SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “data fidelity”

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.

SourceResearch connectionFrom yearThrough year

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

At least 649 records · Page 36

All sources NASA NTRS DOE OSTI

NASA NTRS2009

Roughness Based Crossflow Transition Control: A Computational Assessment

A combination of parabolized stability equations and secondary instability theory has been applied to a low-speed swept airfoil model with a chord Reynolds number of 7.15 million, with the goals of (i) evaluating this methodology in the context of transition prediction for a known configuration for which roughness based crossflow transition control has been demonstrated under flight conditions and (ii) of analyzing the mechanism of transition delay via the introduction of discrete roughness elements (DRE). Roughness based transition control involves controlled seeding of suitable, subdominant crossflow modes, so as to weaken the growth of naturally occurring, linearly more unstable crossflow modes. Therefore, a synthesis of receptivity, linear and nonlinear growth of stationary crossflow disturbances, and the ensuing development of high frequency secondary instabilities is desirable to understand the experimentally observed transition behavior. With further validation, such higher fidelity prediction methodology could be utilized to assess the potential for crossflow transition control at even higher Reynolds numbers, where experimental data is currently unavailable.

Li, Fei↗

NASA NTRS2010

Emergent Adaptive Noise Reduction from Communal Cooperation of Sensor Grid

In the last decade, the realization of small, inexpensive, and powerful devices with sensors, computers, and wireless communication has promised the development of massive sized sensor networks with dense deployments over large areas capable of high fidelity situational assessments. However, most management models have been based on centralized control and research has concentrated on methods for passing data from sensor devices to the central controller. Most implementations have been small but, as it is not scalable, this methodology is insufficient for massive deployments. Here, a specific application of a large sensor network for adaptive noise reduction demonstrates a new paradigm where communities of sensor/computer devices assess local conditions and make local decisions from which emerges a global behaviour. This approach obviates many of the problems of centralized control as it is not prone to single point of failure and is more scalable, efficient, robust, and fault tolerant

Jones, Kennie H.↗

NASA NTRS2011

Computational Study of Laminar Flow Control on a Subsonic Swept Wing Using Discrete Roughness Elements

Li, Fei↗

NASA NTRS2014

Morpheus Lander Roll Control System and Wind Modeling

The Morpheus prototype lander is a testbed capable of vertical takeoff and landing developed by NASA Johnson Space Center to assess advanced space technologies. Morpheus completed a series of flight tests at Kennedy Space Center to demonstrate autonomous landing and hazard avoidance for future exploration missions. As a prototype vehicle being tested in Earth's atmosphere, Morpheus requires a robust roll control system to counteract aerodynamic forces. This paper describes the control algorithm designed that commands jet firing and delay times based on roll orientation. Design, analysis, and testing are supported using a high fidelity, 6 degree-of-freedom simulation of vehicle dynamics. This paper also details the wind profiles generated using historical wind data, which are necessary to validate the roll control system in the simulation environment. In preparation for Morpheus testing, the wind model was expanded to create day-of-flight wind profiles based on data delivered by Kennedy Space Center. After the test campaign, a comparison of flight and simulation performance was completed to provide additional model validation.

Gambone, Elisabeth A.↗

NASA NTRS2015

Probabilistic Fatigue Damage Prognosis Using a Surrogate Model Trained Via 3D Finite Element Analysis

Utilizing inverse uncertainty quantification techniques, structural health monitoring can be integrated with damage progression models to form probabilistic predictions of a structure's remaining useful life. However, damage evolution in realistic structures is physically complex. Accurately representing this behavior requires high-fidelity models which are typically computationally prohibitive. In the present work, a high-fidelity finite element model is represented by a surrogate model, reducing computation times. The new approach is used with damage diagnosis data to form a probabilistic prediction of remaining useful life for a test specimen under mixed-mode conditions.

