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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 595 records · Page 33

A real time neural net estimator of fatigue life

A neural network architecture is proposed to estimate, in real-time, the fatigue life of mechanical components, as part of the intelligent Control System for Reusable Rocket Engines. Arbitrary component loading values were used as input to train a two hidden-layer feedforward neural net to estimate component fatigue damage. The ability of the net to learn, based on a local strain approach, the mapping between load sequence and fatigue damage has been demonstrated for a uniaxial specimen. Because of its demonstrated performance, the neural computation may be extended to complex cases where the loads are biaxial or triaxial, and the geometry of the component is complex (e.g., turbopumps blades). The generality of the approach is such that load/damage mappings can be directly extracted from experimental data without requiring any knowledge of the stress/strain profile of the component. In addition, the parallel network architecture allows real-time life calculations even for high-frequency vibrations. Owing to its distributed nature, the neural implementation will be robust and reliable, enabling its use in hostile environments such as rocket engines.

Troudet, T.↗

Scalable Performance Environments for Parallel Systems

As parallel systems expand in size and complexity, the absence of performance tools for these parallel systems exacerbates the already difficult problems of application program and system software performance tuning. Moreover, given the pace of technological change, we can no longer afford to develop ad hoc, one-of-a-kind performance instrumentation software; we need scalable, portable performance analysis tools. We describe an environment prototype based on the lessons learned from two previous generations of performance data analysis software. Our environment prototype contains a set of performance data transformation modules that can be interconnected in user-specified ways. It is the responsibility of the environment infrastructure to hide details of module interconnection and data sharing. The environment is written in C++ with the graphical displays based on X windows and the Motif toolkit. It allows users to interconnect and configure modules graphically to form an acyclic, directed data analysis graph. Performance trace data are represented in a self-documenting stream format that includes internal definitions of data types, sizes, and names. The environment prototype supports the use of head-mounted displays and sonic data presentation in addition to the traditional use of visual techniques.

Reed, Daniel A.↗

Climate Ocean Modeling on a Beowulf Class System

With the growing power and shrinking cost of personal computers. the availability of fast ethernet interconnections, and public domain software packages, it is now possible to combine them to build desktop parallel computers (named Beowulf or PC clusters) at a fraction of what it would cost to buy systems of comparable power front supercomputer companies. This led as to build and assemble our own sys tem. specifically for climate ocean modeling. In this article, we present our experience with such a system, discuss its network performance, and provide some performance comparison data with both HP SPP2000 and Cray T3E for an ocean Model used in present-day oceanographic research.

Cheng, B. N.↗

Flexible All-Digital Receiver for Bandwidth Efficient Modulations

An all-digital high data rate parallel receiver architecture developed jointly by Goddard Space Flight Center and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory is presented. This receiver utilizes only a small number of high speed components along with a majority of lower speed components operating in a parallel frequency domain structure implementable in CMOS, and can currently process up to 600 Mbps with standard QPSK modulation. Performance results for this receiver for bandwidth efficient QPSK modulation schemes such as square-root raised cosine pulse shaped QPSK and Feher's patented QPSK are presented, demonstrating the flexibility of the receiver architecture.

Gray, Andrew↗

Real-Time Adaptive Lossless Hyperspectral Image Compression using CCSDS on Parallel GPGPU and Multicore Processor Systems

The proposed CCSDS (Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems) Lossless Hyperspectral Image Compression Algorithm was designed to facilitate a fast hardware implementation. This paper analyses that algorithm with regard to available parallelism and describes fast parallel implementations in software for GPGPU and Multicore CPU architectures. We show that careful software implementation, using hardware acceleration in the form of GPGPUs or even just multicore processors, can exceed the performance of existing hardware and software implementations by up to 11x and break the real-time barrier for the first time for a typical test application.

realtime↗

50 Mbps hardware development for Shuttle Ku-band communications

The performance of a 5-Mbps coded system developed for Shuttle Ku-band communications is described. The system consists of a rate 1/2, constraint length 7 convolutional encoder-decoder and soft decision symbol synchronizer; the system has been band-limited at the transmitted symbol rate. Five convolutional decoders are operated in parallel to permit operation at the required data rate. It is found that the multiplexed encoder-decoder system does not exhibit any observable coding gain degradation when the channel is limited to the symbol rate at baseband.

