2020 NASA Technology Taxonomy

This document is an update (new photos used) of the PDF version of the 2020 NASA Technology Taxonomy that will be available to download on the OCT Public Website. The updated 2020 NASA Technology Taxonomy, or "technology dictionary", uses a technology discipline based approach that realigns like-technologies independent of their application within the NASA mission portfolio. This tool is meant to serve as a common technology discipline-based communication tool across the agency and with its partners in other government agencies, academia, industry, and across the world

Research and Technology 1995

This report selectively summarizes the NASA Lewis Research Center's research and technology accomplishments for fiscal year 1995. It comprises over 150 short articles submitted by the staff members of the technical directorates. The report is organized into six major sections: aeronautics, aerospace technology, space flight systems, engineering support, Lewis Research Academy, and technology transfer. A table of contents, an author index, and a list of NASA Headquarters program offices have been included to assist the reader in finding articles of special interest. This report is not intended to be a comprehensive summary of all research and technology work done over the past fiscal year. Most of the work is reported in Lewis-published technical reports, journal articles, and presentations prepared by Lewis staff members and contractors (for abstracts of these Lewis-authored reports, visit the Lewis Technical Report Server (LETRS) on the World Wide Web-http://letrs.lerc.nasa.gov/LeTRS/). In addition, university grants have enabled faculty members and graduate students to engage in sponsored research that is reported at technical meetings or in journal articles. For each article in this report, a Lewis contact person has been identified, and where possible, reference documents are listed so that additional information can be easily obtained. The diversity of topics attests to the breadth of research and technology being pursued and to the skill mix of the staff that makes it possible. For more information about Lewis' research, visit us on the World Wide web-http://www.lerc.nasa.gov

Research and Technology, 1998

This report selectively summarizes the NASA Lewis Research Center's research and technology accomplishments for the fiscal year 1998. It comprises 134 short articles submitted by the staff scientists and engineers. The report is organized into five major sections: Aeronautics, Research and Technology, Space, Engineering and Technical Services, and Commercial Technology. A table of contents and an author index have been developed to assist readers in finding articles of special interest. This report is not intended to he a comprehensive summary of all the research and technology work done over the past fiscal year. Most of the work is reported in Lewis-published technical reports, journal articles, and presentations prepared by Lewis staff and contractors. In addition, university grants have enabled faculty members and graduate students to engage in sponsored research that is reported at technical meetings or in journal articles. For each article in this report, a Lewis contact person has been identified, and where possible, reference documents are listed so that additional information can be easily obtained. The diversity of topics attests to the breadth of research and technology being pursued and to the skill mix of the staff that makes it possible. At the time of publication, NASA Lewis was undergoing a name change to the NASA John H. Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field

Microgravity Science and Applications. Program Tasks and Bibliography for FY 1993

An annual report published by the Microgravity Science and Applications Division (MSAD) of NASA is presented. It represents a compilation of the Division's currently-funded ground, flight and Advanced Technology Development tasks. An overview and progress report for these tasks, including progress reports by principal investigators selected from the academic, industry and government communities, are provided. The document includes a listing of new bibliographic data provided by the principal investigators to reflect the dissemination of research data during FY 1993 via publications and presentations. The document also includes division research metrics and an index of the funded investigators. The document contains three sections and three appendices: Section 1 includes an introduction and metrics data, Section 2 is a compilation of the task reports in an order representative of its ground, flight or ATD status and the science discipline it represents, and Section 3 is the bibliography. The three appendices, in the order of presentation, are: Appendix A - a microgravity science acronym list, Appendix B - a list of guest investigators associated with a biotechnology task, and Appendix C - an index of the currently funded principal investigators

Aeronautical engineering: A continuing bibliography with indexes (supplement 291)

This bibliography lists 757 reports, articles, and other documents introduced into the NASA scientific and technical information system in May. 1993. Subject coverage includes: design, construction and testing of aircraft and aircraft engines; aircraft components, equipment, and systems; ground support systems; and theoretical and applied aspects of aerodynamics and general fluid dynamics

Aeronautical engineering: A continuing bibliography with indexes (supplement 304)

This bibliography lists 453 reports, articles, and other documents introduced into the NASA scientific and technical information system in May 1994. Subject coverage includes: design, construction and testing of aircraft and aircraft engines; aircraft components, equipment, and systems; ground support systems; and theoretical and applied aspects of aerodynamics and general fluid dynamics

