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At least 55 records · Page 3

HITCAN for actively cooled hot-composite thermostructural analysis

A computer code, high temperature composite analyzer (HITCAN), was developed to analyze/design hot metal matrix composite structures. HITCAN is a general purpose code for predicting the global structural and local stress-strain response of multilayered (arbitrarily oriented) metal matrix structures both at the constituent (fiber, matrix, and interphase) and the structural level, including the fabrication process effects. The thermomechanical properties of the constituents are considered to be nonlinearly dependent on several parameters, including temperature, stress, and stress rate. The computational procedure employs an incremental iterative nonlinear approach utilizing a multifactor-interaction material behavior model, i.e., the material properties are expressed in terms of a product of several factors that affect the properties. HITCAN structural analysis capabilities (static, load stepping - a multistep static analysis with material properties updated at each step, modal, and buckling) for cooled hot structures are demonstrated through a specific example problem.

Chamis, C. C.↗

An investigation into the probabilistic combination of quasi-static and random accelerations

The development of design load factors for aerospace and aircraft components and experiment support structures, which are subject to a simultaneous vehicle dynamic vibration (quasi-static) and acoustically generated random vibration, require the selection of a combination methodology. Typically, the procedure is to define the quasi-static and the random generated response separately, and arithmetically add or root sum square to get combined accelerations. Since the combination of a probabilistic and a deterministic function yield a probabilistic function, a viable alternate approach would be to determine the characteristics of the combined acceleration probability density function and select an appropriate percentile level for the combined acceleration. The following paper develops this mechanism and provides graphical data to select combined accelerations for most popular percentile levels.

Schock, R. W.↗

Structural design feasibility study of Space Station long spacer truss

The structural design and configuration feasibility of the long spacer truss assembly that will be used as part of the Space Station Freedom is the focus of this study. The structural analysis discussed herein is derived from the transient loading events presented in the Space Transportation System Interface Control Document (STS ICD). The transient loading events are liftoff, landing, and emergency landing loads. Quasi-static loading events were neglected in this study since the magnitude of the quasi-static acceleration factors is lower than that of the transient acceleration factors. Structural analysis of the proposed configuration of the long spacer truss with four longerons indicated that negative safety margins are possible. As a result, configuration changes were proposed. The primary configuration change suggested was to increase the number of truss longerons to six. The six-longeron truss appears to be a more promising structure than the four-longeron truss because it offers a positive margin of safety and more volume in its second bay (BAY2). This additional volume can be used for resupply of some of the orbital replacement units (such as a battery box). Note that the design effort on the long spacer truss has not fully begun and that calculations and reports of the negative safety margins are, to date, based on concept only.

Armand, Sasan C.↗

Propagation of sound in highly porous open-cell elastic foams

This work presents both theoretical predictions and experimental measurements of attenuation and progressive phase constants of sound in open-cell, highly porous, elastic polyurethane foams. The foams are available commercially in graded pore sizes for which information about the static flow resistance, thermal time constant, volume porosity, dynamic structure factor, and speed of sound is known. The analysis is specialized to highly porous foams which can be efficient sound absorbers at audio frequencies. Negligible effect of internal wave coupling on attenuation and phase shift for the frequency range 16-6000 Hz was predicted and no experimentally significant effects were observed in the bulk samples studied. The agreement between predictions and measurements in bulk materials is excellent. The analysis is applicable to both the regular and compressed elastic open-cell foams.

Lambert, R. F.↗

Comprehensive Forced Response Analysis of J2X Turbine Bladed-Discs with 360 Degree Variation in CFD Loading