Leser, Patrick E.↗

NASA NTRS2017

Flight Test Techniques for Quantifying Pitch Rate and Angle of Attack Rate Dependencies

Three different types of maneuvers were designed to separately quantify pitch rate and angle of attack rate contributions to the nondimensional aerodynamic pitching moment coefficient. These maneuvers combined pilot inputs and automatic multisine excitations, and were own with the subscale T-2 and Bat-4 airplanes using the NASA AirSTAR flight test facility. Stability and control derivatives, in particular C(sub mq) and C(sub m alpha(.)) were accurately estimated from the flight test data. These maneuvers can be performed with many types of aircraft, and the results can be used to increase simulation prediction fidelity and facilitate more accurate comparisons with wind tunnel experiments or numerical investigations.

Grauer, Jared A.↗

NASA NTRS2020

Wind Tunnel Investigation of the Supersonic Stage Separation Aerodynamics of a Generic 0.0175-Scale Bimese Two-Stage-to-Orbit Reusable Launch Vehicle Configuration

A wind tunnel investigation was conducted of the supersonic stage separation aerodynamics of a generic two-stage-to-orbit bimese wingbody configuration in the NASA Langley Research Center Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel. Proximity and isolated model testing was conducted at Mach numbers of 2.3, 3.0, and 4.5 and a unit Reynolds number of 2.0 million per foot using 0.0175-scale models of the Langley Glide-Back Booster concept designated as the orbiter and booster in belly-to-belly and back-to-belly configurations. Longitudinal forces and moments were obtained on both models and surface static pressure measurements were obtained on the orbiter model at 328 relative proximity locations and at relative angles of attack of 0 degrees and 5 degrees. The test results supported a larger effort to develop and validate experimental and computational tools applicable to the design and simulation of stage separation and abort procedures for reusable launch vehicles composed of multiple bodies, including winged bodies. An initial proof-of-concept experiment featuring low-cost uninstrumented models was conducted to verify an emerging automated model control system and new support system hardware, and to identify potential model and support system blockage and unsteady aerodynamics/model dynamics prior to committing to higher-fidelity instrumented models. This investigation led to upgrades in the facility stage separation hardware, calibration and testing techniques and capabilities, and data analysis and documentation methodologies that have been extended to the more recent NASA Constellation and Space Launch System crew and cargo launch vehicle programs. A virtual diagnostics interface methodology was used to facilitate the design of the stage separation support hardware, to position the models in the test section, and to define the experimental test space. Advances in the facility automated model positioning system established a foundation for the development of a continuous-sweep data acquisition technique that is responsible for significant productivity improvements to the current NASA Space Launch System test program. The automated model positioning capability was leveraged to conduct a companion statistically-designed stage separation experiment requiring randomization of the relative proximity positions of the orbiter and booster models. The respective zones of influence and interference effects of the orbiter and booster were identified from three-dimensional scatter plots, contour and influence maps, and two-dimensional plotting methods. The highly-nonlinear, shock-dominated aerodynamic characteristics of the orbiter and booster in the Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel exhibited good agreement with independent test data obtained in a NASA Marshall Space Flight Center wind tunnel and with computational fluid dynamics predictions using a compressible, three-dimensional flow solver and an inviscid, unstructured Cartesian method.

Erickson, Gary E.↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Small Sat Simulated Space Environment MagLev Testbed

Development of a ground-based planar testbed with a near frictionless, vacuum environment for small spacecraft allows for higher fidelity, 3 degree of freedom (3DoF) testing of fully integrated propulsion systems and control algorithms prior to launch. This provides empirical data at a relatively low cost that can be used to reduce risk of on-orbit failures thereby mitigating contributions of small spacecraft to the growing orbital debris issue.

