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At least 55 records · Page 3

Characterization of the Head Stabilization Response to a Lateral Perturbation During Walking in Older Adults

A main contributor of fractures in older adults is from a lateral fall. The decline in sensory systems results in difficulty maintaining balance stability. Head stabilization contributes to postural control by serving as a stable platform for the sensory systems. The purpose of this study was to characterize the head stabilization response to a lateral perturbation while walking. A total of 16 healthy older adults, aged 66-81 years, walked across a foam pathway 6 times. One piece of the foam pathway covered a movable platform that translated to the left when the subject stepped on the foam. Three trials were randomized in which the platform shifted. Angular rate sensors placed on the center of mass of the head and trunk collected head and trunk movement in all three planes of motion. The roll plane was analyzed to examine motion in the plane of the perturbation. Subjects stepped onto the platform with the right foot. Recovery step time and distance were recorded. The first trial was analyzed to capture the novelty of the perturbation. Results indicate a significant difference in footfall distance t=0.004, p<0.05, as well as the speed of foot recovery t=0.001, p<0.05, between natural and perturbed walking. Results indicate that the head t=0.005, p<0.05, and trunk t=0.0001, p<0.05, velocities increase during perturbed compared to natural walking. Older adults place their recovery foot down faster when perturbed to re-establish their base of support. Head and trunk segments are less stable and move with greater velocities to reestablish stability when perturbed.

Buccello-Stout, Regina R.↗

Optimal Input Design for Aircraft Stability and Control Flight Testing

Flight testing to characterize aircraft stability and control is a complex and expensive task that involves restrictive practical constraints. Methods are examined for optimizing the inputs applied to aircraft controls during flight test maneuvers to produce informative flight data. Theory underpinning optimal input design for stability and control flight testing is explained. The merits and limitations of optimal inputs are discussed, along with optimization approaches and practical considerations involved in applying optimal inputs in a real flight test environment. Simulated and flight test case studies of optimal multiple-input design for aircraft stability and control flight testing are presented and discussed.

optimal input design↗

Predictive and Neural Predictive Control of Uncertain Systems

Accomplishments and future work are:(1) Stability analysis: the work completed includes characterization of stability of receding horizon-based MPC in the setting of LQ paradigm. The current work-in-progress includes analyzing local as well as global stability of the closed-loop system under various nonlinearities; for example, actuator nonlinearities; sensor nonlinearities, and other plant nonlinearities. Actuator nonlinearities include three major types of nonlineaxities: saturation, dead-zone, and (0, 00) sector. (2) Robustness analysis: It is shown that receding horizon parameters such as input and output horizon lengths have direct effect on the robustness of the system. (3) Code development: A matlab code has been developed which can simulate various MPC formulations. The current effort is to generalize the code to include ability to handle all plant types and all MPC types. (4) Improved predictor: It is shown that MPC design using better predictors that can minimize prediction errors. It is shown analytically and numerically that Smith predictor can provide closed-loop stability under GPC operation for plants with dead times where standard optimal predictor fails. (5) Neural network predictors: When neural network is used as predictor it can be shown that neural network predicts the plant output within some finite error bound under certain conditions. Our preliminary study shows that with proper choice of update laws and network architectures such bound can be obtained. However, much work needs to be done to obtain a similar result in general case.

Kelkar, Atul G.↗

Experimental Characterization of the Dimensional Stability of Deployable Composite Booms During Stowage

Thin-ply carbon fiber reinforced polymer materials offer the opportunity to create long thin-shell booms with high strength to weight ratios. These booms can be rolled up and stowed in small volumes to be later deployed. These features make them ideal for use in gossamer solar sails as well as other deployable space structures. It has been observed that stowing the booms in rolled-up configurations can cause time-dependent deformations. A comprehensive understanding of the detrimental effects of stowing the coiled booms is necessary to implement these structures in spaceflight missions. During stowage inside the spacecraft, the boom is subjected to a constant deformation/strain that causes it to relax over time, measurable by a decrease in stress. Using large deformation bending tests, the complete fold-stow-unfold-recover cycle of thin-laminate candidates for the rollable booms is characterized. Further bending and stowage testing is done at the boom level. The results from this test campaign will be used to evaluate the dimensional stability of deployable booms made from thin-ply composites that exhibit visco-elasto-plastic behavior and calibrate and validate numerical finite element models that include visco-elasto-plastic material models.

