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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 523 records · Page 29
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1987

Description of the US Army small-scale 2-meter rotor test system

A small-scale powered rotor model was designed for use as a research tool in the exploratory testing of rotors and helicopter models. The model, which consists of a 29 hp rotor drive system, a four-blade fully articulated rotor, and a fuselage, was designed to be simple to operate and maintain in wind tunnels of moderate size and complexity. Two six-component strain-gauge balances are used to provide independent measurement of the rotor and fuselage aerodynamic loads. Commercially available standardized hardware and equipment were used to the maximum extent possible, and specialized parts were designed so that they could be fabricated by normal methods without using highly specialized tooling. The model was used in a hover test of three rotors having different planforms and in a forward flight investigation of a 21-percent-scale model of a U.S. Army scout helicopter equipped with a mast-mounted sight.

Phelps, Arthur E., III↗
NASA NTRS1987

Finite element model of SCOLE laboratory configuration

The Spacecraft Control Laboratory Experiment (SCOLE) is defined by element properties: material constants; mast, reflector, rigid links as beam elements; cable as bar element; and space shuttle as very stiff beam. Two boundary conditions are modeled: suspended (6 degrees of freedom for all joints except the top of the cable) and cantilevered cables (shuttle platform fixed in all degrees of freedon). Calculations include stiffness and mass matrices, initial stresses, static displacements and reactions, and eigensolutions.

Lee, Beth↗
NASA NTRS1987

Status report and preliminary results of the spacecraft control laboratory experiment

The Spacecraft Control Laboratory Experiment (SCOLE) was conceived to provide a physical test bed for investigation of control techniques for large flexible spacecraft. The SCOLE problem is defined as two design challenges. The first challenge is to design control laws for a mathematical model of a large antenna attached to the space shuttle by a long flexible mast. The second challenge is to design and implement a control scheme on a laboratory representation of the structure modelled in the first part. Control sensors and actuators are typical of those which the control designer would have to deal with on an actual spacecraft. The primary control processing computer is representative of the capacity and speed which may be expected in actual flight computers. A brief description is given of the laboratory apparatus along with some preliminary results of structural dynamics tests and actuator effectiveness tests.

Williams, Jeffrey P.↗
NASA NTRS1987

Slew maneuvers on the SCOLE Laboratory Facility

The Spacecraft Control Laboratory Experiment (SCOLE) was conceived to provide a physical test bed for the investigation of control techniques for large flexible spacecraft. The control problems studied are slewing maneuvers and pointing operations. The slew is defined as a minimum time maneuver to bring the antenna line-of-sight (LOS) pointing to within an error limit of the pointing target. The second objective is to rotate about the LOS within the 0.02 degree error limit. The SCOLE problem is defined as two design challenges: control laws for a mathematical model of a large antenna attached to the Space Shuttle by a long flexible mast; and a control scheme on a laboratory representation of the structure modelled on the control laws. Control sensors and actuators are typical of those which the control designer would have to deal with on an actual spacecraft. Computational facilities consist of microcomputer based central processing units with appropriate analog interfaces for implementation of the primary control system, and the attitude estimation algorithm. Preliminary results of some slewing control experiments are given.

Williams, Jeffrey P.↗
NASA NTRS1986

Pultrusion process development for long space boom models

Long flexible boom models were required to develop ground vibration test methods for very low frequency space structures with applications to the proposed MAST program and Space Station. Pultruded quasi-isotropic composite beams were selected as an option over extruded aluminum alloy structures because of the lower cost potential, higher specific strength, flexural properties, and dynamic similarity considerations. A comparison is made of four different pultrusions having varied matrices and fiber orientations. Test results indicate that the pultrusion process can be used to produce quasi-isotropic composite structures by selective fiber orientation using the knit-lock fabric concept.

Wilson, Maywood L.↗
NASA NTRS1987

System identification of a truss type space structure using the multiple boundary condition test (MBCT) method

Experimental results on the application of the multiple boundary condition test (MBCT) method to experimental hardware have validated its usefulness in the ground testing of large flexible space structures. Excellant results were obtained with a beam with a uniform cross-section and with a beam consisting of two different cross-sections alternately located. The MBCT method is then applied to a 12 bay MAST type structure which is part of the NASA COFS program, and the cross-sectional area of the updated mathematical model was found to be within 4.5 percent of the true value.