Jeremy Bruggemann↗

NASA NTRS2021

Recent Advancements in Modeling and Simulation of Entry Systems at NASA

This paper describes recent development of modeling and simulation technologies for entry systems in support of NASA’s exploration missions. Mission-tailored research and development in modeling of entry systems occurs across the Agency (e.g., within the Orion and Mars 2020 Programs), however the aim of this paper is to discuss the broad, cross-mission research conducted by NASA’s Entry Systems Modeling (ESM) Project, which serves as the Agency’s only concerted effort toward advancing entry systems across a range of technical disciplines. Technology development in ESM is organized and prioritized from a system-level perspective, resulting in four broad technical areas of investment: (1) Predictive material modeling, (2) Shock layer kinetics and radiation, (3) Computational and experimental aerosciences, and (4) Guidance, navigation, and control. Investments in thermal protection material modeling are geared toward high-fidelity, predictive models capable of handling complex structures, with an eye toward optimizing design performance and quantifying thermal protection system reliability. New computational tools have been developed to characterize material properties and behavior at the microstructural level, and experimental techniques (molecular beam scattering, micro-computed tomography, among others) have been developed to measure material kinetics, morphology, and other parameters needed to inform and validate detailed simulations. Advancements have also been made in macrostructural simulation capability to enable 3-D system-scale calculations of material response with complex topological features, including differential recession of tile gaps. Research and development in the area of shock layer kinetics has focused on air and CO2-based atmospheres. Capacity and capability of the NASA Ames Electric Arc Shock Tube (EAST) have been expanded in recent years and analysis of resulting data has led to several improvements in kinetic models, while simultaneously reducing uncertainties associated with radiative heat transfer predictions. First-principles calculations of fundamental kinetic, thermodynamic, and transport data, along with state-specificmodels for non-equilibrium flow regimes, have also yielded new insights and have the potential to vastly improve model fidelity. Aerosciences is a very broad area of interest in entry systems, yet a number of important challenges are being addressed: Coupled fluid-structure simulations of parachute inflation and dynamics; Experimental and computational studies of vehicle dynamics; Multi-phase flow with dust particles to simulate entry environments at Mars during dust storms; Studies of roughness-induced heating augmentation relevant to tiled and woven thermal protection systems; and Advanced numerical methods to optimize computational analyses for desired accuracy versus cost. Guidance and control in the context of entry systems has focused on development of methods for multi-axis control (i.e. pitch and yaw, rather than bank angle alone) of spacecraft during entry and descent. With precision landing requirements driven by Mars human exploration goals, recent efforts have yielded 6-DOF models of multi-axis control with propulsive descent of both inflatable and rigid ellipsled-like architectures. Results for both configurations have demonstrated the ability to land within the 50-meter precision requirement demanded by Mars human exploration missions, while also reducing propellant requirements by enabling more efficient control through entry and descent. Ongoing research in GN&C is developing mechanical specifications for the systems and establishing engineering feasibility.

aerothermodynamics↗

NASA NTRS1993

Compression of spectral meteorological imagery

Data compression is essential to current low-earth-orbit spectral sensors with global coverage, e.g., meteorological sensors. Such sensors routinely produce in excess of 30 Gb of data per orbit (over 4 Mb/s for about 110 min) while typically limited to less than 10 Gb of downlink capacity per orbit (15 minutes at 10 Mb/s). Astro-Space Division develops spaceborne compression systems for compression ratios from as little as three to as much as twenty-to-one for high-fidelity reconstructions. Current hardware production and development at Astro-Space Division focuses on discrete cosine transform (DCT) systems implemented with the GE PFFT chip, a 32x32 2D-DCT engine. Spectral relations in the data are exploited through block mean extraction followed by orthonormal transformation. The transformation produces blocks with spatial correlation that are suitable for further compression with any block-oriented spatial compression system, e.g., Astro-Space Division's Laplacian modeler and analytic encoder of DCT coefficients.

Miettinen, Kristo↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Clustering Approach To Identifying Low Lunar Frozen Orbits In A High-Fidelity Model

Explore the source record for details and available documents.

