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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 217 records · Page 12

An automated approach to the design of decision tree classifiers

The classification of large dimensional data sets arising from the merging of remote sensing data with more traditional forms of ancillary data is considered. Decision tree classification, a popular approach to the problem, is characterized by the property that samples are subjected to a sequence of decision rules before they are assigned to a unique class. An automated technique for effective decision tree design which relies only on apriori statistics is presented. This procedure utilizes a set of two dimensional canonical transforms and Bayes table look-up decision rules. An optimal design at each node is derived based on the associated decision table. A procedure for computing the global probability of correct classfication is also provided. An example is given in which class statistics obtained from an actual LANDSAT scene are used as input to the program. The resulting decision tree design has an associated probability of correct classification of .76 compared to the theoretically optimum .79 probability of correct classification associated with a full dimensional Bayes classifier. Recommendations for future research are included.

Argentiero, P.↗

Effects of aircraft and flight parameters on energy-efficient profile descents in time-based metered traffic

Concepts to save fuel while preserving airport capacity by combining time based metering with profile descent procedures were developed. A computer algorithm is developed to provide the flight crew with the information needed to fly from an entry fix to a metering fix and arrive there at a predetermined time, altitude, and airspeed. The flight from the metering fix to an aim point near the airport was calculated. The flight path is divided into several descent and deceleration segments. Descents are performed at constant Mach numbers or calibrated airspeed, whereas decelerations occur at constant altitude. The time and distance associated with each segment are calculated from point mass equations of motion for a clean configuration with idle thrust. Wind and nonstandard atmospheric properties have a large effect on the flight path. It is found that uncertainty in the descent Mach number has a large effect on the predicted flight time. Of the possible combinations of Mach number and calibrated airspeed for a descent, only small changes were observed in the fuel consumed.

Dejarnette, F. R.↗

The numerical design of a spherical baroclinic experiment for Spacelab flights

The near-zero G environment of Spacelab is the basis of a true spherical experimental model of synoptic scale baroclinic atmospheric processes, using a radial dielectric body force analogous to gravity over a volume of liquid within two concentric spheres. The baroclinic motions are generated by corotating the spheres and imposing thermal boundary conditions, such that the liquid is subjected to a stable radial gradient and a latitudinal gradient. Owing to mathematical difficulties associated with the spherical geometry, quantitative design criteria can be acquired only by means of numerical models. The procedure adopted required the development of two computer codes based on the Navier-Stokes equations. The codes, of which the first calculates axisymmetric steady flow solutions and the second determines the growth or decay rates of linear wave perturbations with different wave numbers, are combined to generate marginal stability curves.

Fowlis, W. W.↗

Probabilistic finite elements for transient analysis in nonlinear continua

The probabilistic finite element method (PFEM), which is a combination of finite element methods and second-moment analysis, is formulated for linear and nonlinear continua with inhomogeneous random fields. Analogous to the discretization of the displacement field in finite element methods, the random field is also discretized. The formulation is simplified by transforming the correlated variables to a set of uncorrelated variables through an eigenvalue orthogonalization. Furthermore, it is shown that a reduced set of the uncorrelated variables is sufficient for the second-moment analysis. Based on the linear formulation of the PFEM, the method is then extended to transient analysis in nonlinear continua. The accuracy and efficiency of the method is demonstrated by application to a one-dimensional, elastic/plastic wave propagation problem. The moments calculated compare favorably with those obtained by Monte Carlo simulation. Also, the procedure is amenable to implementation in deterministic FEM based computer programs.

Liu, W. K.↗

A finite element computation of turbulent boundary layer flows with an algebraic stress turbulence model

An algebraic stress turbulence model and a computational procedure for turbulent boundary layer flows which is based on the semidiscrete Galerkin FEM are discussed. In the algebraic stress turbulence model, the eddy viscosity expression is obtained from the Reynolds stress turbulence model, and the turbulent kinetic energy dissipation rate equation is improved by including a production range time scale. Good agreement with experimental data is found for the examples of a fully developed channel flow, a fully developed pipe flow, a flat plate boundary layer flow, a plane jet exhausting into a moving stream, a circular jet exhausting into a moving stream, and a wall jet flow.

