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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 865 records · Page 48
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1972

Operational characteristics of a translation screen grid beam deflection system for a 5-cm Kaufman thruster

Measurements of beam deflection angle with respect to spring positioning power and accelerator impingement current as a function of deflection angle were made on a 5-cm diameter system. Response time measurements on the translational grid beam deflection system showed that the time for the maximum deflection angle analyzed (+16.4 deg to -16.4 deg) could be reduced by a factor of nine by increasing the heating power applied to the positioning spring from 4 to 16 watts. At 14 watts the response time for maximum deflection was about 1 minute.

Lathem, W. C.↗
NASA NTRS1974

Random vibrations of quadratic damping systems

An oscillating system with quadratic damping subjected to white noise excitation is replaced by a nonlinear, statistically equivalent system for which the associated Fokker-Planck equation can be exactly solved. The mean square responses are calculated and the optimum damping coefficient is determined with respect to the minimum mean square acceleration criteria. An application of these results to the optimization of automobile suspension damping is given.

Sireteanu, T.↗
NASA NTRS1975

Vibration Responses of Test Structure No. 2 During the Edward Air Force Base Phase of the National Sonic Boom Program

In order to evaluate reaction of people to sonic booms of varying overpressures and time durations, a series of closely controlled and systematic flight tests/studies were conducted from June 3 to June 23, 1966. The dynamic responses of several building structures were measured, with emphasis on a two-story residence structure. Sample acceleration and strain recordings from F-104, B-58, and XB-70 sonic boom exposures are included, along with tabulations of the maximum acceleration and strain values measured for each one of about 140 flight tests. These data are compared with similar measurements for engine noise exposures of the building during simulated landing approaches and takeoffs of KC-135 aircraft.

Findley, D. S.↗
NASA NTRS1977

Application of system identification to analytic rotor modeling from simulated and wind tunnel dynamic test data, part 2

An introduction to aircraft state and parameter identification methods is presented. A simplified form of the maximum likelihood method is selected to extract analytical aeroelastic rotor models from simulated and dynamic wind tunnel test results for accelerated cyclic pitch stirring excitation. The dynamic inflow characteristics for forward flight conditions from the blade flapping responses without direct inflow measurements were examined. The rotor blades are essentially rigid for inplane bending and for torsion within the frequency range of study, but flexible in out-of-plane bending. Reverse flow effects are considered for high rotor advance ratios. Two inflow models are studied; the first is based on an equivalent blade Lock number, the second is based on a time delayed momentum inflow. In addition to the inflow parameters, basic rotor parameters like the blade natural frequency and the actual blade Lock number are identified together with measurement bias values. The effect of the theoretical dynamic inflow on the rotor eigenvalues is evaluated.

Hohenemser, K. H.↗
NASA NTRS1980

Flying-qualities criteria for wings-level-turn maneuvering during an air-to-ground weapon delivery task

A moving-base simulator experiment conducted at Ames Research Center demonstrated that a wings-level-turn control mode improved flying qualities for air-to-ground weapons delivery compared with those of a conventional aircraft. Evaluations of criteria for dynamic response for this system have shown that pilot ratings correlate well on the basis of equivalent time constant of the initial response. Ranges of this time constant, as well as digital-system transport delays and lateral-acceleration control authorities that encompassed Level I through Level III handling qualities, were determined.

Sammonds, R. I.↗
NASA NTRS1981

Mission load dynamic tests of two undensified Space shuttle thermal protection system tiles

Two tests of undensified Space Shuttle thermal protection tiles under combined static and dynamic loads were conducted. The tiles had a density of approximately 144 Kg/cum (LI900 tiles) and were mounted on a strain isolation pad which was 0.41 cm (.160 inch) thick. A combined static and dynamic mission stress histogram representative of the W-3 area of the wing of the orbiter vehicle was applied. The stress histogram was provided by the space shuttle project. Results presented include: tabulation of measured peak and root-mean-square (RMS) accelerations in both compression and tension; peak SIP stress in compression and tension, peak and RMS amplitude response ratios; lateral to vertical response ratios; response time histories; peak stress distributions (histograms), and SIP extension measured both with and without static tension at various mission times.

