Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “Prototype tool”

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 667 records · Page 37
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2014

Full Scale Advanced Systems Testbed (FAST): Capabilities and Recent Flight Research

At the NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center research is being conducted into flight control technologies that will enable the next generation of air and space vehicles. The Full Scale Advanced Systems Testbed (FAST) aircraft provides a laboratory for flight exploration of these technologies. In recent years novel but simple adaptive architectures for aircraft and rockets have been researched along with control technologies for improving aircraft fuel efficiency and control structural interaction. This presentation outlines the FAST capabilities and provides a snapshot of the research accomplishments to date. Flight experimentation allows a researcher to substantiate or invalidate their assumptions and intuition about a new technology or innovative approach Data early in a development cycle is invaluable for determining which technology barriers are real and which ones are imagined Data for a technology at a low TRL can be used to steer and focus the exploration and fuel rapid advances based on real world lessons learned It is important to identify technologies that are mature enough to benefit from flight research data and not be tempted to wait until we have solved all the potential issues prior to getting some data Sometimes a stagnated technology just needs a little real world data to get it going One trick to getting data for low TRL technologies is finding an environment where it is okay to take risks, where occasional failure is an expected outcome Learning how things fail is often as valuable as showing that they work FAST has been architected to facilitate this type of testing for control system technologies, specifically novel algorithms and sensors Rapid prototyping with a quick turnaround in a fly-fix-fly paradigm Sometimes it's easier and cheaper to just go fly it than to analyze the problem to death The goal is to find and test control technologies that would benefit from flight data and find solutions to the real barriers to innovation. The FAST vehicle is a flexible laboratory for nascent technologies that would benefit from early life cycle flight research data It provides a robust and safe environment where innovative techniques can be explored in a fly-fix-fly rapid prototyping paradigm IRAC Simple adaptive control technologies can provide real benefits without undo complexity Adverse pilot/adaptive system interactions can be mitigated and tools have been developed to evaluate those interactions ICP Substantial fuel savings can be achieved over a broad range of vehicles and configurations with intelligent control solutions LVAC The AAC design is robust and effective for the SLS mission, and promises to provide benefits to other platforms as well OCLA Hopefully will show that structural feedback can be seamlessly integrated with performance and stability objectives All of these control technologies have been implemented into the same baseline control law and could be combined into one control solution that answers many pressing questions for modern vehicle configurations

flight controls↗
NASA NTRS2014

Deducing Electronic Unit Internal Response During a Vibration Test Using a Lumped Parameter Modeling Approach

During random vibration testing of electronic boxes there is often a desire to know the dynamic response of certain internal printed wiring boards (PWBs) for the purpose of monitoring the response of sensitive hardware or for post-test forensic analysis in support of anomaly investigation. Due to restrictions on internally mounted accelerometers for most flight hardware there is usually no means to empirically observe the internal dynamics of the unit, so one must resort to crude and highly uncertain approximations. One common practice is to apply Miles Equation, which does not account for the coupled response of the board in the chassis, resulting in significant over- or under-prediction. This paper explores the application of simple multiple-degree-of-freedom lumped parameter modeling to predict the coupled random vibration response of the PWBs in their fundamental modes of vibration. A simple tool using this approach could be used during or following a random vibration test to interpret vibration test data from a single external chassis measurement to deduce internal board dynamics by means of a rapid correlation analysis. Such a tool might also be useful in early design stages as a supplemental analysis to a more detailed finite element analysis to quickly prototype and analyze the dynamics of various design iterations. After developing the theoretical basis, a lumped parameter modeling approach is applied to an electronic unit for which both external and internal test vibration response measurements are available for direct comparison. Reasonable correlation of the results demonstrates the potential viability of such an approach. Further development of the preliminary approach presented in this paper will involve correlation with detailed finite element models and additional relevant test data.

random vibration response↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

NASA ATD-2 Trajectory Option Set Prototype Capability for Rerouting Departures in Metroplex Airspace

This paper describes NASA’s Airspace Technology Demonstration 2 (ATD-2) Phase 3 prototype capability that is being tested in the North Texas region through summer 2021. For the first time, a shared Decision Support Tool (DST) provides opportunities for participating Flight Operators (FOs) and Air Traffic Controllers (ATCs) to coordinate using a Trajectory Option Set (TOS). When the metroplex airspace is impacted by demand/capacity imbalances, TOS enables departure flights to be rerouted to alternative departure routes with less surface delay.

