Results for “Design tools” — Page 70

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Prediction-Based Approaches for Generation of Noise-Power-Distance Data with Application to Urban Air Mobility Vehicles

In contrast to most commercial air traffic today, vehicles serving the urban air mobility (UAM) market are anticipated to operate within communities and be close to the public at large. The approved model for assessing environmental impact of air traffic actions in the United States, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Aviation Environmental Design Tool (AEDT), does not directly support analysis of such operations due to a combined lack of UAM aircraft flight performance model data and aircraft noise data. This paper addresses the latter by offering two prediction-based approaches for generation of noise-power-distance (NPD) data for use within AEDT. One utilizes AEDT’s fixed-wing aircraft modeling approach and the other utilizes the rotary-wing aircraft modeling approach.

noise-power-distance↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

A Comprehensive eVTOL Performance Evaluation Framework in Urban Air Mobility

In this paper, we developed an open-source simulation framework for the evaluation of electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicles (eVTOLs) in the context of Unmanned Traffic Management (UTM) and under the concept of Urban Air Mobility (UAM). Unlike most existing studies, the proposed framework combines the utilization of UTM and eVTOLs to develop a realistic UAM testing platform. For this purpose, we first develop an UTM simulator to simulate the real-world UAM environment. Then, instead of using a simplified eVOTL model, a high-fidelity eVTOL design tool, namely SUAVE, is employed and an dilation sub-module is introduced to bridge the gap between the UTM simulator and SUAVE eVTOL performance evaluation tool to elaborate the complete mission profile. Based on the developed simulation framework, experiments are conducted and the results are presented to analyze the performance of eVTOLs in the UAM environment.

Mrinmoy Sarkar↗

NASA NTRS2022

Wind-Optimal Lateral Trajectories for a Multirotor Aircraft in Urban Air Mobility

The primary motivation for this paper is to quantify the operational benefits (energy consumption and flight duration) of flying wind-optimal lateral trajectories for short flights (less than 60 miles) anticipated in the urban environment. The optimal control model presented includes a wind model for quantifying the effect of wind on the lateral trajectory. The optimal control problem is numerically solved using the direct collocation method. Energy consumption and flight duration flying wind-optimal lateral trajectories are compared with corresponding values obtained flying great-circle paths between the same origin and destination pairs to determine the operational benefits of wind-optimal routing for short flights. The flight duration results for different scenarios are validated using a simulation tool designed and developed at NASA for exploring advanced air traffic management concepts. This research study suggests that for short flights in an urban environment, operational benefits of the wind-optimal lateral trajectories over the corresponding great-circle trajectories in terms of energy consumption and flight duration per flight are dependent on: i) wind field’s spatial variability, ii) wind magnitude, iii) the direction of route relative to the wind field, and iv) cruise segment length. The operational benefits observed in realistic flyable wind scenarios are less than 2.5%; these could be translated to an equivalent of a maximum of 2 min of cruise flight duration savings in the urban air mobility environment. As expected, headwinds and tailwinds along the flight route most significantly impact energy consumption and flight duration.

Wind-Optimal Trajectory, Lateral Path, Urban Air M↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