lunar frozen orbit gravity model data clustering↗

NASA NTRS2011

Orbit Determination of Spacecraft in Earth-Moon L1 and L2 Libration Point Orbits

The ARTEMIS mission, part of the THEMIS extended mission, is the first to fly spacecraft in the Earth-Moon Lissajous regions. In 2009, two of the five THEMIS spacecraft were redeployed from Earth-centered orbits to arrive in Earth-Moon Lissajous orbits in late 2010. Starting in August 2010, the ARTEMIS P1 spacecraft executed numerous stationkeeping maneuvers, initially maintaining a lunar L2 Lissajous orbit before transitioning into a lunar L1 orbit. The ARTEMIS P2 spacecraft entered a L1 Lissajous orbit in October 2010. In April 2011, both ARTEMIS spacecraft will suspend Lissajous stationkeeping and will be maneuvered into lunar orbits. The success of the ARTEMIS mission has allowed the science team to gather unprecedented magnetospheric measurements in the lunar Lissajous regions. In order to effectively perform lunar Lissajous stationkeeping maneuvers, the ARTEMIS operations team has provided orbit determination solutions with typical accuracies on the order of 0.1 km in position and 0.1 cm/s in velocity. The ARTEMIS team utilizes the Goddard Trajectory Determination System (GTDS), using a batch least squares method, to process range and Doppler tracking measurements from the NASA Deep Space Network (DSN), Berkeley Ground Station (BGS), Merritt Island (MILA) station, and United Space Network (USN). The team has also investigated processing of the same tracking data measurements using the Orbit Determination Tool Kit (ODTK) software, which uses an extended Kalman filter and recursive smoother to estimate the orbit. The orbit determination results from each of these methods will be presented and we will discuss the advantages and disadvantages associated with using each method in the lunar Lissajous regions. Orbit determination accuracy is dependent on both the quality and quantity of tracking measurements, fidelity of the orbit force models, and the estimation techniques used. Prior to Lissajous operations, the team determined the appropriate quantity of tracking measurements that would be needed to meet the required orbit determination accuracies. Analysts used the Orbit Determination Error Analysis System (ODEAS) to perform covariance analyses using various tracking data schedules. From this analysis, it was determined that 3.5 hours of DSN TRK-2-34 range and Doppler tracking data every other day would suffice to meet the predictive orbit knowledge accuracies in the Lissajous region. The results of this analysis are presented. Both GTDS and ODTK have high-fidelity environmental orbit force models that allow for very accurate orbit estimation in the lunar Lissajous regime. These models include solar radiation pressure, Earth and Moon gravity models, third body gravitational effects from the Sun, and to a lesser extent third body gravitational effects from Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, and Mars. Increased position and velocity uncertainties following each maneuver, due to small execution performance errors, requires that several days of post-maneuver tracking data be processed to converge on an accurate post-maneuver orbit solution. The effects of maneuvers on orbit determination accuracy will be presented, including a comparison of the batch least squares technique to the extended Kalman filter/smoother technique. We will present the maneuver calibration results derived from processing post-maneuver tracking data. A dominant error in the orbit estimation process is the uncertainty in solar radiation pressure and the resultant force on the spacecraft. An estimation of this value can include many related factors, such as the uncertainty in spacecraft reflectivity and surface area which is a function of spacecraft orientation (spin-axis attitude), uncertainty in spacecraft wet mass, and potential seasonal variability due to the changing direction of the Sun line relative to the Earth-Moon Lissajous reference frame. In addition, each spacecraft occasionally enters into Earth or Moon penumbra or umbra and these shadow crossings reduche solar radiation force for several hours. The effects of these events on orbit determination accuracy will be presented. In order to plan for upcoming stationkeeping maneuvers, the maneuver planning team must take the current orbit estimate, propagate it forward to the planned maneuver time, and determine the optimal maneuver to maintain the Lissajous orbit for one or more revolutions. The propagation is performed using a Runge-Kutta 7/8 integrator and typically the position and velocity uncertainty increases with propagation time, increasing the overall uncertainty of the orbit state at the maneuver execution time. The effect of orbit knowledge uncertainty on stationkeeping operations will be presented.

