SEARCH · Engineering Papers
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.
The petrographic study of Itokawa particle, RA-QD02-0127 has been performed by SEM-EDS and optical microscope observations. The purpose of this study is to understand better the metamorphic and impact shock history of asteroid Itokawa, and other S-class asteroids.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
This study presents experimental results of compression after impact (CAI) strength testing of foam core sandwich structure with carbon/epoxy face sheets impacted at three different energies with either a blunt or sharp tip impactor. The impact energies used were chosen to span the barely visible impact damage (BVID) thresholds for the sharp (4.1 J) and blunt (12.9 J) impactors with an impact energy approximately halfway between these (8.1 J) also used. While most impact testing on composites utilize a hemispherical (blunt) impactor, actual damage to a part may be due to an object impacting the part that is not blunt, but sharp and the impact response and resulting CAI strength values may be different for a given impact energy level. In this study, with regards to the impact response, the sandwich specimens showed larger transverse displacements (by about a factor of two) during the impact event when impacted by a sharp impactor versus a blunt impactor. The maximum load of impact was larger for the blunt impactor by about a factor of three. The barely visible impact damage (BVID) threshold energy was lower by about a factor of three for the sharp impactor. The absorbed energy of impact was higher for the sharp impactor. The CAI strength results showed that the sharp impactor gave lower average CAI strength values at the lowest impact energy level used, slightly lower average CAI strength values for the medium impact energy used and about the same average CAI strength values for the highest impact energy used.
The concepts in designing and predicting energy consumption in a low energy use building are summarized. The building will use less than 30,000 Btu/sq.ft./yr. of boarder energy. The building's primary energy conservation features include heavy concrete walls with external insulation, a highly insulated ceiling, and large amounts of glass for natural lighting. A solar collector air system is integrated into the south wall. Calculations for energy conservation features were performed using NASA's NECAP Energy Program.
Context. Solar flare hard X-rays (HXRs) are thought to be produced by nonthermal coronal electrons stopping in the chromosphere, or remaining trapped in the corona. The collisional thick target model (CTTM) predicts that more energetic electrons penetrate to greater column depths along the flare loop. This requires that sources produced by harder power-law injection spectra should appear further down the legs or footpoints of a flareloop. Therefore, the frequently observed hardening of the injected power-law electron spectrum during flare onset should be concurrent with a descending hard X-ray source. Aims. To test this implication of the CTTM by comparing its predicted HXR source locations with those derived from observations of a solar flare which exhibits a nonthermally-dominated spectrum before the peak in HXRs, known as an early impulsive event. Methods. HXR images and spectra of an early impulsive C-class flare were obtained using the Ramaty High-Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI). Images were reconstructed to produce HXR source height evolutions for three energy bands. Spatially-integrated spectral analysis was performed to isolate nonthermal emission, and to determine the power-law index of the electron injection spectrum. The observed height-time evolutions were then fit with CTTM-based simulated heights for each energy, using the electron spectral indices derived from the RHESSI spectra. Results. The flare emission was found to be dominantly nonthermal above approx. 7 keV, with emission of thermal and nonthermal X-rays likely to be simultaneously observable below that energy. The density structure required for a good match between model and observed source heights agreed with previous studies of flare loop densities. Conclusions. The CTTM has been used to produce a descent of model HXR source heights that compares well with observations of this event. Based on this interpretation, downward motion of nonthermal sources should indeed occur in any flare where there is spectral hardening in the electron distribution during a flare. However, this would often be masked by thermal emission associated with flare plasma pre-heating. As yet, flare models that predict transfer of energy from the corona to the chromosphere by means other than a flux of nonthermal electrons do not predict this observed source descent. Therefore, flares such as this will be key in explaining this elusive energy transfer process.
