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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 235 records · Page 13
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1993

The Middeck Active Control Experiment (MACE)

The Middeck Active Control Experiment (MACE) is a NASA In-Step and Control Structure Interaction (CSI) Office funded Shuttle middeck experiment. The objective is to investigate the extent to which closed-loop behavior of flexible spacecraft in zero-gravity (0-g) can be predicted. This prediction becomes particularly difficult when dynamic behavior during ground testing exhibits extensive suspension and direct gravity coupling. On-orbit system identification and control reconfiguration is investigated to improve performance which would otherwise be limited due to errors in prediction. The program is presently in its preliminary design phase with launch expected in the summer of 1994. The MACE test article consists of three attitude control torque wheels, a two axis gimballing payload, inertial sensors and a flexible support structure. With the acquisition of a second payload, this will represent a multiple payload platform with significant structural flexibility. This paper presents on-going work in the areas of modelling and control of the MACE test article in the zero and one-gravity environments. Finite element models, which include suspension and gravity effects, and measurement models, derived from experimental data, are used as the basis for Linear Quadratic Gaussian controller designs. Finite element based controllers are analytically used to study the differences in closed-loop performance as the test article transitions between the 0-g and 1-g environments. Measurement based controllers are experimentally applied to the MACE test article in the 1-g environment and achieve over an order of magnitude improvement in payload pointing accuracy when disturbed by a broadband torque disturbance. The various aspects of the flight portion of the experiment are also discussed.

Miller, David W.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Development of the CSI phase-3 evolutionary model testbed

This report documents the development effort for the reconfiguration of the Controls-Structures Integration (CSI) Evolutionary Model (CEM) Phase-2 testbed into the CEM Phase-3 configuration. This step responds to the need to develop and test CSI technologies associated with typical planned earth science and remote sensing platforms. The primary objective of the CEM Phase-3 ground testbed is to simulate the overall on-orbit dynamic behavior of the EOS AM-1 spacecraft. Key elements of the objective include approximating the low-frequency appendage dynamic interaction of EOS AM-1, allowing for the changeout of components, and simulating the free-free on-orbit environment using an advanced suspension system. The fundamentals of appendage dynamic interaction are reviewed. A new version of the multiple scaling method is used to design the testbed to have the full-scale geometry and dynamics of the EOS AM-1 spacecraft, but at one-tenth the weight. The testbed design is discussed, along with the testing of the solar array, high gain antenna, and strut components. Analytical performance comparisons show that the CEM Phase-3 testbed simulates the EOS AM-1 spacecraft with good fidelity for the important parameters of interest.

Gronet, M. J.↗
NASA NTRS2012

Mars Meteorolgical Network

Exploring and ultimately establishing a permanent presence on the surface of Mars will necessitate an understanding the weather conditions and the ability to forecast its dynamic behavior. The meteorology of Mars will need to be developed. This abstract puts forth a concept for a Mars Meteorological Network that will be used to investigate the Mars atmosphere behavior, explore the surface environment, and prepare for operational activities. It is proposed that the long term and the dynamic nature of the lower atmosphere and surface of Mars be observed with a distributed global array of simple automated surface nodes. The data would be ingested into the Mars Global Reference Atmospheric Model (Mars-GRAM) and other research tools for analyses to gain a better understanding of the atmospheric conditions on Mars.

Justh, H. L.↗
NASA NTRS1992

CSM solutions of rotating blade dynamics using integrating matrices

The dynamic behavior of flexible rotating beams continues to receive considerable research attention as it constitutes a fundamental problem in applied mechanics. Further, beams comprise parts of many rotating structures of engineering significance. A topic of particular interest at the present time involves the development of techniques for obtaining the behavior in both space and time of a rotor acted upon by a simple airload loading. Most current work on problems of this type use solution techniques based on normal modes. It is certainly true that normal modes cannot be disregarded, as knowledge of natural blade frequencies is always important. However, the present work has considered a computational structural mechanics (CSM) approach to rotor blade dynamics problems in which the physical properties of the rotor blade provide input for a direct numerical solution of the relevant boundary-and-initial-value problem. Analysis of the dynamics of a given rotor system may require solution of the governing equations over a long time interval corresponding to many revolutions of the loaded flexible blade. For this reason, most of the common techniques in computational mechanics, which treat the space-time behavior concurrently, cannot be applied to the rotor dynamics problem without a large expenditure of computational resources. By contrast, the integrating matrix technique of computational mechanics has the ability to consistently incorporate boundary conditions and 'remove' dependence on a space variable. For problems involving both space and time, this feature of the integrating matrix approach thus can generate a 'splitting' which forms the basis of an efficient CSM method for numerical solution of rotor dynamics problems.

