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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

Origin and modal petrography of Luna 24 soils

Petrographic modal analyses of polished grain mounts of fractions in the 20 to 250 micron size range from Luna 24 soil samples are presented and used to infer the nature and relative contributions of source rocks. It is found that more than 90% of the identifiable rock fragments are mare basalts, with about 11% of the soil consisting of the crystalline form. Soil breccias, which make up nearly 10% of the soil, are found to be immature. Electron probe analysis of glass particles reveals principle clusters conforming to anorthosite, anorthositic gabbro and mare basalts. More than half of the soil is composed of monomineralic particles, with pyroxene as the most abundant mineral. It is concluded that 85% of the regolith is derived from local mare basalts and gabbros and about 10% is derived from early cumulates of local mare basalt magma. Highland sources are considered to contribute not more than 3% of the regolith.

Basu, A.↗

[High Pressure Gas Tanks]

Four high-pressure gas tanks, the basis of this study, were especially made by a private contractor and tested before being delivered to NASA Kennedy Space Center. In order to insure 100% reliability of each individual tank the staff at KSC decided to again submit the four tanks under more rigorous tests. These tests were conducted during a period from April 10 through May 8 at KSC. This application further validates the predictive safety model for accident prevention and system failure in the testing of four high-pressure gas tanks at Kennedy Space Center, called Continuous Hazard Tracking and Failure Prediction Methodology (CHTFPM). It is apparent from the variety of barriers available for a hazard control that some barriers will be more successful than others in providing protection. In order to complete the Barrier Analysis of the system, a Task Analysis and a Biomechanical Study were performed to establish the relationship between the degree of biomechanical non-conformities and the anomalies found within the system on particular joints of the body. This relationship was possible to obtain by conducting a Regression Analysis to the previously generated data. From the information derived the body segment with the lowest percentage of non-conformities was the neck flexion with 46.7%. Intense analysis of the system was conducted including Preliminary Hazard Analysis (PHA), Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA), and Barrier Analysis. These analyses resulted in the identification of occurrences of conditions, which may be becoming hazardous in the given system. These conditions, known as dendritics, may become hazards and could result in an accident, system malfunction, or unacceptable risk conditions. A total of 56 possible dendritics were identified. Work sampling was performed to observe the occurrence each dendritic. The out of control points generated from a Weighted c control chart along with a Pareto analysis indicate that the dendritics "Personnel not Wearing Proper Protective and Hose/tubing located in high-traffic area" which account for 59.18% of total dendritic frequency need to be addressed to reduce the chance of a hazard from occurring. However, the occurrences of some dendritics are more important than others. As a result immediate, from a Weighted c perspective, corrective action should be taken to ameliorate the cause of the Class A dendritic "Personnel located under suspended or moving loads" rather than just the most commonly occurring dendritics. In any case the vast majority of data obtained indicates that testing operations possess a relatively high degree of safety.

Quintana, Rolando↗

The design and analysis of low-speed airfoils

PROFILE program solves diverse and inverse airfoil-flow problems. It combines conformational mapping method for design of airfoils with prescribed velocity-distribution characteristics, panel method for potential-flow analysis, and boundary-layer method. PROFILE is written in FORTRAN IV for implementation on CDC 6000-series computer.

Eppler, R.↗

Backswept impeller and vane island diffuser and shroud for NASA advanced-concepts compressor test rig

A centrifugal impeller based on an existing backswept design was defined. In addition, a vaned diffuser was designed to match this impeller and also to be compatible with an existing 6:1 compressor test rig. The mechanical integrity of this design was verified by analysis. Hardware was procured and inspected to insure conformity with design tolerances. An overspeed test was successfully conducted on one of the impellers fabricated under this program.

