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The paper describes a numerical study, supported by experiments, on light aircraft 2-Stroke Direct Injected Diesel engines, typically rated up to 110 kW (corresponding to about 150 imperial HP). The engines must be as light as possible and they are to be directly coupled to the propeller, without reduction drive. The ensuing main design constraints are: i) in-cylinder peak pressure as low as possible (typically, no more than 120 bar); ii) maximum rotational speed limited to 2600 rpm. As far as exhaust emissions are concerned, piston aircraft engines remain unregulated but lack of visible smoke is a customer requirement, so that a value of 1 is assumed as maximum Smoke number. For the reasons clarified in the paper, only three cylinder in line engines are investigated. Reference is made to two types of scavenging and combustion systems, designed by the authors with the assistance of state-of-the-art CFD tools and described in detail in a parallel paper.

Catalytic combustion coupled with activated carbon and molecular sieve adsorbents is applicable to all areas of air and gas clean up ranging from high to low levels of pollutants and trace contaminants control in a spacecraft environment is of no exception. In this study we propose a combined activated charcoal and catalytic combustion system based on a 70 watt power input achieving 350°C, operating on a 6 hour per 24 hour day catalytic cycle with an actual flow of 10.6 l min-1 in a residual free volume of 60 m3.

This paper documents the design and validation of a closed cycle propulsion system suitable for use on the Perseus A high altitude research aircraft. The atmospheric science community is expected to be the primary user of this aircraft with initial missions devoted to the study of ozone depletion and global warming. To date large amounts of funding are not available to the atmospheric science community, so to be useful, the aircraft must satisfy stringent cost and performance criteria. Among these, the aircraft has to be capable of carrying 50 kg of payload to altitudes of at least 25km, have a initial cost in the $1-2M range, be capable of launch from remote sites, and be available no later than 1994. These operational criteria set narrow boundaries for propulsion system cost, complexity, availability, reliability, and logistical support requirements.

As mission length and the number and complexity of payload experiments increase, so does the probability of thermodegradation contingencies (e.g. fire, chemical release and/or smoke from overheated components or burning materials), which could affect mission success. When a thermodegradation event occurs on board a spacecraft, potentially hazardous levels of toxic gases could be released into the internal atmosphere. Experiences on board the Space Shuttle have clearly demonstrated the possibility of small thermodegradation events occurring during even relatively short missions. This paper will describe the Combustion Products Analyzer (CPA), which is being developed under the direction of the Toxicology Laboratory at Johnson Space Center to provide necessary data on air quality in the Shuttle following a thermodegradation incident.

Eight fixed-wing reusable horizontal landing booster point design concepts are presented and compared on the basis of weight, cost, technical difficulty, and availability date. The eight vehicle types considered are all basically two-stage systems with a lifting body reusable second stage, with all vehicles normalized to place 40,000 lbs. payload in orbit. All flight vehicles are fully recoverable and capable of flying back and landing at the launch site. Vehicle types discussed are vertical take-off horizontal landing rockets, sled launched horizontal take-off rockets, runway launched horizontal take-off rockets, air breathing first stages, combined air breathing and rocket first stages, oxidizer collection concepts, supersonic combustion ramjets, and in-flight refueling vehicles. Each of these vehicle types is depicted in the paper and its design and performance characteristics are discussed.

This paper deals with the performance prediction of one member of a family of thrust producing intermittent combustion engines, namely the pulsejet. The first part is concerned with formulating basic concepts of how pulsejets work. It describes the different methods of providing intake valving action and derives theory to demonstrate the operation of the aerodynamic tuned valve in particular. The second part is concerned with devising a computer program to simulate and predict the performance of valveless pulsejets. The program is based on the method of characteristics for calculating unsteady gas flow. Theories and techniques are given to handle the major problems associated with this application. These problems include the large range of discontinuous temperature and entropy, flow through an area discontinuity and the calculation of mean thrust.

For auxiliary power system applications in space, a cryogenic, positive-displacement power system has been developed. This system consists of an internal combustion engine using hydrogen as the fuel and oxygen as the oxidizer. This type of engine offers the lowest fixed weight of any space power unit under current development and provides for a very low specific propellant combustion. The engine, in turn, would provide electric and hydraulic power sources.

