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At least 109 records · Page 6

An inverse problem design method for branched and unbranched axially symmetrical ducts

This paper concerns the potential flow design of axially symmetrical ducts of both circular and annular cross section with or without wall suction or blowing slots. The objective of the work was to develop a method by which such ducts could be designed with directly prescribed wall pressure variation. Previous axially symmetrical design methods applied only to circular cross sectional ducts and required that the pressure distribution be prescribed along the duct centerline and not along the duct wall. The present method uses an inverse problem approach which extends the method of Stanitz to the axially symmetrical case, and an approximation is used to account for the stagnation point in branched duct designs. Two examples of successful designs of diffusers with suction slots are presented.

Nelson, C. D.↗

Experimental implementation of the modified independent modal space control method

An experimental realization of a modified independent modal space control (MIMSC) method to control the vibration of a flexible cantilevered beam is presented. In its operation the method relies on the use of one piezoelectric actuator to control several vibration modes through a time-sharing strategy. The effectiveness of the MIMSC method in damping out the beam vibration is demonstrated by comparing the results with those obtained by other modal control methods. Two methods are considered, the independent modal space control method and the pseudo-inverse method. The feasibility of the MIMSC method as a viable alternative for controlling large flexible structures with a very small number of actuators is emphasized.

Baz, A.↗

The source and distribution of Galactic positrons

The oriented scintillation spectrometer experiment (OSSE) observations of the Galactic plane and the Galactic center region were combined with observations acquired with other instruments in order to produce a map of the Galactic 511 keV annihilation radiation. Two mapping techniques were applied to the data: the maximum entropy method, and the basis pursuit inversion method. The resulting maps are qualitatively similar and show evidence for a central bulge and a weak galactic disk component. The weak disk is consistent with that expected from positrons produced by the decay of radioactive Al-26 in the interstellar medium. Both maps suggest an enhanced region of emission near l = -4 deg, b = 7 deg, with a flux of approximately 50 percent of that of the bulge. The existence of this emission appears significant, although the location is not well determined. The source of this enhanced emission is presently unknown.

Purcell, W. R.↗

Development of direct-inverse 3-D methods for applied transonic aerodynamic wing design and analysis

An inverse wing design method was developed around an existing transonic wing analysis code. The original analysis code, TAWFIVE, has as its core the numerical potential flow solver, FLO30, developed by Jameson and Caughey. Features of the analysis code include a finite-volume formulation; wing and fuselage fitted, curvilinear grid mesh; and a viscous boundary layer correction that also accounts for viscous wake thickness and curvature. The development of the inverse methods as an extension of previous methods existing for design in Cartesian coordinates is presented. Results are shown for inviscid wing design cases in super-critical flow regimes. The test cases selected also demonstrate the versatility of the design method in designing an entire wing or discontinuous sections of a wing.

Carlson, Leland A.↗

Stochastic Reconstruction of Thermal Protection Material Properties from Arc-Jet Experiments

Material response models are used to assess reliability using variances in the bond-line temperature predictions based on uncertainties in trajectory, aerothermal environment, and material properties. A key deficiency in the current approach is that input uncertainties are too often subjective, empirical, or ad-hoc, and are not rigorously linked to the arc-jet test data used to develop the TPS material model. While materials such as PICA are well understood, future missions may require more novel materials such as HEEET where unknown uncertainties have real consequences on the ability to assess reliability. A quantifiable estimate of reliability requires an iterative methodology where the parameters driving the variance in bond-line temperature (for example) are systematically identified. A test campaign to collect data or develop new models can then be identified to reduce those input uncertainties. A Bayesian inference loop defines these connections mathematically, i.e., prior knowledge about uncertainty is updated based on observation. While these concepts are well known (and often applied intuitively in a non-rigorous approach), only recent advances in reduced-order modelling have made them computationally viable methods for engineering. By replacing deterministic inverse methods with stochastic approaches, the hope is new materials proposed for future missions can more rapidly be developed with a greater understanding of the TPS material reliability. Two additional steps for the analysis of arc jet test data are discussed. The first is ability to construct a reduced-order model using material response simulations (Icarus/US3D) of the arc-jet test articles, and the second is the inclusion of this surrogate model in the Bayesian inversion process. Both capabilities will be demonstrated using prior PICA arc-jet test data. The quality of a surrogate model will be investigated and the variances on the calibrated material properties will be compared to our current understanding of the PICA material model.

