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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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NASA NTRS2006

MSL EDL Entry Guidance using the Entry Terminal Point Controller

The Mars Science Laboratory will be the first Mars mission to attempt a guided entry with the objective of safely delivering the entry vehicle to a survivable parachute deploy state within 10 km of the pre-designated landing site. The Entry Terminal Point Controller guidance algorithm is derived from the final phase Apollo Command Module guidance and, like Apollo, modulates the bank angle to control range based on deviations in range, altitude rate, and drag acceleration from a reference trajectory. For application to Mars landers which must make use of the tenuous Martian atmosphere, it is critical to balance the lift of the vehicle to minimize the range while still ensuring a safe deploy altitude. An overview of the process to generate optimized guidance settings is presented, discussing improvements made over the last four years. Performance tradeoffs between ellipse size and deploy altitude will be presented, along with imposed constraints of entry acceleration and heating. Performance sensitivities to the bank reversal deadbands, heading alignment, attitude initialization error, and atmospheric delivery errors are presented. Guidance settings for contingency operations, such as those appropriate for severe dust storm scenarios, are evaluated.

Source record↗

NASA NTRS2011

Mars Science Laboratory Entry Guidance

The Mars Science Laboratory will be the first Mars mission to attempt a guided entry with the objective of safely delivering the entry vehicle to a survivable parachute deploy state within 12.5 km of the pre-designated parachute deploy coordinates. The Entry Terminal Point Controller guidance algorithm is derived from the final phase Apollo Command Module guidance and, like Apollo, modulates the bank angle to control range based on deviations in range, altitude rate, and drag acceleration from a reference trajectory. For application to Mars landers which must make use of the tenuous Martian atmosphere, it is critical to balance the lift of the vehicle to minimize the range while still ensuring a safe deploy altitude. An overview of the process to generate optimized guidance settings is presented, discussing improvements made over the last nine years. Performance tradeoffs between ellipse size and deploy altitude will be presented, along with imposed constraints of entry acceleration and heating. Performance sensitivities to the bank reversal deadbands, heading alignment, attitude initialization error, and entry delivery errors are presented.

Mendeck, Gavin F.↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Examination of Unified Control Incorporating Generalized Control Allocation

Hybrid vehicles which combine vertical take off and landing with cruise configurations pose a unique challenge for control design and implementation. For this class of vehicle, successful control designs have historically broken the flight envelope into phases of flight and modified the control approach for each phase. This research approaches control in a unified way across the entire envelope utilizing a robust optimal design which provides effect or weighting then implemented in a generalized Affine Generalized Inverse control allocation algorithm. System performance for a Lift plus Cruise class vehicle is presented.

Unified Control,Control Allocation↗

NASA NTRS1993

Optimal return-to-launchsite abort trajectories for an HL-20 Personnel Launch System vehicle

The Personnel Launch System (PLS) being studied by NASA is a system to complement the Space Shuttle and provide alternative access to space. The PLS consists of a manned spacecraft launched by an expendable launch vehicle (ELV). A candidate for the manned spacecraft is the HL-20 lifting body. In the event of an ELV malfunction during the initial portion of the ascent trajectory, the HL-20 will separate from the rocket and perform an unpowered return-to-launchsite (RTLS) abort. This paper describes an investigation of the RTLS abort scenario using optimal control theory. The objective of the abort trajectory is to maximize final altitude at a point near the runway. The assumption is then made that there exists a control history to steer the vehicle to any final altitude lower than the final optimal altitude. With this selection of cost function, and with this assumption, the feasibility of an RTLS abort at different times along the ascent trajectory can be determined. The method of differential inclusions, which allows the determination of optimal states and eliminates the need for determining the optimal controls, is used to determine the optimal trajectories.

