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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 73 records · Page 4
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2010

Designing and Implementing an OVERFLOW Reader for ParaView and Comparing Performance Between Central Processing Units and Graphical Processing Units

In the Applied Aerosciences and CFD branch at Johnson Space Center, computational simulations are run that face many challenges. Two of which are the ability to customize software for specialized needs and the need to run simulations as fast as possible. There are many different tools that are used for running these simulations and each one has its own pros and cons. Once these simulations are run, there needs to be software capable of visualizing the results in an appealing manner. Some of this software is called open source, meaning that anyone can edit the source code to make modifications and distribute it to all other users in a future release. This is very useful, especially in this branch where many different tools are being used. File readers can be written to load any file format into a program, to ease the bridging from one tool to another. Programming such a reader requires knowledge of the file format that is being read as well as the equations necessary to obtain the derived values after loading. When running these CFD simulations, extremely large files are being loaded and having values being calculated. These simulations usually take a few hours to complete, even on the fastest machines. Graphics processing units (GPUs) are usually used to load the graphics for computers; however, in recent years, GPUs are being used for more generic applications because of the speed of these processors. Applications run on GPUs have been known to run up to forty times faster than they would on normal central processing units (CPUs). If these CFD programs are extended to run on GPUs, the amount of time they would require to complete would be much less. This would allow more simulations to be run in the same amount of time and possibly perform more complex computations.

Chawner, David M.↗
NASA NTRS2005

Gas-Tolerant Device Senses Electrical Conductivity of Liquid

The figure depicts a device for measuring the electrical conductivity of a flowing liquid. Unlike prior such devices, this one does not trap gas bubbles entrained in the liquid. Usually, the electrical conductivity of a liquid is measured by use of two electrodes immersed in the liquid. A typical prior device based on this concept contains large cavities that can trap gas. Any gas present between or near the electrodes causes a significant offset in the conductivity reading and, if the gas becomes trapped, then the offset persists. Extensive tests on two-phase (liquid/ gas) flow have shown that in the case of liquid flowing along a section of tubing, gas entrained in the liquid is not trapped in the section as long as the inner wall of the section is smooth and continuous, and the section is the narrowest tubing section along the flow path. The design of the device is based on the foregoing observation: The electrodes and the insulators separating the electrodes constitute adjacent parts of the walls of a tube. The bore of the tube is machined to make the wall smooth and to provide a straight flow path from the inlet to the outlet. The diameter of the electrode/insulator tube assembly is less than the diameter of the inlet or outlet tubing. An outer shell contains the electrodes and insulators and constitutes a leak and pressure barrier. Any gas bubble flowing through this device causes only a momentary conductivity offset that is filtered out by software used to process the conductivity readings.

O'Connor, Edward W.↗
NASA NTRS1996

SAM-FS: LSC's New Solaris-Based Storage Management Product

SAM-FS is a full featured hierarchical storage management (HSM) device that operates as a file system on Solaris-based machines. The SAM-FS file system provides the user with all of the standard UNIX system utilities and calls, and adds some new commands, i.e. archive, release, stage, sls, sfind, and a family of maintenance commands. The system also offers enhancements such as high performance virtual disk read and write, control of the disk through an extent array, and the ability to dynamically allocate block size. SAM-FS provides 'archive sets' which are groupings of data to be copied to secondary storage. In practice, as soon as a file is written to disk, SAM-FS will make copies onto secondary media. SAM-FS is a scalable storage management system. The system can manage millions of files per system, though this is limited today by the speed of UNIX and its utilities. In the future, a new search algorithm will be implemented that will remove logical and performance restrictions on the number of files managed.

Angell, Kent↗
NASA NTRS1990

A high speed CMOS correlator

A full custom, 25 MHz, 1.6 microns CMOS Correlator chip is presented. The 5.15mm by 4.23mm chip performs either autocorrelation or crosscorrelation, consuming less than 10mW per channel. The correlator, designed for a space borne spectrometer, contains 32 channels. The 24 bit accumulator registers can be read independent of the input data path, in either 8 bit bytes, or 16 bit words. The device is cascadable and allows integration periods of up to 1.78 seconds, at 25 Megasamples/second. The controllers, for the input data path and the data output section, are implemented with Sequence Invariant State Machines.

