Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “large system simulation”

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.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 631 records · Page 35
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1986

Nonlinear attitude control of elastic spacecraft-antenna system

An approach to large angle rotational maneuvers of a spacecraft-beam-tip body (an antenna or a reflector) configuration based on nonlinear invertibility and linear feedback stabilization is presented. A control law u sub d is derived to obtain independent decoupled control of attitude angles, lateral elastic deflections, slopes due to bending and angular deflection due to torsion at the tip of the beam using torquers and force actuators. For the stabilization of the elastic oscillations, a linear feedback control law, u sub s, is obtained based on a linearized model about the terminal state augmented with a servo-compensator. Simulation results obtained for single axis control, for simplicity, show that large slewing and elastic mode stabilization can be accomplished in spite of uncertainty in the system using the total control u = u sub d + u sub s.

Singh, S. N.↗
NASA NTRS1980

Adaptive and learning control of large space structures

The paper describes the adaptive learning system for space operations which assumes that structural testing can be conducted during deployment and assembly. Simulation results using the solar electric propulsion array and a novel remote sensor are presented; they involve faster scan television coverage of the motions of the array from four cameras on the corners of the Space Shuttle payload bay. The description of the simulation, the filtering algorithm for processing the TV data, the parameter extraction algorithm, and the simulation results are presented.

Montgomery, R. C.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Optimizing tertiary storage organization and access for spatio-temporal datasets

We address in this paper data management techniques for efficiently retrieving requested subsets of large datasets stored on mass storage devices. This problem represents a major bottleneck that can negate the benefits of fast networks, because the time to access a subset from a large dataset stored on a mass storage system is much greater that the time to transmit that subset over a network. This paper focuses on very large spatial and temporal datasets generated by simulation programs in the area of climate modeling, but the techniques developed can be applied to other applications that deal with large multidimensional datasets. The main requirement we have addressed is the efficient access of subsets of information contained within much larger datasets, for the purpose of analysis and interactive visualization. We have developed data partitioning techniques that partition datasets into 'clusters' based on analysis of data access patterns and storage device characteristics. The goal is to minimize the number of clusters read from mass storage systems when subsets are requested. We emphasize in this paper proposed enhancements to current storage server protocols to permit control over physical placement of data on storage devices. We also discuss in some detail the aspects of the interface between the application programs and the mass storage system, as well as a workbench to help scientists to design the best reorganization of a dataset for anticipated access patterns.

Chen, Ling Tony↗
NASA NTRS2005

Using Dynamic Simulations and Automated Decision Tools to Design Lunar Habitats

This paper describes the role of transient simulations, heuristic techniques, and closed loop integrated control in designing and sizing habitat life support systems. The integration of these three elements allows for more accurate requirements to be derived in advance of hardware choices. As a test case, we used a typical lunar surface habitat. Large numbers of habitat configurations were rapidly tested and evaluated using automated decision support tools. Through this process, preliminary sizing for habitat life support systems were derived. Our preliminary results show that by using transient simulations and closed loop control , we substantially reduced the system mass required to meet mission goals. This has greater implications for general systems analyses and for life support systems. It is likely that transient models, realtime integrated control, and other analyses capable of capturing the uncertainties of systems can be useful for systems analyses much earlier in the system development life cycle than has previously been considered.

