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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.

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At least 667 records · Page 37
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1985

Some issues in data model mapping

Numerous data models have been reported in the literature since the early 1970's. They have been used as database interfaces and as conceptual design tools. The mapping between schemas expressed according to the same data model or according to different models is interesting for theoretical and practical purposes. This paper addresses some of the issues involved in such a mapping. Of special interest are the identification of the mapping parameters and some current approaches for handling the various situations that require a mapping.

Dominick, Wayne D.↗
NASA NTRS2003

Increasing the Operational Value of Event Messages

Assessing the health of a space mission has traditionally been performed using telemetry analysis tools. Parameter values are compared to known operational limits and are plotted over various time periods. This presentation begins with the notion that there is an incredible amount of untapped information contained within the mission s event message logs. Through creative advancements in message handling tools, the event message logs can be used to better assess spacecraft and ground system status and to highlight and report on conditions not readily apparent when messages are evaluated one-at-a-time during a real-time pass. Work in this area is being funded as part of a larger NASA effort at the Goddard Space Flight Center to create component-based, middleware-based, standards-based general purpose ground system architecture referred to as GMSEC - the GSFC Mission Services Evolution Center. The new capabilities and operational concepts for event display, event data analyses and data mining are being developed by Lockheed Martin and the new subsystem has been named GREAT - the GMSEC Reusable Event Analysis Toolkit. Planned for use on existing and future missions, GREAT has the potential to increase operational efficiency in areas of problem detection and analysis, general status reporting, and real-time situational awareness.

Li, Zhenping↗
NASA NTRS2005

Using Perilog to Explore "Decision Making at NASA"

Perilog, a context intensive text mining system, is used as a discovery tool to explore topics and concerns in "Decision Making at NASA," chapter 6 of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) Report, Volume I. Two examples illustrate how Perilog can be used to discover highly significant safety-related information in the text without prior knowledge of the contents of the document. A third example illustrates how "if-then" statements found by Perilog can be used in logical analysis of decision making. In addition, in order to serve as a guide for future work, the technical details of preparing a PDF document for input to Perilog are included in an appendix.

McGreevy, Michael W.↗
NASA NTRS2005

Life-Cycle Cost/Benefit Assessment of Expedite Departure Path (EDP)

This report presents a life-cycle cost/benefit assessment (LCCBA) of Expedite Departure Path (EDP), an air traffic control Decision Support Tool (DST) currently under development at NASA. This assessment is an update of a previous study performed by bd Systems, Inc. (bd) during FY01, with the following revisions: The life-cycle cost assessment methodology developed by bd for the previous study was refined and calibrated using Free Flight Phase 1 (FFP1) cost information for Traffic Management Advisor (TMA, or TMA-SC in the FAA's terminology). Adjustments were also made to the site selection and deployment scheduling methodology to include airspace complexity as a factor. This technique was also applied to the benefit extrapolation methodology to better estimate potential benefits for other years, and at other sites. This study employed a new benefit estimating methodology because bd s previous single year potential benefit assessment of EDP used unrealistic assumptions that resulted in optimistic estimates. This methodology uses an air traffic simulation approach to reasonably predict the impacts from the implementation of EDP. The results of the costs and benefits analyses were then integrated into a life-cycle cost/benefit assessment.

Wang, Jianzhong Jay↗
NASA NTRS1994

Experience Report: Visual Programming in the Real World

This paper reports direct experience with two commercial, widely used visual programming environments. While neither of these systems is object oriented, the tools have transformed the development process and indicate a direction for visual object oriented tools to proceed.

visual programming↗
NASA NTRS2006

Recent HARVIST Results: Classifying Crops from Remote Sensing Data

In this paper, we report on recent results from the Heterogeneous Agricultural Research Via Interactive, Scalable Technology (HARVIST) project. HARVIST seeks to provide the tools and scalability required to enable practicioners to analyze large, diverse data sets that may come from different data sources. We have focused on agricultural applications, and our current results demonstrate the ability of the system to train a crop type classifier that operates on orbital remote sensing images. We find that this classifier can label crops with an accuracy of 82%, comparable to other published results.

