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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 415 records · Page 23

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NASA NTRS1987

Design and initial application of the extended aircraft interrogation and display system: Multiprocessing ground support equipment for digital flight systems

A pipelined, multiprocessor, general-purpose ground support equipment for digital flight systems has been developed and placed in service at the NASA Ames Research Center's Dryden Flight Research Facility. The design is an outgrowth of the earlier aircraft interrogation and display system (AIDS) used in support of several research projects to provide engineering-units display of internal control system parameters during development and qualification testing activities. The new system, incorporating multiple 16-bit processors, is called extended AIDS (XAIDS) and is now supporting the X-29A forward-swept-wing aircraft project. This report describes the design and mechanization of XAIDS and shows the steps whereby a typical user may take advantage of its high throughput and flexible features.

Glover, Richard D.↗

NASA NTRS2023

NASA GRC ICME Schema for Materials Data Management: An Executive Summary

Integrated Computational Materials Engineering (ICME) has received a growing emphasis in attention due its potential impact on rapid material design, reduction in cost and time to market for new applications, and the promise of ‘fit-for-purpose’ materials coupled with recent advances in high performance computing and material characterization tools. However, for an organization to implement ICME practices for material discovery and design, a series of both technical and cultural challenges must be overcome to foster an environment that enables efficient, traceable, and predictive multiscale simulations of material behavior to enable virtual design of materials. In 2016, NASA sponsored a 2040 Vision study to define the potential 25-year future state required for integrated multiscale modeling of materials and systems to improve both the associated time and cost for aerospace and aeronautical innovation. The study envisions a cyber-physical-social ecosystem of experimentally validated computational models, tools, and techniques, along with the associated digital tapestry, that can enable rapid, optimized, ‘fit-for-purpose’ design of materials, components, and systems. A key requirement for such an ecosystem is the development of a robust information management system for materials across their full lifecycle, including material pedigree, experimental (real) and virtual (simulation) data, developed material models, and the implementation of models in engineering applications, such that process-structure-property-performance relationships can be established, thereby enabling the virtual design and optimization of materials. Such an information management system must be able to effectively capture: i) material information at each length scale; ii) test data and analysis; iii) associated material models; and iv) material and model deployment in engineering applications. These systems must also provide traceability between experimental and virtual representations of the material to ensure, when appropriate, the material digital twin is maintained. Additionally, this robust material information management system must be able to seamlessly connect with both commercial and an organization’s in-house software tools, be they analysis tools, other material databases, product lifecycle management (PLM) or simulation data management (SDM) tools, etc., such that automation of the design and analysis of a material across multiple length scales is possible. In this paper, an executive summary of the NASA GRC ICME Schema for materials information management is presented. The database best practices and schema design philosophy specifically for ICME materials data management and an overview description of each element in the schema is given, along with its associated role in an ICME workflow. Additionally, auxiliary tools that interact with the database and provide judicious automation with regards to importing, exporting, and analyzing materials data are presented. Such tools are critical to an ICME ecosystem, not only for their role in enabling optimization, but also in relieving users of tedious manual tasks, thus helping to promote adoption and combat the cultural challenges organizations face in enabling ICME.

Materials↗

NASA NTRS1988

Engineering Data Compendium. Human Perception and Performance, Volume 1

The concept underlying the Engineering Data Compendium was the product an R and D program (Integrated Perceptual Information for Designers project) aimed at facilitating the application of basic research findings in human performance to the design of military crew systems. The principal objective was to develop a workable strategy for: (1) identifying and distilling information of potential value to system design from existing research literature, and (2) presenting this technical information in a way that would aid its accessibility, interpretability, and applicability by system designers. The present four volumes of the Engineering Data Compendium represent the first implementation of this strategy. This is Volume 1, which contains sections on Visual Acquisition of Information, Auditory Acquisition of Information, and Acquisition of Information by Other Senses.

Boff, Kenneth R.↗

NASA NTRS1985

Man-machine interface and control of the shuttle digital flight system

The space shuttle main engine (SSME) presented new requirements in the design of controls for large pump fed liquid rocket engine systems. These requirements were the need for built in full mission support capability, and complexity and flexibility of function not previously needed in this type of application. An engine mounted programmable digital control system was developed to meet these requirements. The engine system and controller and their function are described. Design challenges encountered during the course of development included accommodation for a very severe engine environment, the implementation of redundancy and redundancy management to provide fail operational/fail safe capability, removal of heat from the package, and significant constraints on computer memory size and processing time. The flexibility offered by programmable control reshaped the approach to engine design and development and set the pattern for future controls development in these types of applications.

