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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 1,189 records · Page 66

Utilization fo the Satellite Test Assistant Robot (STAR) for Visual and Thermal Analysis for Articles in the Thermal Vacuum Test Environment

An innovative new telerobotic inspection system called STAR has been developed to asist engineers in the visual and thermal analysis fo flight hardware being tested in a simulated space environment. This paper describes the architecture of the STAR mechanical and control systems and discusses some uses of STAR to date.

STAR satellite test assistant robot space simulati↗

Measurement and analysis of acoustic flight test data for two advanced design high speed propeller models

The recent test program, in which the SR-2 and SR-3 Prop-Fan models were acoustically tested in flight, is described and the results of analysis of noise data acquired are discussed. The trends of noise levels with flight operating parameters are shown. The acoustic benefits of the SR-3 design with swept blades relative to the SR-2 design with straight blades are shown. Noise data measured on the surface of a small-diameter microphone boom mounted above the fuselage and on the surface of the airplane fuselage are compared to show the effects of acoustic propagation through a boundary layer. Noise level estimates made using a theoretically based prediction methodology are compared with measurements.

Brooks, B. M.↗

The Importance of Engine External's Health

Engine external components include all the fluid carrying, electron carrying, and support devices that are needed to operate the propulsion system. These components are varied and include: pumps, valves, actuators, solenoids, sensors, switches, heat exchangers, electrical generators, electrical harnesses, tubes, ducts, clamps and brackets. The failure of any component to perform its intended function will result in a maintenance action, a dispatch delay, or an engine in flight shutdown. The life of each component, in addition to its basic functional design, is closely tied to its thermal and dynamic environment .Therefore, to reach a mature design life, the component's thermal and dynamic environment must be understood and controlled, which can only be accomplished by attention to design analysis and testing. The purpose of this paper is to review analysis and test techniques toward achieving good component health.

Stoner, Barry L.↗

Waveforms and Sonic Boom Perception and Response (WSPR): Low-Boom Community Response Program Pilot Test Design, Execution, and Analysis

The Waveforms and Sonic boom Perception and Response (WSPR) Program was designed to test and demonstrate the applicability and effectiveness of techniques to gather data relating human subjective response to multiple low-amplitude sonic booms. It was in essence a practice session for future wider scale testing on naive communities, using a purpose built low-boom demonstrator aircraft. The low-boom community response pilot experiment was conducted in California in November 2011. The WSPR team acquired sufficient data to assess and evaluate the effectiveness of the various physical and psychological data gathering techniques and analysis methods.

Page, Juliet A.↗

Helicopter external noise prediction and correlation with flight test

Mathematical analysis procedures for predicting the main and tail rotor rotational and broadband noise are presented. The aerodynamic and acoustical data from Operational Loads Survey (OLS) flight program are used for validating the analysis and noise prediction methodology. For the long method of rotational noise prediction, the spanwise, chordwise, and azimuthwise airloading is used. In the short method, the airloads are assumed to be concentrated at a single spanwise station and for higher harmonics an airloading harmonic exponent of 2.0 is assumed. For the same flight condition, the predictions from long and short methods of rotational noise prediction are compared with the flight test results. The short method correlates as well or better than the long method.

Gupta, B. P.↗

Reliability analysis of structures under periodic proof tests in service

A reliability analysis of structures subjected to random service loads and periodic proof tests treats gust loads and maneuver loads as random processes. Crack initiation, crack propagation, and strength degradation are treated as the fatigue process. The time to fatigue crack initiation and ultimate strength are random variables. Residual strength decreases during crack propagation, so that failure rate increases with time. When a structure fails under periodic proof testing, a new structure is built and proof-tested. The probability of structural failure in service is derived from treatment of all the random variables, strength degradations, service loads, proof tests, and the renewal of failed structures. Some numerical examples are worked out.