A Model-Based Framework for NASA Science Mission Formulation

This paper details an effort to implement NASA systems engineering standards and practices using a Digital System Model (DSM), which we also refer to as the system architecture model (SAM). Creating a SAM at the beginning of a design effort helps systems engineer identify errors, inconsistencies, and miscommunications as early as possible. Such issues can then be resolved before it becomes costly and requires significant rework to do so. A pre-formulation SAM also enables advanced trade studies at the earliest stage of concept development. This results in “win-wins” where architecture changes can reduce cost without decreasing effectiveness, or increase effectiveness without increasing cost. SAMs also streamline the creation of project documentation and facilitate superior dialogue between science, engineering, and management stakeholders. Common artifacts such as Master Equipment Lists (MELs), Science Traceability Matrices (STMs), and Mission Traceability Matrices (MTMs), can be automatically maintained through requirements and structural models in the SAM. Key performance parameters (and changes to them) can be tied to simulations in the SAM, allowing far more rapid and extensive trade space exploration. As will be shown in this work, these advantages have been realized for the first time in an actual NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) pre-phase A and phase A concept study. Modelbased design tools have been developed in a general, modular manner to maximize reuse on future programs. Focus is placed on structural and requirements architecture modeling. Data is ingested into the SAM from existing discipline model outputs (e.g. MS Excel spreadsheets) and used to update a SysML structural model. A mission requirements model is created within the SAM, containing mission specific as well as standard GSFC mission requirements. With the linked requirements model and structural model, automated compliance checking will be performed as mission parameters evolve without the need for discipline engineers to work directly with the SAM in SysML.

MBSE↗

NASA NTRS2023

Prediction of Noise-Power-Distance Data for Urban Air Mobility Vehicles

In contrast to most commercial air traffic today, vehicles serving the urban air mobility (UAM) market are anticipated to operate within communities and be close to the public at large. The approved model for assessing environmental impact of air traffic actions in the United States, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Aviation Environmental Design Tool (AEDT), does not directly support analysis of such operations due to a combined lack of UAM aircraft flight performance model data and aircraft noise data. This paper addresses the latter by offering two prediction-based approaches for generation of noise-power-distance (NPD) data for use within AEDT. One utilizes the AEDT fixed-wing aircraft modeling approach and the other utilizes the AEDT rotary-wing aircraft modeling approach.

noise-power-distance↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Scalability of GlennICE in a Parallel Environment

The Glenn Icing Computational Environment (GlennICE) is a computational tool designed to calculate ice growth on complex three-dimensional geometries using the input from a user-supplied computational fluid dynamics (CFD) solution for the geometry of interest. The most significant developments in the advancement of GlennICE have been investigating the convergence of the collection efficiency, efficiently finding trajectories, and improving the refinement methodology. Such developments have increased the efficiency of GlennICE for practical engineering application. With the increasing demand for applying GlennICE for more memory-intensive problems, the scalability of GlennICE has yet to be investigated. This paper is aimed at presenting a method to benchmark the scalability of GlennICE utilizing a relevant engineering problem within a parallel environment. This leads to the final goal of investigating whether an increase in the number of processors utilized results in a linear speedup of the GlennICE software.

Computational Icing, Icing, CFD, MPI↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

On the Modeling of UAM Aircraft Community Noise in AEDT Helicopter Mode

In contrast to most commercial air traffic today, vehicles serving the urban air mobility (UAM) market are anticipated to operate within communities and be close to the public at large. The approved model for assessing environmental impact of air traffic actions in the United States, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Aviation Environmental Design Tool (AEDT), does not directly support analysis of such operations. Prior work focused on modeling UAM aircraft within AEDT under fixed-wing mode. This paper addresses the modeling of UAM aircraft under helicopter mode, using requisite noise-power-distance data generated through analysis. Results are compared with those from the fixed-wing approach and a hybrid approach. The latter models some flight segments in fixed-wing mode and others in helicopter mode.

aircraft community noise↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Scalability of GlennICE in a Parallel Environment

GlennICE (Glenn Icing Computational Environment) is a comptational tool designed to calculate ice growth on complex three- dimensional geometries using the input from a user-supplied computational fluid dynamics (CFD) solution for the geometry of interest. The most significant developments in the advancement of GlennICE have been investigating the convergence of the collection efficiency, efficiently finding trajectories, and improving the refinement methodology. Such developments have increased the efficiency of GlennICE for tractability in a practical engineering application. Although studies have demonstrated a reduction in the amount of work (memory footprint) required, research has yet to systematically investigate the effects of scaling GlennICE. This paper sets out to benchmark the scalability of GlennICE within a parallel environment and investigate if an increase in the number of processors result in a linear speed up.

