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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 631 records · Page 35

Pressure and velocity measurements in a three dimensional wall jet

A flat plate and a curved wall surface, intended to model a wing-flap combination in a high V/STOL configuration, were used to measure pressure and flow velocity in a freely expanding coflowing jet and a three dimensional wall jet. The effects of increasing the velocity ratio of the jet exit plane velocity to the free stream velocity were investigated. Velocity measurements were made using a two color laser Doppler velocimeter with a phase-locked loop processor. Fluctuating pressures were monitored with condenser-type microphones. Quantities measured include the width of the mixing region, the mean velocity field, turbulent intensities, and time scales. Wall and static pressure-velocity correlations and coherences are presented.

Catalano, G. D.↗

Shuttle GPS R/PA evaluation analysis and performance tradeoff study

Primary responsibility was understanding and analyzing the various GPS receiver functions as they relate to the shuttle environment. These receiver functions included acquisition properties of the sequential detector, acquisition and tracking properties of the various receiver phase locked loops, and the techniques of sequential receiver operation. In addition to these areas, support was provided in the areas of oscillator stability requirements, antenna management, and navigation filter requirements, including preposition aiding.

Booth, R. W. D.↗

Initial flight test of a Loran-C receiver/data collection system

Development of a low cost Loran C receiver for general aviation use is discussed. The preparation and procedure of a flight test conducted with a receiver design which utilizes a phase locked loop oscillator to track the Loran C signals is described. It is indicated that such a receiver is a viable alternative for future work in developing a low cost Loran-C navigator.

Fischer, J. P.↗

Results of the second flight test of the Loran-C receiver/data collection system

The components of the Loran-C navigation system which were developed thus far are a phase-locked-loop receiver and a microcomputer development system. The microcomputer is being used as a means of testing and implementing software to handle sensor control and navigation calculations. Currently, the microcomputer is being used to collect and record data from the receiver in addition to development work. With these components, it was possible to record receiver data over a period of time and then reduce this data to obtain statistical information. It was particularly interesting to load the equipment developed in the laboratory into an aircraft and collect data while in flight. For initial flight tests, some important considerations were how well the entire system will perform in the field, signal strength levels while on the ground and in the air, the amount of noise present, changing of signal-to-noise ratio for various aircraft configurations and maneuvers, receiver overloading due to other equipment and antennas, and the overall usefulness of Loran-C as a navigation aid.

Fischer, J. P.↗

Effect of various features on the life cycle cost of the timing/synchronization subsystem of the DCS digital communications network

The effect on the life cycle cost of the timing subsystem was examined, when these optional features were included in various combinations. The features included mutual control, directed control, double-ended reference links, independence of clock error measurement and correction, phase reference combining, self-organization, smoothing for link and nodal dropouts, unequal reference weightings, and a master in a mutual control network. An overall design of a microprocessor-based timing subsystem was formulated. The microprocessor (8080) implements the digital filter portion of a digital phase locked loop, as well as other control functions such as organization of the network through communication with processors at neighboring nodes.

Kimsey, D. B.↗

Costas loop demodulation of suppressed carrier BPSK signals in the DSN environment: Experimental results obtained at TDL

Suppressed carrier binary phase-shift keyed (BPSK) signalling is currently being considered as a design alternative for future DSN telemetry in the multimegabit range. Carrier tracking of such signals is usually achieved by a Costas loop, as opposed to the ordinary phase lock loop. A Costas loop capable of demodulating BPSK signals with data rates up to 1 Msps was designed and constructed and its Doppler tracking performance with respect to a Block 3 receiver was tested at the Telecommunications Development Laboratory (TDL). The compatibility of suppressed carrier signalling with the current radiometric system, specifically Doppler tracking and ranging, was investigated. The experimental results obtained to-date with respect to Doppler tracking are presented.

Reasoner, R.↗

Development of Surfaces Optically Suitable for Flat Solar Panels

A reflectometer which can separately evaluate the spectral and diffuse reflectivities of surfaces is described. A phase locked detection system for the reflectometer is also described. A selective coating on aluminum potentially useful for flat plate solar collector applications is presented. The coating is composed of strongly bound copper oxide (divalent) and is formed by an etching process performed on an aluminum alloy with high copper content. Fabrication costs are expected to be small due to the one stop fabrication process. A number of conclusions gathered from the literature as to the required optical properties of flat plate solar collectors are discussed.

