Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “icme”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 145 records · Page 8

Intelligent Contingency Management for Urban Air Mobility

The third aviation revolution is seeking to enable transportation where users have access to immediate and flexible air travel; the users dictate trip origin, destination and timing. One of the major components of this vision is urban air mobility (UAM) for the masses. UAM means a safe and efficient system for vehicles to move passengers and cargo within a city. In order to reach UAM’s full market potential the vehicle will have to be autonomous. One of the primary challenges of autonomous flight is dealing with off-nominal events, both common and unforeseen; thus, intelligent contingency management (ICM) is one of the enabling technologies. This paper proposes an ICM architecture with associated tools that would help enable the UAM vision.

UAM↗

Intelligent Contingency Management for Urban Air Mobility

The third aviation revolution is seeking to enable transportation where users have access to immediate and flexible air travel; the users dictate trip origin, destination and timing. One of the major components of this vision is urban air mobility (UAM) for the masses. UAM means a safe and efficient system for vehicles to move passengers and cargo within a city. In order to reach UAM’s full market potential the vehicle will have to be autonomous. One of the primary challenges of autonomous flight is dealing with off-nominal events, both common and unforeseen; thus, intelligent contingency management (ICM) is one of the enabling technologies. This paper proposes an ICM architecture with associated tools that would help enable the UAM vision.

UAM;↗

Benchmark Problem Development for Testing Maturity of Intelligent Contingency Management Tools

Increasingly autonomous Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) vehicles will be required to handle diverse conditions with limited human intervention. Intelligent contingency management (iCM) approaches are under development to address how automated agents can handle unforeseen, unplanned, and unanticipated events. Benchmark scenario is needed to test the maturity of the developed iCM tools and techniques.

Jon Holbrook↗

Data Augmentation for Intelligent Contingency Management Using Generative Adversarial Neural Networks

Artificial intelligence (AI)-based techniques for intelligent contingency management (ICM) require that intelligent agents learn various aspects of system dynamics to create and execute contingencies. For high assurance contingency management, agents achieve the most compelling results through supervised or semi-supervised machine learning, for which agents require large datasets to learn the dynamics of the system. Unfortunately, data collection in aerospace applications can be costly, due to both time and resources. Presented work describes a framework for data augmentation of ICM databases containing training data for machine learning models. This framework populates the database with the outputs of generative adversarial network (GAN) models that were trained on flight data. Methods for evaluating the suitability of these models based on the equations of motion, as well as other physical constraints, are discussed. The paper demonstrates the utility of this database for training intelligent agents on the NASA T2 generic transport aircraft model and experimental vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) simulation model.

Generative Machine Learning↗

Data Augmentation for Intelligent Contingency Management Using Generative Adversarial Neural Networks

Artificial intelligence (AI)-based techniques for intelligent contingency management (ICM) require that intelligent agents learn various aspects of system dynamics to create and execute contingencies. For high assurance contingency management, agents achieve the most compelling results through supervised or semi-supervised machine learning, for which agents require large datasets to learn the dynamics of the system. Unfortunately, data collection in aerospace applications can be costly, due to both time and resources. Presented work describes a framework for data augmentation of ICM databases containing training data for machine learning models. This framework populates the database with the outputs of generative adversarial network (GAN) models that were trained on flight data. Methods for evaluating the suitability of these models based on the equations of motion, as well as other physical constraints, are discussed. The paper demonstrates the utility of this database for training intelligent agents on the NASA T2 generic transport aircraft model and experimental vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) simulation model.

Generative Machine Learning↗

Discrete Aurora on the Nightside of Mars: Occurrence Location and Probability

This paper represents the first attempt to predict the occurrence location and probability of discrete electron aurora on the nightside of Mars. We run a 3-D time-dependent magnetohydrodynamic model to characterize the spatial and temporal dynamics of magnetic field and plasma distributions over the course of one planetary rotation. We perform eight simulation cases under solar minimum quiet-solar-wind conditions (four equinox/solstice seasons, each with two interplanetary magnetic field polarities) and in an actual interplanetary coronal mass ejection (ICME) case to assess quiet and space weather situations, respectively. The occurrence of detectable discrete aurora is subject to the combination of the probabilities that (a) the ionosphere is magnetically connected with high altitudes through open field lines and (b) precipitating energy fluxes of >30 eV electrons exceed 0.1 erg/cm2/s. Our results show that during quiet solar activity, discrete aurora occurs likely on small-scale patches embedded inside strong crustal magnetic field regions (with a magnitude greater than 50 nT at 150 km), and the overall chance across the globe is ∼0.77%. The higher probability over strong crustal field regions is attributed to the stronger magnetic field convergence. Modeling shows the occurrence probability dramatically increases during the ICME event, particularly by more than an order of magnitude in weak crustal field regions. Our model results reasonably agree with NASA Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN and Mars Express observations. Our study suggests that nightside discrete electron aurora is not caused by the direct entry of magnetosheath plasma in a cusp-like process but due to the recycling of nightside magnetospheric electrons.

