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At least 883 records · Page 49

Aeroelastic stability and response of horizontal axis wind turbine blades

The coupled flap-lag-torsion equations of motion of an isolated horizontal axis wind turbine blade are formulated. Quasi-steady blade-element strip theory was applied to derive the aerodynamic operator which includes boundary layer type gradient winds. The final equations which have periodic coefficients were solved in order to obtain the aeroelastic response and stability of large horizontal axis wind turbine blade. A new method of generating an appropriate time-dependent equilibrium position (required for the stability analysis) has been implemented. Representative steady-state responses and stability boundaries, applicable mainly to an existing blade design (NASA/-ERDA MOD-0), are presented. The results indicate that the MOD-0 configuration is a basically stable design and that blade stability is not sensitive to offsets between blade elastic axis and aerodynamic center. Blade stability appears to be sensitive to precone. The tower shadow (or wake) has a considerable effect on the flap response but leaves blade stability unchanged. Finally, it was found that non linear terms in the equations of motion can significantly affect the linearized stability boundaries, however, these terms have a negligible effect on blade response at operating conditions.

Kottapalli, S. B. R.↗

Effect of Flame Stabilizer Design on Performance and Exhaust Pollutants of a Two-Row Swirl-Can Combustor Operated to Near-Stoichiometric Conditions

Emissions and performance characteristics were determined for two full annulus modular combustors operated to near stoichiometric fuel air ratios. The tests were conducted to obtain stoichiometric data at inlet air temperatures from 756 to 894 K and to determine the effects of a flat plate circular flame stabilizer with upstream fuel injection and a contraswirl flame stabilizer with downstream fuel injection. Levels of unburned hydrocarbons were below 0.50 gram per kilogram of fuel for both combustors and thus there was no detectable difference in the two methods of fuel injection. The contraswirl flame stabilizer did not produce the level of mixing obtained with a flat plate circular flame stabilizer. It did produce higher levels of oxides of nitrogen, which peaked at a fuel air ratio of 0.037. For the flat plate circular flame stabilizer, oxides of nitrogen emission levels were still increasing with fuel air ratio to the maximum tested value of 0.045.

Biaglow, James A.↗

The importance and attainment of accurate absolute radiometric calibration

The importance of accurate absolute radiometric calibration is discussed by reference to the needs of those wishing to validate or use models describing the interaction of electromagnetic radiation with the atmosphere and earth surface features. The in-flight calibration methods used for the Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) and the Systeme Probatoire d'Observation de la Terre, Haute Resolution visible (SPOT/HRV) systems are described and their limitations discussed. The questionable stability of in-flight absolute calibration methods suggests the use of a radiative transfer program to predict the apparent radiance, at the entrance pupil of the sensor, of a ground site of measured reflectance imaged through a well characterized atmosphere. The uncertainties of such a method are discussed.

Slater, P. N.↗

Effect of hydrocarbon fuel type on fuel

A modified jet fuel thermal oxidation tester (JFTOT) procedure was used to evaluate deposit and sediment formation for four pure hydrocarbon fuels over the temperature range 150 to 450 C in 316-stainless-steel heater tubes. Fuel types were a normal alkane, an alkene, a naphthene, and an aromatic. Each fuel exhibited certain distinctive deposit and sediment formation characteristics. The effect of aluminum and 316-stainless-steel heater tube surfaces on deposit formation for the fuel n-decane over the same temperature range was investigated. Results showed that an aluminum surface had lower deposit formation rates at all temperatures investigated. By using a modified JFTOT procedure the thermal stability of four pure hydrocarbon fuels and two practical fuels (Jet A and home heating oil no. 2) was rated on the basis of their breakpoint temperatures. Results indicate that this method could be used to rate thermal stability for a series of fuels.

Wong, E. L.↗

Methods of analyzing wind-tunnel data for dynamic flight conditions

The effects of power on the stability and the control characteristics of an airplane are discussed and methods of analysis are given for evaluating certain dynamic characteristics of the airplane that are not directly discernible from wind tunnel tests alone. Data are presented to show how the characteristics of a model tested in a wind tunnel are affected by power. The response of an airplane to a rolling and a yawing disturbance is discussed, particularly in regard to changes in wing dihedral and fin area. Solutions of the lateral equations of motion are given in a form suitable for direct computations. An approximate formula is developed that permits the rapid estimation of the accelerations produced during pull-up maneuvers involving abrupt elevator deflections.