Canaris, J.↗
NASA NTRS1981

Documentation for the machine-readable version of the thirteen color photometry of 1380 bright stars

The magnetic tape version of the catalogue of thirteen-color photometry of 1380 bright stars, containing data on the 13 color medium narrow band photometric system is described. Observations of essentially all stars brighter than fifth visual magnitude north of delta = -20 deg and brighter than fourth visual magnitude south of delta = -20 deg are included. It is intended to enable users to read and process the tape without the common difficulties and uncertainties.

Warren, W. H., Jr.↗
NASA NTRS2002

Check Out These Books

The book entitled "Fusion Leadership: Unlocking the Subtle Forces that Change People and Organizations Richard L. Daft and Robert H. Lengel (1998) Berett-Koehler Publishers, Inc." was Reviewed by Dr. Michelle Collins, NASA Headquarters. If you've already read books on leadership and organizational change by authors such as Moshe Rubinstein and Iris Firstenberg, Peter Senge, Tom Peters, and Steven Covey, and you were thinking of rereading them, you don't have to do that now. Just read this book instead. It's a fusion of many of their same concepts presented from a different view. The book does not explore any particular subject in depth. Rather the authors "skim" many subjects and concepts, interlacing them to develop the concept of "Fusion Leadership". The fundamental concept of treating people as people rather than machines is the main theme. "Fusion Leadership" is the process of fusing people together by nurturing six "subtle" forces: mindfulness, courage, vision, heart, communication, and integrity. To do so, hierarchy is diminished and responsibility both for oneself as well as for the team is emphasized. There are a number of organizations and managers that will find such a change threatening. The concepts behind such a management style are straightforward and the benefits are intuitive once you've reflected on them; however, the obvious benefits of the behavioral change proposed in Fusion Leadership can be completely lost in a fear-based system. The concept of caring about people in one's organization was the common thread in Chris Turner's book All Hat, No Cattle (see book review, ASK 5). Much is being written about the re-humanizing of the workplace, but the basis of it is so common sense that one wonders what's taking so long for the workplace to change? Whether you're in a position to change your organization or simply your project team, you'll find the concepts in fusion leadership equally applicable.

Collins, Michelle↗
NASA NTRS1994

Manual for automatic generation of finite element models of spiral bevel gears in mesh

The goal of this research is to develop computer programs that generate finite element models suitable for doing 3D contact analysis of faced milled spiral bevel gears in mesh. A pinion tooth and a gear tooth are created and put in mesh. There are two programs: Points.f and Pat.f to perform the analysis. Points.f is based on the equation of meshing for spiral bevel gears. It uses machine tool settings to solve for an N x M mesh of points on the four surfaces, pinion concave and convex, and gear concave and convex. Points.f creates the file POINTS.OUT, an ASCI file containing N x M points for each surface. (N is the number of node points along the length of the tooth, and M is nodes along the height.) Pat.f reads POINTS.OUT and creates the file tl.out. Tl.out is a series of PATRAN input commands. In addition to the mesh density on the tooth face, additional user specified variables are the number of finite elements through the thickness, and the number of finite elements along the tooth full fillet. A full fillet is assumed to exist for both the pinion and gear.

Bibel, G. D.↗
NASA NTRS1977

Honeycomb chassis for electronic components

In new electronic chassis support, machined honeycomb members are used to change basic relationship between chassis and support structure. Improved chassis combines internal and external support and heat dissipation by altering chassis internal geometry. Honeycomb materials allow mechanical support and thermal load sharing to be combined at lower weight and lower cost than previous equipment.

