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Results for “Design Methods and Validation”

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 451 records · Page 25
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2009

Fracture Test Methods for Plastically Responding COPV Liners

An experimental procedure for evaluating the validity of using uniaxial tests to provide a conservative bound on the fatigue crack growth rate behavior small cracks in bi-axially loaded Composite Overwrapped Pressure Vessel (COPV) liners is described. The experimental procedure included the use of a laser notch to quickly generate small surface fatigue cracks with the desired size and aspect ratios. An out-of-plane constraint system was designed to allow fully reversed, fully plastic testing of thin sheet uniaxial coupons. Finally, a method was developed to determine to initiate small cracks in the liner of COPVs.

Dawicke, David S.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Atmospheric correction of LANDSAT TM thermal band using surface energy balance

Thermal infrared data of LANDSAT Thematic Mapper (TM) are hardly used, probably due to the difficulties met when trying to correct them for atmospheric effects. A method for correcting these data was designed, based on surface energy balance estimation of known wet and dry targets included in the TM image to be corrected. This method, only using the image itself and local meteorological data was tested and validated on various surfaces: agricultural, forest and rangeland. The root mean square error on corrected temperatures is on the order of 1C.

Vidal, Alain↗
NASA NTRS1993

Space station static and dynamic analyses using parallel methods

Algorithms for high-performance parallel computers are applied to perform static analyses of large-scale Space Station finite-element models (FEMs). Several parallel-vector algorithms under development at NASA Langley are assessed. Sparse matrix solvers were found to be more efficient than banded symmetric or iterative solvers for the static analysis of large-scale applications. In addition, new sparse and 'out-of-core' solvers were found superior to substructure (superelement) techniques which require significant additional cost and time to perform static condensation during global FEM matrix generation as well as the subsequent recovery and expansion. A method to extend the fast parallel static solution techniques to reduce the computation time for dynamic analysis is also described. The resulting static and dynamic algorithms offer design economy for preliminary multidisciplinary design optimization and FEM validation against test modes. The algorithms are being optimized for parallel computers to solve one-million degrees-of-freedom (DOF) FEMs. The high-performance computers at NASA afforded effective software development, testing, efficient and accurate solution with timely system response and graphical interpretation of results rarely found in industry. Based on the author's experience, similar cooperation between industry and government should be encouraged for similar large-scale projects in the future.

Gupta, V.↗
NASA NTRS2017

Two-Pendulum Model of Propellant Slosh in Europa Clipper PMD Tank

The objective of this fluids analysis is to model propellant slosh for the Europa Clipper mission using a two-pendulum model, such that controls engineers can predict slosh behavior during the mission. Propellant slosh causes shifts in center of mass and exerts forces and torques on the spacecraft which, if not adequately controlled, can lead to mission failure. The two-pendulum model provides a computationally simple model that can be used to predict slosh for the Europa Clipper tank geometry. The Europa Clipper tank is cylindrical with a domed top and bottom and includes a propellant management device (PMD). Due to the lack of experimental data in low gravity environments, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation results were used as 'real' slosh behavior for two propellants at three fill fractions. Key pendulum parameters were derived that allow the pendulum model's center of mass, forces, and moments to closely match the CFD data. The parameter trends were examined as a function of tank fill fraction and compared with solutions to analytic equations that describe the frequency of slosh in tanks with simple geometries. The trends were monotonic as expected, and parameters resembled analytical predictions; any differences could be explained by the specific differences in the geometry of the tank. This paper summarizes the new method developed at Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) for deriving pendulum parameters for two-pendulum equivalent sloshing models. It presents the results of this method and discusses the validity of the results. This analysis is at a completed stage and will be applied in the immediate future to the evolving tank geometry as Europa Clipper moves past its preliminary design review (PDR) phase.

Propellant Slosh↗
NASA NTRS2007

Space Propulsion Design and Analysis

This software provides an improved methodology for predicting launcher base pressure and heat loads for RSRM (Reusable Solid Rocket Motor) launchers by accounting for complex anisotropic stress/strains and variable turbulent Prandtl and Schmidt numbers. A "building block" approach to turbulence model development, and validation has been applied for improved missile/launcher base region analysis. Modifications to existing kappa - epsilon turbulence models and application of scalar variance models are incorporated into a RANS-based method for aeropropulsive flow modeling, directly related to base flow methodology. (RANS stands for Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes.) The models are applied in a RANS solver framework and can improve analysis of other complex flow fields. The enhanced models provide a more accurate predictive capability for improving the design and analysis of RSRM launcher configuration. The kappa - epsilon model enhancements have been shown to improve the capability for predicting turbulence effects in base blow environments. The scalar variance models have been assessed over a wide range of flow configurations to improve prediction of turbulent scalar mixing.

