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At least 1,693 records · Page 94

Solar flare track densities in interplanetary dust particles The determination of an asteroidal versus cometary source of the zodiacal dust cloud

The possibility is explored whether an IDP (interplanetary dust particle) is cometary or asteroidal from measurements of the solar flare track density within its constituent mineral grains. Dust particles that are larger than 1 micron, when injected into the Solar System from comets and asteroids, will spiral into the sun due to the Poynting-Robertson effect. During the process of spiraling in, such dust particles accumulate solar flare tracks. The accumulated track density for a given dust grain is a function of the duration of its space exposure and its distance from the sun. Using a computer model, it was determined that the expected track density distributions from grains produced by comets are very different from those produced by asteroids. Individual asteroids produce populations of particles that arrive at 1 AU with scaled track density distributions containing 'spikes,' while comets supply particles with a flatter and wider distribution of track densities.

Sandford, Scott A.↗

Control of multiple resonant power processors in a multi-source system

Analysis and test results show that phasor-regulated, Mapham-derived resonant inverters can be paralleled to provide standardizing interfaces for multiple sources on a utility-type, aerospace power distribution bus. The basic sources do not require matching in any way, and may have grossly different characteristics. Fully stable system architectures with multiple sources, parallel/redundant distribution buses, and a wide variety of loads can be easily constructed and controlled. The commands and parameters available for system control allow for tight tolerance bus voltage control, and absolute power-sharing control from the various sources over the full range of possible source and load variations. That level of control enables simplified load power processing hardware and the distribution of losses to optimally load the source thermal control system. Positive control of all system performance and allocation of losses are not required by all missions or vehicles, and overall vehicle considerations do not always require the loads on vehicle energy sources and thermal control systems to be balanced. In those cases, power system control can be simplified, and a hierarchical set of defaults can be substituted for computer-generated or supervisory input commands to allow for stable, fully autonomous system operation.

Mildice, James↗

Space Station Freedom electrical performance model

The baseline Space Station Freedom electric power system (EPS) employs photovoltaic (PV) arrays and nickel hydrogen (NiH2) batteries to supply power to housekeeping and user electrical loads via a direct current (dc) distribution system. The EPS was originally designed for an operating life of 30 years through orbital replacement of components. As the design and development of the EPS continues, accurate EPS performance predictions are needed to assess design options, operating scenarios, and resource allocations. To meet these needs, NASA Lewis Research Center (LeRC) has, over a 10 year period, developed SPACE (Station Power Analysis for Capability Evaluation), a computer code designed to predict EPS performance. This paper describes SPACE, its functionality, and its capabilities.

Hojnicki, Jeffrey S.↗

Reducing costs of managing and accessing navigation and ancillary data by relying on the extensive capabilities of NASA's spice system

The SPICE system of navigation and ancillary data possesses a number of traits that make its use in modern space missions of all types highly cost efficient. The core of the system is a software library providing API interfaces for storing and retrieving such data as trajectories, orientations, time conversions, and instrument geometry parameters. Applications used at any stage of a mission life cycle can call SPICE APIs to access this data and compute geometric quantities required for observation planning, engineering assessment and science data analysis. SPICE is implemented in three different languages, supported on 20+ computer environments, and distributed with complete source code and documentation. It includes capabilities that are extensively tested by everyday use in many active projects and are applicable to all types of space missions - flyby, orbiters, observatories, landers and rovers. While a customer's initial SPICE adaptation for the first mission or experiment requires a modest effort, this initial effort pays off because adaptation for subsequent missions/experiments is just a small fraction of the initial investment, with the majority of tools based on SPICE requiring no or very minor changes.

ancillary data↗

Aerodynamic Performance and Acoustic Measurements of a High-Lift Propeller in an Isolated Configuration

A series of aerodynamic performance and acoustic measurements has been made on a high-lift propeller intended for utilization on a distributed electric propulsion (DEP) aircraft. Tests were performed in the NASA Langley Low Speed Aeroacoustic Wind Tunnel (LSAWT), which has recently undergone a capability enhancement for the testing of small propellers/rotors and small unmanned aircraft system (UAS) platforms. The objectives of this testing campaign are two-fold: first to demonstrate the facility capabilities for performing small propeller aeroacoustic testing, and second to compare experimental measurements with computational fluid dynamic (CFD) predictions and CFD-based acoustic predictions of the tested propeller configurations for tool development and validation purposes.

