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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 1,459 records · Page 81

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NASA NTRS2017

Repeatability of Cryogenic Multilayer Insulation

Due to the variety of requirements across aerospace platforms, and one off projects, the repeatability of cryogenic multilayer insulation has never been fully established. The objective of this test program is to provide a more basic understanding of the thermal performance repeatability of MLI systems that are applicable to large scale tanks. There are several different types of repeatability that can be accounted for: these include repeatability between multiple identical blankets, repeatability of installation of the same blanket, and repeatability of a test apparatus. The focus of the work in this report is on the first two types of repeatability. Statistically, repeatability can mean many different things. In simplest form, it refers to the range of performance that a population exhibits and the average of the population. However, as more and more identical components are made (i.e. the population of concern grows), the simple range morphs into a standard deviation from an average performance. Initial repeatability testing on MLI blankets has been completed at Florida State University. Repeatability of five GRC provided coupons with 25 layers was shown to be +/- 8.4% whereas repeatability of repeatedly installing a single coupon was shown to be +/- 8.0%. A second group of 10 coupons have been fabricated by Yetispace and tested by Florida State University, through the first 4 tests, the repeatability has been shown to be +/- 15-25%. Based on detailed statistical analysis, the data has been shown to be statistically significant.

multilayer insulation↗

NASA NTRS1992

Aerospace Test Facilities at NASA LeRC Plumbrook

An overview of the facilities and research being conducted at LeRC's Plumbrook field station is given. The video highlights four main structures and explains their uses. The Space Power Facility is the world's largest space environment simulation chamber, where spacebound hardware is tested in simulations of the vacuum and extreme heat and cold of the space plasma environment. This facility was used to prepare Atlas 1 rockets to ferry CRRES into orbit; it will also be used to test space nuclear electric power generation systems. The Spacecraft Propulsion Research Facility allows rocket vehicles to be hot fired in a simulated space environment. In the Cryogenic Propellant Tank Facility, researchers are developing technology for storing and transferring liquid hydrogen in space. There is also a Hypersonic Wind Tunnel which can perform flow tests with winds up to Mach 7.

Source record↗

NASA NTRS2006

Guidelines for the Utilization of Composite Materials in Oxygen Storage Tanks

Space travel is inherently dangerous and, currently, quite expensive. NASA has always done everything possible to minimize the risk associated with the materials chosen for space travel applications by requiring that all materials associated with NASA programs meet the strict requirements established by NASA testing standard NASA-STD-600 1 Flammability, Odor, Offgassing, and Compatibility Requirements and Test Procedures for Materials in Environments that Support Combustion. NASA also has the need to develop lighter weight structural materials that will allow more payload weight to be carried into space. NASA is utilizing composite materials inside the orbiter to lighten the overall weight, but has not considered composite materials for oxygen tanks because of the inherent incompatibility of composite materials with atomic oxygen. This presentation will focus on how oxygen tanks can be built from composite materials. Details will be provided for the design and compatibility testing techniques that will be utilized to create a new NASA standard, NASA-HDBK-6018, which will serve as the starting point for the design of oxygen tanks made from composite materials.

Davis, Samuel E.↗

DOE OSTI2020

ILAW Glass Ion-Exchange Rate Testing (Final Report FY2020)

About 50 million gallons of high-level mixed waste is currently stored in underground tanks at The United States Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Hanford site in the State of Washington. The Hanford Tank Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) will provide DOE’s Office of River Protection (ORP) with a means of treating this waste by vitrification for subsequent disposal. The tank waste will be separated into low- and high-activity waste fractions, which will then be vitrified respectively into Immobilized Low Activity Waste (ILAW) and Immobilized High-Level Waste (IHLW) products. The ILAW product will be disposed of in an engineered facility – the Integrated Disposal Facility (IDF) – on the Hanford site, while the IHLW product will be directed to the national deep geological disposal facility for high-level nuclear waste. The ILAW and IHLW products must meet a variety of requirements with respect to protection of the environment before they can be accepted for disposal.

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NASA NTRS1949

Calibration Tests of a German Log Rodmeter

A German log rodmeter of the pitot static type was calibrated in Langley tank no. 1 at speeds up to 34 knots and angles of yaw from 0 deg to plus or minus 10 3/4 degrees. The dynamic head approximated the theoretical head at 0 degrees yaw but decreased as the yaw was increased. The static head was negative and in general became more negative with increasing speed and yaw. Cavitation occurred at speeds above 31 knots at 0 deg yaw and 21 knots at 10 3/4 deg yaw.

