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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 451 records · Page 25
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1990

Ongoing nickel-hydrogen energy storage device testing at George C. Marshall Space Flight Center

The primary objective of the testing is to characterize Ni-H2 cells for successful integration into the electrical power system (EPS) of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). A broad spectrum of Ni-H2 design technology is encompassed by the testing configurations; tests include cells with dates of manufacture as early as 1976. The database includes cells of varied storage times, capacity, plate design, stack design, terminal configuration, pressure vessel thickness, separator material, potassium hydroxide (KOH) concentration, and thermal control. Currently, 196 Ni-H2 cells are being tested, grouped as follows: 12 RNH-35-3, 14 RNH-30-1, 22 HST cells (1 battery, flight spare lot), 132 HST cells (6 batteries, test modules 1 and 2, called TM1 and TM2), 12 HST cells (3 four-cell packs, TM1, TM2, flight spare module FSM), and 4 HST cells (engineering lot). In addition to the characterization and life testing, an extensive thermal vacuum and purge test was conducted in November 1989 and February 1990 using the HST FSM (3 batteries composed of 69 HST cells from the flight spare lot) to help verify thermal design. A report is presented of the progress, significant findings, and future objectives of the testing.

Lowery, John E.↗
NASA NTRS2014

Dependence of Lunar Surface Charging on Solar Wind Plasma Conditions and Solar Irradiation

The surface of the Moon is electrically charged by exposure to solar radiation on its dayside, as well as by the continuous flux of charged particles from the various plasma environments that surround it. An electric potential develops between the lunar surface and ambient plasma, which manifests itself in a near-surface plasma sheath with a scale height of order the Debye length. This study investigates surface charging on the lunar dayside and near-terminator regions in the solar wind, for which the dominant current sources are usually from the pohotoemission of electrons, J(sub p), and the collection of plasma electrons J(sub e) and ions J(sub i). These currents are dependent on the following six parameters: plasma concentration n(sub 0), electron temperature T(sub e), ion temperature T(sub i), bulk flow velocity V, photoemission current at normal incidence J(sub P0), and photo electron temperature T(sub p). Using a numerical model, derived from a set of eleven basic assumptions, the influence of these six parameters on surface charging - characterized by the equilibrium surface potential, Debye length, and surface electric field - is investigated as a function of solar zenith angle. Overall, T(sub e) is the most important parameter, especially near the terminator, while J(sub P0) and T(sub p) dominate over most of the dayside.

Photoemission↗
NASA NTRS1982

Spatially Characterizing Effective Timber Supply

The structure of a computer-oriented cartographic model for assessing roundwood supply for generation of base load electricity is discussed. The model provides an analytical procedure for coupling spatial information of harvesting economics and owner willingness to sell stumpages. Supply is characterized in terms of standing timber; of accessibility considering various harvesting and hauling factors; and of availability as affected by ownership and residential patterns. Factors governing accessibility to timber include effective harvesting distance to haulic roads as modified by barriers and slopes. Haul distance is expressed in units that take into account the relative ease of travel along various road types to a central processing facility. Areas of accessible timber are grouped into spatial units, termed 'timbersheds', of common access to particular haul road segments that belong to unique 'transport zones'. Timber availability considerations include size of ownership parcels, housing density and excluded areas. The analysis techniques are demonstrated for a cartographic data base in western Massachusetts.

Berry, J. K.↗
NASA NTRS1990

A review of nuclear electric propulsion spacecraft system concepts

The last 25-30 years of system concepts and design philosophies for spacecraft employing nuclear-electric propulsion (NEP) are reviewed. NEP spacecraft-system design constraints and criteria are identified, including radiation exposure of humans and electronics, thermal control requirements, effluent contamination of spacecraft surfaces, surface erosion, launch-vehicle integration, operations and safety requirements, attitude control, EM interference, and power control and distribution. The impact on spacecraft design philosophy of these constraints and criteria is explored. Several NEP spacecraft are characterized and discussed with respect to the propulsion system used. The electric propulsion system catagories are electrothermal (arcjet), EM (magnetoplasmadynamic and pulsed-inductive thruster) and electrostatic (ion engine). A brief summary of the mission, nuclear power source, electric propulsion system, and spacecraft configuration are provided for each NEP spacecraft concept.

