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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 NTRS1986

Zonal wave number variance spectra of stratospheric microwave brightness temperatures

Well-known theoretical predictions suggest that variances of large-scale atmospheric fluctuations, for scales somewhat shorter than those of the forcing mechanisms, should obey a power law, k exp -b, where k is the horizontal wave number. The invariance of the exponent b with season, hemisphere, and latitude is tested using satellite-measured brightness temperatures. Global grids of Tiros-N Microwave Sounding Unit channel 4 measurements, which closely approximate the 30- to 150-mbar layer mean temperature, are constructed for January, March, and August 1979. These grids are zonally Fourier-transformed, and the resulting spectra are averaged over four 18 deg-wide latitude bands. Fits of a power law to these spectra over wave numbers 10-36 and 10-26 give values of b which are independent of season, hemisphere, and latitude band, to within statistical uncertainties. The observed values of b are about 3.6, as compared to theoretical predictions of 3.

Martin, Russell L.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Experimental studies of an ECR plasma thruster

The Electron Cyclotron Resonance (ECR) thruster is a proposed electrodeless space electric propulsion device with interesting and little understood physics. A laboratory ECR thruster was run in a vacuum tank at pressures in the 10 exp -5 torr range using 2.12 GHz microwave beam and Ar gas propellant. Movable diagnostic probes (a Faraday cup and a gridded energy analyzer) measured plasma characteristics as propellant gas flow rate and input microwave power level were varied. Ion energy and flux data were used to calculate I(sp), propulsive efficiency, and thrust. The ion flux profiles show an unexpected depression on the thruster axis for low tank pressures that disappears as the tank pressure increases. Ion energies decrease as the flow rate and pressure increase, but the microwave power level affects the energy only negligibly. The calculated propulsion parameters demonstrate that the efficiency of the laboratory device is low, and that tank pressure greatly changes the performance.

Kaufman, D. A.↗
NASA NTRS2004

An Overview of Electric Propulsion Activities at NASA

This paper provides an overview of NASA s activities in the area of electric propulsion with an emphasis on project directions, recent progress, and a view of future project directions. The goals of the electric propulsion programs are to develop key technologies to enable new and ambitious science missions and to transfer these technologies to industry. Activities include the development of gridded ion thruster technology, Hall thruster technology, pulsed plasma thruster technology, and very high power electric propulsion technology, as well as systems technology that supports practical implementation of these advanced concepts. The performance of clusters of ion and Hall thrusters is being revisited. Mission analyses, based on science requirements and preliminary mission specifications, guide the technology projects and introduce mission planners to new capabilities. Significant in-house activity, with strong industrial/academia participation via contracts and grants, is maintained to address these development efforts. NASA has initiated a program covering nuclear powered spacecraft that includes both reactor and radioisotope power sources. This has provided an impetus to investigate higher power and higher specific impulse thruster systems. NASA continues to work closely with both supplier and user communities to maximize the understanding and acceptance of new technology in a timely and cost-effective manner. NASA s electric propulsion efforts are closely coordinated with Department of Defense and other national programs to assure the most effective use of available resources. Several NASA Centers are actively involved in these electric propulsion activities, including, the Glenn Research Center, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Johnson Space Center, and Marshall Space Flight Center.

Dunning, John W., Jr.↗
NASA NTRS2019

Characterization of Low-Temperature, Co-Fired Ceramic-Manufactured Electrostatic Thruster-Closeout Report

