Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “Accelerator Applications”

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.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 1,009 records · Page 56

Three-dimensional structural analysis using interactive graphics

The application of computer interactive graphics to three-dimensional structural analysis was described, with emphasis on the following aspects: (1) structural analysis, and (2) generation and checking of input data and examination of the large volume of output data (stresses, displacements, velocities, accelerations). Handling of three-dimensional input processing with a special MESH3D computer program was explained. Similarly, a special code PLTZ may be used to perform all the needed tasks for output processing from a finite element code. Examples were illustrated.

Biffle, J.↗

Gravity gradient torque for an arbitrary potential function

To permit investigation of the relative effects of higher-order terms in the potential function and allow computation of the gravity gradient torques consistent with the gravitational acceleration for a given potential function, a simple formula is derived for computing the gravity gradient torque on a vehicle in terms of the eigenvalues and eigenvectors of the gravity gradient matrix and the inertia properties of the vehicle. The formulation is applicable to any potential function for which the gravity matrix can be computed for a given point in the potential field.

Glandorf, D. R.↗

Recent results on structural control of an active precision structure

This paper describes recent results in structural control of an active precision truss structure at JPL. The goal is to develop practical control methodology and to apply to active truss structures intended for high precision space-based optics applications. The active structure considered incorporates piezoelectric active members which apply control forces internal to the structure and thereby improve the structure's dimensional stability. Two approaches to structural control system design were investigated. The first approach uses only noncollocated measurements of acceleration at the location of a simulated optical component to achieve structural stabilization. The second approach is essentially the same as the first one except that a viscous damper was used in place of a truss member on the structure to improve the dampings of selected flexible modes. The corresponding experimental closed-loop results are presented in this paper.

Chu, C. C.↗

Multiblock, Multigrid Solution Of Euler Equations

Method of numerical solution of Euler equations of three-dimensional flow of compressible fluid involves combination of multiblock and multigrid strategies. In multiblock strategy, flow field divided, into multiple smaller, more computationally-convenient zones and computational grid fitted to applicable flow boundaries generated in each block. In multigrid strategy used here, different quantities computed, variously, on finer or coarser grids. Minimizing cost of computation by using fewest grid points yielding acceptably accurate values of affected variable. Multigrid strategy found effective in accelerating convergence to steady state, while multiblock strategy provides geometric flexibility.

Melson, N. Duane↗

Instrument For Simulation Of Piezoelectric Transducers

Electronic instrument designed to simulate dynamic output of integrated-circuit piezoelectric acceleration or pressure transducer. Operates in conjunction with external signal-conditioning circuit, generating square-wave signal of known amplitude for use in calibrating signal-conditioning circuit. Instrument also useful as special-purpose square-wave generator in other applications.

Mcnichol, Randal S.↗

The Relationship Between Solar Radio and Hard X-Ray Emission

This review discusses the complementary relationship between radio and hard Xray observations of the Sun using primarily results from the era of the Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager satellite. A primary focus of joint radio and hard X-ray studies of solar flares uses observations of nonthermal gyrosynchrotron emission at radio wavelengths and bremsstrahlung hard X-rays to study the properties of electrons accelerated in the main flare site, since it is well established that these two emissions show very similar temporal behavior. A quantitative prescription is given for comparing the electron energy distributions derived separately from the two wavelength ranges: this is an important application with the potential for measuring the magnetic field strength in the flaring region, and reveals significant differences between the electrons in different energy ranges. Examples of the use of simultaneous data from the two wavelength ranges to derive physical conditions are then discussed, including the case of microflares, and the comparison of images at radio and hard X-ray wavelengths is presented. There have been puzzling results obtained from observations of solar flares at millimeter and submillimeter wavelengths, and the comparison of these results with corresponding hard X-ray data is presented. Finally, the review discusses the association of hard X-ray releases with radio emission at decimeter and meter wavelengths, which is dominated by plasma emission (at lower frequencies) and electron cyclotron maser emission (at higher frequencies), both coherent emission mechanisms that require small numbers of energetic electrons. These comparisons show broad general associations but detailed correspondence remains more elusive.

White, S. M.↗

PACE-2 and Beyond

• Payload Accelerator for CubeSat Endeavors (PACE) goals are to mature Payloads through the NASA Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) Small Spacecraft Technology Program (SSTP) and Flight Opportunities Program (FOP) • The PACE series of projects will support flight demonstrations of new technologies, capabilities and applications for small spacecraft and reduces the cost, risk, complexity and/or time required to advance the state -of-the-art utilizing both suborbital and orbital launches

CubeSat Technology Demonstration↗

From the Solar Limb and Out: Results from the Wide-Field EUV Image Campaigns with GOES/SUVI

