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Development of scramjet engines is hindered by the lack of fast and accurate turbulent reacting flow CFD tools. In Phase I of this STTR project, Reaction Systems, LLC investigated a fundamentally new approach to reducing the computational burden of detailed chemistry that holds great promise in lowering this computational burden. This new approach significantly reduces the number of chemical spe ...

Development of scramjet engines is hindered by the lack of fast and accurate turbulent reacting flow CFD tools. Reaction Systems, LLC proposes to investigate new methods to extract minimal kinetic mechanisms from large detailed kinetic mechanisms to substantially decrease the number of additional species conservation equations required in CFD simulations of turbulent reacting flows. If successfu ...

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will investigate Micro Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) ion thrusters for microsat and nanosat applications based on a new and innovative ion production technology. Small satellites offer exciting possibilities for future communication and surveillance missions. Unfortunately, the thrusters needed for these spacecraft to maintain prec ...

Simulations of reacting flow in applications such as scramjet engines are currently limited in their utility or accuracy by the chemistry sub-models employed. Accurate chemistry models for hydrocarbon fuels are particularly problematic since the detailed kinetic mechanisms can be highly complex, essentially prohibiting obtaining a timely solution. Simpler global chemistry models, while tractable ...

The development of new, robust, lightweight systems for CO2 removal during EVA is a crucial need for NASA. With current activity focused on the development of Lunar outposts, mission times will need to be extended without increasing the size and weight of the portable life support system (PLSS). While much of the recent work on the development of new CO2 control strategies has centered on sorben ...

The world-wide demand for power is increasing while petroleum feed stocks are rapidly being depleted. Although known coal reserves could satisfy the world¿s energy demands for the next 60 years, coal is also a large producer of CO2, and its use could result in increased climate change. While amine-based CO2 capture techniques have shown promise, the energy needed to regenerate the solvent incre ...

Ignition, flameholding, and flame spreading is difficult to achieve in current hydrocarbon scramjet hypersonic missile designs.  This is particularly true at the end of the initial rocket boost phase when the hardware and fuel can still be very cold.  Reaction Systems proposes to develop a lightweight catalytic nitrous oxide ("laughing gas") ignition system to exothermically decompose N2O to a h ...

Tremendous advances have been made in the development of large and accurate detailed reaction chemistry models for hydrocarbon fuels. Comparable progress has also been achieved in CFD as an engineering design tool. Highly accurate hydrocarbon chemistry is now desired for simulating gas turbine combustors and automobile engines to better predict both performance and pollutant emissions. Newer an ...

The development of new, robust, lightweight systems for CO2 removal during EVA is a crucial need for NASA. With current and anticipated space activities, mission times will need to be extended without increasing the size and weight of the portable life support system (PLSS). While much of the recent work on the development of new CO2 control strategies has centered on solid sorbents that can be ...

The development of new, robust, lightweight systems for CO2 removal during EVA is a crucial need for NASA. Current activity is focused on extending mission times without increasing the size and weight of the portable life support system (PLSS). Although CO2 sorbents that can be regenerated during EVA are being studied, these system add "on back" hardware, increasing weight and complexity, and re ...