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At least 163 records · Page 9

Stirling Research Laboratory Providing Independent Performance Verification of Convertors for a Stirling Radioisotope Generator

The Department of Energy (DOE), Germantown, Maryland, Stirling Technology Company (STC), Kennewick, Washington, and NASA Glenn Research Center are developing a free-piston Stirling convertor for a high-efficiency Stirling Radioisotope Generator for NASA Space Science missions. This generator is being developed for multimission use, including providing electric power for unmanned Mars rovers and for deep space missions. STC is developing the 55-W Technology Demonstration Convertor (TDC) under contract to DOE. Glenn is conducting an in-house technology project to assist in developing the convertor for readiness for space qualification and mission implementation. As part of this effort, a Stirling Research Laboratory was established to test the TDC's and related technologies. A key task is providing an independent verification and validation of the TDC performance. Four TDC's are now being tested at Glenn. Acceptance testing has been completed for all convertors, and in general, performance agreed well with that achieved by STC prior to the delivery of the convertors. Performance mapping has also been completed on two of the convertors over a range of hot-end temperatures (450 to 650 C), cold-end temperatures (80 to 120 C), and piston amplitudes (5.2 to 6.2 mm). These test data are available online at http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/tmsb/. The TDC's can be tested in either a horizontal orientation with dual-opposed convertors or in a vertical orientation with a single convertor. Synchronized dual-opposed pairs are used for dynamically balanced operation that results in very low levels of vibration. The Stirling Research Laboratory also supports launch environment testing of the TDC's in Glenn's Structural Dynamics Laboratory and electromagnetic interference and electromagnetic compatibility characterization and reduction efforts. In addition, the TDC's will be used for long-term endurance testing, and preparations are underway for unattended operation.

Thieme, Lanny G.↗

Arc-Heater Facility for Hot Hydrogen Exposure of Nuclear Thermal Rocket Materials

A hyper-thermal environment simulator is described for hot hydrogen exposure of nuclear thermal rocket material specimens and component development. This newly established testing capability uses a high-power, multi-gas, segmented arc-heater to produce high-temperature pressurized hydrogen flows representative of practical reactor core environments and is intended to serve. as a low cost test facility for the purpose of investigating and characterizing candidate fueUstructura1 materials and improving associated processing/fabrication techniques. Design and development efforts are thoroughly summarized, including thermal hydraulics analysis and simulation results, and facility operating characteristics are reported, as determined from a series of baseline performance mapping tests.

Litchford, Ron J.↗

Turbopump Design and Analysis Approach for Nuclear Thermal Rockets

A rocket propulsion system, whether it is a chemical rocket or a nuclear thermal rocket, is fairly complex in detail but rather simple in principle. Among all the interacting parts, three components stand out: they are pumps and turbines (turbopumps), and the thrust chamber. To obtain an understanding of the overall rocket propulsion system characteristics, one starts from analyzing the interactions among these three components. It is therefore of utmost importance to be able to satisfactorily characterize the turbopump, level by level, at all phases of a vehicle design cycle. Here at NASA Glenn Research Center, as the starting phase of a rocket engine design, specifically a Nuclear Thermal Rocket Engine design, we adopted the approach of using a high level system cycle analysis code (NESS) to obtain an initial analysis of the operational characteristics of a turbopump required in the propulsion system. A set of turbopump design codes (PumpDes and TurbDes) were then executed to obtain sizing and performance characteristics of the turbopump that were consistent with the mission requirements. A set of turbopump analyses codes (PUMPA and TURBA) were applied to obtain the full performance map for each of the turbopump components; a two dimensional layout of the turbopump based on these mean line analyses was also generated. Adequacy of the turbopump conceptual design will later be determined by further analyses and evaluation. In this paper, descriptions and discussions of the aforementioned approach are provided and future outlooks are discussed.

