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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 19 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1975

Benefit-cost methodology study with example application of the use of wind generators

An example application for cost-benefit methodology is presented for the use of wind generators. The approach adopted for the example application consisted of the following activities: (1) surveying of the available wind data and wind power system information, (2) developing models which quantitatively described wind distributions, wind power systems, and cost-benefit differences between conventional systems and wind power systems, and (3) applying the cost-benefit methodology to compare a conventional electrical energy generation system with systems which included wind power generators. Wind speed distribution data were obtained from sites throughout the contiguous United States and were used to compute plant factor contours shown on an annual and seasonal basis. Plant factor values (ratio of average output power to rated power) are found to be as high as 0.6 (on an annual average basis) in portions of the central U. S. and in sections of the New England coastal area. Two types of wind power systems were selected for the application of the cost-benefit methodology. A cost-benefit model was designed and implemented on a computer to establish a practical tool for studying the relative costs and benefits of wind power systems under a variety of conditions and to efficiently and effectively perform associated sensitivity analyses.

Zimmer, R. P.↗
NASA NTRS2013

Wind-Driven Wireless Networked System of Mobile Sensors for Mars Exploration

A revolutionary way is proposed of studying the surface of Mars using a wind-driven network of mobile sensors: GOWON. GOWON would be a scalable, self-powered and autonomous distributed system that could allow in situ mapping of a wide range of environmental phenomena in a much larger portion of the surface of Mars compared to earlier missions. It could improve the possibility of finding rare phenomena such as "blueberries' or bio-signatures and mapping their occurrence, through random wind-driven search. It would explore difficult terrains that were beyond the reach of previous missions, such as regions with very steep slopes and cluttered surfaces. GOWON has a potentially long life span, as individual elements can be added to the array periodically. It could potentially provide a cost-effective solution for mapping wide areas of Martian terrain, enabling leaving a long-lasting sensing and searching infrastructure on the surface of Mars. The system proposed here addresses this opportunity using technology advances in a distributed system of wind-driven sensors, referred to as Moballs.

Davoodi, Faranak↗
NASA NTRS1982

Conceptual design of the 7 megawatt Mod-5B wind turbine generator

Similar to MOD-2, the MOD-5B wind turbine generator system is designed for the sole purpose of providing electrical power for distribution by a major utility network. The objectives of the MOD-2 and MOD-5B programs are essentially identical with one important exception; the cost-of-electricity (COE) target is reduced from 4 cent/Kwhr on MOD-2 to 3 cent/Kwhr on MOD-5B, based on mid 1977 dollars and large quantity production. The MOD-5B concept studies and eventual concept selection confirmed that the program COE targets could not only be achieved but substantially bettered. Starting from the established MOD-2 technology as a base, this achievement resulted from a combination of concept changes, size changes, and design refinements. The result of this effort is a wind turbine system that can compete with conventional power generation over significant geographical areas, increasing commercial market potential by an order of magnitude.

Douglas, R. R.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Entry, Descent, and Landing Analysis of Low Mass Martian Probe for Surface Climate Network

Aeolus is a mission to provide the first direct measurements of Martian atmospheric wind speeds and correlate them with thermal and compositional data to bring together a complete systematic description for the global energy balance and climate cycles of Mars. Objective A of the Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group (MEPAG) Goal II cites a Science Investigation Area to develop a network of surface landers to provide global, diurnal and synoptic coverage of the near-surface environment to characterize present Mars climate [1]. Aeolus will characterize the present Martian global climate system via an orbiter element and a novel surface network element. A series of low mass, low power probes will be distributed across the Martian surface and measure pressure, sky opacity, temperature, wind speed, water vapor and other trace gases. Low mass and power electrical systems designed to operate in extreme cold and daily thermal cycling for one Martian year could facilitate lower cost, Class-D science probes. Aeolus is targeting a total per-probe mass of <5 kg. Recent advances in nanofabrication of chip-scale sensors that are highly robust to temperature and shock, combined with a novel packaging concept (the deployable sensor probe [2]) originally developed by the Aerospace Corp., for the first time enables a Mars surface climate sensor network. These probes are folded flat during transit to Mars and automatically deploy into the final reentry configuration once released from the orbiter. The capability to fold for stowage significantly increases the probe quantity carried by the orbiter.

