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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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Helium is purified when cooled in a low pressure environment until it becomes superfluid. The liquid helium is then filtered through iron oxide particles. Heating, cooling and filtering processes continue until the purified liquid helium is heated to a gas.
The structural integrity of high pressure liquid propellant rocket engine thrust chambers is typically maintained through regenerative cooling. The coolant flows through passages formed either by constructing the chamber liner from tubes or by milling channels in a solid liner. Recently, Carlile and Quentmeyer showed life extending advantages (by lowering hot gas wall temperatures) of milling channels with larger height to width aspect ratios (AR is greater than 4) than the traditional, approximately square cross section, passages. Further, the total coolant pressure drop in the thrust chamber could also be reduced, resulting in lower turbomachinery power requirements. High aspect ratio cooling channels could offer many benefits to designers developing new high performance engines, such as the European Vulcain engine (which uses an aspect ratio up to 9). With platelet manufacturing technology, channel aspect ratios up to 15 could be formed offering potentially greater benefits. Some issues still exist with the high aspect ratio coolant channels. In a coolant passage of circular or square cross section, strong secondary vortices develop as the fluid passes through the curved throat region. These vortices mix the fluid and bring lower temperature coolant to the hot wall. Typically, the circulation enhances the heat transfer at the hot gas wall by about 40 percent over a straight channel. The effect that increasing channel aspect ratio has on the curvature heat transfer enhancement has not been sufficiently studied. If the increase in aspect ratio degrades the secondary flow, the fluid mixing will be reduced. Analysis has shown that reduced coolant mixing will result in significantly higher wall temperatures, due to thermal stratification in the coolant, thus decreasing the benefits of the high aspect ratio geometry. A better understanding of the fundamental flow phenomena in high aspect ratio channels with curvature is needed to fully evaluate the benefits of this geometry. The fluid dynamic and conjugate heat transfer problem of high aspect ratio rocket engine coolant channels are being investigated numerically, but these efforts have been hampered by a lack of validating data. Wall temperature data is available for the conjugate problem for channels without curvature and aspect ratio = 5.0, and unheated fluid dynamic data are available for square and circular cross section channels with curvature at Reynold's numbers up to 40,000. But the effects of aspect ratio on secondary flow development have not been experimentally studied. To provide some insight into the effects of channel aspect ratio on secondary flow and to qualitatively provide anchoring for the numerical codes, a flow visualization experiment was initiated at the NASA Lewis Research Center.
Cooling to a temperature of approximately liquid nitrogen or lower, reduces arcing, or high voltage breakdown, between two closely spaced electrodes operating in a vacuum. This cooling technique can be applied to electrodes having other than hemispherical shapes.
Container and containerless processing was employed to determine liquidus temperatures and to examine microstructural development in the Cu-Nb system. The Cu-Nb phase diagram of an S-shaped, near-horizontal liquidus, has been confirmed by both the temperature-time profiles and resultant microstructures with only Nb dendrites in a Cu matrix, which were obtained from crucible experiments under clean conditions. However, the microstructural pathways of Cu-Nb alloys are particularly sensitive to processing variables. By the addition of oxygen impurities or rapid solidification, droplet-shaped morphology was observed for some compositions, implying occurrence of a liquid-phase separation. The effects of impurities and cooling rates are analyzed in connection with a stable and metastable liquid miscibility gap, respectively.
Evaporation is a ubiquitous and complex phenomenon of importance to many natural and industrial systems. Evaporation occurs when molecules near the free interface overcome intermolecular attractions with the bulk liquid. As molecules escape the liquid phase, heat is removed, causing evaporative cooling. The influence of evaporative cooling on inducing a temperature difference with the surrounding atmosphere as well as within the liquid is poorly understood. Here, we develop a technique to overcome past difficulties encountered during the study of heterogeneous droplet evaporation by coupling a piezo-driven droplet generation mechanism to a controlled micro-thermocouple to probe microdroplet evaporation. The technique allowed us to probe the gas-phase temperature distribution using a micro-thermocouple (50 μm) in the vicinity of the liquid–vapor interface with high spatial (±10 μm) and temporal (±100 ms) resolution. We experimentally map the temperature gradient formed surrounding sessile water droplets having varying curvature dictated by the apparent advancing contact angle (100° ≲ θ ≲ 165°). The experiments were carried out at temperatures below and above ambient for a range of fixed droplet radii (130 μm ≲ R ≲ 330 μm). Our results provide a primary validation of the centuries-old theoretical framework underpinning heterogeneous droplet evaporation mediated by the working fluid, substrate, and gas thermophysical properties, droplet apparent contact angle, and droplet size. We show that microscale droplets residing on low-thermal-conductivity substrates such as glass absorb up to 8× more heat from the surrounding gas compared to droplets residing on high-thermal-conductivity substrates such as copper. Finally, our work not only develops an experimental understanding of the heat transfer mechanisms governing droplet evaporation but also presents a powerful platform for the study and characterization of liquid–vapor transport at curved interfaces wetting and nonwetting advanced functional surfaces.
