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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 163 records · Page 9

All sources NASA NTRS DOE OSTI

NASA NTRS1977

Large-scale thermal energy storage using sodium hydroxide /NaOH/

A technique employing NaOH phase change material for large-scale thermal energy storage to 900 F (482 C) is described; the concept consists of 12-foot diameter by 60-foot long cylindrical steel shell with closely spaced internal tubes similar to a shell and tube heat exchanger. The NaOH heat storage medium fills the space between the tubes and outer shell. To charge the system, superheated steam flowing through the tubes melts and raises the temperature of NaOH; for discharge, pressurized water flows through the same tube bundle. A technique for system design and cost estimation is shown. General technical and economic properties of the storage unit integrated into a solar power plant are discussed.

Turner, R. H.↗

NASA NTRS1972

Pulsed plasma solid propellant microthruster for the synchronous meteorological satellite. Task 4: Engineering model fabrication and test report

Two flight prototype solid propellant pulsed plasma microthruster propulsion systems for the SMS satellite were fabricated, assembled and tested. The propulsion system is a completely self contained system requiring only three electrical inputs to operate: a 29.4 volt power source, a 28 volt enable signal and a 50 millsec long command fire signal that can be applied at any rate from 50 ppm to 110 ppm. The thrust level can be varied over a range 2.2 to 1 at constant impulse bit amplitude. By controlling the duration of the 28 volt enable either steady state thrust or a series of discrete impulse bits can be generated. A new technique of capacitor charging was implemented to reduce high voltage stress on energy storage capacitors.

Guman, W. J.↗

NASA NTRS1980

Outer planet investigations using a CCD camera system

Problems related to analog noise, data transfer from the camera buffer to the storage computer, and loss of sensitivity of a two dimensional charge coupled device imaging system are reported. To calibrate the CCD system, calibrated UBV pinhole scans of the Saturn disk were obtained with a photoelectric area scanning photometer. Atmospheric point spread functions were also obtained. The UBV observations and models of the Saturn atmosphere are analyzed.

Price, M. J.↗

NASA NTRS1983

Space station: Cost and benefits

Costs for developing, producing, operating, and supporting the initial space station, a 4 to 8 man space station, and a 4 to 24 man space station are estimated and compared. These costs include contractor hardware; space station assembly and logistics flight costs; and payload support elements. Transportation system options examined include orbiter modules; standard and extended duration STS fights; reusable spacebased perigee kick motor OTV; and upper stages. Space station service charges assessed include crew hours; energy requirements; payload support module storage; pressurized port usage; and OTV service facility. Graphs show costs for science missions, space processing research, small communication satellites; large GEO transportation; OVT launch costs; DOD payload costs, and user costs.

Source record↗

NASA NTRS1991

Impedances of nickel electrodes cycled in various KOH concentrations

Recent tests at Hughes have shown that Ni/H2 cells cycled in 26 percent KOH have much longer lives than those cycled in other concentrations. As part of an ongoing program to try to correlate the impedances of nickel electrodes with their life and performance, impedances were measured of a number of electrodes from these tests that had been cycled in concentrations from 21 to 36 percent KOH. These had ranged from about 1000 to 40,000 cycles. After cycling ten times to reduce possible changes due to storage, impedances were measured at five voltages corresponding to low states of charge. The results were analyzed using a standard circuit model including Warburg impedance term. Lower kinetic resistances and Warburg slopes were found for several electrodes which had been cycled in 26 percent KOH even though they had been cycled for a much longer time than the others. Interpretation of the data is complicated by the fact that the cycle lives, storage times, and failure mechanisms varied. Several other circuit models have also been examined, but the best correlations with life were found with parameters obtained from the simple model.

Margaret A Reid↗

NASA NTRS1992

Symposium on High Power, Ambient Temperature Lithium Batteries, 180th Meeting of the Electrochemical Society, Phoenix, AZ, Oct. 13-17, 1991, Proceedings

Papers presented in these proceedings are on the state of the art in high-power lithium batteries, a design analysis of high-power Li-TiS2 battery, the performance and safety features of spiral wound lithium/thionyl chloride cells, the feasibility of a superhigh energy density battery of the Li/BrF3 electrochemical system, and an enhanced redox process of disulfide compounds and their application in high energy storage. Attention is also given to the structure and charge-discharge characteristics of mesophase-pitch based carbons, a study of carbons and graphites as anodes for lithium rechargeable cells, Li metal-free rechargeable Li(1+x)Mn2O4/carbon cells, and rechargeable lithium batteries using V6O13/V5O5 as the positive electrode material. Other papers discuss the electrochemical stability of organic electrolytes in contact with solid inorganic cathode materials, the electrochemical behavior of methyl formate solutions, and the interface between a solid polymer electrolyte and lithium anode.

