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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 19 records

SIRTF controller simulation - Instability masked by numerical integration

In the course of a simulation study of a candidate design for the Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF), an unusual phenomenon was observed. The uncompensated control system was unstable, but a numerical simulation with the fixed-step-size classical fourth-order Runge-Kutta method gave a stable response. This phenomenon is described in the setting in which it occurred. The Runge-Kutta simulation model is analyzed as a discrete linear system and shown to be stable, thus corroborating the numerical results.

Rajan, N.↗

Dynamic programming training period for an MSE adaptive equalizer.

A steepest descent variable step-size algorithm has been designed using dynamic programming for a mean-square-error adaptive equalizer. Additive noise and a constraint have been included. It is found that the new algorithm converges faster than the common fixed step-size algorithm.

Richman, S. H.↗

A comparative study of the parabolized Navier-Stokes code using various grid-generation techniques

The parabolized Navier-Stokes (PNS) equations are used to calculate the flow-field characteristics about the hypersonic research aircraft X-24C. A comparison of the results obtained using elliptic, hyperbolic, and algebraic grid generators is presented. The outer bow shock is treated as a sharp discontinuity, and the discontinuities within the shock layer are captured. Surface pressures and heat-transfer results at angles of attack of 6 deg and 20 deg, obtained using the three grid generators, are compared. The PNS equations are marched downstream over the body in both Cartesian and cylindrical base coordinate systems, and the results are compared. A robust marching procedure is demonstrated by successfully using large marching step sizes with the implicit shock fitting procedure. A correlation is found between the marching step size, Reynolds number, and the angle of attack at fixed values of smoothing and stability coefficients for the marching scheme.

Kaul, U. K.↗

A comparative study of the parabolized Navier-Stokes code using various grid-generation techniques

The parabolized Navier-Stokes (PNS) equations are used to calculate the flow-field characteristics about the hypersonic research aircraft X-24C. A comparison of the results obtained using elliptic, hyperbolic and algebraic grid generators is presented. The outer bow shock is treated as a sharp discontinuity, and the discontinuities within the shock layer are captured. Surface pressures and heat-transfer results at angles of attack of 6 deg and 20 deg, obtained using the three grid generators, are compared. The PNS equations are marched downstream over the body in both Cartesian and cylindrical base coordinate systems, and the results are compared. A robust marching procedure is demonstrated by successfully using large marching-step sizes with the implicit shock fitting procedure. A correlation is found between the marching-step size, Reynolds number and the angle of attack at fixed values of smoothing and stability coefficients for the marching scheme.

Kaul, U. K.↗

Solar-ion penetration in the early solar nebula

A model for the early solar nebula is presented, along with the use of available ion range-energy relationships to determine when the irradiation of meteoritic grains occurred. Ions are assumed to travel on rectilinear paths with an energy change due solely to passage through absorbing materials, and consideration is given to the chances of energetic ions penetrating the nebular cloud to a distance of 3 AU. Cases of no absorbing gas, no absorbing dust, and the presence of both gas and dust are discussed, and model calculations are presented for protons and Fe nuclei ions. Penetration is found to decrease with the increase of the total amount of dust, a step function results when the size of the particles decreases, a fixed dust mass yields a penetration probability tending toward zero as the radius of the particles decreases, the fraction of the total dust mass required for penetration at 3 AU is small, and penetration to 3 AU readily occurs under present conditions.

Housen, K. R.↗

Mean Winds and Tides over Urbana, Illinois During November 16-22, 1981

The Urbana Meteor Radar uses a high power pulse transmitter to achieve high echo rates, and an interferometer to spatially locate the individual echoes. The irregularly spaced observations of range, radial velocity, and direction cosines are reduced to a rectangular grid, evenly spaced in time and height, of estimates of the zonal and meridional wind. This is accomplished using the method of GROVES whereby a constant horizontal wind is fitted, using least squares, to all echoes occurring within a fixed time/height interval. This interpolation region is then stepped in time and height. the size of the interpolation region is 2 hours by 5 km, the time step is approximately 11 minutes, and the height step is 2 km. The filtering of high temporal and spatial frequencies is somewhat reduced by weighting the echoes according to their distance from the center of the interpolation box.

