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At least 307 records · Page 17

Analysis of F/A-18 Tail Buffet Data Acquired in the 80- by 120-Foot Wind Tunnel

Tail buffet studies were conducted on a full-scale, production, F/A-18 fighter aircraft in the 80- by 120-Foot Wind Tunnel of the National Full-Scale Aerodynamic Complex at NASA Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, California. Tail buffet data were acquired over an angle-of-attack range of +20 deg to +40 deg, a side-slip range of -16 deg to + 16 deg, and at wind speeds up to 100 knots. The maximum speed corresponds to a Reynolds number of l2.3 x l0(exp 6) based on mean aerodynamic chord and a Mach number of 0. 15. The port, vertical tail fin was instrumented with ninety-six surface-pressure transducers, arranged in six by eight arrays, on each side of the fin. ne aircraft was also equipped with a removable Leading-Edge Extension (LEX) fence whose purpose is to reduce tail-buffet loads. Current analysis methods for the unsteady aerodynamic pressures and loads are described. Only results for the zero side-slip condition are to be presented, both with and without the LEX fence. Results of the time-averaged, power-spectral analysis are presented for the tail fin bending moments which are derived from the integrated pressure field. Local wave velocities on the tail surfaces are calculated from pressure correlations. It was found that the LEX fence significantly reduces the magnitude of the root-mean-square pressures and bending moments. Scaling and repeatability issues are addressed by comparing the present full scale results for pressures at the 60%-span and 45%-chord location with previous full-scale F/A-18 tail-buffet test in the 80- by 120- Foot Wind Tunnel, and with several small-scale tests. The comparisons show that the tail buffet frequency scales very well with tail chord and free-stream velocity, and that there is good agreement with the previous full-scale test. Root-mean-square pressures and power spectra do not scale as well as the frequency results. Addition of a LEX fence caused tail-buffet loads to be reduced at all model scales.

James, Kevin D.↗

Modeling Creep Effects within SiC/SiC Turbine Components

Anticipating the implementation of advanced SiC/SiC ceramic composites into the hot section components of future gas turbine engines, the primary objective of this on-going study is to develop physics-based analytical and finite-element modeling tools to predict the effects of constituent creep on SiC/SiC component service life. A second objective is to understand how to possibly select and manipulate constituent materials, processes, and geometries in order to minimize these effects. In initial studies aimed at SiC/SiC components experiencing through-thickness stress gradients, creep models were developed that allowed an understanding of detrimental residual stress effects that can develop globally within the component walls. It was assumed that the SiC/SiC composites behaved as isotropic visco-elastic materials with temperature-dependent creep behavior as experimentally measured in-plane in the fiber direction of advanced thin-walled 2D SiC/SiC panels. The creep models and their key results are discussed assuming state-of-the-art SiC/SiC materials within a simple cylindrical thin-walled tubular structure, which is currently being employed to model creep-related effects for turbine airfoil leading edges subjected to through-thickness thermal stress gradients. Improvements in the creep models are also presented which focus on constituent behavior with more realistic non-linear stress dependencies in order to predict such key creep-related SiC/SiC properties as time-dependent matrix stress, constituent creep and content effects on composite creep rates and rupture times, and stresses on fiber and matrix during and after creep.

DiCarlo, J. A.↗

The NASA Juncture Flow Experiment: Goals, Progress, and Preliminary Testing (Invited)

NASA has been working toward designing and conducting a juncture flow experiment on a wing-body aircraft configuration. The experiment is planned to provide validation-quality data for CFD that focuses on the onset and progression of a separation bubble near the wing-body juncture trailing edge region. This paper describes the goals and purpose of the experiment. Although currently considered unreliable, preliminary CFD analyses of several different configurations are shown. These configurations have been subsequently tested in a series of "risk-reduction" wind tunnel tests, in order to help down-select to a final configuration that will attain the desired flow behavior. The risk-reduction testing at the higher Reynolds number has not yet been completed (at the time of this writing), but some results from one of the low-Reynolds-number experiments are shown.

Rumsey, Christopher L.↗

Stator Loading Measurements Behind a Fan With Trailing Edge Blowing

The problem of aircraft noise pollution around airports has become increasingly important as those areas have become more densely populated. Currently, the removal of older noisier aircraft from operation is reducing noise levels around airports; however, with air traffic projected to increase by about 5% over the next decade the number of commercial aircraft operating in the world is expected to be about 17,700 by the year 2007. To keep noise levels around airports from increasing as a result of traffic increases, it is important to investigate new methods of noise reduction. The objective of this work is to provide a better understanding of the effects that trailing edge blowing has on stator unsteady loading. This is done by presenting flowfield and stator loading data from experiments conducted with and without trailing edge blowing.

