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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 433 records · Page 24
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2025

Incident Energy Systems Model: User Guide and Examples

U.S. Forest Service (USFS) wildfire base camps use portable power for electrical needs, including yurts and trailers from which logistics staff work during the incident. These yurts and trailers are conventionally powered by portable diesel generators. Hybrid portable power systems consisting of a combination of solar photovoltaics (PV), battery energy storage systems (BESS), and/or backup diesel generators have been used in recent years and were piloted by the National Technology and Development Program (NTDP) on incidents in fall 2024 as part of NTDP's Portable Power Project. As part of that project, this work included the development of two Excel-based tools and two reports explaining the tools. The first tool, the Incident Energy Systems Model, is an Excel-based tool that models the power output of hybrid portable power systems powering yurts and/or trailers at fire camps over a typical day.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
NASA NTRS1970

High-temperature oxidation and erosion-resistant refractory coatings

Various refractory coating systems were evaluated for rocket nozzle applications by actual rocket test firings. A reference is noted which identifies failure mechanisms and gives results of the firing tests for 18 coating systems. Iridium, iridium-rhenium, and hafnium oxide-zirconium oxide coatings show most promising results.

Peterson, D. A.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Optical properties of cirrus derived from airborne measurements during FIRE IFO 2

The Radiation Measurement System (RAMS) on board the NASA ER-2 was used to acquire several optical parameters of interest during the FIRE Cirrus IFO 2. In this abstract we present results from the 26 Nov. IFO when the ER-2 flew over the Coffeyville airport hub site. We show retrieved optical thickness and cloud temperature, along with optical thickness obtained from RAMS instruments on the NCAR Sabreliner and at the surface site B. Independent retrieval of optical thickness, from the ER-2 and at the surface, are in agreement during the overpasses. Cirrus optical depths, derived from each platform, ranged between 1 and 2.

Valero, Francisco P. J.↗
NASA NTRS1976

A summary of the ECAS MHD power plant results

The performance and the cost of electricity (COE) for MHD systems utilizing coal or coal derived fuels are summarized along with a conceptual open cycle MHD plant design. The results show that open cycle coal fired recuperatively preheated MHD systems have potentially one of the highest coal-pile-to-bus bar efficiencies (48.3%) and also one of the lowest COE of the systems studied. Closed cycle, inert gas systems do not appear to have the potential of exceeding the efficiency of or competing with the COE of advanced steam plants.

Seikel, G. R.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Space station propulsion test bed

A test bed was fabricated to demonstrate hydrogen/oxygen propulsion technology readiness for the intital operating configuration (IOC) space station application. The test bed propulsion module and computer control system were delivered in December 1985, but activation was delayed until mid-1986 while the propulsion system baseline for the station was reexamined. A new baseline was selected with hydrogen/oxygen thruster modules supplied with gas produced by electrolysis of waste water from the space shuttle and space station. As a result, an electrolysis module was designed, fabricated, and added to the test bed to provide an end-to-end simulation of the baseline system. Subsequent testing of the test bed propulsion and electrolysis modules provided an end-to-end demonstration of the complete space station propulsion system, including thruster hot firings using the oxygen and hydrogen generated from electrolysis of water. Complete autonomous control and operation of all test bed components by the microprocessor control system designed and delivered during the program was demonstrated. The technical readiness of the system is now firmly established.

Briley, G. L.↗
NASA NTRS1995

Plume particle collection and sizing from static firing of solid rocket motors

A unique dart system has been designed and built at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center to collect aluminum oxide plume particles from the plumes of large scale solid rocket motors, such as the space shuttle RSRM. The capability of this system to collect clean samples from both the vertically fired MNASA (18.3% scaled version of the RSRM) motors and the horizontally fired RSRM motor has been demonstrated. The particle mass averaged diameters, d43, measured from the samples for the different motors, ranged from 8 to 11 mu m and were independent of the dart collection surface and the motor burn time. The measured results agreed well with those calculated using the industry standard Hermsen's correlation within the standard deviation of the correlation . For each of the samples analyzed from both MNASA and RSRM motors, the distribution of the cumulative mass fraction of the plume oxide particles as a function of the particle diameter was best described by a monomodal log-normal distribution with a standard deviation of 0.13 - 0.15. This distribution agreed well with the theoretical prediction by Salita using the OD3P code for the RSRM motor at the nozzle exit plane.

