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At least 865 records · Page 48

Working charts for the determination of the lift distribution between biplane wings

In this report are presented empirical working charts from which the distribution of lift between wings, that is the fraction of the total lift borne by each, can be determined in the positive lift range for any ordinary biplane cellule whose individual wings have the same profile. The variables taken directly into account include airfoil section, stagger, gap/chord ratio, decalage, chord ratio, and overhang. It is shown that the influence of unequal sweepback and unequal dihedral in upper and lower wings may be properly provided for by utilizing the concepts of average stagger and average gap/chord ratio, respectively. The effect of other variables is discussed, but they have not been included in the charts either because their influence was obviously small or because insufficient data existed to make possible a complete determination of their influence. All available pertinent biplane data were analyzed in establishing the charts, and in some cases theoretical relationships were utilized to establish qualitative tendencies.

Kuhn, Paul↗

Definition of spacecraft standard interfaces by the NASA Space Assembly and Servicing Working Group (SASWG)

The purpose of the NASA Space Assembly and Servicing Working Group (SASWG) is to study enabling technologies for on-orbit spacecraft maintenance and servicing. One key technology required for effective space logistics activity is the development of standard spacecraft interfaces, including the 'Basic Set' defined by NASA, the U.S. Space Command, and industry panelists to be the following: (1) navigation aids; (2) grasping, berthing, and docking; and (3) utility connections for power, data, and fluids. Draft standards have been prepared and referred to professional standards organizations, including the AIAA, EIA, and SAE space standards committee. The objective of the SASWG is to support these committees with the technical expertise required to prepare standards, guidelines, and recommended practices which will be accepted by the ANSI and international standards organizations, including the ISO, IEC, and PASC.

Radtke, Robert↗

Sequential ranging: How it works

This publication is directed to the users of data from the Sequential Ranging Assembly (SRA), and to others who have a general interest in range measurements. It covers the hardware, the software, and the processes used in acquiring range data; it does not cover analytical aspects such as the theory of modulation, detection, noise spectral density, and other highly technical subjects. In other words, it covers how ranging is done, but not the details of why it works. The publication also includes an appendix that gives a brief discussion of PN ranging, a capability now under development.

Baugh, Harold W.↗

The Third Annual NASA Science Internet User Working Group Conference

The NASA Science Internet (NSI) User Support Office (USO) sponsored the Third Annual NSI User Working Group (NSIUWG) Conference March 30 through April 3, 1992, in Greenbelt, MD. Approximately 130 NSI users attended to learn more about the NSI, hear from projects which use NSI, and receive updates about new networking technologies and services. This report contains material relevant to the conference; copies of the agenda, meeting summaries, presentations, and descriptions of exhibitors. Plenary sessions featured a variety of speakers, including NSI project management, scientists, and NSI user project managers whose projects and applications effectively use NSI, and notable citizens of the larger Internet community. The conference also included exhibits of advanced networking applications; tutorials on internetworking, computer security, and networking technologies; and user subgroup meetings on the future direction of the conference, networking, and user services and applications.

Lev, Brian S.↗

Working group for planetary system nomenclature

Most of the activity of the Working Group and Task Group of the IAU during these three years has been centered on the nomenclature of Neptune's satellites and rings as revealed by the Voyager spacecraft. The emphasis is now shifting to Venus, in preparation for the detailed radar mapping of that planet begun by the Magellan spacecraft in August 1990. Approval has been asked for nomenclature of the Earth's moon, Venus, Mars, and Triton features as well as 4 other Neptune satellites and three Neptune rings.

Source record↗

Appendix A: Proposed statement of work, 1994

This NRA effort is devoted to developing new techniques and methodologies which utilize and/or provide support to Integrated Vehicle Health Management (IVHM) concepts and techniques, modern design processes, and open architectures to realize an avionics system architecture that relieves the flight control system (FCS) of the requirement of maintaining intimate knowledge and control of the vehicle subsystems (for instance, the reaction control system (RCS)). The benefit of this architecture is that future upgrades and enhancements to the system(s) or to individual components within the system(s) are greatly simplified. This approach also allows a much more straightforward treatment of failure analysis, system diagnosis, and the design of fault containment domains. This NRA effort is also devoted to realizing capabilities to provide an available avionics system (and subsystem(s)) at minimum operational cost. This thrust provides a direct benefit to NASA in that it seeks to accelerate the design cycle to allow state of the art components and designs to actually appear in the fielded system rather than merely in the initial design. To achieve this, this effort is intended to benefit from efforts already underway at Lockheed and other major contractors. For instance, Lockheed Sanders is currently engaged in a major DoD funded development program which has the goal of cutting design cycle time of high performance electronics by a factor of four while simultaneously improving quality also by a factor of four. The early work on this program was used to enable the rapid prototyping of the Reaction Jet Drive Controller which was accomplished in 1993. Similarly, maximum leverage will be derived from recent NASA and DoD efforts to increase the content of high quality commercial grade electronic components in systems for aerospace applications. Both of these goals result in a system with enhanced cost effectiveness, increased reliability, and greatly increased performance compared to a system developed using a more conventional approach.

