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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 163 records · Page 9
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2014

The MillSOT-A Spiral Orbit Tribometer on a Milling Machine

A spiral orbit tribometer (SOT) intended to characterize friction and wear phenomena has been constructed on a milling machine. The instrument, essentially a retainerless thrust bearing with one ball and flat races, is exceedingly simple and inexpensive to construct. The capabilities of the tribometer to measure both the coefficient of friction and contact electrical resistance are demonstrated with clean specimens as well as with well known lubricants such as molybdenum disulphide and Krytox oil. Operation in a purged environment of inert gas is also demonstrated. The results with these lubricants are quite close to what is obtained by other methods. Suggestions for extending the capabilities of the tribometer are given. This arrangement may find use in university mechanical engineering laboratories to introduce and study rolling contact motion as well as for research in contact mechanics and tribology.

Pepper, Stephen V.↗
NASA NTRS1962

The Theory of Pulsating Flow in Conical Nozzles

A knowledge of the dynamic characteristics of nozzles and orifices is important in many control and stability analyses of engineering devices. It is usual to assume that the instantaneous flow-rate, for a given set of inlet conditions and outlet pressure, is the same as the nontransient value for the same operating conditions. Recently, in connection with the stability analysis of an externally pressurized thrust bearing, the validity of this assumption was questioned. The analysis presented in this paper was undertaken to provide an answer. The present analysis applies to any fluid, liquid, or gas flowing into a simple conical nozzle. The amplitude and phase of the mass-flux response to a sinusoidally time-varying pressure fluctuation at the nozzle exit are determined. An approximate formula is given for these quantities in terms of the nozzle throat area, the solid angle subtended by the cone, the velocity of the fluid at the nozzle throat, the acoustic velocity at the throat, and the frequency of the pressure fluctuation.

Elrod, H. G., Jr.↗
DOE OSTI2023

Gripper Test Assembly Status of Fabrication and Assembly Report – FY2023

The Gripper Test Assembly (GrTA) is an experimental test article designed for use at the Mechanisms Engineering Test Loop (METL) at Argonne National Laboratory (ANL). The GrTA will test mechanical components intended for use in compact in-vessel fuel handling machines (FHM) for sodium cooled fast reactors (SFR). The GrTA will test radial and thrust ball bearings, radial and thrust roller bearings, ball screws and nuts, spline shafts and ball nuts, radial spur gears, and universal joints submerged in liquid sodium at high temperatures (250°C-650°C). These components will be tested in a prototypic, full-scale gripper head and under prototypic SFR fuel handling loads. The design of the GrTA was completed in FY2022 and has progressed into fabrication and initial assembly. All custom manufactured components have been fabricated and delivered to ANL following inspection. All custom gears have been fabricated and delivered to ANL. Bearings, ball screws, and spline shafts have been purchased to allow for initial assembly in air, and sodium compatible versions have either been purchased or are in design at appropriate manufacturers. The drive motor systems that operate the various functions of the GrTA have been purchased and delivered to ANL. Instrumentation and control hardware has been purchased and delivered to ANL as well. All sodium facing components of the GrTA have been assembled and show proper fit. The three main functions of the GrTA are to raise or lower a gripper head under prototypic fuel handling loads, rotate the gripper head while carrying a fuel handling load, and extend or retract gripper jaws that lock a fuel assembly to the gripper head. All three functions have been demonstrated in air, while under no load. The GrTA project will move forward next fiscal year by completing the initial assembly, incorporating the drive system and I&C, and preparing the assembly for introduction to sodium.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
NASA NTRS1973

Parametric study of the lubrication of thrust loaded 120-mm bore ball bearings to 3 million DN

A parametric study was performed with 120-mm bore angular-contact ball bearings under varying thrust loads, bearing and lubricant temperatures, and cooling and lubricant flow rates. Contact angles were nominally 20 and 24 deg with bearing speeds to 3 million DN. Endurance tests were run at 3 million DN and a temperature of 492 K (425 F) with 10 bearings having a nominal 24 deg contact angle at a thrust load of 22241 N (5000 lb). Bearing operating temperature, differences in temperatures between the inner and outer races, and bearing power consumption can be tuned to any desirable operating requirement by varying 4 parameters. These parameters are outer-race cooling, inner-race cooling, lubricant flow to the inner race, and oil inlet temperature. Preliminary endurance tests at 3 million DN and 492 K (425 F) indicate that long term bearing operation can be achieved with a high degree of reliability.

