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At least 1,117 records · Page 62

Additional Developments in Atmosphere Revitalization Modeling and Simulation

NASA's Advanced Exploration Systems (AES) program is developing prototype systems, demonstrating key capabilities, and validating operational concepts for future human missions beyond Earth orbit. These forays beyond the confines of earth's gravity will place unprecedented demands on launch systems. They must launch the supplies needed to sustain a crew over longer periods for exploration missions beyond earth's moon. Thus all spacecraft systems, including those for the separation of metabolic carbon dioxide and water from a crewed vehicle, must be minimized with respect to mass, power, and volume. Emphasis is also placed on system robustness both to minimize replacement parts and ensure crew safety when a quick return to earth is not possible. Current efforts are focused on improving the current state-of-the-art systems utilizing fixed beds of sorbent pellets by evaluating structured sorbents, seeking more robust pelletized sorbents, and examining alternate bed configurations to improve system efficiency and reliability. These development efforts combine testing of sub-scale systems and multi-physics computer simulations to evaluate candidate approaches, select the best performing options, and optimize the configuration of the selected approach. This paper describes the continuing development of atmosphere revitalization models and simulations in support of the Atmosphere Revitalization Recovery and Environmental Monitoring (ARREM) project within the AES program.

Coker, Robert F.↗

Medium Fidelity Simulation of Oxygen Tank Venting

The item to he cleared is a medium-fidelity software simulation model of a vented cryogenic tank. Such tanks are commonly used to transport cryogenic liquids such as liquid oxygen via truck, and have appeared on liquid-fueled rockets for decades. This simulation model works with the HCC simulation system that was developed by Xerox PARC and NASA Ames Research Center. HCC has been previously cleared for distribution. When used with the HCC software, the model generates simulated readings for the tank pressure and temperature as the simulated cryogenic liquid boils off and is vented. Failures (such as a broken vent valve) can be injected into the simulation to produce readings corresponding to the failure. Release of this simulation will allow researchers to test their software diagnosis systems by attempting to diagnose the simulated failure from the simulated readings. This model does not contain any encryption software nor can it perform any control tasks that might be export controlled.

Sweet, Adam↗

Experimental static aerodynamic forces and moments at high subsonic speeds on a missile model during simulated launching from the midsemispan location of a 45 degree sweptback wing-fuselage-pylon combination

An investigation was made at high subsonic speeds in the Langley high-speed 7- by 10-foot tunnel to determine the static aerodynamic forces and moments on a missile model during simulated launching from the midsemispan location of a 45 degree sweptback wing-fuselage-pylon combination. The results indicated significant variations in all the aerodynamic components with changes in chordwise location of the missile. Increasing the angle of attack caused increases in the induced effects on the missile model because of the wing-fuselage-pylon combination. Increasing the Mach number had little effect on the variations of the missile aerodynamic characteristics with angle of attack except that nonlinearities were incurred at smaller angles of attack for the higher Mach numbers. The effects of finite wing thickness on the missile characteristics, at zero angle of attack, increase with increasing Mach number. The effects of the pylon on the missile characteristics were to causeincreases in the rolling-moment variation with angle of attack and a negative displacement of the pitching-moment curves at zero angle of attack. The effects of skewing the missile in the lateral direction relative to and sideslipping the missile with the wing-fuselage-pylon combination were to cause additional increments in side force at zero angle of attack. For the missile yawing moments the effects of changes in skew or sideslip angles were qualitatively as would be expected from consideration of the isolated missile characteristics, although there existed differences in theyawing-moment magnitudes.

Alford, William J↗

Design of an air traffic computer simulation system to support investigation of civil tiltrotor aircraft operations

This research project addresses the need to provide an efficient and safe mechanism to investigate the effects and requirements of the tiltrotor aircraft's commercial operations on air transportation infrastructures, particularly air traffic control. The mechanism of choice is computer simulation. Unfortunately, the fundamental paradigms of the current air traffic control simulation models do not directly support the broad range of operational options and environments necessary to study tiltrotor operations. Modification of current air traffic simulation models to meet these requirements does not appear viable given the range and complexity of issues needing resolution. As a result, the investigation of systemic, infrastructure issues surrounding the effects of tiltrotor commercial operations requires new approaches to simulation modeling. These models should be based on perspectives and ideas closer to those associated with tiltrotor air traffic operations.

