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Shadowgraph photography techniques in transonic wind tunnel tests are described. The system was used in tests with powered nacelle rings to visualize the shock wave pattern in the exhaust flow. The technique is also used for installed nacelle tests on a floor mounted half model with a turbine powered fan engine simulator.
The PERT technique including the types of reports which can be computer generated using the NASA/LaRC PPARS System is described. An assessment is made of the effectiveness of PERT on various types of efforts as well as for specific purposes, namely, schedule planning, schedule analysis, schedule control, monitoring contractor schedule performance, and management reporting. This assessment is based primarily on the author's knowledge of the usage of PERT by NASA/LaRC personnel since the early 1960's. Both strengths and weaknesses of the technique for various applications are discussed. It is intended to serve as a reference guide for personnel performing project planning and control functions and technical personnel whose responsibilities either include schedule planning and control or require a general knowledge of the subject.
A technique for measuring a pilot's control strategy was developed, evaluated, and applied to a joint FAA-NASA ground-based simulation of two competing concepts of head-up displays for use in conventional takeoff and landing aircraft. The technique, called the Non-Intrusive Pilot Identification Program (NIPIP), estimates the pilot's input-output describing function and combined pilot-vehicle performance parameters such as crossover frequency and phase margin by using a time domain model of the pilot and a least-squares identification algorithm. NIPIP functions in realtime and uses a sliding time window to maintain freshness in the data; thus time-varying characteristics in the pilot's control strategy can be measured.
A flight technique which uses the remotely augmented vehicle (RAV) concept is developed to flight test advanced control law concepts. The design, development and flight test validation of a RAV system mechanized on a digital fly-by-wire aircraft are described, and future applications are discussed. Flight experiments investigate complete inner loop, low sample rate, and adaptive control system mechanisms. The technique, which utilizes a ground-based FORTRAN programmable digital computer and up and down telemetry links is found to provide the flexibility necessary to effectively investigate alternate control law mechanisms in flight.
Preliminary empirical results are given of a study to determine the present-day utility of the George (1960) technique for predicting cyclogenesis. Surface and constant pressure charts are examined to determine the frequency and preferred locations for the occurrence of cold air injections. The accuracy of the empirical technique and the LFM II are compared for a limited number of cases. No consistent relationship between cold air injections and other atmospheric features is found. After the appearance of a cold air injection, cyclogenesis, a center jump, or a deepening of an existing cyclone occurs 77% of the time.
A simple matching technique is developed which makes it possible to compute the response of the solar envelope to perturbations which occur within the solar convective region in timescales of importance to climate. The technique is applied to perturbation of the convective efficiency (alpha-mechanism) and of the nongas component of the pressure in different regions of the convection zone (beta-mechanism). The results indicate that whereas either perturbation affects the solar luminosity, the alpha-mechanism has almost no effect on the solar outer radius, regardless of the affected region. The beta-mechanism, however, produces radius changes which may be large if the location of perturbation is deep enough.
A computer driven color video display technique has been developed for the presentation of wind tunnel flow field survey data. The results of both qualitative and quantitative flow field surveys can be presented in high spatial resolutions color coded displays. The technique has been used for data obtained with a hot-wire probe, a split-film probe, a Conrad (pitch) probe and a 5-tube pressure probe in surveys above and behind a wing with partially stalled and fully stalled flow.
Cross-correlation techniques are used to measure the sound radiated by wing/flap airfoil configurations in the NASA-Ames 40 x 80 ft wind tunnel using a 6.7-m semispan model with three deployed flaps. The dominant source of flap noise is identified as the flap side edges, which exceeds that radiated by the midspan region by more than 10 dB. The turbulent surface eddies at the flap side edge have scales on the order of one-half the flap chord. The installation of flap actuator fairings at the flap side edge reduces the noise radiated from that location by 10 to 15 dB. The cross-correlation technique extracts airframe noise radiated by specific surface locations from the tunnel background noise, even when the noise is 25 dB higher than the measured airframe noise level.
A systematic finite-element model modification technique has been applied to two small problems and a model of the main wing box of a research drone aircraft. The procedure determines the sensitivity of the eigenvalues and eigenvector components to specific structural changes, calculates the required changes and modifies the finite-element model. Good results were obtained where large stiffness modifications were required to satisfy large eigenvalue changes. Sensitivity matrix conditioning problems required the development of techniques to insure existence of a solution and accelerate its convergence. A method is proposed to assist the analyst in selecting stiffness parameters for modification.
