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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 325 records · Page 18
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2006

Temperature Sensing for Oil, Gas, and Structural Analysis

In 1996, Systems and Processes Engineering Corporation (SPEC), of Austin, Texas, undertook a NASA Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract with Langley Research Center to develop a compact and lightweight digital thermal sensing (DTS) system for monitoring the cryogenic tanks on the X-33 prototype aircraft. That technology, along with a processor developed by SPEC for Goddard Space Flight Center, was space-qualified and integrated into several NASA missions. SPEC formed an ancillary organization, SensorTran, Inc., to continue work developing the DTS technology for a variety of commercial and industrial applications.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1995

Emerging CFD technologies and aerospace vehicle design

With the recent focus on the needs of design and applications CFD, research groups have begun to address the traditional bottlenecks of grid generation and surface modeling. Now, a host of emerging technologies promise to shortcut or dramatically simplify the simulation process. This paper discusses the current status of these emerging technologies. It will argue that some tools are already available which can have positive impact on portions of the design cycle. However, in most cases, these tools need to be integrated into specific engineering systems and process cycles to be used effectively. The rapidly maturing status of unstructured and Cartesian approaches for inviscid simulations makes suggests the possibility of highly automated Euler-boundary layer simulations with application to loads estimation and even preliminary design. Similarly, technology is available to link block structured mesh generation algorithms with topology libraries to avoid tedious re-meshing of topologically similar configurations. Work in algorithmic based auto-blocking suggests that domain decomposition and point placement operations in multi-block mesh generation may be properly posed as problems in Computational Geometry, and following this approach may lead to robust algorithmic processes for automatic mesh generation.

Aftosmis, Michael J.↗
NASA NTRS1982

A linear decomposition method for large optimization problems. Blueprint for development

A method is proposed for decomposing large optimization problems encountered in the design of engineering systems such as an aircraft into a number of smaller subproblems. The decomposition is achieved by organizing the problem and the subordinated subproblems in a tree hierarchy and optimizing each subsystem separately. Coupling of the subproblems is accounted for by subsequent optimization of the entire system based on sensitivities of the suboptimization problem solutions at each level of the tree to variables of the next higher level. A formalization of the procedure suitable for computer implementation is developed and the state of readiness of the implementation building blocks is reviewed showing that the ingredients for the development are on the shelf. The decomposition method is also shown to be compatible with the natural human organization of the design process of engineering systems. The method is also examined with respect to the trends in computer hardware and software progress to point out that its efficiency can be amplified by network computing using parallel processors.

Sobieszczanski-Sobieski, J.↗
DOE OSTI2013

An energy-limited model of algal biofuel production: Toward the next generation of advanced biofuels

Algal biofuels are increasingly important as a source of renewable energy. The absence of reliable thermodynamic and other property data, and the large amount of kinetic data that would normally be required have created a major barrier to simulation. Additionally, the absence of a generally accepted flowsheet for biofuel production means that detailed simulation of the wrong approach is a real possibility. This model of algal biofuel production estimates the necessary data and places it into a heuristic model using a commercial simulator that back-calculates the process structure required. Furthermore, complex kinetics can be obviated for now by putting the simulator into energy limitation and forcing it to solve for the missing design variables, such as bioreactor surface area, productivity, and oil content. The model does not attempt to prescribe a particular approach, but provides a guide towards a sound engineering approach to this challenging and important problem.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
NASA NTRS2018

Medical Simulations for Exploration Medicine

Medical simulation is a useful tool that can be used to train personnel, develop medical processes, and assist cross-disciplinary communication. Medical simulations have been used in the past at NASA for these purposes, however they are usually created ad hoc. A stepwise approach to scenario development has not previously been used. The NASA Exploration Medical Capability (ExMC) created a medical scenario development tool to test medical procedures, technologies, concepts of operation and for use in systems engineering (SE) processes.

Reyes, David↗
NASA NTRS1993

Systems analysis of a closed loop ECLSS using the ASPEN simulation tool. Thermodynamic efficiency analysis of ECLSS components

Our first goal in this project was to perform a systems analysis of a closed loop Environmental Control Life Support System (ECLSS). This pertains to the development of a model of an existing real system from which to assess the state or performance of the existing system. Systems analysis is applied to conceptual models obtained from a system design effort. For our modelling purposes we used a simulator tool called ASPEN (Advanced System for Process Engineering). Our second goal was to evaluate the thermodynamic efficiency of the different components comprising an ECLSS. Use is made of the second law of thermodynamics to determine the amount of irreversibility of energy loss of each component. This will aid design scientists in selecting the components generating the least entropy, as our penultimate goal is to keep the entropy generation of the whole system at a minimum.

