Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “Quality by Design”

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.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 55 records · Page 3

Development of a microstrip UHF conformal antenna

Low profile, engineering model EMU antennas were constructed. Final data for these antennas meet most of the electrical requirements in a 6 in. x 18 in. x 1.4 in. package which weighs under 2.0 lbs. Coverage data calculated at the design frequencies very nearly meets the design goal of providing a gain greater than or equal to -10 dBi over 80% of a sphere. Recommendations are made for future work directed toward producing an efficient quality design capable of operating in a space environment.

Shields, M. W.↗

Impact of longitudinal flying qualities upon the design of a transport with active controls

Direct constrained parameter optimization was used to optimally size a medium range transport for minimum direct operating cost. Several stability and control constraints were varied to study the sensitivity of the configuration to specifying the unaugmented flying qualities of transports designed with relaxed static stability. Additionally, a number of handling quality related design constants were studied with respect to their impact to the design.

Sliwa, S. M.↗

Flight Control Development for the ARH-70 Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter Program

In July 2005, Bell Helicopter won the U.S. Army's Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter competition to produce a replacement for the OH-58 Kiowa Warrior capable of performing the armed reconnaissance mission. To meet the U.S. Army requirement that the ARH-70A have Level 1 handling qualities for the scout rotorcraft mission task elements defined by ADS-33E-PRF, Bell equipped the aircraft with their generic automatic flight control system (AFCS). Under the constraints of the tight ARH-70A schedule, the development team used modem parameter identification and control law optimization techniques to optimize the AFCS gains to simultaneously meet multiple handling qualities design criteria. This paper will show how linear modeling, control law optimization, and simulation have been used to produce a Level 1 scout rotorcraft for the U.S. Army, while minimizing the amount of flight testing required for AFCS development and handling qualities evaluation of the ARH-70A.

Christensen, Kevin T.↗

Formal design specification of a Processor Interface Unit

This report describes work to formally specify the requirements and design of a processor interface unit (PIU), a single-chip subsystem providing memory-interface bus-interface, and additional support services for a commercial microprocessor within a fault-tolerant computer system. This system, the Fault-Tolerant Embedded Processor (FTEP), is targeted towards applications in avionics and space requiring extremely high levels of mission reliability, extended maintenance-free operation, or both. The need for high-quality design assurance in such applications is an undisputed fact, given the disastrous consequences that even a single design flaw can produce. Thus, the further development and application of formal methods to fault-tolerant systems is of critical importance as these systems see increasing use in modern society.

Fura, David A.↗

Combined effect of noise and vibration on passenger acceptance

An extensive research program conducted at NASA Langley Research Center to develop a comprehensive model of passenger comfort response to combined noise and vibration environments has been completed. This model was developed for use in the prediction and/or assessment of vehicle ride quality and as a ride quality design tool. The model has the unique capability to transform individual elements of vehicle interior noise and vibration into subjective units and combining the subjective units to produce a total subjective discomfort index as well as the other useful subjective indices. This paper summarizes the basic approach used in the development of the NASA ride comfort model, presents some of the more fundamental results obtained, describes several application of the model to operational vehicles, and discusses a portable, self-contained ride quality meter system that is a direct hardware/software implementation of the NASA comfort algorithm.

Leatherwood, J. D.↗

Design criteria for integrated flight/propulsion control systems for STOVL fighter aircraft

As part of NASA's program to develop technology for short takeoff and vertical landing (STOVL) fighter aircraft, control system designs have been developed for a conceptual STOVL aircraft. This aircraft is representative of the class of mixed-flow remote-lift concepts that was identified as the preferred design approach by the US/UK STOVL Joint Assessment and Ranking Team. The control system designs have been evaluated throughout the powered-lift flight envelope on Ames Research Center's Vertical Motion Simulator. Items assessed in the control system evaluation were: maximum control power used in transition and vertical flight, control system dynamic response associated with thrust transfer for attitude control, thrust margin in the presence of ground effect and hot gas ingestion, and dynamic thrust response for the engine core. Effects of wind, turbulence, and ship airwake disturbances are incorporated in the evaluation. Results provide the basis for a reassessment of existing flying qualities design criteria applied to STOVL aircraft.

