Engineering topics

Hui, C. Y.

Publications and source records attributed to Hui, C. Y..

4 records

NASA NTRS2012

Discovery of an Unidentified Fermi Object as a Black Widow-Like Millisecond Pulsar

The Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has revolutionized our knowledge of the gamma-ray pulsar population, leading to the discovery of almost 100 gamma-ray pulsars and dozens of gamma-ray millisecond pulsars (MSPs). Although the outer-gap model predicts different sites of emission for the radio and gamma-ray pulsars, until now all of the known gamma-ray MSPs have been visible in the radio. Here we report the discovery of a radio-quiet" gamma-ray emitting MSP candidate by using Fermi, Chandra, Swift, and optical observations. The X-ray and gamma-ray properties of the source are consistent with known gamma-ray pulsars. We also found a 4.63-hr orbital period in optical and X-ray data. We suggest that the source is a black widow-like MSP with a approx. 0.1 Stellar Mass late-type companion star. Based on the profile of the optical and X-ray light-curves, the companion star is believed to be heated by the pulsar while the X-ray emissions originate from pulsar magnetosphere and/or from intra-binary shock. No radio detection of the source has been reported yet and although no gamma-ray/radio pulsation has been found, we estimated that the spin period of the MSP is approx. 3-5 ms based on the inferred gamma-ray luminosity.

Kong, A. K. H.↗

NASA NTRS1999

Fracture Mechanics of Thin, Cracked Plates Under Tension, Bending and Out-of-Plane Shear Loading

Cracks in the skin of aircraft fuselages or other shell structures can be subjected to very complex stress states, resulting in mixed-mode fracture conditions. For example, a crack running along a stringer in a pressurized fuselage will be subject to the usual in-plane tension stresses (Mode-I) along with out-of-plane tearing stresses (Mode-III like). Crack growth and initiation in this case is correlated not only with the tensile or Mode-I stress intensity factor, K(sub I), but depends on a combination of parameters and on the history of crack growth. The stresses at the tip of a crack in a plate or shell are typically described in terms of either the small deflection Kirchhoff plate theory. However, real applications involve large deflections. We show, using the von-Karman theory, that the crack tip stress field derived on the basis of the small deflection theory is still valid for large deflections. We then give examples demonstrating the exact calculation of energy release rates and stress intensity factors for cracked plates loaded to large deflections. The crack tip fields calculated using the plate theories are an approximation to the actual three dimensional fields. Using three dimensional finite element analyses we have explored the relationship between the three dimensional elasticity theory and two dimensional plate theory results. The results show that for out-of-plane shear loading the three dimensional and Kirchhoff theory results coincide at distance greater than h/2 from the crack tip, where h/2 is the plate thickness. Inside this region, the distribution of stresses through the thickness can be very different from the plate theory predictions. We have also explored how the energy release rate varies as a function of crack length to plate thickness using the different theories. This is important in the implementation of fracture prediction methods using finite element analysis. Our experiments show that under certain conditions, during fatigue crack growth, the presence of out-of-plane shear loads induces a great deal of contact and friction on the crack surfaces, dramatically reducing crack growth rate. A series of experiments and a proposed computational approach for accounting for the friction is discussed.

Zehnder, Alan T.↗

NASA NTRS1993

A theory for the fracture of thin plates subjected to bending and twisting moments

Stress fields near the tip of a through crack in an elastic plate under bending and twisting moments are reviewed assuming both Kirchhoff and Reissner plate theories. The crack tip displacement and rotation fields based on the Reissner theory are calculated. These results are used to calculate the J-integral (energy release rate) for both Kirchhoff and Reissner plate theories. Invoking Simmonds and Duva's (1981) result that the value of the J-integral based on either theory is the same for thin plates, a universal relationship between the Kirchhoff theory stress intensity factors and the Reissner theory stress intensity factors is obtained for thin plates. Calculation of Kirchhoff theory stress intensity factors from finite elements based on energy release rate is illustrated. It is proposed that, for thin plates, fracture toughness and crack growth rates be correlated with the Kirchhoff theory stress intensity factors.

Hui, C. Y.↗

NASA NTRS1993

Vortex/surface interaction

This paper considers the interaction of a vortex generated upstream in a flow field with a downstream aerodynamic surface that possesses a large chord. The flow is assumed to be steady, incompressible, inviscid and irrotational, and the surface to be semiinfinite. The vortex is considered to be a straight vortex filament. To lowest order the problem is modeled using potential theory, where the 3D Laplace's equation for the velocity potential on the surface is solved exactly. The closed-form equation for pressure distribution obtained from this theory is found to have a square root singularity at the leading-edge. It also converges, as x goes to infinity, to the solution of the 2D point-vortex/infinite plane problem. The pressure coefficient presents an anti-symmetric behavior, near the leading-edge and a symmetric behavior as x goes to infinity.

Bodstein, G. C. R.↗