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At least 631 records · Page 35

A comparison of frequency domain design and l1-optimal control

A frequency-domain design methodology is applied to a DC motor-speed control system and the results are compared to those obtained using l1-optimal control theory (Pearson and Bamieh, 1990). Both methods synthesize controllers that maximize the allowable size of an unknown-but-bounded disturbance while satisfying prespecified constraints on the control, the control rate, and the outputs. The frequency-domain design technique in general results in much lower-order compensators than those required by the l1-optimal method for a given size of disturbance. Also, the design trade-offs regarding the bandwidth of the system, the size of the disturbance input, and the structural complexity of the controller transfer function become quite transparent.

Jayasuriya, Suhada↗

Development of a shuttle plume radiation heating indicator

The primary objectives were to develop a Base Heating Indicator Code and a new plume radiation code for the Space Shuttle. Additional work included: revision of the Space Shuttle plume radiation environment for changes in configuration and correction of errors, evaluation of radiation measurements to establish a plume radiation model for the SRB High Performance Motor (HPM) plume, radiation predictions for preliminary designs, and participation in hydrogen disposal analysis and testing for the VAFB Shuttle launch site. The two most significant accomplishments were the development of the Base Heating Indicator Code and the Shuttle Engine Plume Radiation (SEPRAD) Code. The major efforts in revising the current Shuttle plume radiation environment were for the Orbiter base heat shield and the ET components in the Orbiter-ET interface region. The work performed is summarized in the technical discussion section with references to the documents containing detailed results. The technical discussion is followed by a summary of conclusions and recommendations for future work.

Reardon, John E.↗

Relatchable launch restraint mechanism for deployable booms

A new Relatchable Launch Mechanism was developed which enables a deployable system to be restrained and released repeatedly rather than the normal one shot release systems of the past. The deployable systems are of the self extending type which rely on a lanyard attached to a drive motor to control the deployment and retraction. The Relatch Mechanism uses the existing drive motor to also actuate the latch. The design and kinematics of the Relatch Mechanism as used on two flight programs are described.

Warden, Robert M.↗

Status of Axisymmetric CFD of an Eleven Inch Diameter Hybrid Rocket Motor

Current status of a steady state, axisymmetric analysis of an experimental 11 inch diameter hybrid rocket motor internal flow field is given. The objective of this effort is to develop a steady state axisymmetric model of the 11 inch hybrid rocket motor which can be used as a design and/or analytical tool. A test hardware description, modeling approach, and future plans are given. The analysis was performed with FDNS implementing several finite rate chemistry sets. A converged solution for a two equation and five species set on a 'fine' grid is shown.

Ruf, Joseph↗

Linear Proof-Mass Actuator

Linear proof-mass actuator (LPMA) is friction-driven linear mass actuator capable of applying controlled force to structure in outer space to damp out oscillations. Capable of high accelerations and provides smooth, bidirectional travel of mass. Design eliminates gears and belts. LPMA strong enough to be used terrestrially where linear actuators needed to excite or damp out oscillations. High flexibility designed into LPMA by varying size of motors, mass, and length of stroke, and by modifying control software.

Holloway, Sidney E., III↗

Eddy Current System and Method for Crack Detection

An eddy current system and method enables detection of sub-surface damage in a cylindrical object. The invention incorporates a dual frequency, orthogonally wound eddy current probe mounted on a stepper motor-controlled scanning system. The system is designed to inspect for outer surface damage from the interior of the cylindrical object.

Wincheski, Russell A.↗

Wide Range Vacuum Pumps for the SAM Instrument on the MSL Curiosity Rover

Creare Incorporated and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center developed and space qualified two wide range pumps (WRPs) that were included in the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument. This instrument was subsequently integrated into the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) "Curiosity Rover," launched aboard an Atlas V rocket in 2011, and landed on August 6, 2012, in the Gale Crater on Mars. The pumps have now operated for more than 18 months in the Gale Crater and have been evacuating the key components of the SAM instrument: a quadrupole mass spectrometer, a tunable laser spectrometer, and six gas chromatograph columns. In this paper, we describe the main design challenges and the ways in which they were solved. This includes the custom design of a miniaturized, high-speed motor to drive the turbo drag pump rotor, analysis of rotor dynamics for super critical operation, and bearing/lubricant design/selection.

