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At least 1,657 records · Page 92

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NASA NTRS1992

XPI: The Xanadu Parameter Interface

XPI is a table driven parameter interface which greatly simplifies both command driven programs such as BROWSE and XIMAGE as well as stand alone single-task programs. It moves all of the syntax and semantic parsing of commands and parameters out of the users code into common code and externally defined tables. This allows the programmer to concentrate on writing the code unique to the application rather than reinventing the user interface and for external graphical interfaces to interface with no changes to the command driven program. XPI also includes a compatibility library which allows programs written using the IRAF host interface (Mandel and Roll) to use XPI in place of the IRAF host interface.

White, N.↗

NASA NTRS1993

Comparison between 1-minute and 15-minute averages of turbulence parameters

Sonic anemometers are good instruments for measuring temperature and wind speed and are fast enough to calculate the temperature and wind structure parameters used to calculate the variance in the acoustic index of refraction. However, the turbulence parameters are typically 15-minute averaged point measurements. There are several problems associated with making point measurements and using them to represent a turbulence field. Some of the sonic anemometer data analyzed from the Joint Acoustic Propagation Experiment (JAPE) conducted during July 1991 at DIRT Site located at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, are examined.

Noble, John M.↗

NASA NTRS1993

Kinetic parameters from thermogravimetric analysis

High performance polymeric materials are finding increased use in aerospace applications. Proposed high speed aircraft will require materials to withstand high temperatures in an oxidative atmosphere for long periods of time. It is essential that accurate estimates be made of the performance of these materials at the given conditions of temperature and time. Temperatures of 350 F (177 C) and times of 60,000 to 100,000 hours are anticipated. In order to survey a large number of high performance polymeric materials on a reasonable time scale, some form of accelerated testing must be performed. A knowledge of the rate of a process can be used to predict the lifetime of that process. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) has frequently been used to determine kinetic information for degradation reactions in polymeric materials. Flynn and Wall studied a number of methods for using TGA experiments to determine kinetic information in polymer reactions. Kinetic parameters, such as the apparent activation energy and the frequency factor, can be determined in such experiments. Recently, researchers at the McDonnell Douglas Research Laboratory suggested that a graph of the logarithm of the frequency factor against the apparent activation energy can be used to predict long-term thermo-oxidative stability for polymeric materials. Such a graph has been called a kinetic map. In this study, thermogravimetric analyses were performed in air to study the thermo-oxidative degradation of several high performance polymers and to plot their kinetic parameters on a kinetic map.

Kiefer, Richard L.↗

NASA NTRS1994

Tropospheric corrections to GPS measurements using locally measured meteorological parameters compared with general tropospheric corrections

At the Technical University Graz (TUG), Austria, the Global Positioning System (GPS) has been used for time transfer purposes since the early 80's and from that time on local meteorological parameters have been recorded together with each measurement (satellite track). The paper compares the tropospheric corrections (delays) obtained from models usually employed in GPS receivers and those using locally measured meteorological parameters.

Kirchner, D.↗

NASA NTRS1994

Parameter identification of a rotor supported in a pressurized bearing lubricated with water

A rig for testing an externally pressurized (hydrostatic), water-lubricated bearing was developed. Applying a nonsynchronous sweep frequency, rotating perturbation force with a constant amplitude as an input, rotor vibration response data was acquired in Bode and Dynamic Stiffness formats. Using this data, the parameters of the rotor/bearing system were identified. The rotor/bearing model was represented by the generalized (modal) parameters of the first lateral mode, with the rotational character of the fluid force taken into account.

Grant, John W.↗

NASA NTRS1994

Filter parameter tuning analysis for operational orbit determination support

The use of an extended Kalman filter (EKF) for operational orbit determination support is being considered by the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) Flight Dynamics Division (FDD). To support that investigation, analysis was performed to determine how an EKF can be tuned for operational support of a set of earth-orbiting spacecraft. The objectives of this analysis were to design and test a general purpose scheme for filter tuning, evaluate the solution accuracies, and develop practical methods to test the consistency of the EKF solutions in an operational environment. The filter was found to be easily tuned to produce estimates that were consistent, agreed with results from batch estimation, and compared well among the common parameters estimated for several spacecraft. The analysis indicates that there is not a sharply defined 'best' tunable parameter set, especially when considering only the position estimates over the data arc. The comparison of the EKF estimates for the user spacecraft showed that the filter is capable of high-accuracy results and can easily meet the current accuracy requirements for the spacecraft included in the investigation. The conclusion is that the EKF is a viable option for FDD operational support.