In this paper, we address the thermal management issues which limit the lifespan, specific power and overall efficiency of an air-cooled rotary Wankel engine used in Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAVs). Our goal is to eliminate the hot spots and reduce the temperature gradients in the engine housing and side plates by aggressive heat spreading using heat pipes. We demonstrate by simulation that, for a specific power requirement, with heat spreading and more effective heat dissipation, thermal stress and distortion can be significantly reduced, even with air cooling. The maximum temperature drop was substantial, from 231°C to 129°C. The temperature difference (measure of temperature uniformity) decreased by 8.8 times (from 159°C to 18°C) for a typical UAV engine. Our heat spreaders would not change the frontal area of the engine and should have a negligible impact on the installed weight of the propulsion assembly.

After several decades of human spaceflight, the community of space-faring nations has accumulated a diverse and sometimes harrowing history of toxicological events that have plagued human space endeavors almost from the very beginning. Some lessons have been learned in ground-based test beds and others were discovered the hard way - when human lives were at stake in space. From such lessons one can build a risk-management framework for toxicological events to minimize the probability of a harmful exposure, while recognizing that we cannot predict all possible events. Space toxicologists have learned that relatively harmless compounds can be converted by air revitalization systems into compounds that cause serious harm to the crew.

Pyrolysis is a very versatile waste processing technology which can be tailored to produce a variety of solid, liquid, and/or gaseous products. The main disadvantages of pyrolysis processing are: (1) the product stream is more complex than for many of the alternative treatments; (2) the product gases cannot be vented directly into the cabin without further treatment because of the high CO concentrations. One possible solution is to combine a pyrolysis step with catalytic oxidation (combustion) of the effluent gases. This integration takes advantage of the best features of each process. The advantages of pyrolysis are: insensitivity to feedstock composition, no oxygen consumption, and batch operation. The main advantage of oxidation is the simplicity and consistency of the product stream. In addition, this hybrid process has the potential to result in a significant reduction in Equivalent System Mass (estimated at 10-40%) and system complexity.

A mean value based sizing and simulation model has been developed for use in the conceptual design and sizing of hydrogen fueled spark-ignition internal combustion engines (HICE) in the aerospace industry, here ‘mean value’ includes mean effective pressure (MEP), mean piston speed, mean specific power, etc. This model is developed since there is currently no such model readily available for this purpose. When sizing the HICE, statistical data and common practice for gasoline internal combustion engines (GICE) are used to obtain preliminary sizes of the HICE, such as total cylinder volume, bore and stroke; to capture the effect of low volumetric efficiency, the preliminary results are adjusted by a volumetric correction factor until the cycle parameters of HICE are reasonable. A non-dimensional combustion model with hydrogen as fuel is incorporated with existing GICE methods. With this combustion model, the high combustion temperature and high combustion pressure are captured.

In most cases, especially in general aviation, the weight of the cooling system should be reduced. In air cooled engines it is necessary to optimize the system taking in account structural features and manufacturing process. This optimization is customary performed by Finite Element Methods (FEM) or similar methods. The main purpose of this paper is to present a way to do the spadework on this problem in order to optimize CPU time of the computer using a simplified approach to obtain approximate values of the more important design parameters of the cooling system. Main assumptions and equations to solve the problem are described for different configurations. Air pressure drop in the system is evaluated checking if it is in good agreement with experimental results. The released software can be installed in a PC, allowing to obtain a first approach of the problem very quickly.

Spacecraft designs incorporating a propulsion system powered by a more efficient fuel would greatly reduce the oxidizer to payload ratio. This could be accomplished with a single-stage vehicle that uses air while in the atmosphere and switches to onboard oxidizer only after reaching the upper limit of the atmosphere. In this presentation, a revolutionary new vehicle is proposed that incorporates silane-based fuels into an air-breathing spacecraft design that achieves orbit via low ascent angles, where it then switches to onboard oxidizer. A ceramic and alloy propulsion system takes advantage of the properties of silane, utilizing both the oxygen and the 80% nitrogen of the atmosphere for combustion.