support vector machines↗
NASA NTRS2009

Hypersonic Vehicle Propulsion System Control Model Development Roadmap and Activities

The NASA Fundamental Aeronautics Program Hypersonic project is directed towards fundamental research for two classes of hypersonic vehicles: highly reliable reusable launch systems (HRRLS) and high-mass Mars entry systems (HMMES). The objective of the hypersonic guidance, navigation, and control (GN&C) discipline team is to develop advanced guidance and control algorithms to enable efficient and effective operation of these challenging vehicles. The ongoing work at the NASA Glenn Research Center supports the hypersonic GN&C effort in developing tools to aid the design of advanced control algorithms that specifically address the propulsion system of the HRRLSclass vehicles. These tools are being developed in conjunction with complementary research and development activities in hypersonic propulsion at Glenn and elsewhere. This report is focused on obtaining control-relevant dynamic models of an HRRLS-type hypersonic vehicle propulsion system.

Stueber, Thomas J.↗
NASA NTRS2011

Radiated Emissions from a Remote-Controlled Airplane-Measured in a Reverberation Chamber

A full-vehicle, subscale all-electric model airplane was tested for radiated emissions, using a reverberation chamber. The mission of the NASA model airplane is to test in-flight airframe damage diagnosis and battery prognosis algorithms, and provide experimental data for other aviation safety research. Subscale model airplanes are economical experimental tools, but assembling their systems from hobbyist and low-cost components may lead to unforseen electromagnetic compatibility problems. This report provides a guide for accommodating the on-board radio systems, so that all model airplane systems may be operated during radiated emission testing. Radiated emission data are provided for on-board systems being operated separately and together, so that potential interferors can be isolated and mitigated. The report concludes with recommendations for EMI/EMC best practices for subscale model airplanes and airships used for research.

Ely, Jay J.↗
NASA NTRS2012

Determining Damping Trends from a Range of Cable Harness Assemblies on a Launch Vehicle Panel from Test Measurements

The team of authors at Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) has been investigating estimating techniques for the vibration response of launch vehicle panels excited by acoustics and/or aero-fluctuating pressures. Validation of the approaches used to estimate these environments based on ground tests of flight like hardware is of major importance to new vehicle programs. The team at MSFC has recently expanded upon the first series of ground test cases completed in December 2010. The follow on tests recently completed are intended to illustrate differences in damping that might be expected when cable harnesses are added to the configurations under test. This validation study examines the effect on vibroacoustic response resulting from the installation of cable bundles on a curved orthogrid panel. Of interest is the level of damping provided by the installation of the cable bundles and whether this damping could be potentially leveraged in launch vehicle design. The results of this test are compared with baseline acoustic response tests without cables. Damping estimates from the measured response data are made using a new software tool that employs a finite element model (FEM) of the panel in conjunction with advanced optimization techniques. This paper will report on the \damping trend differences. observed from response measurements for several different configurations of cable harnesses. The data should assist vibroacoustics engineers to make more informed damping assumptions when calculating vibration response estimates when using model based analysis approach. Achieving conservative estimates that have more flight like accuracy is desired. The paper may also assist analysts in determining how ground test data may relate to expected flight response levels. Empirical response estimates may also need to be adjusted if the measured response used as an input to the study came from a test article without flight like cable harnesses.

Smith, Andrew↗
NASA NTRS2013

Progress in Operational Analysis of Launch Vehicles in Nonstationary Flight

This paper presents recent results in an ongoing effort to understand and develop techniques to process launch vehicle data, which is extremely challenging for modal parameter identification. The primary source of difficulty is due to the nonstationary nature of the situation. The system is changing, the environment is not steady, and there is an active control system operating. Hence, the primary tool for producing clean operational results (significant data lengths and data averaging) is not available to the user. This work reported herein uses a correlation-based two step operational modal analysis approach to process the relevant data sets for understanding and development of processes. A significant drawback for such processing of short time histories is a series of beating phenomena due to the inability to average out random modal excitations. A recursive correlation process coupled to a new convergence metric (designed to mitigate the beating phenomena) is the object of this study. It has been found in limited studies that this process creates clean modal frequency estimates but numerically alters the damping.

