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NASA NTRS1990

High order filtering methods for approximating hyberbolic systems of conservation laws

In the computation of discontinuous solutions of hyperbolic systems of conservation laws, the recently developed essentially non-oscillatory (ENO) schemes appear to be very useful. However, they are computationally costly compared to simple central difference methods. A filtering method which is developed uses simple central differencing of arbitrarily high order accuracy, except when a novel local test indicates the development of spurious oscillations. At these points, the full ENO apparatus is used, maintaining the high order of accuracy, but removing spurious oscillations. Numerical results indicate the success of the method. High order of accuracy was obtained in regions of smooth flow without spurious oscillations for a wide range of problems and a significant speed up of generally a factor of almost three over the full ENO method.

Lafon, F.↗

NASA NTRS1997

Rapid Decimation for Direct Volume Rendering

An approach for eliminating unnecessary portions of a volume when producing a direct volume rendering is described. This reduction in volume size sacrifices some image quality in the interest of rendering speed. Since volume visualization is often used as an exploratory visualization technique, it is important to reduce rendering times, so the user can effectively explore the volume. The methods presented can speed up rendering by factors of 2 to 3 with minor image degradation. A family of decimation algorithms to reduce the number of primitives in the volume without altering the volume's grid in any way is introduced. This allows the decimation to be computed rapidly, making it easier to change decimation levels on the fly. Further, because very little extra space is required, this method is suitable for the very large volumes that are becoming common. The method is also grid-independent, so it is suitable for multiple overlapping curvilinear and unstructured, as well as regular, grids. The decimation process can proceed automatically, or can be guided by the user so that important regions of the volume are decimated less than unimportant regions. A formal error measure is described based on a three-dimensional analog of the Radon transform. Decimation methods are evaluated based on this metric and on direct comparison with reference images.

Gibbs, Jonathan↗

NASA NTRS2014

Evaluating an Automated Approach for Monitoring Forest Disturbances in the Pacific Northwest from Logging, Fire and Insect Outbreaks with Landsat Time Series Data

Forests are the largest aboveground sink for atmospheric carbon (C), and understanding how they change through time is critical to reduce our C-cycle uncertainties. We investigated a strong decline in Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) from 1982 to 1991 in Pacific Northwest forests, observed with the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) series of Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometers (AVHRRs). To understand the causal factors of this decline, we evaluated an automated classification method developed for Landsat time series stacks (LTSS) to map forest change. This method included: (1) multiple disturbance index thresholds; and (2) a spectral trajectory-based image analysis with multiple confidence thresholds. We produced 48 maps and verified their accuracy with air photos, monitoring trends in burn severity data and insect aerial detection survey data. Area-based accuracy estimates for change in forest cover resulted in producer's and user's accuracies of 0.21 +/- 0.06 to 0.38 +/- 0.05 for insect disturbance, 0.23 +/- 0.07 to 1 +/- 0 for burned area and 0.74 +/- 0.03 to 0.76 +/- 0.03 for logging. We believe that accuracy was low for insect disturbance because air photo reference data were temporally sparse, hence missing some outbreaks, and the annual anniversary time step is not dense enough to track defoliation and progressive stand mortality. Producer's and user's accuracy for burned area was low due to the temporally abrupt nature of fire and harvest with a similar response of spectral indices between the disturbance index and normalized burn ratio. We conclude that the spectral trajectory approach also captures multi-year stress that could be caused by climate, acid deposition, pathogens, partial harvest, thinning, etc. Our study focused on understanding the transferability of previously successful methods to new ecosystems and found that this automated method does not perform with the same accuracy in Pacific Northwest forests. Using a robust accuracy assessment, we demonstrate the difficulty of transferring change attribution methods to other ecosystems, which has implications for the development of automated detection/attribution approaches. Widespread disturbance was found within AVHRR-negative anomalies, but identifying causal factors in LTSS with adequate mapping accuracy for fire and insects proved to be elusive. Our results provide a background framework for future studies to improve methods for the accuracy assessment of automated LTSS classifications.

