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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.

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At least 1,477 records · Page 82
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1976

Computational alternatives to obtain time optimal jet engine control

Two computational methods to determine an open loop time optimal control sequence for a simple single spool turbojet engine are described by a set of nonlinear differential equations. Both methods are modifications of widely accepted algorithms which can solve fixed time unconstrained optimal control problems with a free right end. Constrained problems to be considered have fixed right ends and free time. Dynamic programming is defined on a standard problem and it yields a successive approximation solution to the time optimal problem of interest. A feedback control law is obtained and it is then used to determine the corresponding open loop control sequence. The Fletcher-Reeves conjugate gradient method has been selected for adaptation to solve a nonlinear optimal control problem with state variable and control constraints.

Basso, R. J.↗
NASA NTRS1976

Table and Charts of Equilibrium Normal-shock Properties for Pure Hydrogen with Velocities to 70 km/sec. Revised.

Errors found in the original edition are corrected. Refinement was made in procedures for solving the conservation relations for an incident (moving), standing, and reflected normal shock, as well as in computational methods for determining thermochemical-equilibrium hydrogen properties. A six-species hydrogen model replaces the original four-species model, and the heat of formation and spectroscopic constants used in this six-species model are listed in appendix A. In appendix B, comparisons are made between a number of methods for determining equilibrium thermodynamic properties for hydrogen for several values of pressure and temperatures to 50000 K. A comparison is also performed between the present method and a second method for determining thermodynamic properties and flow velocity behind an incident shock into pure hydrogen and behind a reflected shock.

Miller, C. G., III↗
NASA NTRS1977

Redox Bulk Energy Storage System Study, Volume 1

Opportunities were found for electrochemical energy storage devices in the U.S. electric utility industry. Application requirements for these devices were defined, including techno-economic factors. A new device, the Redox storage battery was analyzed. The Redox battery features a decoupling of energy storage and power conversion functions. General computer methods were developed to simulate Redox system operations. These studies showed that the Redox system is potentially attractive if certain performance goals can be achieved. Pathways for reducing the cost of the Redox system were identified.

Ciprios, G.↗
NASA NTRS1976

Prediction and measurement of radiation damage to CMOS devices on board spacecraft

The CMOS Radiation Effects Measurement (CREM) experiment is presently being flown on the Explorer-55, to evaluate device performance in the actual space radiation environment and to correlate the respective measurements to on-the-ground laboratory irradiation results. The experiment contains an assembly of CMOS and P-MOS devices shielded in front over 2 pi steradian by flat slabs of aluminum of 40, 80, 150, and 300 mils (1.02, 2.04, 3.81, and 7.62 mm) thicknesses, and by a practically infinite shield in the back. Initial results from the CREM experiment are reported. Predictions of radiation damage to CMOS devices are based on standard environment models and computational techniques. Measured space damage is smaller than predicted by about a factor of 2-3 for thin shields but agrees well with predictions for thicker shields. It is not clear at this time how the trapped particle environment models or the computational methods should be modified in order to achieve better agreement between experimental results and predicted damage curves.

Cliff, R. A.↗
NASA NTRS1977

The upper Jovian atmosphere aerosol content determined from a satellite eclipse observation

An eclipse of Ganymede observed in 30 colors with a multichannel spectrometer and the 5-m Hale telescope is analyzed to determine the aerosol content of the upper Jovian atmosphere. Contemporary radiative-equilibrium atmospheric models are used, and less restrictive a priori assumptions about the aerosol distribution are made than in previous studies. Preliminary processing of the raw data to correct for telescope aperture change and to remove scattered light is described, eclipse light-curve theory is reviewed, and light-curve features are examined. The primary 'cloudy' atmospheric model employed is outlined along with the computational method, and results are presented on aerosol profiles, the upper limit of the aerosol region, the aerosol structure, the sensitivity of the aerosol profiles to various parameters, and the stratospheric aerosol distribution. The aerosol profiles are found to indicate a very dilute stratospheric haze overlying a tenuous tropopause cloud or cloud top.

