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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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NASA NTRS1992

A new explicit variable time-integration self-starting methodology for computational structural dynamics

A new explicit variable time-integration methodology and architecture which possesses self-starting attributes, eliminates the need to involve acceleration computations, and which has improved accuracy characteristics in comparison to the traditional central-difference-type formulations customarily advocated is described for applicability to computational structural dynamics. To sharpen the focus of the present study, an explicit variable time-integration architecture which is relatively simple, yet effective, is described. Unlike variable explicit time-integration formulations adopted in the past, the present self-starting variable time-integration architecture and implementation aspects facilitate a simplified representation and a straightforward and effective approach for combining finite element meshes requiring different time steps in a single analysis. Numerical test cases are provided which demonstrate the applicability of the proposed formulations.

Tamma, Kumar K.↗

NASA NTRS1995

Microgravity: Teacher's guide with activities for physical science

This guide is an educational tool for teachers of grades 5 through 12. It is an introduction to microgravity and its application to spaceborne laboratory experiments. Specific payloads and missions are mentioned with limited detail, including Spacelab, the International Microgravity Laboratory, and the United States Microgravity Laboratory. Activities for students demonstrate chemistry, mathematics, and physics applications of microgravity. Activity objectives include: modeling how satellites orbit Earth; demonstrating that free fall eliminates the local effects of gravity; measuring the acceleration environments created by different motions; using a plasma sheet to observe acceleration forces that are experienced on board a space vehicle; demonstrating how mass can be measured in microgravity; feeling how inertia affects acceleration; observing the gravity-driven fluid flow that is caused by differences in solution density; studying surface tension and the fluid flows caused by differences in surface tension; illustrating the effects of gravity on the burning rate of candles; observing candle flame properties in free fall; measuring the contact angle of a fluid; illustrating the effects of gravity and surface tension on fiber pulling; observing crystal growth phenomena in a 1-g environment; investigating temperature effects on crystal growth; and observing crystal nucleation and growth rate during directional solidification. Each activity includes a background section, procedure, and follow-up questions.

Vogt, Gregory L.↗

NASA NTRS1995

Silicon Satellites: Picosats, Nanosats, and Microsats

Silicon, the most abundant solid element in the Earth's lithosphere, is a useful material for spacecraft construction. Silicon is stronger than stainless steel, has a thermal conductivity about half that of aluminum, is transparent to much of the infrared radiation spectrum, and can form a stable oxide. These unique properties enable silicon to become most of the mass of a satellite, it can simultaneously function as structure, heat transfer system, radiation shield, optics, and semiconductor substrate. Semiconductor batch-fabrication techniques can produce low-power digital circuits, low-power analog circuits, silicon-based radio frequency circuits, and micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) such as thrusters and acceleration sensors on silicon substrates. By exploiting these fabrication techniques, it is possible to produce highly-integrated satellites for a number of applications. This paper analyzes the limitations of silicon satellites due to size. Picosatellites (approximately 1 gram mass), nanosatellites (about 1 kg mass), and highly capable microsatellites (about 10 kg mass) can perform various missions with lifetimes of a few days to greater than a decade.

Janson, Siegfried W.↗

NASA NTRS1996

Aerodynamic Shape Optimization of Supersonic Aircraft Configurations via an Adjoint Formulation on Parallel Computers

This work describes the application of a control theory-based aerodynamic shape optimization method to the problem of supersonic aircraft design. The design process is greatly accelerated through the use of both control theory and a parallel implementation on distributed memory computers. Control theory is employed to derive the adjoint differential equations whose solution allows for the evaluation of design gradient information at a fraction of the computational cost required by previous design methods. The resulting problem is then implemented on parallel distributed memory architectures using a domain decomposition approach, an optimized communication schedule, and the MPI (Message Passing Interface) Standard for portability and efficiency. The final result achieves very rapid aerodynamic design based on higher order computational fluid dynamics methods (CFD). In our earlier studies, the serial implementation of this design method was shown to be effective for the optimization of airfoils, wings, wing-bodies, and complex aircraft configurations using both the potential equation and the Euler equations. In our most recent paper, the Euler method was extended to treat complete aircraft configurations via a new multiblock implementation. Furthermore, during the same conference, we also presented preliminary results demonstrating that this basic methodology could be ported to distributed memory parallel computing architectures. In this paper, our concern will be to demonstrate that the combined power of these new technologies can be used routinely in an industrial design environment by applying it to the case study of the design of typical supersonic transport configurations. A particular difficulty of this test case is posed by the propulsion/airframe integration.

