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At least 37 records · Page 2

Optimization of actuator arrays for aircraft interior noise control

A numerical procedure for grouping actuators in order to reduce the number of degrees of freedom in an active noise control system is evaluated using experimental data. Piezoceramic actuators for reducing aircraft interior noise are arranged into groups using a nonlinear optimization routine and clustering algorithm. An actuator group is created when two or more actuators are driven with the same control input. This procedure is suitable for active control applications where actuators are already mounted on a structure. The feasibility of this technique is demonstrated using measured data from the aft cabin of a Douglas DC-9 fuselage. The measured data include transfer functions between 34 piezoceramic actuators and 29 interior microphones and microphone responses due to the primary noise produced by external speakers. Control inputs for the grouped actuators were calculated so that a cost function, defined as a quadratic pressure term and a penalty term, was a minimum. The measured transfer functions and microphone responses are checked by comparing calculated noise reductions with measured noise reductions for four frequencies. The grouping procedure is then used to determine actuator groups that improve overall interior noise reductions by 5.3 to 15 dB, compared to the baseline experimental configuration.

Cabell, R. H.↗

Effect of restricted motion in high temperature on enzymatic activity of the pancreas

Effects of 30 day hypodynamia coupled with high temperature (35-36 C) on enzymatic activity of the pancreas of male adult rats were studied. The test animals were divided into four groups. Group one served as controls (freedom of movement and a temperature of 25-26 C, considered optimal). The remaining animals were divided into three additional groups: Group two freedom of movement but high temperature (35-36 C); group three hypodynamia but an optimal temperature; group four hypodynamia and 35-36 C. Considerable change in the enzymatic activity in the pancreas of the four groups is observed in three experimental groups (two, three, and four) as compared to the control (group one). The results indicate that adaption of the organism to the thermal factor and restricted movement is accompanied by a change in the enzymatic spectrum of the pancreas. With the combined effect of these two stresses under conditions of the adaption of the organism especially sharp shifts occur in the enzymatic activity.

Abdusattarov, A.↗

Optimization of aerospace structures

Research carried out is grouped under two topics: (1) Design Optimization, and (2) Integrated Force Method of Analysis. Design Optimization Research Topics are singularity alleviation enhances structural optimization methods, computer based design capability extended through substructure synthesis, and optimality criteria provides optimum design for a select class of structural problems. Integrated Force Method of Analysis Research Topics are boundary compatibility formulation improves stress analysis of shell structures. Brief descriptions of the four topics are appended.

Keith, Theo G., Jr.↗

Interfacing laboratory instruments to multiuser, virtual memory computers

Incentives, problems and solutions associated with interfacing laboratory equipment with multiuser, virtual memory computers are presented. The major difficulty concerns how to utilize these computers effectively in a medium sized research group. This entails optimization of hardware interconnections and software to facilitate multiple instrument control, data acquisition and processing. The architecture of the system that was devised, and associated programming and subroutines are described. An example program involving computer controlled hardware for ultrasonic scan imaging is provided to illustrate the operational features.

Generazio, Edward R.↗

Interfacing laboratory instruments to multiuser, virtual memory computers

Incentives, problems and solutions associated with interfacing laboratory equipment with multiuser, virtual memory computers are presented. The major difficulty concerns how to utilize these computers effectively in a medium sized research group. This entails optimization of hardware interconnections and software to facilitate multiple instrument control, data acquisition and processing. The architecture of the system that was devised, and associated programming and subroutines are described. An example program involving computer controlled hardware for ultrasonic scan imaging is provided to illustrate the operational features.

Generazio, Edward R.↗

Cleavage of an amide bond by a ribozyme

A variant form of a group I ribozyme, optimized by in vitro evolution for its ability to catalyze magnesium-dependent phosphoester transfer reactions involving DNA substrates, also catalyzes the cleavage of an unactivated alkyl amide when that linkage is presented in the context of an oligodeoxynucleotide analog. Substrates containing an amide bond that joins either two DNA oligos, or a DNA oligo and a short peptide, are cleaved in a magnesium-dependent fashion to generate the expected products. The first-order rate constant, kcat, is 0.1 x 10(-5) min-1 to 1 x 10(-5) min-1 for the DNA-flanked substrates, which corresponds to a rate acceleration of more than 10(3) as compared with the uncatalyzed reaction.

NASA Discipline Exobiology↗

JPL Facilities and Software for Collaborative Design: 1994 - Present

The viewgraph presentation provides an overview of the history of the JPL Project Design Center (PDC) and, since 2000, the Center for Space Mission Architecture and Design (CSMAD). The discussion includes PDC objectives and scope; mission design metrics; distributed design; a software architecture timeline; facility design principles; optimized design for group work; CSMAD plan view, facility design, and infrastructure; and distributed collaboration tools.

project design center↗

An NAFP Project: Use of Object Oriented Methodologies and Design Patterns to Refactor Software Design

In the early problem-solution era of software programming, functional decompositions were mainly used to design and implement software solutions. In functional decompositions, functions and data are introduced as two separate entities during the design phase, and are followed as such in the implementation phase. Functional decompositions make use of refactoring through optimizing the algorithms, grouping similar functionalities into common reusable functions, and using abstract representations of data where possible; all these are done during the implementation phase. This paper advocates the usage of object-oriented methodologies and design patterns as the centerpieces of refactoring software solutions. Refactoring software is a method of changing software design while explicitly preserving its external functionalities. The combined usage of object-oriented methodologies and design patterns to refactor should also benefit the overall software life cycle cost with improved software.

