RESEARCH ON SATELLITE ELECTRICAL POWER CONVERSION SYSTEMS AND CIRCUIT PROTECTION.
Satellite electrical power conversion systems circuit protection
SPACE VEHICLE↗
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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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Hubble Space Telescope On-orbit NiH2 Battery Performance
This paper summarizes the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) nickel-hydrogen (NiH2) battery performance from launch to the present time. Over the life of HST vehicle configuration, charge system degradation and failures together with thermal design limitations have had a significant effect on the capacity of the HST batteries. Changes made to the charge system configuration in order to protect against power system failures and to maintain battery thermal stability resulted in undercharging of the batteries. This undercharging resulted in decreased usable battery capacity as well as battery cell voltage/capacity divergence. This cell divergence was made evident during on-orbit battery capacity measurements by a relatively shallow slope of the discharge curve following the discharge knee. Early efforts to improve the battery performance have been successful. On-orbit capacity measurement data indicates increases in the usable battery capacity of all six batteries as well as improvements in the battery cell voltage/capacity divergence. Additional measures have been implemented to improve battery performance, however, failures within the HST Power Control Unit (PCU) have prevented verification of battery status. As this PCU fault prevents the execution of on-orbit capacity testing, the HST Project has based the battery capacity on trends, which utilizes previous on-orbit battery capacity test data, for science mission and servicing mission planning. The Servicing Mission 38 (SM-3B) in March 2002 replaced the faulty PCU. Following the servicing mission, on-orbit capacity test resumed. A summary of battery performance is reviewed since launch in this paper.
Rao, Gopalakrishna M.↗
Full-scale Performance Study of a Prototype Crash-fire Protection System for Reciprocating-engine-powered Airplanes
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Black, Dugald O↗
AC and DC Fault Management for Megawatt Electrified Aircraft Electrical Powertrains - Task 2: Power Quality Filtering Using Nanocrystalline Soft Magnetic Inductor
The NASA RTAPS program on AC and DC Fault Management for Megawatt Electrified Power Train is a multi-year joint project with Pratt & Whitney (P&W), Collins Aerospace (CA), and RTX Technology Research Center (RTRC). This research program focuses on the high-voltage distribution issues that present a significant technological obstacle in the adoption of Electrified Aviation Propulsion (EAP) systems. One challenge to the adoption of high-voltage distribution systems with power electronic converters is the need for filter elements to limit the generation and propagation of noise, protect the cable systems from premature aging and prevent against excessive heating within subcomponents due to high-frequency induced currents. While increased distribution voltages aide in reducing the cable mass for a fixed power system, the associated mass with the filtering elements for power electronic converter can grow with increasing distribution voltages – thereby mitigating any benefit associated with increasing the distribution system voltage. To enable high-voltage distribution systems with high system specific power densities, new magnetic materials must be developed. Therefore, the second task of the NASA RTAPS program is associated with the design and application of advanced soft magnetic components for Megawatt class electric propulsion systems, specifically the motor drive system. This report covers the collaborative work between NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC), RTRC, P&W and CA in the development of three types of magnetic components over the span of the three-year program. These critical magnetic components are the DC side EMI filter, which limits the propagation of harmful electromagnetic noise to the rise of the distribution system, and the AC side damping with the dv/dt filter, which limits the fast rise time of the power electronic converter output voltage to limit the degradation on the cable/motor insulation systems. Each of these components are investigated from component level design and are optimized at the system level with a combined modelling and testing effort. In the final experimental evaluation of the NASA developed soft magnetic material with a dv/dt filter, a commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) magnetic core and the GRC magnetic core are optimized and loaded at 320Arms to evaluate their difference in performance. After a run time of 30 minutes in a MW-class motor driver at RTRC, the NASA GRC cores were found to not only offer a lower temperature rise of nearly 25°𝐶, but also a reduction in measured core loss of 25% (12.75W to 9.5W).
