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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 109 records · Page 6
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2024

Annual Technology Baseline: The 2022 Transportation Update [Slides]

The Transportation Annual Technology Baseline (ATB) provides detailed cost and performance data, estimates, and assumptions for vehicle and fuel technologies in the United States. It includes current and projected estimates for vehicle technologies as well as conventional and alternative fuels, and it details the assumptions used to calculate those costs, such as gas and electricity prices, discount rates, and vehicle miles traveled. The 2022 update added more classes of light-duty vehicles, medium and heavy-duty vehicles, an aviation page, and it aligned diesel pathways with aviation pathways.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
NASA NTRS2018

LEAPTech/HEIST Experiment Test and Evaluation Summary

The Leading Edge Asynchronous Propeller Technology (LEAPTech) project tested the Hybrid-Electric Integrated Systems Testbed (HEIST) and was intended for a general aviation sized aircraft with Distributed Electric Propulsion (DEP) to show large improvements with regards to efficiency, emissions, safety and operating costs. The wing was designed for high loading to improve ride quality and show improved takeoff and landing characteristics. The full-scale test article wing had a 31-foot-span, had integrated electric motors, was mounted on a truck 20 ft. above ground and driven in a simulated flight test environment at various velocities up to 70 miles per hour. The simulated flight test varied primarily angle of attack and flap settings. These tests were conducted to obtain data and verify blown wing performance primarily with regards to lift. The experimental test results are presented.

electric propulsion↗
NASA NTRS2015

Environmentally Responsible Aviation: Propulsion Research to Enable Fuel Burn, Noise and Emissions Reduction

The NASA Environmentally Responsible Aviation (ERA) program is maturing technologies to enable simultaneous reduction of fuel burn, noise and emissions from an aircraft engine system. Three engine related Integrated Technology Demonstrations (ITDs) have been completed at Glenn Research Center in collaboration with Pratt Whitney, General Electric and the Federal Aviation Administration. The engine technologies being matured are a low NOx, fuel flexible combustor in partnership with Pratt Whitney, an ultra-high bypass, ducted propulsor system in partnership with Pratt Whitney FAA and high pressure ratio, front-stage core compressor technology in partnership with General Electric. The technical rationale, test configurations and overall results from the test series in each ITD are described. ERA is using system analysis to project the benefits of the ITD technologies on potential aircraft systems in the 2025 timeframe. Data from the ITD experiments were used to guide the system analysis assumptions. Results from the current assessments for fuel burn, noise and oxides of nitrogen emissions are presented.

Ultra-High Bypass↗
NASA NTRS2015

Environmentally Responsible Aviation: Propulsion Research to Enable Fuel Burn, Noise and Emissions Reduction

The NASA Environmentally Responsible Aviation (ERA) program is maturing technologies to enable simultaneous reduction of fuel burn, noise and emissions from an aircraft engine system. Three engine related Integrated Technology Demonstrations (ITDs) have been completed at Glenn Research Center in collaboration with Pratt Whitney, General Electric and the Federal Aviation Administration. The engine technologies being matured are: a low NOx, fuel flexible combustor in partnership with Pratt Whitney; an ultra-high bypass, ducted propulsor system in partnership with Pratt Whitney and FAA; and high pressure ratio, front-stage core compressor technology in partnership with General Electric. The technical rationale, test configurations and overall results from the test series in each ITD are described. ERA is using system analysis to project the benefits of the ITD technologies on potential aircraft systems in the 2025 timeframe. Data from the ITD experiments were used to guide the system analysis assumptions. Results from the current assessments for fuel burn, noise and oxides of nitrogen emissions are presented.

