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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 253 records · Page 14
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1997

Materials Testing on the DC-X and DC-XA

Flight testing of thermal protection materials has been carried out over a two year period on the base heat shield of the Delta Clipper (DC-X and DC-XA), as well on a body flap. The purpose was to use the vehicle as a test bed for materials and more efficient repair or maintenance processes which would be potentially useful for application on new entry vehicles (i.e., X-33, RLV, planetary probes), as well as on the existing space shuttle orbiters. Panels containing Thermal Protection Systems (TPS) and/or structural materials were constructed either at NASA Ames Research Center or at McDonnell Douglas Aerospace (MDA) and attached between two of the four thrusters in the base heat shield of the DC-X or DC-XA. Three different panels were flown on DC-X flights 6, 7, and 8. A total of 7 panels were flown on DC-XA flights 1, 2, and 3. The panels constructed at Ames contained a variety of ceramic TPS including flexible blankets, tiles with high emissivity coatings, lightweight ceramic ablators and other ceramic composites. The MDS test panels consisted primarily of a variety of metallic composites. This report focuses on the ceramic TPS test results.

Smith, Dane↗
NASA NTRS1979

The 13th Aerospace Mechanisms Symposium

Technological areas covered include propulsion, motion compensation, instrument pointing and adjustment, centrifuge testing, bearing design, vehicle braking, and cargo handling. Devices for satellite, missile, and hypersonic-wind-tunnel applications; space shuttle mechanical and thermal protection systems; and techniques for building large space structures are described. In addition, a fluid drop injector device for a Spacelab experiment, a helical grip for cable cars, and applications of rare earth permanent magnets are discussed.

Bond, A. C.↗
NASA NTRS2006

A LEAST ABSOLUTE SHRINKAGE AND SELECTION OPERATOR (LASSO) FOR NONLINEAR SYSTEM IDENTIFICATION

Identification of parametric nonlinear models involves estimating unknown parameters and detecting its underlying structure. Structure computation is concerned with selecting a subset of parameters to give a parsimonious description of the system which may afford greater insight into the functionality of the system or a simpler controller design. In this study, a least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) technique is investigated for computing efficient model descriptions of nonlinear systems. The LASSO minimises the residual sum of squares by the addition of a 1 penalty term on the parameter vector of the traditional 2 minimisation problem. Its use for structure detection is a natural extension of this constrained minimisation approach to pseudolinear regression problems which produces some model parameters that are exactly zero and, therefore, yields a parsimonious system description. The performance of this LASSO structure detection method was evaluated by using it to estimate the structure of a nonlinear polynomial model. Applicability of the method to more complex systems such as those encountered in aerospace applications was shown by identifying a parsimonious system description of the F/A-18 Active Aeroelastic Wing using flight test data.

Kukreja, Sunil L.↗
NASA NTRS2008

A Computational Approach for Model Update of an LS-DYNA Energy Absorbing Cell

NASA and its contractors are working on structural concepts for absorbing impact energy of aerospace vehicles. Recently, concepts in the form of multi-cell honeycomb-like structures designed to crush under load have been investigated for both space and aeronautics applications. Efforts to understand these concepts are progressing from tests of individual cells to tests of systems with hundreds of cells. Because of fabrication irregularities, geometry irregularities, and material properties uncertainties, the problem of reconciling analytical models, in particular LS-DYNA models, with experimental data is a challenge. A first look at the correlation results between single cell load/deflection data with LS-DYNA predictions showed problems which prompted additional work in this area. This paper describes a computational approach that uses analysis of variance, deterministic sampling techniques, response surface modeling, and genetic optimization to reconcile test with analysis results. Analysis of variance provides a screening technique for selection of critical parameters used when reconciling test with analysis. In this study, complete ignorance of the parameter distribution is assumed and, therefore, the value of any parameter within the range that is computed using the optimization procedure is considered to be equally likely. Mean values from tests are matched against LS-DYNA solutions by minimizing the square error using a genetic optimization. The paper presents the computational methodology along with results obtained using this approach.

Horta, Lucas G.↗
NASA NTRS2008

Development and Evaluation of Sensor Concepts for Ageless Aerospace Vehicles: Report 4 - Phase 1 Implementation of the Concept Demonstrator

This report describes the first phase of the implementation of the Concept Demonstrator. The Concept Demonstrator system is a powerful and flexible experimental test-bed platform for developing sensors, communications systems, and multi-agent based algorithms for an intelligent vehicle health monitoring system for deployment in aerospace vehicles. The Concept Demonstrator contains sensors and processing hardware distributed throughout the structure, and uses multi-agent algorithms to characterize impacts and determine an appropriate response to these impacts.