Perrone, G. L.↗

Computational Study on Full-length Human Ku70 with Double Stranded DNA: Dynamics, Interactions and Functional Implications

The Ku70/80 heterodimer is the first repair protein in the initial binding of double-strand break (DSB) ends following DNA damage, and is a component of nonhomologous end joining repair, the primary pathway for DSB repair in mammalian cells. In this study we constructed a full-length human Ku70 structure based on its crystal structure, and performed 20 ns conventional molecular dynamic (CMD) simulations on this protein and several other complexes with short DNA duplexes of different sequences. The trajectories of these simulations indicated that, without the topological support of Ku80, the residues in the bridge and C-terminal arm of Ku70 are more flexible than other experimentally identified domains. We studied the two missing loops in the crystal structure and predicted that they are also very flexible. Simulations revealed that they make an important contribution to the Ku70 interaction with DNA. Dislocation of the previously studied SAP domain was observed in several systems, implying its role in DNA binding. Targeted molecular dynamic (TMD) simulation was also performed for one system with a far-away 14bp DNA duplex. The TMD trajectory and energetic analysis disclosed detailed interactions of the DNA-binding residues during the DNA dislocation, and revealed a possible conformational transition for a DSB end when encountering Ku70 in solution. Compared to experimentally based analysis, this study identified more detailed interactions between DNA and Ku70. Free energy analysis indicated Ku70 alone is able to bind DNA with relatively high affinity, with consistent contributions from various domains of Ku70 in different systems. The functional implications of these domains in the processes of Ku heterodimerization and DNA damage recognition and repair can be characterized in detail based upon this analysis.

Hu, Shaowen↗

On the phase-locked polarization variations in Cygnus X-1

The paper presents data on the accumulated V-band orbital phase curves of polarization in Cygnus X-1 which disagree with the analysis of Simmons, Aspin, and Brown (1980). No curves which conform to the canonical model were observed, and a noncanonical structure is indicated by F tests on third, fourth, and fifth harmonics, which have a probability of 0.85 as a group. The fifth harmonic has a probability of 0.99; in contrast, the fundamental harmonic has a probability of only 0.6, which is below the detection threshold. Therefore, major conclusions of Simmons et al based on a nonsymmetrical canonical model assuming that fundamental harmonics are present, but harmonics with n greater than 2 are absent, are unacceptable. Analysis of the author's data by Simmons et al is criticized on the grounds that he did not take into account the cumulative aspects of the data and did not recognize the need to average out the random noise generated by Cygnus X-1 over many orbital cycles.

Kemp, J. C.↗

Molecular structure of r/GCG/d/TATACGC/ - A DNA-RNA hybrid helix joined to double helical DNA

The molecule r(GCG)d(TATACGC) is self-complementary and forms two DNA-RNA hybrid segments surrounding a central region of double helical DNA; its molecular structure has been solved by X-ray analysis. All three parts of the molecule adopt a conformation which is close to that seen in the 11-fold RNA double helix. The conformation of the ribonucleotides is partly determined by water molecules bridging between the ribose O2' hydroxyl group and cytosine O2. The hybrid-DNA duplex junction contains no structural discontinuities. However, the central DNA TATA sequence has some structural irregularities.

Wang, A. H.-J.↗

Airfoil optimization with efficient gradient calculations

The viscous airfoil design analysis code XFOIL was extended to allow optimization using conformal mapping coefficients as design variables. The optimization technique used was the Steepest Descent method applied to a Penalty Function. The gradients of the aerodynamic variables with respect to the design variables were cheaply calculated as by-products of XFOIL's integral boundary layer Newton solver. The speed of the optimization process further increased by updating the Newton system boundary layer variables after each optimization step using the available gradient information. Two examples are presented.

Sorensen, Thomas↗

Excitation of Coupled Slotline Mode in Finite Ground CPW with Unequal Ground Plane Widths

The coupling between the desired CPW mode and the unwanted coupled slotline mode is presented for finite ground coplanar waveguides with unequal ground plane widths. Measurements, quasi-static conformal mapping, and Finite-Difference Time-Domain analysis are performed to determine the dependence of the slotline mode excitation on the physical dimensions of the FGC line and on the frequency range of operation. It is shown that the ratio of the slotline mode to the CPW mode can be as high as 18 dB. The use of airbridges is shown to reduce the slotline mode by 15 dB, but that the slotline mode fully reestablishes itself after 2000 microns. Furthermore, these results are independent of frequency.