Clark, W. D. K.↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Experimental Investigation of a Physisorption-Based Hydrogen Storage System

This study discusses a practical system utilizing the principle of physisorption where hydrogen is weakly bound to the surface of a nanoporous silica aerogel blanket as an alternative to high-pressure and cryogenic hydrogen storage. Three different experiments are conducted to simulate various scenarios of such a storage method: change in pressure and change of scale. Transient responses of the charging and discharging cycles are of particular interest. It is observed that hydrogen uptake can be increased by up to 36-38 % at ambient conditions and 77 K when utilizing the aerogel blankets. Packing density, or the artificial increase of surface per volume, increases storage capacity as it is a mainly surface-driven phenomenon. High-pressure testing up to 50 bar showed benefits of the aerogel addition whereas the maximum uptake improvement was observed for 2 bar with a 105.3 % improvement over an empty vessel at identical conditions corresponding to 6.43 wt%. The scale-up of the system is highly sensitive to the design of the internal cooling design as aerogels are poor thermal conductors reducing the transient response of such systems. Furthermore, the high mass of metal-based pressure vessels further delays the thermal response. This makes the system suitable for day to week-long hydrogen storage but not for peak-shaving or load balancing.

Marcel Otto↗

NASA NTRS2016

Graphene-Based Systems for Energy Storage

Development of graphene-based energy storage devices based on the Laser Scribe system developed by the University of California Los Angeles. These devices These graphene-based devices store charge on graphene sheets and take advantage of the large accessible surface area of graphene (2,600 m2g) to increase the electrical energy that can be stored. The proposed devices should have the electrical storage capacity of thin-film-ion batteries but with much shorter charge discharge cycle times as well as longer lives The proposed devices will be carbon-based and so will not have the same issues with flammability or toxicity as the standard lithium-based storage cells.

carbon-based↗

NASA NTRS1980

REDOX electrochemical energy storage

Reservoirs of chemical solutions can store electrical energy with high efficiency. Reactant solutions are stored outside conversion section where charging and discharging reactions take place. Conversion unit consists of stacks of cells connected together in parallel hydraulically, and in series electrically. Stacks resemble fuel cell batteries. System is 99% ampere-hour efficient, 75% watt hour efficient, and has long projected lifetime. Applications include storage buffering for remote solar or wind power systems, and industrial load leveling. Cost estimates are $325/kW of power requirement plus $51/kWh storage capacity. Mass production would reduce cost by about factor of two.

Thaller, L. H.↗

NASA NTRS2006

Round Trip Energy Efficiency of NASA Glenn Regenerative Fuel Cell System

NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC) has recently demonstrated a Polymer Electrolyte Membrane (PEM) based hydrogen/oxygen regenerative fuel cell system (RFCS) that operated for a charge/discharge cycle with round trip efficiency (RTE) greater than 50 percent. The regenerative fuel cell system (RFCS) demonstrated closed loop energy storage over a pressure range of 90 to 190 psig. In charge mode, a constant electrical power profile of 7.1 kWe was absorbed by the RFCS and stored as pressurized hydrogen and oxygen gas. In discharge mode, the system delivered 3 to 4 kWe of electrical power along with product water. Fuel cell and electrolyzer power profiles and polarization performance are documented in this paper. Individual cell performance and the variation of cell voltages within the electrochemical stacks are also reported. Fuel cell efficiency, electrolyzer efficiency, and the system RTE were calculated from the test data and are included below.

