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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 793 records · Page 44
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1986

Composition and stability of the condensate observed at the Viking Lander 2 site on Mars

Surface energy balance and near-surface temperature data from the Viking Lander 2 site taken during the first winter that condensated were observed and analyzed to determine the relative stability of CO2 and H2O frosts. The CO2 frost stability is calculated with an equilibrium surface energy balance model, i.e., the total energy incident on a frost surface is compared with the blackbody energy emitted by the surface. The energy sources considered were IR emission from the atmosphere, sunlight, and the sensible heat flux from the atmosphere. H2O stability was examined as a function of buoyant diffusion and turbulent mixing processes which could remove saturated near-surface gases. The CO2 frost is found to be sufficiently unstable at the time the condensate was observed on the ground, so all CO2 ice deposited at night would boil away in a few hours of sunlight. CO2 ice would not form during a dust storm. Water frost would be stable during the condensate observations, since sublimation would occur at a rate below 1 micron/day. A stable winter thickness of 10 microns is projected for the water ice.

Hart, H. M.↗
NASA NTRS1986

The measurement of aircraft performance and stability and control after flight through natural icing conditions

The effects of airframe icing on the performance and stability and control of a twin-engine commuter-class aircraft were measured by the NASA Lewis Research Center. This work consisted of clear air tests with artificial ice shapes attached to the horizontal tail, and natural icing flight tests in measured icing clouds. The clear air tests employed static longitudinal flight test methods to determine degradation in stability margins for four simulated ice shapes. The natural icing flight tests employed a data acquisition system, which was provided under contract to NASA by Kohlman Systems Research Incorporated. This system used a performance modeling method and modified maximum likelihood estimation (MMLE) technique to determine aircraft performance degradation and stability and control. Flight test results with artificial ice shapes showed that longitudinal, stick-fixed, static margins are reduced on the order of 5 percent with flaps up. Natural icing tests with the KSR system corroborated these results and showed degradation in the elevator control derivatives on the order of 8 to 16 percent depending on wing flap configuration. Performance analyses showed the individual contributions of major airframe components to the overall degradation in lift and drag.

Ranaudo, R. J.↗
NASA NTRS1987

Self-Stabilizing Storage Loops for Magnetic-Bubble Memories

Adjacent, sinusoidal loops provide defect-tolerant, self-stabilizing structures. New technology consists of three components providing self-stabilizing structures. First, apertures positioned so bubbles propagate alternately into hexagonally related positions and directly opposed positions; addition of straight barriers by ion milling or implantation of garnet adds transverse stability but leaves longitudinally metastable postions. Second, modification of barrier to sinusoidal shape provides "energy wells" in longitudinal direction at opposed positions and eliminates metastability. Third, positioning and phasing of counterrotating storage loops, provide stable hexagonal support between adjacent loops.

Nelson, Gary L.↗
NASA NTRS1986

Flight test report of the NASA icing research airplane: Performance, stability, and control after flight through natural icing conditions

Flight test results are presented documenting the effect of airframe icing on performance and stability and control of a NASA DHC-6 icing research aircraft. Kohlman System Research, Inc., provided the data acquisition system and data analysis under contract to NASA. Performance modeling methods and MMLE techniques were used to determine the effects of natural ice on the aircraft. Results showed that ice had a significant effect on the drag coefficient of the aircraft and a modest effect on the MMLE derived longitudinal stability coefficients (code version MMLE). Data is also presented on asymmetric power sign slip maneuvers showing rudder floating characteristics with and without ice on the vertical stabilizer.

Jordan, J. L.↗
NASA NTRS1986

Calculated performance, stability and maneuverability of high-speed tilting-prop-rotor aircraft

The feasibility of operating tilting-prop-rotor aircraft at high speeds is examined by calculating the performance, stability, and maneuverability of representative configurations. The rotor performance is examined in high-speed cruise and in hover. The whirl-flutter stability of the coupled-wing and rotor motion is calculated in the cruise mode. Maneuverability is examined in terms of the rotor-thrust limit during turns in helicopter configuration. Rotor airfoils, rotor-hub configuration, wing airfoil, and airframe structural weights representing demonstrated advance technology are discussed. Key rotor and airframe parameters are optimized for high-speed performance and stability. The basic aircraft-design parameters are optimized for minimum gross weight. To provide a focus for the calculations, two high-speed tilt-rotor aircraft are considered: a 46-passenger, civil transport and an air-combat/escort fighter, both with design speeds of about 400 knots. It is concluded that such high-speed tilt-rotor aircraft are quite practical.

Johnson, Wayne↗
NASA NTRS1986

The algebraic criteria for the stability of control systems

This paper critically examines the standard algebraic criteria for the stability of linear control systems and their proofs, reveals important previously unnoticed connections, and presents new representations. Algebraic stability criteria have also acquired significance for stability studies of non-linear differential equation systems by the Krylov-Bogoljubov-Magnus Method, and allow realization conditions to be determined for classes of broken rational functions as frequency characteristics of electrical network.

