Experimental study in adaptive tracking control

The authors describe an experimental study of adaptive pointing and tracking control for flexible spacecraft conducted on a complex ground experiment facility. The algorithm used is based on a multivariable direct model reference adaptive control law. Several experimental validation studies performed using this algorithm for vibration damping and robust regulation are extended by addressing the pointing and tracking problem. As is consistent with an adaptive control framework, the plant is assumed to be poorly known to the extent that only system level knowledge of its dynamics is available. Explicit bounds on the steady-state pointing error are derived as functions of the adaptive controller design parameters. It is shown that good tracking performance can be achieved in an experimental setting by adjusting adaptive controller design weightings according to the guidelines indicated by the analytical expressions for the error     

基于仿射变换的机载凝视红外告警器图像配准

提出了一种用于机载凝视红外图像序列的配准算法.分析凝视红外图像的特点,建立二维仿射变换模型描述三维空间.以帧间均方差最小作为评价标准拟合4个最优配准参数,通过参数步长控制配准算法精度.通过实测空中红外小飞机图像序列,证明了该算法配准精度可达到象素级,并可有效屏蔽背景杂波干扰.     

宽体客机座舱COVID-19传播特性研究

针对新冠疫情下座舱内乘客因气流组织分布而产生交叉感染问题,以宽体客机座舱为对象,研究了座舱内COVID-19病毒的传播特性,并提出了人体微环境控制方法来抑制病毒在座舱内的传播。采用拉格朗日方法模拟了座舱旅客呼出带病毒飞沫,揭示了座舱内病毒传播轨迹和分布特性,分析了不同送风方式、送风速度以及人体微环境控制技术对座舱内病毒颗粒传播特性的影响。提出了相对暴露值量化不同位置乘客被病毒飞沫污染程度。结果表明：送风速度对座舱内病毒飞沫传播的影响相对较小,顶/侧送风的组合送风方式可有效降低病毒飞沫的扩散范围;在座舱上方增加气幕带送风式的人体微环境控制方法,有效降低了舱内病毒飞沫浓度,减小了人员交叉感染风险,相邻位置乘客感染的相对暴露值降低了65%,其他位置乘客相对暴露值降低约90%。     

Structural optimization of elliptical-tip star propellant grain using sub-problem approximation

A method is presented here for structural optimization of elliptical-tip star grain.The grain structural integrity was improved by minimizing the most critical area of inner bore hoop strain during cool down.Optimization was done by sub-problem approximation method in conjunction with finite element analysis.Both radii of the ellipse were varied during optimization to find the optimal ellipse.The optimization resulted in grain geometry having minimum level of Inner bore hoop strain without violating the preset limits of burning perimeter.The von mises strain at grain inner bore was also reduced in resultant grain.      

Study the behavior of the ionospheric frequencies at Karachi during three consecutive solar minima of cycle 21, 22 & 23 and their comparison with IRI-2016

The behavior of critical frequencies of ionospheric E and F2 layers (foE & foF2) along with minimum ionospheric frequency (fmin) is studied for solar minima of cycle 21 (1986), 22 (1996) and 23 (2008) over Karachi (24.95$°$N, 67.13$°$E), Pakistan. The station is located at the crest of equatorial ionization anomaly region. Beside seasonal differences, pronounced change in the values of frequencies is noted from one solar minimum to another solar minimum. A strong and direct correlation of foF2 with Smoothed Sunspot Number (SSN) and F10.7?cm solar flux is observed. In the minimum of cycle 23, reduction in foF2 is noted due to reduction of solar EUV as compared to other minima. Also disappearance of semi-annual variations in foF2 is noted in cycle 23 minimum. Unexpectedly higher values of foE and fmin are observed in minimum of cycle 23 as compared to other minima. It is difficult to explain this unusual behavior of fmin and foE along with disappearance of semi-annual variation in foF2. It is possible that during very low solar activity, thermospheric conditions are changed which in turn altered the ionosphere. Further investigation of atmosphere-ionosphere coupling is required to understand this complex behavior. On comparison of observed values with IRI-2016, higher deviations are observed in foE before noon hours while in case of foF2, large deviations are noted during daytime. The absence of foF2 semi-annual variation in cycle 23 is not reproduced by IRI-2016. It is suggested that IRI-2016 need some modification for extremely low solar activity condition.     