Xiaohua Fang↗

Identification of Flux Rope Orientation via Neural Networks

Geomagnetic disturbance forecasting is based on the identification of solar wind structures and accurate determination of their magnetic field orientation. For nowcasting activities, this is currently a tedious and manual process. Focusing on the main driver of geomagnetic disturbances, the twisted internal magnetic field of interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICMEs), we explore a convolutional neural network’s (CNN) ability to predict the embedded magnetic flux rope’s orientation once it has been identified from in situ solar wind observations. Our work uses CNNs trained with magnetic field vectors from analytical flux rope data. The simulated flux ropes span many possible spacecraft trajectories and flux rope orientations. We train CNNs first with full duration flux ropes and then again with partial duration flux ropes. The former provides us with a baseline of how well CNNs can predict flux rope orientation while the latter provides insights into real-time forecasting by exploring how accuracy is affected by percentage of flux rope observed. The process of casting the physics problem as a machine learning problem is discussed as well as the impacts of different factors on prediction accuracy such as flux rope fluctuations and different neural network topologies. Finally, results from evaluating the trained network against observed ICMEs from Wind during 1995–2015 are presented.

Thomas Narock↗

Advancement of Extreme Environment Additively Manufactured Alloys for Next Generation Space Propulsion Applications

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has been involved in the development and maturation of metal additive manufacturing (AM) for space applications since the late 2000’s. Several efforts focused on the understanding of AM processes through material characterization and testing, standards development, component fabrication, and infusion into propulsion development and flight applications. NASA matured commonly used aerospace alloys from various alloy families (Nickel, Copper, Stainless and Steel, Aluminum, and Titanium-based) through detailed AM process and heat treatment characterization, in addition to mechanical and thermophysical testing. While these alloys are actively used in many propulsion applications, there is a need for ongoing AM optimized alloys using integrated computational materials engineering (ICME) and process development for high performance applications. The applications targeted are liquid rocket engines; advanced propulsion systems; and in-space propulsion with high heat fluxes, high pressure, and/or that use propellants that can degrade alloys (e.g., hydrogen). This paper highlights the characterization and physical properties of the more common AM alloys using laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF) and laser powder directed energy deposition (LP-DED) processes. Additionally, this paper discusses some of the ongoing novel alloy development and maturation using AM for use in these harsh environments, such as GRCop42, GRCop-84, NASA HR-1, GRX-810, and C-103. The results from these processes demonstrated that AM could enable rapid development and ongoing efforts for optimized alloys using ICME, yielding higher performances. These alloys have undergone modeling, fundamental metallurgical evaluations, heat treatment studies, detailed microstructure characterization, and mechanical testing campaigns. This, combined with direct application-specific component fabrication and hot-fire testing, enabled the increase of the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) through high duty-cycle testing. A background and overview of these novel AM-enabled alloys and AM processing developments including metallurgical and mechanical property studies is presented here. The latest advancement in the parallel component development and hot-fire testing and future developments for these alloys is also discussed.

Additive Manufacturing↗

Advancement of Extreme Environment Additively Manufactured Alloys for Next Generation Space Propulsion Applications

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has been involved in the development and maturation of metal additive manufacturing (AM) for space applications since the late 2000’s. Several efforts focused on the understanding of AM processes through material characterization and testing, standards development, component fabrication, and infusion into propulsion development and flight applications. NASA matured commonly used aerospace alloys from various alloy families (Nickel, Copper, Stainless and Steel, Aluminum, and Titanium-based) through detailed AM process and heat treatment characterization, in addition to mechanical and thermophysical testing. While these alloys are actively used in many propulsion applications, there is a need for ongoing AM optimized alloys using integrated computational materials engineering (ICME) and process development for high performance applications. The applications targeted are liquid rocket engines; advanced propulsion systems; and in-space propulsion with high heat fluxes, high pressure, and/or that use propellants that can degrade alloys (e.g., hydrogen). This paper highlights the characterization and physical properties of the more common AM alloys using laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF) and laser powder directed energy deposition (LP-DED) processes. Additionally, this paper discusses some of the ongoing novel alloy development and maturation using AM for use in these harsh environments, such as GRCop-42, GRCop-84, NASA HR-1, GRX-810, and C-103. The results from these processes demonstrated that AM could enable rapid development and ongoing efforts for optimized alloys using ICME, yielding higher performances. These alloys have undergone modeling, fundamental metallurgical evaluations, heat treatment studies, detailed microstructure characterization, and mechanical testing campaigns. This, combined with direct application-specific component fabrication and hot-fire testing, enabled the increase of the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) through high duty-cycle testing. A background and overview of these novel AM-enabled alloys and AM processing developments including metallurgical and mechanical property studies is presented here. The latest advancement in the parallel component development and hot-fire testing and future developments for these alloys is also discussed.

