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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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Cryogenic Propellant Tank Drain Simulation with a Stratified Ullage Nodal Model

Cryogenic propellant tank pressurization systems maintain tank pressure within specified limits to comply with propellant thermodynamic and tank structural design requirements. Many pump-fed cryogenic liquid propulsion systems control tank pressure using an autogenous pressurization system. Autogenous pressurization systems vaporize and heat propellant to produce the pressurant gas delivered to the tank. While autogenous pressurization systems eliminate the need for a separate pressurant gas storage and delivery system, they couple pressurant mass requirements to propellant mass requirements. Accurate prediction of autogenous pressurant mass during propellant drain is essential in optimizing cryogenic propellant tank designs.

Richard G Hibbs

CFD-Assisted Nodal Modeling of Sloshing in a Cryogenic Propellant Tank

During autogenous pressurization, tank sloshing causes a significant increase in pressurant consumption to maintain constant ullage pressure during draining of the tank. This increase in pressurant consumption is caused by a significant increase in condensation at the liquid-vapor interface. Sloshing strongly affects the liquid side heat transfer coefficient and thereby the condensation rate. Traditionally, sloshing is modeled by CFD code using the VOF (Volume of Fluid) method to track the liquid vapor interface during sloshing. CFD calculations require a very fine grid to accurately compute the heat and mass transfer at the interface. Therefore, computations are time consuming and prohibit performing many parametric studies often needed during the design of a new system. This paper describes an alternative approach by developing a CFD-assisted nodal model to predict system parameters more economically with reasonable accuracy. In this approach, a multi-node model of tank pressurization was developed using GFSSP. A multi-node model was needed to account for stratification. The model computes heat and mass transfer at the interface to calculate the condensation rate. The liquid side heat transfer is computed using the parameters of sloshing dynamics such as frequency, wave amplitude, and interface area. The parameters of sloshing dynamics are computed by the CFD code LOCI-Stream. The model predictions were compared with test data for several cases.

Cryogenic Tank Sloshing

Single battery power subsystems: On-line reconditioning

The effect of on-line reconditioning (deep discharge) on a single, Nickel-Hydrogen spacecraft battery in GEO and LEO is considered. A life cycle test was performed in both GEO and LEO to study the effect of reconditioning on the battery's end of discharge voltage (EODV). The results of these tests show that: LEO on-line reconditioning increased the EODV (by approximately 15 cycles to maximum EODV) and the EODV lasted for approximately 300 cycles, but GEO on-line reconditioning decreased the EODV slightly during the first six days and increases significantly after the seventh day. Based on the available data from the life cycle test, it has been concluded that a long life and stable voltage is realizable with the baseline architecture (single battery, single bus) without the need for reconditioning.

Tobias, R. F.

Force-Strain Characteristics and Rupture-Load Capability of Viking-Type Suspension-Line Material Under Dynamic Loading Conditions

A series of tests has been conducted to investigate the elastic behavior of Viking-type suspension-line material under dynamic loading conditions. Results indicate that there is a decrease in both rupture-load capability and elongation at rupture as the test strain rate is increased. Preliminary examination of force-strain characteristics indicates that, on the average, the material exhibits some type of viscous effect which results in a greater force being produced, for a particular value of strain, under dynamic loading conditions than that produced under quasi-static loading conditions.

Langley Working Papers

Numerical Modeling of the Transient Chilldown Process of a Cryogenic Propellant Transfer Line

Before cryogenic fuel depots can be fully realized, efficient methods with which to chill down the spacecraft transfer line and receiver tank are required. This paper presents numerical modeling of the chilldown of a liquid hydrogen tank-to-tank propellant transfer line using the Generalized Fluid System Simulation Program (GFSSP). To compare with data from recently concluded turbulent LH2 chill down experiments, seven different cases were run across a range of inlet liquid temperatures and mass flow rates. Both trickle and pulse chill down methods were simulated. The GFSSP model qualitatively matches external skin mounted temperature readings, but large differences are shown between measured and predicted internal stream temperatures. Discrepancies are attributed to the simplified model correlation used to compute two-phase flow boiling heat transfer. Flow visualization from testing shows that the initial bottoming out of skin mounted sensors corresponds to annular flow, but that considerable time is required for the stream sensor to achieve steady state as the system moves through annular, churn, and bubbly flow. The GFSSP model does adequately well in tracking trends in the data but further work is needed to refine the two-phase flow modeling to better match observed test data.

Temperature Sensors

Air-Broadened Line Shapes in the 2n3 R Branch of 12ch4 Between 6014 and 6100 cm-1

Complete and accurate information on line shape parameters of 2?3 methane transitions for air broadening as a function of temperature is critical not only for the correct interpretation of the observed atmospheric spectra but also for the development of a reliable theoretical model. For this reason, we obtained a series of high-resolution, high S/N spectra of high-purity 12CH4 and 12CH4 broadened with dry air at temperatures in the 130 to 295 K range using the Bruker IFS 125HR Fourier transform spectrometer at JPL. Two absorption cells were used in the experiment, a White cell with path length of 13 m for room temperature spectra and a 21 m Herriott cella for cold sample spectra. The 15 spectra used in the analysis consisted of 3 low pressure (0.26 to 2.57 Torr) spectra with pure 12CH4 and 12 air-broadened spectra with total sample pressures of 79-805 Torr and volume mixing ratios of methane between 0.23 and 1%. A multispectrum least-squares fitting techniqueb was employed to fit all 15 spectra simultaneously. Preliminary results for select R(J) manifolds will be presented.