Shaykhian, Gholam Ali↗

National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI) JSC Summer Projects

This project optimized the calorie content in a breakfast meal replacement bar for the Advanced Food Technology group. Use of multivariable optimization yielded the highest weight savings possible while simultaneously matching NASA Human Standards nutritional guidelines. The scope of this research included the study of shelf-life indicators such as water activity, moisture content, and texture analysis. Key metrics indicate higher protein content, higher caloric density, and greater mass savings as a result of the reformulation process. The optimization performed for this study demonstrated wide application to other food bars in the Advanced Food Technology portfolio. Recommendations for future work include shelf life studies on bar hardening and overall acceptability data over increased time frames and temperature fluctuation scenarios.

Dowdy, Forrest Ryan↗

Optimal design of structures with multiple design variables per group and multiple loading conditions on the personal computer

A finite element based programming system for minimum weight design of a truss-type structure subjected to displacement, stress, and lower and upper bounds on design variables is presented. The programming system consists of a number of independent processors, each performing a specific task. These processors, however, are interfaced through a well-organized data base, thus making the tasks of modifying, updating, or expanding the programming system much easier in a friendly environment provided by many inexpensive personal computers. The proposed software can be viewed as an important step in achieving a 'dummy' finite element for optimization. The programming system has been implemented on both large and small computers (such as VAX, CYBER, IBM-PC, and APPLE) although the focus is on the latter. Examples are presented to demonstrate the capabilities of the code. The present programming system can be used stand-alone or as part of the multilevel decomposition procedure to obtain optimum design for very large scale structural systems. Furthermore, other related research areas such as developing optimization algorithms (or in the larger level: a structural synthesis program) for future trends in using parallel computers may also benefit from this study.

Nguyen, D. T.↗

Orbit structure of Hamiltonian systems arising from Lie transformation group actions

This paper associates the Riccati group and its group action on linear-quadratic optimal control problems to the action of a Lie transformation group on a set of Hamiltonian matrices. In this Lie theoretic setting results are presented concerning the associated orbit structure and the structure of the group itself. These results are of importance in understanding the solution structure of matrix Riccati differential equations, and thus also of importance in linear-quadratic optimal control.

Garzia, M. R.↗

MEDPRAT Treatment Clusters: Improving Representation of Mission Medical Risk

INTRODUCTION The Medical Extensible Dynamic Probabilistic Risk Assessment Tool (MEDPRAT) implements a computational model that aims to quantify spaceflight medical risk by utilizing probabilistic techniques to simulate critical event incidence and outcomes over thousands of simulated mission trials. The goal of MEDPRAT is to characterize mission medical risk and provide insight into medical resource utilization. In order to analyze the medical resource space, treatment must be mapped from each simulated condition, and resources consumed as a result of this treatment must be tracked throughout the course of the mission. A new MEDPRAT feature, ‘treatment clusters’, provide a more sophisticated method of defining the structure and interaction between resources, more closely mimicking the way treatment is carried out clinically. METHODS Treatment clusters expand on the two existing treatment groupings (combination and alternate) adding a new grouping: bundled treatment. Treatment clusters may be combined to any depth, giving users the ability to specify complex treatment trees whose behavior is governed by several user-specified parameters. This approach emphasizes reusability, as treatment clusters, once defined, can be used to create more complex treatment trees or applied to many conditions. By configuring parameters for contribution, efficacy, necessity, primacy, and equivalence, resource relationships and dependencies can be more accurately represented, thereby allowing users to build capabilities with desired treatment properties, for example an intravenous capability for conditions such as anaphylaxis, acute radiation syndrome, etc. MEDPRAT v1.0 remains backward compatible with existing treatment structures, giving users the ability to define new treatment clusters as evidence becomes available, without having to recode their existing treatment databases. In addition to facilitating the representation of more complex treatment options, by pairing treatment clusters with the internal optimization routine, the MEDPRAT set selector, medical resources can be identified as organized in bundles, where appropriate, so that optimized resource sets include groups of highly-dependent resources only when all resources of the group are together. For example, it would be wasteful to include ultrasound gel but not an ultrasound machine, since the gel provides no benefit as a treatment without the ultrasound machine. With treatment clusters, the user may require that both resources are available to provide any benefit as treatment, so that if one resource is optimized out of the set, the other resource will be optimized out as well. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS We will report on MEDPRAT treatment clusters used in a bundling study under the IMPACT project of the ExMC element. We will discuss an example of a complex treatment tree. Through the implementation of this feature MEDPRAT enables treatment to be defined and applied in a way that is more representative of the real world, providing more accurate insight into mission medical risk and the medical resource space.

