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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 415 records · Page 23
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1985

Spline-based Rayleigh-Ritz methods for the approximation of the natural modes of vibration for flexible beams with tip bodies

Rayleigh-Ritz methods for the approximation of the natural modes for a class of vibration problems involving flexible beams with tip bodies using subspaces of piecewise polynomial spline functions are developed. An abstract operator theoretic formulation of the eigenvalue problem is derived and spectral properties investigated. The existing theory for spline-based Rayleigh-Ritz methods applied to elliptic differential operators and the approximation properties of interpolatory splines are useed to argue convergence and establish rates of convergence. An example and numerical results are discussed.

Rosen, I. G.↗
NASA NTRS1986

Spline-based Rayleigh-Ritz methods for the approximation of the natural modes of vibration for flexible beams with tip bodies

Rayleigh-Ritz methods for the approximation of the natural modes for a class of vibration problems involving flexible beams with tip bodies using subspaces of piecewise polynomial spline functions are developed. An abstract operator-theoretic formulation of the eigenvalue problem is derived and spectral properties investigated. The existing theory for spline-based Rayleigh-Ritz methods applied to elliptic differential operators and the approximation properties of interpolatory splines are used to argue convergence and establish rates of convergence. An example and numerical results are discussed.

Rosen, I. G.↗
NASA NTRS1965

D-region probe theory.

Systematic theory of parachute-borne blunt probe operating in ionospheric D region

ION PROBE↗
NASA NTRS1972

Model potential calculations of lithium transitions.

Semi-empirical potentials are constructed that have eigenvalues close in magnitude to the binding energies of the valence electron in lithium. The potentials include the long range polarization force between the electron and the core. The corresponding eigenfunctions are used to calculate dynamic polarizabilities, discrete oscillator strengths, photoionization cross sections and radiative recombination coefficients. A consistent application of the theory imposes a modification on the transition operator, but its effects are small for lithium. The method presented can be regarded as a numerical generalization of the widely used Coulomb approximation.

Caves, T. C.↗
NASA NTRS1976

Long lifetime hollow cathodes for 30-cm mercury ion thrusters

An experimental investigation of hollow cathodes for 30-cm Hg bombardment thrusters was carried out. Both main and neutralizer cathode configurations were tested with both rolled foil inserts coated with low work function material and impregnated porous tungsten inserts. Temperature measurements of an impregnated insert at various positions in the cathode were made. These, along with the cathode thermal profile are presented. A theory for rolled foil and impregnated insert operation and lifetime in hollow cathodes is developed. Several endurance tests, as long as 18000 hours at emission currents of up to 12 amps were attained with no degradation in performance.

Mirtich, M. J.↗
NASA NTRS1976

Telescopes and space exploration

The necessity for different types of telescopes for astronomical investigations is discussed. Major findings in modern astronomy by ground-based and spaceborne telescopes are presented. Observations of the Crab Nebula, solar flares, interstellar gas, and the Black Hole are described. The theory of the oscillating universe is explored. Operating and planned telescopes are described.

Brandt, J. C.↗
NASA NTRS1976

Long lifetime hollow cathodes for 30-cm mercury ion thrusters

An experimental investigation of hollow cathodes for 30-cm Hg bombardment thrusters was carried out. Both main and neutralizer cathode configurations were tested with both rolled foil inserts coated with low work function material and impregnated porous tungsten inserts. Temperature measurements of an impregnated insert at various positions in the cathode were made. These, along with the cathode thermal profile are presented. A theory for rolled foil and impregnated insert operation and lifetime in hollow cathodes is developed. Several endurance tests, as long as 18,000 hours at emission currents of up to 12 amps were attained with no degradation in performance.

Mirtich, M. J.↗
NASA NTRS1976

Recent advances in birefringent filters

In the past several years, important developments have been made in the construction and theory of birefringent filters. Tunable filters that operate from 4500 to 7000 A with full widths at half maximum of 0.05 A and maximum transmissions of almost 20 percent have been constructed. Inexpensive large-aperture (at least 15 cm) achromatic waveplates have been fabricated which allow full use of resolution-solid angle products that are 100 times that of Fabry-Perots and 10,000 times that of grating systems.

