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At least 217 records · Page 12

Modal Test and Model Correlation of NASA Plum Brook Station Mechanical Vibration Facility Head Expander –Lessons Learned from the Perspective of an Early-Career Engineer

In preparation for the Sierra Nevada Corporation’s (SNC) Dream Chaser spacecraft vibration test campaign at the Mechanical Vibration Facility (MVF) at NASA Plum Brook Station (PBS) in Sandusky, Ohio, a test-verified model of MVF is needed in order to be able to perform accurate pretest analysis used for determining response limits and abort levels. MVF was designed to vibration test MPCV Orion and was used to perform the system level vibration test of the European Service Module Structural Test Article (E-STA) in 2016. MVF is comprised of an 18 ft diameter annulus table that is driven with sixteen hydraulic vertical actuator assemblies and four hydraulic horizontal actuator assemblies, which allow it to perform single axis vibration testing in the vertical axis and in each of the two orthogonal horizontal axes without the need for reconfiguring the test article. A head expander for the MVF Table has been designed and built that fills in the center opening providing a continuous flat mounting surface with a maximum diameter of 16.25feet that expands the vibration testing capabilities of MVF. The MVF Table with this head expander will be used during the SNC Dream Chaser spacecraft vibration test campaign. Therefore, a critical element in a test-verified model of the MVF will be a test correlated finite element model (FEM) of the head expander. To obtain this, engineers from the Structural Dynamics Lab (SDL) at NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC) in Cleveland, Ohio performed a modal pretest analysis, conducted a modal test in July 2019, and most recently correlated the head expander finite element model to the modal test data up to 300 Hz. From the initial test preparations to the final delivery of a correlated finite element model, all efforts mentioned were led by the same early-career engineers at NASA GRC. From the viewpoint of an early-career engineer, lessons learned about modal pretest analysis, modal testing, and finite element model correlation of the MVF Table expander head will be presented and discussed. This will include the importance of understanding the limitations of using uncorrelated finite element models in the modal pretest analysis and planning, the importance of orthogonality metrics in judging adequacy and accuracy of test mode shapes, and the importance of having the FEM match the as built hardware in the model correlation effort.

Emma L Pierson↗

Cross-correlation and image alignment for multi-band IR sensors

We present the development of a cross-­‐correlation algorithm for correlating objects in the long wave, mid wave and short wave Infrared sensor arrays. The goal is to align the images in the multi-­‐ sensor suite by correlating multiple key features in the images. Due to the wavelength differences, the object appears very differently in the sensor images even the sensors focus on the same object. In order to perform accurate correlation of the same object in the multi-­‐band images, we perform image processing on the images so that the features of the object become similar to each other. Fourier domain band pass filters are used to enhance the images. Mexican Hat and Gaussian Derivative Wavelets are used to further enhance the features of the object. A Python based QT graphical user interface has been implemented to carry out the process. We show reliable results of the cross-­‐correlation of the objects in multiple band videos.

Torres, Gilbert↗

Stagnation Point Convective Heating Correlations for Entry Into H2/He Atmospheres

New convective heating correlations have been developed over a broad range of entry conditions into H2/He atmospheres. The correlations are based on calculations of stagnation point convective heat fluxes over a large range of velocities, densities, and effective nose radii. The heat fluxes and corresponding flowfields are computed using NASA’s hypersonic computational fluid dynamics code, DPLR. Cases in this study have been computed using both a temperaturelimited, radiative equilibrium wall and a cold wall temperature boundary condition. The results for the scaled heat flux, as a function of the difference in freestream and wall enthalpies, show a clear deviation from the linear trend predicted by the method of Sutton and Graves. Therefore, updated non-linear correlations are proposed for the prediction of stagnation point convective heat fluxes. Generally, these updated correlations predict lower heat loads and therefore smaller required TPS thicknesses when compared to previous correlations for a range of test cases in the Neptune, Saturn, and Uranus atmospheres.

Alex T. Carroll↗

Stagnation Point Convective Heating Correlations for Entry Into H2/He Atmospheres

New convective heating correlations have been developed over a broad range of entry conditions into H2/He atmospheres. The correlations are based on calculations of stagnation point convective heat fluxes over a large range of velocities, densities, and effective nose radii. The heat fluxes and corresponding flow fields are computed using NASA’s hypersonic computational fluid dynamics code, DPLR. Cases in this study have been computed using both a temperature limited, radiative equilibrium wall and a cold wall temperature boundary condition. The results for the scaled heat flux, as a function of the difference in freestream and wall enthalpies, show a clear deviation from the linear trend predicted by the method of Sutton and Graves. Therefore, updated non-linear correlations are proposed for the prediction of stagnation point convective heat fluxes. Generally, these updated correlations predict lower heat loads and therefore smaller required TPS thicknesses when compared to previous correlations for a range of test cases in the Neptune, Saturn, and Uranus atmospheres.