Zawodny, Nikolas S.↗

Distributed Consensus to Enable Merging and Spacing of UAS in an Urban Environment

This paper presents a novel approach to enable multiple Unmanned Aerial Systems approaching a common intersection to independently schedule their arrival time while maintaining a safe separation. Aircraft merging at a common intersection are grouped into a network and each aircraft broadcasts its arrival time interval to the network. A distributed consensus algorithm elects a leader among the aircraft approaching the intersection and helps synchronize the information received by each aircraft. The consensus algorithm ensures that each aircraft computes a schedule with the same input information. The elected leader also dictates when a schedule must be computed, which may be triggered when a new aircraft joins the network. Preliminary results illustrating the collaborative behavior of the vehicles are presented.

Balachandran, Swee↗

Modeling and Analysis of Stirling Power Convertors

Modeling and Analysis of Stirling Power Convertors Luis A. Rodriguez1 Steven M. Geng, Terry V. Reid, Scott D. Wilson NASA Glenn Research Center, Cleveland, OH, 44135, USA NASA Glenn’s Thermal Energy Conversion Branch is supporting the development of the next generation free-piston Stirling power convertors. American Superconductor (AMSC) and Sunpower Inc. are the two firms under contract to develop the Flexure Isotope Stirling Convertor (FISC) and the Sunpower Robust Stirling Convertor (SRSC), respectively. To comprehend and forecast convertor performance, Sage, ANSYS® Maxwell, and ANSYS® Fluent were used to model the Stirling thermodynamic cycle, alternator electromagnetics, and piston and displacer dynamics. I. Introduction Stirling convertors are being developed by NASA as a potential steady source of electrical power for NASA’s future scientific space missions. Currently, NASA Glenn Research Center has two corporations under contract, American Superconductor (AMSC) and Sunpower Inc., for the development of the next generation of free-piston Stirling convertors for dynamic radioisotope power systems. AMSC is developing the Flexure Isotope Stirling Convertor (FISC), which uses flexures to prevent side motion and rubbing of the piston. Similarly, Sunpower Inc, is developing the Sunpower Robust Stirling Convertor (SRSC). The SRSC uses gas bearings to prevent radial contact of the moving piston. As convertor development continues, it is increasingly important to understand and predict the interactions of components in the system, how they respond to one another, and how they perform as a response to changes in operating conditions. A suitable and enlightening way to demonstrate and foresee these interactions is with the use of accurate modeling software. Sage, ANSYS® Maxwell, and ANSYS® Fluent are the current modeling tools used by NASA to analytically determine convertor performance. Sage is a one-dimensional object-oriented commercial software package used for modeling and optimizing Stirling convertors for Dynamic Radioisotope Power Systems (DRPS) and it is one of the most accurate Stirling convertor codes in use by NASA. This code is the successor to GLIMPS (Globally-Implicit Stirling Cycle Simulation) and GLOP (GLIMPS Optimization) software created by Gedeon Associates [1]. Model input parameters are typically material/gas type, component physical dimensions, temperatures, frequency, charge pressure, and number of time/space nodes. Sage is used to model both the FISC’s and SRSC’s Stirling cycle thermodynamics and piston/displacer dynamics. Performance maps were created and analyzed for both power systems to better understand the relationship between the following conditions: cold-end temperature, hot-end temperature, piston/displacer amplitudes, pressure drop, and thermal input power. The synergy between these conditions will help determine parameter sensitivity. ANSYS® Maxwell was used to create a three-dimensional (3-D) axisymmetric model for both FISC and SRSC alternators. The significant physical components included in each model are the magnets, magnet carrier, outer/inner laminations, and the coil. Inputs to the model are piston amplitude, piston frequency, alternator load, coil resistance, tuning capacitance, and specific material properties. The alternator models calculate terminal voltage, current, piston/current phase, voltage/current phase, coil inductance, terminal power and efficiency. The RI2 losses, core (hysteresis and eddy) losses, and magnet/can eddy losses are also a part of the final results. ANSYS® Fluent is used to build 3-D computational fluid dynamic (CFD) models to examine the Stirling cycle thermodynamics for both the FISC and SRSC systems. Three-dimensional Computer Aided Design (CAD) models were used to create the physical components of each convertor. Steady-state simulations were conducted for hardware testing, prediction of environmental losses during testing, and generation of radiation look-up tables. The model inputs to the aforementioned analysis are the material properties and boundary thermal conditions. The steady-state model calculates temperature and heat flow distributions. Transient 3-D calculations were also part of the CFD analysis. In this study a physically reduced version of the FISC is used to obtain a prediction of available engine power. For the gas bearing SRSC, the transient effort is used to obtain a prediction of bearing pad performance and its sensitivity to micro-channel geometric variation. The model inputs to the transient simulations are the piston amplitude, displacer amplitude, frequency, displacer/piston phase angle, dynamic deforming CFD grid, temperature boundary conditions, and user defined files describing motion profile of piston/displacer. The results of the model are temperature distributions, heat distributions, and PV power produced at pre-determined conditions.

