SEARCH · Search NASA
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.
Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.
Prototype magnetic suspension system with active control isolates object from vibrations in all six degrees of freedom at frequencies as low as 0.01 Hz. Designed specifically to protect instruments aboard spacecraft by suppressing vibrations to microgravity levels; basic control approach used for such terrestrial uses as suppression of shocks and other vibrations in trucks and railroad cars.
Wind tunnel magnetic suspension and balance systems (MSBSs) have so far failed to find application at the large physical scales necessary for the majority of aerodynamic testing. Three areas of technology relevant to such application are investigated. Two variants of the Spanwise Magnet roll torque generation scheme are studied. Spanwise Permanent Magnets are shown to be practical and are experimentally demonstrated. Extensive computations of the performance of the Spanwise Iron Magnet scheme indicate powerful capability, limited principally be electromagnet technology. Aerodynamic testing at extreme attitudes is shown to be practical in relatively conventional MSBSs. Preliminary operation of the MSBS over a wide range of angles of attack is demonstrated. The impact of a requirement for highly reliable operation on the overall architecture of Large MSBSs is studied and it is concluded that system cost and complexity need not be seriously increased.
The open-loop characteristics of a Large-Gap Magnetic Suspension System (LGMSS) were studied and numerical results are presented. The LGMSS considered provides five-degree-of-freedom control. The suspended element is a cylinder that contains a core composed of permanent magnet material. The magnetic actuators are air core electromagnets mounted in a planar array. Configurations utilizing five, six, seven, and eight electromagnets were investigated and all configurations were found to be controllable from coil currents and observable from suspended element positions. Results indicate that increasing the number of coils has an insignificant effect on mode shapes and frequencies.
It is known that an effective control system is the key condition for successful implementation of high-performance magnetic servo systems. Major issues to design such control systems are nonlinearity; unmodeled dynamics, such as secondary effects for copper resistance, stray fields, and saturation; and that disturbance rejection for the load effect reacts directly on the servo system without transmission elements. One typical approach to design control systems under these conditions is a special type of nonlinear feedback called gain scheduling. It accommodates linear regulators whose parameters are changed as a function of operating conditions in a preprogrammed way. In this paper, an on-line learning fuzzy control strategy is proposed. To inherit the wealth of linear control design, the relations between linear feedback and fuzzy logic controllers have been established. The exercise of engineering axioms of linear control design is thus transformed into tuning of appropriate fuzzy parameters. Furthermore, fuzzy logic control brings the domain of candidate control laws from linear into nonlinear, and brings new prospects into design of the local controllers. On the other hand, a self-learning scheme is utilized to automatically tune the fuzzy rule base. It is based on network learning infrastructure; statistical approximation to assign credit; animal learning method to update the reinforcement map with a fast learning rate; and temporal difference predictive scheme to optimize the control laws. Different from supervised and statistical unsupervised learning schemes, the proposed method learns on-line from past experience and information from the process and forms a rule base of an FLC system from randomly assigned initial control rules.
An ongoing program exists to investigate and develop magnetic suspension technologies and modelling techniques at NASA Langley Research Center. Presently, there is a laboratory-scale large air-gap suspension system capable of five degree-of-freedom (DOF) control that is operational and a six DOF system that is under development. Those systems levitate a cylindrical element containing a permanent magnet core above a planar array of electromagnets, which are used for levitation and control purposes. In order to evaluate various control approaches with those systems, the Generic Real-Time State-Space Controller (GRTSSC) software package was developed. That control software package allows the user to implement multiple control methods and allows for varied input/output commands. The development of the control algorithm is presented. The desired functionality of the software is discussed, including the ability to inject noise on sensor inputs and/or actuator outputs. Various limitations, common issues, and trade-offs are discussed including data format precision; the drawbacks of using either Direct Memory Access (DMA), interrupts, or program control techniques for data acquisition; and platform dependent concerns related to the portability of the software, such as memory addressing formats. Efforts to minimize overall controller loop-rate and a comparison of achievable controller sample rates are discussed. The implementation of a modular code structure is presented. The format for the controller input data file and the noise information file is presented. Controller input vector information is available for post-processing by mathematical analysis software such as MATLAB1.