Leatherwood, J. D.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Preliminary flight test results of the F100 EMD engine in an F-15 airplane

A flight evaluation of the F100 Engine Model Derivative (EMD) is conducted. The F100 EMD is an advanced version of the F100 engine that powers the F15 and F16 airplanes. The F100 EMD features a bigger fan, higher temperature turbine, a Digital Electronic Engine Control system (DEEC), and a newly designed 16 segment afterburner, all of which results in a 15 to 20 percent increase in sea level thrust. The flight evaluations consist of investigation of performance (thrust, fuel flow, and airflow) and operability (transient response and airstart) in the F-15 airplane. The performance of the F100 EMD is excellent. Aircraft acceleration time to Mach 2.0 is reduced by 23 percent with two F100 EMD engines. Several anomalies are discovered in the operability evaluations. A software change to the DEEC improved the throttle, and subsequent Cooper Harper ratings of 3 to 4 are obtained. In the extreme upper left hand corner of the flight enveloped, compressor stalls occurr when the throttle is retarded to idle power. These stalls are not predicted by altitude facility tests or stability for the compressor.

Myers, L. P.↗
NASA NTRS1985

A cost-effective component modes analysis for Shuttle payloads using a combination of frequency domain and time domain approaches

A combination of the time and frequency domains which employs the latter only where the former is inefficient or uncertain is used in Space Shuttle payloads' component mode analyses. Attention is given to the time histories at the launch vehicle/spacecraft interface. The frequency domain allows interface acceleration to be determined without recourse to a new, merged system eigenvalue solution and subsequent 'system modal' responses. The approach has been employed in Galileo spacecraft loads analyses.

Trubert, M.↗
NASA NTRS1987

Small-scale rotor test rig capabilities for testing vibration alleviation algorithms

A test was conducted to assess the capabilities of a small scale rotor test rig for implementing higher harmonic control and stability augmentation algorithms. The test rig uses three high speed actuators to excite the swashplate over a range of frequencies. The actuator position signals were monitored to measure the response amplitudes at several frequencies. The ratio of response amplitude to excitation amplitude was plotted as a function of frequency. In addition to actuator performance, acceleration from six accelerometers placed on the test rig was monitored to determine whether a linear relationship exists between the harmonics of N/Rev control input and the least square error (LSE) identification technique was used to identify local and global transfer matrices for two rotor speeds at two batch sizes each. It was determined that the multicyclic control computer system interfaced very well with the rotor system and kept track of the input accelerometer signals and their phase angles. However, the current high speed actuators were found to be incapable of providing sufficient control authority at the higher excitation frequencies.

Jacklin, Stephen A.↗
NASA NTRS1988

A source map for dust jets observed in the coma of Comet P/Halley

In this paper, the large-scale enhancements of about 50 s duration in the flux of submicron dust particles from Comet P/Halley recorded by the Dust Counter and Mass Analyzer carried aboard the two Vega spaceprobes are traced back to their source departure points on the nucleus. Evidence is presented that such enhancements which correspond to regions of enhanced particle density in the coma with spatial widths of about 4000 km, are superimposed upon a background flux distribution which is well described by a simple fountain model. Thus, dust production on the sunlit hemisphere of the nucleus is characterized by discrete jet sources superimposed upon relatively low-level isotropic emission. The jet sources at the nucleus responsible for the major enhancements in recorded particle impact rates are narrow and discrete, with each jet accelerating about 10 to the -13th g particles to a narrow range of terminal velocities which decrease with increasing particle mass.

Rabinowitz, D. L.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Sensitivity of liquid bridges subject to axial residual acceleration

It has become evident that the float zone crystal growth method and isothermal liquid bridges may be very sensitive to the residual acceleration environment of a spacelab. Using a slender-body approximation, the problem of determining the axisymmetric response of the shape of the free surface of a cylindrical liquid column bounded by two solid regions is modeled by a one-dimensional system of nonlinear equations. It is found that the sensitivity of the zone shape depends on the static Bond number, BO, aspect ratio, and viscosity, as well as the amplitude and frequency of the disturbance. The general trend is an increase in tolerable residual gravity with increasing frequency. At the eigenfrequencies of the zone, however, there are dramatic deviations from this trend. At these frequencies the tolerable residual gravity level can be two orders of magnitude lower at this frequency.

