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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 343 records · Page 19
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2006

Vacuum Plasma Spray (VPS) Material Applications for Thruster Components

A variety of vacuum plasma spray (VPS) material systems have been successfully applied to injector and thrust chamber components. VPS offers a versatile fabrication process with relatively low costs to produce near net shape parts. The materials available with VPS increase operating margins and improve component life by providing superior thermal and oxidation protection in specific engine environments. Functional gradient materials (FGM) formed with VPS allow thrust chamber liners to be fabricated with GRCop-84 (an alloy of copper, chrome, and niobium) and a protective layer of NiCrAlY on the hot wall. A variety of thrust chamber liner designs have been fabricated to demonstrate the versatility of the process. Hot-fire test results have confirmed the improved durability and high temperature performance of the material systems for thrust chamber liners. Similar FGM s have been applied to provide superior thermal protection on injector faceplates with NiCrAlY and zirconia coatings. The durability of the applied materials has been demonstrated with hot-fire cycle testing on injector faceplates in high temperature environments. The material systems can benefit the components used in booster and main engine propulsion systems. More recent VPS efforts are focused on producing rhenium based material systems for high temperature applications to benefit in-space engines like reaction control system (RCS) thrusters.

Elam, Sandra↗
NASA NTRS2006

Vacuum Plasma Spray (VPS) Material Applications for Thruster Components

A variety of vacuum plasma spray (VPS) material systems have been successfully applied to injector and thrust chamber components. VPS offers a versatile fabrication process with relatively low costs to produce near net shape parts. The materials available with VPS increase operating margins and improve component life by providing superior thermal and oxidation protection in specific engine environments. Functional gradient materials (FGM) formed with VPS allow thrust chamber liners to be fabricated with GRCop-84 (an alloy of copper, chrome, and niobium) and a protective layer of NiCrAlY on the hot wall. A variety of thrust chamber liner designs have been fabricated to demonstrate the versatility of the process. Hot-fire test results have confined the improved durability and high temperature performance of the material systems for thrust chamber liners. Similar FGM s have been applied to provide superior thermal protection on injector faceplates with NiCrAlY and zirconia coatings. The durability of the applied materials has been demonstrated with hot-fire cycle testing on injector faceplates in high temperature environments. The material systems can benefit the components used in booster and main engine propulsion systems. More recent VPS efforts are focused on producing rhenium based material systems for high temperature applications to benefit in-space engines like reaction control system (RCS) thrusters.

Elam, Sandra↗
NASA NTRS1996

Computational Pollutant Environment Assessment from Propulsion-System Testing

An asymptotic plume growth method based on a time-accurate three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics formulation has been developed to assess the exhaust-plume pollutant environment from a simulated RD-170 engine hot-fire test on the F1 Test Stand at Marshall Space Flight Center. Researchers have long known that rocket-engine hot firing has the potential for forming thermal nitric oxides, as well as producing carbon monoxide when hydrocarbon fuels are used. Because of the complex physics involved, most attempts to predict the pollutant emissions from ground-based engine testing have used simplified methods, which may grossly underpredict and/or overpredict the pollutant formations in a test environment. The objective of this work has been to develop a computational fluid dynamics-based methodology that replicates the underlying test-stand flow physics to accurately and efficiently assess pollutant emissions from ground-based rocket-engine testing. A nominal RD-170 engine hot-fire test was computed, and pertinent test-stand flow physics was captured. The predicted total emission rates compared reasonably well with those of the existing hydrocarbon engine hot-firing test data.

Wang, Ten-See↗
NASA NTRS2008

Jet Penetration into a Scaled Microfabricated Stirling Cycle Regenerator

The cooler and heater adjacent to the regenerator of a Stirling cycle engine have tubes or channels which form jets that pass into the regenerator while diffusing within the matrix. An inactive part of the matrix, beyond the cores of these jets, does not participate fully in the heat transfer between the flow of working fluid and the regenerator matrix material, weakening the regenerator s ability to exchange heat with the working fluid. The objective of the present program is to document this effect on the performance of the regenerator and to develop a model for generalizing the results. However, the small scales of actual Stirling regenerator matrices (on the order of tens of microns) make direct measurements of this effect very difficult. As a result, jet spreading within a regenerator matrix has not been characterized well and is poorly understood. Also, modeling is lacking experimental verification. To address this, a large-scale mockup of thirty times actual scale was constructed and operated under conditions that are dynamically similar to the engine operation. Jet penetration with round jets and slot jets into the microfabricated regenerator geometry are then measured by conventional means. The results are compared with those from a study of spreading of round jets within woven screen regenerator for further documentation of the comparative performance of the microfabricated regenerator geometry.

