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At least 955 records · Page 53

Research on unsteady transonic flow theory

A two-dimensional theory is considered for the unsteady flow disturbances caused by aeroelastic deformations of a thick wing at high subsonic freestream Mach numbers, having a single, internally embedded supercritical (locally supersonic) steady flow region adjacent to the low pressure side of the wing. The theory develops a matrix of unsteady aerodynamic influence coefficients (AICs) suitable as a strip theory for aeroelastic analysis of large aspect ratio thick wings of moderate sweep, typical of a wide class of current and future aircraft. The theory derives the linearized unsteady flow solutions separately for both the subcritical and supercritical regions. These solutions are coupled together to give the requisite (wing pressure-downwash) AICs by the intermediate step of defining flow disturbances on the sonic line, and at the shock wave; these intermediate quantities are then algebraically eliminated by expressing them in terms of the wing surface downwash.

Revell, J. D.↗

TiO2 film properties as a function of processing temperature, volume 3

Thin film TiO2 was produced at 150 C by chemical vapor deposition using hydrolysis of tetraisopropyl titanate. Films were amorphous as grown, but annealing in air caused crystallization, with anatase formed beginning at 350 C and rutile at 700 C. Density and index of refraction increased substantially with increasing anneal temperature, while etch susceptibility in HF and H2SO4 decreased. Comparison with literature data showed two groups of processes. One group yields films having properties that gradually approach those of rutile with increasing process temperature. The other group gives rutile directly at moderate temperatures. Deposition of amorphous film followed by etching and annealing is suggested as a means for pattern definition.

Fitzgibbons, E. T.↗

Preliminary neutronic analysis of a cavity test reactor

A reference configuration was calculated for a cavity test reactor to be used for testing the gascore nuclear rocket concept. A thermal flux of 4.1 x 10 to the 14th power neutrons per square centimeter per second in the cavity was provided by a driver fuel loading of 6.4 kg of enriched uranium in MTR fuel elements. The reactor was moderated and cooled by heavy water and reflected with 25.4 cm of beryllium. Power generation of 41.3 MW in the driver fuel is rejected to a heat sink. Design effort was directed toward minimization of driver power while maintaining 2.7 MW in the cavity during a test run. Ancillary data on material reactivity worths, reactivity coefficients, flux spectra, and power distributions are reported.

Whitmarsh, C. L., Jr.↗

A successive overrelaxation iterative technique for an adaptive equalizer

An adaptive strategy for the equalization of pulse-amplitude-modulated signals in the presence of intersymbol interference and additive noise is reported. The successive overrelaxation iterative technique is used as the algorithm for the iterative adjustment of the equalizer coefficents during a training period for the minimization of the mean square error. With 2-cyclic and nonnegative Jacobi matrices substantial improvement is demonstrated in the rate of convergence over the commonly used gradient techniques. The Jacobi theorems are also extended to nonpositive Jacobi matrices. Numerical examples strongly indicate that the improvements obtained for the special cases are possible for general channel characteristics. The technique is analytically demonstrated to decrease the mean square error at each iteration for a large range of parameter values for light or moderate intersymbol interference and for small intervals for general channels. Analytically, convergence of the relaxation algorithm was proven in a noisy environment and the coefficient variance was demonstrated to be bounded.

Kosovych, O. S.↗

Wind tunnel interference factors for high-lift wings in closed wind tunnels

A problem associated with the wind tunnel testing of very slow flying aircraft is the correction of observed pitching moments to free air conditions. The most significant effects of such corrections are to be found at moderate downwash angles typical of the landing approach. The wind tunnel walls induce interference velocities at the tail different from those induced at the wing, and these induced velocities also alter the trajectory of the trailing vortex system. The relocated vortex system induces different velocities at the tail from those experienced in free air. The effect of the relocated vortex and the walls is to cause important changes in the measured pitching moments in the wind tunnel.

Joppa, R. G.↗

Mapping southern Atlantic coastal marshland, South Carolina-Georgia, using ERTS-1 imagery

The author has identified the following significant results. Southeastern coastal marshes are among the most extensive and productive in the United States. A relatively low cost, moderately accurate method is needed to map these areas for management and protection. Ground based and low altitude aircraft methods for mapping are time consuming and quite expensive. The launch of NASA's ERTS-1 has provided an opportunity to test the feasibility of mapping wetlands using small scale imagery. The test site selected was an area from the South Carolina border to Saint Catherine's Island, Georgia. Results of the investigation indicate that the following may be ascertained from ERTS-1 imagery: (1) upper wetland boundary; (2) drainage pattern in the wetland; (3) plant communities such as Spartina alterniflora, Spartina patens, Juncus roemerianus; (4) ditching activities associated with agriculture; (5) lagooning for water-side home development. Conclusions are that ERTS-1 will be an excellent tool for many types of coastal wetland mapping.

