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At least 253 records · Page 14

Structural Model Tuning Tool: User's Reference Manual

This report presents an efficient approach for tuning finite element models to match the measured ground vibration test and static test data. Frequencies, mode shapes, total weight, location of the center of gravity, and static deformation computed from the finite element model are matched to the measured data. The model tuning procedure used in this work is based on solving an optimization problem in which the errors for the considered metrics, between the finite element prediction and the measured data, are minimized. Analytical sensitivity values of performance indices are computed using the NASTRAN-generated sensitivity values together with the in-house computer codes, which allow for faster computational time and the use of gradient-based optimizers. The method is applied to the Aerostructures Test Wing IV model. The study shows that the military standard and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration standard for comparing analytical and experimental modal data are all satisfied. The final finite element model correlates well with the test data. The flutter speed decreases by 8.91 percent after model tuning compared with the original Aerostructures Test Wing IV design.

Chan-gi Pak↗

A Martian Quarantine Risk Model

Structured model using loss functions to assess risk of using given decontamination procedure on all Martian unmanned landing craft

Cornell, R. G.↗

Bayesian characterization of uncertainties surrounding fluvial flood hazard estimates

Fluvial floods drive severe risk to riverine communities. There is strong evidence of increasing flood hazards in many regions around the world. The choice of methods and assumptions used in flood hazard estimates can impact the design of risk management strategies. In this study, we characterize the expected flood hazards conditioned on the uncertain model structures, model parameters, and prior distributions of the parameters. We construct a Bayesian framework for river stage return level estimation using a nonstationary statistical model that relies exclusively on the Indian Ocean Dipole Index. We show that ignoring uncertainties can lead to biased estimation of expected flood hazards. We find that the considered model parametric uncertainty is more influential than model structures and model priors. Our results highlight the importance of incorporating uncertainty in extreme flood stage estimates, and are of practical use for informing water infrastructure designs in a changing climate.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Efficient structure-factor modeling for crystals with multiple components

Diffraction intensities from a crystallographic experiment include contributions from the entire unit cell of the crystal: the macromolecule, the solvent around it and eventually other compounds. These contributions cannot typically be well described by an atomic model alone, i.e . using point scatterers. Indeed, entities such as disordered (bulk) solvent, semi-ordered solvent ( e.g. lipid belts in membrane proteins, ligands, ion channels) and disordered polymer loops require other types of modeling than a collection of individual atoms. This results in the model structure factors containing multiple contributions. Most macromolecular applications assume two-component structure factors: one component arising from the atomic model and the second one describing the bulk solvent. A more accurate and detailed modeling of the disordered regions of the crystal will naturally require more than two components in the structure factors, which presents algorithmic and computational challenges. Here an efficient solution of this problem is proposed. All algorithms described in this work have been implemented in the computational crystallography toolbox ( CCTBX ) and are also available within Phenix software. These algorithms are rather general and do not use any assumptions about molecule type or size nor about those of its components.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Summary of Development for Structural Component Modeling in Fiscal Year 2022

This report summarizes efforts performed during Fiscal Year 2022 to develop capabilities for modeling structural component degradation in support of the U.S. Department of Energy's Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation Program. These efforts were centered around development of capabilities for the Grizzly code. Efforts focused both on foundational engineering-scale analysis capabilities for damage and shell formulations and on material-scale tools for accounting for irradiation effects in Grade 91 steel. A major outcome of this effort was the development of a general-purpose tool for nonlocal averaging of material properties, which enabled nonlocal damage models. In addition, the applicability of the shell elements in MOOSE has been expanded to allow modeling a wider range of component geometries and using a wide variety of material models. For irradiation effects on materials, a previously developed cluster dynamics model for light water reactor pressure vessel steels has been adapted for application to Grade 91 alloy. This work builds on prior efforts to build a flexible, capable code for addressing a variety of aging and component performance issues in nuclear power plant structural components.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

A Versatile Simulation Framework for Elastodynamic Modeling of Structural Health Monitoring

Structural health monitoring (SHM) has the capacity to reduce failure by detecting damage during service life, by periodic, automated monitoring. Guided Wave (GW) Ultrasound is a common SHM approach for aerospace structures. Modelling the physics of GW SHM systems provides a route for understanding system dependencies, capabilities and limitations as damage evolves during service life. Such a toolset can strengthen the understanding of the connection between GW SHM results and the true material state. The most useful modelling tools are those that provide versatile solutions with respect to the simulated component geometry and computational grid connectivity. This work details a versatile application programming interface (API) for the elastodynamic finite integration technique for modelling GW SHM of metals. The custom code implementation, EFIT-CompCell, allows for the modelling of diverse geometries by automatically balancing the message passing interface parallelization layout. The user provides the basic parameters of the simulation and the software automatically performs an initial balancing based on anticipated computational loads, and establishes the CPU communication patterns for any geometry. This work describes the programming philosophy and code structure used to create EFIT-CompCell and compares its performance and capacity to simulation tools that are more specialized for specific architectures. Results are presented for a simulation of GW SHM of an aluminum fuselage section being tested by the FAA. The simulation consists of 733M voxels which took approximately 70 hours to complete 25000 time steps using 40 Intel Xeon E5-4650v2 Ivy Bridge processor cores.