Experimental Characterization↗

Task III: Development of an Effective Computational Methodology for Body Force Representation of High-speed Rotor 37

A framework for an effective computational methodology for characterizing the stability and the impact of distortion in high-speed multi-stage compressor is being developed. The methodology consists of using a few isolated-blade row Navier-Stokes solutions for each blade row to construct a body force database. The purpose of the body force database is to replace each blade row in a multi-stage compressor by a body force distribution to produce same pressure rise and flow turning. To do this, each body force database is generated in such a way that it can respond to the changes in local flow conditions. Once the database is generated, no hrther Navier-Stokes computations are necessary. The process is repeated for every blade row in the multi-stage compressor. The body forces are then embedded as source terms in an Euler solver. The method is developed to have the capability to compute the performance in a flow that has radial as well as circumferential non-uniformity with a length scale larger than a blade pitch; thus it can potentially be used to characterize the stability of a compressor under design. It is these two latter features as well as the accompanying procedure to obtain the body force representation that distinguish the present methodology from the streamline curvature method. The overall computational procedures have been developed. A dimensional analysis was carried out to determine the local flow conditions for parameterizing the magnitudes of the local body force representation of blade rows. An Euler solver was modified to embed the body forces as source terms. The results from the dimensional analysis show that the body forces can be parameterized in terms of the two relative flow angles, the relative Mach number, and the Reynolds number. For flow in a high-speed transonic blade row, they can be parameterized in terms of the local relative Mach number alone.

Tan, Choon-Sooi↗

Characterization of the dimensional stability of advanced metallic materials using an optical test bench structure

The dimensional stability of low-density high specific-strength metal-matrix composites (including 30 vol pct SiC(p)/SXA 24-T6 Al, 25 vol pct SiC(p)/6061-T6 Al, 40 vol pct graphite P100 fiber/6061 Al, 50 vol pct graphite P100 fiber/6061 Al, and 40 vol pct P100 graphite fiber/AZ91D Mg composites) and an Al-Li-Mg metal alloy was evaluated using a specially designed five-strut optical test bench structure. The structure had 30 thermocouple locations, one retroreflector, one linear interferometer multilayer insulation, and various strip heaters. It was placed in a 10 exp -7 torr capability vacuum chamber with a laser head positioned at a window port, and a laser interferometer system for collecting dimensional change data. It was found that composite materials have greater 40-C temporal dimensional stability than the AL-Li-Mg alloy. Aluminum-based composites demonstrated better 40-C temporal stability than Mg-based composites.

Hsieh, Cheng↗

A multiloop generalization of the circle criterion for stability margin analysis

In order to provide a theoretical tool suited for characterizing the stability margins of multiloop feedback systems, multiloop input-output stability results generalizing the circle stability criterion are considered. Generalized conic sectors with 'centers' and 'radii' determined by linear dynamical operators are employed to specify the stability margins as a frequency dependent convex set of modeling errors (including nonlinearities, gain variations and phase variations) which the system must be able to tolerate in each feedback loop without instability. The resulting stability criterion gives sufficient conditions for closed loop stability in the presence of frequency dependent modeling errors, even when the modeling errors occur simultaneously in all loops. The stability conditions yield an easily interpreted scalar measure of the amount by which a multiloop system exceeds, or falls short of, its stability margin specifications.

Safonov, M. G.↗

Assessing Spontaneous Combustion Instability with Recurrence Quantification Analysis

Spontaneous instabilities can pose a significant challenge to verification of combustion stability, and characterizing its onset is an important avenue of improvement for stability assessments of liquid propellant rocket engines. Recurrence Quantification Analysis (RQA) is used here to explore nonlinear combustion dynamics that might give insight into instability. Multiple types of patterns representative of different dynamical states are identified within fluctuating chamber pressure data, and markers for impending instability are found. A class of metrics which describe these patterns is also calculated. RQA metrics are compared with and interpreted against another metric from nonlinear time series analysis, the Hurst exponent, to help better distinguish between stable and unstable operation.

Eberhart, Chad J.↗

A multiloop generalization of the circle criterion for stability margin analysis

In order to provide a theoretical tool well suited for use in characterizing the stability margins (e.g., gain and phase margins) of multiloop feedback systems, multiloop input-output stability results generalizing the circle stability criterion are considered. Generalized conic sectors with 'centers' and 'radii' determined by linear dynamical operators are employed to enable an engineer to specify the stability margins which he desires as a frequency-dependent convex set of modeling errors (including nonlinearities, gain variations, and phase variations) which the system must be able to tolerate in each feedback loop without instability. The resulting stability criterion gives sufficient conditions for closed-loop stability in the presence of such frequency-dependent modeling errors, even when the modeling errors occur simultaneously in all loops.

