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Results for “MOTION STABILITY”

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 271 records · Page 15
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1980

Active nutation controller

An apparatus is described for controlling nutation motion in a spinning body, comprised of an angular accelerometer with its input axis perpendicular to the spin axis of the body, a flywheel with an axis of rotation perpendicular to the axis of the accelerometer and to the spin axis of the body, and a motor for driving the flywheel to attenuate or build nutation. The motor is controlled by circuitry that monitors the output of the angular accelerometer and drives the motor clockwise or counterclockwise during predetermined nutation angles synchronized to the zero crossover points of the accelerometer signal centered about the nutation peaks. The motor drive is phased to damp nutation motion to zero for stabilization. To increase the noise immunity of the system, when the output of the accelerometer falls below a threshold level, the circuitry operates in an open loop, beat mode where data representing the last accelerometer signal that exceeded that threshold level is stored, and the motor drive is controlled by the stored data. In a second version, the motor is controlled to supply a predetermined amount of nutation motion to a body undergoing testing on a spin table for energy dissipation evaluation. In each version, the use of an angular accelerometer rather than a linear accelerometer or gyro to monitor nutation enables placement of the nutation control apparatus at any location relative to the spin axis of the body requiring only crude orientation and no calibration.

Hoffman, H. C.↗
NASA NTRS2008

Optical Modeling Activities for NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST): V. Operational Alignment Updates

This paper is part five of a series on the ongoing optical modeling activities for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). The first two papers discussed modeling JWST on-orbit performance using wavefront sensitivities to predict line of sight motion induced blur, and stability during thermal transients. The third paper investigates the aberrations resulting from alignment and figure compensation of the controllable degrees of freedom (primary and secondary mirrors), which may be encountered during ground alignment and on-orbit commissioning of the observatory, and the fourth introduced the software toolkits used to perform much of the optical analysis for JWST. The work here models observatory operations by simulating line-of-sight image motion and alignment drifts over a two-week period. Alignment updates are then simulated using wavefront sensing and control processes to calculate and perform the corrections. A single model environment in Matlab is used for evaluating the predicted performance of the observatory during these operations.

Howard, Joseph M.↗
NASA NTRS1973

Effects of certain control-system nonlinearities on stability and pointing of an attached double-gimbal experiment package in presence of random crew-motion disturbances

The effects of two types of control-system nonlinearities, sensor deadband and actuator breakout torque, on the pointing capability of a Apollo Telescope Mount (ATM) double-gimbal experiment isolation and control system are investigated. A composite structural model of a flexible experiment package connected through frictionless double gimbals to a flexible carrier vehicle is used for this investigation. Contributions of the primary carrier control system to experiment pointing are neglected. Pointing errors onboard the experiment package due to random crew-motion input into the carrier vehicle are computed. A stability investigation is performed to verify control-system stability with nominal nonlinearities and gains. Indications are that there is no stability problem due to the nonlinearities. A nonlinearity sensitivity study is carried out to determine the effects on pointing accuracy. Its results indicate that nominal ATM control system nonlinearities limit the pointing accuracy to approximately 0.4 arc second in the presence of crew motion. Methods of reducing the error to less than 0.1 arc second are discussed.

Shaughnessy, J. D.↗
NASA NTRS1974

Study of stability of large maneuvers of airplanes

A predictive method of nonlinear system analysis is used to investigate airplane stability and dynamic response during rolling maneuvers. The maneuver roll-rate is not assumed to be constant, and the airplane motion is represented by a set of coupled nonlinear differential equations. The general rolling maneuver is kinematically specified by its roll-rate variation p(t). A method for relating the airplane dynamic response to p(t) is developed. The method provides analytical expressions for the motion variables in terms of the maneuver descriptor p(t). A parameterized family of rolling maneuvers is considered, for which the method is used to predict specific dynamic response information, such as the dependence of the peak angle-of-attack excursion on the maneuver parameters. The stability and motion of the airplane in response to an arbitrary actuation of aileron input is considered. Analytical expressions relating motion variables to aileron input are obtained. Explicit analytical bounds on the motion variables are derived. A stability criterion which guarantees nondivergence of motion in response to aileron actuation is presented.

Haddad, E. K.↗
NASA NTRS1950

Amplitude distribution and energy balance of small disturbances in plate flow

The distribution of the correlation coefficient and of the amplitude of the disturbance velocities is calculated as a function of the distance from the wall for two neutral disturbances, one at the lower and one at the upper branch of the neutral stability curve. The energy balance of the disturbance motion is also investigated and it is found that as required for neutral stability the energy of the disturbance motion that is dissipated by viscosity is equal to the energy transferred to the disturbance motion from the main flow during one cycle.

FLOW, LAMINAR - STABILITY↗
NASA NTRS1972

Effect of stabilization on VTOL aircraft in hovering flight

A motion simulator study was conducted to determine the effects of roll and pitch stabilization on the handling qualities and control power requirements of VTOL aircraft during hover and short-distance maneuvering flight. Three levels of stabilization complexity were compared: (1) no stabilization, (2) rate stabilization, and (3) attitude stabilization. Control sensitivities and stabilization gains were optimized prior to comparison. Results are presented to show how the optimum systems were determined and how they compared with each other at different levels of control power. Comparisons were made both in calm air and in the presence of roll disturbances. Results indicate the attitude-stabilized system provides the best handling qualities for the least amount of control power.

Greif, R. K.↗
NASA NTRS1969

Dynamics of Jupiter's cloud bands

Jupiter upper atmosphere cloud bands zonal motion velocities, examining barotropic stability criterion and geostrophic balance hypothesis

Cuzzi, J. N.↗
NASA NTRS1972

A pertinent solution of helicopter rotor flapping stability

The stability of the flapping motion of a single blade of a helicopter rotor is examined using the techniques of perturbation theory. The equation of motion studied is linear, with periodic aerodynamic coefficients due to the forward speed of the rotor. Solutions are found for four cases: small and large advance ratio and small and large Lock number. The perturbation techniques appropriate to each case are discussed and illustrated in the course of the analysis. The application of perturbation techniques to other problems in rotor dynamics is discussed. It is concluded that perturbation theory is a powerful mathematical technique which should prove very useful in analyzing some of the problems of helicopter dynamics.

Johnson, W.↗