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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 1,189 records · Page 66

Characterization and wall compatibility testing of a 40K pound thrust class swirl-coaxial injector and calorimeter combustion chamber

Subscale injector-combustor tests under the NASA Space Transportation Engine Thrust Chamber Technology program measured characteristic velocity (c-asterisk) efficiencies and wall heat fluxes for the pressure range 1710 psia to 2360 psia and for the overall O2/H2 mixture ratio range 5.5 to 6.4. Tests involving radially-uniform mixture ratio profiles produced c-asterisk efficiencies above 99 percent; nonuniform profiles associated with wall durability-enhancement schemes resulted in lower efficiencies. Though all three wall protection methods proved successful at reducing wall heat flux, scarfing of the outer-row, swirl-coaxial injection elements was the technique which resulted in the least debit in c-asterisk per unit reduction in heat flux.

Petersen, E. L.↗

The evolution of the moon - A finite element approach

The present lunar evolution model analyzes the thermal history of a self-gravitating spherical planetary body, including the effects of viscous dissipation, internal melting, adiabatic gradient, core formation, variable viscosity, radioactive nucleide decay, and a depth-dependent initial temperature profile, together with physical parameters corresponding to the moon. Although no initial basalt ocean is assumed, partial melting is observed early in the model moon's history. This is suggested to be related to the formation of the basalt maria. The model's present lithospheric thickness is 600 km, with core-mantle temperatures close to 1600 K and surface heat flux of 25.3 mW/sq m. The finite element method is judged to be applicable to the problem of planetary evolution, although faster solution algorithms will be required for the examination of a sufficient number of models.

Chacko, S.↗

Heat generation in aircraft tires under braked rolling conditions

An analytical model was developed to approximate the internal temperature distribution in an aircraft tire operating under conditions of unyawed braked rolling. The model employs an array of elements to represent the tire cross section and considers the heat generated within the tire to be caused by the change in strain energy associated with cyclic tire deflection. The additional heating due to tire slip and stresses induced by braking are superimposed on the previously developed free rolling model. An extensive experimental program was conducted to verify temperatures predicted from the analytical model. Data from these tests were compared with calculations over a range of operating conditions. The model results were in reasonably good agreement with measured values.

Clark, S. K.↗

Electron Beam Welding of Nimonic 80A Superalloy: Microstructure Evolution and EBSD Study After Aging Heat Treatment

The purpose of this research was to evaluate integrity and microstructure changes of the electron beam-welded Nimonic 80A and the base metal after aging heat treatment process, i.e., 700 °C/72 h/air cooling. Here, microstructure, microhardness and tensile were investigated by various tools, i.e., scanning electron microscope with energy-dispersive spectroscopy and electron backscatter diffraction, x-ray diffraction analysis and Vickers hardness. Evaluation of microstructure shows that the weld zone mainly consists of columnar dendrites. The effect of aging heat treatment on the microstructure morphology and phase structure is very limited. Also, it was observed that there are obvious segregation and precipitates in intracrystalline and along the grain boundaries after aging heat treatment. Electron backscatter diffraction results show that the weld zone and base metal have a clear difference in the grain boundary characterization and kernel average misorientation at room temperature and after aging heat treatment, which leads to a difference in microhardness of the weld zone. In addition, the relationship between microhardness and tensile strength is discussed.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

A finite element solution algorithm for nonlinear thermal problems with severe gradients

An implicit enthalpy - flux component finite element algorithm is presented for nonlinear thermal problems with severe gradients. The algorithm is formulated to permit efficient solution of nonlinear heat transfer problems for unstructured meshes with a large range of element sizes. Two transient conduction examples illustrate the effectiveness of the approach for problems with high temperatures and steep gradients.

Thornton, Earl A.↗

Modeling of the Heat-Affected and Thermomechanically Affected Zones in a Ti-6Al-4V Inertia Friction Weld

Inertia friction welding has been used across the aerospace, automotive, and power-generation industries for the fabrication of complex axisymmetric components for over forty years. The process involves one axisymmetric piece being held stationary and another piece being brought into contact set to rotate about its axis of symmetry by a flywheel with the system under an applied load across the joint. Plasticization at the joint interface through the frictional heating sees the two pieces bond together. The titanium alloy Ti-6Al-4V has been widely studied for inertia welding applications. A successful selection of processing parameters (flywheel energy and mass, applied load) allows an inertia welding process which produces a very high-integrity weld, with a minimal heat-affected zone (HAZ) and thermomechanically affected zone (TMAZ), formed as a narrow band at the interface and extending further into the material. The width of this narrow band of heated material is dependent upon the process parameters used. A series of experimental inertia friction welds were performed using Ti-6Al-4V, and a finite element (FE) modeling framework was developed using the FE code Deform in order to predict the widths of the HAZ and TMAZ at the weld interface. The experimentally observed HAZ boundaries were correlated with the thermal fields from the FE model, while TMAZ boundaries were correlated with the Von Mises plastic strain fields.