The temporal frequency content of the dynamic pressure predicted by a 360 degree computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis of a turbine flow field provides indicators of forcing function excitation frequencies (e.g., multiples of blade pass frequency) for turbine components. For the Pratt and Whitney Rocketdyne J-2X engine turbopumps, Campbell diagrams generated using these forcing function frequencies and the results of NASTRAN modal analyses show a number of components with modes in the engine operating range. As a consequence, forced response and static analyses are required for the prediction of combined stress, high cycle fatigue safety factors (HCFSF). Cyclically symmetric structural models have been used to analyze turbine vane and blade rows, not only in modal analyses, but also in forced response and static analyses. Due to the tortuous flow pattern in the turbine, dynamic pressure loading is not cyclically symmetric. Furthermore, CFD analyses predict dynamic pressure waves caused by adjacent and non-adjacent blade/vane rows upstream and downstream of the row analyzed. A MATLAB script has been written to calculate displacements due to the complex cyclically asymmetric dynamic pressure components predicted by CFD analysis, for all grids in a blade/vane row, at a chosen turbopump running speed. The MATLAB displacements are then read into NASTRAN, and dynamic stresses are calculated, including an adjustment for possible mistuning. In a cyclically symmetric NASTRAN static analysis, static stresses due to centrifugal, thermal, and pressure loading at the mode running speed are calculated. MATLAB is used to generate the HCFSF at each grid in the blade/vane row. When compared to an approach assuming cyclic symmetry in the dynamic flow field, the current approach provides better assurance that the worst case safety factor has been identified. An extended example for a J-2X turbopump component is provided.

Elrod, David↗

Dynamics of hard sphere colloidal dispersions

Our objective is to perform on homogeneous, fully equilibrated dispersions the full set of experiments characterizing the transition from fluid to solid and the properties of the crystalline and glassy solid. These include measurements quantifying the nucleation and growth of crystallites, the structure of the initial fluid and the fully crystalline solid, and Brownian motion of particles within the crystal, and the elasticity of the crystal and the glass. Experiments are being built and tested for ideal microgravity environment. Here we describe the ground based effort, which exploits a fluidized bed to create a homogeneous, steady dispersion for the studies. The differences between the microgravity environment and the fluidized bed is gauged by the Peclet number Pe, which measures the rate of convection/sedimentation relative to Brownian motion. We have designed our experiment to accomplish three types of measurements on hard sphere suspensions in a fluidized bed: the static scattering intensity as a function of angle to determine the structure factor, the temporal autocorrelation function at all scattering angles to probe the dynamics, and the amplitude of the response to an oscillatory forcing to deduce the low frequency viscoelasticity. Thus the scattering instrument and the colloidal dispersion were chosen such as that the important features of each physical property lie within the detectable range for each measurement.

Zhu, J. X.↗

Inherent Conservatism in Deterministic Quasi-Static Structural Analysis

The cause of the long-suspected excessive conservatism in the prevailing structural deterministic safety factor has been identified as an inherent violation of the error propagation laws when reducing statistical data to deterministic values and then combining them algebraically through successive structural computational processes. These errors are restricted to the applied stress computations, and because mean and variations of the tolerance limit format are added, the errors are positive, serially cumulative, and excessively conservative. Reliability methods circumvent these errors and provide more efficient and uniform safe structures. The document is a tutorial on the deficiencies and nature of the current safety factor and of its improvement and transition to absolute reliability.

Verderaime, V.↗

Improving dynamic collision frequencies: Impacts on dynamic structure factors and stopping powers in warm dense matter

Simulations and diagnostics of high-energy-density plasmas and warm dense matter rely on models of material response properties, both static and dynamic (frequency-dependent). Here, in this work, we systematically investigate variations in dynamic electron–ion collision frequencies ν(ω) in warm dense matter using data from a self-consistent-field average-atom model. We show that including the full quantum density of states, strong collisions, and inelastic collisions lead to significant changes in ν(ω). These changes result in red shifts and broadening of the plasmon peak in the dynamic structure factor, an effect observable in x-ray Thomson scattering spectra, and modify stopping powers around the Bragg peak. These changes improve the agreement of computationally efficient average-atom models with first-principles time-dependent density functional theory in warm dense aluminum, carbon, and deuterium.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Static aeroelastic analysis and tailoring of missile control fins

