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The development of the transformation theory is discussed. Results and applications concerning the use of this design technique for automatic flight control of aircraft are presented. The theory examines the transformation of nonlinear systems to linear systems. The tracking of linear models by nonlinear plants is discussed. Results of manned simulation are also presented.
Thermal structures including major white ovals, hot spot regions, barges and a belt zone pair in the Jovian atmosphere are investigated using Voyager IRIS data. Atmosphere above anticyclonic features is cold relative to the immediate surroundings in the upper troposphere and tropopause region, which is consistent with upwelling and divergence in that part of the atmosphere. Localized cyclonic features are warm relative to their surroundings which implies subsidence with accompanying convergence. Thermal wind shear indicates a decay of the vorticity with height in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere, and vertical velocities imply an upper limit of vertical mixing times near the tropopause of about 20 years. Various possible models are also examined, including radiative heating, vertical wave propagation, and thermally indirect merdional cells.
A Martian atmospheric phenomenon called a bore wave has been observed by the Viking imaging system during late spring and early summer of two Martian years, in the Tharsis Ridge region of the planet. The observational data are presented, and a tentative explanation is offered for the occurrence of this feature, formed by airflow and which behaves like a thermally induced diurnal katabatic breeze.
In this paper Brockett's feedback invariants of nonlinear systems are generalized to a larger class of transformations. In terms of these invariants, the recent results on linear equivalents of nonlinear systems to the multiple-input case have also been extended.
A theorem and its corollary are presented in which conditions are stated for a global transformation of a nonlinear system to a linear system. An explicit method for constructing such a transformation is given, and the important noncharacteristic matrix is introduced. Examples illustrating the technique are presented.
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The design and performance of several tactical and strategic hypersonic airbreathing missile concepts under study at the NASA Langley Research Center are discussed from an evolutionary perspective. A mid- and chin inlet missile design, constrained to the Navy's vertical box launcher, was investigated; a performance comparison is presented that is favorable to the mid-inlet approach. Parasol wing, confined flow field, and spatula-like cruise missile configurations were examined with strategic applications in mind. The preliminary results are encouraging with respect to aerodynamic and volumetric efficiency and choice of engine integration schemes.
At the time of the Soufriere, St. Vincent, volcanic eruption of April 17, 1979, a NASA P-3 aircraft with an uplooking lidar (light detection and ranging) system onboard was airborne 130 kilometers east of the island. Lidar measurements of the fresh volcanic ash were made approximately 2 hours after the eruption, 120 kilometers to the northeast and east. On the evening of April 18, the airborne lidar, on a southerly flight track, detected significant amounts of stratospheric material in layers at 16, 17, 18, and 19.5 kilometers. These data, and measurements to the north on April 19, indicate that the volcanic plume penetrated the stratosphere to an altitude of about 20 kilometers and moved south during the first 48 hours after the eruption.
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Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
An automatic flight control systems design methods for aircraft that have complex characteristics and operational requirements, such as the powered lift STOL and V/STOL configurations are discussed. The method is effective for a large class of dynamic systems that require multiaxis control and that have highly coupled nonlinearities, redundant controls, and complex multidimensional operational envelopes. The method exploits the possibility of linearizing the system over its operational envelope by transforming the state and control. The linear canonical forms used in the design are described, and necessary and sufficient conditions for linearizability are stated. The control logic has the structure of an exact model follower with linear decoupled model dynamics and possibly nonlinear plant dynamics. The design method is illustrated with an application to a helicopter autopilot design.
Effects of inelastic materials models on computed stress-strain solutions for thermally loaded structures were studied by performing nonlinear (elastoplastic creep) and elastic structural analyses on a prismatic, double edge wedge specimen of IN 100 alloy that was subjected to thermal cycling in fluidized beds. Four incremental plasticity creep models (isotropic, kinematic, combined isotropic kinematic, and combined plus transient creep) were exercised for the problem by using the MARC nonlinear, finite element computer program. Maximum total strain ranges computed from the elastic and nonlinear analyses agreed within 5 percent. Mean cyclic stresses, inelastic strain ranges, and inelastic work were significantly affected by the choice of inelastic constitutive model. The computing time per cycle for the nonlinear analyses was more than five times that required for the elastic analysis.
Tests were carried out on 20 inch x 20 inch panels at different test conditions using free-free panels, clamped panels, and panels as installed in the KU-FRL acoustic test facility. Tests with free-free panels verified the basic equipment set-up and test procedure. They also provided a basis for comparison. The results indicate that the effect of installed panels is to increase the damping ratio at the same frequency. However, a direct comparison is not possible, as the fundamental frequency of a free-free panel differs from the resonance frequency of the panel when installed. The damping values of panels installed in the test facility are closer to the damping values obtained with fixed-fixed panels. Effects of damping tape, stiffeners, and bonded and riveted edged conditions were also investigated. Progress in the development of a simple interior noise level control program is reported.
The infrared absorption spectra of a number of gases found in planetary atmospheres were studied at high resolution. Absorption line measurements which can be of value for the interpretation of planetary spectra in terms of molecular abundances and conditions in the planetary atmospheres were provided. The high resolution spectra have yielded measurements of individual vibration rotation line parameters including positions, strengths, pressure broadened widths and, where assignments were unknown, the temperature sensitivity of the strengths. Such information allows the determinations of the absorption of a given molecular gas under planetary conditions of temperature and pressure and at the same time it provides the data necessary if the spectra are to be understood in terms of basic molecular theory. Thus this work has included spectral analysis in the form of line assignments as well as fitting of the data to Hamiltonian models. Such fitting is very useful in that it helps to confirm and extend the assignments.
Necessary and sufficient conditions for transforming a nonlinear system to a controllable linear system have been established, and this theory has been applied to the automatic flight control of aircraft. These transformations show that the nonlinearities in a system are often not intrinsic, but are the result of unfortunate choices of coordinates in both state and control variables. Given a nonlinear system (that may not be transformable to a linear system), we construct a canonical form in which much of the nonlinearity is removed from the system. If a system is not transformable to a linear one, then the obstructions to the transformation are obvious in canonical form. If the system can be transformed (it is called a linear equivalent), then the canonical form is a usual one for a controllable linear system. Thus our theory of canonical forms generalizes the earlier transformation (to linear systems) results. Our canonical form is not unique, except up to solutions of certain partial differential equations we discuss. In fact, the important aspect of this paper is the constructive procedure we introduce to reach the canonical form. As is the case in many areas of mathematics, it is often easier to work with the canonical form than in arbitrary coordinate variables.
The development of a method for designing an automatic flight controller for short and vertical take off aircraft is discussed. This technique involves transformations of nonlinear systems to controllable linear systems and takes into account the nonlinearities of the aircraft. In general, the transformations cannot always be given in closed form. Using partial differential equations, an approximate linear system called the modified tangent model was introduced. A linear transformation of this tangent model to Brunovsky canonical form can be constructed, and from this the linear part (about a state space point x sub 0) of an exact transformation for the nonlinear system can be found. It is shown that a canonical expansion in Lie brackets about the point x sub 0 yields the same modified tangent model.
Sufficient conditions that a two-dimensional system with output is locally observable are presented. Known results depend on time derivatives of the output and the inverse function theorem. In some cases, no informaton is provided by these theories, and one must study observability by other methods. The observability problem is dualized to the controllability problem, and the deep results of Hermes on local controllability are applied to prove a theorem concerning local observability.