Source record↗

Ground-to-space optical power transfer

Using laser radiation as the energy input to a rocket, it is possible to consider the transfer of large payloads economically between low initial orbits and higher energy orbits. In this paper we will discuss the results of an investigation to use a ground-based High Energy Laser (HEL) coupled to an adaptive antenna to transmit multi-megawatts of power to a satellite in low-earth orbit. Our investigation included diffraction effects, atmospheric transmission efficiency, adaptive compensation for atmospheric turbulence effects, including the servo bandwidth requirements for this correction, and the adaptive compensation for thermal blooming. For these evaluations we developed vertical profile models of atmospheric absorption, strength of optical turbulence (CN2), wind, temperature, and other parameters necessary to calculate system performance. Our atmospheric investigations were performed for CO2, 12C18O2 isotope, CO and DF wavelengths. For all of these considerations, output antenna locations of both sea level and mountain top (3.5 km above sea level) were used. Several adaptive system concepts were evaluated with a multiple source phased array concept being selected. This system uses an adaption technique of phase locking independent laser oscillators. When both system losses and atmospheric effects were assessed, the results predicted an overall power transfer efficiency of slightly greater than 50%.

Mevers, G. E.↗

Pressure and velocity measurements in a three dimensional wall jet

In three recent papers, some results of an experimental investigation of a freely expanding coflowing jet as well as a three dimensional wall jet have been presented. A flat plate as well as a curved wall surface intended to model a wing-flap combination in a high lift V/STOL configuration have been investigated. In these papers, the ratio of the jet exit plane velocity to the free stream velocity, was 5.1. This paper explores the effects of increasing the velocity ratio. The quantities measured include the width of the mixing region, the mean velocity field, turbulent intensities and time scales. In addition, wall and static pressure-velocity correlations and coherences are presented. The velocity measurements are made using a laser Doppler velocimeter with a phase-locked loop processor. The fluctuating pressures are monitored using condenser-type microphones.

Catalano, G. D.↗

Voyager telecommunications - The broadcast from Jupiter

The means by which the data collected by the Voyager 1 mission to Jupiter were returned to earth are presented. Radio links between the earth and the spacecraft are used for the transmission of both imaging and nonimaging telemetry from the spacecraft and commands from the earth and for radiometric observations of the spacecraft and its environment. Features which have lead to vast improvements in the capability of the Voyager telecommunications system over that of previous space probes include the use of X-band rather than S-band telemetry, a dual power X-band traveling wave tube amplifier, a 3.7 m spacecraft antenna and a single channel telemetry system with concatenated coding. Communications equipment at the three ground complexes of the Deep Space Network for telemetry reception includes 64 m steerable antennas, cryogenic maser preamplifiers and a phase-lock loop receiver. Voyager 1 has met or exceeded all of its telecommunications requirements, providing a 98% data return and a total of 2 x 10 to the 11th data bits during the Jupiter encounter.

Edelson, R. E.↗

Flexible stator control on the Galileo spacecraft

Galileo is a dual-spin spacecraft designed to deliver a probe to Jupiter and then orbit the planet. The stator, or despun section, contains four flexible modes below 10 Hz and the despun actuator is separated from the inertial sensors by this flexibility. Control loop separation by bandwidth proved unacceptable due to performance requirements. To obtain the desired performance, a control scheme was devised which consists of three parts. First, flexibility damping and control notch filtering are accomplished by phase locked loop techniques. Second, slewing maneuvers are produced by torque profiles which are nonexcitatory to the structure. Finally, a low bandwidth perturbation controller is supplied to remove spacecraft disturbances.

Kopf, E. H.↗

Fourier emission infrared microspectrophotometer for surface analysis. I - Application to lubrication problems

A far-infrared interferometer was converted into an emission microspectrophotometer for surface analysis. To cover the mid-infrared as well as the far-infrared the Mylar beamsplitter was made replaceable by a germanium-coated salt plate, and the Moire fringe counting system used to locate the moveable Michelson mirror was improved to read 0.5 micron of mirror displacement. Digital electronics and a dedicated minicomputer were installed for data collection and processing. The most critical element for the recording of weak emission spectra from small areas was, however, a reflecting microscope objective and phase-locked signal detection with simultaneous referencing to a blackbody source. An application of the technique to lubrication problems is shown.

