This division primarily performs contract research for governmental
organizations and National Laboratories. This work deals with fundamental
studies in heat transfer, fluid flow, properties of materials, nuclear
reactor technology and biophysics (such as direct metabolic heat release
monitoring of animals and humans as well as the determination of the thermal
properties of biological fluids and tissues).
This division also designs and fabricates prototype heat exchangers for
high flux density and space applications, fabricates and tests special thermal
instrumentation systems for the government and industry and performs design analysis
for systems of interest to the government.
The company has developed new radwaste monitoring systems based on
sensitive measurement of the afterheat releases in storage canisters and large
underground storage tanks; these systems yield information of radwaste leakage or
clandestine removals. In addition, new downhole transducers have been fabricated
and tested which measure the geothermal heat fluxes and strata thermal conductivities
without requiring core samples. Further, direct metabolic calorimeters have been
developed (with SBIR contracts) for use with animals and humans in space.
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Waste Management System Performance Verification Testing on NASA's KC135 Parabolic Flight (Zero Gravity). |
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Two Views of Geoscience's Rodent Space Calorimeter: Far Left Shows the Calorimeter and Psychrometers. Left Shows the Calorimeter and the Sweeping and the Waste Management System. |
Cooling Performance Verification for Space Vehicle
Re-entry Materials
On re-entry into the earth's atmosphere,
the leading surfaces of a space vehicle are significantly heated due to kinetic
friction. Some of this heat must be removed to avoid exposure of crew and equipment
inside the vehicle. Since high temperature insulation barriers alone usually do not
provide adequate protection, cooling by ablation and/or degradation of these surfaces
is required.
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