Sorensen, Paul↗

A Turbo-Brayton Cryocooler for Aircraft Superconducting Systems

Hybrid turboelectric aircraft-with gas turbines driving electric generators connected to electric propulsion motors-have the potential to transform aircraft design. Decoupling power generation from propulsion enables innovative aircraft designs, such as blended-wing bodies, with distributed propulsion. These hybrid turboelectric aircraft have the potential to significantly reduce emissions, decrease fuel burn, and reduce noise, all of which are required to make air transportation growth projections sustainable. The power density requirements for these electric machines can only be achieved with superconductors, which in turn require lightweight, high-capacity cryocoolers.

Dietz, Anthony↗

Aqueous, QUick-Charging Battery Integration For Electric Flight Research

AQUIFER establishes technical feasibility of an early-stage technology, a high-energy density, aqueous-based, flow battery, resulting in a near-term increase of 1.7 times range over an all-electric battery, while retiring fire and explosion hazards associated with lithium-based chemistries. The Nano-electrofuel (NEF) flow battery will be integrated with a rim-driven motor (RDM) as a multi-functional design to eliminate conductive EMI and weight from long cable runs, and provide liquid cooling from the aqueous fuel. When successful, the technology provides an improved safety energy storage solution for emission-free electric propulsion in commercial aviation.

power systems↗

Mars 2020 Maxon Commercial Motor Development from COTS to Flight Qualified Motors, Gearbox, and Detent Brake: Issues Overcome and Lessons Learned

Building on previous collaborations, maxon and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) established a partnership to modify Ø20mm & Ø32mm Commerical-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) BrushLess Direct Current (BLDC) flat motors and a Ø22mm planetary gearbox.The commercial design was modified to meet the requirements for the Mars2020 rover, a Class B [1], Martian surface environment, interplanetary mission, whilst maintain as much of the industrial heritage as possible. Despite numerous problems encountered during the development, these were all overcome and qualification of the design and acceptance testing for the 10 Flight Model (FM) actuators that were installed on the Mars2020 rover was completed on-time for the rover assembly schedule.

Loschiavo, Michael↗

Design, Fabrication, and Critical Current Testing of No-Insulation Superconducting Rotor Coils for NASA's 1.4 MW High-Efficiency Megawatt Motor

NASA Glenn Research Center is developing a 1.4 MW high-efficiency electric machine for future electrified aircraft to reduce energy consumption, emissions, and noise. This wound-field, synchronous machine employs a self-cooled, superconducting rotor to achieve excellent specific power and efficiency. This paper discusses the design and fabrication of the no-insulation high temperature superconducting (HTS) rotor coils and compares them to conventionally insulated HTS coils. Two sub-scale test coils with epoxy on only one axial face were fabricated. Critical current testing of the coils at 77 K and self field was conducted to study the influence of thermal cycling on their critical current and n-value. After two or four aggressive thermal cycles between 77 K and about 278 K (5 degree C), the critical current and n-value were nearly unchanged, indicating very little to no degradation.

electric aircraft propulsion↗

Improved Speed Control System for the 87,000 HP Wind Tunnel Drive

This paper describes the design, installation, and integrated systems tests for a new drive motor speed control system which was part of a recent rehab project for the NASA Lewis 8x6 Supersonic Wind Tunnel. The tunnel drive consists of three mechanically-coupled 29,000 HP wound rotor induction motors driving an axial flow compressor. Liquid rheostats are used to vary the impedance of the rotor circuits, thus varying the speed of the drive system. The new design utilizes a distributed digital control system with a dual touch screen CRT operator console to provide alarm monitoring, logging, and trending. The liquid rheostats are driven by brushtype servomotor systems with magnetostrictive linear displacement transducers used for position feedback. The new system achieved all goals for speed variations with load, motor load balance, and control of total power.