Chen, Shu-cheng S.↗

SWIFT Code Assessment for Two Similar Transonic Compressors

One goal of the NASA Fundamental Aeronautics Program is the assessment of computational fluid dynamic (CFD) codes used for the design and analysis of many aerospace systems. This paper describes the assessment of the SWIFT turbomachinery analysis code for two similar transonic compressors, NASA rotor 37 and stage 35. The two rotors have identical blade profiles on the front, transonic half of the blade but rotor 37 has more camber aft of the shock. Thus the two rotors have the same shock structure and choking flow but rotor 37 produces a higher pressure ratio. The two compressors and experimental data are described here briefly. Rotor 37 was also used for test cases organized by ASME, IGTI, and AGARD in 1994-1998. Most of the participating codes over predicted pressure and temperature ratios, and failed to predict certain features of the downstream flowfield. Since then the AUSM+ upwind scheme and the k- turbulence model have been added to SWIFT. In this work the new capabilities were assessed for the two compressors. Comparisons were made with overall performance maps and spanwise profiles of several aerodynamic parameters. The results for rotor 37 were in much better agreement with the experimental data than the original blind test case results although there were still some discrepancies. The results for stage 35 were in very good agreement with the data. The results for rotor 37 were very sensitive to turbulence model parameters but the results for stage 35 were not. Comparison of the rotor solutions showed that the main difference between the two rotors was not blade camber as expected, but shock/boundary layer interaction on the casing.

Chima, Rodrick V.↗

Experimental and Analytical Performance of a Dual Brayton Power Conversion System

The interactions between two closed Brayton cycle (CBC) power conversion units (PCU) which share a common gas inventory and heat source have been studied experimentally using the Dual Brayton Power Conversion System (DBPCS) and analytically using the Closed- Cycle System Simulation (CCSS) computer code. Selected operating modes include steady-state operation at equal and unequal shaft speeds and various start-up scenarios. Equal shaft speed steady-state tests were conducted for heater exit temperatures of 840 to 950 K and speeds of 50 to 90 krpm, providing a system performance map. Unequal shaft speed steady-state testing over the same operating conditions shows that the power produced by each Brayton is sensitive to the operating conditions of the other due to redistribution of gas inventory. Startup scenarios show that starting the engines one at a time can dramatically reduce the required motoring energy. Although the DBPCS is not considered a flight-like system, these insights, as well as the operational experience gained from operating and modeling this system provide valuable information for the future development of Brayton systems.

Lavelle, Thomas A.↗

Long Duration Hot Hydrogen Exposure of Nuclear Thermal Rocket Materials

An arc-heater driven hyper-thermal convective environments simulator was recently developed and commissioned for long duration hot hydrogen exposure of nuclear thermal rocket materials. This newly established non-nuclear testing capability uses a high-power, multi-gas, wall-stabilized constricted arc-heater to .produce high-temperature pressurized hydrogen flows representative of nuclear reactor core environments, excepting radiation effects, and is intended to serve as a low cost test facility for the purpose of investigating and characterizing candidate fuel/structural materials and improving associated processing/fabrication techniques. Design and engineering development efforts are fully summarized, and facility operating characteristics are reported as determined from a series of baseline performance mapping runs and long duration capability demonstration tests.

Litchford, Ron J.↗

High-Performance Tiled WMS and KML Web Server

This software is an Apache 2.0 module implementing a high-performance map server to support interactive map viewers and virtual planet client software. It can be used in applications that require access to very-high-resolution geolocated images, such as GIS, virtual planet applications, and flight simulators. It serves Web Map Service (WMS) requests that comply with a given request grid from an existing tile dataset. It also generates the KML super-overlay configuration files required to access the WMS image tiles.

Plesea, Lucian↗

Conceptual Design of a Two Spool Compressor for the NASA Large Civil Tilt Rotor Engine

