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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 559 records · Page 31

NASA Tech Briefs, April 2005

Gas-Tolerant Device Senses Electrical Conductivity of Liquid Nanoactuators Based on Electrostatic Forces on Dielectrics Replaceable Microfluidic Cartridges for a PCR Biosensor CdZnTe Image Detectors for Hard-X-Ray Telescopes High-Aperture-Efficiency Horn Antenna Full-Circle Resolver-to-Linear-Analog Converter Continuous, Full-Circle Arctangent Circuit Advanced Three-Dimensional Display System Automatic Focus Adjustment of a Microscope Topics covered include: FastScript3D - A Companion to Java 3D; Generating Mosaics of Astronomical Images; Simulating Descent and Landing of a Spacecraft; Simulating Vibrations in a Complex Loaded Structure; Rover Sequencing and Visualization Program; Software Template for Instruction in Mathematics; Support for User Interfaces for Distributed Systems; Nanostructured MnO2-Based Cathodes for Li-Ion/Polymer Cells; Multi-Layer Laminated Thin Films for Inflatable Structures; Two-Step Laser Ranging for Precise Tracking of a Spacecraft; Growing Aligned Carbon Nanotubes for Interconnections in ICs; Multilayer Composite Pressure Vessels; Texturing Blood-Glucose-Monitoring Optics Using Oxygen Beams; Fault-Tolerant Heat Exchanger; Atomic Clock Based on Opto-Electronic Oscillator; Microfocus/Polycapillary-Optic Crystallographic X-Ray Sys; Depth-Penetrating Luminescence Thermography of Thermal- Barrier Coatings; One-Dimensional Photonic Crystal Superprisms; Measuring Low-Order Aberrations in a Segmented Telescope; Mapping From an Instrumented Glove to a Robot Hand; Application of the Hilbert-Huang Transform to Financial Data; Optimizing Parameters for Deep-Space Optical Communication; and Low-Shear Microencapsulation and Electrostatic Coating.

Source record↗

Forced Oscillation Wind Tunnel Testing for FASER Flight Research Aircraft

As unmanned air vehicles (UAVs) continue to expand their flight envelopes into areas of high angular rate and high angle of attack, modeling the complex unsteady aerodynamics for simulation in these regimes has become more difficult using traditional methods. The goal of this experiment was to improve the current six degree-of-freedom aerodynamic model of a small UAV by replacing the analytically derived damping derivatives with experimentally derived values. The UAV is named the Free-flying Aircraft for Sub-scale Experimental Research, FASER, and was tested in the NASA Langley Research Center 12- Foot Low-Speed Tunnel. The forced oscillation wind tunnel test technique was used to measure damping in the roll and yaw axes. By imparting a variety of sinusoidal motions, the effects of non-dimensional angular rate and reduced frequency were examined over a large range of angle of attack and side-slip combinations. Tests were performed at angles of attack from -5 to 40 degrees, sideslip angles of -30 to 30 degrees, oscillation amplitudes from 5 to 30 degrees, and reduced frequencies from 0.010 to 0.133. Additionally, the effect of aileron or elevator deflection on the damping coefficients was examined. Comparisons are made of two different data reduction methods used to obtain the damping derivatives. The results show that the damping derivatives are mainly a function of angle of attack and have dependence on the non-dimensional rate and reduced frequency only in the stall/post-stall regime

Hoe, Garrison↗

Structured Low-Density Parity-Check Codes with Bandwidth Efficient Modulation

In this work, we study the performance of structured Low-Density Parity-Check (LDPC) Codes together with bandwidth efficient modulations. We consider protograph-based LDPC codes that facilitate high-speed hardware implementations and have minimum distances that grow linearly with block sizes. We cover various higher- order modulations such as 8-PSK, 16-APSK, and 16-QAM. During demodulation, a demapper transforms the received in-phase and quadrature samples into reliability information that feeds the binary LDPC decoder. We will compare various low-complexity demappers and provide simulation results for assorted coded-modulation combinations on the additive white Gaussian noise and independent Rayleigh fading channels.

Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV)↗

Dynamic Emulation of NASA Missions for IVandV: A Case Study of JWST and SLS

Software-Only-Simulations are an emerging but quickly developing field of study throughout NASA. The NASA Independent Verification Validation (IVV) Independent Test Capability (ITC) team has been rapidly building a collection of simulators for a wide range of NASA missions. ITC specializes in full end-to-end simulations that enable developers, VV personnel, and operators to test-as-you-fly. In four years, the team has delivered a wide variety of spacecraft simulations ranging from low complexity science missions such as the Global Precipitation Management (GPM) satellite and the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR), to the extremely complex missions such as the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and Space Launch System (SLS).