Chatterjee, Sharmista↗
NASA NTRS2011

Lunar Wormbot: Design and Development of a Ground Base Robotic Tunneling Worm for Operation in Harsh Environments

From 1969 to 1972, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) sent Apollo missions to the moon to conduct various exploration experiment. A few of the missions were directed to the study and sampling of moon soil, otherwise known as lunar regolith. The extent of the sample acquisition was limited due to the astronauts' limited ability to penetrate the moon's surface to a depth greater than three meters. However. the samples obtained were sufficient enough to provide key information pertaining to lunar regolith material properties that would further assist in future exploration endeavors. Analysis of the collected samples showed that the properties of lunar regolith may lead to knowledge of processed materials that will be beneficial for future human exploration or colonization. However, almost 40 years after the last Apollo mission, limited infonnation is known about regions underneath the moon's surface. Future lunar missions will require hardware that possesses the ability to burrow to greater depths in order to collect samples for subsequent analysis. During the summer of 2010, a team (Dr. Jessica Gaskin, Michael Kuhlman. Blaze Sanders, and Lafe Zabowski) from the NASA Robotics Academy at Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) was given the task of designing a robot to function as a soil collection and analysis device. Working with the National Space Science and Technology Center (NSSTC), the team was able to propose an initial design, build a prototype, and test the various subsystems of the prototype to be known as the "Lunar Wormbot" (LW). The NASA/NSSTC team then transferred the project to a University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE) senior design class for further development. The UAH team was to utilize the NASA Systems Engineering Engine Design Process in the continuance of the Lunar Wormbot project. This process was implemented in order to coordinate the efforts of the team and guide the design of the project to ensure a high quality product that met requirements within the academic year timeframe. When the transition from the NASA NSSTC team to the UAH team occurred in August 2010, the scope and requirements were provided to the UAH team. The main objective for the UAH team was to design and fabricate a robotic burrowing prototype using peristaltic or earthworm-like motion with the purpose of collecting soil samples. The team was tasked with the design of a sub-system of the LW called the locomotive, or active, segment. Through the design process, the team extensively reviewed the requirements and functions to be performed of the LW, which led to the proposal of a final design. The present paper provides the details of the development of the design up to and including the Critical Design Review (CDR) of the Lunar Wormbot. This document briefly describes thc overall system and its function but primarily focuses on the design and implementation of the locomotive segment. Content presented includes: general design and system functionality, technical drawings, system analysis, manufacturing methods, and general project costs.

Boyles, Charles↗
DOE OSTI2023

Automatic Time Step Control to Resolve Hydromechanically Driven Fault Reactivation, Spontaneous Nucleation, and Seismic Arrest

Abstract A physical understanding of the progression from flow‐driven (quasi‐static) poromechanical deformation to dynamic fault rupture is critical to the resilient operations of several engineering systems. These processes are bridged by a progression from fault reactivation to the spontaneous nucleation of unstable sliding. Toward addressing this challenge, novel automatic time step size control methods are developed to enable accurate and efficient simulation of these dynamics and transitions from the first principles. The controllers combine local models for discretization error and Coulomb failure conditions to automatically adjust the time step size across several orders of magnitude. The methods do not require additional empirical or theoretical input and can resolve the pre‐rupture, interseismic, and seismic periods to the allowed accuracy. The computational results reveal that the proposed methods automatically capture the onset of reactivation and nucleation for homogeneous and heterogeneous fields. Hydrodynamic and structural heterogeneity lead to disparate critical nucleation sizes compared to those predicted by theory. The results highlight its potential in predicting induced seismicity in realistic subsurface engineering systems and at practical scales.

