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DOE OSTI2019

Estimating field-dependent nodal aberration theory coefficients from Zernike full-field displays by utilizing eighth-order astigmatism

When using freeform surfaces in optical design, the field dependence of the aberrations can become quite complex and understanding these aberrations facilitates the design process. Here, we calculate the field dependence of low-order Zernike astigmatism (Z5/6) up to 8th order in Nodal Aberration Theory (NAT). Expansion of NAT astigmatism terms to 8th order facilitates a more accurate fit to the Zernike astigmatism data. We then show how this estimated field dependence can be used to quantitatively analyze a freeform telescope design. Lastly, this analysis tool adds to the optical designer’s arsenal when up against the challenge of designing with freeform optics.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

DOE OSTI2024

Machine Learning of Plasma Science for Next Generation Microelectronics (Project Final Report)

Low temperature plasmas (LTPs) are an enabling technology behind reducing device dimensions and the continuation of Moore’s Law. It is estimated that 40-45% of all process steps necessary to manufacture semiconductor devices involve LTPs. However, challenges in plasma process design and continuous incorporation of novel materials for new device architectures are pushing the limits of what is possible with current plasma technology. For example, creating higher aspect ratio structures and etching features at the atomic scale both require finer control of the ion energy/velocity at wafer surfaces. To support these types of future innovations in the plasma processing systems that Sandia and the DOE rely upon, we have developed novel diagnostics, simulations, and machine learning capabilities to discover, characterize, and predict plasma phenomena affecting the ion energy/velocity distribution function (IEDF). These efforts also supported research program development and external collaboration with industry and academia through Sandia’s Plasma Research Facility (PRF). This report will focus on the following topics and accomplishments of this three year LDRD project, briefly summarized.

42 ENGINEERING↗

DOE OSTI2019

Simplified 2D Skin Lattice Models for Multi-Axial Camber Morphing Wing Aircraft

Conventional fixed wing aircraft require a selection of certain thickness of skin material that guarantees structural strength for aerodynamic loadings in various flight modes. However, skin structures of morphing wings are expected to be flexible as well as stiff to structural and coupled aerodynamic loadings from geometry change. Many works in the design of skin structures for morphing wings consider only geometric compliance. Among many morphing classifications, we consider camber rate change as airfoil morphing that changes its rate of the airfoil that induces warping, twisting, and bending in multi-axial directions, which makes compliant skin design for morphing a challenging task. It is desired to design a 3D skin structure for a morphing wing; however, it is a computationally challenging task in the design stage to optimize the design parameters. Therefore, it is of interest to establish the structure design process in rapid approaches. As a first step, the main theme of this study is to numerically validate and suggest simplified 2D plate models that fully represents multi-axial 3D camber morphing. In addition to that, the authors show the usage of lattice structures for the 2D plate models’ skin that will lead to on-demand design of advanced structure through the modification of selected structure.

Alsaidi, Bashir↗

NASA NTRS1980

Preliminary design of composite wing-box structures for global damage tolerance

A procedure is presented that incorporates the influence of potential global damage conditions into the design process for minimum-mass wing-box structures. The procedure is based on mathematical-programming optimization techniques. Material-strength, minimum-gage, and panel-buckling constraints are introduced by penalty functions, and Newton's method with approximate second derivatives of the penalty terms is used as the search algorithm to obtain minimum-mass designs. A potential global damage condition is represented by a structural model with the damaged components removed. Example minimum-mass designs are obtained that simultaneously satisfy the constraints of the damaged and undamaged configurations of both graphite-epoxy and aluminum wing-box structural models. These examples are designed with and without the influence of potential damage conditions, and results indicate that for equal mass cases the residual strength of a damaged structure is higher when the influence of potential damage is properly included in the design from the outset. Results of these examples also identify the minimum structural mass increase required to increase residual strength levels.