Tetenbaum, D.↗

Visual Acuity Using Head-fixed Displays During Passive Self and Surround Motion

The ability to read head-fixed displays on various motion platforms requires the suppression of vestibulo-ocular reflexes. This study examined dynamic visual acuity while viewing a head-fixed display during different self and surround rotation conditions. Twelve healthy subjects were asked to report the orientation of Landolt C optotypes presented on a micro-display fixed to a rotating chair at 50 cm distance. Acuity thresholds were determined by the lowest size at which the subjects correctly identified 3 of 5 optotype orientations at peak velocity. Visual acuity was compared across four different conditions, each tested at 0.05 and 0.4 Hz (peak amplitude of 57 deg/s). The four conditions included: subject rotated in semi-darkness (i.e., limited to background illumination of the display), subject stationary while visual scene rotated, subject rotated around a stationary visual background, and both subject and visual scene rotated together. Visual acuity performance was greatest when the subject rotated around a stationary visual background; i.e., when both vestibular and visual inputs provided concordant information about the motion. Visual acuity performance was most reduced when the subject and visual scene rotated together; i.e., when the visual scene provided discordant information about the motion. Ranges of 4-5 logMAR step sizes across the conditions indicated the acuity task was sufficient to discriminate visual performance levels. The background visual scene can influence the ability to read head-fixed displays during passive motion disturbances. Dynamic visual acuity using head-fixed displays can provide an operationally relevant screening tool for visual performance during exposure to novel acceleration environments.

Wood, Scott J.↗

Multirotor Configuration Trades Informed by Handling Qualities for Urban Air Mobility Application

Many contemporary Advanced Air Mobility (AAM), and more specifically, urban air mobility (UAM) vehicle designers are attracted to variable rotor speed-controlled designs with multiple rotors because of the great potential for mass savings compared to more traditional, variable blade pitch-controlled vehicles. These designs are based on the assumption that the stability and control of recreation or basic utility-sized drones can be scaled to larger passenger-sized vehicles. Previous work had shown the challenges in stabilizing passenger-sized quadcopters. In this study, power constraints were made less restrictive and varied, allowing more control power. Motor parameters such as efficiency, nominal voltage and current operating point, and rise time of the rotor speed controller step response were studied. By fixing the efficiency of the motor to 95% and assuming a motor voltage to current ratio of 2.0 (previously, assumed to be 1.0), the authors were able to stabilize the quadcopter in the roll axis because this allowed the vehicle to achieve adequate rise times between 0.4 and 0.8 s. This motor optimization was extended to a hexacopter and octocopter designed to the same payload size and mission as the quadcopter. The three vehicle configurations and their motor speed controllers were compared. It was found that while hexacopter and octocopter required more mass and overall power; all three configurations had similar margins required for control. However, the hexacopter and octocopter were able to use this power margin to achieve lower rise times (i.e. the vehicle responded more quickly to pilot inputs) than the quadcopter, with the octocopter having the lowest rotor response rise time of the three vehicle configurations studied.

Multirotor↗

Simulation of Unique Pressure Changing Steps and Situations in Psa Processes

A more rigorous cyclic adsorption process simulator is being developed for use in the development and understanding of new and existing PSA processes. Unique features of this new version of the simulator that Ritter and co-workers have been developing for the past decade or so include: multiple absorbent layers in each bed, pressure drop in the column, valves for entering and exiting flows and predicting real-time pressurization and depressurization rates, ability to account for choked flow conditions, ability to pressurize and depressurize simultaneously from both ends of the columns, ability to equalize between multiple pairs of columns, ability to equalize simultaneously from both ends of pairs of columns, and ability to handle very large pressure ratios and hence velocities associated with deep vacuum systems. These changes to the simulator now provide for unique opportunities to study the effects of novel pressure changing steps and extreme process conditions on the performance of virtually any commercial or developmental PSA process. This presentation will provide an overview of the cyclic adsorption process simulator equations and algorithms used in the new adaptation. It will focus primarily on the novel pressure changing steps and their effects on the performance of a PSA system that epitomizes the extremes of PSA process design and operation. This PSA process is a sorbent-based atmosphere revitalization (SBAR) system that NASA is developing for new manned exploration vehicles. This SBAR system consists of a 2-bed 3-step 3-layer system that operates between atmospheric pressure and the vacuum of space, evacuates from both ends of the column simultaneously, experiences choked flow conditions during pressure changing steps, and experiences a continuously changing feed composition, as it removes metabolic CO2 and H20 from a closed and fixed volume, i.e., the spacecraft cabin. Important process performance indicators of this SBAR system are size, and the corresponding CO2 and H20 removal efficiencies, and N2 and O2 loss rates. Results of the fundamental behavior of this PSA process during extreme operating conditions will be presented and discussed.