trajectory option set↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

NASA ATD-2 Trajectory Option Set Prototype Capability for Rerouting Departures in Metroplex Airspace

This video recorded presentation is about the NASA’s Airspace Technology Demonstration 2 (ATD-2) Phase 3 prototype capability that is being tested in the North Texas region through summer 2021. For the first time, a shared Decision Support Tool (DST) provides opportunities for participating Flight Operators (FOs) and Air Traffic Controllers (ATCs) to coordinate using a Trajectory Option Set (TOS). When the metroplex airspace is impacted by demand/capacity imbalances, TOS enables departure flights to be rerouted to alternative departure routes with less surface delay.

Trajectory Option Set↗
NASA NTRS1986

Ulysses: A functional description and simulation software system

Current design tools for digital circuits and systems are not well-integrated among the behavioral, gate, and transistor levels of design. Ulysses is a prototype software system that consists of a description language, a description compiler, and a simulator that make no distinction among these levels. The language is uniform over the entire range of logical descriptions, the description is hierarchical with no fundamental restrictions on depth or mixing of levels, and the simulator is fully integrated with the description. The structure of the language, compiler, and simulator are described in terms of their relationships to the abstractions of physical systems that are made in order to create logical descriptions and models of behavior.

Griswold, T. W.↗
NASA NTRS1987

Standards for the user interface - Developing a user consensus

The user support environment (USE) which is a set of software tools for a flexible standard interactive user interface to the Space Station systems, platforms, and payloads is described in detail. Included in the USE concept are a user interface language, a run time environment and user interface management system, support tools, and standards for human interaction methods. The goals and challenges of the USE are discussed as well as a methodology based on prototype demonstrations for involving users in the process of validating the USE concepts. By prototyping the key concepts and salient features of the proposed user interface standards, the user's ability to respond is greatly enhanced.

Moe, Karen L.↗
NASA NTRS1986

A risk management approach to CAIS development

The proposed DoD standard Common APSE Interface Set (CAIS) was developed as a framework set of interfaces that will support the transportability and interoperability of tools in the support environments of the future. While the current CAIS version is a promising start toward fulfilling those goals and current prototypes provide adequate testbeds for investigations in support of completing specifications for a full CAIS, there are many reasons why the proposed CAIS might fail to become a usable product and the foundation of next-generation (1990'S) project support environments such as NASA's Space Station software support environment. The most critical threats to the viability and acceptance of the CAIS include performance issues (especially in piggybacked implementations), transportability, and security requirements. To make the situation worse, the solution to some of these threats appears to be at conflict with the solutions to others.

Hart, Hal↗
NASA NTRS1990

Head-coupled remote stereoscopic camera system for telepresence applications

The Virtual Environment Workstation Project (VIEW) at NASA's Ames Research Center has developed a remotely controlled stereoscopic camera system that can be used for telepresence research and as a tool to develop and evaluate configurations for head-coupled visual systems associated with space station telerobots and remore manipulation robotic arms. The prototype camera system consists of two lightweight CCD video cameras mounted on a computer controlled platform that provides real-time pan, tilt, and roll control of the camera system in coordination with head position transmitted from the user. This paper provides an overall system description focused on the design and implementation of the camera and platform hardware configuration and the development of control software. Results of preliminary performance evaluations are reported with emphasis on engineering and mechanical design issues and discussion of related psychophysiological effects and objectives.

Bolas, M. T.↗
NASA NTRS1994

A mission planning concept and mission planning system for future manned space missions