Lakin, William D.↗
NASA NTRS2012

Communicating by Doppler: Detecting Spacecraft Dynamics During Critical Maneuvers

Communicating information from spacecraft in deep space utilizes sophisticated techniques of modulations onto a microwave signal carrier. Under most conditions, there is a high success rate of sending commands to the spacecraft and receiving science data acquired by on-board instruments along with health and status information. There are conditions, however, where the signal dynamics are too high and/or the received signal-to-noise ratio is below the receiver threshold. Under these conditions, often by design and sometimes as a result of planned or unplanned critical maneuvers, events (e.g., orbit insertion or descent and landing), safe mode, etc., it becomes highly critical but exceedingly challenging to receive information about the health and dynamical behavior of the spacecraft. The Deep Space Network, being a world-class instrument for Radio Science research, developed openloop receivers, called the Radio Science Receiver, designed to capture the raw incoming electromagnetic signals and associated noise for Radio Science experiments; post data capture digital signal processing extracts the signal carrier for scientific analysis. This receiver provides a high level of configuration flexibility and can be optimized for the various types of experiments. In addition to its scientific utility, it proved to be useful, and in some cases critical, for the support of missions during specific scenarios were the link budget is below the threshold of the tracking receiver to maintain lock or the frequency dynamics are faster than the limits of the tracking receiver. In these cases, the signal carrier is often detected only in the open-loop receiver to provide information on the specific behavior of the spacecraft from the carrier dynamics. This paper describes the utility of the system to support mission-critical events for the three cases of Cassini's Saturn orbit insertion, Huygens Titan landing, and Mars rovers landing.

radio science↗
NASA NTRS1971

Examination of the anomalous behavior of three gravity gradient satellites

The anomalous oscillatory behavior of three satellites was examined. The satellites were all hinged, two-body, gravity gradient configurations passively stabilized about their three principal axes by gravity gradient and damper torques. Two basic behavior patterns were observed. Either the satellites were stable with attitude perturbations less than + or - 5 deg or their behavior tended towards a low frequency rigid body oscillation dominated by large yaw motions and in some cases by yaw inversions. A causal relationship between sun angle and the character of satellite behavior was observed which appears to indicate that thermal distortion is a critical factor in a gravity gradient satellite's dynamic behavior. The behavior appeared to be futher modified by the existence of response frequencies that were higher than anticipated values.

Goldman, R. L.↗
NASA NTRS2012

Active Combustion Control for Aircraft Gas-Turbine Engines-Experimental Results for an Advanced, Low-Emissions Combustor Prototype

Lean combustion concepts for aircraft engine combustors are prone to combustion instabilities. Mitigation of instabilities is an enabling technology for these low-emissions combustors. NASA Glenn Research Center s prior activity has demonstrated active control to suppress a high-frequency combustion instability in a combustor rig designed to emulate an actual aircraft engine instability experience with a conventional, rich-front-end combustor. The current effort is developing further understanding of the problem specifically as applied to future lean-burning, very low-emissions combustors. A prototype advanced, low-emissions aircraft engine combustor with a combustion instability has been identified and previous work has characterized the dynamic behavior of that combustor prototype. The combustor exhibits thermoacoustic instabilities that are related to increasing fuel flow and that potentially prevent full-power operation. A simplified, non-linear oscillator model and a more physics-based sectored 1-D dynamic model have been developed to capture the combustor prototype s instability behavior. Utilizing these models, the NASA Adaptive Sliding Phasor Average Control (ASPAC) instability control method has been updated for the low-emissions combustor prototype. Active combustion instability suppression using the ASPAC control method has been demonstrated experimentally with this combustor prototype in a NASA combustion test cell operating at engine pressures, temperatures, and flows. A high-frequency fuel valve was utilized to perturb the combustor fuel flow. Successful instability suppression was shown using a dynamic pressure sensor in the combustor for controller feedback. Instability control was also shown with a pressure feedback sensor in the lower temperature region upstream of the combustor. It was also demonstrated that the controller can prevent the instability from occurring while combustor operation was transitioning from a stable, low-power condition to a normally unstable high-power condition, thus enabling the high-power condition.

DeLaat, John C.↗
NASA NTRS1980

Generic multi-body formulation of heavy lift airship equations of motion

This paper describes the formulation of a comprehensive set of equations which describe the dynamic behavior of a generic heavy lift airship (HLA). They are being used in a digital computer simulation to investigate the response dynamics and flying qualities of HLAs operating with various payloads in a variety of operational environments. A key feature is the separate treatment of each component body making up the HLA. This allows the analyst to vary the configuration (e.g., number of lift-propulsion units, presence or absence of slung payload, etc.) without rewriting the equations. It further provides measures of key structural and control loads acting on the HLA and eases the task of modeling wind disturbances.