Source record↗

Introduction of the UNIX International Performance Management Work Group

In this paper we presented the planned direction of the UNIX International Performance Management Work Group. This group consists of concerned system developers and users who have organized to synthesize recommendations for standard UNIX performance management subsystem interfaces and architectures. The purpose of these recommendations is to provide a core set of performance management functions and these functions can be used to build tools by hardware system developers, vertical application software developers, and performance application software developers.

Newman, Henry↗

The Payload Advisory Panel and the Data and Information System Advisory Panel of the Investigators Working Group of the Earth Observing System: A joint report

The Payload Advisory Panel of the Investigators Working Group (IWG) for the Earth Observing System (EOS) met 4 to 6 October 1993 in Herndon, Virginia. The Panel, originally composed of the Interdisciplinary Science Principal Investigators, was expanded to include all Principal Investigators and as such is now the IWG itself. The meeting also addressed directly a report from the EOS Data and Information System (EOSDIS) Advisory Panel. The meeting focused on payload issues in the years 2000 to 2005; however, some subjects in the nearer-term, most significantly EOSDIS, were considered. The overarching theme of convergence in Earth observations set a backdrop for the entire meeting. Other themes included: atmospheric chemistry; remote sensing of the global cycles of energy, water, and carbon in EOS; ocean and land-ice altimetry; and the EOSDIS. The Totol Solar Irradiance Monitoring Report and results from the Accelerated Canopy Chemistry Program are included as appendices.

Moore, Berrien, III↗

The Stanford how things work project

We provide an overview of the Stanford How Things Work (HTW) project, an ongoing integrated collection of research activities in the Knowledge Systems Laboratory at Stanford University. The project is developing technology for representing knowledge about engineered devices in a form that enables the knowledge to be used in multiple systems for multiple reasoning tasks and reasoning methods that enable the represented knowledge to be effectively applied to the performance of the core engineering task of simulating and analyzing device behavior. The central new capabilities currently being developed in the project are automated assistance with model formulation and with verification that a design for an electro-mechanical device satisfies its functional specification.

Fikes, Richard↗

Telecommuting (Work-At-Home) at NASA Lewis Research Center

This report presents a study in evaluating the viability of providing a work-at-home (telecommuting) program for Lewis Research Center's corporate employees using Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN). Case studies have been presented for a range of applications from casual data access to interactive access. The network performance of telemedia applications were studied against future requirements for such level of remote connectivity. Many of the popular ISDN devices were characterized for network and service functionality. A set of recommendations to develop a telecommuting policy have been proposed.

Srinidhi, Saragur M.↗

Virtual reality at work

The utility of virtual reality computer graphics in telepresence applications is not hard to grasp and promises to be great. When the virtual world is entirely synthetic, as opposed to real but remote, the utility is harder to establish. Vehicle simulators for aircraft, vessels, and motor vehicles are proving their worth every day. Entertainment applications such as Disney World's StarTours are technologically elegant, good fun, and economically viable. Nevertheless, some of us have no real desire to spend our lifework serving the entertainment craze of our sick culture; we want to see this exciting technology put to work in medicine and science. The topics covered include the following: testing a force display for scientific visualization -- molecular docking; and testing a head-mounted display for scientific and medical visualization.

Brooks, Frederick P., Jr.↗

Working Group 1: Current plans of various organisations for lunar activities

Summaries of presentations by representatives of several space agencies and the International Academy of Astronautics concerning lunar activities are presented. Participating space agencies reported two different types of lunar planning, long term planning and scenarios and lunar missions competing within regular programs. The long term plans of the various agencies look remarkably similar. They all involve a phased approach (coincidentally all incorporating four phases) and all address three prime scientific elements: science of, on, and from the Moon. The missions under consideration by the second group of agencies could readily fit as elements in the longer term program. There is great interest in lunar astronomy. There is a great deal of potential infrastructure and lunar transport capability already available. There is also a wide range of interesting technological developments that could form part of a lunar program. A well concerted and coordinated international effort could lead to an affordable program. Recommendations are: an international conference on lunar exploration should be held every other year; an electronic network should be established for the daily exchange of information; and a mechanism should be established for regular working level coordination of activities.

