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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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All sources NASA NTRS DOE OSTI

NASA NTRS2012

Benchmarking Evaluation Results for Prototype Extravehicular Activity Gloves

The Space Suit Assembly (SSA) Development Team at NASA Johnson Space Center has invested heavily in the advancement of rear-entry planetary exploration suit design but largely deferred development of extravehicular activity (EVA) glove designs, and accepted the risk of using the current flight gloves, Phase VI, for unique mission scenarios outside the Space Shuttle and International Space Station (ISS) Program realm of experience. However, as design reference missions mature, the risks of using heritage hardware have highlighted the need for developing robust new glove technologies. To address the technology gap, the NASA Game-Changing Technology group provided start-up funding for the High Performance EVA Glove (HPEG) Project in the spring of 2012. The overarching goal of the HPEG Project is to develop a robust glove design that increases human performance during EVA and creates pathway for future implementation of emergent technologies, with specific aims of increasing pressurized mobility to 60% of barehanded capability, increasing the durability by 100%, and decreasing the potential of gloves to cause injury during use. The HPEG Project focused initial efforts on identifying potential new technologies and benchmarking the performance of current state of the art gloves to identify trends in design and fit leading to establish standards and metrics against which emerging technologies can be assessed at both the component and assembly levels. The first of the benchmarking tests evaluated the quantitative mobility performance and subjective fit of four prototype gloves developed by Flagsuit LLC, Final Frontier Designs, LLC Dover, and David Clark Company as compared to the Phase VI. All of the companies were asked to design and fabricate gloves to the same set of NASA provided hand measurements (which corresponded to a single size of Phase Vi glove) and focus their efforts on improving mobility in the metacarpal phalangeal and carpometacarpal joints. Four test subjects representing the design ]to hand anthropometry completed range of motion, grip/pinch strength, dexterity, and fit evaluations for each glove design in both the unpressurized and pressurized conditions. This paper provides a comparison of the test results along with a detailed description of hardware and test methodologies used.

Aitchison, Lindsay↗

NASA NTRS2018

Air Traffic Management Technology Demostration-1 (ATD-1) Avionics Phase 2 Flight Test and Results

NASA’s first Air Traffic Management Technology Demonstration (ATD-1) subproject successfully completed 19 days of flight test validation in January and February 2017 of an Interval Management (IM) avionics prototype and the procedures used to conduct IM arrival and approach operations. IM is one of the three elements integrated into NASA’s ATD-1 concept of operations with the subproject goal of improving aircraft efficiency and airport throughput during high-density arrival operations. The ATD-1 concept of operations combines advanced arrival scheduling, controller decision support tools, and interval management (IM) avionics to enable merging of multiple, time-based, efficient arrival streams. IM contributes to the operation by calculating speeds that enable an aircraft to precisely achieve a specific time or distance behind another aircraft. When precise spacing intervals can be calculated, achieved, and then maintained during high-density operations, aircraft efficiency should be improved by enabling the aircraft to remain closer to the optimum descent trajectory instead of using vectors and step-down altitudes, and airport throughput should be maintained or improved by each aircraft arriving at the runway threshold closer to the assigned spacing interval. This avionics development and flight test was conducted under a NASA contract by Boeing Research and Technology, with Boeing Commercial Aircraft, Honeywell, United Airlines, and Jeppesen as sub-contractors. The Honeywell built IM avionics were the first ever prototype built based on NASA requirements as well as developing and non-flight tested international IM standards, integrated into two test aircraft, and then flown in real-world conditions at the Grant County International Airport (KMWH). The IM prototype flown in the flight test used data from the Ownship and the assigned lead, or Target, aircraft to calculate the airspeed necessary for the Ownship to achieve the desired spacing. The flight test demonstrated that the IM avionics prototype generally met the IM requirement for spacing accuracy. However, the control laws implemented require further development to reduce the high IM speed command rate and the number of speed reversals observed during the test. Pilots assessed the IM procedure as acceptable, and issues requiring further attention were identified. In summary, the IM avionics prototype showed significant promise in contributing to the goals of improving aircraft efficiency and airport throughput. The flight test results also provided important data to the FAA and the working group developing the follow-on version of the international IM standards.