The international character of future manned space missions will compel the involvement of several international space agencies in mission planning tasks. Additionally, the community of users requires a higher degree of freedom for experiment planning. Both of these problems can be solved by a decentralized mission planning concept using the so-called 'envelope method,' by which resources are allocated to users by distributing resource profiles ('envelopes') which define resource availabilities at specified times. The users are essentially free to plan their activities independently of each other, provided that they stay within their envelopes. The new developments were aimed at refining the existing vague envelope concept into a practical method for decentralized planning. Selected critical functions were exercised by planning an example, founded on experience acquired by the MSCC during the Spacelab missions D-1 and D-2. The main activity regarding future mission planning tasks was to improve the existing MSCC mission planning system, using new techniques. An electronic interface was developed to collect all formalized user inputs more effectively, along with an 'envelope generator' for generation and manipulation of the resource envelopes. The existing scheduler and its data base were successfully replaced by an artificial intelligence scheduler. This scheduler is not only capable of handling resource envelopes, but also uses a new technology based on neuronal networks. Therefore, it is very well suited to solve the future scheduling problems more efficiently. This prototype mission planning system was used to gain new practical experience with decentralized mission planning, using the envelope method. In future steps, software tools will be optimized, and all data management planning activities will be embedded into the scheduler.

Wickler, Martin↗
NASA NTRS2000

Programmable Logic Application Notes

This column will be provided each quarter as a source for reliability, radiation results, NASA capabilities, and other information on programmable logic devices and related applications. This quarter will continue a series of notes concentrating on analysis techniques with this issue's section discussing: Digital Timing Analysis Tools and Techniques. Articles in this issue include: SX and SX-A Series Devices Power Sequencing; JTAG and SXISX-AISX-S Series Devices; Analysis Techniques (i.e., notes on digital timing analysis tools and techniques); Status of the Radiation Hard reconfigurable Field Programmable Gate Array Program, Input Transition Times; Apollo Guidance Computer Logic Study; RT54SX32S Prototype Data Sets; A54SX32A - 0.22 micron/UMC Test Results; Ramtron FM1608 FRAM; and Analysis of VHDL Code and Synthesizer Output.

Katz, Richard↗
NASA NTRS2012

Near Real Time Prospecting for Lunar Volatiles: Demonstrating RESOLVE Science in the Field

The Regolith and Environment Science and Oxygen & Lunar Volatile Extraction (RESOLVE) project aims to demonstrate the utility of "in situ resource utilization". In situ resource utilization (ISRU) is a way to rebalance the economics of spaceflight by reducing or eliminating materials that must be brought up from Earth and placed on the surface of the Moon for human use. RESOLVE is developing a rover-borne payload that (1) can locate near subsurface volatiles, (2) excavate and analyze samples of the volatile-bearing regolith, and (3) demonstrate the form, extractability and usefulness of the materials. Such investigations are important not only for ISRU but are also critically important for understanding the scientific nature of these intriguing lunar polar volatile deposits. Temperature models and orbital data suggest near surface volatile concentrations may exist at briefly lit lunar polar locations outside persistently shadowed regions. A lunar rover could be remotely operated at some of these locations for the 4-7 days of expected sunlight at relatively low cost. In July 2012 the RESOLVE project conducted a full-scale field demonstration. In particular, the ability to perform the real-time measurement analysis necessary to search for volatiles and the ability to combine the various measurement techniques to meet the mission measurement and science goals. With help from the Pacific International Space Center for Exploration Systems (PISCES), a lunar rover prototype (provided by the Canadian Space Agency) was equipped with prospecting instruments (neutron spectrometer and near-infrared spectrometer), subsurface access and sampling tools, including both an auger and coring drill (provided by CSA) and subsurface sample analysis instrumentation, including a sample oven system, the Oxygen and Volatile Extraction Node (OVEN), and Gas Chromatograph / Mass Spectrometer system, the Lunar Advanced Volatile Analysis (LAVA) system. Given the relatively short time period this lunar mission is being designed to, prospecting needs to occur in near real-time. The two prospecting instruments are the neutron and NIR spectrometers. In the field demo a small radioactive source was provided the neutron flux. The NIR spectrometer, which includes its own light source, looks at surface reflectance for signatures of bound H20/0H and general mineralogy. Once a "hot spot" was found by the prospecting instruments, the drill could either auger or core. The auger drill worked to a depth of 50 cm and is monitored with a drill camera and the NIR spectrometer. As cuttings are brought up the NIR spectra is monitored. If a particular location is considered of high -interest then the decision to core could be made. The coring drill (a push-tube) allowed a meter sample to be acquired processed by the OVEN/LAVA sys-tem. This presentation will provide details as how these instruments worked together and how and if the planned measurements and science was obtained.

