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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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NASA NTRS1989

Computational Aspects of Sensitivity Calculations in Linear Transient Structural Analysis

A study has been performed focusing on the calculation of sensitivities of displacements, velocities, accelerations, and stresses in linear, structural, transient response problems. One significant goal was to develop and evaluate sensitivity calculation techniques suitable for large-order finite element analyses. Accordingly, approximation vectors such as vibration mode shapes are used to reduce the dimensionality of the finite element model. Much of the research focused on the accuracy of both response quantities and sensitivities as a function of number of vectors used. Two types of sensitivity calculation techniques were developed and evaluated. The first type of technique is an overall finite difference method where the analysis is repeated for perturbed designs. The second type of technique is termed semianalytical because it involves direct, analytical differentiation of the equations of motion with finite difference approximation of the coefficient matrices. To be computationally practical in large-order problems, the overall finite difference methods must use the approximation vectors from the original design in the analyses of the perturbed models.

Greene, William H.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Analytical and computational models of shells; Proceedings of the Symposium, ASME Winter Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA, Dec. 10-15, 1989

Topics presented include asymptotic analysis and computation for shells, the edge effects in the Reissner-Mindlin plate theory, nonlinear problems of geometrically exact shell theories, and developments in variational methods for high performance plate and shell elements. Also presented are an assumed strain solid element model for geometrically nonlinear shell analysis, shell finite elements with six degrees of freedom per node, hierarchic plate and shell models based on p-extension, and a simple shell element formulation for large-scale elastoplastic analysis. Also discussed are the assessment of computational models for multilayered composite cylinders, shell models for impact analysis, analysis of shell structures subjected to contact-impacts, and the application of shell theory to cardiac mechanics.

Noor, Ahmed K.↗
NASA NTRS1990

A geometric representation scheme suitable for shape optimization

A geometric representation scheme is outlined which utilizes the natural design variable concept. A base configuration with distinct topological features is created. This configuration is then deformed to define components with similar topology but different geometry. The values of the deforming loads are the geometric entities used in the shape representation. The representation can be used for all geometric design studies; it is demonstrated here for structural optimization. This technique can be used in parametric design studies, where the system response is defined as functions of geometric entities. It can also be used in shape optimization, where the geometric entities of an original design are modified to maximize performance and satisfy constraints. Two example problems are provided. A cantilever beam is elongated to meet new design specifications and then optimized to reduce volume and satisfy stress constraints. A similar optimization problem is presented for an automobile crankshaft section. The finite element method is used to perform the analyses.

Tortorelli, Daniel A.↗
NASA NTRS1993

An integrated runtime and compile-time approach for parallelizing structured and block structured applications

Scientific and engineering applications often involve structured meshes. These meshes may be nested (for multigrid codes) and/or irregularly coupled (called multiblock or irregularly coupled regular mesh problems). A combined runtime and compile-time approach for parallelizing these applications on distributed memory parallel machines in an efficient and machine-independent fashion was described. A runtime library which can be used to port these applications on distributed memory machines was designed and implemented. The library is currently implemented on several different systems. To further ease the task of application programmers, methods were developed for integrating this runtime library with compilers for HPK-like parallel programming languages. How this runtime library was integrated with the Fortran 90D compiler being developed at Syracuse University is discussed. Experimental results to demonstrate the efficacy of our approach are presented. A multiblock Navier-Stokes solver template and a multigrid code were experimented with. Our experimental results show that our primitives have low runtime communication overheads. Further, the compiler parallelized codes perform within 20 percent of the code parallelized by manually inserting calls to the runtime library.

Agrawal, Gagan↗
NASA NTRS2004

Demonstration Of Ultra HI-FI (UHF) Methods

Computational aero-acoustics (CAA) requires efficient, high-resolution simulation tools. Most current techniques utilize finite-difference approaches because high order accuracy is considered too difficult or expensive to achieve with finite volume or finite element methods. However, a novel finite volume approach (Ultra HI-FI or UHF) which utilizes Hermite fluxes is presented which can achieve both arbitrary accuracy and fidelity in space and time. The technique can be applied to unstructured grids with some loss of fidelity or with multi-block structured grids for maximum efficiency and resolution. In either paradigm, it is possible to resolve ultra-short waves (less than 2 PPW). This is demonstrated here by solving the 4th CAA workshop Category 1 Problem 1.