Dutton, Kevin E.↗

NASA NTRS1993

Experimental apparatus for optimization of flap position for a three-element airfoil model

It is proposed to design and build a wind tunnel model comprising a Douglas Aircraft Company three-element high-lift airfoil with internal actuators to move the flap vertically and horizontally under computer control. The model will be used to find the optimum flap location for a fixed angle of attack, slat position and flap deflection angle. The model will span the full tunnel width and lift will be measured by integration of pressure readings taken from midspan taps. It is proposed to conduct experiments in the NASA Langley EFPB 2' x 3' low speed wind tunnel. This report serves as a project overview and a review of work completed to date through funding by the 1993 NASA/ASEE Summer Faculty Fellowship Program.

Landman, Drew↗

NASA NTRS2013

Initial Assessment of a Variable-Camber Continuous Trailing-Edge Flap System on a Rigid Wing for Drag Reduction in Subsonic Cruise

In this paper, we describe an initial optimization study of a Variable-Camber Continuous Trailing-Edge Flap (VCCTEF) system. The VCCTEF provides a light-weight control system for aircraft with long flexible wings, providing efficient high-lift capability for takeoff and landing, and greater efficiency with reduced drag at cruising flight by considering the effects of aeroelastic wing deformations in the control law. The VCCTEF system is comprised of a large number of distributed and individually-actuatable control surfaces that are constrained in movement relative to neighboring surfaces, and are non-trivially coupled through structural aeroelastic dynamics. Minimzation of drag results in a constrained, coupled, non-linear optimization over a high-dimension search space. In this paper, we describe the modeling, analysis, and optimization of the VCCTEF system control inputs for minimum drag in cruise. The purpose of this initial study is to quantify the expected benefits of the system concept. The scope of this analysis is limited to consideration of a rigid wing without structural flexibility in a steady-state cruise condition at various fuel weights. For analysis, we developed an optimization engine that couples geometric synthesis with vortex-lattice analysis to automate the optimization procedure. In this paper, we present and describe the VCCTEF system concept, optimization approach and tools, run-time performance, and results of the optimization at 20%, 50%, and 80% fuel load. This initial limited-scope study finds the VCCTEF system can potentially gain nearly 10% reduction in cruise drag, provides greater drag savings at lower operating weight, and efficiency is negatively impacted by the severity of relative constraints between control surfaces.

trailing edge flaps↗

NASA NTRS1991

Monte Carlo simulation of launchsite winds at Kennedy Space Center

This paper develops and validates an easily implemented model for simulating random horizontal wind profiles over the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) at Cape Canaveral, Florida. The model is intended for use in Monte Carlo launch vehicle simulations of the type employed in mission planning, where the large number of profiles needed for statistical fidelity of such simulation experiments makes the use of actual wind measurements impractical. The model is based on measurements made at KSC and represents vertical correlations by a decaying exponential model which is parameterized via least-squares parameter optimization against the sample data. The validity of the model is evaluated by comparing two Monte Carlo simulations of an asymmetric, heavy-lift launch vehicle. In the first simulation, the measured wind profiles are used, while in the second, the wind profiles are generated using the stochastic model. The simulations indicate that the use of either the measured or simulated wind field results in similar launch vehicle performance.

Queen, Eric M.↗

NASA NTRS1992

Wind tunnel seeding particles for laser velocimeter

The design of an optimal air foil has been a major challenge for aerospace industries. The main objective is to reduce the drag force while increasing the lift force in various environmental air conditions. Experimental verification of theoretical and computational results is a crucial part of the analysis because of errors buried in the solutions, due to the assumptions made in theoretical work. Experimental studies are an integral part of a good design procedure; however, empirical data are not always error free due to environmental obstacles or poor execution, etc. The reduction of errors in empirical data is a major challenge in wind tunnel testing. One of the recent advances of particular interest is the use of a non-intrusive measurement technique known as laser velocimetry (LV) which allows for obtaining quantitative flow data without introducing flow disturbing probes. The laser velocimeter technique is based on measurement of scattered light by the particles present in the flow but not the velocity of the flow. Therefore, for an accurate flow velocity measurement with laser velocimeters, two criterion are investigated: (1) how well the particles track the local flow field, and (2) the requirement of light scattering efficiency to obtain signals with the LV. In order to demonstrate the concept of predicting the flow velocity by velocity measurement of particle seeding, the theoretical velocity of the gas flow is computed and compared with experimentally obtained velocity of particle seeding.