Baxley, Brian T.↗

DOE OSTI2023

Mid–height seismic isolation of equipment in nuclear power plants

An innovative seismic isolation solution for designers of safety-class equipment in advanced nuclear power plants is introduced. The test specimen was a tall, slender, carbon steel vessel that could represent a reactor vessel, steam generator, or a heat exchanger in a nuclear power plant: 240 inches tall, outer diameter of 60 inches, and wall thickness of 1 inch. The vessel was supported by three radial mounts at its mid-height, near its center of gravity, on a steel frame. The vessel was subjected to three-component ground motions using a 6DOF earthquake simulator. The specimen was filled with water for testing to indirectly account for the fluid and internal equipment present inside a prototype vessel. Three configurations were tested: non-isolated, isolated using single Friction Pendulum (SFP) bearings, and isolated using triple Friction Pendulum (TFP) bearings. The test results demonstrate that mid-height seismic isolation is practical and enables a significant reduction in horizontal spectral accelerations. Furthermore, these outcomes are not specific to the spherical sliding bearings used in the experiments but are broadly applicable to mid-height, seismically isolated equipment.

42 ENGINEERING↗

DOE OSTI2021

VC3: Virtual Clusters for Community Computation (Final Technical Report)

A traditional HPC computing facility provides a large amount of computing power but has a fixed environment designed to satisfy local needs. This makes it very challenging for users to deploy complex applications that span multiple sites and require specific application software, scheduling middleware, or sharing policies. This project addressed many of these challenges by making it possible for researchers to easily aggregate and share resources, install custom software environments, and deploy clustering frameworks across multiple HPC facilities through the concept of “virtual clusters”. We designed and implemented a prototype virtual cluster facility that enabled unprivileged users to create dynamic aggregations of computing power across multiple sites, deployed with custom middleware and complex software dependencies.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

DOE OSTI2022

VC3: Virtual Clusters for Community Computation

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

NASA NTRS1981

Comparison of electrochemical and thermal storage for hybrid parabolic dish solar power plants

The economic and operating performance of a parabolic point focus array of solar electricity generators combined with either battery or thermal energy storage are examined. Noting that low-cost, mass-producible power generating units are under development for the point focus of distributed dishes, that Zn-Cl battery tests will begin in 1981 and a 100 kWh Na-S battery in 1983, the state of thermal storage requires acceleration to reach the prototype status of the batteries. Under the assumptions of 10,000 units/yr with an expected 30 yr lifetime, cost comparisons are developed for 10 types of advanced batteries. A 5 MWe plant with full thermal or 80% battery storage discharge when demand occurs in conditions of no insolation is considered, specifically for Fe-Cr redox batteries. A necessity for the doubling of fuel prices from 1980 levels by 1990 is found in order to make the systems with batteries economically competitive.

Steele, H. L.↗

NASA NTRS1985

Environmental Degradation of Materials: Surface Chemistry Related to Stress Corrosion Cracking

Parallel experiments have been performed in order to develop a comprehensive model for stress cracking (SCC) in structural materials. The central objective is to determine the relationship between the activity and selectivity of the microstructure of structural materials to their dissolution kinetics and experimentally measured SCC kinetics. Zinc was chosen as a prototype metal system. The SCC behavior of two oriented single-crystal disks of zinc in a chromic oxide/sodium sulfate solution (Palmerton solution) were determined. It was found that: (1) the dissolution rate is strongly (hkil)-dependent and proportional to the exposure time in the aggressive environment; and (2) a specific slip system is selectively active to dissolution under applied stress and this slip line controls crack initiation and propagation. As a precursor to potential microgrvity experiments, electrophoretic mobility measurements of zinc particles were obtained in solutions of sodium sulfate (0.0033 M) with concentrations of dissolved oxygen from 2 to 8 ppm. The equilibrium distribution of exposed oriented planes as well as their correlation will determine the particle mobility.

Schwarz, J. A.↗

NASA NTRS1993

Evaporation from a meniscus within a capillary tube in microgravity

The following represents a summary of progress made on the project 'Evaporation from a Capillary Meniscus in Microgravity' being conducted at the University of Dayton during the period 1 Dec. 1992 to 30 Nov. 1993. The efforts during this first year of the grant focused upon the following specific tasks: (1) application of a 3-D scattering particle image velocimetry technique to thin film velocity field measurement; (2) modeling the thermo-fluid behavior of the evaporating meniscus in 0-g within large diameter capillaries; (3) conceptualization of the space flight test cell (loop) configuration; (4) construction of prototypes of the test loop configuration; (5) conduct of experiments in 0-g in the 2.2 second drop tower at NASA-LeRC to study evaporation from a capillary meniscus within a square cuvette; and (6) investigation of the effect of vibrations on the stability of the meniscus. An overview of the work completed within these six task areas is presented.

