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Results for “Rapid Process Design”

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 145 records · Page 8
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2026

Ultrafast (1‐5 sec) Lamination of Perovskite Solar Cells With Self‐Encapsulation Using Rapid Joule Heating

Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) are traditionally fabricated using sequential layer‐by‐layer deposition, in which each layer of the device is processed on top of the preceding layer. This constrains the processing techniques and selection of transport layer materials that can be used in the solar cell. To overcome these challenges, two half‐cells can be processed independently and then diffusion‐bonded through a lamination process. However, current lamination processes for perovskite solar cells suffer from relatively long process times, which can limit throughput when moving toward high‐volume manufacturing. In this study, a custom platform was designed for rapid‐joule heating of perovskite materials and devices. This enabled more than a 99% reduction in lamination time from 26 min to 1 s. Perovskite samples that were laminated in 1 s exhibited comparable values of percent bonded area, interfacial toughness, grain domain size, and X‐ray diffraction spectra to those laminated in greater than 10 min. As a proof‐of‐concept, 18.3% efficient devices were successfully laminated in 5 s. A transient heat transfer model was developed to describe the relationship between the perovskite temperature and the electrical power supplied to the heaters, establishing a baseline for predicting processing conditions in large‐scale manufacturing systems. Ultra‐fast lamination provides a pathway toward scalable roll‐to‐roll or sheet‐to‐sheet manufacturing of PSCs.

heat transfer↗
DOE OSTI2024

AOI [1] Advanced Manufacturing of Ceramic Anchors with Embedded Sensors for Process and Health Monitoring of Coal Boilers

Researchers at West Virginia University (WVU) developed methods to fabricate and test ceramic anchors with an embedded sensor technology for monitoring the health and processing conditions within pulverized coal (PC) and fluidized-bed combustion (FBC) boiler systems. The technology included the development of advanced manufacturing processes for 2D/3D printing electroceramic (conductive ceramic) sensor designs within the ceramic anchor microstructure during the manufacturing process. This advanced manufacturing process would allow for the precise control of local microstructure and composition in order to engineer layer-by-layer any protective and electrically active materials within the refractory anchor. This 3D printing technology would permit the rapid and controlled design of the refractory microstructure and embedded sensor design throughout the volume of the ceramic anchor. The work also included a method to interconnect the sensors to boiler shell through the anchor clamp, where the sensor signals will be processed by low-power electronics and transmitted wirelessly to a central processing hub. The end-goal of the program was to produce a ceramic anchor sensor system which would be ready for implementation within a coal boiler, and/or other similar refractory liner systems (such as that in the glass and metal manufacturing areas). The project objectives were to: 1) Define the chemical and microstructural stability, in addition to the electrical properties, of oxide and non-oxide ceramic composites to be embedded within the ceramic anchor compositions that may operate up to 1400ºC; 2) Develop and implement the 2D/3D printing technology to pattern and control the microstructure of the ceramic anchor and embedded sensor circuits; 3) Develop an interconnect technology which will permit easy installation of the ceramic anchors and signal collection at the boiler shell; 4) Develop low power analog electronics and wireless communication hardware to efficiently collect the sensor signal at each processing unit and transmit data to a central hub for data analysis; 5) Demonstrate the smart ceramic anchor system for temperature and liner fracture within a high-temperature processing unit, such as a boiler furnace or glass melting furnace floor/wall liner.

20 FOSSIL-FUELED POWER PLANTS↗
NASA NTRS1988

Direct solution for thermal stresses in a nose cap under an arbitrary axisymmetric temperature distribution

The design of a nose cap for a hypersonic vehicle is an iterative process requiring a rapid, easy to use and accurate stress analysis. The objective of this paper is to develop such a stress analysis technique from a direct solution of the thermal stress equations for a spherical shell. The nose cap structure is treated as a thin spherical shell with an axisymmetric temperature distribution. The governing differential equations are solved by expressing the stress solution to the thermoelastic equations in terms of a series of derivatives of the Legendre polynomials. The process of finding the coefficients for the series solution in terms of the temperature distribution is generalized by expressing the temperature along the shell and through the thickness as a polynomial in the spherical angle coordinate. Under this generalization the orthogonality property of the Legendre polynomials leads to a sequence of integrals involving powers of the spherical shell coordinate times the derivative of the Legendre polynomials. The coefficients of the temperature polynomial appear outside of these integrals. Thus, the integrals are evaluated only once and their values tabulated for use with any arbitrary polynomial temperature distribution.