Lauer, J. L.↗

Fiber optics transmit clock signal more reliably

Optical automatic gain control smooths maser clock amplitude fluctuations without phase shift. Uncomplicated optical system is more reliable than electrical transmission circuits which require phase-locked loops to compensate for shift. Maser feeds reference signal to linear fiber-optic analog transmitter which emits modulated laser beam directed to splitter. Splitter consists of dichroic mirrors and associated lenses for distributing beam to output ports. Cables attached there guide signals to receiving station.

Lutes, G. F., Jr.↗

A miniaturized digital telemetry system for physiological data transmission

A physiological date telemetry system, consisting basically of a portable unit and a ground base station was designed, built, and tested. The portable unit to be worn by the subject is composed of a single crystal controlled transmitter with AM transmission of digital data and narrowband FM transmission of voice; a crystal controlled FM receiver; thirteen input channels follwed by a PCM encoder (three of these channels are designed for ECG data); a calibration unit; and a transponder control system. The ground base station consists of a standard telemetry reciever, a decoder, and an FM transmitter for transmission of voice and transponder signals to the portable unit. The ground base station has complete control of power to all subsystems in the portable unit. The phase-locked loop circuit which is used to decode the data, remains in operation even when the signal from the portable unit is interrupted.

Portnoy, W. M.↗

Satellite communication performance evaluation: Computational techniques based on moments

Computational techniques that efficiently compute bit error probabilities when only moments of the various interference random variables are available are presented. The approach taken is a generalization of the well known Gauss-Quadrature rules used for numerically evaluating single or multiple integrals. In what follows, basic algorithms are developed. Some of its properties and generalizations are shown and its many potential applications are described. Some typical interference scenarios for which the results are particularly applicable include: intentional jamming, adjacent and cochannel interferences; radar pulses (RFI); multipath; and intersymbol interference. While the examples presented stress evaluation of bit error probilities in uncoded digital communication systems, the moment techniques can also be applied to the evaluation of other parameters, such as computational cutoff rate under both normal and mismatched receiver cases in coded systems. Another important application is the determination of the probability distributions of the output of a discrete time dynamical system. This type of model occurs widely in control systems, queueing systems, and synchronization systems (e.g., discrete phase locked loops).

Omura, J. K.↗

Investigations of coherent structures in free turbulent shear flows

The dynamics of large-scale coherent structures in general, and studies based on flow-visualization and phase-locked hot-wire measurements of the structures in the near fields of circular jets are considered. A study involving the nature of coherent structures under conditions of stable vortex pairing induced by controlled axisymmetric acoustic excitation reveals that azimuthal coherence initially enhanced by the excitation is lost before the end of the potential core through evolution of azimuthal lobe structures and turbulent breakdown. The evolution of a spark-induced spot in an axisymmetric turbulent mixing layer is also investigated, and the coherent Reynolds stress associated with the spot is found to be much higher than the background turbulence Reynolds stress. In addition, the state of organization in a high Reynolds number unperturbed axisymmetric mixing layer is examined, and it is shown that the shear layer is infrequently organized and the motions are intensely three-dimensional, while tearing and fractional pairing occur as frequently as complete pairing.

Hussain, A. K. M. F.↗

Multiple sensory and motor cues enhance the accuracy of pursuit eye movements

Oculomotor pursuit can be elicited by moving visual, tactile, proprioceptive, and occasionally auditory targets presented singly. Both the accuracy and amount of pursuit are enhanced if the position of the target is specified by cues from several sensory modalities. When the motion of the target is topologically related to movements of the subject's arm, the subject's eyes are more closely phase-locked with the target and reversals of the eyes generally precede target reversal by 10-20 ma.

Mather, J. A.↗

Rangefinder Corrects for Air Density and Moisture

Proposed distance-measuring instrument compensates for variations in both dry atmospheric density and water-vapor content. Instrument would be expected to be more accurate than previous laser-ranging instruments. New rangefinder sends three signal trains to target: Two trains are at optical frequencies, and one is at a microwave frequency. All three signals are phase-locked.

Abshire, J. B.↗