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At least 397 records · Page 22

The breaking load method - Results and statistical modification from the ASTM interlaboratory test program

The breaking load test provides quantitative stress corrosion cracking data by determining the residual strength of tension specimens that have been exposed to corrosive environments. Eight laboratories have participated in a cooperative test program under the auspices of ASTM Committee G-1 to evaluate the new test method. All eight laboratories were able to distinguish between three tempers of aluminum alloy 7075. The statistical analysis procedures that were used in the test program do not work well in all situations. An alternative procedure using Box-Cox transformations shows a great deal of promise. An ASTM standard method has been drafted which incorporates the Box-Cox procedure.

Colvin, E. L.↗

Model Robust Calibration: Method and Application to Electronically-Scanned Pressure Transducers

This article presents the application of a recently developed statistical regression method to the controlled instrument calibration problem. The statistical method of Model Robust Regression (MRR), developed by Mays, Birch, and Starnes, is shown to improve instrument calibration by reducing the reliance of the calibration on a predetermined parametric (e.g. polynomial, exponential, logarithmic) model. This is accomplished by allowing fits from the predetermined parametric model to be augmented by a certain portion of a fit to the residuals from the initial regression using a nonparametric (locally parametric) regression technique. The method is demonstrated for the absolute scale calibration of silicon-based pressure transducers.

Walker, Eric L.↗

An Investigation of the Overlap Between the Statistical Discrete Gust and the Power Spectral Density Analysis Methods

The results of a NASA investigation of a claimed Overlap between two gust response analysis methods: the Statistical Discrete Gust (SDG) Method and the Power Spectral Density (PSD) Method are presented. The claim is that the ratio of an SDG response to the corresponding PSD response is 10.4. Analytical results presented for several different airplanes at several different flight conditions indicate that such an Overlap does appear to exist. However, the claim was not met precisely: a scatter of up to about 10 percent about the 10.4 factor can be expected.

Perry, Boyd, III↗

Probabilistic finite elements for fatigue and fracture analysis

Attenuation is focused on the development of Probabilistic Finite Element Method (PFEM), which combines the finite element method with statistics and reliability methods, and its application to linear, nonlinear structural mechanics problems and fracture mechanics problems. The computational tool based on the Stochastic Boundary Element Method is also given for the reliability analysis of a curvilinear fatigue crack growth. The existing PFEM's have been applied to solve for two types of problems: (1) determination of the response uncertainty in terms of the means, variance and correlation coefficients; and (2) determination the probability of failure associated with prescribed limit states.

Belytschko, Ted↗

A Statistical Approach for the Concurrent Coupling of Molecular Dynamics and Finite Element Methods

Molecular dynamics (MD) methods are opening new opportunities for simulating the fundamental processes of material behavior at the atomistic level. However, increasing the size of the MD domain quickly presents intractable computational demands. A robust approach to surmount this computational limitation has been to unite continuum modeling procedures such as the finite element method (FEM) with MD analyses thereby reducing the region of atomic scale refinement. The challenging problem is to seamlessly connect the two inherently different simulation techniques at their interface. In the present work, a new approach to MD-FEM coupling is developed based on a restatement of the typical boundary value problem used to define a coupled domain. The method uses statistical averaging of the atomistic MD domain to provide displacement interface boundary conditions to the surrounding continuum FEM region, which, in return, generates interface reaction forces applied as piecewise constant traction boundary conditions to the MD domain. The two systems are computationally disconnected and communicate only through a continuous update of their boundary conditions. With the use of statistical averages of the atomistic quantities to couple the two computational schemes, the developed approach is referred to as an embedded statistical coupling method (ESCM) as opposed to a direct coupling method where interface atoms and FEM nodes are individually related. The methodology is inherently applicable to three-dimensional domains, avoids discretization of the continuum model down to atomic scales, and permits arbitrary temperatures to be applied.

