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This program was undertaken as an initial step in establishing an evaluation framework which would permit a priori selection of advanced welding processes for specific applications. To this end, a direct comparison of laser beam, electron beam and arc welding of Ti-6Al-4V alloy was undertaken. Ti-6Al-4V was selected for use in view of its established welding characteristics and its importance in aerospace applications.
A mathematical model predicting the strength of unidirectional fiber reinforced composites containing known flaws and with linear elastic-brittle material behavior was developed. The approach was to imbed a local heterogeneous region surrounding the crack tip into an anisotropic elastic continuum. This (1) permits an explicit analysis of the micromechanical processes involved in the fracture, and (2) remains simple enough to be useful in practical computations. Computations for arbitrary flaw size and orientation under arbitrary applied loads were performed. The mechanical properties were those of graphite epoxy. With the rupture properties arbitrarily varied to test the capabilities of the model to reflect real fracture modes, it was shown that fiber breakage, matrix crazing, crack bridging, matrix-fiber debonding, and axial splitting can all occur during a period of (gradually) increasing load prior to catastrophic failure. The calculations also reveal the sequential nature of the stable crack growth process proceding fracture.
A mathematical model is described which will permit predictions of the strength of fiber reinforced composites containing known flaws to be made from the basic properties of their constituents. The approach was to embed a local heterogeneous region (LHR) surrounding the crack tip into an anisotropic elastic continuum. The model should (1) permit an explicit analysis of the micromechanical processes involved in the fracture process, and (2) remain simple enough to be useful in practical computations. Computations for arbitrary flaw size and orientation under arbitrary applied load combinations were performed from unidirectional composites with linear elastic-brittle constituent behavior. The mechanical properties were nominally those of graphite epoxy. With the rupture properties arbitrarily varied to test the capability of the model to reflect real fracture modes in fiber composites, it was shown that fiber breakage, matrix crazing, crack bridging, matrix-fiber debonding, and axial splitting can all occur during a period of (gradually) increasing load prior to catastrophic fracture. The computations reveal qualitatively the sequential nature of the stable crack process that precedes fracture.
A general form of the integral equation of exospheric transport on moon-like bodies is derived in a form that permits arbitrary specification of time varying physical processes affecting atom creation and annihilation, atom-regolith collisions, adsorption and desorption, and nonplanetocentric acceleration. Because these processes usually defy analytic representation, the Monte Carlo method of solution of the transport equation, the only viable alternative, is described in detail, with separate discussions of the methods of specification of physical processes as probabalistic functions. Proof of the validity of the Monte Carlo exosphere simulation method is provided in the form of a comparison of analytic and Monte Carlo solutions to three classical, and analytically tractable, exosphere problems. One of the key phenomena in moonlike exosphere simulations, the distribution of velocities of the atoms leaving a regolith, depends mainly on the nature of collisions of free atoms with rocks. It is shown that on the moon and Mercury, elastic collisions of helium atoms with a Maxwellian distribution of vibrating, bound atoms produce a nearly Maxwellian distribution of helium velocities, despite the absence of speeds in excess of escape in the impinging helium velocity distribution.
A quasi-isothermal approach was used to study the kinetics of hydrogen and hydrogen sulfide chemisorption onto iron film in an effort to understand the environmental degradation of steels. The coverage of chemisorbed hydrogen or chemisorbed sulfur was observed as a function of time for fixed conditions of substrate temperature. Auger electron spectroscopy was used to observe the sulfur and chemisorption-induced resistance change was employed to monitor hydrogen coverage. To compare the results obtained from studying the kinetics by two different techniques, the kinetics of oxygen chemisorption onto iron films was also studied. A reaction model utilized to interpret the H2/Fe2 chemisorption kinetics was applied to data from an earlier study on the desorption kinetics for H2 chemisorbed onto nicket films in the vicinity of the Curie temperature of the film. This analysis permitted a separation of the gross desorption process into individual components so that the influence of the magnetic phase transition on the rate constants could be determined.
