Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “high performance”

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.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 109 records · Page 6
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1994

Damage-Mitigating Control of Space Propulsion Systems for High Performance and Extended Life

A major goal in the control of complex mechanical system such as spacecraft rocket engine's advanced aircraft, and power plants is to achieve high performance with increased reliability, component durability, and maintainability. The current practice of decision and control systems synthesis focuses on improving performance and diagnostic capabilities under constraints that often do not adequately represent the materials degradation. In view of the high performance requirements of the system and availability of improved materials, the lack of appropriate knowledge about the properties of these materials will lead to either less than achievable performance due to overly conservative design, or over-straining of the structure leading to unexpected failures and drastic reduction of the service life. The key idea in this report is that a significant improvement in service life could be achieved by a small reduction in the system dynamic performance. The major task is to characterize the damage generation process, and then utilize this information in a mathematical form to synthesize a control law that would meet the system requirements and simultaneously satisfy the constraints that are imposed by the material and structural properties of the critical components. The concept of damage mitigation is introduced for control of mechanical systems to achieve high performance with a prolonged life span. A model of fatigue damage dynamics is formulated in the continuous-time setting, instead of a cycle-based representation, for direct application to control systems synthesis. An optimal control policy is then formulated via nonlinear programming under specified constraints of the damage rate and accumulated damage. The results of simulation experiments for the transient upthrust of a bipropellant rocket engine are presented to demonstrate efficacy of the damage-mitigating control concept.

Ray, Asok↗
NASA NTRS1965

Tiny biomedical amplifier combines high performance, low power drain

Transistorized, portable, high performance amplifier with low power drain facilitates biomedical studies on mobile subjects. This device, which utilizes a differential input to obtain a common-mode rejection, is used for amplifying electrocardiogram and electromyogram signals.

Deboo, G. J.↗
NASA NTRS1982

High performance channel injection sealant invention abstract

High performance channel sealant is based on NASA patented cyano and diamidoximine-terminated perfluoroalkylene ether prepolymers that are thermally condensed and cross linked. The sealant contains asbestos and, in its preferred embodiments, Lithofrax, to lower its thermal expansion coefficient and a phenolic metal deactivator. Extensive evaluation shows the sealant is extremely resistant to thermal degradation with an onset point of 280 C. The materials have a volatile content of 0.18%, excellent flexibility, and adherence properties, and fuel resistance. No corrosibility to aluminum or titanium was observed.

Rosser, R. W.↗
NASA NTRS1989

CFD in the context of IHPTET: The Integrated High Performance Turbine Technology Program

The Integrated High Performance Turbine Engine Technology (IHPTET) Program is an integrated DOD/NASA technology program designed to double the performance capability of today's most advanced military turbine engines as we enter the twenty-first century. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is expected to play an important role in the design/analysis of specific configurations within this complex machine. In order to do this, a plan is being developed to ensure the timely impact of CFD on IHPTET. The developing philosphy of CFD in the context of IHPTET is discussed. The key elements in the developing plan and specific examples of state-of-the-art CFD efforts which are IHPTET turbine engine relevant are discussed.

Simoneau, Robert J.↗
NASA NTRS1993

High-Performance Water-Iodinating Cartridge

High-performance cartridge contains bed of crystalline iodine iodinates water to near saturation in single pass. Cartridge includes stainless-steel housing equipped with inlet and outlet for water. Bed of iodine crystals divided into layers by polytetrafluoroethylene baffles. Holes made in baffles and positioned to maximize length of flow path through layers of iodine crystals. Resulting concentration of iodine biocidal; suppresses growth of microbes in stored water or disinfects contaminated equipment. Cartridge resists corrosion and can be stored wet. Reused several times before necessary to refill with fresh iodine crystals.

Sauer, Richard↗
NASA NTRS1995

High-performance reactionless scan mechanism

A high-performance reactionless scan mirror mechanism was developed for space applications to provide thermal images of the Earth. The design incorporates a unique mechanical means of providing reactionless operation that also minimizes weight, mechanical resonance operation to minimize power, combined use of a single optical encoder to sense coarse and fine angular position, and a new kinematic mount of the mirror. A flex pivot hardware failure and current project status are discussed.

