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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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Butadiene is polymerized with lithium-p-lithiophenoxide to produce linear polymer containing oxy-lithium group at one end and active carbon-lithium group at other end. Living polymers represent new approach to preparation of difunctional polymers in which structural features, molecular weight, type and number of end groups are controlled.
Peroxide catalyst under mild conditions initiates homopolymerization of perfluoro butadiene to new linear perfluoro polyenes and vulcanizable fluoro elastomers. Resulting polyperfluoro butadiene serves as hard elastomer for good chemical resistance, as intermediate in graft polymerizations, and as crosslink for high molecular weight materials.
Microphase separation in homopolymer-block copolymer mixtures as function of composition, molecular weight and interaction parameters
Ignition sensor, utilizing fluidic oscillator device and its ability to react to flow system's molecular weight and temperature changes, detects propellant ignition. Commercial applications include fields of fire protection equipment and fluidics.
Fluidic oscillator, incorporating piezoelectric transducer to sense molecular weight of gas mixture, is used to continuously monitor ratio of a mixture of two gases in a flowing system. Device is lightweight, compact, reliable, easy to install, and also produces a simple output signal for controller. Frequency of oscillation is measured and signal converted to ac output.
Process has been developed for glow discharge polymerization which is accomplished in inert atmosphere by using vacuum chamber. Polymeric coating, in this type of environment, produces high molecular weight coating polymers that have good stability and are resistant to abrasions and solvents.
Chemical process for forming low molecular weight, fully cyclized heteroaromatic prepolymers under conditions which limit chain extension or branching is described. Exact procedures used in conducting chemical reaction are defined. Advantages of process over conventional methods are presented.
Properties of polymer for conformal coating for electronic circuitry are described. Nitroso fluorocarbon polymers were selected for application. Chemical reactions for production of polymers are discussed. Technique allows regulation of crosslink densities, molecular weight, and viscosity.
The stagnation-point convective heat transfer to an axisymmetric blunt body for arbitrary gases in chemical equilibrium was investigated. The gases considered were base gases of nitrogen, oxygen, hydrogen, helium, neon, argon, carbon dioxide, ammonia, and methane and 22 gas mixtures composed of the base gases. Enthalpies ranged from 2.3 to 116.2 MJ/kg, pressures ranged from 0.001 to 100 atmospheres, and the wall temperatures were 300 and 1111 K. A general equation for the stagnation-point convective heat transfer in base gases and gas mixtures was derived and is a function of the mass fraction, the molecular weight, and a transport parameter of the base gases. The relation compares well with present boundary-layer computer results and with other analytical and experimental results. In addition, the analysis verified that the convective heat transfer in gas mixtures can be determined from a summation relation involving the heat transfer coefficients of the base gases. The basic technique developed for the prediction of stagnation-point convective heating to an axisymmetric blunt body could be applied to other heat transfer problems.
The composition and thermodynamic properties were calculated for 100 to 110,000 K and 1.01325 x 10 to the 2nd power to 1.01325 x 10 to the 8th power N/sq m for chemical equilibrium in the Debye-Huckel and ideal-gas approximations. Quantities obtained were the concentrations of hydrogen atoms, protons, free electrons, hydrogen molecules, negative hydrogen ions, hydrogen diatomic molecular ions, and hydrogen triatomic molecular ions, and the enthalpy, entropy, average molecular weight, specific heat at constant pressure, density, and isentropic exponent. Electronically excited states of H and H2 were included. Choked, isentropic, one-dimensional nozzle flow with shifting chemical equilibrium was calculated to the Debye-Huckel and ideal-gas approximations for stagnation temperatures from 2500 to 100,000 K. The mass flow per unit throat area and the sonic flow factor were obtained. The pressure ratio, temperature, velocity, and ideal and vacuum specific impulses at the throat and for pressure ratios as low as 0.000001 downstream were found. For high temperatures at pressures approaching 1.01325 x 10 to the 8th power N/sq m, the ideal-gas approximation was found to be inadequate for calculations of composition, precise thermodynamic properties, and precise nozzle flow. The greatest discrepancy in nozzle flow occurred in the exit temperature, which was as much as 21 percent higher when the Debye-Huckel approximation was used.
The performance characteristics of the Brayton-rotating-unit's 4.97-inch radial turbine were investigated with the turbine part of a power conversion system. The following system parameters were varied: turbine inlet temperature from 1200 to 1600 F, compressor inlet temperature from 60 to 120 F, compressor outlet pressure from 20 to 45 psia, and shaft speed from 90-110 percent of rated speed (36000 rpm). The working fluid of the system was a gas mixture of helium-xenon with a nominal molecular weight of 83.8. Test results indicate that changes in system conditions have little effect on the turbine efficiency. At the design turbine inlet temperature of 1600 F and compressor inlet temperature of 80 F, an average turbine efficiency of 91 percent was obtained.