Bell, Scott↗
NASA NTRS2018

Dynamic Adjustment of Simulation Parameters for Efficient Vehicle Prognostics

Model-based diagnostics and prognostics rely on state estimation and uncertainty management algorithms to produce useful information for system operators and maintainers. This information enables more informed operational decisions, condition-based maintenance, and overall mission safety assurance. Typically, uncertainty is associated with vehicle state-of-health estimation and prediction results because of modeling errors, internal or external sources of noise, and sensor inaccuracy. Probabilistic uncertainty management methods including Sequential Monte Carlo simulation are commonly used to reason about state-of-health estimates and predictions in the presence of these sources of uncertainty. However, such algorithms can be computationally expensive as they require a very large number of samples to obtain a sufficiently accurate quantification of the end of life probability distribution. As a result, highly mobile autonomous systems that leverage the prognostic results for mission-level replanning are often constrained in their processing capability because of these computationally expensive simulation approaches. Therefore, in this paper, we investigate algorithmic methods for dynamically adjusting simulation time step as well as number of samples to achieve highly efficient prognostic results while maintaining results accuracy. Results obtained from simulated flight experiments of an electric unmanned aerial vehicle are presented to verify the efficacy of such algorithms.

Prognostics↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Stochastic Verification by Analysis for Autonomous Systems Management Architecture (ASMA)

The Gateway Vehicle Systems Manager (VSM) is the top-level of a distributed, hierarchical software control system. VSM is data-driven and will make decisions related to mission, fault, resource management and vehicle control. These attributes combined with a high degree of autonomy make it susceptible to emergent behavior. In order to achieve the high level of confidence needed in this critical system, the VSM team has developed a multifaceted verification strategy employing traditional verification techniques, simulation, model checking, and runtime verification. Individual algorithms are verified using conventional testing and model checking using assume-guarantee contracts. A discrete event-based simulation approach is being developed to verify timelines. This presentation describes an enhancement to the verification approach using analysis to enhance system robustness by detecting and resolving the potential for emergent behavior. The verification by analysis employs a Software in the Loop (SITL) environment with real flight software executing on emulated processors, simulations of vehicle subsystems, flight dynamics, and human inputs. Since the possible input space and configuration data set are too large for exhaustive testing, a Monte Carlo approach is used to cover feasible scenarios, augmented with corner cases and known higher-risk scenarios. A key problem in using Monte Carlo-based system verification is evaluating test results to ensure that system behavior is correct. The presentation describes the approach the VSM team uses to monitor behavior for compliance with predetermined boundaries and to identify anomalous behavior for further analysis. This presentation describes the multi-level systems approach to verification, and the simulation-based layer that covers the feasible state space: 1. Overview of the Gateway VSM 2. Special challenges due to heterogeneous, hierarchical architecture 3. Modeling and simulation environment using flight software and system simulations 4. Developing input sets to ensure state-space coverage 5. Developing model and data configuration sets to ensure model coverage 6. Interpreting results without predetermined outcomes 7. Lessons learned and future work

Verification and Validation↗
NASA NTRS2000

Calculating Free Energies Using Scaled-Force Molecular Dynamics Algorithm

One common objective of molecular simulations in chemistry and biology is to calculate the free energy difference between different states of the system of interest. Examples of problems that have such an objective are calculations of receptor-ligand or protein-drug interactions, associations of molecules in response to hydrophobic, and electrostatic interactions or partition of molecules between immiscible liquids. Another common objective is to describe evolution of the system towards a low energy (possibly the global minimum energy), 'native' state. Perhaps the best example of such a problem is folding of proteins or short RNA molecules. Both types of problems share the same difficulty. Often, different states of the system are separated by high energy barriers, which implies that transitions between these states are rare events. This, in turn, can greatly impede exploration of phase space. In some instances this can lead to 'quasi non-ergodicity', whereby a part of phase space is inaccessible on timescales of the simulation. A host of strategies has been developed to improve efficiency of sampling the phase space. For example, some Monte Carlo techniques involve large steps which move the system between low-energy regions in phase space without the need for sampling the configurations corresponding to energy barriers (J-walking). Most strategies, however, rely on modifying probabilities of sampling low and high-energy regions in phase space such that transitions between states of interest are encouraged. Perhaps the simplest implementation of this strategy is to increase the temperature of the system. This approach was successfully used to identify denaturation pathways in several proteins, but it is clearly not applicable to protein folding. It is also not a successful method for determining free energy differences. Finally, the approach is likely to fail for systems with co-existing phases, such as water-membrane systems, because it may lead to spontaneous mixing. A similar difficulty may be encountered in any method relying on global modifications of phase space.