Landsat↗

NASA NTRS1982

Application of the reduced basis method to nonlinear transient thermal analysis

An effort to apply the reduced basis method to nonlinear transient thermal analysis is described. The method combines the classical Rayleigh-Ritz and modal superposition techniques with contemporary finite element methods to retain modeling versatility as the degrees of freedom in a problem are reduced. The essence of the method is to use a few thermal modes from eigenvalue analyses as basis vectors to represent the temperature response for a given thermal problem similar to the use of vibration modes to represent displacements in a dynamic response problem. Approximate temperature distributions were obtained using the reduced basis method for a small section of the Shuttle Orbiter lower wing undergoing reentry heating. Good agreement was obtained between the reduced basis method solutions and full system solutions with reductions in the degrees of freedom of up to a factor of four. The good agreement indicates the reduced basis method has the potential for significant reduction in computing effort for thermal analysis; however, considerable work remains to determine techniques for selecting the type and number of basis vectors needed for approximate solutions to more complex transient thermal problems.

Shore, C. P.↗

NASA NTRS2005

Ionizing Radiation Environment on the International Space Station: Performance vs. Expectations for Avionics and Material

The role of structural shielding mass in the design, verification, and in-flight performance of International Space Station (ISS), in both the natural and induced orbital ionizing radiation (IR) environments, is reported. Detailed consideration of the effects of both the natural and induced ionizing radiation environment during ISS design, development, and flight operations has produced a safe, efficient manned space platform that is largely immune to deleterious effects of the LEO ionizing radiation environment. The assumption of a small shielding mass for purposes of design and verification has been shown to be a valid worst-case approximation approach to design for reliability, though predicted dependences of single event effect (SEE) effects on latitude, longitude, SEP events, and spacecraft structural shielding mass are not observed. The Figure of Merit (FOM) method over predicts the rate for median shielding masses of about 10g/cm(exp 2) by only a factor of 3, while the Scott Effective Flux Approach (SEFA) method overestimated by about one order of magnitude as expected. The Integral Rectangular Parallelepiped (IRPP), SEFA, and FOM methods for estimating on-orbit (Single Event Upsets) SEU rates all utilize some version of the CREME-96 treatment of energetic particle interaction with structural shielding, which has been shown to underestimate the production of secondary particles in heavily shielded manned spacecraft. The need for more work directed to development of a practical understanding of secondary particle production in massive structural shielding for SEE design and verification is indicated. In contrast, total dose estimates using CAD based shielding mass distributions functions and the Shieldose Code provided a reasonable accurate estimate of accumulated dose in Grays internal to the ISS pressurized elements, albeit as a result of using worst-on-worst case assumptions (500 km altitude x 2) that compensate for ignoring both GCR and secondary particle production in massive structural shielding.

Koontz, Steven L.↗

NASA NTRS1996

Use of Density Functional Method to Study Molecular Vibrations

Use of a scale factor reduces the errors in computed vibrational frequencies (errors due to anharmonicities, basis set deficiencies, and approximate treatment of electron correlation). Additional errors come from modelling solids with small molecules. Nevertheless, we hope that the present calculations add to the understanding of surface IR measurements of the heat tiles.

Chong, Delano P.↗

NASA NTRS1972

Quantifying parameters influencing the spacing of geostationary satellites.

Parameters affecting satellite spacing must be investigated to fully exploit the limited capacity of the geostationary orbit. The usefulness of laboratory experiments, analytic methods, and space environment experiments in quantifying these factors is discussed. It is concluded that space environment experiments are required to evaluate the effects of operationally related parameters including antenna gain patterns, polarization, and antenna instabilities. A unique method of measuring the time-variant effects of the earth station antenna characteristics on satellite spacing is described as a possible space environment experiment. The proposed experiment uses a single satellite to obtain the required data.

Henry, V. F.↗

NASA NTRS1936

Procedure for Determining Speed and Climbing Performance of Airships

The procedure for obtaining air-speed and rate-of-climb measurements in performance tests of airships is described. Two methods of obtaining speed measurements, one by means of instruments in the airship and the other by flight over a measured ground course, are explained. Instruments, their calibrations, necessary correction factors, observations, and calculations are detailed for each method, and also for the rate-of-climb tests. A method of correction for the effect on density of moist air and a description of other methods of speed course testing are appended.

Thompson, F L↗

NASA NTRS2004

Directional acceleration vector-driven displacement of fluids (DAVD-DOF)

Centrifugal analyzer and method for staining biological or non-biological samples in microgravity, wherein the method utilizes an increase in weight of a fluid sample as a function of g-load, to overcome cohesive and frictional forces from preventing its movement in a preselected direction. Apparatus is characterized by plural specimen reservoirs and channels in a slide, each channel being of differing cross-section, wherein respective samples are selectively dispensed, from the reservoirs in response to an imposed g-factor, precedent to sample staining. Within the method, one thus employs microscope slides which define channels, each being of a differing cross-section dimension relative to others. In combination therewith, centrifugal slide mounting apparatus controllably imposes g-vectors of differing magnitudes within a defined structure of the centrifuge such as a chip array.

