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Identification of the failure mechanism characteristic for the more widely used carbon fibers in epoxy matrices under tensile loads as an aid toward improvements and more reliable predictions of the performance of these composites. The presented results pertain to high-strength, high-modulus, and low-modulus fibers in unmodified and modified epoxy novolac matrices.
Isolation and definition of specific response components in pupil reflexes through comparison of the dynamic features of light-induced and accommodation-induced pupil movements. A quantitative analysis of the behavior of the complex nonlinear pupil responses reveals the presence of two independent nonlinear characteristics: a range-dependent gain and a direction dependence or movement asymmetry. These nonlinear properties are attributed to motor processes because they are observable in pupil responses to both light and accommodation stimuli. The possible mechanisms and consequences of these pupil response characteristics are quantitatively defined and discussed.
Tests were performed on 12 cooling patches of various designs to establish criteria for the evaluation of their performance in liquid-cooled suits in industrial, military and aerospace applications. The thermal effectiveness value was 0.088 for patch designs with a double spiral flow pattern, and 0.075 for patch designs with a parallel flow pattern. The ratio of thermal energy transfer rate to cooling-medium pumping power requirement is indicated as the prime performance characteristic to be considered in the selection and rating of cooling patches.
Several local edge detection operators were applied to a set of ERTS pictures of the Monterey, Calif. area. Gradient operators performed consistently better than laplacian operators in detecting edges. It was also found that if a grayscale normalization operation, histogram flattening, was applied to the pictures first, the edge detector outputs were greatly enhanced. The use of interpolation for more accurate location of edges on a digital picture was also briefly investigated. Curve detection operators were applied to the edge detector outputs; this had the effect of enhancing the edges while suppressing noise.
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Several display formats were studied. Analog, digital, and some hybrid (analog-digital) formats were considered. It was found that the hybrid displays are superior to digital or analog displays.
Seven different human-centered alternatives for distributing traffic management responsibility between air and ground in the terminal area were simulated and evaluated at NASA-Ames Research Center in the man-machine integration branch. The alternatives differed in three divisions of decision-making responsibility ranging from completely ground-centered to completely air-centered and in the amount of information presented to the pilots via traffic situation displays (TSD). Objective, verbal and subjective measures of system performance, workloads, preferences, etc., were obtained. Based on the task and corresponding measures, the ground-centered (vectoring) alternative was the least favorable. Best overall performance was achieved and preferred with a moderate division of responsibility in which controllers issued sequence order only and pilots used a TSD with 30 sec path predictors on their own aircraft. Speculations on the use of the results in context of a ground-centralized system failure and for future ATC systems are presented.
The spatial distribution of lunar smooth plains is not consistent with experimental simulations of melt rock emplacement during cratering in layered materials. Nor is it consistent with the location of melt rocks (suevite) near the Ries basin. Lunar smooth plains surrounding Imbrium are most extensive in areas where pre-existing craters are most degraded. This observation suggests that plains form by impact of basin and local primary crater ejecta, together with deposition of debris excavated by the resultant secondary cratering events. Craters within the belt of smooth plains surrounding the Caloris basin on Mercury are most degraded nearest the basin; this suggests that Mercurian smooth plains must, at least in part, be emplaced in a manner similar to plains surrounding the Imbrium basin. Mercurian uplands have a primary crater population deficient in small crater diameters (less than approximately 30 km). Lunar uplands far from major basins also have a crater population deficient in small crater sizes. Martian cratered terrain exhibits a similar crater deficiency, which was previously interpreted as due to obliteration of small craters (less than approximately 30 km) by some surface process. A crater size distribution deficient in small sizes (less than approximately 30 km) on the Mercurian, lunar, and Martian uplands has implications for the origin of debris bombarding the inner solar system during the period recorded by these surfaces. It is proposed that during late heavy bombardment, the inner solar system was inundated with bodies that broke up under tidal fission as they approached the planets. Such a mechanism would lend to production of a crater population deficient in small crater sizes, and it would also explain the large degree of spatial clustering of primary craters on Mercury, the moon, and Mars.
Two hypotheses attempting to account for the anomalously low intrinsic density of Venus in terms of chemical fractionation processes are entertained. Both assume similar relative abundances of major elements (Fe, Si, Mg, Al, Ca) in Venus and earth. One model assigns a larger proportion of the total Fe present in Venus to the planetary mantle, implying a core/mantle ratio lower than that of earth, and more extensive oxidation. The alternate hypothesis projects a Venus more reduced than the earth, with a mantle devoid of oxidized Fe; the difference in intrinsic densities is then attributed to the earth accreting at a lower temperature consonant with its greater distance from the sun. Large amounts of sulfur are presumed accreted on the earth but not on Venus, in the second model. Available chemical evidence tends to favor the first model.
Five samples from 60009, the lower half of a double drive tube, were analyzed via grain-size methods, with particle types classified and counted in the coarser grain sizes. Studies were undertaken of particle types and distributions by petrographic methods, of magnetic fractions, of the size splits and magnetic splits as analyzed by ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) techniques, of maturity (based on agglutinate content, FMR index Is/FeO, mean size of sub-cm material, magnetic fraction), of possible reworking or mixing in situ, and of depositional history. Maturity indices are in substantial agreement for all of the five samples. Strong positive correlation of percent agglutinates and percent bedrock-derived lithic fragments, combined with negative correlation of those components with percent single crystal plagioclase, argue against in situ reworking of the same soil.
