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Briefs: Software
Flow Solver for Incompressible 2-D Drive Cavity
This software solves the Navier- Stokes equations for the incompressible driven cavity flow problem. The code uses second-order finite differencing on a staggered grid using the Chorin projection method. The resulting intermediate Poisson equation is efficiently solved using the fast Fourier...
Briefs: Software
Simulating Avionics Upgrades to the Space Shuttles
Cockpit Avionics Prototyping Environment (CAPE) is a computer program that simulates the functions of proposed upgraded avionics for a space shuttle. In CAPE, pre-existing space-shuttle-simulation programs are merged with a commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) display-development program, yielding a...
Briefs: Software
A computer program called "phxlrsim" simulates the behavior of the radar system used as an altimeter and velocimeter during the entry, descent, and landing phases of the Phoenix lander spacecraft....
Briefs: Software
Monte Carlo Simulation To Estimate Likelihood of Direct Lightning Strikes
A software tool has been designed to quantify the lightning exposure at launch sites of the stack at the pads under different configurations. In order to predict lightning strikes to generic structures, this model uses leaders whose origins (in the x–y plane) are obtained...
Briefs: Software
Simulating the Gradually Deteriorating Performance of an RTG
Degra (now in version 3) is a computer program that simulates the performance of a radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG) over its lifetime. Degra is provided with a graphical user interface that is used to edit input parameters that describe the initial state of the RTG and the...
Briefs: Software
Quantum-Inspired Maximizer
A report discusses an algorithm for a new kind of dynamics based on a quantum-classical hybrid-quantum-inspired maximizer. The model is represented by a modified Madelung equation in which the quantum potential is replaced by different, specially chosen "computational" potential. As a result, the dynamics attains both...
Application Briefs: Software
A Tier 1 automotive supplier of brake drum assemblies with customers here and abroad has tried a number of different vision systems for brake drum assembly inspection, but have...
Podcasts: Software
Multiphysics - A Guided Tour
Sponsored by COMSOL
Recorded February 27, 2008
In this podcast, COMSOL Branch Manager, David Kan, speaks with NASA Tech Briefs Editorial Director, Linda Bell, about the wide range of challenging design problems that can now be easily tackled by applying multiphysics modeling and simulation techniques.
Learn how...
Blog: Software
Fog and Smoke
University of California at San Diego computer scientists have created a fog and smoke machine for computer graphics that cuts the computational cost of making realistic smoky and foggy 3-D images, such as beams of light from a lighthouse piercing thick fog. By cutting the computing cost for creating highly realistic imagery from...
Supplements: Software
Comsol News - 2008
COMSOL Multiphysics
Ten Years of Unlimited Simulation Capabilities!
In 1998 COMSOL Multiphysics® made its debut as the first commercial environment to enable scientists, engineers, and researchers to solve any system of coupled physics phenomena in the same simulation. Ever since, users have leveraged the insights of...
Articles: Software
Multiphysics, simulation lifecycle management, unified simulation, and other terms are becoming the new trends in analysis and simulation software. There are new capabilities, new options for...
Supplements: Software
sponsored by
co-sponsored by
Software Tech Briefs is a special supplement to NASA Tech Briefs. Download the digital version (PDF) at right to learn about 59 new software programs outlined in the table of contents below.
Briefs: Software
DSS-Prototyper is an open-source, real-time 3D virtual environment software that supports design simulation for the new Vision for Space Exploration (VSE). This is a simulation of NASA's proposed Robotic...
Application Briefs: Software
MSC Nastran and MSC Adams Enterprise Simulation Software MSC.Software Corp. Santa Ana, CA 714-540-8900 www.mscsoftware.com
NASA’s MIDEX Mission THEMIS...
Briefs: Software
Cross-Compiler for Modeling Space-Flight Systems
Ripples is a computer program that makes it possible to specify arbitrarily complex space-flight systems in an easy-tolearn, high-level programming language and to have the specification automatically translated into LibSim, which is a textbased computing language in which such simulations are...
Articles: Design
Mechanical CAD (computer-aided design) programs have become very sophisticated during the past few years. Unfortunately, there is still a portion of the engineering spectrum that cannot be...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Internal heating is a key issue for vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs), a semiconductor micro laser diode that emits light in a cylindrical...
Briefs: Software
The figure is a schematic diagram of a complementary metal oxide/semiconductor (CMOS) electronic circuit that functions as a NAND gate at a power-supply potential (Vdd) of 3.3 V and as NOR...
Briefs: Software
In the area of maintaining conventional motorcycle stability, engineers have established a series of tests that measure the wobble, weave, and kickback of every new model before it is released...
Briefs: Software
An advanced computer code is undergoing development for numerically simulating laser cooling and trapping of large numbers of atoms. The code is expected to be useful in...
Briefs: Aerospace
Preparing and Analyzing Iced Airfoils
SmaggIce version 1.2 is a computer program for preparing and analyzing iced airfoils.It includes interactive tools for
measuring ice-shape characteristics,
controlled smoothing of ice shapes,
curve discretization,
generation of artificial ice shapes,and
detection and correction of input errors.
Briefs: Software
Originally introduced by Nicholas Metropolis during the Manhattan Project, Monte Carlo methods today have very broad and extensive use in various areas of science and technology. Random number...
Briefs: Software
A proposed monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) power amplifier has been designed to operate at frequencies around 28 GHz. According to a computer simulation of performance, this amplifier...
Briefs: Aerospace
NASA has developed a system of hardware and software that can accommodate all necessary interfaces between (1) space-station flight computers and (2) a simulation host computer used...
Briefs: Software
Further Developments in Web Interactive Training
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...
Briefs: Information Technology
Post-Processing Satellite Image Data in Secondary Schools
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...
Briefs: Software
Wiring is a major deliverable in just about all electromechanical equipment. From airplanes to semiconductor capital equipment, the key component tying together all of the technological innovations in...
Briefs: Motion Control
When developing the guidance system of a missile, it is necessary to know the resonant frequencies and mode shapes of the missile in flight. Simulating the free vibration condition in the laboratory,...
Briefs: Software
Expressing Object-Oriented Concepts in Fortran 90
A methodology for object-oriented programming in Fortran 90 has been developed. The methodology provides for emulation of the most important object-oriented concepts of C++; namely, classes (including abstract data types, encapsulation, and function overloading), inheritance, and dynamic...
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Webcasts
Upcoming Webinars: AR/AI
The Real Impact of AR and AI in the Industrial Equipment Industry
Upcoming Webinars: Motion Control
Next-Generation Linear and Rotary Stages: When Ultra Precision...
Upcoming Webinars: Energy
Hydrogen Engines Are Heating Up for Heavy Duty
Podcasts: Medical
How Wearables Are Enhancing Smart Drug Delivery
Podcasts: Power
SAE Automotive Podcast: Solid-State Batteries

