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At least 1,027 records · Page 57

Simscape Modeling Verification in the Simulink Development Environment

The purpose of the Simulation Product Group of the Control and Data Systems division of the NASA Engineering branch at Kennedy Space Center is to provide a realtime model and simulation of the Ground Subsystems participating in vehicle launching activities. The simulation software is part of the Spaceport Command and Control System (SCCS) and is designed to support integrated launch operation software verification, and console operator training. Using Mathworks Simulink tools, modeling engineers currently build models from the custom-built blocks to accurately represent ground hardware. This is time consuming and costly due to required rigorous testing and peer reviews to be conducted for each custom-built block. Using Mathworks Simscape tools, modeling time can be reduced since there would be no custom-code developed. After careful research, the group came to the conclusion it is feasible to use Simscape's blocks in MatLab's Simulink. My project this fall was to verify the accuracy of the Crew Access Arm model developed using Simscape tools running in the Simulink development environment.

SIMSCAPE↗

The systems improved numerical fluids analysis code (SINFAC)

A computer program has been developed to model the steady-state performance of single and two-phase heat transport systems. The development effort had the intent of making the program general, relatively easy to implement and easy to integrate into currently available software. The primary use of the program is for, but not limited to, heat transport system for spacecraft. In order to show the program has achieved its intended goals, the program was first applied to a small loop and a quick parametric study done. Next a verification study was done in which the temperature data from a thermal loop flown on the space shuttle was compared to modeler predictions.

Schweickart, Russell B.↗

Data for "Verification of the kinetic electron role in the microinstabilities in a negative triangularity model equilibrium"

This contains the dataset used in "Verification of the kinetic electron role in the microinstabilities in a negative triangularity model equilibrium" published in Physics of Plasmas in Oct 2024. It consists of plaintext files as well as .bp files (which may be read by ADIOS open-source software) used for creating the plots that appear in the paper. These are derived from simulation outputs from XGC (X-point Gyrokinetic Code). The data mainly consists of growth rate and frequency measurements as well as poloidal cross-section data.

gyrokinetic↗

A program for the investigation of the Multibody Modeling, Verification, and Control Laboratory

The Multibody Modeling, Verification, and Control (MMVC) Laboratory is under development at NASA MSFC in Huntsville, Alabama. The laboratory will provide a facility in which dynamic tests and analyses of multibody flexible structures representative of future space systems can be conducted. The purpose of the tests are to acquire dynamic measurements of the flexible structures undergoing large angle motions and use the data to validate the multibody modeling code, TREETOPS, developed under sponsorship of NASA. Advanced control systems design and system identification methodologies will also be implemented in the MMVC laboratory. This paper describes the ground test facility, the real-time control system, and the experiments. A top-level description of the TREETOPS code is also included along with the validation plan for the MMVC program. Dynamic test results from component testing are also presented and discussed. A detailed discussion of the test articles, which manifest the properties of large flexible space structures, is included along with a discussion of the various candidate control methodologies to be applied in the laboratory.

Tobbe, Patrick A.↗

Determination of solid/porous wall boundary conditions from wind tunnel data for computational fluid dynamics codes

A computational and experimental study has been undertaken to investigate methods of modelling solid and porous wall boundary conditions in computational fluid dynamics (CFD) codes. The procedure utilizes experimental measurements at the walls to develop a flow field solution based on the method of singularities. This flow field solution is then imposed as a pressure boundary condition in a CFD simulation of the internal flow field. The effectiveness of this method in describing the boundary conditions at the wind tunnel walls using only sparse experimental measurements has been investigated. Verification of the approach using computational studies has been carried out using an incompressible flow solver. The current work demonstrates this technique for low speed flows and compares the result with experimental data obtained from a heavily instrumented variable porosity test section. Position and refinement of experimental measurements required to describe porous wall boundary conditions have also been considered for application to other porous wall wind tunnels. The approach developed is simple, computationally inexpensive, and does not require extensive or intrusive measurements. It may be applied to both solid and porous wall wind tunnel tests. Some consideration is given to the extension of this method to three dimensions.