Davis, Randall C.↗
NASA NTRS2001

Rapid Prototyping Integrated With Nondestructive Evaluation and Finite Element Analysis

Most reverse engineering approaches involve imaging or digitizing an object then creating a computerized reconstruction that can be integrated, in three dimensions, into a particular design environment. Rapid prototyping (RP) refers to the practical ability to build high-quality physical prototypes directly from computer aided design (CAD) files. Using rapid prototyping, full-scale models or patterns can be built using a variety of materials in a fraction of the time required by more traditional prototyping techniques (refs. 1 and 2). Many software packages have been developed and are being designed to tackle the reverse engineering and rapid prototyping issues just mentioned. For example, image processing and three-dimensional reconstruction visualization software such as Velocity2 (ref. 3) are being used to carry out the construction process of three-dimensional volume models and the subsequent generation of a stereolithography file that is suitable for CAD applications. Producing three-dimensional models of objects from computed tomography (CT) scans is becoming a valuable nondestructive evaluation methodology (ref. 4). Real components can be rendered and subjected to temperature and stress tests using structural engineering software codes. For this to be achieved, accurate high-resolution images have to be obtained via CT scans and then processed, converted into a traditional file format, and translated into finite element models. Prototyping a three-dimensional volume of a composite structure by reading in a series of two-dimensional images generated via CT and by using and integrating commercial software (e.g. Velocity2, MSC/PATRAN (ref. 5), and Hypermesh (ref. 6)) is being applied successfully at the NASA Glenn Research Center. The building process from structural modeling to the analysis level is outlined in reference 7. Subsequently, a stress analysis of a composite cooling panel under combined thermomechanical loading conditions was performed to validate this process.

Abdul-Aziz, Ali↗
NASA NTRS2018

Planetary Probe Entry Models for Concurrent and Integrated Interplanetary Mission Design

There are many prospective mission opportunities involving atmospheric entry probes. The Planetary Science Deep Space SmallSat Studies (PSDS3) re-cently selected probe missions to Venus, Mars, and the outer planets as part of the 10 selected studies. Two of the six themes in the most recent New Fron-tiers call were a Saturn probe and a Venus in situ explorer. The 2013-2022 Planetary Science Decadal Survey includes probe missions at Venus, Mars, Saturn, Titan, Uranus, and Neptune. Across mission destinations and mission classes there is growing interest in planetary probes. While interplanetary trajectory specialists may like to use a broad sweep of low-fidelity solutions to find a wide array of trajectory options, probe specialists typically start off with mid- to high-fidelity point designs for the entry probe since the equations of motion for atmospheric probes require numerical integration and are so directly linked with some of the probe's subsystem design. Cur-rently, there are no alternatives to this design ap-proach as there are no tools capable of automatical-ly and concurrently designing interplanetary and atmospheric trajectories. Unfortunately, this makes us reliant on point designs in the early stages of the mission design process. The reliance on point de-signs for atmospheric probes hinders the flexibility of the design, making the design process cumber-some and restricting decision-making down the road. The research presented here addresses this problem by providing low-fidelity models for the automated, rapid design of atmospheric trajectories and probe's models which may be solved concur-rently with the interplanetary trajectory.

atmospheric probes↗
NASA NTRS2019

Experimental Design and Preliminary Analysis of a Mars CO2 Rapid Cycle Adsorption Pump

