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At least 55 records · Page 3

All sources NASA NTRS DOE OSTI

NASA NTRS1990

Proposal for constructing an advanced software tool for planetary atmospheric modeling

Scientific model building can be a time intensive and painstaking process, often involving the development of large and complex computer programs. Despite the effort involved, scientific models cannot easily be distributed and shared with other scientists. In general, implemented scientific models are complex, idiosyncratic, and difficult for anyone but the original scientist/programmer to understand. We believe that advanced software techniques can facilitate both the model building and model sharing process. We propose to construct a scientific modeling software tool that serves as an aid to the scientist in developing and using models. The proposed tool will include an interactive intelligent graphical interface and a high level, domain specific, modeling language. As a testbed for this research, we propose development of a software prototype in the domain of planetary atmospheric modeling.

Keller, Richard M.↗

NASA NTRS1993

Construction of an advanced software tool for planetary atmospheric modeling

Scientific model-building can be a time intensive and painstaking process, often involving the development of large complex computer programs. Despite the effort involved, scientific models cannot be distributed easily and shared with other scientists. In general, implemented scientific models are complicated, idiosyncratic, and difficult for anyone but the original scientist/programmer to understand. We propose to construct a scientific modeling software tool that serves as an aid to the scientist in developing, using and sharing models. The proposed tool will include an interactive intelligent graphical interface and a high-level domain-specific modeling language. As a testbed for this research, we propose to develop a software prototype in the domain of planetary atmospheric modeling.

Friedland, Peter↗

NASA NTRS2009

Software Tools Streamline Project Management

Three innovative software inventions from Ames Research Center (NETMARK, Program Management Tool, and Query-Based Document Management) are finding their way into NASA missions as well as industry applications. The first, NETMARK, is a program that enables integrated searching of data stored in a variety of databases and documents, meaning that users no longer have to look in several places for related information. NETMARK allows users to search and query information across all of these sources in one step. This cross-cutting capability in information analysis has exponentially reduced the amount of time needed to mine data from days or weeks to mere seconds. NETMARK has been used widely throughout NASA, enabling this automatic integration of information across many documents and databases. NASA projects that use NETMARK include the internal reporting system and project performance dashboard, Erasmus, NASA s enterprise management tool, which enhances organizational collaboration and information sharing through document routing and review; the Integrated Financial Management Program; International Space Station Knowledge Management; Mishap and Anomaly Information Reporting System; and management of the Mars Exploration Rovers. Approximately $1 billion worth of NASA s projects are currently managed using Program Management Tool (PMT), which is based on NETMARK. PMT is a comprehensive, Web-enabled application tool used to assist program and project managers within NASA enterprises in monitoring, disseminating, and tracking the progress of program and project milestones and other relevant resources. The PMT consists of an integrated knowledge repository built upon advanced enterprise-wide database integration techniques and the latest Web-enabled technologies. The current system is in a pilot operational mode allowing users to automatically manage, track, define, update, and view customizable milestone objectives and goals. The third software invention, Query-Based Document Management (QBDM) is a tool that enables content or context searches, either simple or hierarchical, across a variety of databases. The system enables users to specify notification subscriptions where they associate "contexts of interest" and "events of interest" to one or more documents or collection(s) of documents. Based on these subscriptions, users receive notification when the events of interest occur within the contexts of interest for associated document or collection(s) of documents. Users can also associate at least one notification time as part of the notification subscription, with at least one option for the time period of notifications.

Source record↗

NASA NTRS1992

Construction of an advanced software tool for planetary atmospheric modeling

Scientific model-building can be a time intensive and painstaking process, often involving the development of large complex computer programs. Despite the effort involved, scientific models cannot be distributed easily and shared with other scientists. In general, implemented scientific models are complicated, idiosyncratic, and difficult for anyone but the original scientist/programmer to understand. We propose to construct a scientific modeling software tool that serves as an aid to the scientist in developing, using and sharing models. The proposed tool will include an interactive intelligent graphical interface and a high-level domain-specific modeling language. As a test bed for this research, we propose to develop a software prototype in the domain of planetary atmospheric modeling.

