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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 973 records · Page 54

Multipoint vibrometry with dynamic and static holograms

We report on two multipoint vibrometers with user-adjustable position of the measurement spots. Both systems are using holograms for beam deflection. The measurement is based on heterodyne interferometry with a frequency difference of 5 MHz between reference and object beam. One of the systems uses programmable positioning of the spots in the object volume but is limited concerning the light efficiency. The other system is based on static holograms in combination with mechanical adjustment of the measurement spots and does not have such a general efficiency restriction. Design considerations are given and we show measurement results for both systems. In addition, we analyze the sensitivity of the systems which is a major limitation compared to single point scanning systems.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

Cogging Torque Minimization in Transverse Flux Machines

This paper presents the design considerations in cogging torque minimization in two types of transverse flux machines. The machines have a double stator-single rotor configuration with flux concentrating ferrite magnets. One of the machines has pole windings across each leg of an E-Core stator. Another machine has quasi-U-shaped stator cores and a ring winding. The flux in the stator back iron is transverse in both machines. Different methods of cogging torque minimization are investigated. Key methods of cogging torque minimization are identified and used as design variables for optimization using a design of experiments (DOE) based on the Taguchi method. A three-level DOE is performed to reach an optimum solution with minimum simulations. Finite element analysis is used to study the different effects. Two prototypes are being fabricated for experimental verification.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

Cogging torque minimization in transverse flux machines

This study presents the design considerations in cogging torque minimization in two types of transverse flux machines. The machines have a double stator-single rotor configuration with flux concentrating ferrite magnets. One of the machines has pole windings across each leg of an E-Core stator. Another machine has quasi-U-shaped stator cores and a ring winding. The flux in the stator back iron is transverse in both machines. Different methods of cogging torque minimization are investigated. Key methods of cogging torque minimization are identified and used as design variables for optimization using a design of experiments (DOE) based on the Taguchi method. A multi-level DOE is proposed as an optimization method to reach an optimum solution with minimum simulations. The case study is analyzed in a two level DOE optimization. Finite element analysis is used to study the different effects. Two prototypes are fabricated for validating the FEA results.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

NASA preferred reliability-practices for design and test

NASA HQ established the NASA R&M Steering Committee (R&MSC) comprised of membership from each NASA field center. The primary charter of the R&MSC is to obtain, record, and share the best design practices that NASA has applied to successful space flight programs and current design considerations (guidelines) that should enhance flight reliability on emerging programs. The practices and guidelines are being assembled in a living document for distribution to NASA centers and the aerospace community. The document will be updated annually with additional practices and guidelines as contributions from the centers are reviewed and approved by the R&MSC. Practices and guidelines are not requirements, but rather a means of sharing procedures and techniques that a given center and the R&MSC together feel have strong technical merit and application to the design of space-related equipment.

Lisk, Ronald C.↗

Support trusses for large precision segmented reflectors - Preliminary design and analysis

The Precision Segmented Reflector (PSR) primary structures plan is outlined. Geometries and design considerations for erectable and deployable reflector support structures are discussed. Support truss requirements and goals for the PSR are given, and the results of static and dynamic analyses of a prototype four meter diameter structure are presented. In addition, similar results are presented for two 20-meter diameter support trusses. Implications of the analyses for the PSR program are considered and the formulation and limitations of current PSR finite element models are discussed. It is shown that if the secondary optical system is supported by a simple tripod design, the first six vibration modes are likely to be dominated by the secondary system. The 20-meter diameter support trusses are found to be quite stiff for structures of such large size.

Collins, Timothy J.↗

Thermal Considerations for Meeting 20 C and Stringent Temperature Gradient Requirements of IXO SXT Mirror Modules

The Soft X-Ray Telescope (SXT) is an instrument on the International X-Ray Observatory (IXO). Its flight mirror assembly (FMA) has a single mirror configuration that includes a 3.3 m diameter and 0.93 m tall mirror assembly. It consists of 24 outer modules, 24 middle modules and 12 inner modules. Each module includes more than 200 mirror segments. There are a total of nearly 14,000 mirror segments. The operating temperature requirement of the SXT FMA is 20 C. The spatial temperature gradient requirement between the FMA modules is 1 C or smaller. The spatial temperature gradient requirement within a module is 0.5 C. This paper presents thermal design considerations to meet these stringent thermal requirements.