Starnes, J. H., Jr.↗

NASA NTRS2001

X-traktor: A Rookie Robot, Simple, Yet Complex, Impeccably Designed, a Very Innovative Multidisciplinary Engineering Masterpiece

FIRST is the acronym of For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology. FIRST is a 501.C.3 non-profit organization whose mission is to generate an interest in science and engineering among today's young adults and youth. This mission is accomplished through a robot competition held annually in the spring of each year. NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center, Education Programs Department, awarded a grant to Lee High School, the sole engineering magnet school in Huntsville, Alabama. MSFC awarded the grant in hopes of fulfilling its goal of giving back invaluable resources to its community and engineers, as well as educating tomorrow's work force in the high-tech area of science and technology. Marshall engineers, Lee High School students and teachers, and a host of other volunteers and parents officially initiated this robot design process and competitive strategic game plan. The FIRST Robotics Competition is a national engineering contest, which immerses high school students in the exciting world of science and engineering. Teaming with engineers from government agencies, businesses, and universities enables the students to learn about the engineering profession. The students and engineers have six weeks to work together to brainstorm, design, procure, construct, and test their robot. The team then competes in a spirited, 'no-holds barred' tournament, complete with referees, other FIRST-designed robots, cheerleaders, and time clocks. The partnerships developed between schools, government agencies, businesses, and universities provide an exchange of resources and talent that build cooperation and expose students to new and rewarding career options. The result is a fun, exciting, and stimulating environment in which all participants discover the important connections between classroom experiences and real-world applications. This paper will highlight the story, engineering development, and evolutionary design of Xtraktor, the rookie robot, a manufacturing marvel and engineering achievement.

Henderson, A. J., Jr.↗

NASA NTRS2002

Architecting Systems for Human Space Flight

Human-system interactions have been largely overlooked in the traditional systems engineering process. Awareness of human factors (HF) has increased in the past few years, but the involvement of HF specialists is still often too little and too late. In systems involving long-duration human space flight, it is essential that the human component be properly considered in the initial architectural definition phase, as well as throughout the system design process. HF analysis must include not only the strengths and limitations of humans in general, but the variability between individuals and within an individual over time, and the dynamics of group interactions.

Wocken, Gerald↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

TBIRD, a rapid prototyping approach for design, assembly, and test of a LEO-to-ground lasercom CubeSat

The TeraByte InfraRed Delivery (TBIRD) system is a 3U payload on a 6U CubeSat launched in May 2022 which has now demonstrated space to ground links of >1 Terabyte (TB) per pass at a max data rate of 200Gbps. As a CubeSat mission, the development of the TBIRD payload was focused on low SWaP and a “rapid prototyping” approach which accepted higher risks to accelerate the schedule and reduce costs. The optomechanical design process followed standard in-house processes to develop a system that would be robust to LEO environmental loads, with a focus on the stability of the transmit (Tx) and receive (Rx) channel performance metrics. The driving requirement of maintaining 20μrad pointing error between the TX and Rx channels forced specific attention to thermal and mechanical load changes over operational conditions, which drove major design decisions. This paper describes some of engineering challenges overcome and approaches used to make TBIRD a successful program, as well as some of the tradeoffs of rapid prototyping precision optical payloads. TBIRD successfully met and exceeded the total downlink requirements listed above, with a bandwidth of 200Gbps and a total downlink of 4.8TB of information in a single pass.

TBIRD↗

DOE OSTI2021

Fabrication and Testing of 18-mm-Period, 0.5-m-Long Nb 3 Sn Superconducting Undulator

The Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory, in collaboration with FNAL and LBNL, is developing a Nb 3 Sn superconducting undulator with the goal of installing this device on the APS storage ring and providing APS users with the novel radiation source. A series of short, similar to ~ 8-cm-long, 18-mm-period undulator prototype magnets have been designed, fabricated, and tested. The same design was scaled to fabricate a 0.5-m-long undulator prototype. Tests of this prototype showed that the designed peak magnetic field of 1.2 T at 850 A was successfully achieved. It represents at least a 20% improvement in comparison with a NbTi SCU having the same period and magnetic gap. Test results and lessons learned from the design process are reported here.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

NASA NTRS2016

Trajectory Design Enhancements to Mitigate Risk for the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS)

The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) will employ a highly eccentric Earth orbit, in 2:1 lunar resonance, which will be reached with a lunar flyby preceded by 3.5 phasing loops. The TESS mission has limited propellant and several constraints on the science orbit and on the phasing loops. Based on analysis and simulation, we have designed the phasing loops to reduce delta-V (DV) and to mitigate risk due to maneuver execution errors. We have automated the trajectory design process and use distributed processing to generate and optimal nominal trajectories; to check constraint satisfaction; and finally to model the effects of maneuver errors to identify trajectories that best meet the mission requirements.

