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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 235 records · Page 13
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2012

Thermally conductive porous element-based recuperators

A heat exchanger includes at least one hot fluid flow channel comprising a first plurality of open cell porous elements having first gaps there between for flowing a hot fluid in a flow direction and at least one cold fluid flow channel comprising a second plurality of open cell porous elements having second gaps therebetween for flowing a cold fluid in a countercurrent flow direction relative to the flow direction. The thermal conductivity of the porous elements is at least 10 W/mK. A separation member is interposed between the hot and cold flow channels for isolating flow paths associated these flow channels. The first and second plurality of porous elements at least partially overlap one another to form a plurality of heat transfer pairs which transfer heat from respective ones of the first porous elements to respective ones of the second porous elements through the separation member.

Du, Jian Hua↗
NASA NTRS1984

Fluid/Vapor Separator for Variable Flow Rates

Shutter varies gas throughput of porous plug. Variable area exposed on porous plug allows to pass varying rates of vapor flow while blocking flow of liquid helium II from cryogenic bath. Applications in refining operations, industrial chemistry, and steam-powered equipment.

Lee, J. M.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Predicting Pressure Drop In Porous Materials

Theory developed to predict drop in pressure based on drag of individual fibers. Simple correlation method for data also developed. Helps in predicting flow characteristics of many strain-isolation pad (SIP) glow geometries in Shuttle Orbiter tile system. Also helps in predicting venting characteristics of tile assemblies during ascent and leakage of hot gas under tiles during descent. Useful in study of mechanics of flows through fibrous and porous media, and procedures applicable to purged fiberglass insulation, dialysis filters, and other fibrous and porous media.

Lawing, Pierce L.↗
NASA NTRS1956

Analysis of Laminar Incompressible Flow on Semiporous Channels

Perturbation solutions for laminar incompressible flow in semiporous and fully porous channels are compared. The perturbation parameter measures the amount of suction or blowing at the porous wall. The velocity profile and the wall friction parameter are more affected by suction or blowing for the semiporous channel than for the fully porous channel. For blowing through the wall, the pressure decreases in channel direction for both channels; with sufficiently high suction rates, the analysis showed that the pressure rises in flow direction for the fully porous channel.

PIPES↗
NASA NTRS1993

A study of the effects of macrosegregation and buoyancy-driven flow in binary mixture solidification

A generalized anisotropic porous medium approach is developed for modelling the flow, heat and mass transport processes during binary mixture solidification. Transient predictions are obtained using FEM, coupled with an implicit time-marching scheme, for solidification inside a two-dimensional rectangular enclosure. A parametric study focusing attention on the effects of solutal buoyancy and thermal buoyancy is presented. It is observed that three parameters, namely the thermal Rayleigh number, the solutal Rayleigh number, and the relative density change parameter, significantly alter the flow fields in the liquid and the mushy regions. Depending upon the nature of these flow fields, the solute enrichment caused by macrosegregation may occur in the top or the bottom region of the enclosure.

Sinha, S. K.↗
NASA NTRS1995

He II Liquid/Vapor Phase Separator for Large Dynamic Range Operation

A phase separator, which separates helium vapor from liquid superfluid helium (He II), is an indispensable device for space cryogenics. The most recent approach to the Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF) uses a new design concept in which only the detector package is cold at launch, the remainder of the telescope being subsequently cooled to operating temperature on orbit. Therefore, a large dynamic operational range is required of the cryogen system. This is a report of initial laboratory test results with candidate porous plugs as phase separators. Mass flow rates and pressure and temperature differences across a porous plug were measured in this experiment. Relatively large mass flow rates were observed even at small pressure differences. In the high mass flow rate region, a hysteresis was observed with increases and decreases of the pressure difference. A linear theory is proposed and compared with experimental data to explain several phenomena observed in this system.

Phase Separator, Space Cryogenics↗
NASA NTRS1991

Frontogenesis driven by horizontally quadratic distributions of density

Attention is given to the quadratic density distribution in a channel, which has been established by Simpson and Linden to be the simplest case of the horizontally nonlinear distribution of fluid density required for the production of frontogenesis. The porous-media and Boussinesq flow models are examined, and their evolution equations are reduced to one-dimensional systems. While both the porous-media and the inviscid/nondiffusive Boussinesq systems exhibit classic frontogenesis behavior, the viscous Boussinesq system exhibits a more complex behavior: boundary-layer effects force frontogenesis away from the lower boundary, and at late times the steepest density gradients are close to mid-channel.