Waitz, Ian A.↗

Noise from interaction of flow with rigid surfaces: A review of current status of prediction techniques

A brief review of some fundamental aspects of sound arising from turbulent boundary layers, noise due to flow past a single discontinuity (trailing edge), noise from airfoils operating in turbulent flow, and noise due to rigid flow discontinuities (spoilers) immersed in rigid ducts is presented. Emphasis is on dipole-like sound fields associated with turbulent flow past a trailing edge, rigid bodies in turbulence and in-duct spoilers. Representative available data are reviewed and evaluated in terms of theoretical considerations and, where possible, empirical prediction techniques are given in terms of convenient aerodynamic and geometric parameters. Limitations on current knowledge are discussed.

Hayden, R. E.↗

Full-scale upper-surface-blown flap noise

A highly noise-suppressed TF 34 engine was used to investigate the noise of several powered lift configurations involving upper-surface-blown (USB) flaps. The configuration variables were nozzle type (i.e. slot and circular with deflector), flap chord-length, and flap angle. The results of velocity surveys at both the nozzle exit and the flap trailing edge are used for correlation of the noise data. Configurations using a long flap design were 4 dB quieter than a short flap typical of current trends in USB flap design. The lower noise for the long flap is attributed primarily to the greater velocity decay of the jet at the flap trailing edge. The full-scale data revealed substantially more quadrupole noise in the region near the deflected jet than observed in previous sub-scale tests.

Heidelberg, L. J.↗

Femtosecond Pulse Characterization as Applied to One-Dimensional Photonic Band Edge Structures

The ability to control the group velocity and phase of an optical pulse is important to many current active areas of research. Electronically addressable one-dimensional photonic crystals are an attractive candidate to achieve this control. This report details work done toward the characterization of photonic crystals and improvement of the characterization technique. As part of the work, the spectral dependence of the group delay imparted by a GaAs/AlAs photonic crystal was characterized. Also, a first generation an electrically addressable photonic crystal was tested for the ability to electronically control the group delay. The measurement technique, using 100 femtosecond continuum pulses was improved to yield high spectral resolution (1.7 nanometers) and concurrently with high temporal resolution (tens of femtoseconds). Conclusions and recommendations based upon the work done are also presented.

Fork, Richard L.↗

Simulation of Hypervelocity Impact Effects on Reinforced Carbon-Carbon

Spacecraft operating in low earth orbit face a significant orbital debris impact hazard. Of particular concern, in the case of the Space Shuttle, are impacts on critical components of the thermal protection system. Recent research has formulated a new material model of reinforced carbon-carbon, for use in the analysis of hypervelocity impact effects on the Space Shuttle wing leading edge. The material model has been validated in simulations of published impact experiments and applied to model orbital debris impacts at velocities beyond the range of current experimental methods. The results suggest that momentum scaling may be used to extrapolate the available experimental data base, in order to predict the size of wing leading edge perforations at impact velocities as high as 13 km/s.

Park, Young-Keun↗

Surface Hold Advisor Using Critical Sections

The Surface Hold Advisor Using Critical Sections is a system and method for providing hold advisories to surface controllers to prevent gridlock and resolve crossing and merging conflicts among vehicles traversing a vertex-edge graph representing a surface traffic network on an airport surface. The Advisor performs pair-wise comparisons of current position and projected path of each vehicle with other surface vehicles to detect conflicts, determine critical sections, and provide hold advisories to traffic controllers recommending vehicles stop at entry points to protected zones around identified critical sections. A critical section defines a segment of the vertex-edge graph where vehicles are in crossing or merging or opposite direction gridlock contention. The Advisor detects critical sections without reference to scheduled, projected or required times along assigned vehicle paths, and generates hold advisories to prevent conflicts without requiring network path direction-of-movement rules and without requiring rerouting, rescheduling or other network optimization solutions.