Environmental Sciences & Ecology↗
NASA NTRS2014

Application of the Tool for Turbine Engine Closed-Loop Transient Analysis (TTECTrA) for Dynamic Systems Analysis

The aircraft engine design process seeks to achieve the best overall system-level performance, weight, and cost for a given engine design. This is achieved by a complex process known as systems analysis, where steady-state simulations are used to identify trade-offs that should be balanced to optimize the system. The steady-state simulations and data on which systems analysis relies may not adequately capture the true performance trade-offs that exist during transient operation. Dynamic Systems Analysis provides the capability for assessing these trade-offs at an earlier stage of the engine design process. The concept of dynamic systems analysis and the type of information available from this analysis are presented in this paper. To provide this capability, the Tool for Turbine Engine Closed-loop Transient Analysis (TTECTrA) was developed. This tool aids a user in the design of a power management controller to regulate thrust, and a transient limiter to protect the engine model from surge at a single flight condition (defined by an altitude and Mach number). Results from simulation of the closed-loop system may be used to estimate the dynamic performance of the model. This enables evaluation of the trade-off between performance and operability, or safety, in the engine, which could not be done with steady-state data alone. A design study is presented to compare the dynamic performance of two different engine models integrated with the TTECTrA software.

systems analysis↗
DOE OSTI2022

Ethanol to diesel: a sustainable alternative for the heavy-duty transportation sector

The combustion of middle distillates (diesel and jet fuel) is responsible for the emission of more than 2 GTon of CO 2 per year worldwide. While sustainable alternatives exist for gasoline and jet fuel, we still lack sustainable alternatives for diesel. This fact is especially relevant if we consider that electrification of sectors where diesel is used is challenging. One sustainable approach for diesel production is the catalytic upgrading of ethanol. While most work in this field has focused on the dehydration/oligomerization of ethanol, this approach is limited to producing fuels that have a high degree of branching and low cetane number. Another approach is the sequential use of ethanol Guerbet coupling, leading to higher alcohols, followed by etherification, leading to large ethers which, importantly, result in a product with high cetane number. In this work, we explore the catalytic upgrading of ethanol into diesel following an approach based on the initial Guerbet coupling of ethanol followed by etherification. The results presented are a collaborative and synergic effort among process and systems engineers, experimentalist in the area of catalysis, and fuel property modelers. Here, we demonstrate experimentally the feasibility of upgrading ethanol into a diesel fuel with properties that surpass its fossil counterpart. The diesel produced has a predicted cetane number of ~70 and outstanding cold flow properties, while maintaining other properties (viscosity, density, and flash point) within expected ranges. A technoeconomic analysis performed based on a detailed biorefinery model shows that the MFSP is ~5.89$ per Gal in 2021 dollars when lignocellulosic ethanol is used, with the most relevant economic driver the cost of the ethanol feedstock. The upgrading process can be performed with a net energy gain (EROI = 1.49 > 1). An LCA analysis of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reveals that the use of lignocellulosic ethanol may lead to more than 50% reduction in GHG emissions compared to fossil diesel. Depending on the CO 2 emissions associated with the production of ethanol we show that in some instances the production of carbon neutral diesel fuel is possible.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
NASA NTRS2011

CropEx Web-Based Agricultural Monitoring and Decision Support

CropEx is a Web-based agricultural Decision Support System (DSS) that monitors changes in crop health over time. It is designed to be used by a wide range of both public and private organizations, including individual producers and regional government offices with a vested interest in tracking vegetation health. The database and data management system automatically retrieve and ingest data for the area of interest. Another stores results of the processing and supports the DSS. The processing engine will allow server-side analysis of imagery with support for image sub-setting and a set of core raster operations for image classification, creation of vegetation indices, and change detection. The system includes the Web-based (CropEx) interface, data ingestion system, server-side processing engine, and a database processing engine. It contains a Web-based interface that has multi-tiered security profiles for multiple users. The interface provides the ability to identify areas of interest to specific users, user profiles, and methods of processing and data types for selected or created areas of interest. A compilation of programs is used to ingest available data into the system, classify that data, profile that data for quality, and make data available for the processing engine immediately upon the data s availability to the system (near real time). The processing engine consists of methods and algorithms used to process the data in a real-time fashion without copying, storing, or moving the raw data. The engine makes results available to the database processing engine for storage and further manipulation. The database processing engine ingests data from the image processing engine, distills those results into numerical indices, and stores each index for an area of interest. This process happens each time new data is ingested and processed for the area of interest, and upon subsequent database entries, the database processing engine qualifies each value for each area of interest and conducts a logical processing of results indicating when and where thresholds are exceeded. Reports are provided at regular, operator-determined intervals that include variances from thresholds and links to view raw data for verification, if necessary. The technology and method of development allow the code base to easily be modified for varied use in the real-time and near-real-time processing environments. In addition, the final product will be demonstrated as a means for rapid draft assessment of imagery.