James, George↗
NASA NTRS2014

NEQAIRv14.0 Release Notes: Nonequilibrium and Equilibrium Radiative Transport Spectra Program

NEQAIR v14.0 is the first parallelized version of NEQAIR. Starting from the last version of the code that went through the internal software release process at NASA Ames (NEQAIR 2008), there have been significant updates to the physics in the code and the computational efficiency. NEQAIR v14.0 supersedes NEQAIR v13.2, v13.1 and the suite of NEQAIR2009 versions. These updates have predominantly been performed by Brett Cruden and Aaron Brandis from ERC Inc at NASA Ames Research Center in 2013 and 2014. A new naming convention is being adopted with this current release. The current and future versions of the code will be named NEQAIR vY.X. The Y will refer to a major release increment. Minor revisions and update releases will involve incrementing X. This is to keep NEQAIR more in line with common software release practices. NEQAIR v14.0 is a standalone software tool for line-by-line spectral computation of radiative intensities and/or radiative heat flux, with one-dimensional transport of radiation. In order to accomplish this, NEQAIR v14.0, as in previous versions, requires the specification of distances (in cm), temperatures (in K) and number densities (in parts/cc) of constituent species along lines of sight. Therefore, it is assumed that flow quantities have been extracted from flow fields computed using other tools, such as CFD codes like DPLR or LAURA, and that lines of sight have been constructed and written out in the format required by NEQAIR v14.0. There are two principal modes for running NEQAIR v14.0. In the first mode NEQAIR v14.0 is used as a tool for creating synthetic spectra of any desired resolution (including convolution with a specified instrument/slit function). The first mode is typically exercised in simulating/interpreting spectroscopic measurements of different sources (e.g. shock tube data, plasma torches, etc.). In the second mode, NEQAIR v14.0 is used as a radiative heat flux prediction tool for flight projects. Correspondingly, NEQAIR has also been used to simulate the radiance measured on previous flight missions. This report summarizes the database updates, corrections that have been made to the code, changes to input files, parallelization, the current usage recommendations, including test cases, and an indication of the performance enhancements achieved.

Radiation Solver↗
NASA NTRS2019

NEQAIR v15.0 Release Notes: Nonequilibrium and Equilibrium Radiative Transport and Spectra Program

NEQAIR v15.0 provides the first steps to improved coupling between NEQAIR and the DPLR CFD code, which will be fully realized in v15.1. The plan is to release NEQAIR v15.1 and DPLR 4.05 at the same time. The improvements implemented in NEQAIR v15.0 have focused on improving stability, solution robustness, usability and providing different options for running the code. It is also the first version of the code to have a new input file and line of sight format since 2009. Backward compatibility with previous formats of the input files (neqair.inp and LOS.dat) has also been provided. NEQAIR v15.0 supersedes the prerelease of this version, as well as NEQAIR v14.0, v13.2, v13.1 and the suite of NEQAIR2009 versions. These updates have predominantly been performed by Brett Cruden and Aaron Brandis from AMA Inc at NASA Ames Research Center between 2016 and 2018. NEQAIR v15.0 is a standalone software tool for line-by-line spectral computation of radiative intensities and/or radiative heat flux, with one-dimensional transport of radiation. In order to accomplish this, NEQAIR v15.0, as in previous versions, requires the specification of distances (in cm), temperatures (in K) and number densities (in parts/cc) of constituent species along lines of sight. Therefore, it is assumed that flow quantities have been extracted from flow fields computed using other tools, such as CFD codes like DPLR or LAURA, and that lines of sight have been constructed and written out in the format required by NEQAIR v15.0. There are two principal modes for running NEQAIR v15.0. In the first mode NEQAIR v15.0 is used as a tool for creating synthetic spectra of any desired resolution (including convolution with a specified instrument/slit function). The first mode is typically exercised in simulating/interpreting spectroscopic measurements of different sources (e.g. shock tube data, plasma torches, etc.). In the second mode, NEQAIR v15.0 is used as a radiative heat flux prediction tool for flight projects. Correspondingly, NEQAIR has also been used to simulate the radiance measured on previous flight missions. This report summarizes the database updates, corrections that have been made to the code, changes to input files, parallelization, the current usage recommendations, including test cases, and an indication of the performance enhancements achieved.

