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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 541 records · Page 30
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2009

NASA Tech Briefs, July 2009

Topics covered include: Dual Cryogenic Capacitive Density Sensor; Hail Monitor Sensor; Miniature Six-Axis Load Sensor for Robotic Fingertip; Improved Blackbody Temperature Sensors for a Vacuum Furnace; Wrap-Around Out-the-Window Sensor Fusion System; Wide-Range Temperature Sensors with High-Level Pulse Train Output; Terminal Descent Sensor Simulation; A Robust Mechanical Sensing System for Unmanned Sea Surface Vehicles; Additive for Low-Temperature Operation of Li-(CF)n Cells; Li/CFx Cells Optimized for Low-Temperature Operation; Number Codes Readable by Magnetic-Field-Response Recorders; Determining Locations by Use of Networks of Passive Beacons; Superconducting Hot-Electron Submillimeter-Wave Detector; Large-Aperture Membrane Active Phased-Array Antennas; Optical Injection Locking of a VCSEL in an OEO; Measuring Multiple Resistances Using Single-Point Excitation; Improved-Bandwidth Transimpedance Amplifier; Inter-Symbol Guard Time for Synchronizing Optical PPM; Novel Materials Containing Single-Wall Carbon Nanotubes Wrapped in Polymer Molecules; Light-Curing Adhesive Repair Tapes; Thin-Film Solid Oxide Fuel Cells; Zinc Alloys for the Fabrication of Semiconductor Devices; Small, Lightweight, Collapsible Glove Box; Radial Halbach Magnetic Bearings; Aerial Deployment and Inflation System for Mars Helium Balloons; Steel Primer Chamber Assemblies for Dual Initiated Pyrovalves; Voice Coil Percussive Mechanism Concept for Hammer Drill; Inherently Ducted Propfans and Bi-Props; Silicon Nanowire Growth at Chosen Positions and Orientations; Detecting Airborne Mercury by Use of Gold Nanowires; Detecting Airborne Mercury by Use of Palladium Chloride; Micro Electron MicroProbe and Sample Analyzer; Nanowire Electron Scattering Spectroscopy; Electron-Spin Filters Would Offer Spin Polarization Greater than 1; Subcritical-Water Extraction of Organics from Solid Matrices; A Model for Predicting Thermoelectric Properties of Bi2Te3; Integrated Miniature Arrays of Optical Biomolecule Detectors; A Software Rejuvenation Framework for Distributed Computing; Kurtosis Approach to Solution of a Nonlinear ICA Problem; Robust Software Architecture for Robots; R4SA for Controlling Robots; Bio-Inspired Neural Model for Learning Dynamic Models; Evolutionary Computing Methods for Spectral Retrieval; Monitoring Disasters by Use of Instrumented Robotic Aircraft; Complexity for Survival of Living Systems; Using Drained Spacecraft Propellant Tanks for Habitation; Connecting Node; and Electrolytes for Low-Temperature Operation of Li-CFx Cells.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1988

Soho and Cluster - The scientific instruments

The mission goals and instrumentation of the Soho and cluster spacecraft to be launched in 1995 as part of the international Solar-Terrestrial Science Program are discussed. Instruments such as normal-incidence, grazing-incidence, and EUV coronal spectrometers aboard the Soho spacecraft will study the origin of the solar wind and the physical properties of the solar atmosphere. The four Cluster spacecraft will measure electric and magnetic fields, plasmas, and energetic particles using instruments including a wide-band receiver system, a relaxation sounder, and a search coil magnetometer.

Domingo, V.↗
NASA NTRS2001

Fail-Safe Magnetic Bearing Controller Demonstrated Successfully

The Structural Mechanics and Dynamics Branch has successfully demonstrated a fail-safe controller for the Fault-Tolerant Magnetic Bearing rig at the NASA Glenn Research Center. The rotor is supported by two 8-pole redundant radial bearings, and coil failing situations are simulated by manually shutting down their control current commands from the controller cockpit. The effectiveness of the controller was demonstrated when only two active coils from each radial bearing could be used (that is, 14 coils failed). These remaining two coils still levitated the rotor and spun it without losing stability or desired position up to the maximum allowable speed of 20,000 rpm.

