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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 505 records · Page 28

Survey of Aerothermodynamics Facilities Useful for the Design of Hypersonic Vehicles Using Air-Breathing Propulsion

The dream of producing an air-breathing, hydrogen fueled, hypervelocity aircraft has been before the aerospace community for decades. However, such a craft has not yet been realized, even in an experimental form. Despite the simplicity and beauty of the concept, many formidable problems must be overcome to make this dream a reality. This paper summarizes the aero/aerothermodynamic issues that must be addressed to make the dream a reality and discusses how aerothermodynamics facilities and their modem companion, real-gas computational fluid dynamics (CFD), can help solve the problems blocking the way to realizing the dream. The approach of the paper is first to outline the concept of an air-breathing hypersonic vehicle and then discuss the nose-to-tail aerothermodynamics issues and special aerodynamic problems that arise with such a craft. Then the utility of aerothermodynamic facilities and companion CFD analysis is illustrated by reviewing results from recent United States publications wherein these problems have been addressed. Papers selected for the discussion have k e n chosen such that the review will serve to survey important U.S. aero/aerothermodynamic real gas and conventional wind tunnel facilities that are useful in the study of hypersonic, hydrogen propelled hypervelocity vehicles.

Arnold, James O.↗

Preliminary Results of British Nene II Engine Altitude-Chamber Performance Investigation. I - Altitude Performance Using Standard 18.75-Inch-Diameter Jet Nozzle: Altitude Performance Using Standard 18.75-Inch-Diameter Jet Nozzle - 1

An investigation is being conducted to determine the altitude performance characteristics of the British Nene II engine and its components. The present paper presents the preliminary results obtained using a standard jet nozzle. The test results presented are for conditions simulating altitudes from sea level to 60,000 feet and ram pressure ratios from 1.0 to 2.3. These ram pressure ratios correspond to flight Mach numbers between zero and 1.16 assuming a 100 percent ram recovery.

Barson, Zelmar↗

Use of DSC and DMA to Study Rubber Crystallization as a Possible Cause for a Tear in a Neoprene Glove Used in a Space Shuttle Pressurized Astronaut Suit

The Advanced Crew Escape Suit (ACES) is a pressurized suit normally worn by astronauts during launch and landing phases of Space Shuttle operations. In 2008, a large tear (0.5 -1 in. long, between the pinky and ring finger) in the ACES left-hand glove made of neoprene latex rubber was found during training for Shuttle flight STS-124. An investigation to help determine the cause(s) of the glove tear was headed by the NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, Texas. Efforts at JSC to reproduce the actual glove tear pattern by cutting/tearing or rupturing were unsuccessful. Chemical and material property data from JSC such as GC-MS, FTIR, DSC and TGA mostly showed little differences between samples from the torn and control gloves. One possible cause for the glove tear could be a wedding ring/band worn by a male astronaut. Even with a smooth edge, such a ring could scratch the material and initiate the tear observed in the left-hand glove. A decision was later made by JSC to not allow the wearing of such a ring during training or actual flight. Another possible cause for the ACES glove tear is crystallinity induced by strain in the neoprene rubber over a long period of time and use. Neoprene is one several elastomeric materials known to be susceptible to crystallization, and such a process is accelerated with exposure of the material to cold temperatures plus strain. When the temperature is lowered below room temperature, researchers have shown that neoprene crystallization may be maintained at temperatures as high as 45-50 F, with a maximum crystallization rate near 20-25 F (1). A convenient conditioning temperature for inducing neoprene crystallization is a typical freezer that is held near 0 F. For work at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), samples were cut from several areas/locations (pinky/ring finger crotch, index finger and palm) on each of two pairs of unstrained ACES gloves for DSC and DMA thermal analysis testing. The samples were conditioned in a freezer for various times up to about 14 days. Some rectangular conditioned samples were unstrained, while most were subjected to strains up to 250% with the aid of two slotted aluminum blocks and two aluminum clamps per sample. Trends were observed to correlate DSC data (heat of fusion) and DMA data (linear CTE and stress for iso-strain testing) with: (a) sample location on each glove; and (b) level of strain during conditioning. Control samples cut as is from each glove location were also tested by DSC and DMA.

