Safer Travel Possible With Sensor
et air travel could
be safer, more fuel efficient and subsequently less costly by using an
optical sensor developed by an Andover, Massachusetts, company under a
Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program contract with Dryden
Flight Research Center. The Air Mass Flux Sensor, developed by Physical
Sciences, Inc. (PSI), detects the density and velocity of air passing
through an aircraft engine and provides airflow data without interrupting
airflow through the engine.
"No aircraft engine currently in production carries any instrument to precisely measure how much air is flowing through it," said Dr. Mark Allen, PSI manager of aeropropulsion technologies. The current mechanical premise used to build aircraft engines—more fuel pumped equals faster travel, less fuel is slower—is logically effective, but not entirely efficient, according to Allen. A jet engine is similar to a pump pushing through the atmosphere, explains Allen. To efficiently control how hard an engine needs to pump, the quantity of air flowing through the pump needs to be known.
The sensor uses a diode laser, similar to the laser in a compact disc player, that shines upstream of the main part of an engine to measure the amount of airflow. The small, lightweight package does not interfere with engine operation.
PSI's Air Mass Flux Sensor makes it possible to determine the optimal amount of fuel necessary to fly an aircraft in given atmospheric conditions. The application of the optical sensor to commercial airline carriers will support enhanced fuel efficiency and lower flight costs. The Air Mass Flux Sensor also has the potential to increase air safety because of its ability to rapidly detect changes in engine operating conditions preceding hazardous events, such as compressor stall. "The Air Mass Flux Sensor broadens the envelope of the engine, permitting optimum engine performance," Allen said.
SBIR Phase I and Phase II contracts moved the air sensor idea from a concept on paper to a demonstrated prototype that was tested on a test stand with a full-scale engine from Pratt & Whitney, a producer of engines, components, modules and spare parts for the aerospace industry. Continued high-level development of the sensor was accomplished largely because of critical tests run at NASA's Lewis Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio, and on test stands at Dryden.
PSI began another Phase II SBIR program with Dryden to build the flight version of this product, scheduled to fly aboard the NASA-owned F-18 aircraft in early 1999. It will be the pioneering flight of an air mass flux sensor.
Components of the Air Mass Flux Sensor are cost-compatible with other engine sensor and control components. Assuming that operational and safety improvements are realized through ongoing engine and flight testing, incorporating the sensor into commercial and military aircraft technology would seem to be feasible within the next five years.
For more information, contact the Public Affairs Office at Dryden Flight
Research Center.
Call (805) 258-3449, Fax: (805) 258-3566, E-mail: pao@news.dfrc.nasa.gov
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NASA Lewis Awards $33 Million Contract to Small Business
ASA's
Lewis Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio, has selected a small business
in Cocoa, Florida, for a contract to provide maintenance, repair, operation
and modification services for several systems and facilities at Lewis.
Call Henry, Inc., a small business, has been awarded this performance-based,
firm-fixed-price contract, valued at $6.6 million, for a period of one
year, which started on March 1, 1998. There are also four planned option
periods of one year each, with each year also valued at about $6.6 million.
This contract has an "indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity"
portion, which provides for firm-fixed-price delivery orders needed for
major repairs or modifications to the systems maintained under the contract.
Services under this contract include fire alarms and extinguishing systems, high- and low-voltage electrical distribution, communications, elevators, heating, ventilating and air conditioning, chilled water, energy management control and utility distribution. The contractor will also operate the central and outlying heating plants. Call Henry's goal of subcontracting at least 15 percent to small disadvantaged businesses is in line with the government's goal requirements.
For more information,
contact Mark Manthey at Lewis Research Center. Call (216) 433-2750, Fax:
(216) 433-8000, E-mail: Mark.W.Manthey@lerc.nasa.gov
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