The design for a multi-stage adiabatic demagnetization refrigerator (ADR) that can provide continuous cooling at very low temperatures is presented. The ADR is being developed for use in x-ray, IR and sub-millimeter space astronomy missions which will employ large format detector arrays operating at 50 mK and lower and which may dissipate up to 10 microwatts. It is also being designed to reject heat slowly to a relatively warm heat sink (in the 6-10 K range), so that future missions may use mechanical cryocoolers instead of liquid helium for pre-cooling. The continuous nature of the device gives it a much higher cooling power per unit mass, allowing it to be much smaller and lighter than existing ADRs with comparable performance. Design details are discussed along with prototype test results.
This simple cryocooler provides a small reservoir of liquid helium at a stable temperature of 4.2K. It uses a novel adaptation of the Simon expansion cryocooler to provide continuous cooling. Operation is in a four stage cycle: (1) A closed vessel of helium under high pressure is cooled to 12K using a conventional Gifford-McMahon closed-cycle cryocooler. (2) The pressure is released adiabatically providing cooling to 4.2K. (3) Liquid helium is collected in a second, well insulated, vessel. (4) The first vessel is repressurized. The cycle time is 15-30 minutes. In this manner, a pool of liquid helium is continuously maintained in the second vessel, with a temperature stability of 0.03 degrees. The continuous cooling power available is 3mW. This design provides simplicity and reliability through the absence of any orifices or moving parts at cryogenic temperatures except for the conventional Gifford-McMahon cryocooler.
A process for removing a foulant from a gas stream. The gas stream is cooled in a series of heat exchangers, causing a portion of the foulant to desublimate and become entrained in a cryogenic liquid. This foulant slurry stream is pressurized, cooled, and separated into a pressurized foulant solid stream and the cryogenic liquid stream. The pressurized foulant solid stream is melted to produce a liquid foulant stream. Heat exchange processes, both internal and external, are provided that close the heat balance of the process. In this manner, the foulant is removed from the gas stream.
As part of a study to understand the influence of gravity, cooling rate and composition on the structure of liquid phase immiscible materials, two alloys, Al-40 wt % In and Al-70 wt % In were thermally treated on the SPAR II rocket flight. The treatments involved homogenization at a temperature above the miscibility gap and then rapid cooling through the miscibility gap followed by complete solidification. The last two steps were performed while acceleration levels were less than 4 x 10 to the -5th g. The flight alloys produced unexpected results. Instead of fine uniform structures, the alloys consisted of a macroscopically sized aluminum-rich central region surrounded by indium-rich metal.
The first protein crystallization experiment in microgravity was launched in April, 1981 and used Germany's Technologische Experimente unter Schwerelosigkeit (TEXUS 3) sounding rocket. The protein P-galactosidase (molecular weight 465Kda) was chosen as the sample with a liquid-liquid diffusion growth method. A sliding device brought the protein, buffer and salt solution into contact when microgravity was reached. The sounding rocket gave six minutes of microgravity time with a cine camera and schlieren optics used to monitor the experiment, a single growth cell. In microgravity a strictly laminar diffusion process was observed in contrast to the turbulent convection seen on the ground. Several single crystals, approx 100micron in length, were formed in the flight which were of inferior but of comparable visual quality to those grown on the ground over several days. A second experiment using the same protocol but with solutions cooled to -8C (kept liquid with glycerol antifreeze) again showed laminar diffusion. The science of macromolecular structural crystallography involves crystallization of the macromolecule followed by use of the crystal for X-ray diffraction experiments to determine the three dimensional structure of the macromolecule. Neutron protein crystallography is employed for elucidation of H/D exchange and for improved definition of the bound solvent (D20). The structural information enables an understanding of how the molecule functions with important potential for rational drug design, improved efficiency of industrial enzymes and agricultural chemical development. The removal of turbulent convection and sedimentation in microgravity, and the assumption that higher quality crystals will be produced, has given rise to the growing number of crystallization experiments now flown. Many experiments can be flown in a small volume with simple, largely automated, equipment - an ideal combination for a microgravity experiment. The term "protein crystal growth" is often historically used to describe these microgravity experiments. This is somewhat inaccurate as the field involves the study of many varied biological molecules including viruses, proteins, DNA, RNA and complexes of those structures. For this reason we use the term macromolecular crystal growth. In this chapter we review a series of diagnostic microgravity crystal growth experiments carried out principally using the European Space Agency (ESA) Advanced Protein Crystallization Facility (APCF). We also review related research, both experimental and theoretical, on the aspects of microgravity fluid physics that affect microgravity protein crystal growth. Our experiments have revealed some surprises that were not initially expected. We discuss them here in the context of practical lessons learnt and how to maximize the limited microgravity opportunities available.