This paper focuses on the conceptual design of a two spool compressor for the NASA Large Civil Tilt Rotor engine, which has a design-point pressure ratio goal of 30:1 and an inlet weight flow of 30.0 lbm/sec. The compressor notional design requirements of pressure ratio and low-pressure compressor (LPC) and high pressure ratio compressor (HPC) work split were based on a previous engine system study to meet the mission requirements of the NASA Subsonic Rotary Wing Projects Large Civil Tilt Rotor vehicle concept. Three mean line compressor design and flow analysis codes were utilized for the conceptual design of a two-spool compressor configuration. This study assesses the technical challenges of design for various compressor configuration options to meet the given engine cycle results. In the process of sizing, the technical challenges of the compressor became apparent as the aerodynamics were taken into consideration. Mechanical constraints were considered in the study such as maximum rotor tip speeds and conceptual sizing of rotor disks and shafts. The rotor clearance-to-span ratio in the last stage of the LPC is 1.5% and in the last stage of the HPC is 2.8%. Four different configurations to meet the HPC requirements were studied, ranging from a single stage centrifugal, two axi-centrifugals, and all axial stages. Challenges of the HPC design include the high temperature (1,560deg R) at the exit which could limit the maximum allowable peripheral tip speed for centrifugals, and is dependent on material selection. The mean line design also resulted in the definition of the flow path geometry of the axial and centrifugal compressor stages, rotor and stator vane angles, velocity components, and flow conditions at the leading and trailing edges of each blade row at the hub, mean and tip. A mean line compressor analysis code was used to estimate the compressor performance maps at off-design speeds and to determine the required variable geometry reset schedules of the inlet guide vane and variable stators that would result in the transonic stages being aerodynamically matched with high efficiency and acceptable stall margins based on user specified maximum levels of rotor diffusion factor and relative velocity ratio.

Veres, Joseph P.↗

Turbofan Volume Dynamics Model for Investigations of Aero-Propulso-Servo-Elastic Effects in a Supersonic Commercial Transport

A turbofan simulation has been developed for use in aero-propulso-servo-elastic coupling studies, on supersonic vehicles. A one-dimensional lumped volume approach is used whereby each component (fan, high-pressure compressor, combustor, etc.) is represented as a single volume using characteristic performance maps and conservation equations for continuity, momentum and energy. The simulation is developed in the MATLAB/SIMULINK (The MathWorks, Inc.) environment in order to facilitate controls development, and ease of integration with a future aero-servo-elastic vehicle model being developed at NASA Langley. The complete simulation demonstrated steady state results that closely match a proposed engine suitable for a supersonic business jet at the cruise condition. Preliminary investigation of the transient simulation revealed expected trends for fuel flow disturbances as well as upstream pressure disturbances. A framework for system identification enables development of linear models for controller design. Utilizing this framework, a transfer function modeling an upstream pressure disturbance s impacts on the engine speed is developed as an illustrative case of the system identification. This work will eventually enable an overall vehicle aero-propulso-servo-elastic model

Connolly, Joseph W.↗

Quiet, Efficient Fans for Spaceflight: An Overview of NASA's Technology Development Plan

A Technology Development Plan to improve the aerodynamic and acoustic performance of spaceflight fans has been submitted to NASA s Exploration Technology Development Program. The plan describes a research program intended to make broader use of the technology developed at NASA Glenn to increase the efficiency and reduce the noise of aircraft engine fans. The goal is to develop a set of well-characterized government-owned fans nominally suited for spacecraft ventilation and cooling systems. NASA s Exploration Life Support community will identify design point conditions for the fans in this study. Computational Fluid Dynamics codes will be used in the design and analysis process. The fans will be built and used in a series of tests. Data from aerodynamic and acoustic performance tests will be used to validate performance predictions. These performance maps will also be entered into a database to help spaceflight fan system developers make informed design choices. Velocity measurements downstream of fan rotor blades and stator vanes will also be collected and used for code validation. Details of the fan design, analysis, and testing will be publicly reported. With access to fan geometry and test data, the small fan industry can independently evaluate design and analysis methods and work towards improvement.

Koch, L. Danielle↗

Status of Kilowatt-Class Stirling Power Conversion Using a Pumped NaK Loop for Thermal Input

Free-piston Stirling power conversion has been identified as a viable option for potential Fission Surface Power (FSP) systems on the Moon and Mars. Proposed systems consist of two or more Stirling convertors, in a dual-opposed configuration, coupled to a low-temperature uranium-dioxide-fueled, liquid-metal-cooled reactor. To reduce developmental risks associated with liquid-metal loop integration, a test rig has been built to evaluate the performance of a pair of 1-kW free-piston Stirling convertors using a pumped sodium-potassium (NaK) loop for thermal energy input. Baseline performance maps have been generated at the Glenn Research Center (GRC) for these 1-kW convertors operating with an electric heat source. Each convertor was then retrofitted with a custom-made NaK heater head and integrated into a pumped NaK system at the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC). This paper documents baseline testing at GRC as well as the progress made in integrating the Stirling convertors into the pumped NaK loop.