Darve, Eric↗
NASA NTRS2000

Test Capabilities and Recent Experiences in the NASA Langley 8-Foot High Temperature Tunnel

The NASA Langley 8-Foot High Temperature Tunnel is a combustion-heated hypersonic blowdown-to-atmosphere wind tunnel that provides flight enthalpy simulation for Mach numbers of 4, 5, and 7 through an altitude range from 50,000 to 120,000 feet. The open-.jet test section is 8-ft. in diameter and 12-ft. long. The test section will accommodate large air-breathing hypersonic propulsion systems as well as structural and thermal protection system components. Stable wind tunnel test conditions can be provided for 60 seconds. Additional test capabilities are provided by a radiant heater system used to simulate ascent or entry heating profiles. The test medium is the combustion products of air and methane that are burned in a pressurized combustion chamber. Oxygen is added to the test medium for air-breathing propulsion tests so that the test gas contains 21 percent molar oxygen. The facility was modified extensively in the late 1980's to provide airbreathing propulsion testing capability. In this paper, a brief history and general description of the facility are presented along with a discussion of the types of supported testing. Recently completed tests are discussed to explain the capabilities this facility provides and to demonstrate the experience of the staff.

Hodge, Jeffrey S.↗
NASA NTRS2017

Near Earth Asteroid Scout Solar Sail Thrust and Torque Model

The Near Earth Asteroid (NEA) Scout is a solar sail mission whose objective is to scout at least one Near Earth Asteroid to help prepare for human missions to Near Earth Asteroids. NEA Scout will launch as a secondary payload on the first SLS-Orion mission. NEA Scout will perform a small trim maneuver shortly after deploy from the spent SLS upper stage using a cold gas propulsion system, but from that point on will depend entirely on the solar sail for thrust. As such, it is important to accurately characterize the thrust of the sail in order to achieve mission success. Additionally, the solar sail creates a relatively large solar disturbance torque that must be mitigated. For early mission design studies a flat plate model of the solar sail with a fixed center of pressure was adequate, but as mission concepts and the sail design matured, greater fidelity was required. Here we discuss the progress to a three-dimensional sail model that includes the effects of tension and thermal deformation that has been derived from a large structural Finite Element Model (FEM) developed by the Langley Research Center. We have found that the deformed sail membrane affects torque relatively much more than thrust; a flat plate model could potentially model thrust well enough to close mission design studies, but a three-dimensional solar sail is essential to control system design. The three-dimensional solar sail model revealed that thermal deformations of unshielded booms would create unacceptably large solar disturbance torques. The original large FEM model was used in control and mission simulations, but was resulted in simulations with prohibitive run times. This led us to adapt the Generalized Sail Model (GSM) of Rios-Reyes. A design reference sail model has been baselined for NEA Scout and has been used to design the mission and control system for the sailcraft. Additionally, since NEA Scout uses reaction wheels for attitude pointing and control, the solar torque model is essentially to successfully design the NEA Scout momentum management control system. We have also updated the estimate of diffusivity used for the aluminized sail material based on optical testing of wrinkled sail material. The model presented here represents the current state of the art of NASA's ability to model solar sail thrust and torque.

Heaton, Andy↗
NASA NTRS1986

Joint nonlinearity effects in the design of a flexible truss structure control system

Nonlinear effects are introduced in the dynamics of large space truss structures by the connecting joints which are designed with rather important tolerances to facilitate the assembly of the structures in space. The purpose was to develop means to investigate the nonlinear dynamics of the structures, particularly the limit cycles that might occur when active control is applied to the structures. An analytical method was sought and derived to predict the occurrence of limit cycles and to determine their stability. This method is mainly based on the quasi-linearization of every joint using describing functions. This approach was proven successful when simple dynamical systems were tested. Its applicability to larger systems depends on the amount of computations it requires, and estimates of the computational task tend to indicate that the number of individual sources of nonlinearity should be limited. Alternate analytical approaches, which do not account for every single nonlinearity, or the simulation of a simplified model of the dynamical system should, therefore, be investigated to determine a more effective way to predict limit cycles in large dynamical systems with an important number of distributed nonlinearities.