Deininger, W. D.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Computational Heat Flux Analysis for HEATheR Electric Aircraft Wing Ice Protection Systems

Increased electrification of aircraft systems, a growing trend in the aircraft industry, affects subsystems that have historically been pneumatically driven by the engine. Optimized design of propulsion and power systems must account for the requirements of these subsystems. One such subsystem, the wing ice protection system, is the focus of this paper. A preliminary computational icing analysis has been conducted using the LEWICE and ANSYS FENSAP-ICE software to characterize the requirements of a thermal ice protection system for three More Electric Aircraft concepts. This paper summarizes the methodology, simulation execution, and icing conditions used for the analysis as well as discusses the results, observed trends, and impacts to system design. This initial analysis indicates that the computed heat requirements for the wing ice protection systems are not within the capabilities of known traditional systems. A discussion of potential methods for reducing the heat flow requirement by the ice protection system is included. Potential refinements to the analysis to improve the accuracy are also discussed.

Nic Heersema↗
NASA NTRS1991

Application of surface electrical discharges to the study of lightning strikes on aircraft

Considered here is the characterization of surface discharges which provide a facility complementary to that of artificially triggered lightning. General characteristics of a simplified surface discharge, including current waveforms and the constitution of a surface discharge are outlined, and the application of this approach to the study of aircraft lightning strikes is considered. Representations of leader-streamer and return-stroke phases are discussed, and the application to the two-dimensional discharge phase is covered. It is noted that the fact that the initiation times of surface discharges could be controlled, and the path followed by the discharge channels could be predetermined, indicates that it is possible to produce a highly dedicated high performance instrumentation system.

Boulay, J. L.↗
NASA NTRS2008

Electroconductive PET/SWNT Films by Solution Casting

The market for electrically conductive polymers is rapidly growing, and an emerging pathway for attaining these materials is via polymer-carbon nanotube (CNT) nanocomposites, because of the superior properties of CNTs. Due to their excellent electrical properties and anisotropic magnetic susceptibility, we expect CNTs could be easily aligned to maximize their effectiveness in imparting electrical conductivity to the polymer matrix. Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNT) were dispersed in a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) matrix by solution blending then cast onto a glass substrate to create thin, flexible films. Various SWNT loading concentrations were implemented (0.5, 1.0, and 3.0 wt.%) to study the effect of additive density. The processing method was repeated to produce films in the presence of magnetic fields (3 and 9.4 Tesla). The SWNTs showed a high susceptibility to the magnetic field and were effectively aligned in the PET matrix. The alignment was characterized with Raman spectroscopy. Impedance spectroscopy was utilized to study the electrical behavior of the films. Concentration and dispersion seemed to play very important roles in improving electrical conductivity, while alignment played a secondary and less significant role. The most interesting result proved to be the effect of a magnetic field during processing. It appears that a magnetic field may improve dispersion of unmodified SWNTs, which seems to be more important than alignment. It was concluded that SWNTs offer a good option as conductive, nucleating filler for electroconductive polymer applications, and the utilization of a magnetic field may prove to be a novel method for CNT dispersion that could lead to improved nanocomposite materials.

Steinert, Brian W.↗
NASA NTRS2018

Characterization of a 100-kW Class Nested-Channel Hall Thruster

The next generation of electric propulsion consists of systems in excess of 300 kW of power. These systems enable a wide variety of missions, including crewed missions to near-Earth asteroids and Mars. Hall thrusters are a particularly attractive technology for these missions, but development and demonstration of 100-kW class devices has been limited to date. Here, a 100-kW class three-channel nested Hall thruster called the X3 was operated up to 102 kW total discharge power. The three channels of the X3 can be operated in any combination, providing seven unique configurations and a total throttling envelope of 2-200 kW. Previous testing of the X3 was limited to 30 kW and found that it was not providing state-of-the-art performance.Two low-power test campaigns were completed at the University of Michigan which identified potential mechanisms for this under-performance. Improvements to the thruster were made before a high-power performance characterization at NASA Glenn Research Center. There, the X3 was fired on xenon propellant from 5-102 kW total power. The thruster demonstrated stable operation in all seven channel combinations at discharge voltages from 300 V to 500 V and three different current densities. All seven channel combinations demonstrated similar performance at a given discharge voltage and current density. The largest thrust recorded was 5.4 N, and total efficiency and specific impulse ranged from 0.54 to 0.67 and 1800 seconds to 2650 seconds, respectively.In addition to the performance measurements, a suite of plasma diagnostics and a high-speed camera were used to study the operation of the thruster in greater detail. The probe results are compared against those in the literature and demonstrate that the X3, even in multi-channel operation, is producing similar charge, mass, current, and voltage utilization efficiencies as state of the art single-channel Hall thrusters. High-speed camera analysis identified that the X3 operated with similar discharge current oscillations at all conditions tested. Additionally, a preliminary calculation of cross-channel ingestion and its effect on thruster efficiency is made. This work represents the highest total power (102 kW), thrust (5.4 N), and discharge current (247 A) demonstrated by a Hall thruster to date, improvements of 6 percent, 64 percent, and 119 percent respectively over previous values. These results are discussed in the context of continued high-power Hall thruster development and future mission applications.