Emulation↗

NASA Glenn Engine Control Research Facilities

This document describes NASA Glenn facilities available for performing propulsion control work. This includes a real-time hardware in the loop facility for performing complex, multi-rate simulations. The second facility describes a small engine test stand with a modifiable controller for performing advanced control studies and/or testing engine system modifications.

Control Systems↗

Development of Computational Materials Workflows for Additively Manufactured Metallic Materials to Enable Accelerated Prediction of Fatigue Performance

The maturation of computational materials approaches for fatigue performance prediction in a qualification and certification process is stifled by the ability to validate complex, microstructure-based simulations. Such a validation strategy bears immediate challenges including generating accurate virtual microstructures, efficiently solving physics-based mechanical simulations over relevant spatial and temporal scales, and acquiring high-fidelity calibration and validation data at the appropriate length scale. This presentation will overview these common challenges and present a case study to demonstrate a computational materials workflow for additively manufactured metallic materials. In this study, process-specific defects are characterized using segmented X-Ray micro-computed tomography measurements and overlaid on virtual microstructures. Accelerated crystal plasticity-based fatigue simulations are performed to demonstrate cyclic evolution and localization of mechanical fields in the vicinity of defects in response to their precise spatial configuration. An example of how this computational materials workflow may support next-generation qualification is discussed.

computational materials↗

Heat flow between species in one-dimensional particle plasma simulations

The theory of Eldridge and Feix (1962) is presently applied to characterize the rate of heat flow between two one-dimensional particle species. Formulas derived assuming initial Maxwellian distributions, while complex, are judged applicable to simulators. Tests of the theory by simulations using Langdon and Birdsall's (1985) standard code yield results which indicate that heat flow between species may become rapid when the actual (not necessarily the intended) temperatures differ: thereby presenting a substantial hazard.

Lawson, William S.↗

Tensoral Present and Future

The coding of high-performance fluids simulations requires significant knowledge of both numerical and computational details. The magnitude and complexity of low-level details is often enough to discourage many users of turbulence data wishing to study more important, higher-level fluid dynamical questions. These same complexities are often a practical barrier to simulation experts who develop, verify and maintain the codes which generate this data. Future fluids codes, with high resolution and complex geometries, are likely to involve far more coding complexity. The research--the design and implementation of the Tensoral computer language--aims to greatly ease the coding of today's simulation and post-processing codes and at the same time provide a general computational tool for future simulations.

Dresselhaus, Eliot↗

A Multi-scaled Analysis of Forest Structure using Individual-Based Modeling in a Costa Rican Rainforest

Consideration of scale is essential when examining structural relationships in forests. In this study, we present a parameterization of the FORMIND individual-based forest model for old growth Atlantic lowland rainforest in La Selva, Costa Rica. Results show that the simulated forest reproduces the structural complexity of Costa Rican rainforest within 2.3% of aboveground biomass values, based on comparisons with CARBONO inventory plot data. The Costa Rica FORMIND simulation was then used to investigate the relationship between canopy height and aboveground biomass (AGB), leaf area index (LAI) and gross primary productivity (GPP) at different spatial scales (20 × 20 m, 60 × 60 m, 100mx100m). The relationship between aboveground biomass and height is of particular importance toward the calibration of various remote sensing products including lidar and radar, whereas the LAI and GPP relationships are understudied in this context. We found that the relationship between all three variables and height varies considerably: the relationship is stronger at finer scales and weaker at coarser resolution. However, in all three comparisons, RMSE also decreased as scales coarsened, with the largest difference shown between 100 m and 10 m resolutions in relating AGB to Lorey's height (R^2 decreased by 0.3; RMSE decreased by 114.5 Mg/ha). This suggests that a trade-off between accuracy and precision exists, and further highlights the importance of spatial scale in determining the relatability of forest structure variables.