Rogers, Ralph V.↗

Pharmacokinetics of Acetaminophen in Hind Limbs Unloaded Mice: A Model System Simulating the Effects of Low Gravity on Astronauts in Space

The pharmacokinetics (PK) of medications administered to astronauts could be altered by the conditions in Space. Low gravity and free floating (and associated hemodynamic changes) could affect the absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion of the drugs. Knowledge of these alterations is essential for adjusting the dosage and the regimen of drug administration in astronauts. Acquiring of such knowledge has inherent difficulties due to limited opportunities for experimenting in Space. One of the approaches is to use model systems that simulate some of the Space conditions on Earth. In this study we used hind limbs unloaded mice (HLU) to investigate the possible changes in PK of acetaminophen, a widely used analgesic with high probability of use by astronauts. The HLU is recognized as an appropriate model for simulating the effects of low gravity on hemodynamic parameters. Mice were tail suspended (n = 24) for 24-96 hours prior to introduction of acetaminophen (150 - 300 mg/kg). The drug (in aqueous solution containing 10% ethyl alcohol by volume) was given orally by a gavage procedure and after the administration of acetaminophen mice were additionally suspended for 30 min, 1 and 2 hours. Control mice (n = 24) received the same dose of acetaminophen and were kept freely all the time. Blood specimens were obtained either from retroorbital venous sinuses or from heart. Acetaminophen concentration was measured in plasma by the fluorescent polarization immunoassay and the AxSYM analyzer (Abbott Laboratories). In control mice peak acetaminophen concentration was achieved at 30 min. By 1 hour the concentration decreased to less than 50% of the peak level and at 2 hours the drug was almost undetectable in the serum. HLU for 24 hours significantly altered the acetaminophen pharmacokinetic: at 30 min the acetaminophen concentrations were significantly (both statistically and medically significant) lower than in control mice. The concentrations also reduced less significantly after 1 and 2 hours. At 2 hours approximately 20% of the drug still remained in the circulation. After 96 hrs of HLU the changes in acetaminophen PK were less prominent. These data indicate that short term HLU causes significant changes in acetaminophen PK most likely associated with HUL-related hemodynamic changes. However, after 96 hour these changes diminished. This suggests hemodynamic adaptation to the HUL conditions that possibly occurs also in real space conditions.

Peterson, Amanda↗

Smart Proxy Modeling Application of Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning in Computational Fluid Dynamics

Smart proxy technology leverages the art of artificial intelligence and machine learning in order to build accurate and very fast proxy models for highly complex numerical simulation models. In this project, smart proxy technology is used to replicate the results of a highly complex single phase CFD simulation with reasonable degree of accuracy while reducing the computational cost associated with such CFD simulations. The CFD model under study simulates the combustion of natural gas under various conditions such as varying natural gas composition and flow rate, inlet air flow rate and temperature, and outlet pressure in a High-Pressure Combustion Facility (B6 Combustor) with more than 4 million simulation cells. Only eight CFD simulation runs were used to create a smart proxy model that replicates the detail distribution of Pressure, Temperature, Nitrogen, Oxygen and Carbon-dioxide concentration in the CFD simulation model in seconds with less than 10% error.

03 NATURAL GAS↗

Tropical Cyclones in the GISS ModelE2

The authors describe the characteristics of tropical cyclone (TC) activity in the GISS general circulation ModelE2 with a horizontal resolution 1deg x 1deg. Four model simulations are analyzed. In the first, the model is forced with sea surface temperature (SST) from the recent historical climatology. The other three have different idealized climate change simulations, namely (1) a uniform increase of SST by 2 deg., (2) doubling of the CO2 concentration and (3) a combination of the two. These simulations were performed as part of the US Climate Variability and Predictability Program Hurricane Working Group. Diagnostics of standard measures of TC activity are computed from the recent historical climatological SST simulation and compared with the same measures computed from observations. The changes in TC activity in the three idealized climate change simulations, by comparison with that in the historical climatological SST simulation, are also described. Similar to previous results in the literature, the changes in TC frequency in the simulation with a doubling CO2 and an increase in SST are approximately the linear sum of the TC frequency in the other two simulations. However, in contrast with previous results, in these simulations the effects of CO2 and SST on TC frequency oppose each other. Large-scale environmental variables associated with TC activity are then analyzed for the present and future simulations. Model biases in the large-scale fields are identified through a comparison with ERA-Interim reanalysis. Changes in the environmental fields in the future climate simulations are shown and their association with changes in TC activity discussed.

Hurricanes↗

[Low Fidelity Simulation of a Zero-Y Robot]

The item to be cleared is a low-fidelity software simulation model of a hypothetical freeflying robot designed for use in zero gravity environments. This simulation model works with the HCC simulation system that was developed by Xerox PARC and NASA Ames Research Center. HCC has been previously cleared for distribution. When used with the HCC software, the model computes the location and orientation of the simulated robot over time. Failures (such as a broken motor) can be injected into the simulation to produce simulated behavior corresponding to the failure. Release of this simulation will allow researchers to test their software diagnosis systems by attempting to diagnose the simulated failure from the simulated behavior. This model does not contain any encryption software nor can it perform any control tasks that might be export controlled.