Zhang, Yiqiang↗
NASA NTRS1993

Cancellation control law for lateral-directional dynamics of a supermaneuverable aircraft

Cancellation control laws are designed which reduce the high levels of lateral acceleration encountered during aggressive rolling maneuvers executed at high angle of attack. Two independent problem are examined. One is to reduce lateral acceleration at the mass center, while the other focuses on lateral acceleration at the pilot's station, located 7.0 m forward of the mass center. Both of these problems are challenging and somewhat different in their limitations. In each case the design is based on a linearization of the lateral-directional dynamics about a high angle of attack condition. The controllers incorporate dynamic inversion inner loops to provide control of stability-axis roll- and yaw-rates and then employ cancellation filters in both feed-forward and feed-back signal paths. The relative simplicity of the control laws should allow nonlinear generalizations to be devised. Although it is shown that lateral acceleration can be reduced substantially by such control laws, this is at the cost of slowed roll response, poor dutch-roll damping or a combination of the two.

Snell, Antony↗
NASA NTRS1993

Preliminary analysis and design optimization of the short spacer truss of Space Station Freedom

The analysis, dynamic simulation, and design optimization of the short spacer truss of the Space Station Freedom are presented in this report. The short spacer truss will be positioned between the integrated equipment assembly (IEA) and another truss, called the long spacer truss, in the Space Station Freedom. During its launch in the Space Shuttle, the truss will be subjected to considerable in-span distributed inertia loads due to shuttle accelerations. The short spacer truss, therefore, has been modeled as a space frame to account for flexural response. Several parameters have been assumed, since the design specifications are in the process of development; hence the results presented should be considered preliminary. However, the automated analysis and design capabilities that have been developed can readily be used to generate an optimum design of the short spacer truss once the actual specifications have been determined. This report includes static and dynamic analyses of the short spacer truss, which have been obtained with the linear elastic code LE-HOST (in these analyses, LE-HOST data files have been automated to facilitate their future use for different design specifications of the short spacer truss); the dynamic animation of the short spacer truss, which has been carried out by using the results of the dynamic analysis and a post-processing feature of the modeling code PATRAN; and the optimum-weight design of the spacer truss, which was obtained under prescribed stress, displacement, and frequency constraints by using the design code COMETBOARDS. Examination of the analysis and design results revealed that the design could be improved if the configuration of the short spacer truss were modified to a certain extent. A modified configuration, which may simplify fabrication, has been suggested. The performance of this configuration has been evaluated and was found to be satisfactory under both static and dynamic conditions.

Gendy, A. S.↗
NASA NTRS1999

Short latency compound action potentials from mammalian gravity receptor organs

Gravity receptor function was characterized in four mammalian species using far-field vestibular evoked potentials (VsEPs). VsEPs are compound action potentials of the vestibular nerve and central relays that are elicited by linear acceleration ramps applied to the cranium. Rats, mice, guinea pigs, and gerbils were studied. In all species, response onset occurred within 1.5 ms of the stimulus onset. Responses persisted during intense (116 dBSPL) wide-band (50 to 50 inverted question mark omitted inverted question mark000 Hz) forward masking, whereas auditory responses to intense clicks (112 dBpeSPL) were eliminated under the same conditions. VsEPs remained after cochlear extirpation but were eliminated following bilateral labyrinthectomy. Responses included a series of positive and negative peaks that occurred within 8 ms of stimulus onset (range of means at +6 dBre: 1.0 g/ms: P1=908 to 1062 micros, N1=1342 to 1475 micros, P2=1632 to 1952 micros, N2=2038 to 2387 micros). Mean response amplitudes at +6 dBre: 1.0 g/ms ranged from 0.14 to 0.99 microV. VsEP input/output functions revealed latency slopes that varied across peaks and species ranging from -19 to -51 micros/dB. Amplitude-intensity slopes also varied ranging from 0.04 to 0.08 microV/dB for rats and mice. Latency values were comparable to those of birds although amplitudes were substantially smaller in mammals. VsEP threshold values were considerably higher in mammals compared to birds and ranged from -8.1 to -10.5 dBre 1.0 g/ms across species. These results support the hypothesis that mammalian gravity receptors are less sensitive to dynamic stimuli than are those of birds.