V Malathy Devi

RTE: A Computer Code for Rocket Thermal Evaluation

The numerical model for a rocket thermal analysis code (RTE) is discussed. RTE is a comprehensive thermal analysis code for thermal analysis of regeneratively cooled rocket engines. The input to the code consists of the composition of fuel/oxidant mixture and flow rates, chamber pressure, coolant temperature and pressure. dimensions of the engine, materials and the number of nodes in different parts of the engine. The code allows for temperature variation in axial, radial and circumferential directions. By implementing an iterative scheme, it provides nodal temperature distribution, rates of heat transfer, hot gas and coolant thermal and transport properties. The fuel/oxidant mixture ratio can be varied along the thrust chamber. This feature allows the user to incorporate a non-equilibrium model or an energy release model for the hot-gas-side. The user has the option of bypassing the hot-gas-side calculations and directly inputting the gas-side fluxes. This feature is used to link RTE to a boundary layer module for the hot-gas-side heat flux calculations.

Mohammad H N Naraghi

The Detection of Water Vapor on Mars

We have found eleven weak lines of water vapor on a high dispersion near-infrared spectrogram of Mars taken at the coudè focus of the Mount Wilson 100-inch reflector on April 12/13,1963. We exposed 43 hours on ammoniated IV-N emulsion with a dispersion of 5.6 A/mm; the plate is well exposed at the poles and somewhat overexposed at the center of the planet’s disk. The Martian H 2 O lines in the X 8200 water-vapor band are displaced 0.42 A longward of their telluric counterparts due to the relative velocities of the earth and Mars: AV = +15 km/sec on that date. The Martian lines are strongest over the poles of the planet-we set the spectrograph slit daost north-south to cover both polar regions. This apparent polar strengthening of the Martian H 2 O lines is at least partially due to the increased air mass through the line of sight to high latitudes.

MARS /PLANET/

In-Orbit Earth Radiation Budget Satellite (ERBS) Battery Switch

This presentation reviews the history of the Earth Radiation Budget Satellite (ERBS) and the problems which were experienced with the batteries. After two cells shorted on the first Battery, the decision was made to take battery 1 of line in late 1992. This left the second battery supporting all loads. The second battery began to experience problems in 1998 into 1999. The decision was made to bring the first battery on line and take the second battery off line. The steps to switching the batteries are reviewed, and the results are discussed.

Ahmad, Anisa

Heat Transfer Enhancement in Cryogenic Quenching Process

This paper reports a heat transfer advancement in the cryogenic quenching process. An experiment was performed to evaluate the enhancement of quenching heat transfer by the use of metal tubes with low thermal conductivity coating layers. Four coating thicknesses with various coolant mass flow rates of liquid nitrogen were investigated. The results indicated that the tube inner surface coating greatly enhanced the quenching efficiency. The quenching efficiency was found to increase with increasing number of coating layers, and the efficiency also increased with decreasing mass flow rates. In general, the efficiencies cover a range between 40.6% and 80%. Comparing to the bare surface case, the percentage increase in the quenching efficiency was the minimum at 4.2% for a single coated layer at the highest flow rate and the maximum of 109.1% for four coated layers at the lowest flow rate. The coated tubes could save up to 53% in the amount of cryogen consumption.

two-phase flow

Numerical Predictions of the Flow and Heat Transfer Characteristics in the Film Boiling Regime During Tube Quenching

Cryogenic fluid management plays a major role in refueling of spacecrafts while in space for NASA’s future human space exploration missions. Due to the low boiling points of cryogens, storage, transport and handling of these fluids becomes difficult and may result in inefficient operation of the space propulsion systems. For refueling applications in space, the cryogenic fluids have to be transported across different locations and hence, the transfer of cryogenic fluids through pipes become critical. The cryogenic chill-down process is characterized by different regimes of flow boiling, viz., film boiling, transition boiling and nucleate boiling. The prediction of these regimes in a single CFD framework available in the literature is challenging and the present work attempts to address this challenge by initially modeling the film boiling regime accurately and to incorporate an user-defined function for transition and nucleate boiling at a later stage. Hence, the aim of the present work is to numerically model and validate the film boiling regime of the chilldown curve for liquid nitrogen experiments available in the literature. The validations are carried out at different inlet mass fluxes to have a robust simulation methodology. A dispersed mixture model is used to predict the vapor-liquid interface dynamics with the phase change phenomena modeled using the Lee model.

line chilldown

Rewet Temperature Correlations for Liquid-Nitrogen Boiling Pipe Flows Across Varying Flow Conditions and Orientations