Law, Caleb Hoi Kei↗

Broadband electrostatic noise and field-aligned currents in Jupiter's middle magnetosphere

Voyager 1 plasma wave observations have revealed the presence of an impulsive electrostatic emission localized to the Jovian middle magnetosphere that appears on the edges of the plasma sheet. This plasma mode has the same spectral and morphological characteristics of an emission that has been extensively studied in the earth's magnetosphere and has been associated with the presence of field-aligned currents. The results of a detailed study of the properties of this Jovian emission are presented by using comparisons with terrestrial observations as a basis for mode identification. The occurrence regions of the waves are compared with the measured magnetic field configuration to establish a correspondence with the plasma sheet. It is argued that this is a quasi-permanent global system of field-aligned currents linking the ionosphere of Jupiter to the middle magnetosphere, which powers energetic plasma heating processes occurring there. On the basis of knowledge of the consequences of field-aligned currents in the terrestrial magnetosphere, a scenario for acceleration/precipitation of inverted V electrons, concomitant aurorae, and energetic (approximately 10 keV) proton deposition into the middle magnetosphere resulting from field-aligned potential drops associated with this current system is suggested.

Barbosa, D. D.↗

Lightning Reporting at 45th Weather Squadron: Recent Improvements

The 45th Weather Squadron (45 WS) provides daily lightning reports to space launch customers at CCAFS/KSC. These reports are provided to assess the need to inspect the electronics of satellite payloads, space launch vehicles, and ground support equipment for induced current damage from nearby lightning strokes. The 45 WS has made several improvements to the lightning reports during 2008-2009. The 4DLSS, implemented in April 2008, provides all lightning strokes as opposed to just one stroke per flash as done by the previous system. The 45 WS discovered that the peak current was being truncated to the nearest kilo amp in the database used to generate the daily lightning reports, which led to an up to 4% underestimate in the peak current for average lightning. This error was corrected and led to elimination of this underestimate. The 45 WS and their mission partners developed lightning location error ellipses for 99% and 95% location accuracies tailored to each individual stroke and began providing them in the spring of 2009. The new procedure provides the distance from the point of interest to the best location of the stroke (the center of the error ellipse) and the distance to the closest edge of the ellipse. This information is now included in the lightning reports, along with the peak current of the stroke. The initial method of calculating the error ellipses could only be used during normal duty hours, i.e. not during nights, weekends, or holidays. This method was improved later to provide lightning reports in near real-time, 24/7. The calculation of the distance to the closest point on the ellipse was also significantly improved later. Other improvements were also implemented. A new method to calculate the probability of any nearby lightning stroke. being within any radius of any point of interest was developed and is being implemented. This may supersede the use of location error ellipses. The 45 WS is pursuing adding data from nine NLDN sensors into 4DLSS in real-time. This will overcome the problem of 4DLSS missing some of the strong local strokes. This will also improve the location accuracy, reduce the size and eccentricity of the location error ellipses, and reduce the probability of nearby strokes being inside the areas of interest when few of the 4DLSS sensors are used in the stroke solution. This will not reduce 4DLSS performance when most of the 4DLSS sensors are used in the stroke solution. Finally, several possible future improvements were discussed, especially for improving the peak current estimate and the error estimate for peak current, and upgrading the 4DLSS. Some possible approaches for both of these goals were discussed.

Finn, Frank C.↗

Observations of ionospheric convection vortices - Signatures of momentum transfer

Several classes of traveling vortices in the dayside ionospheric flow have been detected and tracked using the Greenland magnetometer chain. One class observed during quiet times consists of a continuous series of vortices moving generally antisunward for several hours at a time. Assuming each vortex to be the convection pattern produced by a small field aligned current moving across the ionosphere, the amount of field aligned current was found by fitting a modeled ground magnetic signature to measurements from the chain of magnetometers. The calculated field aligned current is seen to be steady for each vortex and neighboring vortices have currents of opposite sign. Low altitude DMSP observations indicate the vortices are on field lines which map to the inner edge of the low latitude boundary layer. Because the vortices are conjugate to the boundary layer, repeat in a regular fashion and travel antisunward, it is argued that this class of vortices is caused by surface waves at the magnetopause. No strong correlations between field aligned current strength and solar wind density, velocity, or Bz is found.

Mchenry, M. A.↗

Extreme waves in the Agulhas - A case study in wave-current interaction

SIR data obtained in October 1984 off the South African coast are analyzed. The analysis of the derived ocean-wave slope spectra reveals the presence of two wave systems: a swell field from the SW of about 190 m wavelength and a swell out of the SE with a wavelength of about 220 m. An observed increase in wave energy along the northern edge of the Agulhas, caused by the propagation of the 190 m wave system opposite to that of the Agulhas Current, is studied by modeling the interaction of a wave with an opposite current. The role of refraction in the energy intensification is discussed. The effects of currrent curvature on the trajectory of the wave group and of meandering on a uniform wave field are investigated. A possible mechanism for the generation of extreme waves is proposed.