Temperature-swing adsorption pumps have been proposed as a method of acquiring and compressing Martian atmospheric CO2 for downstream processing. Most industrial applications and previous research targeted at space in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) utilize long (~hours) temperature swing periods, typically limited by the ability to transfer heat from a naturally insulating sorbent bed. A rapid cycle adsorption pump (RCAP) would reduce these periods to minutes, in the hope of increasing overall throughput. This paper details the design and preliminary experimental results from testing an RCAP in a simulated Martian environment. The test configuration features a central, liquid-cooled and heated heat transfer plate surrounded by symmetrical rectangular sorbent beds. Various bed thicknesses and commercially available Zeolite 13X sorbent particle sizes are evaluated to both determine performance and provide data for a parallel modeling effort. Discussions of multi-stage configurations and methods of boosting bed conductivity are included.

Rapid Cycle Adsorption↗
NASA NTRS1999

New frontiers in design synthesis

The Intelligent Synthesis Environment (ISE), which is one of the major strategic technologies under development at NASA centers and the University of Virginia, is described. One of the major objectives of ISE is to significantly enhance the rapid creation of innovative affordable products and missions. ISE uses a synergistic combination of leading-edge technologies, including high performance computing, high capacity communications and networking, human-centered computing, knowledge-based engineering, computational intelligence, virtual product development, and product information management. The environment will link scientists, design teams, manufacturers, suppliers, and consultants who participate in the mission synthesis as well as in the creation and operation of the aerospace system. It will radically advance the process by which complex science missions are synthesized, and high-tech engineering Systems are designed, manufactured and operated. The five major components critical to ISE are human-centered computing, infrastructure for distributed collaboration, rapid synthesis and simulation tools, life cycle integration and validation, and cultural change in both the engineering and science creative process. The five components and their subelements are described. Related U.S. government programs are outlined and the future impact of ISE on engineering research and education is discussed.

User-Computer Interface↗
NASA NTRS2015

Enabling Rapid and Robust Structural Analysis During Conceptual Design

This paper describes a multi-year effort to add a structural analysis subprocess to a supersonic aircraft conceptual design process. The desired capabilities include parametric geometry, automatic finite element mesh generation, static and aeroelastic analysis, and structural sizing. The paper discusses implementation details of the new subprocess, captures lessons learned, and suggests future improvements. The subprocess quickly compares concepts and robustly handles large changes in wing or fuselage geometry. The subprocess can rank concepts with regard to their structural feasibility and can identify promising regions of the design space. The automated structural analysis subprocess is deemed robust and rapid enough to be included in multidisciplinary conceptual design and optimization studies.

Eldred, Lloyd B.↗
NASA NTRS2003

A Design Methodology for Rapid Implementation of Active Control Systems Across Lean Direct Injection Combustor Platforms

The VACCG team is comprised of engineers at Virginia Tech who specialize in the subject areas of combustion physics, chemical kinetics, dynamics and controls, and signal processing. Currently, the team's work on this NRA research grant is designed to determine key factors that influence combustion control performance through a blend of theoretical and experimental investigations targeting design and demonstration of active control for three different combustors. To validiate the accuracy of conclusions about control effectiveness, a sequence of experimental verifications on increasingly complex lean, direct injection combustors is underway. During the work period January 1, 2002 through October 15, 2002, work has focused on two different laboratory-scale combustors that allow access for a wide variety of measurements. As the grant work proceeds, one key goal will be to obtain certain knowledge about a particular combustor process using a minimum of sophisticated measurements, due to the practical limitations of measurements on full-scale combustors. In the second year, results obtained in the first year will be validated on test combustors to be identified in the first quarter of that year. In the third year, it is proposed to validate the results at more realistic pressure and power levels by utilizing the facilities at the Glenn Research Center.

