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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 55 records · Page 3

NASA LaRC Contribution to the High Angle Working Group of the Third Aeroelastic Prediction Workshop: BSCW Shock Buffet

FUN3D Core Capabilities - Established as a research code in late 1980s; now supports numerous internal and external efforts across the speed range - Solves 2D/3D steady and unsteady Euler and RANS equations on node-based mixed element grids for compressible and incompressible flows - General dynamic mesh capability: any combination of rigid / overset / morphing grids, including 6-DOF effects - Aeroelastic modeling using mode shapes, full FEM, etc. - Constrained / multipoint adjoint-based design and mesh adaptation - Distributed development team using agile/extreme software practices including 24/7 regression, performance testing - Capabilities fully integrated, online documentation, training videos, tutorials

Pawel Chwalowski↗

Experimental Study of Aero-Propulsive Interactions for Electric Ducted Fan Arrays in Multiple Positions on a Wing

The Adaptable Distributed Electric Propulsion Testbed (ADEPT) Wing was tested in the NASA Langley 12-Foot Low-Speed Tunnel for the SUbsonic Single Aft eNgine (SUSAN) Electrofan 25% scale flight research vehicle, which aims to reduce emissions for commercial transport aircraft with electric propulsion technologies. The purpose of the test was to study the aero-propulsive effects across angle of attack and fan speed variations for several propulsor placements and array sizes, and to investigate how DEP can be leveraged for augmented lift and vehicle control. Six electric ducted fan (EDF) array placements were tested by positioning the fans along the leading and trailing edges on the top and bottom surfaces, as well as centered on the chord line in front of and behind the wing. Each fan placement configuration was tested with an array of one, three, and five EDFs to characterize an aero-propulsive extrapolation effect, and the bare wing was tested separately to provide baseline aerodynamic measurements. The results compare the longitudinal forces and moments for each configuration by analyzing the combined aero-propulsive interaction effects, and offer valuable insight into considerations for fan placement along a wing to enable the benefits of DEP integration.

Rose Weinstein↗

Experimental Study of Aeropropulsive Interactions for Electric Ducted Fans on a Wing

The Adaptable Distributed Electric Propulsion Testbed (ADEPT)Wing was tested in the NASA Langley 12-Foot Low-Speed Tunnel to investigate electric propulsion technologies for commercial transport aircraft. The purpose of the test was to study the aeropropulsive effects across angle of attack and fan speed variations for several propulsor placements and array sizes, and to investigate how distributed electric propulsion (DEP) can be leveraged for augmented lift and vehicle control. Six electric ducted fan (EDF) array placements were tested by positioning the fans along the leading and trailing edges on the top and bottom surfaces, as well as centered on the chord line in front of and behind the wing. Each fan placement configuration was tested with an array of one, three, and five EDFs to characterize an aeropropulsive extrapolation effect, and the bare wing was tested separately to provide baseline aerodynamic measurements. The results compare the longitudinal forces and moments for each configuration by analyzing the combined aeropropulsive interaction effects, and offer valuable insight into considerations for fan placement along a wing to enable the benefits of DEP integration.

Rose Weinstein↗

The reduced order model problem in distributed parameter systems adaptive identification and control

The research concerning the reduced order model problem in distributed parameter systems is reported. The adaptive control strategy was chosen for investigation in the annular momentum control device. It is noted, that if there is no observation spill over, and no model errors, an indirect adaptive control strategy can be globally stable. Recent publications concerning adaptive control are included.

Johnson, C. R., Jr.↗

Hopping with an Adaptive Hop Probability Distribution

Monotonic Basin Hopping (MBH) is a stochastic global search technique that may be used to design complex interplanetary trajectories. Previous research on MBH empirically demonstrated that a bi-polar Pareto distribution is an effective way to generate search “hops.” However, no analytical foundation exists to explain this performance. In this work we provide the beginning of that analytical foundation and also introduce a new variant of MBH that uses an adaptive probability distribution to generate the hops. The technique is demonstrated on historical interplanetary trajectory design problems.

A C Englander↗

A Structurally-Adaptive Framework for Distributed Airborne Sensing over Real-time Collaborative Information Sharing Networks

The emergence and maturation of wireless communication technologies continue to transform the aviation industry and are enabling new solutions to challenges faced by NASA’s Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) initiative. AAM is leading towards high-density autonomous aircraft operations in areas underserved by traditional aviation, such as over densely populated urban centers. In this paper, we build on concepts from distributed sensing and smart spaces - where sensing, processing, and communication are embedded in an environment, and agents are operating within the space can exploit these capabilities in real-time through collaborative information sharing networks. Building from these concepts, we propose a framework to enable a dynamic, topologically-adaptive, and distributed estimation system for man-rated aviation to address challenges faced by autonomous AAM operations. This paper presents the initial concept of operations and system design for this framework, presents a mathematical formulation for abstraction of the problem, identifies requirements and constraints for operation, and presents algorithmic constructs to demonstrate operation. The initial framework design will focus on supporting precision navigation and independent surveillance supporting conformance monitoring of aircraft in airspace corridors and vertiport airspaces. Preliminary results from this framework shows promise in addressing gaps in current technologies needed to enable future AAM concepts, while promising greater capabilities, performance, robustness, and safety over current aviation systems and operations.