Research Highlights: > We derive a modified LLG equation in magnetic systems with spin-orbit coupling (SOC). > Our results are applied to magnetic multilayers, and DMS and magnetic Rashba systems. > SOC mediated magnetization switching is predicted in rare earth metals (large SOC). > The magnetization trajectory and frequency can be modulated by applied voltage. > This facilitates potential application as tunable microwave oscillators. - Abstract: We present a theoretical description of local spin dynamics in magnetic systems with a chiral spin texture and finite spin-orbit coupling (SOC). Spin precession about the relativistic effective magnetic field in a SOC system gives rise to a non-Abelian SU(2) gauge field reminiscent of the Yang-Mills field. In addition, the adiabatic relaxation of electron spin along the local spin yields an U(1) x U(1) topological gauge (Berry) field. We derive the corresponding equation of motion i.e. modified Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert (LLG) equation, for the local spin under the influence of these effects. Focusing on the SU(2) gauge, we obtain the spin torque magnitude, and the amplitude and frequency of spin oscillations in this system. Our theoretical estimates indicate significant spin torque and oscillations in systems with large spin-orbit coupling, which may be utilized in technological applications such as current-induced magnetization-switching and tunable microwave oscillators.
Pulsed generator electron tube and semiconductor device minimization and elimination - spacecraft application for all-magnetic logic system
Simulation of Fokker-Planck equation by random walks of test particles in velocity space with application to magnetic mirror systems
Mathematical models of a 5, 6, 7, and 8 coil large gap magnetic suspension system (MSDS) are presented. Some of the topics covered include: force and torque equations, reduction of state-space form, natural modes, origins of modes, effect of rotation in azimuth (yaw), future work, and n-coil ring conclusions.
The equation of state of a system of fermions in a uniform magnetic field is obtained in terms of the thermodynamic quantities of the theory by using functional methods. It is shown that the breaking of the O(3) rotational symmetry by the magnetic field results in a pressure anisotropy, which leads to the distinction between longitudinal- and transverse-to-the-field pressures. A criterion to find the threshold field at which the asymmetric regime becomes significant is discussed. This threshold magnetic field is shown to be the same as the one required for the pure field contribution to the energy and pressures to be of the same order as the matter contribution. A graphical representation of the field-dependent anisotropic equation of state of the fermion system is given. Estimates of the upper limit for the inner magnetic field in self-bound stars, as well as in gravitationally bound stars with inhomogeneous distributions of mass and magnetic fields, are also found.
The torque-limited touchdown bearing system (TLTBS) is a backup mechanical-bearing system for a high-speed rotary machine in which the rotor shaft is supported by magnetic bearings in steady-state normal operation. The TLTBS provides ball-bearing support to augment or supplant the magnetic bearings during startup, shutdown, or failure of the magnetic bearings. The TLTBS also provides support in the presence of conditions (in particular, rotational acceleration) that make it difficult or impossible to control the magnetic bearings or in which the magnetic bearings are not strong enough (e.g., when the side load against the rotor exceeds the available lateral magnetic force).
There is an interest in designing superconducting magnet systems for future lepton circular colliders. This application requires many low-field iron-dominated dipole and quadrupole magnets. Conventional room-temperature magnets are often used because of their low field, low total current, and low power losses. However, high electricity bills for large accelerators drive magnet design to superconductivity. High-temperature superconducting (HTS) magnets can substantially reduce energy losses in magnet systems. The present study investigated the conceptual design of HTS dipole and quadrupole magnets operating in persistent current mode. Energy is transferred into the magnet from an external detachable power source. A continuously circulating current generates a stable magnetic field. The iron-dominated magnet system concept was investigated using OPERA3D code, and the results confirmed the proposed approach’s validity.
The feasibility for fusion as a practical energy source needs to be enhanced significantly by removing some of the restrictions that low -- temperature superconductors (LTS) put on the fusion magnet systems. One method to simplify the magnet system is by using high -- temperature superconductors (HTS) that allow for much larger temperature margins, a higher magnet performance and much less mechanical degradation in the superconductor during operation. For use in fusion magnets, HTS need to be bundled into high -- current cables that can be operated at high magnetic fields and at high current ramp rates, while experiencing a homogenous current distribution.
A flux-splitting method is proposed for the hyperbolic-equation system (HES) of magnetized electron fluids in quasi-neutral plasmas. The numerical fluxes are split into four categories, which are computed by using an upwind method which incorporates a flux-vector splitting (FVS) and advection upstream splitting method (AUSM). The method is applied to a test calculation condition of uniformly distributed and angled magnetic lines of force. All of the pseudo-time advancement terms converge monotonically and the conservation laws are strictly satisfied in the steady state. The calculation results are compared with those computed by using the elliptic–parabolic-equation system (EPES) approach using a magnetic-field-aligned mesh (MFAM). Both qualitative and quantitative comparisons yield good agreements of results, indicating that the HES approach with the flux-splitting method attains a high computational accuracy.