Choi, Michael K.↗

Nanoscale form dictates mesoscale function in plasmonic DNA–nanoparticle superlattices

The nanoscale manipulation of matter allows properties to be created in a material that would be difficult or even impossible to achieve in the bulk state. Progress towards such functional nanoscale architectures requires the development of methods to precisely locate nanoscale objects in three dimensions and for the formation of rigorous structure–function relationships across multiple size regimes (beginning from the nanoscale). Here, we use DNA as a programmable ligand to show that two- and three-dimensional mesoscale superlattice crystals with precisely engineered optical properties can be assembled from the bottom up. The superlattices can transition from exhibiting the properties of the constituent plasmonic nanoparticles to adopting the photonic properties defined by the mesoscale crystal (here a rhombic dodecahedron) by controlling the spacing between the gold nanoparticle building blocks. Furthermore, we develop a generally applicable theoretical framework that illustrates how crystal habit can be a design consideration for controlling far-field extinction and light confinement in plasmonic metamaterial superlattices.

Ross, Michael B.↗

Design of high deflection foils for MHK applications - CFD files

The Ocean Renewable Power Company's (ORPC's) goal is to design, develop, and test hydrofoils with large deflections. The effects of the deflections on cross-flow turbine performance would be evaluated in order to inform design considerations for full-scale water turbines and other marine hydrokinetic devices. OpenFOAM V1912 files for straight foil model scale turbines in the University of New Hampshire tow tank. Strut Locations = (0.13, 0.225, 0.450, 0.675, 0.900) [m] Tip speed ratio = 2.40

16 TIDAL AND WAVE POWER↗

The Next Generation System Analysis Model: Capabilities for Simulating a Waste Management System - 19131

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Nuclear Energy Office of Spent Fuel and Waste Disposition's Integrated Waste Management System (IWMS) program is applying integrated waste management system architecture analysis, system engineering, and decision analysis principles to inform potential future decisions regarding potential nuclear waste management system architectures. Architecture analyses of the IWMS are being conducted to support the future deployment of a comprehensive system for managing nuclear waste that considers all major aspects of the back end of the nuclear fuel cycle (i.e., transportation, storage, and disposal). The system architecture analyses consider alternative disposition pathways for commercial spent nuclear fuel (SNF) being stored dry in at-reactor Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installations (ISFSIs) or wet in spent-fuel pools. One method for evaluating these alternatives is simulating the movement of SNF throughout the system components. Successfully simulating a system on the scale of a national waste management system requires - accurate baseline information (e.g., historic fuel discharges from reactors and dry storage loadings at reactor sites), - modeling all logistic interactions between components of the proposed system, and - tracking and reporting all relevant details regarding the simulation's execution. The Next Generation System Analysis Model (NGSAM) is an agent-based simulation software tool designed for the express purpose of modeling the IWMS. It is based on the Performance Analysis Tool, a simulation platform that has been used to model logistics for the Department of Defense and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Using existing, government-owned software allows NGSAM developers to modify the software at the level of source code and to develop flexible usability and modeling solutions for developing and running simulations of the IWMS. NGSAM imports data from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) Unified Database (e.g., historic assembly information, thermal profiles for assembly heat, at-reactor dry storage loadings) to ensure that the simulation initializes with a realistic representation of the state of commercial SNF in the United States. NGSAM is designed with the flexibility to model and track the behavior of virtually any IWMS architecture assumptions or design considerations. For example, NGSAM can model multiple interim storage facilities or repositories or none at all. Similarly, all assumptions regarding shipment schedules, operating schedules, and reactor operation assumptions can be modeled and adjusted in NGSAM with relative ease. The development of NGSAM was targeted to waste management system analysts as the primary users. With that in mind, analysts from ORNL, Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), and Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) were intimately involved in the development process. That involvement extended beyond merely defining requirements. System analysts have been involved with design decisions and software benchmarking and tests, and they have provided subject-matter expertise where necessary. The result is a high degree of interaction between professional software developers and system analysts, with a multitude of benefits to both groups. This paper explores some of the underlying methodology of the agile software development process used in the creation of NGSAM. It illustrates the capabilities of NGSAM. Some example use cases are discussed as well, with relevant results providing context for how NGSAM is used by system analysts to gain a greater understanding of alternative waste management system architectures. This is a technical paper that does not take into account the contractual limitations under the Standard Contract for Disposal of Spent Nuclear Fuel and/or High-Level Radioactive Waste (Standard Contract) (10 CFR Part 961). Under the provisions of the Standard Contract, DOE does not consider spent nuclear fuel in multi-assembly canisters to be an acceptable waste form, absent a mutually agreed-to contract amendment. To the extent discussions or recommendations in this paper conflict with the provisions of the Standard Contract, the Standard Contract provisions prevail. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗

A scalable framework for the global offline community land model ensemble simulation