Signer, H.↗
NASA NTRS2004

Conical Magnetic Bearings Developed for Active Stall Control in Gas Turbine Engines

Active stall control is a current research area at the NASA Glenn Research Center that offers a great benefit in specific fuel consumption by allowing the gas turbine to operate beyond the onset of stall. Magnetic bearings are being investigated as a new method to perform active stall control. This enabling global aviation safety technology would result in improved fuel efficiency and decreased carbon dioxide emissions, as well as improve safety and reliability by eliminating oil-related delays and failures of engine components, which account for 40 percent of the commercial aircraft departure delays. Active stall control works by perturbing the flow in front of the compressor stage such that it cancels the pressure wave, which causes the compressor to go into stall. Radial magnetic bearings are able to whirl the shaft so that variations in blade tip leakage would flow upstream causing a perturbation wave that could cancel the rotating stall cell. Axial or thrust magnetic bearings cannot be used to cancel the surge mode in the compressor because they have a very low bandwidth and thus cannot modulate at a high enough frequency. Frequency response is limited because the thrust runner cannot be laminated. To improve the bandwidth of magnetic thrust bearings, researchers must use laminations to suppress the eddy currents. A conical magnetic bearing can be laminated, resulting in increased bandwidth in the axial direction. In addition, this design can produce both radial and thrust force in a single bearing, simplifying the installation. The proposed solution combines the radial and thrust bearing into one design that can be laminated--a conical magnetic bearing. The new conical magnetic bearing test rig, funded by a Glenn fiscal year 2002 Director's Discretionary Fund, was needed because none of the existing rigs has an axial degree of freedom. The rotor bearing configuration will simulate that of the main shaft on a gas turbine engine. One conical magnetic bearing replaces the ball bearing in front of the compressor, and the second replaces the roller bearing behind the burner. The rig was made operational to 10,000 rpm under Smart Efficient Components funding, and both position and current adaptive vibration control have been demonstrated. Upon program completion, recommendations will be made as to the efficacy of the conical magnetic bearing for active stall control.

Trudell, Jeffrey J.↗
NASA NTRS1975

Long life, high speed, thrust-load ball bearings

Long-term bearing operation at three million DN can be achieved with high degree of reliability using full combination of sophisticated but currently available state-of-the-art bearing materials and designs, lubricants, and lubricating techniques.

Signer, H.↗
NASA NTRS2003

Control Study for Five-axis Dynamic Spin Rig Using Magnetic Bearings

The NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC) has developed a magnetic bearing system for the Dynamic Spin Rig (DSR) with a fully suspended shaft that is used to perform vibration tests of turbomachinery blades and components under spinning conditions in a vacuum. Two heteropolar radial magnetic bearings and a thrust magnetic bearing and the associated control system were integrated into the DSR to provide magnetic excitation as well as non-contact mag- netic suspension of a 15.88 kg (35 lb) vertical rotor with blades to induce turbomachinery blade vibration. For rotor levitation, a proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller with a special feature for multidirectional radial excitation worked well to both support and shake the shaft with blades. However, more advanced controllers were developed and successfully tested to determine the optimal controller in terms of sensor and processing noise reduction, smaller rotor orbits, more blade vibration amplitude, and energy savings for the system. The test results of a variety of controllers that were demonstrated up to 10.000 rpm are shown. Furthermore, rotor excitation operation and conceptual study of active blade vibration control are addressed.

Choi, Benjamin↗
NASA NTRS2003

Optimal Controller Tested for a Magnetically Suspended Five-Axis Dynamic Spin Rig

NASA Glenn Research Center's Structural Mechanics and Dynamics Branch has developed a fully suspended magnetic bearing system for their Dynamic Spin Rig, which performs vibration tests of turbomachinery blades and components under spinning conditions in a vacuum. Two heteropolar radial magnetic bearings and a thrust magnetic bearing and the associated control system were integrated into the Dynamic Spin Rig to provide magnetic excitation as well as noncontact magnetic suspension of the 35-lb vertical rotor with blades to induce turbomachinery blade vibration (ref. 1). The new system can provide longer run times at higher speeds and larger vibration amplitudes for rotating blades. Also, it was proven that bearing mechanical life was substantially extended and flexibility was increased in the excitation orientation (direction and phasing).

