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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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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Thin Film Sensors for Fission Surface Power

Physical sensors fabricated with thin films could result a significant savings in space and weight with improved reliability for monitoring the long-term operation of fission surface power systems. Thin film sensors of 1 µm or less are attractive for FSP applications because they can be incorporated onto component surfaces with minimal machining and the additional weight to a system is minimal compared to thick film-, wire-, or foil-based sensors. The thin, surface fabrication of the sensors is also expected to make them less susceptible to deep dose effects that affect thicker sensors. An overview of thin film sensors using thermocouples and resistive elements designed, fabricated, and demonstrated at GRC for aerospace applications exceeding 900°C is presented.

Physical Sensors↗
NASA NTRS2026

Smart Process Planning for Automated Fiber Placement

Many industries, including aerospace, automotive, wind energy, maritime, and sporting goods, rely on strong, lightweight materials called composites. These materials are made by layering fibers, which can come in the form of narrow strips or wider sheets, and setting them in a polymer matrix. One of the most advanced ways to make these parts is through automated fiber placement, where a machine lays down the fibers in precise patterns. This method can create very efficient and strong designs, but it is complex, expensive, and often depends heavily on the experience of skilled engineers. Today, the design, manufacturing, and inspection stages of composite production are usually handled separately. This separation means that important information, such as how a part will be built or what defects might occur, is not always shared between stages. As a result, parts may not be as lightweight, strong, or defect-free as possible, and the process can take longer and cost more. This research develops a smart process planning system that connects design, manufacturing, and inspection into one continuous process. Built as software that works with existing tools, the system can automatically plan how the fibers are placed, predicting and reducing defects while improving both manufacturability and strength. The system optimizes not only individual layers but also how defects are distributed across all layers, preventing them from stacking up in ways that weaken the final part. It also uses inspection results from completed parts to improve future designs, creating a feedback loop where each stage informs the others. The system was tested by designing a composite panel using this new approach and comparing it to a panel made with state-of-the-art manual planning methods. The results showed that the system could intentionally control where defects appeared and increase the efficiency of the planning process. By unifying design, manufacturing, and inspection, this research shows a way to make advanced composite manufacturing more efficient, consistent, and cost-effective. This approach lowers the barrier to using automated fiber placement and opens the door for its wider adoption not only in aerospace but also in industries such as automotive, wind energy, maritime, and sporting goods, where strong and lightweight structures are essential.

Computer-Aided Process Planning↗
NASA NTRS2026

Manufacturing and Scale-Up of Natural Fiber Composite eVTOL Propeller Skin and C-Channel

This report presents the manufacturing and scale-up of natural fiber composites for aerospace applications, conducted within NASA’s Convergent Aeronautics Solutions portfolio to advance aircraft capabilities and efficiency. The effort focused on the development and demonstration of two proof-of-concept articles, an Electric Vertical Take-off and Landing (eVTOL) propeller skin and a C-channel, produced through an iterative design and process optimization approach. Best practices and guidance on addressing key challenges with bio-based composite materials and manufacturing is provided. Ideally suited for non-load-bearing structural components, these emerging materials offer potential for weight reduction, vibration damping, noise mitigation, interference-free communication, and cost savings, without compromising the performance of safety-critical primary structures.

Natural fibers↗
NASA NTRS2020

An Ultra-long Life, High-performance, Flexible Li-CO2Battery Based on Multifunctional Carbon Electrocatalysts

Integrating CO2 utilization and renewable energy delivery/storage, the rechargeable Li–CO2 battery has been considered as a promising candidate for next-generation secondary batteries. However, high-performance catalyst(s) for efficient formation and decomposition of the discharge product, Li2CO3, are an imperative part of a Li–CO2 battery. The development of flexible Li–CO2 batteries extends their applications into compliant and wearable devices/systems, but at the same time imposes a big challenge for battery fabrication and lifetime enhancement. In this study, a rechargeable quasi-solidus flexible Li–CO2 battery was designed and fabricated using highly active N,S-doped carbon nanotubes (N,S-doped CNTs) as the cathode catalyst, and a smart polymer gel as the flexible electrolyte. This newly-developed flexible Li–CO2 battery exhibited a capacity as high as 23560 mAh g−1 based on the catalyst mass and an ultra-long lifetime of up to 538 cycles with excellent mechanical flexibility. This work provides a platform for the design and development of high-performance flexible Li–CO2 batteries from low-cost, earth-abundant, carbon-based multifunctional cathode catalysts.