Sinha, Neeraj↗
NASA NTRS1922

Syphon Diaphragms : A Method for Predicting Their Performance for Purposes of Instrument Design

Here, the purpose is to show that the characteristic performance of a syphon diaphragm can be predicted from a knowledge of its stiffness and of its dimensions. The proof is based on a mathematical analysis of this type of diaphragm, together with enough experimental data to prove the validity of the assumptions and the sufficiency of the analysis. Equations are developed for the performance of syphons under various conditions of loading, both for concentrated loads and for hydrostatic pressure.

Eaton, H N↗
NASA NTRS1989

Comparison of NAE porous wall and NASA adaptive wall test results using the NAE CAST-10 airfoil model

Wind tunnels can now simulate flows over airfoils at high Reynolds numbers and high subsonic speeds. Methods to correct for (or reduce) test section wall interference at these test conditions must be validated. The National Aeronautics Establishment (NAE) of Canada and NASA have a cooperative agreement to study this area. The NAE designed, built, and tested a CAST-10 airfoil model in its conventional Two-Dimensional High Reynolds Number Facility. The results were corrected using classical correction techniques. NASA then tested the same model in its 0.3-meter Transonic Cryogenic Tunnel with the adaptive wall test section. The adaptive wall test section reduced the wall interference to what was expected to be an acceptable level. The corrected NAE results are compared with the uncorrected NASA results. The NAE results are also compared with NASA results after residual corrections for top and bottom wall interference. Finally, a comparison of both sets of results corrected for interference from all four walls is presented.

Mineck, Raymond E.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Interface To The SURE Program

Abstract Semi-Markov Specification Interface to SURE Tool (ASSIST) computer program is interface program enabling reliability engineers to design large semi-Markov mathematical models accurately. Language enables efficient description of large, complicated systems. Also offers, as part of bundled package with SURE and PAWS/STEM, two other reliable analysis programs developed by Systems Validation Methods group at Langley Research Center.

Johnson, Sally C.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Prototype test article verification of the Space Station Freedom active thermal control system microgravity performance

To verify the on-orbit operation of the Space Station Freedom (SSF) two-phase external Active Thermal Control System (ATCS), a test and verification program will be performed prior to flight. The first system level test of the ATCS is the Prototype Test Article (PTA) test that will be performed in early 1994. All ATCS loops will be represented by prototypical components and the line sizes and lengths will be representative of the flight system. In this paper, the SSF ATCS and a portion of its verification process are described. The PTA design and the analytical methods that were used to quantify the gravity effects on PTA operation are detailed. Finally, the gravity effects are listed, and the applicability of the 1-g PTA test results to the validation of on-orbit ATCS operation is discussed.

Chen, I. Y.↗
NASA NTRS2013

Reduction of Martian Sample Return Mission Launch Mass with Solar Sail Propulsion

Solar sails have the potential to provide mass and cost savings for spacecraft traveling within the innter solar system. Companies like L'Garde have demonstrated sail manufacturability and various i-space development methods. The purpose of this study was to evaluate a current Mars sample return architecture and to determine how cost and mass would be reduced by incorporating a solar sail propulsion system. The team validated the design proposed by L'Garde, and scaled the design based on a trajectory analysis. Using the solar sail design reduced the required mass, eliminating one of the three launches required in the original architecture.

Russell, Tiffany E.↗
NASA NTRS2013

Reduction of Martian Sample Return Mission Launch Mass with Solar Sail Propulsion

Solar sails have the potential to provide mass and cost savings for spacecraft traveling within the inner solar system. Companies like L'Garde have demonstrated sail manufacturability and various in-space deployment methods. The purpose of this study was to evaluate a current Mars sample return architecture and to determine how cost and mass would be reduced by incorporating a solar sail propulsion system. The team validated the design proposed by L'Garde, and scaled the design based on a trajectory analysis. Using the solar sail design reduced the required mass, eliminating one of the three launches required in the original architecture.

