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At least 1,027 records · Page 57

Generic Kalman Filter Software

The Generic Kalman Filter (GKF) software provides a standard basis for the development of application-specific Kalman-filter programs. Historically, Kalman filters have been implemented by customized programs that must be written, coded, and debugged anew for each unique application, then tested and tuned with simulated or actual measurement data. Total development times for typical Kalman-filter application programs have ranged from months to weeks. The GKF software can simplify the development process and reduce the development time by eliminating the need to re-create the fundamental implementation of the Kalman filter for each new application. The GKF software is written in the ANSI C programming language. It contains a generic Kalman-filter-development directory that, in turn, contains a code for a generic Kalman filter function; more specifically, it contains a generically designed and generically coded implementation of linear, linearized, and extended Kalman filtering algorithms, including algorithms for state- and covariance-update and -propagation functions. The mathematical theory that underlies the algorithms is well known and has been reported extensively in the open technical literature. Also contained in the directory are a header file that defines generic Kalman-filter data structures and prototype functions and template versions of application-specific subfunction and calling navigation/estimation routine code and headers. Once the user has provided a calling routine and the required application-specific subfunctions, the application-specific Kalman-filter software can be compiled and executed immediately. During execution, the generic Kalman-filter function is called from a higher-level navigation or estimation routine that preprocesses measurement data and post-processes output data. The generic Kalman-filter function uses the aforementioned data structures and five implementation- specific subfunctions, which have been developed by the user on the basis of the aforementioned templates. The GKF software can be used to develop many different types of unfactorized Kalman filters. A developer can choose to implement either a linearized or an extended Kalman filter algorithm, without having to modify the GKF software. Control dynamics can be taken into account or neglected in the filter-dynamics model. Filter programs developed by use of the GKF software can be made to propagate equations of motion for linear or nonlinear dynamical systems that are deterministic or stochastic. In addition, filter programs can be made to operate in user-selectable "covariance analysis" and "propagation-only" modes that are useful in design and development stages.

Lisano, Michael E., II↗

SCIP2 flight instrumentation specification for parameter identification: User's guide

SCIP2 which is a digital computer program that can be used to investigate the effects of instrumentation errors on the accuracy of aircraft stability and control derivatives identified from flight test data is presented. The program is based on the assumptions that the aircraft differential equations of motion are linear and consist of small perturbations about a quasisteady flight condition. It is also assumed that a Newton-Raphson optimization technique is used for identifying the estimates of the parameters. A summary of the equations which are coded in the program are included.

Taniguchi, N.↗

An Update on the Development of a Line-Focus Refractive Concentrator Array

Concentrator arrays offer a number of generic benefits for space (i.e. high array efficiency, protection from space radiation effects, minimized plasma interactions, etc.). The line-focus refractive concentrator concept, however, also offers two very important advantages: (1) relaxation of precise array tracking requirements to only a single axis and (2) low-cost mass production of the lens material. The linear refractive concentrator can be designed to provide an essentially flat response over a wide range of longitudinal errors for satellites having only single-axis tracking capability. New panel designs emphasize light weight, high stiffness, stowability and ease of manufacturing and assembly. This paper will address the current status of the concentrator program with special emphasis on the design implications, and flexibility, of using a linear refractive concentrator lens as well as detail the recent fabrication of prototype hardware.

Piszczor, Michael F.↗

The In-Flight Calibration Program for the XRS on Astro-E2

The X-Ray Spectrometer (XRS) will be launched in February 2005 as part of the Astro-E2 mission. It will provide unprecedented throughput and resolving powers particularly at high energies. In this presentation we will describe the in-flight calibration program. The energy scale of the XRS is a complex, non-linear function of the noise and power conditions on the array. It will be calibrated empirically using the bright point sources, Capella and GX301-2. Ground calibration of the line spread function show it to be almost perfectly Gaussian. The in-flight calibration is designed to verify this using the energy scale targets. The effective area curve of the XRS contains discreet edge structure from the mirrors, the optical blocking filters, and the microcalorimeter HgTe absorbers. The effective area Calibration program will simultaneously measure these absorption edges and the global effective area properties using the relatively featureless sources 3C273 and Mrk421. Additional monitoring of any ice build-up on the filters will be conducted using observations of the supernova remnants N132D and E0102.

Cottam, J.↗

User's manual: Subsonic/supersonic advanced panel pilot code

Sufficient instructions for running the subsonic/supersonic advanced panel pilot code were developed. This software was developed as a vehicle for numerical experimentation and it should not be construed to represent a finished production program. The pilot code is based on a higher order panel method using linearly varying source and quadratically varying doublet distributions for computing both linearized supersonic and subsonic flow over arbitrary wings and bodies. This user's manual contains complete input and output descriptions. A brief description of the method is given as well as practical instructions for proper configurations modeling. Computed results are also included to demonstrate some of the capabilities of the pilot code. The computer program is written in FORTRAN IV for the SCOPE 3.4.4 operations system of the Ames CDC 7600 computer. The program uses overlay structure and thirteen disk files, and it requires approximately 132000 (Octal) central memory words.

