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Tests and analysis indicated the need to protect the Voyager spacecraft from electrostatic discharges in the Jupiter energetic charged particle environment. This paper describes the identified problem areas, the test and analysis methods and results, the resultant design changes, and the final assessment of the design changes and verification methods.
The requirements for a preliminary design study and verification procedure for a total main rotor isolation system at n/rev are established. The system is developed and analyzed, and predesign drawings are created for an isolation system that achieves over 95 percent isolation of all six degrees of freedom.
The design, fabrication, and verification tests of two optical bench structures fabricated under contract to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory are discussed. It is noted that graphite-epoxy and invar have been selected as the structural materials for the bench. The ability to manufacture a precise graphite-epoxy optical system platform has been demonstrated. It is noted that the 19 channel laser interferometer was used to measure the CTE of the bench structure graphite-epoxy components and the two invar bulkheads.
Recent progress in the analysis and prediction of the dynamic behavior of wind turbine generators is discussed. The following areas were addressed: (1) the adequacy of state of the art analysis tools for designing the next generation of wind power systems; (2) the use of state of the art analysis tools designers; and (3) verifications of theory which might be lacking or inadequate. Summaries of these informative discussions as well as the questions and answers which followed each paper are documented in the proceedings.
The design, implementation, and verification of a computerized model for predicting the steady-state sinusoidal response of radial (tree) configured distribution feeders was undertaken. That work demonstrated the feasibility and validity based on verification measurements made on a limited size portion of an actual live feeder. On that basis a follow-on effort concerned with (1) extending the verification based on a greater variety of situations and network size, (2) extending the model capabilities for reverse direction propagation, (3) investigating parameter sensitivities, (4) improving transformer models, and (5) investigating procedures/fixes for ameliorating propagation trouble spots was conducted. Results are summarized.
Program documentation concerning the design, implementation, and verification of a computerized model for predicting the steady-state sinusoidal response of radial configured distribution feeders is presented in these appendices.
This paper reports on the fabrication and ground testing of (a) a large area, light-weight, flexible substrate developmental solar array wing that has been built for NASA-MSFC and of (b) the supporting structure and data acquisition system (DAS) which, with the wing, will be flown in the Shuttle as an experiment in 1984. The experiment will verify the dynamics, thermodynamic, and electrical performance predictions of the array wing and will demonstrate the structural capability of the array wing for Orbiter launch and re-entry environments. The experiment hardware verification program was designed to minimize costs and risk of experiment performance degradation while maintaining Shuttle and crew safety. The previous full-scale wing hardware tests included an extension mast water table test and wing testing for random vibration, thermal vacuum, and acoustic environments. The results of these tests were used to define wing design modifications and to scope the test program for the experiment hardware.
This report discusses and documents the design, development, and verification of a microcomputer-based solar cell math model for simulating the Space Station's solar array Initial Operational Capability (IOC) reference configuration. The array model is developed utilizing a linear solar cell dc math model requiring only five input parameters: short circuit current, open circuit voltage, maximum power voltage, maximum power current, and orbit inclination. The accuracy of this model is investigated using actual solar array on orbit electrical data derived from the Solar Array Flight Experiment/Dynamic Augmentation Experiment (SAFE/DAE), conducted during the STS-41D mission. This simulator provides real-time simulated performance data during the steady state portion of the Space Station orbit (i.e., array fully exposed to sunlight). Eclipse to sunlight transients and shadowing effects are not included in the analysis, but are discussed briefly. Integrating the Solar Array Simulator (SAS) into the Power Management and Distribution (PMAD) subsystem is also discussed.
The Software Automation, Generation and Administration (SAGA) project is investigating the design and construction of practical software engineering environments for developing and maintaining aerospace systems and applications software. The research includes the practical organization of the software lifecycle, configuration management, software requirements specifications, executable specifications, design methodologies, programming, verification, validation and testing, version control, maintenance, the reuse of software, software libraries, documentation, and automated management.
NASA-Langley has accomplished the computational design and experimental verification of EA-6B aircraft wing modifications for improved high lift capability. The modifications are comparatively simple, and attempt to improve low speed high lift performance while maintaining high speed cruise efficiency. Several two- and three-dimensional low speed and transonic computational techniques were employed, together with extensive wind tunnel tests. The modified inboard and outboard edge slat/flap system sections yielded efficiency improvements that were verified by three-dimensional wind tunnel experiments to amount to an 11-percent wing-body lift coefficient enhancement at low speed.
The present status of various types of low-Reynolds number aerodynamics research being conducted at the Fluid Dynamics Branch of NASA Langley Research Center is reviewed. The facilities, testing techniques, airfoil design, and experimental verification are addressed, and ongoing studies of laminar separation bubbles, boundary layer stability and transition control, and low-Reynolds number juncture flow are discussed. The possibility of improving vehicle characteristics at low Reynolds numbers and the general trends of the most promising research in these areas are examined.
