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Results for “Reliability theory”

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 NTRS1991

Effect of heat release on the stability of compressible reacting mixing layer

Reacting free shear layers are of fundamental importance in many industrial systems including gas turbine combustors and rockets. Efficient propulsion systems are essential for air breathing supersonic ramjets in the high Mach number range. A limiting factor in these engines is the time for fuel and oxidizer to mix in the combustion chamber; for fast mixing, the flow must be vigorously turbulent which requires the laminar flow to be unstable. Understanding the stability characteristics of compressible reacting free shear layers is, therefore, very important and may allow one to control the flow. Low speed shear layers are highly unstable but, as chemical reaction and compressibility effects tend to stabilize them, it is important to investigate the stability of high speed reacting mixing layers. The latter consists of two fluid streams containing fuel and oxidizer respectively, and the conclusions are expected to apply, with quantitative modifications, to other shear flows, e.g., jets. Since low speed reacting cases have been studied earlier, we concentrate on the effects of Mach number and heat release. We are primarily interested in solving the stability problem over a large range of Mach number and heat release. In order to understand the effect of the heat release on the stability of this flow, one must first study the characteristics of the non-reacting flow. Inviscid theory is a reliable guide for understanding stability of compressible shear flows at moderate and large Reynolds numbers and is the basis for this work.

Shin, Dong-Shin↗
NASA NTRS1999

Coupling of Low Speed Fan Stator Vane Unsteady Pressures to Duct Modes: Measured versus Predicted

Uniform-flow annular-duct Green's functions are the essential elements of the classical acoustic analogy approach to the problem of computing the noise generated by rotor-stator interaction inside the fan duct. This paper investigates the accuracy of this class of Green's functions for predicting the duct noise levels when measured stator vane unsteady surface pressures are used as input to the theoretical formulation. The accuracy of the method is evaluated by comparing the predicted and measured acoustic power levels for the NASA 48 inch low speed Active Noise Control Fan. The unsteady surface pressures are measured,by an array of microphones imbedded in the suction and pressure sides of a single vane, while the duct mode levels are measured using a rotating rake system installed in the inlet and exhaust sections of the fan duct. The predicted levels are computed using properly weighted integrals of measured surface pressure distribution. The data-theory comparisons are generally quite good particularly when the mode cut-off criterion is carefully interpreted. This suggests that, at least for low speed fans, the uniform-flow annular-duct Green's function theory can be reliably used for prediction of duct mode levels if the cascade surface pressure distribution is accurately known.

Sutliff, Daniel L.↗
NASA NTRS2002

Design, Fabrication, and Testing of Composite Energy-Absorbing Keel Beams for General Aviation Type Aircraft

A lightweight energy-absorbing keel-beam concept was developed and retrofitted in a general aviation type aircraft to improve crashworthiness performance. The energy-absorbing beam consisted of a foam-filled cellular structure with glass fiber and hybrid glass/kevlar cell walls. Design, analysis, fabrication and testing of the keel beams prior to installation and subsequent full-scale crash testing of the aircraft are described. Factors such as material and fabrication constraints, damage tolerance, crush stress/strain response, seat-rail loading, and post crush integrity, which influenced the course of the design process are also presented. A theory similar to the one often used for ductile metal box structures was employed with appropriate modifications to estimate the sustained crush loads for the beams. This, analytical tool, coupled with dynamic finite element simulation using MSC.Dytran were the prime design and analysis tools. The validity of the theory as a reliable design tool was examined against test data from static crush tests of beam sections while the overall performance of the energy-absorbing subfloor was assessed through dynamic testing of 24 in long subfloor assemblies.

Kellas, Sotiris↗
DOE OSTI2025

Benchmarking third-order cluster perturbation theory for electronically excited states

In this study, we investigate the reliability of cluster perturbation (CP) theory applied to the calculation of electronically excited states through a comprehensive benchmark. In CP theory, perturbative corrections are added to the properties of a parent excitation space, which converge toward the properties of a target excitation space. For the CPS(D-n) model, perturbative corrections through order n are added to the coupled cluster singles (CCS) excitation energies to target the coupled cluster singles and doubles (CCSD) excitation energies. Through a comparative analysis of excitation energy calculations across a diverse set of molecules and wavefunction methods, we present a comprehensive evaluation of the accuracy of the third-order CPS(D) model, CPS(D-3), in calculating excitation energies. Further, our findings demonstrate that CPS(D-3) is a reliable alternative to established methods, particularly CCSD, while systematically overestimating the excitation energies compared to high-level coupled cluster methods such as CC3. These results highlight the strengths and limitations of CPS(D-3), as well as the promising directions for its future development.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2026