Beutner, Thomas J.↗

Network Architecture Verification & Validation Tool

The NAVV Tool is an automation of Linux commands run Zeek IDS software on a packet capture to create a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet table breaking down network traffic observed. The tool automates the Zeek software analysis, the collation of logs, and then the dissection of the Conn.log and DNS.logs to create a summary table within a Excel. This spreadsheet can then be updated with network segments using CIDR formatting and labels along with inventory information including name and IP address. Using the tool again will integrate these label and color coding into the existing analysis table to aid in conducting an evaluation of the network traffic.

Nichols, DonovanW↗

Constitutive modeling for isotropic materials

The third and fourth years of a 4-year research program, part of the NASA HOST Program, are described. The program goals were: (1) to develop and validate unified constitutive models for isotropic materials, and (2) to demonstrate their usefulness for structural analysis of hot section components of gas turbine engines. The unified models selected for development and evaluation were those of Bodner-Partom and of Walker. The unified approach for elastic-viscoplastic constitutive equations is a viable method for representing and predicting material response characteristics in the range where strain rate and temperature dependent inelastic deformations are experienced. This conclusion is reached by extensive comparison of model calculations against the experimental results of a test program of two high temperature Ni-base alloys, B1900+Hf and Mar-M247, over a wide temperature range for a variety of deformation and thermal histories including uniaxial, multiaxial, and thermomechanical loading paths. The applicability of the Bodner-Partom and the Walker models for structural applications has been demonstrated by implementing these models into the MARC finite element code and by performing a number of analyses including thermomechanical histories on components of hot sections of gas turbine engines and benchmark notch tensile specimens. The results of the 4-year program have been published in four annual reports. The results of the base program are summarized in this report. The tasks covered include: (1) development of material test procedures, (2) thermal history effects, and (3) verification of the constitutive model for an alternative material.

Chan, K. S.↗

Synthetic Scene Generation of the Stennis V and V Target Range for the Calibration of Remote Sensing Systems

The verification and validation (V&V) target range developed at Stennis Space Center is a useful test site for the calibration of remote sensing systems. In this paper, we present a simple algorithm for generating synthetic radiance scenes or digital models of this target range. The radiation propagation for the target in the solar reflective and thermal infrared spectral regions is modeled using the atmospheric radiative transfer code MODTRAN 4. The at-sensor, in-band radiance and spectral radiance for a given sensor at a given altitude is predicted. Software is developed to generate scenes with different spatial and spectral resolutions using the simulated at-sensor radiance values. The radiometric accuracy of the simulation is evaluated by comparing simulated with AVIRIS acquired radiance values. The results show that in general there is a good match between AVIRIS sensor measured and MODTRAN predicted radiance values for the target despite the fact that some anomalies exist. Synthetic scenes provide a cost-effective way for in-flight validation of the spatial and radiometric accuracy of the data. Other applications include mission planning, sensor simulation, and trade-off analysis in sensor design.

Cao, Chang-Yong↗

Investigation of thermal hydraulic behavior of the High Temperature Test Facility's lower plenum via large eddy simulation