Numerical simulation studies of the effects of changes in albedo on rainfall involve comparisons of semiarid areas, lying at the boundary between a major desert and an adjacent monsoonal region, with areas of the same size located within the monsoonal region itself. The sensitivity of the rainfall to the ground hydrology was determined by performing the albedo simulations with two different evapotranspiration parameterizations, one giving too high evaporation over land and the other giving negligible evaporation over land. The evaporation rate is, in general, found to have as important an effect as changes in albedo. The mechanism by which an increase of albedo reduces the rainfall during conditions of high evaporation is considered.
An efficient numerical method of multiple quadratures, the Conroy method, is applied to the problem of computing multiple scattering contributions in the radiative transfer through realistic planetary atmospheres. A brief error analysis of the method is given and comparisons are drawn with the more familiar Monte Carlo method. Both methods are stochastic problem-solving models of a physical or mathematical process and utilize the sampling scheme for points distributed over a definite region. In the Monte Carlo scheme the sample points are distributed randomly over the integration region. In the Conroy method, the sample points are distributed systematically, such that the point distribution forms a unique, closed, symmetrical pattern which effectively fills the region of the multidimensional integration. The methods are illustrated by two simple examples: one, of multidimensional integration involving two independent variables, and the other, of computing the second order scattering contribution to the sky radiance.
The relative toxicity in rats resulting from a 30 minute exposure to the combustion products of two materials, Tedlar and fluorenone-polyester film was assessed. The combustion products were generated into a static exposure system using a laboratory-scale furnace. The toxicity was assessed using the primary measurements employed in a more detailed overall toxicity evaluation. The toxicological events observed during the 30 minute exposure are reported.
An activated leading-edge (LE)-tailing-edge (TE) control system is applied to a drone aircraft with the objective of enabling the drone to fly subsonically at dynamic pressures which are 44% above the open-loop flutter dynamic pressure. The control synthesis approach is based on the aerodynamic energy concept and it incorporates recent developments in this area. A comparison is made between the performance of the activated LE-TE control system and the performance of a TE control system, analyzed in a previous work. The results obtained indicate that although all the control systems achieve the flutter suppression objectives, the TE control system appears to be somewhat superior to the LE-TE control system, in this specific application. This superiority is manifested through reduced values of control surface activity over a wide range of flight conditions.
Manual photointerpretation techniques were used to analyze images acquired by high altitude aircraft, the Skylab multispectral and Earth terrain camera (ETC), the LANDSAT multispectral scanner, and the LANDSAT-3 return beam vidicon camera. A color-additive viewer, and digital image analysis were also used on the LANDSAT MSS imagery. The value of each type of remotely sensed data was judged by the ease and accuracy of clearcut identification, and by the amount of detail discernible, especially regarding revegetation. Results of a site study in the Allegheny National Forest, Pennsylvania indicate that high altitude aerial photography, especially color infrared photography acquired during the growing season, is well suited for identifying clearcuts and assessing revegetation. Although photographs acquired with Skylab's ETC also yielded good results, only incomplete inventories of clearcuts could be made using LANDSAT imagery. Results for the Adirondack region of New York State were similar for the aircraft and satellite photography, but even less satisfactory for the LANDSAT imagery.
The application of remote sensing to the inventory of coal surface mines and to the monitoring of mine reclamation in the eastern United States was investigated. Data were acquired during spring and autumn by several sensor systems over study areas located within the bituminous coal fields of Pennsylvania. Data sources were the Landsat MSS, an airborne multispectral scanner (Daedalus DS-1260), the airborne Thematic Mapper Simulator, and high-altitude color and color infrared aerial photography. A comparison of the data sets was conducted by a quantitative assessment of area measurement accuracy. Landsat data were found most suitable for a synoptic inventory of mines on a regional basis. High-altitude aerial photography was considered the best source of the detailed information required for reclamation monitoring. Nine channels of data from the airborne scanner were evaluated to select the most useful spectral bands for discriminating among the land cover types associated with surface mines. Four bands were selected in the following order by a stepwise linear discriminant procedure: 0.60-0.65 micron, 0.92-1.10 microns, 0.80-0.89 micron, and 8-14 microns. The data corresponding to these four bands were used for the thematic mapping of land cover.
The development of a digital, three dimensional, automatic control law designed to achieve an optimal transition of a B-737 aircraft between glide slope conditions and the desired final touchdown condition is presented. The digital control law is a time invariant, state estimate feedback law, and the design is capable of using the microwave landing system. Major emphasis is placed on the reduction of aircraft noise in communities surroundings airports, the reduction of fuel consumption, the reduction of the effects of adverse weather conditions on aircraft operations, and the efficient use of airspace in congested terminal areas. Attention is also given to the development of the capability to perform automatic flares from steep glide slopes to precise touchdown locations.
Measurements were made of NO formation in both subsonic turbulent and nonturbulent media generated from gaseous and liquid fuels. Quartz and metallic, cooled and uncooled probes were employed, and optical measurements were made in the UV with narrow-line and continuum lamps. The extent of systematic error bias in these methods was studied over a wide range of conditions. High resolution measurements were made only on flat flames using a high pressure Xe lamp, while low resolution measurements were done with a hollow cathode lamp on flat flame, swirl burner and jet combustor exhausts. Optical data were reduced using a first principles spectral model and multiple zone treatment of the optical path. No major discrepancies related to processes occurring in probes were identified. Good agreement can be expected in measurements made in subsonic exhaust streams up to 2000 K.