Additive Manufacturing↗

Writhed Analytical Magnetic Flux Rope Model

Observations of magnetic clouds, within interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICMEs), are often well described by flux rope models. Most of these assume either a cylindrical or toroidal geometry. In some cases, these models are also capable of accounting for non-axisymmetric cross-sections but they generally all assume axial invariance. It can be expected that any ICME, and its flux rope, will be deformed along its axis due to influences such as the solar wind. In this work, we aim to develop a writhed analytical magnetic flux rope model which would allow us to analytically describe a flux rope structure with varying curvature and torsion so that we are no longer constrained to a cylindrical or toroidal geometry. In this first iteration of our model we will solely focus on a circular cross-section of constant size. We describe our flux rope geometry in terms of a parametrized flux rope axis and a parallel transport frame. We derive expressions for the axial and poloidal magnetic field components under the assumption that the total axial magnetic flux is conserved. We find an entire class of possible solutions, which differ by the choice of integration constants, and present the results for a specific example. In general, we find that the twist of the magnetic field locally changes when the geometry deviates from a cylinder or torus. This new approach also allows us to generate completely new types of in situ magnetic field profiles which strongly deviate from those generated by cylindrical or toroidal models.

A. J. Weiss↗

An Integrated Recursive Framework for Arbitrarily Multiscale and Multi-fidelity Modeling

The NASA Multiscale Analysis Tool (NAMSAT) serves as a state-of-the-art, “plug and play,” massively multiscale modeling (M3) platform for hierarchical materials and structures. The development of NASMAT has focused on modularity, upgradability and maintainability, interoperability, and utility. Application Program Interfaces (APIs) have been developed to facilitate the integration NASMAT into other programs (commercial, research, and user-defined) as well as the integration of other codes into NASMAT. NASMAT is an integrated, recursive platform that seamlessly allows for an arbitrary number of scales, and a variety of modeling fidelity, in a single, non-linear analysis. Thus, the macroscopic response of a material can be directly linked to the behavior of the microstructure(s), including subscale defects, making it a suitable tool for integrated computational materials engineering (ICME) because . Examples using NASMAT for simulation of polycrystalline metals at elevated temperatures will be presented.

Multiscale Modeling↗

Numerical Study of Solidification Crack Susceptibility in Novel Refractory Alloy Systems

Calculation of Phase Diagrams (CALPHAD) -based solidification computa­tions, such as Scheil or equilibrium computations, have been utilized to propose crack solidification susceptibility indices (CSSIs) of cracking. These CSSIs have been proposed in order to predict the cracking susceptibility of an alloy in the solidification range, as a function of its solidification frac­tion and as dependent upon its wt.% elemental composition through the CALPHAD computation & via comparative methods between one composition & the next. Recently Kou at al. have proposed a novel CSSI where the gradient of the e.x. Scheil solidification curve is obtained in the critical solidification cracking region of greater than 0.95 fraction of solid. Therefore, a direct Temperature dependent metric is now available for the prediction, and presumably the control, of solidification cracking. In this TM, the researchers apply this Kou gradient method to refractory alloys for the first time & discuss justification for the approach via Spearman rank correlation with Varestraint cracking test data as well as by comparisons with Thermocalc based vulnerability time CSSI calculations. A Python Pycalphad module example of the approach is provided & can be utilized as an open-source resource that utilizes also open-source available thermodynamical databases, making the CSSI quantitative aspect of ICME more available and freely available to practitioners.