Choi, Benjamin B.↗
NASA NTRS2004

High Speed Operation and Testing of a Fault Tolerant Magnetic Bearing

Research activities undertaken to upgrade the fault-tolerant facility, continue testing high-speed fault-tolerant operation, and assist in the commission of the high temperature (1000 degrees F) thrust magnetic bearing as described. The fault-tolerant magnetic bearing test facility was upgraded to operate to 40,000 RPM. The necessary upgrades included new state-of-the art position sensors with high frequency modulation and new power edge filtering of amplifier outputs. A comparison study of the new sensors and the previous system was done as well as a noise assessment of the sensor-to-controller signals. Also a comparison study of power edge filtering for amplifier-to-actuator signals was done; this information is valuable for all position sensing and motor actuation applications. After these facility upgrades were completed, the rig is believed to have capabilities for 40,000 RPM operation, though this has yet to be demonstrated. Other upgrades included verification and upgrading of safety shielding, and upgrading control algorithms. The rig will now also be used to demonstrate motoring capabilities and control algorithms are in the process of being created. Recently an extreme temperature thrust magnetic bearing was designed from the ground up. The thrust bearing was designed to fit within the existing high temperature facility. The retrofit began near the end of the summer, 04, and continues currently. Contract staff authored a NASA-TM entitled "An Overview of Magnetic Bearing Technology for Gas Turbine Engines", containing a compilation of bearing data as it pertains to operation in the regime of the gas turbine engine and a presentation of how magnetic bearings can become a viable candidate for use in future engine technology.

DeWitt, Kenneth↗
NASA NTRS1973

Friction losses in a lubricated thrust-loaded cageless angular-contract bearing

The NASA spinning torque apparatus was modified to measure the spinning torque on a cageless ball thrust bearing. Friction torque was measured for thrust loads varying from 44.5 to 403 newtons (10 to 90 lb) at speeds of 1000, 2000, and 3000 rpm. Tests were conducted with di-2-ethylhexyl sebacate and a synthetic paraffinic oil. These tests were run with either oil jet lubrication or with a thin surface film of lubricant only. An analytical model which included rolling resistance was developed and extended from previous models for spinning torque and lubricant rheology. The model was extended by the inclusion of rolling resistance. The computed values were in fair agreement with the experimental results and confirmed previous hypotheses that a thin lubricant film gives minimum bearing torque and an oil jet flow of a viscous lubricant will result in considerable rolling torque in addition to the torque due to ball spin.

Townsend, D. P.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Parachute Swivel Mechanism for planetary entry

A parachute swivel mechanism (PSM) for planetary entry missions such as a Mars probe (MARSNET) or return of cometary material samples (ROSETTA mission) has been developed. The purpose of the PSM is to decouple the spin of the probe from the parachute, with low friction torque, during both the deployment and descent phases. Critical requirements are high shock loads, low friction, low temperatures, and several years of storage in the deep space environment (during the cruise phase of the probe, prior to operation). The design uses a main thrust ball bearing to cope with the load requirement and a smaller thrust ball bearing for guiding of the shaft. Except for use on the Viking and Galileo swivels, it appears that this type of bearing has very rarely been employed in space mechanisms, so that little is known of its friction behavior with dry lubrication. A slip ring assembly allows the transfer of electrical power for post-reefing of the parachute. A test program has been conducted covering the environmental conditions of Mars entry and Earth reentry. This paper describes requirement constraints, model missions of planetary entries, a bearing trade-off, analyses performed, design details, the lubrication system, and test results (friction torque versus load/spin rate). In addition, the design of the test rig is addressed.

Birner, R.↗
NASA NTRS2003

Determination of Rolling-Element Fatigue Life From Computer Generated Bearing Tests

Two types of rolling-element bearings representing radial loaded and thrust loaded bearings were used for this study. Three hundred forty (340) virtual bearing sets totaling 31400 bearings were randomly assembled and tested by Monte Carlo (random) number generation. The Monte Carlo results were compared with endurance data from 51 bearing sets comprising 5321 bearings. A simple algebraic relation was established for the upper and lower L(sub 10) life limits as function of number of bearings failed for any bearing geometry. There is a fifty percent (50 percent) probability that the resultant bearing life will be less than that calculated. The maximum and minimum variation between the bearing resultant life and the calculated life correlate with the 90-percent confidence limits for a Weibull slope of 1.5. The calculated lives for bearings using a load-life exponent p of 4 for ball bearings and 5 for roller bearings correlated with the Monte Carlo generated bearing lives and the bearing data. STLE life factors for bearing steel and processing provide a reasonable accounting for differences between bearing life data and calculated life. Variations in Weibull slope from the Monte Carlo testing and bearing data correlated. There was excellent agreement between percent of individual components failed from Monte Carlo simulation and that predicted.

Vlcek, Brian L.↗
NASA NTRS2001

Experimental Evaluation of Journal Bearing Stability and New Gas Bearing Material

It has been estimated that the noise levels in aircraft engine transmissions can be reduced by as much as 10 dB through the use of journal bearings. The potential benefits of lower noise levels include reduced wear, longer gear life and enhanced comfort for passengers and crew. Based on this concept the journal-thrust wave bearing was analyzed and its performance was evaluated. Numerical codes, developed over the past 30 years by Dr. Dimofte, were used to predict the performance of the bearing. The wave bearing is a fluid film bearing and therefore was analyzed using the Reynolds pressure equation. The formulation includes turbulent flow concepts and possesses a viscosity-temperature correction. The centrifugal growth of the bearing diameter and the deformation of the bearing under gear loads were also incorporated into the code. An experimental rig was developed to test the journal-thrust wave bearing.