A high-fidelity computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis was performed using the Large Eddy Simulation (LES) model for the lower plenum of the High–Temperature Test Facility (HTTF), a ¼ scale test facility of the modular high temperature gas-cooled reactor (MHTGR) managed by Oregon State University. In most next–generation nuclear reactors, thermal stress due to thermal striping is one of the risks to be curiously considered. This is also true for HTGRs, especially since the exhaust helium gas temperature is high. In order to evaluate these risks and performance, organizations in the United States led by the OECD NEA are conducting a thermal hydraulic code benchmark for HTGR, and the test facility used for this benchmark is HTTF. HTTF can perform experiments in both normal and accident situations and provide high-quality experimental data. However, it is difficult to provide sufficient data for benchmarking through experiments, and there is a problem with the reliability of CFD analysis results based on Reynolds–averaged Navier–Stokes to analyze thermal hydraulic behavior without verification. To solve this problem, high-fidelity 3-D CFD analysis was performed using the LES model for HTTF. It was also verified that the LES model can properly simulate this jet mixing phenomenon via a unit cell test that provides experimental information. As a result of CFD analysis, the lower the dependency of the sub-grid scale model, the closer to the actual analysis result. In the case of unit cell test CFD analysis and HTTF CFD analysis, the volume-averaged sub-grid scale model dependency was calculated to be 13.0% and 9.16%, respectively. As a result of HTTF analysis, quantitative data of the fluid inside the HTTF lower plenum was provided in this paper. As a result of qualitative analysis, the temperature was highest at the center of the lower plenum, while the temperature fluctuation was highest near the edge of the lower plenum wall. The power spectral density of temperature was analyzed via fast Fourier transform (FFT) for specific points on the center and side of the lower plenum. FFT results did not reveal specific frequency-dominant temperature fluctuations in the center part. It was confirmed that the temperature power spectral density (PSD) at the top increased from the center to the wake. The vortex was visualized using the well-known scalar Q-criterion, and as a result, the closer to the outlet duct, the greater the influence of the mainstream, so that the inflow jet vortex was dissipated and mixed at the top of the lower plenum. Additionally, FFT analysis was performed on the support structure near the corner of the lower plenum with large temperature fluctuations, and as a result, it was confirmed that the temperature fluctuation of the flow did not have a significant effect near the corner wall. In addition, the vortices generated from the lower plenum to the outlet duct were identified in this paper. It is considered that the quantitative and qualitative results presented in this paper will serve as reference data for the benchmark.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Development of photovoltaic array and module safety requirements

Safety requirements for photovoltaic module and panel designs and configurations likely to be used in residential, intermediate, and large-scale applications were identified and developed. The National Electrical Code and Building Codes were reviewed with respect to present provisions which may be considered to affect the design of photovoltaic modules. Limited testing, primarily in the roof fire resistance field was conducted. Additional studies and further investigations led to the development of a proposed standard for safety for flat-plate photovoltaic modules and panels. Additional work covered the initial investigation of conceptual approaches and temporary deployment, for concept verification purposes, of a differential dc ground-fault detection circuit suitable as a part of a photovoltaic array safety system.

Source record↗

IV&V Planning & Execution Initiative

Independent verification and validation (IV&V) is a systems engineering discipline which seeks to provide confidence that mission-critical software-dependent systems will operate safely and achieve all mission objectives. In order to optimize application of IV&V resources, it is necessary to identify specific assurance objectives that are most likely to reveal difficulty and therefore to increase confidence. Software assurance literature deals predominantly with the code itself. However, our experience is that the most significant software-related issues are discovered via analysis of other system artifacts such as operations concepts, requirements and design. Consequently, it is desirable to, when assessing risk and defining assurance objectives, consider all facets of the software system architecture. We describe in this presentation progress and lessons learned from an IV&V capability development initiative to enhance the IV&V project planning process using all available architecture information.

Risk↗

Design verification of SIFT

A SIFT reliable aircraft control computer system, designed to meet the ultrahigh reliability required for safety critical flight control applications by use of processor replications and voting, was constructed for SRI, and delivered to NASA Langley for evaluation in the AIRLAB. To increase confidence in the reliability projections for SIFT, produced by a Markov reliability model, SRI constructed a formal specification, defining the meaning of reliability in the context of flight control. A further series of specifications defined, in increasing detail, the design of SIFT down to pre- and post-conditions on Pascal code procedures. Mechanically checked mathematical proofs were constructed to demonstrate that the more detailed design specifications for SIFT do indeed imply the formal reliability requirement. An additional specification defined some of the assumptions made about SIFT by the Markov model, and further proofs were constructed to show that these assumptions, as expressed by that specification, did indeed follow from the more detailed design specifications for SIFT. This report provides an outline of the methodology used for this hierarchical specification and proof, and describes the various specifications and proofs performed.

