Tech Briefs

Two reports present further developments in the subject of "Computation of Characteristics of a Helical TWT Slow-Wave Circuit" (LEW-16571), NASA Tech Briefs, Vol. 22, No. 4 (April 1998), page 54. The subject is computation, by use of the MAFIA (Solution of MAxwell's Equations by the...

Pressure sensors that contain thin diaphragms made from the 6H polytype of silicon carbide (6H-SiC) have been developed. These are prototypes of pressure sensors for use at high temperatures in engines, power plants, material-processing systems, and numerous other applications.

Piezoelectric devices that would serve as spark plugs, power generators for spark plugs, and/or pressure sensors have been proposed for use in internal-combustion engines. Unlike conventional spark plugs, these devices would function without need for wire connections to external high-voltage sources....

The Job Standards Development System is a user-friendly expert system that (1) helps users select an appropriate work measurement methodology to develop job standards (or the less formal job time estimates) and (2) leads the users through the steps necessary to use a work time estimating technique to develop...

Three innovative computer programs for training and testing personnel at Kennedy Space Center have been developed under the aegis of the Web Interactive Training (WIT) project. The WIT project exploits the capabilities afforded by the Internet and by state-of-the-art multimedia data-presentation...

A method of preprocessing lightning-measurement waveforms has been devised to reduce the bandwidth needed to transmit data for computing the locations of lightning strikes. The method is used in a system in which electric fields and electric-field derivatives induced by lightning are...

The Materials Science Division (MSD) at Kennedy Space Center is developing a computer system to maintain a material-science data base coupled with a user-friendly interface on the World Wide Web. The system is designed to eliminate the need for time-consuming and expensive distribution of,...

Never before have secondary schools been able to post-process raw satellite data, and now they can do it in real time. This is credited to advances in technology that have recently made the necessary equipment simple, inexpensive, powerful, and available enough for any school to fit into...

The return-link processor card (RLP) performs all of the fundamental data-processing functions involved in the return of satellite telemetry, in real time at rates up to 400 Mb/s, using industry-standard interface circuitry and connectors with standard sizes and shapes. Previously, four cards, each containing a...

The Generalized Fluid System Simulation Program (GFSSP) version 2.01 is a general-purpose computer program for analyzing steady-state and time-dependent flowrates, pressures, temperatures, and concentrations in a complex flow network. The program is capable of modeling phase changes,...

PIVPROC is a computer program for processing data in particle-image velocimetry (PIV), which is a method of determining a flow velocity field from images of small seed particles that are entrained in the flow and that are illuminated by laser pulses at known intervals of time. PIVPROC...

A prototype compact, rugged optomechanical module contains a high-power, wideband laser-diode transmitter. The laser diode is of a commercial single-quantum-well AlGaAs type. Each laser diode of this type is manufactured for a specific nominal wavelength in the range from 810 to 860 nm; the one...

The radial distribution of energy within an image, called encircled energy, is a classical measure of the quality of the optical system producing that image. An improved method for measuring encircled or enclosed energy for imaging optical systems makes use of precisely micromachined...

A report presents additional information on the Mechanical System Design/Analysis Tool (MSAT) computer program, which was reported in "Program for Designing a Mechanical System" (LEW-16710, NASA Tech Briefs, Vol. 23, No. 9 (September 1999), page 32. To recapitulate: MSAT is a user-friendly, multidisciplinary software system that...

A collection of three reports presents an expanded discussion of the topic of "Optical Diagnostics of High-Pressure Liquid Fuel Sprays" (LEW-16701),NASA Tech Briefs, Vol. 23, No. 3 (March 1999), page 18a. The reports describe experiments in which fuel sprays representative of those in...

A proposed reciprocating pump would operate at a small stroke and would contain no sliding parts. The oscillatory motion of a piston in the pump could be provided by a magnetostrictive actuator, for example.

A paper describes the mathematical basis and some applications of a class of massively parallel algorithms for finite-difference numerical solution of some time-dependent partial differential equations (PDEs) on massively parallel supercomputers. In a radical departure from the traditional...