SEARCH · Engineering Papers
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.
Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.
Image scanner uses moving and stationary parallel slits to produce pictures of visible, infrared, X-ray microwave, or acoustic sources. No lenses or mirrors required. Single detector views all parts of image simultaneously rather than raster making relatively-short exposure times possible. Potential applications of system include medical x-ray imaging.
The use of mixed solvents and of modified monomeric ester reactants was investigated as a means of improving the tack and drape retention characteristics of PMR-15 polyimide prepreg. Methanol, ethanol, 1-propanol and 1-butanol were used to prepare the esters, prepreg solutions, and T-300 graphite fabric and Celion 6000 unidirectional fiber prepregs. The tack retention characteristics of the T-300 fabric prepreg after exposure to simulated use conditions were determined using a simple lap shear test. Drape was qualitatively assessed by visually monitoring the deformability of the prepreg. Thermo-oxidative stability and mechanical properties retention of the Celion 6000 grahite fiber composites were determined as a function of exposure time in air at 600 F.
Both separate and combined wind tunnel and vibration shaker tests were conducted on two structural panels representative of the Shuttle orbiter in the NASA LaRC 8-foot transonic pressure tunnel (TPT) to determine the effects of combined loads on the thermal protection system (TPS). The primary objective of this test was to provide a combined full-scale load environment and realistic time history of the dynamic pressures, Mach numbers (through transonic), and dynamic structural responses of these panels. The panels were selected from orbiter locations where interactive load sources such as aerodynamic shock waves, turbulent boundary layers, strut-induced vorticity, and substrate deformation combined to provide high bonding loads between the TPS and the orbiter structure. The test panels for this program were highly instrumented with static and dynamic pressure gages, accelerometers, deflectometers, strain gages, Schileren and high-speed photography, and special instrumentation necessary to determine TPS/structure interface loads and tile motions. Two test specimens of each orbiter panel were utilized. Both were high-fidelity representations of the selected orbiter location. The first panel (calibration panel) for each test was utilized to calibrate the tunnel and shaker system as well as provide a data-gathering source for applied static and dynamic loads. The second panel (test panel) for each test was subjected to flight time exposures only so that TPS characteristics as a function of flight mission exposure could be determined. These tests were the last in a series that was suce6ssfully completed and necessary to certify the TPS prior to the first launching of the Shuttle.
Individual high-dispersion International Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE) spectra of extragalactic stars are noisy because of the long exposure times required and the inherent limitations of the IUE detectors. A program has, therefore, been undertaken to obtain multiple ultraviolet spectra of the brightest Magellanic Cloud stars in order to produce composite spectra with higher signal-to-noise ratios than in individual spectra. The present investigation is concerned with results for HD 5980. The target star, HD 5980, is one of the brightest extragalactic far-ultraviolet sources in the sky. HD 5980 is located in the northeast quadrant of NGC 346, the largest H II region and OB star cluster in the SMC. The analysis of the interstellar line spectrum of HD 5980 provides a number of conclusions about the complex absorption characteristics of the interstellar gas toward the SMC.
InSb has been used as a substrate for molecular beam epitaxy. For good epitaxial growth, a substrate surface which is smooth and clean on an atomic scale is required. Chemical cleaning procedures provide an oxide film to passivate the surface. This film is then desorbed by in situ heating. The material forming the film should, therefore, have a high vapor pressure at some temperature less than the substrate melting temperature. A chloride film appears to satisfy the latter requirement. The present investigation is, therefore, concerned with the formation of a chloride film rather than an oxide film. Carbon contamination has been found to cause problems in chemical cleaning procedures. The level of carbon contamination found in the case of chloride film formation, is therefore compared with the corresponding level observed in procedures using oxide films. It appears that a chloride film grown in connection with a short exposure time to a Cl2 plasma is preferable to other passivation films studied.
Approximate slope error determined with minimal test equipment. Test Setup for Determining Slope Error for Point-Focusing Dish includes pinhole camera at center of curvature and color-coded target mounted around pinhole. Floodlights illuminate target to minimize exposure time. New procedure provides good approximation of reflector slope error and is excellent tool for comparative analysis of reflectors used as solar collectors for microwave receivers.