The goal of the project was to evaluate prototypes of an experimental thruster developed by the University of Arkansas (UA), Fayetteville, AR. The design under evaluation is a radio frequency (RF) electrostatic thruster that was fabricated using the low-temperature, co-fired ceramic (LTCC) materials and fabrication process. This materials system is analogous to printed circuit board (PCB) technology with the most significant difference being that the laminate is replaced by a ceramic material and the copper layer is replaced by printed sinterable silver paste. LTCC designs are baked after fabrication and assembled to realize an entirely monolithic structure with internal conductors, vias, and cavities. In this process, the LTCC electrostatic thruster (LTCC-ET) that is the subject of the present work becomes a monolithic ceramic thruster capable of withstanding temperatures in excess of 500 ºC. The UA and NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) jointly performed prototype testing on the LTCC-ET under a NASA Cooperative Agreement Notice (CAN) award. The LTCC-ET was tested at MSFC in May 2018 over a 1-week period. There were two goals for the test program: (1) Testing to determine the operating parameters required to create plasma ignition in the test articles. This was explored by setting a propellant flowrate and increasing RF power until plasma ignition was observed. Testing was conducted with both argon and krypton. (2) Investigate the thrust and specific impulse (Isp) performance of the thruster as a function of propellant flowrate and grid voltage. This goal was not met during the project as technical challenges in maintaining stable plasma ignition arose due to stress and heating of the RF power feed. In summary, a prototype thruster design (consisting of three packaged units) was fabricated by UA and tested for the first time under vacuum conditions at MSFC to experimentally determine basic performance metrics and functionality. It was found that the design was not sufficiently optimized or robust enough in its initial iteration to support a significant test campaign or characterization program. It was concluded that the propellant outlet channels must be reduced in size with the flowpaths adjusted to increase propellant residence time in the thruster, and that the RF connector must be replaced with a version capable of handling higher power throughput and heating. However, even in its unoptimized form, a plasma could be produced in the LTCCET, demonstrating the efficacy of the design approach. The design is especially compelling due to its low cost to manufacture and, more importantly, its scalability of size and power throughput. Low cost and scalability are also important in that additional functionalities, such as thrust vectoring and plume charge neutralization, can be integrated into future designs with minimal additional cost. This project has matured the LTCC-ET development Technology Readiness Level (TRL) from 1 to 2. The low-cost RF plasma source portion of the LTCC device was matured from TRL 2 to 4 through the demonstration of RF plasma ignition under vacuum conditions.

Huang, P.-H. A.↗
NASA NTRS1980

Heat and electricity from the Sun using parabolic dish collector systems

Point focus distributed receiver solar thermal technology for the production of electric power and of industrial process heat is addressed. The thermal power systems project which emphasizes the development of cost effective systems which will accelerate the commercialization and industrialization of plants up to 10 MWe, using parabolic dish collectors is described. The projected size of the isolated load market in the 1990-2000 time period is 300 to 1000 MW/year. Although this market is small in comparison to the grid connected utility market, it is indicated that by assuming only a 20 percent market penetration, up to 10,000 power modules per year would be required to meet this need. At a production rate of 25,000 units/year and assuming no energy storage, levelized bus bar energy costs of 75 mills/kWeh are projected. These numbers are based on what is believed to be a conservative estimate regarding engine-generator conversion efficiency (40 percent) for the 1990 time period. With a more optimistic estimate of efficiency (i.e., 45 percent), the bus bar cost decreases to about 67 mills/kWeh. At very large production rates (400,000 modules/years), the costs decrease to 58 mills/kWeh. Finally, the present status of the technology development effort is discussed.

Truscello, V. C.↗
NASA NTRS2010

Using Multi-Scale Modeling Systems and Satellite Data to Study the Precipitation Processes

In recent years, exponentially increasing computer power extended Cloud Resolving Model (CRM) integrations from hours to months, the number of computational grid points from less than a thousand to close to ten million. Three-dimensional models are now more prevalent. Much attention is devoted to precipitating cloud systems where the crucial 1-km scales are resolved in horizontal domains as large as 10,000 km in two-dimensions, and 1,000 x 1,000 sq km in three-dimensions. Cloud resolving models now provide statistical information useful for developing more realistic physically based parameterizations for climate models and numerical weather prediction models. It is also expected that NWP and mesoscale models can be run in grid size similar to cloud resolving models through nesting technique. Recently, a multi-scale modeling system with unified physics was developed at NASA Goddard. It consists of (1) a cloud-resolving model (Goddard Cumulus Ensemble model, GCE model). (2) a regional scale model (a NASA unified weather research and forecast, W8F). (3) a coupled CRM and global model (Goddard Multi-scale Modeling Framework, MMF), and (4) a land modeling system. The same microphysical processes, long and short wave radiative transfer and land processes and the explicit cloud-radiation and cloud-land surface interactive processes are applied in this multi-scale modeling system. This modeling system has been coupled with a multi-satellite simulator to use NASA high-resolution satellite data to identify the strengths and weaknesses of cloud and precipitation processes simulated by the model. In this talk, a review of developments and applications of the multi-scale modeling system will be presented. In particular, the results from using multi-scale modeling systems to study the interactions between clouds, precipitation, and aerosols will be presented. Also how to use the multi-satellite simulator to improve precipitation processes will be discussed.

