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At least 811 records · Page 45

Investigation of Methods for the Structural Weight Analysis of a Mach 2.4 Axisymmetric Inlet

Structural design and analysis tools appropriate for estimating the structural weight of an axisymmetric inlet designed for Mach 2.4 cruise were evaluated. Little information regarding the inlet mechanical design is available in the preliminary design phase, so it is necessary to first develop a reasonable structural design before estimating the inlet weight. The Internally Pressurized Structure Synthesis and Optimization (IPSSO) program, employing an analytical approach, was chosen for evaluation due to its combined design and analysis capabilities. The inlet design produced by IPSSO was then analyzed using the NASTRAN finite element program. The finite element analysis was performed to help identify the limitations of the analytically based code as well as to evaluate NASTRAN for this application. Comparison between the IPSSO inlet weight and that of a similar inlet developed by the Boeing Commercial Airplane Group was also made. Program evaluation concluded that the combined use of IPSSO to create an initial design and NASTRAN to perform a numerical analysis would provide the capability to evaluate a limited number of inlet design The development of a new tool for the minimum weight design and analysis of inlet structures would be required for greater flexibility in evaluating inlet conceptual designs.

Nadell, Shari-Beth↗

Rare Earth and Transition Metal Containing Glasses

Transition metal (TM) and rare earth (RE) ions have been incorporated into many glass systems such as silicate, phosphate, and borosilicate-based oxide glasses, as well as in halide and chalcogenide glasses, that find applications ranging from optical, photonic, and magnetic devices, solid-state battery, to nuclear waste disposal. Understanding the structural role of RE and TM in these glasses can help to develop glass compositions for targeted applications with either high-optical emission efficiency, electrical conductivity, or chemical durability. In this chapter, we first provide a general introduction of the applications and structural features of RE and TM in glasses, then the critical aspects of molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of these glasses such as interatomic potentials, structural analysis tools to study RE and TM ions in glasses and their clustering behaviors, Quantitative Structure–Property Analysis (QSPR), diffusion and dynamic property calculations, and electronic structure calculations to understand electronic defects such as charge trapping and radiation effects are introduced. Three representative case studies are presented: the first one is on MD simulations of erbium- and europium-doped silica and silicate glasses, as well as cerium doped aluminophosphate glasses, that revealed the effect of glass composition on RE ion local structure and clustering behavior. Electronic structure calculations of cerium-doped glass show how the existence of multioxidation states help to mediate radiation-induced damages caused by excited electron–hole pairs was also discussed. The second one focuses on alkali vanadophosphate glasses where the existence of two vanadium oxidation states help to provide electronic conduction in the glasses while alkali ions provide ionic conduction. MD simulations were used to understand vanadium environments and other structural aspects in the phosphate glasses, as well as the ionic transport behaviors of alkali ions. The third case study is on zirconium-containing borosilicate and aluminosilicate glasses that find wide applications in nuclear waste disposal. MD simulations help to provide structural details of zirconium ions that are validated by diffraction and EXAFS spectra. The structural information was used to interpret changes of mechanical properties and chemical durability by using QSPR and other analyses-based MD-generated structure models.

Du, Jincheng↗

A Deep Learning Pipeline for Optimizing Large-scale Phase Field Simulations

Phase field (PF) simulations are computationally expensive but remain a key analysis tool to understand the complex mechanisms of additive manufacturing (AM) processes. Each PF simulation-aided analysis requires thousands of node hours on leadership-class supercomputers. One of the main goals of these analyses is the study of microstructure evolution during the build process which begins with the onset of nucleation. Nucleation occurs under certain thermomechanical conditions which are not known a priori and many PF simulations are required to identify ranges of input thermo-mechanical parameters that can result in the onset of nucleation. Since many of the simulations do not result in nucleation, an analysis campaign often ends up wasting tremendous amounts of precious computing resources executing nucleation-absent simulations. The goal of this work is to design and train deep learning models to inform a PF simulation about the likelihood of the occurrence of nucleation in a future simulation time-step based on the state summary over a finite number of past time-steps of a running simulation. If the prediction determines that the running simulation is unlikely to reach nucleation in the allotted time, then its execution is stopped immediately ultimately resulting in vast reduction in wasted computations when accrued over all the PF simulations typically performed in a single or multiple analysis campaign(s). The paper presents the performance of a machine learning pipeline that uses a convolutional neural network (CNN) model to learn an embedding which is then used with a self-attention network to build a multi-task deep learning model to predict the likelihood of nucleation. The model also predicts the input parameters used in a simulation. Performance is compared with a baseline pipeline that uses an off-the-shelf LeNet-5 model to learn the initial embedding. Despite their smaller size, performance results indicate significant improvement in accuracy of the proposed models compared to the larger baseline models.