Kuo, C. P.↗
NASA NTRS1987

Experiences with the Lanczos method on a parallel computer

A parallel computer implementation of the Lanczos method for the free-vibration analysis of structures is considered, and results for two example problems show substantial time-reduction over the sequential solutions. The major Lanczos calculation tasks are subdivided into subtasks, and parallelism is introduced at the subtask level. A speedup of 7.8 on eight processors was obtained for the decomposition step of the problem involving a 60-m three-longeron space mast, and a speedup of 14.6 on 16 processors was obtained for the decomposition step of the problem involving a blade-stiffened graphite-epoxy panel.

Bostic, Susan W.↗
NASA NTRS1987

Proposed studies of a 30 meter imaging interferometer concept

An imaging interferometer in space based on the use of 15 m sections of graphite-epoxy truss structure to form the basic mechanical support system is suggested. One simple design is a Y-shaped array of 3 coplanar arms, each 15 m long and 1.5 m in diameter, together with a perpendicualr mast of similar length. Roughly 15 observing telescopes of 0.5 m diameter would be used, with laser interferometers controlling the optical pathlengths. The total mass of the imaging interferometer is 3000 kg. With this design, the entire interferometer can be carried to orbit with a single STS launch and then deployed. The interferometer could be operated either in a fully illuminated Sun-synchronous orbit at 1400 km altitude or loosely attached to the Space Station.

Stebbins, R. T.↗
NASA NTRS1988

The dynamics and control of large-flexible space structures, part 10

A mathematical model is developed to predict the dynamics of the proposed orbiting Spacecraft Control Laboratory Experiment (SCOLE) during the station keeping phase. The equations of motion are derived using a Newton-Euler formulation. The model includes the effects of gravity, flexibility, and orbital dynamics. The control is assumed to be provided to the system through the Shuttle's three torquers, and through six actuators located by pairs at two points on the mast and at the mass center of the reflector. The modal shape functions are derived using the fourth order beam equation. The generic mode equations are derived to account for the effects of the control forces on the modal shape and frequencies. The equations are linearized about a nominal equilibrium position. The linear regulator theory is used to derive control laws for both the linear model of the rigidized SCOLE as well as that of the actual SCOLE including the first four flexible modes. The control strategy previously derived for the linear model of the rigidized SCOLE is applied to the nonlinear model of the same configuration of the system and preliminary single axis slewing maneuvers conducted. The results obtained confirm the applicability of the intuitive and appealing two-stage control strategy which would slew the SCOLE system, as if rigid to its desired position and then concentrate on damping out the residual flexible motions.

Bainum, Peter M.↗
NASA NTRS1988

Motion synchronization of a mechanism to deploy and restow a truss beam

The functions of the Control of Flexible Structures I (COFS I) deployer and retractor assembly (DRA) are primarily to deploy and retract the Mast I beam, and secondarily to latch, unlatch, and restow the DRA mechanism. The problems associated with the diagonal folding mechanism that retracts the beam is presented, the synchronization requirements critical to the process of restowing the beam is discussed, and a proposed solution to the problem of synchronization between the mechanical systems is presented. In addition, a detailed description is presented of the design and functioning of the DRA.

Lucy, M.↗
NASA NTRS1988

On the danger of redundancies in some aerospace mechanisms

An attempt is made to show that redundancies in some aerospace mechanisms do not generally improve the odds for success. Some of these redundancies may even be the very cause for failure of the system. To illustrate this fallacy, two designs based on the Control of Flexible Structures I (COFS I) Mast deployer and retractor assembly (DRA) are presented together with novel designs to circumvent such design inadequacies, while improving system reliability.

Chew, M.↗
NASA NTRS1988

Single-Mode Projection Filters for Modal Parameter Identification for Flexible Structures

Single-mode projection filters are developed for eigensystem parameter identification from both analytical results and test data. Explicit formulations of these projection filters are derived using the orthogonal matrices of the controllability and observability matrices in the general sense. A global minimum optimization algorithm is applied to update the filter parameters by using the interval analysis method. The updated modal parameters represent the characteristics of the test data. For illustration of this new approach, a numerical simulation for the MAST beam structure is shown by using a one-dimensional global optimization algorithm to identify modal frequencies and damping. Another numerical simulation of a ten-mode structure is also presented by using a two-dimensional global optimization algorithm to illustrate the feasibility of the new method. The projection filters are practical for parallel processing implementation.