Metal substrates, preferably of titanium and titanium alloys, are coated by alloying or forming TiN on a substrate surface. A laser beam strikes the surface of a moving substrate in the presence of purified nitrogen gas. A small area of the substrate surface is quickly heated without melting. This heated area reacts with the nitrogen to form a solid solution. The alloying or formation of TiN occurs by diffusion of nitrogen into the titanium. Only the surface layer of the substrate is heated because of the high power density of the laser beam and short exposure time. The bulk of the substrate is not affected, and melting of the substrate is avoided because it would be detrimental.
The objectives of this experiment are to collect and isotopically analyze interstellar gas atoms around the orbit of the Earth for the purpose of obtaining new data relevant to understanding nucleosynthesis, and to study the dynamics of the interstellar wind inside the heliosphere and the isotopic composition of the interstellar medium outside the heliosphere. The experiment hardware will act as a set of simple cameras with high-purity copper-beryllium collecting foils serving as the film. The experiment housing will mount and thermally control the foils, establish the viewing angles and viewing direction, provide baffling to reject ambient neutral particles, provide a voltage grid to reject ionospheric charged particles, sequence collecting foils, control exposure times, and protect the foils from contamination during the deployment and retrieval of the LDEF. After being returned to Earth, the entrapped atoms can be analyzed by mass spectroscopy to determine the relative abundance of the different isotopes of helium and neon. An attempt will also be made to detect argon.
The planet-crossing asteroid survey was begun in 1973 in order to study those asteroids which may intersect the orbits of the inner planets. Throughout the history of the survey, many of the various classes of asteroids were investigated. The near-Earth objects including the Apollo, Amor, and Aten families were studied in addition to asteroids whose orbits cross that of Mars, and some objects which are generally confined to the main belt. Observing was done on the 18 inch Schmidt telescope at the Palomar Mtn. Observatory. Typically, two consecutive photographs of a favorable field are taken. The exposure times of the films are usually twenty minutes and ten minutes, respectively. The telescope is guided at sidereal rate, so that asteroids will leave short trailed images. The films are then scanned for trails. By comparing the two films, the direction and approximate rate of motion of an asteroid may be determined.
Data from laboratory simulations and from samples returned from STS-8 are used to derive the energy dependence of the mass loss rate of Kapton under atomic oxygen bombardment and to discuss the development of surface structure and its effect on erosion rates. It is concluded that all the laboratory data from discharge and flow tubes and from accelerated beams, along with the orbital data from STS-3 through STS-8, can be accommodated by a rate of mass loss that varies with impact energy normal to the surface. It is hypothesized that increases of mass loss rate with exposure time may be due to trapping of the incoming atoms by the surface structure which develops.
A theoretical ice accretion model has been established applicable to both aircraft propellers and helicopter rotors to determine the effect of rime ice on the thrust, power, and efficiency as a function of exposure time in a natural icing condition. Comparisons have been made of theoretical performance levels with previously published experimentally determined propeller thrust and efficiency for five natural icing conditions. Agreement between test and theory was acceptable.
The thermooxidative stability in air at 316 C of unidirectional, uncoated and aluminum-coated Celion 6000 graphite fiber/PMR 15 polyimide composites has been determined for exposure times up to nominally 2000 h. Comparison of the weight loss data and microstructural integrity reveals that a thin aluminum-foil coating can provide significant protection from oxidation. A quantitative description of the average depth of the reaction zone and the maximum length of cracks produced during oxidation as a function of time in uncoated Celion 6000/PMR 15 are given.
The planetary nebula in the Fornax dwarf spheroidal galaxy is carbon rich, according to calculations based on measurements of the 1909 A emission line doublet of semiforbidden C III obtained with the International Ultraviolet Explorer. The ratio N(C)/N(O) is approximately equal to 3.7, comparable to the largest reliably determined carbon/oxygen ratios in high excitation planetaries of the Milky Way. The present result is based on four low-dispersion spectra with a combined exposure time of 27.2 hours; the Fornax planetary nebula is probably the most distant known planetary that can be observed with IUE. The IUE data were analyzed together with visible-wavelength emission-line fluxes reported by Danziger et al. (1978) to compute abundances for various elements. In terms of chemical composition, the Fornax nebula resembles planetary nebulae in the Magellanic Clouds more closely than it does typical or carbon-rich planetaries in the Galaxy.