The moball is envisioned to be a round, self-powered, and wind-driven multifunctioning sensor used in the Gone with the Wind ON-Mars (GOWON) [http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/ marsconcepts2012/pdf/4238.pdf]: A Wind-Driven Networked System of Mobile sensors on Mars. The moballs would have sensing, processing, and communication capabilities. The moballs would perform in situ detection of key environmental elements such as vaporized water, trace gases, wind, dust, clouds, light and UV exposure, temperature, as well as minerals of interest, possible biosignatures, surface magnetic and electric fields, etc. The embedded various low-power micro instruments could include a Multispectral Microscopic Imager (to detect various minerals), a compact curved focal plane array camera (UV/Vis/NIR) with a large field of view, a compact UV/Visible spectrometer, a micro-weather station, etc. The moballs could communicate with each other and an orbiter. Their wind- or gravity-driven rolling movement could be used to harvest and store electric energy. They could also generate and store energy using the sunlight, when available, and the diurnal temperature variations on Mars. The moballs would be self-aware of their (and their neighbors ) positions, energy storage, and memory availability; they would have processing power and could intelligently cooperate with neighboring moballs by distributing tasks, sharing data, and fusing information. The major advantages of using the wind-driven and spherical moball network over rovers or other fixed sensor webs to explore Mars would be: (1) moballs could explore a much larger expanse of Mars in a much faster fashion, (2) they could explore the difficult terrains such as steep slopes and sand dunes, and (3) they would be self-energy- generating and could work together and move around autonomously. The challenge in designing the structure and the mechanics of the moball would be that it should be sturdy enough to withstand the impact of its initial fall, as well as other impacts from obstacles in its way. A mechanism would be needed that could enable hundreds of moballs to be carried while they would be deflated and compact, then would inflate them just after deploying them to their drop site. Furthermore, the moballs should also be light enough to allow them to move easily over obstacles by force of the wind. They also should have some kind of maneuvering mechanism in place to help them avoid very hazardous sharp objects or events, and to enable them to get closer to the objects of interest. The structure of the moballs was designed so that they would have different layers. The outer layer should comprise a sturdy, yet light, polymer that could withstand both the impact of the initial drop, as well as the impact of the different obstacles it would encounter while traversing the surface of Mars. This polymer should not deteriorate with the 100 K daily temperature swings on Mars. The inner layer should consist of a very light gas such as nitrogen or helium. In terms of maneuvering, six very light weights placed at strategic locations would give moballs the ability to turn, or even hop, over hazardous (e.g., sharp) obstacles, or even initiate a movement (before getting more help from the wind to be carried around) when stuck. Maneuvering would be necessary in order to get closer to objects of interest. If the weights would be allowed to move freely, they could also be used to generate energy.
A comparative assessment of three fuel cell systems for application in different buildings and geographic locations is presented. The study was performed at the NASA Lewis Center and comprised the fuel cell design, performance in different conditions, and the economic parameters. Applications in multifamily housing, stores and hospitals were considered, with a load of 10kW-1 MW. Designs were traced through system sizing, simulation/evaluation, and reliability analysis, and a computer simulation based on a fourth-order representation of a generalized system was performed. The cells were all phosphoric acid type cells, and were found to be incompatible with gas/electric systems and more favorable economically than the gas/electric systems in hospital uses. The methodology used provided an optimized energy-use pattern and minimized back-up system turn-on.
It was the goal of this reserch project to model both the storage of energy in solid hydrogen in the form of atoms and the conversion of this stored energy into other forms of useful energy. The basic ideas of rocket propulsion originate in classical physics and they remain unchanged. To escape a strong gravitational field, the 'burn time' must be minimized but in negligible force fields, the burn time is unimportant and only the relative masses of rocket to fuel determine a specific exhaust velocity. It is in this latter case that low mass fuels such as hydrogen become very important. The burning of hydrogen in oxygen is a 'benchmark' fuel today providing a specific impulse of 400 seconds or better. More exotic fuels will be needed for many of the interesting explorations of the future but they still must have large energy releases per unit mass. It is in this context that propulsion based on hydrogen atom recombination receives attention and these studies will serve as engineering guides.
Ultrahigh temperature shape memory alloys (UHT-SMAs) have transition temperatures above 600 C, and they have found applications for sensing and actuating devices in aerospace industry. Among very few such UHT-SMAs currently known are Ru-based alloys such as RuNb and RuTa, whose martensite structures and phase transitions are totally different from those of NiTi-based SMAs and were poorly understood. In this work, we carried out a systematical study of RuNb using first-principles total energy calculations and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. The transition paths and mechanisms in cubic → tetragonal →monoclinic transitions are revealed. and the transition sequence and martensitic transition temperatures are determined (MTTs) by evaluating the Gibbs free energies using thermodynamic integration. The calculated MTTs are in very good agreement with the experimental data. We found that the monoclinic phase at the second transition has the 𝑃21/m symmetry instead of experimentally identified 𝑃2/m. Our calculations demonstrate that RuTa has very similar phase transitions to those of RuTa. Furthermore, we studied the Ru0.5Nb0.25Ta0.25 ternary. Our results can explain the measured significant drop of MTT (~ 200 C) in the second transition for Ru0.5Nb0.25Ta0.25 compared with those of RuNb and RuTa, while in the first transition its MTT is between MTTs of RuNb and RuTa. The insights gained by this study and the verified ab initio methods for accurate MTT calculations can be applied to fast screen and quantitatively design novel UHT-SMAs having similar properties with desirable MTTs and much reduced cost.
