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At least 271 records · Page 15

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NASA NTRS1989

Polar wander of an ice shell on Europa

The present consideration of a hypothesized ice shell around Europa, which is decoupled from the silicate core by a liquid water layer and possesses a spatially varying thermal equilibrium thickness profile, proceeds through the development of equations for variations in the inertia tensor of a body when second-harmonic-degree topography is added to the crustal base. Attention is given to a realistic model in which the shell and ocean are assumed to undergo reorientations as a single entity independently of the core, but subject to viscous dissipation within the shell. Shell friction is in this case noted to preclude polar wander, unless a low conductivity regolith increases the near-surface temperature by a few tens of degrees C; the ice beneath the regolith would then behave viscously on the time-scale of polar wander.

Ojakangas, Gregory W.↗

NASA NTRS1990

The stability of a collisionless cosmological shell

The P3 M technique is used here to simulate the evolution of collisionless shells in an Omega = 1 universe. Starting from the spherical similarity solution, a bootstrap technique is used to follow the evolution over very large expansion factors. It is found that the overall structure follows the similarity solution for a long period during which bound clumps grow within the shell. At late times the growth of structure depends on induced velocity perturbations in material outside the shell. If such perturbations are suppressed, structure on the shell becomes self-similar. When induced motions in the background medium are included, the evolution at late times is dominated by large-scale modes as predicted by linear stability analysis. The stable final state appears to consist of one or two massive clumps on the edge of a spherical void. The possible application of these results to the origin of galaxies and large-scale structure is discussed.

White, Simon D. M.↗

NASA NTRS1989

Assessment of structural analysis technology for elastic shell collapse problems

The prediction of the ultimate load carrying capability for compressively loaded shell structures is a challenging nonlinear analysis problem. Selected areas of finite element technology research and nonlinear solution technology are assessed. Herein, a finite element analysis procedure is applied to four shell collapse problems which have been used by computational structural mechanics researchers in the past. This assessment will focus on a number of different shell element formulations and on different approaches used to account for geometric nonlinearities. The results presented confirm that these aspects of nonlinear shell analysis can have a significant effect on the predicted nonlinear structural response. All analyses were performed using the CSM Testbed software system which allowed a convenient assessment of different element formulations with a consistent approach to solving the discretized nonlinear equations.

Knight, N. F., Jr.↗

NASA NTRS1990

Kinetic instability associated with spherical shell distribution of cometary pickup ions

The stability of ion shell distribution is an interesting and important issue in view of the fact that it is stable under perturbations propagating parallel to the ambient magnetic field, despite large amount of free energy it contains. It was found, however, that if the shell distribution of ions has a sufficient amount of drift speed with respect to the solar wind hydromagnetic waves, it can become unstable. The obliquely propagating hydromagnetic instability associated with the ion shell distribution was recently discovered. This letter presents the unified stability analysis of the ion shell distribution, under what condition the drift-induced instability of the type first discussed by Gary and Sinha (1989), and the oblique hydromagnetic instability discussed by Wu and Yoon (1990) are excited, and how the two types of instabilities are related.

Yoon, Peter H.↗

NASA NTRS1991

G33.6 + 0.1 - A shell type supernova remnant with unusual structure

The morphology of Supernova Remnant G33.6 + 0.1 (Kes 79) has been studied in the X-rays with Einstein and in the radio wavelengths using the VLA. Multifrequency high resolution observations of the VLA at 327, 1500, and 5000 MHz are used to study the radio spectrum and polarization. The radio emission shows well formed outer shell structure and very bright central emission. Although the overall distribution of spectral index (about -0.6 to -0.75) is consistent with that of shell type remnants, the bright filamentary emission along the 'inner ring' has relatively flatter spectrum (alpha about -0.4). Both radio and X-rays show strong central emission; existence of a plerion near the center cannot be ruled out. The X-ray image does not show the characteristic limb brightening for shell type SNRs. The X-ray and radio morphology may be understood in terms of very thick shell and the bright central emission as due to reverse shock.

