Briefs: Software
Computational Model of Heat Transfer on the ISS
SCRAM Lite ("SCRAM" signifies "Station Compact Radiator Analysis Model") is a computer program for analyzing convective and radiative heat transfer and heat-rejection performance of coolant loops and radiators, respectively, in the active thermal-control systems of the International Space Station...
Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Solar Power Industries' (SPI) current annual production capacity for processing polycrystalline silicon feedstock into completed solar cells has grown to 40 megawatts, with...
Briefs: Materials
Organic/Inorganic Polymeric Composites for Heat-Transfer Reduction
Organic/inorganic polymeric composite materials have been invented with significant reduction in heat-transfer properties. Measured decreases of 20–50 percent in thermal conductivity versus that of the unmodified polymer matrix have been attained. These novel composite...
Articles: Electronics & Computers
All electronic devices generate heat due to their unavoidable internal losses and inefficiencies. The higher the efficiency rating of the device, the less internal heat is generated...
Articles: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Chairman of the Board
of Management
SCHOTT
Mainz, Germany
Many people consider the printing press developed here in Mainz, Germany, near the headquarters of SCHOTT, the...
Briefs: Materials
Foam Core Shielding for Spacecraft
A foam core shield (FCS) system is now being developed to supplant multilayer insulation (MLI) systems heretofore installed on spacecraft for thermal management and protection against meteoroid impacts. A typical FCS system consists of a core sandwiched between a face sheet and a back sheet. The core can...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
A variant of the flash diffusivity technique has been devised for determining the thermal diffusivities, and thus the thermal conductivities, of individual aligned fibers. The...
Briefs: Information Technology
An enhanced method of elliptic grid generation has been invented. Whereas prior methods require user input of certain grid parameters, this method provides for these parameters to be determined...
Articles: Electronics & Computers
As embedded computing systems become more powerful, so are the challenges to protect and cool the payload. In the past few years, we have seen the power of a single board increase in most...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Integral Radiator and Storage Tank
A simplified, lightweight system for dissipating heat of a regenerative fuel- cell system would include a heat pipe with its evaporator end placed at the heat source and its condenser end integrated into the wall of the regenerative fuel cell system gas-storage tanks. The tank walls act as heat-radiating...
Briefs: Materials
Microscopic thermal-contact pads that include carpetlike arrays of carbon nanotubes have been invented for dissipating heat generated in integrated circuits and similarly sized single electronic...
Briefs: Software
Compressible Flow Toolbox
The Compressible Flow Toolbox is primarily a MATLAB-language implementation of a set of algorithms that solve approximately 280 linear and nonlinear classical equations for compressible flow. The toolbox is useful for analysis of one-dimensional steady flow with either constant entropy, friction, heat transfer, or Mach...
Briefs: Software
Code for Multiblock CFD and Heat-Transfer Computations
The NASA Glenn Research Center General Multi-Block Navier-Stokes Convective Heat Transfer Code, Glenn- HT, has been used extensively to predict heat transfer and fluid flow for a variety of steady gas turbine engine problems. Recently, the Glenn-HT code has been completely rewritten in...
Briefs: Materials
Wire-Mesh-Based Sorber for Removing Contaminants From Air
A paper discusses an experimental regenerable sorber for removing CO2 and trace components — principally, volatile organic compounds, halocarbons, and NH3 — from spacecraft cabin air. This regenerable sorber is a prototype of what is intended to be a lightweight...
Application Briefs: Physical Sciences
(ADAM) human physiological model
National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Golden, CO
303-275-3000
www.nrel.gov
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Improved Traps for Removing Gases From Coolant Liquids
Two documents discuss improvements in traps for removing noncondensable gases (e.g., air) from heat-transfer liquids (e.g., water) in spacecraft cooling systems. Noncondensable gases must be removed because they can interfere with operation. A typical trap includes a cylindrical hydrophobic...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Rotating vessels have been proposed as means of growing larger, more nearly uniform protein crystals than would otherwise be possible in the presence of normal Earth gravitation. Heretofore,...
Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Two Heat-Transfer Improvements for Gas Liquefiers
Two improvements in heat-transfer design have been investigated with a view toward increasing the efficiency of refrigerators used to liquefy gases. The improvements could contribute to the development of relatively inexpensive, portable oxygen liquefiers for medical use.
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Internal heating is a key issue for vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs), a semiconductor microlaser diode that emits light in a cylindrical beam vertically from the surface of a...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Internal heating is a key issue for vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs), a semiconductor micro laser diode that emits light in a cylindrical...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
A compact, lightweight heat exchanger has been designed to be fault-tolerant in the sense that a single-point leak would not cause mixing of heat-transfer fluids. This particular heat exchanger is intended to be...
Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
An improved method of fabricating joints between metal and carbon-fiber-based composite materials in lightweight radiators and heat sinks has been devised. Carbon-fiber-based composite...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Brush/Fin Thermal Interfaces
Brush/fin thermal interfaces are being developed to increase heat-transfer efficiency and thereby enhance the thermal management of orbital replaceable units (ORUs) of electronic and other equipment aboard the International Space Station. Brush/fin thermal interfaces could also be used to increase heat-transfer...
Briefs: Information Technology
Two variants of the finite-element method have been developed for use in computational simulations of radiative transfers of heat among diffuse gray surfaces. Both variants involve...
Briefs: Energy
Cube-shaped thermoelectric devices energized by a particles from radioactive decay of 244Cm have been proposed as long-lived sources of power. These power cubes are intended...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
As part of a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from TACOM (Tank-Automotive & Armaments Command) - a division of the U.S. Army -Adiabatics used multiphysics...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Slotting Fins of Heat Exchangers To Provide Thermal Breaks
Heat exchangers that include slotted fins (in contradistinction to continuous fins) have been invented. The slotting of the fins provides thermal breaks that reduce thermal conduction along flow paths (longitudinal thermal conduction), which reduces heat-transfer efficiency. By...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Hot-film sensors, consisting of a metallic film on an electrically nonconductive substrate, have been used to measure skin friction as far back as 1931. A hot film is maintained at...
Briefs: Software
Update on Integrated Optical Design Analyzer
Updated information on the Integrated Optical Design Analyzer (IODA) computer program has become available. IODA was described in “Software for Multidisciplinary Concurrent Optical Design” (MFS-31452), NASA Tech Briefs, Vol. 25, No. 10 (October 2001), page 8a. To recapitulate: IODA facilitates...
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