Read, W. S.↗
NASA NTRS2009

NASA Tech Briefs, March 2009

Topics covered include: Improved Instrument for Detecting Water and Ice in Soil; Real-Time Detection of Dust Devils from Pressure Readings; Determining Surface Roughness in Urban Areas Using Lidar Data; DSN Data Visualization Suite; Hamming and Accumulator Codes Concatenated with MPSK or QAM; Wide-Angle-Scanning Reflectarray Antennas Actuated by MEMS; Biasable Subharmonic Membrane Mixer for 520 to 600 GHz; Hardware Implementation of Serially Concatenated PPM Decoder; Symbolic Processing Combined with Model-Based Reasoning; Presentation Extensions of the SOAP; Spreadsheets for Analyzing and Optimizing Space Missions; Processing Ocean Images to Detect Large Drift Nets; Alternative Packaging for Back-Illuminated Imagers; Diamond Machining of an Off-Axis Biconic Aspherical Mirror; Laser Ablation Increases PEM/Catalyst Interfacial Area; Damage Detection and Self-Repair in Inflatable/Deployable Structures; Polyimide/Glass Composite High-Temperature Insulation; Nanocomposite Strain Gauges Having Small TCRs; Quick-Connect Windowed Non-Stick Penetrator Tips for Rapid Sampling; Modeling Unsteady Cavitation and Dynamic Loads in Turbopumps; Continuous-Flow System Produces Medical-Grade Water; Discrimination of Spore-Forming Bacilli Using spoIVA; nBn Infrared Detector Containing Graded Absorption Layer; Atomic References for Measuring Small Accelerations; Ultra-Broad-Band Optical Parametric Amplifier or Oscillator; Particle-Image Velocimeter Having Large Depth of Field; Enhancing SERS by Means of Supramolecular Charge Transfer; Improving 3D Wavelet-Based Compression of Hyperspectral Images; Improved Signal Chains for Readout of CMOS Imagers; SOI CMOS Imager with Suppression of Cross-Talk; Error-Rate Bounds for Coded PPM on a Poisson Channel; Biomorphic Multi-Agent Architecture for Persistent Computing; and Using Covariance Analysis to Assess Pointing Performance.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS2000

Level 1 Processing of MODIS Direct Broadcast Data From Terra

In February 2000, an effort was begun to adapt the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Level 1 production software to process direct broadcast data. Three Level 1 algorithms have been adapted and packaged for release: Level 1A converts raw (level 0) data into Hierarchical Data Format (HDF), unpacking packets into scans; Geolocation computes geographic information for the data points in the Level 1A; and the Level 1B computes geolocated, calibrated radiances from the Level 1A and Geolocation products. One useful aspect of adapting the production software is the ability to incorporate enhancements contributed by the MODIS Science Team. We have therefore tried to limit changes to the software. However, in order to process the data immediately on receipt, we have taken advantage of a branch in the geolocation software that reads orbit and altitude information from the packets themselves, rather than external ancillary files used in standard production. We have also verified that the algorithms can be run with smaller time increments (2.5 minutes) than the five-minute increments used in production. To make the code easier to build and run, we have simplified directories and build scripts. Also, dependencies on a commercial numerics library have been replaced by public domain software. A version of the adapted code has been released for Silicon Graphics machines running lrix. Perhaps owing to its origin in production, the software is rather CPU-intensive. Consequently, a port to Linux is underway, followed by a version to run on PC clusters, with an eventual goal of running in near-real-time (i.e., process a ten-minute pass in ten minutes).