An original instrument for fuel consumption measurement in reciprocating internal combustion engines for light aircraft has been developed and built. It is based on the detection of two parameters: the engine rotational speed and the manifold pressure. The aim of the instrument is to provide a fuel consumption indication which can be used during cruising. The instrument is not intended to replace the usual on board fuel level gauge, but can be used to integrate the flight information with the overall and instantaneous fuel consumption data, and with the cruising range indication, leading to a significant increase in flight safety. Some results of fuel consumption measurements from experimental tests are here presented and discussed. Such results were first obtained with the instrument installed on the engine during bench tests.

CONTINUOUS increase in the power output of aircraft engines introduces from time to time lubricating problems including excessive wear and scuffing, excessive oxidation of the oil, and ring sticking. The one problem of ring sticking was chosen and the discussion is limited to the testing of lubricating oils to compare their abilities to prevent this type of failure. Although the best answer as to the ring-sticking tendencies of a lubricant rests with the full-scale engine in service, a simple test is needed during the development period. The development work which led up to the selection of an L-head CFR engine for a ring-sticking test is discussed. Various criteria used for detecting incipient ring sticking are mentioned and a method for direct measurement of incipient ring sticking is described.

Pyrolysis is a very versatile waste processing technology which can be tailored to produce a variety of solid liquid and/or gaseous products. The main disadvantages of pyrolysis processing are: (1) the product stream is more complex than for many of the alternative treatments; (2) the product gases cannot be vented directly into the cabin without further treatment because of the high CO concentrations. One possible solution is to combine a pyrolysis step with catalytic oxidation (combustion) of the effluent gases. This integration takes advantage of the best features of each process, which is insensitivity to product mix, no O2 consumption, and batch processing, in the case of pyrolysis, and simplicity of the product effluent stream in the case of oxidation. In addition, this hybrid process has the potential to result in a significant reduction in Equivalent System Mass (ESM) and system complexity.

The present dilemma concerning the build-up in air pollutants from internal combustion engine emissions has stimulated interest and concern at all levels of society. Efforts so far have been directed towards exhaust clean-up and reduction in injested lead compounds which offer only a temporary solution to the overall problem. Additionally, most authorities fail to mention that carbon dioxide is also an undesirable air pollutant. The use of an overall energy systems concept has resulted in a concentrated University research effort which may lead to a solution of this environmental problem in its broadest definition. The objective of the research has been the development of a hydrogen-fueled internal combustion engine. Results to date indicate that this type engine is not only technically possible but also economically feasible.

In power-split configuration, the input power is split into two parts, one of which is transmitted from the internal combustion engine through one or more planetary gear(s) to the wheels. The other part is generated as electricity and passes through an electrical variator to assist the driving torque. The latter has the characteristic of poor efficiency. In this simulation study, a comparison among the input power-split, compound power-split, and two mode power-split are discussed. Output power-split is not mentioned in this paper due to its limited applicability in specific vehicles. The idea of selection of the electrical machines is explained: the speed and torque of electrical machines was taken into consideration for the required transmission ratios spread.

The threat of toxic gases and smoke generated by fire aboard spacecraft, surface ships, and submarine compartments is being treated more seriously than it was in the past. Current fire experience indicates that certain “critical” inhabited compartments must be better protected in the future from fire products. This paper describes Hamilton Standard's smoke removal efforts directed towards the design and development of a self-contained unit which is capable of cleanup of fire combustion products within inhabited closed compartments.

An approximation method for evaluation of the caloric equations used in combustion chemistry simulations is described. The method is applied to generate the equations of specific heat, static enthalpy, and Gibb's free energy for fuel mixtures of interest to gas turbine engine manufacturers. Liquid-phase fuel properties are also derived. The fuels include JP-8, synthetic fuel, and two fuel blends consisting of a mixture of JP-8 and synthetic fuel. The complete set of fuel property equations for both phases are implemented into a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) flow solver database, and multi-phase, reacting flow simulations of a well-tested liquid-fueled combustor are performed. The simulations are a first step in understanding combustion system performance and operational issues when using alternate fuels, at practical engine operating conditions.