Read about GRC work in the areas of:
From 1975 to 1985, GRC designed, fabricated, and installed 57 photovoltaic systems in 27 developing countries. These projects demonstrated alternative means of generating electrical energy without resorting to diesel-powered generators. GRC’s current areas of expertise are in high power, lightweight systems, modeling and measurement of plasma interactions with high voltage arrays, and measurement and characterization of cells and arrays.
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Between 1974 and 1981, GRC led the U.S. Wind Energy Program for large wind horizontal-axis turbines—the predominant systems still used today to convert wind energy into mechanical energy. GRC continues to pursue work with applications to wind turbines and has a wealth of experience in long-life, lightweight gear box components, advanced materials and structural analysis for light-weight blades, aeroelasticity and aerodynamic analysis tools for increased efficiency, acoustics prediction models and validation techniques, icing prediction and mitigation techniques, and communication techniques to and from remote locations.
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GRC is conducting research on alternative fuel sources in an onsite Alternative Fuel Research Laboratory, currently housed within the center's recently remodeled Heated Tube Facility. Work in this area includes bio-fuels from renewable crop sources; conversion kinetics and combustion diagnostics; liquid fuels from coal; combustion processes, diagnostics, and emissions predictions; high-temperature, harsh-environment instrumentation and controls; and clean combustion processes.
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Clean Coal
GRC possesses unique skills to address issues surrounding clean coal initiatives such as combustion chemistry and diagnostics to understand burning processes, contaminants, particulates; emissions prediction methods and validation; combustion devices to enhance clean burning; and high-temperature, harsh-environment instrumentation and controls.
GRC is currently pursuing thermal energy conversion for power systems for inclusion in radioisotope power systems and fission surface power. Other areas of GRC competency include simulation, modeling, and visualization; materials degradation under high thermal and radiation environments; systems analysis and systems engineering; high-temperature, harsh-environment instrumentation and controls; and thermal energy conversion.