Lynnes, Christopher↗
NASA NTRS2012

Revamping Spacecraft Operational Intelligence with Splunk

So what is Splunk? Instead of giving the technical details, which you can find online, I'll tell you what it did for me. Splunk slapped everything into one place, with one uniform format, and gave me the ability to forget about all these annoying details of where it is, how to parse it, and all that. Instead, I only need to interact with Splunk to find the data I need. This sounds simple and obvious, but it's surprising what you can do once you all of your data is indexed in one place. By having your data organized, querying becomes much easier. Let's say that I want to search telemetry for a sensor_name gtemp_1 h and to return all data that is at most five minutes old. And because Splunk can hook into a real ]time stream, this data will always be up-to-date. Extending the previous example, I can now aggregate all types of data into one view based in time. In this picture, I've got transaction logs, telemetry, and downlinked files all in one page, organized by time. Even though the raw data looks completely than this, I've defined interfaces that transform it into this uniform format. This gives me a more complete picture for the question what was the spacecraft doing at this particular time? And because querying data is simple, I can start with a big block of data and whiddle it down to what I need, rather than hunting around for the individual pieces of data that I need. When we have all the data we need, we can begin widdling down the data with Splunk's Unix-like search syntax. These three examples highlights my trial-and-error attempts to find large temperature changes. I begin by showing the first 5 temperatures, only to find that they're sorted chronologically, rather than from highest temperatures to lowest temperatures. The next line shows sorting temperatures by their values, but I find that that fs not really what I want either. I want to know the delta temperatures between readings. Looking through Splunk's user manual, I find the delta function, which lets me dynamically generate new information to use in my query. With that extra piece of information, I can now return only the telemetry readings where the temperature changed by at least 10. One other useful feature I'll mention is that all of these queries can be run through Splunk's API. So any scripting language you can think of can plug right in and make these queries. This gives us the ability to build a lot of new tools.

operational intelligence↗
NASA NTRS2004

The Morrison Bearingless Switched Reluctance Motor

Switched reluctance motors typically consist of pairs of poles protruding outward from a central rotor, surrounded by pairs of coils protruding inward from a stator. The pairs of coils, positioned a short distance from opposing sides of the rotor, are connected in series. A current runs through the coils, generating a magnetic flux between the coils. This attracts the protruding poles on the rotor, and just as the poles on the rotor approach the coils, the current to the coils is inverted, repelling the rotor s poles as they pass the coils. This current switching, back and forth, provides a continuous rotational torque to the rotor. reliability, durability, low cost, and operation in adverse environments such as high temperatures, extreme temperature variations, and high rotational speeds. However, because rotors are often manufactured with minute flaws due to imperfections in the machining process, traditional switched reluctance motors often suffer from substantial amounts of vibration. In addition, the current in the coils imparts a strong radial magnetic force on the rotor; the continuous alternating of the direction of this force also causes vibration. As a result, switched reluctance motors require bearings that, run at high speeds, can require lubrication apparatus and are subject to problems with heat and wear. My mentor s recent invention, the "Bearingless" Switched Reluctance Motor, actually uses magnetic bearings instead of traditional physical bearings. Sensors are used to continuously determine the position of the rotor. A computer reads the position sensor input, performs calculations, and outputs a current to a set of extra coils (in addition to the coils rotating the rotor). This current provides a magnetic force that counters and damps the vibration. The sense-calculate-update loop iterates more than thirty thousand times per second. For now, our goal is to have the rotor rotate at about 6000 rprn, and at that speed, the magnetic bearing is adjusting the rotor s position more than 300 times per rotation. and vibration-suppression capacity for the switched reluctance motor. Traditional switched reluctance motors possess many positive traits, including It is hoped that this new invention will increase load-carrying capacity, stiffness, and vibration-suppression capacity for the switched reluctance motor.

Wong, David S.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Project summaries

Lunar base projects, including a reconfigurable lunar cargo launcher, a thermal and micrometeorite protection system, a versatile lifting machine with robotic capabilities, a cargo transport system, the design of a road construction system for a lunar base, and the design of a device for removing lunar dust from material surfaces, are discussed. The emphasis on the Gulf of Mexico project was on the development of a computer simulation model for predicting vessel station keeping requirements. An existing code, used in predicting station keeping requirements for oil drilling platforms operating in North Shore (Alaska) waters was used as a basis for the computer simulation. Modifications were made to the existing code. The input into the model consists of satellite altimeter readings and water velocity readings from buoys stationed in the Gulf of Mexico. The satellite data consists of altimeter readings (wave height) taken during the spring of 1989. The simulation model predicts water velocity and direction, and wind velocity.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1990

Feasibility study, software design, layout and simulation of a two-dimensional fast Fourier transform machine for use in optical array interferometry

The NASA-Cornell Univ.-Worcester Polytechnic Institute Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) chip based on the architecture of the systolic FFT computation as presented by Boriakoff is implemented into an operating device design. The kernel of the system, a systolic inner product floating point processor, was designed to be assembled into a systolic network that would take incoming data streams in pipeline fashion and provide an FFT output at the same rate, word by word. It was thoroughly simulated for proper operation, and it has passed a comprehensive set of tests showing no operational errors. The black box specifications of the chip, which conform to the initial requirements of the design as specified by NASA, are given. The five subcells are described and their high level function description, logic diagrams, and simulation results are presented. Some modification of the Read Only Memory (ROM) design were made, since some errors were found in it. Because a four stage pipeline structure was used, simulating such a structure is more difficult than an ordinary structure. Simulation methods are discussed. Chip signal protocols and chip pinout are explained.