Ringland, R. F.↗
NASA NTRS1986

Vibration of a large space beam under gravity effect

Future space structures will have a low mass density and high flexibility, with ground test dynamic behavior differing significantly from that in zero-G orbit. Attention is presently given to the vibration behavior of a beam deformed by its own weight; the results obtained by the differential equations for both the static and dynamic responses of a large, simply supported beam, which are derived and solved analytically, allow ground test experiment measurements to be used for orbital dynamic characteristics verification efforts.

Shih, C.-F.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Generation and behavior of solar system magnetic fields

A range of problems aimed primarily at elucidating the character and consequences of magnetic-field generation in the solar system and at testing ideas against known properties of natural magnetic fields are covered. Among the specific subjects currently under investigation are the magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) character of the protosolar nebula, including the generation and behavior of magnetic fields, the electrical conductivity of dusty nebular gas, transient magnetodynamic and electrodynamic nebular phenomena, and the generation and dynamical behavior of planetary magnetic fields. During the past year, the focus of this research was on disk magnetic field generation and transient MHD heating events possibly associated with the protoplanetary nebula.

Levy, Eugene H.↗
NASA NTRS2015

Leveraging Disturbance Observer Based Torque Control for Improved Impedance Rendering with Series Elastic Actuators

The fidelity with which series elastic actuators (SEAs) render desired impedances is important. Numerous approaches to SEA impedance control have been developed under the premise that high-precision actuator torque control is a prerequisite. Indeed, the design of an inner torque compensator has a significant impact on actuator impedance rendering. The disturbance observer (DOB) based torque control implemented in NASA's Valkyrie robot is considered here and a mathematical model of this torque control, cascaded with an outer impedance compensator, is constructed. While previous work has examined the impact a disturbance observer has on torque control performance, little has been done regarding DOBs and impedance rendering accuracy. Both simulation and a series of experiments are used to demonstrate the significant improvements possible in an SEA's ability to render desired dynamic behaviors when utilizing a DOB. Actuator transparency at low impedances is improved, closed loop hysteresis is reduced, and the actuator's dynamic response to both commands and interaction torques more faithfully matches that of the desired model. All of this is achieved by leveraging DOB based control rather than increasing compensator gains, thus making improved SEA impedance control easier to achieve in practice.

Mehling, Joshua S.↗
NASA NTRS2018

The Fusion Driven Rocket: Nuclear Propulsion through Direct Conversion of Fusion Energy

The future of manned space exploration and development of space depends critically on the creation of a dramatically more efficient propulsion architecture for in-space transportation. A very persuasive reason for investigating the applicability of nuclear power in rockets is the vast energy density gain of nuclear fuel when compared to chemical combustion energy. The Fusion Driven rocket (FDR) represents a revolutionary approach to fusion propulsion where the power source releases its energy directly into the propellant, not requiring conversion to electricity. It employs a solid lithium propellant that requires no significant tankage mass. The propellant is rapidly heated and accelerated to high exhaust velocity (> 30 km/s), while having no substantial physical interaction with the spacecraft thereby avoiding damage to the rocket and limiting both the thermal heat load and radiator mass. The key to achieving this stems from research at MSNW and the UW on the magnetically driven implosion of metal foils onto a magnetized plasma target to obtain fusion conditions. A logical extension of this work leads to a method that utilizes these metal shells (or liners) to not only achieve fusion conditions, but to serve as the propellant as well. Several low-mass, magnetically driven metal liners are inductively driven to converge radially and axially and form a thick blanket surrounding the target plasmoid and compress the plasmoid to fusion conditions. Virtually all of the radiant, neutron and particle energy from the plasma is absorbed by the encapsulating, thick metal blanket thereby isolating the spacecraft from the fusion. This energy, in addition to the intense Ohmic heating at peak magnetic field compression, is adequate to vaporize and ionize the metal blanket. The expansion of this hot, ionized metal propellant through a magnetically insulated nozzle produces high thrust at the optimal Isp. The energy from the fusion process, along with the waste heat, is thus utilized at very high efficiency. The basic scheme for FDR is illustrated and described in the report (see Fig. 2) The two most critical issues in meeting challenges introduced employing magneto-inertial fusion as the power source is driver efficiency and “stand-off” – the ability to isolate and protect fusion and thruster from the resultant fusion energy. By employing metal shells for compression, it is possible to produce the desired convergent motion inductively by inserting the metal sheets along the inner surface of cylindrical or conically tapered coils. Both stand-off and energy efficiency issues are solved by this arrangement. 3 This two year effort focused on achieving three key criteria for the Fusion Driven Rocket to move forward for technological development: (1) the physics of the FDR must be fully understood and validated, (2) the design and technology development for the FDR required for its implementation in space must be fully characterized, and (3) an in-depth analysis of the rocket design and spacecraft integration as well as mission architectures enabled by the FDR need to be performed. A subscale, laboratory liner compression test facility was assembled at the University of Washington Plasma Dynamics Laboratory with sufficient liner kinetic energy (~ 0.5 MJ) to reach conditions required for fusion breakeven conditions. Detailed experimental studies of the dynamic behavior of the driven liners as well as liner convergence and magnetic compression were performed. The development of both the 1D liner dynamics code and the full 3D ANSYS® liner calculations was achieved. The characterization of both the FDR and spacecraft as well as a design architecture analysis was conducted that included an examination of a wide range of mission architectures and destinations for which this fusion propulsion system would be enabling or critical. In particular a rapid, single launch manned Mars mission was developed.

