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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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Regulating system individually adjusts duty cycles of modules so that all share load equally, thus, protects individual modules and their components from overload and increases reliability and life expectancy. Converters are alternative to high-power, single unit systems.
Device will convert wind, water, tidal or wave energy into electrical or mechanical energy. Is comprised of windmill-like paddles or blades synchronously geared to orient themselves to wind direction for optimum energy extraction.
A binary coded input signal is converted to a binary coded decimal signal having N decades by employing N four bit shift registers. The bits of the input signal are sequentially supplied, in order, to the least significant position of the register for the units decade, with the most significant bit of the input signal being applied to the units register first. Each of the registers includes a right shift-parallel load mode control input terminal. In response to the sum of the values stored in each register and the binary value 0011 being less than the binary value 1000, the mode control input terminal is activated to shift the register contents one bit to the right. In response to the sum being greater than 1000, the mode control input terminal is activated to load the sum into the register.
The investigation of the Thermoelectronic Laser Energy Converter (TELEC) concept began with a feasibility study of a 1 megawatt sized TELEC system. The TELEC was to use either cesium vapor or hydrogen as the plasma medium. The cesium vapor TELEC appears to be the more practical device studied with an overall calculated conversion efficiency of greater than 48%. Following this study, a small TELEC cell was fabricated which demonstrated the conversion of a small amount of laser power to electrical power. The cell developed a short circuit current of 0.7 amperes and an open circuit voltage, as extrapolated from volt-ampere curves, of about 1.5 volts.
Procedures are presented for obtaining valid frequency-domain transfer functions of regulated reactor energy-storage dc-to-dc converters. These procedures are for measuring loop gain, closed loop gain, output impedance, and audio susceptibility. The applications of these measurements are discussed.
A procedure is presented for designing air-gapped energy-storage reactors for nine different dc-to-dc converters resulting from combinations of three single-winding power stages for voltage stepup, current stepup and voltage stepup/current stepup and three controllers with control laws that impose constant-frequency, constant transistor on-time and constant transistor off-time operation. The analysis, based on the energy-transfer requirement of the reactor, leads to a simple relationship for the required minimum volume of the air gap. Determination of this minimum air gap volume then permits the selection of either an air gap or a cross-sectional core area. Having picked one parameter, the minimum value of the other immediately leads to selection of the physical magnetic structure. Other analytically derived equations are used to obtain values for the required turns, the inductance, and the maximum rms winding current. The design procedure is applicable to a wide range of magnetic material characteristics and physical configurations for the air-gapped magnetic structure.
A voltage to frequency converter (VFC) for general use with photomultipliers is described. For high light levels, when the dead-time corrections for a photon counter would be excessive, the VFC maintains a linear response and allows the recording of data at high time resolution. Results of laboratory tests are given for the signal-to-noise characteristics, linearity, stability, and transient response of the VFC when used in conjunction with EMI 9658 and RCA C31034 photomultipliers.
Development of the catalytic hydrosolvation process for converting coal to low-sulfur fuel oil is described in this paper. Coal impregnated with catalyst was slurried with oil, and the mixture was hydrogenated at a temperature of 475 C, and 30 min residence time under 3600 psi pressure. A ton of coal yielded 3.5 bbl of fuel oil containing 0.2% sulfur, with naphtha and C1-C4 hydrocarbon gases as byproducts. A preliminary economic evaluation of the process indicated potential for further development.
Digital signal processor (DSP) for dc-to-dc converters, processes all incoming signals and transmits correct signal to operate power switch.
Analog-to-digital (A/D) converter eliminates dc offset in final digitized signal as well as in analog input by using digital feedback for compensation. Circuit could prove useful in data processing applications in which analog-format data are entered at high rates, as in point-of-sale data input systems.
Analog-to-digital (A/D) converter operates at two different rates (slow and fast) so that low amplitude noise is reduced without loss of transient response. During tracking, when sensitivity is important, slow clock reduces noise. In search mode, when signal may change rapidly, fast clock ensures rapid response.
Work performed on this contract was primarily for the evaluation of selected electrode materials for thermionic energy converters. The original objective was to characterize selected nickel based superalloys up to temperatures of 1400 K. It was found that an early selection, Inconel 800 produced a high vapor pressure which interfered with the vacuum emission measurements. The program then shifted to two other areas. The first area was to obtain emission from the superalloys in a cesiated atmosphere. The cesium plasma helps to suppress the vaporization interference. The second area involved characterization of the Lanthanum-Boron series as thermionic emitters. These final two areas resulted in three journal publications which are attached to this report.
A nondissipative circuit for automatic load sharing in parallel converter modules having push-pull power transistors is presented. Each transistor has a separate current-sensing transformer and an impedance-adjusting transformer in series with its collector. The impedance-adjusting transformer functions as a current-controlled variable impedance that is responsive to the difference between the peak collector current of the transistor and the average peak current of all collector currents of power transistors in all modules, thereby to control the collector currents of all power transistors with reference to the average peak collector current.
The basic magnetic properties under various operating conditions encountered in the state-of-the-art DC-AC/DC converters are examined. Using a novel core excitation circuit, the basic B-H and loss characteristics of various core materials may be observed as a function of circuit configuration, frequency of operation, input voltage, and pulse-width modulation conditions. From this empirical data, a mathematical loss characteristics equation is developed to analytically predict the specific core loss of several magnetic materials under various waveform excitation conditions.
A generalized discrete time domain modeling and analysis technique is presented for all types of switching regulators using any type of duty-cycle controller, and operating in both continuous and discontinuous inductor current. State space techniques are employed to derive an equivalent nonlinear discrete time model that describes the converter exactly. The system is linearized about its equilibrium state to obtain a linear discrete time model for small signal performance evaluations, such as stability, audiosusceptibility and transient response. The analysis makes extensive use of the digital computer as an analytical tool. It is universal, exact and easy to use.
Density, dc electrical resistivity, thermal conductivity, and linear thermal expansion are measured for arc-melted rod-shaped samples of binary eutectics of Zr, Hf, Ru, Nb, Ir, Mo, Ta, Os, Re, and W selected as very-low-pressure braze fillers for thermionic converters. The first two properties are measured at 296 K for Zr-21.7 at% Ru, Zr-13 wt% W, Zr-19 wt% W, Zr-22.3 at% Nb, Nb-66.9 at% Ru, Hf-25.3 wt% Re, Zr-25.7 at% Ta, Hf-22.5 at% W, and Nb-35 wt% Mo. The last property is measured from 293 K to 2/3 melting point for specified alloys of different compositions. Resistivities of 0.000055 to 0.000181 ohm-cm are observed with the alloys having resistivities about ten times that of the less resistive constituent metal and about three times that of the more resistive constituent metal, except for Zr-19 wt% W and Nb-35 wt% Mo (greater resistivities). Thermal expansion coefficients vary from 0.000006 to 0.0000105/K. All brazes exhibit linear thermal expansion near that of their constituent metals.
State space techniques are employed to derive an equivalent nonlinear recurrent time-domain model that describes the switched dc-dc converter behavior exactly. This model is employed effectively to analyze both large signal behavior by propagating the recurrence equation and matching boundary conditions through digital computation and small signal behavior by linearizing it about the equilibrium state.
Solid-state converters yield high sensitivity at high information-retrieval speed. Main advantages are high sensitivity of photocapacitive mechanism and inherent speed of information retrieval method. Fabrication of both devices is relatively simple and inexpensive.