Smith, D. W.↗
NASA NTRS1977

Acoustoelasticity - General theory, acoustic natural modes and forced response to sinusoidal excitation, including comparisons with experiment

A comprehensive theoretical model has been developed for interior sound fields which are created by flexible wall motion resulting from exterior sound fields. Full coupling between the wall and interior acoustic cavity is permitted. An efficient computational method is used to determine acoustic natural frequencies of multiply connected cavities. Simplified formulae are developed for interior sound levels in terms of cavity, wall and external acoustic field parameters. Comparisons of theory and experiment show generally good agreement.

Dowell, E. H.↗
NASA NTRS1978

Levels of turbulence prediction

A classification according to the level of detail of description the computational method provides is probably most useful. Flow calculations can be classified into five categories: (1) correlations; (2) zonal method; (3) time-averaged equations; (4) large-eddy simulation; and (5) Navier-Stokes solution. There are methods that fall into more than one category, and there are sub-divisions of each category. A discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of each of these five categories is given.

Ferziger, J. H.↗
NASA NTRS1978

Review of the Air Force summer study program on the integration of wind tunnels and computers

The present state of computational fluid dynamics and its impact on the design cycle and computer requirements for future developments in this field were explored. The increase in productivity and efficiency which experimental facilities can achieve by a close integration with computers was investigated together with possible improvements in simulation quality of wind tunnels in conjunction with computer control. Research experiments are outlined to provide a better understanding of the physics of fluid flow and to assist in the modeling of these phenomena for computational methods, with primary emphasis on turbulent flows.

Marschner, B. W.↗
NASA NTRS1978

High Angle of Incidence Implications upon Air Intake Design and Location for Supersonic Cruise Aircraft and Highly Maneuverable Transonic Aircraft

Computational results which show the effects of angle of attack on supersonic mixed compression inlet performance at four different locations about a hypothetical forebody were obtained. These results demonstrate the power of the computational method to predict optimum inlet location, orientation, and centerbody control schedule for design and off design performance. The effects of inlet location and a forward canard on the angle-of-attack performance of a normal shock inlet at transonic speeds were studied. The data show that proper integration of inlet location and a forward canard can enhance the angle-of-attack performance of a normal shock inlet. Two lower lip treatments for improving the angle-of-attack performance of rectangular inlets at transonic speeds are discussed.

Presley, L. S.↗
NASA NTRS1977

Prediction and measurement results of radiation damage to CMOS devices on board spacecraft

Final results from the CMOS Radiation Effects Measurement (CREM) experiment flown on Explorer 55 are presented and discussed, based on about 15 months of observations and measurements. Conclusions are given relating to long-range annealing, effects of operating temperature on semiconductor performance in space, biased and unbiased P-MOS device degradation, unbiased n-channel device performance, changes in device transconductance, and the difference in ionization efficiency between Co-60 gamma rays and 1-Mev Van de Graaff electrons. The performance of devices in a heavily shielded electronic subsystem box within the spacecraft is evaluated and compared. Environment models and computational methods and their impact on device-degradation estimates are being reviewed to determine whether they permit cost-effective design of spacecraft.

Stassinopoulos, E. G.↗
NASA NTRS1978

Boundary conditions for multistep finite-difference methods for time-dependent equations

The stability and accuracy of various boundary treatments are analyzed for the two-step Richtmyer and MacCormack methods. Special attention is paid to ways of imposing the extra boundary conditions after the first step of the two-step process. The theory of Kreiss is used to study stability properties for both scalar and vector equations. The theory of Skollermo is used to compare accuracies of the various methods. Computations were also performed on both wavelike equations and on systems that approach a steady state. Several suggestions are given for more reliable boundary treatments.