Sweet, Adam↗

Generative models for simulation of KamLAND-Zen

Abstract The next generation of searches for neutrinoless double beta decay ($$0 \nu \beta \beta $$ 0 ν β β ) are poised to answer deep questions on the nature of neutrinos and the source of the Universe’s matter–antimatter asymmetry. They will be looking for event rates of less than one event per ton of instrumented isotope per year. To claim discovery, accurate and efficient simulations of detector events that mimic$$0 \nu \beta \beta $$ 0 ν β β is critical. Traditional Monte Carlo (MC) simulations can be supplemented by machine-learning-based generative models. This work describes the performance of generative models that we designed for monolithic liquid scintillator detectors like KamLAND to produce accurate simulation data without a predefined physics model. We present their current ability to recover low-level features and perform interpolation. In the future, the results of these generative models can be used to improve event classification and background rejection by providing high-quality abundant generated data.

Physics↗

Development of mathematical models of environmental physiology

Selected articles concerned with mathematical or simulation models of human thermoregulation are presented. The articles presented include: (1) development and use of simulation models in medicine, (2) model of cardio-vascular adjustments during exercise, (3) effective temperature scale based on simple model of human physiological regulatory response, (4) behavioral approach to thermoregulatory set point during exercise, and (5) importance of skin temperature in sweat regulation.

Stolwijk, J. A. J.↗

Investigation of high frequency oscillations in the OV102 elevon actuation subsystems using continuous system modeling program simulation

Two theories emerged as the cause of undesired oscillations at frequencies between 40 and 60 Hz in the Orbiter Vehicle inboard and outboard elevon actuation subsystems during hardware testing. Both the "hardover feedback" and "deadspace" theories were examined using continuous system modeling program simulation. Results did not support the "hardover feedback" theory but showed that deadspace in the torque feedback spring connections to the servospools must be considered to be a possible cause of the oscillations. Further investigation is recommended.

Powell, W. W., Sr.↗

Modeling and simulation of vascular tumors embedded in evolving capillary networks

Here in this work, we present a coupled 3D–1D model of solid tumor growth within a dynamically changing vascular network to facilitate realistic simulations of angiogenesis. Additionally, the model includes erosion of the extracellular matrix, interstitial flow, and coupled flow in blood vessels and tissue. We employ continuum mixture theory with stochastic Cahn–Hilliard type phase-field models of tumor growth. The interstitial flow is governed by a mesoscale version of Darcy’s law. The flow in the blood vessels is controlled by Poiseuille flow, and Starling’s law is applied to model the mass transfer in and out of blood vessels. The evolution of the network of blood vessels is orchestrated by the concentration of the tumor angiogenesis factors (TAFs); blood vessels grow towards the increasing TAFs concentrations. This process is not deterministic, allowing random growth of blood vessels and, therefore, due to the coupling of nutrients in tissue and vessels, makes the growth of tumors stochastic. We demonstrate the performance of the model by applying it to a variety of scenarios. Numerical experiments illustrate the flexibility of the model and its ability to generate satellite tumors. Simulations of the effects of angiogenesis on tumor growth are presented as well as sample-independent features of cancer.

3D–1D coupled blood flow models↗

Development of a global cloud model for simulating earth-viewing space missions.

Existing global cloud models are improved and expanded so that they might be more effectively used in planning and evaluating potential earth-viewing space missions. A relationship is developed between the ground and satellite-derived cloud-amount frequency distributions. This relationship is used to improve internal consistency between the ground-observed unconditional statistics and the satellite-derived conditional statistics as tabulated in previous models. A statistical technique is developed which permits the scaling of the conditional statistics to time and distance separations other than those for which the data base is tabulated. A new technique to increase or decrease the representative area size of the statistical data base is developed. Both the scaling and area adjustment techniques are shown to represent significant improvements over the techniques previously employed.

Greaves, J. R.↗

Chemical models for simulating single-walled nanotube production in arc vaporization and laser ablation processes

Chemical kinetic models for the nucleation and growth of clusters and single-walled carbon nanotube (SWNT) growth are developed for numerical simulations of the production of SWNTs. Two models that involve evaporation and condensation of carbon and metal catalysts, a full model involving all carbon clusters up to C80, and a reduced model are discussed. The full model is based on a fullerene model, but nickel and carbon/nickel cluster reactions are added to form SWNTs from soot and fullerenes. The full model has a large number of species--so large that to incorporate them into a flow field computation for simulating laser ablation and arc processes requires that they be simplified. The model is reduced by defining large clusters that represent many various sized clusters. Comparisons are given between these models for cases that may be applicable to arc and laser ablation production. Solutions to the system of chemical rate equations of these models for a ramped temperature profile show that production of various species, including SWNTs, agree to within about 50% for a fast ramp, and within 10% for a slower temperature decay time.