Baumann, William T.↗
NASA NTRS2013

Putting Integrated Systems Health Management Capabilities to Work: Development of an Advanced Caution and Warning System for Next-Generation Crewed Spacecraft Missions

Integrated System Health Management (ISHM) technologies have advanced to the point where they can provide significant automated assistance with real-time fault detection, diagnosis, guided troubleshooting, and failure consequence assessment. To exploit these capabilities in actual operational environments, however, ISHM information must be integrated into operational concepts and associated information displays in ways that enable human operators to process and understand the ISHM system information rapidly and effectively. In this paper, we explore these design issues in the context of an advanced caution and warning system (ACAWS) for next-generation crewed spacecraft missions. User interface concepts for depicting failure diagnoses, failure effects, redundancy loss, "what-if" failure analysis scenarios, and resolution of ambiguity groups are discussed and illustrated.

integrated system management↗
NASA NTRS1989

Integrated aerodynamic-structural design of a forward-swept transport wing

The introduction of composite materials is having a profound effect on aircraft design. Since these materials permit the designer to tailor material properties to improve structural, aerodynamic and acoustic performance, they require an integrated multidisciplinary design process. Futhermore, because of the complexity of the design process, numerical optimization methods are required. The utilization of integrated multidisciplinary design procedures for improving aircraft design is not currently feasible because of software coordination problems and the enormous computational burden. Even with the expected rapid growth of supercomputers and parallel architectures, these tasks will not be practical without the development of efficient methods for cross-disciplinary sensitivities and efficient optimization procedures. The present research is part of an on-going effort which is focused on the processes of simultaneous aerodynamic and structural wing design as a prototype for design integration. A sequence of integrated wing design procedures has been developed in order to investigate various aspects of the design process.

Haftka, Raphael T.↗
NASA NTRS2005

Modifications of Fabrication of Vibratory Microgyroscopes

A micromachining process for the fabrication of vibratory microgyroscopes from silicon wafers, and aspects of the microgyroscope design that are inextricably linked with the fabrication process, have been modified in an effort to increase production yields from perspectives of both quantity and quality. Prior to the modifications, the effective production yield of working microgyroscopes was limited to one or less per wafer. The modifications are part of a continuing effort to improve the design and increase production yields to more than 30 working microgyroscopes per wafer. A discussion of pertinent aspects of the unmodified design and the unmodified fabrication process is prerequisite to a meaningful description of the modifications. The design of the microgyroscope package was not conducive to high yield and rapid testing of many microgyroscopes. One of the major impediments to high yield and testing was found to lie in vibration- isolation beams around the four edges of each microgyroscope, which beams were found to be unnecessary for achieving high resonance quality factors (Q values) characterizing the vibrations of petallike cantilevers. The fabrication process included an 8- m-deep plasma etch. The purpose of the etch was to create 8- m vertical gaps, below which were to be placed large gold evaporated electrodes and sensing pads to drive and sense resonant vibrations of the "petals." The process also included a step in which bridges between dies were cut to separate the dies. The etched areas must be kept clean and smooth (free of debris and spikes), because any object close to 8 m high in those areas would stop the vibrations. However, it was found that after the etch, there remained some spikes with heights that were, variously, almost as high or as high as the etch depth. It also was found that the cutting of bridges created silicon debris, some of which lodged in the 8- m gaps and some of which landed on top of the petals. The masses added to the petals by the debris altered resonance frequencies and/or Q values to unacceptable degrees. Hence, the spikes and the debris have been conjectured to cause most of the observed malfunctions of newly fabricated microgyroscopes. Another pertinent aspect of the unmodified design and process was the fabrication of electrodes and the 8- m capacitance gap on a 500- m-thick wafer, and the fabrication of a 3-mm-thick baseplate from another wafer. It was necessary to bond these wafers to each other in an assembly step that was later found to be superfluous in that it could be eliminated by a suitable modification of the design.

