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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 127 records · Page 7

Preliminary design of a supersonic Short Takeoff and Vertical Landing (STOVL) fighter aircraft

The preliminary design study of a supersonic Short Takeoff and Vertical Landing (STOVL) fighter is presented. A brief historical survey of powered lift vehicles was presented, followed by a technology assessment of the latest supersonic STOVL engine cycles under consideration by industry and government in the U.S. and UK. A survey of operational fighter/attack aircraft and the modern battlefield scenario were completed to develop, respectively, the performance requirements and mission profiles for the study. Three configurations were initially investigated with the following engine cycles: a hybrid fan vectored thrust cycle, a lift+lift/cruise cycle, and a mixed flow vectored thrust cycle. The lift+lift/cruise aircraft configuration was selected for detailed design work which consisted of: (1) a material selection and structural layout, including engine removal considerations, (2) an aircraft systems layout, (3) a weapons integration model showing the internal weapons bay mechanism, (4) inlet and nozzle integration, (5) an aircraft suckdown prediction, (6) an aircraft stability and control analysis, including a takeoff, hover, and transition control analysis, (7) a performance and mission capability study, and (8) a life cycle cost analysis. A supersonic fighter aircraft with STOVL capability with the lift+lift/cruise engine cycle seems a viable option for the next generation fighter.

Cox, Brian↗

Global Sentry: NASA/USRA high altitude reconnaissance aircraft design, volume 2

The Global Sentry is a high altitude reconnaissance aircraft design for the NASA/USRA design project. The Global Sentry uses proven technologies, light-weight composites, and meets the R.F.P. requirements. The mission requirements for the Global Sentry are described. The configuration option is discussed and a description of the final design is given. Preliminary sizing analyses and the mass properties of the design are presented. The aerodynamic features of the Global Sentry are described along with the stability and control characteristics designed into the flight control system. The performance characteristics are discussed as is the propulsion installation and system layout. The Global Sentry structural design is examined, including a wing structural analysis. The cockpit, controls and display layouts are covered. Manufacturing is covered and the life cost estimation. Reliability is discussed. Conclusions about the current Global Sentry design are presented, along with suggested areas for future engineering work.

Alexandru, Mona-Lisa↗

Integrated support structure for GASCAN 2

The focus of the Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) Advanced Space Design Program was the preliminary design of the Integrated Support Structure for GASCAN II, a Get Away Special canister donated by the MITRE Corporation. Two teams of three students each worked on the support structure. There was a structural design team and a thermal design team. The structure will carry three experiments also undergoing preliminary design this year, the mu-gravity Ignition Experiment, the Rotational Flow in Low Gravity Experiment, and the Ionospheric Properties and Propagation Experiment. The structural design team was responsible for the layout of the GASCAN and the preliminary design of the structure itself. They produced the physical interface specifications defining the baseline weights and volumes for the equipment and produced layout drawings of the system. The team produced static and modal finite element analysis of the structure using ANSYS. The thermal design team was responsible for the power and timing requirements of the payload and for the identification and preliminary analysis of potential thermal problems. The team produced the power, timing, and energy interface specifications and assisted in the development of the specification of the battery pack. The thermal parameters of each experiment were cataloged and the experiments were subjected to worst case heat transfer scenarios.

Source record↗

Pellet bed reactor for nuclear propelled vehicles: Part 1: Reactor technology

The pellet bed reactor (PBR) for nuclear propelled vehicles is briefly discussed. Much of the information is given in viewgraph form. Viewgraphs include information on the layout for a Mars mission using a PBR nuclear thermal rocket, the rocket reactor layout, the fuel pellet design, materials compatibility, fuel microspheres, microsphere coating, melting points in quasibinary systems, stress analysis of microspheres, safety features, and advantages of the PBR concept.

El-Genk, Mohamed S.↗

NASA visual thesaurus maintenance documentation

The following document is presented in six sections: (1) introduction; (2) a diagram showing how the various routines are grouped together into functional modules; (3) a printout of all the layouts in the system along with their associated layout procedures; (4) listings of all the global procedures in the system; (5) a cross-reference of all identifiers used in the system; and (6) descriptions of the external procedures used in the system. The document was prepared at the Project ICON Image Scaling Laboratory.

Source record↗

The design, fabrication, and test of a new VLSI hybrid analog-digital neural processing element

A hybrid analog-digital neural processing element with the time-dependent behavior of biological neurons has been developed. The hybrid processing element is designed for VLSI implementation and offers the best attributes of both analog and digital computation. Custom VLSI layout reduces the layout area of the processing element, which in turn increases the expected network density. The hybrid processing element operates at the nanosecond time scale, which enables it to produce real-time solutions to complex spatiotemporal problems found in high-speed signal processing applications. VLSI prototype chips have been designed, fabricated, and tested with encouraging results. Systems utilizing the time-dependent behavior of the hybrid processing element have been simulated and are currently in the fabrication process. Future applications are also discussed.