Distributed sensing↗

Model-Reference Adaptive Control of Distributed Lagrangian Infinite-Dimensional Systems Using Hamilton’s Principle

This paper presents a Hamilton's principle for distributed control of infinite-dimensional systems modeled by a distributed form of the Euler-Lagrange method. The distributed systems are governed by a system of linear partial differential equations in space and time. A generalized potential energy expression is developed that can capture most physical systems including those systems that have no spatial distribution. The Hamilton's principle is applied to derive distributed feedback control methods without resorting to the standard weak-form discretization approach to convert an infinite-dimensional systems to a finite-dimensional systems. It can be shown by the principle of least action that the distributed control synthesized by the Hamilton's principle is a minimum-norm control. A model-reference adaptive control framework is developed for distributed Lagrangian systems in the presence of uncertainty. The theory is demonstrated by an application of adaptive flutter suppression control of a flexible aircraft wing.

Nguyen, Nhan T.↗

Photosynthetic action spectra and adaptation to spectral light distribution in a benthic cyanobacterial mat

We studied adaptation to spectral light distribution in undisturbed benthic communities of cyanobacterial mats growing in hypersaline ponds at Guerrero Negro, Baja California, Mexico. Microscale measurements of oxygen photosynthesis and action spectra were performed with microelectrodes; spectral radiance was measured with fiber-optic microprobes. The spatial resolution of all measurements was 0.1 mm, and the spectral resolution was 10 to 15 nm. Light attenuation spectra showed absorption predominantly by chlorophyll a (Chl a) (430 and 670 nm), phycocyanin (620 nm), and carotenoids (440 to 500 nm). Blue light (450 nm) was attenuated 10-fold more strongly than red light (600 nm). The action spectra of the surface film of diatoms accordingly showed activity over the whole spectrum, with maxima for Chl a and carotenoids. The underlying dense Microcoleus population showed almost exclusively activity dependent upon light harvesting by phycobilins at 550 to 660 nm. Maximum activity was at 580 and 650 nm, indicating absorption by phycoerythrin and phycocyanin as well as by allophycocyanin. Very little Chl a-dependent activity could be detected in the cyanobacterial action spectrum, even with additional 600-nm light to excite photosystem II. The depth distribution of photosynthesis showed detectable activity down to a depth of 0.8 to 2.5 mm, where the downwelling radiant flux at 600 nm was reduced to 0.2 to 0.6% of the surface flux.

NASA Discipline Exobiology↗

The reduced order model problem in distributed parameter systems adaptive identification and control

The basic assumption that a large space structure can be decoupled preceding the application of reduced order active control was considered and alternative solutions to the control of such structures (in contrast to the strict modal control) were investigated. The transfer function matrix from the actuators to the sensors was deemed to be a reasonable candidate. More refined models from multivariable systems theory were studied and recent results in the multivariable control field were compared with respect to theoretical deficiencies and likely problems in application to large space structures.

Johnson, C. R., Jr.↗

A vector-product information retrieval system adapted to heterogeneous, distributed computing environments

Vector-product information retrieval (IR) systems produce retrieval results superior to all other searching methods but presently have no commercial implementations beyond the personal computer environment. The NASA Electronic Library Systems (NELS) provides a ranked list of the most likely relevant objects in collections in response to a natural language query. Additionally, the system is constructed using standards and tools (Unix, X-Windows, Notif, and TCP/IP) that permit its operation in organizations that possess many different hosts, workstations, and platforms. There are no known commercial equivalents to this product at this time. The product has applications in all corporate management environments, particularly those that are information intensive, such as finance, manufacturing, biotechnology, and research and development.

Rorvig, Mark E.↗

Verification of Anisotropic Mesh Adaptation for Turbulent Simulations over ONERA M6 Wing

Unstructured anisotropic mesh adaptation is known to be an efficient way to control discretization errors in Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations. Method verification is required to provide the confidence for routine use in production analysis. The current work aims at verification of anisotropic mesh adaptation for RANS simulations over the ONERA M6 wing. The present verification study is performed using four different flow solvers, three different implementations of the metric field, and three mesh mechanics packages. Two of the flow solvers use stabilized finite-element discretizations (FUN3D-SFE and GGNS), one uses finite-volume discretization (FUN3D-FV), and the last one uses mixed finite-volume and finite element discretizations (Wolf). The mesh adaptation is based on an error estimator that aims to control the quadratic error term in the linear interpolation of Mach number. Two sets of adaptations were performed; the first one controls the interpolation error in L2 norm and the second one controls the interpolation error in L4 norm. Convergence studies were performed on the forces and the pitching moment using all four solvers, and the results are compared with previously verified convergence studies on fixed (nonadapted) meshes. Both forces and pitching moment on adapted meshes are found to be converging to the fine mesh values faster than those on fixed meshes. In addition to forces and moments, convergence of surface pressure and skin friction coefficients at various measurement locations on the wing are also presented. Adapted-mesh surface pressure distributions agree with the fine fixed mesh pressure distributions. Adapted-mesh skin friction distributions contain high frequency noise with mean values approaching the fixed mesh pressure skin friction distributions.