Dyson, Rodger W.↗
NASA NTRS2005

NASA Tech Briefs, January 2005

Topics covered include: Fiber-Optic Sensor Would Monitor Growth of Polymer Film; Sensors for Pointing Moving Instruments Toward Each Other; Pd/CeO2/SiC Chemical Sensors; Microparticle Flow Sensor; Scattering-Type Surface-Plasmon-Resonance Biosensors; Diode-Laser-Based Spectrometer for Sensing Gases; Improved Cathode Structure for a Direct Methanol Fuel Cell; X-Band, 17-Watt Solid-State Power Amplifier; Improved Anode for a Direct Methanol Fuel Cell; Tools for Designing and Analyzing Structures; Interactive Display of Scenes with Annotations; Solving Common Mathematical Problems; Tools for Basic Statistical Analysis; Program Calculates Forces in Bolted Structural Joints; Integrated Structural Analysis and Test Program; Molybdate Coatings for Protecting Aluminum Against Corrosion; Synthesizing Diamond from Liquid Feedstock; Modifying Silicates for Better Dispersion in Nanocomposites; Powder-Collection System for Ultrasonic/Sonic Drill/Corer; Semiautomated, Reproducible Batch Processing of Soy; Hydrogen Peroxide Enhances Removal of NOx from Flue Gases; Subsurface Ice Probe; Real-Time Simulation of Aeroheating of the Hyper-X Airplane; Using Laser-Induced Incandescence To Measure Soot in Exhaust; Method of Real-Time Principal-Component Analysis; Insect-Inspired Flight Control for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles; Domain Compilation for Embedded Real-Time Planning; Semantic Metrics for Analysis of Software; Simulation of Laser Cooling and Trapping in Engineering Applications; Large Fluvial Fans and Exploration for Hydrocarbons; Doping-Induced Interband Gain in InAs/AlSb Quantum Wells; Development of Software for a Lidar-Altimeter Processor; Upgrading the Space Shuttle Caution and Warning System; and Fractal Reference Signals in Pulse-Width Modulation.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS2011

Shunted Piezoelectric Vibration Damping Analysis Including Centrifugal Loading Effects

Excessive vibration of turbomachinery blades causes high cycle fatigue problems which require damping treatments to mitigate vibration levels. One method is the use of piezoelectric materials as passive or active dampers. Based on the technical challenges and requirements learned from previous turbomachinery rotor blades research, an effort has been made to investigate the effectiveness of a shunted piezoelectric for the turbomachinery rotor blades vibration control, specifically for a condition with centrifugal rotation. While ample research has been performed on the use of a piezoelectric material with electric circuits to attempt to control the structural vibration damping, very little study has been done regarding rotational effects. The present study attempts to fill this void. Specifically, the objectives of this study are: (a) to create and analyze finite element models for harmonic forced response vibration analysis coupled with shunted piezoelectric circuits for engine blade operational conditions, (b) to validate the experimental test approaches with numerical results and vice versa, and (c) to establish a numerical modeling capability for vibration control using shunted piezoelectric circuits under rotation. Study has focused on a resonant damping control using shunted piezoelectric patches on plate specimens. Tests and analyses were performed for both non-spinning and spinning conditions. The finite element (FE) shunted piezoelectric circuit damping simulations were performed using the ANSYS Multiphysics code for the resistive and inductive circuit piezoelectric simulations of both conditions. The FE results showed a good correlation with experimental test results. Tests and analyses of shunted piezoelectric damping control, demonstrating with plate specimens, show a great potential to reduce blade vibrations under centrifugal loading.

Min, James B.↗
NASA NTRS2013

Silicon Heat Pipe Array

Improved methods of heat dissipation are required for modern, high-power density electronic systems. As increased functionality is progressively compacted into decreasing volumes, this need will be exacerbated. High-performance chip power is predicted to increase monotonically and rapidly with time. Systems utilizing these chips are currently reliant upon decades of old cooling technology. Heat pipes offer a solution to this problem. Heat pipes are passive, self-contained, two-phase heat dissipation devices. Heat conducted into the device through a wick structure converts the working fluid into a vapor, which then releases the heat via condensation after being transported away from the heat source. Heat pipes have high thermal conductivities, are inexpensive, and have been utilized in previous space missions. However, the cylindrical geometry of commercial heat pipes is a poor fit to the planar geometries of microelectronic assemblies, the copper that commercial heat pipes are typically constructed of is a poor CTE (coefficient of thermal expansion) match to the semiconductor die utilized in these assemblies, and the functionality and reliability of heat pipes in general is strongly dependent on the orientation of the assembly with respect to the gravity vector. What is needed is a planar, semiconductor-based heat pipe array that can be used for cooling of generic MCM (multichip module) assemblies that can also function in all orientations. Such a structure would not only have applications in the cooling of space electronics, but would have commercial applications as well (e.g. cooling of microprocessors and high-power laser diodes). This technology is an improvement over existing heat pipe designs due to the finer porosity of the wick, which enhances capillary pumping pressure, resulting in greater effective thermal conductivity and performance in any orientation with respect to the gravity vector. In addition, it is constructed of silicon, and thus is better suited for the cooling of semiconductor devices.