Woodard, Mark↗

NASA NTRS2010

Image Segmentation Analysis for NASA Earth Science Applications

NASA collects large volumes of imagery data from satellite-based Earth remote sensing sensors. Nearly all of the computerized image analysis of this data is performed pixel-by-pixel, in which an algorithm is applied directly to individual image pixels. While this analysis approach is satisfactory in many cases, it is usually not fully effective in extracting the full information content from the high spatial resolution image data that s now becoming increasingly available from these sensors. The field of object-based image analysis (OBIA) has arisen in recent years to address the need to move beyond pixel-based analysis. The Recursive Hierarchical Segmentation (RHSEG) software developed by the author is being used to facilitate moving from pixel-based image analysis to OBIA. The key unique aspect of RHSEG is that it tightly intertwines region growing segmentation, which produces spatially connected region objects, with region object classification, which groups sets of region objects together into region classes. No other practical, operational image segmentation approach has this tight integration of region growing object finding with region classification This integration is made possible by the recursive, divide-and-conquer implementation utilized by RHSEG, in which the input image data is recursively subdivided until the image data sections are small enough to successfully mitigat the combinatorial explosion caused by the need to compute the dissimilarity between each pair of image pixels. RHSEG's tight integration of region growing object finding and region classification is what enables the high spatial fidelity of the image segmentations produced by RHSEG. This presentation will provide an overview of the RHSEG algorithm and describe how it is currently being used to support OBIA or Earth Science applications such as snow/ice mapping and finding archaeological sites from remotely sensed data.

Tilton, James C.↗

NASA NTRS2019

Recent Advancements in Modeling and Simulation of Entry Systems at NASA

This paper describes recent development of modeling and simulation technologies for entry systems in support of NASA's exploration missions. Mission-tailored research and development in modeling of entry systems occurs across the Agency (e.g., within the Orion and Mars 2020 Programs), however the aim of this paper is to discuss the broad, cross-mission research conducted by NASA's Entry Systems Modeling (ESM) Project, which serves as the Agency's only concerted effort toward advancing entry systems across a range of technical disciplines. Technology development in ESM is organized and prioritized from a system-level perspective, resulting in four broad technical areas of investment: (1) Predictive material modeling, (2) Shock layer kinetics and radiation, (3) Computational and experimental aerosciences, and (4) Guidance, navigation, and control. Investments in thermal protection material modeling are geared toward high-fidelity, predictive models capable of handling complex structures, with an eye toward optimizing design performance and quantifying thermal protection system reliability. New computational tools have been developed to characterize material properties and behavior at the microstructural level, and experimental techniques (molecular beam scattering, micro-computed tomography, among others) have been developed to measure material kinetics, morphology, and other parameters needed to inform and validate detailed simulations. Advancements have also been made in macrostructural simulation capability to enable 3-D system-scale calculations of material response with complex topological features, including differential recession of tile gaps. Research and development in the area of shock layer kinetics has focused on air and CO2-based atmospheres. Capacity and capability of the NASA Ames Electric Arc Shock Tube (EAST) have been expanded in recent years and analysis of resulting data has led to several improvements in kinetic models, while simultaneously reducing uncertainties associated with radiative heat transfer predictions. First-principles calculations of fundamental kinetic, thermodynamic, and transport data, along with state-specific models for non-equilibrium flow regimes, have also yielded new insights and have the potential to vastly improve model fidelity. Aerosciences is a very broad area of interest in entry systems, yet a number of important challenges are being addressed: Coupled fluid-structure simulations of parachute inflation and dynamics; Experimental and computational studies of vehicle dynamics; Multi-phase flow with dust particles to simulate entry environments at Mars during dust storms; Studies of roughness-induced heating augmentation relevant to tiled and woven thermal protection systems; and Advanced numerical methods to optimize computational analyses for desired accuracy versus cost. Guidance and control in the context of entry systems has focused on development of methods for multi-axis control (i.e. pitch and yaw, rather than bank angle alone) of spacecraft during entry and descent. With precision landing requirements driven by Mars human exploration goals, recent efforts have yielded 6-DOF models of multi-axis control with propulsive descent of both inflatable and rigid ellipsled-like architectures.

