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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 487 records · Page 27
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1990

Rapid near-optimal trajectory generation and guidance law development for single-stage-to-orbit airbreathing vehicles

General problems associated with on-board trajectory optimization, propulsion system cycle selection, and with the synthesis of guidance laws were addressed for an ascent to low-earth-orbit of an air-breathing single-stage-to-orbit vehicle. The NASA Generic Hypersonic Aerodynamic Model Example and the Langley Accelerator aerodynamic sets were acquired and implemented. Work related to the development of purely analytic aerodynamic models was also performed at a low level. A generic model of a multi-mode propulsion system was developed that includes turbojet, ramjet, scramjet, and rocket engine cycles. Provisions were made in the dynamic model for a component of thrust normal to the flight path. Computational results, which characterize the nonlinear sensitivity of scramjet performance to changes in vehicle angle of attack, were obtained and incorporated into the engine model. Additional trajectory constraints were introduced: maximum dynamic pressure; maximum aerodynamic heating rate per unit area; angle of attack and lift limits; and limits on acceleration both along and normal to the flight path. The remainder of the effort focused on required modifications to a previously derived algorithm when the model complexity cited above was added. In particular, analytic switching conditions were derived which, under appropriate assumptions, govern optimal transition from one propulsion mode to another for two cases: the case in which engine cycle operations can overlap, and the case in which engine cycle operations are mutually exclusive. The resulting guidance algorithm was implemented in software and exercised extensively. It was found that the approximations associated with the assumed time scale separation employed in this work are reasonable except over the Mach range from roughly 5 to 8. This phenomenon is due to the very large thrust capability of scramjets in this Mach regime when sized to meet the requirement for ascent to orbit. By accounting for flight path angle and flight path angle rate in construction of the flight path over this Mach range, the resulting algorithm provides the means for rapid near-optimal trajectory generation and propulsion cycle selection over the entire Mach range from take-off to orbit.

Calise, A. J.↗
NASA NTRS2014

Comparison Between THOR Anthropomorphic Test Device and THOR Finite Element Model

Extended time spent in reduced gravity can cause physiologic deconditioning of astronauts, reducing their ability to sustain excessive forces during dynamic phases of spaceflight such as landing. To make certain that the crew is safe during these phases, NASA must take caution when determining what types of landings are acceptable based on the accelerations applied to the astronaut. In order to test acceptable landings, various trials have been run accelerating humans, cadavers, and Anthropomorphic Test Devices (ATDs), or crash test dummies, at different acceleration and velocity rates on a sled testing platform. Using these tests, risks of injury will be created and metrics will be developed for the likelihood of injuries due to the acceleration. A finite element model (FEM) of the Test Device for Human Occupant Restraint (THOR) ATD has been developed that can simulate these test trials and others (Putnam, 2014), reducing the need for human and ATD testing. Additionally, this will give researchers a more effective way to test the accelerations and orientations encountered during spaceflight landings during design of new space vehicles for crewed missions. However, the FEM has not been proven and must be validated by comparing the forces, accelerations, and other measurements of all parts of the body between the physical tests already completed and computer simulated trials. The purpose of my research was to validate the FEM for the ATD using previously run trials with the physical THOR ATD.

Moore, Erik↗
NASA NTRS2010

Experimental Validation of FE/BEM Dynamic Strain Model Under Diffuse Acoustic Field Loading

Structural finite element (FE) models naturally output displacement or acceleration response data. However, they can also be used to compute stress, internal forces, and strain response. When coupled with a boundary element model (BEM) of the fluid surrounding the structure, a fully coupled analysis can be performed. Modeling a diffuse acoustic field in the BEM fluid provides an excitation like that found when the structure is placed in a reverberation chamber. Fully coupling the structural FE model to the acoustic BEM model provides a means to predict not only the acceleration response of the panel to diffuse field loading, but also the ability to predict the dynamic stress and strain response. This type of model has been available with current predictive tools, but experimental validation of the prediction of dynamic stress or strain is difficult to find. An aluminum panel was instrumented with accelerometers and strain gages and hung in a reverberation room and subjected to a diffuse acoustic field. This paper presents the comparison of the experimental and predicted results.

