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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 469 records · Page 26

Bending of skew plates of variable rigidity.

Description of an analytical procedure for studying the bending of thin skew plates of a thickness varying in one direction, under arbitrary lateral loading. The analysis was programmed for execution on an electronic computer for various conditions and types of loading. The results obtained suggest that the proposed analytical procedure is more accurate than the finite-difference technique used in earlier investigations.

Willems, N.↗

Strain arrestor plate for mounting rigid insulating tiles

Plate is made of material having coefficient to thermal expansion similar to that of insulating material. Although plate may be formed from appropriate alloy, it has been found that a combination of graphite fibers in epoxy resin is satisfactory and much lighter in weight.

Kural, M. H.↗

Processing of Rigidized Rei-mullite Insulative Composites

Systematic development and evaluation of ceramic fiber Mullite are summarized: (1) Major reductions in thermal protection system weight have been achieved by reducing the density and thermal conductivity of the insulation by 20 and 25 percent; (2) already adequate structural margins-of-safety have been greatly enhanced by increasing the tensile strength and strain-to-failure capabilities of the insulation by factors of 3 and 2; (3) cost effectiveness has been increased through the achievement of a high degree of uniformity and reproducibility of properties and through process simplification and binder modifications; and (4) maximization of multimission capability at surface temperatures of 1644 K has been achieved through firing cycle adjustments and the development of a material with high dimensional stability.

Gebhardt, J. J.↗

Environmental compatibility of the all-silica rigid surface insulation

Testing has demonstrated the compatibility of the all-silica surface insulation system to a variety of space shuttle orbiter environmental aspects for launch, on-orbit, and special reentry conditions. Among the more important results are the success of the cold soak tests, which indicate the suitability of the foam/bond attachment system with a 2 mm thick foam pad for strain isolation, and the reentry temperature overshoot tests (to 1924 K), which show that this system can tolerate considerable dispersion in reentry heating environment.

Housten, S. J.↗

A Non Rigid Reusable Surface Insulation Concept for the Space Shuttle Thermal Protection System

A reusable thermal protection system concept was developed for the space shuttle that utilizes a flexible, woven ceramic mat insulation beneath an aerodynamic skin and moisture barrier consisting of either a dense ceramic coating or a super alloy metallic foil. The resulting heat shield material has unique structural characteristics. The shear modulus of the woven mat is very low such that bending and membrane loads introduced into the underlying structural panel remain isolated from the surface skin.

Alexander, J. G.↗

Pulsatile Newtonian frictional losses in a rigid tube.

Analytic expressions for the instantaneous average velocity and friction factor have been obtained for pulsatile Newtonian laminar flow with mean flow. Experimental pulsatile pressure gradients were found to be complex wave forms whose characteristics strongly influenced the experimental pulsatile average velocity and friction factor. Experimental and theoretical reduced instantaneous friction factor histories varied in a non-sinusoidal manner throughout the pulse cycle and exhibited extremum points. At high pulsation pressure ratios, substantial deviation occurred in the portion of the pulse cycle where the instantaneous average velocity approached zero. At low pulsation pressure ratios, the experimental and theoretical time average friction factor equaled unity and was independent of pulsation modulus. One potential application of this result is in the study of blood flow through small blood vessels.

Phillips, E. M.↗

Response of a rigid aircraft to nonstationary atmospheric turbulence.

The plunging response of an aircraft to a type of nonstationary turbulent excitation is considered. The latter consists of stationary Gaussian noise modulated by a well-defined envelope function. The intent of the investigation is to model the excitation experienced by an airplane flying through turbulence of varying intensity and to examine the influence of intensity variations on exceedance frequencies of the gust velocity and the airplane's plunging velocity and acceleration. One analytical advantage of the proposed model is that the Gaussian assumption for the gust excitation is retained. The analysis described herein is developed in terms of an envelope function of arbitrary form; however, numerical calculations are limited to the case of harmonic modulation.

Verdon, J. M.↗

Rigid body mode pointing accuracy and stability criteria for an orbiting spacecraft

The effect of gravity gradient torque disturbances (which is an order of magnitude greater than the other torque disturbances and is sinusoidal with a frequency of two cycles per orbit) on pointing accuracy can be predicted very precisely. However, since the sensor noise such as star tracker and gyro inherent noise, is random, their effect can only be predicted statistically. The most common method used is computer simulation with appropriate sensor model and adjusting spacecraft control laws for minimum pointing error, as presented by Harris (1972). The general investigation outlined theoretically relates spacecraft controls to pointing accuracy in terms of the sensor noise power spectrum. The results are presented in graphical form.

Sandhu, G. S.↗