Dunham, J.↗

NASA NTRS1994

Parameter estimation of the vibrational model for the SCOLE experimental facility

The objective of this study is to experimentally determine an empirical model of the vibrational dynamics of the Spacecraft COntrol Laboratory Experiment (SCOLE) facility. The first two flexible modes of this test article are identified using a linear least-square identification procedure and the data utilized for this procedure are obtained by exciting the structure from a quiescent state with torque wheels. The time history data of rate gyro sensors and accelerometers due to excitation and after excitation in terms of free-decay are used in the parameter estimation of the vibrational model. The free-decay portion of the data is analyzed using the Discrete Fourier transform to determine the optimal model order to use in modelling the response. Linear least-square analysis is then used to select the parameters that best fit the output of an Autoregressive (AR) model to the data. The control effectiveness of the torque wheels is then determined using the excitation portion of the test data, again using linear least squares.

Crotts, B. D.↗

NASA NTRS1994

Optimization for minimum sensitivity to uncertain parameters

A procedure to design a structure for minimum sensitivity to uncertainties in problem parameters is described. The approach is to minimize directly the sensitivity derivatives of the optimum design with respect to fixed design parameters using a nested optimization procedure. The procedure is demonstrated for the design of a bimetallic beam for minimum weight with insensitivity to uncertainties in structural properties. The beam is modeled with finite elements based on two dimensional beam analysis. A sequential quadratic programming procedure used as the optimizer supplies the Lagrange multipliers that are used to calculate the optimum sensitivity derivatives. The method was perceived to be successful from comparisons of the optimization results with parametric studies.

Pritchard, Jocelyn I.↗

NASA NTRS1994

Impact force as a scaling parameter

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAR PART 25) requires that a structure carry ultimate load with nonvisible impact damage and carry 70 percent of limit flight loads with discrete damage. The Air Force has similar criteria (MIL-STD-1530A). Both civilian and military structures are designed by a building block approach. First, critical areas of the structure are determined, and potential failure modes are identified. Then, a series of representative specimens are tested that will fail in those modes. The series begins with tests of simple coupons, progresses through larger and more complex subcomponents, and ends with a test on a full-scale component, hence the term 'building block.' In order to minimize testing, analytical models are needed to scale impact damage and residual strength from the simple coupons to the full-scale component. Using experiments and analysis, the present paper illustrates that impact damage can be better understood and scaled using impact force than just kinetic energy. The plate parameters considered are size and thickness, boundary conditions, and material, and the impact parameters are mass, shape, and velocity.

Poe, Clarence C., Jr.↗

NASA NTRS1993

Robust control design with real parameter uncertainty using absolute stability theory

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate an extension of mu theory for robust control design by considering systems with linear and nonlinear real parameter uncertainties. In the process, explicit connections are made between mixed mu and absolute stability theory. In particular, it is shown that the upper bounds for mixed mu are a generalization of results from absolute stability theory. Both state space and frequency domain criteria are developed for several nonlinearities and stability multipliers using the wealth of literature on absolute stability theory and the concepts of supply rates and storage functions. The state space conditions are expressed in terms of Riccati equations and parameter-dependent Lyapunov functions. For controller synthesis, these stability conditions are used to form an overbound of the H2 performance objective. A geometric interpretation of the equivalent frequency domain criteria in terms of off-axis circles clarifies the important role of the multiplier and shows that both the magnitude and phase of the uncertainty are considered. A numerical algorithm is developed to design robust controllers that minimize the bound on an H2 cost functional and satisfy an analysis test based on the Popov stability multiplier. The controller and multiplier coefficients are optimized simultaneously, which avoids the iteration and curve-fitting procedures required by the D-K procedure of mu synthesis. Several benchmark problems and experiments on the Middeck Active Control Experiment at M.I.T. demonstrate that these controllers achieve good robust performance and guaranteed stability bounds.