Ponchak, George E.↗

Radiation and scattering from printed antennas on cylindrically conformal platforms

The goal was to develop suitable methods and software for the analysis of antennas on cylindrical coated and uncoated platforms. Specifically, the finite element boundary integral and finite element ABC methods were employed successfully and associated software were developed for the analysis and design of wraparound and discrete cavity-backed arrays situated on cylindrical platforms. This work led to the successful implementation of analysis software for such antennas. Developments which played a role in this respect are the efficient implementation of the 3D Green's function for a metallic cylinder, the incorporation of the fast Fourier transform in computing the matrix-vector products executed in the solver of the finite element-boundary integral system, and the development of a new absorbing boundary condition for terminating the finite element mesh on cylindrical surfaces.

Kempel, Leo C.↗

Separation Assurance and Scheduling Coordination in the Arrival Environment

Separation assurance (SA) automation has been proposed as either a ground-based or airborne paradigm. The arrival environment is complex because aircraft are being sequenced and spaced to the arrival fix. This paper examines the effect of the allocation of the SA and scheduling functions on the performance of the system. Two coordination configurations between an SA and an arrival management system are tested using both ground and airborne implementations. All configurations have a conflict detection and resolution (CD&R) system and either an integrated or separated scheduler. Performance metrics are presented for the ground and airborne systems based on arrival traffic headed to Dallas/ Fort Worth International airport. The total delay, time-spacing conformance, and schedule conformance are used to measure efficiency. The goal of the analysis is to use the metrics to identify performance differences between the configurations that are based on different function allocations. A surveillance range limitation of 100 nmi and a time delay for sharing updated trajectory intent of 30 seconds were implemented for the airborne system. Overall, these results indicate that the surveillance range and the sharing of trajectories and aircraft schedules are important factors in determining the efficiency of an airborne arrival management system. These parameters are not relevant to the ground-based system as modeled for this study because it has instantaneous access to all aircraft trajectories and intent. Creating a schedule external to the CD&R and the scheduling conformance system was seen to reduce total delays for the airborne system, and had a minor effect on the ground-based system. The effect of an external scheduler on other metrics was mixed.

function allocation↗

A variational method for finite element stress recovery: Applications in one-dimension

It is well-known that stresses (and strains) calculated by a displacement-based finite element analysis are generally not as accurate as the displacements. In addition, the calculated stress field is typically discontinuous at element interfaces. Because the stresses are typically of more interest than the displacements, several procedures have been proposed to obtain a smooth stress field, given the finite element stresses, and to improve the accuracy. Hinton and Irons introduced global least squares smoothing of discrete data defined on a plane using a finite element formulation. Tessler and co-workers recently developed a conceptually similar formulation for smoothing of two-dimensional data based on a discrete least square approximation with a penalty constraint. The penalty constraint results in a stress field which is C(exp 1)-continuous, a result not previously obtained. The approach requires additional, 'smoothing' finite element analysis and for their two-dimensional application, they used a conforming C(exp 0)-continuous triangular finite element based on a conforming plate element. This paper presents the results of a detailed investigation into the application of Tessler's smoothing procedure to the smoothing of finite element stresses from one-dimensional problems. Although the one-dimensional formulation has some practical applicability, such as in truss, beam, axisymmetric mechanics, and one-dimensional heat conduction, the primary motivation for developing the one-dimensional smoothing case is to explore the characteristics of the general smoothing strategy. In particular, it is used to describe the behavior of the method and to explore the suitability of criteria proposed for the smoothing analysis. Prior to presenting numerical results, the variational formulation of the smoothing strategy is presented and a criterion for the smoothing analysis is described.

Riggs, H. Ronald↗

Study of novel concepts of power transmission gears

Two concepts in power transmission gear design are proposed which provide a potential for large noise reduction and for improving weight to payload ratio due to use of advanced fiber reinforced and ceramic materials. These concepts are briefly discussed. Since both concepts use ultrathin layered rubber-metal laminates for accommodating limited travel displacements, properties of the laminates, such as their compressive strength, compressive and shear moduli were studied. Extensive testing and computational analysis were performed on the first concept gears (laminate coated conformal gears). Design and testing of the second conceptual design (composite gear with separation of sliding and rolling motions) are specifically described.