Friedland, Peter↗

NASA NTRS2001

A Software Tool for Integrated Optical Design Analysis

Design of large precision optical systems requires multi-disciplinary analysis, modeling, and design. Thermal, structural and optical characteristics of the hardware must be accurately understood in order to design a system capable of accomplishing the performance requirements. The interactions between each of the disciplines become stronger as systems are designed lighter weight for space applications. This coupling dictates a concurrent engineering design approach. In the past, integrated modeling tools have been developed that attempt to integrate all of the complex analysis within the framework of a single model. This often results in modeling simplifications and it requires engineering specialist to learn new applications. The software described in this presentation addresses the concurrent engineering task using a different approach. The software tool, Integrated Optical Design Analysis (IODA), uses data fusion technology to enable a cross discipline team of engineering experts to concurrently design an optical system using their standard validated engineering design tools.

Moore, Jim↗

NASA NTRS2019

Software Tool for Tracking & Mapping the NASA Orion AA-2 Test Flight Ejectable Data Recorders in Real Time

On 2 July 2019, the NASA Ascent Abort 2 flight took place off the Florida coast to test the emergency systems to separate the Orion Crew Module (CM) from the future Space Launch System rocket in the event of a malfunction. During this high-altitude test, instrumentation data was recorded on twelve customized buoyant Ejectable Data Recorders (EDRs) and subsequently jettisoned from the CM in mid-air. Upon release, the EDRs activated their GPS-Iridium beacon systems and began transmitting Short Burst Data (SBD) messages via the Iridium satellite network to relay their individual location and system health information. To locate, track and retrieve each EDR from the ocean surface in real-time, multiple open-source programming tools (Python and Linux shells) were developed for parsing the incoming Iridium binary SBD messages. For this, a Linux laptop was used to receive the Iridium-generated emails containing the SBD messages and autonomously execute the parsing tools. The received SBD data contained location, timestamp and health status information that was translated, saved, and subsequently used for simultaneously generating a continuously updated color-coded tabular display summary and unique KML files used with Google Earth to track their locations. Once their locations were known, dedicated recovery vessels retrieved all EDRs from the ocean. An additional tool was also developed in order to generate 5- and 10-minute geolocation predictions for each EDR by deriving the displacement distance, elapsed time, displacement heading and velocity based on the latest known information available. The recovery vessels were also tracked with the use of a separate commercial GPS beacon system. After jettison, 67% of the EDRs transmitted valid data by the time they were retrieved from the ocean. However, the real-time information presented by the plotting tool allowed for the ready depiction of EDR dispersal patterns and reference drift trajectories, which contributed to the recovery of all twelve EDRs and the AA-2 flight data. Lastly, the available data showed that the distance between the software’s reported drift/predicted locations and the recovery locations did not exceed 38 meters, therefore demonstrating the advantages of this software tool for supporting real-time tracking and recovery efforts of beacon devices.

Moxey, Lucas↗

NASA NTRS1990

Constructing an advanced software tool for planetary atmospheric modeling

Scientific model building can be an intensive and painstaking process, often involving the development of large and complex computer programs. Despite the effort involved, scientific models cannot be easily distributed and shared with other scientists. In general, implemented scientific models are complex, idiosyncratic, and difficult for anyone but the original scientist/programmer to understand. We believe that advanced software techniques can facilitate both the model building and model sharing process. In this paper, we describe a prototype for a scientific modeling software tool that serves as an aid to the scientist in developing and using models. This tool includes an interactive intelligent graphical interface, a high level domain specific modeling language, a library of physics equations and experimental datasets, and a suite of data display facilities. Our prototype has been developed in the domain of planetary atmospheric modeling, and is being used to construct models of Titan's atmosphere.