Title, A. M.↗
NASA NTRS1978

Aeroelastic stability and response of horizontal axis wind turbine blades

The coupled flap-lag-torsion equations of motion of an isolated horizontal axis wind turbine blade are formulated. Quasi-steady blade-element strip theory was applied to derive the aerodynamic operator which includes boundary layer type gradient winds. The final equations which have periodic coefficients were solved in order to obtain the aeroelastic response and stability of large horizontal axis wind turbine blade. A new method of generating an appropriate time-dependent equilibrium position (required for the stability analysis) has been implemented. Representative steady-state responses and stability boundaries, applicable mainly to an existing blade design (NASA/-ERDA MOD-0), are presented. The results indicate that the MOD-0 configuration is a basically stable design and that blade stability is not sensitive to offsets between blade elastic axis and aerodynamic center. Blade stability appears to be sensitive to precone. The tower shadow (or wake) has a considerable effect on the flap response but leaves blade stability unchanged. Finally, it was found that non linear terms in the equations of motion can significantly affect the linearized stability boundaries, however, these terms have a negligible effect on blade response at operating conditions.

Kottapalli, S. B. R.↗
NASA NTRS1980

Operational implications of some NACA/NASA rotary wing induced velocity studies

Wind tunnel measurements show that the wake of a rotor, except at near-hovering speeds, is not like that of a propeller. The wake is more like that of a wing except that, because of the slow speeds, the wake velocities may be much greater. The helicopter can produce a wake hazard to following light aircraft that is disproportionately great compared to an equivalent fixed-wing aircraft. This hazard should be recognized by both pilots and airport controllers when operating in congested areas. Even simple momentum theory shows that, in autorotation and partial-power descent, the required power is a complex function of both airspeed and descent angle. The nonlinear characteristic, together with an almost total lack of usable instrumentation at low airspeeds, has led to numerous power-settling accidents. The same theory shows that there is a minimum forward speed at which a rotor can autorotate. Neglect of, or inadequate appraisal of this minimum speed has also led to numerous accidents. Ground effect and the problems it creates is discussed.

Heyson, H. H.↗
NASA NTRS1982

General Theory of the Double Fed Synchronous Machine

Motor and generator operation of a double-fed synchronous machine were studied and physically and mathematically treated. Experiments with different connections, voltages, etc. were carried out. It was concluded that a certain degree of asymmetry is necessary for the best utilization of the machine.

El-Magrabi, M. G.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Design Spectrum Analysis in NASTRAN

The utility of Design Spectrum Analysis is to give a mode by mode characterization of the behavior of a design under a given loading. The theory of design spectrum is discussed after operations are explained. User instructions are taken up here in three parts: Transient Preface, Maximum Envelope Spectrum, and RMS Average Spectrum followed by a Summary Table. A single DMAP ALTER packet will provide for all parts of the design spectrum operations. The starting point for getting a modal break-down of the response to acceleration loading is the Modal Transient rigid format. After eigenvalue extraction, modal vectors need to be isolated in the full set of physical coordinates (P-sized as opposed to the D-sized vectors in RF 12). After integration for transient response the results are scanned over the solution time interval for the peak values and for the times that they occur. A module called SCAN was written to do this job, that organizes these maxima into a diagonal output matrix. The maximum amplifier in each mode is applied to the eigenvector of each mode which then reveals the maximum displacements, stresses, forces and boundary reactions that the structure will experience for a load history, mode by mode. The standard NASTRAN output processors have been modified for this task. It is required that modes be normalized to mass.

Butler, T. G.↗
NASA NTRS1988

A design methodology for neutral buoyancy simulation of space operations

Neutral buoyancy has often been used in the past for EVA development activities, but little has been done to provide an analytical understanding of the environment and its correlation with space. This paper covers a set of related research topics at the MIT Space Systems Laboratory, dealing with the modeling of the space and underwater environments, validation of the models through testing in neutral buoyancy, parabolic flight, and space flight experiments, and applications of the models to gain a better design methodology for creating meaningful neutral buoyancy simulations. Examples covered include simulation validation criteria for human body dynamics, and for applied torques in a beam rotation task, which is the pacing crew operation for EVA structural assembly. Extensions of the dynamics models are presented for powered vehicles in the underwater environment, and examples given from the MIT Space Telerobotics Research Program, including the Beam Assembly Teleoperator and the Multimode Proximity Operations Device. Future expansions of the modeling theory are also presented, leading to remote vehicles which behave in neutral buoyancy exactly as the modeled system would in space.

Akin, David L.↗
NASA NTRS1989

The development of a Flight Test Engineer's Workstation for the Automated Flight Test Management System

The Automated Flight Test Management System (ATMS) is being developed as part of the NASA Aircraft Automation Program. This program focuses on the application of interdisciplinary state-of-the-art technology in artificial intelligence, control theory, and systems methodology to problems of operating and flight testing high-performance aircraft. The development of a Flight Test Engineer's Workstation (FTEWS) is presented, with a detailed description of the system, technical details, and future planned developments. The goal of the FTEWS is to provide flight test engineers and project officers with an automated computer environment for planning, scheduling, and performing flight test programs. The FTEWS system is an outgrowth of the development of ATMS and is an implementation of a component of ATMS on SUN workstations.