Kannan, Ramakrishnan {ramki}↗

Prescreening-Based Subset Selection for Improving Predictions of Earth System Models With Application to Regional Prediction of Red Tide

We present the ensemble method of prescreening-based subset selection to improve ensemble predictions of Earth system models (ESMs). In the prescreening step, the independent ensemble members are categorized based on their ability to reproduce physically-interpretable features of interest that are regional and problem-specific. The ensemble size is then updated by selecting the subsets that improve the performance of the ensemble prediction using decision relevant metrics. We apply the method to improve the prediction of red tide along the West Florida Shelf in the Gulf of Mexico, which affects coastal water quality and has substantial environmental and socioeconomic impacts on the State of Florida. Red tide is a common name for harmful algal blooms that occur worldwide, which result from large concentrations of aquatic microorganisms, such as dinoflagellate Karenia brevis, a toxic single celled protist. We present ensemble method for improving red tide prediction using the high resolution ESMs of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) and reanalysis data. The study results highlight the importance of prescreening-based subset selection with decision relevant metrics in identifying non-representative models, understanding their impact on ensemble prediction, and improving the ensemble prediction. These findings are pertinent to other regional environmental management applications and climate services. Additionally, our analysis follows the FAIR Guiding Principles for scientific data management and stewardship such that data and analysis tools are findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable. As such, the interactive Colab notebooks developed for data analysis are annotated in the paper. This allows for efficient and transparent testing of the results’ sensitivity to different modeling assumptions. Moreover, this research serves as a starting point to build upon for red tide management, using the publicly available CMIP, Coordinated Regional Downscaling Experiment (CORDEX), and reanalysis data.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Current research in composite structures at NASA's Langley Research Center

Research on the mechanics of composite structures at NASA's Langley Research Center is discussed. The advantages and limitations of special purpose and general purpose analysis tools used in research are reviewed. Future directions in computational structural mechanics are described to address analysis short-comings. Research results on the buckling and postbuckling of unstiffened and stiffened composite structures are presented. Recent investigations of the mechanics of failure in compression and shear are reviewed. Preliminary studies of the dynamic response of composite structures due to impacts encountered during crash-landings are presented. Needs for future research are discussed.

Card, Michael F.↗

Antennas for 20/30 GHz and beyond

Antennas of 20/30 GHz and higher frequency, due to the small wavelength, offer capabilities for many space applications. With the government-sponsored space programs (such as ACTS) in recent years, the industry has gone through the learning curve of designing and developing high-performance, multi-function antennas in this frequency range. Design and analysis tools (such as the computer modelling used in feedhorn design and reflector surface and thermal distortion analysis) are available. The components/devices (such as BFN's, weight modules, feedhorns and etc.) are space-qualified. The manufacturing procedures (such as reflector surface control) are refined to meet the stringent tolerance accompanying high frequencies. The integration and testing facilities (such as Near-Field range) also advance to facilitate precision assembling and performance verification. These capabilities, essential to the successful design and development of high-frequency spaceborne antennas, shall find more space applications (such as ESGP) than just communications.

Chen, C. Harry↗

Design and analysis of seals for extended service life

Space Station Freedom is being developed for a service life of up to thirty years. As a consequence, the design requirements for the seals to be used are unprecedented. Full scale testing to assure the selected seals can satisfy the design requirements are not feasible. As an alternative, a sub-scale test program has been developed by MSFC to calibrate the analysis tools to be used to certify the proposed design. This research has been conducted in support of the MSFC Integrated Seal Test Program. The ultimate objective of this research is to correlate analysis and test results to qualify the analytical tools, which in turn, are to be used to qualify the flight hardware. This research is totally focused on O-rings that are compressed by perpendicular clamping forces. In this type of seal the O-ring is clamped between the sealing surfaces by loads perpendicular to the circular cross section.