Velusamy, T.↗

NASA NTRS1992

Optimal design of geodesically stiffened composite cylindrical shells

An optimization system based on the finite element code Computations Structural Mechanics (CSM) Testbed and the optimization program, Automated Design Synthesis (ADS), is described. The optimization system can be used to obtain minimum-weight designs of composite stiffened structures. Ply thickness, ply orientations, and stiffener heights can be used as design variables. Buckling, displacement, and material failure constraints can be imposed on the design. The system is used to conduct a design study of geodesically stiffened shells. For comparison purposes, optimal designs of unstiffened shells and shells stiffened by rings and stingers are also obtained. Trends in the design of geodesically stiffened shells are identified. An approach to include local stress concentrations during the design optimization process is then presented. The method is based on a global/local analysis technique. It employs spline interpolation functions to determine displacements and rotations from a global model which are used as 'boundary conditions' for the local model. The organization of the strategy in the context of an optimization process is described. The method is validated with an example.

Gendron, G.↗

NASA NTRS1990

Nonlinear shell analysis of the Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Boosters

A variety of structural analyses have been performed on the Solid Rocket Boosters (SRB's) to provide information that would contribute to the understanding of the failure which destroyed the Space Shuttle Challenger. This paper describes nonlinear shell analyses that were performed to characterize the behavior of an overall SRB structure and a segment of the SRB in the vicinity of the External Tank Attachment (ETA) ring. Shell finite element models were used that would accurately reflect the global load transfer in an SRB in a manner such that nonlinear shell collapse and ovalization could be assessed. The purpose of these analyses was to calculate the overall deflection and stress distributions for these SRB models when subjected to mechanical loads corresponding to critical times during the launch sequence. Static analyses of these SRB models were performed using a 'snapshot picture' of the loads. Analytical results obtained using these models show no evidence of nonlinear shell collapse for the pre-liftoff loading cases considered.

Knight, N. F., Jr.↗

NASA NTRS1992

Detection of Ca II absorption in the QSO 0958 + 559 due to a Heiles shell in NGC 3079

Optical observations of the QSO 0958 + 559 and the nearby, edge-on spiral galaxy NGC 3079 are presented. Spectra of the QSO show Ca II absorption lines due to extended gas in NGC 3079; the Na absorption lines due to NGC 3079 are not detected. An unrelated higher redshift absorption system at 1.1327 is also present in the QSO spectrum. The QSO sightline shines directly through a Heiles shell. The coincidence in position coupled with the agreement between the Ca II absorption and shell emission velocities demonstrates that the QSO absorption system is due to gas in this shell. This system is discussed in comparison with the six other low-redshift QSO-galaxy pair absorption systems, and the influence of Heiles shells on the interpretation of higher redshift QSO absorption systems is addressed.

Womble, Donna S.↗

NASA NTRS1992

Exact solutions for laminated composite cylindrical shells in cylindrical bending

Analytic elasticity solutions for laminated composite cylindrical shells under cylindrical bending are presented. The material of the shell is assumed to be general cylindrically anisotropic. Based on the theory of cylindrical anisotropic elasticity, coupled governing partial differential equations are developed. The general expressions for the stresses and displacements in the laminated composite cylinders are discussed. The closed form solutions based on Classical Shell Theory (CST) and Donnell's (1933) theory are also derived for comparison purposes. Three examples illustrate the effect of radius-to-thickness ratio, coupling and stacking sequence. The results show that, in general, CST yields poor stress and displacement distributions for thick-section composite shells, but converges to the exact elasticity solution as the radius-to-thickness ratio increases. It is also shown that Donnell's theory significantly underestimates the stress and displacement response.

Yuan, F. G.↗

NASA NTRS1993

The structure of circumstellar shells

This document provides a report on research activities carried out with the support of NASA grant NAG 5-1174, the Structure of Circumstellar Shells, funded under the Astrophysics Data Program. The research carried out with the support of this grant is a study of the properties of circumstellar dust shells for which spectra are available through IRAS low resolution spectrometry (LRS). This research consisted of the development and application of models of axisymmetric circumstellar shells and a preliminary survey of the applicability of neural nets for analysis of the IRAS LRS spectra of circumstellar dust shells.