Sun, Liyong↗
NASA NTRS1979

Rotary balance data for a typical single-engine general aviation design for an angle-of-attack range of 8 degrees to 35 degrees, 3. Effect of wing leading-edge modifications, model A

Aerodynamic characteristics obtained in a rotational flow environment utilizing a rotary balance located in the Langley spin tunnel are presented in plotted form for a 1/5 scale, single-engine, low-wing, general aviation airplane model. The configurations tested included the basic airplane, sixteen wing leading-edge modifications and lateral-directional control settings. Data are presented for all configurations without analysis for an angle of attack range of 8 deg to 35 deg and clockwise and counter-clockwise rotations covering an Omega b/2v range from 0 to 0.85. Also, data are presented above 35 deg of attack for some configurations.

Bihrle, W., Jr.↗
NASA NTRS2013

Thermal Stability of RP-2 for Hydrocarbon Boost Regenerative Cooling

A series of tests were performed in the NASA Glenn Research Centers Heated Tube Facility to study the heat transfer and thermal stability behavior of RP-2 under conditions similar to those found in rocket engine cooling channels. It has long been known that hydrocarbon fuels, such as RP-2, can decompose at high temperature to form deposits (coke) which can adversely impact rocket engine cooling channel performance. The heated tube facility provides a simple means to study these effects. Using resistively heated copper tubes in a vacuum chamber, flowing RP-2 was heated to explore thermal effects at a range of test conditions. Wall temperature (850-1050F) and bulk fluid temperature (300-500F) were varied to define thermal decomposition and stability at each condition. Flow velocity and pressure were fixed at 75 fts and 1000 psia, respectively. Additionally, five different batches of RP-2 were tested at identical conditions to examine any thermal stability differences resulting from batch to batch compositional variation. Among these tests was one with a potential coke reducing additive known as 1,2,3,4-Tetrahydroquinoline (THQ). While copper tubes were used for the majority of tests, two exploratory tests were performed with a copper alloy known as GRCop-42. Each tube was instrumented with 15 thermocouples to examine the temperature profile, and carbon deposition at each thermocouple location was determined post-test in an oxidation furnace. In many tests, intermittent local temperature increases were observed visually and in the thermocouple data. These hot spots did not appear to correspond with a higher carbon deposition.

Kleinhenz, Julie E.↗
DOE OSTI2023

Control Design of Passive Grid-Forming Inverters in Port-Hamiltonian Framework

This article presents a modified dispatchable virtual oscillator control approach for achieving the passivity of gridforming inverters (GFMs), without assuming constant voltage and constant frequency. The proposed control framework utilizes the Port-Hamiltonian (PH) based structure that mimics the behaviors of coupled harmonic oscillators, along with an energy ‘pumpingor-damping’ block and the Control by Interconnection (CbI) technique, to render the inverter passive. Once passivity is achieved, transient stability of the system will be guaranteed. The proposed control framework is composed of three loops: an outer power dispatching loop that generates the voltage and frequency references, a virtual oscillator loop that emulates the spontaneous synchronization of oscillators, and an inductor current loop that maintains lossless interconnection in PH systems. In conclusion, the study shows that the proposed control approach ensures the passivity of GFMs, facilitating the transient stability design of multi-inverter systems, as interconnections of passive systems remain passive and stable.

42 ENGINEERING↗
NASA NTRS1990

Visible light emission excited by interaction of Space Shuttle exhaust with the atmosphere

Ground-based video photography of firings of Space Shuttle Primary Reaction Control System (PRCS) engines show optical emissions extending nearly 4 km form the vehicle after steady state is reached. The total intensity and spatial distribution of these emissions depend on the angle between the spacecraft velocity vector and the engine exhaust axis. Candidate sources for this radiation are reviewed and the conclusion is reached that it is most likely due to vibrationally excited OH, formed by the reaction of fast ambient O atoms and H2O molecules in the exhaust.