Bower, Mark V.↗

A distributed system for visualizing and analyzing multivariate and multidisciplinary data

The Linked Windows Interactive Data System (Link Winds) is being developed with NASA support. The objective of this proposal is to adapt and apply that system in a complex network environment containing elements to be found by scientists working multidisciplinary teams on very large scale and distributed data sets. The proposed three year program will develop specific visualization and analysis tools, to be exercised locally and remotely in the Link Winds environment, to demonstrate visual data analysis, interdisciplinary data analysis and cooperative and interactive televisualization and analysis of data by geographically separated science teams. These demonstrations will involve at least two science disciplines with the aim of producing publishable results.

Jacobson, Allan S.↗

Viscoelastic analysis of seals for extended service life

The space station is being developed for a service life of up to thirty years. As a consequence, the design requirements for the seals to be used are unprecedented. Full scale testing to assure the selected seals can satisfy the design requirements are not feasible. As an alternative, a sub-scale test program (2) has been developed by MSFC to calibrate the analysis tools to be used to certify the proposed design. This research has been conducted in support of the MSFC Integrated Seal Test Program. The ultimate objective of this research is to correlate analysis and test results to qualify the analytical tools which in turn, are to be used to qualify the flight hardware. Seals are simple devices, in wide spread use. The most common type of seal is the O-ring. O-ring seals are typically rings of rubber with a circular cross section. The rings are placed between the surfaces to be sealed, usually in a groove of some design. The particular design may differ based on a number of different factors. This research is focused on O-rings that are staticly compressed by perpendicular clamping forces, commonly referred to as face seals. In this type of seal the O-ring is clamped between the sealing surfaces by loads perpendicular to the circular cross section.

Bower, Mark V.↗

An Approach to Simulation of Extreme Conditions for a Planetary Lander

A "Monte Carlo-like" design analysis tool is developed and applied to an aeromaneuvering Mars entry vehicle. This tool provides realistic but challenging design cases using many fewer cases than a full Monte Carlo analysis. The problem of random input variables that are provided a priori (as opposed to being drawn from a given distribution) is addressed and a solution is found that shows prospects for future improvement.

Queen, Eric M.↗

Design/Analysis of the JWST ISIM Bonded Joints for Survivability at Cryogenic Temperatures

A major design and analysis challenge for the JWST ISIM structure is thermal survivability of metal/composite bonded joints below the cryogenic temperature of 30K (-405 F). Current bonded joint concepts include internal invar plug fittings, external saddle titanium/invar fittings and composite gusset/clip joints all bonded to M55J/954-6 and T300/954-6 hybrid composite tubes (75mm square). Analytical experience and design work done on metal/composite bonded joints at temperatures below that of liquid nitrogen are limited and important analysis tools, material properties, and failure criteria for composites at cryogenic temperatures are sparse in the literature. Increasing this challenge is the difficulty in testing for these required tools and properties at cryogenic temperatures. To gain confidence in analyzing and designing the ISIM joints, a comprehensive joint development test program has been planned and is currently running. The test program is designed to produce required analytical tools and develop a composite failure criterion for bonded joint strengths at cryogenic temperatures. Finite element analysis is used to design simple test coupons that simulate anticipated stress states in the flight joints; subsequently the test results are used to correlate the analysis technique for the final design of the bonded joints. In this work, we present an overview of the analysis and test methodology, current results, and working joint designs based on developed techniques and properties.

Bartoszyk, Andrew↗

Implementing Earned Value Management in the CxP EVA Systems Project Office

Earned Value Management (EVM), like project management, is as much art as it is science to develop an implementation plan for a project. This presentation will cover issues that were overcome and the implementation strategy to deploy Earned Value Management (EVM) within the Constellation Program (CxP), EVA Systems Project Office (ESPO), as well as discuss additional hurdles that currently prevent the organization from optimizing EVM. Each organization and each project within an organization needs to mold an EVM implementation plan around existing processes and tools, while at the same time revising those existing processes and tools as necessary to make them compatible with EVM. The ESPO EVM implementation covers work breakdown structure, organizational breakdown structure, control account, work/planning package development; integrated master schedule development using an integrated master plan; incorporating reporting requirements for existing funding process such as Planning, Programming, Budgeting, and Execution (PPBE) and JSC Internal Task Agreements (ITA); and interfacing with other software tools such as the Systems Applications and Products (SAP) accounting system and the CxP wInsight EVM analysis tool. However, there are always areas for improvement and EVM is no exception. As EVM continues to mature within the NASA CxP, these areas will continue to be worked to resolution to provide the Program Managers, Project Managers, and Control Account Managers the best EVM data possible to make informed decisions.