Williams, Ellen I.↗
NASA NTRS1998

High Performance Materials Applications to Moon/Mars Missions and Bases

Two classes of material processing scenarios will feature prominently in future interplanetary exploration: in situ production using locally available materials in lunar or planetary landings and high performance structural materials which carve out a set of properties for uniquely hostile space environments. To be competitive, high performance materials must typically offer orders of magnitude improvements in thermal conductivity or insulation, deliver high strength-to-weight ratios, or provide superior durability (low corrosion and/or ablative character, e.g., in heat shields). The space-related environmental parameters of high radiation flux, low weight, and superior reliability limits many typical aerospace materials to a short list comprising high performance alloys, nanocomposites and thin-layer metal laminates (Al-Cu, Al-Ag) with typical dimensions less than the Frank-Reed-type dislocation source. Extremely light weight carbon-carbon composites and carbon aerogels will be presented as novel examples which define broadened material parameters, particularly owing to their extreme thermal insulation (R-32-64) and low densities (<0.01 g/cu cm) approaching that of air itself. Even with these low-weight payload additions, rocket thrust limits and transport costs will always place a premium on assembling as much structural and life support resources upon interplanetary, lunar, or asteroid arrival. As an example, for in situ lunar glass manufacture, solar furnaces reaching 1700 C for pure silica glass manufacture in situ are compared with sol-gel technology and acid-leached ultrapure (<0.1% FeO) silica aerogel precursors.

Noever, David A.↗
NASA NTRS1998

High Performance Materials Applications to Moon/Mars Missions and Bases

Two classes of material processing scenarios will feature prominently in future interplanetary exploration- in situ production using locally available materials in lunar or planetary landings and high performance structural materials which carve out a set of properties for uniquely hostile space environments. To be competitive, high performance materials must typically offer orders of magnitude improvements in thermal conductivity or insulation, deliver high strength-to-weight ratios, or provide superior durability (low corrosion and/or ablative character, e.g. in heat shields). The space-related environmental parameters of high radiation flux, low weight and superior reliability limits many typical aerospace materials to a short list comprising high performance alloys, nanocomposites and thin-layer metal laminates (Al-Cu, Al-Ag) with typical dimensions less than the Frank-Reed-type dislocation source. Extremely light weight carbon-carbon composites and car on aerogels will be presented as novel examples which define broadened material parameters, particularly owing to their extreme thermal insulation (R-32-64) and low densities (less than 0.01 g/cc) approaching that of air itself. Even with these low weight payload additions, rocket thrust limits and transport costs will always place a premium on assembling as much structural and life support resources upon interplanetary, lunar or asteroid arrival. As an example for in situ lunar glass manufacture, solar furnaces reaching 1700 C for pure silica glass manufacture in situ are compared with sol-gel technology and acid-leached ultrapure (less than 0.1% FeO) silica aerogel precursors.

Noever, David A.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Properties Of High-Performance Thermoplastics

Report presents review of principal thermoplastics (TP's) used to fabricate high-performance composites. Sixteen principal TP's considered as candidates for fabrication of high-performance composites presented along with names of suppliers, Tg, Tm (for semicrystalline polymers), and approximate maximum processing temperatures.

Johnston, Norman J.↗
NASA NTRS1979

A high performance microcomputer for space applications

This paper presents a description of a high-performance single board LSI microprocessor (the ATAC-16MS), which forms the core of the attitude and articulation control system of the Galileo spacecraft. The requirements of high speed, low power (20 watts), high reliability and radiation immunity are discussed in terms of the resulting implementation and trade-offs. The problems involved in the transition of a currently operational, fully-militarized processor into a space-qualified processor are summarized. System considerations for the effective use of the ATAC-16MS are also discussed, including the dual block-redundant architecture, the selective application of power for fault isolation and the trade-offs between low power dissipation and high performance of the peripheral circuitry for space applications.