Franklin, James A.↗

Criteria for design of integrated flight/propulsion control systems for STOVL fighter aircraft

As part of NASA's program to develop technology for short takeoff and vertical landing (STOVL) fighter aircraft, control system designs have been developed for a conceptual STOVL aircraft. This aircraft is representative of the class of mixed-flow remote-lift concepts that was identified as the preferred design approach by the U.S./U.K. STOVL Joint Assessment and Ranking Team. The control system designs have been evaluated throughout the powered-lift flight envelope on the Vertical Motion Simulator (VMS) at Ames Research Center. Items assessed in the control system evaluation were: maximum control power used in transition and vertical flight, control system dynamic response associated with thrust transfer for attitude control, thrust margin in the presence of ground effect and hot-gas ingestion, and dynamic thrust response for the engine core. Effects of wind, turbulence, and ship airwake disturbances are incorporated in the evaluation. Results provide the basis for a reassessment of existing flying-qualities design criteria applied to STOVL aircraft.

Franklin, James A.↗

High-speed civil transport flight- and propulsion-control technological issues

Technology advances required in the flight and propulsion control system disciplines to develop a high speed civil transport (HSCT) are identified. The mission and requirements of the transport and major flight and propulsion control technology issues are discussed. Each issue is ranked and, for each issue, a plan for technology readiness is given. Certain features are unique and dominate control system design. These features include the high temperature environment, large flexible aircraft, control-configured empennage, minimizing control margins, and high availability and excellent maintainability. The failure to resolve most high-priority issues can prevent the transport from achieving its goals. The flow-time for hardware may require stimulus, since market forces may be insufficient to ensure timely production. Flight and propulsion control technology will contribute to takeoff gross weight reduction. Similar technology advances are necessary also to ensure flight safety for the transport. The certification basis of the HSCT must be negotiated between airplane manufacturers and government regulators. Efficient, quality design of the transport will require an integrated set of design tools that support the entire engineering design team.

Ray, J. K.↗

Design criteria for flightpath and airspeed control for the approach and landing of STOL aircraft

A flight research program was conducted to assess requirements for flightpath and airspeed control for glide-slope tracking during a precision approach and for flare control, particularly as applied to powered-lift, short takeoff and landing (STOL) aircraft. Ames Research Center's Augmentor Wing Research Aircraft was used to fly approaches on a 7.5 deg glide slope to landings on a 30 X 518 m (100 X 1700 ft) STOL runway. The dominant aircraft response characteristics determined were flightpath overshoot, flightpath-airspeed coupling, and initial flightpath response time. The significant contribution to control of the landing flare using pitch attitude was the short-term flightpath response. The limiting condition for initial flightpath response time for flare control with thrust was also identified. It is possible to define flying-qualities design criteria for glide-slope and flare control based on the aforementioned response characteristics.

Franklin, J. A.↗

Prediction of passenger ride quality in a multifactor environment

A model being developed, permits the understanding and prediction of passenger discomfort in a multifactor environment with particular emphasis upon combined noise and vibration. The model has general applicability to diverse transportation systems and provides a means of developing ride quality design criteria as well as a diagnostic tool for identifying the vibration and/or noise stimuli causing discomfort. Presented are: (1) a review of the basic theoretical and mathematical computations associated with the model, (2) a discussion of methodological and criteria investigations for both the vertical and roll axes of vibration, (3) a description of within-axis masking of discomfort responses for the vertical axis, thereby allowing prediction of the total discomfort due to any random vertical vibration, (4) a discussion of initial data on between-axis masking, and (5) discussion of a study directed towards extension of the vibration model to the more general case of predicting ride quality in the combined noise and vibration environments.

Dempsey, T. K.↗

Standard environmental testing practices

Manual on procedural requirements for performing certain environmental tests on space flight equipment provides information for test equipment designers, quality control and production engineers. Contents of manual are summarized.

Daniel, R.↗

A monostrain test apparatus

Test apparatus is designed for determining tensile strength, modulus of elasticity, elongation, and thermal coefficient of contraction or expansion of uniformly shaped plastics, adhesives, and foam materials over temperature range of 700 to 90 K (800 to -300). Tests may be used in design quality control, and in evaluation of new adhesives and plastic materials.