Reuther, James↗

NASA NTRS1996

Aerodynamic Shape Optimization of Supersonic Aircraft Configurations via an Adjoint Formulation on Parallel Computers

This work describes the application of a control theory-based aerodynamic shape optimization method to the problem of supersonic aircraft design. The design process is greatly accelerated through the use of both control theory and a parallel implementation on distributed memory computers. Control theory is employed to derive the adjoint differential equations whose solution allows for the evaluation of design gradient information at a fraction of the computational cost required by previous design methods (13, 12, 44, 38). The resulting problem is then implemented on parallel distributed memory architectures using a domain decomposition approach, an optimized communication schedule, and the MPI (Message Passing Interface) Standard for portability and efficiency. The final result achieves very rapid aerodynamic design based on higher order computational fluid dynamics methods (CFD). In our earlier studies, the serial implementation of this design method (19, 20, 21, 23, 39, 25, 40, 41, 42, 43, 9) was shown to be effective for the optimization of airfoils, wings, wing-bodies, and complex aircraft configurations using both the potential equation and the Euler equations (39, 25). In our most recent paper, the Euler method was extended to treat complete aircraft configurations via a new multiblock implementation. Furthermore, during the same conference, we also presented preliminary results demonstrating that the basic methodology could be ported to distributed memory parallel computing architectures [241. In this paper, our concem will be to demonstrate that the combined power of these new technologies can be used routinely in an industrial design environment by applying it to the case study of the design of typical supersonic transport configurations. A particular difficulty of this test case is posed by the propulsion/airframe integration.

Reuther, James↗

NASA NTRS2001

Quantifying the risk posed by potential Earth impacts

Predictions of future potential Earth impacts by near-Earth objects (NEOs) have become commonplace in recent years, and the rate of these detections is likely to accelerate as asteroid survey efforts continue to mature. In this paper we describe the metrics introduced, and we give numerous examples of their application. This enables us to establish in rough terms the levels at which events become interesting to various parties.

asteroid impact hazard↗

NASA NTRS1987

Time-temperature-stress capabilities of composite materials for advanced supersonic technology application

Advanced composites will play a key role in the development of the technology for the design and fabrication of future supersonic vehicles. However, incorporating the material into vehicle usage is contingent on accelerating the demonstration of service capacity and design technology. Because of the added material complexity and lack of extensive data, laboratory replication of the flight service will provide the most rapid method to document the airworthiness of advanced composite systems. Consequently, a laboratory program was conducted to determine the time-temperature-stress capabilities of several high temperature composites. Tests included were thermal aging, environmental aging, fatigue, creep, fracture, tensile, and real-time flight simulation exposure. The program had two phases. The first included all the material property determinations and aging and simulation exposures up through 10,000 hours. The second continued these tests up to 50,000 cumulative hours. This report presents the results of the Phase 1 baseline and 10,000-hr aging and flight simulation studies, the Phase 2 50,000-hr aging studies, and the Phase 2 flight simulation tests, some of which extended to almost 40,000 hours.

Kerr, James R.↗

NASA NTRS1988

A spatial operator algebra for manipulator modeling and control

A powerful new spatial operator algebra for modeling, control, and trajectory design of manipulators is discussed along with its implementation in the Ada programming language. Applications of this algebra to robotics include an operator representation of the manipulator Jacobian matrix; the robot dynamical equations formulated in terms of the spatial algebra, showing the complete equivalence between the recursive Newton-Euler formulations to robot dynamics; the operator factorization and inversion of the manipulator mass matrix which immediately results in O(N) recursive forward dynamics algorithms; the joint accelerations of a manipulator due to a tip contact force; the recursive computation of the equivalent mass matrix as seen at the tip of a manipulator; and recursive forward dynamics of a closed chain system. Finally, additional applications and current research involving the use of the spatial operator algebra are discussed in general terms.

Rodriguez, G.↗

NASA NTRS1986

Physics through the 1990s: Atomic, molecular and optical physics

The volume presents a program of research initiatives in atomic, molecular, and optical physics. The current state of atomic, molecular, and optical physics in the US is examined with respect to demographics, education patterns, applications, and the US economy. Recommendations are made for each field, with discussions of their histories and the relevance of the research to government agencies. The section on atomic physics includes atomic theory, structure, and dynamics; accelerator-based atomic physics; and large facilities. The section on molecular physics includes spectroscopy, scattering theory and experiment, and the dynamics of chemical reactions. The section on optical physics discusses lasers, laser spectroscopy, and quantum optics and coherence. A section elucidates interfaces between the three fields and astrophysics, condensed matter physics, surface science, plasma physics, atmospheric physics, and nuclear physics. Another section shows applications of the three fields in ultra-precise measurements, fusion, national security, materials, medicine, and other topics.