Brandis, Aaron M.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Measured and Modeled Vineyard Canopy Development and Water Use

Two publicly available applications relevant to vineyard irrigation management are described. OpenET is a satellite-based system that applies an ensemble of remote sensing methods to enable wide-area monitoring of evapotranspiration (ET) and related measures such as vegetation canopy development (via the NDVI spectral index). Data are freely available at one-quarter acre spatial resolution, and may be automatically aggregated to the individual block level. The satellite-based daily ET data were compared with in-situ eddy covariance measurements collected by micro-meteorological instrumentation in a Central Coast vineyard over a three-year period (2020-2022). Estimation uncertainties were reasonably consistent with prior reports for GRAPEX sites in the Central Valley and North Coast. The CropManage (CM) web application is a free software tool developed and operated U.C. Cooperative Extension for ET-based irrigation scheduling of major specialty crops. CM provides specific guidance for irrigation events in terms of irrigation system runtime. Applied water recommendations are based largely on estimated ET, derived from assumed canopy cover and associated crop coefficients, since the last irrigation or rainfall event. The application was recently adapted to vineyards by accounting for presence of winter/spring cover crop, and vine water stress imposed by regulated deficit irrigation. A 2022 field campaign involved 12 Central Coast and San Joaquin Valley commercial vineyards, and OpenET data were used to help evaluate CM output. Maximum percent vine cover was compared to estimates derived from average July satellite NDVI. The difference for 10 sites lacking midseason groundcover ranged from 0-7% between datasets with average agreement near 4%. Cumulative ET estimates agreed with OpenET to within 12% at the majority of sites, while larger discrepancies at the remaining sites may require additional data collection and analysis during the 2023 season. Satellite based systems such as OpenET have the potential to help parameterize CropManage and similar agricultural decision-support systems.

Measured↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Acoustic Emission Methods for the Health Evaluation of Integrated Pressure Components

At the request of the Pressure Systems Senior Discipline Expert, to overcome the access and detectable flaw size limitations of other nondestructive evaluation (NDE) methods for integrated components, a technique akin to seismology was advanced to perceive the earliest signs of cracking in titanium components before they escalate into serious issues. In this project we achieved a landmark in Acoustic Emission (AE) testing with the first NASA Probability of Detection (POD) study. This is an important first step to the certification of the AE method for flight components and was based on the testing of notched panels. By working closely with industry allies and employing approved methods from the boiler and pressure vessel sector, we not only met but surpassed all POD benchmarks with our test and acceptance criteria. In experiments involving solution heat-treated and aged 6Al-4V-Ti alloy tested with broadband sensors, we recorded a 96% success rate, with zero false positives reported. Our research shows that in some cases, AE testing can locate smaller cracks than other NDE methods. An industry tool for scaling results to full pressure vessels is highlighted. However, before applying our findings to NASA components, tests to validate the transfer functions are advised.

acoustic↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Spacecraft Cabin Ventilation Fan Research at NASA

NASA has recently made the geometry and solid model for a spacecraft cabin ventilation fan prototype available to the public via electronic file downloads from the NASA Technical Report Server. This fan can be used for research and development by many organizations. The fan is 3.5 inches in diameter, 9 inches long, and weighed 3.6 lb. The NASA Quiet Space Fan was designed to make 3.64 inches of water pressure rise at 150.3 cfm of airflow at 12,000 rpm at standard air conditions of 70ºF and 14.7 psia. The performance of the metal version of the fan was measured to be 3.48 inches of water at 150.6 cfm at design speed. A low-noise blade-vane count was chosen to try to reduce tone noise generated by this fan by cutting off the first three blade passing frequency tones. In-duct microphone array measurements indicated that the most evident tones occur for frequencies of 1800 Hz (1 BPF) and 7200 Hz (4 BPF). Using reverberant room standard testing methods, the A-weighted sound power level for the fan operating at design point conditions was measured to be 71 dBA. This report describes the current set of publicly available information for this fan. The fan was designed, optimized, and tested with tools and techniques that NASA has traditionally used for turbofan engine research. This is one way that technology developed for aerospace applications can be used more broadly, since quiet and efficient fans are needed for many ventilation systems on spacecraft, aircraft, watercraft, land vehicles, and buildings.

