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Higher-Order Approximations for Stabilizing Zero-Energy Modes in Peridynamics Crystal Plasticity Models with Large Horizon Interactions

The non-ordinary state-based peridynamics theory combines non-local dynamic techniques with a desirable correspondence material principle, allowing for the use of continuum mechanics constitutive models. Such an approach presents a unique capability for solving problems involving discontinuities (e.g., strain localization, fracture, and fragmentation). However, the correspondence-based peridynamics models often suffer from zero-energy mode instabilities in numerical implementation, primarily due to the approximations of the non-local deformation gradient tensor. This paper focuses on a computational scheme for eliminating the zero-energy mode oscillations using a choice of influence functions that improve the truncation error in a higher-order Taylor series expansion of the deformation gradient. The novelty here is a tensor-based derivation of the linear constraint equations, which can be used to systematically identify the particle interaction weight functions for various user-specified horizon radii. In this paper, the proposed higher-order stabilization scheme is demonstrated for multi-dimensional examples involving polycrystalline and composite microstructures, along with comparisons against conventional finite element methods. The proposed stabilization scheme is shown to be highly effective in suppressing the spurious zero-energy mode oscillations in all numerical examples while enabling efficient simulations of strain localizations across material interfaces.

Non-Ordinary State-Based Peridynamics↗

NASA NTRS1977

Computational models for the analysis of three-dimensional internal and exhaust plume flowfields

This paper describes computational procedures developed for the analysis of three-dimensional supersonic ducted flows and multinozzle exhaust plume flowfields. The models/codes embodying these procedures cater to a broad spectrum of geometric situations via the use of multiple reference plane grid networks in several coordinate systems. Shock capturing techniques are employed to trace the propagation and interaction of multiple shock surfaces while the plume interface, separating the exhaust and external flows, and the plume external shock are discretely analyzed. The computational grid within the reference planes follows the trace of streamlines to facilitate the incorporation of finite-rate chemistry and viscous computational capabilities. Exhaust gas properties consist of combustion products in chemical equilibrium. The computational accuracy of the models/codes is assessed via comparisons with exact solutions, results of other codes and experimental data. Results are presented for the flows in two-dimensional convergent and divergent ducts, expansive and compressive corner flows, flow in a rectangular nozzle and the plume flowfields for exhausts issuing out of single and multiple rectangular nozzles.

Dash, S. M.↗

NASA NTRS1990

Gravitropism of cucumber hypocotyls: biophysical mechanism of altered growth

The biophysical basis for the changes in cell elongation rate during gravitropism was examined in aetiolated cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) hypocotyls. Bulk osmotic pressures on the two sides of the stem and in the epidermal cells were not altered during the early time course of gravitropism. By the pressure-probe technique, a small increase in turgor (0.3 bar, 30 kPa) was detected on the upper (inhibited) side, whereas there was a negligible decrease in turgor on the lower (stimulated) side. These small changes in turgor and water potential appeared to be indirect, passive consequences of the altered growth and the small resistance for water movement from the xylem, and indicated that the change in growth was principally due to changes in wall properties. The results indicate that the hydraulic conductance of the water-transport pathway was large (.25 h-1 bar-1) and the water potential difference supporting cell expansion was no greater than 0.3 bar (30 kPa). From pressure-block experiments, it appeared that upon gravitropic stimulation (1) the yield threshold of the lower half of the stem did not decrease and (2) the wall on the upper side of the stem was not made more rigid by a cross-linking process. Mechanical measurements of the stress/strain properties of the walls showed that the initial development of gravitropism did not involve an alteration of the mechanical behaviour of the isolated walls. Thus, gravitropism in cucumber hypocotyls occurs principally by an alteration of the wall relaxation process, without a necessary change in wall mechanical properties.

Non-NASA Center↗

NASA NTRS1978

A new technique for reducing test section noise in supersonic wind tunnels

A new technique is presented for obtaining a low-noise test environment in a high-speed wind tunnel. This technique utilizes the fact that the primary noise source for high supersonic/hypersonic wind tunnels is radiated noise from the turbulent, tunnel-wall boundary layer. Because of the high directionality of sound in supersonic flows this test section noise originates far upstream on the walls of the nozzle at the 'acoustic origin'. It is shown that tailoring the nozzle contour to reduce the acoustic origin Mach number significantly reduces the noise level in the upstream half of the nozzle test rhombus. Experimental noise measurements are presented from a conventional, Mach 5 nozzle and are compared with measurements from a rapid-expansion, Mach 5 nozzle.

