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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 127 records · Page 7

Bi-Component Droplet Combustion Experiment Designed

The combustion of liquid fuels is a major source of energy in the world today, and the majority of these fuels are burned in the form of a spray. The research at the NASA Glenn Research Center in droplet combustion has the overall goal of providing a better understanding of spray combustion by studying the smallest element in a spray, the single droplet. The Bi-Component Droplet Combustion Experiment (BCDCE) extends the work at Glenn from pure, or single-component, fuels to an idealized liquid fuel composed of two completely miscible components. The project is a collaborative effort between Glenn and Prof. B.D. Shaw of the University of California, Davis. The BCDCE project is planned to fly onboard the International Space Station in the Multi-User Droplet Combustion Apparatus. The unique feature of this experiment is that it will be the first droplet combustion experiment to perform a detailed characterization of the flow inside a liquid fuel droplet. The experiment will use a relatively new technique called Digital Particle Imaging Velocimetry (DPIV) to characterize the liquid flow. In this technique, very small (approx. 5-mm diameter) particles are dispersed throughout a liquid droplet. These particles are illuminated by a thin laser sheet. Images of the particle motion are recorded on a computer, which then tracks the motion of the particles to determine the flow characteristics.

Dietrich, Daniel L.↗

Combustion of Interacting Droplet Arrays Being Studied

The combustion of liquid fuels is a major source of energy in the world today, and the majority of these fuels are burned in the form of a spray. This droplet combustion project at the NASA Glenn Research Center has the overall goal of providing a better understanding of spray combustion by extending existing studies of single droplets to a regime where droplet interactions are important (as occurs in a practical spray). The Combustion of Interacting Droplet Arrays is a collaborative effort between Glenn and the National Center for Microgravity Research. The group at Glenn also collaborates with scientists at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology in Hokkaido, Japan. The project is studying the combustion of a small number of droplets suspended on small quartz fibers in a 0.1-atm combustion chamber. Data consist primarily of video images of the flames and droplets. The tests are being conducted in Glenn's reduced-gravity facilities (2.2-sec and 5.2-sec drop towers) and in the Japan Microgravity Center's 10-sec drop tower (JAMIC).

Dietrich, Daniel L.↗

Synthesis and Characterization of Polymeric Pore Former Microspheres using Modified Polymer Resin

Porosity in polymer parts is often desired to improve mechanical properties. Individual pores must be small enough that bulk mechanical properties are retained but significant enough to reduce the density of the material. Filler materials can be incorporated into polymer matrices and subsequently removed to create voids. The materials used to create the voids are known as pore-formers. The present research aims to create spherical pores in a silicone matrix by inserting and removing core materials or fillers post-cure. A method was developed to incorporate pore formers into an uncured polymer resin and remove the materials from the matrix. Polyethylene Glycol (PEG) and Polylactic Acid (PLA) microspheres are created and incorporated into silicone matrices as pore formers. Microspheres with controllable size distributions are formed via ultrasonic spray pyrolysis and emulsion formation. Microspheres are removed from the matrix by solvent extraction and calcination. PLA microspheres were modified by hydroxyl addition to the surface to study their solubility in water. PEG-PLA block copolymers are also synthesized and investigated, comparing their physical and chemical properties to the monomers to identify whether the block copolymer microspheres will be more easily removable than their monomeric microspheres. Moreover, other properties including thermal stability, rheology, and mechanical response are studied. The present dissertation provides a comprehensive understanding of the synthesis and characterization of PEG and PLA-based pore formers, toward the future development of feedstock for additive manufacturing porous structures.

Damptey, Ransford↗

Plasma-Spray Metal Coating On Foam

Molds, forms, and other substrates made of foams coated with metals by plasma spraying. Foam might be ceramic, carbon, metallic, organic, or inorganic. After coat applied by plasma spraying, foam left intact or removed by acid leaching, conventional machining, water-jet cutting, or another suitable technique. Cores or vessels made of various foam materials plasma-coated with metals according to method useful as thermally insulating containers for foods, liquids, or gases, or as mandrels for making composite-material (matrix/fiber) parts, or making thermally insulating firewalls in automobiles.