Tsoi, W. Ben↗
NASA NTRS2001

Modeling of two-phase flow in membranes and porous media in microgravity as applied to plant irrigation in space

In traditional applications in soil physics it is convention to scale porous media properties, such as hydraulic conductivity, soil water diffusivity, and capillary head, with the gravitational acceleration. In addition, the Richards equation for water flux in partially saturated porous media also contains a gravity term. With the plans to develop plant habitats in space, such as in the International Space Station, it becomes necessary to evaluate these properties and this equation under conditions of microgravitational acceleration. This article develops models for microgravity steady state two-phase flow, as found in irrigation systems, that addresses critical design issues. Conventional dimensionless groups in two-phase mathematical models are scaled with gravity, which must be assigned a value of zero for microgravity modeling. The use of these conventional solutions in microgravity, therefore, is not possible. This article therefore introduces new dimensionless groups for two-phase models. The microgravity models introduced here determined that in addition to porous media properties, important design factors for microgravity systems include applied water potential and the ratio of inner to outer radii for cylindrical and spherical porous media systems.

Plant Roots/growth & development↗
NASA NTRS1976

Rotor dynamic state and parameter identification from simulated forward flight transients, part 1

State and parameter identifications from simulated forward flight blade flapping measurements are presented. The transients were excited by progressing cyclic pitch stirring or by hub stirring with constant stirring acceleration. Rotor dynamic inflow models of varying degree of sophistication were used from a one parameter inflow model (equivalent Lock number) to an eight parameter inflow model. The maximum likelihood method with assumed fixed measurement error covariance matrix was applied. The rotor system equations for both fixed hub and tilting hub are given. The identified models were verified by comparing true responses with predicted responses. An optimum utilization of the simulated measurement data can be defined. From the numerical results it can be anticipated that brief periods of either accelerated cyclic pitch stirring or of hub stirring are sufficient to extract with adequate accuracy up to 8 rotor dynamic inflow parameters plus the blade Lock number from the transients.

Hohenemser, K. H.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Accelerating SNP Development with Radiation Source Approximations for Far-Field Environment Modeling

The successful development and deployment of space nuclear power and propulsion technology requires a high-fidelity, efficient means of modeling ex-core radiation fields. Monte Carlo particle transport codes provide enable the highest level of fidelity in radiation field modeling but are inefficient for modeling ex-core radiation without modification. This paper details the development of an approach to ex-core radiation field modeling that maintains the fidelity of a Monte Carlo transport approach without sacrificing computational efficiency. This approach is based on recent improvements to an existing Monte Carlo transport acceleration technique known as surface source banking. As the transport of many particles is required to ensure adequate uncertainty in far field transport, analytical reconstruction techniques are employed to represent surface source banks as sampleable series of distributions in particle phase from which an arbitrarily large number of particles can be generated and simulated. All steps of this approach are incorporated into an AMA model to test both the underlying mathematics of the analytical source reconstruction process, as well as the relevance of the technique as a whole towards SNP applications. These tests demonstrated that this approach is capable of accelerating far-field radiation modeling in SNP-relevant scenarios by factors of at least nine over purely eigenvalue-based scenarios without significantly sacrificing simulation accuracy.

Surface Source Banking↗
NASA NTRS2012

The Problem of Inertia in a Friedmann Universe

In this talk I will discuss the origin of inertia in a curved spacetime, particularly the spatially flat, open and closed Friedmann universes. This is done using Sciama's law of inertial induction, which is based on Mach's principle, and expresses the analogy between the retarded far fields of electrodynamics and those of gravitation. After obtaining covariant expressions for electromagnetic fields due to an accelerating point charge in Friedmann models, we adopt Sciama's law to obtain the inertial force on an accelerating mass $m$ by integrating over the contributions from all the matter in the universe. The resulting inertial force has the form $F = -kma$ where the constant $k < 1 $ depends on the choice of the cosmological parameters such as $\Omega_{M},\ \Omega_{\Lambda}, $ and $\Omega_{R}$. The values of $k$ obtained suggest that inertial contribution from dark matter can be the source for the missing part of the inertial force.

Kazanas, Demosthenes↗
NASA NTRS1980

G-cueing microcontroller (a microprocessor application in simulators)

A g cueing microcontroller is described which consists of a tandem pair of microprocessors, dedicated to the task of simulating pilot sensed cues caused by gravity effects. This task includes execution of a g cueing model which drives actuators that alter the configuration of the pilot's seat. The g cueing microcontroller receives acceleration commands from the aerodynamics model in the main computer and creates the stimuli that produce physical acceleration effects of the aircraft seat on the pilots anatomy. One of the two microprocessors is a fixed instruction processor that performs all control and interface functions. The other, a specially designed bipolar bit slice microprocessor, is a microprogrammable processor dedicated to all arithmetic operations. The two processors communicate with each other by a shared memory. The g cueing microcontroller contains its own dedicated I/O conversion modules for interface with the seat actuators and controls, and a DMA controller for interfacing with the simulation computer. Any application which can be microcoded within the available memory, the available real time and the available I/O channels, could be implemented in the same controller.