Yee, Karl Y.↗
NASA NTRS1976

TAP 1: A Finite Element Program for Steady-State Thermal Analysis of Convectively Cooled Structures

The program has a finite element library of six elements: two conduction/convection elements to model heat transfer in a solid, two convection elements to model heat transfer in a fluid, and two integrated conduction/convection elements to represent combined heat transfer in tubular and plate/fin fluid passages. Nonlinear thermal analysis due to temperature dependent thermal parameters is performed using the Newton-Raphson iteration method. Program output includes nodal temperatures and element heat fluxes. Pressure drops in fluid passages may be computed as an option. A companion plotting program for displaying the finite element model and predicted temperature distributions is presented. User instructions and sample problems are presented in appendixes.

Thornton, E. A.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Finite difference time domain analysis of chirped dielectric gratings

The finite difference time domain (FDTD) method for solving Maxwell's time-dependent curl equations is accurate, computationally efficient, and straight-forward to implement. Since both time and space derivatives are employed, the propagation of an electromagnetic wave can be treated as an initial-value problem. Second-order central-difference approximations are applied to the space and time derivatives of the electric and magnetic fields providing a discretization of the fields in a volume of space, for a period of time. The solution to this system of equations is stepped through time, thus, simulating the propagation of the incident wave. If the simulation is continued until a steady-state is reached, an appropriate far-field transformation can be applied to the time-domain scattered fields to obtain reflected and transmitted powers. From this information diffraction efficiencies can also be determined. In analyzing the chirped structure, a mesh is applied only to the area immediately around the grating. The size of the mesh is then proportional to the electric size of the grating. Doing this, however, imposes an artificial boundary around the area of interest. An absorbing boundary condition must be applied along the artificial boundary so that the outgoing waves are absorbed as if the boundary were absent. Many such boundary conditions have been developed that give near-perfect absorption. In this analysis, the Mur absorbing boundary conditions are employed. Several grating structures were analyzed using the FDTD method.

Hochmuth, Diane H.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Multilevel decomposition approach to the preliminary sizing of a transport aircraft wing

A multilevel/multidisciplinary optimization scheme for sizing an aircraft wing structure is described. A methodology using nonlinear programming in application to a very large engineering problem is presented. This capability is due to the decomposition approach. Over 1300 design variables are considered for this nonlinear optimization task. In addition, a mathematical link is established coupling the detail of structural sizing to the overall system performance objective, such as fuel consumption. The scheme is implemented as a three level system analyzing aircraft mission performance at the top level, the total aircraft structure as the middle level, and individual stiffened wing skin cover panels at the bottom level. Numerical show effectiveness of the method and its good convergence characteristics.

Wrenn, Gregory A.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Nonlinear probabilistic finite element models of laminated composite shells

A probabilistic finite element analysis procedure for laminated composite shells has been developed. A total Lagrangian finite element formulation, employing a degenerated 3-D laminated composite shell with the full Green-Lagrange strains and first-order shear deformable kinematics, forms the modeling foundation. The first-order second-moment technique for probabilistic finite element analysis of random fields is employed and results are presented in the form of mean and variance of the structural response. The effects of material nonlinearity are included through the use of a rate-independent anisotropic plasticity formulation with the macroscopic point of view. Both ply-level and micromechanics-level random variables can be selected, the latter by means of the Aboudi micromechanics model. A number of sample problems are solved to verify the accuracy of the procedures developed and to quantify the variability of certain material type/structure combinations. Experimental data is compared in many cases, and the Monte Carlo simulation method is used to check the probabilistic results. In general, the procedure is quite effective in modeling the mean and variance response of the linear and nonlinear behavior of laminated composite shells.

Engelstad, S. P.↗
NASA NTRS1957

Practical solution of plastic deformation problems in elastic-plastic range

A practical method for solving plastic deformation problems in the elastic-plastic range is presented. The method is one of successive approximations and is illustrated by four examples which include a flat plate with temperature distribution across the width, a thin shell with axial temperature distribution, a solid cylinder with radial temperature distribution, and a rotating disk with radial temperature distribution.

COLUMNS, TUBULAR↗
NASA NTRS1994

Optimization for minimum sensitivity to uncertain parameters

A procedure to design a structure for minimum sensitivity to uncertainties in problem parameters is described. The approach is to minimize directly the sensitivity derivatives of the optimum design with respect to fixed design parameters using a nested optimization procedure. The procedure is demonstrated for the design of a bimetallic beam for minimum weight with insensitivity to uncertainties in structural properties. The beam is modeled with finite elements based on two dimensional beam analysis. A sequential quadratic programming procedure used as the optimizer supplies the Lagrange multipliers that are used to calculate the optimum sensitivity derivatives. The method was perceived to be successful from comparisons of the optimization results with parametric studies.