Briggs, Maxwell H.↗

Hyperthermal Environments Simulator for Nuclear Rocket Engine Development

An arc-heater driven hyperthermal convective environments simulator was recently developed and commissioned for long duration hot hydrogen exposure of nuclear thermal rocket materials. This newly established non-nuclear testing capability uses a high-power, multi-gas, wall-stabilized constricted arc-heater to produce hightemperature pressurized hydrogen flows representative of nuclear reactor core environments, excepting radiation effects, and is intended to serve as a low-cost facility for supporting non-nuclear developmental testing of hightemperature fissile fuels and structural materials. The resulting reactor environments simulator represents a valuable addition to the available inventory of non-nuclear test facilities and is uniquely capable of investigating and characterizing candidate fuel/structural materials, improving associated processing/fabrication techniques, and simulating reactor thermal hydraulics. This paper summarizes facility design and engineering development efforts and reports baseline operational characteristics as determined from a series of performance mapping and long duration capability demonstration tests. Potential follow-on developmental strategies are also suggested in view of the technical and policy challenges ahead. Keywords: Nuclear Rocket Engine, Reactor Environments, Non-Nuclear Testing, Fissile Fuel Development.

Litchford, Ron J.↗

Test Results From a Pair of 1-kWe Dual-Opposed Free-Piston Stirling Power Convertors Integrated With a Pumped NaK Loop

As a step towards development of Stirling power conversion for potential use in Fission Surface Power (FSP) systems, a pair of commercially available 1-kW-class free-piston Stirling convertors were modified to operate with a NaK (sodium (Na) and potassium (K)) liquid metal pumped loop for thermal energy input. This was the first-ever attempt at powering a free-piston Stirling engine with a pumped liquid metal heat source and is a major FSP project milestone towards demonstrating technical feasibility. The convertors were successfully tested at the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) from June 6 through July 14, 2009. The convertors were operated for a total test time of 66 hr and 16 min. The tests included (a) performance mapping the convertors over various hot- and cold-end temperatures, piston amplitudes, and NaK flow rates and (b) transient test conditions to simulate various startup (i.e., low-, medium-, and high-temperature startups) and fault scenarios (i.e., loss of heat source, loss of NaK pump, convertor stall, etc.). This report documents the results of this testing

Geng, Steven M.↗

Extended Operation of Stirling Convertors at NASA Glenn Research Center

NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC) has been supporting development of free-piston Stirling conversion technology for spaceflight electrical power generation since 1999. GRC has also been supporting the development of the Advanced Stirling Radioisotope Generator (ASRG) since 2006. A key element of the ASRG project is providing life, reliability, and performance data for the Advanced Stirling Convertor (ASC). The Thermal Energy Conversion branch at GRC is conducting extended operation of several free-piston Stirling convertors. The goal of this effort is to generate long-term performance data (tens of thousands of hours) on multiple units to build a life and reliability database. Currently, GRC is operating 18 convertors. This hardware set includes Technology Demonstration Convertors (TDCs) from Infinia Corporation, of which one pair (TDCs #13 and #14) has accumulated over 60,000 hr (6.8 years) of operation. Also under test are various Sunpower, Inc. convertors that were fabricated during the ASC development activity, including ASC-0, ASC-E (including those in the ASRG engineering unit), and ASC-E2. The ASC-E2s also completed, or are in progress of completing workmanship vibration testing, performance mapping, and extended operation. Two ASC-E2 units will also be used for durability testing, during which components will be stressed to levels above nominal mission usage. Extended operation data analyses from these tests are covered in this paper.