Clarke, Mark S. F.↗

NASA NTRS2001

Good Enough for the X-38, but Made for Commercial Aircraft

Aircraft Belts, Inc. (ABI), of Kemah, Texas, was looking for a way to ensure the safety of its customers by developing a thorough test system for aviation restraint systems. Previous safety restraint test methods did not properly measure the load distribution placed on the restraints, leaving an unknown factor in meeting safety standards. ABI needed to improve its testing methods and update its test equipment. Through a partnership with NASA's Johnson Space Center Technical Outreach Program, the need was met. With the assistance of NASA engineers, ABI developed a hydraulic test system that provides the consumer with in-depth data about the load placed on the restraint system throughout the duration of the test. The old systems were only able to detect if the belts could sustain the applied force and could not target the problem of providing load data. In comparison, the new system modeled after the one used by NASA, can collect data that tells exactly what went wrong with belts that break and why. Depending on the test requirements of various restraint components, the system can exert a subjected force ranging from merely a few pounds to thousands. The test force can be applied to an entire safety restraint system or to its individual parts, including, stitching, webbing, and hardware.

Source record↗

NASA NTRS1999

Rapid direct methods for enumeration of specific, active bacteria in water and biofilms

Conventional methods for detecting indicator and pathogenic bacteria in water may underestimate the actual population due to sublethal environmental injury, inability of the target bacteria to take up nutrients and other physiological factors which reduce bacterial culturability. Rapid and direct methods are needed to more accurately detect and enumerate active bacteria. Such a methodological advance would provide greater sensitivity in assessing the microbiological safety of water and food. The principle goal of this presentation is to describe novel approaches we have formulated for the rapid and simultaneous detection of bacteria plus the determination of their physiological activity in water and other environmental samples. The present version of our method involves the concentration of organisms by membrane filtration or immunomagnetic separation and combines an intracellular fluorochrome (CTC) for assessment of respiratory activity plus fluorescent-labelled antibody detection of specific bacteria. This approach has also been successfully used to demonstrate spatial and temporal heterogeneities of physiological activities in biofilms when coupled with cryosectioning. Candidate physiological stains include those capable of determining respiratory activity, membrane potential, membrane integrity, growth rate and cellular enzymatic activities. Results obtained thus far indicate that immunomagnetic separation can provide a high degree of sensitivity in the recovery of seeded target bacteria (Escherichia coli O157:H7) in water and hamburger. The captured and stained target bacteria are then enumerated by either conventional fluorescence microscopy or ChemScan(R), a new instrument that is very sensitive and rapid. The ChemScan(R) laser scanning instrument (Chemunex, Paris, France) provides the detection of individual fluorescently labelled bacterial cells using three emission channels in less than 5 min. A high degree of correlation has been demonstrated between results obtained with the ChemScan and traditional plate counts of mixed natural bacterial populations in water. The continuing evolution of these methods will be valuable in the rapid and accurate analysis of environmental samples.

Review, Tutorial↗

NASA NTRS1989

Unconditionally stable concurrent procedures for transient finite-element analysis

A family of algorithms was outlined which would appear to be particularly well-suited for implementation in a parallel environment. This is due to the fact that for any partition of the mesh each subdomain in the partition can be processed over a time step simultaneously and independently of the rest. The method eliminates the need for assembling and factorizing large global arrays while retaining the unconditional stability properties of the algorithms used at the local level. To critically appraise the proposed methodology, two limiting cases were considered: element-by-element mesh partitions, and coarse mesh partitions. It was concluded that while the proposed methodology can be useful in sequential machines, it would appear to be promising as it bears on computation. It should also be emphasized that extensions of the method to nonlinear problems are possible.

Ortiz, Michael↗

NASA NTRS1978

Efficiency degradation due to tracking errors for point focusing solar collectors

An important parameter in the design of point focusing solar collectors is the intercept factor which is a measure of efficiency and of energy available for use in the receiver. Using statistical methods, an expression of the expected value of the intercept factor is derived for various configurations and control law implementations. The analysis assumes that a radially symmetric flux distribution (not necessarily Gaussian) is generated at the focal plane due to the sun's finite image and various reflector errors. The time-varying tracking errors are assumed to be uniformly distributed within the threshold limits and allows the expected value calculation.