Sorge, Les L.↗

NASA's Solar System Treks: Online Portals for Planetary Mapping and Modeling

NASA's Solar System Treks are a suite of web-based of lunar and planetary mapping and modeling portals providing interactive visualization and analysis tools enabling mission planners, planetary scientists, students, and the general public to access mapped lunar data products from past and current missions for the Moon, Mars, Vesta, and more. New portals for additional planetary bodies are being planned. This presentation will recap significant enhancements to these toolsets during the past year and look ahead to future features and releases. Moon Trek is a new portal replacing its predecessor, the Lunar Mapping and Modeling Portal (LMMP), that significantly upgrades and builds upon the capabilities of LMMP. It features greatly improved navigation, 3D visualization, fly-overs, performance, and reliability. Additional data products and tools continue to be added. These include both generalized products as well as polar data products specifically targeting potential sites for NASA's Resource Prospector mission as well as for missions being planned by NASA's international partners. The latest release of Mars Trek includes new tools and data products requested by NASA's Planetary Science Division to support site selection and analysis for Mars Human Landing Exploration Zone Sites. Also being given very high priority by NASA Headquarters is Mars Trek's use as a means to directly involve the public in upcoming missions, letting them explore the areas the agency is focusing upon, understand what makes these sites so fascinating, follow the selection process, and get caught up in the excitement of exploring Mars. Phobos Trek, the latest effort in the Solar System Treks suite, is being developed in coordination with the International Phobos/Deimos Landing Site Working Group, with landing site selection and analysis for JAXA's MMX (Martian Moons eXploration) mission as a primary driver.

Day, Brian↗

Data Mining for Science of the Sun-Earth Connection as a Single System

Establishing the Sun-Earth connection requires overcoming the challenges of exploring the data from past and current missions and leveraging tools and models (data mining) to create an efficient system treatment of the Sun and heliosphere. However, solar and heliospheric environment data constitute a vast source of information whose potential is far from being optimally exploited. In the next decade, the solar and heliospheric community will have to manage the increasing amount of information coming from new missions, improve reanalysis of data from past and current missions, and create new data products from the application of new methodologies. This complex task is further complicated by practical challenges such as different datasets and catalogs in different formats that may require different pre-processing and analysis tools, and the need for numerous analysis approaches that are not all fully optimized for large volumes of data. While several ongoing efforts aim at addressing these problems, the available datasets and tools are not always used to their full potential often due to lack of awareness of available resources. In this paper, we summarize the issues raised and goals discussed by members of the community during recent conference sessions focused on data mining for science.

Sun-Earth connection↗

Reliability analysis in the Office of Safety, Environmental, and Mission Assurance (OSEMA)

The technical personnel in the SEMA office are working to provide the highest degree of value-added activities to their support of the NASA Langley Research Center mission. Management perceives that reliability analysis tools and an understanding of a comprehensive systems approach to reliability will be a foundation of this change process. Since the office is involved in a broad range of activities supporting space mission projects and operating activities (such as wind tunnels and facilities), it was not clear what reliability tools the office should be familiar with and how these tools could serve as a flexible knowledge base for organizational growth. Interviews and discussions with the office personnel (both technicians and engineers) revealed that job responsibilities ranged from incoming inspection to component or system analysis to safety and risk. It was apparent that a broad base in applied probability and reliability along with tools for practical application was required by the office. A series of ten class sessions with a duration of two hours each was organized and scheduled. Hand-out materials were developed and practical examples based on the type of work performed by the office personnel were included. Topics covered were: Reliability Systems - a broad system oriented approach to reliability; Probability Distributions - discrete and continuous distributions; Sampling and Confidence Intervals - random sampling and sampling plans; Data Analysis and Estimation - Model selection and parameter estimates; and Reliability Tools - block diagrams, fault trees, event trees, FMEA. In the future, this information will be used to review and assess existing equipment and processes from a reliability system perspective. An analysis of incoming materials sampling plans was also completed. This study looked at the issues associated with Mil Std 105 and changes for a zero defect acceptance sampling plan.