Anders, J. B.↗

NASA NTRS1991

Computational aspects of chemically reacting flows

An implicit, time-dependent approach is taken to solve the inviscid conservative equations in a vertex-based finite-volume formulation. The convective fluxes are estimated by a modified Riemann solver, and higher-order accuracy is obtained by means of the MUSCL. Implicit techniques are adopted to deal with the equation stiffness as a result of the clustered grid and chemical source term. The real-gas Roe matrix and the ADI and LU schemes have been tested on the sample problems: hypersonic flow over blunt configurations, such as the forebody of a double ellipse, and the near wake of a conic aerobrake. Temperature distribution and standoff distance are validated against the shock-fitting, central-differencing results. Equilibrium temperature may be recovered by artificially increasing the chemical rates at the wall. The present method satisfactorily resolves the flow structure, including the strong expansion behind the flat base. The relative merits and performance of the real-gas TVD and implicit schemes are discussed briefly.

Li, C. P.↗

NASA NTRS1995

Microwave Resonator Measurements of Atmospheric Absorption Coefficients: A Preliminary Design Study

A preliminary design study examined the feasibility of using microwave resonator measurements to improve the accuracy of atmospheric absorption coefficients and refractivity between 18 and 35 GHz. Increased accuracies would improve the capability of water vapor radiometers to correct for radio signal delays caused by Earth's atmosphere. Calibration of delays incurred by radio signals traversing the atmosphere has applications to both deep space tracking and planetary radio science experiments. Currently, the Cassini gravity wave search requires 0.8-1.0% absorption coefficient accuracy. This study examined current atmospheric absorption models and estimated that current model accuracy ranges from 5% to 7%. The refractivity of water vapor is known to 1% accuracy, while the refractivity of many dry gases (oxygen, nitrogen, etc.) are known to better than 0.1%. Improvements to the current generation of models will require that both the functional form and absolute absorption of the water vapor spectrum be calibrated and validated. Several laboratory techniques for measuring atmospheric absorption and refractivity were investigated, including absorption cells, single and multimode rectangular cavity resonators, and Fabry-Perot resonators. Semi-confocal Fabry-Perot resonators were shown to provide the most cost-effective and accurate method of measuring atmospheric gas refractivity. The need for accurate environmental measurement and control was also addressed. A preliminary design for the environmental control and measurement system was developed to aid in identifying significant design issues. The analysis indicated that overall measurement accuracy will be limited by measurement errors and imprecise control of the gas sample's thermodynamic state, thermal expansion and vibration- induced deformation of the resonator structure, and electronic measurement error. The central problem is to identify systematic errors because random errors can be reduced by averaging. Calibrating the resonator measurements by checking the refractivity of dry gases which are known to better than 0.1% provides a method of controlling the systematic errors to 0.1%. The primary source of error in absorptivity and refractivity measurements is thus the ability to measure the concentration of water vapor in the resonator path. Over the whole thermodynamic range of interest the accuracy of water vapor measurement is 1.5%. However, over the range responsible for most of the radio delay (i.e. conditions in the bottom two kilometers of the atmosphere) the accuracy of water vapor measurements ranges from 0.5% to 1.0%. Therefore the precision of the resonator measurements could be held to 0.3% and the overall absolute accuracy of resonator-based absorption and refractivity measurements will range from 0.6% to 1.

Walter, Steven J.↗

NASA NTRS2007

F-15B QuietSpike(TradeMark) Aeroservoelastic Flight Test Data Analysis

System identification or mathematical modelling is utilised in the aerospace community for the development of simulation models for robust control law design. These models are often described as linear, time-invariant processes and assumed to be uniform throughout the flight envelope. Nevertheless, it is well known that the underlying process is inherently nonlinear. The reason for utilising a linear approach has been due to the lack of a proper set of tools for the identification of nonlinear systems. Over the past several decades the controls and biomedical communities have made great advances in developing tools for the identification of nonlinear systems. These approaches are robust and readily applicable to aerospace systems. In this paper, we show the application of one such nonlinear system identification technique, structure detection, for the analysis of F-15B QuietSpike(TradeMark) aeroservoelastic flight test data. Structure detection is concerned with the selection of a subset of candidate terms that best describe the observed output. This is a necessary procedure to compute an efficient system description which may afford greater insight into the functionality of the system or a simpler controller design. Structure computation as a tool for black-box modelling may be of critical importance for the development of robust, parsimonious models for the flight-test community. Moreover, this approach may lead to efficient strategies for rapid envelope expansion which may save significant development time and costs. The objectives of this study are to demonstrate via analysis of F-15B QuietSpike(TradeMark) aeroservoelastic flight test data for several flight conditions (Mach number) that (i) linear models are inefficient for modelling aeroservoelastic data, (ii) nonlinear identification provides a parsimonious model description whilst providing a high percent fit for cross-validated data and (iii) the model structure and parameters vary as the flight condition is altered.