Hughes, R. O.↗

NASA NTRS1992

Geophysical Methods: an Overview

Geophysics is expected to have a major role in lunar resource assessment when manned systems return to the Moon. Geophysical measurements made from a lunar rover will contribute to a number of key studies: estimating regolith thickness, detection of possible large-diameter lava tubes within maria basalts, detection of possible subsurface ice in polar regions, detection of conductive minerals that formed directly from a melt (orthomagmatic sulfides of Cu, Ni, Co), and mapping lunar geology beneath the regolith. The techniques that can be used are dictated both by objectives and by our abilities to adapt current technology to lunar conditions. Instrument size, weight, power requirements, and freedom from orientation errors are factors we have considered. Among the geophysical methods we believe to be appropriate for a lunar resource assessment are magnetics, including gradiometry, time-domain magnetic induction, ground-penetrating radar, seismic reflection, and gravimetry.

Becker, A.↗

NASA NTRS1987

Improvement of modal scaling factors using mass additive technique

A general investigation into the improvement of modal scaling factors of an experimental modal model using additive technique is discussed. Data base required by the proposed method consists of an experimental modal model (a set of complex eigenvalues and eigenvectors) of the original structure and a corresponding set of complex eigenvalues of the mass-added structure. Three analytical methods,i.e., first order and second order perturbation methods, and local eigenvalue modification technique, are proposed to predict the improved modal scaling factors. Difficulties encountered in scaling closely spaced modes are discussed. Methods to compute the necessary rotational modal vectors at the mass additive points are also proposed to increase the accuracy of the analytical prediction.

Zhang, Qiang↗

NASA NTRS2002

Dynamic Stability of Uncertain Laminated Beams Under Subtangential Loads

Because of the inherent complexity of fiber-reinforced laminated composites, it can be challenging to manufacture composite structures according to their exact design specifications, resulting in unwanted material and geometric uncertainties. In this research, we focus on the deterministic and probabilistic stability analysis of laminated structures subject to subtangential loading, a combination of conservative and nonconservative tangential loads, using the dynamic criterion. Thus a shear-deformable laminated beam element, including warping effects, is derived to study the deterministic and probabilistic response of laminated beams. This twenty-one degrees of freedom element can be used for solving both static and dynamic problems. In the first-order shear deformable model used here we have employed a more accurate method to obtain the transverse shear correction factor. The dynamic version of the principle of virtual work for laminated composites is expressed in its nondimensional form and the element tangent stiffness and mass matrices are obtained using analytical integration The stability is studied by giving the structure a small disturbance about an equilibrium configuration, and observing if the resulting response remains small. In order to study the dynamic behavior by including uncertainties into the problem, three models were developed: Exact Monte Carlo Simulation, Sensitivity Based Monte Carlo Simulation, and Probabilistic FEA. These methods were integrated into the developed finite element analysis. Also, perturbation and sensitivity analysis have been used to study nonconservative problems, as well as to study the stability analysis, using the dynamic criterion.

Goyal, Vijay K.↗

NASA NTRS1985

Stress-intensity factors for circumferential surface cracks in pipes and rods under tension and bending loads

The purpose of this paper is to present stress-intensity factors for a wide range of nearly semi-elliptical surface cracks in pipes and rods. The configurations were subjected to either remote tension or bending loads. For pipes, the ratio of crack depth to crack length (a/c) ranged from 0.6 to 1; the ratio of crack depth to wall thickness (a/t) ranged from 0.2 to 0.8; and the ratio of internal radius to wall thickness (R/t) ranged from 1 to 10. For rods, the ratio of crack depth to crack length also ranged from 0.6 to 1; and the ratio of crack depth to rod diameter (a/D) ranged from 0.05 to 0.35. These particular crack configurations were chosen to cover the range of crack shapes (a/c) that have been observed in experiments conducted on pipes and rods under tension and bending fatigue loads. The stress-intensity factors were calculated by a three-dimensional finite-element method. The finite-element models employed singularity elements along the crack front and linear-strain elements elsewhere. The models had about 6500 degrees of freedom. The stress-intensity factors were evaluated using a nodal-force method.

Raju, I. S.↗

NASA NTRS1986

Stress-intensity factors for circumferential surface cracks in pipes and rods under tension and bending loads

Raju, I. S.↗