Choi, Benjamin B.↗
NASA NTRS1977

Sustained arc ignition system

Circuitry for maintaining an arc or spark across a spark gap for a desired length of time is disclosed. A high voltage, direct current source is connected in series with a secondary winding of a high voltage, stepup transformer or coil and a spark gap such as a spark plug for example. The high voltage source may be on continuously or may be turned on and off by a control circuit such as a solid state switch which is, in turn, responsive to a timing device such as a set of ignition contact points or a magnetic pulse generator operating in synchronism with a spark ignition engine. The timing device also provides signals to a current switching circuit which interrupts, current flow through a primary winding of the high voltage coil at the prescribed time that a spark is desired at the spark gap.

Birchenough, A. G.↗
NASA NTRS2014

The FIELDS Instrument Suite on MMS: Scientific Objectives, Measurements, and Data Products

The FIELDS instrumentation suite on the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission provides comprehensive measurements of the full vector magnetic and electric fields in the reconnection regions investigated by MMS, including the dayside magnetopause and the night-side magnetotail acceleration regions out to 25 Re. Six sensors on each of the four MMS spacecraft provide overlapping measurements of these fields with sensitive cross-calibrations both before and after launch. The FIELDS magnetic sensors consist of redundant flux-gate magnetometers (AFG and DFG) over the frequency range from DC to 64 Hz, a search coil magnetometer (SCM) providing AC measurements over the full whistler mode spectrum expected to be seen on MMS, and an Electron Drift Instrument (EDI) that calibrates offsets for the magnetometers. The FIELDS three-axis electric field measurements are provided by two sets of biased double-probe sensors (SDP and ADP) operating in a highly symmetric spacecraft environment to reduce significantly electrostatic errors. These sensors are complemented with the EDI electric measurements that are free from all local spacecraft perturbations. Cross-calibrated vector electric field measurements are thus produced from DC to 100 kHz, well beyond the upper hybrid resonance whose frequency provides an accurate determination of the local electron density. Due to its very large geometric factor, EDI also provides very high time resolution (∼1 ms) ambient electron flux measurements at a few selected energies near 1 keV. This paper provides an overview of the FIELDS suite, its science objectives and measurement requirements, and its performance as verified in calibration and cross-calibration procedures that result in anticipated errors less than 0.1 nT in B and 0.5 mV/m in E. Summaries of data products that result from FIELDS are also described, as well as algorithms for cross-calibration. Details of the design and performance characteristics of AFG/DFG, SCM, ADP, SDP, and EDI are provided in five companion papers.

Electromagnetic field measurements↗
NASA NTRS1977

Basic coaxial mass driver reference design

The reference design for a basic coaxial mass driver is developed to illustrate the principles and optimization procedures on the basis of numerical integration by programmable pocket calculators. The four inch caliber system uses a single-coil bucket and a single-phase propulsion track with discrete coils, separately energized by capacitors. An actual driver would use multiple-coil buckets and an oscillatory multi-phase drive system. Even the basic, table-top demonstration system should in principle be able to achieve accelerations in the 1,000 m/sq sec range. Current densities of the order of 25 ka/sq cm, continuously achievable only in superconductors, are carried by an ordinary aluminum bucket coil for a short period in order to demonstrate the calculated acceleration. Ultimately the system can be lengthened and provided with a magnetically levitated, superconducting bucket to study levitation dynamics under quasi-steady-state conditions, and to approach lunar escape velocity in an evacuated tube.

Kolm, H. H.↗
NASA NTRS1996

Advanced Manufacturing of Superconducting Magnets

The development of specialized materials, processes, and robotics technology allows for the rapid prototype and manufacture of superconducting and normal magnets which can be used for magnetic suspension applications. Presented are highlights of the Direct Conductor Placement System (DCPS) which enables automatic design and assembly of 3-dimensional coils and conductor patterns using LTS and HTS conductors. The system enables engineers to place conductors in complex patterns with greater efficiency and accuracy, and without the need for hard tooling. It may also allow researchers to create new types of coils and patterns which were never practical before the development of DCPS. The DCPS includes a custom designed eight-axis robot, patented end effector, CoilCAD(trademark) design software, RoboWire(trademark) control software, and automatic inspection.