Vang, H. A.↗

The Microgravity Science Glovebox

The Microgravity Science Glovebox (MSG) provides scientific investigators the opportunity to implement interactive experiments on the International Space Station. The facility has been designed around the concept of an enclosed scientific workbench that allows the crew to assemble and operate an experimental apparatus with participation from ground-based scientists through real-time data and video links. Workbench utilities provided to operate the experiments include power, data acquisition, computer communications, vacuum, nitrogen. and specialized tools. Because the facility work area is enclosed and held at a negative pressure with respect to the crew living area, the requirements on the experiments for containment of small parts, particulates, fluids, and gasses are substantially reduced. This environment allows experiments to be constructed in close parallel with bench type investigations performed in groundbased laboratories. Such an approach enables experimental scientists to develop hardware that more closely parallel their traditional laboratory experience and transfer these experiments into meaningful space-based research. When delivered to the ISS the MSG will represent a significant scientific capability that will be continuously available for a decade of evolutionary research.

Baugher, Charles R.↗

MicroMAPS CO Measurements over North America and Europe during Summer-Fall 2004

The MicroMAPS instrument is a nadir-viewing, gas filter-correlated radiometer which operating in the 4.67 micrometer fundamental band of carbon monoxide. Originally designed and built for a space mission, this CO remote sensor is being flown in support of satellite validation and science instrument demonstrations for potential UAV applications. The MicroMAPS instrument system, as flown on Proteus, was designed by a senior student design project in the Aerospace Engineering Department, Virginia Tech, in Blacksburg, VA. and then revised by Systems Engineers at NASA Langley. The final instrument system was integrated and tested at NASA LaRC, in partnership with Scaled Composites and Virginia Space Grant Consortium (VSGC). VSGC supervised the fabrication of the nacelle that houses the instrument system on the right rear tail boom of Proteus. Full system integration and flight testing was performed at Scaled Composites, in Mojave, in June 2004. Its successful performance enabled participation in four international science missions on Proteus: in 2004, INTEX -NA over eastern North America in July, ADRIEX over the Mediterranean region and EAQUATE over the United Kingdom region in September,and TWP-ICE over Darwin, Australia and the surrounding oceans in Jan-Feb 2006. These flights resulted in nearly 300 hours of data. In parallel with the engineering developments, theoretical radiative transfer models were developed specifically for the MicroMAPS instrument system at the University of Virginia, Mechanical Engineering Department by a combined undergraduate and graduate student team. With technical support from Resonance Ltd. in June 2005, the MicroMAPS instrument was calibrated for the conditions under which the Summer-Fall 2004 flights occurred. The analyses of the calibration data, combined with the theoretical radiative transfer models, provide the first data reduction for the science flights reported here. These early results and comparisons with profile data from the NASA DC-8, the coincident AIRS CO retrievals, and selected CO measurements from the MOZAIC program will be presented.

Connors, Vickie S.↗

Boundary Layer Protuberance Simulations in Channel Nozzle Arc-Jet

Two protuberance designs were modeled in the channel nozzle of the NASA Johnson Space Center Atmospheric Reentry Materials and Structures Facility with the Data-Parallel Line Relaxation computational fluid dynamics code. The heating on the protuberance was compared to nominal baseline heating at a single fixed arc-jet condition in order to obtain heating augmentation factors for flight traceability in the Boundary Layer Transition Flight Experiment on Space Shuttle Orbiter flights STS-119 and STS-128. The arc-jet simulations were performed in conjunction with the actual ground tests performed on the protuberances. The arc-jet simulations included non-uniform inflow conditions based on the current best practices methodology and used variable enthalpy and constant mass flow rate across the throat. Channel walls were modeled as fully catalytic isothermal surfaces, while the test section (consisting of Reaction Cured Glass tiles) was modeled as a partially catalytic radiative equilibrium wall. The results of the protuberance and baseline simulations were compared to the applicable ground test results, and the effects of the protuberance shock on the opposite channel wall were investigated.

