The NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS) houses half a million publications that are a valuable means of information to researchers, teachers, students, and the general public. These documents are all aerospace related with much scientific and technical information created or funded by NASA. Some types of documents include conference papers, research reports, meeting papers, journal articles and more. This is one of those documents.

Folding of the capped LQQLLQQLLQL peptide is investigated at the water-hexane interface by molecular dynamics simulations over 161.5 nanoseconds. Initially placed in the aqueous phase as a beta-strand, the peptide rapidly adsorbs to the interface, where it adopts an amphipathic conformation. The marginal presence of non-amphipathic structures throughout the complete trajectory indicate- that the corresponding conformations are strongly disfavored at the interface. It is further suggestive that folding in an interfacial environment proceeds through a pathway of successive amphipathic intermediates. The energetic and entropic penalties involved in the conformational changes along this pathway markedly increase the folding time-scales of LQQLLQQLLQL, explaining why the alpha-helix, the hypothesized lowest free energy structure for a sequence with a hydrophobic periodicity of 3.6, has not been reached yet. The formation of a type I beta-turn at the end of the simulation confirms the importance of such motifs as initiation sites allowing the peptide to coalesce towards a secondary structure.

Recent research conducted under NASA LaRC's Creativity and Innovation Program has led to the development of an initial approach for a hierarchical fracture mechanics. This methodology unites failure mechanisms occurring at different length scales and provides a framework for a physics-based theory of fracture. At the nanoscale, parametric molecular dynamic simulations are used to compute the energy associated with atomic level failure mechanisms. This information is used in a mesoscale percolation model of defect coalescence to obtain statistics of fracture paths and energies through Monte Carlo simulations. The mathematical structure of predicted crack paths is described using concepts of fractal geometry. The non-integer fractal dimension relates geometric and energy measures between meso- and macroscales. For illustration, a fractal-based continuum strain energy release rate is derived for inter-and transgranular fracture in polycrystalline metals.

The NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS) houses half a million publications that are a valuable means of information to researchers, teachers, students, and the general public. These documents are all aerospace related with much scientific and technical information created or funded by NASA. Some types of documents include conference papers, research reports, meeting papers, journal articles and more. This is one of those documents.

A series of convergent rectangular nozzles of aspect ratios 2:1, 4:1, and 8:1 were constructed with uniform exit velocity profiles. Additional nozzles were constructed that extended the wide lip on one side of these nozzles to form beveled nozzles. Far-field acoustic measurements were made and analyzed, and the results presented. The impact of aspect ratio on jet noise was similar to that of enhanced mixing devices: reduction in aft, peak frequency noise with an increase in broadside, high frequency noise. Azimuthally, it was found that rectangular jets produced more noise directed away from their wide sides than from their narrow sides. The azimuthal dependence decreased at aft angles where noise decreased. The effect of temperature, keeping acoustic Mach number constant, was minimal. Since most installations would have the observer on the wide size of the nozzle, the increased high frequency noise has a deleterious impact on the observer. Extending one wide side of the rectangular nozzle, evocative of an aft deck in an installed propulsion system, increased the noise of the jet with increasing length. The impact of both aspect ratio and bevel length were relatively well behaved, allowing a simple bilinear model to be constructed relative to a simple round jet.

The NASA Technical Reports Servcr (NTRS) houses half a million publications that are a valuable means of information to researchers, teachers, students, and the general public. These documents are all aerospace related with much scientific and technical information created or funded by NASA. Some types of documents include conference papers, research reports, meeting papers, journal articles and more. This is one of those documents.

The NASA John H. Glenn Research Center initiated baseline testing of ultracapacitors for the Next Generation Launch Transportation (NGLT) project to obtain empirical data for determining the feasibility of using ultracapacitors for the project. There are large transient loads associated with NGLT that require either a very large primary energy source or an energy storage system. The primary power source used for these tests is a proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell. The energy storage system can consist of devices such as batteries, flywheels, or ultracapacitors. Ultracapacitors were used for these tests. Ultracapacitors are ideal for applications such as NGLT where long life, maintenance-free operation, and excellent low-temperature performance is essential. State-of-the-art symmetric ultracapacitors were used for these tests. The ultracapacitors were interconnected in an innovative configuration to minimize interconnection impedance. PEM fuel cells provide excellent energy density, but not good power density. Ultracapacitors provide excellent power density, but not good energy density. The combination of PEM fuel cells and ultracapacitors provides a power source with excellent energy density and power density. The life of PEM fuel cells is shortened significantly by large transient loads. Ultracapacitors used in conjunction with PEM fuel cells reduce the transient loads applied to the fuel cell, and thus appreciably improves its life. PEM fuel cells were tested with and without ultracapacitors, to determine the benefits of ultracapacitors. The report concludes that the implementation of symmetric ultracapacitors in the NGLT power system can provide significant improvements in power system performance and reliability.

The NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS) houses half a million publications that are a valuable means of information to researchers, teachers, students, and the general public. These documents are all aerospace related with much scientific and technical information created or funded by NASA. Some types of documents include conference papers, research reports, meeting papers, journal articles and more. This is one of those documents.

An investigation has been conducted in the Langley 20-foot free-spinning tunnel to determine the spin and recovery characteristics of a 0.057-scale model of the modified Chance Vought XF7U-1 airplane. The primary change in the design from that previously tested was a revision of the twin vertical tails. Tests were also made to determine the effect of installation of external wing tanks. The results indicated that the revision in the vertical tails did not greatly alter the spin and recovery characteristics of the model and recovery by normal use of controls (fill rapid rudder reversal followed approximately one-half turn later by movement of the stick forward of neutral) was satisfactory. Adding the external wing tanks to cause the recovery characteristics to become critical and border on an unsatisfactory condition; however, it was shown that satisfactory recovery could be obtained by jettisoning the tanks, followed by normal recovery technique.

This document addresses the software requirements of the Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS) Standard Data Software (SDS) supporting the GLAS instrument on the EOS ICESat Spacecraft. This Software Requirements Document represents the initial collection of the technical engineering information for the GLAS SDS. This information is detailed within the second of four main volumes of the Standard documentation, the Product Specification volume. This document is a "roll-out" from the governing volume outline containing the Concept and Requirements sections.

A meshless local Petrov-Galerkin (MLPG) method that uses radial basis functions (RBFs) as trial functions in the study of Euler-Bernoulli beam problems is presented. RBFs, rather than generalized moving least squares (GMLS) interpolations, are used to develop the trial functions. This choice yields a computationally simpler method as fewer matrix inversions and multiplications are required than when GMLS interpolations are used. Test functions are chosen as simple weight functions as they are in the conventional MLPG method. Compactly and noncompactly supported RBFs are considered. Noncompactly supported cubic RBFs are found to be preferable. Patch tests, mixed boundary value problems, and problems with complex loading conditions are considered. Results obtained from the radial basis MLPG method are either of comparable or better accuracy than those obtained when using the conventional MLPG method.

This report describes a new method for determination of the geopotential. The analysis is aimed at the GRACE mission. This Satellite-to-Satellite Tracking (SST) mission is viewed as a mapping mission The result will be maps of the geoid. The elements of potential theory, celestial mechanics, and Geophysical Inverse Theory are integrated into a computation architecture, and the results of several simulations presented Centimeter accuracy geoids with 50 to 100 km resolution can be recovered with a 30 to 60 day mission.

A real-time system for power-down control in audio/video components is modeled and verified using the real-time model checker UPPAAL. The system is supposed to reside in an audio/video component and control (read from and write to) links to neighbor audio/video components such as TV, VCR and remote-control. In particular, the system is responsible for the powering up and down of the component in between the arrival of data, and in order to do so in a safe way without loss of data, it is essential that no link interrupts are lost. Hence, a component system is a multitasking system with hard real-time requirements, and we present techniques for modeling time consumption in such a multitasked, prioritized system. The work has been carried out in a collaboration between Aalborg University and the audio/video company B&O. By modeling the system, 3 design errors were identified and corrected, and the following verification confirmed the validity of the design but also revealed the necessity for an upper limit of the interrupt frequency. The resulting design has been implemented and it is going to be incorporated as part of a new product line.

This presentation provides an update on recent data mining efforts that have been designed to (1) identify like/similar days in the national airspace system, (2) cluster/aggregate national-level rerouting data and (3) apply machine learning techniques to predict when Ground Delay Programs are required at a weather-impacted airport

The NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS) houses half a million publications that are a valuable means of information to researchers, teachers, students, and the general public. These documents are all aerospace related with much scientific and technical information created or funded by NASA. Some types of documents include conference papers, research reports, meeting papers, journal articles and more. This is one of those documents.

The NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS) houses half a million publications that are a valuable means of information to researchers, teachers, students, and the general public. These documents are all aerospace related with much scientific and technical information created or funded by NASA. Some types of documents include conference papers, research reports, meeting papers, journal articles and more. This is one of those documents.

The NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS) houses half a million publications that are a valuable means of information to researchers, teachers, students, and the general public. These documents are all aerospace related with much scientific and technical information created or funded by NASA. Some types of documents include conference papers, research reports, meeting papers, journal articles and more. This is one of those documents.

The fatigue lives of modern powder metallurgy disk alloys can be reduced by over an order of magnitude by surface cracking at inherent non-metallic inclusions. The objective of this work was to study the effectiveness of shot peening in suppressing LCF crack initiation and growth at surface nonmetallic inclusions. Inclusions were carefully introduced at elevated levels during powder metallurgy processing of the nickel-base disk superalloy Udimet 720. Multiple strain-controlled fatigue tests were then performed on machined specimens at 427 and 650 C in peened and unpeened conditions. Analyses were performed to compare the low cycle fatigue lives and failure initiation sites as a function of inclusion content, shot peening, and fatigue conditions. A large majority of the failures in as-machined specimens with introduced inclusions occurred at cracks initiating from inclusions intersecting the specimen surface. The inclusions could reduce fatigue life by up to 100X. Large inclusions had the greatest effect on life in tests at low strain ranges and high strain ratios. Shot peening can be used to improve life in these conditions by reducing the most severe effects of inclusions.