Senti, Mark W.↗
NASA NTRS2000

Development of a Miniature, Two-Axis, Triple-Helmholtz-Driven Gimbal

This paper details the development of a Helmholtz-driven, 2-axis gimbal to position a flat mirror within 50 microradian (fine positioning) in a space environment. The gimbal is intended to travel on a deep space mission mounted on a miniature "rover" vehicle. The gimbal will perform both pointing and scanning functions. The goal for total mass of the gimbal was 25 grams. The primary challenge was to design and build a bearing system that would achieve the required accuracy in addition to supporting the relatively large mass of the mirror and the outer gimbal. The mechanism is subjected to 100-G loading without the aid of any additional caging mechanism. Additionally, it was desired to have the same level of accuracy during Earth-bound, 1-G testing. Due to the inherent lack of damping in a zero-G, vacuum environment; the ability of the gimbal to respond to very small amounts of input energy is paramount. Initial testing of the first prototype revealed exceedingly long damping times required even while exposed to the damping effects of air and 1-G friction. It is envisioned that fine positioning of the gimbal will be accomplished in very small steps to avoid large disturbances to the mirror. Various bearing designs, including materials, lubrication options and bearing geometry will be discussed. In addition various options for the Helmholtz coil design will be explored with specific test data given. Ground testing in the presence of 1-G was compounded by the local magnetic fields due to the "compass" effect on the gimbal. The test data will be presented and discussed. Additionally, rationale for estimating gimbal performance in a zero-G environment will be presented and discussed.

Sharif, Boz↗
NASA NTRS2002

Combination radial and thrust magnetic bearing

A combination radial and thrust magnetic bearing is disclosed that allows for both radial and thrust axes control of an associated shaft. The combination radial and thrust magnetic bearing comprises a rotor and a stator. The rotor comprises a shaft, and first and second rotor pairs each having respective rotor elements. The stator comprises first and second stator elements and a magnet-sensor disk. In one embodiment, each stator element has a plurality of split-poles and a corresponding plurality of radial force coils and, in another embodiment, each stator element does not require thrust force coils, and radial force coils are replaced by double the plurality of coils serving as an outer member of each split-pole half.

Blumenstock, Kenneth A.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Traveling-wave synchronous coil gun

An outline is presented of the coilgun concept, excitation, switching, brush commutation, power supply, and performance. It is shown that a traveling-wave synchronous coilgun permits independent adjustment of the magnetic field and armature current for high velocity at low armature mass fraction. Magnetic field energy is transferred from the rear of the wave to the front without passing through the power supply. Elaborate switching is required.

Elliott, David G.↗
NASA NTRS2013

Thrust Stand Measurements of a Conical Inductive Pulsed Plasma Thruster

Inductive Pulsed Plasma Thrusters (iPPT) spacecraft propulsion devices in which electrical energy is capacitively stored and then discharged through an inductive coil. The thruster is electrodeless, with a time-varying current in the coil interacting with a plasma covering the face of the coil to induce a plasma current Propellant is accelerated and expelled at a high exhaust velocity (O(10 -- 100 km/s)) by the Lorentz body force arising from the interaction of the magnetic field and the induced plasma current. While this class of thruster mitigates the life-limiting issues associated with electrode erosion, inductive pulsed plasma thrusters can suffer from both high pulse energy requirements imposed by the voltage demands of inductive propellant ionization, and low propellant utilization efficiencies. While this class of thruster mitigates the life-limiting issues associated with electrode erosion, inductive pulsed plasma thrusters can suffer from both high pulse energy requirements imposed by the voltage demands of inductive propellant ionization, and low propellant utilization efficiencies. A conical coil geometry may offer higher propellant utilization efficiency over that of a at inductive coil, however an increase in propellant utilization may be met with a decrease in axial electromagnetic acceleration, and in turn, a decrease in the total axially-directed kinetic energy imparted to the propellant.

Hallock, Ashley K.↗
NASA NTRS1972

Sensor noise in low-level flux-gate magnetometers.

The noise mechanism in a well-designed magnetometer is shown to be due to small-scale magnetic moments which are probably small volumes of the core material that are not oriented by the drive field. Design developments include the sense coil radius and the development of a drive waveform which yields considerably improved performance over the commonly used sine wave drive.

Scouten, D. C.↗
NASA NTRS2004

Deep Flaw Detection with Giant Magnetoresistive (GMR) Based Self-Nulling Probe

In this paper a design modification to the Very-Low Frequency GMR Based Self-Nulling Probe has been presented to enable improved signal to noise ratio for deeply buried flaws. The design change consists of incorporating a feedback coil in the center of the flux focusing lens. The use of the feedback coil enables cancellation of the leakage fields in the center of the probe and biasing of the GMR sensor to a location of high magnetic field sensitivity. The effect of the feedback on the probe output was examined, and experimental results for deep flaw detection were presented. The experimental results show that the modified probe is capable of clearly identifying flaws up to 1 cm deep in aluminum alloy structures.