Saether, E.↗

An investigation of the 'Overlap' between the Statistical-Discrete-Gust and the Power-Spectral-Density analysis methods

This paper presents the results of a NASA investigation of a claimed 'Overlap' between two gust response analysis methods: the Statistical Discrete Gust (SDG) method and the Power Spectral Density (PSD) method. The claim is that the ratio of an SDG response to the corresponding PSD response is 10.4. Analytical results presented in this paper for several different airplanes at several different flight conditions indicate that such an 'Overlap' does appear to exist. However, the claim was not met precisely: a scatter of up to about 10 percent about the 10.4 factor can be expected.

Perry, Boyd, III↗

Signal detection amid noise with known statistics

Conventional methods of signal detection are based on the comparison of a local signal-to-noise ratio S/N to some threshold value. We present a new method that compares instead the histogram of the data with the one expected for background noise alone. Signals are detected from discrepancies between the two. We expect it to be applicable in the detection of signals from any data whose background statistics is known. To illustrate the method, we apply it to the case of photon-limited imaging data where the underlying background is Poissonian. Numerical simulations are used to check the efficiency of our method, finding that for signals with low S/N (less than 5), it detects signals with a higher degree of reliability than the conventional method.

Zepka, A. F.↗

Radar prediction of absolute rain fade distributions for earth-satellite paths and general methods for extrapolation of fade statistics to other locations

The first absolute rain fade distribution method described establishes absolute fade statistics at a given site by means of a sampled radar data base. The second method extrapolates absolute fade statistics from one location to another, given simultaneously measured fade and rain rate statistics at the former. Both methods employ similar conditional fade statistic concepts and long term rain rate distributions. Probability deviations in the 2-19% range, with an 11% average, were obtained upon comparison of measured and predicted levels at given attenuations. The extrapolation of fade distributions to other locations at 28 GHz showed very good agreement with measured data at three sites located in the continental temperate region.

Goldhirsh, J.↗

A method for determining the weak statistical stationarity of a random process

A method for determining the weak statistical stationarity of a random process is presented. The core of this testing procedure consists of generating an equivalent ensemble which approximates a true ensemble. Formation of an equivalent ensemble is accomplished through segmenting a sufficiently long time history of a random process into equal, finite, and statistically independent sample records. The weak statistical stationarity is ascertained based on the time invariance of the equivalent-ensemble averages. Comparison of these averages with their corresponding time averages over a single sample record leads to a heuristic estimate of the ergodicity of a random process. Specific variance tests are introduced for evaluating the statistical independence of the sample records, the time invariance of the equivalent-ensemble autocorrelations, and the ergodicity. Examination and substantiation of these procedures were conducted utilizing turbulent velocity signals.

Sadeh, W. Z.↗

Calculation of recoil implantation profiles using known range statistics

A method has been developed to calculate the depth distribution of recoil atoms that result from ion implantation onto a substrate covered with a thin surface layer. The calculation includes first order recoils considering projected range straggles, and lateral straggles of recoils but neglecting lateral straggles of projectiles. Projectile range distributions at intermediate energies in the surface layer are deduced from look-up tables of known range statistics. A great saving of computing time and human effort is thus attained in comparison with existing procedures. The method is used to calculate recoil profiles of oxygen from implantation of arsenic through SiO2 and of nitrogen from implantation of phosphorus through Si3N4 films on silicon. The calculated recoil profiles are in good agreement with results obtained by other investigators using the Boltzmann transport equation and they also compare very well with available experimental results in the literature. The deviation between calculated and experimental results is discussed in relation to lateral straggles. From this discussion, a range of surface layer thickness for which the method applies is recommended.

Fung, C. D.↗

Taguchi statistical design and analysis of cleaning methods for spacecraft materials

In this study, we have extensively tested various cleaning protocols. The variant parameters included the type and concentration of solvent, type of wipe, pretreatment conditions, and various rinsing systems. Taguchi statistical method was used to design and evaluate various cleaning conditions on ten common spacecraft materials.