Huang, Jen-Kuang↗
NASA NTRS1987

A survey of decentralized control techniques for large space structures

Preliminary results on the design of decentralized controllers for the COFS I Mast are reported. A nine mode finite element model is used along with second order model of the actuators. It is shown that without actuator dynamics, the system is stable with collocated rate feedback and has acceptable performace. However, when actuator dynamics are included, the system is unstable.

Lindner, D. K.↗
NASA NTRS1988

An application of MSC/NASTRAN in the interdisciplinary analysis of large space-based structures

The Integrated Multidisciplinary Analysis Tool (IMAT), a computer software system developed at NASA Langley to analyze and simulate the dynamics of space-structure/control-system interactions, is described, and its application to the MAST problem (a 60-m truss with fundamental frequency less than 200 mHz and equipped with linear proof-mass actuators, to be deployed from the Space Shuttle as part of COFS-I flight experiment) is demonstrated. Particular attention is given to the IMAT procedures which facilitate the use of the MCS/NASTRAN code to recover physical results from time-domain state-space solutions obtained with an FEM control-design code. Diagrams, drawings, and graphs are provided.

Stockwell, Alan E.↗
NASA NTRS1988

Solution of structural analysis problems on a parallel computer

The problems of a blade-stiffened panel with a hole subjected to compression, and a deployable space mast subjected to tip loads, are treated through the application of FEM to model generation followed by the solution of a linear system of equations. Direct and iterative approaches to the solution of the linear systems are solved in turn; for the panel problems using varying numbers of processors, the incomplete Cholesky-conjugate gradient method was the fastest iterative method on all but two instances in which the number of processors was large.

Storaasli, Olaf↗
NASA NTRS1988

Two controller design approaches for decentralized systems

Two different philosophies for designing the controllers of decentralized systems are considered within a quadratic regulator framework which is generalized to admit decentralized frequency weighting. In the first approach, the total system model is examined, and the feedback strategy for each channel or subsystem is determined. In the second approach, separate, possibly overlapping, and uncoupled models are analyzed for each channel, and the results can be combined to study the original system. The two methods are applied to the example of a model of the NASA COFS Mast Flight System.

Ozguner, U.↗
NASA NTRS1988

Rapid slewing of the orbiting Spacecraft Control Laboratory Experiment (SCOLE) using LQR techniques

The rotational equations of motion, describing the dynamics of the (rigidized) proposed orbiting Spacecraft Control Laboratory Experiment (SCOLE) during the station keeping phase, are derived using the Eulerian formulation. When the attitude angles (roll, pitch, and yaw) are assumed small, a stability analysis is conducted for the system. It is seen that the pitch equation decouples from the roll and yaw equations when the interface between the mast on the reflector is not offset or the offset is only along the Shuttle roll axis. When a second offset is introduced along the pitch axis of the system and when the gravity-gradient torques are present in the dynamics, the system assumes a new equilibrium position. The linear regulator theory is used to derive a control law for the linear model of the rigidized SCOLE. This law is applied to the nonlinear model of the same configuration of the system and preliminary single axis slewing maneuvers (20 deg amplitude) are simulated.

Diarra, Cheick M.↗
NASA NTRS1988

The dynamics and control of large flexible space structures, part 11

A mathematical model is developed to predict the dynamics of the proposed Spacecraft Control Laboratory Experiment during the stationkeeping phase. The Shuttle and reflector are assumed to be rigid, while the mass connecting the Shuttle to the reflector is assumed to be flexible with elastic deformations small as compared with its length. It is seen that in the presence of gravity-gradient torques, the system assumes a new equilibrium position primarily due to the offset in the mass attachment point to the reflector from the reflector's mass center. Control is assumed to be provided through the Shuttle's three torquers and throught six actuators located by painrs at two points on the mass and at the reflector mass center. Numerical results confirm the robustness of an LQR derived control strategy during stationkeeping with maximum control efforts significantly below saturation levels. The linear regulator theory is also used to derive control laws for the linearized model of the rigidized SCOLE configuration where the mast flexibility is not included. It is seen that this same type of control strategy can be applied for the rapid single axis slewing of the SCOLE through amplitudes as large as 20 degrees. These results provide a definite trade-off between the slightly larger slewing times with the considerable reduction in over-all control effort as compared with the results of the two point boundary value problem application of Pontryagin's Maximum Principle.

Bainum, Peter M.↗