Alex T. Carroll↗

Validation of Universal Cryogenic Flow Boiling Correlations in Thermal Desktop for Liquid Helium

Understanding two-phase cryogenic propellant behavior is key to enabling technologies for future spaceflight missions. Developing accurate models of two-phase flow phenomena, particularly flow boiling in the heating configuration is relevant to the propellant transfer process both in microgravity and on other planetary surfaces. Currently there is a need for more accurate, direct cryogenic data anchored models for various boiling phenomena. Recently, universal correlations for cryogens flowing in heated tubes have been developed for a wide variety of fluids, thermodynamic conditions, and various regimes across the boiling curve, and have been patched to provide a smooth, continuous predictive curve. This paper demonstrates how these correlations have been ported into Thermal Desktop to improve predictive performance. To test the validity of the new correlations, Thermal Desktop is validated against a historical dataset of flow boiling experiments in the heating configuration using liquid helium. Based on results, the new correlations show a substantial improvement over the original built-in flow boiling correlations in Thermal Desktop in predicting the wall temperature as a function of preponderant parameters for this quantum fluid.

cryogenic propellant transfer↗

An Interesting Correlation Between the Peak Slope and Peak Value of a Sunspot Cycle

The maximum slope of the sunspot number during the rising phase of a sunspot cycle has an excellent correlation with the maximum value of the sunspot number during that cycle. This is demonstrated using a Savitzky–Golay filter to both smooth and calculate the derivative of the sunspot-number data. Version 2 of the International Sunspot Number (S) is used to represent solar activity. The maximum of the slope during the rising phase of each cycle was correlated against the peaks of solar activity. Using three different correlation fits, the average predicted amplitude for Solar Cycle 25 is 130.7 ± 0.5, among the best correlations in solar predictions. A possible explanation for this correlation is given by the similar behavior of a shape function representing the time variation of the sunspot number. This universal function also provides the timing of the solar maximum by the time from the slope maximum to the peak in the function as late 2023 or early 2024. A Hilbert transform gives similar results, which are caused by the dominance of the 11-yr sunspot-cycle period in a Fourier fit of the sunspot number.

W. Dean Pesnell↗

Causal Correlation Functions and Fourier Transforms: Application in Calculating Pressure Induced Shifts

By adopting a concept from signal processing, instead of starting from the correlation functions which are even, one considers the causal correlation functions whose Fourier transforms become complex. Their real and imaginary parts multiplied by 2 are the Fourier transforms of the original correlations and the subsequent Hilbert transforms, respectively. Thus, by taking this step one can complete the two previously needed transforms. However, to obviate performing the Cauchy principal integrations required in the Hilbert transforms is the greatest advantage. Meanwhile, because the causal correlations are well-bounded within the time domain and band limited in the frequency domain, one can replace their Fourier transforms by the discrete Fourier transforms and the latter can be carried out with the FFT algorithm. This replacement is justified by sampling theory because the Fourier transforms can be derived from the discrete Fourier transforms with the Nyquis rate without any distortions. We apply this method in calculating pressure induced shifts of H2O lines and obtain more reliable values. By comparing the calculated shifts with those in HITRAN 2008 and by screening both of them with the pair identity and the smooth variation rules, one can conclude many of shift values in HITRAN are not correct.

correlation function↗

Two Dimensional Symmetric Correlation Functions of the S Operator and Two Dimensional Fourier Transforms: Considering the Line Coupling for P and R Lines of Linear Molecules

The refinement of the Robert-Bonamy (RB) formalism by considering the line coupling for isotropic Raman Q lines of linear molecules developed in our previous study [Q. Ma, C. Boulet, and R. H. Tipping, J. Chem. Phys. 139, 034305 (2013)] has been extended to infrared P and R lines. In these calculations, the main task is to derive diagonal and off-diagonal matrix elements of the Liouville operator iS1 − S2 introduced in the formalism. When one considers the line coupling for isotropic Raman Q lines where their initial and final rotational quantum numbers are identical, the derivations of off-diagonal elements do not require extra correlation functions of the ^S operator and their Fourier transforms except for those used in deriving diagonal elements. In contrast, the derivations for infrared P and R lines become more difficult because they require a lot of new correlation functions and their Fourier transforms. By introducing two dimensional correlation functions labeled by two tensor ranks and making variable changes to become even functions, the derivations only require the latters' two dimensional Fourier transforms evaluated at two modulation frequencies characterizing the averaged energy gap and the frequency detuning between the two coupled transitions. With the coordinate representation, it is easy to accurately derive these two dimensional correlation functions. Meanwhile, by using the sampling theory one is able to effectively evaluate their two dimensional Fourier transforms. Thus, the obstacles in considering the line coupling for P and R lines have been overcome. Numerical calculations have been carried out for the half-widths of both the isotropic Raman Q lines and the infrared P and R lines of C2H2 broadened by N2. In comparison with values derived from the RB formalism, new calculated values are significantly reduced and become closer to measurements.