Cranston, J.↗

Liquid Crystalline Thermosets from Ester, Ester-Imide, and Ester-Amide Oligomers

Main chain thermotropic liquid crystal esters, ester-imides, and ester-amides were prepared from AA, BB, and AB type monomeric materials and were end-capped with phenylacetylene, phenylmaleimide, or nadimide reactive end-groups. The resulting reactive end-capped liquid crystal oligomers exhibit a variety of improved and preferred physical properties. The end-capped liquid crystal oligomers are thermotropic and have, preferably, molecular weights in the range of approximately 1000-15,OOO grams per mole. The end-capped liquid crystal oligomers have broad liquid crystalline melting ranges and exhibit high melt stability and very low melt viscosities at accessible temperatures. The end-capped liquid crystal oligomers are stable for up to an hour in the melt phase. These properties make the end-capped liquid crystal oligomers highly processable by a variety of melt process shape forming and blending techniques including film extrusion, fiber spinning, reactive injection molding (RIM), resin transfer molding (RTM), resin film injection (RFI), powder molding, pultrusion, injection molding, blow molding, plasma spraying and thermo-forming. Once processed and shaped, the end- capped liquid crystal oligomers were heated to further polymerize and form liquid crystalline thermosets (LCT). The fully cured products are rubbers above their glass transition temperatures. The resulting thermosets display many properties that are superior to their non-end-capped high molecular weight analogs.

Theodornus J Dingemans↗

Liquid crystalline thermosets from ester, ester-imide, and ester-amide oligomers

Main chain thermotropic liquid crystal esters, ester-imides, and ester-amides were prepared from AA, BB, and AB type monomeric materials and were end-capped with phenylacetylene, phenylmaleimide, or nadimide reactive end-groups. The resulting reactive end-capped liquid crystal oligomers exhibit a variety of improved and preferred physical properties. The end-capped liquid crystal oligomers are thermotropic and have, preferably, molecular weights in the range of approximately 1000-15,000 grams per mole. The end-capped liquid crystal oligomers have broad liquid crystalline melting ranges and exhibit high melt stability and very low melt viscosities at accessible temperatures. The end-capped liquid crystal oligomers are stable for up to an hour in the melt phase. These properties make the end-capped liquid crystal oligomers highly processable by a variety of melt process shape forming and blending techniques including film extrusion, fiber spinning, reactive injection molding (RIM), resin transfer molding (RTM), resin film injection (RFI), powder molding, pultrusion, injection molding, blow molding, plasma spraying and thermo-forming. Once processed and shaped, the end-capped liquid crystal oligomers were heated to further polymerize and form liquid crystalline thermosets (LCT). The fully cured products are rubbers above their glass transition temperatures. The resulting thermosets display many properties that are superior to their non-end-capped high molecular weight analogs.

Dingemans, Theodorous J.↗

Measuring the soot onset temperature in high-pressure n-dodecane spray pyrolysis

In this paper, soot formation in pyrolyzing sprays of n-dodecane is visualized and quantified in a high-pressure, high-temperature, constant-volume spray chamber at 38 bar, 76 bar, and 114 bar. Sprays of n-dodecane are injected at 500 bar from a single-hole, 186-µm orifice diameter fuel injector. We quantify the temporal evolution of the soot optical thickness and the total soot mass formed in the pyrolyzing sprays using a high-speed extinction imaging diagnostic. The vessel ambient temperature and pressure are varied independently to identify the soot onset temperature for n-dodecane pyrolysis. Linear extrapolation of the maximum soot formation rates as a function of ambient temperature reveals a soot onset temperature near 1450 K. Finally, the onset temperature determined here for n-dodecane is within 50 K of those previously measured along the centerline of atmospheric pressure coflow diffusion flames for smaller alkane fuels.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Evaluation of effervescent atomizer internal design on the spray unsteadiness using a phase/Doppler particle analyzer

The purpose of this research was to investigate the dependence of effervescent spray unsteadiness on operational conditions and atomizer internal design by the ideal spray theory of Edwards and Marx. The convergent-divergent effervescent atomizer spraying water with air as atomizing medium in the ''outside-in'' gas injection was used in this study. Results demonstrated that droplet formation process at various air to liquid ratio (ALR) led to the spray unsteadiness and all droplet size classes exhibited unsteadiness behavior in spray. The spray unsteadiness reduced quickly at ALR of 3% and decreased moderately at ALR of other values as the axial distance increased. When the axial distance was 200 mm, the spray unsteadiness reduced dramatically with the increase in radial distance, but lower spray unsteadiness at the center of spray and higher spray unsteadiness at the edge of spray were shown as the axial distance increased. The spray unsteadiness at the center region of spray increased with the injection pressure. Low spray unsteadiness and good atomization performance can be obtained when the diameter of incline aeration holes increased at ALR of 10%. Although short mixing chamber with large discharge orifice diameter for convergent-divergent effervescent atomizer produced good atomization, the center region of spay showed high spray unsteadiness and maybe formed the droplet clustering. (author)