Oriti, Salvatore, M.↗

Meanline Analysis of Turbines with Choked Flow in the Object-Oriented Turbomachinery Analysis Code

The prediction of turbomachinery performance characteristics is an important part of the conceptual aircraft engine design process. During this phase, the designer must examine the effects of a large number of turbomachinery design parameters to determine their impact on overall engine performance and weight. The lack of detailed design information available in this phase necessitates the use of simpler meanline and streamline methods to determine the turbomachinery geometry characteristics and provide performance estimates prior to more detailed CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) analyses. While a number of analysis codes have been developed for this purpose, most are written in outdated software languages and may be difficult or impossible to apply to new, unconventional designs. The Object-Oriented Turbomachinery Analysis Code (OTAC) is currently being developed at NASA Glenn Research Center to provide a flexible meanline and streamline analysis capability in a modern object-oriented language. During the development and validation of OTAC, a limitation was identified in the code's ability to analyze and converge turbines as the flow approached choking. This paper describes a series of changes which can be made to typical OTAC turbine meanline models to enable the assessment of choked flow up to limit load conditions. Results produced with this revised model setup are provided in the form of turbine performance maps and are compared to published maps.

Choked Flow↗

Dynamic Power Convertor Development for Radioisotope Power Systems at NASA Glenn Research Center

The Thermal Energy Conversion Branch at NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC) is supporting the development of high-efficiency power convertors for use in Radioisotope Power Systems (RPS). Significant progress was made towards such a system that utilized Stirling conversion during the 2001 to 2015 timeframe. Flight development of the Advanced Stirling Radioisotope Generator (ASRG) was cancelled in 2013 by the Department of Energy (DOE) and NASA Headquarters primarily due to budget constraints, and the Advanced Stirling Convertor (ASC) technology contract was subsequently concluded in 2015. A new chapter of technology development has recently been initiated by the NASA RPS Program. This effort is considering all dynamic power convertor options, such as Stirling and Brayton cycles. Four convertor development contracts supporting this effort were awarded in 2017. The awarded contracts include two free-piston Stirling, one thermoacoustic Stirling, and one turbo-Brayton designs. The technology development contracts each consist of up to three phases: Design, Fabricate, and Test. As of May 2018, all contracts have completed the Design Phase, and each underwent a design review with an independent review board. Three of the contracts are planned to execute the Phase 2 option for fabrication. Convertors manifesting from these development efforts will then undergo independent validation and verification at NASA facilities, which will consist of convertor performance and RPS viability demonstrations. Example tests include launch vibration simulation, performance mapping over the environmental temperature range, and static acceleration exposure. In parallel with this renewed development effort, NASA GRC is still demonstrating free-piston Stirling convertor technology using assets from previous projects. The Stirling Research Laboratory (SRL) is still operating several convertors from previous development projects which have similarities and relevance to current contract designs. Four of which are flexure-bearing based, and another six are gas-bearing based. One of the flexure-bearing convertors has accumulated over 110,000 hours of operation, and holds the current record for maintenance-free heat-engine run-time. Another flexure-bearing convertor was recently manually shutdown after 105,620 hours of operation, then disassembled and inspected. This inspection produced a wealth of information about the effects of this amount of runtime on the technology's components. One of the engineering unit flexure-bearing convertors recently underwent launch simulation vibration test, a static acceleration exposure up to 20 g, and was then placed on extended operation. Amongst the gas-bearing convertors, the longest running unit has accumulated over 70,000 hours of operation. Four high-fidelity gas-bearing convertors from the ASRG project are still operating continuously, for which the longest runtime has reached 28,000 hours.