Kukreja, Sunil L.↗

NASA NTRS1985

Turbulence characteristics of swirling flowfields

The time mean and turbulence properties of a confined swirling jet using the six orientation, single hot wire technique were obtained. The effect of swirl on a confined, expanding jet is to reduce the size of the corner recirculation zone and generate a central recirculation zone followed by a precessing vortex core. The effect of introducing a contraction nozzle of area ratio four, located two test section diameters downstream of the inlet, is to dramatically reduce the size and shape of the central recirculation zone for the swirling flows considered. The shear stresses are found to increase by an order of magnitude in the region of the contraction nozzle because of large radial gradients of axial velocity. Reduction of the expansion ratio to D/o = 1 causes the time mean flow field to be homogeneous throughout the entire test section with the tangential velocity dominating in the swirling cases. No recirculation zones were observed for these particular flows. Turbulence levels and dissipation rates were found to be low except in the entrance regions and in areas of acceleration in the swirling flow cases.

Jackson, T. W.↗

NASA NTRS1994

Trends in South American biomass burning detected with the GOES visible infrared spin scan radiometer atmospheric sounder from 1983 to 1991

Previous work demonstrated the ability to manually detect subpixel fire activity in selected areas of the selva and cerrado regions in South America with shortwave and longwave infrared data available from the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) visible infrared spin scan radiometer atmospheric sounder (VAS). This paper presents the GOES VAS automated biomass-burning algorithm (ABBA) which was developed to determine basin-wide trends in fire activity in South America utilizing the GOES VAS archive. Comparisons between the manual and automated techniques revealed that overall, the ABBA proved to be more consistent in identifying fires and better suited for trend analysis. The automated algorithm was applied daily to a study area extending from 5 deg S to 15 deg S and from 45 deg W to 70 deg W for 2 weeks at the peak of the burning seasons in South America in 1983, 1988, 1989, and 1991 in an effort to measure the areal extent of burning in South American during the past decade and to provide additional insight into the diurnal signature in satellite detection of biomass-burning activities. The expansion of the regions of burning are readily detected in a comparison of these 4 years. From 1983 to 1991 the amount of burning detected by the GOES VAS ABBA during these 2-week periods nearly doubled in the selva and mixed regions and tripled in the cerrado. Diurnal analyses confirmed earlier results indicating that the optimum time to monitor biomass burning is around 1530 UTC.

Prins, Elain M.↗

NASA NTRS2002

In-situ, On-demand Lubrication System for Space Mechanisms

Many of today's spacecraft have long mission lifetimes. Whatever the lubrication method selected, the initial lubricant charge is required to last the entire mission. Fluid lubricant losses are mainly due to evaporation, tribo-degradation, and oil creep out of the tribological regions. In the past, several techniques were developed to maintain the appropriate amount of oil in the system. They were based on oil reservoirs (cartridges, impregnated porous parts), barrier films, and labyrinth seals. Nevertheless, all these systems have had limited success or have not established a proven record for space missions. The system reported here provides to the ball-race contact fresh lubricant in-situ and on demand. The lubricant is stored in a porous cartridge attached to the inner or the outer ring of a ball bearing. The oil is released by heating the cartridge to eject oil, taking advantage of the greater thermal expansion of the oil compared to the porous network. The heating may be activated by torque increases that signal the depletion of oil in the contact. The low surface tension of the oil compared to the ball bearing material is utilized and the close proximity of the cartridge to the moving balls allows the lubricant to reach the ball-race contacts. This oil resupply system can be used to avoid a mechanism failure or reduce torque to an acceptable level and extend the life of the component.