A.H.Armstrong↗

Credible practice of modeling and simulation in healthcare: ten rules from a multidisciplinary perspective

The complexities of modern biomedicine are rapidly increasing. Thus, modeling and simulation have become increasingly important as a strategy to understand and predict the trajectory of pathophysiology, disease genesis, and disease spread in support of clinical and policy decisions. In such cases, inappropriate or ill-placed trust in the model and simulation outcomes may result in negative outcomes, and hence illustrate the need to formalize the execution and communication of modeling and simulation practices. Although verification and validation have been generally accepted as significant components of a model’s credibility, they cannot be assumed to equate to a holistic credible practice, which includes activities that can impact comprehension and in-depth examination inherent in the devel-opment and reuse of the models. For the past several years, the Committee on Credible Practice of Modeling and Simulation in Healthcare, an interdisciplinary group seeded from a U.S. interagency initiative, has worked to codify best practices. Here, we provide Ten Rules for credible practice of modeling and simulation in healthcare developed from a comparative analysis by the Committee’s multidisciplinary membership, followed by a large stakeholder com-munity survey. These rules establish a unified conceptual framework for modeling and simulation design, implementation, evaluation, dissemination and usage across the modeling and simulation life-cycle. While biomedical science and clinical care domains have somewhat different requirements and expectations for credible practice, our study converged on rules that would be useful across a broad swath of model types. In brief, the rules are: (1) Define context clearly. (2) Use contextually appropriate data. (3) Evaluate within context. (4) List limitations explicitly. (5) Use version control. (6) Document appropriately. (7) Disseminate broadly. (8) Get independent reviews. (9) Test competing imple-mentations. (10) Conform to standards. Although some of these are common sense guidelines, we have found that many are often missed or misconstrued, even by seasoned practitioners. Computational models are already widely used in basic science to generate new biomedical knowledge. As they penetrate clinical care and healthcare policy, contributing to personalized and precision medicine, clinical safety will require established guidelines for the credible practice of modeling and simulation in healthcare.

Credibility↗

Solution adaptive Cartesian grid methods for aerodynamic flows with complex geometries

Cartesian methods for computational fluid dynamics are considered to offer an accurate and robust approach for the simulation of aerodynamic flows around geometrically complex bodies. A part of the ongoing research in this domain is reviewed with the aim of providing insight into the fundamental challenges faced by the practitioners of this approach, and a guide to further research. The integration schemes used in Cartesian solvers are similar to those used in other approaches. The emphasis is on the geometric algorithms, surface modeling and boundary conditions required to design a successful Cartesian mesh scheme.

Aftosmis, Michael J.↗

High performance computing applications in neurobiological research

The human nervous system is a massively parallel processor of information. The vast numbers of neurons, synapses and circuits is daunting to those seeking to understand the neural basis of consciousness and intellect. Pervading obstacles are lack of knowledge of the detailed, three-dimensional (3-D) organization of even a simple neural system and the paucity of large scale, biologically relevant computer simulations. We use high performance graphics workstations and supercomputers to study the 3-D organization of gravity sensors as a prototype architecture foreshadowing more complex systems. Scaled-down simulations run on a Silicon Graphics workstation and scale-up, three-dimensional versions run on the Cray Y-MP and CM5 supercomputers.

Ross, Muriel D.↗

Charlotte - EDC Evaluation and Demonstration (CEED) Human-in-the-Loop Results Briefing to ATD-2 FAA Partners

The Charlotte EDC Evaluation and Demonstration (CEED) was the first Human-In-The-Loop experiment under the Air Traffic Management Technology Demonstration-2 (ATD-2) project. The purpose of the study was fourfold: 1) to establish a simulation environment (Charlotte) for airspace operations for ATD-2 technology, 2) to simulate current-day departures and arrival operations, 3) to assess the impact of current Traffic Management Initiatives (TMI) on Charlotte (CLT) departure flows and en route operations in Washington (ZDC) and Atlanta Centers (ZTL), and 4) to assess the impact of departure takeoff time compliance on airspace operations. The experimental design compared 3 TMIs and 2 compliance levels. Fourteen FAA retired controllers participated in the simulation. In addition, two Traffic Management Coordinators from ZTL and ZDC managed traffic flows. Surface and airborne delays, control efficiency, throughput, realism, workload, and acceptability were assessed and will be compared across the experimental conditions. Participants rated the simulation as very realistic. Results indicate that different TMIs have different impacts on surface and airspace delay. Departure compliance indicates partial benefits to sector complexity and controller workload. This simulation will provide an initial assessment of the tactical scheduling problems that the ATD-2 technology will address in the near term.

airspace technology demonstration 2↗

Numerical propulsion system simulation

The cost of implementing new technology in aerospace propulsion systems is becoming prohibitively expensive. One of the major contributors to the high cost is the need to perform many large scale system tests. Extensive testing is used to capture the complex interactions among the multiple disciplines and the multiple components inherent in complex systems. The objective of the Numerical Propulsion System Simulation (NPSS) is to provide insight into these complex interactions through computational simulations. This will allow for comprehensive evaluation of new concepts early in the design phase before a commitment to hardware is made. It will also allow for rapid assessment of field-related problems, particularly in cases where operational problems were encountered during conditions that would be difficult to simulate experimentally. The tremendous progress taking place in computational engineering and the rapid increase in computing power expected through parallel processing make this concept feasible within the near future. However it is critical that the framework for such simulations be put in place now to serve as a focal point for the continued developments in computational engineering and computing hardware and software. The NPSS concept which is described below will provide that framework.

