CIRA annual report FY 2017/2018

Reporting period April 1, 2017-March 31, 2018

Set-Based Prototyping in the Context of the Configurable Virtual Product: The Construction of the Learning Value Streams (LVS) Model

RÉSUMÉ La présente thèse de doctorat est le résultat de sept années de recherche intervention dans les domaines de la conception et du développement de produits suivant le paradigme lean en aérospatial. Cette recherche action est motivée par la nécessité de développer les connaissances ainsi que les outils appropriés pour le développement de produits suivant l’approche lean (LPD pour Lean Product Development) et en particulier celle de l’ « ingénierie concourante fondée sur les options de conception » (SBCE pour Set-Based Concurrent Engineering) en aérospatial. Une telle nécessité se justifie par les facteurs socioéconomiques du 21ème siècle qui imposent des approches de conception et développement toujours plus robustes, résilientes, réactives, flexibles, innovantes et adaptables face aux fluctuations du marché et à la demande des consommateurs qui évolue rapidement, ceci afin de permettre aux compagnies de demeurer compétitives. L’objectif principal de la recherche, au vue de tels impératifs, est d’identifier, pour ensuite développer et intégrer dans un modèle holistique, les aspects, les caractéristiques et les catalyseurs essentiels des approches LPD et SBCE appliquées à l’industrie aérospatiale de façon à supporter l’implémentation à grande échelle de telles approches, et ce, dans une optique sousjacente de gestion de cycle de vie du produit (PLM pour Product Lifecycle Management). La planification et l’exécution du projet de recherche sont réalisées en respectant une méthodologie éprouvée en conception (DRM pour Design Research Methodology) afin de focaliser les résultats sur l’avancement des connaissances et de la pratique du LPD et SBCE en tant qu’approches de conception. La recherche apporte en conséquence des contributions majeures à ces champs d’étude tout en prescrivant une méthodologie de transformation des processus et outils de développement de produits dans l’industrie par le biais de l’implémentation du modèle de « chaines de valeur apprenantes » (LVS pour Learning Value Streams). Plus en détails, les contributions aux avancées scientifiques et pratiques dans le domaine vont comme suit : (1) La proposition d’un nouveau cadre d’analyse de la littérature SBCE, ainsi qu’une méthodologie de revue systématique fondée sur des données probantes; (2) L’avancement des connaissances théoriques et pratiques du LPD et SBCE des aspects les plus généraux aux plus significatifs; (3) L’avancement des connaissances théoriques et pratiques sur la modélisation et les structures de produit requises dans une optique de gestion de cycle de vie du produit----------ABSTRACT The work reported in this thesis is the result of seven years of participatory action research in the field of Lean Product Development (LPD) in aerospace engineering. This research is motivated by the necessity to develop understanding and support for practical implementations of lean product development and especially Set-Based Concurrent Engineering (SBCE) in industry. Such necessity is justified by 21st century compelling socioeconomic factors that demand robust, resilient, responsive, flexible, innovative, adaptable and lean product development processes in order for companies to stay competitive in rapidly changing markets. The main purpose of the research is to identify and develop the essential SBCE and LPD aspects, characteristics, features and catalysts as they relate to aerospace large-scale industrial product development in order to form a holistic model that can support practical implementations of LPD in industry from a product lifecycle perspective. A design research methodology (DRM) is used for planning and executing the design research project while ensuring that focus is placed on achieving progress with regards to understanding and implementation of SBCE and LPD as Design practices. As a result, this thesis work provides substantial contribution to understanding of LPD and SBCE and furthermore, entails valuable proposal for the practice in industry through the CCS model and the construction of the Learning Value Streams (LVS) model. Major contributions to the advancement of scientific knowledge and practice in the fields are as follows: (1) The proposal of a new SBCE dual analysis framework combined with an evidence-based systematic review methodology; (2) The advancement of theoretical and practical understanding of LPD and SBCE from the larger to the most significant aspects; (3) The advancement of theoretical and practical understanding of product models and product structure progression requirements for lean product lifecycle management; (4) the proposal of a new methodology, including new as-tested structure to support cross-collaboration during prototyping and testing in lifecycle management contexts; (5) The proposal of a new existential domain alongside the functional, technological and physical domains in order to address the lack of product modelling constructs and methodology when it comes to service or as-tested configurations, hardware testing transactions and prototype information tracking on the basis o

Characterization of Smoke Particles Toward Improved Remote Sensing Retrievals and Chemical Transport Modeling