Ghorieshi, Anthony↗

NASA NTRS1994

A simple analytical aerodynamic model of Langley Winged-Cone Aerospace Plane concept

A simple three DOF analytical aerodynamic model of the Langley Winged-Coned Aerospace Plane concept is presented in a form suitable for simulation, trajectory optimization, and guidance and control studies. The analytical model is especially suitable for methods based on variational calculus. Analytical expressions are presented for lift, drag, and pitching moment coefficients from subsonic to hypersonic Mach numbers and angles of attack up to +/- 20 deg. This analytical model has break points at Mach numbers of 1.0, 1.4, 4.0, and 6.0. Across these Mach number break points, the lift, drag, and pitching moment coefficients are made continuous but their derivatives are not. There are no break points in angle of attack. The effect of control surface deflection is not considered. The present analytical model compares well with the APAS calculations and wind tunnel test data for most angles of attack and Mach numbers.

Pamadi, Bandu N.↗

NASA NTRS2010

Guidance and Control Algorithms for the Mars Entry, Descent and Landing Systems Analysis

The purpose of the Mars Entry, Descent and Landing Systems Analysis (EDL-SA) study was to identify feasible technologies that will enable human exploration of Mars, specifically to deliver large payloads to the Martian surface. This paper focuses on the methods used to guide and control two of the contending technologies, a mid- lift-to-drag (L/D) rigid aeroshell and a hypersonic inflatable aerodynamic decelerator (HIAD), through the entry portion of the trajectory. The Program to Optimize Simulated Trajectories II (POST2) is used to simulate and analyze the trajectories of the contending technologies and guidance and control algorithms. Three guidance algorithms are discussed in this paper: EDL theoretical guidance, Numerical Predictor-Corrector (NPC) guidance and Analytical Predictor-Corrector (APC) guidance. EDL-SA also considered two forms of control: bank angle control, similar to that used by Apollo and the Space Shuttle, and a center-of-gravity (CG) offset control. This paper presents the performance comparison of these guidance algorithms and summarizes the results as they impact the technology recommendations for future study.

Davis, Jody L.↗

NASA NTRS2011

Entry Guidance for the 2011 Mars Science Laboratory Mission

The 2011 Mars Science Laboratory will be the first Mars mission to attempt a guided entry to safely deliver the rover to a touchdown ellipse of 25 km x 20 km. The Entry Terminal Point Controller guidance algorithm is derived from the final phase Apollo Command Module guidance and, like Apollo, modulates the bank angle to control the range flown. For application to Mars landers which must make use of the tenuous Martian atmosphere, it is critical to balance the lift of the vehicle to minimize the range error while still ensuring a safe deploy altitude. An overview of the process to generate optimized guidance settings is presented, discussing improvements made over the last nine years. Key dispersions driving deploy ellipse and altitude performance are identified. Performance sensitivities including attitude initialization error and the velocity of transition from range control to heading alignment are presented.

