Bodies and Structures

Aircraft structures

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Briefs: Information Technology
A computational method and system based on a hybrid of an artificial neural network (NN) and a support vector machine (SVM) (see figure) has been conceived as a means of maximizing or...
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Application Briefs: Electronics & Computers
The Saab Group has 17 business units, which are split into defense and security, systems and products, and aeronautics. Over the years, the company has taken...
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Briefs: Software
Constrained fitting for airfoil curvature smoothing (CFACS) is a spline-based method of interpolating airfoil surface coordinates (and, concomitantly, airfoil thicknesses) between specified discrete...
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Briefs: Test & Measurement
Hyperspectral Fluorescence and Reflectance Imaging Instrument
The system is a single hyperspectral imaging instrument that has the unique capability to acquire both fluorescence and reflectance high-spatial-resolution data that is inherently spatially and spectrally registered. Potential uses of this instrument include plant stress monitoring,...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Lightweight, piezoelectrically actuated bending flight-control surfaces have shown promise as means of actively controlling airflows to improve the performances of transport airplanes. These...
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Briefs: Photonics/Optics
A fiber-optic sensor system has been developed that can remotely measure the concentration of molecular oxygen (O2), nitrogen (N2), hydro- carbon vapor,...
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Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Motor/generators based on conical magnetic bearings have been invented as an improved alternative to prior such machines based, variously, on radial and/or axial magnetic bearings. Both the present and prior...
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Articles: Robotics, Automation & Control
The trend in aircraft design is toward more efficient brushless DC motors. A integrated motor drive module for brushless DC motors from International Rectifier (El Segundo, CA) reduces the effort of...
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Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
A passive porous treatment has been proposed as a means of suppressing noise generated by the airflow around the side edges of partial-span flaps on airplane wings when the flaps are...
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Briefs: Information Technology
Modeling and Grid Generation of Iced Airfoils
SmaggIce Version 2.0 is a software toolkit for geometric modeling and grid generation for two-dimensional, singleand multi-element, clean and iced airfoils. A previous version of SmaggIce was described in “Preparing and Analyzing Iced Airfoils,” NASA Tech Briefs, Vol. 28, No. 8 (August 2004), page...
Articles: Imaging
Most of us have seen still images or slow-motion video of fast-moving objects, such as a missile in flight or a humming bird flapping its wings. Both scenarios...
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Briefs: Materials
TUFROC (Toughened Uni-piece Fibrous Reinforced Oxidation- resistant Composite) has been developed as a new thermal protection system (TPS) material for wing leading edge and nose cap...
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Briefs: Information Technology
The Hilbert-Huang transform (HHT) is part of the mathematical basis of a method of calculating a stability spectrum. This method can be regarded as an extended and improved version of a prior...
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Briefs: Software
Control Code for Bearingless Switched-Reluctance Motor
A computer program has been devised for controlling a machine that is an integral combination of magnetic bearings and a switched-reluctance motor. The motor contains an eightpole stator and a hybrid rotor, which has both (1) a circular lamination stack for levitation and (2) a six-pole...
Briefs: Materials
Composite elastic skins having tailorable mechanical properties have been invented for covering shape-changing ("morphable") structures. These skins are intended especially for use on...
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Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Composites are becoming the material of choice for the manufacture of large, complex aerostructures. The aft section of the jumbo Airbus A380 and the wings of the...
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Briefs: Software
General Flow-Solver Code for Turbomachinery Applications
Phantom is a computer code intended primarily for real-fluid turbomachinery problems. It is based on Corsair, an ideal-gas turbomachinery code, developed by the same authors, which evolved from the ROTOR codes from NASA Ames. Phantom is applicable to real and ideal fluids, both compressible...
Briefs: Software
Analyzing Aeroelastic Stability of a Tilt-Rotor Aircraft
Proprotor Aeroelastic Stability Analysis, now at version 4.5 (PASTA 4.5), is a FORTRAN computer program for analyzing the aeroelastic stability of a tilt-rotor aircraft in the airplane mode of flight. The program employs a 10-degree-of-freedom (DOF), discrete- coordinate, linear mathematical...
Briefs: Software
SmaggIce Version 1.8
SmaggIce version 1.8 is a set of software tools for geometrical modeling of, and generation of grids that conform to, both clean and iced airfoils. A prior version (SmaggIce 1.2) was described in "Preparing and Analyzing Iced Airfoils" (LEW-17399), NASA Tech Briefs, Vol. 28, No. 8 (August 2004), page 32. Ice shapes, especially...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
A flight test on an F-15 airplane was performed to evaluate the utility of prescribed simultaneous independent surface excitations (PreSISE) for real-time estimation of flight-control...
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Briefs: Physical Sciences
Sensors for Using Times of Flight To Measure Flow Velocities
Thin-film sensors for measuring flow velocities in terms of times of flight are undergoing development. These sensors are very small and can be mounted flush with surfaces of airfoils, ducts, and other objects along which one might need to measure flows. Alternatively or in addition,...
Briefs: Materials
Several recently formulated nickelbase superalloys have been developed with excellent high-temperature creep resistance, at lower densities than those of currently used nickel-base...
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Briefs: Information Technology
Education and Training Module in Alertness Management
The education and training module (ETM) in alertness management has now been integrated as part of the training regimen of the Pilot Proficiency Awards Program ("WINGS") of the Federal Aviation Administration. Originated and now maintained current by the Fatigue Countermeasures Group at NASA...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Predicting Tail Buffet Loads of a Fighter Airplane
Buffet loads on aft aerodynamic surfaces pose a recurring problem on most twin-tailed fighter airplanes: During maneuvers at high angles of attack, vortices emanating from various surfaces on the forward parts of such an airplane engine inlets, wings, or other fuselage appendages) often burst,...
Briefs: Software
Two-Dimensional Ffowcs Williams/Hawkings Equation Solver
FWH2D is a Fortran 90 computer program that solves a two-dimensional (2D) version of the equation, derived by J. E. Ffowcs Williams and D. L. Hawkings, for sound generated by turbulent flow. FWH2D was developed especially for estimating noise generated by airflows around such approximately 2D...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
The Five-Axis, Three-Magnetic-Bearing Dynamic Spin Rig is an apparatus for vibration testing of turbomachine blades in a vacuum at rotational speeds from 0 to 40,000 rpm. This rig (see figure)...
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Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
High-Temperature, High-Load-Capacity Radial Magnetic Bearing
A radial heteropolar magnetic bearing capable of operating at a temperature as high as 1,000 °F (≈540 °C) has been developed. This is a prototype of bearings for use in gas turbine engines operating at temperatures and speeds much higher than can be withstood by lubricated...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Blended Buffet-Load-Alleviation System for Fighter Airplane
The capability of modern fighter airplanes to sustain flight at high angles of attack and/or moderate angles of sideslip often results in immersion of part of such an airplane in unsteady, separated, vortical flow emanating from its forebody or wings. The flows from these surfaces become...
Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
High-Temperature, High-Load-Capacity Radial Magnetic Bearing
A radial heteropolar magnetic bearing capable of operating at a temperature as high as 1,000°F (≈540°C) has been developed. This is a prototype of bearings for use in gas turbine engines operating at temperatures and speeds much higher than can be withstood by lubricated...

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