Safonov, M. G.↗

Thermally stable, low dielectric polyquinolines for aerospace and electronics applications

Four new high molecular weight, linear chain polyquinolines have been synthesized and fabricated into high quality free standing films. These polymers are characterized by moderate to high glass transition temperatures, excellent thermal and thermooxidative stability, extremely low dielectric constants and good planarizing characteristics. The polymers absorb very low quantities of moisture. As a consequence, the dielectric constant of one new polyquinoline has been shown to be quite insensitive to exposure to warm/wet conditions. Isothermal aging of one new derivative in air has been carried out at elevated temperatures (250 C to 345 C). The results demonstrate truly outstanding thermooxidative stability. Additional characterizations include molecular weight determinations, solubilities and film-forming characteristics, density measurements, and UV-Vis spectroscopy. The data acquired to date suggest that the polymers may find use as refractive films and coatings and as interlevel planarizers in microelectronics applications.

Hendricks, Neil H.↗

Robustness margin calculation with dynamic and real parametric uncertainty

The problem of robust stability in feedback control systems with real uncertain parameters and unmodeled dynamics, where the latter takes the form of one complex block dynamic uncertainty, is considered. A robustness margin Tm is defined with respect to such model uncertainty structure and robust stability is characterized in terms of it. An algorithm to calculate Tm and the closely related multivariable stability margin km and structured singular value mu measures of robust stability is developed. It is shown that other control problems, such as robust performance for real parametric uncertainty, can also be handled in this framework.

Sideris, Athanasios↗

Using Dome Concordia to Characterize the Long-Term Stability of VIIRS Thermal Emissive Bands

The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instruments aboard the Suomi NPP and NOAA-20 spacecraft have successfully provided Earth image products since 2011 and 2017, respectively. Maintaining accurate radiometric calibration and calibration consistency between the two sensors is a necessity for the continued quality of long-term data records. In this work, the use of frequent VIIRS measurements of brightness temperature over the area surrounding Dome Concordia (Dome C), Antarctica (75.1 °S, 123.4°E) to track the long-term stability of its thermal emissive bands (TEB) is presented. The extremely dry, cold, and rarefied atmosphere of the site makes it ideal to track and detect long-term changes in the TEB responses via analysis of near-nadir and off-nadir VIIRS overpasses in reference to the surface temperature measurements provided by an automated weather station (AWS). Multi-year Dome C measurements have been used to assess the stability of the VIIRS response-versus-scan-angle (RVS) of the half-angle-mirror (HAM), derived from prelaunch characterization, and detector differences at multiple scan angles. Also, included in this work is the RVS stability assessments using the Dome C overpasses. The methodology developed via this work will also be applied to the recently launched VIIRS instrument onboard the NOAA-21 satellite (previously JPSS-2) in the future.

Amit Angal↗

Ten Year Ozone Profile Record From Suomi NPP OMPS Limb Profiler

In this study, we evaluate a decadal ozone profile record derived from Suomi NPP Ozone Mapping and Profiler Suite (OMPS) Limb Profiler (LP). The data from OMPS LP were re-processed with the new retrieval algorithm from 2012 to present. The new reprocessing includes adjustments in both Level 1 and Level 2 algorithms. The sensor’s altitude registration, updates in radiometric calibrations, under-sampling and stray light corrections were addressed in Level 1 processing. The new retrieval algorithm (version 2.7) combines measurements from UV and VIS parts of the spectra to retrieve a single vertical ozone profile between 12.5 km (or cloud tops) and 57.5 km, unlike to previous version 2.5 where ozone profiles were retrieved independently from UV and VIS. To improve ozone retrievals in the Upper Troposphere Lower Stratosphere (UTLS) region, we implemented a new aerosol correction that assumes a gamma-function particle size distribution. In addition, ozone and nitrogen dioxide cross sections and climatologies were updated. We discuss sensitivity of the ozone retrievals to implemented changes in Level 1 and Level 2 algorithms. We focus our analysis on evaluation of the stability of the 10-year record from OMPS LP. We show results from the internal methods for characterizing the stability of the LP altitude registration and compare the LP reflectivity and ozone with the similar quantities measured by OMPS nadir sensors. Finally, we will show results from comparisons with independent satellite (MLS and SAGE III) and ozone sonde measurements.

Ozone↗