Noise↗
DOE OSTI2025

High Power Density, Carbon Neutral Electrical Power Generation for Air Vehicles

The synergistic integration of a Solid Oxide Fuel Cell-Combustor (SOFC-C) with a turbogenerator (TG) will provide a very high fuel-to-electricity conversion efficiency while maintaining high power-to-weight ratio during high-altitude flight. The proposed SOFC-C-TG power generation technology exceeds the REEACH technical performance targets (TPT). This unique concept addresses many of the challenges faced in all electric propulsion-based aviation. The system has high part-load efficiency (more than 65% lower heating value (LHV)) during long cruise times, load following capability, high-power capacity at high altitudes adapting to low temperatures and pressures, rapid startup time of less than 30 minutes (proven with current SOFC technology), high power density (more than 3.2 kW/kg), efficient thermal management, and a foundation for a compact, efficient electrical storage and power generation system (ESPG). The SOFC-C concept achieves the technology targets by reducing the complexity of traditional fuel cell-gas turbine hybrid systems (FC-GT). The SOFC-C does not require heat exchangers and dramatically reduces the balance of plant increasing power density and performance in efficiency. The reduction in mass through elimination of heat exchangers, external reformer, and other components dramatically decreases the overall thermal dampening of the system which enables rapid startup and load following capability. Direct control of the cathode inlet temperature of the SOFC-C enables rapid warm-up of the SOFC tubes with the ability to reach operating temperature and full power in less than 30 minutes.

03 NATURAL GAS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Annual Technology Baseline (ATB): The 2024 Transportation Update

The Transportation Annual Technology Baseline (ATB) provides detailed cost and performance data, estimates, and assumptions for vehicle and fuel technologies in the United States. It includes current and projected estimates for vehicle technologies as well as fuels, and it details the assumptions used to calculate those costs, such as gas and electricity prices, discount rates, and vehicle miles traveled. The 2024 update added more biofuels pathways to align with pathways used in the Biomass Scenario Model.

ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS,DIRECT ENERGY CONVERSI↗
NASA NTRS2015

Key Performance Parameter Driven Technology Goals for Electric Machines and Power Systems

Transitioning aviation to low carbon propulsion is one of the crucial strategic research thrust and is a driver in the search for alternative propulsion system for advanced aircraft configurations. This work requires multidisciplinary skills coming from multiple entities. The feasibility of scaling up various electric drive system technologies to meet the requirements of a large commercial transport is discussed in terms of key parameters. Functional requirements are identified that impact the power system design. A breakeven analysis is presented to find the minimum allowable electric drive specific power and efficiency that can preserve the range, initial weight, operating empty weight, and payload weight of the base aircraft.

Electric Machines↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Subsonic Single Aft Engine Narrowbody (SUSAN) Freighter Concept and Market Analysis

The dedicated air cargo and freight market has the potential to be a critical early pathway for emerging technologies in low to zero emission propulsion. This study analyzes the cargo aviation market to understand current market trends and future market viability of a mid-sized all-electric or hybrid-electric concept aircraft. While cargo aviation’s overall emissions footprint is small relative to commercial passenger aviation, it remains an important and challenging transportation sector to decarbonize. Past research has focused on small, less than 19-seat electrified aircraft propulsion concepts that could serve both passenger and air cargo markets This study extends the electrified market space into larger aircraft classes, considering if a purpose-built large hybrid electric turboprop freighter can compete in the market currently served primarily by conversion narrowbody freighters. Specifically, this paper focuses on the mid-sized cargo market with payload ranges of 40,000-50,000lbs, and an all-electric range potential up to 750 miles. The concept aircraft is based on a 4-engine turboprop configuration, with mounted wing battery packs and an aft cargo door to allow for standardized palletization. The market analysis indicates broad market coverage with 73% of the existing mid-sized cargo network within the range of 750 miles. A breakeven analysis of operating and capital costs shows potential for market competition, however, additional energy and acquisition cost savings from the concept aircraft are needed. Evidence from the breakeven analysis also points to higher rates of aircraft utilization being a critical path to lowering costs and increasing cost effectiveness.