Mottard, Elmo J.↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Development and Validation of a Slosh-Based Ullage Collapse Model

Ullage collapse modeling is an essential tool for the success of spacecraft powered by cryogenic propellants. The degree of ullage collapse can have a major impact on the design of cryogenic propellant tanks as well as the mission’s concept of operations. Additional commodities (e.g., helium gas for pressure control) and their quantities are dependent on the amount of heat transfer and phase change of propellants expected during flight. Currently, high-fidelity computational fluid dynamics (CFD) with heat transfer and phase change is the most accurate method for predicting ullage collapse. CFD simulations of this kind, however, can become very costly for problems requiring large domains, long simulation times, or significant liquid motion. Consequently, there is a need for a reduced order model to provide fast responses which can be used in engineering design decisions. The proposed numerical model is a nodal approach, augmented by outputs from CFD analyses that are generated rapidly and reliably. These outputs include transient values for liquid-vapor interface area, interface velocity, and liquid position using a volume of fluid (VoF) method. There are several benefits of combining a nodal approach with slosh predictions from CFD simulations: leveraging of the Loci/STREAM-VoF solver that has been validated in high-g and low-g environments, rapid modeling of VoF with isothermal propellant simplifications and relatively coarse meshes, and improved model predictions from the nodal tool. The nodal approach, informed by the slosh predictions from CFD, assumes uniform conditions in the liquid and gas domains. Modifications to account for temperature stratification in the liquid and gas may be implemented as a future improvement. Thermodynamic changes within the tank are solved at user-defined timesteps. First, impacts due to mass entering or leaving the control volume are captured. Second, heat transfer impacts are accounted for by tracking the volume of the gas which has been contacted by liquid in that timestep and rebalancing the internal energy. Finally, phase change is approximated using the area and velocity of the interface. The tank conditions are re-computed by conserving mass and energy. Calibration of the model to several test flights and experiments are required to baseline the predictive power and uncertainty. The final product will enable designers and engineers to create quick-turnaround predictions for ullage collapse and inform design feasibility.

Computational Fluid Dynamics↗

NASA NTRS1993

Advanced collapsible tank for liquid containment

Tanks for bulk liquid containment will be required to support advanced planetary exploration programs. Potential applications include storage of potable, process, and waste water, and fuels and process chemicals. The launch mass and volume penalties inherent in rigid tanks suggest that collapsible tanks may be more efficient. Collapsible tanks are made of lightweight flexible material and can be folded compactly for storage and transport. Although collapsible tanks for terrestrial use are widely available, a new design was developed that has significantly less mass and bulk than existing models. Modelled after the shape of a sessible drop, this design features a dual membrane with a nearly uniform stress distribution and a low surface-to-volume ratio. It can be adapted to store a variety of liquids in nearly any environment with constant acceleration field. Three models of 10L, 50L, and 378L capacity have been constructed and tested. The 378L (100 gallon) model weighed less than 10 percent of a commercially available collapsible tank of equivalent capacity, and required less than 20 percent of the storage space when folded for transport.

Flanagan, David T.↗

NASA NTRS2008

Liquid Acquisition Device Testing with Sub-Cooled Liquid Oxygen

When transferring propellant in space, it is most efficient to transfer single phase liquid from a propellant tank to an engine. In earth s gravity field or under acceleration, propellant transfer is fairly simple. However, in low gravity, withdrawing single-phase fluid becomes a challenge. A variety of propellant management devices (PMD) are used to ensure single-phase flow. One type of PMD, a liquid acquisition device (LAD) takes advantage of capillary flow and surface tension to acquire liquid. Previous experimental test programs conducted at NASA have collected LAD data for a number of cryogenic fluids, including: liquid nitrogen (LN2), liquid oxygen (LOX), liquid hydrogen (LH2), and liquid methane (LCH4). The present work reports on additional testing with sub-cooled LOX as part of NASA s continuing cryogenic LAD development program. Test results extend the range of LOX fluid conditions examined, and provide insight into factors affecting predicting LAD bubble point pressures.

Jurns, John M.↗

NASA NTRS2013

LADEE Propulsion System Cold Flow Test

Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) is a NASA mission that will orbit the Moon. Its main objective is to characterize the atmosphere and lunar dust environment. The spacecraft development is being led by NASA Ames Research Center and scheduled for launch in 2013. The LADEE spacecraft will be operated with a bi-propellant hypergolic propulsion system using MMH and NTO as the fuel and oxidizer, respectively. The propulsion system utilizes flight-proven hardware on major components. The propulsion layout is composed of one 100-lbf main thruster and four 5-lbf RCS thrusters. The propellants are stored in four tanks (two parallel-connected tanks per propellant component). The propellants will be pressurized by regulated helium. A simulated propulsion system has been built for conducting cold flow test series to characterize the transient fluid flow of the propulsion system feed lines and to verify the critical operation modes, such as system priming, waterhammer, and crucial mission duty cycles. Propellant drainage differential between propellant tanks will also be assessed. Since the oxidizer feed line system has a higher flow demand than the fuel system does, the cold flow test focuses on the oxidizer system. The objective of the cold flow test is to simulate the LADEE propulsion fluid flow operation through water cold flow test and to obtain data for anchoring analytical models. The models will be used to predict the transient and steady state flow behaviors in the actual flight operations. The test activities, including the simulated propulsion test article, cold flow test, and analytical modeling, are being performed at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. At the time of the abstract submission, the test article checkout is being performed. The test series will be completed by November, 2012