In many convective liquid-vapor phase change heat transfer engineering applications, cryogenic fluids are widely used in industrial processes, spacecraft and cryosurgery systems, and so on. For example, cryogens are usually used as liquid fuels such as liquid hydrogen and oxygen in the rocket industry, liquid nitrogen (LN2) and helium are frequently used to cool superconducting magnetic device for medical applications. In these systems, proper transport, handling, and storage of cryogenic fluids are of extreme importance. Among all the cryogenic transport processes performed in room temperatures, quenching, also termed chilldown, is a unavoidable initial, transient phase-change heat transfer process that brings the system down to the cryogenic condition. The Leidenfrost temperature or rewet temperature that signals the end of film boiling is practically considered the completion point of a quenching process. Therefore, rewet temperature has been considered the most important parameter for the engineering design of cryogenic thermal management systems. As most of the previous correlations for predicting the Leidenfrost temperature and the rewet temperature have been basically developed for water, they are shown to disagree with recent liquid nitrogen pipe chilldown experiments in upward and downward flow directions over a wide range of flow rates, pressures, and degrees of inlet subcooling. In addition to a complete review of the literature, two new correlations are presented in this work, one based on bubble growth and another based on the theoretical maximum limit of superheat. Each correlation performs well over the entire data set.

liquid nitrogen

Implementation of Self-Align Local Poly Interconnection on 0.25 Micron Flash Memory

For ETOX Flash technology. the self-aligned source module plays a critical role in minimizing cell size. For advanced Flash technology using the shallow-trench isolation (STI) scheme, however, it is difficult to form a stable source line. The Flash process in this experiment features an ETOX structure and with SIN spacer. Poly-Si (implanted poly) is used as the local interconnection material connecting the source line and was successfully implemented in the ETOX flash array in this paper.

C H Lee

The Slow Demise of the Long-Lived Sn 2005ip

The Type IIn supernova (SN IIn) 2005ip is one of the most well-studied and long-lasting examples of an SN interacting with its circumstellar environment. The optical light curve plateaued at a nearly constant level for more than five years, suggesting ongoing shock interaction with an extended and clumpy circumstellar medium (CSM). Here, we present continued observations of the SN from ∼1000 to 5000 d post-explosion at all wavelengths, including X-ray, ultraviolet, near-infrared (NIR), and mid-infrared. The UV spectra probe the pre-explosion mass loss and show evidence for CNO processing. From the bolometric light curve, we find that the total radiated energy is in excess of 10 50 erg, the progenitor star’s pre-explosion mass-loss rate was >~ 1 × 10 −2 Mꙩ yr −1 , and the total mass lost shortly before explosion was >~1Mꙩ, though the mass lost could have been considerably larger depending on the efficiency for the conversion of kinetic energy to radiation. The ultraviolet through NIR spectrum is characterized by two high-density components, one with narrow high-ionization lines, and one with broader low-ionization H I, He I, [OI], Mg II, and Fe II lines. The rich Fe II spectrum is strongly affected by Lyα fluorescence, consistent with spectral modelling. Both the Balmer and He I lines indicate a decreasing CSM density during the late interaction period. We find similarities to SN 1988Z, which shows a comparable change in spectrum at around the same time during its very slow decline. These results suggest that, at long last, the shock interaction in SN 2005ip may finally be on the decline.

stars

Autonomous Power Expert Fault Diagnostic System for Space Station Freedom Electrical Power System Testbed

The goal of the Autonomous Power System (APS) program is to develop and apply intelligent problem solving and control to the Space Station Freedom Electrical Power System (SSF/EPS) testbed being developed and demonstrated at NASA Lewis Research Center. The objectives of the program are to establish artificial intelligence technology paths, to craft knowledge-based tools with advanced human-operator interfaces for power systems, and to interface and integrate knowledge-based systems with conventional controllers. The Autonomous Power EXpert (APEX) portion of the APS program will integrate a knowledge-based fault diagnostic system and a power resource planner-scheduler. Then APEX will interface on-line with the SSF/EPS testbed and its Power Management Controller (PMC). The key tasks include establishing knowledge bases for system diagnostics, fault detection and isolation analysis, on-line information accessing through PMC, enhanced data management, and multiple-level, object-oriented operator displays. The first prototype of the diagnostic expert system for fault detection and isolation has been developed. The knowledge bases and the rule-based model that were developed for the Power Distribution Control Unit subsystem of the SSF/EPS testbed are described. A corresponding troubleshooting technique is also described.

Long V Truong

Integrated Inverter And Battery Charger

Circuit combines functions of dc-to-ac inversion (for driving ac motor in battery-powered vehicle) and ac-to-dc conversion (for charging battery from ac line when vehicle not in use). Automatically adapts to either mode. Design of integrated inverter/charger eliminates need for duplicate components, saves space, reduces weight and cost of vehicle. Advantages in other applications : load-leveling systems, standby ac power systems, and uninterruptible power supplies.

Rippel, Wally E.