Boriakoff, Valentin↗
NASA NTRS2024

Celebrating 10 Years of the Sub-Seasonal to Seasonal Prediction Project and Looking to the Future

The conference clearly demonstrated the increasing interest and growth of the scientific community working on the development and application of sub-seasonal to seasonal prediction since the start of the World Weather Research Programme (WWRP)/World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) sub-seasonal to seasonal (S2S) prediction project in 2013. The conference, which was held at the University of Reading (United Kingdom), was organized into three main themes as briefly summarized below, with eleven invited talks, 74 oral contributed talks, and 101 posters. The conference also included a two-hour breakout session, wherein eight groups discussed the current state and prospect for S2S prediction, and an early career researcher event. A summary of these discussions and recommendations is presented below. The conference web page (https://research.reading.ac.uk/s2s-summit2023/) is archived at the University of Reading. Introductory comments by representatives of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) WWRP and WCRP emphasized the importance of the weather–climate linkage, targeted by S2S forecasts (from 2 weeks to a season ahead), addressing the challenges of creating “end-to-end” forecasts that encompass the entire climate-services chain from the prediction science and forecast, to the development and issuing of forecast products tailored to informing user-decisions. They also emphasized the efficacy of multi-model ensemble efforts and databases to foster collaborations internationally and between operational centres and academia. Although the WWRP/WCRP S2S project comes to an end in 2023, S2S prediction will remain an important focus for WWRP and WCRP. In WWRP, a new project called SAGE (Sub-seasonal to seasonal predictions for Agriculture and Environment) will start in 2024. Another important legacy of the S2S project will be the maintenance of the S2S database (Vitart et al. 2017) and the establishment of a WMO Lead Center for sub-seasonal prediction multi-model ensemble (LC-SSPMME) which will provide real-time multi-model S2S climate information. In two keynote presentations, Prof. Brian Hoskins (University of Reading) and Dr. Gilbert Brunet (Australian Bureau of Meteorology) discussed the potential of S2S predictability and the ongoing journey for understanding and improving these predictions. This conference was a sequel to the International Conference on Sub-seasonal to Seasonal Prediction (Robertson et al., 2014) which took place in College Park (Maryland, USA) in February 2014 to celebrate the start of the WWRP/WCRP S2S project, and to WCRP and WWRP conferences in Boulder, USA, in 2018 (Merryfield et al., 2020). A significant development compared to the previous S2S conferences was the large number of presentations on research to operation (R2O) and S2S applications and on the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) methods for S2S prediction. Some of these methods provide empirical S2S forecasts which are competitive with state-of-the-art dynamical models. Other presentations demonstrated that AI/ML can provide alternative calibration of dynamical model outputs to traditional methods. Several talks and posters highlighted the increasing use of AI/ML, including deep learning, in S2S forecast post-processing and using AI to identify higher flow-dependent skill. Finally, some presentations demonstrated the value of AI/ML methods for a better understanding of S2S sources of predictability and attribution of extreme events.

S. J. Woolnough↗
NASA NTRS1982

Documentation for the machine-readable AGK3-BD and BD-AGK3 cross-index catalogues

The machine-readable cross identification catalogs were prepared by extracting AGK3 and BD numbers from the magnetic tape version of the AGK3 Catalog. After preparation of the AGK3-BD file, which contains all stars in the AGK3 catalog, the file was sorted according to BD number and rearranged so that the BD number occurs at the beginning of each record. During the sorting operation, all AGK3 stars having no BD numbers were omitted. The BD-AGK3 file is especially useful for finding BD stars in the AGK3 catalog, since precession has moved stars across declination boundaries and it often was necessary to examine more than one AGK3 zone to locate a BD star in the catalog. The contents of the cross index files is described so that users can read and process the tape without problems, guesswork, or consulting the parent catalog.