The experimental data obtained in this program gives insight into the physical phenomena that occur on a film cooled airfoil, and should provide a relevant data base for verification of new design tools. Results indicate that the downstream film cooling process is a complex function of the thermal dilution and turbulence augmentation parameters with trends actually reversing as blowing strength and coolant-to-gas temperature ratio varied. The pressure surface of the airfoil is shown to exhibit a considerably higher degree of sensitivity to changes in the film cooling parameters and, consequently, should prove to be more of a challenge than the suction surface in accurately predicting heat transfer levels with downsteam film cooling.
In picture processing an important problem is to identify two digital pictures of the same scene taken under different lighting conditions. This kind of problem can be found in remote sensing, satellite signal processing and the related areas. The identification can be done by transforming the gray levels so that the gray level histograms of the two pictures are closely matched. The transformation problem can be solved by using the packing method. Researchers propose a VLSI architecture consisting of m x n processing elements with extensive parallel and pipelining computation capabilities to speed up the transformation with the time complexity 0(max(m,n)), where m and n are the numbers of the gray levels of the input picture and the reference picture respectively. If using uniprocessor and a dynamic programming algorithm, the time complexity will be 0(m(3)xn). The algorithm partition problem, as an important issue in VLSI design, is discussed. Verification of the proposed architecture is also given.
A Multipurpose Hardened Spacecraft Multilayer Insulation (MLI) system was developed and implemented to meet diverse survivability and performance requirements. Within the definition and confines of a MLI assembly (blanket), the design: (1) provides environmental protection from natural and induced nuclear, thermal, and electromagnetic radiation; (2) provides adequate electrostatic discharge protection for a geosynchronous satellite; (3) provides adequate shielding to meet radiated emission needs; and (4) will survive ascent differential pressure loads between enclosed volume and space. The MLI design is described which meets these requirements and design evolution and verification is discussed. The application is for MLI blankets which closeout the area between the laser crosslink subsystem (LCS) equipment and the DSP spacecraft cabin. Ancillary needs were implemented to ease installation at launch facility and to survive ascent acoustic and vibration loads. Directional venting accommodations were also incorporated to avoid contamination of LCS telescope, spacecraft sensors, and second surface mirrors (SSMs).
The primary objective of structural analysis of aerospace applications is to obtain a verified finite element model (FEM). The verified FEM can be used for loads analysis, evaluate structural modifications, or design control systems. Verification of the FEM is generally obtained as the result of correlating test and FEM models. A test analysis model (TAM) is very useful in the correlation process. A TAM is essentially a FEM reduced to the size of the test model, which attempts to preserve the dynamic characteristics of the original FEM in the analysis range of interest. Numerous methods for generating TAMs have been developed in the literature. The major emphasis of this paper is a description of the procedures necessary for creation of the TAM and the correlation of the reduced models with the FEM or the test results. Herein, three methods are discussed, namely Guyan, Improved Reduced System (IRS), and Hybrid. Also included are the procedures for performing these analyses using MSC/NASTRAN. Finally, application of the TAM process is demonstrated with an experimental test configuration of a ten bay cantilevered truss structure.
The concept of rubustness includes design simplicity, component and path redundancy, desensitization to the parameter and environment variations, control of parameter variations, and punctual operations. These characteristics must be traded with functional concepts, materials, and fabrication approach against the criteria of performance, cost, and reliability. The paper describes the robustness design process, which includes the following seven major coherent steps: translation of vision into requirements, definition of the robustness characteristics desired, criteria formulation of required robustness, concept selection, detail design, manufacturing and verification, operations.
We provide an overview of the Stanford How Things Work (HTW) project, an ongoing integrated collection of research activities in the Knowledge Systems Laboratory at Stanford University. The project is developing technology for representing knowledge about engineered devices in a form that enables the knowledge to be used in multiple systems for multiple reasoning tasks and reasoning methods that enable the represented knowledge to be effectively applied to the performance of the core engineering task of simulating and analyzing device behavior. The central new capabilities currently being developed in the project are automated assistance with model formulation and with verification that a design for an electro-mechanical device satisfies its functional specification.
This document contains the results of a collection of selected cooperative research projects between principal investigators in the microgravity combustion science programs, sponsored by NASA and NEDO. Cooperation involved the use of drop towers in Japan and the United States, and the sharing of subsequent research data and findings. The topical areas include: (1) Interacting droplet arrays, (2) high pressure binary fuel sprays, (3) sooting droplet combustion, (4) flammability limits and dynamics of spherical, premixed gaseous flames and, (5) ignition and transition of flame spread across thin solid fuel samples. All of the investigators view this collaboration as a success. Novel flame behaviors were found and later published in archival journals. In some cases the experiments provided verification of the design and behavior in subsequent experiments performed on the Space Shuttle. In other cases, the experiments provided guidance to experiments that are expected to be performed on the International Space Station.