Mercadal, Mathieu↗
NASA NTRS2012

The Building Blocks for JWST I and T (Integrations and Test) to Operations - From Simulator to Flight Units

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Project has an extended integration and test (I&T) phase due to long procurement and development times of various components as well as recent launch delays. The JWST Ground Segment and Operations group has developed a roadmap of the various ground and flight elements and their use in the various JWST I&T test programs. The JWST Project s building block approach to the eventual operational systems, while not new, is complex and challenging; a large-scale mission like JWST involves international partners, many vendors across the United States, and competing needs for the same systems. One of the challenges is resource balancing so simulators and flight products for various elements congeal into integrated systems used for I&T and flight operations activities. This building block approach to an incremental buildup provides for early problem identification with simulators and exercises the flight operations systems, products, and interfaces during the JWST I&T test programs. The JWST Project has completed some early I&T with the simulators, engineering models and some components of the operational ground system. The JWST Project is testing the various flight units as they are delivered and will continue to do so for the entire flight and operational system. The JWST Project has already and will continue to reap the value of the building block approach on the road to launch and flight operations.

Fatig, Curtis↗
NASA NTRS2020

State of the Profession Considerations: NASA Langley Research Center Capabilities / Technologies for Autonomous In-Space Assembly and Modular Persistent Assets

Successfully implementing OSAM into next generation revolutionary observatories requires integrating expertise and technologies in modular space structures, assembly operations, autonomy, and modeling/simulation. LaRC OSAM technologies/capabilities have been presented to inform the Planetary Science and Astrobiology Decadal Survey community of the robust and mature existing capability to support an OSAM based architecture for their next observatory. LaRC Structures and Assembly capabilities enable; a modular telescope architecture, high-performance structural modules, and robotic assembly techniques. LaRC Autonomy capabilities ensure that the robotic assembly will be accomplished in a safe and robust manner and only require humans in a supervisory role. The LaRC toolbox of Modeling and Simulation capabilities that is calibrated using module-level ground testing, will ensure that the performance of the fully assembled observatory, a very large zero-g system that will never be assembled/tested in a gravity environment, meets all performance requirements when it enters into service. Integrating all three LaRC capabilities and including embedded metrology, will enable servicing, repair, instrument upgrades (and/or replacement) while ensuring a very long lifetime for the observatory and providing a return-on-investment that is substantially greater than the initial cost. Further confidence will be achieved as OSAM technologies are validated in a new LaRC OSAM laboratory that allows large-scale collaborative testing of modular hardware, simulation software and algorithms, and autonomous agents.

Large space structures↗
NASA NTRS2012

Development of Complexity Science and Technology Tools for NextGen Airspace Research and Applications

The objective of this research by NextGen AeroSciences, LLC is twofold: 1) to deliver an initial "toolbox" of algorithms, agent-based structures, and method descriptions for introducing trajectory agency as a methodology for simulating and analyzing airspace states, including bulk properties of large numbers of heterogeneous 4D aircraft trajectories in a test airspace -- while maintaining or increasing system safety; and 2) to use these tools in a test airspace to identify possible phase transition structure to predict when an airspace will approach the limits of its capacity. These 4D trajectories continuously replan their paths in the presence of noise and uncertainty while optimizing performance measures and performing conflict detection and resolution. In this approach, trajectories are represented as extended objects endowed with pseudopotential, maintaining time and fuel-efficient paths by bending just enough to accommodate separation while remaining inside of performance envelopes. This trajectory-centric approach differs from previous aircraft-centric distributed approaches to deconfliction. The results of this project are the following: 1) we delivered a toolbox of algorithms, agent-based structures and method descriptions as pseudocode; and 2) we corroborated the existence of phase transition structure in simulation with the addition of "early warning" detected prior to "full" airspace. This research suggests that airspace "fullness" can be anticipated and remedied before the airspace becomes unsafe.

