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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 1,351 records · Page 75

Advances in Structural Integrity Analysis Methods for Aging Metallic Airframe Structures with Local Damage

Analysis methodologies for predicting fatigue-crack growth from rivet holes in panels subjected to cyclic loads and for predicting the residual strength of aluminum fuselage structures with cracks and subjected to combined internal pressure and mechanical loads are described. The fatigue-crack growth analysis methodology is based on small-crack theory and a plasticity induced crack-closure model, and the effect of a corrosive environment on crack-growth rate is included. The residual strength analysis methodology is based on the critical crack-tip-opening-angle fracture criterion that characterizes the fracture behavior of a material of interest, and a geometric and material nonlinear finite element shell analysis code that performs the structural analysis of the fuselage structure of interest. The methodologies have been verified experimentally for structures ranging from laboratory coupons to full-scale structural components. Analytical and experimental results based on these methodologies are described and compared for laboratory coupons and flat panels, small-scale pressurized shells, and full-scale curved stiffened panels. The residual strength analysis methodology is sufficiently general to include the effects of multiple-site damage on structural behavior.

fatigue-crack growth↗

M.I.T./Canadian vestibular experiments on the Spacelab-1 mission: 4. Space motion sickness: symptoms, stimuli, and predictability

Space sickness symptoms were observed by 4 specially trained observers on Spacelab-1. Three reported persistent symptoms, and vomited repeatedly during the first and/or second day of flight. Head movements on all axes were provocative, particularly in pitch and roll. Head acceleration data recorded from 2 symptomatic crewmen showed that after several hours of physical activity in orbit, symptoms appeared, and thereafter both crewmen were compelled to limit head movements. Firm body contact with motionless surfaces helped alleviate symptoms. When crewmembers floated into unfamiliar body orientations in the cabin, inherent ambiguities in static visual orientation cues sometimes produced spatial reorientation episodes which were also provocative. Symptoms largely resembled those of other forms of prolonged motion sickness, superimposed upon other symptoms attributable to fluid shift. All 4 eventually used anti-motion sickness drugs. When they did, vomiting frequency was reduced. By the 4th day, symptoms subsided, and head accelerations again increased in magnitude and variability. Sickness intensity in orbit was not predicted by statistically concordant results of 6 acute preflight susceptibility tests. However, results from a longer duration preflight prism goggles test showed an apparent correlation. All subjects were asymptomatic making head movements in parabolic flight 4 days after the mission, but not 1 year later. Overall, results support the view that space sickness is a motion sickness.

Non-NASA Center↗

Design and test of a 2m x 4m DART system

A 2 meter by 4 meter DART (dual anamorphic reflector telescope) system has been designed and fabricated using thin stretched mesh reflectors. This report documents the structural configuration, test preparation, test results, and analysis correlation.

TPF Terrestrial Planet Finder life detection extra↗

Structural Dynamic Behavior of Wind Turbines

The structural dynamicist s areas of responsibility require interaction with most other members of the wind turbine project team. These responsibilities are to predict structural loads and deflections that will occur over the lifetime of the machine, ensure favorable dynamic responses through appropriate design and operational procedures, evaluate potential design improvements for their impact on dynamic loads and stability, and correlate load and control test data with design predictions. Load prediction has been a major concern in wind turbine designs to date, and it is perhaps the single most important task faced by the structural dynamics engineer. However, even if we were able to predict all loads perfectly, this in itself would not lead to an economic system. Reduction of dynamic loads, not merely a "design to loads" policy, is required to achieve a cost-effective design. The two processes of load prediction and structural design are highly interactive: loads and deflections must be known before designers and stress analysts can perform structural sizing, which in turn influences the loads through changes in stiffness and mass. Structural design identifies "hot spots" (local areas of high stress) that would benefit most from dynamic load alleviation. Convergence of this cycle leads to a turbine structure that is neither under-designed (which may result in structural failure), nor over-designed (which will lead to excessive weight and cost).

Thresher, Robert W.↗

Thermal Design Considerations of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Science Instrument Control and Data Handler (SI C and DH-2)

Following a failure in side 1 of the HST SI C&DH in September 2008, HST Servicing Mission 4 (SM-4) was delayed so that a SI C&DH Orbital Replacement Unit (ORU) could be qualified for flight. This second generation SI C&DH (SI C&DH-2) included several enhancements which increased its thermal dissipation near critical components. In order to maintain the SI C&DH-2 within its operational temperature limits, several thermal modifications were installed prior to its final qualification testing. This paper presents the thermal modifications performed on the SI C&DH-2, as well as the thermal ground test results and a correlation of the SI C&DH-2 thermal design to flight telemetry.