Mendeck, Gavin F.↗

NASA NTRS2012

Post-Flight EDL Entry Guidance Performance of the 2011 Mars Science Laboratory Mission

The 2011 Mars Science Laboratory was the first successful Mars mission to attempt a guided entry which safely delivered the rover to a final position approximately 2 km from its target within a touchdown ellipse of 19.1 km x 6.9 km. The Entry Terminal Point Controller guidance algorithm is derived from the final phase Apollo Command Module guidance and, like Apollo, modulates the bank angle to control the range flown. For application to Mars landers which must make use of the tenuous Martian atmosphere, it is critical to balance the lift of the vehicle to minimize the range error while still ensuring a safe deploy altitude. An overview of the process to generate optimized guidance settings is presented, discussing improvements made over the last nine years. Key dispersions driving deploy ellipse and altitude performance are identified. Performance sensitivities including attitude initialization error and the velocity of transition from range control to heading alignment are presented. Just prior to the entry and landing of MSL in August 2012, the EDL team examined minute tuning of the reference trajectory for the selected landing site, analyzed whether adjustment of bank reversal deadbands were necessary, the heading alignment velocity trigger was in union with other parameters to balance the EDL risks, and the vertical L/D command limits. This paper details a preliminary postflight assessment of the telemetry and trajectory reconstruction that is being performed, and updates the information presented in the former paper Entry Guidance for the 2011 Mars Science Laboratory Mission (AIAA Atmospheric Flight Mechanics Conference; 8-11 Aug. 2011; Portland, OR; United States)

Mendeck, Gavin F.↗

NASA NTRS2018

Active Flow Control for Trailing Edge Flap Separation

Active flow control (AFC) in the form of sweeping jet (SWJ) excitation and discrete steady jet excitation is used to control the flow separation on an NACA 0015 semispan wing with a deflected, simple-hinged, trailing edge flap. This geometry has been the focus of several recent publications that investigated methods to improve the efficiency of sweeping jet actuators. In the current study, the interaction of the AFC excitation with the separated flowfields present at several flap deflection angles was examined. Previous studies with this model have been limited to a maximum flap deflection angle of 40°. The flap deflection range was extended to 60! because systems studies have indicated that a high-lift system with simple-hinged flaps may require larger flap deflections than the Fowler flaps found on most high-lift systems. The results obtained at flap deflection angles of 20°, 40°, and 60° are presented and compared. Force and moment data, Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) data, and steady and unsteady surface pressure data are used to describe the flowfield with and without AFC. With a flap deflection of 60°, increasing the SWJ actuator momentum at the flap shoulder increased lift due to an increase in circulation but did not completely eliminate the recirculation region above the flap surface. AFC using the discrete steady jet actuators of this study increased lift as well but required more mass flow than the SWJ actuators and had a detrimental effect on lift at the highest mass flow level tested. PIV results showed that the angle between the excitation and the flap surface was not optimal for attaching the separated shear layer.

Melton, LaTunia Pack↗

NASA NTRS1993

Aerodynamic optimization of an HSCT configuration using variable-complexity modeling

An approach to aerodynamic configuration optimization is presented for the high-speed civil transport (HSCT). A method to parameterize the wing shape, fuselage shape and nacelle placement is described. Variable-complexity design strategies are used to combine conceptual and preliminary-level design approaches, both to preserve interdisciplinary design influences and to reduce computational expense. Conceptual-design-level (approximate) methods are used to estimate aircraft weight, supersonic wave drag and drag due to lift, and landing angle of attack. The drag due to lift, wave drag and landing angle of attack are also evaluated using more detailed, preliminary-design-level techniques. New, approximate methods for estimating supersonic wave drag and drag due to lift are described. The methodology is applied to the minimization of the gross weight of an HSCT that flies at Mach 2.4 with a range of 5500 n.mi. Results are presented for wing planform shape optimization and for combined wing and fuselage optimization with nacelle placement. Case studies include both all-metal wings and advanced composite wings.