Williams, Jonathan Hunter↗

NASA NTRS1970

Apollo 13 Mission: Cryogenic Oxygen Tank 2 Anomaly Report

There were two investigative aspects associated with the loss of the cryogenic oxygen tank pressure during the Apollo 13 flight. First, what was the cause of the flight failure of cryogenic oxygen tank 2. Second, what possible contributing factors during the ground history of the tank could have led to the ultimate failure in flight. The first flight indication of a problem occurred when the quantity measurement in the tank went full scale about 9 hours before the incident. This condition in itself could not have contributed to ignition in the tank, since the energy in the circuit is restricted to about 7 milli-joules. Data from the electrical system provided the second indication of a problem when the fans in tank 2 were activated to reduce any stratification which might have been present in the supercritical oxygen in the tank. Several short-circuits were detected and have been isolated to the fan circuits of tank 2. The first short-circuit could have contained as much as 160 joules of energy, which is within the current-protection level of the fan circuits. Tests have shown that two orders of magnitude less energy than this is sufficient to ignite the polytetrafluoroethylene insulation on the fan circuits in the tank. Consequently, the evidence indicates that the insulation on the fan wiring was ignited by the energy in the short-circuit.

Source record↗

NASA NTRS1992

Design and testing of the U.S. Space Station Freedom primary propulsion system

The primary propulsion system (PPS) for the Space Station Freedom is discussed in terms of salient design characteristics and key testing procedures. The rocket engine modules contain reboost and attitude control thrusters, and their designs are illustrated showing the mounting structures, thruster solenoid valves, and thrust chambers. The propellant tank assembly for storing gaseous N pressurant and hydrazine propellant is described as are the system avionics, thruster solenoid valves, and latching isolation valves. PPS testing conducted on the development systems includes the use of a propulsion-module development unit, a development test article, and system qualification testing. Specific test articles include functional heaters, mass/thermal simulated components, flight-quality structures, and software control operations.

Morano, Joseph S.↗

DOE OSTI2024

Using Fiducial Markers for Pose Estimation of an OSWEC in a Wave Tank: Preprint

In this study, we consider a novel method of sensing the motion of a wave energy converter during testing in a wave flume under the influence of incoming waves. The wave energy converter considered in our research is an oscillating surge wave energy converter, which is a hinged paddle that responds to incoming waves. Motion sensing is normally done with inertial sensors, which can hinder the motion due to suspended cables that carry power and transmit signals. Our proposed method is contactless and can be implemented economically. A camera is used to record different marker patterns affixed to the moving paddle and the motion deduced by pose estimation algorithms. Fiducial markers are commonly used for robot localization and in augmented reality. There are many types of fiducial markers, including ArUco-type markers which are accurate, fast and robust. The system consists of markers attached to the paddle element and recorded using a machine vision camera. A pose estimation algorithm is then applied to the detected markers to estimate the tilt of the paddle. In this work, we examine the challenges of image acquisition and calibration for underwater targets, compare the motion obtained by this new system with a calibrated tilt sensor and identify areas where the new system may be superior.

computer vision↗

DOE OSTI2021

Results for the Fourth Quarter Calendar Year 2020 Tank 50 Salt Solution Sample

In this Technical Report, the chemical and radionuclide contaminant results from the Fourth Quarter Calendar Year 2020 (CY20) sample of Tank 50 salt solution are presented in tabulated form. The information from this characterization will be used by Savannah River Remediation (SRR) for the transfer of aqueous waste from Tank 50 to the Saltstone Production Facility (SPF), where the waste will be treated and disposed in the Saltstone Disposal Facility. This Technical Report compares results, where applicable, to SPF Waste Acceptance Criteria (WAC) Limits and Targets. The chemical and radionuclide contaminant results from the characterization of the Fourth Quarter CY20 sampling of Tank 50 were requested by SRR personnel via a Task Technical Request (TTR) and details of the testing are presented in the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) Task Technical and Quality Assurance Plan (TTQAP). This Technical Report is part of Deliverable 2 relating to Task 1 from the SRR request. Data pertaining to the regulatory limits for Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) metals per Task 2 from the SRR request, will be obtained semi-annually for the 1QCY21 and 3QCY21 Tank 50 samples. However, data pertaining to the regulatory limits for Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) metals for this current 4QCY20 Tank 50 sample will be obtained and documented per the special analysis associated with the vault classification sample as described in the associated TTQAP.