Superior stability↗
NASA NTRS1993

A SIMULINK Environment for Flight Dynamics and Control Analysis - Application to the DHC-2 'Beaver', Part 1. Implementation of a Model Library in SIMULINK

The design of advanced Automatic Aircraft Control Systems (AACS's) can be improved upon considerably if the designer can access all models and tools required for control system design and analysis through a graphical user-interface, from within one software environment. This MSc-thesis presents the first step in the development of such an environment, which is currently being done at the Section for Stability and Control of Delft University of Technology, Faculty of Aerospace Engineering. The environment is implemented within the commercially available software package MATLAB/SIMULINK. The report consists of two parts. Part I gives a detailed description of the AACS design environment. The heart of this environment is formed by the SIMULINK implementation of a nonlinear aircraft model in block-diagram format. The model has been worked out for the old laboratory aircraft of the Faculty, the De Havilland DHC-2 'Beaver', but due to its modular structure, it can easily be adapted for other aircraft. Part I also describes MATLAB programs which can be applied for finding steady-state trimmed-flight conditions and for linearization of the aircraft model, and it shows how the built-in simulation routines of SIMULINK have been used for open-loop analysis of the aircraft dynamics. Apart from the implementation of the models and tools, a thorough treatment of the theoretical backgrounds is presented. Part II of this report presents a part of an autopilot design process for the 'Beaver' aircraft, which clearly demonstrates the power and flexibility of the AACS design environment from part I. Evaluations of all longitudinal and lateral control laws by means of nonlinear simulations are treated in detail. The AACS design environment from part I proved to be a very useful tool for designing the control laws of the 'Beaver' autopilot within a very tight time-schedule. The autopilot design process itself will be used as a guideline for future AACS research at the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering. Flight tests of the 'Beaver' autopilot, done after evaluating the control laws in the SIMULINK package, proved to be quite successful. In the future, the AACS design package will evolve into a standardized, integrated design environment which can be applied to virtually any type of aircraft. The AACS design cycle will be shortened further by developing tools for automatically porting control laws from the MATLAB/SIMULINK environment to a piloted real-time flight simulator and the Flight Control Computers of the aircraft.

Aircraft Modelling↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Softening the Gap between Wöhler and Paris – New Approaches for Fatigue Analysis –

Fatigue analysis tools can vary across industries. For example, automotive engineers often use the Wöhler (S-N) approach to design for safe-life, while aerospace engineers prioritize damage tolerance and inspection intervals, relying instead on crack growth models such as Paris’ law. Although both approaches may deal with the control of cracks in similar materials, their analysis tools and material characterizations are fundamentally distinct. This divide mirrors the classic split between stress-based strength analysis and linear elastic fracture mechanics. However, modern nonlinear models that incorporate material softening, such as cohesive laws, blur this boundary and capture fracture behaviors across scales. This presentation describes the CF23 fatigue model, which uses cohesive softening to link S-N crack initiation with crack propagation rates. CF23 spans the full fatigue spectrum, from initial propagation transients to steady-state growth and threshold conditions, offering a unified framework that bridges Wöhler and Paris-based methodologies. Example applications include fatigue crack propagation transients in adhesive interfaces and skin/stiffener separation.

cohesive elements↗
NASA NTRS2026

Fatigue Behavior of Laser Powder Bed Fused HAYNES 214: Effects of Different Surface Treatments