EDL↗
NASA NTRS2013

Three-Axis Distributed Fiber Optic Strain Measurement in 3D Woven Composite Structures

Recent advancements in composite materials technologies have broken further from traditional designs and require advanced instrumentation and analysis capabilities. Success or failure is highly dependent on design analysis and manufacturing processes. By monitoring smart structures throughout manufacturing and service life, residual and operational stresses can be assessed and structural integrity maintained. Composite smart structures can be manufactured by integrating fiber optic sensors into existing composite materials processes such as ply layup, filament winding and three-dimensional weaving. In this work optical fiber was integrated into 3D woven composite parts at a commercial woven products manufacturing facility. The fiber was then used to monitor the structures during a VARTM manufacturing process, and subsequent static and dynamic testing. Low cost telecommunications-grade optical fiber acts as the sensor using a high resolution commercial Optical Frequency Domain Reflectometer (OFDR) system providing distributed strain measurement at spatial resolutions as low as 2mm. Strain measurements using the optical fiber sensors are correlated to resistive strain gage measurements during static structural loading. Keywords: fiber optic, distributed strain sensing, Rayleigh scatter, optical frequency domain reflectometry

Castellucci, Matt↗
NASA NTRS1999

Transitioning Active Flow Control to Applications

Active Flow Control Programs at NASA, the U.S. Air Force, and DARPA have been initiated with the goals of obtaining revolutionary advances in aerodynamic performance and maneuvering compared to conventional approaches. These programs envision the use of actuators, sensors, and controllers on applications such as aircraft wings/tails, engine nacelles, internal ducts, nozzles, projectiles, weapons bays, and hydrodynamic vehicles. Anticipated benefits of flow control include reduced weight, part count, and operating cost and reduced fuel burn (and emissions), noise and enhanced safety if the sensors serve a dual role of flow control and health monitoring. To get from the bench-top or laboratory test to adaptive distributed control systems on realistic applications, reliable validated design tools are needed in addition to sub- and large-scale wind-tunnel and flight experiments. This paper will focus on the development of tools for active flow control applications.

Joslin, Ronald D.↗
NASA NTRS2022

Towards Finding Energy Efficient Paths for Hybrid Airships in the Atmosphere of Venus

This paper presents a solution to the motion planning problem for an autonomous airship under superrotation winds of the Venusian atmosphere. The airship uses both buoyancy and aerodynamic lift to control its altitude. In addition, solar panels distributed over the aircraft provide energy to the propellers and allow for battery recharging. Our approach uses a sampling-based planner that relies on Dubins’ Airplane paths deformed under the influence of the winds to create a tree of kinematically feasible trajectories. We use the battery state to prune energetically unfeasible trajectories and we propose a cost function that accounts for the energy expenditure of the propulsive system and that considers battery charging by using the Economics notion of opportunity cost. The method is illustrated through a series of simulations that show how the vehicle takes longer and high-altitude paths to minimize the use of energy and favor battery recharge. Our results also show that naive trajectories are not feasible in terms of energy, justifying the need for more efficient solutions.

Bernardo Martinez R. Jr↗
NASA NTRS2016

Modeling and Simulation of Radiative Compressible Flows in Aerodynamic Heating Arc-Jet Facility

Numerical simulations of an arc heated flow inside NASA's 20 [MW] Aerodynamics heating facility (AHF) are performed in order to investigate the three-dimensional swirling flow and the current distribution inside the wind tunnel. The plasma is considered in Local Thermodynamics Equilibrium(LTE) and is composed of Air-Argon gas mixture. The governing equations are the Navier-Stokes equations that include source terms corresponding to Joule heating and radiative cooling. The former is obtained by solving an electric potential equation, while the latter is calculated using an innovative massively parallel ray-tracing algorithm. The fully coupled system is closed by the thermodynamics relations and transport properties which are obtained from Chapman-Enskog method. A novel strategy was developed in order to enable the flow solver and the radiation calculation to be preformed independently and simultaneously using a different number of processors. Drastic reduction in the computational cost was achieved using this strategy. Details on the numerical methods used for space discretization, time integration and ray-tracing algorithm will be presented. The effect of the radiative cooling on the dynamics of the flow will be investigated. The complete set of equations were implemented within the COOLFluiD Framework. Fig. 1 shows the geometry of the Anode and part of the constrictor of the Aerodynamics heating facility (AHF). Fig. 2 shows the velocity field distribution along (x-y) plane and the streamline in (z-y) plane.

Pasma flows↗
NASA NTRS2005

Mars Aeronomy Explorer (MAX): Study Employing Distributed Micro-Spacecraft

An overview of a Mars Aeronomy Explorer (MAX) mission design study performed at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory is presented herein. The mission design consists of ten micro-spacecraft orbiters launched on a Delta IV to Mars polar orbit to determine the spatial, diurnal and seasonal variation of the constituents of the Martian upper atmosphere and ionosphere over the course of one Martian year. The spacecraft are designed to allow penetration of the upper atmosphere to at least 90 km. This property coupled with orbit precession will yield knowledge of the nature of the solar wind interaction with Mars, the influence of the Mars crustal magnetic field on ionospheric processes, and the measurement of present thermal and nonthermal escape rates of atmospheric constituents. The mission design incorporates alternative design paradigms that are more appropriate for-and in some cases motivate-distributed micro-spacecraft. These design paradigms are not defined by a simple set of rules, but rather a way of thinking about the function of instruments, mission reliability/risk, and cost in a systemic framework.