A Monte Carlo technique was utilized in order to demonstrate the feasibility of processing in situ measurements of temperature, pressure, and molecular weight. The technique assumes that the lower atmosphere of Venus obeys the ideal gas law and the hydrostatic equation. Time correlations are assumed to exist in the data. It is shown that the errors in trajectory reconstruction are due mostly to noise in the data rather than to inaccuracies in the numerical technique.
The Brayton rotating unit (BRU), operating on a gas bearing system, has been designed, fabricated, and demonstrated for use in a closed Brayton cycle space power conversion system. The BRU uses a binary mixture of xenon and helium (molecular weight, 83.8) as the cycle working fluid and bearing lubricating medium and was designed to produce from 2.25 to 10.5 kw sub e of 1200 Hz three-phase electrical power. The single-shaft rotating assembly operates at a design speed of 36,000 rpm and comprises a radial single-stage compressor, a four-pole Rice alternator rotor, and a radial inflow turbine. Four units, a dynamic simulator and three component research packages, were supplied to the NASA Lewis Research Center for performance testing and further development.
The gas-surface interaction effects observed by the quadrupole mass spectrometer are described, and the technique developed to account for them in determining ambient neutral densities is summarized. The total ion current and the ion currents for ions with molecular weights 2, 4, 16, 28, and 32 are sampled for 1.125 sec once every 9.216 sec, for 258 sec out of a 368 sec cycle. An equation is given for the number density of any constituent in the ion source region, and source density data are discussed. The mass 28 background gas is considered to be CO rather than N2, and a CO model is developed. A quasi-equilibrium model of the atomic oxygen interactions is constructed, and a set of surface parameters is determined which provides a reasonable fit to the mass 16 and 32 source densities consistent with the predicted ambient atomic oxygen.
Improved parameters are presented for predicting the tropospheric effect on electromagnetic range measurements from surface meteorological data. Parameters are given for computing the dry component of the zenith radio range effect from surface pressure alone with an rms error of 1 to 2 mm, or the total range effect from the dry and wet components of the surface refractivity, N, and a two-part quartic profile model. The parameters were obtained from meteorological balloon data with improved procedures, including the conversion of the geopotential heights of the balloon data to actual or geometric heights before using the data. The revised values of the parameter k show more latitude variation than is accounted for by the variation of g. This excess variation of k indicates a small latitude variation in the mean molecular weight of air and yields information about the latitude-varying water vapor content of air.
Surface pressures, heat-transfer rates, and transition locations for a sharp cone (whose semivertex angle is 12 deg) were obtained in a hypervelocity wind tunnel at a free-stream Mach number of 12 and a free-stream Re/ft range of 3,000,000 to 6,000,000. The effects of injecting either methane, nitrogen, or Freon-22 (at rates up to 2.1% of free-stream rate) were studied for a uniform injection-distribution and for a variable injection-distribution. Gaseous injection had little effect on the surface pressure measurements. For a given mass injection distribution, the laminar region heat-transfer decreases as the injection rate increases or as the molecular weight of the injectant decreases. For a given mass-injection rate (integrated over the surface of the entire cone), the transition location and heat-transfer rates were sensitive to the injection distribution. The transition Reynolds numbers were significantly greater when the local injection rate was constant over the surface of the cone.
Quartz crystals from calcite veins of unknown age in Precambrian metasedimentary rocks at Geiaus No. 6 and Aukam farms in South-West Africa contain both primary and secondary inclusions filled with one substance or a combination of substances. These substances include organic liquid, moderately saline aqueous liquid, dark-colored solid, and a vapor. Analysis of these materials by microscopy and by gas chromatography and mass spectrometry shows the presence of constituents of both low and high molecular weights.
Calculation of the thermodynamic properties of an atomic hydrogen-helium plasma for postulated conditions present in a stagnation shock layer of a spacecraft entering the atmosphere of Jupiter. These properties can be used to evaluate transport properties, to calculate convective heating, and to investigate nonequilibrium behavior. The calculations have been made for temperatures from 10,000 to 100,000 K, densities of 10 to the minus 7th and .00001 g cu cm, and three plasma compositions: pure hydrogen, 50% hydrogen/50% helium, and pure helium. The shock layer plasma consists of electrons, protons, atomic hydrogen, atomic helium, singly ionized helium, and doubly atomized helium. The thermodynamic properties which have been investigated are: pressure, average molecular weight, internal energy, enthalpy, entropy, specific heat, and isentropic speed of sound. A consistent model was used for the reduction of the ionization potential in the calculation of the partition functions.