Cremer, H.↗
NASA NTRS1987

Review of the frequency stabilization of TEA CO2 laser oscillators

Most applications of TEA CO2 lasers in heterodyne radar systems require that the transmitter has a high degree of frequency stability. This ensures good Doppler resolution and maximizes receiver sensitivity. However, the environment within the device is far from benign with fast acoustic and electrical transients being present. Consequently the phenomena which govern the frequency stability of pulsed lasers are quite different from those operative in their CW counterparts. This review concentrates on the mechanisms of chirping within the output pulse; pulse to pulse frequency drift may be eliminated by frequency measurement and correction on successive pulses. It emerges that good stability hinges on correct cavity design. The energy-dependent laser-induced frequency sweep falls dramatically as mode diameter is increased. Thus, it is necessary to construct resonators with good selectivity for single mode operation while having a large spot size.

Willetts, David V.↗
NASA NTRS1987

Stability boundaries for command augmentation systems

The Stability Augmentation System (SAS) is a special case of the Command Augmentation System (CAS). Control saturation imposes bounds on achievable commands. The state equilibrium depends only on the open loop dynamics and control deflection. The control magnitude to achieve a desired command equilibrium is independent of the feedback gain. A feedback controller provides the desired response, maintains the system equilibrium under disturbances, but it does not affect the equilibrium values of states and control. The saturation boundaries change with commands, but the location of the equilibrium points in the saturated region remains unchanged. Nonzero command vectors yield saturation boundaries that are asymmetric with respect to the state equilibrium. Except for the saddle point case with MCE control law, the stability boundaries change with commands. For the cases of saddle point and unstable nodes, the region of stability decreases with increasing command magnitudes.

Shrivastava, P. C.↗
NASA NTRS1987

Improving stability margins in discrete-time LQG controllers

Some of the problems are discussed which are encountered in the design of discrete-time stochastic controllers for problems that may adequately be described by the Linear Quadratic Gaussian (LQG) assumptions; namely, the problems of obtaining acceptable relative stability, robustness, and disturbance rejection properties. A dynamic compensator is proposed to replace the optimal full state feedback regulator gains at steady state, provided that all states are measurable. The compensator increases the stability margins at the plant input, which may possibly be inadequate in practical applications. Though the optimal regulator has desirable properties the observer based controller as implemented with a Kalman filter, in a noisy environment, has inadequate stability margins. The proposed compensator is designed to match the return difference matrix at the plant input to that of the optimal regulator while maintaining the optimality of the state estimates as directed by the measurement noise characteristics.

Oranc, B. Tarik↗
NASA NTRS1987

Stability of a rigid rotor supported on flexible oil journal bearings

This investigation deals with the stability characteristics of oil journal bearings, including the effect of elastic distortions in the bearing liner. Graphical results are presented for (1) steady-state load, (2) stiffness and damping coefficients, and (3) the stability. These results are given for various slenderness ratios, eccentricity ratios, and elasticity parameters. The lubricant is first assumed to be isoviscous. The analysis is then extended to the case of a pressure-dependent viscosity. It has been found that stability decreases with increase of the elasticity parameter of the bearing liner for heavily loaded bearings.

Majumdar, Bankim C.↗
NASA NTRS1987

Effects of joint rate and displacement constraints on stability regions

A block diagram showing plant dynamics in normal mode coordinates, a linear feedback controller with command limits, and actuator dynamics with rate and displacement limits is given. The objective is to examine the effects of joint rate and displacement saturation limits on the stability regions. An unstable short period dynamic model is transformed into normal mode coordinates and is augmented with actuator dynamics. A linear feedback controller is used to provide closed-loop stability. The stability with constrained actuator rate limits under varying bandwidth, displacement and command limits is examined.

Shrivastava, P. C.↗
NASA NTRS1986

Cellular and dendritic growth in a binary melt - A marginal stability approach

A simple model for the constrained growth of an array of cells or dendrites in a binary alloy in the presence of an imposed positive temperature gradient in the liquid is proposed, with the dendritic or cell tip radius calculated using the marginal stability criterion of Langer and Muller-Krumbhaar (1977). This approach, an approach adopting the ad hoc assumption of minimum undercooling at the cell or dendrite tip, and an approach based on the stability criterion of Trivedi (1980) all predict tip radii to within 30 percent of each other, and yield a simple relationship between the tip radius and the growth conditions. Good agreement is found between predictions and data obtained in a succinonitrile-acetone system, and under the present experimental conditions, the dendritic tip stability parameter value is found to be twice that obtained previously, possibly due to a transition in morphology from a cellular structure with just a few side branches, to a more fully developed dendritic structure.