Keith, Theo G., Jr.↗
NASA NTRS1977

Performance of large-bore tapered-roller bearings under combined radial and thrust load at shaft speeds to 15,000 rpm

The performance of 120.65-mm bore tapered roller bearings was investigated at shaft speeds up to 15,000 rpm. Temperature distribution and bearing heat generation were determined as a function of shaft speed, radial and thrust loads, lubricant flow rate, and lubricant inlet temperature. Lubricant was supplied by either jets or by a combination of holes through the cone directly to the cone-rib contact and jets at the roller small-end side. Cone-rib lubrication significantly improved high-speed tapered-roller bearing performance, yielding lower cone-face temperatures and lower power loss and allowing lower lubricant flow rates for a given speed condition. Bearing temperatures increased with increased shaft speed and decreased with increased lubricant flow rate. Bearing power loss increased with increased shaft speed and increased lubricant flow rate.

Parker, R. J.↗
NASA NTRS2007

Thrust rollers

A thrust roller bearing system comprising an inner rotating member, an outer rotating member and multiple rollers coupling the inner rotating member with outer rotating member. The inner and outer rotating members include thrust lips to enable the rollers to act as thrust rollers. The rollers contact inner and outer rotating members at bearing contact points along a contact line. Consequently, the radial/tilt and thrust forces move synchronously and simultaneously to create a bearing action with no slipping.

Vranish, John M.↗
NASA NTRS2011

A Magnetically Coupled Cryogenic Pump

Historically, cryogenic pumps used for propellant loading at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) and other NASA Centers have a bellows mechanical seal and oil bath ball bearings, both of which can be problematic and require high maintenance. Because of the extremely low temperatures, the mechanical seals are made of special materials and design, have wearing surfaces, are subject to improper installation, and commonly are a potential leak path. The ball bearings are non-precision bearings [ABEC-1 (Annular Bearing Engineering Council)] and are lubricated using LOX compatible oil. This oil is compatible with the propellant to prevent explosions, but does not have good lubricating properties. Due to the poor lubricity, it has been a goal of the KSC cryogenics community for the last 15 years to develop a magnetically coupled pump, which would eliminate these two potential issues. A number of projects have been attempted, but none of the pumps was a success. An off-the-shelf magnetically coupled pump (typically used with corrosive fluids) was procured that has been used for hypergolic service at KSC. The KSC Cryogenics Test Lab (CTL) operated the pump in cryogenic LN2 as received to determine a baseline for modifications required. The pump bushing, bearings, and thrust rings failed, and the pump would not flow liquid (this is a typical failure mode that was experienced in the previous attempts). Using the knowledge gained over the years designing and building cryogenic pumps, the CTL determined alternative materials that would be suitable for use under the pump design conditions. The CTL procured alternative materials for the bearings (bronze, aluminum bronze, and glass filled PTFE) and machined new bearing bushings, sleeves, and thrust rings. The designed clearances among the bushings, sleeves, thrust rings, case, and case cover were altered once again using experience gained from previous cryogenic pump rebuilds and designs. The alternative material parts were assembled into the pump, and the pump was successfully operated meeting all expected operating parameters. Unique pump sub-assembly parts were designed and manufactured by the CTL using specialized materials determined to be superior for cryogenic thermal applications under the pump design conditions. This work is a proof-of-concept/proof-of-operation of the pump only. Other known internal design modifications to the pump should be accomplished for the long-term use of the pump. An upscaled version of this pump, which is under development and testing at the CTL, can be used either for current or future vehicle loading or for vehicle replenishment. Scaling of this pump can be easily accomplished.

Hatfield, Walter↗
NASA NTRS1978

Foil bearings for axial and radial support of high speed rotors: Design, development, and determination of operating characteristics

Flexible surface thrust and journal foil bearings were fabricated, and their performance was demonstrated, both individually and jointly as a unified rotor support system. Experimental results are documented with graphs and oscilloscopic data of trajectories, waveforms, and scans of amplitude response. At speeds of 40,000 to 45,000 rpm and a mean clearance of the order of 15 to 20 micrometers (600 to 800 micrometers, the resilient, air lubricated, spiral groove thrust bearings support a load of 127 N (29 lb; 13 kgf), equivalent to 3.0 N/sq cm (4.5 lb/sq in 0.31 kgf sq cm). Journal bearings with polygonal sections provided stable and highly damped supports at speeds up to 50,000 rpm.

Licht, L.↗