Keller, Richard M.↗

DOE OSTI2022

SPEL: Software tool for Porting E3SM Land Model with OpenACC in a Function Unit Test Framework

Most high-end computers adopt hybrid architecture, porting a large-scale scientific code onto accelerators is necessary. The paper presents a generic method for porting large-scale scientific code onto accelerators using compiler directives within a modularized function unit test platform. We have implemented the method and designed a software tool (SPEL) to port the E3SM Land Model (ELM) onto the GPUs in the Summit computer. SPEL automatically generates GPU-ready test modules for all ELM functions, such as CanopyFlux, SoilTemperature, and EcosystemDynamics. SPEL breaks the ELM into a collection of standalone unit test programs for easy code verification and further performance improvement. We further optimize several ELM test modules with advanced techniques, including memory reduction, reconstructed parallel loops, and asynchronous GPU kernel launch. We hope our study will inspire new toolkit developments that expedite large-scale scientific code porting with compiler directives.

Schwartz, Peter↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Validation of Software Tools for the Analysis of Electrified Aircraft

The Revolutionary Vertical Lift Technology (RVLT) project is addressing the challenges involving the electrification of Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) aircraft. Electrification of aircraft has the potential to reduce fuel consumption, emissions, take-off field length, and noise. This presentation provides insight into the work being conducted by the NASA Glenn Research Center Electric Propulsion (EP) Team in the area of EP software tools, power quality analysis, hardware evaluation, and standards development.

Electrified Aircraft Propulsion (EAP)↗

NASA NTRS2019

CHANGO: A Software Tool for Boost Stage Guidance of the Space Launch System Exploration Mission 1

The Space Launch System (SLS) Exploration Mission 1 (EM-1) test flight will use open-loop guidance for Boost Stage (BS) flight. A table of attitude commands as a function of altitude, called the chi table, will be loaded onto the flight computers. The chi table will be generated using the measured winds on launch day by the Chi Angle Optimizer (CHANGO) software tool. Details of CHANGO’s design are given, including a Three Degrees-of-Freedom (3-DOF) simulation and a numerical minimization routine. CHANGO’s use in launch day operations is also described.

Ahmad, Naeem↗

NASA NTRS2019

CHANGO: A Software Tool for Boost Stage Guidance of the Space Launch System Exploration Mission 1

The Day of Launch Initiation Load Update (DOLILU) System is the means by which the Space Launch System (SLS) Vehicle trajectory is designed, verified, and uploaded on the Day of Launch (DOL) in order to ensure a safe flight. Launch vehicles are designed to fly down a narrow angle of attack and sideslip angle corridor in order to keep them within structural load limits. The angle of attack and sideslip angle response to the launch vehicle experiences can vary significantly based upon the winds experienced on the DOL. SLS Boost Stage flight employs an open-loop guidance scheme through Solid Rocket Booster (SRB) separation. In the SLS open-loop scheme, the vehicle will fly a prescribed set of attitudes as a function of the change in altitude since launch. This set of reference attitude values and corresponding altitude reference independent values are designed with ground software using winds measured on the DOL with the goal of minimizing angle of attack and sideslip angle, thereby minimizing related ascent integrated vehicle structural loads. The table of Boost Stage attitude commands as a function of altitude gained since launch is called the chi table. A software tool called CHANGO (Chi Angle Optimizer) designs the Boost Stage chi table which is uploaded to the vehicle’s flight computer and used during ascent by the flight software (FSW). The wind and atmospheric conditions are measured prior to launch and pre-processed to become input to the CHANGO software along with a set of parameters developed in advance of the DOL. CHANGO’s target set consists of the heading and altitude rate at SRB separation determined well before launch by the Program to Optimize Simulated Trajectories (POST). CHANGO consists of a simplified three degree-of-freedom (3-DOF) simulation representing the SLS launch configuration. In general, the launch azimuth is strongly correlated with the heading at SRB separation, and the initial pitchover rate is strongly correlated with the altitude rate at SRB separation. CHANGO uses an adaptation of Powell’s method to vary the initial pitchover rate and launch azimuth to solve a 2-dimentional minimization problem. CHANGO’s trajectory simulation is phase-based, with flight events separating the phases. Each flight phase has different attitude alignment logic. CHANGO’s 3-DOF simulation starts when the vehicle’s thrust-to-weight ratio equals one, and ends at a pre-calculated SRB separation time.