Gottlieb, D.↗
NASA NTRS1977

Multi-attribute subjective evaluations of manual tracking tasks vs. objective performance of the human operator

A computational method to deal with the multidimensional nature of tracking and/or monitoring tasks is developed. Operator centered variables, including the operator's perception of the task, are considered. Matrix ratings are defined based on multidimensional scaling techniques and multivariate analysis. The method consists of two distinct steps: (1) to determine the mathematical space of subjective judgements of a certain individual (or group of evaluators) for a given set of tasks and experimental conditionings; and (2) to relate this space with respect to both the task variables and the objective performance criteria used. Results for a variety of second-order trackings with smoothed noise-driven inputs indicate that: (1) many of the internally perceived task variables form a nonorthogonal set; and (2) the structure of the subjective space varies among groups of individuals according to the degree of familiarity they have with such tasks.

Siapkaras, A.↗
NASA NTRS1979

A revised 5 minute gravimetric geoid and associated errors for the North Atlantic calibration area

A revised 5 minute gravimetric geoid and its errors were computed for the North Atlantic calibration area using GEM-8 potential coefficients and the latest gravity data available from the Defense Mapping Agency. This effort was prompted by a number of inconsistencies and small errors found in previous calculations of this geoid. The computational method and constants used are given in detail to serve as a reference for future work.

Mader, G. L.↗
NASA NTRS1979

High angle of incidence implications upon air intake design and location for supersonic cruise aircraft and highly maneuverable transonic aircraft

The effects of angle of attack on supersonic mixed compression inlet performance at four different locations about a hypothetical forebody are given. A computational method to predict optimum inlet location, orientation, and centerbody control schedule for design and off-design performance is described. The effects of inlet location and a forward canard on the angle-of-attack performance of a normal shock inlet at transonic speeds were studied. Proper integration of inlet location and a forward canard can enhance the angle-of-attack performance of a normal shock inlet. Two lower lip treatments for improving the angle-of-attack performance of rectangular inlets at transonic speeds are discussed.

Presley, L. L.↗
NASA NTRS1979

Development of analytical orbit propagation technique with drag

Two orbit computation methods were used: (1) numerical method- The solution to the satellite differential equations were solved in a step-by-step manner, using a mathematical algorithm taken from numerical analysis; and (2) analytical method - The solution was expressed by explicit functions of the independent variable. Analytical drag modules, tesseral terms initialization module, second order and long period terms module, and verification testing of the ASOP program were also considered.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1979

Dipole and quadrupole synthesis of electric potential fields

A general technique for expanding an unknown potential field in terms of a linear summation of weighted dipole or quadrupole fields is described. Computational methods were developed for the iterative addition of dipole fields. Various solution potentials were compared inside the boundary with a more precise calculation of the potential to derive optimal schemes for locating the singularities of the dipole fields. Then, the problem of determining solutions to Laplace's equation on an unbounded domain as constrained by pertinent electron trajectory data was considered.

Tilley, D. G.↗
NASA NTRS1977

Implementation of wind performance studies for large antenna structures

Structural design procedures are described for a large antenna system to meet performance requirements under gravity and wind loading. A computational method is shown for the evaluation of performance in response to wind loading. Cumulative probability distribution curves for wind loading gain reductions for 100-m-diameter antennas are developed to compare a relatively heavy baseline reflector backup structure with two lighter-weight structures; all have equivalent, acceptable performance for gravity loading.

Levy, R.↗
NASA NTRS1978

Investigation of ODE integrators using interactive graphics

Two FORTRAN programs using an interactive graphic terminal to generate accuracy and stability plots for given multistep ordinary differential equation (ODE) integrators are described. The first treats the fixed stepsize linear case with complex variable solutions, and generates plots to show accuracy and error response to step driving function of a numerical solution, as well as the linear stability region. The second generates an analog to the stability region for classes of non-linear ODE's as well as accuracy plots. Both systems can compute method coefficients from a simple specification of the method. Example plots are given.

Brown, R. L.↗