Sambamurthi, Jay K.↗
NASA NTRS1979

The geographical distribution of lightning: Forestry and range requirements and interests

In an attempt to reduce the response time of the initial attack forces to lightning-caused fire, a lightning detection system that effectively locates accurate directions to lightning discharges to over 200 miles from the detection equipment was developed. The system was first tested in Alaska in 1975. Since that time, further development and operational testing led to the implementation of wide area networks. For the 1979 fire season an eight station network in Alaska is to be implemented that will cover virtually all of the lightning-caused fire areas in the state. In the western United States, an eighteen station network that will cover approximately 85% of eleven states is to be implemented. For the first time, large scale ground discharge lightning distribution information is to be available.

Vance, D. L.↗
NASA NTRS1990

A four-lidar view of Cirrus from the FIRE IFO: 27-28 October 1986

The four ground-based lidar systems that participated in the 1986 FIRE IFO were configured in a diamond-shaped array across central and southern Wisconsin. Data were generally collected in the zenith pointing mode, except for the Doppler lidar, which regularly operated in a scanning mode with intermittent zenith observations. As a component of the cirrus case study of 27 and 28 October 1986 selected for initial analysis, data collected by the remote sensor ensemble from 1600 (on the 27th) to 2400 UTC (on the 28th) is described and compared. In general, the cirrus studied on the 27th consisted of intermittent layers of thin and subvisual cirrus clouds. Particularly at Wausau, subvisual cirrus was detected from 11.0 to 11.5 km MSL, just below the tropopause. At lower levels, occasional cirrus clouds between approx. 8.0 to 9.5 km were detected from all ground sites. Preliminary analysis of the four-lidar dataset reveals the passage of surprisingly consistent cloud features across the experiment area. A variety of types and amounts of middle and high level clouds occurred, ranging from subvisual cirrus to deep cloud bands. It is expected that the ground-based lidar measurements from this case study, as well as the airborne observations, will provide an excellent data base for comparison to satellite observations.

Sassen, Kenneth↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Open Data Integration (ODIN): A Concurrent, Distributed Message-Based Architecture and Framework for Disaster Response

The Runtime for Airspace Concept Evaluation (RACE) is an open-source software architecture and framework to build configurable, highly concurrent and distributed message-based systems that offer scalable, low-latency performance on commodity hardware. RACE was used in commercial aviation applications to rapidly build systems that span several machines (including synchronized displays), interface existing hardware simulators and other live data feeds, and incorporate sophisticated visualization components such as NASA WorldWind. These RACE applications validated elements of the FAA’s System Wide Information Management (SWIM) Program, handling up to 1000 messages/sec from diverse sources (SFDPS, TFM-DATA, TAIS, ASDE-X, ITWS and local ADS) for 4,500 simultaneous flights tracked in the next-generation air transportation system’s digital backbone. We have since generalized RACE to support Open Data Integration (ODIN) applications outside aviation. Systems built with RACE/ODIN can be deployed in the field, on commodity hardware, and operate with limited or intermittent connectivity to the outside world. Our primary use case is a web-server with local/persistent data storage that runs within and only serves the stakeholder network (e.g. an incident command post). We are tailoring the RACE/ODIN system to support wildland fire management for the upcoming NASA Wildland Fire Safety Demonstration Series. RACE-ODIN is under consideration for application in the Scalable Traffic Management for Emergency Response Operations project, or STEReO, which aims to create a system that can be deployed during emergencies, to coordinate multiple elements of disaster response. Such data sources predominantly come from existing services on the internet (e.g. weather and satellite data, imported from so called "edge servers") but can also include dynamic (real-time) data from computer simulations and within the stakeholder network (such as aircraft and personnel tracking information). We will present the architecture and ODIN system demonstration incorporating local data from instrumented power-line towers, interpolated weather data and geospatial data from space-based platforms.

