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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 595 records · Page 33
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1977

Probe corrected far-field reconstruction from measurements on a cylinder: A novel formulation and efficient algorithm

A novel and numerically efficient method of far field evaluation from measurements taken on a cylinder is based on the representation of both the antenna and the probe fields as superpositions of plane waves. A system of two integral equations are established whose unknown functions are the azimuthal and elevation components of the antenna pattern and whose known terms are the set of measurement data taken with two different probes - the second probe in most practical instances being simply the same probe with a different geometrical orientation. The equations express the known data - for each angular position of the antenna under measurement - as the integrals of the products of the corresponding components of the unknown antenna and known probe patterns multiplied by a phase term. The convolutional nature of the integral equations makes their solutions straight-forward. If, as is virtually always the case, the probe is small or of moderate size so that the axis of rotation of the antenna mount is in the far field of the probe, the intervention of asymptotic techniques makes the solution numerically very efficient. The agreement of calculated and experimental patterns is excellent.

Borgiotti, G. V.↗
NASA NTRS1979

Development of an Improved High Efficiency Thin Solar Cell

High efficiency cells (up to 14 AMO at 25 C)were fabricated from 10 - 15 ohm-cm silicon by using screen printed aluminum paste as the alloy source for the production of back surface fields. Thick consistency pastes that have been cured prior to a short heat treatment at 850 C were most effective in achieving these efficiency levels.

Lindmayer, J.↗
NASA NTRS1979

High Efficiency Cell Development

The specific activity was to improve the tandem junction Cell (TJC) as a high efficiency solar cell. The TJC development was to be consistent with module assembly and should contribute to the overall goals of the Low-Cost Solar Array Project. During 1978, TJC efficiency improved from approximately 11 percent to approximately 16 percent (AMI). Photogenerated current densities in excess of 42 mA/sq cm were observed at AMO. Open circuit voltages as high as 0.615 V were measured at AMO. Fill factor was only 0.68 - 0.75 due to a nonoptimum metal contact design. A device model was conceived in which the solar cell is modelled as a transitor. There are virtually no interconnect or packaging factor systems and the TJC is compatible with all conventional module fabrication systems. A modification of the TJC, the Front Surface Field (FSF) cell, was also explored.

Carbajal, B. G.↗
NASA NTRS1979

High-efficiency thin-film GaAs solar cells

GaAs chemical vapor deposition (CVD) growth on single-crystal GaAs substrates was investigated over a temperature range of 600 to 750 C, As/GA mole-ratio range of 3 to 11, and gas molefraction range 5 x 10 to the minus 9th power to 7x 10 to the minus 7th power for H2S doping. GasAs CVD growth on recrystallized Ge films was investigated for a temperature range of 550 to 700 C, an As/GA mole ratio of 5, and for various H2S mole fraction. The highest efficiency cell observed on these films with 2 mm dots was 4.8% (8% when AR-coated). Improvements in fill factor and opencircuit voltage by about 40% each are required in order to obtain efficiencies of 15% or greater.

Stirn, R. J.↗
NASA NTRS1979

Energy efficient aircraft engines

The three engine programs that constitute the propulsion portion of NASA's Aircraft Energy Efficiency Program are described, their status indicated, and anticipated improvements in SFC discussed. The three engine programs are (1) Engine Component Improvement--directed at current engines, (2) Energy Efficiency Engine directed at new turbofan engines, and (3) Advanced Turboprops--directed at technology for advanced turboprop--powered aircraft with cruise speeds to Mach 0.8. Unique propulsion system interactive ties to the airframe resulting from engine design features to reduce fuel consumption are discussed. Emphasis is placed on the advanced turboprop since it offers the largest potential fuel savings of the three propulsion programs and also has the strongest interactive ties to the airframe.

Chamberlin, R.↗
NASA NTRS1979

Updating the limit efficiency of silicon solar cells

Evaluation of the limit efficiency based on the simplest, most basic mathematical method that is appropriate for the conditions imposed by the cell model is discussed. The methodology, the solar cell structure, and the selection of the material parameters used in the evaluation are described. The results are discussed including a set of design goals derived from the limit efficiency.

Wolf, M.↗
NASA NTRS1979

Fabrication of high efficiency and radiation resistant GaAs solar cells

Systematic improvements in fabrication yield were obtained by appropriate control of the liquid phase epitaxial growth process, contact fabrication and surface preparation. To improve radiation hardness, the junction depth was decreased while overcoming the penalty in decreased solar cell efficiency which tends to go hand-in-hand with the reduction of junction depth in (AlGa) As-GaAs solar cells. Cells were made with an AMO efficiency of 18% and a junction depth of 0.5 micrometers, as compared to junction depths on the order of 1.0 micrometers. With respect to the damage caused by proton irradiation, the nature of the observed damage was correlated to the energy and penetration depth of the damaging protons.

Kamath, S.↗
NASA NTRS1977

Technology for aircraft energy efficiency

Six technology programs for reducing fuel use in U.S. commercial aviation are discussed. The six NASA programs are divided into three groups: Propulsion - engine component improvement, energy efficient engine, advanced turboprops; Aerodynamics - energy efficient transport, laminar flow control; and Structures - composite primary structures. Schedules, phases, and applications of these programs are considered, and it is suggested that program results will be applied to current transport derivatives in the early 1980s and to all-new aircraft of the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Klineberg, J. M.↗
NASA NTRS1979

An efficient algorithm for numerical airfoil optimization

A new optimization algorithm is presented. The method is based on sequential application of a second-order Taylor's series approximation to the airfoil characteristics. Compared to previous methods, design efficiency improvements of more than a factor of 2 are demonstrated. If multiple optimizations are performed, the efficiency improvements are more dramatic due to the ability of the technique to utilize existing data. The method is demonstrated by application to subsonic and transonic airfoil design but is a general optimization technique and is not limited to a particular application or aerodynamic analysis.