Gamma-rays dominate the emission from quasar 3C 273, although they cannot arise in its active center. Their origin is ascribed to a relativistic beam which entrains and clumps ambient cluster gas. Secondary electrons from nuclear collisions lead to bremsstrahlung gamma-rays and ultimately to a double radio source. This model requires a great deal of clumping of jet and target matter to get sufficient reactions to occur. The clumping required is consistent with the Liouville theorem, given the high collimation of the beam, which suggests that the process, however unexpected, is at least thermodynamically permitted. The present model is experimentally distinguishable from other models through its location of the X-ray source in the extended optical jet region, and through a number of detailed spectral features.
The advent of large deformation finite element methodologies is beginning to permit the numerical simulation of hot working processes whose design until recently has been based on prior industrial experience. Proper application of such finite element techniques requires realistic constitutive equations which more accurately model material behavior during hot working. A simple constitutive model for hot working is the single scalar internal variable model for isotropic thermal elastoplasticity proposed by Anand. The model is recalled and the specific scalar functions, for the equivalent plastic strain rate and the evolution equation for the internal variable, presented are slight modifications of those proposed by Anand. The modified functions are better able to represent high temperature material behavior. The monotonic constant true strain rate and strain rate jump compression experiments on a 2 percent silicon iron is briefly described. The model is implemented in the general purpose finite element program ABAQUS.
A software technique which allows users to examine images remotely while minimizing transmission time, is discussed. The technique provides a browsing capability, making it possible to roam over larger images, to zoom to various resolution levels, and to specify subregions of interest in the image to display at full resolution. The software permits analysts to remotely submit images for processing and to review the processing result. The capabilities of the technique under varying conditions and the speed at which imagery can be displayed over direct connect serial lines are discussed and examples of the imagery at various levels of resolution are presented.
A hybrid infrared-hot gas heat source has been developed and tested for the NASA Langley Tow Placement Facility. The IR heat source provides supplemental heat to the nip region. The additional heat is intended to reduce the need for conduction heating by the compaction roller, which causes (he roller to stick to the panel surface. Initial bench scale testing was performed to identify the most effective means of focusing IR energy into the nip region. A compact lamp and reflector that placed the lamp as close to the nip point as possible was found to deliver the highest heat flux in the nip region. A prototype heater was installed on the NASA Langley tow placement robot. Panels placed with a 400 C (sticking) compaction roller gave DCB initiation toughness numbers comparable to those reported for autoclave processed panels but were found to have unexpectedly high void contents. Placement with compaction roller temperatures that prevented roller sticking resulted in mode I fracture toughness approximately 70% that reported for autoclave processed panels. The variability in strength among specimens placed with reduced roller temperature was found to be greatly reduced, which implies that use of supplemental nip point heat may improve the robustness of the tow placement process. Use of the IR heat source permitted placement with a compaction roller temperature that would have resulted in negligible interfacial strength with the hot gas torch alone. The roller temperature reductions eliminated the need for the robot operator to attend placement operations.
The Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS) is a new generation lidar and is the primary science payload for NASA's ICESat Mission. The GLAS design combines a 10 cm precision surface lidar with a sensitive dual wavelength cloud and aerosol lidar. GLAS will precisely measure the heights of the Earth's polar ice sheets, establish a grid of accurate height profiles of the Earth's land topography, and profile the vertical distribution of clouds and aerosols on a global scale. GLAS will be integrated onto a small spacecraft built by Ball Aerospace, and will be launched into a polar orbit with a 590-630 km altitude at an inclination of 94 degrees. ICESat is is currently planned to launch in winter 2002/03 and GLAS is designed to operate continuously in space for a minimum of 3 years. GLAS will measure the vertical distance from orbit to the Earth's surface with pulses from a ND:YAG laser at a 40 Hz rate. Each 6 nsec wide 1064 nm laser pulse is used to produce a single range measurement. On the surface, the laser footprints have 66 m diameter and approx. 170 m center-center spacings. The GLAS receiver uses a I m diameter telescope to detect laser backscatter and a Si APD to detect the 1064 nm signals. The detector's output is sampled by a digital ranging receiver, which records each transmitted pulse and surface echo waveform with 1 nsec (15 cm) resolution. Each echo pulse is digitized and is reported to ground with a record length of from 200 to 544 samples, depending on the spacecraft's location . The GLAS location and epoch times are measured by a precision GPS receiver carried on the ICESat spacecraft. Initial processing of the echo waveforms within GLAS permits discrimination between cloud and surface echoes for selecting appropriate waveform samples. This selection is guided by an on-board DEM which is used to set the boundaries for the echo pulse search algorithm. Subsequent ground-based echo pulse analysis, along with GPS-based clock frequency estimates, permit final determination of the range to the surface, degree of pulse spreading, and vertical distribution of any vegetation illuminated by the laser. Accurate knowledge of the laser beam's pointing angle is needed to prevent height biases when measuring over tilted surfaces, such as near the boundaries of ice sheets. For surfaces with 2 deg. slopes, knowledge of pointing angle of the beam's centroid angle to better than 10 urad is needed. GLAS uses a stellar reference system (SRS) to measure the pointing angle of each laser firing relative to inertial space. The SRS uses a high precision star camera oriented toward local zenith and a gyroscope to determine the inertial orientation of the SRS optical bench. The far field pattern of each laser is measured pulse relative to the star camera with a laser reference system (LRS). GLAS will also measure the vertical distributions of clouds and aerosols by recording the vertical profiles of laser pulse backscatter at both 1064 and 532 nm. The 1064 rim measurements use the Si APD detector and will be used to measure the height and echo pulse shape from thicker clouds. The lidar receiver at 532 nm uses a narrow bandwidth etalon filter and highly sensitive photon counting detectors. The 532 nm backscatter profiles will be used to measure the vertical extent of thinner clouds and the atmospheric boundary layer. The GLAS instrument component development is complete and the instrument is undergoing final testing and qualification at NASA-Goddard. The GLAS "as-built" characteristics and its expected measurement performance will be discussed.
NASA Langley Research Center has a long history of developing 2-micron laser transmitter for wind sensing. With support from NASA Laser Risk Reduction Program (LRRP) and Instrument Incubator Program (IIP), NASA Langley Research Center has developed a state-of-the-art compact lidar transceiver for a pulsed coherent Doppler lidar system for wind measurement. The transmitter portion of the transceiver employs the high-pulse-energy, Ho:Tm:LuLiF, partially conductively cooled laser technology developed at NASA Langley. The transceiver is capable of 250 mJ pulses at 10 Hz. It is very similar to the technology envisioned for coherent Doppler lidar wind measurements from Earth and Mars orbit. The transceiver is coupled to the large optics and data acquisition system in the NASA Langley VALIDAR mobile trailer. The large optics consists of a 15-cm off-axis beam expanding telescope, and a full-hemispheric scanner. Vertical and horizontal vector winds are measured, as well as relative backscatter. The data acquisition system employs frequency domain velocity estimation and pulse accumulation. It permits real-time display of the processed winds and archival of all data. This lidar system was recently deployed at Howard University facility in Beltsville, Mary-land, along with other wind lidar systems. Coherent Doppler wind lidar ground-based wind measurements and comparisons with other sensors will be presented. A simulation and data product for wind measurement at Venus will be presented.