Effect of stress and temperature on zero group velocity Lamb modes

Zero group velocity (ZGV) Lamb wave resonances are highly localized and sensitive to changes in material properties, making them a viable option for probing residual stresses and elastic nonlinearity through acoustoelastic effects. Temperature changes also influence ZGV modes and need to be accounted for, particularly when measuring the small frequency shifts associated with acoustoelastic effects. We use a laser-based ultrasonic system to measure the third-order elastic constants of several materials. A temperature compensation scheme is devised to remove the effects of temperature fluctuations from the measurements. Furthermore, the measured third-order elastic constants are used to predict the temperature dependence of the ZGV resonances using thermo-acoustoelasticity theory, and these predictions are compared to experimental measurements. We find that thermo-acoustoelasticity theory was unable to reliably predict the shift in ZGV resonances with temperature. These results could have important implications in understanding the limitations of thermo-acoustoelasticity theory and in developing precision ZGV resonance-based systems to detect and quantify residual stress in parts, a particularly relevant problem in additive manufacturing techniques including powder bed fusion and directed energy deposition.

Engineering↗
NASA NTRS2015

Addressing Unison and Uniqueness of Reliability and Safety for Better Integration

For a long time, both in theory and in practice, safety and reliability have not been clearly differentiated, which leads to confusion, inefficiency, and sometime counter-productive practices in executing each of these two disciplines. It is imperative to address the uniqueness and the unison of these two disciplines to help both disciplines become more effective and to promote a better integration of the two for enhancing safety and reliability in our products as an overall objective. There are two purposes of this paper. First, it will investigate the uniqueness and unison of each discipline and discuss the interrelationship between the two for awareness and clarification. Second, after clearly understanding the unique roles and interrelationship between the two in a product design and development life cycle, we offer suggestions to enhance the disciplines with distinguished and focused roles, to better integrate the two, and to improve unique sets of skills and tools of reliability and safety processes. From the uniqueness aspect, the paper identifies and discusses the respective uniqueness of reliability and safety from their roles, accountability, nature of requirements, technical scopes, detailed technical approaches, and analysis boundaries. It is misleading to equate unreliable to unsafe, since a safety hazard may or may not be related to the component, sub-system, or system functions, which are primarily what reliability addresses. Similarly, failing-to-function may or may not lead to hazard events. Examples will be given in the paper from aerospace, defense, and consumer products to illustrate the uniqueness and differences between reliability and safety. From the unison aspect, the paper discusses what the commonalities between reliability and safety are, and how these two disciplines are linked, integrated, and supplemented with each other to accomplish the customer requirements and product goals. In addition to understanding the uniqueness in reliability and safety, a better understanding of unison and commonalities will further help in understanding the interaction between reliability and safety. This paper discusses the unison and uniqueness of reliability and safety. It presents some suggestions for better integration of the two disciplines in terms of technical approaches, tools, techniques, and skills to enhance the role of reliability and safety in supporting a product design and development life cycle. The paper also discusses eliminating the redundant effort and minimizing the overlap of reliability and safety analyses for an efficient implementation of the two disciplines.

Huang, Zhaofeng↗
NASA NTRS1955

An Experimental Investigation of the Hinge-moment Characteristics of a Constant-chord Control Surface Oscillating at High Frequency

The results of an experimental investigation of the hinge-moment characteristics of a constant-chord control surface oscillating at high frequency is presented. The control surface was mounted on an aspect-ratio-2 triangular wing. The aerodynamic restoring-moment coefficient and damping-moment coefficient were determined at a frequency of 260 cycles per second for a Mach number range of 0.6 to 0.8 and 1.3 to 1.9 at angles of attack of 5 degrees and 10 degrees. The test results showed linear theory to be a reliable guide to the prediction of the trend of the restoring-moment coefficient with Mach number for the supersonic speed range of the investigation but overestimated the magnitude of the coefficient. The experimental values of the damping-moment coefficient were, for the most part, more positive than those indicated by the theory and, for some conditions, could lead to instability of the control surface. Comparison of the results of this investigation with those of previous investigations at 0 and 50 cycles per second showed that frequency had little effect on the restoring-moment coefficient. The damping-moment coefficient was similarly insensitive to frequency at an oscillation amplitude of plus-or-minus 1.0 degrees but at an amplitude ofplus-or-minus 2.5 degrees the results showed a destabilizing shift with increasing frequency.