Traditional approaches to tracking solar outflows for space weather forecasting rely primarily on coronagraph images, which generally observe the solar corona above a minimum height of about 2.5 solar radii. EUV images have been widely used to characterize features on the solar disk, but the limited fields of view of most current EUV imagers have prevented their use for tracking outflows through the inner and middle coronae. A series of off-point campaigns with the GOES 16-18 Solar Ultraviolet Imager (SUVI) between 2018 and 2022 from three Flight Models have provided an opportunity to assess the value of extended EUV images for space weather forecasting applications. These new results demonstrate that wide field-of-view EUV images are useful for characterizing the early onset of eruptive events and tracking smaller outflow into the solar wind. They also reveal the origins of shocks that are known to accelerate particles and drive solar energetic particle (SEP) events. Because CMEs generally experience the bulk of their acceleration below the height of white light coronagraphic observations, these images provide information about the origins of these events that has not been available traditionally. Together with coronagraphic measurements, EUV images provide the continuous views needed to connect CMEs back to their source regions. Here, we present these new SUVI observations and discuss their potential use in space weather operations.

SUVI↗

Prognostics Approach for Power MOSFET Under Thermal-Stress

The prognostic technique for a power MOSFET presented in this paper is based on accelerated aging of MOSFET IRF520Npbf in a TO-220 package. The methodology utilizes thermal and power cycling to accelerate the life of the devices. The major failure mechanism for the stress conditions is dieattachment degradation, typical for discrete devices with leadfree solder die attachment. It has been determined that dieattach degradation results in an increase in ON-state resistance due to its dependence on junction temperature. Increasing resistance, thus, can be used as a precursor of failure for the die-attach failure mechanism under thermal stress. A feature based on normalized ON-resistance is computed from in-situ measurements of the electro-thermal response. An Extended Kalman filter is used as a model-based prognostics techniques based on the Bayesian tracking framework. The proposed prognostics technique reports on preliminary work that serves as a case study on the prediction of remaining life of power MOSFETs and builds upon the work presented in [1]. The algorithm considered in this study had been used as prognostics algorithm in different applications and is regarded as suitable candidate for component level prognostics. This work attempts to further the validation of such algorithm by presenting it with real degradation data including measurements from real sensors, which include all the complications (noise, bias, etc.) that are regularly not captured on simulated degradation data. The algorithm is developed and tested on the accelerated aging test timescale. In real world operation, the timescale of the degradation process and therefore the RUL predictions will be considerable larger. It is hypothesized that even though the timescale will be larger, it remains constant through the degradation process and the algorithm and model would still apply under the slower degradation process. By using accelerated aging data with actual device measurements and real sensors (no simulated behavior), we are attempting to assess how such algorithm behaves under realistic conditions.

Power MOSFET PHM↗

Advanced Materials and Coatings for Aerospace Applications

In the application area of aerospace tribology, researchers and developers must guarantee the highest degree of reliability for materials, components, and systems. Even a small tribological failure can lead to catastrophic results. The absence of the required knowledge of tribology, as Professor H.P. Jost has said, can act as a severe brake in aerospace vehicle systems-and indeed has already done so. Materials and coatings must be able to withstand the aerospace environments that they encounter, such as vacuum terrestrial, ascent, and descent environments; be resistant to the degrading effects of air, water vapor, sand, foreign substances, and radiation during a lengthy service; be able to withstand the loads, stresses, and temperatures encountered form acceleration and vibration during operation; and be able to support reliable tribological operations in harsh environments throughout the mission of the vehicle. This presentation id divided into two sections: surface properties and technology practice related to aerospace tribology. The first section is concerned with the fundamental properties of the surfaces of solid-film lubricants and related materials and coatings, including carbon nanotubes. The second is devoted to applications. Case studies are used to review some aspects of real problems related to aerospace systems to help engineers and scientists to understand the tribological issues and failures. The nature of each problem is analyzed, and the tribological properties are examined. All the fundamental studies and case studies were conducted at the NASA Glenn Research Center.

Miyoshi, Kazuhisa↗

An application of modern control theory to jet propulsion systems

The control of an airbreathing turbojet engine by an onboard digital computer is studied. The approach taken is to model the turbojet engine as a linear, multivariable system whose parameters vary with engine operating environment. From this model adaptive closed-loop or feedback control laws are designed and applied to the acceleration of the turbojet engine.

Merrill, W. C.↗

An in flight investigation of pitch rate flight control systems and application of frequency domain and time domain predictive criteria

The degree of attitude control provided by current integral-proportional pitch rate command-type control systems, while a prerequisite for flared landing, is insufficient for 'Level 1' performance. The pilot requires 'surrogate' feedback cues to precisely control flight path in the landing flare. Monotonic stick forces and pilot station vertical acceleration are important cues which can be provided by means of angle-of-attack and pitch rate feedback in order to achieve conventional short period and phugoid characteristics. Integral-proportional pitch rate flight control systems can be upgraded to Level 1 flared landing performance by means of lead/lag and washout prefilters in the command path. Strong pilot station vertical acceleration cues can provide Level 1 flared landing performance even in the absence of monotonic stick forces.