ICME integrated computational materials engineerin↗

2040 Vision Study: NASA’s T3 Implementation Activities

Over the last few decades, advances in high-performance computing, new materials characterization methods, and, more recently, an emphasis on integrated computational materials engineering (ICME) and additive manufacturing have been a catalyst for multiscale modeling and simulation-based design of materials and structures in the aerospace industry. As a result, NASA’s Transformational Tools and Technology (TTT) Project sponsored a study (performed by a team led by Pratt & Whitney) to define the potential 25-year future state required for integrated multiscale modeling of materials and systems (e.g., load-bearing structures) to accelerate the pace and reduce the expense of innovation in future aerospace and aeronautical systems. This talk will briefly review the findings of this 2040 Vision study (e.g., the 2040 vision state; the required interdependent core technical work areas, Key Element (KE); associated critical gaps and actions to close those gaps; and major recommendations) and discuss NASA’s TTT implementation activities, with special emphasis on recent accomplishments. The study, NASA CR 2018- 219771, envisions the development of a cyber-physical-social ecosystem comprised of experimentally verified and validated computational models, tools, and techniques, along with the associated digital tapestry, that marries two non-mutually exclusive paradigms – “design of the materials” (material scientist viewpoint) and “design with the materials” (structural analyst viewpoint) – into a concurrent transformational paradigm that impacts the entire supply chain to enable cost-effective, rapid, and revolutionary design of fit-for-purpose materials, components, and systems. Although the vision focused on aeronautics and space applications, it is believed that other engineering communities (e.g., automotive, biomedical, etc.) can benefit as well from the proposed framework with only minor modifications. Finally, it is TTT’s hope and desire that this vision provides the strategic guidance to both public and private research and development decision makers to make the proposed 2040 vision state a reality and thereby provide a significant advancement in the United State's global competitiveness

Materials↗

On the distribution of radio emission in the X-ray cluster of galaxies Abell 401

The study deals with 4885-MHz very large array (VLA) observations of four galaxies in the rich cluster Abell 401. High-resolution VLA maps reveal several new features in the radion galaxies, e.g., 4C13.17A is unusually highly polarized near the galaxy nucleus unlike other head-tail sources. 4C13.17B is shown for the first time to have characteristics similar to the U-shaped source NGC 1265. From these maps models are produced that required the hot ICM that has been detected by X-ray observations. It is noted that there should be a correlation between the radio and X-ray emission from massive galaxies in clusters.

Burns, J. O.↗

Computer tomography of flows external to test models

Computer tomographic techniques for reconstruction of three-dimensional aerodynamic density fields, from interferograms recorded from several different viewing directions were studied. Emphasis is on the case in which an opaque object such as a test model in a wind tunnel obscures significant regions of the interferograms (projection data). A method called the Iterative Convolution Method (ICM), existing methods in which the field is represented by a series expansions, and analysis of real experimental data in the form of aerodynamic interferograms are discussed.

Prikryl, I.↗

cD galaxy dynamics and an aged ridge (jet) in 3C 338

The results of VLA observations and possible models for the peculiar structure of 3C 338, a two-arcmin radio source associated with the cD galaxy NGC 6166 in Abell 2199, are presented. The optical parameters for Abell 2199 and NGc 6166 are reviewed, and the VLA observations and reductions are described. The radio structure of 3C 338 including spectral index and polarization distributions are also discussed. Two possible origins for the ridge structure located to the south of the core which has some characteristics of a jet are proposed. The first involves a cooling accretion flow of ICM material onto the cD. The ram pressure of a highly asymmetric flow seems to be sufficient to confine the radio ridge using an accretion rate of 100 solar masses/yr. The second model presumes that the ridge is actually an aged radio jet. The radio engine would have to be intermittent with a period of about ten million years.

White, R. A.↗

A general method for dynamic analysis of structures overview

The presented research deals with the development of a dynamic analysis method for structural systems. The modeling approach is essentially a finite element method in the sense that the structure is divided into n elements. An element is defined as any structural unit whose degree of freedom (dofs) can be categorized as either interface or non-interface dofs. An element could be a fundamental unit such as a rod, a beam, a plate etc., or it could be an entire structural component. Furthermore, the parameters for the element could be distributed or lumped. The choice of elements is totally arbitrary and is a matter of user convenience. In particular, issues of accuracy and convergence do not enter on the level of example that bookkeeping is reduced to a minimum. Each element is modeled using a set of interface constraint modes (ICM) combined with a set of interface restrained normal models (IRNM). The next step is the solution of the system eigenvalue problem. The procedure calls for the sequential solution of a number of small eigenvalue problems based on a truncation principle for IRNM. In addition, the form of these eigenvalue problems is very simple such that an escalator type of eigenvalue problem solver can be used which is extremely cost-effective and fast.

Engels, Remi C.↗

Clusters of galaxies and the hot intracluster medium

The luminous material in clusters of galaxies falls primarily into two forms: the visible galaxies and the X-ray emitting intracluster medium. The hot intracluster medium is the major observed baryonic component of clusters with a mass equal to or greater than that of the stellar matter. In this paper, the structure and morphology of rich clusters as inferred from X-ray observations of the ICM are reviewed. Changes in the efficiency of galaxy formation for different clusters and the origin of the intracluster medium are also discussed.

Jones, C.↗