Jacqmin, David↗
NASA NTRS2002

Steady State Transportation Cooling in Porous Media Under Local, Non-Thermal Equilibrium Fluid Flow

An analytical solution to the steady-state fluid temperature for 1-D (one dimensional) transpiration cooling has been derived. Transpiration cooling has potential use in the aerospace industry for protection against high heating environments for re-entry vehicles. Literature for analytical treatments of transpiration cooling has been largely confined to the assumption of thermal equilibrium between the porous matrix and fluid. In the present analysis, the fundamental fluid and matrix equations are coupled through a volumetric heat transfer coefficient and investigated in non-thermal equilibrium. The effects of varying the thermal conductivity of the solid matrix and the heat transfer coefficient are investigated. The results are also compared to existing experimental data.

Rodriquez, Alvaro Che↗
NASA NTRS1977

Finite element analysis of aeroacoustic jet-flap flows

A computational analysis was performed on the steady, turbulent aerodynamic flowfields associated with a jet-blown flap. For regions devoid of flow separation, a parabolic approximation to the governing time-averaged Navier-Stokes equations was applied. Numerical results are presented for the symmetry plane flow of a slot-nozzle planar jet flap geometry, including prediction of flowfield evolution within the secondary mixing region immediately downstream of the trailing edge. Using a two equation turbulence kinetic energy closure model, rapid generation and decay of large spatial gradients in mean and correlated fluctuating velocity components within the immediate wake region were predicted. Modifications to the turbulent flow structure, as induced by porous surface treatment of the flap, were evaluated. The recirculating flow within a representative discrete slot in the surface was evaluated, using the two dimensional, time-averaged Navier-Stokes equations.

Baker, A. J.↗
NASA NTRS1986

Numerical-perturbation technique for stability of flat-plate boundary layers with suction

A numerical-perturbation scheme is proposed for determining the stability of flows over plates with suction through a finite number of porous suction strips. The basic flow is calculated as the sum of the Blasius flow and closed-form linearized triple-deck solutions of the flow due to the strips. A perturbation technique is used to determine the increment a(ij) in the complex wavenumber at a given location x(j) due to the presence of a strip centered at x(i). The end result is a set of influence coefficients that can be used to determine the growth rates and amplification factors for any suction levels without repeating the calculations. The numerical-perturbation results are verified by comparison with interacting boundary layers for the case of six strips and the experimental data of Reynolds and Saric for single- and multiple-strip configurations. The influence coefficient form of the solution suggests a scheme for optimizing the strip configuration. The results show that one should concentrate the suction near branch I of the neutral stability curve, a conclusion verified by the experiments.

Reed, H. L.↗
NASA NTRS2013

Sheet Membrane Spacesuit Water Membrane Evaporator

A document describes a sheet membrane spacesuit water membrane evaporator (SWME), which allows for the use of one common water tank that can supply cooling water to the astronaut and to the evaporator. Test data showed that heat rejection performance dropped only 6 percent after being subjected to highly contaminated water. It also exhibited robustness with respect to freezing and Martian atmospheric simulation testing. Water was allowed to freeze in the water channels during testing that simulated a water loop failure and vapor backpressure valve failure. Upon closing the backpressure valve and energizing the pump, the ice eventually thawed and water began to flow with no apparent damage to the sheet membrane. The membrane evaporator also serves to de-gas the water loop from entrained gases, thereby eliminating the need for special degassing equipment such as is needed by the current spacesuit system. As water flows through the three annular water channels, water evaporates with the vapor flowing across the hydrophobic, porous sheet membrane to the vacuum side of the membrane. The rate at which water evaporates, and therefore, the rate at which the flowing water is cooled, is a function of the difference between the water saturation pressure on the water side of the membrane, and the pressure on the vacuum side of the membrane. The primary theory is that the hydrophobic sheet membrane retains water, but permits vapor pass-through when the vapor side pressure is less than the water saturation pressure. This results in evaporative cooling of the remaining water.

Bue, Grant↗
NASA NTRS2013

Thermal Hydraulics Design and Analysis Methodology for a Solid-Core Nuclear Thermal Rocket Engine Thrust Chamber

Nuclear thermal propulsion is a leading candidate for in-space propulsion for human Mars missions. This chapter describes a thermal hydraulics design and analysis methodology developed at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, in support of the nuclear thermal propulsion development effort. The objective of this campaign is to bridge the design methods in the Rover/NERVA era, with a modern computational fluid dynamics and heat transfer methodology, to predict thermal, fluid, and hydrogen environments of a hypothetical solid-core, nuclear thermal engine the Small Engine, designed in the 1960s. The computational methodology is based on an unstructured-grid, pressure-based, all speeds, chemically reacting, computational fluid dynamics and heat transfer platform, while formulations of flow and heat transfer through porous and solid media were implemented to describe those of hydrogen flow channels inside the solid24 core. Design analyses of a single flow element and the entire solid-core thrust chamber of the Small Engine were performed and the results are presented herein

Wang, Ten-See↗
NASA NTRS1955

The Compressible Laminar Boundary Layer with Fluid Injection

A solution of the equations of the compressible laminar boundary layer including the effects of transpiration cooling is presented. The analysis applies to the flow over an isothermal porous plate with a velocity of fluid injection proportional to the reciprocal of the square root of the distance from the leading edge. The effect of several flow parameters on coolant-flow rates is discussed with the aid of representative examples. A stability analysis indicates that, although transpiration cooling requires a lower surface temperature for stable flow than does internal wall cooling, this lower temperature can be obtained with a smaller expenditure of coolant.