satellite↗

DOE OSTI2023

Will Stochastic Devices Play Nice With Others in Neuromorphic Hardware?: There’s More to a Probabilistic System Than Noisy Devices

Achieving brain-like efficiency in computing requires a co-design between the development of neural algorithms, brain-inspired circuit design, and careful consideration of how to use emerging devices. The recognition that leveraging device-level noise as a source of controlled stochasticity represents an exciting prospect of achieving brain-like capabilities in probabilistic neural algorithms, but the reality of integrating stochastic devices with deterministic devices in an already-challenging neuromorphic circuit design process is formidable. Here, we explore how the brain combines different signaling modalities into its neural circuits as well as consider the implications of more tightly integrated stochastic, analog, and digital circuits. Further, by acknowledging that a fully CMOS implementation is the appropriate baseline, we conclude that if mixing modalities is going to be successful for neuromorphic computing, it will be critical that device choices consider strengths and limitations at the overall circuit level.

42 ENGINEERING↗

DOE OSTI2017

Hybrid Molten Bed Gasifier for High Hydrogen Syngas Production

The techno-economic analyses of the hybrid molten bed gasification technology and laboratory testing of the HMB process were carried out in this project by the Gas Technology Institute and partner Nexant, Inc. under contract with the US Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory. This report includes the results of two complete IGCC and Fischer-Tropsch TEA analyses comparing HMB gasification with the Shell slagging gasification process as a base case. Also included are the results of the laboratory simulation tests of the HMB process using Illinois #6 coal fed along with natural gas, two different syngases, and steam. Work in this 18-month project was carried out in three main Tasks. Task 2 was completed first and involved modeling, mass and energy balances, and gasification process design. The results of this work were provided to Nexant as input to the TEA IGCC and FT configurations studied in detail in Task 3. The results of Task 2 were also used to guide the design of the laboratory-scale testing of the HMB concept in the submerged combustion melting test facility in GTI’s industrial combustion laboratory. All project work was completed on time and budget. A project close-out meeting reviewing project results was conducted on April 1, 2015 at GTI in Des Plaines, IL. The hybrid molten bed gasification process techno-economic analyses found that the HMB process is both technically and economically attractive compared with the Shell entrained flow gasification process. In IGCC configuration, HMB gasification provides both efficiency and cost benefits. In Fischer-Tropsch configuration, HMB shows small benefits, primarily because even at current low natural gas prices, natural gas is more expensive than coal on an energy cost basis. HMB gasification was found in the TEA to improve the overall IGCC economics as compared to the coal only Shell gasification process. Operationally, the HMB process proved to be robust and easy to operate. The burner was stable over the full oxygen to fuel firing range (0.8 to 1.05 of fuel gas stoichiometry) and with all fuel gases (natural gas and two syngas compositions), with steam, and without steam. The lower Btu content of the syngases presented no combustion difficulties. The molten bed was stable throughout testing. The molten bed was easily established as a bed of molten glass. As the composition changed from glass cullet to cullet with slag, no instabilities were encountered. The bed temperature and product syngas temperature remained stable throughout testing, demonstrating that the bed serves as a good heat sink for the gasification process. Product syngas temperature measured above the bed was stable at ~1600ºF. Testing found that syngas quality measured as H 2 /CO ratio increased with decreasing oxygen to fuel gas stoichiometric ratio, higher steam to inlet carbon ratio, higher temperature, and syngas compared with natural gas. The highest H 2 /CO ratios achieved were in the range of 0.70 to 0.78. These values are well below the targets of 1.5 to 2.0 that were expected and were predicted by modeling. The team, however, is encouraged that the HMB process can and will achieve H 2 /CO ratios up to 2.0. Changes needed include direct injection of coal into the molten bed of slag to prevent coal particle bypass into the product gas stream, elevation of the molten bed temperature to approximately 2500ºF, and further decrease of the oxygen to fuel gas ratio to well below the 0.85 minimum ratio used in the testing in this project.