Luis A Rodriguez↗

Design of the Cruise and Flap Airfoil for the X-57 Maxwell Distributed Electric Propulsion Aircraft

A computational and design study on an airfoil and high-lift flap for the X-57 Maxwell Distributed Electric Propulsion (DEP) testbed aircraft was conducted. The aircraft wing sizing study resulted in a wing area of 66.67 sq ft and aspect ratio of 15 with a design requirement of V(stall) = 58 KEAS, at a gross weight of 3,000 lb. To meet this goal an aircraft C(L,max) of 4.0 was required. The design cruise condition is 150 KTAS at 8,000 ft. This resulted in airfoil requirements of c(l) is approximately 0.90 for the cruise condition at Re = 2.35 x 10 (exp 6). A flapped airfoil with a c(l,max) of approximately 2.5 or greater, at Re = 1.0 x 10 (exp 6), was needed to have enough lift to meet the stall requirement with the DEP system. MSES computational analyses were conducted on the GAW-1, GAW-2, and the NACA 5415 airfoil sections, however they had limitations in either high drag or low c(l,max) on the cruise airfoil, which was the impetus for a new design. A design was conducted to develop a low drag airfoil for the X-57 cruise conditions with high c(l,max). The final design was the GNEW5BP93B airfoil with a minimum drag coefficient of c(d) = 0.0053 at c(l) = 0.90 and achieved laminar flow back to 69% chord on the upper surface and 62% chord on the lower surface. With fully turbulent flow, the drag increases to c(d) = 0.0120. The predicted maximum lift with turbulent flow is a c(l,max) of 1.95 at alpha = 19 deg. The airfoil is characterized by relatively flat pressure gradient regions on both surfaces at alpha = 0 deg, and aft camber to get extra lift out of the lower surface concave region. A 25% chord slotted flap was designed and analyzed with MSES for a 30 deg flap deflection. Additional 30 deg and 40 deg flap deflection analyses for two flap positions were conducted with USM3D using several turbulence models, for two angles of attack, to assess near c(l,max) with varied flap position. The maximum c(l) varied between 2.41 and 3.35. An infinite-span powered high-lift study was conducted on a GAW-1 constant chord 40 deg flapped airfoil section with FUN3D to quantify the airfoil lift increment that can be expected from a DEP system. The 16.7 hp/propeller blown wing increases the maximum C(L) from 3.45 to C(L) = 6.43, which is an effective q ratio of 1.86. This indicates that if the unblown high-lift flapped airfoil of the X-57 airplane achieves a c(l,max) of 2.78, then the high-lift augmentation blowing could yield a sectional lift coefficient of approximately 4.95 at c(l,max). Finally, a computational study was conducted with FUN3D on an infinite-span constant chord GAW-1 cruise airfoil to determine the impact of high-lift propeller diameter to wing chord ratio on the lift increment of the DEP system. A constant diameter propeller and nacelle size were used in the study. Three computational grids were made with airfoil chords of 0.5*chord, 1.0*chord, and 2.0*chord. Results of the propeller diameter to wing chord ratio study indicated that the blown to unblown C(L) ratio increased as the chord was decreased. However, because of the increase in relative size of the high-lift nacelle to the wing, which impacted wing lift performance, the study indicated that a propeller diameter to wing chord ratio of 1.0 gives the overall best maximum lift on the wing with the DEP system.