Mars↗
NASA NTRS2024

Quantification of Uncertainty and Risk Sensitivity for Safety of Emerging Operations

The growing need to develop and deploy small unmanned aerial vehicles (sUAVs) for various applications in the airspace necessitates reliable tools to accurately predict the flight trajectories of the sUAVs. The knowledge of the predicted trajectories help decision makers anticipate potential conflict, assess the risk, and take appropriate risk mitigation actions. In addition, uncertainties in vehicle models, weather, and controller action further highlights the need for reliable prediction tools. In this project, the application of mixed sparse grid-based quadrature and generalized polynomial chaos(gPC) expansion method for uncertainty quantification and collision assessment in air traffic consisting of fixed-wing small unmanned aerial vehicles (sUAV) was studied. From the results obtained, it can be concluded that this provides a reliable framework to carry out quantitative conflict assessment in an unmanned air traffic, which when employed, can improve the functionalities of the unmanned traffic management system. It was observed that the results from the gPC expansion framework developed in the project can be utilized to conduct rapid probabilistic collision assessment for near real-time unmanned traffic management in the airspace. From the vehicle models, position updates, and wind-field data, a priori gPC based 3-σcon-fidence ellipses can provide estimates of potential conflict at some future instants. The computational costs scaled linearly when the uncertain inputs were fewer. Further, the largest allowable distribution of para-metric uncertainties that leads to the smallest risk of collision in traffic of small unmanned aerial vehicles could be calculated. The time of closest approach between two sUAVs can be established paving way for development of proactive mitigation strategies. The separation between the sUAVs was found to be most significantly affected by uncertainties in the maximum available thrusts, zero-lift drag coefficients, and wing planform areas of the sUAVs. The study of uncertain wind-fields indicated that a heterogeneous traffic mix resulted in an increased probability of conflict. Increased measurement update rate reduced the uncertain-ties in the trajectories of the vehicles, further reducing the probability of conflict but rapid updates of all vehicles in the airspace poses a stringent communication limitation. The gPC framework also provided the means to analyze vehicle impact (crash region) due to loss of control resulting from actuator failure in sUAS traffic, essentially to predict impact and crash zones for representative vehicles. The predicted regions when compared with non-participant density, provides a means to develop an early mitigation strategy, should the sUAV detect an imminent actuator failure.

Rajnish Bhusal↗
NASA NTRS1989

Application Of Artificial Intelligence To Wind Tunnels

Report discusses potential use of artificial-intelligence systems to manage wind-tunnel test facilities at Ames Research Center. One of goals of program to obtain experimental data of better quality and otherwise generally increase productivity of facilities. Another goal to increase efficiency and expertise of current personnel and to retain expertise of former personnel. Third goal to increase effectiveness of management through more efficient use of accumulated data. System used to improve schedules of operation and maintenance of tunnels and other equipment, assignment of personnel, distribution of electrical power, and analysis of costs and productivity. Several commercial artificial-intelligence computer programs discussed as possible candidates for use.

Lo, Ching F.↗
NASA NTRS2026

Smart Process Planning for Automated Fiber Placement

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

Computer-Aided Process Planning↗
NASA NTRS2011

Use of Heated Helium to Simulate Surface Pressure Fluctuations on the Launch Abort Vehicle During Abort Motor Firing