Computational Icing↗

NASA NTRS2023

2023 Astrophotonics Roadmap: Pathways to Realizing Multi-Functional Integrated Astrophotonic Instruments

Photonic technologies offer numerous functionalities that can be used to realize astrophotonic instruments. The most spectacular example to date is the ESO Gravity instrument at the Very Large Telescope in Chile that combines the light-gathering power of four 8 m telescopes through a complex photonic interferometer. Fully integrated astrophotonic devices stand to offer critical advantages for instrument development, including extreme miniaturization when operating at the diffraction-limit, as well as integration, superior thermal and mechanical stabilization owing to the small footprint, and high replicability offering significant cost savings. Numerous astrophotonic technologies have been developed to address shortcomings of conventional instruments to date, including for example the development of photonic lanterns to convert from multimode inputs to single mode outputs, complex aperiodic fiber Bragg gratings to filter OH emission from the atmosphere, complex beam combiners to enable long baseline interferometry with for example, ESO Gravity, and laser frequency combs for high precision spectral calibration of spectrometers. Despite these successes, the facility implementation of photonic solutions in astronomical instrumentation is currently limited because of (1) low throughputs from coupling to fibers, coupling fibers to chips, propagation and bend losses, device losses, etc, (2) difficulties with scaling to large channel count devices needed for large bandwidths and high resolutions, and (3) efficient integration of photonics with detectors, to name a few. In this roadmap, we identify 24 key areas that need further development. We outline the challenges and advances needed across those areas covering design tools, simulation capabilities, fabrication processes, the need for entirely new components, integration and hybridization and the characterization of devices. To realize these advances the astrophotonics community will have to work cooperatively with industrial partners who have more advanced manufacturing capabilities. With the advances described herein, multi-functional integrated instruments will be realized leading to novel observing capabilities for both ground and space based platforms, enabling new scientific studies and discoveries.

astrophotonics↗

NASA NTRS2024

NASA Marshall Space Flight Center In-Space Cryogenic Propulsion Capabilities and Applications to Human Exploration

The current focus on lunar exploration and future human missions to Mars is driving in-space propulsion system requirements toward higher performance cryogenic systems with long-duration storage and operational capabilities. Not only do these systems offer higher performance than storable propellant options, but they also enable the potential for in-situ propellant production. Future Mars transit systems are envisioned to utilize either high-thrust nuclear thermal propulsion (with liquid hydrogen propellant), or hybrid systems with both cryogenic chemical systems (likely LOX/CH4) for high acceleration maneuvers and nuclear electric systems for long duration high Isp maneuvers. Exploration architectures based on either of these options require the use of high-performance cryogenic propellants with long-duration storage capabilities for both in-space transportation as well as planetary descent and ascent functions. Current efforts focusing on lunar exploration also rely on cryogenic propellants (either LOX/LCH4 or LOX/LH2) for lunar transit and descent/ascent transportation functions. In-space cryogenic propulsion systems pose numerous technology challenges with respect to long-duration propellant storage and usage, including advanced insulation, tank stratification and pressure management, cryogenic refrigeration to reduce propellant loss through boil off, low leakage cryogenic valves, low temperature liquid acquisition, and cryogenic propellant transfer. NASA has invested in technology development efforts, demonstrating individual technologies and systems-level operations. NASA Marshal Space Flight Center has also invested in multiple test facilities and modular test rigs that allow ground demonstration of numerous integrated technologies and systems concepts of operations. Additional investments have been made to mature analytical capabilities and design tools. These capabilities, both test/demonstration & engineering design/analysis, are available to support internal efforts and industrial partners in the development of exploration and science mission systems. With this increased interest, it is critical to understand the current state of in-space cryogenic propulsion technology, determine risks to its successful application to human exploration, and prepare the engineering, test, and evaluation capabilities to support the ambitious plans for future systems. This paper provides a survey of recent developments in in-space cryogenic propulsion and cryogenic propellant management technologies, as well as facilities and engineering/analytical capabilities ready to support current and future exploration efforts.