Hall, Scott James↗
NASA NTRS2008

RESOLVE Projects: Lunar Water Resource Demonstration and Regolith Volatile Characterization

To sustain affordable human and robotic space exploration, the ability to live off the land at the exploration site will be essential. NASA calls this ability in situ resource utilization (ISRU) and is focusing on finding ways to sustain missions first on the Moon and then on Mars. The ISRU project aims to develop capabilities to technology readiness level 6 for the Robotic Lunar Exploration Program and early human missions returning to the Moon. NASA is concentrating on three primary areas of ISRU: (1) excavating, handling, and moving lunar regolith, (2) extracting oxygen from lunar regolith, and (3) finding, characterizing, extracting, separating, and storing volatile lunar resources, especially in the permanently shadowed polar craters. To meet the challenges related to technology development for these three primary focus areas, the Regolith and Environment Science and Oxygen and Lunar Volatile Extraction (RESOLVE) project was initiated in February 2005, through funding by the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate. RESOLVE's objectives are to develop requirements and conceptual designs and to perform breadboard concept verification testing of each experiment module. The final goal is to deliver a flight prototype unit that has been tested in a relevant lunar polar environment. Here we report progress toward the third primary area creating ways to find, characterize, extract, separate, and store volatile lunar resources. The tasks include studying thermal, chemical, and electrical ways to collect such volatile resources as hydrogen, water, nitrogen, methane, and ammonia. We approached this effort through two subtasks: lunar water resource demonstration (LWRD) and regolith volatile characterization (RVC).

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1976

Deuteron whistler and trans-equatorial propagation of the ion cyclotron whistler

The paper investigates two unusual types of ion cyclotron whistlers that were found in the low-latitude topside ionosphere by analyzing ISIS VLF electric-field data received at Kashima, Japan. One type is characterized by an asymptotic frequency equal to one half the local proton gyrofrequency; the asymptotic frequency of the other type corresponds to the minimum proton gyrofrequency along the geomagnetic field line passing through the satellite. The observations are compared with theoretical spectrograms of the ion cyclotron whistlers computed for appropriate model distributions of electrons and ions in the topside ionosphere. It is found that the whistlers with the asymptotic frequency of one half the local proton gyrofrequency are deuteron whistlers and that the other whistlers are due to the transequatorial propagation of proton or deuteron whistlers originating in the southern hemisphere.

Watanabe, S.↗
NASA NTRS1980

The RF spectra of first and subsequent lightning return strokes in the 1- to 200-km range

An experimental characterization of the frequency spectra of first and subsequent stroke electric fields are presented over a distance range from about 1 km, where the fields are primarily electrostatic, to 200 km, where they are primarily radiation. Spectra are presented to about 700 kHz for lightning within 12 km and to about 300 kHz for lightning at 50 and 200 km. It is shown that the return stroke ground wave spectrum beyond 50 km has a peak near 4 kHz but that within 10 km the spectrum shows a steady increase with decreasing frequency to 1 kHz. Frequency spectra at all ranges fall off roughly as 1/f for frequencies between 5 and 100 kHz, while the falloff above 100 kHz is faster as the distance to the stroke increases. From this high-frequency attenuation an RF conductivity for central Florida of between 0.002 and 0.005/ohm/m was determined.

Serhan, G. I.↗
NASA NTRS1983

In situ aircraft measurements of enhanced levels of N2O associated with thunderstorm lightning

A series of measurements of enhanced levels of atmospheric N2O associated with thunderstorm lightning are reported. The data were gathered by instrumentation on-board an aircraft operated as part of the NASA Storm Hazards Project. Air samples were taken both during storms and in clear conditions to have a basis for comparisons; sample bottles were filled at altitudes from 11,000-40,000 ft. Gas chromatography was employed for sample composition analyses, revealing clear air N2O concentrations of about 310 ppbv, while storm concentrations reached, for example, 490, 729, and 393 ppbv. Although the measurements did not precisely characterize the actual lightning contributions, the enhancements being present during electrically active storms did confirm that trace gases are produced by lightning. Calculations are presented to demonstrate that the 3 to greater than 12 keV X rays detected in storm clouds are of sufficient energy to drive the production of N2O from the reaction of metastable nitrogen with molecular oxygen.

Levine, J. S.↗
NASA NTRS1990

End-of-fabrication CMOS process monitor

A set of test 'modules' for verifying the quality of a complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) process at the end of the wafer fabrication is documented. By electrical testing of specific structures, over thirty parameters are collected characterizing interconnects, dielectrics, contacts, transistors, and inverters. Each test module contains a specification of its purpose, the layout of the test structure, the test procedures, the data reduction algorithms, and exemplary results obtained from 3-, 2-, or 1.6-micrometer CMOS/bulk processes. The document is intended to establish standard process qualification procedures for Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASIC's).