How, Jonathan P.↗

NASA NTRS1994

Parameter identification for X-31A at high angles of attack

The U.S./German experimental aircraft X-31A was designed and constructed to demonstrate enhanced fighter maneuverability. Post-stall maneuvering is enabled by applying new technologies such as high angle of attack aerodynamics and flight control system integrated thrust vectoring. Two demonstrator aircraft have been built by the main contractors, Rockwell International and Deutsche Aerospace (formerly MBB). Flight testing started in October 1990 and before the end of 1992 both aircraft had accomplished a significant number of flights covering the entire AoA regime from about -5 to 70 deg. Throughout the envelope expansion, DLR Institute of Flight Mechanics conducted parameter identification (PID) to determine the aerodynamic parameters of the aircraft from flight test data and to compare the results to the predictions from the aerodynamic dataset (ADS). The application of system identification to high AoA / post-stall flight data raises some major problems, which are discussed in this paper. Results from both longitudinal and lateral-directional motion will be presented.

S Weiss↗

NASA NTRS1994

Radiative transfer code based estimation of atmospheric parameters for inversion of imaging spectrometer measured radiance to apparent surface reflectance

Surface reflectance is required to quantitatively investigate molecular absorption and particle scattering properties of materials on the Earth's surface. Atmospheric aerosol optical depth, surface pressure and water vapor are required to constrain a radiative transfer code for the inversion of measured spectral radiance to apparent surface reflectance. A suite of algorithms using nonlinear least squares fitting techniques are described that directly estimate these atmospheric parameters from spectral radiance measured by the Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS). The derived atmospheric parameters are used to constrain a radiative transfer code for the inversion of the imaging spectrometer radiance to apparent reflectance. The derived apparent reflectance is validated with respect to in situ measurement on the same target.

Green, Robert O.↗

NASA NTRS1994

The Accuracy of Parameter Estimation in System Identification of Noisy Aircraft Load Measurement

This thesis focuses on the subject of the accuracy of parameter estimation and system identification techniques. Motivated by a complicated load measurement from NASA Dryden Flight Research Center, advanced system identification techniques are needed. The objective of this problem is to accurately predict the load experienced by the aircraft wing structure during flight determined from a set of calibrated load and gage response relationship. We can then model the problem as a black box input-output system identification from which the system parameter has to be estimated. Traditional LS (Least Square) techniques and the issues of noisy data and model accuracy are addressed. A statistical bound reflecting the change in residual is derived in order to understand the effects of the perturbations on the data. Due to the intrinsic nature of the LS problem, LS solution faces the dilemma of the trade off between model accuracy and noise sensitivity. A method of conflicting performance indices is presented, thus allowing us to improve the noise sensitivity while at the same time configuring the degredation of the model accuracy. SVD techniques for data reduction are studied and the equivalence of the Correspondence Analysis (CA) and Total Least Squares Criteria are proved. We also looked at nonlinear LS problems with NASA F-111 data set as an example. Conventional methods are neither easily applicable nor suitable for the specific load problem since the exact model of the system is unknown. Neural Network (NN) does not require prior information on the model of the system. This robustness motivated us to apply the NN techniques on our load problem. Simulation results for the NN methods used in both the single load and the 'warning signal' problems are both useful and encouraging. The performance of the NN (for single load estimate) is better than the LS approach, whereas no conventional approach was tried for the 'warning signals' problems. The NN design methodology is also presented. The use of SVD, CA and Collinearity Index methods are used to reduce the number of neurons in a layer.

Kong, Jeffrey↗

NASA NTRS1993

Estimation of aerosol optical depth and additional atmospheric parameters for the calculation of apparent reflectance from radiance measured by the Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer

The Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) measures spatial images of the total upwelling spectral radiance from 400 to 2500 nm through 10 nm spectral channels. Quantitative research and application objectives for surface investigations require inversion of the measured radiance of surface reflectance or surface leaving radiance. To calculate apparent surface reflectance, estimates of atmospheric water vapor abundance, cirrus cloud effects, surface pressure elevation, and aerosol optical depth are required. Algorithms for the estimation of these atmospheric parameters from the AVIRIS data themselves are described. From these atmospheric parameters we show an example of the calculation of apparent surface reflectance from the AVIRIS-measured radiance using a radiative transfer code.