In this study, under NASA’s Rapid and Analysis Manufacturing Propulsion Technology (RAMPT) project, effects of different surface post-treatments on surface texture and fatigue behavior of L-PBF Alloy 214 were investigated. Various subtractive SPTs including abrasive flow machining (AFM), machining (M), shot peening (SP), vapormatt (VM), dry electropolishing (DE), chemical milling (CM), chemical-mechanical polishing (CMP), electro chemical (ECP) were applied to study the variations of the surface texture, microstructure and uniaxial fatigue behavior under fully reversed strain-controlled condition at four different strain amplitudes of 0.005, 0.004, 0.003, and 0.0025 mm/mm. The insights gained regarding the relationship between structural and mechanical properties for different SPTs can help establish guidelines for selecting the most effective process to enhance the performance of Laser Powder Bed Fusion (L-PBF) Alloy 214, especially for critical aerospace applications.

Post-Processing↗
NASA NTRS2008

NASA Battery Working Group - 2007-2008: Battery Task Summary Report

This presentation provides a summary of the 2007-2008 NASA Battery Working Group efforts completed in support of the NASA Engineering Safety Center (NESC). The effort covered a series of pro-active tasks that address the following: Binding Procurements -- guidelines related to requirements for the battery system that should be considered at the time of contract award Wet Life of Ni-H2 Batteries -- issues/strategies for effective storage and impact of long-term storage on performance and life Generic Guidelines for Lithium-ion Safety, Handling and Qualification -- Standardized approaches developed and risk assessments (1) Lithium-ion Performance Assessment -- survey of manufacturers and capabilities to meet mission needs. Guidelines document generated (2) Conditions Required for using Pouch Cells in Aerospace Missions -- focus on corrosion, thermal excursions and long-term performance issues. Document defining requirements to maintain performance and life (3) High Voltage Risk Assessment -- focus on safety and abuse tolerance of battery module assemblies. Recommendations of features required for safe implementation (4) Procedure for Determination of Safe Charge Rates -- evaluation of various cell chemistries and recommendation of safe operating regimes for specific cell designs

Manzo, Michelle↗
NASA NTRS2014

Analytical Model for Steady Flow through a Finite Channel with One Porous Wall with Arbitrary Variable Suction or Injection

This paper presents an exact solution of two-dimensional laminar flow through a finite length channel with one porous wall. It improves upon previous solutions by (1) satisfying the no-slip boundary condition at the channel dead end, (2) adding a turbulent term to the porous wall boundary condition, (3) allowing for arbitrary variable suction or injection across the porous wall, and (4) model validation against new cryogenic liquid hydrogen and oxygen experimental data. Of particular interest in the current work is the modeling of cryogenic propellant flow through a porous liquid acquisition device (LAD) screen and channel inside a propellant tank. First, a detailed review of the literature is presented for previously attempted solutions to channel flow with one porous wall. Next, the governing equations, boundary conditions, and model assumptions are used to derive the analytical flow solution and present general model results for pressure and velocity fields within the channel. Then, the model solution is compared with horizontal LAD channel flow data in liquid oxygen as well as vertical LAD channel flow data in an inverted outflow configuration in liquid hydrogen. Model results are used to update the static cryogenic bubble point pressure model with a dynamic bubble point term which factors in enhanced convection and cooling at the screen during propellant outflow. Convective heat transfer at the LAD screen during outflow is also quantified by comparing model and data. The new analytical flow solution with the dynamic bubble point model is shown to compare well with available cryogenic experimental data

Navier Stokes Equations↗
NASA NTRS1992

Radiation sensitivity of quartz crystal oscillators experiment for the Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF)

Factors determining the radiation sensitivity of quartz crystal oscillators were studied on NASA's LDEF. Quartz materials were examined in the transmission electron microscope (TEM) and classified as to their sensitivity to radiation damage by establishing the rate of damage caused by the electron beam in the microscope. Two types of materials, i.e., swept premium Q quartz and natural quartz were chosen because clear differences were observed in their response to the electron beam in the TEM studies. Quartz resonators were then fabricated from them, tested for frequency stability over a greater than 6 mo. period and flown on the LDEF satellite. After retrieval (more than 7 yrs in space) the stability of the resonators was again determined. All of the space exposed resonators fabricated with swept premium Q material exhibited a frequency shift above that of the control resonators: none of the resonators fabricated from the natural quartz materials exhibited such a shift. The significant differences observed between the two types of materials in both the ground-based TEM studies and the space radiation induced frequency changes suggest that there may be a correlation between the two observations.

