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At least 1,027 records · Page 57

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NASA NTRS1992

Prediction of ice accretion on a swept NACA 0012 airfoil and comparisons to flight test results

In the winter of 1989-90, an icing research flight project was conducted to obtain swept wing ice accretion data. Utilizing the NASA Lewis Research Center's DHC-6 DeHavilland Twin Otter aircraft, research flights were made into known icing conditions in Northeastern Ohio. The icing cloud environment and aircraft flight data were measured and recorded by an onboard data acquisition system. Upon entry into the icing environment, a 24 inch span, 15 inch chord NACA 0012 airfoil was extended from the aircraft and set to the desired sweep angle. After the growth of a well defined ice shape, the airfoil was retracted into the aircraft cabin for ice shape documentation. The ice accretions were recorded by ice tracings and photographs. Ice accretions were mostly of the glaze type and exhibited scalloping. The ice was accreted at sweep angles of 0, 30, and 45 degrees. A 3-D ice accretion prediction code was used to predict ice profiles for five selected flight test runs, which include sweep angle of zero, 30, and 45 degrees. The code's roughness input parameter was adjusted for best agreement. A simple procedure was added to the code to account for 3-D ice scalloping effects. The predicted ice profiles are compared to their respective flight test counterparts. This is the first attempt to predict ice profiles on swept wings with significant scalloped ice formations.

Reehorst, Andrew L.↗

NASA NTRS1992

Reactivation and upgrade of the NASA Ames 16-Inch Shock Tunnel - Status report

The NASA Ames 16-Inch Shock Tunnel has been reactivated after seventeen years of inactivity. In the years before deactivating the facility, it was operated at enthalpies of 4,700 J/gm and pressures up to 260 atm or at enthalpies of 1900 J/gm over a wide pressure range. Since reactivating, the facility has been operated at enthalpies up to 12,000 J/gm and pressures up to 408 atm. The present paper describes the steps taken in upgrading the facility and summarizes the currently achievable conditions. The selection of the driver gas, the steps taken to improve the driver burn, and the diaphragm opening techniques are described. The pressure and heat flux instrumentation, the optical diagnostics and the data acquisition system are also described.

Bogdanoff, David W.↗

NASA NTRS1992

Hypersonic aerodynamic/aerothermodynamic testing capabilities at Langley Research Center

Capabilities of the Langley Hypersonic Facilities Complex that consists of nine blowdown-to-vacuum wind tunnels are reviewed. These tunnels complement one another to provide ranges of Mach number from 6 to 20, unit Reynolds number from 0.03 to 40 million per ft, and normal shock density ratio from 2 to 12. Topics under consideration include the basic components of each facility, status, and upgrades recently performed; instrumentation and testing techniques routinely used to measure forces and moments, surface pressures, surface temperature-time histories, flow properties within the shock layer about the model via survey probes, and flow visualization; and data acquisition systems and upgrades performed via a NASA revitalization program.

Miller, C. G., III↗

NASA NTRS1992

Small engine components test facility compressor testing cell at NASA Lewis Research Center

LeRC has designed and constructed a new test facility. This facility, called the Small Engine Components Facility (SECTF) is used to test gas turbines and compressors at conditions similar to actual engine conditions. The SECTF is comprised of a compressor testing cell and a turbine testing cell. Only the compressor testing cell is described. The capability of the facility, the overall facility design, the instrumentation used in the facility, and the data acquisition system are discussed in detail.