Yang, J.-N.↗

General Mission Analysis Tool (GMAT) Acceptance Test Plan [Draft]

The information presented in this Acceptance Test Plan document shows the current status of the General Mission Analysis Tool (GMAT). GMAT is a software system developed by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) in collaboration with the private sector. The GMAT development team continuously performs acceptance tests in order to verify that the software continues to operate properly after updates are made. The GMAT Development team consists of NASA/GSFC Code 583 software developers, NASA/GSFC Code 595 analysts, and contractors of varying professions. GMAT was developed to provide a development approach that maintains involvement from the private sector and academia, encourages collaborative funding from multiple government agencies and the private sector, and promotes the transfer of technology from government funded research to the private sector. GMAT contains many capabilities, such as integrated formation flying modeling and MATLAB compatibility. The propagation capabilities in GMAT allow for fully coupled dynamics modeling of multiple spacecraft, in any flight regime. Other capabilities in GMAT inclucle: user definable coordinate systems, 3-D graphics in any coordinate system GMAT can calculate, 2-D plots, branch commands, solvers, optimizers, GMAT functions, planetary ephemeris sources including DE405, DE200, SLP and analytic models, script events, impulsive and finite maneuver models, and many more. GMAT runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux platforms. Both the Graphical User Interface (GUI) and the GMAT engine were built and tested on all of the mentioned platforms. GMAT was designed for intuitive use from both the GUI and with an importable script language similar to that of MATLAB.

Dove, Edwin↗

Study and development of an air conditioning system operating on a magnetic heat pump cycle (design and testing of flow directors)

This report describes the fabrication, design of flow director, fluid flow direction analysis and testing of flow director of a magnetic heat pump. The objectives of the project are: (1) to fabricate a demonstration magnetic heat pump prototype with flow directors installed; and (2) analysis and testing of flow director and to make sure working fluid loops flow through correct directions with minor mixing. The prototype was fabricated and tested at the Development Testing Laboratory of Kennedy Space Center. The magnetic heat pump uses rear earth metal plates rotate in and out of a magnetic field in a clear plastic housing with water flowing through the rotor plates to provide temperature lift. Obtaining the proper water flow direction has been a problem. Flow directors were installed as flow barriers between separating point of two parallel loops. Function of flow directors were proven to be excellent both analytically and experimentally.

Wang, Pao-Lien↗

The SWOT Mission Environmental Verification Program

The objective of the Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) Mission is to make global measurements of sea surface and terrestrial water heights. The SWOT Observatory consists of the Spacecraft Bus, supplied by CNES, and the Payload Module, provided by JPL. The Spacecraft Bus is a carrier of the Payload Module, which includes all the science instruments. The Spacecraft Bus components have been environmentally verified by CNES and the Payload Module components verified by JPL. The Payload Module was delivered to CNES in June 2021 for integration with the Spacecraft Bus to form the Observatory, which is in the process of undergoing a full set of environmental tests before launch. This paper focuses on the environmental test and analysis program at the assembly (unit), subsystem, and module level for the Payload Module hardware that JPL is responsible for verifying. Even though an Earth-orbiting mission like SWOT is not considered to be at extreme environments, SWOT’s environmental verification program does illustrate the standard System Integration and Test (SIT) process for hardware integration and environmental testing to ensure all hardware have been properly qualified to meet all mission environments. Typical space environmental test and analysis campaign includes acoustics vibration, shock, thermal vacuum, venting/pressure, radiation, electrostatic discharge, EMC/EMI/magnetics, and meteoroids. Environmental test and analysis metrics are presented in this paper. This paper also shows the complex integration process that involves multi-organizations and the latest status on the Observatory environmental test campaign.

Man, Kin F.↗

Parametric Testing of Launch Vehicle FDDR Models

For the safe operation of a complex system like a (manned) launch vehicle, real-time information about the state of the system and potential faults is extremely important. The on-board FDDR (Failure Detection, Diagnostics, and Response) system is a software system to detect and identify failures, provide real-time diagnostics, and to initiate fault recovery and mitigation. The ERIS (Evaluation of Rocket Integrated Subsystems) failure simulation is a unified Matlab/Simulink model of the Ares I Launch Vehicle with modular, hierarchical subsystems and components. With this model, the nominal flight performance characteristics can be studied. Additionally, failures can be injected to see their effects on vehicle state and on vehicle behavior. A comprehensive test and analysis of such a complicated model is virtually impossible. In this paper, we will describe, how parametric testing (PT) can be used to support testing and analysis of the ERIS failure simulation. PT uses a combination of Monte Carlo techniques with n-factor combinatorial exploration to generate a small, yet comprehensive set of parameters for the test runs. For the analysis of the high-dimensional simulation data, we are using multivariate clustering to automatically find structure in this high-dimensional data space. Our tools can generate detailed HTML reports that facilitate the analysis.