Material response↗

Total ozone and aerosol optical depths inferred from radiometric measurements in the Chappuis absorption band

A second-derivative smoothing technique, commonly used in inversion work, is applied to the problem of inferring total columnar ozone amounts and aerosol optical depths. The application is unique in that the unknowns may be solved for directly without employing standard inversion methods. It is shown, however, that by employing inversion constraints, better solutions are normally obtained. The method is quite versatile and able to deal with varying total ozone and various aerosol size distributions. The technique is applied first in simulation, then to 119 days of measurements taken in Tucson, Arizona, that are compared to TOMS values for the same dates. The technique is also applied to two measurements taken at Mauna Loa, Hawaii, for which Dobson ozone values are available in addition to the TOMS values, and the results agree to within 15 percent. It is also shown through simulations that additional information can be obtained from measurements outside the Chappuis band. This approach reduces the bias and spread of the estimated total ozone and is unique in that it uses measurements from both the Chappuis and Huggins absorption bands.

Flittner, D. E.↗

Inversion of Magnetic Measurements of the CHAMP Satellite Over the Pannonian Basin

The Pannonian Basin is a deep intra-continental basin that formed as part of the Alpine orogeny. In order to study the nature of the crustal basement we used the long-wavelength magnetic anomalies acquired by the CHAMP satellite. The anomalies were distributed in a spherical shell, some 107,927 data recorded between January 1 and December 31 of 2008. They covered the Pannonian Basin and its vicinity. These anomaly data were interpolated into a spherical grid of 0.5 x 0.5, at the elevation of 324 km by the Gaussian weight function. The vertical gradient of these total magnetic anomalies was also computed and mapped to the surface of a sphere at 324 km elevation. The former spherical anomaly data at 425 km altitude were downward continued to 324 km. To interpret these data at the elevation of 324 km we used an inversion method. A polygonal prism forward model was used for the inversion. The minimum problem was solved numerically by the Simplex and Simulated annealing methods; a L2 norm in the case of Gaussian distribution parameters and a L1 norm was used in the case of Laplace distribution parameters. We INTERPRET THAT the magnetic anomaly WAS produced by several sources and the effect of the sable magnetization of the exsolution of hemo-ilmenite minerals in the upper crustal metamorphic rocks.

Kis, K. I.↗

Poly/vinyl alcohol/ membranes for reverse osmosis

A description is presented of the results of studies of the water and salt transport properties of PVA membranes, taking into account radiation crosslinked PVA membranes, diffusive salt permeability through PVA membranes, and heat treated PVA membranes. The experimental findings support an occurrence of independent water, and salt permeation processes. It is suggested that the salt permeation is governed by a solution-diffusion transport mechanism. The preparation of thin skinned, asymmetric PVA membranes is also discussed. The employed method has a certain similarity to the classical phase inversion method, which is widely applied in the casting of asymmetric reverse osmosis membranes. Instead of using a gelling bath composed of a nonsolvent for the membrane material and miscible with the solvent from which the membrane is cast, a 'complexing' bath is used, which is a solution of a complexing agent in water.