Energy↗
NASA NTRS2019

Modal Analysis of the Orion Capsule Two Parachute System

As discussed in Ref [1], it is apparent from flight tests that the system made up of two main parachutes and a capsule can undergo several distinct dynamical behaviors. The most significant and problematic of these is the pendulum mode in which the system develops a pronounced swinging motion with an amplitude of up to 24 deg. Large excursions away from vertical by the capsule could cause it to strike the ground at a large horizontal or vertical speed and jeopardize the safety of the astronauts during a crewed mission. In reference [1], Ali et al. summarized a series of efforts taken by the Capsule Parachute Assembly System (CPAS) Program to understand and mitigate the pendulum issue. The period of oscillation and location of the system's pivot point are determined from post-flight analysis. Other noticeable but benign modes include: 1) flyout (scissors) mode, where the parachutes move back and forth symmetrically with respect to the vertical axis similar to the motion of a pair of scissors; 2) maypole mode, where the two parachutes circle around the vertical axis at a nearly constant radius and period; and 3) breathing mode, in which deformation of the non-rigid canopies affects the axial acceleration of the system in an oscillatory manner. Because these modes are relatively harm- less, little effort has been devoted to analyzing them in comparison with the pendulum motion. Motions of the actual system made up of two parachutes and a capsule are extremely complicated due to nonlinearities and flexibility effects. Often it is difficult to obtain insight into the fundamental dynamics of the system by examining results from a multi-body simulation based on nonlinear equations of motion (EOMs). As a part of this study, the dynamics of each mode observed during flight is derived from first principles on an individual basis by making numerous simplifications along the way. The intent is to gain a better understanding into the behavior of the complex multi-body system by studying the reduced set of differential equations associated with each mode. This approach is analogous to the traditional modal analysis technique used to study airplane flight dynamics, in which the full nonlinear behavior of the airframe is decomposed into the phugoid and short period modes for the longitudinal dynamics and the spiral, roll-subsidence, and dutch-roll modes for the lateral dynamics. It is important to note that the study does not address the mechanisms that cause the system to transition from one mode to another, nor does it discuss motions during which two or more modes occur simultaneously.

Pei, J.↗
NASA NTRS1972

Preliminary testing of a SNAP-19 TAGS RTG in support of the Pioneer F and G missions.

This paper presents the results of a preliminary performance evaluation of the SNAP-19 TAGS thermoelectric generator which was selected as the power source for the Pioneer Space Flight Mission. The performance of the SNAP-19 generator was evaluated at various input powers and fin-root temperatures. Results of this evaluation are analyzed and discussed. Tests were also performed to provide the Pioneer Flight Project Management with applicable data such as generator thermal dynamic behavior during launch and prior to deployment. These special tests measure generator performance as a function of fin-root temperature and the dynamic frequency response of the generator.

Stapfer, G.↗
NASA NTRS1975

The influence of engine/transmission/governor on tilting proprotor aircraft dynamics

An analytical model is developed for the dynamics of a tilting proprotor aircraft engine and drive train, including a rotor speed governor and interconnect shaft. The dynamic stability of a proprotor and cantilever wing is calculated, including the engine-transmission-governor model. It is concluded that the rotor behaves much as if windmilling as far as its dynamic behavior is concerned, with some influence of the turboshaft engine inertia and damping. The interconnect shaft has a significant influence on the antisymmetric dynamics of proprotor aircraft. The proprotor aerodynamics model is extended to include reverse flow, and a refinement on the method used to calculate the kinematic pitch-bending coupling of the blade is developed.

Johnson, W.↗
NASA NTRS1975

Some aspects of control of a large-scale dynamic system

Techniques of predicting and/or controlling the dynamic behavior of large scale systems are discussed in terms of decentralized decision making. Topics discussed include: (1) control of large scale systems by dynamic team with delayed information sharing; (2) dynamic resource allocation problems by a team (hierarchical structure with a coordinator); and (3) some problems related to the construction of a model of reduced dimension.

Aoki, M.↗