Gregory, Teri H.↗

CFD Fuel Slosh Modeling of Fluid-Structure Interaction in Spacecraft Propellant Tanks with Diaphragms

Liquid sloshing within spacecraft propellant tanks causes rapid energy dissipation at resonant modes, which can result in attitude destabilization of the vehicle. Identifying resonant slosh modes currently requires experimental testing and mechanical pendulum analogs to characterize the slosh dynamics. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) techniques have recently been validated as an effective tool for simulating fuel slosh within free-surface propellant tanks. Propellant tanks often incorporate an internal flexible diaphragm to separate ullage and propellant which increases modeling complexity. A coupled fluid-structure CFD model is required to capture the damping effects of a flexible diaphragm on the propellant. ANSYS multidisciplinary engineering software employs a coupled solver for analyzing two-way Fluid Structure Interaction (FSI) cases such as the diaphragm propellant tank system. Slosh models generated by ANSYS software are validated by experimental lateral slosh test results. Accurate data correlation would produce an innovative technique for modeling fuel slosh within diaphragm tanks and provide an accurate and efficient tool for identifying resonant modes and the slosh dynamic response.

Sances, Dillon J.↗

Model to Test Electric Field Comparisons in a Composite Fairing Cavity

Evaluating the impact of radio frequency transmission in vehicle fairings is important to sensitive spacecraft. This study shows cumulative distribution function (CDF) comparisons of composite . a fairing electromagnetic field data obtained by computational electromagnetic 3D full wave modeling and laboratory testing. This work is an extension of the bare aluminum fairing perfect electric conductor (PEC) model. Test and model data correlation is shown.

Trout, Dawn↗

Model to Test Electric Field Comparisons in a Composite Fairing Cavity

Evaluating the impact of radio frequency transmission in vehicle fairings is important to sensitive spacecraft. This study shows cumulative distribution function (CDF) comparisons of composite a fairing electromagnetic field data obtained by computational electromagnetic 3D full wave modeling and laboratory testing. This work is an extension of the bare aluminum fairing perfect electric conductor (PEC) model. Test and model data correlation is shown.

Trout, Dawn H.↗

Simple Statistical Model to Quantify Maximum Expected EMC in Spacecraft and Avionics Boxes

This study shows cumulative distribution function (CDF) comparisons of composite a fairing electromagnetic field data obtained by computational electromagnetic 3D full wave modeling and laboratory testing. Test and model data correlation is shown. In addition, this presentation shows application of the power balance and extention of this method to predict the variance and maximum exptected mean of the E-field data. This is valuable for large scale evaluations of transmission inside cavities.

Models↗

Simulated Time Lags of Hinode/XRT and SDO/AIA Lightcurves as an Indication of Loop Heating Scenario

The precise nature of the heating mechanism in coronal loops is still a matter of enormous research. We present the results from a 1D hydrodynamic loop simulation of a coronal loop which was run using different parameters such as loops length (50, 200 and 500 Mm), maximum temperature reached (3MK and 10 MK0, and abundances. For each scenario the model outputs were used to calculate the corresponding lightcurves as seen by XRT/Be-thin and various EUV AIA channels. The lag time between the peak of these lightcurves was computed and tested using cross-correlation and plotted as a function of loop length.

Loop heating↗

Mars Science Laboratory Rover Actuator Thermal Design

NASA will launch a 900 kg rover, part of the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission, to Mars in October of 2011. The MSL rover is scheduled to land on Mars in August of 2012. The rover employs 31, electric-motor driven actuators to perform a variety of engineering and science functions including: mobility, camera pointing, telecommunications antenna steering, soil and rock sample acquisition and sample processing. This paper describes the MSL rover actuator thermal design. The actuators have stainless steel housings and planetary gearboxes that are lubricated with a "wet" lubricant. The lubricant viscosity increases with decreasing temperature. Warm-up heaters are required to bring the actuators up to temperature (above -55 C) prior to use in the cold wintertime environment of Mars (when ambient atmosphere temperatures are as cold as -113 C). Analytical thermal models of all 31 MSL actuators have been developed. The actuators have been analyzed and warm-up heaters have been designed to improve actuator performance in cold environments. Thermal hardware for the actuators has been specified, procured and installed. This paper presents actuator thermal analysis predicts, and describes the actuator thermal hardware and its operation. In addition, warm-up heater testing and thermal model correlation efforts for the Remote Sensing Mast (RSM) elevation actuator are discussed.