infrared radiation↗

The Measurement of Shear Strain in Impact Ice Using a Modified Lap Joint Test and Digital Image Correlation

The results of ice adhesion testing efforts are typically quantified using the maximum shear stress sustained at the interface before the ice detaches from the underlying substrate. While this singular value can be useful for understanding the role icing wind tunnel conditions and substrate surface properties have on the strength of the ice-substrate interface, it does not capture the mechanical behavior of the ice during an experiment. To better understand the deformation of the ice sample and ice-substrate interface during testing, digital image correlation was applied to the lap-joint shear test methodology utilized at NASA Glenn Research Center. Preparation of the sample surface for digital image correlation, initial parsing of the correlation data, and the time synchronization of data from multiple sources are discussed. Using the directional components of deformation measured via digital image correlation, a novel approach to calculating the interfacial shear strain is presented. Results from analyzing several impact ice samples consistently reveals a non-linear response in the ice during mechanical loading which occurs prior to sample delamination, a behavior not observable in the force and displacement data gathered from the testing apparatus. Both the full and small angle forms of the engineering shear strain are evaluated, with the full shear strain form providing considerably lower noise levels. The transition of sample response from near the interface to the bulk behavior of the ice under shear loading is discussed with results from several samples being presented.

Ice adhesion↗

The Measurement of Shear Strain in Impact Ice Using a Modified Lap Joint Test and Digital Image Correlation

The results of ice adhesion testing efforts are typically quantified using the maximum shear stress sustained at the interface before the ice detaches from the underlying substrate. While this singular value can be useful for understanding the role icing wind tunnel conditions and substrate surface properties have on the strength of the ice-substrate interface, it does not capture the mechanical behavior of the ice during an experiment. To better understand the deformation of the ice sample and ice-substrate interface during testing, digital image correlation was applied to the lap-joint shear test methodology utilized at NASA Glenn Research Center. Preparation of the sample surface for digital image correlation, initial parsing of the correlation data, and the time synchronization of data from multiple sources are discussed. Using the directional components of deformation measured via digital image correlation, a novel approach to calculating the interfacial shear strain is presented. Results from analyzing several impact ice samples consistently reveals a non-linear response in the ice during mechanical loading which occurs prior to sample delamination, a behavior not observable in the force and displacement data gathered from the testing apparatus. Both the full and small angle forms of the engineering shear strain are evaluated, with the full shear strain form providing considerably lower noise levels. The transition of sample response from near the interface to the bulk behavior of the ice under shear loading is discussed with results from several samples being presented.

: Ice Adhesion, Digital Image Correlation, Experim↗

Correlation of total sound power and peak sideline OASPL from jet exhausts

An empirical analysis of jet noise is made for convergent exhaust nozzles. An engineering approach to the correlation of total sound power and miximum sideline overall sound pressure level (OASPL), at 200 ft, is presented for both subsonic and supersonic jets based on available data. Data correlation for subsonic jets shows no dependency of total sound power and maximum sideline OASPL on jet density. The analysis for supersonic jets results in a correlation parameter for jet total sound power consisting of the conventional Lighthill parameter modified by considerations of jet Mach number and jet acoustic velocity. Similar parameters also correlate the maximum sideline OASPL for supersonic jets.

Vonglahn, U. H.↗

Optimal filtering in the presence of unmodeled time correlated driving disturbances.

In many realistic data filtering problems, the cross correlation of the state estimation error and the state forcing function is unknown due to the poor knowledge of the time history of the forcing function. In this paper, the conservative and minimal approximation to the cross correlation terms is presented. It requires only the knowledge of the estimation error covariance and the forcing function covariance, with the choice of an associated free parameter left to the user. If the estimation error covariance and/or the forcing function covariance are bounded from above but not known exactly, the cross correlation approximation using those upper bounds remains conservative. This cross correlation approximation leads to a conservative approximation to the estimation error covariance matrix differential equation between measurement times. The free parameter is determined as the analytic solution to an associated optimal control problem. The procedure is expanded to include discrete linear measurement incorporation.

Fraser, D. C.↗

Correlation of total sound power and peak sideline OASPL from jet exhausts.

An empirical analysis of jet noise is made for convergent exhaust nozzles. This study, conducted at the Lewis Research Center, presents an engineering approach to the correlation of total sound power and maximum sideline OASPL (at 200 ft) for both subsonic and supersonic jets based on available data. Data correlation for subsonic jets shows no dependency of total sound power and maximum sideline OASPL on jet density. The analysis for supersonic jets results in a correlation parameter for jet total sound power consisting of the conventional Lighthill parameter modified by considerations of jet Mach number and jet acoustic velocity. Similar parameters also correlate the maximum sideline OASPL for supersonic jets.