Burghduff, R. D.↗

NASA NTRS1984

Acoustic excitation: A promising new means of controlling shear layers

Techniques have long been sought for the controlled modification of turbulent shear layers, such as in jets, wakes, boundary layers, and separated flows. Relatively recently published results of laboratory experiments have established that coherent structures exist within turbulent flows. These results indicate that even apparently chaotic flow fields can contain deterministic, nonrandom elements. Even more recently published results show that deliberate acoustic excitation of these coherent structures has a significant effect on the mixing characteristics of shear layers. Therefore, we have initiated a research effort to develop both an understanding of the interaction mechanisms and the ability to use it to favorably modify various shear layers. Acoustic excitation circumvents the need for pumping significant flow rates, as required by suction or blowing. Control of flows by intentional excitation of natural flow instabilities involves new and largely unexplored phenomena and offers considerable potential for improving component performance. Nonintrusive techniques for flow field control may permit much more efficient, flexible propulsion systems and aircraft designs, including means of stall avoidance and recovery. The techniques developed may also find application in many other areas where mixing is important, such as reactors, continuous lasers, rocket engines, and fluidic devices. It is the objective of this paper to examine some potential applications of the acoustic excitation technique to various shear layer flows of practical aerospace systems.

Stone, J. R.↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Design, Formalization, and Verification of Decision Making for Intelligent Systems

The development of autonomous systems requires a rigorous process that can guarantee a system’s reliability in critical applications. At its core, an autonomous system bases its behavior on a well-defined decision making system. In this paper, we present a methodological basis for the design, formalization and formal verification of Decision Making systems for autonomous agents. The approach is generally applicable to operational objectives that can be functionally decomposed and subsequently represented as Hierarchical Finite State Machines. As a case study, we present the application of this method to implement a Decision Making model in Simulink. Furthermore, we present how we use NASA’s FRET tool to write requirements in structured natural language and generate formal specifications that can be automatically digested by NASA’s CoCoSim tool. Finally, we present how, by leveraging CoCoSim, we perform formal verification against the Simulink model and present analysis results.

Model-based development↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Design, Formalization, and Verification of Decision Making for Intelligent Systems

Model-based development↗

NASA NTRS2014

NASA's Advanced Environmental Barrier Coatings Development for SiC/SiC Ceramic Matrix Composites: Understanding Calcium Magnesium Alumino-Silicate (CMAS) Degradations and Resistance

Environmental barrier coatings (EBCs) and SiCSiC ceramic matrix composites (CMCs) systems will play a crucial role in next generation turbine engines for hot-section component applications because of their ability to significantly increase engine operating temperatures with improved efficiency, reduce engine weight and cooling requirements. The development of prime-reliant environmental barrier coatings is essential to the viability and reliability of the envisioned CMC engine component applications, ensuring integrated EBC-CMC system durability and designs are achievable for successful applications of the game-changing component technologies and lifing methodologies.This paper will emphasize recent NASA environmental barrier coating developments for SiCSiC turbine airfoil components, utilizing advanced coating compositions, state-of-the-art processing methods, and combined mechanical and environment testing and durability evaluations. The coating-CMC degradations in the engine fatigue-creep and operating environments are particularly complex; one of the important coating development aspects is to better understand engine environmental interactions and coating life debits, and we have particularly addressed the effect of Calcium-Magnesium-Alumino-Silicate (CMAS) from road sand or volcano-ash deposits on the durability of the environmental barrier coating systems, and how the temperature capability, stability and cyclic life of the candidate rare earth oxide and silicate coating systems will be impacted in the presence of the CMAS at high temperatures and under simulated heat flux conditions. Advanced environmental barrier coating systems, including HfO2-Si with rare earth dopant based bond coat systems, will be discussed for the performance improvements to achieve better temperature capability and CMAS resistance for future engine operating conditions.

Environmental barrier coatings↗

NASA NTRS1992

Formal design specification of a Processor Interface Unit

This report describes work to formally specify the requirements and design of a processor interface unit (PIU), a single-chip subsystem providing memory-interface bus-interface, and additional support services for a commercial microprocessor within a fault-tolerant computer system. This system, the Fault-Tolerant Embedded Processor (FTEP), is targeted towards applications in avionics and space requiring extremely high levels of mission reliability, extended maintenance-free operation, or both. The need for high-quality design assurance in such applications is an undisputed fact, given the disastrous consequences that even a single design flaw can produce. Thus, the further development and application of formal methods to fault-tolerant systems is of critical importance as these systems see increasing use in modern society.