Reese, David E JR↗
DOE OSTI2025

Dynamical coupled-channel models for hadron dynamics

Dynamical coupled-channel (DCC) approaches parametrize the interactions and dynamics of two and more hadrons and their response to different electroweak probes. The inclusion of unitarity, three-body channels, and other properties from scattering theory allows for a reliable extraction of resonance spectra and their properties from data. Here, we review the formalism and application of the ANL-Osaka, the Juelich-Bonn-Washington, and other DCC approaches in the context of light baryon resonances from meson, (virtual) photon, and neutrino-induced reactions, as well as production reactions, strange baryons, light mesons, heavy meson systems, exotics, and baryon-baryon interactions. Finally, we also provide a connection of the formalism to study finite-volume spectra obtained in Lattice QCD, and review applications involving modern statistical and machine learning tools.

Amplitude analysis↗
DOE OSTI2025

Determining the Conformation of Supported Complexes Using an 17 O TEDOR-like NMR Experiment

Dynamic nuclear polarization surface-enhanced nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy has enabled the determination of the three-dimensional configuration of surface sites, in particular supported metal complexes of relevance to single-site heterogeneous catalysis. These approaches have chiefly leveraged the application of NMR double-resonance experiments that either reveal the complex conformation via point-to-point intramolecular distances between spin-labeled atoms or the complex-surface orientation via distances between the spins and the surface plane. Either method typically requires expensive isotope labeling and each reports on different structural features. The application of an experiment that simultaneously reveals both types of distances with chemical resolution would be ideal. Here, in this article, we describe an 17 O{ 1 H} pseudo-3D correlation experiment that achieves this goal. Specifically, Si–O–Si and Si–O–M oxygens are well-resolved by 17 O NMR; therefore, distances can be simultaneously measured radially, between Si– 17 O–M and the 1 H’s of the ligands, and vertically to the Si– 17 O–Si linkages of the silica support. We demonstrate the experiment using supported yttrium and zirconium complexes. Good agreement is obtained when comparing the experimental results to theoretical predictions from density functional theory calculations, highlighting the reliability of this relatively simple experiment.

alkyls↗
NASA NTRS1978

Aircraft Engine Sump Fire Mitigation, Phase 2

The effect of changes in the input parameters (air leakage flow rate and temperature and lubricating oil inlet flow rate and temperature) over a specified range on the flammability conditions within an aircraft engine bearing sump was investigated. An analytical study was performed to determine the effect of various parameters on the generation rate of oil vapor from oil droplets in a hot air stream flowing in a cylindrical tube. The ignition of the vapor-air mixture by an ignition source was considered. The experimental investigation demonstrated that fires would be ignited by a spark ignitor over the full range of air and oil flow rates and air temperatures evaluated. However, no fires could be ignited when the oil inlet temperature was maintained below 41.7 K (290 F). The severity of the fires ignited were found to be directly proportional to the hot air flow rate. Reasonably good correlation was found between the mixture temperature in the sump at the ignitor location and the flammability limits as defined by flammability theory; thus a fairly reliable experimental method of determining flammable conditions within a sump was demonstrated. The computerized mathematical model shows that oil droplet size and air temperature have the greatest influence on the generation rate of oil vapor.