Anderson, R. R.↗

Calibration of the electron-proton spectrometer

The principal function of the sensor used in the electron-proton spectrometer is to provide a signal which can be used to determine the energy and indicate the type of an incident particle. Two techniques are employed to resolve the particle intensity in different energy regions. The first employs a moderator surrounding each detector to provide a nominal lower limit to the energy of a particle which can be detected. The second technique utilizes a pulse height discriminator to identify those particles entering a detector whose energy is (1) sufficiently high that it exceeds the discriminator level if the particle is stopped in the detector, or (2) sufficiently low that the ionization rate causes the discrimination level to be exceeded for paths through the detector shorter than the particle range.

Cash, B. L.↗

High temperature solid lubricants: When and where to use them

The state of the art of solid lubrication for moderate to extremely high temperature lubrication (to 1600 F) is reviewed. Lubricating characteristics, stability in various environments, and relevant machine design considerations are discussed. Lubricating materials discussed include the layer lattice compounds: MoS2, WS2, graphite and graphite fluoride, the high temperature polyimide polymer, and calcium fluoride based coating and composites. The scope of the information includes results from wear testers, ball bearing, and journal bearings.

Sliney, H. E.↗

A flight investigation of the trailing vortices generated by a jumbo jet transport

A flight investigation has been conducted to study the velocity and persistence characteristics of the trailing vortices generated by a jumbo jet transport. The investigation showed that the tangential velocities were initially higher for vortices generated with the flaps up and that they persisted for longer distances behind the aircraft than those generated with the flaps down. The core radii with flaps down appeared to be generally larger than those with flaps up. The vertical locations of the vortices behind the generating aircraft varied from several hundred meters below the generating aircraft flight path at long ranges up to, and occasionally above, the flight path at short and moderate ranges.

Verstynen, H. A., Jr.↗

The electromagnetic radiation from simple sources in the presence of a homogeneous dielectric sphere

In this research, the effect of a homogeneous dielectric sphere on the electromagnetic radiation from simple sources is treated as a boundary value problem, and the solution is obtained by the technique of dyadic Green's functions. Exact representations of the electric fields in the various regions due to a source located inside, outside, or on the surface of a dielectric sphere are formulated. Particular attention is given to the effect of sphere size, source location, dielectric constant, and dielectric loss on the radiation patterns and directivity of small spheres (less than 5 wavelengths in diameter) using the Huygens' source excitation. The computed results are found to closely agree with those measured for waveguide-excited plexiglas spheres. Radiation patterns for an extended Huygens' source and for curved electric dipoles located on the sphere's surface are also presented. The resonance phenomenon associated with the dielectric sphere is studied in terms of the modal representation of the radiated fields. It is found that when the sphere is excited at certain frequencies, much of the energy is radiated into the sidelobes. The addition of a moderate amount of dielectric loss, however, quickly attenuates this resonance effect. A computer program which may be used to calculate the directivity and radiation pattern of a Huygens' source located inside or on the surface of a lossy dielectric sphere is listed.

Mason, V. B.↗

Three-dimensional compressible laminar boundary layers on sharp and blunt circular cones at angle of attack

A method for solving the three-dimensional compressible laminar boundary layer equations for the case of a circular cone and a sphere-cone body at an angle of attack is presented. The governing equations are modified by a similarity type transformation and then transformed into a Crocco-type form. The resulting set of equations is solved simultaneously by an iterative method using an implicit finite difference scheme by means of an efficient algorithm for equations of tridiagonal form. The effects of streamline swallowing on a sharp cone are included by introducing the true inviscid edge conditions at the distance from the wall equal to the boundary layer thickness. The validity of the approach was established by comparison of the computational results with similar results by other methods and with experimental data. It was concluded that at sufficiently high Mach number and moderate to large angles of attack, the streamline swallowing effects on a sharp cone result in higher values of skin friction and heat transfer as compared with the classical results for constant entropy.

Popinski, Z.↗

Potentially efficient forest and range applications of remote sensing using earth orbital space craft, circa 1980

Sixteen remote sensing applications or groups of related applications judged to be most important of any in the forestry and range disciplines were evaluated. In one application, major land classification, large amounts of useful data are anticipated to be contributed by space sensors in 1980. In four applications moderate amounts are anticipated to be so contributed. These are timber inventory, range inventory, fire weather forecasting, and monitoring snowfields. In the following seven applications small but significant amounts of data are anticipated to be contributed by space sensors: (1) detailed land classification; (2) inventory of wildlife habitat; (3) recreation resource inventory; (4) detecting stresses on the vegetation (5) monitoring air pollution caused by wildfires and prescribed burning; (6) monitoring water cycle, (7) pollution and erosion; and (8) evaluating damage to forests and ranges.