Kauffmann, Paul J.↗

PythonFOAM: In-situ data analyses with OpenFOAM and Python

Here, we outline the development of a general-purpose Python-based data analysis tool for OpenFOAM. Our implementation relies on the construction of OpenFOAM applications that have bindings to data analysis libraries in Python. Double precision data in OpenFOAM is cast to a NumPy array using the NumPy C-API and Python modules may then be used for arbitrary data analysis and manipulation on flow-field information. We highlight how the proposed wrapper may be used for an in-situ online singular value decomposition (SVD) implemented in Python and accessed from the OpenFOAM solver PimpleFOAM. Here, 'in-situ' refers to a programming paradigm that allows for a concurrent computation of the data analysis on the same computational resources utilized for the partial differential equation solver. In addition, to demonstrate parallel deployments, we deploy a distributed SVD, which collects snapshot data across the ranks of a distributed simulation to compute the global left singular vectors. Crucially, both OpenFOAM and Python share the same message passing interface (MPI) communicator for this deployment which allows Python objects and functions to exchange NumPy arrays across ranks. Subsequently, we provide scaling assessments of this distributed SVD on multiple nodes of Intel Broadwell and KNL architectures for canonical test cases such as the large eddy simulations of a backward facing step and a channel flow at friction Reynolds number of 395. Finally, we demonstrate the deployment of a deep neural network for compressing the flow-field information using an autoencoder to demonstrate an ability to use state-of-the-art machine learning tools in the Python ecosystem.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Development of CCSDS DCT to Support Spacecraft Dynamic Events

This report discusses the development of Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS) Design Control Table (DCT) to support spacecraft dynamic events. The Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS) Design Control Table (DCT) is a versatile link calculation tool to analyze different kinds of radio frequency links. It started out as an Excel-based program, and is now being evolved into a Mathematica-based link analysis tool. The Mathematica platform offers a rich set of advanced analysis capabilities, and can be easily extended to a web-based architecture. Last year the CCSDS DCT's for the uplink, downlink, two-way, and ranging models were developed as well as the corresponding input and output interfaces. Another significant accomplishment is the integration of the NAIF SPICE library into the Mathematica computation platform.

Smart GUI↗

Benchmark Modeling and Simulation of the FFTF LOFWOS Test #13 Using SAM

The Fast Flux Test Facility (FFTF) was a 400 MW thermal powered, oxide-fueled, liquid sodium cooled test reactor, built to assist development and testing of advanced fuels and materials for fast breeder reactors. In July 1986, a series of unprotected Loss of Flow Without Scram (LOFWOS) transients were performed in FFTF as part of the Passive Safety Testing (PST) program. The LOFWOS Test #13, which was initiated at 50% power and 100% flow with the pump pony motors left off, has been chosen as a benchmark case by IAEA to support collaborative efforts within international partnerships on the validation of simulation tools and models in the area of sodium fast reactor passive safety in an IAEA Coordinated Research Project (CRP), launched in October 2018. The System Analysis Module (SAM) is an advanced and modern system analysis tool under development at Argonne National Laboratory for advanced non-LWR safety analysis. It utilizes the object-oriented application framework MOOSE to leverage the modern software environment and advanced numerical methods. The capabilities of SAM are being extended to enable the transient modeling, analysis, and design of various advanced nuclear reactor systems. To participate the IAEA CRP and enhance the SAM validation base for advanced reactor transient safety analysis, benchmark simulations of the FFTF LOFWOS Test #13 are performed using the SAM code. In this first phase of the validation effort, the thermal-hydraulic behavior of the reactor system is the focus and the reactor kinetics is not considered in the SAM FFTF model. Instead, the results of Argonne’s neutronics calculations are directly used, including the power shape of the active core region and the power history during the transient. The simulation results of FFTF at steady state agreed well with the measured data from the test. During the transient, reasonably good agreement were also obtained. Future work to improve the model will focus on introducing the reactivity predictions into the model, as well as better understanding or resolving the current discrepancies with the measured data.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