Marchetti, Mario↗

NASA NTRS1995

The pinhole interface for IMS/MS

An important supplementary technique for ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) is mass spectrometry (MS). A mass spectrometer coupled to an ion mobility spectrometer (IMS/MS) can provide significant information on the composition of the ions contributing to an ion mobility peak. On the other hand, the interpretation of IMS/MS results requires knowledge of processes which can occur at the pinhole interface. When the ion composition is a mixture of ion clusters, the observed cluster distribution may not be an accurate representation of the ion clusters in the IMS. Depending on the buffer gas, lower clusters can form by equilibrating with reduced concentrations in the continuum regime of the expansion and larger clusters can form by collisional stabilization in the cooled jet stream. Besides water, nitrogen molecules can also add to the ion clusters. Even though nitrogen is non-polar, this addition is made possible by an ion-induced dipole interaction between the ion and molecule.

Spangler, Glenn E.↗

NASA NTRS2007

Experimental Evaluation of an Isolated Synthetic Jet IN Crossflow

The second case for this workshop builds upon the isolated synthetic jet of Case 1 by adding a crossflow, with no streamwise pressure gradient, for the developing jet to interact with. Formally, Case 2 examines the interaction of a single, isolated, synthetic jet and a fully turbulent zero-pressure gradient boundary layer. The resulting flow has many of the characteristics that need to be modeled with fidelity if the results of the calculations are to serve as the basis for research and design with active flow control devices. These include the turbulence in the boundary layer, the time-evolution of the large vortical structure emanating from the jet orifice and its subsequent interaction with and distortion by the boundary layer turbulence, and the effect of the suction cycle on the boundary layer flow. In a synthetic jet, the flow through the orifice and out into the outer flowfield alternates between an exhaust and a suction cycle, driven by the contraction and expansion of a cavity internal to the actuator. In the present experiment, the volume changes in the internal cavity are accomplished by replacing one of the rigid walls of the cavity, the wall opposite the orifice exit, with a deformable wall. This flexible wall is driven by a bottom-mounted moveable piston. The piston is driven electro-mechanically. The synthetic jet issues into the external flow through a circular orifice. In the present experiment, this orifice has a diameter of 0.250 inches (6.35 mm). The flow is conceptually similar to that documented in Schaeffler [1]. To document the flow, several measurement techniques were utilized. The upstream boundary conditions (in-flow conditions), and several key phase-averaged velocity profiles were measured with a 3-component laser-Doppler velocimetry system. Phase-averaged velocity field measurements were made with both stereo digital particle image velocimetry and 2-D digital particle image velocimetry as the primary measurement system. Surface pressure measurements were made utilizing an electronically scanned pressure system.

Schaeffler, Norman W.↗

NASA NTRS1972

An analysis of the relaxation of laminar boundary layer on a flat plate after passage of an interface with application to expansion-tube flows

The relaxation of the accelerating-gas boundary layer to the test-gas boundary layer over a flat plate in an expansion tube is analyzed. Several combinations of test gas and acceleration gas are considered. The problem is treated in two conically similar limits: (1) when the time lag between the arrival of the shock and the interface at the leading edge of the plate is very large, and (2) when this lag is negligible. The time-dependent laminar-boundary-layer equations of a binary mixture of perfect gases are taken as the flow-governing equations. This coupled set of differential equations, written in terms of the Lam-Crocco variables, has been solved by a line-relaxation finite-difference techniques. The results presented include the Stanton number and the local skin-friction coefficient as functions of shock Mach number and the nondimensional distance-time variable. The results indicate that more than 95 percent of the test-gas boundary layer exists over a length, measured from the leading edge of the plate, equal to about three-tenths of the distance traversed by the interface in the free stream.

Gupta, R. N.↗

NASA NTRS1976

Free-jet expansions from laser-vaporized planar surfaces

Characteristics of free-jet vapor expansions created by the pulsed-laser vaporization of some refractory materials are examined. Such expansions were generated from planar surfaces at laser power densities up to 2.5 MW/sq cm. Time-integrated and time-resolved photography were used to show that the structure and pressures of such flows are correlated by the same relationship that is valid for free jets from orifice flows. Data show that the vapor velocity becomes sonic at or very near the vaporizing surface. A method is presented for deriving vaporization pressure from flow-field photos; such pressures from carbon-vaporization data for temperatures to 4500 K are in good agreement with extrapolated equilibrium vapor pressures. It is shown that this technique may be a means to determine vapor pressures of refractory materials at high temperatures.