Murad, E.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Free-form Design in Solid Modelling

Solid modelling is developed as a means of representing the shapes of components used in the less specialized mechanical engineering industries. Solids can now be modelled with free form surfaces. In some cases parametric geometry is used exclusively, while in others here is mixed use of parametric and implicit geometry. A method is suggested and discussed for free form solids modelling. The method has several advantages, one of which is that it avoids the use of detached surfaces, Boolean operations and surface intersection computations. It involves only minor topological changes to the model and is therefore computationally efficient.

Pratt, M. J.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Evaluation and application of the Baldwin-Lomax turbulence model in two-dimensional, unsteady, compressible boundary layers with and without separation in engine inlets

There is a practical need to model high speed flows that exist in jet engine inlets. The boundary layers that form in these inlets may be turbulent or laminar and either separated or attached. Also, unsteady supersonic inlets may be subject to frequent changes in operating conditions. Some changes in the operating conditions of the inlets may include varying the inlet geometry, bleeds and bypasses, and rotating or translating the centerbody. In addition, the inlet may be either started or unstarted. Therefore, a CFD code, used to model these inlets, may have to run for several different cases. Also, since the flow conditions through an unsteady inlet may be continually fluctuating, the CFD code which models these flows may have to be run over many time steps. Therefore, it would be beneficial that the code run quickly. Many turbulence models, however, are cumbersome to implement and require a lot of computer time to run, since they add to the number of differential equations to be solved to model a flow. The Baldwin-Lomax turbulence model is a popular model. It is an algebraic, eddy viscosity model. The Baldwin-Lomax model is used in many CFD codes because it is quick and easy to implement. In this paper, we will discuss implementing the Baldwin-Lomax turbulence model for both steady and unsteady compressible flows. In addition, these flows may be either separated or attached. In order to apply this turbulence model to flows which may be subjected to these conditions, certain modifications should be made to the original Baldwin-Lomax model. We will discuss these modifications and determine whether the Baldwin-Lomax model is a viable turbulence model that produces reasonably accurate results for high speed flows that can be found in engine inlets.

Sakowski, Barbara↗
NASA NTRS1994

Electronic Engineering Notebook: A software environment for research execution, documentation and dissemination

The electronic engineering notebook (EEN) consists of a free form research notebook, implemented in a commercial package for distributed hypermedia, which includes utilities for graphics capture, formatting and display of LaTex constructs, and interfaces to the host operating system. The latter capability consists of an information computer-aided software engineering (CASE) tool and a means to associate executable scripts with source objects. The EEN runs on Sun and HP workstations. The EEN, in day-to-day use can be used in much the same manner as the sort of research notes most researchers keep during development of projects. Graphics can be pasted in, equations can be entered via LaTex, etc. In addition, the fact that the EEN is hypermedia permits easy management of 'context', e.g., derivations and data can contain easily formed links to other supporting derivations and data. The CASE tool also permits development and maintenance of source code directly in the notebook, with access to its derivations and data.

Moerder, Dan↗
DOE OSTI2021

Stabilizing the Power System in 2035 and Beyond: Evolving from Grid-Following to Grid-Forming Distributed Inverter Controllers (Final Technical Report)

Under existing grid operations, large synchronous generators provide sufficient rotational inertia to form a rigid backbone for the bulk power system. With photovoltaics (PV) forecasted to provide more than 600 GW of generation by 2050 under the U.S. Department of Energy’s SunShot Initiative objectives, however, it is clear that power electronic inverters will play a dominant role in future systems, and low-inertia stability must be ensured to maintain system reliability. Today, the risks to system stability can be observed on geographically small islands, such as Hawaii, which contain a relatively large amount of installed PV. These risks stem from a fundamental shortcoming of contemporary control strategies—existing inverter controllers cannot guarantee grid stability. Given that future power systems driven by sustainable resources will be characterized by low inertia, locations such as Hawaii provide a glimpse into the obstacles facing future power systems. Considering these challenges, the aim of this project was to develop and demonstrate distributed inverter controllers that enable the reliable control of low-inertia power systems with hundreds of gigawatts of integrated PV.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2023

Parallel Grid-Forming Inverter-Driven Black Start: Power-Hardware-in-the-Loop Validation: Preprint