Current earth system models have a large range of uncertainty, owing to differences in the simulation of feedbacks and insufficient information to constrain model parameters. Parameter disturbance experiment provides a straightforward method to quantify the variation (uncertainty) outputs caused by model inputs. Owing to the software complexity and computational intensity of earth system models, a large-scale simulation framework is needed to support ensemble simulation required by parameter disturbance experiment. This paper presents a parallel framework for the community land model ensemble simulation. After a software structure review of the community land model simulation, a single factor parameter disturbance experiment of a reference computational experiment design is used to demonstrate the software design principles, computational characteristics of individual application, parallel ensemble simulation implementation, as well as the weak scalability of this simulation framework on a high-end computer. Lastly, the paper discusses some preliminary diagnostic analysis results of the single factor parameter disturbance experiments. The framework design considerations and implementation details described in this paper can be beneficial to many other research programmes involving large scale, legacy modelling system.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

Using VAPEPS for noise control on Space Station Freedom

Noise environmental control is an important design consideration for Space Station Freedom (SSF), both for crew safety and productivity. Acoustic noise requirements are established to eliminate fatigue and potential hearing loss by crew members from long-term exposure and to facilitate speech communication. VAPEPS (VibroAcoustic Payload Environment Prediction System) is currently being applied to SSF for prediction of the on-orbit noise and vibration environments induced in the 50 to 10,000 Hz frequency range. Various sources such as fans, pumps, centrifuges, exercise equipment, and other mechanical devices are used in the analysis. The predictions will be used in design tradeoff studies and to provide confidence that requirements will be met. Preliminary predictions show that the required levels will be exceeded unless substantial noise control measures are incorporated in the SSF design. Predicted levels for an SSF design without acoustic control treatments exceed requirements by 25 dB in some one-third octave frequency bands.

Badilla, Gloria↗

Computer-Controlled Cylindrical Polishing Process for Development of Grazing Incidence Optics for Hard X-Ray Region

The presentation includes grazing incidence X-ray optics, motivation and challenges, mid spatial frequency generation in cylindrical polishing, design considerations for polishing lap, simulation studies and experimental results, future scope, and summary. Topics include current status of replication optics technology, cylindrical polishing process using large size polishing lap, non-conformance of polishin lap to the optics, development of software and polishing machine, deterministic prediction of polishing, polishing experiment under optimum conditions, and polishing experiment based on known error profile. Future plans include determination of non-uniformity in the polishing lap compliance, development of a polishing sequence based on a known error profile of the specimen, software for generating a mandrel polishing sequence, design an development of a flexible polishing lap, and computer controlled localized polishing process.

Khan, Gufran Sayeed↗

Adiabatic and isothermal configurations for Re 4 Si 7 transverse thermoelectric power generators

We report that transverse thermoelectric generators (TTEGs) have the potential to overcome two challenging problems that limit the commercial application of classical thermoelectric generators (TEGs): the significant irreversible efficiency losses in the contacts and the thermal degradation of the contacts at the hot end. TTEGs are built from a single material that can generate a thermoelectric current in a direction that is orthogonal to a temperature gradient. They only require a single set of contacts that are displaced away from the hot end. Here, we experimentally explore the device design considerations for optimizing the performance of this far less explored class of thermal-to-electric generation devices. We fabricate Re 4 Si 7 TTEGs and show that there is no measurable loss in efficiency with a single set of contacts that are midway between the hot and cold ends. We show that a new effect must be considered: the appearance of transverse thermal gradients that lead to significant differences between the performance of TTEGs implemented in isothermal and adiabatic geometries. The isothermal TTEG configuration leads to much higher device efficiencies. Overall, this work highlights how different the design of TTEGs is from that of conventional TEGs and the importance of controlling the device geometry for optimum waste heat recovery.

30 DIRECT ENERGY CONVERSION↗

Design of a blade-stiffened composite panel with a hole

A procedure is developed analytically to design and produce an optimized stiffened panel with a centrally located hole. The PASCO panel-buckling analysis and sizing code is employed with the Engineering Analysis Language (EAL) code for finite-element analysis to optimize the design variables. Important design considerations are stiffener height and ply thicknesses in the skin and the stiffener laminates. The EAL code calculates the maximum strains around the hole boundary, and the resulting constraints are combined with the buckling constraint developed by the PASCO code. Cooptimization of the two codes is effected until convergence on the optimal solution is achieved. Results of the analytical procedure are experimentally verified by applying a compressive end-load to graphite-fiber laminated plates with center holes. The experimental results support the analytical procedure, and it is found that for the same weight, the soft-skin designs tested are found to have the best tolerance characteristics and resistance to failure.