42 ENGINEERING↗

STE thrust chamber technology: Main injector technology program and nozzle Advanced Development Program (ADP)

The purpose of the STME Main Injector Program was to enhance the technology base for the large-scale main injector-combustor system of oxygen-hydrogen booster engines in the areas of combustion efficiency, chamber heating rates, and combustion stability. The initial task of the Main Injector Program, focused on analysis and theoretical predictions using existing models, was complemented by the design, fabrication, and test at MSFC of a subscale calorimetric, 40,000-pound thrust class, axisymmetric thrust chamber operating at approximately 2,250 psi and a 7:1 expansion ratio. Test results were used to further define combustion stability bounds, combustion efficiency, and heating rates using a large injector scale similar to the Pratt & Whitney (P&W) STME main injector design configuration including the tangential entry swirl coaxial injection elements. The subscale combustion data was used to verify and refine analytical modeling simulation and extend the database range to guide the design of the large-scale system main injector. The subscale injector design incorporated fuel and oxidizer flow area control features which could be varied; this allowed testing of several design points so that the STME conditions could be bracketed. The subscale injector design also incorporated high-reliability and low-cost fabrication techniques such as a one-piece electrical discharged machined (EDMed) interpropellant plate. Both subscale and large-scale injectors incorporated outer row injector elements with scarfed tip features to allow evaluation of reduced heating rates to the combustion chamber.

Source record↗

Extension of a coarse grained particle method to simulate heat transfer in fluidized beds

The heat transfer in a gas-solids fluidized bed is simulated with computational fluid dynamic-discrete element method (CFD-DEM) and coarse grained particle method (CGPM). In CGPM fewer numerical particles and their collisions are tracked by lumping several real particles into a computational parcel. Here, the assumption is that the real particles inside a coarse grained particle (CGP) are made from same species and share identical physical properties including density, diameter and temperature. The parcel-fluid convection term in CGPM is calculated using the same method as in DEM. For all other heat transfer mechanisms, we derive in this study mathematical expressions that relate the new heat transfer terms for CGPM to those traditionally derived in DEM. This newly derived CGPM model is verified and validated by comparing the results with CFD-DEM simulation results and experiment data. The numerical results compare well with experimental data for both hydrodynamics and temperature profiles. Finally, the proposed CGPM model can be used for fast and accurate simulations of heat transfer in large scale gas-solids fluidized beds.

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT↗

Numerical-heating effects in atmospheric pressure streamer discharges simulated with a PIC code

Artificial heating in plasma simulations is a well-known phenomenon which occurs when, among other things, the Debye length is poorly resolved by the simulation mesh. Here, in this work, the degree to which numerical-heating occurs during a simulation of a nanosecond atmospheric pressure streamer discharge is examined. The streamer is simulated using a two-dimensional finite-element, particle-in-cell code Empire, which uses direct simulation Monte Carlo for binary particle interactions. Initially, an estimate of the numerical-heating rate applied to Empire is performed using a simple plasma model. Second, a positive atmospheric pressure streamer discharge simulation is performed to study the effects of numerical heating on plasma density, electron temperature, and streamer velocity. The nominal Debye length is approximately 1 μm and the amount of numerical heating introduced in the simulation is varied by using mesh sizes ranging from 2 μm to 20 μm. A measurable numerical heating quantity is proposed that can be used to estimate the appropriate element size and quantify the numerical-heating that can be expected over the simulation time for an atmospheric pressure streamer. In conclusion while Δx/λ D violations can be an issue it is not likely to be an issue with streamer discharges that are temporally short and occur in environments where collision frequencies are high. This result validates the rationale of grid size choices for a large amount of previously published works where Δx/λ D violation was not clearly addressed. Primary finding of this work is that numerical heating is of minor concern for plasma simulations where electron–neutral collisions are numerous such that multiple collisions can occur within a single plasma period.