Horattas, C. G.↗
NASA NTRS1976

Cardiovascular function during sustained +G/z/ stress

The development of aerospace systems capable of very high levels of positive vertical accelerators stress has created a need for a better understanding of the cardiovascular responses to acceleration. Using a canine model, the heart and cardiovascular system were instrumented to continuously measure coronary blood flow, cardiac output, left ventricular and aortic root pressure, and oxygen saturation in the aorta, coronary sinus, and right ventricle. The animals were exposed to acceleration profiles up to +6 G, 120 s at peak G; a seatback angle of 45 deg was simulated in some experiments. Radiopaque contrast medium was injected to visualize the left ventricular chamber, coronary vasculature, aorta, and branches of the aorta. The results suggest mechanisms responsible for arrhythmias which may occur, and subendocardial hemorrhage which has been reported in other animals.

Erickson, H. H.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Ion acceleration and abundance enhancements by electron beam instabilities in impulsive solar flares

We show that a nonrelativistic electron beam in a hydrogen-helium solar flare plasma will excite H(+) electromagnetic ion cyclotron, shear Alfven, and R-X waves, in addition to waves resulting from the two-stream instability. The H(+) electromagnetic ion cyclotron and shear Alfven waves are able to selectively accelerate ambient He-3 and Fe, respectively, to MeV energies through first harmonic gyroresonance, and thereby account for the large (He-3)/(He-4) and Fe/C ratios seen in the energetic particles from impulsive solar flares. In this model, separate heating and acceleration mechanisms for either He-3 or Fe are not required, and Fe acceleration is quite efficient since it does not need to occur by second harmonic gyroresonance. The combination of the other two unstable modes is able to accelerate ions to hundreds of MeV if the particles become trapped in an electrostatic potential well of a two-stream wave.

Miller, James A.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Experimental study on two-dimensional free-flying robot satellite model

The experimental study on a control method for a free flying space robotic arm was treated by means of a two-dimensional laboratory model. The main target is to develop a new control method for trajectory tracking or target capturing, considering dynamical interaction between the manipulator arm and the base vehicle in space micro-gravity environment. In order to simulate the micro-gravity environment mechanically, a laboratory model of a robot satellite supported on air bearings was developed. The model comprises a base equipped with power and air supplies and a two-link manipulator arm. This model has relatively low gravitational and frictional disturbance in planar motion. An on-line resolved motion rate control scheme with vision feedback is developed for experimenting capture operations. The scheme utilizes the Generalized Jacobian Matrix. In experiment, the acceleration environment of the model is evaluated firstly, then target capture operations are examined. The manipulator can properly chase and capture both a standing target and a moving target in spite of complex satellite/manipulator dynamical interactions. The experimental results confirm the validity of the Generalized Jacobian Matrix concept and the proposed control method.

Umetani, Yoji↗
NASA NTRS2003

Benchmark studies of the effectiveness of structural and internal materials as radiation shielding for the international space station

Accelerator-based measurements and model calculations have been used to study the heavy-ion radiation transport properties of materials in use on the International Space Station (ISS). Samples of the ISS aluminum outer hull were augmented with various configurations of internal wall material and polyethylene. The materials were bombarded with high-energy iron ions characteristic of a significant part of the galactic cosmic-ray (GCR) heavy-ion spectrum. Transmitted primary ions and charged fragments produced in nuclear collisions in the materials were measured near the beam axis, and a model was used to extrapolate from the data to lower beam energies and to a lighter ion. For the materials and ions studied, at incident particle energies from 1037 MeV/nucleon down to at least 600 MeV/nucleon, nuclear fragmentation reduces the average dose and dose equivalent per incident ion. At energies below 400 MeV/nucleon, the calculation predicts that as material is added, increased ionization energy loss produces increases in some dosimetric quantities. These limited results suggest that the addition of modest amounts of polyethylene or similar material to the interior of the ISS will reduce the dose to ISS crews from space radiation; however, the radiation transport properties of ISS materials should be evaluated with a realistic space radiation field. Copyright 2003 by Radiation Research Society.