Marichalar, J. J.↗

High Impact Weather Forecasts and Warnings with the GOES-R Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM)

The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES-R) is the next series to follow the existing GOES system currently operating over the Western Hemisphere. A major advancement over the current GOES include a new capability for total lightning detection (cloud and cloud-to-ground flashes) from the Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM). The GLM will operate continuously day and night with near-uniform spatial resolution of 8 km with a product refresh rate of less than 20 sec over the Americas and adjacent oceanic regions. This will aid in forecasting severe storms and tornado activity, and convective weather impacts on aviation safety and efficiency. In parallel with the instrument development, a GOES-R Risk Reduction Science Team and Algorithm Working Group Lightning Applications Team have begun to develop cal/val performance monitoring tools and new applications using the GLM alone, in conjunction with other instruments, and merged or blended integrated observing system products combining satellite, radar, in-situ and numerical models. Proxy total lightning data from the NASA Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) on the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite and regional ground-based lightning networks are being used to develop the pre-launch algorithms, test data sets, and applications, as well as improve our knowledge of thunderstorm initiation and evolution. In this presentation we review the planned implementation of the instrument and suite of operational algorithms.

Goodman, Steven↗

High Impact Weather Forecasts and Warnings with the GOES-R Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM)

The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES-R) is the next series to follow the existing GOES system currently operating over the Western Hemisphere. A major advancement over the current GOES include a new capability for total lightning detection (cloud and cloud-to-ground flashes) from the Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM). The GLM will operate continuously day and night with near-uniform spatial resolution of 8 km with a product refresh rate of less than 20 sec over the Americas and adjacent oceanic regions. This will aid in forecasting severe storms and tornado activity, and convective weather impacts on aviation safety and efficiency. In parallel with the instrument development, a GOES-R Risk Reduction Science Team and Algorithm Working Group Lightning Applications Team have begun to develop cal/val performance monitoring tools and new applications using the GLM alone, in conjunction with other instruments, and merged or blended integrated observing system products combining satellite, radar, in-situ and numerical models. Proxy total lightning data from the NASA Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) on the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite and regional ground-based lightning networks are being used to develop the pre-launch algorithms, test data sets, and applications, as well as improve our knowledge of thunderstorm initiation and evolution. In this presentation we review the planned implementation of the instrument and suite of operational algorithms.

Goodman, Steven J.↗

Engine Icing Data - An Analytics Approach

Engine icing researchers at the NASA Glenn Research Center use the Escort data acquisition system in the Propulsion Systems Laboratory (PSL) to generate and collect a tremendous amount of data every day. Currently these researchers spend countless hours processing and formatting their data, selecting important variables, and plotting relationships between variables, all by hand, generally analyzing data in a spreadsheet-style program (such as Microsoft Excel). Though spreadsheet-style analysis is familiar and intuitive to many, processing data in spreadsheets is often unreproducible and small mistakes are easily overlooked. Spreadsheet-style analysis is also time inefficient. The same formatting, processing, and plotting procedure has to be repeated for every dataset, which leads to researchers performing the same tedious data munging process over and over instead of making discoveries within their data. This paper documents a data analysis tool written in Python hosted in a Jupyter notebook that vastly simplifies the analysis process. From the file path of any folder containing time series datasets, this tool batch loads every dataset in the folder, processes the datasets in parallel, and ingests them into a widget where users can search for and interactively plot subsets of columns in a number of ways with a click of a button, easily and intuitively comparing their data and discovering interesting dynamics. Furthermore, comparing variables across data sets and integrating video data (while extremely difficult with spreadsheet-style programs) is quite simplified in this tool. This tool has also gathered interest outside the engine icing branch, and will be used by researchers across NASA Glenn Research Center. This project exemplifies the enormous benefit of automating data processing, analysis, and visualization, and will help researchers move from raw data to insight in a much smaller time frame.