fan, noise, ventilation↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Spacecraft Cabin Ventilation Fan Research at NASA

NASA has recently made the geometry and solid model for a spacecraft cabin ventilation fan prototype available to the public via electronic file downloads from the NASA Technical Reports Server. This fan can be used for research and development by many organizations. The NASA Quiet Space Fan is 8.89 cm (3.50 in) in diameter, 22.9 cm (9.00 in) long, and the metal fan weighs 1.63 kg (3.6 lbm). The fan was designed to generate a system total pressure rise of 906 Pa (3.64 inches of water) at 0.709 m3/s (150.3 cfm) of airflow at 12,000 rpm (at 21.1ºC (70ºF) and 14.7 psia). Performance measured using standardized techniques showed good agreement with design and predicted values. A low-noise blade-vane count was chosen to reduce tonal noise generated by rotor-stator interaction for the first three blade passing frequency harmonics. In-duct microphone array measurements indicated that the most evident tones occur at frequencies of 1,800 Hz (1 BPF) and 7,200 Hz (4 BPF). Using reverberant room standard testing methods, the A-weighted sound power level for the fan operating at design point conditions was measured to be 71 dBA. This report describes the current set of publicly available information for this fan. The fan was designed, optimized, and tested with tools and techniques that NASA has traditionally used for turbofan engine research. This demonstrates that technology developed for aerospace applications can be used more broadly, since quiet and efficient fans are needed for many ventilation systems in spacecraft, aircraft, watercraft, land vehicles, and buildings.

fan↗
NASA NTRS1990

IDEF4 technical report, version 1.0

A language for the representation of object oriented software designs is described. IDEF4, a methodology for object-oriented design, is being developed as a design tool for software designers who use such object-oriented languages. Such languages include the Common LISP Object System, Flavors, C++, Smalltalk, Objective C, and others. Since effective usage of the object-oriented paradigm requires a different thought process than that used with conventional procedural or database languages, standard methodologies such as structure charts, data flow diagrams, and traditional data design models (hierarchical, relational, and network) are not sufficient. IDEF4 seeks to provide the necessary facilities to support the object-oriented design decision making process. Specifically, the two primary design goals of IDEF4 are: (1) to provide support for creating object oriented designs whose implementations will exhibit desirable life cycle qualities and reduce total implementation development time; and (2) to make it easy to evaluate object oriented code to determine whether or not the delivered product both conforms to the design and exhibits the desired life cycle qualities. The application of IDEF4 in the life cycle of a software development project is intended to be focused on those activities after a decision has been made to employ object oriented programming technology, but prior to detailed code specification.

Mayer, Richard J.↗
NASA NTRS2013

IT Security Support for Spaceport Command and Control System

During the fall 2013 semester, I worked at the Kennedy Space Center as an IT Security Intern in support of the Spaceport Command and Control System under the guidance of the IT Security Lead Engineer. Some of my responsibilities included assisting with security plan documentation collection, system hardware and software inventory, and malicious code and malware scanning. Throughout the semester, I had the opportunity to work on a wide range of security related projects. However, there are three projects in particular that stand out. The first project I completed was updating a large interactive spreadsheet that details the SANS Institutes Top 20 Critical Security Controls. My task was to add in all of the new commercial of the shelf (COTS) software listed on the SANS website that can be used to meet their Top 20 controls. In total, there are 153 unique security tools listed by SANS that meet one or more of their 20 controls. My second project was the creation of a database that will allow my mentor to keep track of the work done by the contractors that report to him in a more efficient manner by recording events as they occur throughout the quarter. Lastly, I expanded upon a security assessment of the Linux machines being used on center that I began last semester. To do this, I used a vulnerability and configuration tool that scans hosts remotely through the network and presents the user with an abundance of information detailing each machines configuration. The experience I gained from working on each of these projects has been invaluable, and I look forward to returning in the spring semester to continue working with the IT Security team.

computer security↗