Moser, Louise↗

Development of the tangent linear and adjoint models of the global online chemical transport model MPAS-CO 2 v7.3

We describe the development of the tangent linear (TL) and adjoint models of the Model for Prediction Across Scales (MPAS)-CO 2 transport model, which is a global online chemical transport model developed upon the non-hydrostatic Model for Prediction Across Scales – Atmosphere (MPAS-A). The primary goal is to make the model system a valuable research tool for investigating atmospheric carbon transport and inverse modeling. First, we develop the TL code, encompassing all CO 2 transport processes within the MPAS-CO 2 forward model. Then, we construct the adjoint model using a combined strategy involving re-calculation and storage of the essential meteorological variables needed for CO 2 transport. This strategy allows the adjoint model to undertake a long-period integration with moderate memory demands. To ensure accuracy, the TL and adjoint models undergo vigorous verifications through a series of standard tests. The adjoint model, through backward-in-time integration, calculates the sensitivity of atmospheric CO 2 observations to surface CO 2 fluxes and the initial atmospheric CO 2 mixing ratio. To demonstrate the utility of the newly developed adjoint model, we conduct simulations for two types of atmospheric CO 2 observations, namely the tower-based in situ CO 2 mixing ratio and satellite-derived column-averaged CO 2 mixing ratio (X CO 2 ). A comparison between the sensitivity to surface flux calculated by the MPAS-CO 2 adjoint model with its counterpart from CarbonTracker–Lagrange (CT-L) reveals a spatial agreement but notable magnitude differences. These differences, particularly evident for X CO 2 , might be attributed to the two model systems' differences in the simulation configuration, spatial resolution, and treatment of vertical mixing processes. Moreover, this comparison highlights the substantial loss of information in the atmospheric CO 2 observations due to CT-L's spatial domain limitation. Furthermore, the adjoint sensitivity analysis demonstrates that the sensitivities to both surface flux and initial CO 2 conditions spread out throughout the entire Northern Hemisphere within a month. MPAS-CO 2 forward, TL, and adjoint models stand out for their calculation efficiency and variable-resolution capability, making them competitive in computational cost. In conclusion, the successful development of the MPAS-CO 2 TL and adjoint models, and their integration into the MPAS-CO 2 system, establish the possibility of using MPAS's unique features in atmospheric CO 2 transport sensitivity studies and in inverse modeling with advanced methods such as variational data assimilation.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

GRC Payload Hazard Assessment: Supporting the STS-107 Accident Investigation

A hazard assessment was conducted on the GRC managed payloads in support of a NASA Headquarters Code Q request to examine STS-107 payloads and determine if they were credible contributors to the Columbia accident. This assessment utilized each payload's Final Flight Safety Data Package for hazard identification. An applicability assessment was performed and most of the hazards were eliminated because they dealt with payload operations or crew interactions. A Fault Tree was developed for all the hazards deemed applicable and the safety verification documentation was reviewed for these applicable hazards. At the completion of this hazard assessment, it was concluded that none of the GRC managed payloads were credible contributors to the Columbia accident.

