Vehicles, Equipment, and Performance

Aerodynamics

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Briefs: Information Technology
An automated procedure has been developed to derive relevant factors, which can increase the ability to produce objective, repeatable methods for determining aerodynamic surface...
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Briefs: Materials
Ceramic strain gauges in which the strain-sensitive electrically conductive strips made from nanocomposites of noble metal and indium tin oxide (ITO) are being developed for use in gas turbine...
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Articles: Motion Control
When it comes to choosing a flowmetering device, some users assume “one size fits all.” In reality, there are significant differences between flowmeter types, and each design has its unique “pros and cons.”...
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Briefs: Physical Sciences
Perturbation Effects on a Supercritical C₇H₁₆/N₂ Mixing Layer
This report presents a computational-simulation study of effects of perturbation wavelengths and initial Reynolds numbers on the transition to turbulence of a heptane/nitrogen mixing layer at supercritical pressure. The governing equations for the simulations were the same as...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
A method of optical thermometry, now undergoing development, involves low-resolution measurement of the spectrum of spontaneous Raman scattering (SRS) from N2 and O2 molecules. The method...
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Briefs: Materials
Nanocrystalline tin oxide (SnO2) doped with copper oxide (CuO) has been found to be useful as an electrical-resistance sensory material for measuring the concentration of carbon...
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Briefs: Green Design & Manufacturing
UV-Resistant Non-Spore-Forming Bacteria From Spacecraft-Assembly Facilities
Four species of non-spore-forming bacteria collected from clean-room surfaces in spacecraft-assembly facilities could survive doses of ultraviolet (UV) radiation that would suffice to kill most known cultivable bacterial species. In a previous study, high UV resistance was...
Briefs: Software
Toward Better Modeling of Supercritical Turbulent Mixing
A study was done as part of an effort to develop computational models representing turbulent mixing under thermodynamic supercritical (here, high pressure) conditions. The question was whether the large-eddy simulation (LES) approach, developed previously for atmospheric-pressure...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
A method of simplified computational modeling of oxidation of hydrocarbons is undergoing development. This is one of several developments needed to enable accurate computational simulation of...
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Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
An improved method of filling a molding flask with sand and compacting the sand around a refractory- coated foam mold pattern has been developed for incorporation into the lost-foam...
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Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
A variable-structure control system designed to enable a fuselage-heavy airplane to recover from spin has been demonstrated in a hand-launched, instrumented model glider airplane (see...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
An improved self-validating thermocouple (SVT) instrumentation system not only acquires readings from a thermocouple but is also capable of detecting deterioration and a variety of discrete faults...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
A power converter now undergoing development is required to operate at a DC input potential ranging between 5.5 and 10 kV and a DC output potential of 400 V at a current up to 25 A. This...
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Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Lightweight, piezoelectrically actuated bending flight-control surfaces have shown promise as means of actively controlling airflows to improve the performances of transport airplanes. These...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Coaxial electric heaters have been conceived for use in highly sensitive instruments in which there are requirements for compact heaters but stray magnetic fields associated with heater electric currents would adversely...
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Briefs: Materials
Nanophase nickel- zirconium alloys have been investigated for use as electrically conductive coatings and catalyst supports in fuel cells. Heretofore, noble metals have been used because they...
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Briefs: Materials
Hybrid Wound Filaments for Greater Resistance to Impacts
The immediately preceding article includes an example in which a composite overwrap on a pressure vessel contains wound filaments made of a hybrid of high-strength carbon fibers and poly(phenylene benzobisoxazole) [PBO] fibers. This hybrid material is chosen in an effort to increase the...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Generic Helicopter-Based Testbed for Surface Terrain Imaging Sensors
To be certain that a candidate sensor system will perform as expected during missions, we have developed a field test system and have executed test flights with a helicopter- mounted sensor platform over desert terrains, which simulate Lunar features. A key advantage to this...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Balanced flow meters are recent additions to an established class of simple, rugged flow meters that contain no moving parts in contact with flow and are based on measurement of pressure drops across...
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Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Figure 1 depicts an experimental inchworm- type linear microactuator. This microactuator is a successor to the one described in "MEMS-Based Piezoelectric/ Electrostatic Inchworm Actuator" (NPO- 30672), NASA...
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Briefs: Information Technology
Handling Input and Output for COAMPS
Two suites of software have been developed to handle the input and output of the Coupled Ocean Atmosphere Prediction System (COAMPS), which is a regional atmospheric model developed by the Navy for simulating and predicting weather. Typically, the initial and boundary conditions for COAMPS are provided by a...
Briefs: Medical
Ultraviolet-Resistant Bacterial Spores
A document summarizes a study in which it was found that spores of the SAFR-032 strain of Bacillus pumilus can survive doses of ultraviolet (UV) radiation, γ radiation, and hydrogen peroxide in proportions much greater than those of other bacteria. The study was part of a continuing effort to understand the...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Launching Payloads Into Orbit at Relatively Low Cost
A report proposes the development of a system for launching payloads into orbit at about one-fifth the cost per unit payload weight of current systems. The system would be based on the formerly secret PILOT micro-satellite-launching system developed in response to the Soviet launch of Sputnik-1....
Briefs: Software
Inertial Measurements for Aero-assisted Navigation (IMAN)
IMAN is a Python tool that provides inertial sensor-based estimates of spacecraft trajectories within an atmospheric influence. It provides Kalman filterderived spacecraft state estimates based upon data collected onboard, and is shown to perform at a level comparable to the conventional...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
A study of four previously published computational criteria for identifying vortices in high-pressure flows has led to the selection of one of them as the best. This development can be...
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Briefs: Software
Space Propulsion Design and Analysis
This software provides an improved methodology for predicting launcher base pressure and heat loads for RSRM (Reusable Solid Rocket Motor) launchers by accounting for complex anisotropic stress/ strains and variable turbulent Prandtl and Schmidt numbers. A "building block" approach to turbulence model...
Briefs: Information Technology
An improved correction has been developed to increase the accuracy with which certain formulations of computational fluid dynamics predict mixing in shear layers of hot jet flows. The...
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Briefs: Physical Sciences
DNSs of Multicomponent Gaseous and Drop-Laden Mixing Layers Achieving Transition to Turbulence
A paper describes direct numerical simulations (DNSs) of three-dimensional mixing-layer flows undergoing transition to turbulence; the mixing layers may or may not be laden with evaporating liquid drops. In contrast to most studies in this field, the...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Optical resonators of the whispering-gallery-mode (WGM) type featuring DC-tunable free spectral ranges (FSRs) have been demonstrated. Previously, the FSRs of WGM optical resonators were...
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