Joseph C Coughlan↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Open Data Integration (ODIN): A Concurrent, Distributed Message-Based Architecture and Framework for Disaster Response

The Runtime for Airspace Concept Evaluation (RACE) is an open-source software architecture and framework to build configurable, highly concurrent and distributed message-based systems that offer scalable, low-latency performance on commodity hardware. RACE was used in commercial aviation applications to rapidly build systems that span several machines (including synchronized displays), interface existing hardware simulators and other live data feeds, and incorporate sophisticated visualization components such as NASA WorldWind. These RACE applications validated elements of the FAA’s System Wide Information Management (SWIM) Program, handling up to 1000 messages/sec from diverse sources (SFDPS, TFM-DATA, TAIS, ASDE-X, ITWS and local ADS) for 4,500 simultaneous flights tracked in the next-generation air transportation system’s digital backbone. We have since generalized RACE to support Open Data Integration (ODIN) applications outside aviation. Systems built with RACE/ODIN can be deployed in the field, on commodity hardware, and operate with limited or intermittent connectivity to the outside world. Our primary use case is a web-server with local/persistent data storage that runs within and only serves the stakeholder network (e.g. an incident command post). We are tailoring the RACE/ODIN system to support wildland fire management for the upcoming NASA Wildland Fire Safety Demonstration Series. RACE-ODIN is under consideration for application in the Scalable Traffic Management for Emergency Response Operations project, or STEReO, which aims to create a system that can be deployed during emergencies, to coordinate multiple elements of disaster response. Such data sources predominantly come from existing services on the internet (e.g. weather and satellite data, imported from so called "edge servers") but can also include dynamic (real-time) data from computer simulations and within the stakeholder network (such as aircraft and personnel tracking information). We will present the architecture and ODIN system demonstration incorporating local data from instrumented power-line towers, interpolated weather data and geospatial data from space-based platforms.

Guillaume P Brat↗
NASA NTRS2000

The NASA Aviation Safety Program: Overview

In 1997, the United States set a national goal to reduce the fatal accident rate for aviation by 80% within ten years based on the recommendations by the Presidential Commission on Aviation Safety and Security. Achieving this goal will require the combined efforts of government, industry, and academia in the areas of technology research and development, implementation, and operations. To respond to the national goal, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has developed a program that will focus resources over a five year period on performing research and developing technologies that will enable improvements in many areas of aviation safety. The NASA Aviation Safety Program (AvSP) is organized into six research areas: Aviation System Modeling and Monitoring, System Wide Accident Prevention, Single Aircraft Accident Prevention, Weather Accident Prevention, Accident Mitigation, and Synthetic Vision. Specific project areas include Turbulence Detection and Mitigation, Aviation Weather Information, Weather Information Communications, Propulsion Systems Health Management, Control Upset Management, Human Error Modeling, Maintenance Human Factors, Fire Prevention, and Synthetic Vision Systems for Commercial, Business, and General Aviation aircraft. Research will be performed at all four NASA aeronautics centers and will be closely coordinated with Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and other government agencies, industry, academia, as well as the aviation user community. This paper provides an overview of the NASA Aviation Safety Program goals, structure, and integration with the rest of the aviation community.

Shin, Jaiwon↗
NASA NTRS2006

LOX, GOX and Pressure Relief

Oxygen relief systems present a serious fire hazard risk with often severe consequences. This presentation offers a risk management solution strategy which encourages minimizing ignition hazards, maximizing best materials, and utilizing good practices. Additionally, the relief system should be designed for cleanability and ballistic flow. The use of the right metals, softgoods, and lubricants, along with the best assembly techniques, is stressed. Materials should also be tested if data is not available and a full hazard analysis should be conducted in an effort to minimize risk and harm.

McLeod, Ken↗
NASA NTRS2001

The Plume Impingement Contamination II Experiment: Motivation, Design, and Implementation Plan

The International Space Station (ISS) will have a long service life during which it must be able to serve as a capable platform for a wide variety of scientific investigations. In order to provide this capability, the ISS has, at the system level, a design requirement of no more than 100 Angstroms of contaminant deposition per year from "non-quiescent" sources. Non-quiescent sources include the plumes resulting from the firing of reaction control system (ReS) engines on space vehicles visiting the ISS as well as the engines on the ISS itself. Unfortunately, good general plume contamination models do not yet exist. This is due both to the complexity of the problem, making the analytic approach difficult, and to the difficulty in obtaining empirical measurements of contaminant depositions. To address this lack of flight data, NASA Johnson Space Center is planning to fly an experiment, Plume Impingement Contamination-II, to measure the contamination deposition from the Shuttle Orbiter's primary RCS engines as a function angle from plume centerline. This represents the first direct on-orbit measurement of plume impingement contamination away from the nozzle centerline ever performed, and as such is extremely important in validating mathematical models which will be used to quantify the cumulative plume impingement contamination to the ISS over its lifetime. The paper will elaborate further upon the motivation behind making these measurements as well as present the design and implementation plan of this planned experiment.