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DOE OSTI2021

Tank 50 Salt Solution Sample (2QCY21)

In this Technical Report, the chemical and radionuclide contaminant results from the Second Quarter Calendar Year 2021 (CY21) sample of Tank 50 salt solution are presented in tabulated form. The information from this characterization will be used by Savannah River Remediation (SRR) for the transfer of aqueous waste from Tank 50 to the Saltstone Production Facility (SPF), where the waste will be treated and disposed in the Saltstone Disposal Facility. This Technical Report compares results, where applicable, to SPF Waste Acceptance Criteria (WAC) Limits and Targets that were established at the time the Tank 50 sample was obtained. The chemical and radionuclide contaminant results from the characterization of the Second Quarter CY21 sampling of Tank 50 were requested by SRR personnel via a Task Technical Request (TTR) and details of the testing are presented in the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) Task Technical and Quality Assurance Plan (TTQAP). This Technical Report is part of Deliverable 2 relating to Task 1 from the SRR request. Data pertaining to the regulatory limits for Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) metals per Task 2 from the SRR request, will be obtained semi-annually for the 1QCY21 and 3QCY21 Tank 50 samples.

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DOE OSTI2022

Results for the Third Quarter Calendar Year 2021 Tank 50 Salt Solution Sample

In this Technical Report, the chemical and radionuclide contaminant results from the Third Quarter Calendar Year 2021 (CY21) sample of Tank 50 salt solution are presented in tabulated form. The information from this characterization will be used by Savannah River Remediation (SRR) for the transfer of aqueous waste from Tank 50 to the Saltstone Production Facility (SPF), where the waste will be treated and disposed in the Saltstone Disposal Facility. This Technical Report compares results, where applicable, to SPF Waste Acceptance Criteria (WAC) Limits and Targets that were established at the time the Tank 50 sample was obtained. The chemical and radionuclide contaminant results from the characterization of the Third Quarter CY21 sampling of Tank 50 were requested by SRR personnel via a Task Technical Request (TTR) and details of the testing are presented in the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) Task Technical and Quality Assurance Plan (TTQAP). This Technical Report is part of Deliverable 2 relating to Task 1 from the SRR request. Data pertaining to the regulatory limits for Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) metals per Task 2 from the SRR request, will be obtained semi-annually for the 1QCY21 and 3QCY21 Tank 50 samples.

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DOE OSTI2021

Results for the Second Quarter Calendar Year 2021 Tank 50 Salt Solution Sample

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DOE OSTI2022

Results for the January 2022 Semiannual Tank 50 Salt Solution Sample

In this Technical Report, the chemical and radionuclide contaminant results from the January 2022 Semiannual sample of Tank 50 salt solution are presented in tabulated form. The information from this characterization will be used by Savannah River Mission Completion (SRMC) for the transfer of aqueous waste from Tank 50 to the Saltstone Production Facility (SPF), where the waste will be treated and disposed in the Saltstone Disposal Facility. This Technical Report compares results, where applicable, to SPF Waste Acceptance Criteria (WAC) LIMITS and TARGETS that were established at the time the Tank 50 sample was obtained. The chemical and radionuclide contaminant results from the characterization of the January 2022 semiannual sampling of Tank 50 were requested by SRMC personnel via a Task Technical Request (TTR) and details of the testing are presented in the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) Task Technical and Quality Assurance Plan (TTQAP). This Technical Report is part of Deliverable 2 relating to Task 1 from the SRMC request. Data pertaining to the regulatory limits for Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) metals per Task 2 from the RMC request, will be obtained semiannually for the January 2022 and July 2022 Tank 50 samples.

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DOE OSTI2022

Results for the July 2022 Semiannual Tank 50 Salt Solution Sample

In this Technical Report, the chemical and radionuclide contaminant results from the July 2022 Semiannual sample of Tank 50 salt solution are presented in tabulated form. The information from this characterization will be used by Savannah River Mission Completion (SRMC) for the transfer of aqueous waste from Tank 50 to the Saltstone Production Facility (SPF), where the waste will be treated and disposed in the Saltstone Disposal Facility. This Technical Report compares results, where applicable, to SPF Waste Acceptance Criteria (WAC) LIMITS and TARGETS that were established at the time the Tank 50 sample was obtained. The chemical and radionuclide contaminant results from the characterization of the July 2022 semiannual sampling of Tank 50 were requested by SRMC personnel via a Task Technical Request (TTR) and details of the testing are presented in the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) Task Technical and Quality Assurance Plan (TTQAP). This Technical Report is part of Deliverable 2 relating to Task 1 from the SRMC request. Data pertaining to the regulatory limits for Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) metals per Task 2 from the SRMC request, will be obtained semiannually for the January 2022 and July 2022 Tank 50 samples.

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