Moran, J.↗

Slave finite element for non-linear analysis of engine structures. Volume 2: Programmer's manual and user's manual

The programming aspects of SFENES are described in the User's Manual. The information presented is provided for the installation programmer. It is sufficient to fully describe the general program logic and required peripheral storage. All element generated data is stored externally to reduce required memory allocation. A separate section is devoted to the description of these files thereby permitting the optimization of Input/Output (I/O) time through efficient buffer descriptions. Individual subroutine descriptions are presented along with the complete Fortran source listings. A short description of the major control, computation, and I/O phases is included to aid in obtaining an overall familiarity with the program's components. Finally, a discussion of the suggested overlay structure which allows the program to execute with a reasonable amount of memory allocation is presented.

Witkop, D. L.↗

Three-Dimensional Gear Crack Propagation Studied

Gears used in current helicopters and turboprops are designed for light weight, high margins of safety, and high reliability. However, unexpected gear failures may occur even with adequate tooth design. To design an extremely safe system, the designer must ask and address the question, "What happens when a failure occurs?" With gear-tooth bending fatigue, tooth or rim fractures may occur. A crack that propagates through a rim will be catastrophic, leading to disengagement of the rotor or propeller, loss of an aircraft, and possible fatalities. This failure mode should be avoided. A crack that propagates through a tooth may or may not be catastrophic, depending on the design and operating conditions. Also, early warning of this failure mode may be possible because of advances in modern diagnostic systems. One concept proposed to address bending fatigue fracture from a safety aspect is a splittooth gear design. The prime objective of this design would be to control crack propagation in a desired direction such that at least half of the tooth would remain operational should a bending failure occur. A study at the NASA Lewis Research Center analytically validated the crack-propagation failsafe characteristics of a split-tooth gear. It used a specially developed three-dimensional crack analysis program that was based on boundary element modeling and principles of linear elastic fracture mechanics. Crack shapes as well as the crack-propagation life were predicted on the basis of the calculated stress intensity factors, mixed-mode crack-propagation trajectory theories, and fatigue crack-growth theories. The preceding figures show the effect of the location of initial cracks on crack propagation. Initial cracks in the fillet of the teeth produced stress intensity factors of greater magnitude (and thus, greater crack growth rates) than those in the root or groove areas of the teeth. Crack growth was simulated in a case study to evaluate crack-propagation paths. Tooth fracture was predicted from the crackgrowth simulation for an initial crack in the tooth fillet region. This was the desired failure mode for an ultrasafe design. Lastly, tooth loads on the uncracked mesh of the split-tooth design were up to five times greater than those on the cracked mesh if equal deflections of the cracked and uncracked teeth were considered. This effect needs to be considered in the design of a split-tooth configuration. This work was done in-house at Lewis in support of the National Rotorcraft Technology Center project, Ultra-Safe Gear Design, with the Boeing Defense and Space Group. The crack-propagation package was developed by the Cornell Fracture Group at Cornell University. The reported results, which are the initial findings of Lewis gear-crackpropagation research for the Rotorcraft Base Program, will be further investigated to develop generalized gear design guidelines.

Lewicki, David G.↗

Maximizing dynamic range and performance of anatase TiO 2 ECRAM through structure and programming

Here, in this study, we investigate the structure-dependent modulation characteristics of all-solid-state three-terminal electrochemical random-access memory (ECRAM) based on an anatase Li x TiO 2 channel. By directly comparing “asymmetric” and “symmetric” ECRAM device architectures, we reveal significant insight into the impact of a non-zero gate-drain open-circuit voltage and its influence on voltage vs. current-controlled gating. We also explore the impact of potentiation/depression write parameters on the symmetry, linearity, and dynamic range of the device response. Together, initial results from optimizing structure and programming approaches yielded unprecedented G max /G min ratios of >1,000 for ECRAM and hundreds of tunable memory states with excellent linearity and symmetry. Simulations based on these ECRAM devices further illustrate the promise of this analog memory technology, achieving near 2% classification error in the MNIST digit recognition benchmark for a range of training parameters compared to a theoretical best of 1.66% and outperforming other device models extracted from the literature.

AIHWKit↗

Piecewise-Linear Computation Of Creep

Theory of elastic and inelastic stresses and strains in isotropic materials blended with finite-element computer programs to calculate residual stresses due to creep in structures. Analogy drawn between thermal expansion and creep, enabling use of thermal-stress computational approach to calculate creep stresses and strains. Overall transient solution obtained by piecewise-linear iterations. Creep stresses in structure computed in iterative process in which cumulative creep strains treated as fictitious changes in coefficients of thermal expansion.