Katz, M. G.↗

Calculation of fully three-dimensional separated flow with an unsteady viscous-inviscid interaction method

Three previous papers have shown that the viscous inviscid numerical methods were capable of calculating separated turbulent flows. The 'Semi-inverse method' and the models of the first author allow the computation of massive separations, stalled flows, and shock wave-boundary layer interactions, in two-dimensional or quasi-three-dimensional conditions, from low speeds to supersonic speeds. The 'Semi-implicit' method for time-consistent coupling allows for the computation of time-accurate transonic separated flow and buffer computations in two-dimensions. The present paper shows that the viscous-inviscid interaction approach is also able to compute the fully three-dimensional flow separation phenomena. The method is based on a thin-layer approximation of the theory of 'Defect-Formulation' that provides the viscous-inviscid splitting of the Navier-Stokes equations. A parametric analytical modelling of the 3D-turbulent velocity profiles is involved. Numerically, the 3D-velocity profiles are discretized in the normal z-direction and driven by parametric integral 3D-equations in direct or inverse modes in the x-direction. The viscous-inviscid coupling is fully 3D and solved the time-consistency problem with an extension of the 'Semi-implicit' method previously suggested in two-dimensions. A 3D inviscid subroutine with TSP approximation is used. Results are obtained for transonic steady flows over wings with shock-induced transonic separation. The method provides results for highly three-dimensional flow separations, such as induced by a three-dimensional through at the wall of a flat plate. The 3D viscous-inviscid coupling and the 3D model of the velocity field provide three-dimensional instantaneous skin-friction lines whose patterns exhibit the same complex topology as Navier-Stokes solvers, with foci, nodes, and saddle-points.

Leballeur, J. C.↗

Optimizing spectroheliogram deconvolution methods : MaGIXS - A case study

Over the past five years, new methods to reconstruct spectrally pure maps of the Sun from spectroheliogram data have emerged. In particular, with the rebirth of long-abandoned slitless imaging spectroscopy, one may obtain both spatial and spectral information over a large field of view simultaneously. Yet, depending on the size of the extended source combined with the extent of spectral dispersion, there will be locations in the focal plane where spectral lines from different spatial locations overlap and must be deconvolved. An unfolding method has been successfully developed and demonstrated on the recent rocket flight MaGIXS, which observed several strong emission lines (9 to 30$\AA$) from different portions of two active regions. In the work we are going to present, we conduct a systematic investigation of the parameters that controls and optimizes the inversion method to unfold overlappogram data. We also demonstrate a derived method of the inversion that does not require previous assumptions on the thermal and ionization equilibrium and abundance state of the plasma.

Spectroheliogram↗

A simultaneous viscous-inviscid interaction calculation procedure for transonic turbulent flows

A new simultaneous viscous-inviscid interaction scheme has been developed for the analysis of steady turbulent transonic separated flows. The viscous and inviscid solutions are coupled through the displacement concept using a transpiration velocity. The local solutions of the full potential and boundary-layer equations are treated simultaneously using the finite-difference method. The displacement thickness is treated as an unknown and is obtained as a part of the solution through a global iteration procedure of the space marching scheme. The Cebeci-Smith and Johnson-King models are used to simulate the turbulence. The computational examples showed that the simultaneous method is more efficient and robust than the semi-inverse method for transonic flows with a strong interaction.

Lee, D.↗

Griffith diffusers

Contoured wall diffusers are designed by using an inverse method. The prescribed wall velocity distribution(s) was taken from the high lift airfoil designed by A. A. Griffith in 1938; therefore, such diffusers are named Griffith diffusers. First the formulation of the inverse problem and the method of solution are outlined. Then the typical contour of a two-dimensional diffuser and velocity distributions across the flow channel at various stations are presented. For a Griffith diffuser to operate as it is designed, boundary layer suction is necessary. Discussion of the percentage of through-flow required to be removed for the purpose of boundary layer control is given. Finally, reference is made to the latest version of a computer program for a two-dimensional diffuser requiring only area ratio, nondimensional length and suction percentage as inputs.