Kim, Sang-Wook↗

Development of kinematic equations and determination of workspace of a 6 DOF end-effector with closed-kinematic chain mechanism

This report presents results from the research grant entitled Active Control of Robot Manipulators, funded by the Goddard Space Flight Center, under Grant NAG5-780, for the period July 1, 1988 to January 1, 1989. An analysis is presented of a 6 degree-of-freedom robot end-effector built to study telerobotic assembly of NASA hardware in space. Since the end-effector is required to perform high precision motion in a limited workspace, closed-kinematic mechanisms are chosen for its design. A closed-form solution is obtained for the inverse kinematic problem and an iterative procedure employing Newton-Raphson method is proposed to solve the forward kinematic problem. A study of the end-effector workspace results in a general procedure for the workspace determination based on link constraints. Computer simulation results are presented.

Nguyen, Charles C.↗

Sampling errors in rainfall estimates by multiple satellites

This paper examines the sampling characteristics of combining data collected by several low-orbiting satellites attempting to estimate the space-time average of rain rates. The several satellites can have different orbital and swath-width parameters. The satellite overpasses are allowed to make partial coverage snapshots of the grid box with each overpass. Such partial visits are considered in an approximate way, letting each intersection area fraction of the grid box by a particular satellite swath be a random variable with mean and variance parameters computed from exact orbit calculations. The derivation procedure is based upon the spectral minimum mean-square error formalism introduced by North and Nakamoto. By using a simple parametric form for the spacetime spectral density, simple formulas are derived for a large number of examples, including the combination of the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission with an operational sun-synchronous orbiter. The approximations and results are discussed and directions for future research are summarized.

North, Gerald R.↗

Anisotropic Mach Cone Aligned Mesh Adaptation for Low Boom Simulations

An automated off-body Mach cone aligned structured curvilinear grid generation procedure is presented for near-field computational fluid dynamics simulations. This procedure combines output-based indicators and mesh redistribution to perform anisotropic mesh adaptation while maintaining Mach cone alignment. Automation is achieved through a novel direction-based adaptation indicator formulation. The adaptation procedure is demonstrated on the JAXA Wing Body geometry and X-59 C608 demonstrator model from the Second and Third AIAA Sonic Boom Prediction Workshops, respectively. It is demonstrated that anisotropic mesh adaptation may result in a greater than fifty percent reduction in resource usage required to achieve the same level of accuracy as uniform and user constructed Mach cone aligned grids for near-field pressure signatures, ground-level overpressure signatures, and loudness metrics.

CST↗

Anisotropic Mach Cone Aligned Mesh Adaptation for Low Boom Simulations

An automated off-body Mach cone aligned structured curvilinear grid generation procedure is presented for near-field computational fluid dynamics simulations. This procedure combines output-based indicators and mesh redistribution to perform anisotropic mesh adaptation while maintaining Mach cone alignment. Automation is achieved through a novel direction-based adaptation indicator formulation. The adaptation procedure is demonstrated on the JAXA Wing Body geometry and X-59 C608 demonstrator model from the Second and Third AIAA Sonic Boom Prediction Workshops, respectively. It is demonstrated that anisotropic mesh adaptation may result in a greater than fifty percent reduction in resource usage required to achieve the same level of accuracy as uniform and user constructed Mach cone aligned grids for near-field pressure signatures, ground-level overpressure signatures, and loudness metrics.