With power systems encountering increasing deployment levels of inverter-based resources (IBRs), system restoration using grid-forming (GFM) IBRs has gained attention. Engineered to establish grid voltages in the absence of a stiff grid, black-start-capable GFM IBRs are expected to enhance power system resilience by playing a critical role in bottom-up system restoration. This paper experimentally studies the feasibility of the novel approach through power-hardware-in-the-loop (PHIL) testing and validation with a commercial GFM inverter. The PHIL test setup demonstrates an inverter-driven black start of a 5-MW unbalanced distribution feeder where two GFM inverters collectively black start the feeder: one is a commercial hardware GFM inverter interacting through the PHIL interface, and the other is a software GFM emulated by a real-time simulation with full electromagnetic transient (EMT) models. Both GFM inverters are equipped with negative-sequence voltage control to suppress the voltage imbalance resulting from the unbalanced loading, allowing us to study the dynamic interactions between the GFMs with their control parameters unknown. To evaluate the dynamic behavior of the GFM inverters under the entire black-start process, the EMT model of the distribution system details the transformer and motor dynamics to emulate their inrush and startup behaviors. It abstracts conventional grid-connected inverter dynamics, i.e., grid-following inverters. Oscilloscope measurements of the hardware GFM inverter are also presented for critical steps. Takeaways for further study and field deployment are provided.

grid-forming inverter↗
DOE OSTI2020

SAM Plug-in Development (Phase I Final Report)

The DOE Office of Nuclear Energy (NE) has created an extensive set of advanced modeling and simulation tools for nuclear engineering analysis. The advanced capabilities of these newer analysis codes require more in-depth training, skills, and knowledge in order to effectively utilize them for the design, analysis, and licensing of advanced nuclear systems and experiments. A high learning curve for inexperienced users may deter organizations from incorporating these tools into their internal processes. This project involved development of a plug-in to the Symbolic Nuclear Analysis Package (SNAP) for the System Analysis Module (SAM) tool. SAM is an advanced system analysis tool for reactor transient analyses being developed at Argonne National Laboratory under the U.S. DOE Office of Nuclear Energy’s Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation (NEAMS) program. SAM utilizes an object-oriented application framework (MOOSE), and its underlying meshing and finite-element library (libMesh) and linear and non-linear solvers (PETSc), to leverage modern advanced software environments and numerical methods. SNAP provides a highly flexible framework for creating, modifying and documenting input for engineering analysis codes such as SAM as well as extensive functionality for submitting, monitoring, and interacting with the codes through an intuitive graphical user interface (GUI). The common user interface provided by SNAP minimizes the learning curve for engineers starting with a new analysis code and provides an intuitive framework for transitioning between different analysis codes. SNAP provides a powerful but intuitive interface to facilitate access to advanced modeling and simulation tools for inexperienced users. Unlike many “form based” GUI’s, SNAP maps each engineering code’s component input to an internal database which manages all component input parameters along with component interconnections. This level of abstraction permits SNAP to support several advanced capabilities such as renodalization, model validation and consistency checks, embedded documentation, model notebook generation, data ownership and reviewer tracking, and variable assignment for inputs to name a few. SNAP includes a built-in Python interpreter and is interfaced to several commercial and open source packages including CPython, MATLAB/OCTAVE, Microsoft Office, Open Office, and SANDIA’s DAKOTA package which provides Uncertainty Quantification analysis through the SNAP plug-ins. Phase I of this project involved development a fully functional basic SAM plug-in to SNAP. This plug-in provides the ability to import existing models, graphically construct, edit and submit models using SNAP’s extensive functionality.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Reconfiguration of Amorphous Complex Oxides: A Route to a Broad Range of Assembly Phenomena, Hybrid Materials, and Novel Functionalities

This work demonstrate that reconfiguration of amorphous oxide layers drives the assembly of oxide-based and freestanding nanomembranes into 3D structures with a radius of a few hundred nanometers. Reconfiguration-driven assembly is a versatile approach to impart large strains and strain gradients in a broad palette of complex oxides. This capability allows for manipulating and enhancing ferroelectricity, flexoelectricity, piezoelectricity, superconductivity, and ferromagnetism in complex oxides. Moreover, by the approach presented in this work, strain-engineered oxides are obtained in the form of 3D structures that can be fabricated in parallel on any substrate, including large-area and single crystalline semiconductor substrates. This approach will create a vast expanse of possibilities to investigate and leverage strain-tunable effects in amorphous, poly-crystalline, and single-crystalline complex oxides. Reconfiguration-driven assembly of NMs also allows combining different materials in a radial geometry and through scalable processes. For example, radial superlattices of Si (or GaAs) and various complex oxides or alternating layers of different complex oxides (e.g., SrTiO 3 and LaAlO 3 ) could be fabricated by release and heating of bilayer NMs. Here, a broad palette of electronic band structures and spin–orbit interactions could then be obtained by tailoring the curvature of the self-assembled NMs and the materials that the heterostructure comprises.