Wincheski, Buzz↗
NASA NTRS1988

Three axis attitude control system

A three-axis attitude control system for an orbiting body comprised of a motor driven flywheel supported by a torque producing active magnetic bearing is described. Free rotation of the flywheel is provided about its central axis and together with limited angular torsional deflections of the flywheel about two orthogonal axes which are perpendicular to the central axis. The motor comprises an electronically commutated DC motor, while the magnetic bearing comprises a radially servoed permanent magnet biased magnetic bearing capable of producing cross-axis torques on the flywheel. Three body attitude sensors for pitch, yaw and roll generate respective command signals along three mutually orthogonal axes (x, y, z) which are coupled to circuit means for energizing a set of control coils for producing torques about two of the axes (x and y) and speed control of the flywheel about the third (z) axis. An energy recovery system, which is operative during motor deceleration, is also included which permits the use of a high-speed motor to perform effectively as a reactive wheel suspended in the magnetic bearing.

Studer, Philip A.↗
NASA NTRS1969

Experimental prediction of performance by superconducting cables

Broken superconductor method of short sample testing makes possible the prediction of the performance of well cooled, stabilized, superconducting cable coils. It yields a field-versus-current curve for a short sample of cable. Plots are given for the superconductor and copper currents at various magnetic field strengths.

Brooks, J. M.↗
NASA NTRS1973

Magnetic-field measurements for the Lewis Research Center cyclotron

The magnetic field of the Lewis Center cyclotron was mapped by using a Hall-effect magnetic-field transducer. Main-field Fourier coefficients were determined on a polar mesh of 40 radii for each of seven levels of main-field coil current. Incremental fields for eight sets of trim coils and two sets of harmonic coils were also determined at four of these main-field levels. A stored-program, digital computer was used to perform the measurements. The process was entirely automatic; all data-taking and data-reduction activities were specified by the computer programs. A new method for temperature compensation of a Hall element was used. This method required no temperature control of the element. Measurements of the Hall voltage and Hall-element resistance were sufficient to correct for temperature effects.

Fessler, T. E.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Concept for a high-resolution thermometer utilizing the temperature dependence of the magnetic penetration depth

A thermometer using the temperature dependence of the magnetic penetration depth in superconductors is described which has the potential for temperature resolution, when using a dc SQUID readout, on the order of 1 pK. One such device has been fabricated and characterized to demonstrate proof of concept. It consists of primary and secondary coils of NbTi wire wound on a copper toroidal core on which a thin layer of In (Tc = 3.4 K) has been deposited. The temperature dependence of the mutual inductance, M(T), or self-inductance, is used to detect changes in temperature. Measurements of M(T) have been made with an ac excitation of the primary for various frequencies and peak magnetic field strengths. Estimates of ultimate temperature resolution are given.

Shirron, P. J.↗
NASA NTRS2023

Assessment of Gaseous Helium Cooling in a Superconducting Coil Test Rig

An experimental rig was designed and constructed at the NASA Glenn Research Center to measure the alternating current (AC) losses of round, multifilament, superconducting (SC), magnesium diboride (MgB2) wire in the temperature range from 20 to 30 K. The rig resembles a permanent magnet (PM) motor with the stator windings omitted. Experiment packs containing the superconductor samples will be placed in the annular space between the rotor and the stator back iron. The original plan was to measure the AC losses by calorimetry using nonboiling liquid hydrogen as the cooling fluid. The present plan is to use helium gas (GHe) under a few bar pressure instead. This report summarizes the calculations that indicate that reasonable results can be obtained, even though the mass density of the GHe will be only a fraction of that of liquid hydrogen. It is necessary to show that the heat transfer coefficient from SC wire to GHe can be high enough, that the temperature rise of the He between the experiment inlet and outlet can be small enough, and that sufficient He flow can be driven by a commercially available He fan. Both straight wire samples to validate loss models and coils to simulate motor stator coils can be tested in the rig. The lowest superconductor temperature that is feasible to reach in the rig is estimated. The temperature range available for samples will be wider with the gaseous He system than it would have been with liquid hydrogen.

supeconductors↗