CST↗

High-Fidelity Roadway Modeling and Simulation

Roads are an essential feature in our daily lives. With the advances in computing technologies, 2D and 3D road models are employed in many applications, such as computer games and virtual environments. Traditional road models were generated by professional artists manually using modeling software tools such as Maya and 3ds Max. This approach requires both highly specialized and sophisticated skills and massive manual labor. Automatic road generation based on procedural modeling can create road models using specially designed computer algorithms or procedures, reducing the tedious manual editing needed for road modeling dramatically. But most existing procedural modeling methods for road generation put emphasis on the visual effects of the generated roads, not the geometrical and architectural fidelity. This limitation seriously restricts the applicability of the generated road models. To address this problem, this paper proposes a high-fidelity roadway generation method that takes into account road design principles practiced by civil engineering professionals, and as a result, the generated roads can support not only general applications such as games and simulations in which roads are used as 3D assets, but also demanding civil engineering applications, which requires accurate geometrical models of roads. The inputs to the proposed method include road specifications, civil engineering road design rules, terrain information, and surrounding environment. Then the proposed method generates in real time 3D roads that have both high visual and geometrical fidelities. This paper discusses in details the procedures that convert 2D roads specified in shape files into 3D roads and civil engineering road design principles. The proposed method can be used in many applications that have stringent requirements on high precision 3D models, such as driving simulations and road design prototyping. Preliminary results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Wang, Jie↗

Role of HPC in Advancing Computational Aeroelasticity

On behalf of the High Performance Computing and Modernization Program (HPCMP) and NASA Advanced Supercomputing Division (NAS) a study is conducted to assess the role of supercomputers on computational aeroelasticity of aerospace vehicles. The study is mostly based on the responses to a web based questionnaire that was designed to capture the nuances of high performance computational aeroelasticity, particularly on parallel computers. A procedure is presented to assign a fidelity-complexity index to each application. Case studies based on major applications using HPCMP resources are presented.

Guruswamy, Guru P.↗

Development of an explicit time marching procedure for laminar and turbulent flow

A finite-volume based, time-marching method for turbulent and laminar flows is described. Extensions to the computational procedure to allow the handling of shock induced separation and large regions of strong backflow are emphasized. Two test cases are considered, the United Technologies Research Center (UTRC) separated and reattached turbulent boundary layer and the strong shock case in the McDonnell Douglas Research Lab (MDRL) transonic diffuser G. The extended method worked well on the UTRC flow with a boundary layer blockage of 58% and a maximum backflow velocity of 37% of the local maximum free-stream velocity. It also worked well on the MDRL diffuser with a shock Mach number of 1.353 and a maximum backflow velocity of -71.7 m/s. A Mach number dependent interpolation formula for effective pressure was developed for use in density-update time-marching methods.

Source record↗

PLUM: Parallel Load Balancing for Unstructured Adaptive Meshes

Dynamic mesh adaption on unstructured grids is a powerful tool for computing large-scale problems that require grid modifications to efficiently resolve solution features. Unfortunately, an efficient parallel implementation is difficult to achieve, primarily due to the load imbalance created by the dynamically-changing nonuniform grid. To address this problem, we have developed PLUM, an automatic portable framework for performing adaptive large-scale numerical computations in a message-passing environment. First, we present an efficient parallel implementation of a tetrahedral mesh adaption scheme. Extremely promising parallel performance is achieved for various refinement and coarsening strategies on a realistic-sized domain. Next we describe PLUM, a novel method for dynamically balancing the processor workloads in adaptive grid computations. This research includes interfacing the parallel mesh adaption procedure based on actual flow solutions to a data remapping module, and incorporating an efficient parallel mesh repartitioner. A significant runtime improvement is achieved by observing that data movement for a refinement step should be performed after the edge-marking phase but before the actual subdivision. We also present optimal and heuristic remapping cost metrics that can accurately predict the total overhead for data redistribution. Several experiments are performed to verify the effectiveness of PLUM on sequences of dynamically adapted unstructured grids. Portability is demonstrated by presenting results on the two vastly different architectures of the SP2 and the Origin2OOO. Additionally, we evaluate the performance of five state-of-the-art partitioning algorithms that can be used within PLUM. It is shown that for certain classes of unsteady adaption, globally repartitioning the computational mesh produces higher quality results than diffusive repartitioning schemes. We also demonstrate that a coarse starting mesh produces high quality load balancing, at a fraction of the cost required a fine initial mesh. Results indicate that our parallel load balancing strategy will remain viable on large numbers of processors.