Fura, David A.↗

NASA NTRS1992

System model development for nuclear thermal propulsion

A critical enabling technology in the evolutionary development of nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP) is the ability to predict the system performance under a variety of operating conditions. This is crucial for mission analysis and for control subsystem testing as well as for the modeling of various failure modes. Performance must be accurately predicted during steady-state and transient operation, including startup, shutdown, and post operation cooling. The development and application of verified and validated system models has the potential to reduce the design, testing, and cost and time required for the technology to reach flight-ready status. Since Oct. 1991, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Department of Defense (DOD), and NASA have initiated critical technology development efforts for NTP systems to be used on Space Exploration Initiative (SEI) missions to the Moon and Mars. This paper presents the strategy and progress of an interagency NASA/DOE/DOD team for NTP system modeling. It is the intent of the interagency team to develop several levels of computer programs to simulate various NTP systems. The first level will provide rapid, parameterized calculations of overall system performance. Succeeding computer programs will provide analysis of each component in sufficient detail to guide the design teams and experimental efforts. The computer programs will allow simulation of the entire system to allow prediction of the integrated performance. An interagency team was formed for this task to use the best capabilities available and to assure appropriate peer review.

Walton, James T.↗

NASA NTRS1995

Use of agents to implement an integrated computing environment

Integrated Product and Process Development (IPPD) embodies the simultaneous application to both system and quality engineering methods throughout an iterative design process. The use of IPPD results in the time-conscious, cost-saving development of engineering systems. To implement IPPD, a Decision-Based Design perspective is encapsulated in an approach that focuses on the role of the human designer in product development. The approach has two parts and is outlined in this paper. First, an architecture, called DREAMS, is being developed that facilitates design from a decision-based perspective. Second, a supporting computing infrastructure, called IMAGE, is being designed. Agents are used to implement the overall infrastructure on the computer. Successful agent utilization requires that they be made of three components: the resource, the model, and the wrap. Current work is focused on the development of generalized agent schemes and associated demonstration projects. When in place, the technology independent computing infrastructure will aid the designer in systematically generating knowledge used to facilitate decision-making.

Hale, Mark A.↗

NASA NTRS2006

Fusing Quantitative Requirements Analysis with Model-based Systems Engineering

A vision is presented for fusing quantitative requirements analysis with model-based systems engineering. This vision draws upon and combines emergent themes in the engineering milieu. "Requirements engineering" provides means to explicitly represent requirements (both functional and non-functional) as constraints and preferences on acceptable solutions, and emphasizes early-lifecycle review, analysis and verification of design and development plans. "Design by shopping" emphasizes revealing the space of options available from which to choose (without presuming that all selection criteria have previously been elicited), and provides means to make understandable the range of choices and their ramifications. "Model-based engineering" emphasizes the goal of utilizing a formal representation of all aspects of system design, from development through operations, and provides powerful tool suites that support the practical application of these principles. A first step prototype towards this vision is described, embodying the key capabilities. Illustrations, implications, further challenges and opportunities are outlined.

optimization↗

NASA NTRS1993

Development of hydrogen resistant structural alloy NASA-23

Hydrogen-resistant alloy NASA-23 was developed specifically as a structural alloy for application in liquid propulsion systems that use hydrogen fuel. NASA-23 was designed to be similar to Alloy 718 in strength, ductility, and corrosion resistance, but with superior resistance to hydrogen environment embrittlement. The alloy is readily processed; it can be both hot and cold worked and is castable and weldable. A material property data base is being generated for both cast and wrought NASA-23. This paper will present the status of alloy development and discuss potential applications in propulsion systems.

Bhat, B. N.↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

LSMS–L35, Miniature Crane for Payload Offloading and Manipulation: Development, and Application

The Lightweight Surface Manipulation System (LSMS) is a robotic agent for autonomous surface construction activities on planetary surfaces, that was designed at NASA Langley Research Center and has over a decade of research and development. The LSMS is a key component to achieving many goals of the NASA Artemis program. The LSMS is lightweight, structurally efficient system that can be easily packaged for launch and deployment on-surface, capable of a suite of surface activities enabled by modular end-effectors at the wrist. The focus of recent development work has been on using the LSMS for payload offloading and handling from lunar landers. Discussed in the paper is the development of the LSMS-L35 hardware (35 kg wrist lifting capacity on the lunar surface), designed to integrate with a Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) lander to offload payloads to the surface. The LSMS-L35 hardware development is part of a larger effort to enable autonomous payload handling and manipulation.