Sq(H) field variations at Sonmiani geomagnetic observatory,Pakistan for solar cycle 24

In this study, Sq(H) field results for Sonmiani geomagnetic observatory (SON), Pakistan are presented first time for solar cycle i.e., Solar Cycle 24. Sonmiani observatory was established in 2008 and was included in the list of INTERMAGNET Magnetic Observatory (IMO) in 2012. The analysis of Sq(H) field is performed to examine diurnal, annual and seasonal behaviour of Sq(H) field at Sonmiani along with Honolulu which is used as reference observatory. Both the observatories lie at the Equatorial Ionisation Anomaly (EIA) crest. In general strong dependency of Sq(H) field on solar cycle has been observed. First peak of SC24 was visible in Sq(H) field at both observatories. However, at HON maximum Sq(H) was observed in 2015 instead of 2014, a year later than the year of solar maximum. Prominent longitudinal difference has been noted between both observatories. At HON, maximum Sq(H) was observed during equinox while at SON it was noted during equinox and summer as a consequence of shift in latitude of Sq focus. Phase shift of Sq(H) at SON followed a general trend, that is maximum Sq(H) shifted to later hours in solar maximum as compared to solar minimum. Whereas, an opposite trend was noted at HON which might be due to coastal effect. In case of seasonal phase shift, at both observatories maximum Sq(H) occurred at later hours in summer than in winter which is opposite to the results obtained by many workers. These points need further investigation and geomagnetic as well as wind, and electric field data of other observatories situated at the EIA crest region is required to interpret the Sq(H) phase shift extensively.     

Neural network prediction of the topside electron content over the Euro-African sector derived from Swarm-A measurements

This study presents the first prediction results of a neural network model for the vertical total electron content of the topside ionosphere based on Swarm-A measurements. The model was trained on 5 years of Swarm-A data over the Euro-African sector spanning the period 1 January 2014 to 31 December 2018. The Swarm-A data was combined with solar and geomagnetic indices to train the NN model. The Swarm-A data of 1 January to 30 September 2019 was used to test the performance of the neural network. The data was divided into two main categories: most quiet and most disturbed days of each month. Each category was subdivided into two sub-categories according to the Swarm-A trajectory i.e. whether it was ascending or descending in order to accommodate the change in local time when the satellite traverses the poles. Four pairs of neural network models were implemented, the first of each pair having one hidden layer, and the second of each pair having two hidden layers, for the following cases: 1) quiet day-ascending, 2) quiet day-descending, 3) disturbed day-ascending, and 4) disturbed day-descending. The topside vertical total electron content predicted by the neural network models compared well with the measurements by Swarm-A. The model that performed best was the one hidden layer model in the case of quiet days for descending trajectories, with RMSE = 1.20 TECU, R = 0.76. The worst performance occurred during the disturbed descending trajectories where the one hidden layer model had the worst RMSE = 2.12 TECU, (R = 0.54), and the two hidden layer model had the worst correlation coefficient R = 0.47 (RMSE = 1.57).In all cases, the neural network models performed better than the IRI2016 model in predicting the topside total electron content. The NN models presented here is the first such attempt at comparing NN models for the topside VTEC based on Swarm-A measurements.     

Impact of reduced frequency on the time lag in pressure distribution over a supercritical airfoil in a pitch-pause-return motion

Effects of reduced frequency, stop angle, and pause duration have been studied on a thin supercritical airfoil undergoing a pitch-pause-return motion, which is one of the classic maneuvers introduced by the AIAA Fluid Dynamics Technical Committee. Experiments were conducted in a low-speed wind tunnel at both a constant mean angle of attack and an oscillation amplitude with a reduced frequency ranging from 0.01 to 0.12. The desired stop angles of the airfoil were set to occur during the upstroke motion. The unsteady pressure distribution on the airfoil was measured for below, near, and beyond static stall conditions. Results showed that the reduced frequency and stop angle were the dominant contributors to the time lag in the flowfield. For stop angles in both below- and post-stall regions, the time for the flowfield to reach its steady state conditions, known as the time lag, decreased as the reduced frequency was increased. However, in the static-stall region and for a certain value of reduced frequency, a resonance phenomenon was observed, and a minimum time lag was achieved. The pressure distribution in this condition was shown to be highly influenced by this phenomenon.     

Impacts of the PAH size and the radiation intensity on the IR features of illuminated dust within the reflection nebulae

Interstellar dust grains are illuminated in the reflection nebulae. Under conditions of the PAH size and the intensity of the interstellar radiation field, we follow their impact on the PAH aromatic infrared bands using the numerical DustEM code. For a dust model consisting of PAH, amorphous C and amorphous silicate, the PAH size varies in a range from 0.31 to 4.9 nm while the radiation intensity varies by a scale factor from 0.1 to 10⁴. Various trends of the results show the effect of varying both the PAH size and the radiation intensity on the strength of the aromatic mid-IR bands. Through small PAH sizes less than 0.7 nm, the grain temperature distribution of PAHs shows a small variation within 2–3 K at low radiation intensity while it increases to 15 and 8 K for PAH⁰ and PAH⁺, respectively, at higher radiation intensity. In final the variability in these results reveals the evolution of the dust grains under the physical space conditions of the reflection nebulae. In the mid-IR region, the contributions of PAH⁰ and PAH⁺ in the total SED intensity agree with the proportions of these PAHs observed in some reflection nebulae having higher radiation intensities.