Oriti, Salvatore M.↗

Dynamic Power Convertor Development for Radioisotope Power Systems at NASA GRC

The Thermal Energy Conversion Branch at NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC) is supporting the development of high-efficiency power convertors in support of Radioisotope Power System (RPS) development. Significant progress was made towards such a system that utilized Stirling conversion machines during the 2001 to 2015 timeframe. Flight development of the Advanced Stirling Radioisotope Generator (ASRG) was cancelled in 2013 by the Department of Energy (DOE) and NASA Headquarters primarily due to budget constraints, and the Advanced Stirling Convertor (ASC) technology contract was subsequently concluded in 2015. A new chapter of technology development has recently been initiated by the NASA RPS Program. This new effort is considering all dynamic power convertor options, such as Stirling and Brayton cycles. Four convertor development contracts supporting this effort were awarded in 2017. The awarded contracts include two free-piston Stirling, one thermoacoustic Stirling, and one turbo-Brayton designs. The technology development contracts each consist of up to three phases: Design, Fabricate, and Test. As of May 2018, all contracts have completed the Design Phase, and each underwent a design review with an independent review board. Two of the contracts have been awarded the Phase 2 option for fabrication. Convertors manifesting from these development efforts will then undergo independent validation and verification at NASA facilities, which will consist of convertor performance and RPS viability demonstrations. Example tests include launch vibration simulation, performance mapping over the environmental temperature range, and static acceleration exposure. In parallel with this renewed development effort, NASA GRC is still demonstrating free-piston Stirling convertor technology using assets from previous projects. The Stirling Research Laboratory (SRL) is still operating 10 convertors from previous development projects. Four of which are flexure-bearing based, and the other six are gas-bearing based. One of the flexure-bearing convertors has accumulated over 110,000 hours of operation, and holds the current maintenance-free heat-engine run-time record. Another flexure-bearing convertor was recently manually shutdown after 105,620 hours of operation, then disassembled and inspected. This inspection produced a wealth of information about the effects of this amount of runtime on the technology's components. One of the engineering unit flexure-bearing convertors recently underwent launch simulation vibration test, a static acceleration exposure up to 20 g, and was then placed on extended operation. Amongst the gas-bearing convertors, the longest running unit has accumulated over 70,000 hours of operation. Four high-fidelity gas-bearing convertors from the ASRG project are still operating continuously, for which the longest runtime has reached 26,000 hours.

Oriti, Salvatore↗

Dynamic Power Convertor Development for Radioisotope Power Systems at NASA Glenn Research Center

The Thermal Energy Conversion Branch at NASA Glenn Research Center is supporting the development of high-efficiency power convertors for use in radioisotope power systems (RPS). Significant progress was made toward such a system that utilized Stirling conversion during the 2001 to 2015 timeframe. Flight development of the Advanced Stirling Radioisotope Generator (ASRG) was canceled in 2013 by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and NASA Headquarters primarily due to budget constraints, and the Advanced Stirling Convertor (ASC) technology contract was subsequently concluded in 2015. A new chapter of technology development has recently been initiated by the NASA RPS Program. This effort is considering all dynamic power convertor options, such as Stirling and Brayton cycles. Four convertor development contracts supporting this effort were awarded in 2017. The awarded contracts include two free-piston Stirling, one thermoacoustic Stirling, and one turbo-Brayton design. The technology development contracts each consist of up to three phases: design, fabrication, and test. As of May 2018, all contracts have completed the design phase, and each underwent a design review with an independent review board. Three of the contracts are planned to execute the phase 2 option for fabrication. Convertors manifesting from these development efforts will then undergo independent validation and verification (IV and V) at NASA facilities, which will consist of convertor performance and RPS viability demonstrations. Example tests include launch vibration simulation, performance mapping over the environmental temperature range, and static acceleration exposure. In parallel with this renewed development effort, Glenn is still demonstrating free-piston Stirling convertor technology using assets from previous projects. The Stirling Research Laboratory (SRL) is still operating several convertors from previous development projects, which have similarities and relevance to current contract designs. Four of these are flexure-bearing based and another six are gas bearing based. One of the flexure-bearing convertors has accumulated over 110,000 h of operation and holds the current record for maintenance-free heat-engine run time. Another flexure-bearing convertor was recently manually shut down after 105,620 h of operation, then disassembled and inspected. This inspection produced a wealth of information about the effects of this amount of run time on the technology's components. One of the engineering unit flexure-bearing convertors recently underwent a launch simulation vibration test, a static acceleration exposure up to 20 g, and was then placed on extended operation. Among the gas-bearing convertors, the longest running unit has accumulated over 70,000 h of operation. Four high-fidelity gas-bearing convertors from the ASRG project are still operating continuously for which the longest run time has reached 28,000 h.

Oriti, Salvatore M.↗