Wingard, Doug↗

Investigating the Use of Deep Convective Clouds (DCCT) to Monitor On-orbit Performance of the Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) using Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) Measurements

There is a need to monitor the on-orbit performance of the Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) on the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite R (GOES-R) for changes in instrument calibration that will affect GLM's lightning detection efficiency. GLM has no onboard calibration so GLM background radiance observations (available every 2.5 min) of Deep Convective Clouds (DCCs) are investigated as invariant targets to monitor GLM performance. Observations from the Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) and the Visible and Infrared Scanner (VIRS) onboard the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite are used as proxy datasets for GLM and ABI 11 m measurements.

Buechler, Dennis E.↗

Thermal Radiometer Signal Processing Using Radiation Hard CMOS Application Specific Integrated Circuits for Use in Harsh Planetary Environments

Thermal radiometers such as proposed for the Europa Clipper flyby mission require low noise signal processing for thermal imaging with immunity to Total Ionizing Dose (TID) and Single Event Latchup (SEL). Described is a second generation Multi- Channel Digitizer (MCD2G) Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) that accurately digitizes up to 40 thermopile pixels with greater than 50 Mrad (Si) immunity TID and 174 MeV-sq cm/mg SEL. The MCD2G ASIC uses Radiation Hardened By Design (RHBD) techniques with a 180 nm CMOS process node.

Focal Plane Assembly↗

Estimation of Daily PM(sub 10) Concentrations in Italy (2006-2012) Using Finely Resolved Satellite Data, Land Use Variables and Meteorology

Health effects of air pollution, especially particulate matter (PM), have been widely investigated. However, most of the studies rely on few monitors located in urban areas for short-term assessments, or land use/dispersion modelling for long-term evaluations, again mostly in cities. Recently, the availability of finely resolved satellite data provides an opportunity to estimate daily concentrations of air pollutants over wide spatio-temporal domains. Italy lacks a robust and validated high resolution spatio-temporally resolved model of particulate matter. The complex topography and the air mixture from both natural and anthropogenic sources are great challenges difficult to be addressed. We combined finely resolved data on Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) from the Multi-Angle Implementation of Atmospheric Correction (MAIAC) algorithm, ground-level PM10measurements, land-use variables and meteorological parameters into a four-stage mixed model framework to derive estimates of daily PM10concentrations at 1-km2 grid over Italy, for the years 2006-2012. We checked performance of our models by applying 10-fold cross-validation (CV) for each year. Our models displayed good fitting, with mean CV-R2=0.65 and little bias (average slope of predicted VS observed PM10=0.99). Out-of-sample predictions were more accurate in Northern Italy (Po valley) and large conurbations (e.g. Rome), for background monitoring stations, and in the winter season. Resulting concentration maps showed highest average PM10levels in specific areas (Po river valley, main industrial and metropolitan areas) with decreasing trends over time. Our daily predictions of PM10concentrations across the whole Italy will allow, for the first time, estimation of long-term and short-term effects of air pollution nationwide, even in areas lacking monitoring data. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Particulate Matter/analysis↗

Insights into Space Solar Cell Durability Using SPICE Simulation Seeded by Current-Voltage Characteristics Parametrized Using the Lambert W Special Function

We developed and validated an automated routine for the fitting of I-V curve data to the single diode model according to an exact analytical solution. Our fitting routine was validated to show good noise immunity and high accuracy usingsimulated values from LTSPICE. We are thus able to automate parameter extraction from a dataset or arbitrary size. This parameterization allows for better simulation of performance of real cells and arrays and provides utility for a host of applications relevant to space arrays. We will use this methodology to determine the array performance of radiated cells over time, and simulate the performance of the arrays with bypass diodes and power electronics.