Elecrified Aircraft Propulsion↗
NACA Investigations of Icing-Protection Systems for Turbojet-Engine Installations
Investigations have been made in flight and in wind tunnels to determine which components of turbojet installations are most critical in icing conditions, and to evaluate several methods of icing protection. From these studies, the requirements necessary for adequate icing protection and the consequent penalties on engine performance can be estimated. Because investigations have indicated that the compressor-inlet screen constitutes the greatest icing hazard and is difficult to protect, complete removal or retraction of the screen upon encountering an icing condition is recommended. In the absence of the screen, the inlet guide vanes of an axial-flow-type turbojet engine constitute the greatest danger to engine operation in an icing condition; a centrifugal-type engine, on the other hand, is relatively unsusceptible to icing once the screen has been removed. Of the three icing-protection systems investigated, surface heating, hot-gas bleedback, and inertia-separation inlets, only the first two offer an acceptable solution to the problem of engine icing protection. Surface heating, either by gas heating or electrical means, appears to be the most acceptable icing-protection method with regard to performance losses. Hot-gas bleedback, although causing undesirable thrust losses, offers an easy means of obtaining icing protection for some installations. The final choice of an icing-protection system depends, however, on the supply of heated gas and electrical power available and on the allowable performance and. weight penalties associated with each system.
VonGlahn, Uwe↗
Effectiveness of Thermal-Pneumatic Airfoil-Ice-Protection System
Icing and drag investigations were conducted in the NACA Lewis icing research tunnel employing a combination thermal-pneumatic de-icer mounted on a 42-inch-chord NACA 0018 airfoil. The de-icer consisted of a 3-inch-wide electrically heated strip symmetrically located about the leading edge with inflatable tubes on the upper and lower airfoil surfaces aft of the heated area. The entire de-icer extended to approximately 25 percent of chord. A maximum power density of 9.25 watts per square inch was required for marginal ice protection on the airfoil leading edge at an air temperature of 00 F and an airspeed of 300 miles per hour. Drag measurements indicated, that without icing, the de-icer installation increased the section drag to approximately 140 percent of that of the bare airfoil; with the tubes inflated, this value increased to a maximum of approximately 620 percent. A 2-minute tube-inflation cycle prevented excessive ice formation on the inflatable area although small scattered residual Ice formations remained after inflation and were removed intermittently during later cycles. Effects of the time lag of heater temperatures after initial application of power and the insulating effect of ice formations on heater temperatures were also determined.
Gowan, William H., Jr.↗
Multifaceted Considerations for Fission Surface Power Radiation Shielding Design
The purpose of the Fission Surface Power (FSP) nuclear system is to provide energy on the Moon and Mars for supporting their exploration and colonization. The FSP design and deployment can leverage the past research and development work in areas, such as reactor design, but such crucial components as radiation shielding and instrumentation still need material and manufacturing studies, modeling, and testing. The shielding components are needed for the protection of humans, electronics, and sensitive components. They are essential system components, but they are often the heaviest components of the system for which each kilogram matters. Different material combinations and layouts are possible. The studies presented were focused on the evaluation of several options. The initial analysis included their performance assessment, initial temperature distribution evaluation and manufacturability considerations. Several feasible shield design options were identified and discussed in this paper, as well.