Viken, Jeffrey K.↗

Designing Agent Utilities for Coordinated, Scalable and Robust Multi-Agent Systems

Coordinating the behavior of a large number of agents to achieve a system level goal poses unique design challenges. In particular, problems of scaling (number of agents in the thousands to tens of thousands), observability (agents have limited sensing capabilities), and robustness (the agents are unreliable) make it impossible to simply apply methods developed for small multi-agent systems composed of reliable agents. To address these problems, we present an approach based on deriving agent goals that are aligned with the overall system goal, and can be computed using information readily available to the agents. Then, each agent uses a simple reinforcement learning algorithm to pursue its own goals. Because of the way in which those goals are derived, there is no need to use difficult to scale external mechanisms to force collaboration or coordination among the agents, or to ensure that agents actively attempt to appropriate the tasks of agents that suffered failures. To present these results in a concrete setting, we focus on the problem of finding the sub-set of a set of imperfect devices that results in the best aggregate device. This is a large distributed agent coordination problem where each agent (e.g., device) needs to determine whether to be part of the aggregate device. Our results show that the approach proposed in this work provides improvements of over an order of magnitude over both traditional search methods and traditional multi-agent methods. Furthermore, the results show that even in extreme cases of agent failures (i.e., half the agents failed midway through the simulation) the system's performance degrades gracefully and still outperforms a failure-free and centralized search algorithm. The results also show that the gains increase as the size of the system (e.g., number of agents) increases. This latter result is particularly encouraging and suggests that this method is ideally suited for domains where the number of agents is currently in the thousands and will reach tens or hundreds of thousands in the near future.

Tumer, Kagan↗

Research in Computational Aeroscience Applications Implemented on Advanced Parallel Computing Systems

Improving the numerical linear algebra routines for use in new Navier-Stokes codes, specifically Tim Barth's unstructured grid code, with spin-offs to TRANAIR is reported. A fast distance calculation routine for Navier-Stokes codes using the new one-equation turbulence models is written. The primary focus of this work was devoted to improving matrix-iterative methods. New algorithms have been developed which activate the full potential of classical Cray-class computers as well as distributed-memory parallel computers.

Wigton, Larry↗

The design and technology development for A 150 mlb resistojet for H2 or NH3

A 150 mlb thrust level hybrid resistojet which may operate on either H2 or NH3 is described whose design technique allows temperature distribution forecasting by means of a microcomputer-implemented mathematical model. The longer computer run times that accompany the exclusive use of BASIC, relative to assembled languages, are offset by the flexibility offered and the reduction of reprogramming and debugging efforts. The integration of a compact first-stage coiled heater with a concentric tubular gas heater offers direct matching of the 28 V terminal of the spacecraft system, while keeping maximum heater wall temperatures to less than 60 K over that of the gas temperature at the throat. Among the novel materials employed are grain-stabilized rhenium for heating elements and high purity aluminas for insulators.

Page, R. J.↗

The free-wake prediction of rotor hover performance using a vortex embedding method

A method is developed to predict the rotor hover performance. This method solves the compressible mass conservation equation much like current full potential codes and can therefore predict the transonic flows on a rotor. However, the newly developed approach also allows for the free convection of shed vorticity and permits the computation of the entire hover wake system. The method uses a vortex embedding scheme in potential flow and has been implemented in a computer code, HELIX -I. To predict power we implement a simple boundary layer and two different induced-drag integration schemes. The induced-drag is obtained from surface pressure integration and an energy flux integral. Comparisons between computations and experiment show good agreement for the prediction of power polars, surface pressure distribution, and tip vortex geometry.

Ramachandran, K.↗

Thermocapillary flow and natural convection in a melt column with an unknown melt/solid interface

A vertical melt column set up between an upper heating rod and a lower sample rod, i.e., the so-called half-zone system, is a convenient experimental tool for studying convection in the melt in floating-zone crystal growth. In order to help understand the convection observed in the melt column, a computer model has been developed to describe steady state, axisymmetrical thermocapillary flow and natural convection in the melt. The governing equations and boundary conditions are expressed in general non-orthogonal curvilinear coordinates in order to accurately treat the unknown melt/solid interface as well as all other physical boundaries in the system. The effects of key dimensionless variables on the following items are discussed: (1) convection and temperature distribution in the melt; (2) the shape of the melt/solid interface; (3) the height of the melt column. These dimensionless variables are the Grashof, Marangoni and Prandtl numbers.