Iok M. Wong↗

NASA NTRS1998

X-34 Main Propulsion System Design and Operation

The X-34 program is a joint industry/government program to develop, test, and operate a small, fully-reusable hypersonic flight vehicle, utilizing technologies and operating concepts applicable to future Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV) systems. The vehicle will be capable of Mach 8 flight to 250,000 feet altitude and will demonstrate an all composite structure, composite RP-1 tank, the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) developed Fastrac engine, and the operability of an advanced thermal protection systems. The vehicle will also be capable of carrying flight experiments. MSFC is supporting the X-34 program in three ways: Program Management, the Fastrac engine as Government Furnished Equipment (GFE), and the design of the Main Propulsion System (MPS). The MPS Product Development Team (PDT) at MSFC is responsible for supplying the MPS design, analysis, and drawings to Orbital. The MPS consists of the LOX and RP-1 Fill, Drain, Feed, Vent, & Dump systems and the Helium & Nitrogen Purge, Pressurization, and Pneumatics systems. The Reaction Control System (RCS) design was done by Orbital. Orbital is the prime contractor and has responsibility for integration, procurement, and construction of all subsystems. The paper also discusses the design, operation, management, requirements, trades studies, schedule, and lessons learning with the MPS and RCS designs.

Champion, R. J., Jr.↗

NASA NTRS1991

Intelligent systems technology infrastructure for integrated systems

A system infrastructure must be properly designed and integrated from the conceptual development phase to accommodate evolutionary intelligent technologies. Several technology development activities were identified that may have application to rendezvous and capture systems. Optical correlators in conjunction with fuzzy logic control might be used for the identification, tracking, and capture of either cooperative or non-cooperative targets without the intensive computational requirements associated with vision processing. A hybrid digital/analog system was developed and tested with a robotic arm. An aircraft refueling application demonstration is planned within two years. Initially this demonstration will be ground based with a follow-on air based demonstration. System dependability measurement and modeling techniques are being developed for fault management applications. This involves usage of incremental solution/evaluation techniques and modularized systems to facilitate reuse and to take advantage of natural partitions in system models. Though not yet commercially available and currently subject to accuracy limitations, technology is being developed to perform optical matrix operations to enhance computational speed. Optical terrain recognition using camera image sequencing processed with optical correlators is being developed to determine position and velocity in support of lander guidance. The system is planned for testing in conjunction with Dryden Flight Research Facility. Advanced architecture technology is defining open architecture design constraints, test bed concepts (processors, multiple hardware/software and multi-dimensional user support, knowledge/tool sharing infrastructure), and software engineering interface issues.

Lum, Henry↗

NASA NTRS1986

Multimegawatt nuclear electric propulsion - First order system design and performance evaluation

The development of space nuclear power supplies capable of delivering high levels of power (1 to 10 MWe) for long life (5 to 10 years) is being considered. An important potential application of these systems will be to provide power for advanced electric propulsion devices such as ion thrusters or Magneto-Plasma-Dynamic (MPD) thrusters. High-powered Nuclear Electric Propulsion (NEP) concepts based on both ion and MPD thrusters are reviewed. To allow for mission performance evaluation, power supply, power processing, and thruster subsystems are characterized for both ion and MPD propulsion systems designed for operation in the 1 to 10 MWe power range. Several proposed missions which are significantly enhanced by the performance potential of these devices are investigated. Studied missions include near-earth orbit raising, cis-lunar cargo transportation, and planetary exploration. If developed, these 1 to 10 MWe NEP systems may provide a technological base for the development of even larger propulsion systems with power levels of up to hundreds of megawatts. The potential performance and technologies associated with such ultra-high-powered NEP systems is explored.

Sercel, J. C.↗

NASA NTRS1990

A nonrecursive order N preconditioned conjugate gradient: Range space formulation of MDOF dynamics

While excellent progress has been made in deriving algorithms that are efficient for certain combinations of system topologies and concurrent multiprocessing hardware, several issues must be resolved to incorporate transient simulation in the control design process for large space structures. Specifically, strategies must be developed that are applicable to systems with numerous degrees of freedom. In addition, the algorithms must have a growth potential in that they must also be amenable to implementation on forthcoming parallel system architectures. For mechanical system simulation, this fact implies that algorithms are required that induce parallelism on a fine scale, suitable for the emerging class of highly parallel processors; and transient simulation methods must be automatically load balancing for a wider collection of system topologies and hardware configurations. These problems are addressed by employing a combination range space/preconditioned conjugate gradient formulation of multi-degree-of-freedom dynamics. The method described has several advantages. In a sequential computing environment, the method has the features that: by employing regular ordering of the system connectivity graph, an extremely efficient preconditioner can be derived from the 'range space metric', as opposed to the system coefficient matrix; because of the effectiveness of the preconditioner, preliminary studies indicate that the method can achieve performance rates that depend linearly upon the number of substructures, hence the title 'Order N'; and the method is non-assembling. Furthermore, the approach is promising as a potential parallel processing algorithm in that the method exhibits a fine parallel granularity suitable for a wide collection of combinations of physical system topologies/computer architectures; and the method is easily load balanced among processors, and does not rely upon system topology to induce parallelism.

Kurdila, Andrew J.↗