Fission Surface Power↗
The 2004 NASA Aerospace Battery Workshop
Topics covered include: Super NiCd(TradeMark) Energy Storage for Gravity Probe-B Relativity Mission; Hubble Space Telescope 2004 Battery Update; The Development of Hermetically Sealed Aerospace Nickel-Metal Hydride Cell; Serial Charging Test on High Capacity Li-Ion Cells for the Orbiter Advanced Hydraulic Power System; Cell Equalization of Lithium-Ion Cells; The Long-Term Performance of Small-Cell Batteries Without Cell-Balancing Electronics; Identification and Treatment of Lithium Battery Cell Imbalance under Flight Conditions; Battery Control Boards for Li-Ion Batteries on Mars Exploration Rovers; Cell Over Voltage Protection and Balancing Circuit of the Lithium-Ion Battery; Lithium-Ion Battery Electronics for Aerospace Applications; Lithium-Ion Cell Charge Control Unit; Lithium Ion Battery Cell Bypass Circuit Test Results at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory; High Capacity Battery Cell By-Pass Switches: High Current Pulse Testing of Lithium-Ion; Battery By-Pass Switches to Verify Their Ability to Withstand Short-Circuits; Incorporation of Physics-Based, Spatially-Resolved Battery Models into System Simulations; A Monte Carlo Model for Li-Ion Battery Life Projections; Thermal Behavior of Large Lithium-Ion Cells; Thermal Imaging of Aerospace Battery Cells; High Rate Designed 50 Ah Li-Ion Cell for LEO Applications; Evaluation of Corrosion Behavior in Aerospace Lithium-Ion Cells; Performance of AEA 80 Ah Battery Under GEO Profile; LEO Li-Ion Battery Testing; A Review of the Feasibility Investigation of Commercial Laminated Lithium-Ion Polymer Cells for Space Applications; Lithium-Ion Verification Test Program; Panasonic Small Cell Testing for AHPS; Lithium-Ion Small Cell Battery Shorting Study; Low-Earth-Orbit and Geosynchronous-Earth-Orbit Testing of 80 Ah Batteries under Real-Time Profiles; Update on Development of Lithium-Ion Cells for Space Applications at JAXA; Foreign Comparative Technology: Launch Vehicle Battery Cell Testing; 20V, 40 Ah Lithium Ion Polymer Battery for the Spacesuit; Low Temperature Life-Cycle Testing of a Lithium-Ion Battery for Low-Earth-Orbiting Spacecraft; and Evaluation of the Effects of DoD and Charge Rate on a LEO Optimized 50 Ah Li-Ion Aerospace Cell.
Source record↗
A Flight Investigation of Exhaust-Heat De-Icing, Special Report
The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics has conducted exhaust-heat de-icing tests inflight t o provide data needed in the application of this method of ice prevention. Thc capacity to extract heat from the exhaust gas for de-icing purposes, the quantity of heat required, and other factors were examined. The results indicate that a wing-heating system employing a spanwise exhaust tube within the leading edge of the wing will make available for de-icing purposes between 30 and 35 percent of the exhaust-gas heat. Data are given by which the heat required for ice prevention can be calculated. Sample calculations have been made, on a basis of existing engine power over wing area ratios, to show that sufficient heating can be obtained for ice protection on modern transport airplanes,
Rodert, Lewis A.↗
Battery test expert systems
The characteristics of NIHBES (nickel-hydrogen battery expert system) are described, with attention also given to NICBES-2 (nickel-cadmium battery expert system-2). The nickel-hydrogen battery testbed is set up almost identically to the nickel-cadmium battery testbed, with the exceptions of no battery protection and reconditioning circuits (BPRCs) and the frequency of transmission of data. The Ni-H2 testbed has no BPRCs and the data are transmitted every 30 s instead of every minute. An expert system shell was chosen to develop this particular expert system. The GoldWorks expert system shell from Gold Hill Computers was chosen for the task. NIHBES will extract the desired data and return fault diagnosis, status and advice, and decision support. Expert systems have been proven to be viable tools in the control and monitoring of space power systems. Presently, the DDAS (digital data acquisition system) monitors and controls the orbit time, and is responsible for limit checking, data acquisition, and data summaries. It is concluded that in the future control of the Hubble Space Telescope breadboard will be passed to NIHBES. NIHBES will be more beneficial to the testbed than the DDAS alone due to the limitations of the DDAS. The DDAS cannot provide long-term trend analysis, plotting capability, fault diagnosis, or advice.