Bae, Sam Y.↗
DOE OSTI2026

Enabling On-Demand Aerospace Component Manufacturing: Topology Optimization of GE Engine Bracket and Fabrication Using Metal FFF

Additive Manufacturing (AM) offers advantages over conventional manufacturing processes, particularly by reducing the number of parts produced through multistage combined technologies, but these often result in low manufacturing yields or require post-processing. AM facilitates the production of complex geometries with fine features, overhangs, and lattice structures. For instance, Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF) technology enables the fabrication of intricate parts that can be easily post-processed by removing residual powder. Laser powder bed AM technologies are widely discussed in the literature due to their design freedom in creating complex geometries, with and without the need for support generation. However, rapid solidification due to a thermal gradient in the build direction, which leads to the formation of columnar grains and warpage, is one of the challenges. To address this challenge, we propose layer-by-layer metal FFF technology, followed by the debinding and sintering process, as an alternative to powder- and laser-based approaches. Furthermore, design for additive manufacturing (DfAM) principles are discussed to minimize the need for support generation and enable easy post-processing, thereby improving surface finish to meet high tolerances in fabricating components for aerospace and healthcare applications.

Singh, Abhishek [University of Michigan, Ann Arbor↗
NASA NTRS2012

The Herschel Multi-tiered Extragalactic Survey: HerMES

The Herschel Multi-tiered Extragalactic Survey, HerMES, is a legacy program designed to map a set of nested fields totalling approx. 380 deg(exp 2). Fields range in size from 0.01 to approx. 20 deg (exp 2), using Herschel-SPIRE (at 250, 350 and 500 micron), and Herschel-PACS (at 100 and 160 micron), with an additional wider component of 270 deg. (exp. 2) with SPIRE alone. These bands cover the peak of the redshifted thermal spectral energy distribution from interstellar dust and thus capture the re-processed optical and ultra-violet radiation from star formation that has been absorbed by dust, and are critical for forming a complete multi-wavelength understanding of galaxy formation and evolution. The survey will detect of order 100,000 galaxies at 5-sigma in some of the best studied fields in the sky. Additionally, HerMES is closely coordinated with the PACS Evolutionary Probe survey. Making maximum use of the full spectrum of ancillary data, from radio to X-ray wavelengths, it is designed to: facilitate redshift determination; rapidly identify unusual objects; and understand the relationships between thermal emission from dust and other processes. Scientific questions HerMES will be used to answer include: the total infrared emission of galaxies; the evolution of the luminosity function; the clustering properties of dusty galaxies; and the properties of populations of galaxies which lie below the confusion limit through lensing and statistical techniques. This paper defines the survey observations and data products, outlines the primary scientific goals of the HerMES team, and reviews some of the early results.

multi-tiered↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Effect of Composition Variation on Isothermal Rapid Curing Resins for Aerospace Applications

To meet the projected demand for single-aisle composite aircraft in 2040, the production rate of these aircraft will need to increase by four to six times what is currently achievable. A composite manufacturing process with the potential to enable the targeted rates is isothermal resin infusion where infusion and cure occur at the same temperature. However, presently there is not an accepted aerospace-grade resin that can support this isothermal infusion process and maintain acceptable resin properties. Therefore, resin development initiatives have designed anionic catalyzed epoxy systems capable of isothermal infusion and rapid cure at a temperature below 100 ˚C in one hour. High-performance aerospace properties are achieved after undergoing a freestanding post-cure. The resins facilitate faster, energy efficient production cycles by reducing the time and temperature required for cure and eliminating temperature ramps typically required of materials used in the aerospace industry. This work discusses several of the developed resin systems and the impact of varying composition on rheological, thermal, and mechanical properties. Carbon fiber composites were fabricated for one composition by resin transfer molding to demonstrate the potential of these isothermal, rapid cure systems for meeting industry needs.

resin transfer molding↗
DOE OSTI2025

High-Intensity UV Exposure for the Rapid Screening of Silicon Photovoltaic Architectures