Methods of measuring the three dimensional flow field using a three-sensor, hot-wire probe is described in this paper, with emphasis on the techniques developed by the author's group at The Pennsylvania State University. The hot wire equations, data processing procedure, calibration techniques, and a discussion of various errors in the measurement are included. Some typical data acquired by this probe is also included.
The technique of ratioing scene radiance to the radiance obtained from standard Lambertian reference panels in order to estimate bidirectional reflectance factors may depend on the angular distribution of the diffuse irradiance field as well as the direct solar irradiance. A simulation study was performed to estimate the magnitude of this effect for differing clear sky irradiance distributions for a variety of vegetated surfaces. For the seven surfaces and wavelengths analyzed, the error induced in the estimation of bidirectional reflectance factors using the standard ratio technique was less than 5 percent for zenith view and sun angles less than 55 degrees.
A telemetry technique for a special data collection system being developed for use on general aviation aircraft involved in aeronautical research programs is described. The system consists of a number of sensor-transmitter units at different locations on the aircraft, with individual signal conditioning and logic, which send sampled data signals to a single receiver in the airplane. The transmitters operate independently on the same frequency and are not synchronized to the receiver. The problem of reception of multiple samples simultaneously is treated by discarding such samples. An overlap detection technique for the frequency shift keyed modulation system is described. The amount of predicted data loss due to overlap is presented and compared with results obtained with a circuit implementation; the effects of discarded data on accuracy is discussed.
The six-orientation hot-wire technique is applied to nonreacting axisymmetric flowfields, obtaining measurements of time-mean and rms voltages at six different orientations, thus providing enough information to determine the time-mean velocities, turbulence intensities, and shear stresses. At each location in the flow, there are six different values of each of the above quantities that can be obtained using six sets of measurements of three adjacent orientations. Flowfield surveys of both swirling and nonswirling confined jets are used to calculate estimates of the mean velocity components and the normal and shear turbulent stresses, and comparisons with independent data are made. A sensitivity analysis of the data reduction technique demonstrates that the largest uncertainties are to be expected in the turbulent shear force estimates.
The principle of a new inversion technique which uses multiple wavelength-solar UV radiation satellite measurements for determining vertical ozone profiles is described, and examples of computer simulations for 280, 300, 320, and 340 nm are discussed. Weighting functions corresponding to the sensitivity of the limb radiance to the relative ozone density at each altitude are the basis for the inversion equation, which is then solved by an iteration technique. The use of multiple wavelengths can provide more information of higher accuracy over a wider height range than those profiles recovered at a single wavelength. It is indicated that an effective range of altitude of approximately 20-70 km with a vertical resolution of 1-2 km is feasible for determining ozone profiles with an inferred profile error about three to four times larger than the measurement error within that altitude region. Ozone profile accuracy of the highest altitude region may be improved using wavelengths down to 260 nm, and inferred ozone profiles above 70 km are possible, but with a larger error.
A novel form of streak photography based on a light-speckle technique has been used to investigate wave-amplitude vacillation in a thermally driven rotating cylindrical annulus of fluid. The technique is evaluated and found to be an excellent way to measure a 2-dimensional field of velocity without introducing probes into the fluid. The results are compared with previous work with the exception that the kinetic energy is significantly higher. The relation between eddy and mean motion, momentum transport, and period of the vacillation cycle appear similar in the two studies.
A simple, nearly passive technique is described that allows a spacecraft sensor to be driven to a potential close to that of a plasma where the ion concentration exceeds about 100 per cu cm even in the presence of a large vehicle potential. Such a technique may become increasingly useful in the event that compatibility constraints in the Space Shuttle demand a 28-V negative ground spacecraft system.
Arithmetic technique facilitates high-speed rounding of 2's complement binary data. Conventional rounding of 2's complement numbers presents problems in high-speed digital circuits. Proposed technique consists of truncating K + 1 bits then attaching bit in least significant position. Mean output error is zero, eliminating introducing voltage offset at input.
Large crystals grown by varying pressure rather than temperature. In constant temerature pressure-reduction process crystal growth promoted as solubility decreases by factor of more than 10. Technique used to study crystal growth kinetics by "pressure wave"" analog of conventional "thermal wave" experiments. Technique has advantages of faster response and freedom from convective interference.