Brokopp, Richard A.↗

NASA NTRS1992

Temperature and heat flux measurements: Challenges for high temperature aerospace application

The measurement of high temperatures and the influence of heat transfer data is not strictly a problem of either the high temperatures involved or the level of the heating rates to be measured at those high temperatures. It is a problem of duration during which measurements are made and the nature of the materials in which the measurements are made. Thermal measurement techniques for each application must respect and work with the unique features of that application. Six challenges in the development of measurement technology are discussed: (1) to capture the character and localized peak values within highly nonuniform heating regions; (2) to manage large volumes of thermal instrumentation in order to efficiently derive critical information; (3) to accommodate thermal sensors into practical flight structures; (4) to broaden the capabilities of thermal survey techniques to replace discrete gages in flight and on the ground; (5) to provide supporting instrumentation conduits which connect the measurement points to the thermally controlled data acquisition system; and (6) to develop a class of 'vehicle tending' thermal sensors to assure the integrity of flight vehicles in an efficient manner.

Neumann, Richard D.↗

NASA NTRS1992

Improvement in the control aspect of laser frequency stabilization for SUNLITE project

Flight Electronics Division of Langley Research Center is developing a spaceflight experiment called the Stanford University and NASA Laser In-Space Technology (SUNLITE). The objective of the project is to explore the fundamental limits on frequency stability using an FM laser locking technique on a Nd:YAG non-planar ring (free-running linewidth of 5 KHz) oscillator in the vibration free, microgravity environment of space. Compact and automated actively stabilized terahertz laser oscillators will operate in space with an expected linewidth of less than 3 Hz. To implement and verify this experiment, NASA engineers have designed and built a state of the art, space qualified high speed data acquisition system for measuring the linewidth and stability limits of a laser oscillator. In order to achieve greater stability and better performance, an active frequency control scheme requiring the use of a feedback control loop has been applied. In the summer of 1991, the application of control theory in active frequency control as a frequency stabilization technique was investigated. The results and findings were presented in 1992 at the American Control Conference in Chicago, and have been published in Conference Proceedings. The main focus was to seek further improvement in the overall performance of the system by replacing the analogue controller by a digital algorithm.

Zia, Omar↗

NASA NTRS1993

Three-dimensional laser window formation for industrial application

The NASA Lewis Research Center has developed and implemented a unique process for forming flawless three-dimensional, compound-curvature laser windows to extreme accuracies. These windows represent an integral component of specialized nonintrusive laser data acquisition systems that are used in a variety of compressor and turbine research testing facilities. These windows are molded to the flow surface profile of turbine and compressor casings and are required to withstand extremely high pressures and temperatures. This method of glass formation could also be used to form compound-curvature mirrors that would require little polishing and for a variety of industrial applications, including research view ports for testing devices and view ports for factory machines with compound-curvature casings. Currently, sodium-alumino-silicate glass is recommended for three-dimensional laser windows because of its high strength due to chemical strengthening and its optical clarity. This paper discusses the main aspects of three-dimensional laser window formation. It focuses on the unique methodology and the peculiarities that are associated with the formation of these windows.

Verhoff, Vincent G.↗

NASA NTRS1993

ROWS wave spectral data collected in SAXON-FPN, November 1990

High-resolution directional wave spectra obtained with the NASA Ku-band radar ocean wave spectrometer (ROWS) on the Naval Research Laboratory P-3 aircraft during SAXON-FPN (SAR and X-Band Ocean Nonlinearities Experiment-Forschungsplattform Nordsee) experiments in the North Sea in November 1990 are presented. This experiment was the first in which the ROWS was operated with its new pc-based high-speed digital data acquisition system.

Jackson, F.↗

NASA NTRS1992

In-flight detection of flow separation, stagnation, and transition

Flight tests were conducted to demonstrate the feasibility of simultaneous determination of: (1) boundary-layer instability and transition characteristics; (2) flow separation region; and (3) the location of the leading-edge stagnation point. Surface mounted, multi-element, micro-thin, hot-film sensors were used in conjunction with a bank of constant-temperature anemometers and a PC-based 8-channel simultaneous data acquisition system. Conventional techniques were used to determine the boundary-layer instability and transition characteristics while the flow separation and the stagnation points were determined through the presence of phase reversal signatures.