Aravind Balan↗

Fast adaptive composite grid methods on distributed parallel architectures

The fast adaptive composite (FAC) grid method is compared with the adaptive composite method (AFAC) under variety of conditions including vectorization and parallelization. Results are given for distributed memory multiprocessor architectures (SUPRENUM, Intel iPSC/2 and iPSC/860). It is shown that the good performance of AFAC and its superiority over FAC in a parallel environment is a property of the algorithm and not dependent on peculiarities of any machine.

Lemke, Max↗

Dynamic Load Balancing for Adaptive Computations on Distributed-Memory Machines

Dynamic load balancing is central to adaptive mesh-based computations on large-scale parallel computers. The principal investigator has investigated various issues on the dynamic load balancing problem under NASA JOVE and JAG rants. The major accomplishments of the project are two graph partitioning algorithms and a load balancing framework. The S-HARP dynamic graph partitioner is known to be the fastest among the known dynamic graph partitioners to date. It can partition a graph of over 100,000 vertices in 0.25 seconds on a 64- processor Cray T3E distributed-memory multiprocessor while maintaining the scalability of over 16-fold speedup. Other known and widely used dynamic graph partitioners take over a second or two while giving low scalability of a few fold speedup on 64 processors. These results have been published in journals and peer-reviewed flagship conferences.

Source record↗

Weighted adaptive algorithms for estimation of Gaussian distribution parameters

Two weighted adaptive algorithms are proposed for updating the estimates of the mean vector and the covariance matrix, respectively, in a multispectral pattern recognition system. To achieve computational efficiency, the auxiliary matrices have been utilized in the algorithm for covariance matrix updating. Enhancements in the performance accuracy of a multispectral processing system and extensions of the Gaussian maximum likelihood classification capabilities to larger scale surveys are the motivations in developing the algorithms presented herein.

Chang, C. Y.↗

Impact of Load Balancing on Unstructured Adaptive Grid Computations for Distributed-Memory Multiprocessors

The computational requirements for an adaptive solution of unsteady problems change as the simulation progresses. This causes workload imbalance among processors on a parallel machine which, in turn, requires significant data movement at runtime. We present a new dynamic load-balancing framework, called JOVE, that balances the workload across all processors with a global view. Whenever the computational mesh is adapted, JOVE is activated to eliminate the load imbalance. JOVE has been implemented on an IBM SP2 distributed-memory machine in MPI for portability. Experimental results for two model meshes demonstrate that mesh adaption with load balancing gives more than a sixfold improvement over one without load balancing. We also show that JOVE gives a 24-fold speedup on 64 processors compared to sequential execution.

Biswas, Rupak↗

Impact of Load Balancing on Unstructured Adaptive Grid Computations for Distributed-Memory Multiprocessors

The computational requirements for an adaptive solution of unsteady problems change as the simulation progresses. This causes workload imbalance among processors on a parallel machine which, in turn, requires significant data movement at runtime. We present a new dynamic load-balancing framework, called JOVE, that balances the workload across all processors with a global view. Whenever the computational mesh is adapted, JOVE is activated to eliminate the load imbalance. JOVE has been implemented on an IBM SP2 distributed-memory machine in MPI for portability. Experimental results for two model meshes demonstrate that mesh adaption with load balancing gives more than a sixfold improvement over one without load balancing. We also show that JOVE gives a 24-fold speedup on 64 processors compared to sequential execution.

Sohn, Andrew↗

New Directions in Asymptotically Stable Finite-dimensional Adaptive Control of Linear Distributed Parameter Systems

Distributed Parameter Systems (DPS), such as systems described by partial differential equations, require infinite-dimensional state space descriptions to correctly model their dynamical behavior. However, any adaptive control algorithm must be finite-dimensional in order to be implemented via on-line digital computers. Finite-dimensional adaptive control of linear DPS requires stability analysis of nonlinear, time-varying, infinite-dimensional systems. The structure of nonadaptive finite-dimensional control of linear DPS is summarized as it relates to the existence of limiting systems for adaptive control. Two candidate schemes for finite-dimensional adaptive control of DPS are described and critical issues in infinite-dimensional stability analysis are discussed, in particular, the invariance principle, center manifold theory, and relationships between input-output and internal stability.

Balas, M. J.↗