Ebner, Armin D.↗

Shock effects from a large impact on the moon

The paper calculates the shock and shear deformation-induced internal energy distribution associated with a major basin-forming hypervelocity meteorite impact on the moon. The Hageman and Walsh formulation of the axisymmetric two-dimensional conservation equations in finite difference form is used, and the flow field induced upon impact of an iron meteorite traveling at 15 km/sec with a gabbroic anorthosite lunar crust is calculated for sequential time steps over a grid of hoop-shaped zones fixed in space. If an energy of 5 times 10 to the 32nd power ergs for the projectile energy is required to excavate a basin of Imbrium size, than a flow field of approximately 210 km in radius approximately 19 seconds after impact is indicated. The meteorite residue, the melt, and the ejecta are discussed, and the results are compared with the Gault and Heitowit (1963) formulation.

Okeefe, J. D.↗

Numerical analysis of Weyl's method for integrating boundary layer equations

A fast method for accurate numerical integration of Blasius equation is proposed. It is based on the limit interchange in Weyl's fixed point method formulated as an iterated limit process. Each inner limit represents convergence to a discrete solution. It is shown that the error in a discrete solution admits asymptotic expansion in even powers of step size. An extrapolation process is set up to operate on a sequence of discrete solutions to reach the outer limit. Finally, this method is extended to related boundary layer equations.

Najfeld, I.↗

Configuration and Projected Capabilities of the Common Habitat Medical Care Facility