Nikic, Dejan [University of New Mexico, Albuquerqu↗

Thermal property measurements on lunar material returned by Apollo 11 and 12 missions.

Measurement of thermal diffusivity on Apollo 11 type A and type C samples in the temperature range between 150 and 440 K under atmospheric pressure. Thermal diffusivity of type C material is lower and less temperature-dependent than type A material. Both types of samples exhibit lower thermal diffusivities than nonporous terrestrial basalt. The rate of heat generation of Apollo 11 and 12 samples was calculated from the concentrations of radioactive elements: potassium, thorium, and uranium. Apollo 11 crystalline rocks show an average rate of heat generation which is not significantly different from terrestrial basalt. The Th/U ratio does not differ greatly from chondritic and terrestrial averages.

Horai, K.-I.↗

Extraction of nuclear fuels from coal using microwave induced plasma gasification and electromagnetic plasma separation processes

Coal is till today the most commonly used fuel worldwide for electricity generation, with the largest consumers being China, USA and India respectively. Coal contains small amounts of radioactive elements such as uranium, thorium, potassium-40, radium and radon, in the range of a few parts per million, which make their removal difficult and economically unfeasible through conventional industrial technologies. The concentrations gets amplified in the coal ash (fly ash), thereby presenting environmental and human health risks. In this preliminary paper, we propose an innovative clean coal technology, namely microwave induced plasma gasification (MIPG) to turn coal into syngas, while the molten residue is sent to a microwave-heated electromagnetic plasma separator for isolation of radioactive elements. With the adoption of this technology, coal producing and consuming nations will be able to satisfy a large portion of their nuclear fuel requirements from clean coal. (author)

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT↗

The Influence of Segregation of Mn on the Recrystallization Behavior of C-Mn Steels

The influence of Mn segregation that occurs during casting on recrystallization kinetics has been explored for a C-Mn automotive steel. A homogenization heat treatment was used to remove Mn segregation, while maintaining a similar initial austenite grain size to the segregated condition, to provide base-line comparison data. Deformation trials were carried out in a Gleeble thermomechanical simulator to 0.3 strains at 900 °C, and significant differences in both recrystallization times and final grain sizes were seen between the two conditions. The segregated sample incurred a longer recrystallization time and a wider recrystallized grain size distribution than the homogenized sample. A finite element model was used to predict the local deformation strains based on variations in material properties caused by segregation; the model used data from XRF elemental mapping of Mn to define the local mechanical properties based on differences in solid solution strengthening. Local strain variations ranging from 0.19 to 0.49 were predicted in the segregated sample for an overall applied 0.3 strain (compared to 0.26 to 0.35 in the homogenized sample); using these strains to predict the recrystallized grain sizes gave a much better prediction for the grain size distribution.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Effects of midplane density gradient in the propagation of high-harmonic fast waves considering high temperature anisotropy in the scrape-off layer of NSTX-U

High-Harmonic Fast Wave (HHFW) heating experiments in NSTX have shown that up to 60% of the injected power can be lost in the Scrape-Off Layer (SOL) when the density is above the fast wave cutoff density in front of the antenna, for which the fast wave is able to propagate into the plasma. This work models HHFW propagation in the SOL plasmas of NSTX-U using a 2D divertor SOL profile derived from the pressure assumption and the finite element temperature solution, which accounts for the high anisotropy of heat conduction in a 2D axisymmetric geometry. In this work, the two-dimensional axisymmetric SOL temperature profile is first evaluated by solving the steady-state non-linear heat conduction equation, in which thermal conductivity depends on temperature, using a finite element approach in the Petra-M workbench. A 2D density profile is then obtained from a prescribed density profile at the outer midplane assuming pressure is uniform along a flux tube in the SOL. This approach results in density and temperature profiles in which the strong asymmetric nature of heat conduction between the parallel and perpendicular background magnetic field is successfully captured. Furthermore, this work focuses on investigating the effect of the SOL plasma density profile on parasitic HHFW propagation in the SOL. The simulation results show that the radial gradient of the density profile affects the wavefield propagation in the SOL. As the density profile broadens, the wavefield intensity and its poloidal extent are reduced in the SOL, and the core coupling increases. Similarly, as shown by collisional power deposition, a proxy for power absorption, the fraction of power deposited in the SOL decreases with a broadening profile.