R.W. Claus↗

Numerical propulsion system simulation

The cost of implementing new technology in aerospace propulsion systems is becoming prohibitively expensive. One of the major contributors to the high cost is the need to perform many large scale system tests. Extensive testing is used to capture the complex interactions among the multiple disciplines and the multiple components inherent in complex systems. The objective of the Numerical Propulsion System Simulation (NPSS) is to provide insight into these complex interactions through computational simulations. This will allow for comprehensive evaluation of new concepts early in the design phase before a commitment to hardware is made. It will also allow for rapid assessment of field-related problems, particularly in cases where operational problems were encountered during conditions that would be difficult to simulate experimentally. The tremendous progress taking place in computational engineering and the rapid increase in computing power expected through parallel processing make this concept feasible within the near future. However it is critical that the framework for such simulations be put in place now to serve as a focal point for the continued developments in computational engineering and computing hardware and software. The NPSS concept which is described will provide that framework.

Lytle, John K.↗

New Computer Simulations of Macular Neural Functioning

We use high performance graphics workstations and supercomputers to study the functional significance of the three-dimensional (3-D) organization of gravity sensors. These sensors have a prototypic architecture foreshadowing more complex systems. Scaled-down simulations run on a Silicon Graphics workstation and scaled-up, 3-D versions run on a Cray Y-MP supercomputer. A semi-automated method of reconstruction of neural tissue from serial sections studied in a transmission electron microscope has been developed to eliminate tedious conventional photography. The reconstructions use a mesh as a step in generating a neural surface for visualization. Two meshes are required to model calyx surfaces. The meshes are connected and the resulting prisms represent the cytoplasm and the bounding membranes. A finite volume analysis method is employed to simulate voltage changes along the calyx in response to synapse activation on the calyx or on calyceal processes. The finite volume method insures that charge is conserved at the calyx-process junction. These and other models indicate that efferent processes act as voltage followers, and that the morphology of some afferent processes affects their functioning. In a final application, morphological information is symbolically represented in three dimensions in a computer. The possible functioning of the connectivities is tested using mathematical interpretations of physiological parameters taken from the literature. Symbolic, 3-D simulations are in progress to probe the functional significance of the connectivities. This research is expected to advance computer-based studies of macular functioning and of synaptic plasticity.

Ross, Muriel D.↗

GTOSS: Generalized Tethered Object Simulation System

GTOSS represents a tether analysis complex which is described by addressing its family of modules. TOSS is a portable software subsystem specifically designed to be introduced into the environment of any existing vehicle dynamics simulation to add the capability of simulating multiple interacting objects (via multiple tethers). These objects may interact with each other as well as with the vehicle into whose environment TOSS is introduced. GTOSS is a stand alone tethered system analysis program, representing an example of TOSS having been married to a host simulation. RTOSS is the Results Data Base (RDB) subsystem designed to archive TOSS simulation results for future display processing. DTOSS is a display post processors designed to utilize the RDB. DTOSS extracts data from the RDB for multi-page printed time history displays. CTOSS is similar to DTOSS, but is designed to create ASCII plot files. The same time history data formats provided for DTOSS (for printing) are available via CTOSS for plotting. How these and other modules interact with each other is discussed.

Lang, David D.↗

Testing Fractal Methods on Observed and Simulated Solar Magnetograms

The term "magnetic complexity" has not been sufficiently quantified. To accomplish this, we must understand the relationship between the observed magnetic field of solar active regions and fractal dimension measurements. Using data from the Marshall Space Flight Center's vector magnetograph ranging from December 1991 to July 2001, we compare the results of several methods of calculating a fractal dimension, e.g., Hurst coefficient, the Higuchi method, power spectrum, and 2-D Wavelet Packet Analysis. In addition, we apply these methods to synthetic data, beginning with representations of very simple dipole regions, ending with regions that are magnetically complex.

Adams, M.↗