Abbott, David↗
NASA NTRS2015

Crack Instability Predictions Using a Multi-Term Approach

Present crack instability analysis for fracture critical flight hardware is normally performed using a single parameter, K(sub C), fracture toughness value obtained from standard ASTM 2D geometry test specimens made from the appropriate material. These specimens do not sufficiently match the boundary conditions and the elastic‐plastic constraint characteristics of the hardware component, and also, the crack instability of most commonly used aircraft and aerospace structural materials have some amount of stable crack growth before fracture which makes the normal use of a K(sub C) single parameter toughness value highly approximate. In the past, extensive studies have been conducted to improve the single parameter (K or J controlled) approaches by introducing parameters accounting for the geometry or in‐plane constraint effects. Using 'J‐integral' and 'A' parameter as a measure of constraint is one of the most accurate elastic‐plastic crack solutions currently available. In this work the feasibility of the J‐A approach for prediction of the crack instability was investigated first by ignoring the effects of stable crack growth i.e. using a critical J and A and second by considering the effects of stable crack growth using the corrected J‐delta a using the 'A' parameter. A broad range of initial crack lengths and a wide range of specimen geometries including C(T), M(T), ESE(T), SE(T), Double Edge Crack (DEC), Three‐Hole‐Tension (THT) and NC (crack from a notch) manufactured from Al7075 were studied. Improvements in crack instability predictions were observed compared to the other methods available in the literature.

Zanganeh, Mohammad↗
NASA NTRS2015

Aeroelastic Airworthiness Assesment of the Adaptive Compliant Trailing Edge Flaps

The Adaptive Compliant Trailing Edge (ACTE) demonstrator is a joint task under the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Environmentally Responsible Aviation Project in partnership with the Air Force Research Laboratory and FlexSys, Inc. (Ann Arbor, Michigan). The project goal is to develop advanced technologies that enable environmentally friendly aircraft, such as adaptive compliant technologies. The ACTE demonstrator flight-test program encompassed replacing the Fowler flaps on the SubsoniC Aircraft Testbed, a modified Gulfstream III (Gulfstream Aerospace, Savannah, Georgia) aircraft, with control surfaces developed by FlexSys. The control surfaces developed by FlexSys are a pair of uniquely-designed unconventional flaps to be used as lifting surfaces during flight-testing to validate their structural effectiveness. The unconventional flaps required a multidisciplinary airworthiness assessment to prove they could withstand the prescribed flight envelope. Several challenges were posed due to the large deflections experienced by the structure, requiring non-linear analysis methods. The aeroelastic assessment necessitated both conventional and extensive testing and analysis methods. A series of ground vibration tests (GVTs) were conducted to provide modal characteristics to validate and update finite element models (FEMs) used for the flutter analyses for a subset of the various flight configurations. Numerous FEMs were developed using data from FlexSys and the ground tests. The flap FEMs were then attached to the aircraft model to generate a combined FEM that could be analyzed for aeroelastic instabilities. The aeroelastic analysis results showed the combined system of aircraft and flaps were predicted to have the required flutter margin to successfully demonstrate the adaptive compliant technology. This paper documents the details of the aeroelastic airworthiness assessment described, including the ground testing and analyses, and subsequent flight-testing performed on the unconventional ACTE flaps.

aeroelasticity↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

A Framework for the Analysis of Deep Neural Networks in Autonomous Aerospace Applications using Bayesian Statistics

Deep Neural Networks (DNNs) are considered to be key components in many autonomous systems. Applications range from vision-based obstacle avoidance to intelligent/learning control and planning. Safety-critical applications as found in the aerospace domain require that the behavior of the DNN is validated and tested rigorously for safety of the autonomous system (AUS). In this paper, we present a framework to support testing of DNNs and the analysis of the network structure. Our framework employs techniques from statistical modeling and active learning to effectively generate test cases for DNN safety testing and performance analysis. We will present results of a case study on a physics-based Deep recurrent residual neural network (DR-RNN), which has been trained to emulate the aerodynamics behavior of a fixed-wing aircraft.

Deep Neural networks↗
NASA NTRS2022

Impact Simulation of Composite Panels for Aerospace Applications

The aerospace research community has been working towards the development of a comprehensive framework for the design of composite structures at the component, subassembly, assembly, and system levels. Such a framework requires accurate, efficient and easy-to-use mathematical and computational models that are in sync with physical reality. The research work in this paper is designed to help an aerospace structural engineer move towards this goal by simulating dynamic impact to composite panels. First, the existing orthotropic visco-elastic visco-plastic material model in LS-DYNA commercial finite element program, MAT_COMPOSITE_TABULATED_PLASTICITY_DAMAGE (MAT_213) is enhanced with the development and use of rate-dependent damage data. Using state-of-the-art experimental procedures, impact validation test data are created. Second, the versatility of the constitutive model is examined by its ability to simulate a low velocity (27 ft/s, 8 m/s) impact test, and two high velocity impact tests (385–417 ft/s, 117–127 m/s) that straddle the ballistic limit of the projectile and the composite panels. Third, these impact events are modeled using three different finite element types – under-integrated and fully-integrated solid elements, and fully-integrated thin shell elements. Insight into accuracy versus numerical efficiency is gained by comparing the performance of solid versus thin shell elements. The numerical results show that accurate predictions of these impact events can be obtained with reasonable effort and care.