Advanced Si photovoltaic architectures incorporate different materials and processing pathways that influence degradation modes. Ultraviolet-induced degradation (UVID) is an understudied degradation mode for advanced cell architectures and is of increasing concern to industry due to growing adoption of UV-transparent encapsulation and bifacial technologies. In order to adopt new and evolving technologies confidently, novel component materials and processing techniques must be evaluated and designed for long-term stability, in addition to the conventional design focus on efficiency. In this work, a study protocol framework is presented for the rapid screening of unencapsulated devices against UVID. Unencapsulated passivated emitter rear contact (PERC) and tunnel oxide passivated contact (TOPCon) devices were aged under different UV irradiance intensities and measured via conventional nondestructive electrical characterization methods to assess performance degradation. Based on the results, protocol efficacy and recommendations for further study are discussed. As a result, this work is part of a broader effort to develop rapid screening processes that cut across architectures and exposure conditions to aid module manufacturers in vetting new materials choices for long-term stability.

Accelerated exposure↗
NASA NTRS2016

Application of Design of Experiments and Surrogate Modeling within the NASA Advanced Concepts Office, Earth-to-Orbit Design Process

Decisions made during early conceptual design have a large impact upon the expected life-cycle cost (LCC) of a new program. It is widely accepted that up to 80% of such cost is committed during these early design phases. Therefore, to help minimize LCC, decisions made during conceptual design must be based upon as much information as possible. To aid in the decision making for new launch vehicle programs, the Advanced Concepts Office (ACO) at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) provides rapid turnaround pre-phase A and phase A concept definition studies. The ACO team utilizes a proven set of tools to provide customers with a full vehicle mass breakdown to tertiary subsystems, preliminary structural sizing based upon worst-case flight loads, and trajectory optimization to quantify integrated vehicle performance for a given mission. Although the team provides rapid turnaround for single vehicle concepts, the scope of the trade space can be limited due to analyst availability and the manpower requirements for manual execution of the analysis tools. In order to enable exploration of a broader design space, the ACO team has implemented an advanced design methods (ADM) based approach. This approach applies the concepts of design of experiments (DOE) and surrogate modeling to more exhaustively explore the trade space and provide the customer with additional design information to inform decision making. This paper will first discuss the automation of the ACO tool set, which represents a majority of the development effort. In order to fit a surrogate model within tolerable error bounds a number of DOE cases are needed. This number will scale with the number of variable parameters desired and the complexity of the system's response to those variables. For all but the smallest design spaces, the number of cases required cannot be produced within an acceptable timeframe using a manual process. Therefore, automation of the tools was a key enabler for the successful application of an ADM approach to an ACO design study. Following the overview of the tool set automation, an example problem will be given to illustrate the implementation of the ADM approach. The example problem will first cover the inclusion of ground rules and assumptions (GR&A) for a study. The GR&A are very important to the study as they determine the constraints within which a trade study can be conducted. These trades must ultimately reconcile with the customer's desired output and any anticipated "what if" questions. The example problem will then illustrate the setup and execution of a DOE through the automated ACO tools. This process is accomplished more efficiently in this work by splitting the tools into two separate environments. The first environment encompasses the structural optimization and mass estimation tools, while the second is focused on trajectory optimization. Surrogate models are fit to the outputs of each environment and are "integrated" via connection of the surrogate equations. Throughout this process, checks are implemented to compare the output of the surrogates to the output of manually run cases to ensure that the error of the final surrogates is at an acceptable level. The conclusion of the example problem demonstrates the utility of the ADM based approach. Using surrogate models gives the ACO team the ability to visualize vehicle sensitivities to various design parameters and identify regions of interest within the design space. The ADM approach can thus be used to inform concept down selection and isolate promising vehicle configurations to be explored in more detail through the manual design process. In addition it provides the customer with an almost instantaneous turnaround on any ''what if" questions that may arise within the bounds of the surrogate model. This approach ultimately expands the ability of the ACO team to provide its customer with broad and rapid turnaround trade studies for launch vehicle conceptual design. The ability to identify a selection of designs which can meet the customer requirements will help ensure lower LCC of launch vehicle designs originating from ACO.

Zwack, Mathew R.↗