20 FOSSIL-FUELED POWER PLANTS↗

NASA NTRS1992

On the use of a three-dimensional Navier-Stokes solver for rocket engine pump impeller design

A 3D Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes Solver and a Fast Grid Generator (FGG), developed specially for centrifugal impeller design, were incorporated into the pump impeller design process. The impeller performance from the CFD analysis was compared to one-dimensional prediction. Both analyses showed good agreement of the impeller hydraulic efficiency, 94.5 percent, but with an 8 percent discrepancy of Euler head prediction. The impeller blade angle, discharge hub to shroud width, axial length and blade stacking were systematically changed to achieve an optimum impeller design. Impeller overall efficiency, loss distribution, hub-to-tip flow angle distortion and blade-to-blade flow angle change are among those criteria used to evaluate impeller performance. Two grid sizes, one with 10 K grid points and one with 80 K grid points were used to evaluate grid dependency issues. The effects of grid resolution on the accuracy and turnaround time are discussed. In conclusion, it is demonstrated that CFD can be effectively used for design and optimization of rocket engine pump components.

Chen, Wei-Chung↗

NASA NTRS1996

Mars global surveyor

The design and performance of a highly reliable, 20 volt nickel hydrogen battery compatible with existing NiCad Mars observer based spacecraft components and an 800 psi, zirconium wall wick Common Pressure Vessel (CPV) are discussed. The objectives of the design process are: to meet or exceed all PD requirements by using existing technologies; to have high reliability hardware and parallel fabrication of components; and low schedule risk configurations. This paper discusses the tests performed on the batteries (capacity, charge retention, random vib., pyro shock, energy density, and packing factor) and the results of the tests. In addition to the design discussion, a brief introduction on Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Satellite objectives (NASA's next interplanetary mission) is also presented.

Source record↗

NASA NTRS2007

High-Performance, Radiation-Hardened Electronics for Space Environments

The Radiation Hardened Electronics for Space Environments (RHESE) project endeavors to advance the current state-of-the-art in high-performance, radiation-hardened electronics and processors, ensuring successful performance of space systems required to operate within extreme radiation and temperature environments. Because RHESE is a project within the Exploration Technology Development Program (ETDP), RHESE's primary customers will be the human and robotic missions being developed by NASA's Exploration Systems Mission Directorate (ESMD) in partial fulfillment of the Vision for Space Exploration. Benefits are also anticipated for NASA's science missions to planetary and deep-space destinations. As a technology development effort, RHESE provides a broad-scoped, full spectrum of approaches to environmentally harden space electronics, including new materials, advanced design processes, reconfigurable hardware techniques, and software modeling of the radiation environment. The RHESE sub-project tasks are: SelfReconfigurable Electronics for Extreme Environments, Radiation Effects Predictive Modeling, Radiation Hardened Memory, Single Event Effects (SEE) Immune Reconfigurable Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) (SIRF), Radiation Hardening by Software, Radiation Hardened High Performance Processors (HPP), Reconfigurable Computing, Low Temperature Tolerant MEMS by Design, and Silicon-Germanium (SiGe) Integrated Electronics for Extreme Environments. These nine sub-project tasks are managed by technical leads as located across five different NASA field centers, including Ames Research Center, Goddard Space Flight Center, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Langley Research Center, and Marshall Space Flight Center. The overall RHESE integrated project management responsibility resides with NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC). Initial technology development emphasis within RHESE focuses on the hardening of Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA)s and Field Programmable Analog Arrays (FPAA)s for use in reconfigurable architectures. As these component/chip level technologies mature, the RHESE project emphasis shifts to focus on efforts encompassing total processor hardening techniques and board-level electronic reconfiguration techniques featuring spare and interface modularity. This phased approach to distributing emphasis between technology developments provides hardened FPGA/FPAAs for early mission infusion, then migrates to hardened, board-level, high speed processors with associated memory elements and high density storage for the longer duration missions encountered for Lunar Outpost and Mars Exploration occurring later in the Constellation schedule.

Keys, Andrew S.↗

NASA NTRS2018

Lightweight, Durable, and Multifunctional Electrical Insulation Material Systems for High Voltage Applications