Cryogenic propulsion, cryogenic fluid management, ↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

NASA’s Developments in Cryogenic Fluid Management Technology

NASA has been pursuing the development and demonstration of enabling and enhancing technologies for Cryogenic Fluid Management (CFM) in collaboration with the US industry. NASA’s vision for current and future space exploration requires high-performance chemical and nuclear propulsion solutions that utilize cryogens. The Agency will use cryogenic fluids for Earth-to-orbit transportation, human missions to the Moon and Mars, planetary exploration, and in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) production. All these architectures will require state-of-the-art long-duration storage on the surface and in-space transfer for refueling. This paper focuses on key CFM technology developments completed or ongoing by the Cryogenic Fluid Management Portfolio Office within NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate. The CFM Portfolio Office, partnered with US aerospace industry, has invested in CFM technology ground and flight demonstrations, focused on maturing CFM hardware and operations for Artemis and Moon to Mars activities. These demonstrations additionally provide NASA with data to inform numerical modeling activities for verification and validation of design tools and approaches for future missions. This paper includes discussion on remaining high-priority open CFM technology gaps for Mar-forward architectures and initiatives for closure.

Cryogenic Fluid Management↗

NASA NTRS2024

NASA Marshall Space Flight Center In-Space Cryogenic Propulsion Capabilities and Applications to Human Exploration

The current focus on lunar exploration and future human missions to Mars is driving in-space propulsion system requirements toward higher performance cryogenic systems with long-duration storage and operational capabilities. Not only do these systems offer higher performance than storable propellant options, but they also enable the potential for in-situ propellant production. Future Mars transit systems are envisioned to utilize either high-thrust nuclear thermal propulsion (with liquid hydrogen propellant), or hybrid systems with both cryogenic chemical systems (likely LOX/CH 4 ) for high acceleration manoeuvres and nuclear electric systems for long duration high Isp manoeuvres. Exploration architectures based on either of these options require the use of high-performance cryogenic propellants with long-duration storage capabilities for both in-space transportation as well as planetary descent and ascent functions. Current efforts focusing on lunar exploration also rely on cryogenic propellants (either LOX/LCH 4 or LOX/LH 2 ) for lunar transit and descent/ascent transportation functions. In-space cryogenic propulsion systems pose numerous technology challenges with respect to long-duration propellant storage and usage, including advanced insulation, tank stratification and pressure management, cryogenic refrigeration to reduce propellant loss through boil off, low leakage cryogenic valves, low temperature liquid acquisition, and cryogenic propellant transfer. NASA has invested in technology development efforts, demonstrating individual technologies and systems-level operations. NASA Marshal Space Flight Center has also invested in multiple test facilities and modular test rigs that allow ground demonstration of numerous integrated technologies and systems concepts of operations. Additional investments have been made to mature analytical capabilities and design tools. These capabilities (both test/demonstration & engineering design/analysis) are available to support both internal efforts and industrial partners in the development of exploration and science mission systems. With this increased interest, it is critical to understand the current state of in-space cryogenic propulsion technology, determine risks to its successful application to human exploration, and prepare the engineering, test, and evaluation capabilities to support the ambitious plans for future systems. This paper provides a survey of recent developments in in-space cryogenic propulsion and cryogenic propellant management technologies, as well as facilities and engineering/analytical capabilities ready to support current and future exploration efforts.

Cryogenic propulsion↗

NASA NTRS2024

NASA Marshall Space Flight Center In-Space Cryogenic Propulsion Capabilities and Applications to Human Exploration