NASA Discipline Radiation Health↗
NASA NTRS2021

Particle Acceleration by Dense Impulsive Structures Moving in Ambient Magnetospheric Plasma. 3-D Hybrid Kinetic Modeling and MMS Observations

High resolution observations of dense plasma impulsive structures moving through an ambient background magnetospheric flows were captured by the Magnetospheric Multiscale mission. The observations show particle heating and acceleration, shock-like wave formation, and whistler wave excitation inside the interface between the dense impulsive plasma structures and the ambient plasma. A multiscale hybrid kinetic simulation provides an explanation of the observed wave-particle interactions with the assumption that the dense plasma structures may be represented by plasma clouds which are formed at the magnetopause layer due to reconnection processes. Plain Language Summary: Dense, impulsive plasma structures moving through a background plasma were captured by the NASA Magnetospheric Multiscale mission. The observations show that the dense structures can generate strong perturbations in the electromagnetic field and shock-like waves. Interactions between these electromagnetic waves and the particles results in particle acceleration. 3-D hybrid kinetic modeling (particle description for ions and fluid description for electrons) was used to investigate the plasma physics of the observed structures. It was assumed that the plasma clouds were formed by magnetic field reconnection inside the magnetopause, which is the interface between the solar wind particles and the cold low-density magnetospheric plasma. The work helps us understand the plasma environment at the interface between the Earth and solar wind, near planetary moons, within astrophysical explosions, and possibly at the interface between the solar wind and local interstellar medium.

A. S. Lipatov↗
NASA NTRS2010

Single Event Test Methodologies and System Error Rate Analysis for Triple Modular Redundant Field Programmable Gate Arrays

We present a test methodology for estimating system error rates of Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) mitigated with Triple Modular Redundancy (TMR). The test methodology is founded in a mathematical model, which is also presented. Accelerator data from 90 nm Xilins Military/Aerospace grade FPGA are shown to fit the model. Fault injection (FI) results are discussed and related to the test data. Design implementation and the corresponding impact of multiple bit upset (MBU) are also discussed.

error rate calculations↗
NASA NTRS1981

Observations of the ionization states of energetic particles accelerated in solar flares

The ionization states and spectra of 0.3 to 2.4 MeV/nuc He, C, O and Fe are measured in a survey of ten solar flare particle events. He(plus) is found to be present in all events, which indicates the common presence of energetic He(plus) in the source material from which solar particles are accelerated. The distribution functions of He(plus), He(plus plus) and heavier elements are represented by simple exponentials of the particle speed times its rigidity to a power n, where n is between 0 and 1, and equal e-folding values. Results are consistent with a model where ions are accelerated in the corona by multi-dimensional shocks out of a population taken from both hot and cold coronal regions.

Gloeckler, G.↗
NASA NTRS1969

Space Radiation Effects Laboratory

The SREL User's Handbook is designed to provide information needed by those who plan experiments involving the accelerators at this laboratory. Thus the Handbook will contain information on the properties of the machines, the beam parameters, the facilities and services provided for experimenters, etc. This information will be brought up to date as new equipment is added and modifications accomplished. This Handbook is influenced by the many excellent models prepared at other accelerator laboratories. In particular, the CERN Synchrocyclotron User's Handbook (November 1967) is closely followed in some sections, since the SREL Synchrocyclotron is a duplicate of the CERN machine. We wish to thank Dr. E. G. Michaelis for permission to draw so heavily on his work, particularly in Section II of this Handbook. We hope that the Handbook will prove useful, and will welcome suggestions and criticism.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1995

Estimates of effects of residual acceleration on USML-1 experiments

The purpose of this study effort was to develop analytical models to describe the effects of residual accelerations on the experiments to be carried on the first U.S. Microgravity Lab mission (USML-1) and to test the accuracy of these models by comparing the pre-flight predicted effects with the post-flight measured effects. After surveying the experiments to be performed on USML-1, it became evident that the anticipated residual accelerations during the USML-1 mission were well below the threshold for most of the primary experiments and all of the secondary (Glovebox) experiments and that the only set of experiments that could provide quantifiable effects, and thus provide a definitive test of the analytical models, were the three melt growth experiments using the Bridgman-Stockbarger type Crystal Growth Furnace (CGF). This class of experiments is by far the most sensitive to low level quasi-steady accelerations that are unavoidable on space craft operating in low earth orbit. Because of this, they have been the drivers for the acceleration requirements imposed on the Space Station. Therefore, it is appropriate that the models on which these requirements are based are tested experimentally. Also, since solidification proceeds directionally over a long period of time, the solidified ingot provides a more or less continuous record of the effects from acceleration disturbances.

Naumann, Robert J.↗