Source record↗

NASA NTRS1990

Liquid acquisition devices for superfluid helium transfer

To transfer superfluid helium (He II) in the milli-g or micro-g environment in orbit, it is necessary to provide a reasonably steady supply of liquid to the inlet of the pump in the supply dewar. To accomplish this without providing an artificial gravity through acceleration requires a liquid acquisition device. Fluid swirl and electrostatic devices have been proposed to orientate the fluid. However, the simplest mechanisms appear to be the use of surface tension or the thermomechanical effect. This paper examines four concepts for providing He II to the inlet of a thermomechanical pump. The devices are a distributed thermomechanical pump, a distributed pump with a main thermomechanical pump, a screened channel system and a vane/sponge combination. Calculations on the efficiency of these types of liquid acquisition devices are made using laboratory data from tests involving small scale devices where applicable. These calculations show that the latter two types of liquid acquisition devices are the most efficient. Questions as to the probability of cavitation and the effect of the residual shuttle acceleration on their operation remain to be answered, however.

Dipirro, M. J.↗

NASA NTRS1991

A comprehensive mission to planet Earth: Woods Hole Space Science and Applications Advisory Committee Planning Workshop

The NASA program Mission to Planet Earth (MTPE) is described in this set of visuals presented in Massachusetts on July 29, 1991. The problem presented in this document is that the earth system is changing and that human activity accelerates the rate of change resulting in increased greenhouse gases, decreasing levels of stratospheric ozone, acid rain, deforestation, decreasing biodiversity, and overpopulation. Various national and international organizations are coordinating global change research. The complementary space observations for this activity are sun-synchronous polar orbits, low-inclination, low altitude orbits, geostationary orbits, and ground measurements. The Geostationary Earth Observatory is the major proposed mission of MTPE. Other proposed missions are EOS Synthetic Aperture Radar, ARISTOTELES Magnetic Field Experiment, and the Global Topography Mission. Use of the NASA DC-8 aircraft is outlined as carrying out the Airborne Science and Applications Program. Approved Earth Probes Program include the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS). Other packages for earth observation are described.

Source record↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Phase Change Materials for Photonics in NASA Science and Space Missions

Phase change materials (PCMs) such as Ge2Sb2Te5, Ge2Sb2Se4Te1, and Sb2S3have recently emerged as a promising platform to control light on-chip due to their fast, dramatic, and reversible change in refractive index. Significant technical progress in the field has been achieved in terms of improving optical transparency, controlling PCMs both optically and electrically, and integrating with complex photonic circuits, leading to exciting applications. When PCMs are mated with metasurfaces, devices are capable of controlling the phase and amplitude of propagating light with arrays of subwavelength structures. These enhance tunability and reconfigurability and continue to redefine the boundaries of optical sciences. PCM-based metasurface optics also help to accelerate the adoption of new architectures with reduced size, weight, and power (SWaP) for science and space mission platforms at NASA. In this talk, I will introduce two NASA-lead PCM photonic projects: 1. P-ACTIVE (PCM-based actively tunable filter) for broad imaging and sensing applications – from probing molecular vibrations in chemical species to detecting radiant thermal signatures of the space launch system. 2. PROWESS (Phase change reconfigurable optical wavefront synthesis system) as a beam steerer for both Earth and space LiDAR and free space optical communication applications. From this seminar, the attendees will be exposed not only to PCM-based photonic technologies but also NASA missions including the MISSE (Materials on the International Space Station Experiment) test campaign that was conducted to expose PCMs and PCM-based metasurfaces in space for 6 months in 2022.

phase change material↗

NASA NTRS1972

Flight calibration of compensated and uncompensated pitot-static airspeed probes and application of the probes to supersonic cruise vehicles

Static pressure position error calibrations for a compensated and an uncompensated XB-70 nose boom pitot static probe were obtained in flight. The methods (Pacer, acceleration-deceleration, and total temperature) used to obtain the position errors over a Mach number range from 0.5 to 3.0 and an altitude range from 25,000 feet to 70,000 feet are discussed. The error calibrations are compared with the position error determined from wind tunnel tests, theoretical analysis, and a standard NACA pitot static probe. Factors which influence position errors, such as angle of attack, Reynolds number, probe tip geometry, static orifice location, and probe shape, are discussed. Also included are examples showing how the uncertainties caused by position errors can affect the inlet controls and vertical altitude separation of a supersonic transport.