Johnson, Yvette B.↗
Icing-Protection Requirements for Reciprocating-Engine Induction System
Despite the development of relatively ice-free fuel-metering systems, the widespread use of alternate and heated-air intakes, and the use of alcohol for emergency de-icing, icing of aircraft-engine induction systems is a serious problem. Investigations have been made to study and to combat all phases of this icing problem. From these investigations, criterions for safe operation and for design of new induction systems have been established. The results were obtained from laboratory investigations of carburetor-supercharger combinations, wind-tunnel investigations of air scoops, multicylinder-engine studies, and flight investigations. Characteristics of three forms of ice, impact, throttling, and fuel evaporation were studied. The effects of several factors on the icing characteristics were also studied and included: (1) atmospheric conditions, (2) engine and air-scoop configurations, including light-airplane system, (3) type fuel used, and (4) operating variables, such as power condition, use of a manifold pressure regulator, mixture setting, carburetor heat, and water-alcohol injection. In addition, ice-detection methods were investigated and methods of preventing and removing induction-system ice were studied. Recommendations are given for design and operation with regard to induction-system design.
Coles, Willard D↗
Investigation of Icing Characteristics of Typical Light Airplane Engine Induction Systems
The icing characteristics of two typical light-airplane engine induction systems were investigated using the carburetors and manifolds of engines in the horsepower ranges from 65 to 85 and 165 to 185. The smaller system consisted of a float-type carburetor with an unheated manifold and the larger system consisted of a single-barrel pressure-type carburetor with an oil-jacketed manifold. Carburetor-air temperature and humidity limits of visible and serious Icing were determined for various engine power conditions. Several.methods of achieving ice-free induction systems are discussed along with estimates of surface heating requirements of the various induct ion-system components. A study was also made of the icing characteristics of a typical light-airplane air scoop with an exposed filter and a modified system that provided a normal ram inlet with the filter located in a position to Induce inertia separation of the free water from the charge air. The principle of operation of float-type carburetors is proved to make them inherently more susceptible to icing at the throttle plate than pressure-type carburetors.. The results indicated that proper jacketing and heating of all parts exposed to the fuel spray can satisfactorily reduce or eliminate icing in the float-type carburetor and the manifold. Pressure-type carburetors can be protected from serious Icing by proper location of the fuel-discharge nozzle combined with suitable application of heat to critical parts.
Coles, W. D.↗
Thermochemically-Closed Sonic-Flow Inversion for Enthalpy and Temperature in Multispecies Arc-Jet Flows
A thermochemically-closed sonic-flow inversion framework (TSIF) is developed to infer bulk enthalpy and total temperature upstream of a choked nozzle in arc-jet flows. The formulation recasts a pressure-rise total enthalpy quantification technique as an inverse problem in characteristic-velocity c * space using measured mass flow rate, upstream total pressure, gas composition, and nozzle throat geometry as inputs. Unlike calorimetric energy-balance approaches or optical diagnostics, the method relies primarily on routinely measured facility quantities combined with explicit thermochemical closure. Thermochemical states are obtained using NASA’s open-source Chemical Equilibrium with Applications (CEA) code, enabling construction of a chemistry-consistent relation between characteristic velocity, total enthalpy, and total temperature under equilibrium or frozen assumptions. A discharge coefficient is self-calibrated using cold-flow (arc-off) operation data and applied to hot-flow (arc-on) measurements, enabling upstream losses to be accounted for without empirical correlations. The framework is applied to air, N 2 , and CO 2 –N 2 arc-jet flows and demonstrates expected trends for the inferred thermochemical states as function of arc power, specific energy input, mass-flow, heater configuration, and test gas. In the air limit, under equilibrium assumptions, the method recovers the classical high-enthalpy asymptotic correlation of Winovich with a mean residual of 4.4%, demonstrating compatibility with established sonic-flow scaling, while extending applicability to arbitrary multi-species mixtures and non-equilibrium chemistry. The framework provides a mixture-flexible methodology for determining bulk thermochemical states in modern arc-jet environments using routine facility pressure, mass-flow, gas-composition, and nozzle-geometry information together with a cold-flow calibration.