Jenkins, Jerald↗

HZE beam transport in multilayered materials

A nonperturbative analytic solution of the high charge and energy (HZE) Green's function is used to implement a computer code for laboratory ion beam transport in multiple-layered materials. The code is established to operate on the Langley nuclear fragmentation model used in space engineering applications. Computational procedures are established to generate linear energy transfer (LET) distributions for a specified ion beam and target for comparison with experimental measurement. Comparison with 56Fe ion with Pb-Al and Pb-(CH2)x targets shows reasonable agreement.

NASA Discipline Radiation Health↗

Geometry program for aerodynamic lifting surface theory

A computer program that provides the geometry and boundary conditions appropriate for an analysis of a lifting, thin wing with control surfaces in linearized, subsonic, steady flow is presented. The kernel function method lifting surface theory is applied. The data which is generated by the program is stored on disk files or tapes for later use by programs which calculate an influence matrix, plot the wing planform, and evaluate the loads on the wing. In addition to processing data for subsequent use in a lifting surface analysis, the program is useful for computing area and mean geometric chords of the wing and control surfaces.

Medan, R. T.↗

Calculated effects of varying Reynolds Number and dynamic pressure on flexible wings at transonic speeds

A computational method is described that includes the effects of static aeroelastic wing deflections in steady transonic aerodynamic calculations. This method, known as the Transonic Aero-elastic Program System (TAPS), interacts a 3D transonic computer code with boundary layer and a linear finite element structural analysis codes to calculate wing pressures and deflections. The nonlinear nature of the transonic flow makes it necessary to couple the aerodynamic and structures codes in an iterative manner. TAPS has been arranged in a modular fashion so that different aerodynamic or structures programs may be used with a minimum of coding changes required. Results obtained using two different aerodynamic codes in TAPS are given, and those results are correlated with experimental data.

Campbell, R. L.↗

Parallel computation using boundary elements in solid mechanics

The inherent parallelism of the boundary element method is shown. The boundary element is formulated by assuming the linear variation of displacements and tractions within a line element. Moreover, MACSYMA symbolic program is employed to obtain the analytical results for influence coefficients. Three computational components are parallelized in this method to show the speedup and efficiency in computation. The global coefficient matrix is first formed concurrently. Then, the parallel Gaussian elimination solution scheme is applied to solve the resulting system of equations. Finally, and more importantly, the domain solutions of a given boundary value problem are calculated simultaneously. The linear speedups and high efficiencies are shown for solving a demonstrated problem on Sequent Symmetry S81 parallel computing system.

Chien, L. S.↗

High-Performance Algorithm for Solving the Diagnosis Problem

An improved method of model-based diagnosis of a complex engineering system is embodied in an algorithm that involves considerably less computation than do prior such algorithms. This method and algorithm are based largely on developments reported in several NASA Tech Briefs articles: The Complexity of the Diagnosis Problem (NPO-30315), Vol. 26, No. 4 (April 2002), page 20; Fast Algorithms for Model-Based Diagnosis (NPO-30582), Vol. 29, No. 3 (March 2005), page 69; Two Methods of Efficient Solution of the Hitting-Set Problem (NPO-30584), Vol. 29, No. 3 (March 2005), page 73; and Efficient Model-Based Diagnosis Engine (NPO-40544), on the following page. Some background information from the cited articles is prerequisite to a meaningful summary of the innovative aspects of the present method and algorithm. In model-based diagnosis, the function of each component and the relationships among all the components of the engineering system to be diagnosed are represented as a logical system denoted the system description (SD). Hence, the expected normal behavior of the engineering system is the set of logical consequences of the SD. Faulty components lead to inconsistencies between the observed behaviors of the system and the SD. Diagnosis the task of finding faulty components is reduced to finding those components, the abnormalities of which could explain all the inconsistencies. The solution of the diagnosis problem should be a minimal diagnosis, which is a minimal set of faulty components. The calculation of a minimal diagnosis is inherently a hard problem, the solution of which requires amounts of computation time and memory that increase exponentially with the number of components of the engineering system. Among the developments to reduce the computational burden, as reported in the cited articles, is the mapping of the diagnosis problem onto the integer-programming (IP) problem. This mapping makes it possible to utilize a variety of algorithms developed previously for IP to solve the diagnosis problem. In the IP approach, the diagnosis problem can be formulated as a linear integer optimization problem, which can be solved by use of well-developed integer-programming algorithms. This concludes the background information.