The solid-rocket plumes from the Abort motor of the Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV, also know as Orion) were simulated using hot, high pressure, Helium gas to determine the surface pressure fluctuations on the vehicle in the event of an abort. About 80 different abort situations over a wide Mach number range, (0.3< or =M< or =1.2) and vehicle attitudes (+/-15deg) were simulated inside the NASA Ames Unitary Plan, 11-Foot Transonic Wind Tunnel. For each abort case, typically two different Helium plume and wind tunnel conditions were used to bracket different flow matching critera. This unique, yet cost-effective test used a custom-built hot Helium delivery system, and a 6% scale model of a part of the MPCV, known as the Launch Abort Vehicle. The test confirmed the very high level of pressure fluctuations on the surface of the vehicle expected during an abort. In general, the fluctuations were found to be dominated by the very near-field hydrodynamic fluctuations present in the plume shear-layer. The plumes were found to grow in size for aborts occurring at higher flight Mach number and altitude conditions. This led to an increase in the extent of impingement on the vehicle surfaces; however, unlike some initial expectations, the general trend was a decrease in the level of pressure fluctuations with increasing impingement. In general, the highest levels of fluctuations were found when the outer edges of the plume shear layers grazed the vehicle surface. At non-zero vehicle attitudes the surface pressure distributions were found to become very asymmetric. The data from these wind-tunnel simulations were compared against data collected from the recent Pad Abort 1 flight test. In spite of various differences between the transient flight situation and the steady-state wind tunnel simulations, the hot-Helium data were found to replicate the PA1 data fairly reasonably. The data gathered from this one-of-a-kind wind-tunnel test fills a gap in the manned-space programs, and will be used to establish the acoustic environment for vibro-acoustic qualification testing of the MPCV.

Panda, Jayanta↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Analysis and Comparison of Surface Roughness Effects on Pressure Data from SLS Wind Tunnel Test

Unsteady flows are becoming a more characterized field of study as advancements in technology is allowing for more high-speed, time-resolved data acquisition. It is important to understand these flows as the shock-wave boundary-layer interactions and separation they are involved with can generate extreme loads caused by high pressure and temperature on the body of a flight vehicle. It is vital to characterize these loads, as they can impede upon the structural integrity of a high-speed system. A common instrument utilized today to characterize pressure distributions caused by unsteady flows are unsteady pressure transducers. Set flush with the surface of a flight vehicle or wind tunnel model, these transducers can provide a pressure distribution, capturing the frequency of unsteady loads that could impinge upon the test article. A couple negative aspects of this instrumentation is that they are expensive, have long lead times, and a pressure distribution can only be determined in one discrete location where the transducer is installed. An optical diagnostic known as unsteady pressure-sensitive paint (uPSP) can help to satisfy these deficiencies. This is a spray paint that can be applied to a surface of a model to provide a global pressure distribution across the whole painted region.2 A complete picture of the fluid dynamic pressures occurring on the surface of a test article can be analyzed, especially in locations where it may have been impossible to install a transducer. Pressure-sensitive paint is also less expensive than traditional pressure transducers, which are, on average, about $2,000 each including the cost of installation.3 Unsteady PSP will not replace unsteady pressure transducers, but the transducers can be used to validate the PSP response to the flow and measure frequencies higher than the frequency response of the paint. One issue that can arise using these tools simultaneously, is that the surface roughness of the uPSP can affect the pressure readings of the transducers. Applying the uPSP to the surface of the model is going to affect the flow in some way as the topography of the model is now different than if it was not painted. One study with steady PSP conducted by Amer, Obara, and Liu at NASA Langley concluded that the PSP surface roughness was minimally intrusive at different test conditions with various lift, drag, etc., however, it was noted that data from some pressure transducers had decreased, likely due to the uneven application of the PSP in the localized region of the transducers.9 Sugioka et. al. tested various formulations of uPSP to study surface roughness effects on a Common Research Model (CRM) in transonic flow. The influence of uPSP on the surface of the model, depending on how it was formulated, was noted to have the possibility of relocating the shock wave present in the flow. This study was conducted to examine and compare transducer data acquired in December 2017 of a 4% scale model of the Space Launch System (SLS) performed at NASA Ames Research Center (ARC) Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel (UPWT). One goal of the test was to demonstrate to the customer the potential of the uPSP system developed at NASA ARC. The effect of uPSP on transducer signals also became an interest in this experiment and is the reason for this data analysis. The results of this study were discussed with the SLS team to help them make decisions regarding the next test on an SLS model with the PSP and Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel teams.

pressure-sensitive paint↗
NASA NTRS2018

Experimental Evaluation of BLI Propulsion: The Boundary Layer Ingesting Inlet/Distortion-Tolerant Fan Solution

NASA has successfully developed a new testbed configuration for experimentally evaluating embedded boundary layer ingesting aircraft propulsors in its 8'x6' Supersonic Wind Tunnel. This testbed meets the challenges of providing the necessary freestream flow Mach conditions and desired range and distribution of boundary layer thickness for embedded aircraft propulsion systems. The testbed consists of a 48ft long raised wind tunnel floor aircraft surface simulator and a boundary layer regulation system to produce propulsion-local aircraft aerodynamic flow fields. This durable special test equipment is designed to be installed in the wind tunnel's transonic test section and is capable of evaluating a wide range of subcritical and supercritical airframe-propulsion integration configurations for subsonic cruise aircraft. The wind tunnel and testbed are well suited for meeting the test requirements of these propulsors in the most cost efficient way and has been aerodynamically calibrated and proven through tests of a first-of-its-kind boundary layer ingesting propulsor.