Deyong, Mark R.↗

Electro-optic architecture for servicing sensors and actuators in advanced aircraft propulsion systems

A detailed design of a fiber optic propulsion control system, integrating favored sensors and electro-optics architecture is presented. Layouts, schematics, and sensor lists describe an advanced fighter engine system model. Components and attributes of candidate fiber optic sensors are identified, and evaluation criteria are used in a trade study resulting in favored sensors for each measurand. System architectural ground rules were applied to accomplish an electro-optics architecture for the favored sensors. A key result was a considerable reduction in signal conductors. Drawings, schematics, specifications, and printed circuit board layouts describe the detailed system design, including application of a planar optical waveguide interface.

Poppel, G. L.↗

Small ICBM Laser Firing Unit (LFU)

The topics are presented in viewgraph form and include the following: history/schedule, LFU development hardware; specifications/features; components; optical layout-arm; optical layout-safe; built in test; and producibility issues.

Aloise, Jim↗

Telerobotic rovers for extraterrestrial construction

The topics are presented in viewgraph form and include the following: fundamental concepts; advantages of modularity; modular robot; robot design; motor control system; simple manipulator; 4 degree of freedom manipulator; intermodule communication; network layout; positioning system--IR-TROP; IR TROP system design; testbed layout; modularized control; and centralized control. The objectives are the following: to design small modular robots; to test robotic cooperation and teleoperation; to develop modular control software; to develop intermodule communication network; to develop high accuracy positioning system; and to explore distributed algorithms for coordination.

Grasso, Chris↗

Capacitive Sensors And Targets Would Measure Alignments

Multiple capacitive sensors and active targets used to measure distance between, and relative orientation of, two objects. Sensed target signals processed and used by control systems to align objects to be joined. Shapes, sizes, and layouts of sensors and targets optimized for specific application. Particular layout of targets and sensors enables determination of relative position and orientation of two objects in all six degrees of freedom.

Jenstrom, Del T.↗

Automating analog design: Taming the shrew

The pace of progress in the design of integrated circuits continues to amaze observers inside and outside of the industry. Three decades ago, a 50 transistor chip was a technological wonder. Fifteen year later, a 5000 transistor device would 'wow' the crowds. Today, 50,000 transistor chips will earn a 'not too bad' assessment, but it takes 500,000 to really leave an impression. In 1975 a typical ASIC device had 1000 transistors, took one year to first samples (and two years to production) and sold for about 5 cents per transistor. Today's 50,000 transistor gate array takes about 4 months from spec to silicon, works the first time, and sells for about 0.02 cents per transistor. Fifteen years ago, the single most laborious and error prone step in IC design was the physical layout. Today, most IC's never see the hand of a layout designer: and automatic place and route tool converts the engineer's computer captured schematic to a complete physical design using a gate array or a library of standard cells also created by software rather than by designers. CAD has also been a generous benefactor to the digital design process. The architect of today's digital systems creates the design using an RTL or other high level simulator. Then the designer pushes a button to invoke the logic synthesizer-optimizer tool. A fault analyzer checks the result for testability and suggests where scan based cells will improve test coverage. One obstinate holdout amidst this parade of progress is the automation of analog design and its reduction to semi-custom techniques. This paper investigates the application of CAD techniques to analog design.

Barlow, A.↗

LUTE telescope structural design

The major objective of the Lunar Ultraviolet Transit Experiment (LUTE) Telescope Structural Design Study was to investigate the feasibility of designing an ultralightweight 1-m aperture system within optical performance requirements and mass budget constraints. This study uses the results from our previous studies on LUTE as a basis for further developing the LUTE structural architecture. After summarizing our results in Section 2, Section 3 begins with the overall logic we used to determine which telescope 'structural form' should be adopted for further analysis and weight estimates. Specific telescope component analysis showing calculated fundamental frequencies and how they compare with our derived requirements are included. 'First-order' component stress analyses to ensure telescope optical and structural component (i.e. mirrors & main bulkhead) weights are realistic are presented. Layouts of both the primary and tertiary mirrors showing dimensions that are consistent with both our weight and frequency calculations also form part of Section 3. Section 4 presents our calculated values for the predicted thermally induced primary-to-secondary mirror despace motion due to the large temperature range over which LUTE must operate. Two different telescope design approaches (one which utilizes fused quartz metering rods and one which assumes the entire telescope is fabricated from beryllium) are considered in this analysis. We bound the secondary mirror focus mechanism range (in despace) based on these two telescope configurations. In Section 5 we show our overall design of the UVTA (Ultraviolet Telescope Assembly) via an 'exploded view' of the sub-system. The 'exploded view' is annotated to help aid in the understanding of each sub-assembly. We also include a two view layout of the UVTA from which telescope and telescope component dimensions can be measured. We conclude our study with a set of recommendations not only with respect to the LUTE structural architecture but also on other topics related to the overall feasibility of the LUTE telescope sub-system.

Ruthven, Gregory↗

Automated ILA design for synchronous sequential circuits

An iterative logic array (ILA) architecture for synchronous sequential circuits is presented. This technique utilizes linear algebra to produce the design equations. The ILA realization of synchronous sequential logic can be fully automated with a computer program. A programmable design procedure is proposed to fullfill the design task and layout generation. A software algorithm in the C language has been developed and tested to generate 1 micron CMOS layouts using the Hewlett-Packard FUNGEN module generator shell.