The current focus on lunar exploration and future human missions to Mars is driving in-space propulsion system requirements toward higher performance cryogenic systems with long-duration storage and operational capabilities. Not only do these systems offer higher performance than storable propellant options, but they also enable the potential for in-situ propellant production. Future Mars transit systems are envisioned to utilize either high-thrust nuclear thermal propulsion (with liquid hydrogen propellant), or hybrid systems with both cryogenic chemical systems (likely LOX/CH4) for high acceleration maneuvers and nuclear electric systems for long duration high Isp maneuvers. Exploration architectures based on either of these options require the use of high-performance cryogenic propellants with long-duration storage capabilities for both in-space transportation as well as planetary descent and ascent functions. Current efforts focusing on lunar exploration also rely on cryogenic propellants (either LOX/LCH4 or LOX/LH2) for lunar transit and descent/ascent transportation functions. In-space cryogenic propulsion systems pose numerous technology challenges with respect to long-duration propellant storage and usage, including advanced insulation, tank stratification and pressure management, cryogenic refrigeration to reduce propellant loss through boil off, low leakage cryogenic valves, low temperature liquid acquisition, and cryogenic propellant transfer. NASA has invested in technology development efforts, demonstrating individual technologies and systems-level operations. NASA Marshal Space Flight Center has also invested in multiple test facilities and modular test rigs that allow ground demonstration of numerous integrated technologies and systems concepts of operations. Additional investments have been made to mature analytical capabilities and design tools. These capabilities, both test/demonstration & engineering design/analysis, are available to support internal efforts and industrial partners in the development of exploration and science mission systems. With this increased interest, it is critical to understand the current state of in-space cryogenic propulsion technology, determine risks to its successful application to human exploration, and prepare the engineering, test, and evaluation capabilities to support the ambitious plans for future systems. This paper provides a survey of recent developments in in-space cryogenic propulsion and cryogenic propellant management technologies, as well as facilities and engineering/analytical capabilities ready to support current and future exploration efforts.

Cryogenic propulsion, cryogenic fluid management, ↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

A Study of Parallel Scalability and Dynamic Workload Balancing in GlennICE

The Glenn Icing Computational Environment (GlennICE) is a computational tool designed to calculate ice growth on complex three-dimensional geometries. It utilizes user-supplied computational fluid dynamics solutions for the geometry of interest. Key developments include advancements in convergence of collection efficiency, trajectory optimization, and refinement methodology. These improvements have significantly enhanced GlennICE’s efficiency for practical engineering applications. A recent study focused on benchmarking GlennICE’s scalability in a parallel environment using static scheduling. Findings indicated a potential twofold increase in efficiency through workload balance enhancements. This paper presents an analysis of the solver’s new workload balancing improvements, incorporating shared memory and dynamic scheduling routines. Results demonstrate a highly efficient and consistent algorithm across high-performance computing clusters.

Computational Icing↗

NASA NTRS2024

NASA Marshall Space Flight Center In-Space Cryogenic Propulsion Capabilities and Applications to Human Exploration

The current focus on lunar exploration and future human missions to Mars is driving in-space propulsion system requirements toward higher performance cryogenic systems with long-duration storage and operational capabilities. Not only do these systems offer higher performance than storable propellant options, but they also enable the potential for in-situ propellant production. Future Mars transit systems are envisioned to utilize either high-thrust nuclear thermal propulsion (with liquid hydrogen propellant), or hybrid systems with both cryogenic chemical systems (likely LOX/CH 4 ) for high acceleration manoeuvres and nuclear electric systems for long duration high Isp manoeuvres. Exploration architectures based on either of these options require the use of high-performance cryogenic propellants with long-duration storage capabilities for both in-space transportation as well as planetary descent and ascent functions. Current efforts focusing on lunar exploration also rely on cryogenic propellants (either LOX/LCH 4 or LOX/LH 2 ) for lunar transit and descent/ascent transportation functions. In-space cryogenic propulsion systems pose numerous technology challenges with respect to long-duration propellant storage and usage, including advanced insulation, tank stratification and pressure management, cryogenic refrigeration to reduce propellant loss through boil off, low leakage cryogenic valves, low temperature liquid acquisition, and cryogenic propellant transfer. NASA has invested in technology development efforts, demonstrating individual technologies and systems-level operations. NASA Marshal Space Flight Center has also invested in multiple test facilities and modular test rigs that allow ground demonstration of numerous integrated technologies and systems concepts of operations. Additional investments have been made to mature analytical capabilities and design tools. These capabilities (both test/demonstration & engineering design/analysis) are available to support both internal efforts and industrial partners in the development of exploration and science mission systems. With this increased interest, it is critical to understand the current state of in-space cryogenic propulsion technology, determine risks to its successful application to human exploration, and prepare the engineering, test, and evaluation capabilities to support the ambitious plans for future systems. This paper provides a survey of recent developments in in-space cryogenic propulsion and cryogenic propellant management technologies, as well as facilities and engineering/analytical capabilities ready to support current and future exploration efforts.