Tao, Wei--Kuo↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Large-Eddy Simulation of the Variable Speed Power Turbine Cascade with Inflow Turbulence

The main goal of this is to implement a digital filtering method to generate turbulence upstream and a sub-grid model (Localized dynamic k-equation model (LDKM)) in the framework of LES which together enable reproduction of the effect of inflow turbulence on the transition seen in the VSPT experimental data at the cruise condition (incidence angle of 40o and Tu=0.5%, 5%, 10% and 15%.).

CFD↗
NASA NTRS1999

Numerical Predictions of Wind Turbine Power and Aerodynamic Loads for the NREL Phase II and IV Combined Experiment Rotor

Accurate, reliable and robust numerical predictions of wind turbine rotor power remain a challenge to the wind energy industry. The literature reports various methods that compare predictions to experiments. The methods vary from Blade Element Momentum Theory (BEM), Vortex Lattice (VL), to variants of Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RaNS). The BEM and VL methods consistently show discrepancies in predicting rotor power at higher wind speeds mainly due to inadequacies with inboard stall and stall delay models. The RaNS methodologies show promise in predicting blade stall. However, inaccurate rotor vortex wake convection, boundary layer turbulence modeling and grid resolution has limited their accuracy. In addition, the inherently unsteady stalled flow conditions become computationally expensive for even the best endowed research labs. Although numerical power predictions have been compared to experiment. The availability of good wind turbine data sufficient for code validation experimental data that has been extracted from the IEA Annex XIV download site for the NREL Combined Experiment phase II and phase IV rotor. In addition, the comparisons will show data that has been further reduced into steady wind and zero yaw conditions suitable for comparisons to "steady wind" rotor power predictions. In summary, the paper will present and discuss the capabilities and limitations of the three numerical methods and make available a database of experimental data suitable to help other numerical methods practitioners validate their own work.

Duque, Earl P. N.↗
NASA NTRS1979

A solar thermal electric power plant for small communities

A solar power plant has been designed with a rating of 1000-kW electric and a 0.4 annual capacity factor. It was configured as a prototype for plants in the 1000 to 10,000-kWe size range for application to small communities or industrial users either grid-connected or isolated from a utility grid. A small central receiver was selected for solar energy collection after being compared with alternative distributed collectors. Further trade studies resulted in the selection of Hitec (heat transfer salt composed of 53 percent KNO3, 40 percent NaNO2, 7 percent NaNO3) as both the receiver coolant and the sensible heat thermal stroage medium and the steam Rankine cycle for power conversion. The plant is configured with road-transportable units to accommodate remote sites and minimize site assembly requirements. Results of the analyses indicate that busbar energy costs are competitive with diesel-electric plants in certain situations, e.g., off-grid, remote regions with high insolation. Sensitivity of energy costs to plant power rating and system capacity factor are given.

Holl, R. J.↗
NASA NTRS1998

Grid Generation Techniques Utilizing the Volume Grid Manipulator

This paper presents grid generation techniques available in the Volume Grid Manipulation (VGM) code. The VGM code is designed to manipulate existing line, surface and volume grids to improve the quality of the data. It embodies an easy to read rich language of commands that enables such alterations as topology changes, grid adaption and smoothing. Additionally, the VGM code can be used to construct simplified straight lines, splines, and conic sections which are common curves used in the generation and manipulation of points, lines, surfaces and volumes (i.e., grid data). These simple geometric curves are essential in the construction of domain discretizations for computational fluid dynamic simulations. By comparison to previously established methods of generating these curves interactively, the VGM code provides control of slope continuity and grid point-to-point stretchings as well as quick changes in the controlling parameters. The VGM code offers the capability to couple the generation of these geometries with an extensive manipulation methodology in a scripting language. The scripting language allows parametric studies of a vehicle geometry to be efficiently performed to evaluate favorable trends in the design process. As examples of the powerful capabilities of the VGM code, a wake flow field domain will be appended to an existing X33 Venturestar volume grid; negative volumes resulting from grid expansions to enable flow field capture on a simple geometry, will be corrected; and geometrical changes to a vehicle component of the X33 Venturestar will be shown.