Novak, Keith S.↗

Buckling Test Results from the 8-Foot-Diameter Orthogrid-Stiffened Cylinder Test Article TA01

Results from the testing of cylinder test article SBKF-P2-CYLTA01 (referred to herein as TA01) are presented. The testing was conducted at the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), November 19‒21, 2008, in support of the Shell Buckling Knockdown Factor (SBKF) Project.i The test was used to verify the performance of a newly constructed buckling test facility at MSFC and to verify the test article design and analysis approach used by the SBKF project researchers. TA01 is an 8-foot-diameter (96-inches), 78.0-inch long, aluminum-lithium (Al-Li), orthogrid-stiffened cylindrical shell similar to those used in current state-of-the-art launch vehicle structures and was designed to exhibit global buckling when subjected to compression loads. Five different load sequences were applied to TA01 during testing and included four sub-critical load sequences, i.e., loading conditions that did not cause buckling or material failure, and one final load sequence to buckling and collapse. The sub-critical load sequences consisted of either uniform axial compression loading or combined axial compression and bending and the final load sequence subjected TA01 to uniform axial compression. Traditional displacement transducers and strain gages were used to monitor the test article response at nearly 300 locations and an advanced digital image correlation system was used to obtain low-speed and high-speed full-field displacement measurements of the outer surface of the test article. Overall, the test facility and test article performed as designed. In particular, the test facility successfully applied all desired load combinations to the test article and was able to test safely into the postbuckling range of loading, and the test article failed by global buckling. In addition, the test results correlated well with initial pretest predictions.

Hilburger, Mark W.↗

Development of Acoustic Mufflers for Cabin Noise Reduction in Orion Spacecraft

Controlling cabin acoustic noise levels in the Crew Module (CM) of the Orion spacecraft is critical to ensure adequate speech intelligibility, to avoid fatigue, and prevent any possibility of temporary and permanent hearing loss to the crew. The primary source of cabin noise for the on-orbit phase of the mission is from the Environmental Control and Life Support System (ECLSS) which recycles and conditions breathing air and maintains cabin pressurization through its duct network and components. Unfortunately, as a side effect, noise from the ECLSS fans propagates through theses ducts and emanate into the cabin habitable volume via the ECLSS inlet and outlets. To mitigate excessive duct-borne noise, two ECLSS mufflers have been designed to provide significant acoustic transmission loss (TL) so that the cabin noise requirements can be met. Each muffler is meant to be installed in the ducting of the ECLSS air inlet and outlet sides, respectively. Packaging constraints and tight volume requirements necessitated the mufflers to be of complex geometry and compatible with the bends of the ECLSS duct layout. To design and characterize the acoustic performance of the inlet and outlet mufflers, computational acoustic models were developed using the Finite Element Method (FEM) with 𝑤𝑎𝑣𝑒଺ vibroacoustic software. Characterization of the acoustic material and perforations in the mufflers were addressed with poroelastic theory. Once the mufflers were designed on paper and its TL predicted, prototypes of these mufflers were created using additive manufacturing. The muffler prototypes were subsequently tested for acoustic TL in the laboratory with various con-figurations of acoustic materials. Comparing the analytical predictions to the test performance yielded excellent correlation for acoustic TL and demonstrated significant broadband noise attenuation. The ECLSS mufflers are currently scheduled to be installed on the Artemis II Crew Module (CM) of the Orion spacecraft and will provide significant cabin comfort to crew during the mission.

Indranil Dandaroy↗

Test and Analysis of the 8-foot Diameter Cylindrical Sandwich Composite Test Article CTA8.2B: As part of the NASA Engineering and Safety Center Shell Buckling Knockdown Factor Project