Webb, L. D.↗

NASA NTRS1973

Dynamic loading of aircraft surfaces due to jet exhaust impingement

High-lift wing concepts being considered for application to commercial STOL transports are discussed. The flow patterns which produce dynamic loads on these wings are indicated. Measurements of surface pressure and acceleration on a one-half-scale model of an externally blown double-slotted flap are reported. Root-mean-square values, power spectra, and scaling parameters are shown.

Lansing, D. L.↗

NASA NTRS1979

Some problems of pulsar physics

The theories of particle acceleration along polar field lines are reviewed, and the total energization of the charge separated plasma is summarized, when pair creation is absent. The application of these theories and plasma supply to pulsars is discussed, with attention given to the total amount of electron-positron plasma created and its momentum distribution. Various aspects of radiation emission and transport are analyzed, based on a polar current flow model with pair creation, and the phenomenon of marching subpulses is considered. The coronation beaming and the relativistically expanding current sheet models for pulsar emission are also outlined, and the paper concludes with a brief discussion of the relation between the theories of polar flow with pair plasma and the problem of the energization of the Crab Nebula.

Arons, J.↗

NASA NTRS1986

Cosmic-ray shock acceleration in oblique MHD shocks

A one-dimensional, steady-state hydrodynamical model of cosmic-ray acceleration at oblique MHD shocks is presented. Upstream of the shock the incoming thermal plasma is subject to the adverse pressure gradient of the accelerated particles, the J x B force, as well as the thermal gas pressure gradient. The efficiency of the acceleration of cosmic-rays at the shock as a function of the upstream magnetic field obliquity and upstream plasma beta is investigated. Astrophysical applications of the results are briefly discussed.

Webb, G. M.↗

NASA NTRS1993

Review of the Shuttle vibration environment

This paper will review the Microgravity Science and Applications Division's (MSAD) program to record and analyze the Shuttle's vibration environment. This program provides microgravity experimenters with time histories of the acceleration environment during their experiments and provides information for future investigators on the expected Shuttle vibration environment. The two major elements of the program will be discussed, the Space Acceleration Measurement System (SAMS) and the Acceleration Characterization and Analysis Project (ACAP). A comparison of the acceleration measurements from five Spacelab missions will be reviewed.

Baugher, Charles R.↗

NASA NTRS1994

Application of electron paramagnetic resonance imaging to the characterization of the Ultem(R) exposed to 1 MeV electrons. Correlation of radical density data to tiger code calculations

A major long-term goal of the Materials Division at the NASA Langley Research Center is the characterization of new high-performance materials that have potential applications in the aircraft industry, and in space. The materials used for space applications are often subjected to a harsh and potentially damaging radiation environment. The present study constitutes the application of a novel technique to obtain reliable data for ascertaining the molecular basis for the resilience and durability of materials that have been exposed to simulated space radiations. The radiations of greatest concern are energetic electrons and protons, as well as galactic cosmic rays. Presently, the effects of such radiation on matter are not understood in their entirety. It is clear however, that electron radiation causes ionization and homolytic bond rupture, resulting in the formation of paramagnetic spin centers in the polymer matrices of the structural materials. Since the detection and structure elucidation of paramagnetic species are most readily accomplished using Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR) Spectroscopy, the NASA LaRC EPR system was brought back on-line during the 1991 ASEE term. The subsequent 1992 ASEE term was devoted to the adaptation of the EPR core system to meet the requirements for EPR Imaging (EPRI), which provides detailed information on the spatial distribution of paramagnetic species in bulk media. The present (1994) ASEE term was devoted to the calibration of this EPR Imaging system, as well as to the application of this technology to study the effects of electron irradiation on Ultem(exp R), a high performance polymer which is a candidate for applications in aerospace. The Ultem was exposed to a dose of 2.4 x 10(exp 9) Rads (1-MeV energy/electron) at the LaRC electron accelerator facility. Subsequently, the exposed specimens were stored in liquid nitrogen, until immediately prior to analyses by EPRI. The intensity and dimensions of the EPR Images that were generated for the irradiated specimens showed that the electrons penetrated the material to a depth of approximately 0.125 inch. These data show a very high degree of correlation to the energy deposition profile as predicted by the Tiger Code, a Monte Carlo code that provides guidelines for the transport of electrons in matter. Subsequent efforts will focus on delineating the transport properties of energetic protons in Ultem(R).

Suleman, Naushadalli K.↗