Lumpkin, Forrest E., III↗
DOE OSTI2021

Subtask 2.6 – Optimization of Aerosol Mitigation Technology for Postcombustion CO 2 Capture

Growing concerns over the impact of CO 2 emissions from combustion sources on global climate change have prompted numerous research and development projects aimed at developing cost-effective technologies for CO 2 capture. One family of technologies being demonstrated at pilot and full scale globally is postcombustion CO 2 capture (PCCC) systems that employ amine-based solvents. The captured CO 2 can be compressed and permanently stored underground or used for enhanced oil recovery (EOR). The proximity of North Dakota’s lignite-fired fleet of power plants to potential CO 2 storage options creates a unique atmosphere for PCCC within the state. However, the aerosols present in lignite flue gas present a challenge for large-scale PCCC at North Dakota power plants. Aerosols can negatively impact the long-term performance of amine-based solvents for CO 2 capture. Amine-based solvents are volatile, and aerosols provide nucleation sites where amine vapors can condense. Because aerosols cannot be easily captured at the column outlet using conventional technologies, the amine-laden aerosols escape the system and lead to accelerated solvent losses. Moreover, aerosol components can chemically react with amines to form degradation products that can permanently deactivate the amine, cause fouling, and lead to hazardous emissions. Many of the elements that have been shown to catalyze solvent degradation are present in lignite coals and can exacerbate solvent replacement economics. Understanding this issue is critical to the implementation of solvent-based CO 2 capture systems as applied to lignite-fired generation systems. The Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC) designed and carried out this project to optimize aerosol mitigation technology for PCCC at a lignite-fired power plant. To meet the goal of this project, the following objectives were identified: Determine the effectiveness of a wet electrostatic precipitator (WESP) on collection of aerosols at a low-rank coal-fired power station. Determine the impact of aerosols on the efficiency and degradation products of amine-based carbon capture systems fired with low-rank fuels. Work was conducted at Minnkota Power Cooperative’s (MPC’s) Milton R. Young (MRY) Station Unit 2 using a slipstream of flue gas from the outlet of the plant’s flue gas desulfurization (FGD) unit. To gather initial data for sizing and specifying a WESP for this system, a temporary pilot-scale WESP was rented and installed on-site. Several different conditions were tested to examine the impact of flow rate, voltage, and current on WESP performance. The WESP was effective at removing large particulate (>200 nm) but caused an increase in fine particulate (<75 nm). Fine particulate material at the inlet and outlet of the WESP was collected, analyzed, and showed that crystalline sulfates carried over from the plant’s FGD unit were being converted to fine aerosols and SO 2 was being converted to SO 3 through the WESP. Additionally, the high moisture content of the flue gas stream at this sample location also contributed to an overall increase in aerosol mass under some of the test conditions. Using the results from the rented WESP, the project team installed a smaller-scale WESP upstream of the EERC’s slipstream CO 2 capture system. Flue gas was routed through a pilot-scale FGD unit to remove SO 2 to very low levels (~1 ppm) and then through a direct contact cooler (DCC) to further cool the gas and to remove moisture. The gas exiting the DCC was then routed through the new WESP before passing to the CO 2 absorber columns. Fluor’s amine-based solvent was used to scrub CO 2 from the slipstream through a set of two absorber columns. The rich solvent was regenerated in a stripper column by heating to drive off captured CO 2 . The system operated using a catch-and-release method where the CO 2 was separated to provide data on the process, but the captured CO 2 was released back into the host site stack. Aerosols and sulfur species were measured at multiple locations throughout the pilot-scale system. The inlet FGD and DCC removed much of the particulate matter and gaseous sulfur upstream of the WESP. With this configuration, the WESP achieved >95% particulate capture. The new WESP did not show any of the increases in SO 3 or other aerosol species that had been consistently observed with the larger-scale WESP installed immediately downstream of the plant’s full-scale FGD unit. Particulate samples captured and analyzed from the WESP inlet did not show any presence of crystalline sulfate materials, indicating that the pilot-scale FGD and DCC were efficient at reducing carryover from the plant’s full-scale FGD unit. A set of parametric tests were conducted on the new WESP to assess the impacts of flow rate, voltage, number of online WESP fields, and gas-phase sulfur content on aerosol and sulfur transformations. The results showed that the WESP performed similarly well at all sets of conditions. Sulfur and particulate matter exiting the WESP were further reduced through the absorber column as the amine-based solvent captured some of the residual contaminants. Solvent analysis showed that these species were slowly concentrating in the solvent over the duration of the test. When the WESP was taken offline and the sulfur slip through the FGD allowed to rise, the sulfate content in the solvent rose sharply, showing that the extra FGD and WESP were effective at reducing sulfate and cation uptake. This would be expected to extend amine-based solvent life by slowing the formation of heat-stable salts and other degradation products. This subtask was cofunded through the EERC–U.S. Department of Energy Joint Program on Research and Development for Fossil Energy-Related Resources Cooperative Agreement No. DE-FE0024233. Nonfederal funding was provided by the North Dakota Industrial Commission and MPC.