Arend, David J.↗
NASA NTRS2024

Development of a Data Fusion Methodology for Lineload Aerodynamic Databases for a Launch Vehicle during Liftoff and Transition

The need for databases for the distributed loading on launch vehicles during the early portion of flight necessitates the use of expensive computational flows in regimes where wake effects dominate. While also being expensive, this is a regime that computational tools tend to historically have problems simulating accurately. To help tackle this problem, a method of data fusion to combine computational results to wind tunnel derived force and moment data is developed. Using this method, significant reduction in computational costs and increases in confidence of the final product is possible and has been used to generate several databases for the Space Launch System (SLS) at NASA. While the full details of database generation are not part of this work, the crucial method at its core is developed here. Two SLS geometries are used throughout the work to demonstrate the techniques. These are two of the larger geometries and represent both planned crewed missions to the Moon as well as potential cargo missions to deep space. The method uses principal component analysis (PCA) to generate a reduced ordered model (ROM) to help fill in the full parameter space. Other similar techniques are explored, but were not found to have a significant result on the predictions of the ROM. Because the full number of components are kept to generate the model, this lack of difference is expected. This method is then extended to ensure that predicted surfaces match trusted force and moment data derived from wind tunnel testing. This extension is done by setting up a constrained optimization problem in order to minimize the deviation from the surface resolved computational data while still integrating to the desired values. When generating the constrained optimization problem, a weighting factor to balance these competing needs is introduced. The work compares previously introduced weighting terms from similar work to the proposed terms and shows that the previously used terms do not have as desirable behavior in this flow regime. This method is then expanded by developing a technique to incorporate uncertainty quantification into the developed data fusion methodology. This expansion takes a two pronged approach. One examines transferring the uncertainties in the force and moment database and characterizes how those adjustments change the predicted lineloads. The second looks at model form error and looks how rebuilding the model using slightly different data changes the predictions. These two terms are then combined in order to create an uncertainty model that takes both effects into account. The limitations of the proposed methods is then discussed as well as possible techniques to address these shortcomings.

Launch Vehicles↗
NASA NTRS1994

Aerodynamic characteristics of the National Launch System (NLS) 1 1/2 stage launch vehicle

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is studying ways of assuring more reliable and cost effective means to space. One launch system studied was the NLS which included the l l/2 stage vehicle. This document encompasses the aerodynamic characteristics of the 1 l/2 stage vehicle. To support the detailed configuration definition two wind tunnel tests were conducted in the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center's 14x14-Inch Trisonic Wind Tunnel during 1992. The tests were a static stability and a pressure test, each utilizing 0.004 scale models. The static stability test resulted in the forces and moments acting on the vehicle. The aerodynamics for the reference configuration with and without feedlines and an evaluation of three proposed engine shroud configurations were also determined. The pressure test resulted in pressure distributions over the reference vehicle with and without feedlines including the reference engine shrouds. These pressure distributions were integrated and balanced to the static stability coefficients resulting in distributed aerodynamic loads on the vehicle. The wind tunnel tests covered a Mach range of 0.60 to 4.96. These ascent flight aerodynamic characteristics provide the basis for trajectory and performance analysis, loads determination, and guidance and control evaluation.

Springer, A. M.↗
NASA NTRS1997

Laser Scanning System for Pressure and Temperature Paints

Acquiring pressure maps of aerodynamic surfaces is very important for improving and validating the performance of aerospace vehicles. Traditional pressure measurements are taken with pressure taps embedded in the model surface that are connected to transducers. While pressure taps allow highly accurate measurements to be acquired, they do have several drawbacks. Pressure taps do not give good spatial resolution due to the need for individual pressure tubes, compounded by limited space available inside models. Also, building a model proves very costly if taps are needed because of the large amount of labor necessary to drill, connect and test each one. The typical cost to install one tap is about $200. Recently, a new method for measuring pressure on aerodynamic surfaces has been developed utilizing a technology known as pressure sensitive paints (PSP). Using PSP, pressure distributions can be acquired optically with high spatial resolution and simple model preparation. Flow structures can be easily visualized using PSP, but are missed using low spatial resolution arrays of pressure taps. PSP even allows pressure distributions to be found on rotating machinery where previously this has been extremely difficult or even impossible. The goal of this research is to develop a laser scanning system for use with pressure sensitive paints that allows accurate pressure measurements to be obtained on various aerodynamic surfaces ranging from wind tunnel models to high speed jet engine compressor blades.

Sullivan, John↗