Jacob M. Wishart↗
NASA NTRS2016

Design of an Electric Propulsion System for SCEPTOR

The rise of electric propulsion systems has pushed aircraft designers towards new and potentially transformative concepts. As part of this effort, NASA is leading the SCEPTOR program which aims at designing a fully electric distributed propulsion general aviation aircraft. This article highlights critical aspects of the design of SCEPTOR's propulsion system conceived at Joby Aviation in partnership with NASA, including motor electromagnetic design and optimization as well as cooling system integration. The motor is designed with a finite element based multi-objective optimization approach. This provides insight into important design tradeoffs such as mass versus efficiency, and enables a detailed quantitative comparison between different motor topologies. Secondly, a complete design and Computational Fluid Dynamics analysis of the air breathing cooling system is presented. The cooling system is fully integrated into the nacelle, contains little to no moving parts and only incurs a small drag penalty. Several concepts are considered and compared over a range of operating conditions. The study presents trade-offs between various parameters such as cooling efficiency, drag, mechanical simplicity and robustness.

SCEPTOR↗
DOE OSTI2021

Challenges and needs for system-level electrochemical lithium-ion battery management and diagnostics

The desire for energy-dense and fast-charged battery technology in consumer-electronics, electric-vehicle, grid, and aviation applications is pushing the envelope on materials to cells and pack designs to use and operating conditions. However, some approaches could inherently decrease safety of the battery—thus requiring the development of advanced management and diagnostics. Safety of lithium-ion batteries (LiBs), particularly in multicell configurations, is highly variable and could evolve with use. Existing works primarily focus on cell life and safety diagnostics without considering module and pack-level uncertainties and sometimes imply that cell-level electrochemical diagnostics would work in modules or packs, a naive oversimplification. Using example case studies, we highlight the potential and challenges associated with extending single-cell diagnostics to multiple cells, note the challenge involved, and motivate the research and development and support communities to devote efforts to fill the gap by developing diagnostics at these levels for current- and future-generation LiBs.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
NASA NTRS2009

Synthetic and Biomass Alternate Fueling in Aviation

Must use earth's most abundant natural resources - Biomass, Solar, Arid land (43%), Seawater (97%) with nutrients (80%) plus brackish waters and nutrients resolve environmental triangle of conflicts energy-food-freshwater and ultrafine particulate hazards. Requires Paradigm Shift - Develop and Use Solar* for energy; Biomass for aviation and hybrid-electric-compressed air mobility fueling with transition to hydrogen long term.

Hendricks, Robert C.↗
NASA NTRS2015

An Overview of 2014 SBIR Phase 1 and Phase 2 Air-Breathing Propulsion

NASA's Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program focuses on technological innovation by investing in development of innovative concepts and technologies to help NASA mission directorates address critical research needs for Agency programs. This report highlights nine of the innovative SBIR 2014 Phase I and Phase II projects that emphasize one of NASA Glenn Research Center's six core competencies-Air-Breathing Propulsion. The technologies cover a wide spectrum of applications such as development of X-ray computed tomography (CT) imaging method for the measurement of complex 3D ice shapes, phased array techniques for low signal-to-noise ratio wind tunnels, compact kinetic mechanisms for petroleum-derived and alternative aviation fuels, and hybrid electric propulsion systems for a multirotor aircraft. Each featured technology describes an innovation, technical objective, and highlights NASA commercial and industrial applications. This report provides as an opportunity for NASA engineers, researchers, and program managers to learn how NASA SBIR technologies could help their programs and projects, and lead to collaborations and partnerships between the small SBIR companies and NASA that would benefit both.

phased array technique for wind tunnels↗
NASA NTRS2018

Aqueous, QUick-Charging Battery Integration For Electric Flight Research

AQUIFER establishes technical feasibility of an early-stage technology, a high-energy density, aqueous-based, flow battery, resulting in a near-term increase of 1.7 times range over an all-electric battery, while retiring fire and explosion hazards associated with lithium-based chemistries. The Nano-electrofuel (NEF) flow battery will be integrated with a rim-driven motor (RDM) as a multi-functional design to eliminate conductive EMI and weight from long cable runs, and provide liquid cooling from the aqueous fuel. When successful, the technology provides an improved safety energy storage solution for emission-free electric propulsion in commercial aviation.

power systems↗
NASA NTRS2019

NASA Investments in Electrified Propulsion

Presentation to the International Forum on Aviation (IFAR) at the Electric Hybrid Propulsion Workshop #2 in Budapest, Hungary. This presentation is to provide an overview of NASA's investments in electrified propulsion as a starting point for the workshop, which will concentrate on the safety of electrified airplanes and potential for international collaboration.