Covington, M. A.↗

NASA NTRS1984

New Short Constraint Length, Rate 1/N Convolutional Codes which Minimize Required E Sub B/n Sub o for Given Bit Error Rate

Instead of using the criterion of maximum free distance, (df) or the maximum (df) with minimizing a few first distance profiles, short constraint length rate 1/N convolution codes were searched using a criterion of minimizing required bit energy-to-noise density ratio, E(b)/N(o), for a given value of desired bit error rate (BER), for the goodness of a code. The considered channel was binary antipodal signaling over additive white Gaussian noise and no quantization at the channel output. For the BER calculations, the transfer function bounding technique was used. Partial searches were performed using some known facts and a very useful idea that "good codes generate good codes.'' That is, for a given constraint length K, good rate 1/(N + 1) codes can be found by extending the code generator matrices of good rate 1/N codes. The code search results are tabulated for 3 or = K or = 7 and 2 or = N or = 8. For many pairs of K and N, the new codes are shown to save 0.1 to 0.4 dB in the required E(b)/N(o) compared to previously reported codes. Additionally, the benefits of coding bandwidth expansion are confirmed with the new codes.

Lee, P. J.↗

NASA NTRS2002

Empirical mode decomposition apparatus, method and article of manufacture for analyzing biological signals and performing curve fitting

A computer implemented physical signal analysis method includes four basic steps and the associated presentation techniques of the results. The first step is a computer implemented Empirical Mode Decomposition that extracts a collection of Intrinsic Mode Functions (IMF) from nonlinear, nonstationary physical signals. The decomposition is based on the direct extraction of the energy associated with various intrinsic time scales in the physical signal. Expressed in the IMF's, they have well-behaved Hilbert Transforms from which instantaneous frequencies can be calculated. The second step is the Hilbert Transform which produces a Hilbert Spectrum. Thus, the invention can localize any event on the time as well as the frequency axis. The decomposition can also be viewed as an expansion of the data in terms of the IMF's. Then, these IMF's, based on and derived from the data, can serve as the basis of that expansion. The local energy and the instantaneous frequency derived from the IMF's through the Hilbert transform give a full energy-frequency-time distribution of the data which is designated as the Hilbert Spectrum. The third step filters the physical signal by combining a subset of the IMFs. In the fourth step, a curve may be fitted to the filtered signal which may not have been possible with the original, unfiltered signal.

Huang, Norden E.↗

NASA NTRS2004

Empirical mode decomposition apparatus, method and article of manufacture for analyzing biological signals and performing curve fitting

Huang, Norden E.↗

NASA NTRS1997

Advanced Signal Processing Methods Applied to Digital Mammography

The work reported here is on the extension of the earlier proposal of the same title, August 1994-June 1996. The report for that work is also being submitted. The work reported there forms the foundation for this work from January 1997 to September 1997. After the earlier work was completed there were a few items that needed to be completed prior to submission of a new and more comprehensive proposal for further research. Those tasks have been completed and two new proposals have been submitted, one to NASA, and one to Health & Human Services WS). The main purpose of this extension was to refine some of the techniques that lead to automatic large scale evaluation of full mammograms. Progress on each of the proposed tasks follows. Task 1: A multiresolution segmentation of background from breast has been developed and tested. The method is based on the different noise characteristics of the two different fields. The breast field has more power in the lower octaves and the off-breast field behaves similar to a wideband process, where more power is in the high frequency octaves. After the two fields are separated by lowpass filtering, a region labeling routine is used to find the largest contiguous region, the breast. Task 2: A wavelet expansion that can decompose the image without zero padding has been developed. The method preserves all properties of the power-of-two wavelet transform and does not add appreciably to computation time or storage. This work is essential for analysis of the full mammogram, as opposed to selecting sections from the full mammogram. Task 3: A clustering method has been developed based on a simple counting mechanism. No ROC analysis has been performed (and was not proposed), so we cannot finally evaluate this work without further support. Task 4: Further testing of the filter reveals that different wavelet bases do yield slightly different qualitative results. We cannot provide quantitative conclusions about this for all possible bases without further support. Task 5: Better modeling does indeed make an improvement in the detection output. After the proposal ended, we came up with some new theoretical explanations that helps in understanding when the D4 filter should be better. This work is currently in the review process. Task 6: N/A. This no longer applies in view of Tasks 4-5. Task 7: Comprehensive plans for further work have been completed. These plans are the subject of two proposals, one to NASA and one to HHS. These proposals represent plans for a complete evaluation of the methods for identifying normal mammograms, augmented with significant further theoretical work.

Stauduhar, Richard P.↗