Hallinan, K. P.↗

NASA NTRS2015

Effectiveness of Advanced Collaboration Tools on Crew Communication in Reduced Crew Operations

The present research examines operational performance and verbal communication in airline flight crews under reduced crew operations (RCO). Eighteen two-pilot crews flew six scenarios under three conditions; one condition involved current-day operations while two involved RCO. In RCO flights, the Captain initially operated the simulated aircraft alone but could request remote crewmember support as off-nominal events occurred and workload was expected to increase. In one of the two RCO conditions, crewmembers were provided with advanced prototype collaboration tools designed to alleviate difficulties in crew coordination. Crews successfully solved all challenging events without accident and analyses of operational performance did not reveal any differences among the three conditions. In RCO flights, crew communication increased when tools were available relative to flights in which they were not; specifically, there were more acknowledgements and decision-making communications. These results suggest the collaboration tools enable higher degrees of crewmember awareness andor coordination during distributed operations.

crew resource management↗

NASA NTRS2013

Electrical Impedance Tomography Technology: 2013 Center Innovation Fund Final Report

Electrical impedance tomography is a medical noninvasive imaging technology which has advantages over other medical imaging technologies for medically safe long term real time internal imaging monitoring applications in human patients. The technology is much more compact, portable, low power and potentially more low cost compared to other medical image technologies, making it very well suited for medical aerospace and spaceflight applications. EIT technology’s main drawback has been low image resolution, and consequently improving EIT resolution is the primary research goal, as well as increasing imaging speed for real time animation imaging. In a relatively short time the BERL group has brought together design plans, technical resources and has built and tested hardware with the purpose of improving EIT imaging technology. EIT prototype system development plans and system designs have been made to target needed EIT technical improvement in electronic and computer hardware as well as EIT software technology. New hardware design and fabrication resources and technologies have been brought together through resourceful use of existing equipment and software at BERL, and a significant advance has been made in custom electronic hardware prototyping capabilities in collaboration with EFAL, for mutual benefit for both NASA KSC laboratories. BERL has gained significant EIT software capability and tested EIT imaging algorithm code through collaboration with an internationally recognized EIT software development and research forum. A new custom workstation has been developed, built and tested using internal resources, equipment and expertise, that includes a new state-of-the-art massively parallel technology that is commercially available. Custom prototype hardware has been designed and tested, a high priority electronic design, key to improving electronic performance and image quality, has been researched and tested in four designs, with a summary of test results of the selected design illustrated here. The selected design performance exceeds the developed EIT design hardware specifications.

Michael R Lapointe↗

DOE OSTI2024

Design and Prototyping of Advanced Control Systems for Advanced Reactors Operating in the Future Electric Grid (Final Report)

Despite its significant advantages as a baseload, low-carbon energy source, the U.S. nuclear power industry has faced increasing difficulties in maintaining economic competitiveness in a rapidly evolving energy market. The economic conditions faced by the current fleet of nuclear power plants (NPPs) in the U.S. deregulated electricity market require a concerted effort to mitigate specific cost factors. Many units are struggling to stay competitive, and some premature shutdowns have occurred. Besides, in response to the large penetration of renewable energy sources, the role of nuclear power plants as pure baseload units needs to be reconsidered. Based on these experiences, operational flexibility is considered a fundamental requirement for the next generation of nuclear reactors to be competitive in the future energy market. The deployment of advanced reactors capable of operating within a new power grid paradigm, known as the Integrated Energy System (IES) was investigated. This approach combines new reactor designs with Thermal Energy Storage (TES) technologies, allowing the nuclear reactor to maintain a steady power output without the need for constant adjustments in response to load demand fluctuations. With this configuration, the reactor operates as a baseload unit, experiencing only very gradual power transients, while the energy storage facility within the power conversion cycle acts as a peaking unit.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

NASA NTRS1976

Fluidic hydrogen detector production prototype development

A hydrogen gas sensor that can replace catalytic combustion sensors used to detect leaks in the liquid hydrogen transfer systems at Kennedy Space Center was developed. A fluidic sensor concept, based on the principle that the frequency of a fluidic oscillator is proportional to the square root of the molecular weight of its operating fluid, was utilized. To minimize sensitivity to pressure and temperature fluctuations, and to make the sensor specific for hydrogen, two oscillators are used. One oscillator operates on sample gas containing hydrogen, while the other operates on sample gas with the hydrogen converted to steam. The conversion is accomplished with a small catalytic converter. The frequency difference is taken, and the hydrogen concentration computed with a simple digital processing circuit. The output from the sensor is an analog signal proportional to hydrogen content. The sensor is shown to be accurate and insensitive to severe environmental disturbances. It is also specific for hydrogen, even with large helium concentrations in the sample gas.