Green, Robert O.↗

NASA NTRS1995

Conversion of sunflower multiband radiometer polarization measurements to polarization parameters

The data processing analysis and conversion of polarization measurements to polarization parameters from the Sunflower multiband radiometer is presented in this final report. Included is: (1) the actual data analysis; (2) the comparison of the averaging techniques and the percent polarization derived from the original and averaged I, Q, U parameters; (3) the polarizer angles used in conversion; (4) the Matlab files; (5) the relative ground size, field of view location, and view zenith angles, and (6) the summary of all the sky data for all dates.

Biehl, Larry L.↗

NASA NTRS1994

The metallicity of M4: Accurate spectroscopic fundamental parameters for four giants

High-quality spectra, covering the wavelength range 5480 to 7080 A, have been obtained for four giant stars in the intermediate-metallicity CN-bimodal globular cluster M4 (NGC 6121). We have employed a model atmosphere analysis that is entirely independent from cluster parameters, such as distance, age, and reddening, in order to derive accurate values for the stellar parameters effective temperature, surface gravity, and microturbulence, and for the abundance of iron relative to the Sun, (Fe/H), and of calcium, Ca/H, for each of the four stars. Detailed radiative transfer and statistical equilibrium calculations carried out for iron and calcium suggest that departures from local thermodynamic equilibrium are not significant for the purposes of our analysis. The spectroscopically derived effective temperatures for our program stars are hotter by about 200 K than existing photometric calibrations suggest. We conclude that this is due partly to the uncertain reddening of M4 and to the existing photometric temperature calibration for red giants being too cool by about 100 K. Comparison of our spectroscopic and existing photometric temperatures supports the prognosis of a significant east-west gradient in the reddening across M4. Our derived iron abundances are slightly higher than previous high-resolution studies suggested; the differences are most probably due to the different temperature scale and choice of microturbulent velocities adopted by earlier workers. The resulting value for the metallicity of M4 is (Fe/H )(sub M4) = -1.05 + or - 0.15. Based on this result, we suggest that metallicities derived in previous high-dispersion globular cluster abundance analyses could be too low by 0.2 to 0.3 dex. Our calcium abundances suggest an enhancement of calcium, an alpha element, over iron, relative to the Sun, in M4 of (Ca/H) = 0.23.

Drake, J. J.↗

NASA NTRS1994

A new variability parameter for gamma-ray burst time profiles

We present a parameter that measures the structure of gamma-ray burst time profiles. This parameter is based on the statistics of runs and is a good measure of time profile variability. It is shown to be independent of burst duration and less sensitive to burst distance than algorithms that depend directly on the intensity of a burst.

Lestrade, John Patrick↗

NASA NTRS1995

Synoptic maps of solar wind parameters from in situ spacecraft observations

Solar wind observations from the Interplanetary Monitoring Platform-8 (IMP-8) and Pioneer Venus Orbiter (PVO) spacecraft from 1982 until 1988 are combined to construct synoptic maps of solar wind parameters near 1 AU. Each map consists of 6 months of hourly averaged solar wind data, binned by heliographic latitude and Carrington longitude and projected back to the Sun. These maps show the structure and time evolution of solar wind streams near 1 AU in the heliographic latitudes of +/- 7.25 deg and provide and explicit picture of several phenomena, such as gradients, changes in the inclination of the heliospheric current sheet, and the relative positions of various structures in the inner heliosphere, that is difficult to obtain from single-spacecraft observations. The stream structure varied significantly during the last solar cycle. Between 1982 and early 1985, solar wind parameters did not depend strongly on heliographic latitude. During the last solar minimum, the solar wind developed significant latitudinal structure, and high-speed streams were excluded from the vicinity of the solar equator. The interplanetary magnetic field was strongly correlated with the coronal field, and the current sheet tended to coincide with the coronal neutral line. The solar wind speed showed the expected correlations with temperature, interplanetary magnetic field, and distance from the current sheet. The solar wind speed was anticorrelated with density, but the regions of highest density occurred east of the heliospheric current sheet and the regions of lowest solar wind speed. This is consistent with compression at the leading edge of high-speed streams.

Gazis, P. R.↗