Rosenlieb, J. W.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Interval Predictor Models for Robust System Identification

This paper proposes a framework for the identification and uncertainty quantification of plant models according to multivariable data. The only restriction imposed upon such models is for their outputs to depend continuously on their parameters. An Interval Predictor Model (IPM) prescribes the parameters of a computational model as a path-connected set thereby making each predicted output an interval-valued function of its inputs. The formulation proposed seeks the parameter set for which the predicted outputs tightly enclose the data. This set, which is modeled as a semi-algebraic set of low-degree polynomials, enables the characterization of possibly strong parameter dependencies commonly found in practice. This uncertainty characterization makes the resulting plant model amenable to robust control approaches using polynomial optimization. Furthermore, we use non-convex scenario theory to assess the reliability of the resulting IPM. This assessment yields a distribution-free upper bound on the probability that future data will fall outside the predicted intervals.

interval↗
DOE OSTI2026

Ab Initio Modeling of Aqueous Methanol Mixtures at DFT-SCAN Level Using Machine Learning Interatomic Potentials

Abstract Methanol–water mixtures find use in many applications, particularly catalytic energy conversion processes. Their importance has motivated numerous computational studies, most of which employed molecular dynamics based on classical force fields. These enable simulations of large systems on long time scales but do not reliably describe reactive dynamics involving bond breaking and bond formation. In contrast, ab initio molecular dynamics (AIMD) based on density functional theory (DFT) is generally more reliable for such applications but has a high computational cost, which discourages systematic studies of alcohol-water mixtures. To remedy this, we trained a machine learning interatomic potential capable of probing the properties of aqueous methanol mixtures at the DFT level using the SCAN functional. Our results show that SCAN qualitatively reproduces multiple key experimental features arising from the amphiphilic nature of methanol, including density, diffusion coefficients, X-ray structure factors, and Kirkwood–Buff integrals. We also find that structural correlations between water molecules are somewhat overestimated, leading to a stronger preferential association than that predicted by experiments. However, increasing the temperature by 30 K mitigates this effect and also recovers the correct mobilities of both methanol and water. These results indicate that SCAN provides an accurate description of methanol–water mixtures, making it a reliable choice for investigating the reactive dynamics in such systems.

Park, Sanghyun J. [Princeton University , , , ,]↗
NASA NTRS1998

Singlet Excited States of Cl and Br Molecules: New Theories Applied to the -XO and -XO2 (X=C1 and Br) Chromophores

Electronic excitation energies are determined using single-reference based theories derived from response equations involving perturbation theory and coupled-cluster theory. These methods are applied to the singlet manifold of excited electronic states of the HClO, HBrO, HOClO, HOBrO, HClO2, and HBrO2 molecules. The reliability of the various perturbation theory approaches is assessed by comparison to the linear-response singles and doubles coupled-cluster (LRCCSD) method. The excitation energies for the Y-XO compounds are compared and contrasted for Y=H and HO, and X=Cl and Br. A similar comparison is performed for the H-XO2 compounds.

Lee, Timothy J.↗
NASA NTRS1950

The application of the statistical theory of extreme values to gust-load problems

An analysis is presented which indicates that the statistical theory of extreme values is applicable to the problems of predicting the frequency of encountering the larger gust loads and gust velocities for both specific test conditions as well as commercial transport operations. The extreme-value theory provides an analytic form for the distributions of maximum values of gust load and velocity. Methods of fitting the distribution are given along with a method of estimating the reliability of the predictions. The theory of extreme values is applied to available load data from commercial transport operations. The results indicate that the estimates of the frequency of encountering the larger loads are more consistent with the data and more reliable than those obtained in previous analyses. (author)

Press, Harry↗
DOE OSTI2025

General features of the stellar matter equation of state from microscopic theory, new maximum-mass constraints, and causality

The profile of a neutron star probes a very large range of densities, from the density of iron up to several times the density of saturated nuclear matter, and thus no theory of hadrons can be considered reliable if extended to those regions. We emphasize the importance of taking contemporary ab initio theories of nuclear and neutron matter as the baseline for any extension method, which will unavoidably involve some degree of phenomenology. We discuss how microscopic theory, on the one end, with causality and maximum-mass constraints, on the other, set strong boundaries to the high-density equation of state. We present our latest neutron star predictions where we combine polytropic extensions and parametrizations guided by speed of sound considerations. The predictions we show include our baseline neutron star cooling curves.

chiral effective field theory↗
NASA NTRS1983

Restructurable Controls

Restructurable control system theory, robust reconfiguration for high reliability and survivability for advanced aircraft, restructurable controls problem definition and research, experimentation, system identification methods applied to aircraft, a self-repairing digital flight control system, and state-of-the-art theory application are addressed.

R. J. Montoya↗