Enhancing the efectiveness of film cooling

Advanced gas turbine stages are designed to operate at increasingly higher inlet temperatures to increase thermal efficiency and specific power output.To maintain durability and reasonable life,film cooling is needed in addition to internal cooling,especially for the first stage.Film cooling lowers material temperature by forced convection inside film-cooling holes and by forming a layer of coolant about component surfaces to insulate them from the hot gases.Unfortunately,each cooling jet forms a pair of counter-rotating vortices that entrains hot gas and causes the film-cooling jet to lift off from the surface that it is intended to protect.This paper gives an overview of efforts to enhance the effectiveness of film-cooling.This paper also describes two new design concepts.One design concept seeks to minimize the entrainment of hot gases underneath of film-cooling jets by using flow-aligned blockers.The other design concept shifts the interaction between the approaching hot gas and the cooling jet to occur further above the surface by using an upstream ramp.For both design concepts,computational fluid dynamics results are presented to examine their usefulness in enhancing film-cooling effectiveness.      

Optimal observer maneuver for bearings-only tracking

In bearings-only tracking, observer maneuver is critical to ensure observability and to obtain an accurate target localization. Here, optimal control theory is applied to the determination of the course of a constant speed observer that minimizes an accuracy criterion deduced from the Fisher information matrix (FIM). Necessary conditions for optimal maneuver (Euler equations) are established and resolved, partly by analytical means and partly by an iterative numerical procedure. Examples of optimal observer maneuvers are presented and discussed     

EXPOSE-E: an ESA astrobiology mission 1.5 years in space

The multi-user facility EXPOSE-E was designed by the European Space Agency to enable astrobiology research in space (low-Earth orbit). On 7 February 2008, EXPOSE-E was carried to the International Space Station (ISS) on the European Technology Exposure Facility (EuTEF) platform in the cargo bay of Space Shuttle STS-122 Atlantis. The facility was installed at the starboard cone of the Columbus module by extravehicular activity, where it remained in space for 1.5 years. EXPOSE-E was returned to Earth with STS-128 Discovery on 12 September 2009 for subsequent sample analysis. EXPOSE-E provided accommodation in three exposure trays for a variety of astrobiological test samples that were exposed to selected space conditions: either to space vacuum, solar electromagnetic radiation at >110?nm and cosmic radiation (trays 1 and 3) or to simulated martian surface conditions (tray 2). Data on UV radiation, cosmic radiation, and temperature were measured every 10?s and downlinked by telemetry. A parallel mission ground reference (MGR) experiment was performed on ground with a parallel set of hardware and samples under simulated space conditions. EXPOSE-E performed a successful 1.5-year mission in space.     

Modeling bending behavior of shape memory alloy wire-reinforced composites: Semi-analytical model and finite element analysis

In this study, we propose a novel and simple exact semi-analytical model for superelastic Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) wire reinforced composites subjected to bending loads. In order to study the mechanical response of the composite during loading/unloading, a Representative Volume Element (RVE) is extracted to examine the bending response of the composite. Analytical moment–curvature, and shear force-shear strain relations are derived based on a 3-Dimensional (3D) thermomechanical SMA model and Timoshenko beam theory. The composite Simpson’s rule is adopted to numerically solve the exact analytical moment–curvature and shear force-shear strain relationships. Results including the moment–curvature response, axial stress distribution along the vertical and longitudinal directions, martensite volume fraction, and the tip deflection are reported and validated against 3D finite element simulations. The influence of temperature, martensite volume fraction distribution, and matrix stiffness on the mechanical performance of the composite is also investigated. In particular, the composite is found to behave superelastically under certain conditions of temperature, SMA volume fraction, and elastic stiffness of the matrix. Such behavior is advantageous in applications requiring large recoverable strains or high energy dissipation density.     

Effects of restitution,friction, and attitude on 2D low-velocity rigid-body impacts

The impact of nonspherical bodies is complex, even at low velocities where contacting bodies are assumed to be rigid. Models of varying complexity (e.g. finite element methods) can be used to evaluate such impacts, but it is advantageous to use impulsive models such as that by Stronge, which are computationally inexpensive and governed by (fixed) material interaction coefficients. Stronge’s model parameterizes nonspherical rigid-body impacts with energetic restitution and Coulomb friction coefficients. This model was successfully used in large-scale simulations of ballistic lander deployment to asteroids and comets, whose trajectories involve dozens of chaotic bounces. To better understand the complex dynamics of these bouncing trajectories, this paper performs a dedicated study of idealized bouncing in two dimensions and on a flat plane, in order to limit the involved degrees of freedom. Using a numerical implementation of Stronge’s model, the motion of a bouncing square is simulated with different impact conditions: the square’s impact attitude, velocity, and mass distribution as well as the surface restitution and friction coefficients. The simulation results are used to investigate how these conditions affect the bouncing motion of the square, with a distinction between first impacts with zero angular velocity and successive impacts in which the square is spinning. This reveals how a single “macroscopic” bounce that separates two ballistic arcs may often consist of multiple micro-impacts that occur in quick succession. For the different impact conditions, we show how the number of micro-impacts per macro-bounce varies, as well as the normal, tangential, and total kinematic restitution coefficients. These are different from the energetic material restitution coefficient that parameterizes the impact. Finally, we examine how the settling time and distance of the bouncing trajectories change. These trends provide insight into the bouncing motion of ballistic lander spacecraft in small-body microgravity.     

Design and Performance of the ICON EUV Spectrograph

We present the design, implementation, and on-ground performance measurements of the Ionospheric Connection Explorer EUV spectrometer, ICON EUV, a wide field (\(17^{\circ}\times 12^{\circ}\)) extreme ultraviolet (EUV) imaging spectrograph designed to observe the lower ionosphere at tangent altitudes between 100 and 500 km. The primary targets of the spectrometer, which has a spectral range of 54–88 nm, are the Oii emission lines at 61.6 nm and 83.4 nm. Its design, using a single optical element, permits a $0\stackrel{{}^{°}}{.}26$ imaging resolution perpendicular to the spectral dispersion direction with a large (\(12^{\circ} \)) acceptance parallel to the dispersion direction while providing a slit-width dominated spectral resolution of \(R\sim25\) at 58.4 nm. Pre-flight calibration shows that the instrument has met all of the science performance requirements.     

A gas management system for an ultra long duration Titan blimp

This paper presents analyses, designs and experimental results for the gas management system of a hydrogen-filled blimp capable of flying in the lower atmosphere of Titan for a period of 1 year or more. The engineering strategy has two basic elements: first, to minimize leakage rates from the blimp envelope and ballonets; and second, to provide auxiliary subsystems to mitigate the life-limiting effects resulting from those leaks. Leak minimization is achieved through use of cryogenically compatible balloon materials and adhesives, and selection of ballonet geometries that minimize pinhole generation via folding and material fatigue. Hydrogen loss to the environment through leaks in the blimp envelope is compensated by producing new hydrogen through chemical processing of atmospheric methane. Nitrogen leaked into the blimp from the ballonets is removed by a carbon absorption system and periodically vented to the atmosphere. Data is presented on the measured leak rate from a full scale (13 m long) prototype blimp envelope and on the performance of a low mass, low power prototype device that generates hydrogen from methane. These results are factored in to an overall system design that quantifies the mass and power requirements for a minimum 1 year operational lifetime.