Russell, Tiffany E.↗
NASA NTRS2015

Impact of Drilling Operations on Lunar Volatiles Capture: Thermal Vacuum Tests

In Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) enables future planetary exploration by using local resources to supply mission consumables. This idea of 'living off the land' has the potential to reduce mission cost and risk. On the moon, water has been identified as a potential resource (for life support or propellant) at the lunar poles, where it exists as ice in the subsurface. However, the depth and content of this resource has yet to be confirmed on the ground; only remote detection data exists. The upcoming Resource Prospector mission (RP) will 'ground-truth' the water using a rover, drill, and the RESOLVE science package. As the 2020 planned mission date nears, component level hardware is being tested in relevant lunar conditions (thermal vacuum). In August 2014 a series of drilling tests were performed using the Honeybee Robotics Lunar Prospecting Drill inside a 'dirty' thermal vacuum chamber at the NASA Glenn Research Center. The drill used a unique auger design to capture and retain the lunar regolith simulant. The goal of these tests was to investigate volatiles (water) loss during drilling and sample transfer to a sample crucible in order to validate this regolith sampling method. Twelve soil samples were captured over the course of two tests at pressures of 10(exp-5) Torr and ambient temperatures between -80C to -20C. Each sample was obtained from a depth of 40 cm to 50 cm within a cryogenically frozen bed of NU-LHT-3M lunar regolith simulant doped with 5 wt% water. Upon acquisition, each sample was transferred and hermetically sealed inside a crucible. The samples were later baked out to determine water wt% and in turn volatile loss by following ASTM standard practices. Of the twelve tests, four sealed properly and lost an average of 30% of their available water during drilling and transfer. The variability in the results correlated well with ambient temperature (lower the temperature lower volatiles loss) and the trend agreed with the sublimation rates for the same temperature. Moisture retention also correlated with quantity of sample: a larger amount of material resulted in less water loss. The drilling process took an average of 10 minutes to capture and transfer each sample. The drilling power was approximately 20 Watt with a Weight on Bit of approximately 30 N. The bit temperature indicated little heat input into formation during the drilling process.

drilling↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Creep Testing of Vectran Yarn

NASA and industry are developing inflatable space structures to provide deployable habitable volumes for future exploration missions in space and on the surface of the Moon and Mars. These structures must withstand the constant pressure loading of multi-year missions. These missions therefore require excellent creep resistance in the constituent cordage and webbings that provide the primary structure of the vessel, which is typically constructed using high-strength synthetic materials such as Vectran. Real-time and accelerated creep testing of Vectran webbings has been performed at NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC), however, acceptable correlation between the results of the two approaches has not yet been achieved. Given the additional complexity of the webbing architecture, creep testing at the yarn level is being studied to reduce the number of interacting properties and focus on the core creep behavior to see if better correlation can be achieved between real-time and accelerated tests. To achieve this objective a creep test stand that is able to support simultaneous testing of five Vectran yarns had been previously designed and built. The test stand utilizes two clamp-wrap grips to mount the yarn and has a 10:1 load ratio, via a lever-arm, henceforth, known as the lever-arm test stand. Real-time creep testing (without measuring the strain of the yarn) in this fixture produces yarn ruptures in the gauge section. However, a large scatter in the times to failure was seen in the results across multiple loading conditions. For example, a test at 70% of the ultimate tensile strength (UTS) was found to have specimens that failed within a matter of hours and others that took over 6 weeks to fail. Prior test data on Vectran webbings had indicated high variability in the material strength, leading to higher than average scatter in the creep testing of webbings, which could translate to the scatter in creep behavior at the yarn level as well. However, there was still the possibility that the lever-arm test stand was causing the high scatter in data; specifically, due to potential variability in the loading of each specimen. Therefore, an additional creep test setup was designed and built to attempt to determine if the large scatter in the results was due to inherent material properties, the lever-arm test stand, or both. The newly designed creep test stand, henceforth known as the conventional test stand, utilized the more typical method for creep testing which involved hanging a weight from the yarn with no additional load amplification. The conventional test stand was designed and fabricated in-house at LaRC. High speed cameras were used to validate that the specimens in the conventional test stand failed in the gauge section. Once it was determined that the conventional test stand would provide valid failures in the gauge section, creep tests on the Vectran yarns were run to compare to the lever-arm test stand results. Preliminary results for a 70% UTS creep test have some specimens failing within a number of hours and some failing in excess of 6 weeks. These results are similar to those seen on the lever-arm test stand, pointing towards a large variability inherent in the material. The poster/presentation will focus on the design, fabrication, and validation of the conventional test stand as well as present preliminary results comparing the creep data from the conventional and lever-arm test stands

creep testing↗
NASA NTRS1979

Tests of a protective shell passive release mechanism for hypersonic wind-tunnel models

A protective shell mechanism for wind tunnel models was developed and tested. The mechanism is passive in operation, reliable, and imposes no new structural design changes for wind tunnel models. Methods of predicting the release time and the measured loads associated with the release of the shell are given. The mechanism was tested in a series of wind tunnel tests to validate the removal process and measure the pressure loads on the model. The protective shell can be used for wind tunnel models that require a step input of heating and loading such as a thin skin heat transfer model. The mechanism may have other potential applications.