Rivin, Eugene I.↗

Assessing Engine Hot Fire Data for Human Spaceflight Applications

Development and certification of liquid engine systems for human spaceflight missions requires exhaustive analysis to meet the NASA’s requirements for engine health, reliability, and performance. The techniques used to assess requirement conformance and test-to-test engine health pose many unique challenges including the unusually large scale of data, complex component and system analysis, and rigorous engineering judgement standards. To address these challenges, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center’s Engine Systems branch has developed and maintained a robust software suite and operational processes that satisfy programmatic requirements levied on engines and the 7 Elements of Flight Rationale. Analysis at a systems level includes subsystem assessment of components such as turbomachinery and combustion devices as well as structural and fluid dynamics and transient and steady-state assessment at a systems level. Some of the most important tools to accomplish this analysis are automated script databases, creation of historical and statistical comparisons, and parameters calculated at the full data rate. These tools greatly simplify the crucial processes of anomaly investigation, limit monitoring, health assessment, and timely communication of key conclusions drawn from hot fire testing and flight data analysis.

Data Assessment↗

Assessing Engine Hot Fire Data for Human Spaceflight Applications

Development and certification of liquid engine systems for human spaceflight missions requires exhaustive analysis to meet the NASA’s requirements for engine health, reliability, and performance. The techniques used to assess requirement conformance and test-to-test engine health pose many unique challenges including the unusually large scale of data, complex component and system analysis, and rigorous engineering judgement standards. To address these challenges, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center’s Engine Systems branch has developed and maintained a robust software suite and operational processes that satisfy programmatic requirements levied on engines and the 7 Elements of Flight Rationale. Analysis at a systems level includes subsystem assessment of components such as turbomachinery and combustion devices as well as structural and fluid dynamics and transient and steady-state assessment at a systems level. Some of the most important tools to accomplish this analysis are automated script databases, creation of historical and statistical comparisons, and parameters calculated at the full data rate. These tools greatly simplify the crucial processes of anomaly investigation, limit monitoring, health assessment, and timely communication of key conclusions drawn from hot fire testing and flight data analysis.

Data Assessment↗

Computer simulation of shock wave boundary layer interaction

Development of a boundary layer correction for an analysis program previously used by Bauer et al. (1972) to study two-dimensional flow past transonic airfoils at off-design conditions where shocks which interact with the boundary layer appear. Using a method which combines conformal mapping with a finite-difference scheme due to Murman and Cole (1971), an analysis is made of the interaction between shock waves on a supercritical wing section and a turbulent boundary layer, assuming that the shocks are weak and that separation is insignificant. It is shown that relatively simple shock wave/boundary layer interactions of the kind envisioned in this study can be treated by determining the displacement thickness iteratively together with the flow and altering the profile accordingly. It is concluded that the proposed boundary layer correction appears to furnish an essential improvement in cases where both pronounced aft loading and a large enclosed supersonic region of flow are present.

Bauer, F.↗

Assessing Hot Fire Data with WinPlot

Development and certification of liquid engine systems for human spaceflight missions requires exhaustive analysis to meet the NASA’s requirements for engine health, reliability, and performance. The techniques used to assess requirement conformance and test-to-test engine health and performance pose many unique challenges including the unusually large scale of data, complex component and system analysis, and rigorous engineering judgement standards. To address these challenges, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center’s Engine Systems branch has developed and maintained a robust software suite and operational processes that satisfy programmatic requirements levied on engines and the 7 Elements of Flight Rationale. Analysis at a systems level includes subsystem assessment of components such as turbomachinery and combustion devices as well as structural and fluid dynamics and transient and steady-state assessment at a systems level. Some of the most important tools to accomplish this analysis are automated script databases, creation of historical and statistical comparisons, and parameters calculated at the full data rate. These tools greatly simplify the crucial processes of anomaly investigation, limit monitoring, health assessment, and timely communication of key conclusions drawn from hot fire testing and flight data analysis.

J. Davis Hunter↗