Low, George M↗
NASA NTRS1994

Instabilities orginating from suction holes used for Laminar Flow Control (LFC)

A small-scale wind tunnel previously used for turbulent boundary layer studies has been modified for experiments in laminar flow control. The facility incorporates suction through interchangeable porous test surfaces which are used to stabilize the boundary layer and delay transition to turbulent flow. The thin porous test surfaces are supported by a baffled plenum chamber box which also acts to gather the flow through the surface into tubes which are routed to a high pressure fan. An elliptic leading edge is attached to the assembly to establish a new layer on the test plate. A slot is used to remove the test section flow below the leading edge. The test section was lengthened and fitted with a new ceiling. Substantial modifications were also made to the 3D probe traverse. Detailed studies have been made using isolated holes to explore the underlying instability mechanisms. The suction is perturbed harmonically and data are averaged on the basis of the phase of the disturbance. Conditions corresponding to strong suction and without suction have been studied. In both cases, 3D contour surfaces in the vicinity of the hole show highly three-dimensional T-S waves that fan out away from the hole with streamwise distance. With suction, the perturbations on the centerline are much stronger and decay less rapidly, while the far field is similar to the case without suction. Downstream the contour surfaces of the bow-shaped TS waves develop spanwise irregularities which eventually form into clumps. The contours remain smooth when suction is not applied. Even without suction, the harmonic point source is challenging for CFD; e.g. DNS has been used for streamwise growth. With suction, grid resources are consumed by the hole and this makes DNS even more expensive. Limited DNS results so far indicate that the vortices which emanate from suction holes appear to be stable. The spanwise clumping observed in the experiment is evidence of a secondary instability that could be associated with suction vortices. A typical porous surface for LFC consists of 0.002 inch diameter holes with 0.020 inch grid spacing L, which is too small to resolve disturbances. A 20:1 scale porous test surface has been machined for improved spatial resolution while the L/d is still representative of flight conditions. Designers of porous surfaces use Goldsmith's criterion to minimize crossstream interaction. However nothing is known about the streamwise interactions. Results using two holes, aligned but displaced in the streamwise direction, indicate that partial TS wave cancellation is possible, depending on the hole spacing and disturbance frequency. Using DNS for streamwise interaction studies will be prohibitively expensive if linear superposition cannot be used for the multiple holes.

Watmuff, Jonathan H.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Development of braided rope seals for hypersonic engine applications: Flow modeling

A new type of engine seal is being developed to meet the needs of advanced hypersonic engines. A seal braided of emerging high temperature ceramic fibers comprised of a sheath-core construction was selected for study based on its low leakage rates. Flexible, low-leakage, high temperature seals are required to seal the movable engine panels of advanced ramjet-scramjet engines either preventing potentially dangerous leakage into backside engine cavities or limiting the purge coolant flow rates through the seals. To predict the leakage through these flexible, porous seal structures new analytical flow models are required. Two such models based on the Kozeny-Carman equations are developed herein and are compared to experimental leakage measurements for simulated pressure and seal gap conditions. The models developed allow prediction of the gas leakage rate as a function of fiber diameter, fiber packing density, gas properties, and pressure drop across the seal. The first model treats the seal as a homogeneous fiber bed. The second model divides the seal into two homogeneous fiber beds identified as the core and the sheath of the seal. Flow resistances of each of the main seal elements are combined to determine the total flow resistance. Comparisons between measured leakage rates and model predictions for seal structures covering a wide range of braid architectures show good agreement. Within the experimental range, the second model provides a prediction within 6 to 13 percent of the flow for many of the cases examined. Areas where future model refinements are required are identified.

Mutharasan, Rajakkannu↗
NASA NTRS1989

Simultaneous axial conduction in the fluid and the pipe wall for forced convective laminar flow with blowing and suction at the wall

Numerical solutions are reported for conjugate heat transfer in a porous pipe having an internal flow with blowing or suction at the inner surface of the pipe and constant heat flux at the outer surface. The effect of the simultaneous axial conduction through the wall and the fluid has been studied for the combined hydrodynamic and thermal entry lengths. The results show that the ratio of the thermal conductivities of the pipe wall to the fluid and the thickness of the pipe wall may become significant factors on the heat transfer when the Peclet number is small, especially for the case when fluid is injected into the pipe. It is also shown that the effect of axial wall conduction for the case of constant heat flux at the outer wall surface can be neglected when the wall thickness is small and the ratio of the conductivities of the wall to the fluid approaches unity.

Faghri, Amir↗