Puster, R. L.↗
NASA NTRS2003

Development of Design Tools for Flow-Control Actuators

This report discusses the: 1. Development coupled electro/fluid/structural lumped-element model (LEM) of a prototypical flow-control actuator. 2. Validation the coupled electro/fluid/structural dynamics lumped-element models. 3. Development simple, yet effective, design tools for actuators. 4. Development structural dynamic models that accurately characterize the dynamic response of piezoelectric flap actuators using the Finite Element Method (FEW as well as analytical methods. 5. Perform a parametric study of a piezo-composite flap actuator. 6.Develop an optimization scheme for maximizing the actuator performance.

Mathew, Jose↗
NASA NTRS2005

Ionizing Radiation Environment on the International Space Station: Performance vs. Expectations for Avionics and Material

The role of structural shielding mass in the design, verification, and in-flight performance of International Space Station (ISS), in both the natural and induced orbital ionizing radiation (IR) environments, is reported. Detailed consideration of the effects of both the natural and induced ionizing radiation environment during ISS design, development, and flight operations has produced a safe, efficient manned space platform that is largely immune to deleterious effects of the LEO ionizing radiation environment. The assumption of a small shielding mass for purposes of design and verification has been shown to be a valid worst-case approximation approach to design for reliability, though predicted dependences of single event effect (SEE) effects on latitude, longitude, SEP events, and spacecraft structural shielding mass are not observed. The Figure of Merit (FOM) method over predicts the rate for median shielding masses of about 10g/cm(exp 2) by only a factor of 3, while the Scott Effective Flux Approach (SEFA) method overestimated by about one order of magnitude as expected. The Integral Rectangular Parallelepiped (IRPP), SEFA, and FOM methods for estimating on-orbit (Single Event Upsets) SEU rates all utilize some version of the CREME-96 treatment of energetic particle interaction with structural shielding, which has been shown to underestimate the production of secondary particles in heavily shielded manned spacecraft. The need for more work directed to development of a practical understanding of secondary particle production in massive structural shielding for SEE design and verification is indicated. In contrast, total dose estimates using CAD based shielding mass distributions functions and the Shieldose Code provided a reasonable accurate estimate of accumulated dose in Grays internal to the ISS pressurized elements, albeit as a result of using worst-on-worst case assumptions (500 km altitude x 2) that compensate for ignoring both GCR and secondary particle production in massive structural shielding.

Koontz, Steven L.↗
NASA NTRS2008

Root Source Analysis/ValuStream[Trade Mark] - A Methodology for Identifying and Managing Risks

Root Source Analysis (RoSA) is a systems engineering methodology that has been developed at NASA over the past five years. It is designed to reduce costs, schedule, and technical risks by systematically examining critical assumptions and the state of the knowledge needed to bring to fruition the products that satisfy mission-driven requirements, as defined for each element of the Work (or Product) Breakdown Structure (WBS or PBS). This methodology is sometimes referred to as the ValuStream method, as inherent in the process is the linking and prioritizing of uncertainties arising from knowledge shortfalls directly to the customer's mission driven requirements. RoSA and ValuStream are synonymous terms. RoSA is not simply an alternate or improved method for identifying risks. It represents a paradigm shift. The emphasis is placed on identifying very specific knowledge shortfalls and assumptions that are the root sources of the risk (the why), rather than on assessing the WBS product(s) themselves (the what). In so doing RoSA looks forward to anticipate, identify, and prioritize knowledge shortfalls and assumptions that are likely to create significant uncertainties/ risks (as compared to Root Cause Analysis, which is most often used to look back to discover what was not known, or was assumed, that caused the failure). Experience indicates that RoSA, with its primary focus on assumptions and the state of the underlying knowledge needed to define, design, build, verify, and operate the products, can identify critical risks that historically have been missed by the usual approaches (i.e., design review process and classical risk identification methods). Further, the methodology answers four critical questions for decision makers and risk managers: 1. What s been included? 2. What's been left out? 3. How has it been validated? 4. Has the real source of the uncertainty/ risk been identified, i.e., is the perceived problem the real problem? Users of the RoSA methodology have characterized it as a true bottoms up risk assessment.

Brown, Richard Lee↗