Lan, C. W.↗

Recent Trends in the Analysis of Quasioptical Systems

The recent trend in microwave instruments is the use of multiple millimeter and submillimeter wavelength bands. These systems are typically analyzed by using physical optics, Gaussian beams or ray tracing techniques. Physical optics offers high accuracy at the expense of computation time. This trade-off becomes particularly apparent in the analysis of multiple reflector antennas, such as beam waveguide antennas, where physical optics is used to compute the current on each reflector from the current on the previous reflector. At the other end of the spectrum is ray tracing approaches that ignore diffraction effects entirely. These methods are fast but sacrifice the ability to predict some effects accurately. An intermediate approach is to use an appropriate set of expansion functions to model the field between the reflectors. If the set is chosen wisely only a few coefficients need to be determined from each reflector current. The field is then computed at the next reflector through the use of the expansion functions and their coefficients rather than by using the previous reflector current. For a beam waveguide system with no enclosing tubes an excellent set of expansion functions is the Gaussian beam mode set. In many cases a preliminary design which includes the effects on diffraction may be obtained by considering only the fundamental mode and a thin lens model for the reflectors. Higher-order modes are included to model the effects of the curved reflector, which include asymmetric distortion of the beam, cross polarization, and beam truncation. This paper describes a computer code implementing higher-order Gaussian beam scattering by multiple reflector systems. There are four essential steps in the algorithm. (1) Compute the current on the first reflector using physical optics using either a feed model or by an incident set of Gaussian beam modes. (2) Find the direction of propagation for the reflected Gaussian beam-set using ray tracing. (3) Determine the waist size and location for the output beam set by examining the amplitude and phase distribution of the current on the reflector. (4) Compute the amplitudes of the individual modes in the output mode set. These steps are then repeated for each addition reflector in the chain. In each of these cases the previous Gaussian beam set provides the input field for the current calculation. Details of the four steps discussed above will be discussed. Examples will compare results from the Gaussian beam approach to pure physical optics, illustrating both its merits and limitations. Hybrid approaches capable of eliminating some of the limitations will also be discussed.

Hoppe, D. J.↗

Automated Static Culture System Cell Module Mixing Protocol and Computational Fluid Dynamics Analysis

This report is a documentation of a fluid dynamic analysis of the proposed Automated Static Culture System (ASCS) cell module mixing protocol. The report consists of a review of some basic fluid dynamics principles appropriate for the mixing of a patch of high oxygen content media into the surrounding media which is initially depleted of oxygen, followed by a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) study of this process for the proposed protocol over a range of the governing parameters. The time histories of oxygen concentration distributions and mechanical shear levels generated are used to characterize the mixing process for different parameter values.

Kleis, Stanley J.↗

Resolving the xi Boo Binary with Chandra, and Revealing the Spectral Type Dependence of the Coronal "Fip Effect"

On 2008 May 2, Chandra observed the X-ray spectrum of xi Boo (G8 V+K4 V), resolving the binary for the first time in X-rays and allowing the coronae of the two stars to be studied separately. With the contributions of ξ Boo A and B to the system's total X-ray emission now observationally established (88.5% and 11.5% respectively), consideration of mass loss measurements for GK dwarfs of various activity levels (including one for xi Boo) leads to the surprising conclusion that xi Boo B may dominate the wind from the binary, with xi Boo A's wind being very weak despite its active corona. Emission measure (EM) distributions and coronal abundances are computed for both stars and compared with Chandra measurements of other moderately active stars with G8-K5 spectral types, all of which exhibit a narrow peak in EM near log T = 6.6, indicating that the coronal heating process in these stars has a strong preference for this temperature. As is the case for the Sun and many other stars, our sample of stars shows coronal abundance anomalies dependent on the first ionization potential (FIP) of the element. We see no dependence of the degree of FIP effect on activity, but there is a dependence on spectral type, a correlation that becomes more convincing when moderately active main-sequence stars with a broader range of spectral types are considered. This clear dependence of coronal abundances on spectral type weakens if the stellar sample is allowed to be contaminated by evolved stars, interacting binaries or extremely active stars with logLX 29, explaining why this correlation has not been recognized in the past.