HHFW↗

Transient thermal analysis of a titanium multiwall thermal protection system

The application of the SPAR thermal analyzer to the thermal analysis of a thermal protection system concept is discussed. The titanium multiwall thermal protection system concept consists of alternate flat and dimpled sheets which are joined together at the crests of the dimples and formed into 30 cm by 30 cm (12 in. by 12 in.) tiles. The tiles are mechanically attached to the structure. The complex tile geometry complicates thermal analysis. Three modes of heat transfer were considered: conduction through the gas inside the tile, conduction through the metal, and radiation between the various layers. The voids between the dimpled and flat sheets were designed to be small enough so that natural convection is insignificant (e.g., Grashof number 1000). A two step approach was used in the thermal analysis of the multiwall thermal protection system. First, an effective normal (through-the-thickness) thermal conductivity was obtained from a steady state analysis using a detailed SPAR finite element model of a small symmetric section of the multiwall tile. This effective conductivity was then used in simple one dimensional finite element models for preliminary analysis of several transient heat transfer problems.

Blosser, M. L.↗

Steady and transient least square solvers for thermal problems

This paper develops a hierarchical least square solution algorithm for highly nonlinear heat transfer problems. The methodology's capability is such that both steady and transient implicit formulations can be handled. This includes problems arising from highly nonlinear heat transfer systems modeled by either finite-element or finite-difference schemes. The overall procedure developed enables localized updating, iteration, and convergence checking as well as constraint application. The localized updating can be performed at a variety of hierarchical levels, i.e., degree of freedom, substructural, material-nonlinear groups, and/or boundary groups. The choice of such partitions can be made via energy partitioning or nonlinearity levels as well as by user selection. Overall, this leads to extremely robust computational characteristics. To demonstrate the methodology, problems are drawn from nonlinear heat conduction. These are used to quantify the robust capabilities of the hierarchical least square scheme.

Padovan, Joe↗

An analytical investigation of shape control of large space structures by applied temperatures

An analytical procedure for the static shape control of flexible space structures subjected to thermal distortions is developed which is based on prescribing temperatures in control elements having much higher coefficients of thermal expansion than the main structure. The temperatures at the control elements are defined so as to minimize the overall thermal distortion of the structure from its ideal shape, and a matrix equation is obtained which can be solved for the set of optimum control temperatures. A formulation of the procedure for continuous structures governed by differential equations and a formulation for discrete (finite element modeled) structures governed by matrix equations are presented. The equations from the continuous formulation are employed for the shape control of a simple beam distorted by nonuniform heating, and the discrete formulation is applied in a general purpose finite-element structural analysis computer program for the shape control of a 750 m radiometer antenna reflector dish subjected to orbital heating. A reduction in thermal distortion by a factor of nearly 50 was obtained with the use of only seven control elements. Results for four different sets of control locations for the antenna are presented in which reductions in distortion of up to a factor of four were obtained.

Haftka, R. T.↗

Analysis of data user's needs for performance evaluation of solar heating and cooling systems

In a successful data acquisition program, the information needs must be evaluated, the design and cost factors of the program must be determined, and a data management loop must be organized and operated in order to collect, process, and disseminate the needed information in useable formats. This paper describes each of these program elements in detail as an aid for the solar heating and cooling data manager and user to implement effective data acquisition and monitoring systems. Consideration is given to the development of evaluation techniques which will aid in the determination of solar energy systems performances.

Christensen, D. L.↗

X-Ray Illumination of the Ejecta of Supernova 1987A

When a massive star explodes as a supernova, substantial amounts of radioactive elements-primarily Ni-56, Ni-57 and Ti-44 are produced. After the initial from shock heating, the light emitted by the supernova is due to the decay of these elements. However, after decades, the energy powering a supernova remnant comes from the shock interaction between the ejecta and the surrounding medium. The transition to this phase has hitherto not been observed: supernovae occur too infrequently in the Milky Way to provide a young example, and extragalactic supernovae are generally too faint and too small. Here we report observations that show this transition in the supernova SN 1987A in the Large Magellan Cloud. From 1994 to 200l, the ejecta faded owing to radioactive decay of Ti-44 as predicted. Then the flux started to increase, more than doubling by the end of 2009. We show that this increase is the result of heat deposited by X-rays produced as the ejecta interacts with the surrounding material. In time, the X-rays will penetrate farther into the ejects, enabling us to analyse the structure and chemistry of the vanished star.

Larsson, J.↗