Irvine, David E.↗

Orbiter Entry Aeroheating Working Group Viscous CFD Boundary Layer Transition Trailblazer Solutions

Boundary layer transition correlations for the Shuttle Orbiter have been previously developed utilizing a two-layer boundary layer prediction technique. The particular two-layer technique that was used is limited to Mach numbers less than 20. To allow assessments at Mach numbers greater than 20, it is proposed to use viscous CFD to the predict boundary layer properties. This report addresses if the existing Orbiter entry aeroheating viscous CFD solutions, which were originally intended to be used for heat transfer rate predictions, adequately resolve boundary layer edge properties and if the existing two-layer results could be leveraged to reduce the number of needed CFD solutions. The boundary layer edge parameters from viscous CFD solutions are extracted along the wind side centerline of the Space Shuttle Orbiter at reentry conditions, and are compared with results from the two-layer boundary layer prediction technique. The differences between the viscous CFD and two-layer prediction techniques vary between Mach 6 and 18 flight conditions and Mach 6 wind tunnel conditions, and there is not a straightforward scaling between the viscous CFD and two-layer values. Therefore: it is not possible to leverage the existing two-layer Orbiter flight boundary layer data set as a substitute for a viscous CFD data set; but viscous CFD solutions at the current grid resolution are sufficient to produce a boundary layer data set suitable for applying edge-based boundary layer transition correlations.

Wood, William A.↗

The multiple junction edge illuminated solar cell

The multiple junction edge illuminated solar cell (M-J Cell) was devised for high voltage, low current applications. Devices to be flight-tested in early 1974 with 96 series-connected PNN+ junctions in a 2 cm x 2.3 cm size deliver 36 volts at 1 milliampere. Test data of M-J Cells fabricated with resistivities of 10, 50, 100, 200, 450, and 1000 ohm-cm silicon are presented and problem areas are discussed. An additional potential application of the M-J Cell lies in utilization of its high-intensity performance that has been demonstrated at levels in excess of 100 AMO suns.

Sater, B. L.↗

Full scale upper surface blown flap noise

A highly noise suppressed TF 34 engine was used to investigate the noise of several powered lift configurations involving upper surface blown (USB) flaps. The configuration variables were nozzle type (i.e. slot and circular with deflector), flap chord length, and flap angle. The results of velocity surveys at both the nozzle exit and the flap trailing edge are also presented and used for correlation of the noise data. Configurations using a long flap design were 4 db quieter than a short flap typical of current trends in USB flap design. The lower noise for the long flap is attributed primarily to the greater velocity decay of the jet at the flap trailing edge. The full-scale data revealed substantially more quadrupole noise in the region near the deflected jet than observed in previous sub-scale tests.

Heidelberg, L. J.↗

Impact ionization in the base of a hot-electron AlSb/InAs bipolar transistor

The operation of a new AlSb/InAs heterojunction bipolar transistor is studied. The electrons are injected into a p-InAs base across the AlSb/InAs heterojunction. The conduction-band discontinuity at this heterojunction is sufficiently large so that energy of the electrons injected into InAs exceeds the threshold for generating electron-hole pairs by impact ionization. The observed incremental common base current at zero collector-base bias decreases and becomes negative as the emitter current is increased, thus providing direct evidence for impact ionization entirely by band-edge discontinuities.

Vengurlekar, Arvind S.↗

Fuzzy set methods for object recognition in space applications

Progress on the following tasks is reported: (1) fuzzy set-based decision making methodologies; (2) feature calculation; (3) clustering for curve and surface fitting; and (4) acquisition of images. The general structure for networks based on fuzzy set connectives which are being used for information fusion and decision making in space applications is described. The structure and training techniques for such networks consisting of generalized means and gamma-operators are described. The use of other hybrid operators in multicriteria decision making is currently being examined. Numerous classical features on image regions such as gray level statistics, edge and curve primitives, texture measures from cooccurrance matrix, and size and shape parameters were implemented. Several fractal geometric features which may have a considerable impact on characterizing cluttered background, such as clouds, dense star patterns, or some planetary surfaces, were used. A new approach to a fuzzy C-shell algorithm is addressed. NASA personnel are in the process of acquiring suitable simulation data and hopefully videotaped actual shuttle imagery. Photographs have been digitized to use in the algorithms. Also, a model of the shuttle was assembled and a mechanism to orient this model in 3-D to digitize for experiments on pose estimation is being constructed.

Keller, James M.↗