Buehler, M. G.↗
NASA NTRS2006

Pulsed Laser Deposition of BaCe(sub 0.85)Y(sub 0.15)0(sub 3) FILMS

Pulsed laser deposition has been used to grow nanostructured BaCe(sub 0.85)Y(sub 0.15)0(sub 3) films. The objective is to enhance protonic conduction by reduction of membrane thickness. Sintered samples and laser targets were prepared by sintering BaCe(sub 0.85)Y(sub 0.15)O(sub 3) powders derived by solid state synthesis. Films 2 to 6 m thick were deposited by KrF excimer laser on Si and porous Al2O3 substrates. Nanocrystalline films were fabricated at deposition temperatures of 600-800 C deg at O2 pressure of 30 mTorr and laser fluence of 1.2 J/cm square. Films were characterized by x-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and electrical impedance spectroscopy. Dense single phase BaCe(sub 0.85)Y((sub 0.15) 0(sub 3) films with a columnar growth morphology is observed, preferred crystal growth was found to be dependent upon deposition temperature and substrate type. Electrical conductivity of bulk samples produced by solid state sintering and thin film samples were measured over a temperature range of 100 C deg to 900 C deg in moist argon. Electrical conduction of the fabricated films was 1 to 4 orders of magnitude lower than the sintered bulk samples. With respect to the film growth direction, activation energy for electrical conduction is 3 times higher in the perpendicular direction than the parallel direction.

Dynys, F. W.↗
NASA NTRS2007

High-Temperature Properties of Piezoelectric Langatate Single Crystals

Langasite type crystals belong to non-polar point group of 32 and do not show any phase transformations up to the melting temperature. Langatate (La3Ga(5.5)Ta(0.5)O14) demonstrates piezoelectric activity better than quartz and possesses attractive properties for high temperature sensors, resonators and filter applications. High-quality and colorless langatate crystals were grown by the Czochralski technique. The electromechanical and electrical properties of langatate crystals in different crystallographic directions were characterized at elevated temperature. The piezoelectric coefficient along x-axis was 7 pC/N as measured by a Berlincourt meter for a plate geometry with an aspect ratio of 10:1. The dielectric constant did not exhibit any significant temperature dependence (K33 approx. 21 at 30 C and K33 approx. 23 at 600 C). Loss tangent at 100 kHz remained <0.003 up to 300 C and <0.65 at 600 C. The dielectric properties along the y-axis were similar and its temperature dependence was analogous to the x-axis. Electromechanically, the inactive z-axis exhibited no resonance with K33 approx. 84 at room temperature, decreasing down to approx. 49 at 600 C. Resistivity of these crystals along x-axis decreased from approx. 6x10(exp 11) omega-cm at room temperature, to approx. 1.6x10(exp 6) omega-cm at 600 C.

Sehirlioglu, Alp↗
NASA NTRS2012

Overview of Heat Addition and Efficiency Predictions for an Advanced Stirling Convertor

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company (LMSSC) have been developing the Advanced Stirling Radioisotope Generator (ASRG) for use as a power system for space science missions. This generator would use two high-efficiency Advanced Stirling Convertors (ASCs), developed by Sunpower Inc. and NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC). The ASCs convert thermal energy from a radioisotope heat source into electricity. As part of ground testing of these ASCs, different operating conditions are used to simulate expected mission conditions. These conditions require achieving a particular operating frequency, hot end and cold end temperatures, and specified electrical power output for a given net heat input. Microporous bulk insulation is used in the ground support test hardware to minimize the loss of thermal energy from the electric heat source to the environment. The insulation package is characterized before operation to predict how much heat will be absorbed by the convertor and how much will be lost to the environment during operation. In an effort to validate these predictions, numerous tasks have been performed, which provided a more accurate value for net heat input into the ASCs. This test and modeling effort included: (a) making thermophysical property measurements of test setup materials to provide inputs to the numerical models, (b) acquiring additional test data that was collected during convertor tests to provide numerical models with temperature profiles of the test setup via thermocouple and infrared measurements, (c) using multidimensional numerical models (computational fluid dynamics code) to predict net heat input of an operating convertor, and (d) using validation test hardware to provide direct comparison of numerical results and validate the multidimensional numerical models used to predict convertor net heat input. This effort produced high fidelity ASC net heat input predictions, which were successfully validated using specially designed test hardware enabling measurement of heat transferred through a simulated Stirling cycle. The overall effort and results are discussed.

Wilson, Scott D.↗