Schumann, Johann↗

Static stability of the Space Station solar array FASTMast structure

The combined loads test of the 3-Bay FASTMast marks the end of the Lewis Research Center (LeRC) effort to characterize the behavior of the principal Space Station solar array support structure. The primary objective of this test and analysis effort was to develop a method to predict structural stability failure modes under flight-like applied loads. Included at the beginning of this report is a brief historical perspective of the hardware design development and FASTMast structural stability problem evolution. Once an understanding of the solution process has been established, test and analysis details are presented and related to the postulated failure theories. The combined load test series subjected the structure to a combination of transverse, moment, and torsion loads similar to that expected in the service environment. Nonlinear finite element (FE) models were developed and large displacement analyses were performed to support the test effort and failure mode predictions. Details of the test configuration as well as test and analysis results are presented. The results were then critiqued to establish valid and successful support of the failure mode assessments. Finally, study conclusions are drawn and recommendations for safe operation of the FASTMast structure are presented for consideration.

Shaker, John F.↗

Modal Analysis and Model Correlation of the Mir Space Station

This paper will discuss on-orbit dynamic tests, modal analysis, and model refinement studies performed as part of the Mir Structural Dynamics Experiment (MiSDE). Mir is the Russian permanently manned Space Station whose construction first started in 1986. The MiSDE was sponsored by the NASA International Space Station (ISS) Phase 1 Office and was part of the Shuttle-Mir Risk Mitigation Experiment (RME). One of the main objectives for MiSDE is to demonstrate the feasibility of performing on-orbit modal testing on large space structures to extract modal parameters that will be used to correlate mathematical models. The experiment was performed over a one-year span on the Mir-alone and Mir with a Shuttle docked. A total of 45 test sessions were performed including: Shuttle and Mir thruster firings, Shuttle-Mir and Progress-Mir dockings, crew exercise and pushoffs, and ambient noise during night-to-day and day-to-night orbital transitions. Test data were recorded with a variety of existing and new instrumentation systems that included: the MiSDE Mir Auxiliary Sensor Unit (MASU), the Space Acceleration Measurement System (SAMS), the Russian Mir Structural Dynamic Measurement System (SDMS), the Mir and Shuttle Inertial Measurement Units (IMUs), and the Shuttle payload bay video cameras. Modal analysis was performed on the collected test data to extract modal parameters, i.e. frequencies, damping factors, and mode shapes. A special time-domain modal identification procedure was used on free-decay structural responses. The results from this study show that modal testing and analysis of large space structures is feasible within operational constraints. Model refinements were performed on both the Mir alone and the Shuttle-Mir mated configurations. The design sensitivity approach was used for refinement, which adjusts structural properties in order to match analytical and test modal parameters. To verify the refinement results, the analytical responses calculated using original and refined math models were compared with the measured responses. The results from this study show that the refined models predict more accurately the dynamics of the actual structure. The MiSDE test and analysis results provided the information and experience on test design, flight testing, and data analysis for the ISS and other future spacecraft, which are critical to the verification of analytical models and structural loads.

Kim, Hyoung M.↗

Comparison Analysis Between Nevada and TSS Using a Jet Engine Exhaust Nozzle Test Rig

Thermal analysis in both simple and complex models can require calculating the propagation of radiant energy to and from multiple surfaces. This can be accomplished through simple estimation techniques or complex computationally intense computer modeling simulations. Currently there are a variety of computer analysis techniques used to simulate the propagation of radiant energy, each having advantages and disadvantages. The major objective of this effort was to compare two ray tracing radiation propagation analysis programs (NEVADA and TSS) Net Energy Verification and Determination Analyzer and Thermal Synthesizer System with experimental data. Results from a non-flowing, electrically heated test rig was used to verify the calculated radiant energy propagation from a nozzle geometry that represents an aircraft propulsion nozzle system. In general the programs produced comparable overall results, and results slightly higher then the experimental data. Upon inspection of individual radiation interchange factors, differences were evident and would have been magnified if a more radical model temperature profile was analyzed. Bidirectional reflectivity data (BRDF) was not used do to modeling limitations in TSS. For code comparison purposes, this nozzle geometry represents only one case for one set of analysis conditions. Since each computer code has advantages and disadvantages bases on scope, requirements, and desired accuracy, the usefulness of this single case study may be limiting.

Baumeister, Joseph F.↗