Becks, Edward A.↗

A 10 deg K triple-expansion Stirling-cycle cryocooler

The design of a triple expansion closed cycle Stirling cryocooler optimized for a cooling load of 50 mW at 10 K is described. The cooler was designed with the objectives of low power, low weight, compactness, low mechanical motion, low electromagnetic noise, and low output temperature fluctuations. The design employs a direct drive linear motion piston motor and a triple expansion free displacer. Piston motion is controlled by feedback from an optical position transducer. Mechanical vibrations are attenuated with a passive resonant counterbalance. Electromagnetic noise is attenuated with layered high permeability magnetic shielding. The regenerators move with the displacer within a thin titanium cold finger. The piston and displacer oscillate at 8.33 Hz on bearings and seals of reinforced Teflon. The cooler is designed to provide the desired 50 mW of cooling at 10 K with a power input of less than 100 W. The piston can be driven at a greater stroke to produce up to 200 mW of cooling with an input power of 250 W. A lead and copper cold tip heat exchanger will limit temperature fluctuations to within 0.01 K.

Newman, W.↗

Electrodynamic Tethers. 1: Power Generator in LEO. 2: Thrust for Propulsion and Power Storage

An electrodynamic tether consists of a long insulated wire in space whose orbital motion cuts across lines of magnetic flux to produce an induce voltage that in typical low orbits averages about 200 v/km. Such a system should be capable of generating substantial electrical power, at the expense of IXB drag acting on its orbital energy. If a reverse current is driven against the induced voltage, the system should act as a motor producing IXB thrust. A reference system was designed, capable of generating 20 KW of power into an electrical load located anywhere along the wire at the expense of 2.6N (20,000 J/sec) drag on the wire. In an ideal system, the conversion between mechanical and electrical energy would reach 100% efficiency. In the actual system part of the 20 KW is lost to internal resistance of the wire, plasma and ionosphere, while the drag force is increased by residual air drag. The 20 KW PMG system as designed is estimated to provide 18.7 KW net power to the load at total drag loss of 20.4 KJ/sec, or an overall efficiency of 92%. Similar systems using heavier wire appear capable of producing power levels in excess of 1 Megawatt at voltages of 2-4 KV, with conversion efficiency between mechanical and electrical power better than 95%. The hollow cathode based system should be readily reversible from generator to motor operation by driving a reverse current using onboard power.

Mccoy, J. E.↗

Metallic Rotor Sizing and Performance Model for Flywheel Systems

The NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC) is developing flywheel system requirements and designs for terrestrial and spacecraft applications. Several generations of flywheels have been designed and tested at GRC using in-house expertise in motors, magnetic bearings, controls, materials and power electronics. The maturation of a flywheel system from the concept phase to the preliminary design phase is accompanied by maturation of the Integrated Systems Performance model, where estimating relationships are replaced by physics based analytical techniques. The modeling can incorporate results from engineering model testing and emerging detail from the design process.

Moore, Camille J.↗

Data communication network at the ASRM facility

This three-year project (February 1991 to February 1994) has involved analyzing and helping to design the communication network for the Advanced Solid Rocket Motor (ASRM) facility at Yellow Creek, near Iuka, MS. The principal concerns in the analysis were the bandwidth (both on average and in the worst case) and the expandability of the network. As the communication network was designed and modified, a careful evaluation of the bandwidth of the network, the capabilities of the protocol, and the requirements of the controllers and computers on the network was required. The overall network, which was heterogeneous in protocol and bandwidth, needed to be modeled, analyzed, and simulated to obtain some degree of confidence in its performance capabilities and in its performance under nominal and heavy loads. The results of our analysis did have an impact on the design and operation of the ASRM facility. During 1993 we analyzed many configurations of this basic network structure. The analyses are described in detail in Section 2 and 3 herein. Section 2 reports on an analysis of the whole network. The preliminary results of that research indicated that the most likely bottleneck as the network traffic increased would be the hubs. Thus a study of Cabletron hubs was initiated. The results of that study are in Section 3. Section 4 herein reports on the final network configuration analyzed. When the ASRM facility was mothballed in December of 1993, this was basically the planned and partially installed network. A briefing was held at NASA/MSFC on December 7, 1993, at which time our final analysis and conclusions were disseminated. This report contains a written record of most of the information disseminated at that briefing.

Moorhead, Robert J., III↗