Mangalam, S. M.↗

NASA NTRS1992

Assessing spatial and seasonal variations in grasslands with spectral reflectances from a helicopter platform

The helicopter system data acquisition technique has shown to be a viable means of gathering surface data with spectral detail adequate for intersite, intrasite, and temporal characterizations and for assessing temporal and spatial variability throughout the FIFE 1987 IFCs. The successful employment of nadir measurements for grassland assessments is notable given the reflectance anisotropy (Middleton, 1992). Though only five sites were repetitively observed, the conclusions reached from this particular sample of sites agree well with assessments from other data sources (Sellars et al., 1990 and Kittel et al., 1990).

Walthall, Charles L.↗

NASA NTRS1993

Adaptive weld control for high-integrity welding applications

An advanced adaptive control weld system for high-integrity welding applications is presented. The system consists of a state-of-the-art weld control subsystem, motion control subsystem, and sensor subsystem which closes the loop on the process. The adaptive control subsystem (ACS), which is required to totally close the loop on weld process control, consists of a multiprocessor system, data acquisition hardware, and three welding sensors which provide measurements from all areas around the torch in real time. The ACS acquires all 'measurables' and feeds offset trims back into the weld control and motion control subsystems to modify the 'controllables' in order to maintain a previously defined weld quality.

Powell, Bradley W.↗

NASA NTRS1993

Compound curvature laser window development

The NASA Lewis Research Center has developed and implemented a unique process for forming flawless compound curvature laser windows. These windows represent a major part of specialized, nonintrusive laser data acquisition systems used in a variety of compressor and turbine research test facilities. This report summarizes the main aspects of compound curvature laser window development. It is an overview of the methodology and the peculiarities associated with the formulation of these windows. Included in this discussion is new information regarding procedures for compound curvature laser window development.

Verhoff, Vincent G.↗

NASA NTRS1993

Data acquisition for aeroelastic testing at the NASA Langley Transonic Dynamics Facility

Aeroelasticity is defined and different types of aeroelastic tests are described. The instrumentation and data acquisition requirements dictated by the time varying characteristics of aeroelastic phenomena are pointed out. Instrumentation needs for various types of tests are discussed. The hardware components and operational features of the real-time, digital-computer-controlled data acquisition system used to support testing at the Langley Transonic Dynamics Facility, which includes a major wind-tunnel, a helicopter-model hover facility, and two model setup and calibration laboratories are described.

Doggett, Robert V., Jr.↗

NASA NTRS1993

Pressure and force measurements on models set in hypersonic flows: A review

A review of measurement techniques used to obtain aerodynamic forces and moments and surface/flow field pressures for models tested in impulse hypersonic-hypervelocity facilities and in conventional-type hypersonic wind tunnels is presented. Although force and moment measurement techniques presently used in hypersonic wind tunnels are relatively unchanged from the 1960's and 1970's, significant advances have recently been made for impulse facilities. For both hypersonic wind tunnels and impulse facilities, the state-of-the-art has advanced via refinements, improved test techniques, and advances in semiconductor technology, data acquisition systems, and computers. The introduction of electronically scanned pressure systems over a decade ago 'revolutionized' pressure measurements in hypersonic wind tunnels and a second 'revolution' is impending with the development and application of optical, two-dimensional, global pressure measurement techniques. The development and continued refinement of miniature piezoresistive transducers has provided the capability to perform detailed surface pressure measurements on relatively small, complex models in impulse facilities; these transducers also provided the capability for intrusive flow field pressure measurements with miniature survey rakes.