Hutchison, M. G.↗

NASA NTRS1997

Multidisciplinary Optimization of Tilt Rotor Blades Using Comprehensive Composite Modeling Technique

An optimization procedure is developed for addressing the design of composite tilt rotor blades. A comprehensive technique, based on a higher-order laminate theory, is developed for the analysis of the thick composite load-carrying sections, modeled as box beams, in the blade. The theory, which is based on a refined displacement field, is a three-dimensional model which approximates the elasticity solution so that the beam cross-sectional properties are not reduced to one-dimensional beam parameters. Both inplane and out-of-plane warping are included automatically in the formulation. The model can accurately capture the transverse shear stresses through the thickness of each wall while satisfying stress free boundary conditions on the inner and outer surfaces of the beam. The aerodynamic loads on the blade are calculated using the classical blade element momentum theory. Analytical expressions for the lift and drag are obtained based on the blade planform with corrections for the high lift capability of rotor blades. The aerodynamic analysis is coupled with the structural model to formulate the complete coupled equations of motion for aeroelastic analyses. Finally, a multidisciplinary optimization procedure is developed to improve the aerodynamic, structural and aeroelastic performance of the tilt rotor aircraft. The objective functions include the figure of merit in hover and the high speed cruise propulsive efficiency. Structural, aerodynamic and aeroelastic stability criteria are imposed as constraints on the problem. The Kreisselmeier-Steinhauser function is used to formulate the multiobjective function problem. The search direction is determined by the Broyden-Fletcher-Goldfarb-Shanno algorithm. The optimum results are compared with the baseline values and show significant improvements in the overall performance of the tilt rotor blade.

Chattopadhyay, Aditi↗

NASA NTRS1975

Design definition study of NASA/Navy lift/cruise fan V/STOL aircraft. Volume 1: Summary report of Navy multimission aircraft

This report presents results of a study by the Rockwell International Corporation for the NASA Ames Research Center and the Naval Air Systems Command of promising Navy lift-cruise fan V/STOL aircraft for the 1980-1985 time period. The purpose of the study was to identify the likely technical and operating characteristics and technology requirements for the ultimate development of this type aircraft. The study focused on identifying aircraft individually optimized to perform the anti-submarine warfare, carrier onboard delivery, combat search and rescue, surveillance and surface attack missions, and a multi-purpose aircraft concept capable of performing all five missions at minimum total program cost. The configuration features the use of two 1.3 fan pressure ratio, single stage lift-cruise fans and three current design J97 gas generators with a high mounted high aspect ratio wing with winglets. The design missions can be performed at takeoff weights ranging from approximately 32,000 to 39,000 pounds. Top speed is 0.80 Mach number at sea level and 0.885 at altitude, Advanced composite structural technology and advanced subsystem concepts are employed. One basic fuselage design, with alternate bolt-in floor structures, meets all the mission requirements.

Robert L Cavage↗

NASA NTRS1981

Numerical optimization techniques for bound circulation distribution for minimum induced drag of Nonplanar wings: Computer program documentation

A two dimensional advanced panel far-field potential flow model of the undistorted, interacting wakes of multiple lifting surfaces was developed which allows the determination of the spanwise bound circulation distribution required for minimum induced drag. This model was implemented in a FORTRAN computer program, the use of which is documented in this report. The nonplanar wakes are broken up into variable sized, flat panels, as chosen by the user. The wake vortex sheet strength is assumed to vary linearly over each of these panels, resulting in a quadratic variation of bound circulation. Panels are infinite in the streamwise direction. The theory is briefly summarized herein; sample results are given for multiple, nonplanar, lifting surfaces, and the use of the computer program is detailed in the appendixes.

Kuhlman, J. M.↗

NASA NTRS2011

Optimal Terminal Descent Guidance Logic to Achieve a Soft Lunar Touchdown

Altair Lunar Lander is the linchpin in the Constellation Program for human return to the Moon. In the 2010design reference mission, Altair is to be delivered to low Earth orbit by the Ares V heavy lift launch vehicle, and after subsequent docking with Orion in LEO, the Altair/Orion stack is delivered through trans-lunar injection (TLI). The Altair/Orion stack separates from the Ares V Earth departure stage shortly after TLI and continues the flight to the Moon as a single stack. Fig. 1 depicts one version of the Altair lunar lander.

Landing↗