stagnation heat flux↗
Thermochemically-Closed Sonic-Flow Inversion for Enthalpy and Temperature in Multispecies Arc-Jet Flows
A thermochemically-closed sonic-flow inversion framework (TSIF) is developed to infer bulk enthalpy and total temperature upstream of a choked nozzle in arc-jet flows. The formulation recasts a pressure-rise total enthalpy quantification technique as an inverse problem in characteristic-velocity c * space using measured mass flow rate, upstream total pressure, gas composition, and nozzle throat geometry as inputs. Unlike calorimetric energy-balance approaches or optical diagnostics, the method relies primarily on routinely measured facility quantities combined with explicit thermochemical closure. Thermochemical states are obtained using NASA’s open-source Chemical Equilibrium with Applications (CEA) code, enabling construction of a chemistry-consistent relation between characteristic velocity, total enthalpy, and total temperature under equilibrium or frozen assumptions. A discharge coefficient is self-calibrated using cold-flow (arc-off) operation data and applied to hot-flow (arc-on) measurements, enabling upstream losses to be accounted for without empirical correlations. The framework is applied to air, N 2 , and CO 2 –N 2 arc-jet flows and demonstrates expected trends for the inferred thermochemical states as function of arc power, specific energy input, mass-flow, heater configuration, and test gas. In the air limit, under equilibrium assumptions, the method recovers the classical high-enthalpy asymptotic correlation of Winovich with a mean residual of 4.4%, demonstrating compatibility with established sonic-flow scaling, while extending applicability to arbitrary multi-species mixtures and non-equilibrium chemistry. The framework provides a mixture-flexible methodology for determining bulk thermochemical states in modern arc-jet environments using routine facility pressure, mass-flow, gas-composition, and nozzle-geometry information together with a cold-flow calibration.
inviscid theory↗
Resistance of Silicon Nitride Turbine Components to Erosion and Hot Corrosion/Oxidation Attack
Silicon nitride turbine components are under intensive development by AlliedSignal to enable a new generation of higher power density auxiliary power systems. In order to be viable in the intended applications, silicon nitride turbine airfoils must be designed for survival in aggressive oxidizing combustion gas environments. Erosive and corrosive damage to ceramic airfoils from ingested sand and sea salt must be avoided. Recent engine test experience demonstrated that NT154 silicon nitride turbine vanes have exceptional resistance to sand erosion, relative to superalloys used in production engines. Similarly, NT154 silicon nitride has excellent resistance to oxidation in the temperature range of interest - up to 1400 C. Hot corrosion attack of superalloy gas turbine components is well documented. While hot corrosion from ingested sea salt will attack silicon nitride substantially less than the superalloys being replaced in initial engine applications, this degradation has the potential to limit component lives in advanced engine applications. Hot corrosion adversely affects the strength of silicon nitride in the 850 to 1300 C range. Since unacceptable reductions in strength must be rapidly identified and avoided, AlliedSignal and the NASA Lewis Research Center have pioneered the development of an environmental life prediction model for silicon nitride turbine components. Strength retention in flexure specimens following 1 to 3300 hour exposures to high temperature oxidation and hot corrosion has been measured and used to calibrate the life prediction model. Predicted component life is dependent upon engine design (stress, temperature, pressure, fuel/air ratio, gas velocity, and inlet air filtration), mission usage (fuel sulfur content, location (salt in air), and times at duty cycle power points), and material parameters. Preliminary analyses indicate that the hot corrosion resistance of NT154 silicon nitride is adequate for AlliedSignal's initial engine applications. Protective coatings and/or inlet air filtration may be required to achieve required ceramic component lives in more aggressive environments.
Nitride↗