Non-NASA Center↗
NASA NTRS2019

Scalable Traffic Management for Emergency Response Operations (STEReO)

The Scalable Traffic Management for Emergency Response Operations (STEReO) project aims to apply various NASA technologies, such as Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) Traffic Management (UTM) services, onboard-vehicle autonomy, novel approaches to communications and connectivity, and remote/virtual collaboration interfaces to current-day emergency response efforts to natural disasters. Today's emergency response efforts are based on long-standing procedures that are manaul in nature, and could benefit from modernization. In particular, the use of UAS vehicles is limited, primarily due to concerns surrounding dangerous interactions between manned/unmanned operations. STEReO hopes to introduce data exchanges that improve shared situation awareness, reduce manual coordination procedures, enable scalable and high-density air operations, collectivley bringing a positive impact to the incident response. When successful, STEReO technologies will improve efficiency and timeliness of the response and recovery phases of a disaster, resulting in substantial reductions to community harm, and will also accelerate NASA’s development of high-density resilient operations, benefitting other projects relying on increasing levels of autonomy and connectivity. The prepared material provides an overview of the STEReO project, for presentation at the 2019 Convergent Aeronautics Solution (CAS) Showcase event. The CAS showcase brings together all of the current CAS execution activities, highlighting NASA's high-risk investments in aeronautics research.

Mercer, Joey↗
NASA NTRS2005

DEVELOPMENT OF AN INFLIGHT COUNTERMEASURE TO MITIGATE POSTFLIGHT GAIT DYSFUNCTION

Following spaceflight crewmembers experience gait and postural instabilities due to inflight adaptive alterations in sensorimotor function. These changes can pose a risk to crew safety if nominal or emergency vehicle egress is required immediately following long-duration spaceflight. At present, no operational countermeasure is available to mitigate postflight locomotor disturbances. Therefore, the goal of this study is to develop an inflight training regimen that facilitates the recovery of locomotor function after long-duration spaceflight. The countermeasure we are developing is based on the concept of variable practice. During this type of training the subject gains experience producing the appropriate adaptive motor behavior under a variety of sensory conditions and response constraints. This countermeasure is built around current ISS treadmill exercise activities. Crewmembers will conduct their nominal inflight treadmill exercise while being exposed to variations in visual flow patterns. These variations will challenge the postural and locomotor systems repeatedly, thereby promoting adaptive reorganization in locomotor behavior. As a result of this training a subject learns to solve a class of motor problems, rather than a specific motor solution to one problem, Le., the subject learns response generalizability or the ability to "learn to learn" under a variety of environmental constraints. We anticipate that this training will accelerate recovery of postural and locomotor function during readaptation to gravitational environments following spaceflight facilitating neural adaptation to unit (Earth) and partial (Mars) gravity after long-duration spaceflight. The study calls for one group of subjects to perform the inflight treadmill training regimen while a control group of subjects performs only the nominal exercise procedures. Locomotor function in both groups is assessed before and after spaceflight using two tests of gait function: The Integrated Treadmill Locomotion Test (ITLT) and the Functional Mobility Test (FMT). The ITLT characterizes alterations in the integrated function of multiple sensorimotor subsystems responsible for the control of locomotion. This test calls for subjects to walk on a motorized treadmill while we assess changes in dynamic postural stability, head-trunk coordination, short-latency head stabilization responses, dynamic visual acuity, lower limb coordination strategies and gait cycle timing. To make these assessments we measure the following parameters while subjects walk on the treadmill: 1) full body 3-dimensional kinematics using a motion capture system (Motion Analysis Corp., Santa Rosa, CA); 2) the shock-wave transmitted from heel-strike to the head using triaxial accelerometers placed on the tibia and head (Entran, Fairfield, NJ); 3) vertical forces using an instrumented treadmill (Kistler Instrument Corp., Amherst, NY); 4) Dynamic visual acuity using Landolt Cs presented on a laptop computer located 4m from the eyes and 5) Gait cycle timing using foot-switches (Motion Lab Systems, Inc., Baton Rouge, LA) attached to the plantar surface of each shoe at the heel and toe. The FMT evaluates a subject's ability to perform challenging locomotor maneuvers similar to those encountered during an egress from a space vehicle. Subjects step over and duck under obstacles along with negotiating a series of pylons set up on a base of 10 cm thick medium density foam. The dependent measures for the FMT are time to complete the course and the number of obstacles touched. To date, we have collected pre and postflight locomotion data from Expeditions 5-9 who will serve as part of the control group for this study. Preliminary results comparing the recovery rates in gait control sub-systems obtained from the ITLT and FMT performance showed two recovery patterns: 1) a concordant recovery trend between gait control parameters and FMT performance indicating a restitution pattern of recovery and 2) gait controecovery that lagged recovery in FMT performance suggesting that improvement in locomotor function was attained through a pattern of substitution. These data suggest that recovery of postflight locomotor function may occur through adaptive mechanisms that lead to either restitution or substitution of function. Understanding the modes of postflight readaptation has implications for countermeasure development and testing and in astronaut postflight rehabilitation.