Test procedures for accelerated stress-corrosion testing of high-strength aluminum alloys faster and provide more quantitative information than traditional pass/fail tests. Method uses data from tests on specimen sets exposed to corrosive environment at several levels of applied static tensile stress for selected exposure times then subsequently tensile tested to failure. Method potentially applicable to other degrading phenomena (such as fatigue, corrosion fatigue, fretting, wear, and creep) that promote development and growth of cracklike flaws within material.
Two electrochemical methods for the determination of hydrogen concentrations in metals are discussed and evaluated. The take-up of hydrogen at a pressure of 5000 psi by Waspaloy metal was determined experimentally at 24 C. It was found that the metal becomes saturated with hydrogen after an exposure time of about 1 hr. For samples charged with hydrogen at high pressure, most of the hydrogen is contained in the interstitial solid solution of the metal. For electrolytically charged samples, most of the hydrogen is contained as surface and subsurface hydrides. Hydrogen elimination rates were determined for these two cases, with the rate for electrolytically charged samples being greater by over a factor of two. Theoretical effects of high temperature and pressure on hydrogen take-up and elimination by bare and gold plated Waspaloy metal was considered. The breakthrough point for hydrogen at 5000 psi, determined experimentally, lies between a gold thickness of 0.0127 mm (0.0005 in.) and 0.0254 mm (0.001 in.) at 24 C. Electropolishing was found to greatly reduce the uptake of hydrogen at high pressure by Waspaloy metal at 24 C. Possible implications of the results obtained, as they apply to the turbine disk of the space shuttle main engine, are discussed.
There are some increases of the temperature of the hydroxyl emission (delta T approximately 20 K, z approximately 90 km) and of the intensity of the 63000 oxygen emission (delta I/I approximately 20 per cent, z approximately 250 km) for the lee of the mountains at distances about 150 km in the case of the latitudinal direction of the wind (U approximately 10 m/s) at the 3000 m level. Airflow motions over mountains may be one of the possible processes of generation of wave disturbances penetrating into the upper atmospheres (HINES, 1974; LINDZEN, 1971). The purpose here is to study the penetration of orographic disturbances into upper atmosphere. Airplane measurements of emission variations of hydroxyl and atomic oxygen 6300 A near the Northern Ural mountains were made. Several nocturnal flights were carried out in March, 1980 and January to February, 1981 at heights about 3000 m along 64 deg northern latitude in the Ural region. Spectrographs SP-48 with electronic image converters registration for OH ((9,4) and (5,1) bands - 7700 to 8100 A) and OI (6300 A) emissions were used. The zenith region was observed, and exposure time was 2 minutes. This corresponds to averaging of the emission intensities along the airplane trace over a distance of 10 km. Simultaneous measurements of atmospheric temperature variations at the flight altitude were made.
The collection of particles of diameters one millimeter and less far outnumbers the larger particle distribution in orbit. These small particles cannot be tracked from ground based radar as can the larger debris, therefore, there is greater uncertainty in their properties. The population is growing from contributions due to collisions of larger debris, explosions, and aluminum oxide particles from solid rocket motors. The solid rocket motor contribution is the prominent growth parameter, and the input from Space Shuttle deployed upper stages will range between 50,000 and 100,000 pounds per year. The environment is important because of the different design problems that will be posed to the engineer and scientist. The emphasis shifts from catastrophe deign, probability versus exposure time, and tracking-avoidance, to a continuous degradation problem.
To investigate the chemical composition of primary cosmic rays, several emulsion chambers were exposed at a 10.8 g/sq cm. depth in the stratosphere. Each chamber has the area of 0.92x0.46 sq m. and the depth of 14 c.u. The exposure time of chambers processed by now is 260 hours. The detecting layers were X-ray films and nuclear emulsions, which allowed to measure an energy of cascade and a type of primary particle. Results and techniques are described.