. This dynamical sequence of events was then employed to formulate and test new hazard prediction indices that were first tested in research simulation studies and then ultimately were further tested in support of the NASA B-757 turbulence research flights. The new hazard characterization algorithms were utilized in a Real Time Turbulence Model (RTTM) that was operationally employed to support the NASA B-757 turbulence research flights. Improvements in the RTTM were implemented in an effort to increase the accuracy of the operational characterization of the preturbulence environment. Additionally, the initial research necessary to create a statistical evaluation scheme for the characterization indices utilized in the RTTM was undertaken. Results of all components of this research were then published in NASA contractor reports and scientific journal papers.
United States policy and approach that underpinned the growth of global commercial nuclear trade and the development of a robust global commercial nuclear energy industry, while effectively addressing the threat of non-peaceful uses of commercial technologies, are in desperate need of modernization. Decades-old policies, incrementally evolved and implemented over the years, no longer provide the necessary bases for effective U.S. industrial engagement in global markets of increasingly complex strategic importance to U.S. national security interests and commerce. This year marks the sixtieth anniversary of commercial nuclear energy, and the sixty-fourth year since the introduction of the ground-breaking Atoms for Peace program. Much has changed in over half a century; and U.S. leadership and influence in nuclear energy is now at a tipping point, with substantial new national security implications at stake. It is time to re-assess the national security equation for U.S. involvement in global nuclear trade, re-value our engagement based on a modern calculation of national security benefit from such engagement, and modernize our trade and related policies accordingly. In this paper, we review the relevant historical context, provide a modern national security structure and rationale from which to view U.S. leadership in commercial nuclear energy, and suggest actions that might be taken to enhance U.S. interests.
This report provides an overview of global and Chile-specific market trends, technological advancements, and policy developments related to commercial refrigeration equipment, with an emphasis on refrigerated display cabinets. Section 2 examines CRE market trends at the global and Chilean levels. Section 3 presents CRE energy consumption and the latest technological options for improving energy performance. It also discusses low global warming potential (GWP)1 refrigerant options for CRE. Section 4 provides a cost-effectiveness analysis. Section 5 reviews other regional energy efficiency standards and labeling programs and offers potential standard requirements for Chile. Section 6 concludes the report by summarizing key findings and conclusions. Finally, Appendix A provides detailed guidelines intended as a starting point to inform policies and programmes.
The Research Triangle Institute (RTI) is pleased to report the results of NASA contract NASW-4367, 'Operation of a Technology Applications Team'. Through a period of significant change within NASA, the RTI Team has maintained its focus on helping NASA establish partnerships with U.S. industry for dual use development and technology commercialization. Our emphasis has been on outcomes, such as licenses, industry partnerships and commercialization of technologies that are important to NASA in its mission of contributing to the improved competitive position of U.S. industry. RTI's ongoing commitment to quality and customer responsiveness has driven our staff to continuously improve our technology transfer methodologies to meet NASA's requirements. For example, RTI has emphasized the following areas: (1) Methodology For Technology Assessment and Marketing: RTI has developed an implemented effective processes for assessing the commercial potential of NASA technologies. These processes resulted from an RTI study of best practices, hands-on experience, and extensive interaction with the NASA Field Centers to adapt to their specific needs; (2) Effective Marketing Strategies: RTI surveyed industry technology managers to determine effective marketing tools and strategies. The Technology Opportunity Announcement format and content were developed as a result of this industry input. For technologies with a dynamic visual impact, RTI has developed a stand-alone demonstration diskette that was successful in developing industry interest in licensing the technology; and (3) Responsiveness to NASA Requirements: RTI listened to our customer (NASA) and designed our processes to conform with the internal procedures and resources at each NASA Field Center and the direction provided by NASA's Agenda for Change. This report covers the activities of the Research Triangle Institute Technology Applications Team for the period 1 October 1993 through 31 December 1994.