Taguchi cleaning spacecraft materials↗

Bayesian Analysis of the Cosmic Microwave Background

There is a wealth of cosmological information encoded in the spatial power spectrum of temperature anisotropies of the cosmic microwave background! Experiments designed to map the microwave sky are returning a flood of data (time streams of instrument response as a beam is swept over the sky) at several different frequencies (from 30 to 900 GHz), all with different resolutions and noise properties. The resulting analysis challenge is to estimate, and quantify our uncertainty in, the spatial power spectrum of the cosmic microwave background given the complexities of "missing data", foreground emission, and complicated instrumental noise. Bayesian formulation of this problem allows consistent treatment of many complexities including complicated instrumental noise and foregrounds, and can be numerically implemented with Gibbs sampling. Gibbs sampling has now been validated as an efficient, statistically exact, and practically useful method for low-resolution (as demonstrated on WMAP 1 and 3 year temperature and polarization data). Continuing development for Planck - the goal is to exploit the unique capabilities of Gibbs sampling to directly propagate uncertainties in both foreground and instrument models to total uncertainty in cosmological parameters.

methods - statistical↗

A Rapid Method for Orbital Coverage Statistics with J2 Using Ergodic Theory

Quantifying long-term statistical properties of satellite trajectories typically entails time-consuming trajectory propagation. We present a fast, ergodic1 method of an- alytically estimating these for J2− perturbed elliptical orbits, broadly agreeing with trajectory propagation-based values. We extend the approach in Graven and Lo (2019)2 to estimate: (1) Satellite-ground station coverage with limited satellite field of view and ground station elevation angle with numerically optimized for- mulae, and (2) long-term averages of general functions of satellite position. This method is fast enough to facilitate real-time, interactive tools for satellite constel- lation and network design, with an approximate 1000× GPU speedup.

Lo, Martin W↗

A method for modelling peak signal statistics on a mobile satellite transponder

A simulation method is proposed. The simulation was developed to model the peak duration and energy content of signal peaks in a mobile communication satellite operating in a Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) mode and presents an estimate of those power peaks for a system where the channels are modeled as band limited Gaussian noise, which is taken as a reasonable representation for Amplitude Commanded Single Sideband (ACSSB), Minimum Shift Keying (MSK), or Phase Shift Keying (PSK) modulated signals. The simulation results show that, under this hypothesis, the level of the signal power peaks for 10 percent, 1 percent, and 0.1 percent of the time are well described by a Rayleigh law and that their duration is extremely short and inversely proportional to the total FDM system bandwidth.

Bilodeau, Andre↗

Design synthesis and optimization of joined-wing transports

A computer program for aircraft synthesis using a numerical optimizer was developed to study the application of the joined-wing configuration to transport aircraft. The structural design algorithm included the effects of secondary bending moments to investigate the possibility of tail buckling and to design joined wings resistant to buckling. The structural weight computed using this method was combined with a statistically-based method to obtain realistic estimates of total lifting surface weight and aircraft empty weight. A variety of 'optimum' joined-wing and conventional aircraft designs were compared on the basis of direct operating cost, gross weight, and cruise drag. The most promising joined-wing designs were found to have a joint location at about 70 percent of the wing semispan. The optimum joined-wing transport is shown to save 1.7 percent in direct operating cost and 11 percent in drag for a 2000 nautical mile transport mission.

Gallman, John W.↗

Estimation of Signal Coherence Threshold and Concealed Spectral Lines Applied to Detection of Turbofan Engine Combustion Noise

Combustion noise from turbofan engines has become important, as the noise from sources like the fan and jet are reduced. An aligned and un-aligned coherence technique has been developed to determine a threshold level for the coherence and thereby help to separate the coherent combustion noise source from other noise sources measured with far-field microphones. This method is compared with a statistics based coherence threshold estimation method. In addition, the un-aligned coherence procedure at the same time also reveals periodicities, spectral lines, and undamped sinusoids hidden by broadband turbofan engine noise. In calculating the coherence threshold using a statistical method, one may use either the number of independent records or a larger number corresponding to the number of overlapped records used to create the average. Using data from a turbofan engine and a simulation this paper shows that applying the Fisher z-transform to the un-aligned coherence can aid in making the proper selection of samples and produce a reasonable statistics based coherence threshold. Examples are presented showing that the underlying tonal and coherent broad band structure which is buried under random broadband noise and jet noise can be determined. The method also shows the possible presence of indirect combustion noise. Copyright 2011 Acoustical Society of America. This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the Acoustical Society of America.

Miles, Jeffrey Hilton↗