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2022

Achievements and Lessons Learned From Successful Small Satellite Missions for Space Weather‐Oriented Research

Abstract When the first CubeSats were launched nearly two decades ago, few people believed that the miniature satellites would likely prove to be a useful scientific tool. Skeptics abounded. However, the last decade has seen the highly successful implementation of space missions that make creative and innovative use of fast‐advancing CubeSat and small satellite technology to carry out important science experiments and missions. Several projects now have used CubeSats to obtain first‐of‐their‐kind observations and findings that have formed the basis for high‐profile engineering and science publications, thereby establishing without doubt the scientific value and broad utility of CubeSats. In this paper, we describe recent achievements and lessons learned from a representative selection of successful CubeSat missions with a space weather focus. We conclude that these missions were successful in part because their limited resources promoted not only mission focus but also appropriate risk‐taking for comparatively high science return. Quantitative analysis of refereed publications from these CubeSat missions and several larger missions reveals that mission outcome metrics compare favorably when publication number is normalized by mission cost or if expressed as a weighted net scientific impact of all mission publications.

Spence, Harlan E.↗
DOE OSTI2021

Open Building Control

Best practice control sequences are often not implemented correctly, or are not implemented at all, in large commercial buildings. This typically leads to 10-30 percent energy waste, along with reduced occupant productivity and unnecessary equipment wear. The current process of designing and implementing such control sequences is a manual process that starts with designers who often don’t have adequate training, then requires controls programmers to interpret and program a verbose written sequence. This process has been shown to fail to deliver high performance control sequences at scale. The Open Building Control project digitizes the current control delivery process. The project is developing tools for system designers to select control sequences, assess their energy performance and load flexibility potential using whole building simulation, specify the sequence for implementation using machine-to-machine translation by a control provider and formally testing the as-installed sequences by a commissioning agent. The project developed tools for each stage of this delivery process. The key innovation of the project is the development of the Control Description Language, a language that allows such a digitized control delivery process with end-to-end verification. Libraries of control sequences have been implemented using the Control Description Language, and their performance has been demonstrated using whole building energy simulation. An automated translation of such sequences to a commercial control product line has been conducted using a prototype translator. Tools for formal verification of as-installed control sequences relative to their specification have been developed and demonstrated. The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) started the process of forming a committee to make this language an ASHRAE/ANSI Standard. This new standard will complement existing and emerging ASHRAE standards for building communication and semantic modeling by providing a standard for expressing the control logic - the actual brain of the building. We expect this language and the process it enables to be an important contribution to the deployment of high performance building control sequences at scale because it allows taming the complexity of the control delivery process, which is continually increasing due to the need for higher performance and increased load flexibility to meet goals for net zero energy and increased renewable integration.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2023

Shear Assisted Processing and Extrusion (ShAPE) of Lightweight Automotive Components (CRADA 418)

Shear Assisted Processing and Extrusion (ShAPE) was developed to manufacture non-circular multicell profiles from secondary aluminum. This was accomplished by integrating a porthole die approach within the rotating ShAPE process. Complexity of the profile geometry was deliberately advanced over the course of the project from round to square, to asymmetric trapezoidal, to two-cell asymmetric trapezoidal. Aluminum alloy 6063 in the form of briquettes (compacted shreddings and engineered machining chips) and castings from pre-consumer industrial scrap were utilized as the feedstock. Tensile properties were shown to exceed the ASTM minimum standard and ASM typical values with the best results reaching yield strength = 247 ± 10 MPa, ultimate tensile strength = 271 ± 10 MPa, and uniform elongation = 16.5 ± 2.4%. These values were achieved for porthole extrusion using unhomogenized castings made from 100% aluminum 6063 industrial scrap. The ability to extrude unhomogenized billet was made possible by in situ conversion of plate-like β-type Fe-rich intermetallics to more extrudable needle-like α-type which is not possible with conventional extrusion. By eliminating the need to dilute iron with primary aluminum during the recycling process, savings of >90% on lifecycle carbon footprint and >50% on embedded energy could ultimately result in lower cost, more environmentally friendly, automotive components.

42 ENGINEERING↗