Alter, Stephen J.↗
NASA NTRS1977

High-power and 2.5 kW advanced-technology ion thruster

Investigations for improving ion thruster components in the 30 cm engineering model thruster (EMT) resulted in the demonstration of useful techniques for grid short removal and discharge chamber erosion monitoring, establishment of relationships between double ion production and thruster operating parameters, verification of satisfactory specifications on porous tungsten vaporizer material and barium impregnated porous tungsten inserts, demonstration of a new hollow cathode configuration, and specification of magnetic circuit requirements for reproducing desired magnetic mappings. The capacity of a 30 cm EMT to operate at higher beam voltages and currents (higher power) was determined. Operation at 2 A beam current and higher beam voltage is shown to be essentially equivalent to operation at 1.1 kV with regard to efficiency, lifetime and operating conditions. The only additional requirement is an improvement in high voltage insulation and propellant isolator capacity. Operation at minimum voltage and higher beam currents is shown to increase thruster discharge chamber erosion in proportion to beam current. Studies to find alternatives to molybdenum for manufacturing ion optics grids are also reported.

Poeschel, R. L.↗
NASA NTRS2002

Graph Partitioning for Parallel Applications in Heterogeneous Grid Environments

The problem of partitioning irregular graphs and meshes for parallel computations on homogeneous systems has been extensively studied. However, these partitioning schemes fail when the target system architecture exhibits heterogeneity in resource characteristics. With the emergence of technologies such as the Grid, it is imperative to study the partitioning problem taking into consideration the differing capabilities of such distributed heterogeneous systems. In our model, the heterogeneous system consists of processors with varying processing power and an underlying non-uniform communication network. We present in this paper a novel multilevel partitioning scheme for irregular graphs and meshes, that takes into account issues pertinent to Grid computing environments. Our partitioning algorithm, called MiniMax, generates and maps partitions onto a heterogeneous system with the objective of minimizing the maximum execution time of the parallel distributed application. For experimental performance study, we have considered both a realistic mesh problem from NASA as well as synthetic workloads. Simulation results demonstrate that MiniMax generates high quality partitions for various classes of applications targeted for parallel execution in a distributed heterogeneous environment.

Bisws, Rupak↗
NASA NTRS2006

Modular High-Energy Systems for Solar Power Satellites

Modular High-Energy Systems are Stepping Stones to provide capabilities for energy-rich infrastructure located in space to support a variety of exploration scenarios as well as provide a supplemental source of energy during peak demands to ground grid systems. Abundant renewable energy at lunar or other locations could support propellant production and storage in refueling scenarios that enable affordable exploration. Renewable energy platforms in geosynchronous Earth orbits can collect and transmit power to satellites, or to Earth-surface locations. Energy-rich space technologies also enable the use of electric-powered propulsion systems that could efficiently deliver cargo and exploration facilities to remote locations. A first step to an energy-rich space infrastructure is a 100-kWe class solar-powered platform in Earth orbit. The platform would utilize advanced technologies in solar power collection and generation, power management and distribution, thermal management, electric propulsion, wireless avionics, autonomous in space rendezvous and docking, servicing, and robotic assembly. It would also provide an energy-rich free-flying platform to demonstrate in space a portfolio of technology flight experiments. This paper summary a preliminary design concept for a 100-kWe solar-powered satellite system to demonstrate in-flight a variety of advanced technologies, each as a separate payload. These technologies include, but are not limited to state-of-the-art solar concentrators, highly efficient multi-junction solar cells, integrated thermal management on the arrays, and innovative deployable structure design and packaging to enable the 100-kW satellite feasible to launch on one existing launch vehicle. Higher voltage arrays and power distribution systems (PDS) reduce or eliminate the need for massive power converters, and could enable direct-drive of high-voltage solar electric thrusters.