Simulations↗
NASA NTRS2003

Development of Structural Health Management Technology for Aerospace Vehicles

As part of the overall goal of developing Integrated Vehicle Health Management (IVHM) systems for aerospace vehicles, NASA has focused considerable resources on the development of technologies for Structural Health Management (SHM). The motivations for these efforts are to increase the safety and reliability of aerospace structural systems, while at the same time decreasing operating and maintenance costs. Research and development of SHM technologies has been supported under a variety of programs for both aircraft and spacecraft including the Space Launch Initiative, X-33, Next Generation Launch Technology, and Aviation Safety Program. The major focus of much of the research to date has been on the development and testing of sensor technologies. A wide range of sensor technologies are under consideration including fiber-optic sensors, active and passive acoustic sensors, electromagnetic sensors, wireless sensing systems, MEMS, and nanosensors. Because of their numerous advantages for aerospace applications, most notably being extremely light weight, fiber-optic sensors are one of the leading candidates and have received considerable attention.

Prosser, W. H.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Preliminary evaluation of a micro-based repeated measures testing system

A need exists for an automated performance test system to study the effects of various treatments which are of interest to the aerospace medical community, i.e., the effects of drugs and environmental stress. The ethics and pragmatics of such assessment demand that repeated measures in small groups of subjects be the customary research paradigm. Test stability, reliability-efficiency and factor structure take on extreme significance; in a program of study by the U.S. Navy, 80 percent of 150 tests failed to meet minimum metric requirements. The best is being programmed on a portable microprocessor and administered along with tests in their original formats in order to examine their metric properties in the computerized mode. Twenty subjects have been tested over four replications on a 6.0 minute computerized battery (six tests) and which compared with five paper and pencil marker tests. All tests achieved stability within the four test sessions, reliability-efficiencies were high (r greater than .707 for three minutes testing), and the computerized tests were largely comparable to the paper and pencil version from which they were derived. This computerized performance test system is portable, inexpensive and rugged.

Kennedy, Robert S.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Operational design factors for NASP derived vehicles

The factors that significantly affect the operability of aerospace planes are identified and considered in terms of the development of the National Aerospace Plane (NASP). The aircraftlike vehicle can be affected by variables related to the structure, propulsion, and mechanical elements of the design. The requirements to control the factors are listed including robustness, fuels and propellants, maintainability, autonomy, and development testing. The details of the requirements indicate critical factors such as the strength-to-weight ratios of the materials, propellant-system components that can withstand 5000 consecutive cycles, and low vehicle-failure probabilities. The NASP program is concluded to require: (1) models for quantitative operational assessments; (2) a modular design for the NASP structure; (3) computer-technology integration; and (4) technologies to support and normalize cryogenic operations.

Hickman, R. A.↗
NASA NTRS1990

NASA Aeronautics: Research and Technology Program Highlights

This report contains numerous color illustrations to describe the NASA programs in aeronautics. The basic ideas involved are explained in brief paragraphs. The seven chapters deal with Subsonic aircraft, High-speed transport, High-performance military aircraft, Hypersonic/Transatmospheric vehicles, Critical disciplines, National facilities and Organizations & installations. Some individual aircraft discussed are : the SR-71 aircraft, aerospace planes, the high-speed civil transport (HSCT), the X-29 forward-swept wing research aircraft, and the X-31 aircraft. Critical disciplines discussed are numerical aerodynamic simulation, computational fluid dynamics, computational structural dynamics and new experimental testing techniques.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1995

Microstructure and properties of cryomilled nickel aluminide extruded with chromium or molybdenum

Previous results from high energy, attrition milled NiAl in liquid nitrogen (cryomilled) indicate that this process can produce high temperature, creep resistant AlN particulate reinforced materials. However, the low temperature toughness of such materials is below that preferred for structural applications in aerospace engines. In order to improve the toughness of these materials, prealloyed nickel aluminide (Ni-53 atomic percent Al) powder was cryomilled and mixed with chromium or molybdenum powders. The resulting materials were hot extruded and tested for room temperature toughness and 1300 K compressive strength.