Engine Icing↗

Exploration Exercise System (EES) Physiology

Exploration class missions will be required to have an exercise device that is lightweight, has a small footprint, and is capable of providing enough physical stimulus and exercise variability to be an effective countermeasure against muscle, bone, aerobic fitness, and sensorimotor loss that results from the microgravity environment. Ground studies, inflight studies, and results analyses are required to inform Moon2Mars Design Reference Missions (DRMs) and vehicle designs. This activity encompasses two related projects, an evaluation study called Zero T2 and a requirements development for an exploration treadmill (ET). Exploration class missions’ mass/power/volume restrictions have resulted in the development of exercise devices that are motorized and flywheel-based to provide both aerobic and resistive training on one platform. These devices provide a variety of full body resistance exercise options as well as rowing and cycling for aerobic exercise, but do not provide ambulatory exercise via a treadmill. Because a treadmill has been available for use on the ISS since 2001, we do not understand the efficacy of exploration exercise modalities on muscle performance, aerobic fitness, bone health, or sensorimotor performance. A retrospective study was performed to quantify the association between total exercise (including specific contributions of treadmill exercise) and functional performance upon landing. Due to the relatively small variation in treadmill usage inflight, there is a need to do a controlled study where inflight crewmembers will not use the ISS treadmill (called T2) for the duration of their flights. There will be 3 arms to the Zero T2 study: 1) participants use all currently available exercise platforms aboard ISS (control group), 2) participants use only ARED and CEVIS, and 3) participants use only European Enhanced Exploration Device (E4D). (Please see the TechPort Entry for Exploration Exercise System Development for further detail on the E4D.) This study started in Oct 2020 and will continue through Sep 2027. In a parallel effort, a team will be developing requirements for an exploration treadmill. This project will be broken into two phases. Phase 1 will develop and implement energy prediction models based on available in-flight exercise data to quantify energy expenditure during 0g treadmill running. Phase 2 will then use the available biomechanical and metabolic evidence from Phase 1 to determine the hardware specification requirements essential to providing the desired exercise stimulus. Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) will then leverage the Standardized Process for Evaluating Exercise Devices (SPEED) developed by the team to 1) assess available technologies for candidate treadmills which meet defined requirements, 2) perform hands-on evaluations of top candidates, 3) provide evaluation outcomes and recommendations to developers. This project will begin in 2025 and continue through Sep 2030.

Kent Lawrence Kalogera↗

Comparison of experimental surface pressures with theoretical predictions on twin two-dimensional convergent-divergent nozzles

A three-dimensional subsonic aerodynamic panel code (VSAERO) was used to predict the effects of upper and lower external nozzle flap geometry on the external afterbody/nozzle pressure coefficient distributions and external nozzle drag of nonaxisymmetric convergent-divergent exhaust nozzles having parallel external sidewalls installed on a generic twin-engine high performance aircraft model. Nozzle static pressure coefficient distributions along the upper and lower surfaces near the model centerline and near the outer edges (corner) of the two surfaces were calculated, and nozzle drag was predicted using these surface pressure distributions. A comparison between the theoretical predictions and experimental wind tunnel data is made to evaluate the utility of the code in calculating the flow about these types of non-axisymmetric afterbody configurations. For free-stream Mach numbers of 0.60 and 0.90, the conditions where the flows were attached on the boattails yielded the best comparison between the theoretical predictions and the experimental data. For the Boattail terminal angles of greater than 15 deg., the experimental data for M = 0.60 and 0.90 indicated areas of separated flow, so the theoretical predictions failed to match the experimental data. Even though calculations of regions of separated flows are within the capabilities of the theoretical method, acceptable solutions were not obtained.

Carlson, J. R.↗

Efficient parallel architecture for highly coupled real-time linear system applications

A systematic procedure is developed for exploiting the parallel constructs of computation in a highly coupled, linear system application. An overall top-down design approach is adopted. Differential equations governing the application under consideration are partitioned into subtasks on the basis of a data flow analysis. The interconnected task units constitute a task graph which has to be computed in every update interval. Multiprocessing concepts utilizing parallel integration algorithms are then applied for efficient task graph execution. A simple scheduling routine is developed to handle task allocation while in the multiprocessor mode. Results of simulation and scheduling are compared on the basis of standard performance indices. Processor timing diagrams are developed on the basis of program output accruing to an optimal set of processors. Basic architectural attributes for implementing the system are discussed together with suggestions for processing element design. Emphasis is placed on flexible architectures capable of accommodating widely varying application specifics.