Warren, W. H., Jr.↗
NASA NTRS2004

Stroboscope Controller for Imaging Helicopter Rotors

A versatile electronic timing-and-control unit, denoted a rotorcraft strobe controller, has been developed for use in controlling stroboscopes, lasers, video cameras, and other instruments for capturing still images of rotating machine parts especially helicopter rotors. This unit is designed to be compatible with a variety of sources of input shaftangle or timing signals and to be capable of generating a variety of output signals suitable for triggering instruments characterized by different input-signal specifications. It is also designed to be flexible and reconfigurable in that it can be modified and updated through changes in its control software, without need to change its hardware. Figure 1 is a block diagram of the rotorcraft strobe controller. The control processor is a high-density complementary metal oxide semiconductor, singlechip 8-bit microcontroller. It is connected to a 32K x 8 nonvolatile static random-access memory (RAM) module. Also connected to the control processor is a 32K 8 electrically programmable read-only-memory (EPROM) module, which is used to store the control software. Digital logic support circuitry is implemented in a field-programmable gate array (FPGA). A 240 x 128-dot, 40- character 16-line liquid-crystal display (LCD) module serves as a graphical user interface; the user provides input through a 16-key keypad mounted next to the LCD. A 12-bit digital-to-analog converter (DAC) generates a 0-to-10-V ramp output signal used as part of a rotor-blade monitoring system, while the control processor generates all the appropriate strobing signals. Optocouplers are used to isolate all input and output digital signals, and optoisolators are used to isolate all analog signals. The unit is designed to fit inside a 19-in. (.48-cm) rack-mount enclosure. Electronic components are mounted on a custom printed-circuit board (see Figure 2). Two power-conversion modules on the printedcircuit board convert AC power to +5 VDC and 15 VDC, respectively.

Jensen, Scott↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

RadLab: A Comprehensive Database and Graphical and Programming Interfaces for Biologically Relevant Space Radiation Data

RadLab, a new component of the NASA Open Science Data Repository (OSDR), is a platform built upon a database of radiation data relevant to space biology. RadLab provides visual and programmatic interfaces for interrogation of its database, as well as a submission process for inclusion of data from investigators. The RadLab application programming interface (API) implements a request syntax enabling users to retrieve data filtered by various combinations of parameters (detector type, location, direction, timespan, etc), which are delivered in machine-readable text formats, ready to be ingested by downstream analysis pipelines; while the graphical user interface (GUI) provides easy means to iteratively modify query parameters and incorporates a number of standard analyses and visualizations (time series plots, geospatial visualizations, detector comparison). Investigators from many countries, including US, Russia, Japan, Canada, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, and Italy, have committed to provide data from their instruments located on the ISS; RadLab will also include data from other spacecraft in LEO (e.g., the Space Shuttle, the Mir space station), BLEO (e. g. BioSentinel, Mars Orbiter, among others), and on other celestial bodies (e. g. Chang’e 4, Curiosity). The first release of RadLab has been made available to the public. Once fully operational, RadLab will provide a comprehensive and ever-growing compendium of space radiation data, facilitating straightforward access to multiple types of readings and enabling space biology researchers to perform intercomparisons of detectors and to determine the radiation environment of research missions, both via programmatic retrieval of these data and via the graphical analysis toolkit; as well as a user-friendly submission portal for ingesting data from space agencies and research institutions. Radiation scientists will be able to use RadLab to gain a deeper understanding of the space radiation environment for future human space exploration. The RadLab Working Group has been formed to foster close collaborations among data contributors and users, to identify data sources, to put in place standards for data normalization, to guide the development of features of the analysis toolkit, to establish the use of RadLab in space radiation biology research, and eventually to provide a forum for discussing relevant research issues that can take advantage of RadLab's capabilities.

radiation↗