Holmes, Bruce J.↗
NASA NTRS1977

Assessing the future of air freight

The role of air cargo in the current transportation system in the United States is explored. Methods for assessing the future role of this mode of transportation include the use of continuous-time recursive systems modeling for the simulation of different components of the air freight system, as well as for the development of alternative future scenarios which may result from different policy actions. A basic conceptual framework for conducting such a dynamic simulation is presented within the context of the air freight industry. Some research needs are identified and recommended for further research. The benefits, limitations, pitfalls, and problems usually associated with large scale systems models are examined.

Dajani, J. S.↗
NASA NTRS1974

Gust alleviation for a STOL transport by using elevator, spoilers, and flaps

Control laws were developed to investigate methods of alleviating the response of a STOL transport to gusty air. The transport considered in the study had triple-slotted, externally blown jet flaps and a large T-tail. The control devices used were the elevator, spoilers, and flaps. A hybrid computing system was used to simulate linearized longitudinal dynamics of the aircraft and to implement a conjugate gradient optimal search algorithm. The aircraft was simulated in the low-speed approach condition only. Feedback control matrices were found which minimized the average of a quadratic functional involving passenger compartment accelerations, pitch angle and rate, flight path angle and speed variations. The optimization was performed for artificially designed gust inputs in the form of predetermined rectangular waveforms. Results were obtained for elevator, spoilers, and flaps acting singly and in combination. Additional results were obtained for unit sinusoidal gust inputs by using the gain matrices computed for the artificial test gusts. Various sensor configurations were also investigated.

Lallman, F. J.↗
NASA NTRS1986

The flame structure and vorticity generated by a chemically reacting transverse jet

An analytical model describing the behavior of a turbulent fuel jet injected normally into a cross flow is developed. The model places particular emphasis on the contrarotating vortex pair associated with the jet, and predicts the flame length and shape based on entrainment of the oxidizer by the fuel jet. Effects of buoyancy and density variations in the flame are neglected in order to isolate the effects of large-scale mixing. The results are compared with a simulation of the transverse reacting jet in a liquid (acid-base) system. For a wide range of ratios of the cross flow to jet velocity, the model predicts flame length quite well. In particular, the observed transitional behavior in the flame length between cross-flow velocity to jet velocity of orifice ratios of 0.0 to 0.1, yielding an approximate minimum at the ratio 0.05, is reproduced very clearly by the present model. The transformation in flow structure that accounts for this minimum arises from the differing components of vorticity dominant in the near-field and far-field regions of the jet.

Karagozian, A. R.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Verification of component mode techniques for flexible multibody systems

Investigations were conducted in the modeling aspects of flexible multibodies undergoing large angular displacements. Models were to be generated and analyzed through application of computer simulation packages employing the 'component mode synthesis' techniques. Multibody Modeling, Verification and Control Laboratory (MMVC) plan was implemented, which includes running experimental tests on flexible multibody test articles. From these tests, data was to be collected for later correlation and verification of the theoretical results predicted by the modeling and simulation process.

Wiens, Gloria J.↗
NASA NTRS1995

A Reduced Dimension Static, Linearized Kalman Filter and Smoother

An approximate Kalman filter and smoother, based on approximations of the state estimation error covariance matrix, is described. Approximations include a reduction of the effective state dimension, use of a static asymptotic error limit, and a time-invariant linearization of the dynamic model for error integration. The approximations lead to dramatic computational savings in applying estimation theory to large complex systems. Examples of use come from TOPEX/POSEIDON.

Kalman filter smoother modeling ocean simulation↗