Newly developed multilayer structures of well-known polymer insulation materials significantly improved dielectric breakdown voltage, VB, or dielectric strength, K, if well-bonded, when compared to those of single material insulations or the commercial SOA systems, such as Teflon-Kapton-Teflon (TKT), at the same overall thickness. To date, the greatest improvement of the new structures from a few candidate materials, including various types of Kapton PIs and PFA or PET as bond layer (BL), was about 61% higher than that of the Kapton PI alone films, 40.1 vs. 24.9 kV, which was translated to 86.3% decrease in insulation thickness, thus significant volume and weight reduction of the final system. However, it was of interest to note that most improvements of the multilayer structures occurred at thicker overall thicknesses, above ~ 0.15 mm. Extensive analyses also showed that K of the multilayer structures increased with (i) decreasing individual layer thickness regardless of material type, (ii) increasing total accumulated thickness of PI or overall PI/BL ratio, and (iii) increasing number of interface or total number of layers, but only above the aforementioned overall thickness limit. Increases in VB of the multilayer structures were directly correlated with damage evolution and failure mode. With further material-design-process optimizations of the multilayer structures, it was expected to achieve other multifunctionalities, such as high partial discharge (PD) resistance, improved durability, EMI shielding, and high thermal dissipation in addition to high dielectric strength. These new structures can be used in various high voltage and high temperature applications, such as future hybrid or all electric aircraft wiring and power transmission as well as many other non-aerospace high power cables, electronic parts and components, printed circuit board, and so forth. The multilayer insulation system can be easily processed and manufactured with various conductor types via calendaring, compression-molding, stamping, laminating, vacuum-bagging and autoclaving, or 3D printing, even for complex 3-D components. Based on their unique structural configurations and potential capabilities, the new insulation system was identified as micro-multilayer multifunctional electrical insulation (MMEI). Patent application of the MMEI concept and current design configurations was filed for a 1-year provisional application (OAI-58834, Serial No.: 62/659,234), pending conversion to a U.S. utility application. This paper presents details of the MMEI structures, their dielectric performance analyses, potential mechanisms, and commercial scaleup feasibility assessment.

Electric aircrafts↗

NASA NTRS2018

Lightweight, Durable, and Multifunctional Electrical Insulation Material Systems for High Voltage Applications

Multifunctional↗

NASA NTRS1992

An intelligent decomposition approach for efficient design of non-hierarchic systems

The design process associated with large engineering systems requires an initial decomposition of the complex systems into subsystem modules which are coupled through transference of output data. The implementation of such a decomposition approach assumes the ability exists to determine what subsystems and interactions exist and what order of execution will be imposed during the analysis process. Unfortunately, this is quite often an extremely complex task which may be beyond human ability to efficiently achieve. Further, in optimizing such a coupled system, it is essential to be able to determine which interactions figure prominently enough to significantly affect the accuracy of the optimal solution. The ability to determine 'weak' versus 'strong' coupling strengths would aid the designer in deciding which couplings could be permanently removed from consideration or which could be temporarily suspended so as to achieve computational savings with minimal loss in solution accuracy. An approach that uses normalized sensitivities to quantify coupling strengths is presented. The approach is applied to a coupled system composed of analysis equations for verification purposes.

Bloebaum, Christina L.↗

NASA NTRS1999

Integrated Computational System for Aerodynamic Steering and Visualization

In February of 1994, an effort from the Fluid Dynamics and Information Sciences Divisions at NASA Ames Research Center with McDonnel Douglas Aerospace Company and Stanford University was initiated to develop, demonstrate, validate and disseminate automated software for numerical aerodynamic simulation. The goal of the initiative was to develop a tri-discipline approach encompassing CFD, Intelligent Systems, and Automated Flow Feature Recognition to improve the utility of CFD in the design cycle. This approach would then be represented through an intelligent computational system which could accept an engineer's definition of a problem and construct an optimal and reliable CFD solution. Stanford University's role focused on developing technologies that advance visualization capabilities for analysis of CFD data, extract specific flow features useful for the design process, and compare CFD data with experimental data. During the years 1995-1997, Stanford University focused on developing techniques in the area of tensor visualization and flow feature extraction. Software libraries were created enabling feature extraction and exploration of tensor fields. As a proof of concept, a prototype system called the Integrated Computational System (ICS) was developed to demonstrate CFD design cycle. The current research effort focuses on finding a quantitative comparison of general vector fields based on topological features. Since the method relies on topological information, grid matching and vector alignment is not needed in the comparison. This is often a problem with many data comparison techniques. In addition, since only topology based information is stored and compared for each field, there is a significant compression of information that enables large databases to be quickly searched. This report will (1) briefly review the technologies developed during 1995-1997 (2) describe current technologies in the area of comparison techniques, (4) describe the theory of our new method researched during the grant year (5) summarize a few of the results and finally (6) discuss work within the last 6 months that are direct extensions from the grant.

Hesselink, Lambertus↗