A concept for enhancing the design of control fins for supersonic tactical missiles is described. The concept makes use of aeroelastic tailoring to create fin designs (for given planforms) that limit the variations in hinge moments that can occur during maneuvers involving high load factors and high angles of attack. It combines supersonic nonlinear aerodynamic load calculations with finite-element structural modeling, static and dynamic structural analysis, and optimization. The problem definition is illustrated. The fin is at least partly made up of a composite material. The layup is fixed, and the orientations of the material principal axes are allowed to vary; these are the design variables. The objective is the magnitude of the difference between the chordwise location of the center of pressure and its desired location, calculated for a given flight condition. Three types of constraints can be imposed: upper bounds on static displacements for a given set of load conditions, lower bounds on specified natural frequencies, and upper bounds on the critical flutter damping parameter at a given set of flight speeds and altitudes. The idea is to seek designs that reduce variations in hinge moments that would otherwise occur. The block diagram describes the operation of the computer program that accomplishes these tasks. There is an option for a single analysis in addition to the optimization.

Mcintosh, S. C., Jr.↗

Testing for Random Limit Load Versus Static Limit Load

This document is an effort to report the basic test findings in an ongoing quest for understanding how random load factors should be applied to structural components in order to verify the strength of space flight hardware. A Spacelab experiment known as the Atmospheric Emission Photometric Imager (AEPI) was subjected to both an expected flight random environment and the associated Miles' equation equivalent static load. During each of these tests, the fiberglass pedestal was instrumented with 16 triaxial strain gauges around its base. Component strains and invariant stresses were compared. As seen previously in other hardware tests, the stress distribution from the random environment was an order of magnitude below the comparable static stresses. With a proposed data acquisition system, a strain database will be developed that will quantify an empirical relationship between dynamic and static limit stresses. This event will allow a more accurate estimate of launch environment effects on new technology structural components.

Lee, H. M.↗

Extending substructure based iterative solvers to multiple load and repeated analyses

Direct solvers currently dominate commercial finite element structural software, but do not scale well in the fine granularity regime targeted by emerging parallel processors. Substructure based iterative solvers--often called also domain decomposition algorithms--lend themselves better to parallel processing, but must overcome several obstacles before earning their place in general purpose structural analysis programs. One such obstacle is the solution of systems with many or repeated right hand sides. Such systems arise, for example, in multiple load static analyses and in implicit linear dynamics computations. Direct solvers are well-suited for these problems because after the system matrix has been factored, the multiple or repeated solutions can be obtained through relatively inexpensive forward and backward substitutions. On the other hand, iterative solvers in general are ill-suited for these problems because they often must restart from scratch for every different right hand side. In this paper, we present a methodology for extending the range of applications of domain decomposition methods to problems with multiple or repeated right hand sides. Basically, we formulate the overall problem as a series of minimization problems over K-orthogonal and supplementary subspaces, and tailor the preconditioned conjugate gradient algorithm to solve them efficiently. The resulting solution method is scalable, whereas direct factorization schemes and forward and backward substitution algorithms are not. We illustrate the proposed methodology with the solution of static and dynamic structural problems, and highlight its potential to outperform forward and backward substitutions on parallel computers. As an example, we show that for a linear structural dynamics problem with 11640 degrees of freedom, every time-step beyond time-step 15 is solved in a single iteration and consumes 1.0 second on a 32 processor iPSC-860 system; for the same problem and the same parallel processor, a pair of forward/backward substitutions at each step consumes 15.0 seconds.

Farhat, Charbel↗

Towards Polymer-Free, Femto-Second Laser-Welded Glass/Glass Solar Modules

This project explores the use of femto-second (fs) lasers to form glass-to-glass welds for hermetically sealed, polymer-free solar modules. Low iron solar glass coupons were welded together without the use of glass filler using a fs laser with dedicated optics to elongate the focal plane parallel to the incident beam. The resulting welds were then stress tested to failure to reveal the critical stress intensity factor, KIc. These values were used in a structural mechanics model of a 1 m by 2 m glass/glass module under a simulated static load test. The results show that the fs laser welds are strong enough for a suitably framed module to pass the IEC 61215 static load test with a load of 5400 Pa. Key to this finding is that the module must be framed and braced, and the glass must be ribbed to allow pockets for the cells and welds inside the border of the module. The result is a module design that is completely polymer-free, hermetically sealed, has improved thermal properties, and is easily recycled.