Lawrence Leinweber↗

Integrated System-Level Optimization for Concurrent Engineering With Parametric Subsystem Modeling

The introduction of concurrent design practices to the aerospace industry has greatly increased the productivity of engineers and teams during design sessions as demonstrated by JPL's Team X. Simultaneously, advances in computing power have given rise to a host of potent numerical optimization methods capable of solving complex multidisciplinary optimization problems containing hundreds of variables, constraints, and governing equations. Unfortunately, such methods are tedious to set up and require significant amounts of time and processor power to execute, thus making them unsuitable for rapid concurrent engineering use. This paper proposes a framework for Integration of System-Level Optimization with Concurrent Engineering (ISLOCE). It uses parametric neural-network approximations of the subsystem models. These approximations are then linked to a system-level optimizer that is capable of reaching a solution quickly due to the reduced complexity of the approximations. The integration structure is described in detail and applied to the multiobjective design of a simplified Space Shuttle external fuel tank model. Further, a comparison is made between the new framework and traditional concurrent engineering (without system optimization) through an experimental trial with two groups of engineers. Each method is evaluated in terms of optimizer accuracy, time to solution, and ease of use. The results suggest that system-level optimization, running as a background process during integrated concurrent engineering sessions, is potentially advantageous as long as it is judiciously implemented.

Schuman, Todd↗

Problems With Deployment of Multi-Domained, Multi-Homed Mobile Networks

This document describes numerous problems associated with deployment of multi-homed mobile platforms consisting of multiple networks and traversing large geographical areas. The purpose of this document is to provide insight to real-world deployment issues and provide information to groups that are addressing many issues related to multi-homing, policy-base routing, route optimization and mobile security - particularly those groups within the Internet Engineering Task Force.

Ivancic, William D.↗

Structural Optimization in automotive design

Although mathematical structural optimization has been an active research area for twenty years, there has been relatively little penetration into the design process. Experience indicates that often this is due to the traditional layout-analysis design process. In many cases, optimization efforts have been outgrowths of analysis groups which are themselves appendages to the traditional design process. As a result, optimization is often introduced into the design process too late to have a significant effect because many potential design variables have already been fixed. A series of examples are given to indicate how structural optimization has been effectively integrated into the design process.

Bennett, J. A.↗

A survey of compiler optimization techniques

Major optimization techniques of compilers are described and grouped into three categories: machine dependent, architecture dependent, and architecture independent. Machine-dependent optimizations tend to be local and are performed upon short spans of generated code by using particular properties of an instruction set to reduce the time or space required by a program. Architecture-dependent optimizations are global and are performed while generating code. These optimizations consider the structure of a computer, but not its detailed instruction set. Architecture independent optimizations are also global but are based on analysis of the program flow graph and the dependencies among statements of source program. A conceptual review of a universal optimizer that performs architecture-independent optimizations at source-code level is also presented.

Schneck, P. B.↗

The General Mission Analysis Tool (GMAT): Current Features And Adding Custom Functionality

The General Mission Analysis Tool (GMAT) is a software system for trajectory optimization, mission analysis, trajectory estimation, and prediction developed by NASA, the Air Force Research Lab, and private industry. GMAT's design and implementation are based on four basic principles: open source visibility for both the source code and design documentation; platform independence; modular design; and user extensibility. The system, released under the NASA Open Source Agreement, runs on Windows, Mac and Linux. User extensions, loaded at run time, have been built for optimization, trajectory visualization, force model extension, and estimation, by parties outside of GMAT's development group. The system has been used to optimize maneuvers for the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) and ARTEMIS missions and is being used for formation design and analysis for the Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission (MMS).

Conway, Darrel J.↗

Protection Against Radiation Hazards in Space, Book I Proceedings of the Symposium at Gatlinburg, Tenn., Nov. 5-7, 1962

BOOK 1: Radiation Environment in Space Effects of Space Radiation on Radiosensitive Objects Biological Effects of Space Radiation BOOK 2 : Shielding Against Space Radiations The realization in recent years that outer space is traversed by high-energy radiations has caused man to reevaluate the feasibility of manned or even instrumented exploration outside our atmosphere. Fortunately, it is possible to determine the nature and intensities of these radiations and to produce similar radiations on earth by means of accelerators. Thus we can learn how to attenuate them and to design capsules which afford protection against them. Of course this protection carries a weight penalty so that there is a premium on optimizing the shield design. Many groups in the United States are engaged in research to this end, and it was the purpose of this symposium to bring these groups together so that they could exchange information. To make the meeting more comprehensive, sessions on the nature of the radiations and their effects on people and things were included. However, the major part of the meeting was devoted to discussions on shielding research, comprising theoretical calculations and experiments carried out mainly with high-energy accelerators. The symposium committee feels that the aims of the symposium were met and that progress in space research program was greatly accelerated thereby.

RADIATION SHIELDING↗