Gregory, Elizabeth D.↗

Calculation of Heavy Ion Inactivation and Mutation Rates in Radial Dose Model of Track Structure

In the track structure model, the inactivation cross section is found by summing an inactivation probability over all impact parameters from the ion to the sensitive sites within the cell nucleus. The inactivation probability is evaluated by using the dose response of the system to gamma rays and the radial dose of the ions and may be equal to unity at small impact parameters. We apply the track structure model to recent data with heavy ion beams irradiating biological samples of E. Coli, B. Subtilis spores, and Chinese hamster (V79) cells. Heavy ions have observed cross sections for inactivation that approach and sometimes exceed the geometric size of the cell nucleus. We show how the effects of inactivation may be taken into account in the evaluation of the mutation cross sections in the track structure model through correlation of sites for gene mutation and cell inactivation. The model is fit to available data for HPRT (hypoxanthine guanine phosphoribosyl transferase) mutations in V79 cells, and good agreement is found. Calculations show the high probability for mutation by relativistic ions due to the radial extension of ions track from delta rays. The effects of inactivation on mutation rates make it very unlikely that a single parameter such as LET (linear energy transfer) can be used to specify radiation quality for heavy ion bombardment.

Cucinotta, Francis A.↗

Modeling of Hidden Structures Using Sparse Chemical Shift Data from NMR Relaxation Dispersion

NMR relaxation dispersion measurements report on conformational changes occurring on the μs-ms timescale. Chemical shift information derived from relaxation dispersion can be used to generate structural models of weakly populated alternative conformational states. Current methods to obtain such models rely on determining the signs of chemical shift changes between the conformational states, which are difficult to obtain in many situations. Here, we use a “sample and select” method to generate relevant structural models of alternative conformations of the C-terminal-associated region of Escherichia coli dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR), using only unsigned chemical shift changes for backbone amides and carbonyls ( 1 H, 15 N, and 13 C'). We find that CS-Rosetta sampling with unsigned chemical shift changes generates a diversity of structures that are sufficient to characterize a minor conformational state of the C-terminal region of DHFR. The excited state differs from the ground state by a change in secondary structure, consistent with previous predictions from chemical shift hypersurfaces and validated by the x-ray structure of a partially humanized mutant of E. coli DHFR (N23PP/G51PEKN). The results demonstrate that the combination of fragment modeling with sparse chemical shift data can determine the structure of an alternative conformation of DHFR sampled on the μs-ms timescale. Such methods will be useful for characterizing alternative states, which can potentially be used for in silico drug screening, as well as contributing to understanding the role of minor states in biology and molecular evolution.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

An emulator for minimizing finite element analysis implementation resources

A finite element analysis emulator providing a basis for efficiently establishing an optimum computer implementation strategy when many calculations are involved is described. The SCOPE emulator determines computer resources required as a function of the structural model, structural load-deflection equation characteristics, the storage allocation plan, and computer hardware capabilities. Thereby, it provides data for trading analysis implementation options to arrive at a best strategy. The models contained in SCOPE lead to micro-operation computer counts of each finite element operation as well as overall computer resource cost estimates. Application of SCOPE to the Memphis-Arkansas bridge analysis provides measures of the accuracy of resource assessments. Data indicate that predictions are within 17.3 percent for calculation times and within 3.2 percent for peripheral storage resources for the ELAS code.

Melosh, R. J.↗

Simulation of an Impact Test of the All-Composite Lear Fan Aircraft

An MSC.Dytran model of an all-composite Lear Fan aircraft fuselage was developed to simulate an impact test conducted at the NASA Langley Research Center Impact Dynamics Research Facility (IDRF). The test was the second of two Lear Fan impact tests. The purpose of the second test was to evaluate the performance of retrofitted composite energy-absorbing floor beams. A computerized photogrammetric survey was performed to provide airframe geometric coordinates, and over 5000 points were processed and imported into MSC.Patran via an IGES file. MSC.Patran was then used to develop the curves and surfaces and to mesh the finite element model. A model of the energy-absorbing floor beams was developed separately and then integrated into the Lear Fan model. Structural responses of components such as the wings were compared with experimental data or previously published analytical data wherever possible. Comparisons with experimental results were used to guide structural model modifications to improve the simulation performance. This process was based largely on qualitative (video and still camera images and post-test inspections) rather than quantitative results due to the relatively few accelerometers attached to the structure.