Elphic, Richard↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Progress Towards SiC ASICs for Extreme Temperature and Radiation Environments

This presentation describes development and demonstrations of semiconductor integrated circuits (ICs) and ceramic packaging that are arguably the most environmentally durable transistor electronics ever demonstrated. Silicon carbide (SiC) junction field effect transistor-resistor (JFET-R) ICs fabricated by NASA Glenn Research Center with two-level interconnect have successfully operated for over 1 year in 500 °C air-ambient, 60 days in 460 °C and 9.3 MPa pressure caustic Venus surface environment test chamber, and radiation exposure through 7 Mrad(Si) total ionizing dose (TID) and 86 MeV-cm2/mg heavy ion strikes. Furthermore, these ICs have also demonstrated operation from -190 °C to +812 °C (over 1000 °C temperature span) without significant change in signal (input /output) or power supply voltages. While the operating frequency and functional complexity is far below silicon-based ICs, these SiC application specific ICs (ASICs) are nevertheless becoming capable of providing unique and advantageous harsh-environment circuit functionality without cooling/sheltering overhead. With modest adjustments, the SiC JFET-R fabrication process is compatible with semiconductor mass-production tools and materials. As an initial step towards manufacture, a majority of processing steps to realize the next SiC JFET-R IC prototype wafer run have been outsourced to commercial foundry. It is expected that further upscaling combined with technology transfer to commercial production will lower investment and risk barriers to useful application deployment.

high temperature↗
NASA NTRS1973

The use of paper honeycomb for prototype blade construction for small to medium-sized wind driven generators

Paper honeycomb is used for the construction of conventional, propeller-type, windmill blades. Using fairly simple techniques and conventional power tools, it is possible to shape both simple foils and more complex foils with or without tapered plan forms and with or without varying profiles. A block of honeycomb, in its compressed form, is mounted on a wedge and run through a bandsaw with the table at an appropriate tilt angle. It is the combination of the wedge angle and the table angle that gives the tapered planform and profile shape. Next the honeycomb is expanded on the shaft and jigged to give the desired angles of attack. With the honeycomb fixed in position, the blade is covered with a fine weave fiberglass cloth. Any surface quality can then be achieved with filling and sanding.

Meyer, H.↗
DOE OSTI2020

Simulation scaling studies of reactor core two-phase flow using direct numerical simulation

Tremendous growth in supercomputing power in recent years has resulted in the emergence of high-resolution flow analysis methods as an advanced research tool to evaluate single and two-phase flow behavior. In particular, unstructured mesh-based methods have been applied to analyze flows in complex reactor core geometries, including those of light water reactors (LWR). The finite-element based code, PHASTA, is utilized to perform large-scale simulations of two-phase bubbly flows in LWR geometries. Given the large computational cost of direct numerical simulation (DNS) coupled with interface tracking methods (ITM), typical domains encompass a portion of a single subchannel. In the presented research, the state-of-the-art analysis of turbulent two-phase flows in complex LWR subchannel geometries are demonstrated at both prototypical reactor parameters as well as scaled low pressure conditions. Three different cases are studied, a high-pressure simulation in prototypical reactor subchannel geometry, a low-pressure case in prototypical geometry and a final low-pressure case in a geometry scaled up to conserve the ratio between the bubble size and the domain pitch. Utilizing advanced statistical processing tools, these simulation conditions are compared to shed light on the relevancy of two-phase flow characteristics given the significant differences between LWR and low-pressure conditions. These findings can lead to the generation of useful guiding principles when researchers need to scale the two-phase flow behavior captured at low pressure and temperature conditions to those at reactor operating conditions.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Building a DFT+U machine learning interatomic potential for uranium dioxide