Balsiger, H.↗

Development work for a superconducting linear collider

For future linear e(+)e(-) colliders in the TeV range several alternatives are under discussion. The TESLA approach is based on the advantages of superconductivity. High Q values of the accelerator structures give high efficiency for converting RF power into beam power. A low resonance frequency for the RF structures can be chosen to obtain a large number of electrons (positrons) per bunch. For a given luminosity the beam dimensions can be chosen conservatively which leads to relaxed beam emittance and tolerances at the final focus. Each individual superconducting accelerator component (resonator cavity) of this linear collider has to deliver an energy gain of 25 MeV/m to the beam. Today s.c. resonators are in use at CEBAF/USA, at DESY/Germany, Darmstadt/Germany KEK/Japan and CERN/Geneva. They show acceleration gradients between 5 MV/m and 10 MV/m. Encouraging experiments at CEA Saclay and Cornell University showed acceleration gradients of 20 MV/m and 25 MV/m in single and multicell structures. In an activity centered at DESY in Hamburg/Germany the TESLA collaboration is constructing a 500 MeV superconducting accelerator test facility (TTF) to demonstrate that a linear collider based on this technique can be built in a cost effective manner and that the necessary acceleration gradients of more than 15 MeV/m can be reached reproducibly. The test facility built at DESY covers an area of 3.000 m2 and is divided into 3 major activity areas: (1) The testlinac, where the performance ofthe modular components with an electron beam passing the 40 m long acceleration section can be demonstrated. (2) The test area, where all individual resonators are tested before installation into a module. (3) The preparation and assembly area, where assembly of cavities and modules take place. We report here on the design work to reach a reduction of costs compared to actual existing superconducting accelerator structures and on the facility set up to reach high acceleration gradients in a reproducible way.

Matheisen, Axel↗

Minutes of TOPEX/POSEIDON Science Working Team Meeting and Ocean Tides Workshop

This third TOPEX/POSEIDON Science Working Team meeting was held on December 4, 1994 to review progress in defining ocean tide models, precision Earth orbits, and various science algorithms. A related workshop on ocean tides convened to select the best models to be used by scientists in the Geophysical Data Records.

Fu, Lee-Lueng↗

Development of methods for predicting large crack growth in elastic-plastic work-hardening materials in fully plastic conditions

The objects of the first, exploratory, stage of the project were listed as: (1) to make a detailed and critical review of the Boundary Element method as already published and with regard to elastic-plastic fracture mechanics, to assess its potential for handling present concepts in two-dimensional and three-dimensional cases. To this was subsequently added the Finite Volume method and certain aspects of the Finite Element method for comparative purposes; (2) to assess the further steps needed to apply the methods so far developed to the general field, covering a practical range of geometries, work hardening materials, and composites: to consider their application under higher temperature conditions; (3) to re-assess the present stage of development of the energy dissipation rate, crack tip opening angle and J-integral models in relation to the possibilities of producing a unified technology with the previous two items; and (4) to report on the feasibility and promise of this combined approach and, if appropriate, make recommendations for the second stage aimed at developing a generalized crack growth technology for its application to real-life problems.

Ford, Hugh↗

Phase Distribution Phenomena for Simulated Microgravity Conditions: Experimental Work

This report summarizes the work accomplished at Rensselaer to study phase distribution phenomenon under simulated microgravity conditions. Our group at Rensselaer has been able to develop sophisticated analytical models to predict phase distribution in two-phase flows under variety of conditions. These models are based on physics and data obtained from carefully controlled experiments that are being conducted here. These experiments also serve to verify the models developed.

Singhal, Maneesh↗

Working toward a three-dimensional fatigue closure model for surface cracks

The first reliable elastic fracture mechanics solutions for a surface crack in a plate were obtained by Newman and Raju. The authors, both from the Mechanics of Materials Branch at NASA-Langley, used a highly detailed finite element solution requiring substantial computational resources. Computers have since become more powerful and available; however, many important related problems remain computationally expensive. The problem of three-dimensional fatigue crack growth taking into account plasticity-induced crack closure is one such problem. It is the goal of this research to provide an efficient method to account for three-dimensional crack closure in fatigue. Newman developed a two-dimensional plasticity-induced crack closure model for center cracked specimens. This model requires iterations to determine both the contact solution at each growth step and the extent of the plastic zone at the crack tip. A three-dimensional version of this model would require obtaining these nonlinear variables all along the crack front. This model must be efficient so that repeated calculations can be performed during crack growth simulations. The highly versatile line spring model (LSM) with contact, fatigue, and plasticity will form the basis of the closure model. There are several required additions to past work to address the three-dimensional crack closure problem. Initially, these additions will include (1) an improved LSM to more accurately obtain the crack opening displacement, stress intensity factors, and elastic T-stress near the ends of the surface crack; (2) a method to determine the extent of the plastic zone all along the crack front; (3) a method to determine the contact zone given a perfectly plastic layer of material on the crack surfaces; (4) a method to determine the magnitude of the compressive contact stress; and (5) a way to implement the degree of constraint along the curved crack front. During the summer ASEE program an enhanced LSM was developed. A method similar to that of 'strip synthesis' first introduced by Fujimoto was used. Briefly, the crack opening displacements of 'slices' of the surface crack in a direction parallel to the plate surface are considered in addition to the standard LSM approach that makes use of springs obtained from slices perpendicular to the plate surface. This enhancement is necessary so that an accurate three-dimensional representation of quantities such as contact zone size, plastic zone size, stress intensity factors, T-stress, and crack opening displacement can be determined. By combining results of previous investigations with the LSM, the problem of three-dimensional crack closure will be addressed. In addition to a closure model, the enhanced LSM can be used for many other problems including interacting surface cracks and fatigue crack growth of a through crack with a curved crack front.

Joseph, Paul F.↗