Ahmad, Naeem↗

NASA NTRS1990

SHAPA: An interactive software tool for protocol analysis applied to aircrew communications and workload

As modern transport environments become increasingly complex, issues such as crew communication, interaction with automation, and workload management have become crucial. Much research is being focused on holistic aspects of social and cognitive behavior, such as the strategies used to handle workload, the flow of information, the scheduling of tasks, the verbal and non-verbal interactions between crew members. Traditional laboratory performance measures no longer sufficiently meet the needs of researchers addressing these issues. However observational techniques are better equipped to capture the type of data needed and to build models of the requisite level of sophistication. Presented here is SHAPA, an interactive software tool for performing both verbal and non-verbal protocol analysis. It has been developed with the idea of affording the researchers the closest possible degree of engagement with protocol data. The researcher can configure SHAPA to encode protocols using any theoretical framework or encoding vocabulary that is desired. SHAPA allows protocol analysis to be performed at any level of analysis, and it supplies a wide variety of tools for data aggregation, manipulation. The output generated by SHAPA can be used alone or in combination with other performance variables to get a rich picture of the influences on sequences of verbal or nonverbal behavior.

James, Jeffrey M.↗

NASA NTRS2002

Comparisons of Kinematics and Dynamics Simulation Software Tools

Kinematic and dynamic analyses for moving bodies are essential to system engineers and designers in the process of design and validations. 3D visualization and motion simulation plus finite element analysis (FEA) give engineers a better way to present ideas and results. Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) system engineering researchers are currently using IGRIP from DELMIA Inc. as a kinematic simulation tool for discrete bodies motion simulations. Although IGRIP is an excellent tool for kinematic simulation with some dynamic analysis capabilities in robotic control, explorations of other alternatives with more powerful dynamic analysis and FEA capabilities are necessary. Kinematics analysis will only examine the displacement, velocity, and acceleration of the mechanism without considering effects from masses of components. With dynamic analysis and FEA, effects such as the forces or torques at the joint due to mass and inertia of components can be identified. With keen market competition, ALGOR Mechanical Event Simulation (MES), MSC visualNastran 4D, Unigraphics Motion+, and Pro/MECHANICA were chosen for explorations. In this study, comparisons between software tools were presented in terms of following categories: graphical user interface (GUI), import capability, tutorial availability, ease of use, kinematic simulation capability, dynamic simulation capability, FEA capability, graphical output, technical support, and cost. Propulsion Test Article (PTA) with Fastrac engine model exported from IGRIP and an office chair mechanism were used as examples for simulations.

Yeu-Sheng Paul Shiue↗

DOE OSTI2022

Grid Utility Asset Vulnerability Assessment (GUAVA) Software Tool

Increasing demand and changes in generation portfolios is pushing power grid to operate towards the limit. However, due to lack of analytical tools for understanding various scales of impact on grid, it is becoming more vulnerable to wide scale power outages and blackouts. A vulnerable grid operating at its limit can be easily disrupted by asset failures caused by devastating hurricanes which has been known to damage transmission and distribution lines along its track. In this direction, researchers have focused on determining these assets by conducting Monte Carlo simulations of hurricanes with uncertainties and collected a large set of simulation data. To determine the infrastructure updates necessary for mitigating wide scale impact of hurricanes on the grid, we propose a software tool named “Grid Utility Asset Vulnerability Analysis” (GUAVA) framework. GUAVA presents a novel data-driven probabilistic analytical approach to (1) post-process hurricane failure scenarios, (2) identify/rank assets that are most vulnerable and critical to failing and are associated with highest impact/risk, and (3) to inform system upgrade decisions & prioritization. Based on the observed results and employed data-driven methodology, it is expected GUAVA can be adapted to provide power system planners with a recommendation engine for making informed decisions to improve resilience of grid.