The Common Habitat is a large, long-duration habitat being explored as part of a conceptual study (not an active NASA program) that uses an SLS core stage Liquid Oxygen (LOX) tank as its primary structure. It is intended for use on the Moon as part of a permanently occupied outpost, on Mars as part of an outpost that will be occupied for hundreds of days at a time, and in deep space as part of the Deep Space Exploration Vehicle where it will support crewed missions up to 1200 days in duration. A study of internal orientation and crew size resulted in a Common Habitat configuration sized for a crew of eight with a three-deck horizontal orientation. Additional work outside the scope of this paper is developing a vertical translation system, a crew mobility aids system based on wearable gecko-derived grippers, and a crew seating/restraint system. These systems are all assumed for use in conjunction with the Medical Care Facility, which is needed to maintain crew well-being during these missions, where distance from Earth precludes the possibility of evacuation to Earth. This paper describes recent improvements in the Common Habitat Medical Care Facility and associated benefits for crew survivability in long duration missions beyond Earth orbit. These improvements were made with the assistance of a NASA Pathways intern whose experience includes a tour of duty in Afghanistan as an Army combat medic with the 691st GHOST-T, attached to the 1st and 7th US Special Forces Groups as part of Operation Freedom’s Sentinel, where he helped provide far-forward surgical capabilities in austere combat environments. The initial baseline Medical Care Facility was developed working in conjunction with University of Houston Space Architecture graduate students. The facility was placed on the upper deck of the Common Habitat in a location that provided privacy, operational volume, and was close to the vertical translation pathway. The notional outfitting repurposed component CAD models from unrelated studies and notionally indicated a level of care roughly equivalent to that aboard the International Space Station. The CAD modeling provided notional stowage volumes, a deployable surface, some fixed equipment, an ultrasound, and a potentially reconfigurable treatment table. While this facility is clearly a competent arrangement, it was desired to leverage available expertise and upgrade the station given the vast distances from Earth to be experienced by the Common Habitat. Key driving requirements applied to the upgrade included to provide Medical Level of Care V, offer enhanced telemedicine capabilities, provide patient physical accommodation, provide caregiver access to the patient from all sides, include sliding pocket doors for access to hygiene and to the Vertical Translation System, and to add any additional capability possible for the best achievable medical care. The first step in the facility upgrade was to quantify the current medical inventory on the International Space Station and ensure that sufficient stowage volume was present for this purpose. To that end, the ISS medical kits were reviewed, and eight full size mid deck lockers were placed in the facility. A number of additional devices were also added, based on the intern’s combat medic experience. Also, two fixed shelves and one horizontal work surface were added to the Medical Care Facility, with the shelves providing storage space for the additional devices and the work surface providing a location for the caregiver to work or stage equipment. Four display monitors were added to the wall above the horizontal work surface, supporting data display, telemedicine, conferencing, or other needs. The existing treatment table was replaced with a mobile surgical stretcher-chair. Two additional doors were added to the Medical Care Facility. One leads directly to the hygiene compartment, allowing it to support medical operations in addition to providing galley/wardroom support. The other door leads directly into the Vertical Translation System. The wall adjacent to the subsystems bay was moved, adding additional volume to the Medical Care Facility. This improved caregiver access to the patient and allowed for a larger number of caregivers to be present. It also provided options for relocation of support equipment relative to the patient as needed. In the upgraded Medical Care Facility, the Surgical Stretcher-Chair and the Vertical Translation System can work together to provide incapacitated crew member transport from a site of injury on any deck of the Common Habitat to the Medical Care Facility. It can also support patient treatment in a variety of positions including a variety of sitting postures and a supine posture at a variety of pitch angles. The facility can also support caregiver office work for review of examination results, private consultation, inventory and maintenance, and a variety of other purposes. A forward activity will be to conduct evaluations of the Medical Care Facility with different medical scenarios. Additionally, ambient and task lighting selections remain as forward work. The eight mid deck lockers can be augmented to use as portable equipment carts, similar to a manner in which maintenance facility stowage was used as portable carts during the NASA Desert Research and Technology Studies in the Constellation Program. Trash accommodation will also need forward work to assess, including provision for wet trash, dry trash, and biological waste. It will be important to assess a redesign of the surgical stretcher-chair. The commercial version used in the upgrade can only enable vertical translation in the seated configuration, requiring the patient to bend both hips and knees. A possible redesign of the chair will allow for vertical translation without requiring any bending at the hip or knees. Also, the commercial version is wheeled, making it mobile in gravity but unanchored in microgravity. Work will be needed to adapt the chair for gravity-independent performance. The hygiene compartment can be redesigned for dual-use medical scrub and galley handwash facility. Pending sufficient volume, it may also be possible to place sanitation equipment in this location to clean medical tools. Finally, most space architectures have never allowed for more than one incapacitated crew member, but several scenarios could potentially injure two or more crew in the same incident. This facility could be assessed to determine its present ability to address two or more injured crew in parallel and determine the potential upper limit for number of treatable crew in a multi-crew injury scenario, or to treat polytrauma of a single patient.

Habitat↗

Configuration and Projected Capabilities of the Common Habitat Medical Care Facility

