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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 361 records · Page 20

Optimal actuator placement on an active reflector using a modified simulated annealing technique

The development of a lightweight actuation system for maintaining the surface accuracy of a composite honeycomb panel using piezoelectric actuators is discussed. A modified simulated annealing technique is used to optimize the problem with both combinatorial and continuous criteria and with inequality constraints. Near optimal solutions for the location of the actuators, using combinatorial optimization, and for the required actuator forces, employing continuous optimization, are sought by means of the modified simulated annealing technique. The actuator locations are determined by first seeking a near optimum solution using the modified simulated annealing technique. The final actuator configuration consists of an arrangement wherein the piezoelectric actuators are placed along six radial lines. Numerical results showing the achievable surface correction by means of this configuration are presented.

Kuo, Chin-Po↗

On actuator placement for robust time-optimal control of uncertain flexible spacecraft

The problem of computing open-loop, on-off jet firing logic for flexible spacecraft in the face of plant modeling uncertainty is investigated. The primary control objective is to achieve a fast maneuvering time with a minimum of structural vibrations during and/or after a maneuver. This paper is also concerned with the problem of selecting a proper pair of jets for practical trade-offs among the maneuvering time, fuel consumption, structural mode excitation, and performance robustness. A time-optimal control problem subject to parameter robustness constraints is formulated. A three-mass-spring model of flexible spacecraft with a rigid-body mode and two flexible modes is used to illustrate the concept.

Wie, Bong↗

Fabrication of the V-22 composite AFT fuselage using automated fiber placement

Boeing Helicopters and its subcontractors are working together under an Air Force Wright Research and Development Center (WRDC)-Manufacturing-Technology Large-Composite Primary Structure Fuselage program to develop and demonstrate new manufacturing techniques for producing composite fuselage skin and frame structures. Three sets of aft fuselage skins and frames have been fabricated and assembled, and substantial reductions in fabrication and assembly costs demonstrated.

Pinckney, Robert L.↗

Design of linear quadratic regulators with eigenvalue placement in a specified region

Two linear quadratic regulators are developed for placing the closed-loop poles of linear multivariable continuous-time systems within the common region of an open sector, bounded by lines inclined at +/- pi/2k (for a specified integer k not less than 1) from the negative real axis, and the left-hand side of a line parallel to the imaginary axis in the complex s-plane, and simultaneously minimizing a quadratic performance index. The design procedure mainly involves the solution of either Liapunov equations or Riccati equations. The general expression for finding the lower bound of a constant gain gamma is also developed.

Shieh, Leang-San↗

The NASA competitive placement plan for positions GS-15 and below (including trades and labor positions)

This plan provides the framework for selection based on merit from among the best qualified candidates available. Selections will be made without regard to political, religious, or labor organization affiliation or nonaffiliation, marital status, race, color, sex, national origin, nondisqualifying disability, or age. This plan does not guarantee promotion but rather ensures that all qualified available candidates receive fair and equitable consideration for positions filled under these competitive procedures. Announcing a vacancy under this plan is only one method of locating applicants for a position and can be used in conjunction with other methods. Subject to applicable law and regulation, selection of an individual to fill a position is the decision of management, as is the decision as to the method(s) to be used in identifying candidates. This plan is applicable to all NASA Installations. It covers all positions in the competitive service at (and below) the GS/GM-15 level (including all trades and labor positions), except positions in the Office of the Inspector General. The requirements herein are not intended to, nor should they be construed to limit in any way, the independent personnel authority of the Inspector General under the Inspector General Act, as Amended.

Source record↗

Actuator placement for active sound and vibration control of cylinders

Active structural acoustic control is a method in which the control inputs (used to reduce interior noise) are applied directly to a vibrating structural acoustic system. The control concept modeled in this work is the application of in-plane force inputs to piezoceramic patches bonded to the wall of a vibrating cylinder. The cylinder is excited by an exterior noise source -- an acoustic monopole -- located near the outside of the cylinder wall. The goal is to determine the force inputs and sites for the piezoelectric actuators so that (1) the interior noise is effectively damped; (2) the level of vibration of the cylinder shell is not increased; and (3) the power requirements needed to drive the actuators are not excessive. We studied external monopole excitations at two frequencies. A cylinder resonance of 100 Hz, where the interior acoustic field is driven in multiple, off-resonance cylinder cavity modes, and a cylinder resonance of 200 Hz are characterized by both near and off-resonance cylinder vibration modes which couple effectively with a single, dominant, low-order acoustic cavity mode at resonance. Previous work has focused almost exclusively on meeting objective (1) and solving a complex least-squares problem to arrive at an optimal force vector for a given set of actuator sites. In addition, it has been noted that when the cavity mode couples with cylinder vibration modes (our 200 Hz case) control spillover may occur in higher order cylinder shell vibrational modes. How to determine the best set of actuator sites to meet objectives (1)-(3) is the main contribution of our research effort. The selection of the best set of actuator sites from a set of potential sites is done via two metaheuristics -- simulated annealing and tabu search. Each of these metaheuristics partitions the set of potential actuator sites into two disjoint sets: those that are selected to control the noise (on) and those that are not (off). Next, each metaheuristic attempts to improve this initial solution by calculating the change in the objective value when one selected actuator site is turned off and one actuator site that previously was not selected is turned on. All such pairwise exchanges are performed and the exchange that improves the objective the most is made. Eventually the search is unable to improve the objective value and a local optimum (with respect to pairwise exchanges) is reached. Both simulated annealing and tabu search provide mechanisms to escape local optima and allow the search to continue until (hopefully) a global optimum is found. Our experiments with the 100 Hz and 200 Hz cases confirm that both metaheuristics are able to uncover better solutions than those selected based upon engineering judgement alone. In addition, the high quality solutions generated by these metaheuristics, when minimizing interior noise, do not further excite the cylinder shell. Thus, we are able to meet objective (2) without imposing an additional constraint or forming a multiobjective performance measure. An additional observation is that in many cases the amplitude and phase values for several chosen actuator sites were nearly identical. This natural grouping means that fewer control channels are needed and the resulting control system is simpler. Currently no power requirements have been set, so objective (3) cannot be addressed. A set of experiments is planned with a laboratory test article (a cylinder). For these experiments the transfer matrices will be generated experimentally. It is hoped that the predicted performance of the best actuator sites found by our metaheuristics will correlate well with the measured performance.