Jankovsky, Amy↗
DOE OSTI2020

Energy storage emerging: A perspective from the Joint Center for Energy Storage Research

Energy storage is an integral part of modern society. A contemporary example is the lithium (Li)-ion battery, which enabled the launch of the personal electronics revolution in 1991 and the first commercial electric vehicles in 2010. Most recently, Li-ion batteries have expanded into the electricity grid to firm variable renewable generation, increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of transmission and distribution. Important applications continue to emerge including decarbonization of heavy-duty vehicles, rail, maritime shipping, and aviation and the growth of renewable electricity and storage on the grid. This perspective compares energy storage needs and priorities in 2010 with those now and those emerging over the next few decades. The diversity of demands for energy storage requires a diversity of purpose-built batteries designed to meet disparate applications. Advances in the frontier of battery research to achieve transformative performance spanning energy and power density, capacity, charge/discharge times, cost, lifetime, and safety are highlighted, along with strategic research refinements made by the Joint Center for Energy Storage Research (JCESR) and the broader community to accommodate the changing storage needs and priorities. Innovative experimental tools with higher spatial and temporal resolution, in situ and operando characterization, first-principles simulation, high throughput computation, machine learning, and artificial intelligence work collectively to reveal the origins of the electrochemical phenomena that enable new means of energy storage. This knowledge allows a constructionist approach to materials, chemistries, and architectures, where each atom or molecule plays a prescribed role in realizing batteries with unique performance profiles suitable for emergent demands.

Trahey, Lynn↗
NASA NTRS2016

Sizing Power Components of an Electrically Driven Tail Cone Thruster and a Range Extender

The aeronautics industry has been challenged on many fronts to increase efficiency, reduce emissions, and decrease dependency on carbon-based fuels. The NASA Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate has identified a suite of investments to meet long term research demands beyond the purview of commercial investment. Electrification of aviation propulsion through turboelectric or hybrid electric propulsion is one of many exciting research areas which has the potential to revolutionize the aviation industry. This paper will provide an overview of the turboelectric and hybrid electric technologies being developed under NASAs Advanced Air Transportation Technology (AATT) Project, and how these technologies can impact vehicle design. An overview will be presented of vehicle system studies and the electric drive system assumptions for successful turboelectric and hybrid electric propulsion in single aisle size commercial aircraft. Key performance parameters for electric drive system technologies will be reviewed, and the technical investment made in materials, electric machines, power electronics, and integrated power systems will be discussed. Finally, power components for a single aisle turboelectric aircraft with an electrically driven tail cone thruster and a hybrid electric nine passenger aircraft with a range extender will be parametrically sized.

turbogenerator↗
NASA NTRS1979

Summary report of the Lightning and Static Electricity Committee

Lightning protection technology as applied to aviation and identifying these technology needs are presented. The flight areas of technical needs include; (1) the need for In-Flight data on lightning electrical parameters; (2) technology base and guidelines for protection of advanced systems and structures; (3) improved laboratory test techniques; (4) analysis techniques for predicting induced effects; (5) lightning strike incident data from General Aviation; (6) lightning detection systems; (7) obtain pilot reports of lightning strikes; and (8) better training in lightning awareness. The nature of each problem, timeliness, impact of solutions, degree of effort required, and the roles of government and industry in achieving solutions are discussed.

Plumer, J. A.↗
NASA NTRS2026

Assessment of Aircraft Electric Engine Regulatory Special Conditions

This report provides a regulatory gap assessment of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) Special Conditions (SC) for electric engines. This information is presented to support ongoing international harmonization efforts for electric engine certification, to establish a level of safety consistent across regulatory bodies and equivalent to that of existing combustion engines. HS Advanced Concepts LLC assembled a team of subject-matter experts to develop a comprehensive comparison of the regulatory text of EASA SC E-19 and the FAA special conditions for the certification of electric engines. The team included Mr. Chris Baczynski of BAC Aerospace Inc. and Mr. Zach Kaufman, formerly with magniX.

aircraft certification↗