Fijany, Amir↗

Burner liner thermal/structural load modeling: TRANCITS program user's manual

Transfer Analysis Code to Interface Thermal/Structural Problems (TRANCITS) is discussed. The TRANCITS code satisfies all the objectives for transferring thermal data between heat transfer and structural models of combustor liners and it can be used as a generic thermal translator between heat transfer and stress models of any component, regardless of the geometry. The TRANCITS can accurately and efficiently convert the temperature distributions predicted by the heat transfer programs to those required by the stress codes. It can be used for both linear and nonlinear structural codes and can produce nodal temperatures, elemental centroid temperatures, or elemental Gauss point temperatures. The thermal output of both the MARC and SINDA heat transfer codes can be interfaced directly with TRANCITS, and it will automatically produce stress model codes formatted for NASTRAN and MARC. Any thermal program and structural program can be interfaced by using the neutral input and output forms supported by TRANCITS.

Maffeo, R.↗

ASTROP2-LE: A Mistuned Aeroelastic Analysis System Based on a Two Dimensional Linearized Euler Solver

An aeroelastic analysis system for flutter and forced response analysis of turbomachines based on a two-dimensional linearized unsteady Euler solver has been developed. The ASTROP2 code, an aeroelastic stability analysis program for turbomachinery, was used as a basis for this development. The ASTROP2 code uses strip theory to couple a two dimensional aerodynamic model with a three dimensional structural model. The code was modified to include forced response capability. The formulation was also modified to include aeroelastic analysis with mistuning. A linearized unsteady Euler solver, LINFLX2D is added to model the unsteady aerodynamics in ASTROP2. By calculating the unsteady aerodynamic loads using LINFLX2D, it is possible to include the effects of transonic flow on flutter and forced response in the analysis. The stability is inferred from an eigenvalue analysis. The revised code, ASTROP2-LE for ASTROP2 code using Linearized Euler aerodynamics, is validated by comparing the predictions with those obtained using linear unsteady aerodynamic solutions.

Reddy, T. S. R.↗

Programmable photonic integrated meshes for modular generation of optical entanglement links

Abstract Large-scale generation of quantum entanglement between individually controllable qubits is at the core of quantum computing, communications, and sensing. Modular architectures of remotely-connected quantum technologies have been proposed for a variety of physical qubits, with demonstrations reported in atomic and all-photonic systems. However, an open challenge in these architectures lies in constructing high-speed and high-fidelity reconfigurable photonic networks for optically-heralded entanglement among target qubits. Here we introduce a programmable photonic integrated circuit (PIC), realized in a piezo-actuated silicon nitride (SiN)-in-oxide CMOS-compatible process, that implements an N × N Mach–Zehnder mesh (MZM) capable of high-speed execution of linear optical transformations. The visible-spectrum photonic integrated mesh is programmed to generate optical connectivity on up to N = 8 inputs for a range of optically-heralded entanglement protocols. In particular, we experimentally demonstrated optical connections between 16 independent pairwise mode couplings through the MZM, with optical transformation fidelities averaging 0.991 ± 0.0063. The PIC’s reconfigurable optical connectivity suffices for the production of 8-qubit resource states as building blocks of larger topological cluster states for quantum computing. Our programmable PIC platform enables the fast and scalable optical switching technology necessary for network-based quantum information processors.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

Preparation and Characterization Methods of Thin Layer Samples for Standoff Detection

Detection of analytes deposited on surfaces is crucial for many applications: Development of methods to prepare thin layers (e.g. ~5 to 100 µm) is important for both system design and field studies. In this work, solid and liquid analytes were deposited on painted and bare substrates including aluminum, glass, plastic, and concrete using an ExactaCoat ultrasonic spray coater. Laboratory hemispherical reflectance (HRF) spectra were collected for samples with different layer thicknesses so as to characterize both the composition and layer thickness. Preliminary results demonstrate that to prepare homogenous layers on surfaces, parameters such as substrate type, analyte solubility, vapor pressure, paint color, surface porosity, and surface roughness are all important. Liquid chemicals posed several issues during deposition: Diisopropyl methyl phosphonate evaporated from surfaces more quickly than the other chemicals and was thus not detected in the HRF experiments. Less volatile liquids, such as tributylphosphate, remained on the surface for the duration of the test, but a uniform layer thickness could not be obtained as the liquid pooled to one side when mounted at an angle. The deposition of solids (e.g., acetaminophen, caffeine and methylphosphonic acid) from volatile solvents such as chloroform also proved problematic due to streaking caused by rapid solvent evaporation. Solids deposited from ethanol, however, worked well on bare substrates. For most samples plotting the integrated infrared band strength vs. surface thicknesses showed a linear relationship, confirming that the surface loading can be controlled by programming the concentration and the number of passes on the ultrasonic sprayer.

Thin layer, deposition, infrared standoff, Hemisph↗