The Common Habitat is a large, long-duration habitat being explored as part of a conceptual study (not an active NASA program) that uses an SLS core stage Liquid Oxygen (LOX) tank as its primary structure. It is intended for use on the Moon as part of a permanently occupied outpost, on Mars as part of an outpost that will be occupied for hundreds of days at a time, and in deep space as part of the Deep Space Exploration Vehicle where it will support crewed missions up to 1200 days in duration. A study of internal orientation and crew size resulted in a Common Habitat configuration sized for a crew of eight with a three-deck horizontal orientation. Additional work outside the scope of this paper is developing a vertical translation system, a crew mobility aids system based on wearable gecko-derived grippers, and a crew seating/restraint system. These systems are all assumed for use in conjunction with the Medical Care Facility, which is needed to maintain crew well-being during these missions, where distance from Earth precludes the possibility of evacuation to Earth. This paper describes recent improvements in the Common Habitat Medical Care Facility and associated benefits for crew survivability in long duration missions beyond Earth orbit. These improvements were made with the assistance of a NASA Pathways intern whose experience includes a tour of duty in Afghanistan as an Army combat medic with the 691st GHOST-T, attached to the 1st and 7th US Special Forces Groups as part of Operation Freedom’s Sentinel, where he helped provide far-forward surgical capabilities in austere combat environments. The initial baseline Medical Care Facility was developed working in conjunction with University of Houston Space Architecture graduate students. The facility was placed on the upper deck of the Common Habitat in a location that provided privacy, operational volume, and was close to the vertical translation pathway. The notional outfitting repurposed component CAD models from unrelated studies and notionally indicated a level of care roughly equivalent to that aboard the International Space Station. The CAD modeling provided notional stowage volumes, a deployable surface, some fixed equipment, an ultrasound, and a potentially reconfigurable treatment table. While this facility is clearly a competent arrangement, it was desired to leverage available expertise and upgrade the station given the vast distances from Earth to be experienced by the Common Habitat. Key driving requirements applied to the upgrade included to provide NASA’s Medical Level of Care V, offer enhanced telemedicine capabilities, provide patient physical accommodation, provide caregiver access to the patient from all sides, include sliding pocket doors for access to hygiene and to the Vertical Translation System, and to add any additional capability possible for the best achievable medical care. The first step in the facility upgrade was to quantify the current medical inventory on the International Space Station and ensure that sufficient stowage volume was present for this purpose. To that end, the ISS medical kits were reviewed, and eight full size mid deck lockers were placed in the facility. A number of additional devices were also added, based on the co-author’s combat medic experience. Also, two fixed shelves and one horizontal work surface were added to the Medical Care Facility, with the shelves providing storage space for the additional devices and the work surface providing a location for the caregiver to work or stage equipment. Four display monitors were added to the wall above the horizontal work surface, supporting data display, telemedicine, conferencing, or other needs. The existing treatment table was replaced with a mobile surgical stretcher-chair. Two additional doors were added to the Medical Care Facility. One leads directly to the hygiene compartment, allowing it to support medical operations in addition to providing galley/wardroom support. The other door leads directly into the Vertical Translation System. The wall adjacent to the subsystems bay was moved, adding additional volume to the Medical Care Facility. This improved caregiver access to the patient and allowed for a larger number of caregivers to be present. It also provided options for relocation of support equipment relative to the patient as needed. In the upgraded Medical Care Facility, the Surgical Stretcher-Chair and the Vertical Translation System can work together to provide incapacitated crew member transport from a site of injury on any deck of the Common Habitat to the Medical Care Facility. It can also support patient treatment in a variety of positions including a variety of sitting postures and a supine posture at a variety of pitch angles. The facility can also support caregiver office work for review of examination results, private consultation, inventory and maintenance, and a variety of other purposes. A forward activity will be to conduct evaluations of the Medical Care Facility with different medical scenarios. Additionally, ambient and task lighting selections remain as forward work. The eight middeck lockers can be augmented to use as portable equipment carts, similar to a manner in which maintenance facility stowage was used as portable carts during the NASA Desert Research and Technology Studies in the Constellation Program. Trash accommodation will also need forward work to assess, including provision for wet trash, dry trash, and biological waste. It will be important to assess a redesign of the surgical stretcher-chair. The commercial version used in the upgrade can only enable vertical translation in the seated configuration, requiring the patient to bend both hips and knees. A possible redesign of the chair will allow for vertical translation without requiring any bending at the hip or knees. Also, the commercial version is wheeled, making it mobile in gravity but unanchored in microgravity. Work will be needed to adapt the chair for gravity-independent performance. The hygiene compartment can be redesigned to serve both as a medical scrub facility and for galley hand washing. Pending sufficient volume, it may also be possible to place sanitation equipment in this location to clean medical tools. Finally, most space architectures have never allowed for more than one incapacitated crew member, but several scenarios could potentially injure two or more crew in the same incident. This facility could be assessed to determine its present ability to address two or more injured crew in parallel and determine the potential upper limit for number of treatable crew in a multi-crew injury scenario, or to treat polytrauma of a single patient.