Von Glahn, U. H.↗

The correlation length for interplanetary magnetic field fluctuations

It is argued that it is appropriate to consider two correlation lengths for interplanetary magnetic field fluctuations. For particles with gyro-radii large enough to encounter and be scattered by large-scale tangential discontinuities in the field (particles with energies greater than or approximately equal to several GeV/nucleon) the appropriate correlation length is simply the mean spatial separation between the discontinuities, L approximately 2 x 10 to the 11th power. Particles with gyro-radii much less than this mean separation (energies less than or approximately equal to 100 MeV/nucleon) appear to be unaffected by the discontinuities and respond only to smaller-scale field fluctuations. For these particles the correlation length is shown to be L approximately 10 to the 10th power cm. With this system of two correlation lengths the cosmic-ray diffusion tensor may be altered from what was predicted by, for example, Jokipii and Coleman, and the objections raised recently by Klimas and Sandri to the diffusion analysis of Jokipii may apply only at relatively low energies (approximately 50 MeV/nucleon).

Fisk, L. A.↗

Correlation of ERTS-1 and aircraft optical data with water quality parameters of Charlotte Amalie Harbor, St. Thomas, Virgin Islands

The author has identified the following significant results. Attempts to correlate optical aircraft remote sensing of water quality with the optical data from the ERTS-1 satellite using calibrated imagery of Charlotte Amalie harbor, St. Thomas, Virgin Islands are reported. The harbor at Charlotte Amalie has a concentration of a number of factors affecting water quality: untreated sewage, land runoff, and sediment from navigation and dredging operations. Calibration procedures have been originated and applied to ERTS-1 and I2S camera imagery. The results indicate that the ERTS-1 and I2S imagery are correlated with optical in situ measurements of the harbor water. The aircraft green photographic and ERTS-1 MSS-4 bands have been found most suitable for monitoring the scattered light levels under the conditions of the investigation. The chemical parameters of the harbor water were found to be correlated to the optical properties for two stations investigated in detail. The biological properties of the harbor water (chlorophyll and carotenoids), correlate inversely with the optical data near the pollution sources compared to further away. Calibration procedures developed in this investigation were essential to the interpretation of the photographic and ERTS-1 photometric responses.

Coulbourn, W. C.↗

Cavitation in liquid cryogens. 4: Combined correlations for venturi, hydrofoil, ogives, and pumps

The results of a series of experimental and analytical cavitation studies are presented. Cross-correlation is performed of the developed cavity data for a venturi, a hydrofoil and three scaled ogives. The new correlating parameter, MTWO, improves data correlation for these stationary bodies and for pumping equipment. Existing techniques for predicting the cavitating performance of pumping machinery were extended to include variations in flow coefficient, cavitation parameter, and equipment geometry. The new predictive formulations hold promise as a design tool and universal method for correlating pumping machinery performance. Application of these predictive formulas requires prescribed cavitation test data or an independent method of estimating the cavitation parameter for each pump. The latter would permit prediction of performance without testing; potential methods for evaluating the cavitation parameter prior to testing are suggested.

Hord, J.↗

The effects of notch filters on the correlation properties of a PN signal

With wideband pseudo-noise (PN) communications systems, it is sometimes desirable to supplement the inherent interference rejection capabilities by adding notch filters to attenuate relatively narrowband interference. This correspondence presents an investigation of the effects of notch filters on the performance of PN correlation receivers. A theoretical analysis of the correlation drop due to filter distortion has been conducted and confirmed by experimentation. Additional measurements and analysis have established the trade-off between correlation drop and interference suppression as a function of interference bandwidth. A typical result is that by incurring a penalty of a 1-dB drop in correlation peak, interfering signals having bandwidths of 2 to 3% of the PN chip rate can be attenuated by 25 dB.

Sussman, S. M.↗

Correlation of 1.65 and 2.15 micron airglow emissions

The intense infrared airglow is due primarily to vibration-rotation bands of the OH molecule. This airglow has been observed with a 24-in. scanning photometer at two wavelengths. Narrow-band interference filters are used to limit observations to the (9,7) band at 2.15 microns and the (4,2) and (5,3) bands at 1.65 microns. If OH emission results from creation of the excited OH molecule in the v = 9 vibrational state and subsequent cascading through lower vibrational levels, the 1.65 and 2.15 micron radiation will be well correlated in space and time. However, if several mechanisms are involved in producing OH in a variety of initial excitation levels, there is no reason to expect good correlation. Sky maps obtained simultaneously at 1.65 and 2.15 microns show strongly correlated intensity fluctuations. Quantitative analysis of these maps and other investigations of smaller areas of the sky yield correlation coefficients typically in excess of 0.8.

Kieffaber, L. M.↗