NASA Tech Transfer Opportunity: Out of Autoclave Wind Turbine Blade Manufacturing Method – Multiaxis Accelerometer Calibration – Flow Control Devices

Wind Turbine Blades

THE TECHNOLOGY:

As more countries commit to wind power, development of wind turbines is increasing. A fixture that NASA has used to produce large structural parts for unmanned aerial vehicles can also benefit wind turbine blade manufacturing. NASA’s new technology addresses some cost and manufacturability barriers with current composite wind turbine blade processing. The fixture includes flexible vacuum bagging to contain the raw material lay-up as it is roll-pressed into a gently contoured blade. The process is an alternative to hand tooling and autoclaving, and produces parts with quality close to those processed under high-temperature and high-pressure environments. It can use a variety of reinforcement fibers and is not dependent on matrix viscosity to achieve part wet-out, even on thick laminations. The fixture and process are applicable to low-volume production but have potential for adaptation to automated high rate production. NASA has obtained a patent on the assembly, and it seeks an industry partner to commercialize the technology for wind turbines.

http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.rss.html?pid=40267

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Multiaxis Accelerometer Calibration

Researchers at NASA’s Langley Research Center have developed a low-cost, portable, and simplified system suitable for in-situ calibration and/or evaluation of multi-axis inertial measurement instruments (e.g., accelerometers). This system overcomes facility restrictions and maintains or improves the calibration quality for users of accelerometer-based instruments with applications in avionics, experimental wind-tunnel research, and force balance calibration applications.

http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.rss.html?pid=40257

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Flow Control Devices

NASA Langley develops innovative technologies to control fluid flow in ways that will ultimately result in improved performance and fuel efficiency. Often called as fluidic oscillators, sweeping jet actuators or flip flop oscillators, these flow control devices work based on the Coanda effect. They can be embedded directly into a control surface (such as a wing or a turbine blade) and generate spatially oscillating bursts (or jets) of fluid to improve flow characteristics by enhancing lift, reducing drag, or enhancing heat transfer. Recent studies show upto a 60% performance enhancement with oscillators. NASA offers two new fluidic oscillator designs that address two key limitations of these oscillators: coupled frequency-amplitude and random oscillations. One oscillator effectively decouples the oscillation frequency from the amplitude. The other design enables synchronization of an entire array. The new oscillators have no moving parts– oscillation, decoupling, and synchronization are achieved entirely via internal flow dynamics.

http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.rss.html?pid=40256

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Name: Sean Sullivan

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Phone: 757-864-5055

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