Pritchard, Jocelyn I.↗
NASA NTRS1998

Variable-Complexity Multidisciplinary Optimization on Parallel Computers

This report covers work conducted under grant NAG1-1562 for the NASA High Performance Computing and Communications Program (HPCCP) from December 7, 1993, to December 31, 1997. The objective of the research was to develop new multidisciplinary design optimization (MDO) techniques which exploit parallel computing to reduce the computational burden of aircraft MDO. The design of the High-Speed Civil Transport (HSCT) air-craft was selected as a test case to demonstrate the utility of our MDO methods. The three major tasks of this research grant included: development of parallel multipoint approximation methods for the aerodynamic design of the HSCT, use of parallel multipoint approximation methods for structural optimization of the HSCT, mathematical and algorithmic development including support in the integration of parallel computation for items (1) and (2). These tasks have been accomplished with the development of a response surface methodology that incorporates multi-fidelity models. For the aerodynamic design we were able to optimize with up to 20 design variables using hundreds of expensive Euler analyses together with thousands of inexpensive linear theory simulations. We have thereby demonstrated the application of CFD to a large aerodynamic design problem. For the predicting structural weight we were able to combine hundreds of structural optimizations of refined finite element models with thousands of optimizations based on coarse models. Computations have been carried out on the Intel Paragon with up to 128 nodes. The parallel computation allowed us to perform combined aerodynamic-structural optimization using state of the art models of a complex aircraft configurations.

Grossman, Bernard↗
NASA NTRS1998

Substrate Effects on Electronic Properties of Atomic Chains

When the device size is reduced down to 0.07 micrometers, the number of dopant atoms in the channel will no longer be macroscopic, typically less than a hundred. A spatial distribution of these dopant atoms will fluctuate statistically from device to device even in identically designed devices, and this places a serious limitation for integration. It is, however, impractical to control dopant positions within atomic dimension. One fundamental solution to this problem is to create electronics with atomically precise, but preferably simple structures. Atomic chains, precise structures of adatoms created on an atomically regulated surface, are candidates for constituent components in future electronics. All the adatoms will be placed at designated positions on the substrate, and all the device structures will be precise, free from any deviations. It was predicted using the tight-binding calculation with universal parameters that silicon chains were metallic and magnesium chains were semiconducting regardless of the lattice spacing, and a possible doping method was also proposed. In these treatments, the substrate was assumed to serve as a non-interacting template holding the adatoms without a formation of chemical bonding with substrate atoms. However, this scheme may not be easy to implement experimentally. Adatoms will have to be fixed with a van der Waals force on the substrate, but the force is generally weak and an extremely low temperature environment has to be prepared to suppress their unwanted thermal displacement. It may be logical to seek a scheme to allow the adatoms to form chemical bonding with the substrate atoms and secure their positions. The substrate effects are studied in detail.

Yamada, Toshishige↗
NASA NTRS2001

Scenario-Based Specification and Evaluation of Architectures for Health Monitoring of Aerospace Structures

HUMS systems have been an area of increased research in the recent times due to two main reasons: (a) increase in the occurrences of accidents in the aerospace, and (b) stricter FAA regulations on aircrafts maintenance [2]. There are several problems associated with the maintenance of aircrafts that the HUMS systems can solve through the use of several monitoring technologies.This paper documents our methodology of employing scenarios in the specification and evaluation of architecture for HUMS. Section 2 investigates related works that use scenarios in software development. Section 3 describes how we use scenarios in our work, which is followed by a demonstration of our methods in the development of KUMS in section 4. Conclusion summarizes results.

Mukkamala, Ravi↗
NASA NTRS2010

An Improved Neutron Transport Algorithm for HZETRN

Long term human presence in space requires the inclusion of radiation constraints in mission planning and the design of shielding materials, structures, and vehicles. In this paper, the numerical error associated with energy discretization in HZETRN is addressed. An inadequate numerical integration scheme in the transport algorithm is shown to produce large errors in the low energy portion of the neutron and light ion fluence spectra. It is further shown that the errors result from the narrow energy domain of the neutron elastic cross section spectral distributions, and that an extremely fine energy grid is required to resolve the problem under the current formulation. Two numerical methods are developed to provide adequate resolution in the energy domain and more accurately resolve the neutron elastic interactions. Convergence testing is completed by running the code for various environments and shielding materials with various energy grids to ensure stability of the newly implemented method.

Slaba, Tony C.↗