Howell, Joe T.↗
NASA NTRS2004

An Overview of the Nuclear Electric Xenon Ion System (NEXIS) Activity

The Nuclear Electric Xenon Ion System (NEXIS) research and development activity within NASA's Project Prometheus, was one of three proposals selected by NASA to develop thruster technologies for long life, high power, high specific impulse nuclear electric propulsion systems that would enable more robust and ambitious science exploration missions to the outer solar system. NEXIS technology represents a dramatic improvement in the state-of-the-art for ion propulsion and is designed to achieve propellant throughput capabilities >= 2000 kg and efficiencies >= 78% while increasing the thruster power to >= 20 kW and specific impulse to >= 6000 s. The NEXIS technology uses erosion resistant carbon-carbon grids, a graphite keeper, a new reservoir hollow cathode, a 65-cm diameter chamber masked to produce a 57-cm diameter ion beam, and a shared neutralizer architecture to achieve these goals. The accomplishments of the NEXIS activity so far include performance testing of a laboratory model thruster, successful completion of a proof of concept reservoir cathode 2000 hour wear test, structural and thermal analysis of a completed development model thruster design, fabrication of most of the development model piece parts, and the nearly complete vacuum facility modifications to allow long duration wear testing of high power ion thrusters.

ion thrusters↗
NASA NTRS1981

Recent work on an RF ion thruster

Preliminary results of an RF ion thruster using an immersed coupler in an argon discharge are presented. Conventional ion accelerator optics are used to extract an ion beam. An account is given of the operation of an unoptimized thruster over a range of input powers, propellant flow rates, frequencies, and magnetic field strengths. It is noted that lifetime and overall efficiency factors have not yet been extensively investigated. The results obtained establish the feasibility of this approach and the potential for future improvements. The conical coil employed to couple RF power into the discharge is placed inside the discharge vessel. The discharge is self-sustained by 100-150 MHz RF power at low environmental pressures (approximately 0.00001 torr). The ion extraction is accomplished by conventional accelerator grid optics from an unoptimized 8 cm diameter ion thruster.

Lee, R. Q.↗
NASA NTRS1981

Direct conversion of light to radio frequency energy

A description is presented of the test results obtained with the latest models of the phototron. The phototron was conceived as a replacement for the high voltage solar cell-high power klystron combination for the solar power satellite concept. Physically, the phototron is a cylindrical evacuated glass tube with a photocathode, two grids, and a reflector electrode in a planar configuration. The phototron can be operated either in a biased mode where a low voltage is used to accelerate the electron beam produced by the photocathode or in an unbiased mode referred to as self-oscillation. The device is easily modulated by light input or voltage to broadcast in AM or FM. The range of operation of the present test model phototrons is from 2 to 200 MHz.

Freeman, J. W.↗
NASA NTRS2001

Laser Induced Aluminum Surface Breakdown Model

Laser powered propulsion systems involve complex fluid dynamics, thermodynamics and radiative transfer processes. Based on an unstructured grid., pressure-based computational aerothermodynamics, platform, several sub-nio"'dels describing such underlying physics as laser ray tracing and focusing, thermal non-equilibrium, plasma radiation and air spark ignition have been developed. This proposed work shall extend the numerical platform and existing sub-models to include the aluminum wall surface Inverse Bremsstrahlung (113) effect from which surface ablation and free-electron generation can be initiated without relying on the air spark ignition sub-model. The following tasks will be performed to accomplish the research objectives.

Chen, Yen-Sen↗
NASA NTRS2002

Laser Induced Aluminum Surface Breakdown Model

Laser powered propulsion systems involve complex fluid dynamics, thermodynamics and radiative transfer processes. Based on an unstructured grid, pressure-based computational aerothermodynamics; platform, several sub-models describing such underlying physics as laser ray tracing and focusing, thermal non-equilibrium, plasma radiation and air spark ignition have been developed. This proposed work shall extend the numerical platform and existing sub-models to include the aluminum wall surface Inverse Bremsstrahlung (IB) effect from which surface ablation and free-electron generation can be initiated without relying on the air spark ignition sub-model. The following tasks will be performed to accomplish the research objectives.

Chen, Yen-Sen↗