Tartt, David M.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Going through a quantum phase

Phase measurements on a single-mode radiation field are examined from a system-theoretic viewpoint. Quantum estimation theory is used to establish the primacy of the Susskind-Glogower (SG) phase operator; its phase eigenkets generate the probability operator measure (POM) for maximum likelihood phase estimation. A commuting observables description for the SG-POM on a signal x apparatus state space is derived. It is analogous to the signal-band x image-band formulation for optical heterodyne detection. Because heterodyning realizes the annihilation operator POM, this analogy may help realize the SG-POM. The wave function representation associated with the SG POM is then used to prove the duality between the phase measurement and the number operator measurement, from which a number-phase uncertainty principle is obtained, via Fourier theory, without recourse to linearization. Fourier theory is also employed to establish the principle of number-ket causality, leading to a Paley-Wiener condition that must be satisfied by the phase-measurement probability density function (PDF) for a single-mode field in an arbitrary quantum state. Finally, a two-mode phase measurement is shown to afford phase-conjugate quantum communication at zero error probability with finite average photon number. Application of this construct to interferometric precision measurements is briefly discussed.

Shapiro, Jeffrey H.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Structural design using equilibrium programming

Multiple nonlinear programming methods are combined in the method of equilibrium programming. Equilibrium programming theory has been appied to problems in operations research, and in the present study it is investigated as a framework to solve structural design problems. Several existing formal methods for structural optimization are shown to actually be equilibrium programming methods. Additionally, the equilibrium programming framework is utilized to develop a new structural design method. Selected computational results are presented to demonstrate the methods.

Scotti, Stephen J.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Telemetering and telecommunications research

The research center activities during the reporting period have been focused in three areas: (1) developing the necessary equipment and test procedures to support the testing of 8PSK-TCM through TDRSS from the WSGT; (2) extending the theoretical decoder work to higher speeds with a design goal of 600MBPS at 2 bits/Hz; and (3) completing the initial phase of the CPFSK Multi-H research and determining what subsets (if any) of these coding schemes are useful in the TDRSS environment. The equipment for the WSGT TCM testing has been completed and is functioning in the lab at NMSU. Measured results to date indicate that the uncoded system with the modified HRD and NMSU symbol sync operates at 1 to 1.5 dB from theory when processing encoded 8PSK. The NMSU pragmatic decoder when combined with these units produces approximately 2.9 dB of coding gain at 10(exp -5) BER. Our study of CPFSK with Multi-H coding has reached a critical stage. The principal conclusions reached in this activity are: (1) no scheme using Multi-H alone investigated by us or found in the literature produces power/bandwidth trades that are as good as TCM with filtered 8PSK; (2) when Multi-H is combined with convolutional coding, one can obtain better coding gain than with Multi-H alone but still no better power/bandwidth performance than TCM and these gains are available only with complex receivers; (3) the only advantage we can find for the CPFSK schemes over filtered MPSK with TCM is that they are constant envelope (however, constant envelope is of no benefit in a multiple access channel and of questionable benefit in a single access channel since driving the TWT to saturation in this situation is generally acceptable); and (4) based upon these results the center's research program will focus on concluding the existing CPFSK studies.

Osborne, William P.↗
NASA NTRS1997

Response Classification Images in Vernier Acuity

Orientation selective and local sign mechanisms have been proposed as the basis for vernier acuity judgments. Linear image features contributing to discrimination can be determined for a two choice task by adding external noise to the images and then averaging the noises separately for the four types of stimulus/response trials. This method is applied to a vernier acuity task with different spatial separations to compare the predictions of the two theories. Three well-practiced observers were presented around 5000 trials of a vernier stimulus consisting of two dark horizontal lines (5 min by 0.3 min) within additive low-contrast white noise. Two spatial separations were tested, abutting and a 10 min horizontal separation. The task was to determine whether the target lines were aligned or vertically offset. The noises were averaged separately for the four stimulus/response trial types (e.g., stimulus = offset, response = aligned). The sum of the two 'not aligned' images was then subtracted from the sum of the 'aligned' images to obtain an overall image. Spatially smoothed images were quantized according to expected variability in the smoothed images to allow estimation of the statistical significance of image features. The response images from the 10 min separation condition are consistent with the local sign theory, having the appearance of two linear operators measuring vertical position with opposite sign. The images from the abutting stimulus have the same appearance with the two operators closer together. The image predicted by an oriented filter model is similar, but has its greatest weight in the abutting region, while the response images fall to nonsignificance there. The response correlation image method, previously demonstrated for letter discrimination, clarifies the features used in vernier acuity.

Ahumada, Albert J., Jr.↗