Fix, John D.↗

NASA NTRS1947

A Simplified Method of Elastic-Stability Analysis for Thin Cylindrical Shells

This paper develops a new method for determining the buckling stresses of cylindrical shells under various loading conditions. In part I, the equation for the equilibrium of cylindrical shells introduced by Donnell in NACA report no. 479 to find the critical stresses of cylinders in torsion is applied to find critical stresses for cylinders with simply supported edges under other loading conditions. In part II, a modified form of Donnell's equation for the equilibrium of thin cylindrical shells is derived which is equivalent to Donnell's equation but has certain advantages in physical interpretation and in ease of solution, particularly in the case of shells having clamped edges. The question of implicit boundary conditions is also considered.

Batdorf, S B↗

NASA NTRS1995

Sensitivity analysis for the dynamic response of thermoviscoplastic shells of revolution

A computational procedure is presented for evaluating the sensitivity coefficients of the dynamic axisymmetric, fully-coupled, thermoviscoplastic response of shells of revolution. The analytical formulation is based on Reissner's large deformation shell theory with the effects of large-strain, transverse shear deformation, rotatory inertia and moments turning around the normal to the middle surface included. The material model is chosen to be viscoplasticity with strain hardening and thermal hardening, and an associated flow rule is used with a von Mises effective stress. A mixed formulation is used for the shell equations with the fundamental unknowns consisting of six stress resultants, three generalized displacements and three velocity components. The energy-balance equation is solved using a Galerkin procedure, with the temperature as the fundamental unknown. Spatial discretization is performed in one dimension (meridional direction) for the momentum and constitutive equations of the shell, and in two dimensions (meridional and thickness directions) for the energy-balance equation. The temporal integration is performed by using an explicit central difference scheme (leap-frog method) for the momentum equation; a predictor-corrector version of the trapezoidal rule is used for the energy-balance equation; and an explicit scheme consistent with the central difference method is used to integrate the constitutive equations. The sensitivity coefficients are evaluated by using a direct differentiation approach. Numerical results are presented for a spherical cap subjected to step loading.

Kulkarni, Makarand↗

NASA NTRS1995

A rule-based shell to hierarchically organize HST observations

An observing program on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) is described in terms of exposures that are obtained by one or more of the instruments onboard the HST. These exposures are organized into a hierarchy of structures for purposes of efficient scheduling of observations. The process by which exposures get organized into the higher-level structures is called merging. This process relies on rules to determine which observations can be 'merged' into the same higher level structure, and which cannot. The TRANSformation expert system converts proposals for astronomical observations with HST into detailed observing plans. The conversion process includes the task of merging. Within TRANS, we have implemented a declarative shell to facilitate merging. This shell offers the following features: (1) an easy way of specifying rules on when to merge and when not to merge, (2) a straightforward priority mechanism for resolving conflicts among rules, (3) an explanation facility for recording the merging history, (4) a report generating mechanism to help users understand the reasons for merging, and (5) a self-documenting mechanism that documents all the merging rules that have been defined in the shell, ordered by priority. The merging shell is implemented using an object-oriented paradigm in CLOS. It has been a part of operational TRANS (after extensive testing) since July 1993. It has fulfilled all performance expectations, and has considerably simplified the process of implementing new or changed requirements for merging. The users are pleased with its report-generating and self-documenting features.

Bose, Ashim↗

NASA NTRS1994

Theoretical spectra of circumstellar dust shells around carbon-rich asymptotic giant branch stars

Realistic modeling of circumstellar dust shells around evolved stars has to include a physical treatment of the interaction among hydrodynamics, thermodynamics, radiative transfer, chemistry and dust formation and -growth. A self-consistent solution of this problem is presented in the case of stationary, spherical symmetric dust-driven winds. The resulting shell structure and the mass-loss rate are completely determined by the three fundamental stellar parameters stellar mass M(stellar), stellar luminosity L(stellar) and effective temperature T(sub eff) and by the element abundances epsilon(sub i). A detailed calculation of the transport coefficients of the dust component by means of the particle size distribution function and the solution of the non-grey radiative transfer problem provide realistic synthetic spectra of the dust shell models. We discuss the dependence of the resulting spectra on the stellar parameters in terms of infrared two color diagrams. Application of these model calculations to the prominent infrared object IRC +10216 yields best agreement with the observed spectrum and the visibility data at maximum light for the stellar parameters M(stellar) = 0.7 solar mass, L(stellar) = 2.4 x 10(exp 4) solar luminosity, T(stellar) = 2010K and a carbon to oxygen ratio of epsilon(sub c)/epsilon(sub o) = 1.40, which corresponds to a mass-loss rate of M-dot = 8 x 10(exp -5) solar mass/yr. In this model only amorphous carbon grains are considered as the main opacity source. From this model a distance to IRC +10216 of d = 170pc is deduced. The total mass contained in the circumstellar dust shell implies and initial main sequence mass of M(sub ZAMS) greater than or = 1.3 solar mass for IRC +10216.