Jack, L.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Enabling Reliable, Fault-Tolerant Autonomous Lunar Habitats with High-Performance Spaceflight Computing

The lunar surface presents unfavorable constraints and harsh living conditions. To address these challenges, autonomous habitats will require complex integrated systems that combine advanced software, high-performance hardware, and cutting-edge sensors to ensure sustainability, safety, and operational efficiency. Consequently, maintaining a sustainable presence on the Moon requires reliable infrastructure and efficient development, precise monitoring, and utilization of resources within a lunar installation. These elements are essential not only to ensure that lunar settlement can be long-term, self-sustaining, and resource-efficient, but also to serve as a foundation for future missions and eventual human habitation on Mars. Humans are not native to the Moon; therefore, our survival and ability to thrive will depend on autonomous systems that can foster safety and resilience through high-availability architectures, graceful degradation, and highly fault-tolerant spaceflight hardware capable of continuing operation during failures. This requires advanced human-rated distributed systems architectures with specialized electronics, scalable capabilities, and an integrated design approach. Unlike current practices focused on short-term missions and regularly maintained components, permanent lunar compute systems must be designed for extended operations beyond mission durations. This paper explores the necessity of transitioning toward fault- tolerant, highly autonomous hardware systems designed for multi-year missions. It also identifies critical subsystems that require high levels of autonomy, supported by radiation-hardened processors and extreme thermal loads, which are essential to mitigate long-term degradation and ensure sustainable lunar habitation. Finally, the paper aligns with NASA’s identified Civil Space Shortfalls, particularly in high-performance onboard computing, advanced data acquisition, extreme-environment avionics, radiation monitoring and countermeasures, and autonomous health management. It proposes NASA’s new High-Performance Spaceflight Computing (HPSC) processor as a turnkey solution, delivering 100 times the performance-per-watt of legacy rad-hard CPUs and enabling onboard AI, edge computing, and fault-tolerant features essential for sustained lunar autonomy and beyond.

Sarkis S Mikaelian↗
NASA NTRS2000

A Linux Workstation for High Performance Graphics

The primary goal of this effort was to provide a low-cost method of obtaining high-performance 3-D graphics using an industry standard library (OpenGL) on PC class computers. Previously, users interested in doing substantial visualization or graphical manipulation were constrained to using specialized, custom hardware most often found in computers from Silicon Graphics (SGI). We provided an alternative to expensive SGI hardware by taking advantage of third-party, 3-D graphics accelerators that have now become available at very affordable prices. To make use of this hardware our goal was to provide a free, redistributable, and fully-compatible OpenGL work-alike library so that existing bodies of code could simply be recompiled. for PC class machines running a free version of Unix. This should allow substantial cost savings while greatly expanding the population of people with access to a serious graphics development and viewing environment. This should offer a means for NASA to provide a spectrum of graphics performance to its scientists, supplying high-end specialized SGI hardware for high-performance visualization while fulfilling the requirements of medium and lower performance applications with generic, off-the-shelf components and still maintaining compatibility between the two.

Geist, Robert↗
NASA NTRS1971

Multilayer high performance insulation materials

A number of tests are required to evaluate both multilayer high performance insulation samples and the materials that comprise them. Some of the techniques and tests being employed for these evaluations and some of the results obtained from thermal conductivity tests, outgassing studies, effect of pressure on layer density tests, hypervelocity impact tests, and a multilayer high performance insulation ambient storage program at the Kennedy Space Center are presented.

Stuckey, J. M.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Using high-performance networks to enable computational aerosciences applications

One component of the U.S. Federal High Performance Computing and Communications Program (HPCCP) is the establishment of a gigabit network to provide a communications infrastructure for researchers across the nation. This gigabit network will provide new services and capabilities, in addition to increased bandwidth, to enable future applications. An understanding of these applications is necessary to guide the development of the gigabit network and other high-performance networks of the future. In this paper we focus on computational aerosciences applications run remotely using the Numerical Aerodynamic Simulation (NAS) facility located at NASA Ames Research Center. We characterize these applications in terms of network-related parameters and relate user experiences that reveal limitations imposed by the current wide-area networking infrastructure. Then we investigate how the development of a nationwide gigabit network would enable users of the NAS facility to work in new, more productive ways.