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT↗
DOE OSTI2026

District-Scale Analysis of Electricity Load and Strategies to Improve Energy Reliability Using Prototype District Models

Projected increases in electricity demand in the U.S. highlight the urgent need for effective load management to ensure grid reliability. As the building sector accounts for approximately 75% of electricity usage, enhancing energy efficiency and flexibility in this sector is crucial. Adopting district-level approaches offers significant advantages over traditional individual building analyses by enabling shared infrastructure and economies of scale. To navigate the data and computational challenges associated with modeling energy at the district level, prototype district models have been proposed as holistic, system-level solutions that capture complex interactions within typical configurations. This study presents these models as a reference tool for analyzing district-scale energy systems across various climate zones in the U.S. Developed with input from stakeholders, these models integrate varied building characteristics, inter-building connections, and energy system interactions. A case study utilizing the Urban Edge prototype district model, implemented on the URBANopt™ platform, evaluates multiple demand scenarios and the impact of distributed energy resources such as fuel-fired backup generators, photovoltaic systems, and batteries. Findings suggest that while new electric systems can significantly reduce annual energy use, they may also elevate peak electricity loads, with a notable 43% increase in heating-dominant climate zone 5B. The optimal backup power solutions vary based on location, influenced by factors such as utility rates and incentives. For example, PV and batteries perform well in high-cost regions like New York City, while diesel backup generators are more suitable for backup needs in climate zone 3A, such as Atlanta. Thus, this research highlights the importance of prototype district models for future district-scale energy planning.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
NASA NTRS1992

Combustion of Gaseous Fuels Under Reduced-Gravity Conditions

The need for an improved understanding of fires is becoming critically important with increased space travel and utilization. While the control of fires in low-gravity environments is not well understood, it is known that buoyancy significantly affects flame behavior and characteristics. The objective of this research is to gain a more fundamental understanding of fires, and to quantify flame behavior under reduced-gravity levels. Non-premixed flames of gaseous fuels are considered in this study because they are relatively simple and easy to control, yet embody mechanisms found in all types of combustion processes ranging from uncontrolled fires to practical combustion systems. This paper presents some recent results from microgravity studies of these flames. In addition, the potential usefulness of lunar- and Martian-based laboratories is discussed in order to understand the characteristics and behavior of fires in reduced-gravity environments.

Bahadori, M. Yousef↗
NASA NTRS1999

Evaluation of the Linear Aerospike SR-71 Experiment (LASRE) Oxygen Sensor

The Linear Aerospike SR-71 Experiment (LASRE) was a propulsion flight experiment for advanced space vehicles such as the X-33 and reusable launch vehicle. A linear aerospike rocket engine was integrated into a semi-span of an X-33-like lifting body shape (model), and carried on top of an SR-71 aircraft at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center. Because no flight data existed for aerospike nozzles, the primary objective of the LASRE flight experiment was to evaluate flight effects on the engine performance over a range of altitudes and Mach numbers. Because it contained a large quantity of energy in the form of fuel, oxidizer, hypergolics, and gases at very high pressures, the LASRE propulsion system posed a major hazard for fire or explosion. Therefore, a propulsion-hazard mitigation system was created for LASRE that included a nitrogen purge system. Oxygen sensors were a critical part of the nitrogen purge system because they measured purge operation and effectiveness. Because the available oxygen sensors were not designed for flight testing, a laboratory study investigated oxygen-sensor characteristics and accuracy over a range of altitudes and oxygen concentrations. Laboratory test data made it possible to properly calibrate the sensors for flight. Such data also provided a more accurate error prediction than the manufacturer's specification. This predictive accuracy increased confidence in the sensor output during critical phases of the flight. This paper presents the findings of this laboratory test.

Ennix, Kimberly A.↗