Barnhardt, Michael D.↗

NASA NTRS2003

Comparison of Methods for Determining Boundary Layer Edge Conditions for Transition Correlations

Data previously obtained for the X-33 in the NASA Langley Research Center 20-Inch Mach 6 Air Tunnel have been reanalyzed to compare methods for determining boundary layer edge conditions for use in transition correlations. The experimental results were previously obtained utilizing the phosphor thermography technique to monitor the status of the boundary layer downstream of discrete roughness elements via global heat transfer images of the X-33 windward surface. A boundary layer transition correlation was previously developed for this data set using boundary layer edge conditions calculated using an inviscid/integral boundary layer approach. An algorithm was written in the present study to extract boundary layer edge quantities from higher fidelity viscous computational fluid dynamic solutions to develop transition correlations that account for viscous effects on vehicles of arbitrary complexity. The boundary layer transition correlation developed for the X-33 from the viscous solutions are compared to the previous boundary layer transition correlations. It is shown that the boundary layer edge conditions calculated using an inviscid/integral boundary layer approach are significantly different than those extracted from viscous computational fluid dynamic solutions. The present results demonstrate the differences obtained in correlating transition data using different computational methods.

Liechty, Derek S.↗

NASA NTRS1997

A Multi-Level Parallelization Concept for High-Fidelity Multi-Block Solvers

The integration of high-fidelity Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis tools with the industrial design process benefits greatly from the robust implementations that are transportable across a wide range of computer architectures. In the present work, a hybrid domain-decomposition and parallelization concept was developed and implemented into the widely-used NASA multi-block Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) packages implemented in ENSAERO and OVERFLOW. The new parallel solver concept, PENS (Parallel Euler Navier-Stokes Solver), employs both fine and coarse granularity in data partitioning as well as data coalescing to obtain the desired load-balance characteristics on the available computer platforms. This multi-level parallelism implementation itself introduces no changes to the numerical results, hence the original fidelity of the packages are identically preserved. The present implementation uses the Message Passing Interface (MPI) library for interprocessor message passing and memory accessing. By choosing an appropriate combination of the available partitioning and coalescing capabilities only during the execution stage, the PENS solver becomes adaptable to different computer architectures from shared-memory to distributed-memory platforms with varying degrees of parallelism. The PENS implementation on the IBM SP2 distributed memory environment at the NASA Ames Research Center obtains 85 percent scalable parallel performance using fine-grain partitioning of single-block CFD domains using up to 128 wide computational nodes. Multi-block CFD simulations of complete aircraft simulations achieve 75 percent perfect load-balanced executions using data coalescing and the two levels of parallelism. SGI PowerChallenge, SGI Origin 2000, and a cluster of workstations are the other platforms where the robustness of the implementation is tested. The performance behavior on the other computer platforms with a variety of realistic problems will be included as this on-going study progresses.

Hatay, Ferhat F.↗

NASA NTRS1994

Numerical simulation of the flow about the F-18 HARV at high angle of attack

As part of NASA's High Alpha Technology Program, research has been aimed at developing and extending numerical methods to accurately predict the high Reynolds number flow about the NASA F-18 High Alpha Research Vehicle (HARV) at large angles of attack. The HARV aircraft is equipped with a bidirectional thrust vectoring unit which enables stable, controlled flight through 70 deg angle of attack. Currently, high-fidelity numerical solutions for the flow about the HARV have been obtained at alpha = 30 deg, and validated against flight-test data. It is planned to simulate the flow about the HARV through alpha = 60 deg, and obtain solutions of the same quality as those at the lower angles of attack. This report presents the status of work aimed at extending the HARV computations to the extreme angle of attack range.

Murman, Scott M.↗

NASA NTRS2000

Integrated Aero-Propulsion CFD Methodology for the Hyper-X Flight Experiment

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) tools have been used extensively in the analysis and development of the X-43A Hyper-X Research Vehicle (HXRV). A significant element of this analysis is the prediction of integrated vehicle aero-propulsive performance, which includes an integration of aerodynamic and propulsion flow fields. This paper describes analysis tools used and the methodology for obtaining pre-flight predictions of longitudinal performance increments. The use of higher-fidelity methods to examine flow-field characteristics and scramjet flowpath component performance is also discussed. Limited comparisons with available ground test data are shown to illustrate the approach used to calibrate methods and assess solution accuracy. Inviscid calculations to evaluate lateral-directional stability characteristics are discussed. The methodology behind 3D tip-to-tail calculations is described and the impact of 3D exhaust plume expansion in the afterbody region is illustrated. Finally, future technology development needs in the area of hypersonic propulsion-airframe integration analysis are discussed.

Cockrell, Charles E., Jr.↗