A parameterized geometry design method for inward turning inlet compatible waverider

Intensive studies have been carried out on generations of waverider geometry and hypersonic inlet geometry. However, integration efforts of waverider and related air-intake system are restricted majorly around the X43A-like or conical flow field induced configuration, which adopts mainly the two-dimensional air-breathing technology and limits the judicious visions of developing new aerodynamic profiles for hypersonic designers. A novel design approach for integrating the inward turning inlet with the traditional parameterized waverider is proposed. The proposed method is an alternative means to produce a compatible configuration by linking the off-the-shelf results on both traditional waverider techniques and inward turning inlet techniques. A series of geometry generations and optimization solutions is proposed to enhance the lift-to-drag ratio. A quantitative but efficient aerodynamic performance evaluation approach （the hypersonic flow panel method） with lower computational cost is employed to play the role of objective function for opti- mization purpose. The produced geometry compatibility with a computational fluid dynamics （CFD） solver is also verified for detailed flow field investigation. Optimization results and other numerical validations are obtained for the feasibility demonstration of the proposed method.     

Rosetta enters hibernation

The International Rosetta Mission was launched on 2nd March 2004 on its 10 years journey to comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. Rosetta will reach the comet in 2014, orbit it for about 1.5 years down to distances of a few kilometres and deliver the Lander Philae onto its surface.Following the fly-by of Asteroid (21-)Lutetia in 2010, Rosetta continued its travel towards the planned comet encounter in 2014. In this phase Rosetta became the solar-powered spacecraft that reached the largest Sun distances in history of spaceflight, up to an aphelion at 5.3 AU in October 2012. At distances above 4.5 AU the spacecraft's solar generator power is not sufficient to keep all spacecraft systems active. Therefore in June 2011 the spacecraft was spun up to provide gyroscopic stabilisation, and most of its on-board units, including those used for attitude control and communications, were switched off. Over this “hibernation” phase of about 2.5 years the spacecraft will keep a minimum of autonomy active to ensure maintenance of safe thermal conditions.After Lutetia fly-by, flight controllers had to tackle two anomalies that had significant impacts on the mission operations. A leak in the reaction control subsystem was confirmed and led to the re-definition of the operational strategy to perform the comet rendezvous manoeuvres planned for 2011 and 2014. Anomalous jumps detected in the estimated friction torque of two of the four reaction wheels used for attitude control forced the rapid adoption of measures to slow down the wheels degradation. This included in-flight re-lubrication activities and changes in the wheels operational speed regime.Once the troubleshooting of the two anomalies was completed, and the related operational scenarios were implemented, the first large (790 m/s) comet rendezvous manoeuvre was executed, split into several long burns in January and February 2011. The second burn was unexpectedly interrupted due to the anomalous behaviour of two thrusters, causing attitude off-pointing. Flight controllers modified the thrusters operation parameters in the on-board software and managed to re-start the sequence of burns and successfully complete the manoeuvre. After the manoeuvre, preparation for the critical spin-up and hibernation entry activities, planned for June 2011, began.This paper presents the activities carried out on Rosetta in the final year before hibernation entry. The major anomalies and the related troubleshooting and workaround solutions are detailed. Lessons learned from the operation of the first spacecraft operating with solar power at Jupiter-like distances from the Sun are presented and discussed.     

Mechanical wear debris feature,detection, and diagnosis: A review

Mechanical debris is an important product of friction wear, which is also a crucial approach to know the running status of a machine. Many studies have been conducted on mechanical debris in related fields such as tribology, instrument, and diagnosis. This paper presents a comprehensive review of these studies, which summarizes wear mechanisms (e.g., abrasive wear, fatigue wear, and adhesive wear) and debris features (e.g., concentration (number), size, morphology, and composition), analyzes detection methods principles (e.g., offline: spectrograph and ferrograph, and online: optical method, inductive method, resistive-capacitive method, and acoustic method), reviews developments of online inductive methods, and investigates the progress of debris-based diagnosis. Finally, several notable problems are discussed for further studies.     

A survey on life prediction of equipment

Once in the hands of end users, such durable equipment as spacecraft, aircraft, ships,automobiles, computers, etc. are in a state of debugging, working or storage. In either state, availability, reliability and super-efficiency are the ultimate goals, which have been achieved through constant monitoring as well as regular, preventive, routine and corrective maintenance. Although some advanced instruments can visualize certain invisible malfunctioning phenomena into visible ones, deeply hidden troubles cannot be found unless monitoring and testing data are addressed using tools that process the data statistically, analytically and mathematically. Some state-of-theart trouble-shooting and life-predicting techniques and approaches are introduced in this paper.     