Helf, J. C.↗

Lunar surface magnetometer design review

Design and fabrication parameters of a lunar surface magnetometer are discussed. Drawings and requirements for mechanical design, electronic packaging design, thermal design, quality assurance and systems testing are included.

Source record↗

Analysis of passenger acceptance of commercial flights having characteristics similar to STOL

Previous work in the development of quantitative models for the prediction of passenger reaction to motion and vehicle environment parameters in flight was extended to include a class of aircraft appropriate for low-density, short-haul service. The results indicate that it is possible to obtain quantitative response inputs from an usually small special test-subject group which will be representative of the general traveling public. Additional data which indicate the importance of comfort as a factor in evaluating ride quality was obtained, and identification of the factors which contribute to judgments regarding comfort level was improved. Seat comfort and seat spacing is very vital in the smaller aircraft. Mathematical modeling applied in conjuction with passenger reaction data was shown to be very useful for establishing ride-quality design criteria.

Kuhlthau, A. R.↗

Human discomfort response to noise combined with vertical vibration

An experimental investigation was conducted (1) to determine the effects of combined environmental noise and vertical vibration upon human subjective discomfort response, (2) to develop a model for the prediction of passenger discomfort response to the combined environment, and (3) to develop a set of noise-vibration curves for use as criteria in ride quality design. Subjects were exposed to parametric combinations of noise and vibrations through the use of a realistic laboratory simulator. Results indicated that accurate prediction of passenger ride comfort requires knowledge of both the level and frequency content of the noise and vibration components of a ride environment as well as knowledge of the interactive effects of combined noise and vibration. A design tool in the form of an empirical model of passenger discomfort response to combined noise and vertical vibration was developed and illustrated by several computational examples. Finally, a set of noise-vibration criteria curves were generated to illustrate the fundamental design trade-off possible between passenger discomfort and the noise-vibration levels that produce the discomfort.

Leatherwood, J. D.↗

Design Aids for Real-Time Systems (DARTS)

Design-Aids for Real-Time Systems (DARTS) is a tool that assists in defining embedded computer systems through tree structured graphics, military standard documentation support, and various analyses including automated Software Science parameter counting and metrics calculation. These analyses provide both static and dynamic design quality feedback which can potentially aid in producing efficient, high quality software systems.

Szulewski, P. A.↗

The natural space environment: Effects on spacecraft

The effects of the natural space environments on spacecraft design, development, and operation are the topic of a series of NASA Reference Publications currently being developed by the Electromagnetics and Environments Branch, Systems Analysis and Integration Laboratory, Marshall Space Flight Center. This primer provides an overview of the natural space environments and their effect on spacecraft design, development, and operations, and also highlights some of the new developments in science and technology for each space environment. It is hoped that a better understanding of the space environment and its effect on spacecraft will enable program management to more effectively minimize program risks and costs, optimize design quality, and successfully achieve mission objectives.

James, Bonnie F.↗

Multicriteria Gain Tuning for Rotorcraft Flight Controls (also entitled The Development of the Conduit Advanced Control System Design and Evaluation Interface with a Case Study Application Fly by Wire Helicopter Design)

Handling qualities analysis and control law design would seem to be naturally complimenting components of aircraft flight control system design, however these two closely coupled disciplines are often not well integrated in practice. Handling qualities engineers and control system engineers may work in separate groups within an aircraft company. Flight control system engineers and handling quality specialists may come from different backgrounds and schooling and are often not aware of the other group's research. Thus while the handling qualities specifications represent desired aircraft response characteristics, these are rarely incorporated directly in the control system design process. Instead modem control system design techniques are based on servo-loop robustness specifications, and simple representations of the desired control response. Comprehensive handling qualities analysis is often left until the end of the design cycle and performed as a check of the completed design for satisfactory performance. This can lead to costly redesign or less than satisfactory aircraft handling qualities when the flight testing phase is reached. The desire to integrate the fields of handling qualities and flight,control systems led to the development of the CONDUIT system. This tool facilitates control system designs that achieve desired handling quality requirements and servo-loop specifications in a single design process. With CONDUIT, the control system engineer is now able to directly design and control systems to meet the complete handling specifications. CONDUIT allows the designer to retain a preferred control law structure, but then tunes the system parameters to meet the handling quality requirements.

Biezad, Daniel↗