J. S. Ahearn↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Evaluating Crystallinity in Thermoplastic composites

Polymer matrix composites (PMCs) offer many benefits for the aerospace industry due to their potential for weight reduction when compared to metal or ceramic based materials. Most PMCs currently in flight use thermoset matrices, however, thermoplastic resins are being explored as alternatives due to their ability to be remelted, which is of particular interest due to the potential for in-situ repair and manufacturing required in space. Most thermoplastic resins are semicrystalline polymers. The properties of semicrystalline thermoplastics are largely influenced by their crystallinity, which can vary due to many factors including thermal treatments, environmental conditions, and mechanical deformation. Monitoring the crystallinity of thermoplastic composites is key to ensuring these materials reliably meet the high demands required by space exploration. This talk discusses the use of multiple techniques such as Polarized Light Optical Microscopy and Fourier-Transform Infrared Spectroscopy to characterize the crystallinity in various thermoplastic composites, including carbon fiber reinforced PMCs and novel bio-based Martian and Lunar regolith composites designed for in-situ manufacturing. This work aims to provide the fundamental data necessary to understand the effects of crystallinity on thermoplastic PMCs, which is key to advancing their use in space applications.

Thermoplastics↗
NASA NTRS1992

Long Duration Exposure Facility experiment M0003 deintegration observation database

The four trays of the M0003 materials experiment on LDEF contained 1274 samples from 19 subexperiments. The complete sample complement represented a broad range of materials, including thin film optical coatings, paints, polymer sheets and tapes, adhesives, and composites, for use in various spacecraft applications including thermal control, structures, optics, and solar power. Since some subexperiments included duplicate samples exposed on the leading and trailing edge trays, for 9 week, 19 week, 40 week, and 68 month durations on both the leading and trailing edges, comparisons provided a valuable time history of degradation. During the deintegration of the subexperiments from the M0003 trays, each sample was examined using bright field, dark field, and Normarski light microscopy techniques. Over 3,000 color macrographs and photomicrographs were made of the condition of M0003 trays and the individual samples. Records of the condition of the samples, photographic records, and all available references of publications on postflight analyses on each sample were collected in a database. The photographs provide a visual comparison of the response of materials common to various subexperiments in different LDEF environments. Aerospace Corporation is distributing the database records and photographs and written records on materials of interest from the database is given in this presentation.

S. R. Gyetvay↗
NASA NTRS1987

Radiation hardening design of nuclear powered spacecraft

The design and operation of space systems utilizing nuclear fueled power systems must consider the radiation environment from the earliest stages of their design. A range of nuclear systems are being considered for present and future satellite systems capable of supplying tens of kilowatts to multimegawatt and generating a corresponding range of radiation environments. The effects of these radiations on electronics and materials can be minimized by implementing early design considerations which maximize the design efficiency and minimize the impact on system mass. Space systems design considerations for the radiation environment must include all sources in addition to the self induced gamma ray and neutron radiation. These include the orbital dependent environment from the high energy electron and protons encountered in natural space. The system trades which the designer must consider in the development of space platforms which utilize nuclear reactor power supplies are discussed.