Bloomberg, J. J.↗
NASA NTRS2005

Development of an Inflight Countermeasure to Mitigate Postflight Gait Dysfunction

Following spaceflight crewmembers experience gait and postural instabilities due to inflight adaptive alterations in sensorimotor function. These changes can pose a risk to crew safety if nominal or emergency vehicle egress is required immediately following long-duration spaceflight. At present, no operational countermeasure is available to mitigate postflight locomotor disturbances. Therefore, the goal of this study is to develop an inflight training regimen that facilitates the recovery of locomotor function after long-duration spaceflight. The countermeasure we are developing is based on the concept of variable practice. During this type of training the subject gains experience producing the appropriate adaptive motor behavior under a variety of sensory conditions and response constraints. This countermeasure is built around current ISS treadmill exercise activities. Crewmembers will conduct their nominal inflight treadmill exercise while being exposed to variations in visual flow patterns. These variations will challenge the postural and locomotor systems repeatedly, thereby promoting adaptive reorganization in locomotor behavior. As a result of this training a subject learns to solve a class of motor problems, rather than a specific motor solution to one problem, Le., the subject learns response generalizability or the ability to "learn to learn" under a variety of environmental constraints. We anticipate that this training will accelerate recovery of postural and locomotor function during readaptation to gravitational environments following spaceflight facilitating neural adaptation to unit (Earth) and partial (Mars) gravity after long-duration spaceflight. The study calls for one group of subjects to perform the inflight treadmill training regimen while a control group of subjects performs only the nominal exercise procedures. Locomotor function in both groups is assessed before and after spaceflight using two tests of gait function: The Integrated Treadmill Locomotion Test (ITLT) and the Functional Mobility Test (FMT). The ITLT characterizes alterations in the integrated function of multiple sensorimotor subsystems responsible for the control of locomotion. This test calls for subjects to walk on a motorized treadmill while we assess changes in dynamic postural stability, head-trunk coordination, short-latency head stabilization responses, dynamic visual acuity, lower limb coordination strategies and gait cycle timing. To make these assessments we measure the following parameters while subjects walk on the treadmill: 1) full body 3-dimensional kinematics using a motion capture system (Motion Analysis Corp., Santa Rosa, CA); 2) the shock-wave transmitted from heel-strike to the head using triaxial accelerometers placed on the tibia and head (Entran, Fairfield, NJ); 3) vertical forces using an instumented treadmill (Kistler Instrument Corp., Amherst, NY); 4) Dynamic visual acuity using Landolt Cs presented on a laptop computer located 4m from the eyes and 5) Gait cycle timing using foot-switches (Motion Lab Systems, Inc., Baton Rouge, LA) attached to the plantar surface of each shoe at the heel and toe. The FMT evaluates s. subject's ability to perform challenging locomotor maneuvers similar to those encountered during an egress from a space vehicle. Subjects step over and duck under obstacles along with negotiating a series of pylons set up on a base of 10 cm thick medium density foam. The dependent measures for the FMT are time to complete the course and the number of obstacles touched. To date, we have collected pre and postflight locomotion data from Expeditions 5-9 who will serve as part of the control group for this study. Preliminary results comparing the recovery rates in gait control sub-systems obtained from the ITLT and FMT performance showed two recovery patterns: 1) a concordant recovery trend between gait control parameters and FMT performance indicating a restitution pattern of recovery and 2) gait controecovery that lagged recovery in FMT performance suggesting that improvement in locomotor function was attained through a pattern of substitution. These data suggest that recovery of postflight locomotor function may occur through adaptive mechanisms that lead to either restitution or substitution of function. Understanding the modes of postflight readaptation has implications for countermeasure development and testing and in astronaut postflight rehabilitation.