High energy propellants for human lunar missions are analyzed, focusing on very advanced ozone and atomic hydrogen. One of the most advanced launch vehicle propulsion systems, such as the Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME), used hydrogen and oxygen and had a delivered specific impulse of 453 seconds. In the early days of the space program, other propellants (or so called metapropellants) were suggested, including atomic hydrogen and liquid ozone. Theoretical and experimental studies of atomic hydrogen and ozone were conducted beginning in the late 1940s. This propellant research may have provided screenwriters with the idea of an atomic hydrogen-ozone rocket engine in the 1950 movie, Rocketship X-M. This paper presents analyses showing that an atomic hydrogen-ozone rocket engine could produce a specific impulse over a wide range of specific impulse values reaching as high as 1,600 s. A series of single stage and multistage rocket vehicle analyses were conducted to find the minimum specific impulse needed to conduct high energy round trip lunar missions.
It is estimated that by the year 2025, 80% of the world's population will live in cities. The extent of these urban areas across the world can be seen in an image of city lights from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program. In many areas of North America and Europe, it is difficult to separate individual cities because of the dramatic growth and sprawl of urbanized areas. This conversion of the natural landscape vegetation into man-made urban structures such as roads and buildings drastically alter the regional surface energy budgets, hydrology, precipitation patterns, and meteorology. One of the earliest recognized and measured phenomena of urbanization is the urban heat island (UHI) which was reported as early as 1833 for London and 1862 for Paris. The urban heat island results from the energy that is absorbed by man-made materials during the day and is released at night resulting in the heating of the air within the urban area. The magnitude of the air temperature difference between the urban and surrounding countryside is highly dependent on the structure of the urban area, amount of solar immolation received during the day, and atmospheric conditions during the night. These night time air temperature differences can be in the range of 2 to 5 C. or greater. Although day time air temperature differences between urban areas and the countryside exists during the day, atmospheric mixing and stability reduce the magnitude. This phenomena is not limited to large urban areas, but also occurs in smaller metropolitan areas. The UHI has significant impacts on the urban air quality, meteorology, energy use, and human health. The UPI can be mitigated through increasing the amount of vegetation and modification of urban surfaces using high albedo materials for roofs and paved surfaces. To understand why the urban heat island phenomenon exists it is useful to define the surface in terms of the surface energy budget. Surface temperature and albedo is a major component of the surface energy budget. Knowledge of it is important in any attempt to describe the radiative and mass fluxes which occur at the surface. Use of energy terms in modeling surface energy budgets allows the direct comparison of various land surfaces encountered in a urban landscape, from vegetated (forest and herbaceous) to non-vegetated (bare soil, roads, and buildings). These terms are also easily measured using remote sensing from aircraft or satellite platforms allowing one to examine the spacial variability. The partitioning of energy budget terms depends on the surface type. In natural landscapes, the partitioning is dependent on canopy biomass, leaf area index, aerodynamic roughness, and moisture status, all of which are influenced by the development stage of the ecosystem. In urban landscapes, coverage by man-made materials substantially alters the surface face energy budget. The remotely sensed data obtained from aircraft and satellites, when properly calibrated allows the measurement of important terms in the radiative surface energy budget a urban landscape scale.
Traditionally, the equation for the conservation of energy used in atmospheric models is based on potential temperature and is used in place of the total energy conservation. This paper compares the application of the two equations sets for both the Euler and the Navier-Stokes solutions using several benchmark test cases. A high-resolution wave-propagation method which accurately takes into account the source term due to gravity is used for computing the non-hydrostatic atmospheric flows. It is demonstrated that there is little to no difference between the results obtained using the two different equation sets for Euler as well as Navier-Stokes solutions.
The first accurate theoretical values for off-diagonal (i.e., line-coupling) pressure-broadening cross sections are presented. Calculations were done for CO perturbed by He at thermal collision energies using an accurate ab initio potential energy surface. Converged close coupling, i.e., numerically exact values, were obtained for coupling to the R(0) and R(2) lines. These were used to test the coupled states (CS) and infinite order sudden (IOS) approximate scattering methods. CS was found to be of quantitative accuracy (a few percent) and has been used to obtain coupling values for lines to R(10). IOS values are less accurate, but, owing to their simplicity, may nonetheless prove useful as has been recently demonstrated.
The water use and solar energy conversion efficiencies of two cultivars of winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L., vars, Centurk and Newton) planted at three densities, were examined during a growing season. Water use, based on soil moisture depletion, was the lowest under the light, and the highest under the heavy planting densities of both cultivars. Water use efficiency of medium and heavy planting densities were greater than the light planting densities in both cultivars. The canopy radiation extinction coefficients of both cultivars increased with increases in planting density. Efficiency of operation interception of photosynthetically active radiation by both cultivars improved from the time of jointing until anthesis, and then decreased during senescence. The efficiency of the conversion of intercepted radiation to dry matter (biochemical efficiency) decreased throughout the growing season both cultivars. The interception, biochemical, and photosynthetic efficiencies improved as planting density increased.