Cryogenic propulsion↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Goddard Mission Services Evolution Center “GMSEC” Overview

In today's changing satellite mission operations landscape, the need for mission automation and interoperability while containing costs is more important than ever. Enter GMSEC – a flexible and extendible set of software automation tools designed to automate repetitive processes and off-hours alerting, among others. GMSEC is also an API that is open source and supports the OMG C2MS message specification, allowing dissimilar components to communicate with each other. Attendees will learn about the possible use cases for automation that the GMSEC architecture and suite of components enable. The presentation will provide an overview of specific GMSEC software products that provide these automation features such as the GMSEC Generic Extendible Message Utility (GEMU) that enables automation, and GMSEC Services Suite OpenMCT (GSS) that offers enhanced telemetry visualization. This presentation will outline how GMSEC can enable and enhance mission operations automation, enabling efficiencies that can help bring down costs.

James C. Hoffman↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

A Study of Parallel Scalability and Dynamic Workload Balancing in GlennICE

The Glenn Icing Computational Environment (GlennICE) is a computational tool designed to calculate ice growth on complex three-dimensional geometries. It utilizes user-supplied computational fluid dynamics solutions for the geometry of interest. Key developments include advancements in convergence of collection efficiency, trajectory optimization, and refinement methodology. These improvements have significantly enhanced GlennICE’s efficiency for practical engineering applications. A recent study focused on benchmarking GlennICE’s scalability in a parallel environment using static scheduling. Findings indicated a potential twofold increase in efficiency through workload balance enhancements. This paper presents an analysis of the solver’s new workload balancing improvements, incorporating shared memory and dynamic scheduling routines. Results demonstrate a highly efficient and consistent algorithm across high-performance computing clusters.

Computational Icing↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

High Reynolds Number Testing of the NATO AVT-298 SWiFT Configuration at the National Transonic Facility

A high Reynolds number wind tunnel test of the NATO AVT-298 Swept Wing Flow Test (SWiFT) configuration was conducted in the National Transonic Facility at the NASA Langley Research Center during the summer of 2023. The SWiFT research model geometry has relevance to both blended/hybrid wing body (BWB/HWB) and unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV) configurations, and the test campaign was the culmination of an international collaboration under the NATO AVT-298 research task group. The main objectives of the test were to investigate Reynolds number scaling effects on low-speed stability & control characteristics and to examine the onset and progression of flow separation on the wings particularly near the wing crank. Force & moment and surface pressure data were acquired at Mach numbers from 0.2 to 0.8, Reynolds numbers from 2.5 to 34 million, angles of attack from -3 to 20 degrees, and sideslip angles from -10 to 10 degrees. Boundary layer transition detection techniques utilizing static pressure taps, unsteady pressure transducers, and sublimating chemicals were used on the model in a free/natural transition state or a forced transition state using trip dots. Pressure sensitive paint was used to obtain a global surface pressure profile on the model and an advanced laser velocimetry technique was used to obtain velocity measurements in the wake downstream of the wing crank. The results from the test showed clear Reynolds number scaling effects on the maximum lift coefficient and pitching moment coefficient at Mach 0.2, while also capturing significant hysteresis effects. The data acquired from the test will ultimately help improve computational aerodynamic analysis and design tools for application to future BWB-type vehicle configurations.

NATO AVT-298↗