Technical accomplishments of the NASA Lewis Research Center, 1989

Topics addressed include: high-temperature composite materials; structural mechanics; fatigue life prediction for composite materials; internal computational fluid mechanics; instrumentation and controls; electronics; stirling engines; aeropropulsion and space propulsion programs, including a study of slush hydrogen; space power for use in the space station, in the Mars rover, and other applications; thermal management; plasma and radiation; cryogenic fluid management in space; microgravity physics; combustion in reduced gravity; test facilities and resources

Research and technology highlights, 1993

This report contains highlights of the major accomplishments and applications that have been made by Langley researchers and by our university and industry colleagues during the past year. The highlights illustrate both the broad range of the research and technology activities supported by NASA Langley Research Center and the contributions of this work toward maintaining United States leadership in aeronautics and space research. This report also describes some of the Center's most important research and testing facilities

Soot Evolution in Turbulent Non-premixed Bluff-body Flames

Most practical combustion systems, including; boilers, furnaces and jet engines work under turbulent flow conditions, where recirculating flows play a significant role in flame stabilisation, pollutants’ emission mitigation and enhanced mixing. Our current understanding of soot evolution in turbulent circulating reacting flows is still limited, due to the complex flow dynamics, mixing characteristics and wide range of strain rates. Axi-symmetric bluff-body turbulent non-premixed flames have been used to study such flows in the past, because they feature a strong recirculation zone at the base of the flames. They are also relevant to practical applications, simple in design, have well defined boundary and initial conditions and are optically accessible. Their use has contributed to our understanding of the impact of mixing, strain rate and kinetics on soot evolution, transport and oxidation. The current thesis reports an investigation of soot evolution in a series of turbulent non-premixed bluff-body flames, with a focus on the nexus between soot and flow field features in these flames. Two different fuels were utilised in this study: ethylene blended with nitrogen (4:1, by volume), and pure methane. Three bluff-body burners were used in the experiments, comprising the same 4.6 mm diameter central tube (DJ), but with a different outer bluff-body diameter; 38, 50, and 64 mm. All burners were mounted centrally in a contraction delivering the co-flow air. All other specifications and features of the burners were identical. The mean residence time within the recirculation zone of each flame were estimated computationally using a validated CFD model, whilst the soot volume fraction (fv) and flow field features were simultaneously measured employing planar laser-induced incandescence (P-LII) and 2D polarised particle image velocimetry (2D-P-PIV), respectively. For all studied cases, the time-averaged and instantaneous scalars including soot volume fraction, axial and radial velocity components, strain rate, and turbulence intensity are presented. The impact of the bluff body diameter on the structure of the ethylene/nitrogen flames (ENB series) with a constant Reynold number of 15,000, was investigated experimentally and computationally. It was found that, the temperature and the mixture fraction non-dimensional distribution, within the flames, particularly in the recirculation zone, remains the same irrespective of the bluff body diameter. However, as the bluff-body dimeter increases from 38mm to 64mm, the residence time within the recirculation zone increases by a factor of two to three, and the length of the flame decreases accordingly, by ~20%. The effect on soot, however, was pronounced with the total integrated soot in the flame increasing by 35% when using a larger-diameter burner, and by a factor of four within the recirculation zone. Also, low local strain rates, below 1000 s-1, were measured at different regions within the recirculation zone which favours the inception of soot in all three flames. Analyses of the mean and instantaneous soot volume fraction and strain rate images, within the recirculation zone, reveal that soot is formed in the low-strain high residence time inner vortex and transported to the outer vortex where it peaks closer to the outer shear layer. In the neck zone, relatively small amount of soot, less than 30 ppb, was observed which is deduced from the instantaneous images as having been transported from the recirculation zone, mostly from the inner vortex, closest to the fuel jet. In the recirculation zone, the most probable soot is found in the high-strain region (up to 6000 s-1), and believed to have been transported to this zone from the low strain rate region. The strain rate associated with the most probable soot in the neck zone and jet-propagation region is found to be around 1000 s-1 and 500 s-1, respectively. The strain rate in the jet region is not found to be significantly correlated with the axial or radial location. However, the strain rate of 500 s-1 in the jet region of the bluff-body flames is found to be consistent with those reported previously for turbulent simple jet flames (600 s-1 to 700 s-1). Joint statistical analysis of the local instantaneous soot and strain rate reveals that there is no clear trend to link these two parameters since the instantaneous results of local soot volume fraction and strain rate are not well-correlated. Quantitatively, the correlation of coefficient, R2, between the local instantaneous SVF and the inverse of the strain rate (1/S) in the recirculation zone and the jet region, indicates a low to weak correlation, where 0.3 < R2 < 0.6, which is consistent with the calculated joint PDFs. This provides further evidence that the time scales for SVF are much longer than those for local strain rate. In other word, the variations induced by previous times or locations, dominate over the influence of the values of the local strain rate. The effect of fuel type was investigated by contrasting the ethylene/nitrogen flames with those burning pure methane as the fuel. Three flames (MB-1, MB-2 and MB-3) with different operating conditions have been investigated. Flames MB-1 and MB-2 have a coflow velocity of 14.1 m/s and Reynolds numbers of 8000 and 15000, respectively. Flame MB-3 has a Reynolds number of 15000 and a coflow velocity of 20 m/s. A strong dependence between the SVF and the momentum flux ratio (fuel to coflow air) in the recirculation zone of these flames was observed. Increasing the momentum flux ratio shifts the location of the mean stoichiometric mixture fraction to the rich inner vortex which substantially increases the SVF in the recirculation zone. The impact of the momentum flux ratio is evident on soot formation, transport and oxidation within the RZ, and that also impacts on soot in the rest of the flame. Furthermore, the calculated mean mixture fraction profiles show a clear intersection with the mean stoichiometric mixture value, in the vicinity of the jet in MB-2 flames, resulting in a narrower reaction zone. Conversely, in the other two flames, MB-1 and MB-3, the mixture fraction profiles are broadly distributed in the outer vortex, and close to the coflowing air side. As a result, less soot is found in the recirculation zones of the MB-1 and MB-3 flames in comparison to MB-2 flame, mostly due to more favourable oxidation conditions. The interdependency of the soot, strain rate and turbulence intensity exhibit similarities between methane and ethylene/nitrogen flames. Nonetheless, an almost one order of magnitude lower soot concentration is found in methane flames, when compared with the ethylene/nitrogen flame operated under the same conditions. This reduction is primarily attributed to the differences in molecular structure between methane and the ethylene fuels and its propensity to generate the precursors for soot formation. The improved understandings and key findings of the current thesis have been configured in the format of four journal articles, presenting results from a combination of experimental and computational studies. The experimental dataset is available on the International Sooting Flame Workshop (ISF) website for model validation purposes.Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Mechanical Engineering, 202