Aikin, Beverly J. M.↗
NASA NTRS1999

Thermographic Testing Using on the X-33 Space Launch Vehicle Program by BFGoodrich Aerospace

The X-33 program is a team effort sponsored by NASA, under Cooperative Agreement NCC8-115, and led by the Lockheed Martin Corporation. Team member BFGoodrich Aerospace Aerostructures Group (formerly Rohr) is responsible for design, manufacture, and integration of the Thermal Protection System (TPS) of the X-33 launch vehicle. The X-33 is a half-scale, experimental prototype of a vehicle called RLV (Reusable Launch Vehicle) or VentureStar(Trademark), an SSTO (single stage to orbit) vehicle, which is a proposed successor to the aging Space Shuttle. Thermographic testing has been employed by BFGoodrich Aerospace Aerostructures Group for a wide variety of uses in the testing of components of the X-33. Thermographic NDT (TNDT) has been used for inspecting large graphite-epoxy/aluminum honeycomb sandwich panels used on the Leeward Aeroshell structure of the X-33. And TNDT is being evaluated for use in inspecting carbon-carbon composite parts such as the nosecap and wing leading edge components. Pulsed Infrared Testing (PIRT), a special form of TNDT, is used for the routine inspection of sandwich panels made of brazed inconel honeycomb and facesheets. In the developmental and qualification testing of sub-elements of the X-33, thermography has been used to monitor 1) Arc Jet tests at NASA Ames Research Center in Mountainview, CA and NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, TX, 2) High Temperature (wind) Tunnel Tests (HTT) at NASA Langley Research Center in Langley, VA, and 3) Hot Gas Tests at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, AL.

Burleigh, Douglas↗
NASA NTRS2005

G2 Flywheel Module Operated at 41,000 rpm

NASA Glenn Research Center s Flywheel Development Team designed, built, and successfully operated the new G2 flywheel to 41,000 rpm on September 2, 2004. This work was supported by the Aerospace Flywheel Technology Program--a NASA Office of Aerospace Technology ETC Program funded by the Energetics Project. The work was performed by a team of civil servants, contractors, and grantees managed by Glenn s Electrical Systems Development Branch, Structural Mechanics and Dynamics Branch, and Space Power & Propulsion Test Engineering Branch. The G2 flywheel was designed to be a low-cost modular testbed for flywheel system integration and component demonstrations.

Ralph H Jansen↗
NASA NTRS2016

A Study of Flexible Composites for Expandable Space Structures

Payload volume for launch vehicles is a critical constraint that impacts spacecraft design. Deployment mechanisms, such as those used for solar arrays and antennas, are approaches that have successfully accommodated this constraint, however, providing pressurized volumes that can be packaged compactly at launch and expanded in space is still a challenge. One approach that has been under development for many years is to utilize softgoods - woven fabric for straps, cloth, and with appropriate coatings, bladders - to provide this expandable pressure vessel capability. The mechanics of woven structure is complicated by a response that is nonlinear and often nonrepeatable due to the discrete nature of the woven fiber architecture. This complexity reduces engineering confidence to reliably design and certify these structures, which increases costs due to increased requirements for system testing. The present study explores flexible composite materials systems as an alternative to the heritage softgoods approach. Materials were obtained from vendors who utilize flexible composites for non-aerospace products to determine some initial physical and mechanical properties of the materials. Uniaxial mechanical testing was performed to obtain the stress-strain response of the flexible composites and the failure behavior. A failure criterion was developed from the data, and a space habitat application was used to provide an estimate of the relative performance of flexible composites compared to the heritage softgoods approach. Initial results are promising with a 25% mass savings estimated for the flexible composite solution.

Scotti, Stephen J.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Design of a Manufacturing Demonstration Unit for a Composite Lunar Landing Gear Strut

The goal of the current work was to develop an analytical framework for design of composite struts using various levels of model fidelity. Rapid optimization trade studies were performed using low fidelity two-dimensional (2D) axisymmetric models with smeared composite properties. The optimum 2D model was compared with three-dimensional (3D) models with higher levels of fidelity in material property representation. Good agreement was found with all models. The buckling performance of the highest fidelity 3D model was found to be satisfactory for the intended loading conditions. An additional goal of this work was to perform an initial assessment of using automated fiber placement (AFP) and other advanced manufacturing methods to explore their feasibility for the fabrication of struts for lunar landers, strut-braced wings, and other aerospace components. The designs produced during this study are intended to be used to develop manufacturing demonstration units (MDU) that can be fabricated at the Integrated Structural Assembly of Advanced Composites (ISAAC) facility at Langley Research Center (LaRC) and tested in lab facilities at LaRC.

carbon-epoxy↗