Nagendra, S.↗

Optimization of Air-Gap Profile in Interior Permanent-Magnet Synchronous Motors for Torque Ripple Mitigation

Interior permanent magnet synchronous motors (IPMSMs) have been widely used due to their high efficiency and high power density. Minimization of torque pulsation resulting in vibration and acoustic noise is one of the important design considerations for IPMSMs. In this paper, a grid on/off search method for the rotor profile is proposed to mitigate torque pulsation. Selection of the rotor profile is due to the fact that air-gap is the most sensitive parameter in electric machines wherein changes in flux densities can cause substantial differences in the distribution of forces. A layer comprised of 20 partitions with a 0.1 mm thickness and 3 degrees wide grids have been introduced to the rotor surface for each pole and the possible geometries have been analyzed using finite element method (FEM) in ANSYS Maxwell. An optimal design was found that has the lowest torque ripple with a higher average torque compared to the original design. Genetic algorithm (GA) has also been applied to the method to automate the coupling between Maxwell and Matlab thereby saving the simulation time. Finally, complete structural analysis has been done for both of the original and optimal designs to verify the superiority and feasibility of the proposed design.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Long-term radiation effects on GaAs solar cell characteristics

This report investigates preliminary design considerations which should be considered for a space experiment involving Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) solar cells. The electron radiation effects on GaAs solar cells were conducted in a laboratory environment, and a statistical analysis of the data is presented. In order to augment the limited laboratory data, a theoretical investigation of the effect of radiation on GaAs solar cells is also developed. The results of this study are empirical prediction equations which can be used to estimate the actual damage of electrical characteristics in a space environment. The experimental and theoretical studies also indicate how GaAs solar cell parameters should be designed in order to withstand the effects of electron radiation damage.

Heinbockel, J. H.↗

A Novel Multi-Spacecraft Interplanetary Global Trajectory Optimization Transcription

As the frontier of space exploration continues to advance, so does the design complexity of future interplanetary missions. One avenue of this increasing complexity includes a class of designs known as "Distributed Spacecraft Missions"; missions where multiple spacecraft coordinate to perform shared objectives. Current approaches for the global trajectory optimization of these Multi-Vehicle Missions (MVMs) are prone to shortcomings including laborious iterative design, considerable human-in-the-loop effort, treatment of the multi-vehicle problem as multiple separate trajectory optimization subproblems (resulting in suboptimal solutions where the whole is less than the sum of its parts), and poor handling of coordination objectives and constraints. There are only a handful of software platforms in existence capable of fully-automated, rapid, interplanetary mission and systems global optimization including the Parallel Global Multiobjective Optimizer (PaGMO), the Gravity Assisted Low-thrust Local Optimization Program (GALLOP), and the Evolutionary Mission Trajectory Generator (EMTG). However, none of these tools is capable of performing such tasks for MVM designs. The work outlined in this paper lays the groundwork for a technique to begin addressing these shortcomings. We present a fully-automated technique which frames interplanetary MVMs as Multi-Objective, Multi-Agent Hybrid Optimal Control Problems (MOMA HOCP). First, the basic functionality of this technique is validated on the single-vehicle problem of reproducing the Cassini interplanetary cruise.

Interplanetary↗

A Novel Multi-Spacecraft Interplanetary Global Trajectory Optimization Transcription

As the frontier of space exploration continues to advance, so does the design complexity of future interplanetary missions. One avenue of this increasing complexity includes a class of designs known as ``Distributed Spacecraft Missions"; missions where multiple spacecraft coordinate to perform shared objectives. Current approaches for the global trajectory optimization of these Multi-Vehicle Missions (MVMs) are prone to shortcomings including laborious iterative design, considerable human-in-the-loop effort, treatment of the multi-vehicle problem as multiple separate trajectory optimization subproblems (resulting in suboptimal solutions where the whole is less than the sum of its parts), and poor handling of coordination objectives and constraints. There are only a handful of software platforms in existence capable of fully-automated, rapid, interplanetary mission and systems global optimization including the Parallel Global Multiobjective Optimizer (PaGMO), the Gravity Assisted Low-thrust Local Optimization Program (GALLOP), and the Evolutionary Mission Trajectory Generator (EMTG). However, none of these tools is capable of performing such tasks for MVM designs. The work outlined in this paper lays the groundwork for a technique to begin addressing these shortcomings. We present a fully-automated technique which frames interplanetary MVMs as Multi-Objective, Multi-Agent Hybrid Optimal Control Problems (MOMA HOCP). First, the basic functionality of this technique is validated on the single-vehicle problem of reproducing the Cassini interplanetary cruise.

Napier, Sean W.↗