This report is a documentation of the results on flowfield surveys for the GE/ARL mixer-ejector nozzle carried out in an open jet facility at NASA Glenn Research Center. The results reported are for cold (unheated) flow without any surrounding co-flowing stream. Distributions of streamwise vorticity as well as turbulent stresses, obtained by hot-wire anemometry, are presented for a low subsonic condition. Pitot probe survey results are presented for nozzle pressure ratios up to 3.5. Flowfields both inside and outside of the ejector are considered. Inside the ejector, the mean velocity distribution exhibits a cellular pattern on the cross sectional plane, originating from the flow through the primary and secondary chutes. With increasing downstream distance an interchange of low velocity regions with adjacent high velocity regions takes place due to the action of the streamwise vortices. At the ejector exit, the velocity distribution is nonuniform at low and high pressure ratios but reasonably uniform at intermediate pressure ratios. The effects of two chevron configurations and a tab configuration on the evolution of the downstream jet are also studied. Compared to the baseline case, minor but noticeable effects are observed on the flowfield.

This slide presentation reviews the work in non-destructive evaluation (NDE) of cryogenic storage tanks. Four large cryogenic tanks, constructed in 1965 with perlite insulation in the annular regions, are of concern. The construction of the tanks, two Liquid Oxygen (LOX) and two Liquid Hydrogen (LH2), are described. The loss rate for the LOX tank at Pad A is slightly higher than that for the one at Pad B. The concerns for the LH2 tank at Pad B are that there is a significantly higher boil-off rate than that at Pad A, that there is mold growth, indicative of increased heat flow, that there is a long down-time needed for repairs, and that 3 of 5 full thermal cycles have been used on the Pad B LH2 tank. The advantages and disadvantages of thermal imaging are given. A detailed description of what is visible of the structures in the infra-red is given and views of the thermal images are included. Missing Perlite is given as the probable cause of the cold spot on the Pad B LH2 tank. There is no indications of problematic cold regions on the Pad A LH2 tank, as shown by the thermal images given in the presentation. There is definite indication of a cold region on the Pad A LOX tank. There is however concerns with thermal imaging, as thermal images can be significantly effected by environmental conditions, image differences on similar days but with different wind speeds. Other effects that must be considered include ambient temperature, humidity levels/dew, and cloud reflections

The NASA Technical Reports Servcr (NTRS) houses half a million publications that are a valuable means of information to researchers, teachers, students, and the general public. These documents are all aerospace related with much scientific and technical information created or funded by NASA. Some types of documents include conference papers, research reports, meeting papers, journal articles and more. This is one of those documents.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) developed an on-orbit, adaptable, Software Defined Radios (SDR)/Space Telecommunications Radio System (STRS)-based testbed facility to conduct a suite of experiments to advance technologies, reduce risk, and enable future mission capabilities on the International Space Station (ISS). The Communications, Navigation, and Networking reConfigurable Testbed (CoNNeCT) Project will provide NASA, industry, other Government agencies, and academic partners the opportunity to develop and field communications, navigation, and networking technologies in both the laboratory and space environment based on reconfigurable, software-defined radio platforms and the STRS Architecture. The CoNNeCT Payload Operations Nomenclature is SCAN Testbed, and this nomenclature will be used in all ISS integration, safety, verification, and operations documentation. The SCAN Testbed (payload) is a Flight Releasable Attachment Mechanism (FRAM) based payload that will launch aboard the Japanese H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV) Multipurpose Exposed Pallet (EP-MP) to the International Space Station (ISS), and will be transferred to the Express Logistics Carrier 3 (ELC3) via Extravehicular Robotics (EVR). The SCAN Testbed will operate on-orbit for a minimum of two years.

The NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS) houses half a million publications that are a valuable means of information to researchers, teachers, students, and the general public. These documents are all aerospace related with much scientific and technical information created or funded by NASA. Some types of documents include conference papers, research reports, meeting papers, journal articles and more. This is one of those documents.

The NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS) houses half a million publications that are a valuable means of information to researchers, teachers, students, and the general public. These documents are all aerospace related with much scientific and technical information created or funded by NASA. Some types of documents include conference papers, research reports, meeting papers, journal articles and more. This is one of those documents.

This viewgraph presentation provides information on activities pertaining to the experimental characterization of gas/gas injector flowfields. An experimental testbed for uni-element gas/gas injector studies at realistic conditions has been fabricated and verified. Experiments for characterizing mixing/combustion of gas/gas injectors with raman spectroscopy have been initiated.