Performance optimization of grooved slippers for aero hydraulic pumps

A computational fluid dynamics(CFD) simulation method based on 3-D Navier–Stokes equation and Arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian(ALE) method is presented to analyze the grooved slipper performance of piston pump.The moving domain of grooved slipper is transformed into a fixed reference domain by the ALE method,which makes it convenient to take the effects of rotate speed,body force,temperature,and oil viscosity into account.A geometric model to express the complex structure,which covers the orifice of piston and slipper,vented groove and the oil film,is constructed.Corresponding to different oil film thicknesses calculated in light of hydrostatic equilibrium theory and boundary conditions,a set of simulations is conducted in COMSOL to analyze the pump characteristics and effects of geometry(groove width and radius,orifice size) on these characteristics.Furthermore,the mechanics and hydraulics analyses are employed to validate the CFD model,and there is an excellent agreement between simulation and analytical results.The simulation results show that the sealing land radius,orifice size and groove width all dramatically affect the slipper behavior,and an optimum tradeoff among these factors is conducive to optimizing the pump design.     

机载光电跟踪系统模糊控制的优化设计与仿真

 分析了机载光电跟踪系统的构成,并对机载光电跟踪系统的最主要组成部分——陀螺稳定平台框架系统设计了基于遗传算法的模糊控制器,通过遗传算法来优化模糊控制器的规则、参数以及量化因子和比例因子。并对系统进行了详细的仿真研究,仿真结果证明基于 GA的模糊控制器设计获得了良好的控制效果。     

Adaptive sparse grid quadrature filter for spacecraft relative navigation

This paper explores a novel adaptive sparse grid quadrature filter. The sparse grid quadrature approach has been recently developed for nonlinear estimation problems to alleviate the curse-of-dimensionality issue of the Gauss–Hermite quadrature filter. Accuracy level of the sparse grid quadrature filter is an important tuning factor that affects desired performance. The proposed filter autonomously adjusts the accuracy level of the sparse grid quadrature rule in both prediction and update steps by increasing the level gradually until an adaptation criterion is satisfied. The adaptation criterion is derived based on a quadrature error estimator. The nestedness property of sparse grid quadrature rule enables efficient computation in adaptation by reusing quadrature points of the previous level sparse grid quadrature. An application to spacecraft relative navigation has been made to demonstrate the adaptive spare grid quadrature filter outperforming the extended Kalman filter and the unscented Kalman filter.     

First stage identification of syntactic elements in an extra-terrestrial signal

By investigating the generic attributes of a representative set of terrestrial languages at varying levels of abstraction, it is our endeavour to try and isolate elements of the signal universe, which are computationally tractable for its detection and structural decipherment. Ultimately, our aim is to contribute in some way to the understanding of what ‘languageness’ actually is. This paper describes algorithms and software developed to characterise and detect generic intelligent language-like features in an input signal, using natural language learning techniques: looking for characteristic statistical “language-signatures” in test corpora. As a first step towards such species-independent language-detection, we present a suite of programs to analyse digital representations of a range of data, and use the results to extrapolate whether or not there are language-like structures which distinguish this data from other sources, such as music, images, and white noise.     

Devising an unconventional formal logic for bioinspired spacefaring automata

The field of robotics is increasingly moving from robots confined to factory floors and assembly lines and bound to perform the same tasks over and over in an uncertainty-free, well foreseeable environment, to robots designed for operating in highly dynamic and uncertainty domains, like those of interest in space exploration. According to an idea of a “new system of formal logic less rigid than past and present formal logic” advocated by von Neumann for building a powerful theory of automata, such system should be “closer to another discipline which has been little linked in the past with logic, i.e. thermodynamics, primarily in the form it was received by Boltzmann”. Following that idea, which is particularly interesting now with the emerging computational nano-sciences, it is stressed here that a full set of isomorphisms can be established between the fundamental logical principles and the information flows, Hamiltonian or dissipative, in phase space. This form of logic, dubbed here kinetic logic, takes standard formal logic out of the field of combinatorics and into the field of the Boltzmannian form of thermodynamics, i.e. kinetics.