Donlan, C. J.↗

Methods of analyzing wind-tunnel data for dynamic flight conditions

The effects of power on the stability and the control characteristics of an airplane are discussed and methods of analysis are given for evaluating certain dynamic characteristics of the airplane that are not directly discernible from wind-tunnel tests alone. Data are presented to show how the characteristics of a model tested in a wind tunnel are affected by power. The response of an airplane to a rolling and a yawing disturbance is discussed, particularly in regard to changes in wing dihedral and fin area. Solutions of the lateral equations of motion are given in a form suitable for direct computations. An approximate formula is developed that permits the rapid estimation of the accelerations produced during pull-up maneuvers involving abrupt elevator deflections.

Donlan, C J↗

Wind-tunnel Investigation of the Contribution of a Vertical Tail to the Directional Stability of a Fighter-type Airplane

Contributions of vertical tail and fuselage to directional stability are determined from pressure distributions measured over wide ranges of angle of attack and angle of yaw with stabilizer in each of three vertical positions, with stabilizer removed and with both stabilizer and vertical tail removed. Results point out inadequacies of current design methods and show that more accurate methods must treat separately contributions of vertical tail, fuselage area above stabilizer, and fuselage area below stabilizer.

LOADS, STEADY - TAIL↗

Analysis and Development of Finite Element Methods for the Study of Nonlinear Thermomechanical Behavior of Structural Components

Underintegrated methods are investigated with respect to their stability and convergence properties. The focus was on identifying regions where they work and regions where techniques such as hourglass viscosity and hourglass control can be used. Results obtained show that underintegrated methods typically lead to finite element stiffness with spurious modes in the solution. However, problems exist (scalar elliptic boundary value problems) where underintegrated with hourglass control yield convergent solutions. Also, stress averaging in underintegrated stiffness calculations does not necessarily lead to stable or convergent stress states.

Oden, J. Tinsley↗

Utilizing Flight Data to Update Aeroelastic Stability Estimates

Stability analysis of high performance aircraft must account for errors in the system model. A method for computing flutter margins that incorporates flight data has been developed using robust stability theory. This paper considers applying this method to update flutter margins during a post-flight or on-line analysis. Areas of modeling uncertainty that arise when using flight data with this method are investigated. The amount of conservatism in the resulting flutter margins depends on the flight data sets used to update the model. Post-flight updates of flutter margins for an F/A-18 are presented along with a simulation of on-line updates during a flight test.

Lind, Rick↗

A study of commuter airplane design optimization

The usability of the general aviation synthesis program (GASP) was enhanced by the development of separate computer subroutines which can be added as a package to this assembly of computerized design methods or used as a separate subroutine program to compute the dynamic longitudinal, lateral-directional stability characteristics for a given airplane. Currently available analysis methods were evaluated to ascertain those most appropriate for the design functions which the GASP computerized design program performs. Methods for providing proper constraint and/or analysis functions for GASP were developed as well as the appropriate subroutines.

Keppel, B. V.↗

Stochastic stability and instability of model ecosystems

In this work, we initiate a stability study of multispecies communities in stochastic environment by using Ito's differential equations as community models. By applying the direct method of Liapunov, we obtain sufficient conditions for stability and instability in the mean of the equilibrium populations. The conditions are expressed in terms of the dominant diagonal property of community matrices, which is a suitable mechanism for resolving the central problem of 'complexity vs stability' in model ecosystems. As a by-product of this analysis we exhibit important structural properties of the stochastic density-dependent models, and establish tolerance of community stability to a broad class of nonlinear time-varying perturbations.

Ladde, G. S.↗

Behavior near constant solutions of functional differential equations

Techniques have been developed to determine in a systematic way the local behavior near constant solutions. Local integral manifolds play a very important role in this development, as they have also for ordinary differential equations. An attempt is made to indicate a few more applications of these methods to some problems in bifurcation in the spirit of Sotomayor (to appear) and to a growth model of Cooke and Yorke (to appear). It is also shown how to prove a theorem on stability under constantly acting disturbances using these methods.