Miller, Charles G.↗

NASA NTRS1993

Dimensional analysis of acoustically propagated signals

Traditionally, long term measurements of atmospherically propagated sound signals have consisted of time series of multiminute averages. Only recently have continuous measurements with temporal resolution corresponding to turbulent time scales been available. With modern digital data acquisition systems we now have the capability to simultaneously record both acoustical and meteorological parameters with sufficient temporal resolution to allow us to examine in detail relationships between fluctuating sound and the meteorological variables, particularly wind and temperature, which locally determine the acoustic refractive index. The atmospheric acoustic propagation medium can be treated as a nonlinear dynamical system, a kind of signal processor whose innards depend on thermodynamic and turbulent processes in the atmosphere. The atmosphere is an inherently nonlinear dynamical system. In fact one simple model of atmospheric convection, the Lorenz system, may well be the most widely studied of all dynamical systems. In this paper we report some results of our having applied methods used to characterize nonlinear dynamical systems to study the characteristics of acoustical signals propagated through the atmosphere. For example, we investigate whether or not it is possible to parameterize signal fluctuations in terms of fractal dimensions. For time series one such parameter is the limit capacity dimension. Nicolis and Nicolis were among the first to use the kind of methods we have to study the properties of low dimension global attractors.

Hansen, Scott D.↗

NASA NTRS1993

Design and simulation of EVA tools for first servicing mission of HST

The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) was launched into near-earth orbit by the space shuttle Discovery on April 24, 1990. The payload of two cameras, two spectrographs, and a high-speed photometer is supplemented by three fine-guidance sensors that can be used for astronomy as well as for star tracking. A widely reported spherical aberration in the primary mirror causes HST to produce images of much lower quality than intended. A space shuttle repair mission in late 1993 will install small corrective mirrors that will restore the full intended optical capability of the HST. The first servicing mission (FSM) will involve considerable extravehicular activity (EVA). It is proposed to design special EVA tools for the FSM. This report includes details of the data acquisition system being developed to test the performance of the various EVA tools in ambient as well as simulated space environment.

Naik, Dipak↗

NASA NTRS1994

A monolithic Si bolometer array for the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory

We are developing a submillimeter continuum camera for the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory (CSO) located on Mauna Kea. The camera will employ a monolithic Si bolometer array which was developed by Moseley et al. at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). The camera will be cooled to a temperature of about 300 mK in a He-3 cryostat, and will operate primarily at wavelengths of 350 and 450 micrometers. We plan to use a bolometer array with 1x24 directly illuminated pixels, each pixel of dimension 1x2 sq mm, which is about half of the F/4 beam size at these wavelengths. Each pixel is 10 to 12 micrometers thick and is supported only by four thin Si legs formed by wet chemical etch. The pixels are doped n-type by phosphorus implantation, compensated by boron implantation. Signals from the bolometer pixels are first amplified by cryogenically cooled FET's. The signals are further amplified by room-temperature amplifiers and then separately digitized by 16 bit A/D converters with differential inputs. The outputs of the A/D converters are fed into a digital signal processing board via fiber-optic cables. The electronics and data acquisition system were designed by the Goddard group. We will report the status of this effort.

Wang, Ning↗

NASA NTRS1994

Experimental investigation of nozzle/plume aerodynamics at hypersonic speeds

Much of the work involved the Ames 16-Inch Shock Tunnel facility. The facility was reactivated and upgraded, a data acquisition system was configured and upgraded several times, several facility calibrations were performed and test entries with a wedge model with hydrogen injection and a full scramjet combustor model, with hydrogen injection, were performed. Extensive CFD modeling of the flow in the facility was done. This includes modeling of the unsteady flow in the driver and driven tubes and steady flow modeling of the nozzle flow. Other modeling efforts include simulations of non-equilibrium flows and turbulence, plasmas, light gas guns and the use of non-ideal gas equations of state. New experimental techniques to improve the performance of gas guns, shock tubes and tunnels and scramjet combustors were conceived and studied computationally. Ways to improve scramjet engine performance using steady and pulsed detonation waves were also studied computationally. A number of studies were performed on the operation of the ram accelerator, including investigations of in-tube gasdynamic heating and the use of high explosives to raise the velocity capability of the device.

Bogdanoff, David W.↗