System for transferring cryogenic liquids to a dewar prevents boiloff of residual liquid by venting the boiloff to the atmosphere during the transfer tube cooling period. The system is most useful with liquids having very small heat of vaporization.
Liquid desiccants can provide efficient dehumidification but have yet to see widespread adoption. Most systems studied previously use natural gas-combustion to heat and regenerate the desiccant, and a central chiller plant or cooling tower for removing the heat of absorption. Here we present modeling and experimental results on a novel packaged air conditioner integrating liquid-desiccant heat and mass exchangers with a vapor compression cycle. The packaged system does not need cold or hot water from a central plant or cooling tower and is suitable for rooftop unit air conditioners. The system uses the evaporator to cool the liquid desiccant that is absorbing moisture from the air, and the condenser to heat the liquid desiccant to regenerate it. Efficiency is improved by reducing the load on the evaporator for a given supply-air dewpoint. This paper presents the measured dehumidification efficiency for a 10- ton packaged air conditioner, focusing on dehumidifying ventilation air. The paper also presents a numerical model to predict the outlet conditions and dehumidification efficiency, which we compare with the measured data.
Soot emissions measurements of multiphase non-premixed flames are sparse in the literature due to the complexities of sampling in such environments. We present an overview from on-going work at the NASA SE-5 High Pressure Flame Diagnostics laboratory focusing on soot and gaseous emissions at elevated pressures. SE-5 is a gaseous and liquid fueled high pressure flame tube facility capable of operating at pressures up to 880 psia, cooling capacity of 4,000,000 BTU/hr, liquid fuel flow rates up to 2 GPH, and an equivalence ratio range of 0.2 (fuel lean) to 4 (fuel rich). SE-5 provides optical access via four UV-grade fused silica optical windows of the primary reaction zone enabling non-intrusive optical diagnostics of the flame.
Temperature-sensing bridge determines liquid reserve level in low-temperature heat exchanger. Device should be of interest to manufacturers of cryogenic refrigerators as well as to those who use them in conjunction with operation of electronic equipment like masers or Josephson junctions.
Liquid coolant chill tool provides uniform cooling to materials adjacent to weld areas on long or contoured butt welds. This tool incorporates a manifold that clamps to the weld joint by vacuum and circulates liquid in direct contact with adjacent material.
Accelerated muon beams have been considered for the next-generation studies of high-energy lepton–antilepton collisions and neutrino oscillations. However, high-brightness muon beams have not yet been produced. The main challenge for muon acceleration and storage stems from the large phase-space volume occupied by the beam, derived from the production mechanism of muons through the decay of pions. The phase-space volume of the muon beam can be decreased through ionization cooling. Here we show that ionization cooling leads to a reduction in the transverse emittance of muon beams that traverse lithium hydride or liquid hydrogen absorbers in the Muon Ionization Cooling Experiment. Our results represent a substantial advance towards the realization of muon-based facilities that could operate at the energy and intensity frontiers.
Two condensers designed for use in dissipating heat carried by working fluids feature two-phase, self-adjusting configurations such that their working lengths automatically vary to suit their input power levels and/or heat-sink temperatures. A key advantage of these condensers is that they can function even if the temperatures of their heat sinks fall below the freezing temperatures of their working fluids and the fluids freeze. The condensers can even be restarted from the frozen condition. The top part of the figure depicts the layout of the first condenser. A two-phase (liquid and vapor) condenser/vapor tube is thermally connected to a heat sink typically, a radiatively or convectively cooled metal panel. A single-phase (liquid) condensate-return tube (return artery) is also thermally connected to the heat sink. At intervals along their lengths, the condenser/vapor tube and the return artery are interconnected through porous plugs. This condenser configuration affords tolerance of freezing, variable effective thermal conductance (such that the return temperature remains nearly constant, independently of the ultimate sink temperature), and overall pressure drop smaller than it would be without the porous interconnections. An additional benefit of this configuration is that the condenser can be made to recover from the completely frozen condition either without using heaters, or else with the help of heaters much smaller than would otherwise be needed. The second condenser affords the same advantages and is based on a similar principle, but it has a different configuration that affords improved flow of working fluid, simplified construction, reduced weight, and faster recovery from a frozen condition.
The paper describes a continuous variable-temperature U-shaped cold trap which can both purify vacuum-line combustion products for subsequent stable isotopic analysis and isolate the methane and ethane constituents of natural gases. The canister containing the trap is submerged in liquid nitrogen, and, as the gas cools, the gas mixture components condense sequentially according to their relative vapor pressures. After the about 12 min required for the bottom of the trap to reach the liquid-nitrogen temperature, passage of electric current through the resistance wire wrapped around the tubing covering the U-trap permits distillation of successive gas components at optimal temperatures. Data on the separation achieved for two mixtures, the first being typical vacuum-line combustion products of geochemical samples such as rocks and the second being natural gas, are presented, and the thermal behavior and power consumption are reported.