Garcia, Christopher P.↗

NASA NTRS2013

Microgravity Storage Vessels and Conveying-Line Feeders for Cohesive Regolith

Under microgravity, the usual methods of placing granular solids into, or extracting them from, containers or storage vessels will not function. Alternative methods are required to provide a motive force to move the material. New configurations for microgravity regolith storage vessels that do not resemble terrestrial silos, hoppers, or tanks are proposed. The microgravity-compatible bulk-material storage vessels and exit feed configurations are designed to reliably empty and feed cohesive material to transfer vessels or conveying ducts or lines without gravity. A controllable motive force drives the cohesive material to the exit opening(s), and provides a reliable means to empty storage vessels and/or to feed microgravity conveying lines. The proposed designs will function equally well in vacuum, or inside of pressurized enclosures. Typical terrestrial granular solids handling and storage equipment will not function under microgravity, since almost all such equipment relies on gravity to at least move material to an exit location or to place it in the bottom of a container. Under microgravity, there effectively are no directions of up or down, and in order to effect movement of material, some other motive force must be applied to the material. The proposed storage vessels utilize dynamic centrifugal force to effect movement of regolith whenever material needs to be removed from the storage vessel. During simple storage, no dynamic motion or forces are required. The rotation rate during emptying can be controlled to ensure that material will move to the desired exit opening, even if the material is highly cohesive, or has acquired an electrostatic charge. The general concept of this Swirl Action Utilized for Centrifugal Ejection of Regolith (SAUCER) microgravity storage unit/dynamic feeder is to have an effective slot-hopper (based on the converging angles of the top and bottom conical section of the vessel) with an exit slot around the entire periphery of the SAUCER. The basic shape of such a unit is like two Chinese straw hats (douli) - one upside down, on the bottom, and another on top; or two wokpans, one upright on the bottom and another inverted on top, with a small gap between the upright and inverted pans or hats (around the periphery). A stationary outer ring, much like an unmounted bicycle tire, surrounds the gap between the two coaxial, nearly conical pieces, forming the top and bottom of the unit.

Walton, Otis R.↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Battery State-of-Health Aware Path Planning for a Mars Rover

A rover mission consists of visiting waypoints to gather scientific samples based on set requirements. However, rovers face operational uncertainties during the mission, affecting the performance of its electrical and mechanical components and overall mission success. Hence, it is critical to have a decision-making framework that is aware of the health state of the components when planning the path of the vehicle. In particular, battery degradation, and consequently the battery State of Health (SOH), can affect the optimality of decisions made by the autonomous system in the long term. This paper presents a decision-making system that incorporates information on the energy drawn from the battery (based on the vehicle’s velocity), terrain conditions, and model-based prognostic modules to assess the impact on the battery’s state of charge (SoC). The decision-making system was formulated as a Markov Decision Process (MDP) to reach the goal destination by sending commands in a determined amount of time while maintaining the battery SoC within the policy stated. The MDP problem was programmed using the open-source framework POMDPs.jl, which has a variety of online and offline solvers. To solve the MDP problem online, we used Monte Carlo Tree Search (MCTS). Results from simulations demonstrate the effect that battery degradation and charging plans have on decision-making.

Prognostics↗

NASA NTRS2003

Developing Antimatter Containment Technology: Modeling Charged Particle Oscillations in a Penning-Malmberg Trap

The NASA MSFC Propulsion Research Center (PRC) is conducting a research activity examining the storage of low energy antiprotons. The High Performance Antiproton Trap (HiPAT) is an electromagnetic system (Penning-Malmberg design) consisting of a 4 Tesla superconductor, a high voltage confinement electrode system, and an ultra high vacuum test section; designed with an ultimate goal of maintaining charged particles with a half-life of 18 days. Currently, this system is being experimentally evaluated using normal matter ions which are cheap to produce and relatively easy to handle and provide a good indication of overall trap behavior, with the exception of assessing annihilation losses. Computational particle-in-cell plasma modeling using the XOOPIC code is supplementing the experiments. Differing electrode voltage configurations are employed to contain charged particles, typically using flat, modified flat and harmonic potential wells. Ion cloud oscillation frequencies are obtained experimentally by amplification of signals induced on the electrodes by the particle motions. XOOPIC simulations show that for given electrode voltage configurations, the calculated charged particle oscillation frequencies are close to experimental measurements. As a two-dimensional axisymmetric code, XOOPIC cannot model azimuthal plasma variations, such as those induced by radio-frequency (RF) modulation of the central quadrupole electrode in experiments designed to enhance ion cloud containment. However, XOOPIC can model analytically varying electric potential boundary conditions and particle velocity initial conditions. Application of these conditions produces ion cloud axial and radial oscillation frequency modes of interest in achieving the goal of optimizing HiPAT for reliable containment of antiprotons.

Chakrabarti, S.↗

NASA NTRS1972

Durability tests of a five-centimeter diameter ion thruster system.