Johnson, Marjory J.↗
NASA NTRS2017

Design and testing of high-performance mini-channel graphite heat exchangers in thermoelectric energy recovery systems

Recent national energy usage studies by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in 2015 [1] show that there is approximately 59 Quads (1015 Btu’s) of waste thermal energy throughout various industrial, residential, power generation, and transportation sectors of the U.S. economy. Thermoelectric energy recovery is one important technology for recovering this waste thermal energy in high-temperature industrial, transportation and military energy systems. Thermoelectric generator (TEG) systems in these applications require high performance hot-side and cold-side heat exchangers to provide the critical temperature differential and transfer the required thermal energy. High performance hot-side heat exchangers in these systems are often metal-based due to requirements for high-temperature operation, strength at temperature, corrosion resistance, and chemical stability. However, the generally selected metal-based hot-side heat exchangers (i.e., Inconels, Stainless Steels) suffer from low thermal conductivity, high thermal expansion, and high density, which degrades their thermal performance, leads to high thermal-expansion-driven stresses, and creates relatively high mass/high volume (i.e., low power density) TEG systems that are then difficult to fabricate and integrate into viable energy recovery systems. This paper describes the design and testing of a new, high-temperature minichannel graphite heat exchanger designed for operation up to 500C that is a critical element of a high-power-density TEG power system for aircraft energy recovery. This high-performance graphite heat exchanger represents a new state-of-the-art standard in high-temperature heat exchangers for TEG systems, which provides higher thermal transport, less thermal expansion at operation, lower system level stresses on TE components, and a lighter weight TEG system. This new heat exchanger creates a new design paradigm in TEG system design for terrestrial energy recovery and potential NASA technology infusion into terrestrial energy system applications. This paper will present and discuss the key heat transfer, pressure drop, pumping power analyses and design tradeoffs that created this unique design. Heat transfer and pressure drop modeling was performed with both empirical models based on known heat transfer and friction factor correlations and COMSOL thermal/fluid dynamic modeling of the graphite heat exchanger structure. We will also discuss resulting thermal transport and heat fluxes predicted at the TEG interface level. Heat exchanger performance testing was performed under simulated operating conditions and correlation with test data at the anticipated operating temperature conditions will be presented and discussed.

Shevade, Abhijit↗
NASA NTRS1988

Light-weight, high-performance metal matrix composites

Recent years have seen the development of a wide range of light-weight, high-performance aluminum powder metallurgy composites that combine both standard (6061 and 2124) and specialty matrix compositions (Al-Mg-Cu-Li and Al-Fe-Ce) with a wide variety of discontinuous reinforcements (Al2O3, B4C, and SiC). This paper reviews the fabrication and damage tolerance performance of these light-weight, high-performance composites. Particular attention is given to developing a general framework for understanding the interrelationship existing between microstructure, thermomechanical processing and ductility/fracture toughness behavior in these composite systems.

Rack, H. J.↗
NASA NTRS1998

High Performance Database Management for Earth Sciences

The High Performance Database Research Center at Florida International University is completing the development of a highly parallel database system based on the semantic/object-oriented approach. This system provides exceptional usability and flexibility. It allows shorter application design and programming cycles and gives the user control via an intuitive information structure. It empowers the end-user to pose complex ad hoc decision support queries. Superior efficiency is provided through a high level of optimization, which is transparent to the user. Manifold reduction in storage size is allowed for many applications. This system allows for operability via internet browsers. The system will be used for the NASA Applications Center program to store remote sensing data, as well as for Earth Science applications.

Rishe, Naphtali↗
NASA NTRS1998

Advances in Experiment Design for High Performance Aircraft

A general overview and summary of recent advances in experiment design for high performance aircraft is presented, along with results from flight tests. General theoretical background is included, with some discussion of various approaches to maneuver design. Flight test examples from the F-18 High Alpha Research Vehicle (HARV) are used to illustrate applications of the theory. Input forms are compared using Cramer-Rao bounds for the standard errors of estimated model parameters. Directions for future research in experiment design for high performance aircraft are identified.

Morelli, Engene A.↗