Harvey. Craig↗
DOE OSTI2019

Synthesis and analysis of separation processes for extracellular chemicals generated from microbial conversions

Recent advances in metabolic engineering have enabled the production of chemicals via bio-conversion using microbes. However, downstream separation accounts for 60–80% of the total production cost in many cases. Previous work on microbial production of extracellular chemicals has been mainly restricted to microbiology, biochemistry, metabolomics, or techno-economic analysis for specific product examples such as succinic acid, xanthan gum, lycopene, etc. In these studies, microbial production and separation technologies were selected apriori without considering any competing alternatives. However, technology selection in downstream separation and purification processes can have a major impact on the overall costs, product recovery, and purity. To this end, we apply a superstructure optimization based framework that enables the identification of critical technologies and their associated parameters in the synthesis and analysis of separation processes for extracellular chemicals generated from microbial conversions. We divide extracellular chemicals into three categories based on their physical properties, such as water solubility, physical state, relative density, volatility, etc. We analyze three major extracellular product categories (insoluble light, insoluble heavy and soluble) in detail and provide suggestions for additional product categories through extension of our analysis framework. The proposed analysis and results provide significant insights for technology selection and enable streamlined decision making when faced with any microbial product that is released extracellularly. The parameter variability analysis for the product as well as the associated technologies and comparison with novel alternatives is a key feature which forms the basis for designing better bioseparation strategies that have potential for commercial scalability and can compete with traditional chemical production methods.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2018

A superstructure optimization approach for process synthesis under complex reaction networks

Here in this work, we present mixed integer linear programming methods for the synthesis of processes that involve complex reaction networks. Specifically, we consider the modeling of reactors and interconnecting streams in systems where the composition of the reactor inlet streams can vary substantially, thereby making the determination of the limiting component as well as the calculation of the stream heating/cooling and power requirements challenging. First, towards the modeling of reactors, we develop an extent-based method which detects the limiting reactant of each reaction occurring in parallel with others, based on the inlet flows of the reactants. Second, we develop a computationally tractable method for the calculation of the work and heating/cooling duty needed to condition any stream of a process based on simple calculations that can be performed offline. Finally, we present how the two aforementioned components can be integrated in an optimization model generated based on a process superstructure. We demonstrate the application of the developed methods for the synthesis of a biorefinery.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2024

PARETO UI 24.01.24 (0.9.0) Release

This is a standalone release of PARETO UI using the previously released PARETO version 0.9.0 for the backend.. New features in this version of PARETO UI are: - Added functionality to upload GIS map network visualizations and auto generate input templates - Added map visualizations based on GIS data

PARETO,PARETO-UI,PSE,Process Systems Engineering,P↗
DOE OSTI2023

PARETO 0.9.0 Release

PARETO 0.9.0 Release. Highlights: New Features - Initial beneficial reuse implementation - Post-optimization timing for infrastructure buildout Bug Fixes - Address Pyomo solver bug for UI Gurobi solve - Update Toy Case Study to feasible data for hydraulics post_process - Update Jupyter notebook for fall release UI Updates - Added functionality to optimize with hydraulics options - Added new plots to KPI dashboard for water quality and hydraulics timelines

PARETO,PARETO-UI,PSE,Process Systems Engineering,P↗
DOE OSTI2023

PARETO 0.8.0 Release

PARETO 0.8.0 Release. Highlights: Model Updates - Applied unified sets for pipeline and trucking arcs in strategic model - Apply unified sets for pipeline and trucking arcs in operational model - Added new config argument for removal efficiency calculation method - Standardized bidirectional capacity constraint - Added dependencies removed in IDAES 2.1 - Created bounding functions & utilities - Added Hydraulics module to the strategic model - Add additional arc types to strategic model Documentation and Tutorial Updates - Improved PARETO treatment document - Introduced general tutorial and treatment module Jupyter notebooks for Strategic Model - Update docs with correct support email list address - Consolidate and deduplicate Getting Started and resources for developers - Enable Black formatting for Jupyter notebooks - Add Binder configuration files and README Bug Fixes - Fix strategic model documentation typos - Removed duplicated units from output file header UI Updates - Added view for comparing different scenarios - Added functionality for manually overriding PARETO decisions

PARETO,PARETO-UI,PSE,Process Systems Engineering,P↗