The Submillimeter Enceladus Life Fundamentals Instrument (SELFI) is a passive remote sensing submillimeter heterodyne spectrometer being developed at NASA GSFC under NASA's Maturation of Instruments for Solar System Exploration (MatISSE) program. SELFI will advance submillimeter receiver technology by 1) investigating the chemical and isotopic compositions and corresponding densities of Enceladus' plume material, their vertical thermal structures, and the transport mechanisms within the plumes, and 2) characterizing the source regions from which the plumes emerge. The Enceladus plumes are important in the context of life and habitability of its subsurface ocean environment. SELFI remote sensing measurements will 1) measure the spatial and temporal variabilities in the plume chemical compositions, 2) provide insight in to Enceladus' subsurface ocean environment by monitoring H2O, HDO, d18O, and d17O, 3) constrain the oxidation state of the subsurface ocean using H2O2 and O3, and 4) utilize the SO2 and H2S spectral signatures to constrain the impact arising from both the sea-floor volcanoes and pre-biotic molecules. Moreover, the detection of the remaining molecular species (14 in total) is vital to improving the current state of knowledge of Enceladus' subsurface ocean habitability this also permits us to explore the chemical alteration processes arising from primordial volatiles that have been observed in comets. Lastly, SELFI's continuum observations enable the correlation between observed variations in plume activity with surface temperatures.SELFI is currently being developed under a technology maturation program that will advance the RF-to-digital electronics of a submillimeter-wave heterodyne spectrometer to simultaneously observe fourteen molecular species with resonances between 530 GHz and 600 GHz. SELFI will have fine radiometric resolution, high spectral resolution (resolving power R > 106), multiple continuum channels and a high dynamical range, necessary to map Enceladus across its 30 K to 250 K temperature range. Under the MatISSE program, SELFI will advance from TRL 4 to 6 four key technologies of the RF-to-digital subsystem, which are: 1) the RF low noise amplifier design; 2) the single-sideband (SSB) mixer and local oscillator; 3) the IF assembly down-converter that maps the fourteen species to 2 x 500 MHz bandwidth; and 4) the digital spectrometer electronics.
The quantification and control of discretization error is critical to obtaining reliable simulation results. Adaptive mesh techniques have the potential to automate discretization error control, but have made limited impact on production analysis workflow. Recent progress has matured a number of independent implementations of flow solvers, error estimation methods, and anisotropic mesh adaptation mechanics. However, the poor integration of initial mesh generation and adaptive mesh mechanics to typical sources of geometry has hindered adoption of adaptive mesh techniques, where these geometries are often created in Mechanical Computer- Aided Design (MCAD) systems. The difficulty of this coupling is compounded by two factors: the inherent complexity of the model (e.g., large range of scales, bodies in proximity, details not required for analysis) and unintended geometry construction artifacts (e.g., translation, uneven parameterization, degeneracy, self-intersection, sliver faces, gaps, large tolerances be- tween topological elements, local high curvature to enforce continuity). Manual preparation of geometry is commonly employed to enable fixed-grid and adaptive-grid workflows by reducing the severity and negative impacts of these construction artifacts, but manual process interaction inhibits workflow automation. Techniques to permit the use of complex geometry models and reduce the impact of geometry construction artifacts on unstructured grid workflows are models from the AIAA Sonic Boom and High Lift Prediction are shown to demonstrate the utility of the current approach.
This paper outlines key scientific topics that are important for the development of solar system physics and how observations of heavy ion composition can address them. The key objectives include, 1) understanding the Sun’s chemical composition by identifying specific mechanisms driving elemental variation in the corona. 2) Disentangling the solar wind birthplace and drivers of release by determining the relative contributions of active regions (ARs), quiet Sun, and coronal hole plasma to the solar wind. 3) Determining the principal mechanisms driving solar wind evolution from the Sun by identifying the importance and interplay of reconnection, waves, and/or turbulence in driving the extended acceleration and heating of solar wind and transient plasma. The paper recommends complementary heavy ion measurements that can be traced from the Sun to the heliosphere to properly connect and study these regions to address these topics. The careful determination of heavy ion and elemental composition of several particle populations, matched at the Sun and in the heliosphere, will permit for a comprehensive examination of fractionation processes, wave-particle interactions, coronal heating, and solar wind release and energization that are key to understanding how the Sun forms and influences the heliosphere.