Oliker, Leonid↗

Modeling Geometry and Progressive Failure of Material Interfaces in Plain Weave Composites

A procedure combining a geometrically nonlinear, explicit-dynamics contact analysis, computer aided design techniques, and elasticity-based mesh adjustment is proposed to efficiently generate realistic finite element models for meso-mechanical analysis of progressive failure in textile composites. In the procedure, the geometry of fiber tows is obtained by imposing a fictitious expansion on the tows. Meshes resulting from the procedure are conformal with the computed tow-tow and tow-matrix interfaces but are incongruent at the interfaces. The mesh interfaces are treated as cohesive contact surfaces not only to resolve the incongruence but also to simulate progressive failure. The method is employed to simulate debonding at the material interfaces in a ceramic-matrix plain weave composite with matrix porosity and in a polymeric matrix plain weave composite without matrix porosity, both subject to uniaxial cyclic loading. The numerical results indicate progression of the interfacial damage during every loading and reverse loading event in a constant strain amplitude cyclic process. However, the composites show different patterns of damage advancement.

Hsu, Su-Yuen↗

Recent advances in numerical analysis of structural eigenvalue problems

A wide range of eigenvalue problems encountered in practical structural engineering analyses is defined, in which the structures are assumed to be discretized by any suitable technique such as the finite-element method. A review of the usual numerical procedures for the solution of such eigenvalue problems is presented and is followed by an extensive account of recently developed eigenproblem solution procedures. Particular emphasis is placed on the new numerical algorithms and associated computer programs based on the Sturm sequence method. Eigenvalue algorithms developed for efficient solution of natural frequency and buckling problems of structures are presented, as well as some eigenvalue procedures formulated in connection with the solution of quadratic matrix equations associated with free vibration analysis of structures. A new algorithm is described for natural frequency analysis of damped structural systems.

Gupta, K. K.↗

Magnonic band structure, complete bandgap, and collective spin wave excitation in nanoscale two-dimensional magnonic crystals

We present the observation of a complete bandgap and collective spin wave excitation in two-dimensional magnonic crystals comprised of arrays of nanoscale antidots and nanodots, respectively. Considering that the frequencies dealt with here fall in the microwave band, these findings can be used for the development of suitable magnonic metamaterials and spin wave based signal processing. We also present the application of a numerical procedure, to compute the dispersion relations of spin waves for any high symmetry direction in the first Brillouin zone. The results obtained from this procedure have been reproduced and verified by the well established plane wave method for an antidot lattice, when magnetization dynamics at antidot boundaries are pinned. The micromagnetic simulation based method can also be used to obtain iso–frequency contours of spin waves. Iso–frequency contours are analogous of the Fermi surfaces and hence, they have the potential to radicalize our understanding of spin wave dynamics. The physical origin of bands, partial and full magnonic bandgaps have been explained by plotting the spatial distribution of spin wave energy spectral density. Although, unfettered by rigid assumptions and approximations, which afflict most analytical methods used in the study of spin wave dynamics, micromagnetic simulations tend to be computationally demanding. Thus, the observation of collective spin wave excitation in the case of nanodot arrays, which can obviate the need to perform simulations, may also prove to be valuable.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

A zonal computational procedure adapted to the optimization of two-dimensional thrust augmentor inlets

A viscous-inviscid interaction methodology based on a zonal description of the flowfield is developed as a mean of predicting the performance of two-dimensional thrust augmenting ejectors. An inviscid zone comprising the irrotational flow about the device is patched together with a viscous zone containing the turbulent mixing flow. The inviscid region is computed by a higher order panel method, while an integral method is used for the description of the viscous part. A non-linear, constrained optimization study is undertaken for the design of the inlet region. In this study, the viscous-inviscid analysis is complemented with a boundary layer calculation to account for flow separation from the walls of the inlet region. The thrust-based Reynolds number as well as the free stream velocity are shown to be important parameters in the design of a thrust augmentor inlet.

Lund, T. S.↗

Turbulent boundary layer heat transfer

Several environmental parameters presently acknowledged to affect heat transfer are discussed including: (1) the experimental apparatus used, (2) uniform and variable wall temperatures, (3) acceleration effects, (4) deceleration, (5) free stream turbulence, (6) surface roughness, (7) unsteady effects, and (8) secondary flows. Calculation procedures, and some physically based models that are successful in computing heat transfer rates are discussed.

Moffat, R. J.↗