Liu, M. N.↗

A VLSI implementation of DCT using pass transistor technology

A VLSI design for performing the Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) operation on image blocks of size 16 x 16 in a real time fashion operating at 34 MHz (worst case) is presented. The process used was Hewlett-Packard's CMOS26--A 3 metal CMOS process with a minimum feature size of 0.75 micron. The design is based on Multiply-Accumulate (MAC) cells which make use of a modified Booth recoding algorithm for performing multiplication. The design of these cells is straight forward, and the layouts are regular with no complex routing. Two versions of these MAC cells were designed and their layouts completed. Both versions were simulated using SPICE to estimate their performance. One version is slightly faster at the cost of larger silicon area and higher power consumption. An improvement in speed of almost 20 percent is achieved after several iterations of simulation and re-sizing.

Kamath, S.↗

Design of a recumbent seating system

Future space shuttle missions presented by NASA might require the shuttle to rendezvous with the Russian space station Mir for the purpose of transporting astronauts back to earth. Due to the atrophied state of these astronauts, a special seating system must be designed for their transportation. The main functions of this seating system are to support and restrain the astronauts during normal reentry flight and to dampen some of the loading that might occur in a crash situation. Through research, the design team developed many concept variants for these functional requirements. By evaluating each variant, the concepts were eliminated until the four most attractive designs remained. The team used a decision matrix to determine the best concept to carry through embodiment. This concept involved using struts for support during reentry flight and a spring damper/shock absorber system to dampen crash landing loads. The embodiment design process consisted of defining the layout of each of the main functional components, specifically, the seat structure and the strut structure. Through the use of MCS/pal two, the design was refined until it could handle all required loads and dampen to the forces specified. The auxiliary function carriers were then considered. Following the design of these components, the complete final layout could be determined. It is concluded that the final design meets all specifications outlined in the conceptual design. The main advantages of this design are its low weight, simplicity, and large amount of function sharing between different components. The disassembly of this design could potentially present a problem because of time and size constraints involved. Overall, this design meets or exceeds all functional requirements.

Croyle, Scott↗

Optical information in landing scenes

During landing, the visual scene contains optical information about speed, altitude, glide slope, and track that is useful for the maintenance of spatial orientation and awareness. This information, embedded in the structure and transformations of the optical patterns, may be globally, regionally, or locally available. Global changes occur everywhere in the visual field during landing and include such information as flow rate acceleration due to changing speed and/or altitude. Regional changes occur within a more restricted area and include such information as horizon line motion due to aircraft pitching and rolling. Locally available changes are the most restricted and include such information as changes in runway form ratios due to changing glide slopes. Thus, within partially or fully synthetic displays, or within sensor-driven displays, preservation of flow rate and horizon motion information requires a minimum of knowledge about the details of the airport layout, while runway outlines do require much more knowledge of the layout. All may be important, however, and these, as well as other sources of optical information, can provide a pilot with his most natural framework for maintaining orientation.

Johnson, Walter W.↗

Supercruiser Arrow HS-8

Technology in aeronautics has advanced dramatically since the last design of a production High Speed Civil Transport (HSCT) aircraft. Newly projected requirements call for a new High Speed Civil Transport aircraft with a range of approximately 550 nm and at least 275 passenger capacity. The aircraft must be affordable and marketable. The new HSCT must be able to sustain long-duration flights and to absorb the abuse of daily operation. The new aircraft must be safe and simple to fly and require a minimum amount of maintenance. This aircraft must meet FAA certification criteria of FAR Part 25 and environmental constraints. Several design configurations were examined and two designs were selected for further investigation. The first design employs the delta planform wings and conventional empennage layout. The other design uses a swing wing layout and conventional empennage. Other engineering challenges, including materials and propulsion are also discussed. At a cruise flight speed between Mach 2.2 and Mach 3.0, no current generation of materials can endure the thermal loading of supersonic flight and satisfy the stringent weight requirements. A new generation of lightweight composite materials must be developed for the HSCT. With the enforcement of stage 3 noise restrictions, these new engines must be able to propel the aircraft and satisfy the noise limit. The engine with the most promise is the variable cycle engine. At low subsonic speeds the engine operates like a turbofan engine, providing the most efficient performance. At higher speeds the variable cycle engine operates as a turbojet power plant. The two large engine manufacturers, General Electric and Pratt & Whitney in the United States, are combining forces to make the variable cycle engine a reality.

Lord, Paul↗

Orbital transfer rocket engine technology 7.5K-LB thrust rocket engine preliminary design

A preliminary design of an advanced LOX/LH2 expander cycle rocket engine producing 7,500 lbf thrust for Orbital Transfer vehicle missions was completed. Engine system, component and turbomachinery analysis at both on design and off design conditions were completed. The preliminary design analysis results showed engine requirements and performance goals were met. Computer models are described and model outputs are presented. Engine system assembly layouts, component layouts and valve and control system analysis are presented. Major design technologies were identified and remaining issues and concerns were listed.

Harmon, T. J.↗