CHANDRA↗

Enabling Wireless Avionics Intra-Communications

The Electromagnetics and Sensors Branch of NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) is investigating the potential of an all-wireless aircraft as part of the ECON (Efficient Reconfigurable Cockpit Design and Fleet Operations using Software Intensive, Networked and Wireless Enabled Architecture) seedling proposal, which is funded by the Convergent Aeronautics Solutions (CAS) project, Transformative Aeronautics Concepts (TAC) program, and NASA Aeronautics Research Institute (NARI). The project consists of a brief effort carried out by a small team in the Electromagnetic Environment Effects (E3) laboratory with the intention of exposing some of the challenges faced by a wireless communication system inside the reflective cavity of an aircraft and to explore potential solutions that take advantage of that environment for constructive gain. The research effort was named EWAIC for "Enabling Wireless Aircraft Intra-communications." The E3 laboratory is a research facility that includes three electromagnetic reverberation chambers and equipment that allow testing and generation of test data for the investigation of wireless systems in reflective environments. Using these chambers, the EWAIC team developed a set of tests and setups that allow the intentional variation of intensity of a multipath field to reproduce the environment of the various bays and cabins of large transport aircraft. This setup, in essence, simulates an aircraft environment that allows the investigation and testing of wireless communication protocols that can effectively be used as a tool to mitigate some of the risks inherent to an aircraft wireless system for critical functions. In addition, the EWAIC team initiated the development of a computational modeling tool to illustrate the propagation of EM waves inside the reflective cabins and bays of aircraft and to obtain quantifiable information regarding the degradation of signals in aircraft subassemblies. The nose landing gear of a UAV CAD model was used to model the propagation of a system in a "deployed" configuration versus a "stowed" configuration. The differences in relative field strength provide valuable information about the distribution of the field that can be used to engineer RF links with optimal radiated power and antenna configuration that accomplish the intended system reliability. Such modeling will be necessary in subsequent studies for managing multipath propagation characteristics inside a main cabin and to understand more complex environments, such as the inside wings, landing gear bays, cargo bays, avionics bays, etc. The results of the short research effort are described in the present document. The team puts forth a set of recommendations with the intention of informing the project and program leadership of the future work that, in the opinion of the EWAIC team, would assist the ECON team reach the intended goal of developing an all-wireless aircraft.

Torres, Omar↗

Fragmentation hierarchy of bright sungrazing comets and the birth and orbital evolution of the Kreutz System. II. the case for cascading fragmentation

We examine the process of cascading fragmentation for the Kreutz sungrazer system to continue our exploration of its birth, orbital evolution, and temporal clumping. We modify and broaden the two-superfragment model from Paper I to include clusters of ~30 bright comets spanning four centuries and 1000 SOHO sungrazers from 1996 to 2006. The spectacular parent sungrazer X/1106 C1 is assumed to have tidally split shortly after perihelion into a train of major protofragments immersed in a cloud of particulate debris, which at larger heliocentric distances were breaking up nontidally over and over again. We describe potential evolutionary paths for the Kreutz system by linking X/1106 C1 in subgroup I-type orbit with the comet of February 423 in one scenario or with the comet of February 467 in another. The latter scenario accounts for sungrazer clusters in as early as the 16th century, suggests that the progenitor object may have been observed as the comet of 214 BCE, is quite consistent with the orbital distribution of the SOHO sungrazers that sample the central filament of the Kreutz system between the clusters of major sungrazers, and predicts future clusters until ~2120. Comet X/1106 C1 and the common parent of C/1882 R1 and C/1965 S1 were two first-generation fragments of the progenitor that split nontidally on the way to its 5th century perihelion, reminiscent of the superfragments in Paper I. We provide computational tools needed for solving the problem of the Kreutz system’s orbital evolution, but no unique scenarios are presented for the individual comets. Another cluster of bright sungrazers is expected to arrive in the coming decades, its earliest member possibly just several years from now.

Chodas, Paul W.↗