Stockwell, Alan E.↗

The human controller in car following

The man machine interface between the human driver and his automobile during car following tasks was examined. A direct connection between models of the human operator and the theory of optimal control was established for car following situations involving both linear and nonlinear car dynamics. Results obtained from several types of mathematical models are discussed. Conventional parameter identification techniques were used to obtain the parameters of these models by comparing their performance to data obtained by aerial photogrammetry. The results indicate that there are two general classes of model structures: models assumed to have preview information and models without preview.

Burnham, G. O.↗

Efficient Global Aerodynamic Modeling from Flight Data

A method for identifying global aerodynamic models from flight data in an efficient manner is explained and demonstrated. A novel experiment design technique was used to obtain dynamic flight data over a range of flight conditions with a single flight maneuver. Multivariate polynomials and polynomial splines were used with orthogonalization techniques and statistical modeling metrics to synthesize global nonlinear aerodynamic models directly and completely from flight data alone. Simulation data and flight data from a subscale twin-engine jet transport aircraft were used to demonstrate the techniques. Results showed that global multivariate nonlinear aerodynamic dependencies could be accurately identified using flight data from a single maneuver. Flight-derived global aerodynamic model structures, model parameter estimates, and associated uncertainties were provided for all six nondimensional force and moment coefficients for the test aircraft. These models were combined with a propulsion model identified from engine ground test data to produce a high-fidelity nonlinear flight simulation very efficiently. Prediction testing using a multi-axis maneuver showed that the identified global model accurately predicted aircraft responses.

Morelli, Eugene A.↗

User Selection Criteria of Airspace Designs in Flexible Airspace Management

A method for identifying global aerodynamic models from flight data in an efficient manner is explained and demonstrated. A novel experiment design technique was used to obtain dynamic flight data over a range of flight conditions with a single flight maneuver. Multivariate polynomials and polynomial splines were used with orthogonalization techniques and statistical modeling metrics to synthesize global nonlinear aerodynamic models directly and completely from flight data alone. Simulation data and flight data from a subscale twin-engine jet transport aircraft were used to demonstrate the techniques. Results showed that global multivariate nonlinear aerodynamic dependencies could be accurately identified using flight data from a single maneuver. Flight-derived global aerodynamic model structures, model parameter estimates, and associated uncertainties were provided for all six nondimensional force and moment coefficients for the test aircraft. These models were combined with a propulsion model identified from engine ground test data to produce a high-fidelity nonlinear flight simulation very efficiently. Prediction testing using a multi-axis maneuver showed that the identified global model accurately predicted aircraft responses.

Lee, Hwasoo E.↗

Nonlinear Unsteady Aerodynamic Modeling Using Empirical Orthogonal Functions

Empirical orthogonal function modeling is explained and applied to identify compact discrete-time nonlinear unsteady aerodynamic models from data generated by an unsteady three-dimensional compressible Navier-Stokes flow solver for an airfoil undergoing various pitching motions. Model structures, model parameter estimates, and model parameter uncertainty estimates for nondimensional lift, drag, and pitching moment coefficient models were determined autonomously and directly from the data. Prediction tests using data that were not used in the modeling process showed that the identified models exhibited excellent prediction capability, which is a strong indicator of an accurate model.

empirical↗

Nonlinear Modeling of Joint Dominated Structures

The development and verification of an accurate structural model of the nonlinear joint-dominated NASA Langley Mini-Mast truss are described. The approach is to characterize the structural behavior of the Mini-Mast joints and struts using a test configuration that can directly measure the struts' overall stiffness and damping properties, incorporate this data into the structural model using the residual force technique, and then compare the predicted response with empirical data taken by NASA/LaRC during the modal survey tests of the Mini-Mast. A new testing technique, referred to as 'link' testing, was developed and used to test prototype struts of the Mini-Masts. Appreciable nonlinearities including the free-play and hysteresis were demonstrated. Since static and dynamic tests performed on the Mini-Mast also exhibited behavior consistent with joints having free-play and hysteresis, nonlinear models of the Mini-Mast were constructed and analyzed. The Residual Force Technique was used to analyze the nonlinear model of the Mini-Mast having joint free-play and hysteresis.

Chapman, J. M.↗