Magnetic order in most materials occurs when magnetic ions with finite moments arrange in a particular pattern below the ordering temperature. Intriguingly, if the crystal electric field (CEF) effect results in a spin-singlet ground state, a magnetic order can still occur due to the exchange interactions between neighboring ions admixing the excited CEF levels. The magnetic excitations in such a state are spin excitons generally dispersionless in reciprocal space. Here we use neutron scattering to study stoichiometric Ni 2 Mo 3 O 8 , where Ni 2+ ions form a bipartite honeycomb lattice comprised of two triangular lattices, with ions subject to the tetrahedral and octahedral crystalline environment, respectively. We find that in both types of ions, the CEF excitations have nonmagnetic singlet ground states, yet the material has magnetic order. Furthermore, CEF spin excitons from the tetrahedral sites form a dispersive diffusive pattern around the Brillouin zone boundary, likely due to spin entanglement and geometric frustrations.
Proposed magnetic-bubble memory system includes stack of two-dimensional memory modules. Design enables overall storage density of system to be greater than prior magnetic-bubble memories. Provides nonvolatile storage, with readout access times in millisecond range. Has partly parallel input/output configuration supporting high-performance computing. Also relatively invulnerable to damage by ionizing radiation. Binary data, as represented by direction of magnetization of magnetic bubbles, reads out via Faraday effect.
The Annular Suspension and Pointing System (ASPS) is a prototype of flight hardware for a high-accuracy space payload pointing mount. The long term project objective is to perform modifications and implement improvements to the existing ASPS in hopes of recommission. Also, new applications will be investigated for this technology. This report will focus on the first aspect of this overall goal, to establish operation of a single bearing station. Presented is an overview of the system history and bearing operation followed by the processes, results, and status of the single bearing study.
The 12th IAEA Technical Meeting on Energetic Particles in Magnetic Confinement Systems took place in Austin, Texas (7–11 September 2011). This meeting was organized jointly with the 5th IAEA Technical Meeting on Theory of Plasma Instabilities (5–7 September 2011). The two meetings shared one day (7 September 2011) with presentations relevant to both groups. Some of the work reported at these meetings was then published in a special issue of Nuclear Fusion [Nucl. Fusion 52 (2012)]. Summaries of the Energetic Particle Conference presentations were given by Kazuo Toi and Boris Breizman. They respectively discussed the experimental and theoretical progress presented at the meeting. Highlights of this meeting include the tremendous progress that has been achieved in the development of diagnostics that enables the ‘viewing’ of internal fluctuations and allows comparison with theoretical predictions, as demonstrated, for example, in the talks of P. Lauber and M. Osakabe. The need and development of hardened diagnostics in the severe radiation environment, such as those that will exist in ITER, was discussed in the talks of V. Kiptily and V.A. Kazakhov. In theoretical studies, much of the effort is focused on nonlinear phenomena. For example, detailed comparison of theory and experiment on D-III-D on the n = 0 geodesic mode was reported in separate papers by R. Nazikian and G. Fu. A large number of theoretical papers were presented on wave chirping including a paper by B.N. Breizman, which notes that wave chirping from a single frequency may emanate continuously once marginal stability conditions have been established. Another area of wide interest was the detailed study of alpha orbits in a burning plasma, where losses can come from symmetry breaking due to finite coil number or magnetic field imperfections introduced by diagnostic or test modules. An important area of development, covered by M.A. Hole and D.A. Spong, is concerned with the self-consistent treatment of the induced fields that accounts for toroidally asymmetric MHD response. In addition, a significant number of studies focused on understanding nonlinear behavior by means of computer simulation of energetic particle driven instability. An under-represented area of investigation was the study of electron runaway formation during major tokamak disruptions. It was noted in an overview by S. Putvinski that electron energies in the 10–20 MeV range is to be expected during projected major disruptions in ITER and that reliable methods for mitigation of the runaway process needs to be developed. Significant recent work in the field of the disruption induced electron runaway, which was reported by J. Riemann, had been submitted to Physics of Plasmas. Overall it is clear that reliable mitigation of electron runaway is an extremely important topic that is in need of better understanding and solutions.