Nanotubes, Carbon/chemistry↗

Variability in Sea Surface Height: A Qualitative Measure for the Meridional Overturning in the North Atlantic

Sea surface height (SSH) from altimeter observations from 1992 on and from modeling results is investigated to determine the modes of variability and the linkages to the state of oceanic circulation in the North Atlantic. First the altimeter and model simulated SSH are analyzed using the empirical orthogonal function (EOF) analysis. They are found to share a similar leading mode where the center of action is along the Gulf Stream and North Atlantic Current with opposite sign anomalies in the subpolar gyre and in the slope waters along the Eastern Seaboard. The time series of the leading EOF mode from the altimeter data shows that between winters of 1995 and 1996, SSH over the Gulf Stream decreased by about 12cm which change is reproduced by the model simulation. Based on the relationship from the model simulations between the time series of the SSH EOF1 and meridional heat transport, it is suggested that associated with this SSH change in 1995-96, the overturning has slowed down from its heights in the early 90's. Furthermore, it is shown that decadal variability in the leading SSH mode originates from the thermal forcing component. This adds confidence to the qualitative relationship between the state of overturning/meridional heat transport and SSH in the limited area described by the EOF1. SSH variability in the eastern side of the North Atlantic basin, outside the western boundary current region, is determined by local and remote (Rossby waves) wind stress curl forcing.

Hakkinen, Sirpa↗

Model free simulations of a high speed reacting mixing layer

The effects of compressibility, chemical reaction exothermicity and non-equilibrium chemical modeling in a combusting plane mixing layer were investigated by means of two-dimensional model free numerical simulations. It was shown that increased compressibility generally had a stabilizing effect, resulting in reduced mixing and chemical reaction conversion rate. The appearance of 'eddy shocklets' in the flow was observed at high convective Mach numbers. Reaction exothermicity was found to enhance mixing at the initial stages of the layer's growth, but had a stabilizing effect at later times. Calculations were performed for a constant rate chemical rate kinetics model and an Arrhenius type kinetics prototype. The Arrhenius model was found to cause a greater temperature increase due to reaction than the constant kinetics model. This had the same stabilizing effect as increasing the exothermicity of the reaction. Localized flame quenching was also observed when the Zeldovich number was relatively large.

Steinberger, Craig J.↗

Modeling and Simulation of an Integrated Gate Turnaround Management Concept

An Integrated Gate Turnaround Management (IGTM) prototype was developed at NASA Ames Simulation Laboratories (SimLabs) using Dallas Ft. Worth International Airport (DFW) to demonstrate the IGTM concepts feasibility and benefits. The simulation architecture includes: the IGTM controller, an Airline Operations Control (AOC) application, Big DataAnalytics Input (BAI) application, a terminal traffic simulation or known as NASA-developed Surface Operation Simulator and Scheduler (SOSS), and a Database Server. ActiveMQ, a Java messaging service, was used to emulate the System Wide Information Management (SWIM) data network messaging. This paper describes the modeling and simulation of the IGTM concept, and illustrates selected use cases to demonstrate the feasibility and benefits of the IGTM concept for optimizing gate turnaround operations.

gate turnaround management↗

Limits to Cloud Susceptibility

1-kilometer AVHRR observations of ship tracks in low-level clouds off the west coast of the U S. were used to determine limits for the degree to which clouds might be altered by increases in anthropogenic aerosols. Hundreds of tracks were analyzed to determine whether the changes in droplet radii, visible optical depths, and cloud top altitudes that result from the influx of particles from underlying ships were consistent with expectations based on simple models for the indirect effect of aerosols. The models predict substantial increases in sunlight reflected by polluted clouds due to the increases in droplet numbers and cloud liquid water that result from the elevated particle concentrations. Contrary to the model predictions, the analysis of ship tracks revealed a 15-20% reduction in liquid water for the polluted clouds. Studies performed with a large-eddy cloud simulation model suggested that the shortfall in cloud liquid water found in the satellite observations might be attributed to the restriction that the 1-kilometer pixels be completely covered by either polluted or unpolluted cloud. The simulation model revealed that a substantial fraction of the indirect effect is caused by a horizontal redistribution of cloud water in the polluted clouds. Cloud-free gaps in polluted clouds fill in with cloud water while the cloud-free gaps in the surrounding unpolluted clouds remain cloud-free. By limiting the analysis to only overcast pixels, the current study failed to account for the gap-filling predicted by the simulation model. This finding and an analysis of the spatial variability of marine stratus suggest new ways to analyze ship tracks to determine the limit to which particle pollution will alter the amount of sunlight reflected by clouds.

Coakley, James A., Jr.↗