Laxmanan, V.↗
NASA NTRS1987

Spillover stabilization and decentralized modal control of large space structures

The stabilization of the neglected dynamics of the higher modes of vibration in large space structures is studied, and the influence of the structure of the plant noise intensity matrix of the Kalman-Bucy filter on the stability margin of the residual modes is shown. An optimization procedure uses information on the residual modes to minimize spillover of known residual modes while preserving robustness with respect to the unknown dynamics, and the optimum plant noise intensity matrix is selected to maximize the stability margins of the residual modes and to properly place the observer poles. Examples for both centralized and decentralized control are considered.

Czajkowski, Eva A.↗
NASA NTRS1987

Calculated performance, stability, and maneuverability of high speed tilting proprotor aircraft

The feasibility of operating tilting proprotor aircraft at high speeds is examined by calculating the performance, stability, and maneuverability of representative configurations. The rotor performance is examined in high speed cruise and in hover. The whirl flutter stability of the coupled wing and rotor motion is calculated in cruise. Maneuverability is examined in terms of the rotor thrust limit during turns in helicopter configuration. Rotor airfoils, rotor hub configuration, wing airfoil, and airframe structural weights representative of demonstrated advanced technology are considered. Key rotor and airframe parameters are optimized for high speed performance and stability. The basic aircraft design parameters are optimized for minimum gross weight. To provide a focus for the calculations, two high speed tiltrotor aircraft are considered: a 46-passenger civil transport and an air-combat/escort fighter, both with design speeds of about 400 knots. It is concluded that such high speed tiltrotor aircraft are quite practical.

Johnson, Wayne↗
NASA NTRS1987

Application of stability theory to laminar flow control - Progress and requirements

Paper briefly summarizes the current status of linear stability theory as applied to laminar flow control for aerodynamics. Results indicate that the conventional 'N factor' method of correlating stability theory and transition has a broad application range, including low- and high-speeds, two- and three-dimensional mean flow and TS, Gortler and crossflow disturbance modes. Linear theory is particularly applicable to the laminar flow control problem as, for system efficiency, control must be exercised and disturbances maintained in the linear regime. Current areas of concern for LFC, which require further stability theory research, include TS-crossflow interaction, combined disturbance fields (roughness, waviness, noise) and suction-induced disturbances. Some results on wave-interactions are presented.

Bushnell, D. M.↗
NASA NTRS1986

Calculated performance, stability, and maneuverability of high-speed tilting-prop-rotor aircraft

The feasability of operating tilting-prop-rotor aircraft at high speeds is examined by calculating the performance, stability, and maneuverability of representative configurations. The rotor performance is examined in high-speed cruise and in hover. The whirl-flutter stability of the coupled-wing and rotor motion is calculated in the cruise mode. Maneuverability is examined in terms of the rotor-thrust limit during turns in helicopter configuration. Rotor airfoils, rotor-hub configuration, wing airfoil, and airframe structural weights representing demonstrated advanced technology are discussed. Key rotor and airframe parameters are optimized for high-speed performance and stability. The basic aircraft-design parameters are optimized for minimum gross weight. To provide a focus for the calculations, two high-speed tilt-rotor aircraft are considered: a 46-passenger, civil transport and an air-combat/escort fighter, both with design speeds of about 400 knots. It is concluded that such high-speed tilt-rotor aircraft are quite practical.

Johnson, Wayne↗
NASA NTRS1987

Dynamic data acquisition, reduction, and analysis for the identification of high-speed compressor component post-stability characteristics

A compressor test was conducted in which transient data were obtained for the purpose of identifying the high-speed post-stability characteristics. The transient, surge-cycle nature of high-speed post-stability operation precludes the possibility of obtaining the characteristics in a steady-state manner, as is possible during low-speed poststability operation, which is characterized by quasi-steady rotating-stall behavior. Specialized compressor instrumentation was developed and was used to obtain the necessary surge-cycle performance data, which were then digitized, filtered, and analyzed. The high-speed post-stability characteristics were obtained through the use of a maximum likelihood-parameter estimation technique. The estimated characteristics were found to be insensitive to the presence of measurement noise and unmodelled system dynamics, but the compressor time-response constants, which were also estimated, were more sensitive to these same disturbances.

Dvorak, S. D.↗
NASA NTRS1987

Linear stability analysis of three-dimensional compressible boundary layers

A compressible stability analysis computer code is developed. The code uses a matrix finite-difference method for local eigenvale solution when a good guess for the eigenvalue is available and is significantly more computationally efficient than the commonly used inital-value approach. The local eigenvalue search procedure also results in eigenfunctions and, at little extra work, group velocities. A globally convergent eigenvalue procedure is also developed that may be used when no guess for the eigenvalue is available. The global problem is formulated in such a way that no unstable spurious modes appear so that the method is suitable for use in a black-box stability code. Sample stability calculations are presented for the boundary layer profiles of an LFC swept wing.

Malik, Mujeeb R.↗