femto-second laser welded↗

Nanoklystron: A Monolithic Tube Approach to THz Power Generation

The authors propose a new approach to THz power generation: the nanoklystron. Utilizing silicon micromachining techniques, the design and fabrication concept of a monolithic THz vacuum-tube reflex-klystron source is described. The nanoklystron employs a separately fabricated cathode structure composed of densely packed carbon nanotube field emitters and an add-in repeller. The nanotube cathode is expected to increase the current density, extend the cathode life and decrease the required oscillation voltage to values below 100 V. The excitation cavity is based on ridged-waveguide and differs from the conventional cylindrical re-entrant structures found in lower frequency klystrons. A quasi-static field analysis of the cavity and output coupling structure show excellent control of the quality factor and desired field distribution. Output power is expected to occur through an iris coupled matched rectangular waveguide and integrated pyramidal feed horn. The entire circuit is designed so as to be formed monolithically from two thermocompression bonded silicon wafers processed using deep reactive ion etching (DRIE) techniques. To expedite prototyping, a 600 GHz mechanically machined structure has been designed and is in fabrication. A complete numeric analysis of the nanoklystron circuit, including the electron beam dynamics has just gotten underway. Separate evaluation of the nanotube cathodes is also ongoing. The authors will describe the progress to date as well as plans for the immediate implementation and testing of nanoklystron prototypes at 640 and 1250 GHz.

Siegel, Peter H.↗

Simulated Data for High Temperature Composite Design

The paper describes an effective formal method that can be used to simulate design properties for composites that is inclusive of all the effects that influence those properties. This effective simulation method is integrated computer codes that include composite micromechanics, composite macromechanics, laminate theory, structural analysis, and multi-factor interaction model. Demonstration of the method includes sample examples for static, thermal, and fracture reliability for a unidirectional metal matrix composite as well as rupture strength and fatigue strength for a high temperature super alloy. Typical results obtained for a unidirectional composite show that the thermal properties are more sensitive to internal local damage, the longitudinal properties degrade slowly with temperature, the transverse and shear properties degrade rapidly with temperature as do rupture strength and fatigue strength for super alloys.

Chamis, Christos C.↗

An investigation into the probabilistic combination of quasi-static and random accelerations

The development of design load factors are investigated for aerospace and aircraft components and experiment support structures, which are subject to a simultaneous vehicle dynamic vibration and acoustically generated random vibration. The characteristics of the combined acceleration probability density function is determined, and an appropriate percentile level for the combined acceleration is selected. This mechanism is developed and graphical data is provided to select combined accelerations for most popular percentile levels.

Schock, R. W.↗

Measures for improving the zeppelin airships for long distance transportation

Factors to be considered in the construction of dirigibles include the design and weight of support structures, static and aerodynamic loads on the main ring, the annealing of support materials, and the dynamic gas pressure. Adaptations made for using helium as the lifting gas, and a method for extracting ballast are described.

Duerr, L. F.↗

Hexagonal and nematic phases of chains. I - Correlation functions. II - Phase transitions

The statistical mechanics of a system of semiflexible chains, which can represent polymer liquid crystals, long-chain biomolecules, stiff wormlike micelles, or columns of discotic liquid crystals, are examined. A continuum theory is used to calculate static correlation functions in the hexagonal and nematic phases. Two correlation functions are considered: (1) the structure factor which describes fluctuations in the density; and (2) the director fluctuation spectrum, which describes fluctuations in the local optical axis. In addition, a model is developed for the phase transitions of a system of infinitely long, semiflexible chains which interact through a steric, excluded-volume repulsion. The model yields generic phase diagrams in terms of pressure or density vs. persistence length or temperature.

Selinger, Jonathan V.↗

Some Factors Affecting Fatigue of Aircraft Structures

Several points of interest to the operator of aircraft are reviewed. Rates of crack propagation are shown to be high, and residual static strength is shown to decrease more significantly in high strength materials than in lower strength materials. Ground-air-ground and other negative loadings produce much more dn.mage than previously recognized or predicted. In first approximation, fatigue life is used in units corresponding to the number of flights, rather than to miles or hours as is commonly thought. Regular inspection for cracks is the only real way to assure safe operation of flight structures.

Hardrath, Herbert F.↗