Vanderplaats, G. N.↗
NASA NTRS1979

Comments on measuring the overall and the depressed collector efficiency in TWT's and klystron amplifiers

Kosmahl and Ramins (1977), who reported results achieved with broadband, high-performance TWT's, augmented with multistage depressed collectors for higher overall efficiency, have pointed out the necessity for accurately measuring and correctly defining the various power terms involved. In view of the now wide-spread use of depressed collectors and reported results, the definitions of tube and collector efficiency are restated and comments are provided on the sensitivity of these terms to various sources of experimental and definitional errors in order to permit a uniform evaluation of collector performance.

Kosmahl, H. G.↗
NASA NTRS1978

Efficiency trade-offs of steady-state methods using FEM and FDM

The efficiency characteristics of finite element and finite difference approximations for the steady-state solution of the Navier-Stokes equations are examined. The finite element method discussed is a standard Galerkin formulation of the incompressible, steady-state Navier-Stokes equations. The finite difference formulation uses simple centered differences that are O(delta x-squared). Operation counts indicate that a rapidly converging Newton-Raphson-Kantorovitch iteration scheme is generally preferable over a Picard method. A split NOS Picard iterative algorithm for the finite difference method was most efficient.

Gartling, D. K.↗
NASA NTRS1979

Wind tunnel performance of four energy efficient propellers designed for Mach 0.8 cruise

For the advanced turboprop to be competitive with proposed advanced turbofan-powered aircraft, it must have high propulsive efficiency at Mach 0.8 cruise above 9.144-km altitude with an acceptable cabin noise environment. Four 8-bladed propeller models are designed employing various concepts to reduce compressibility losses. Wind tunnel tests are conducted at zero model incidence to the free-stream flow. Aerodynamic and acoustic test results are presented and discussed. It is shown that the aeroacoustically designed configuration (SR-3) with 45 deg of tip sweep and an area-ruled spinner yields the highest propulsive efficiency (78.7% at Mach 0.8, 3.06 advance ratio, and 1.7 power coefficient), with an improvement of about 3% over the straight bladed configuration (SR-2, with zero-degree sweep). The phase-interference concept for noise reduction used in SR-3 yields about 5-6 dB reduction as compared to SR-2.

Jeracki, R. J.↗
NASA NTRS1978

High efficiency solar panel /HESP/

A family of high efficiency, weldable silicon solar cells, incorporating nearly every feature of advanced cell technology developed in the past four years, was produced and subjected to space qualification testing. This matrix contained both field and non-field cells ranging in thickness from 0.10 mm to 0.30 mm, and in base resistivity from nominal two to one hundred ohm-cm. Initial power outputs as high as 20 mW/sq cm (14.8% AM0 efficiency) were produced by certain cell types within the matrix.

Stella, P. M.↗
NASA NTRS1979

Energy efficient aircraft engines

The three engine programs that constitute the propulsion portion of NASA's Aircraft Energy Efficiency Program are described, their status indicated, and anticipated improvements in SFC discussed. The three engine programs are: (1) engine component improvement, directed at current engines, (2) energy efficient engine, directed at new turbofan engines, and (3) advanced turboprops, directed at technology for advanced turboprop-powered aircraft with cruise speeds to Mach 0.8. Unique propulsion system interactive ties to the airframe resulting from engine design features to reduce fuel consumption are discussed. Emphasis is placed on the advanced turboprop since it offers the largest potential fuel savings of the three propulsion programs and also has the strongest interactive ties to the airframe.

Chamberlin, R.↗
NASA NTRS1979

Efficiency of aerosol collection on wires exposed in the stratosphere

The theory of inertial impaction is briefly presented. Stratospheric aerosol research experiments were performed duplicating Wong et al. experiments. The use of the curve of inertial parameters vs particle collection efficiency, derived from Wong et al., was found to be justified. The results show that stratospheric aerosol particles of all sizes are collectible by wire impaction technique. Curves and tables are presented and used to correct particle counts for collection efficiencies less than 100%.

Lem, H. Y.↗
NASA NTRS1980

Space solar cells: High efficiency and radiation damage

The progress and status of efforts to increase the end-of-life efficiency of solar cells for space use is assessed. High efficiency silicon solar cells, silicon solar cell radiation damage, GaAs solar cell performance and radiation damage and 30 percent devices are discussed.

Brandhorst, H., Jr.↗
NASA NTRS1980

MIL-M-38510/470 test vectors: Fault detection efficiency measurement via hardware fault simulation

The stuck fault detection efficiency of the test vectors developed for the MIL-M-38510/470 NASA was measured using a hardware stuck fault simulator for the 1802 microprocessor. Thirty-nine stuck faults were not detected out of a total of 874 injected into the combinatorial and sequential parts of the microprocessor. Since undetected faults can create catastrophic errors in equipment designed for high reliability applications, it is recommended that the MIL-M-38510/470 NASA be enhanced with additional test vectors so as to achieve 100% stuck fault detection efficiency.

Timoc, C. C.↗