Microgravity Science and Applications: Program Tasks and Bibliography for Fiscal Year 1996

NASA's Microgravity Science and Applications Division (MSAD) sponsors a program that expands the use of space as a laboratory for the study of important physical, chemical, and biochemical processes. The primary objective of the program is to broaden the value and capabilities of human presence in space by exploiting the unique characteristics of the space environment for research. However, since flight opportunities are rare and flight research development is expensive, a vigorous ground-based research program, from which only the best experiments evolve, is critical to the continuing strength of the program. The microgravity environment affords unique characteristics that allow the investigation of phenomena and processes that are difficult or impossible to study an Earth. The ability to control gravitational effects such as buoyancy driven convection, sedimentation, and hydrostatic pressures make it possible to isolate phenomena and make measurements that have significantly greater accuracy than can be achieved in normal gravity. Space flight gives scientists the opportunity to study the fundamental states of physical matter-solids, liquids and gasses-and the forces that affect those states. Because the orbital environment allows the treatment of gravity as a variable, research in microgravity leads to a greater fundamental understanding of the influence of gravity on the world around us. With appropriate emphasis, the results of space experiments lead to both knowledge and technological advances that have direct applications on Earth. Microgravity research also provides the practical knowledge essential to the development of future space systems. The Office of Life and Microgravity Sciences and Applications (OLMSA) is responsible for planning and executing research stimulated by the Agency's broad scientific goals. OLMSA's Microgravity Science and Applications Division (MSAD) is responsible for guiding and focusing a comprehensive program, and currently manages its research and development tasks through five major scientific areas: biotechnology, combustion science, fluid physics, fundamental physics, and materials science. FY 1996 was an important year for MSAD. NASA continued to build a solid research community for the coming space station era. During FY 1996, the NASA Microgravity Research Program continued investigations selected from the 1994 combustion science, fluid physics, and materials science NRAS. MSAD also released a NASA Research Announcement in microgravity biotechnology, with more than 130 proposals received in response. Selection of research for funding is expected in early 1997. The principal investigators chosen from these NRAs will form the core of the MSAD research program at the beginning of the space station era. The third United States Microgravity Payload (USMP-3) and the Life and Microgravity Spacelab (LMS) missions yielded a wealth of microgravity data in FY 1996. The USMP-3 mission included a fluids facility and three solidification furnaces, each designed to examine a different type of crystal growth