Hale, J. K.↗

Dual Quaternion Visual Servo Control

This paper focuses on a dual quaternion-based estimation and control approach for position-based visual servoing (PBVS). The pose estimation of the camera is achieved using a dual quaternion-based Extended Kalman Filter (EKF), which estimates the position and orientation of the camera based on feature points acquired through a sequence of camera images. Based on the estimation, a dual quaternion control law is developed to regulate the camera to the desired pose. Leveraging the local exponential stability of the EKF and the global exponential stability of the designed controller, a nonlinear separation principle is used to prove the stability of the joint estimation and control for PBVS. The method is distinguished from other PBVS methods in the sense that a compact representation of dual quaternion is used to represent the pose, and a joint stability of estimator and controller for PBVS in dual quaternion space is presented. The proposed dual quaternion PBVS method is validated using a simulation.

Quaternions↗

Laser absorption spectroscopy - Method for monitoring complex trace gas mixtures

A frequency stabilized CO2 laser was used for accurate determinations of the absorption coefficients of various gases in the wavelength region from 9 to 11 microns. The gases investigated were representative of the types of contaminants expected to build up in recycled atmospheres. These absorption coefficients were then used in determining the presence and amount of the gases in prepared mixtures. The effect of interferences on the minimum detectable concentration of the gases was measured. The accuracies of various methods of solution were also evaluated.

Green, B. D.↗

Nonlinear vibrations of rectangular plates.

A finite-difference method is developed to determine the large amplitude dynamic responses of thin elastic plates subjected to uniform pressure pulse-type loads. Four different sets of boundary conditions are considered. Some specific problems are solved. The results are compared with approximate solutions obtained by Yamaki (1961). The numerical method presented provides an accurate and efficient approximate solution to the problem, and should be useful as a check on other approximate methods. The grid-size and the time-step necessary for obtaining numerical stability depend on the particular problem. For many cases the method converges rapidly and a rather large grid-size and time-step is adequate.

Bayles, D. J.↗

Linear stability analysis of three-dimensional compressible boundary layers

A compressible stability analysis computer code is developed. The code uses a matrix finite-difference method for local eigenvale solution when a good guess for the eigenvalue is available and is significantly more computationally efficient than the commonly used inital-value approach. The local eigenvalue search procedure also results in eigenfunctions and, at little extra work, group velocities. A globally convergent eigenvalue procedure is also developed that may be used when no guess for the eigenvalue is available. The global problem is formulated in such a way that no unstable spurious modes appear so that the method is suitable for use in a black-box stability code. Sample stability calculations are presented for the boundary layer profiles of an LFC swept wing.

Malik, Mujeeb R.↗

Stability and performance of notch filter control for unbalance response

Many current applications of magnetic bearings for rotating machinery employ notch filters in the feedback control loop to reduce the synchronous forces transmitted through the bearings. The capabilities and limitations of notch filter control are investigated. First, a rigid rotor is examined with some classical root locus techniques. Notch filter control is shown to result in conditional stability whenever complete synchronous attenuation is required. Next, a nondimensional parametric symmetric flexible three mass rotor model is constructed. An examination of this model for several test cases illustrates the limited attenuation possible with notch filters at and near the system critical speeds when the bearing damping is low. The notch filter's alteration of the feedback loop is shown to cause stability problems which limits performance. Poor transient response may also result. A high speed compressor is then examined as a candidate for notch filter control. A collocated 22 mass station model with lead-lag control is used. The analysis confirms the reduction in stability robustness that can occur with notch filter control. It is concluded that other methods of synchronous vibration control yield greater performance without compromising stability.

Knospe, C. R.↗

Formulation and solution of rotary-wing aeroelastic stability and response problems

The state of the art in the formulation and solution of rotary-wing aeroelastic stability and response problems is reviewed in detail. The approximations used in the structural, inertia and aerodynamic operators are discussed. The important role of geometric nonlinearities, due to moderate deflections, and aerodynamic stall in the aeroelastic stability and response problem are identified. It is also shown that geometric nonlinearities are of primary importance in aeroelastic stability calculations, and have a more limited, though important, role in response calculations. Next, formulation of coupled rotor/fuselage problems is described, for both air and ground resonance type problems. Both topics, the isolated blade problem and the coupled rotor/fuselage problem, are treated for both hover and forward flight. Solution of aeroelastic stability and response problems proceeds in two stages. First, the spatial dependence is eliminated by using Galerkin's method, or by using the finite element method. Next the nonlinear, or linear, ordinary differential equation with periodic coefficients have to be solved for stability or response. Efficient numerical methods for accomplishing these objectives are presented in a comprehensive manner. The paper contains a number of illustrative numerical results which are intended to clarify various aspects of the modeling process and serve as representative results for both aeroelastic stability and response calculations for a variety of blade and rotor configurations.

Friedmann, P. P.↗