The buckling response of thin-walled cylindrical structures have long been shown to be sensitive to various imperfections. That is, imperfections related to load introduction, boundary conditions, material property variation, and geometric deviations can all contribute to experimentally obtained buckling loads being lower than the buckling loads predicted for perfect representations of the same thin-walled cylindrical structure. To account for the influence of geometry-based imperfections of a thin-walled cylindrical structure on buckling response, a design factor (also known as a buckling knockdown factor) is used during the design phase. Guidelines for buckling knockdown factors are readily available in NASA SP-8007, Buckling of Thin Walled Circular Cylinders, which was updated in 2020. Prior to this recent update, NASA SP-8007 had not been updated since 1969, and since that time, computational analysis, experimental testing, and manufacturing methods have significantly improved. The NASA Engineering and Safety Center (NESC) Shell Buckling Knockdown Factor Project (SBKF, NESC Assessment 07-010-E) had the goal of developing buckling design recommendations for select classes of metallic and composite launch-vehicle structures [3]. Specifically, the test and analysis results from the fourth SBKF composite test article SBKF-P3-CYL-CTA8.2B, which is referred to as CTA8.2B, are described in this paper. This test was the fourth in a series of four tests on sandwich composite cylinders that will be used to experimentally validate analysis methods, which in turn can be used to develop new analysis-based shell buckling design guidelines for typical sandwich composite launch vehicle cylindrical structures. Publications describing previous test validation with analysis are available in Refs. CTA8.2B was designed to occupy one corner of the design space with approximately equal bending stiffnesses in the axial and transverse directions and have a larger ratio of radius to effective shell thickness. Each test article had a unique design and was designed to occupy a specific region of the design space. CTA8.2B was an 8-foot diameter honeycomb-core sandwich cylinder that was fabricated and tested at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC). The primary objectives of this test were to interrogate the structural capability of a composite test article, and to verify the test article design and analysis approach for cylinders subjected to axial compression and combined axial and bending loads. First, descriptions of the test article design and test are given in Section 2.0, and modeling and analysis methods used in support of the test article design and testing activities are described briefly in Section 3.0. Then, select test results are presented and compared to predicted results in Section 4.0, and concluding remarks are presented in Section 5.0. Finally, drawings of CTA8.2B and references used to support the test and analysis are provided in the Appendix.

Nonlinear analysis↗

Oculometric Surveillance of Neuro-Ocular Function

Future missions to the moon or Mars will require the crew to monitor and assess their health and performance more autonomously, with approaches easily useable and interpretable by non-clinicians. If an autonomous oculometric diagnostic-support system proves to be a reliable predictor of impending impairment of visual function in the case of primary ocular pathology on Earth, then it could also be applied in the future to the surveillance of crew to detect the potential progression of sensorimotor and neuro-ocular compromises during extended spaceflight missions, e.g., SANS, and thus guide earlier and more effective countermeasure intervention. Towards that goal, we intend to determine if a set of largely independent eye-movement metrics, called oculometrics, measured using a simple voluntary eye-tracking task that can be completed in just 5 minutes per eye, could provide clinically valid biomarkers of functional visual deficits due to primary ocular pathology. The premise is that oculometrics could be used to monitor slowly evolving ocular pathologies, potentially detecting them even before structural evidence appears in ocular imaging or other current state-of-the-art clinical measures. This study investigates how NASA’s patented oculometric assessment of visual and visuomotor function, shown to correlate with performance in a manual control task, will correlate with standard ophthalmological tests to confirm clinical and thus operational, validity.

eye movements↗

Design of Rigid-Flex PCB Robotics Leveraging Validated Finite Element Simulations

The use of rigid-flex printed circuit board (PCB) as primary structure has the potential to reduce the weight and volume of robotic systems. In the case of robotics for interplanetary exploration, these systems can leverage origami-inspired folding for increased mobility options and reduced storage volume. Folding rigid-flex PCB robotics can be constructed with rigid PCB connected by short Nomex fabric hinges coupled with flex PCB ribbon cables that permits enhanced system flexibility and energy dissipation to promote impact survivability. This paper presents a design methodology of rigid-flex PCB systems with an emphasis on impact resistance. The design process considers solder joint adequacy, panel bending, and fracture using a finite element (FE) model. The proposed design methodology is developed using a case study with NASA JPL's Pop-Up Folding Flat Explorer Robot (PUFFER). First, the finite-element (FE) modeling methodology is presented with consideration to both frequency and time-domain modeling applications, which include operational self-contact analysis and high impact scenarios. The time-domain impact modeling methodology utilizes hyperelastic material properties for the Nomex hinges. This modeling method is validated using image correlation of PUFFER drop tests. A flowchart is presented to guide users through a validated Abaqus modeling procedure for highly flexible rigid-flex systems. Next, a case study is presented in which PUFFER is subject to drop heights representative of falls into Lunar pits and then the design is refined for a more optimum impact performance. Finally, the results of the case study are used to inform a generalized design methodology for rigid-flex PCB robotics subject to high-impact loads with the considerations presented.

John Bell↗