Kincaid, Rex K.↗

A Study of How Stitch Placement Affects the Open Hole Tension Strength of Stitched Textile Composite Materials

This paper investigates the relationship between open hole tensile strength and distance between a hole and a stitch in a textile composite material. Tension tests were completed on various specimens with widths of 1 in., 2 in., 3 in. and a constant width to hole diameter ratio of 4. The composites tested were warp knits with AS4 fibers and 3501-6 resin. Test results show a small percent change of net strength with stitch location. However, due to the large scatter in data, the small 6% change in net strength is considered negligible.

Pierucci, Kathleen A.↗

Accelerometer Placement for the International Space Station Node Modal Test

Accelerometer location analysis for the modal survey test of the International Space Station Node is described. Three different approaches were utilized: (1) Guyan reduction; (2) Iterative Guyan reduction; and (3) The average driving point residue (ADPR) method. Both Guyan approaches worked well, but poor results were observed for the ADPR method. Although the iterative Guyan approach appears to provide the best set of sensor locations, it is intensive computationally, becoming impractical for large initial location sets. While this is computer dependent, it appears that initial sets larger than about 1500 degrees of freedom are impractical for the iterative technique.

Tinker, Michael L.↗

[Operation/Maintenance of Fiber Placement Machine]

NASA contract NAS8-39749 was completed in January 2000. The contract period of performance covered six (6) years and included basic program technical support as required by NASA with up to thirty (30) different technical directives identified and issued by NASA for specific Advanced Composite Technology tasks during the course of the contract.

Pelham, L.↗

Terrain Model Registration for Single Cycle Instrument Placement

This paper presents an efficient and robust method for registration of terrain models created using stereo vision on a planetary rover. Our approach projects two surface models into a virtual depth map, rendering the models as they would be seen from a single range sensor. Correspondence is established based on which points project to the same location in the virtual range sensor. A robust norm of the deviations in observed depth is used as the objective function, and the algorithm searches for the rigid transformation which minimizes the norm. An initial coarse search is done using rover pose information from odometry and orientation sensing. A fine search is done using Levenberg-Marquardt. Our method enables a planetary rover to keep track of designated science targets as it moves, and to hand off targets from one set of stereo cameras to another. These capabilities are essential for the rover to autonomously approach a science target and place an instrument in contact in a single command cycle.

Deans, Matthew↗

Thruster Placement Issues and Possible Mitigation Methods for the ST-7 Disturbance Reduction System

The Space Technology-7 Disturbance Reduction System is being designed to demonstrate the ability to shield a test mass from non-gravitational forces. In order to meet this goal, two advanced technologies will be employed: a highly sensitive Gravitational Reference Sensor and micro-Newton thrusters. ST-7 is limited to two clusters of four thrusters, which are sufficient to provide control for 6 degrees of freedom, but the overall effectiveness of the baseline configuration is limited by the noise on the measurement signals and the thrust outputs, the disturbance force caused by solar radiation pressure, and the performance of the individual thrusters. This paper presents and discusses these issues in greater detail along with possible mitigation methods.

Hsu, O.↗

Phylogenetic placement of the Spirosomaceae

Comparative analysis of 16S rRNA sequences shows that the family Spirosomaceae belongs within the eubacterial phylum defined by the flavobacteria and bacteriodes. Its constituent genera, Spirosoma, Flectobacillus, and Runella form a monophyletic grouping therein. The phylogenetic assignment is based not only upon evolutionary distance analysis, but also upon sequence signatures and higher order structural synapomorphies in 16S rRNA. Another genus peripherally associated with the Spirosomaceae, Ancylobacter ("Microcyclus"), does not cluster with the flavobacteria and their relatives, but rather belongs to the alpha subdivision of the purple bacteria.

NASA Discipline Number 52-30↗