R E Schmidt↗
NASA NTRS1992

Materials And Processes Technical Information System (MAPTIS) LDEF materials database

The Materials and Processes Technical Information System (MAPTIS) is a collection of materials data which was computerized and is available to engineers in the aerospace community involved in the design and development of spacecraft and related hardware. Consisting of various database segments, MAPTIS provides the user with information such as material properties, test data derived from tests specifically conducted for qualification of materials for use in space, verification and control, project management, material information, and various administrative requirements. A recent addition to the project management segment consists of materials data derived from the LDEF flight. This tremendous quantity of data consists of both pre-flight and post-flight data in such diverse areas as optical/thermal, mechanical and electrical properties, atomic concentration surface analysis data, as well as general data such as sample placement on the satellite, A-O flux, equivalent sun hours, etc. Each data point is referenced to the primary investigator(s) and the published paper from which the data was taken. The MAPTIS system is envisioned to become the central location for all LDEF materials data. This paper consists of multiple parts, comprising a general overview of the MAPTIS System and the types of data contained within, and the specific LDEF data element and the data contained in that segment.

John M. Davis↗
NASA NTRS1991

Eutelsat 2: SAR-10009 nickel-hydrogen battery

The topics are presented in viewgraph form and include SAR-10009 design features, specific energy, analyses and testing, redundant structural insulation, electronics, corrosion protection, battery cell life cycle tests, and spacecraft launches.

Miller, Lee↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Polymer Composite Material Screening for a Cryotank Application

Composite cryotanks will play a key role in enabling the next generation of efficient aircraft. Carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) composites have the benefits of reduced weight and potentially higher structural strength compared to traditional metallic fuel tanks. A material screening study was conducted to inform material selection for liquid hydrogen (LH2) fuel storage. Three composite materials were considered because of their aerospace grade toughness, strength, and existing data to compare against. These materials were a thermoplastic low-melt polyaryletherketone (LM-PAEK)/carbon fiber (CF), thermoset/CF, and hybrid thermoset/thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) veil/CF composite. Mechanical screening tests included tension, compression, in-plane shear (IPS), and tensile-tensile fatigue (TTF). Each material was tested at both a baseline (no liquid nitrogen/LN2 cycling) and 100 LN2-cycled conditions to determine the knockdown factor, if any, of each material when exposed to environmental loading effects in a cryotank. Results show minimal effects of the LN2-cycling compared against baseline values. The three materials behaved similarly in tension; however, the thermoplastic/CF had the highest IPS toughness. The hybrid thermoset/TPU/CF composite had the lowest IPS strength, compressive strength, and toughness. LN2-cycling had minimal effects on tensile-tensile fatigue performance of the thermoplastic/CF material. Mechanical data was captured to guide material down selection for future commercially viable hydrogen aircraft design.

Composites↗
NASA NTRS2000

Nonintrusive Diagnostic Strategies for Arcjet Stream Characterization

In the previous lecture, the issues related to arcjet flow modeling were introduced, and the limitations of conventional instrumentation in addressing these issues were discussed. The general level of understanding of the arcjet flows was seen to preclude the use of arcjets as aerothermodynamic test facilities beyond the current role in aerothermal material testing, despite their long test duration capability. In this section, the focus will be on new developments in spectroscopic instrumentation and techniques that can be brought to bear on the fundamental problem of arcjet stream characterization. Although a wide selection of arcjet facilities were introduced in the previous section, the discussion of nonintrusive diagnostic instrumentation will be restricted to the large-scale, segmented, constricted-arc heater facilities that are most widely used in thermal protection material testing for aerospace applications. After a brief review of the important features of arcjet flows, the topic of nonintrusive, optical diagnostics is introduced with a discussion of some of the basic aspects of radiative transitions. The lecture is then organized into two sections covering emission measurements and laser-induced fluorescence measurements. Emission measurements are presented next for different regions of arcjet flows, while the fluorescence measurements are presented for the free stream region only. Summaries are given for each of the two main sections, and observations on arcjet characterization by optical diagnostics in general are given at the end.

Douglas G Fletcher↗
NASA NTRS1966

Research Achievements Review, Volume II

Materials research - diffusion bonding methods, stress corrosion tests, nondestructive testing, material designs for electronic equipment, and nonmetallic material development.

Materials Science↗