Solar Cell↗

Surprising Results from Large Crowds Using Micro-Purchase Challenges - Using Contests on Freelancing Communities to Source Innovative, Impactful and Cost-Effective Solutions

Our world is more connected than ever before. The new digital economy is empowering platforms and crowds to become a progressively strategic way for organizations to innovate ahead of their competition. Existing research shows the effectiveness and quality of solutions crowdsourcing yields, yet few organizations genuinely understand it nor are leveraging those solutions to unlock the full range of benefits. Moreover, early adopters often face structural and financial barriers towards evangelizing digital platforms at scale within their organizations. NASA is an exception - being an advocate of the field since 2010, it has paved the path for large organizations to follow. An empirical analysis is conducted on NASA's Center of Excellence for Collaborative Innovation (CoECI) micro-purchase challenges on a crowd-based platform to assess the cost-savings, quality of work, time for work turnaround and brand effects of using this problem-solving mechanism. The results proved to provide a tangible impact on all four parameters. As such, micro-purchases could become a compelling entry-point for organizations who are willing to experiment and subsequently build a convincing business case to present to stakeholders. The paper concludes with NASA's learnings, supplemented by literature, on how to redesign business processes, change conventional thinking and create an organization that will transform its future with crowds.

Tang, Sarah↗

Quantifying Uncertainty in Land-Use Land-Cover Classification Using Conformal Statistics

Land-use land-cover (LULC) change is one of the most important anthropogenic threats to biodiversity and ecosystems integrity. As a result, the systematic generation of annual regional, national, and global LULC map products derived from the classification of satellite imagery data have become critical inputs for multiple scientific disciplines. The importance of quantifying pixel-level uncertainty to improve the robustness of downstream analyses has long been acknowledged but this practice is still not widely adopted in the generation of these LULC products.

Denis Valle↗

Finite Element Modeling of Extravehicular Mobility Units for Use With Human Body Models – Motivation, Major Challenges, Use Cases and Preliminary Work

Finite element modeling of pressurized spacesuits and implementation with human body models offers many advantages over physical experimentation, but also presents significant challenges. A model of pressurized spacesuit softgoods was developed, integrated with an existing hardgoods model, and fitted to a human body model. Two representative loading scenarios were simulated: dynamic external suit loading and internal occupant-driven loading, to serve as proof-of-concept for the modeling techniques employed. The modeled interactions behaved as intended and illustrate that finite element models of pressurized spacesuits can be used in conjunction with human body models to assess the biomechanical behavior. Further model development and experimental validation are needed.

Finite Element↗

Finite Element Modeling of Extravehicular Mobility Units for Use With Human Body Models – Motivation, Major Challenges, Use Cases and Preliminary Work

Finite element modeling of pressurized spacesuits and implementation with human body models offers many advantages over physical experimentation, but also presents significant challenges. A model of pressurized spacesuit softgoods was developed, integrated with an existing hardgoods model, and fitted to a human body model. Two representative loading scenarios were simulated: dynamic external suit loading and internal occupant-driven loading, to serve as proof-of-concept for the modeling techniques employed. The modeled interactions behaved as intended and illustrate that finite element models of pressurized spacesuits can be used in conjunction with human body models to assess the biomechanical behavior. Further model development and experimental validation are needed.

Finite Element↗

Conducting coatings for anodes, methods of making and using same, and uses thereof

Conducting coatings disposed on a metal member. The conducting coatings may have a desired texture and provide homoepitaxial or heteroepitaxial coating of an electrodeposited layer. A conducting coating may be formed by applying a shear force during deposition of the conducting coating. The conducting coatings may be used in anodes of various electrochemical devices. A conducting coating, which may be part of an electrochemical device, may have an electrochemically deposited layer disposed on at least a portion of a surface of the conducting coating. The electrochemically deposited layer may be reversibly electrochemically deposited.

Archer, Lynden A.↗