42 ENGINEERING↗

Experimental studies on effervescent atomizers with wide spray angles

An experimental investigation was conducted to examine the operating and spray characteristics of two internal-mixing twin-fluid atomizers that were designed to produce effervescent atomization at low air/liquid mass ratios (ALR's). These two experimental atomizers ejected the two phase flow so as to produce a wide spray angle. One atomizer was a plain orifice design that used a four-hole exit orifice which divided and turned the two phase flow just prior to ejection. The other atomizer, called the conical sheet atomizer, ejected the two phase flow through an annular passage in such a way as to form a hollow cone spray. The atomizer operating parameters varied during this investigation were the air/liquid mass ratio, atomizer operating pressure, and, in the case of the conical sheet atomizer, the exit gap width. Studies of spray characteristics included measurements of the spray Sauter mean diameter (SMD), drop size distribution, and, for the conical sheet atomizer, circumferential distribution of the liquid mass within the spray. For both atomizers it was found that SMD decreases with an increase in either ALR or operating pressure. The effect of ALR on SMD diminishes as the value of ALR increases. For the conical sheet atomizer, when operating at low values of pressure and ALR, SMD increases with increase in gap width, but the influence of gap width on SMD diminishes with an increase in either pressure or ALR. At the highest operating pressure of the conical sheet atomizer (552 kPa), SMD is independent of gap width at all ALR's. For both atomizers, changes in operating pressure and ALR have little effect on the distribution of drop sizes in the spray.

Whitlow, J. D.↗

Tank Tests of an Alternate Hull Form for the Consolidated Vultee PB2Y-3 Airplane

Tests have been made in Langley tank no. I of a dynamic model of the Consolidated Vultee PB2Y-3 airplane. These tests were made using an alternate hull form, the purpose of which was to reduce the bow spray and eliminate the landing instability which are objectionable features of the production design. The major differences from the PB2Y-3 hull included a deeper step to improve the landing stability , and a lengthened forebody and increased beam to reduce the sway in the propellers and on the flaps. The tests showed that the spray characteristics of the revised hull form were much better than that ot the production design. In addition the take-off and landing stability of the model with the alternate hull were satisfactory.

Land, Norman S.↗

Designing energy dissipation properties via thermal spray coatings

The coefficient of restitution is a measure of energy dissipation in a system across impact events. Often, the dissipative qualities of a pair of impacting components are neglected during the design phase. This research looks at the effect of applying a thin layer of metallic coating, using thermal spray technologies, to significantly alter the dissipative properties of a system. We studied the dissipative properties across multiple impacts in order to assess the effects of work hardening, the change in microstructure, and the change in surface topography. The results of the experiments indicate that any work hardening-like effects are likely attributable to the crushing of asperities, and the permanent changes in the dissipative properties of the system, as measured by the coefficient of restitution, are attributable to the microstructure formed by the thermal spray coating. Furthermore, the microstructure appears to be robust across impact events of moderate energy levels, exhibiting negligible changes across multiple impact events.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Small-Scale Spray Releases: Orifice Plugging Test Results

One of the events postulated in the hazard analysis at the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) and other U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) nuclear facilities, is a breach in process piping that produces aerosols with droplet sizes in the respirable range. The current approach for predicting the size and concentration of aerosols produced in a spray leak involves extrapolating from correlations published in the literature. These correlations are based on results obtained from small engineered spray nozzles using pure liquids with Newtonian fluid behavior. The narrow ranges of physical properties on which the correlations are based do not cover the wide range of slurries and viscous materials present in the WTP and across processing facilities in the DOE complex. Two key technical areas were identified where testing results were needed to improve the technical basis by reducing the uncertainty introduced by extrapolating existing literature results. The first technical need was to quantify the role of slurry particles in small breaches in which the slurry particles may plug and result in substantially reduced, or even negligible, respirable fraction formed by high pressure sprays. The second technical need was to determine the aerosol droplet size distribution and volume from prototypic breaches and fluids, specifically including sprays from larger breaches with slurries where data from the literature are largely absent. To address these technical areas, small- and large-scale test stands were constructed and operated with simulants to determine the aerosol release fractions and aerosol generation rates from a range of breach sizes and geometries. The properties of the simulants represented the range of properties expected in the WTP process streams and included water, sodium salt solutions, slurries containing boehmite or gibbsite, and a hazardous chemical simulant. The effect of anti-foam agents (AFA) was assessed with most of the simulants. Orifices included round holes and rectangular slots. Much of the testing was conducted at pressures of 200 and 380 psi, but some tests were conducted at 100 psi. Testing the largest postulated breaches was deemed impractical because of the large size of some of the WTP equipment. The purpose of the study described in this report is to provide experimental data for the first key technical area, potential plugging of small breaches, by performing small-scale tests with a range of orifice sizes and orientations representative of the WTP conditions. The simulants used were chosen to represent the range of process stream properties in the WTP. Testing conducted after the plugging tests in the small- and large-scale test stands addresses the second key technical area, aerosol generation. The results of the small-scale aerosol generation tests are included in Mahoney et al. 2012. The area of spray generation from large breaches is covered by large-scale testing in Schonewill et al. 2012.

orifice plugging↗

Fabrication of ceramic substrate-reinforced and free forms

Components fabricated of, or coated with, ceramics have lower parasitic cooling requirements. Techniques are discussed for fabricating thin-shell ceramic components and ceramic coatings for applications in rocket or jet engine environments. Thin ceramic shells with complex geometric forms involving convolutions and reentrant surfaces were fabricated by mandrel removal. Mandrel removal was combined with electroplating or plasma spraying and isostatic pressing to form a metal support for the ceramic. Rocket engine thrust chambers coated with 0.08 mm (3 mil) of ZrO2-8Y2O3 had no failures and a tenfold increase in engine life. Some measured mechanical properties of the plasma-sprayed ceramic are presented.