Winters, J. M.↗

NASA NTRS1996

Coupled mixed-field laminate theory and finite element for smart piezoelectric composite shell structures

Mechanics for the analysis of laminated composite shells with piezoelectric actuators and sensors are presented. A new mixed-field laminate theory for piezoelectric shells is formulated in curvilinear coordinates which combines single-layer assumptions for the displacements and a layerwise representation for the electric potential. The resultant coupled governing equations for curvilinear piezoelectric laminates are described. Structural mechanics are subsequently developed and an 8-node finite-element is formulated for the static and dynamic analysis of adaptive composite structures of general laminations containing piezoelectric layers. Evaluations of the method and comparisons with reported results are presented for laminated piezoelectric-composite plates, a closed cylindrical shell with a continuous piezoceramic layer and a laminated composite semi-circular cantilever shell with discrete cylindrical piezoelectric actuators and/or sensors.

Saravanos, Dimitris A.↗

NASA NTRS1995

Effects of Stiffening and Mechanical Load on Thermal Buckling of Stiffened Cylindrical Shells

A study of thermal buckling of stiffened cylindrical shells with the proportions of a preliminary supersonic transport fuselage design (1970) is presented. The buckling analysis is performed using an axisymmetric shell-of-revolution code, BOSOR4. The effects of combined mechanical (axial loading) and thermal loading (heated skins) are investigated. Results indicate that the location of longitudinal eccentric stiffening has a very large effect on the thermal buckling strength of longitudinally stiffened shells, and on longitudinally stiffened shells with rings.

Johnson, Theodore F.↗

NASA NTRS1996

The Beta Pictoris Phenomenon in A-Shell Stars: Detection of Accreting Gas

We present the results of an expanded survey of A-shell stars using IUE high-dispersion spectra and find accreting, circumstellar gas in the line of sight to nine stars, in addition to the previously identified beta Pic, HR 10, and 131 Tau, which can be followed to between +70 and 100 km/s relative to the star. Two of the program stars, HD 88195 and HD 148283, show variable high-velocity gas. Given the small number of IUE spectra for our program stars, detection of high-velocity, accreting gas in 2/3 of the A-shell stars sampled indicates that accretion is an intrinsic part of the A-shell phenomenon and that beta Pic is not unique among main-sequence A stars in exhibiting such activity. Our program stars, as a group, have smaller column densities of high-velocity gas and smaller near-IR excesses compared with beta Pic. These features are consistent with greater central clearing of a remnant debris disk, compared with beta Pic, and suggest that the majority of field A-shell stars are older than beta Pic.

Grady, C. A.↗

NASA NTRS1998

Development of Paper Products from Dried Sweetpotato Stems and Peanut Shells

One of the goals of NASA's Advanced Life Support Program (ALS) for sustaining human life in space is to achieve a closed system in plant production and usage. That all inedible plant parts should be recycled or used in some way. A Tuskegee University team researching sweetpotato and peanut for ALS has developed paper products from dried sweet-potato stems and peanut shells. In this study, the sweet-potato stems and peanut shells were soaked separately in water for 48 hours. After 48 hours, researchers manually separated the pulp and the unusable parts. To form the paper, 160 g of pulp and water mixture was poured through a 15.1 cm (diameter) filtration funnel and the pulp was trapped on 15 cm (diameter) filter paper. The filter paper and pulp were dried in an air oven, and the filter paper was removed, An examination under a scanning electron microscope showed that the sweet-potato paper was composed of "fibers", whereas the peanut shell paper was composed of "blocks". Results of physical testing showed that the sweet-potato stem paper was stronger than the peanut shell paper. It is anticipated that there may be other uses of these products such as writing paper, bags and packaging material. Because of its biodegradability, it can be incorporated into the resource recycling system at the end of its use.

R McConnell↗