Schoren, William R.↗

Towards Test Driven Development for Computational Science with pFUnit

Developers working in Computational Science & Engineering (CSE)/High Performance Computing (HPC) must contend with constant change due to advances in computing technology and science. Test Driven Development (TDD) is a methodology that mitigates software development risks due to change at the cost of adding comprehensive and continuous testing to the development process. Testing frameworks tailored for CSE/HPC, like pFUnit, can lower the barriers to such testing, yet CSE software faces unique constraints foreign to the broader software engineering community. Effective testing of numerical software requires a comprehensive suite of oracles, i.e., use cases with known answers, as well as robust estimates for the unavoidable numerical errors associated with implementation with finite-precision arithmetic. At first glance these concerns often seem exceedingly challenging or even insurmountable for real-world scientific applications. However, we argue that this common perception is incorrect and driven by (1) a conflation between model validation and software verification and (2) the general tendency in the scientific community to develop relatively coarse-grained, large procedures that compound numerous algorithmic steps.We believe TDD can be applied routinely to numerical software if developers pursue fine-grained implementations that permit testing, neatly side-stepping concerns about needing nontrivial oracles as well as the accumulation of errors. We present an example of a successful, complex legacy CSE/HPC code whose development process shares some aspects with TDD, which we contrast with current and potential capabilities. A mix of our proposed methodology and framework support should enable everyday use of TDD by CSE-expert developers.

pFUnit↗

Development of a New Fixed-source Sensitivity Tally Capability in the MCNP® code [Abstract]

The development of a new fixed-source sensitivity tally capability is currently underway in the MCNP code. In recent research and development efforts that utilize machine learning to both seek problematic nuclear data as well as design experiments optimized to improve the nuclear data, the adjoint-weighted k-eigenvalue sensitivity tally capabilities have been heavily essential. In this paper, the motivation to expand the sensitivity tally capabilities beyond k-eigenvalues toward diverse fixed-source problems along with preliminary results and verification will be discussed.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Validation and Verification of LADEE Models and Software

The Lunar Atmosphere Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) mission will orbit the moon in order to measure the density, composition and time variability of the lunar dust environment. The ground-side and onboard flight software for the mission is being developed using a Model-Based Software methodology. In this technique, models of the spacecraft and flight software are developed in a graphical dynamics modeling package. Flight Software requirements are prototyped and refined using the simulated models. After the model is shown to work as desired in this simulation framework, C-code software is automatically generated from the models. The generated software is then tested in real time Processor-in-the-Loop and Hardware-in-the-Loop test beds. Travelling Road Show test beds were used for early integration tests with payloads and other subsystems. Traditional techniques for verifying computational sciences models are used to characterize the spacecraft simulation. A lightweight set of formal methods analysis, static analysis, formal inspection and code coverage analyses are utilized to further reduce defects in the onboard flight software artifacts. These techniques are applied early and often in the development process, iteratively increasing the capabilities of the software and the fidelity of the vehicle models and test beds.

Gundy-Burlet, Karen↗

Experimental and Analytical Verification of ASME Section IiII Division 5 Creep-Fatigue Design Rules

The continuous advancement of structural materials and the growing demands for more reliable and economical structural components in high-temperature reactor applications have necessitated the development of comprehensive design methodologies and design rules. Mechanical degradation of structural components at elevated temperatures subjected to cyclic deformation is controlled by the creep-fatigue damage. Over the past few decades, diligent research efforts have been dedicated to refining the development of elevated temperature design rules in the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code (BPVC), Section III, Division 5 and to develop conservative design rules that can effectively guard against the risk of creep-fatigue failure. In ASME Section III, Division 5, for a design to pass the creep-fatigue acceptance criteria, creep damage and fatigue damage are evaluated separately, and these damages must not violate the bi-linear creep-fatigue interaction diagram, i.e., the so-called D-diagram. The creep-fatigue damage evaluation procedure assumes that the effects of the actual cyclic loading sequence can be bounded by assuming that the individual loading cycles are uniformly distributed throughout the component design life. In this study, creep-fatigue experiments with variable amplitudes and loading sequencies were designed and performed on Alloy 617 at high temperatures. The results were analyzed to evaluate the loading history effect on creep-fatigue damage accumulation and to verify the assumptions for the creep-fatigue evaluation design rules.

36 - MATERIALS SCIENCE↗