Yang, T.-T.↗

Development and Testing of a High Level Axial Array Duct Sound Source for the NASA Flow Impedance Test Facility

In this report both a frequency domain method for creating high level harmonic excitation and a time domain inverse method for creating large pulses in a duct are developed. To create controllable, high level sound an axial array of six JBL-2485 compression drivers was used. The pressure downstream is considered as input voltages to the sources filtered by the natural dynamics of the sources and the duct. It is shown that this dynamic behavior can be compensated for by filtering the inputs such that both time delays and phase changes are taken into account. The methods developed maximize the sound output while (i) keeping within the power constraints of the sources and (ii) maintaining a suitable level of reproduction accuracy. Harmonic excitation pressure levels of over 155dB were created experimentally over a wide frequency range (1000-4000Hz). For pulse excitation there is a tradeoff between accuracy of reproduction and sound level achieved. However, the accurate reproduction of a pulse with a maximum pressure level over 6500Pa was achieved experimentally. It was also shown that the throat connecting the driver to the duct makes it difficult to inject sound just below the cut-on of each acoustic mode (pre cut-on loading effect).

Johnson, Marty E.↗

TOPEX/POSEIDON tides estimated using a global inverse model

Altimetric data from the TOPEX/POSEIDON mission will be used for studies of global ocean circulation and marine geophysics. However, it is first necessary to remove the ocean tides, which are aliased in the raw data. The tides are constrained by the two distinct types of information: the hydrodynamic equations which the tidal fields of elevations and velocities must satisfy, and direct observational data from tide gauges and satellite altimetry. Here we develop and apply a generalized inverse method, which allows us to combine rationally all of this information into global tidal fields best fitting both the data and the dynamics, in a least squares sense. The resulting inverse solution is a sum of the direct solution to the astronomically forced Laplace tidal equations and a linear combination of the representers for the data functionals. The representer functions (one for each datum) are determined by the dynamical equations, and by our prior estimates of the statistics or errors in these equations. Our major task is a direct numerical calculation of these representers. This task is computationally intensive, but well suited to massively parallel processing. By calculating the representers we reduce the full (infinite dimensional) problem to a relatively low-dimensional problem at the outset, allowing full control over the conditioning and hence the stability of the inverse solution. With the representers calculated we can easily update our model as additional TOPEX/POSEIDON data become available. As an initial illustration we invert harmonic constants from a set of 80 open-ocean tide gauges. We then present a practical scheme for direct inversion of TOPEX/POSEIDON crossover data. We apply this method to 38 cycles of geophysical data records (GDR) data, computing preliminary global estimates of the four principal tidal constituents, M(sub 2), S(sub 2), K(sub 1) and O(sub 1). The inverse solution yields tidal fields which are simultaneously smoother, and in better agreement with altimetric and ground truth data, than previously proposed tidal models. Relative to the 'default' tidal corrections provided with the TOPEX/POSEIDON GDR, the inverse solution reduces crossover difference variances significantly (approximately 20-30%), even though only a small number of free parameters (approximately equal to 1000) are actually fit to the crossover data.

Egbert, Gary D.↗

Interpretation of the Total Magnetic Field Anomalies Measured by the CHAMP Satellite Over a Part of Europe and the Pannonian Basin

In this study we interpret the magnetic anomalies at satellite altitude over a part of Europe and the Pannonian Basin. These anomalies are derived from the total magnetic measurements from the CHAMP satellite. The anomalies reduced to an elevation of 324 km. An inversion method is used to interpret the total magnetic anomalies over the Pannonian Basin. A three dimensional triangular model is used in the inversion. Two parameter distributions: Laplacian and Gaussian are investigated. The regularized inversion is numerically calculated with the Simplex and Simulated Annealing methods and the anomalous source is located in the upper crust. A probable source of the magnetization is due to the exsolution of the hematite-ilmenite minerals.

Kis, K. I.↗

An improved method for determining the vertical ozone distribution using satellite measurements

A procedure was developed for determining vertical ozone distributions from spectral measurements of UV radiances diffusely reflected from the terrestrial atmosphere. In this procedure, the inversion method of Aruga and Igarashi (1976) is improved by incorporating the effects of multiple scattering and the lower boundary of the atmosphere. The improved inversion algorithm was tested using data of NIMBUS-4 backscattered UV experiments. The results indicate that by using this method, the vertical distributions of atmospheric ozone can be obtained with high accuracy over a wide range of altitude.

Aruga, Tadashi↗