Common Habitat↗

Detection of Delamination in Composite Beams Using Broadband Acoustic Emission Signatures

Delamination in composite structure may be caused by imperfections introduced during the manufacturing process or by impact loads by foreign objects during the operational life. There are some nondestructive evaluation methods to detect delamination in composite structures such as x-radiography, ultrasonic testing, and thermal/infrared inspection. These methods are expensive and hard to use for on line detection. Acoustic emission testing can monitor the material under test even under the presence of noise generated under load. It has been used extensively in proof-testing of fiberglass pressure vessels and beams. In the present work, experimental studies are conducted to investigate the use of broadband acoustic emission signatures to detect delaminations in composite beams. Glass/epoxy beam specimens with full width, prescribed delamination sizes of 2 inches and 4 inches are investigated. The prescribed delamination is produced by inserting Teflon film between laminae during the fabrication of composite laminate. The objectives of this research is to develop a method for predicting delamination size and location in laminated composite beams by combining smart materials concept and broadband AE analysis techniques. More specifically, a piezoceramic (PZT) patch is bonded on the surface of composite beams and used as a pulser. The piezoceramic patch simulates the AE wave source as a 3 cycles, 50KHz, burst sine wave. One broadband AE sensor is fixed near the PZT patch to measure the AE wave near the AE source. A second broadband AE sensor, which is used as a receiver, is scanned along the composite beams at 0.25 inch step to measure propagation of AE wave along the composite beams. The acquired AE waveform is digitized and processed. Signal strength, signal energy, cross-correlation of AE waveforms, and tracking of specific cycle of AE waveforms are used to detect delamination size and location.

Okafor, A. C.↗

Step tracking shrinking targets

Four models describing how people might acquire targets that dynamically vary in size were examined; two that described movement speed as a simple function of target size (either initial or final) and two that described movement speed as a function of the predicted size of the targets at a fixed time in the future (one was referenced to the beginning of the reaction time phase, and the other to the end of this phase). It was found that movement time was best described as a function of a size prediction made at the end, rather than the start, of the reaction time phase. Subjective workload ratings primarily reflected the total amount of time needed to acquire the targets rather than the time pressure imposed by the diminishing size of these targets.

Johnson, Walter W.↗

Recent Enhancements To The FUN3D Flow Solver For Moving-Mesh Applications

An unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes solver for unstructured grids has been extended to handle general mesh movement involving rigid, deforming, and overset meshes. Mesh deformation is achieved through analogy to elastic media by solving the linear elasticity equations. A general method for specifying the motion of moving bodies within the mesh has been implemented that allows for inherited motion through parent-child relationships, enabling simulations involving multiple moving bodies. Several example calculations are shown to illustrate the range of potential applications. For problems in which an isolated body is rotating with a fixed rate, a noninertial reference-frame formulation is available. An example calculation for a tilt-wing rotor is used to demonstrate that the time-dependent moving grid and noninertial formulations produce the same results in the limit of zero time-step size.

Biedron, Robert T,↗

First-Order-hold interpolation digital-to-analog converter with application to aircraft simulation

Those who design piloted aircraft simulations must contend with the finite size and speed of the available digital computer and the requirement for simulation reality. With a fixed computational plant, the more complex the model, the more computing cycle time is required. While increasing the cycle time may not degrade the fidelity of the simulated aircraft dynamics, the larger steps in the pilot cue feedback variables (such as the visual scene cues), may be disconcerting to the pilot. The first-order-hold interpolation (FOHI) digital-to-analog converter (DAC) is presented as a device which offers smooth output, regardless of cycle time. The Laplace transforms of these three conversion types are developed and their frequency response characteristics and output smoothness are compared. The FOHI DAC exhibits a pure one-cycle delay. Whenever the FOHI DAC input comes from a second-order (or higher) system, a simple computer software technique can be used to compensate for the DAC phase lag. When so compensated, the FOHI DAC has (1) an output signal that is very smooth, (2) a flat frequency response in frequency ranges of interest, and (3) no phase error. When the input comes from a first-order system, software compensation may cause the FOHI DAC to perform as an FOHE DAC, which, although its output is not as smooth as that of the FOHI DAC, has a smoother output than that of the ZOH DAC.

Cleveland, W. B.↗

The digital control of an experiment to size particles using a laser

Efforts to automate an experiment for sizing particles using a laser is described. The objective of the experiment was to rotate a photomultiplier detector at various angles and to record data associated with how light interacted with a particle. The light source was a laser which was fixed in space. The design consisted of a step motor with a fabricated electromechanical system to rotate the photomultiplier. The use of an 8080 microprocessor based microcomputer to control the step motor and to log data is described.

Cross, J. E.↗