Wilson, R. C.↗

Experimental investigation of orthotropic panel flutter at arbitrary yaw angles, and comparison with theory

Flutter characteristics for yaw angles between 15 deg and 90 deg were determined experimentally for two types of corrugation-stiffened panels: those with weak twisting stiffness and those with strong twisting stiffness. By mounting the panels on a remotely controlled turntable, good definition of the flutter boundaries was obtained by rotating the panels into and out of flutter. Flutter tests were conducted at M = 2 and M = 1.6. Before testing, vibration tests and analyses were also performed. The experimental flutter data is compared with flutter theory for orthotropic panels utilizing quasi-steady aerodynamics. Five different corrugated panels were tested consisting of one single skin panel having a length-to-width ratio of 5 on clamped supports and four different square double skin panels on discrete flexible supports. The investigation indicated that flutter speed for corrugated panels is highly dependent on yaw angle. Reasonable flutter correlation between analysis and test was obtained for moderate yaw angles, but extreme sensitivity to structural parameters made the correlation at large yaw angles uncertain.

Shyprykevich, P.↗

Stress intensity factors for long, deep surface flaws in plates under extensional fields

Using a singular solution for a part circular crack, a Taylor Series Correction Method (TSCM) was verified for extracting stress intensity factors from photoelastic data. Photoelastic experiments were then conducted on plates with part circular and flat bottomed cracks for flaw depth to thickness ratios of 0.25, 0.50 and 0.75 and for equivalent flaw depth to equivalent ellipse length values ranging from 0.066 to 0.319. Experimental results agreed well with the Smith theory but indicated that the use of the ''equivalent'' semi-elliptical flaw results was not valid for a/2c less than 0.20. Best overall agreement for the moderate (a/t approximately 0.5) to deep flaws (a/t approximatelly 0.75) and a/2c greater than 0.15 was found with a semi-empirical theory, when compared on the basis of equivalent flaw depth and area.

Harms, A. E.↗

Design and experimental results for a turbine with jet flap stator and jet flap

The overall performance and detailed stator performance of a negative hub reaction turbine design featuring a moderately low solidity jet flap stator and a jet flap rotor were determined. Testing was conducted over a range of turbine expansion ratios at design speed. At each expansion ratio, the stator jet flow and rotor jet flow ranged up to about 7 and 8 percent, respectively, of the turbine inlet flow. The performance of the jet flap stator/jet flap rotor turbine was compared with that of a turbine which used the same jet flap rotor and a conventional, high solidity plan stator. The effect on performance of increased axial spacing between the jet stator and rotor was also investigated.

Bettner, J. L.↗

Stress relaxation of high strength A-286 bolts in simulated storage at room temperature

It was concluded that thermally activated relaxation of the type customarily encountered at high temperatures was not expected to occur at the low temperatures where long time NERVA storage conditions will prevail. Instances where relaxation occurred by a different mechanism at such moderate temperatures were also reported. Twelve simulated bolted flange test specimens were prepared. Parameters that were varied among the twelve specimens were the flange material, the bolt shank diameter, and the bolt loading in terms of percent of yield strength.

Sampson, R. C.↗

Study to demonstrate the feasibility of and determine the optimum method of remote haze monitoring by satellite

The author has identified the following significant results. Ground truth data has been obtained in order to determine the amount of haze present at the time of ERTS-1 passes over the Los Angeles area. October 21, 1972 was the haziest day, that was essentially cloud free, to date. At the time of the next pass, November 8, 1972 this area was quite clear. Changes in terrain features are minimized because these were consecutive passes. Digital tapes of the ERTS-1 data from these two days are being analyzed to determine the effects of haze on the data, in order to determine the optimum method for monitoring haze from a satellite. Preliminary results indicate that a slight reduction in contrast and some distortion of spectral signatures are caused by heavy haze. This effect is thought to be sufficient to determine the presence of moderate haze without the benefit of ground truth data. It is significant to note that there is very little degradation of ERTS-1 data caused be a rather heavy haze. For many purposes the data obtained on a hazy day are just as useful as that obtained on a clear day.

Rogers, E. H.↗

Maneuver and buffet characteristics of fighter aircraft

Recent research efforts in the improvement of the maneuverability of fighter aircraft in the high-subsonic and transonic speed range are reviewed with emphasis on the factors affecting aerodynamic boundaries, such as maximum obtainable lift, buffet onset, pitchup, wing rock, and nose slice. The investigations were made using a general research configuration which encompassed a systematic matrix of wing-design parameters. These results illustrated the sensitivity of section and planform geometry to a selected design point. The incorporation of variable-geometry wing devices in the form of flaps or leading-edge slats was shown to provide controlled flow over a wide range of flight conditions and substantial improvements in maneuver capabilities. Additional studies indicated that the blending of a highly swept maneuver strake with an efficient, moderately swept wing offers a promising approach for improving maneuver characteristics at high angles of attack without excessive penalties in structural weight.

Ray, E. J.↗