Despite uranium dioxide (UO 2 ) being a widely used nuclear fuel, fuel performance models rely extensively on empirical correlations of material behavior, leveraging the historical operating experience of UO 2 . Mechanistic models that consider an atomistic understanding of the processes governing fuel performance (such as fission gas release and creep) will enable a better description of fuel behavior under non-prototypical conditions such as in new reactor concepts or for modified UO 2 fuel compositions. To this end, molecular dynamics simulation is a powerful tool for rapidly predicting physical properties of proposed fuel candidates. However, the reliability of these simulations depends largely on the accuracy of the atomic forces. Traditionally, these forces are computed using either a classical force field (FF) or density functional theory (DFT). While DFT is relatively accurate, the computational cost is burdensome, especially for f-electron elements, such as actinides. By contrast, classical FFs are computationally efficient but are less accurate. For these reasons, we report a new accurate machine learning interatomic potential (MLIP) for UO 2 that provides high-fidelity reproduction of DFT forces at a similar low cost to classical FFs. We employ an active learning approach that autonomously augments the DFT training data set to iteratively refine the MLIP. To further improve the quality of our predictions, we utilize transfer learning to retrain our MLIP to higher-accuracy DFT+U data. We validate our MLIPs by comparing predicted physical properties (e.g., thermal expansion and elastic properties) with those from existing classical FFs and DFT/DFT+U calculations, as well as with experimental data when available.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2025

High fidelity multiphysics tightly coupled model for a lead cooled fast reactor concept and application to statistical calculation of hot channel factors

A tightly coupled multiphysics code system is established using the MOOSE framework for hot channel factor (HCF) evaluation on a Lead Fast Reactor (LFR) concept. The coupled system is driven by the Griffin multiphysics coupling capability under which the MOOSE Heat Transfer module and NekRS computational fluid dynamics solver are coupled for conjugate heat transfer using the Cardinal application. The coupled capability is demonstrated on an LFR assembly model based on materials and geometry of a prototypical lead-cooled fast reactor design by Westinghouse Electric Company, LLC. Moreover, the work integrates the Multiphysics Object Oriented Simulation Environment (MOOSE) Stochastic Tools Module (STM) to perform calculations for statistical analysis of HCF. Furthermore, the coupling strategy and workflow demonstrated in this paper is not only useful for predicting accurate hot channel factors for different kinds of advanced reactors but also for other engineering applications such as control rod worth assessment, generation of high-fidelity database for Artificial intelligence (AI)/machine learning (ML) training, design optimization and multi-resolution modeling.

Cardinal↗
DOE OSTI2023

Slicing with deep learning models at ProtoDUNE-SP

DUNE is a cutting-edge experiment aiming to study neutrinos in detail, with a special focus on the flavor oscillation mechanism. The prototype of the DUNE Far Detector Single Phase TPC (ProtoDUNE-SP) was built and operated at CERN with a full set of reconstruction tools. To implement these reconstruction tools, Pandora, a multi-algorithm framework, has been developed. A large number of these algorithms, some of them being exploiting traditional clustering, detector physics and deep learning approaches, have been applied to images to gradually build up a picture out of singular events. One of such algorithms is the Pandora slicing algorithm which aims to partition the detector hits of an event in sets called slices. Each slice represents a single interaction in the detector and should identify all the hits related to the interacting particle and its subsequent decay products. We expect the order of tens of slices per event in ProtoDUNE-SP. In this paper we present a deep learning approach to the problem, designing a model able to outperform the state-of-the-art slicing algorithm which is currently implemented within Pandora. We assess the performance of our tool in terms of efficiency and accuracy, while exploiting hardware accelerating setups. The ultimate goal is to incorporate this deep learning approach in the Pandora reconstruction tool.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Assessment of Training Performance, Degradation and Robustness of Paraffin-Wax Impregnated Nb 3 Sn Demonstrator Under High Magnetic Field

In the context of high-energy physics, the use of Nb 3 Sn superconducting magnets as a cost-effective and reliable technology depends on improvements in the following areas: long development and manufacturing cycles, conductor degradation after thermal cycling, long training, as well as a demonstration in accelerator magnets with a beam aperture of the full potential of modern Nb 3 Sn conductors. In short, performance, robustness, and cost are the three issues to be addressed. The Magnet Development project (MagDev) of the Swiss Accelerator Research and Technology initiative (CHART) at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) aims to contribute to the solutions to each of these issues, re-thinking the manufacturing and design process. Here in our program, every innovation is to be validated by means of a panoply of fast-turnaround tools: from non-powered and powered samples and coils, tested under background field, to low-field subscale magnets and high field short prototypes. This work presents one element in this panoply of R&D vehicles: a stress-managed Nb 3 Sn coil called BigBOX, impregnated with paraffin wax, and tested, through a collaboration with the Magnet Development Program of the United States (US-MDP), in the background field of Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL)’s common coils dipole DCC17.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