Berthe, C. J.↗

BNL accelerator-based radiobiology facilities

For the past several years, the Alternating Gradient Synchrotron (AGS) at Brookhaven National Laboratory (USA) has provided ions of iron, silicon and gold, at energies from 600 MeV/nucleon to 10 GeV/nucleon, for the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) radiobiology research program. NASA has recently funded the construction of a new dedicated ion facility, the Booster Applications Facility (BAF). The Booster synchrotron will supply ion beams ranging from protons to gold, in an energy range from 40-3000 MeV/nucleon with maximum beam intensities of 10(10) to 10(11) ions per pulse. The BAF Project will be described and the future AGS and BAF operation plans will be presented.

NASA Discipline Radiation Health↗

Manufacturing in space.

Space, in contrast to earth, offers total gravity control and unequaled vacuum, temperature, pressure, and radiation characteristics. In zero-g molecular forces such as cohesion and adhesion become controlling factors even in the largest bulk processes. The absence of relative mass accelerations eliminates the need for support of solid matter. Stability in liquid-solid, liquid-liquid, or liquid-gas mixtures, and the absence of thermal convection is obtained because there is no relative motion in fluids due to differences in density. Applications of these characteristics include liquid-matrix preparation of composites, fine-grain castings, supersaturated alloys, combinations which exhibit liquid-phase immiscibility, the containerless free suspension of materials, surface-tension casting, surface-tension drawing, adhesion casting, and controlled density casting.

Wuenscher, H. F.↗

Two concepts for the reduction of payload attitude slewing times.

The concepts presented are particularly valuable in sounding rocket applications, where experiment data-gathering time above the atmosphere is measured in minutes per flight. One concept is a practical nonlinear control law for slewing a payload in one axis, with performance that approaches time-optimal as the uncertainty in angular acceleration approaches zero. The second concept is a practical transformation-of-coordinates system allowing slewing about an axis not coincident with any of the three control axes of the payload, so that the payload experiment axis may move along the great circle arc containing the initial and terminal target points. Implementation of both concepts is facilitated by the availability of variable-thrust cold-gas thrustors. Both concepts can result in significant reductions in slewing times compared with more conventional systems.

Riley, D. C.↗

Aircraft identification experience

Important aspects of estimating the unknown coefficients of the aircraft equations of motion from dynamic flight data are presented. The primary topic is the application of the maximum likelihood estimation technique. Basic considerations that must be addressed in the estimation of stability and control derivatives from conventional flight maneuvers are discussed. Some complex areas of estimation (such as estimation in the presence of atmospheric turbulence, estimation of acceleration derivatives, and analysis of maneuvers where both kinematic and aerodynamic coupling are present) are also discussed.

Iliff, K. W.↗

Viscoelastic behavior and life-time predictions

Fiber reinforced plastics were considered for many structural applications in automotive, aerospace and other industries. A major concern was and remains the failure modes associated with the polymer matrix which serves to bind the fibers together and transfer the load through connections, from fiber to fiber and ply to ply. An accelerated characterization procedure for prediction of delayed failures was developed. This method utilizes time-temperature-stress-moisture superposition principles in conjunction with laminated plate theory. Because failures are inherently nonlinear, the testing and analytic modeling for both moduli and strength is based upon nonlinear viscoelastic concepts.

Dillard, D. A.↗

Measurement of hand dynamics in a microsurgery environment: Preliminary data in the design of a bimanual telemicro-operation test bed

Data describing the microsurgeon's hand dynamics was recorded and analyzed in order to provide an accurate model for the telemicrosurgery application of the Bimanual Telemicro-operation Test Bed. The model, in turn, will guide the development of algorithms for the control of robotic systems in bimanual telemicro-operation tasks. Measurements were made at the hand-tool interface and include position, acceleration and force between the tool-finger interface. Position information was captured using an orthogonal pulsed magnetic field positioning system resulting in measurements in all six degrees-of-freedom (DOF). Acceleration data at the hands was obtained using accelerometers positioned in a triaxial arrangement on the back of the hand allowing measurements in all three cartesian-coordinate axes. Force data was obtained by using miniature load cells positioned between the tool and the finger and included those forces experienced perpendicular to the tool shaft and those transferred from the tool-tissue site. Position data will provide a minimum/maximum reference frame for the robotic system's work space or envelope. Acceleration data will define the response times needed by the robotic system in order to emulate and subsequently outperform the human operator's tool movements. The force measurements will aid in designing a force-reflective, force-scaling system as well as defining the range of forces the robotic system will encounter. All analog data was acquired by a 16-channel analog-to-digital conversion system residing in a IBM PC/AT-compatible computer at the Center's laboratory. The same system was also used to analyze and present the data.

Charles, Steve↗