Quentmeyer, R. J.↗

Fuel Spray and Flame Formation in a Compression-Ignition Engine Employing Air Flow

The effects of air flow on fuel spray and flame formation in a high-speed compression-ignition engine have been investigated by means of the NACA combustion apparatus. The process was studied by examining high-speed motion pictures taken at the rate of 2,200 frames a second. The combustion chamber was of the flat-disk type used in previous experiments with this apparatus. The air flow was produced by a rectangular displacer mounted on top of the engine piston. Three fuel-injection nozzles were tested: a 0.020-inch single-orifice nozzle, a 6-orifice nozzle, and a slit nozzle. The air velocity within the combustion chamber was estimated to reach a value of 425 feet a second. The results show that in no case was the form of the fuel spray completely destroyed by the air jet although in some cases the direction of the spray was changed and the spray envelope was carried away by the moving air. The distribution of the fuel in the combustion chamber of a compression-ignition engine can be regulated to some extent by the design of the combustion chamber, by the design of the fuel-injection nozzle, and by the use of air flow.

Rothrock, A M↗

Rational Design of Hierarchically Open-Porous Spherical Hybrid Architectures for Lithium Ion Batteries

Controlling the internal microstructure and overall morphology of building blocks used to form hybrid materials is crucial for the realization of deterministically designed architectures with desirable properties. Here, we demonstrate an integrative spray-frozen (SF) assembly for forming hierarchically structured open-porous microspheres (hpMSs) composed of Fe 3 O 4 and reduced graphene oxide (rGO). The SF process drives the formation of a radially-aligned microstructure within the sprayed colloidal droplets and also controls the overall microsphere morphology. The Fe 3 O 4 /rGO hpMSs contain interconnected open-pores and spherical morphology, which, when used as a lithium-ion battery anode, enables then to provide gravimetric and volumetric capacities of 1069.7 mAh g -1 and 686.7 mAh cm -3 , much greater than those of samples with similar composition and different morphologies. The hpMSs have good rate and cycling performances, retaining 78.5% from 100 to 1000 mA g -1 and 74.6% over 300 cycles. Using in-situ synchrotron x-ray absorption spectroscopy, the reaction pathway and phase evolution of the hpMSs are monitored observing the very small domain size and highly disordered nature of Fe x O y . Here, the reduced capacity fading relative to other conversion systems is due to the good electrical contact between the pulverized Fe x O y particles and rGO, the overall structural integrity of the hpMSs, and interconnected openporosity.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗

CuCo 2 O 4 ORR/OER Bi-functional catalyst: Influence of synthetic approach on performance

A series of CuCo 2 O 4 catalysts were synthesized by pore forming, sol-gel, spray pyrolysis and sacrificial support methods. Catalysts were characterized by XRD, SEM, XPS and BET techniques. The electrochemical activity for the oxygen reduction and oxygen evolution reactions (ORR and OER) was evaluated in alkaline media by RRDE. Density Functional Theory was used to identify two different types of active sites responsible for ORR/OER activity of CuCo 2 O 4 and it was found that CuCo 2 O 4 can activate the O-O bond by binding molecular oxygen in bridging positions between Co or Co and Cu atoms. It was found that the sacrificial support method (SSM) catalyst has the highest performance in both ORR and OER and has the highest content of phase-pure CuCo 2 O 4 . It was shown that the presence of CuO significantly decreases the activity in oxygen reduction and oxygen evolution reactions. As a result, the half-wave potential (E 1/2 ) of CuCo 2 O 4 -SSM was found as 0.8 V, making this material a state-of-the-art, unsupported oxide catalyst.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗

Reducing Soot in Diesel Exhaust

Electrically charged fuel improves oxidation. Fuel injection system reduces amount of soot formed in diesel engines. Spray injector electrically charges fuel droplets as they enter cylinder. Charged droplets repel each other, creating, dilute fuel mist easily penetrated by oxygen in cylinder.

Bellan, J.↗

Wicking Coating for Heat Pipes

Wicking for inside of heat pipes and heat-storage canisters formed by flame-spraying porous coating over wire mech placed on surface to be treated. Method less expensive than method currently used.

Minnich, W. K.↗