A modified Hughes SIT-5 system is being tested for durability at the Lewis Research Center. As of Oct. 1, 1972, the thruster subsystem has logged over 8000 hours of operation. The initial 2023 hours were run with a translating screen thrust vector grid. The thruster is currently operating with an electrostatic type vector grid. Profiles and maps taken at widely separated intervals show that performance and operating characteristics have remained essentially constant. Overall efficiency is about 32 per cent and power to thrust ratio is 170 watts per millipound at a specific impulse of 2500 seconds. Telescopic examination of the vector grid shows some sputtering erosion due to charge exchange and direct impingement ions. An independent test of the propellant storage and cathode-isolator-vaporizer subsystem has demonstrated good reliability under simulated thruster operating conditions.

Nakanishi, S.↗

NASA NTRS1983

Assessment of flywheel energy storage for spacecraft power systems

The feasibility of inertial energy storage in a spacecraft power system is evaluated on the basis of a conceptual integrated design that encompasses a composite rotor, magnetic suspension, and a permanent magnet (PM) motor/generator for a 3-kW orbital average payload at a bus distribution voltage of 250 volts dc. The conceptual design, which evolved at the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), is referred to as a Mechanical Capacitor. The baseline power system configuration selected is a series system employing peak-power-tracking for a Low Earth-Orbiting application. Power processing, required in the motor/generator, provides a potential alternative configurations that can only be achieved in systems with electrochemical energy storage by the addition of power processing components. One such alternative configuration provides for peak-power-tracking of the solar array and still maintains a regulated bus, without the expense of additional power processing components. Precise speed control of the two counterrotating wheels is required to reduce interaction with the attitude control system (ACS) or alternatively, used to perform attitude control functions. Critical technologies identified are those pertaining to the energy storage element and are prioritized as composite wheel development, magnetic suspension, motor/generator, containment, and momentum control. Comparison with a 3-kW, 250-Vdc power system using either NiCd or NiH2 for energy storage results in a system in which inertial energy storage offers potential advantages in lifetime, operating temperature, voltage regulation, energy density, charge control, and overall system weight reduction.

Rodriguez, G. E.↗

NASA NTRS1986

Control Electronics for Solar/Flywheel Power Supply

Control circuit automatically directs flow of electrical energy to and from motor with flywheel that constitutes storage element of solar-power system. When insolation is sufficient for charging, power is supplied by solar-cell array to load and motor. During periods of darkness, motor made to act as generator, drawing kinetic energy from flywheel and supplying it to load.

Nola, F. J.↗

NASA NTRS2018

GOES-R Lithium-Ion Battery Life Test & Workhorse Battery Performance

The GOES R series lithium-ion battery life test results are presented for the next-generation GOES R series weather satellites. Lockheed Martin is under contract to NASA Goddard to build and deliver four GOES-R series satellites which are operated by NOAA. In addition, Lockheed Martin is required to build a GOES R series flight battery to flight drawings and processes and perform an accelerated geosynchronous earth-orbiting (GEO) life test consisting of 30 real-time eclipse seasons and 30 accelerated solstice seasons. The GOES R series batteries are designed and built by Saft America, Inc. Space and Defense Division in Cockeysville, MD with Saft VL48E cells. The GOES R series life test battery which has been built to flight drawings and processes has undergone 21 seasons of accelerated GEO testing (which is equivalent to over 10 years on-orbit). This presentation includes a description of the life test and latest test results through season 20. The life test battery capacity measurements prior to cycling and after seasons 4, 10, and 20 which have shown little or no change are summarized. In addition, the performance of the GOES R series workhorse batteries performance are presented. These GOES R series workhorse batteries are used during spacecraft testing and have shown no discernable capacity loss after 7 years of mostly ambient operation and cold storage since activation. An overview of the electrical power subsystem and battery charge is, also, addressed.

Tucker, Jon↗

NASA NTRS1979

Recent advances in redox flow cell storage systems

Several features which were conceived and incorporated into complete redox systems that greatly enhanced its ability to be kept in proper charge balance, to be capable of internal voltage regulation, and in general be treated as a true multicell electrochemical system rather than an assembly of single cells that were wired together, were discussed. The technology status as it relates to the two application areas of solar photovoltaic/wind and distributed energy storage for electric utility applications was addressed. The cost and life advantages of redox systems were also covered.

Thaller, L. H.↗