This task supports the application of infrared heterodyne spectroscopy and other high resolution techniques, as well as infrared arrays to ultra-high resolution studies of molecular constituents of planetary atmospheres. High spectral and spatial resolution measurement and analysis of individual spectral lines permits the retrieval of distributions of atmospheric molecular abundances and temperatures and thus, information on local photochemical processes. Determination of absolute line positions to better than 10(exp -8) permits direct measurement of gas velocities to a few m/sec and thus, the study of dynamics. Observations are made from ground based observatories.
A software system design is proposed and demonstrated with pilot-project software. The system permits the Apple II microcomputer to be used for personalized computer-assisted instruction in the digital image processing of LANDSAT images. The programs provide data input, menu selection, graphic and hard-copy displays, and both general and detailed instructions. The pilot-project results are considered to be successful indicators of the capabilities and limits of microcomputers for digital image processing education.
This task supports the application of infrared heterodyne and Fourier transform spectroscopy to ultra-high resolution studies of molecular constituents of planetary astomspheres and cometary comae. High spectral and spatial resolutions are especially useful for detection and study of localized, non-thermal phenomena in low temperature and low density regions, for detection of trace constituents and for measurement of winds and dynamical phenomena such as thermal tides. Measurement and analysis of individual spectial lines permits retrieval of atmospheric molecular abundances and temperatures and thus, information on local photochemical processes. Determination of absolute line positions to better than 10 to the minus eighth power permits direct measurements of gas velocity to a few meters/sec. Observations are made from ground based heterodyne spectrometers at the Kitt Peak McMath solar telescope and from the NASA infrared Telescope Facility on Mauna Kea, Hawaii. Wind velocities at 110km altitude on Venus were extracted approximately 1 m/sec from measurements of non-thermal emission cores of 10.3 micron CO2 lines. Results indicate a subsolar to antisolar circulationwith a small zonal retrograde component.
“Bumper” is NASA’s computer program for analyzing spacecraft micrometeoroid and orbital debris (MMOD) risk. Bumper was developed in the late-1980s and has been continuously used and maintained since. The user base has grown from a few government entities to now include numerous commercial entities as well. The NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) Hypervelocity Impact Technology (HVIT) Team is responsible for all aspects of the Bumper software. Bumper has been used to characterize MMOD risk on hundreds of spacecraft. All of the International Space Station (ISS) modules, visiting vehicles and numerous external components and systems have been analyzed. Bumper was used to analyze each of the Space Shuttle missions since STS-50. The Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV) MMOD shielding is being developed using Bumper as well. Bumper has also been used on numerous telescopes (Hubble, James Webb, and Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescopes), scientific probes (Stardust, New Horizons, Parker Solar Probe), and Earth observation satellites (Landsat, Joint Polar Satellite System). Bumper is also being used to analyze the micrometeoroid risk and support design of the Deep Space Gateway (DSG) and Mars Sample Return (MSR) missions. The HVIT Bumper Configuration Control Board (CCB) ensures that all changes to the code are approved, reviewed, and documented. Most of the changes are made to add new MMOD damage “ballistic limit equations” (BLEs). BLEs are typically added in response to completion of a hypervelocity impact (HVI) test series and development of an associated BLE. Other less frequent changes include updates of the debris or meteoroid environment models, feature enhancements, and feature retirement. Some BLEs are commercially sensitive and/or proprietary, so the CCB also manages code user-version control and software distribution. The current version – “Bumper 3” – is a FORTRAN executable that utilizes a 64-bit architecture. Bumper 3 has numerous features that make it a powerful tool for analyzing spacecraft MMOD risk. Bumper uses the latest orbital debris and micrometeoroid environment models. Bumper also easily processes large spacecraft geometry models, recognizes hidden surfaces, permits BLE assignment by name or number, and conducts quality checks of the spacecraft geometry model. Bumper 3 can also be used to estimate the effects of particle penetration through thin, high-standoff distance hardware components such as solar arrays and radiators. This is done using a special HVIT-developed technique know as the “3-Part Analysis.” The paper introduces the Bumper 3 MMOD risk analysis code and provides an example MMOD risk assessment showing Bumper’s role in the overall MMOD protection design process.