Roe, G. W.↗

DOE OSTI2022

The Automated Mobility District Implementation Catalog, 2nd Edition: Safe and Efficient Automated Vehicle Fleet Operations for Public Mobility

This second volume of the Automated Mobility District (AMD) Implementation Catalog series has been prepared in three parts to assist readers in their review and understanding of the technical information herein. The material may be more easily ingested if each of the three parts is read and then contemplated for its ramifications to the specific interest of the reader before continuing to the next part. Further, each part has been prepared with the intent that it could be read independently from the others. Part 1 is Progress of Automated Vehicle R&D for Deployments in Passenger Service; Part 2 is 10 Early Deployment Sites as Prototypes of AMD Implementation; Part 3 is Five Cardinal Principles for AMD Implementation.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗

NASA NTRS1978

SIMS prototype system 1: Design data brochure

A prototype solar heating and hot water system using air as the collector fluid and a pebble bed for heat storage was designed for installation into a single family dwelling. The system, subsystem, and installation requirements are described. System operation and performance are discussed, and procedures for sizing the system to a specific site are presented.

Source record↗

NASA NTRS1992

NASA's upper atmosphere research satellite: A program to study global ozone change

The Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) is a major initiative in the NASA Office of Space Science and Applications, and is the prototype for NASA's Earth Observing System (EOS) planned for launch in the 1990s. The UARS combines a balanced program of experimental and theoretical investigations to perform diagnostic studies, qualitative model analysis, and quantitative measurements and comparative studies of the upper atmosphere. UARS provides theoretical and experimental investigations which pursue four specific research topics: atmospheric energy budget, chemistry, dynamics, and coupling processes. An international cadre of investigators was assembled by NASA to accomplish those scientific objectives. The observatory, its complement of ten state of the art instruments, and the ground system are nearing flight readiness. The timely UARS program will play a major role in providing data to understand the complex physical and chemical processes occurring in the upper atmosphere and answering many questions regarding the health of the ozone layer.

Luther, Michael R.↗

NASA NTRS1993

International testing of a Mars rover prototype

Tests on a prototype engineering model of the Russian Mars 96 Rover were conducted by an international team in and near Death Valley in the United States in late May, 1992. These tests were part of a comprehensive design and testing program initiated by the three Russian groups responsible for the rover development. The specific objectives of the May tests were: (1) evaluate rover performance over different Mars-like terrains; (2) evaluate state-of-the-art teleoperation and autonomy development for Mars rover command, control and navigation; and (3) organize an international team to contribute expertise and capability on the rover development for the flight project. The range and performance that can be planned for the Mars mission is dependent on the degree of autonomy that will be possible to implement on the mission. Current plans are for limited autonomy, with Earth-based teleoperation for the nominal navigation system. Several types of television systems are being investigated for inclusion in the navigation system including panoramic camera, stereo, and framing cameras. The tests used each of these in teleoperation experiments. Experiments were included to consider use of such TV data in autonomy algorithms. Image processing and some aspects of closed-loop control software were also tested. A micro-rover was tested to help consider the value of such a device as a payload supplement to the main rover. The concept is for the micro-rover to serve like a mobile hand, with its own sensors including a television camera.

Kemurjian, Alexsandr Leonovich↗

NASA NTRS2003

Design Development Analyses in Support of a Heatpipe-Brayton Cycle Heat Exchanger

One of the power systems under consideration for nuclear electric propulsion or as a planetary surface power source is a heatpipe-cooled reactor coupled to a Brayton cycle. In this system, power is transferred from the heatpipes to the Brayton gas via a heat exchanger attached to the heatpipes. This paper discusses the fluid, thermal and structural analyses that were performed in support of the design of the heat exchanger to be tested in the SAFE-100 experimental program at Marshall Space Flight Center. A companion paper, "Mechanical Design and Fabrication of a SAFE-100 Heat Exchanger for use in NASA s Advanced Propulsion Thermal-hydraulic Simulator", presents the fabrication issues and prototyping studies that, together with these analyses, led to the development of this heat exchanger. An important consideration throughout the design development of the heat exchanger was its capability to be utilized for higher power and temperature applications. This paper also discusses this aspect of the design and presents designs for specific applications that are under consideration.

Steeve, Brian↗

NASA NTRS2003

Design Development Analyses in Support of a Heatpipe-Brayton Cycle Heat Exchanger

Steeve, Brian↗