Mahapatra, Kaveri↗

DOE OSTI2022

Integration of software tools for integrative modeling of biomolecular systems

Integrative modeling computes a model based on varied types of input information, be it from experiments or prior models. Often, a type of input information will be best handled by a specific modeling software package. In such a case, we desire to integrate our integrative modeling software package, Integrative Modeling Platform (IMP), with software specialized to the computational demands of the modeling problem at hand. After several attempts, however, we have concluded that even in collaboration with the software's developers, integration is either impractical or impossible. The reasons for the intractability of integration include software incompatibilities, differing modeling logic, the costs of collaboration, and academic incentives. In the integrative modeling software ecosystem, several large modeling packages exist with often redundant tools. So we reason, therefore, that the other development groups have similarly concluded that the benefit of integration does not justify the cost. As a result, modelers are often restricted to the set of tools within a single software package. The inability to integrate tools from distinct software negatively impacts the quality of the models and the efficiency of the modeling. As the complexity of modeling problems grows, we seek to galvanize developers and modelers to consider the long-term benefit that software interoperability yields. In this article, we formulate a demonstrative set of software standards for implementing a model search using tools from independent software packages and discuss our efforts to integrate IMP and the crystallography suite Phenix within the Bayesian modeling framework.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2025

srlife : A software tool for estimating the life of high temperature concentrating solar receivers. Part II – Ceramic receivers

As Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) technologies aim for higher operating temperatures to enhance efficiency and meet industrial process heat demands, high-temperature metallic materials, including nickel-based superalloys, face challenges in maintaining structural integrity. Advanced ceramics offer a promising alternative due to their superior high-temperature strength. However, accurately assessing the performance of ceramic components requires a fundamentally different approach from that used for metallic components. This Part II of a two-part paper describes the integration of ceramic statistical failure models within srlife – an open-source tool for predicting the life of high-temperature CSP receivers. These models account for the inherent variability in ceramic strength, as well as the effects of subcritical crack growth (SCG) under high temperature cyclic loads. Here, the paper includes an example problem that demonstrate the process of evaluating ceramic receivers using srlife. Part I details the life estimation process for metallic receivers (i.e. creep-fatigue life) along with input and output data structure, thermohydraulic analysis, and structural analysis. The complete tool is available as open-source software at https://github.com/srlife-project/srlife and can be installed via the PyPi package manager (https://pypi.org). By supporting both ceramic and metallic receiver analyses, srlife facilitates fair comparisons between competing metallic and ceramic designs, enabling accurate evaluations of plant efficiency and the economic benefits of ceramic solar receivers and other components.

High temperature ceramic receivers↗

NASA NTRS1985

Pvarray: A software tool for photovoltaic array design

The application of PVARRAY, a software program for design of photovoltaic arrays are described. Results of sample parametric studies on array configurations are presented. It is concluded that PVARRAY could simulate a variety of configurations.

Burger, D. R.↗

NASA NTRS1981

Real time software tools and methodologies

Real time systems are characterized by high speed processing and throughput as well as asynchronous event processing requirements. These requirements give rise to particular implementations of parallel or pipeline multitasking structures, of intertask or interprocess communications mechanisms, and finally of message (buffer) routing or switching mechanisms. These mechanisms or structures, along with the data structue, describe the essential character of the system. These common structural elements and mechanisms are identified, their implementation in the form of routines, tasks or macros - in other words, tools are formalized. The tools developed support or make available the following: reentrant task creation, generalized message routing techniques, generalized task structures/task families, standardized intertask communications mechanisms, and pipeline and parallel processing architectures in a multitasking environment. Tools development raise some interesting prospects in the areas of software instrumentation and software portability. These issues are discussed following the description of the tools themselves.

Christofferson, M. J.↗