Carroll, Chester C.↗

Tutorial: Performance and reliability in redundant disk arrays

A disk array is a collection of physically small magnetic disks that is packaged as a single unit but operates in parallel. Disk arrays capitalize on the availability of small-diameter disks from a price-competitive market to provide the cost, volume, and capacity of current disk systems but many times their performance. Unfortunately, relative to current disk systems, the larger number of components in disk arrays leads to higher rates of failure. To tolerate failures, redundant disk arrays devote a fraction of their capacity to an encoding of their information. This redundant information enables the contents of a failed disk to be recovered from the contents of non-failed disks. The simplest and least expensive encoding for this redundancy, known as N+1 parity is highlighted. In addition to compensating for the higher failure rates of disk arrays, redundancy allows highly reliable secondary storage systems to be built much more cost-effectively than is now achieved in conventional duplicated disks. Disk arrays that combine redundancy with the parallelism of many small-diameter disks are often called Redundant Arrays of Inexpensive Disks (RAID). This combination promises improvements to both the performance and the reliability of secondary storage. For example, IBM's premier disk product, the IBM 3390, is compared to a redundant disk array constructed of 84 IBM 0661 3 1/2-inch disks. The redundant disk array has comparable or superior values for each of the metrics given and appears likely to cost less. In the first section of this tutorial, I explain how disk arrays exploit the emergence of high performance, small magnetic disks to provide cost-effective disk parallelism that combats the access and transfer gap problems. The flexibility of disk-array configurations benefits manufacturer and consumer alike. In contrast, I describe in this tutorial's second half how parallelism, achieved through increasing numbers of components, causes overall failure rates to rise. Redundant disk arrays overcome this threat to data reliability by ensuring that data remains available during and after component failures.

Gibson, Garth A.↗

Multi-Modulator for Bandwidth-Efficient Communication

A modulator circuit board has recently been developed to be used in conjunction with a vector modulator to generate any of a large number of modulations for bandwidth-efficient radio transmission of digital data signals at rates than can exceed 100 Mb/s. The modulations include quadrature phaseshift keying (QPSK), offset quadrature phase-shift keying (OQPSK), Gaussian minimum-shift keying (GMSK), and octonary phase-shift keying (8PSK) with square-root raised-cosine pulse shaping. The figure is a greatly simplified block diagram showing the relationship between the modulator board and the rest of the transmitter. The role of the modulator board is to encode the incoming data stream and to shape the resulting pulses, which are fed as inputs to the vector modulator. The combination of encoding and pulse shaping in a given application is chosen to maximize the bandwidth efficiency. The modulator board includes gallium arsenide serial-to-parallel converters at its input end. A complementary metal oxide/semiconductor (CMOS) field-programmable gate array (FPGA) performs the coding and modulation computations and utilizes parallel processing in doing so. The results of the parallel computation are combined and converted to pulse waveforms by use of gallium arsenide parallel-to-serial converters integrated with digital-to-analog converters. Without changing the hardware, one can configure the modulator to produce any of the designed combinations of coding and modulation by loading the appropriate bit configuration file into the FPGA.

Gray, Andrew↗

Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) Simulation of Hypersonic Turbine-Based Combined-Cycle (TBCC) Inlet Mode Transition

Methods of computational fluid dynamics were applied to simulate the aerodynamics within the turbine flowpath of a turbine-based combined-cycle propulsion system during inlet mode transition at Mach 4. Inlet mode transition involved the rotation of a splitter cowl to close the turbine flowpath to allow the full operation of a parallel dual-mode ramjet/scramjet flowpath. Steady-state simulations were performed at splitter cowl positions of 0deg, -2deg, -4deg, and -5.7deg, at which the turbine flowpath was closed half way. The simulations satisfied one objective of providing a greater understanding of the flow during inlet mode transition. Comparisons of the simulation results with wind-tunnel test data addressed another objective of assessing the applicability of the simulation methods for simulating inlet mode transition. The simulations showed that inlet mode transition could occur in a stable manner and that accurate modeling of the interactions among the shock waves, boundary layers, and porous bleed regions was critical for evaluating the inlet static and total pressures, bleed flow rates, and bleed plenum pressures. The simulations compared well with some of the wind-tunnel data, but uncertainties in both the windtunnel data and simulations prevented a formal evaluation of the accuracy of the simulation methods.

Slater, John W.↗