Bloomberg, J. J.↗
NASA NTRS2020

Investigation of Atmospheric Boundary-Layer Effects on Launch-Vehicle Ground Wind Loads

A launch vehicle ground-wind-loads program is underway at the NASA Langley Transonic Dynamics Tunnel. The objectives are to quantify key aerodynamic and structural characteristics that impact the occurrence of large wind-induced oscillations of a launch vehicle when exposed to ground winds prior to launch. Of particular interest is the dynamic response of a launch vehicle when a von Kármán vortex street forms in the wake of the vehicle resulting in quasiperiodic lift and drag forces. Vehicle response to these quasiperiodic forces can become quite large when the frequency of vortex shedding nears that of a lowly-damped structural mode thereby exciting a resonant response. Wind approaching the vehicle can be characterized by a varying speed with height and turbulence content. The combination of both the varying speed and turbulence content is referred to herein as the atmospheric boundary-layer. The importance of the atmospheric boundary-layer upon launch vehicle wind-induced oscillation response has long been questioned, and its effects are not well understood. Although there are several facilities around the world dedicated to replicating atmospheric boundary layers, the development of such a boundary layer in a wind tunnel capable of producing flight-representative Reynolds numbers for aeroelastically-scaled launch vehicle models has only recently been accomplished. The NASA Langley Transonic Dynamics Tunnel is capable of simulating flight-representative Reynolds numbers of launch vehicles on the pad and is uniquely capable of replicating many fluid-structure scaling parameters typical of aeroelastic tests. Recent test efforts successfully developed representative atmospheric boundary-layers for three launch sites in the Transonic Dynamics Tunnel, thereby allowing all known aerodynamic and fluid-structure coupling parameters to be simultaneously simulated for those sites. Dynamic aeroelastically-scaled models representative of typical large launch vehicles were constructed for testing. Aeroelastic scaling includes matching geometry, mode shapes, reduced frequencies, damping, running mass ratios, and running stiffness ratios. The models were tested in smooth uniform flow and then immersed in the atmospheric boundary-layer for comparison of these effects. Dynamic data were acquired measuring unsteady pressure, acceleration, and base bending moment. It was discovered that peak dynamic loads resulting from resonant wind-induced oscillation response are similar when acquired in either smooth uniform flow or an atmospheric boundary-layer. This indicates that resonant lock-in events are minimally impacted by representative turbulence and/or wind profile. Alternately, nonresonant wind-induced oscillation response events are stronger when acquired in an atmospheric boundary-layer. This indicates that a lowly-damped structural response will increase when exposed to an increased magnitude of random excitation, which is consistent with historical comparisons. Loads created by the resonant response events were substantially stronger than those from the nonresonant response events. Therefore, if testing is done to simply identify worst-case conditions and load magnitude, then smooth uniform flow is likely an adequate test technique. However, if nonresonant response loads are of primary interest, then atmospheric boundary-layer simulation is required.

Thomas G Ivanco↗