Wildfires increase in extent, intensity, and frequency across the globe over the recent decades. The uncontrolled fires trigger cascading effects on local ecosystems and the fire emissions pose a higher risk to air quality and climate. Wildfire emissions contain a variety of trace gases and particulate matters. The particle-phase emissions, especially those light-absorbing species including black carbon (BC) and brown carbon (BrC), significantly affect the regional and global climate by modulating the radiative transfer phenomena in the atmosphere. A great discrepancy still exists between model- and observation-based estimates of aerosol-radiation interactions (ARI). The discrepancy is partially attributed to the mischaracterizations of aerosol microphysical properties in current chemical transport models and the misinterpretation of satellite observational data. Motivated these challenges, this dissertation tends to advance the knowledge in wildfire studies from two aspects: (1) assessing the radiative effects of fire-emitted particles by incorporating their morphological and optical properties into a radiative transfer algorithm, and (2) developing an improved algorithm to retrieve the subpixel fire properties.Objective 1: Nascent BC particles exhibit an aggregated appearance. We applied electron tomography (ET) coupled with a slice-by-slice voxel filling algorithm to reconstruct the 3D morphology of BC aggregates. The morphological and optical properties of the BC aggregates are respectively studied with the Q-space analysis and discrete dipole approximation approach. Our study indicates that the ET reconstructed aggregates are different in morphological and optical characteristics than those resolved from the traditional 2D microscopic analysis or modeling aggregation processes. Additionally, BC aerosols undergo an aging process as they are emitted into the atmosphere. The particle-scale characterization was further extended to the aged BC particles by adding different levels of coating onto the nascent BC. In this part of work, we numerically investigated the variation of fractal characteristics as BC is coated. The morphologies of coated BC particle fit well with the ideal fractal law when its radius of gyration is identical to that of the bare BC core. However, using the same law is difficult to fit the structures of heavily or unevenly coated BC aggregates. Our findings suggest a more realistic parameterization of both nascent and aged BC needs to be incorporated in climate models. The microphysical characteristics of fire-emitted particles were then incorporated into radiative transfer models to evaluate their radiative effects. We integrated the Mie code with the successive order of scattering (SOS) algorithm to simulate the polarimetric signals at the top of the atmosphere. The modeled polarization quantities have exhibited potential to distinguish particles with distinct light-absorbing properties. Moreover, we integrated the above-mentioned fractal particle model and the associated optical properties of aggregated particles into an optical computation module, Flexible Aerosol Optical Depth (FlexAOD), as well as an offline radiative transfer algorithm based on DIScrete Ordinates Radiative Transfer (DISORT) principle, to re-evaluate the ARI of BC in the wildfire regions in the northwest US. Our results suggest that BC morphologies have noticeable impacts on aerosol optical depth (AOD), and the resulting radiative forcings. Objective 2: The sporadic occurrence and the dynamically evolving nature of wildfires requires measurement techniques with broad spatiotemporal coverages and high resolution. Satellite-based products thus have been widely used in estimating the emission rates of atmospheric pollutants. Additionally, many atmospheric and meteorological applications require the fraction of fire area at the subpixel scale and fire temperature to estimate the plume injection height and understand mechanisms of the following pyroconvection processes. A thermodynamically-constrained algorithm was developed which utilizes the radiance at middle infrared (MIR) and thermal infrared (TIR) wavelengths to retrieve the subpixel fire characteristics. This algorithm considers the heat transfer phenomena beyond solely the fire area to include the adjacent heated land. By doing this, we resolved a continuously changed temperature profile outside the fire area. Furthermore, the comparisons of the retrieved fire temperature and area fraction between the improved and the traditional bi-spectral algorithms via a Williams Flats fire test case during the 2019 FIREX-AQ campaign show the improved algorithm outputs a lower fire temperature but significantly larger fire area fraction than the traditional method. It implies that this new algorithm can further reconcile the significant underestimation of fire emissions estimated by burned-area based approach

Earth Resources: A continuing bibliography with indexes, issue 36

This bibliography lists 576 reports, articles, and other documents introduced into the NASA Scientific and Technical Information System between October 1 and December 31, 1982. Emphasis is placed on the use of remote sensing and geophysical instrumentation in spacecraft and aircraft to survey and inventory natural resources and urban areas. Subject matter is grouped according to agriculture and forestry, environmental changes and cultural resources, geodesy and cartography, geology and mineral resources, hydrology and water management, data processing and distribution systems, instrumentation and sensors, and economic analysis

Reusable Space Vehicle Ground Operations Baseline Conceptual Model

Modeling efforts for future space operation vehicles at the United States Air Force Research Labs Air Vehicles Directorate have been focused towards the in-flight mission. To better serve the research and development effort, a simulation of the ground operations is required allowing for trade-offs within turnaround operations and between the components that drive those procedures. However, before a simulation can be developed a conceptual model must be generated to guide the model building process. This research provides a baseline conceptual model for reusable space vehicles based on the space shuttle as the only operational vehicle of its kind. The model is built utilizing the Integrated Definition (IDEF) methodology, specifically IDEF3. IDEF3 is focused towards process-viewpoint diagramming and layout. The model is developed using the hierarchical development capabilities of the IDEF3 methodology and is broken into modules allowing for greater reuse and usability. This model captures the scheduled maintenance performed to turnaround the space shuttle for the next launch but does not contain every activity. The idea was to capture the baseline activities that may be found in future Reusable Space Vehicles and provide a description of what happens at Kennedy Space Center when preparing the space shuttle for the next launch

Space Station needs, attributes and architectural options. Volume 2, book 1, part 2, task 1: Mission requirements

Mission areas analyzed for input to the baseline mission model include: (1) commercial materials processing, including representative missions for producing metallurgical, chemical and biological products; (2) commercial Earth observation, represented by a typical carry-on mission amenable to commercialization; (3) solar terrestrial and resource observations including missions in geoscience and scientific land observation; (4) global environment, including representative missions in meteorology, climatology, ocean science, and atmospheric science; (5) materials science, including missions for measuring material properties, studying chemical reactions and utilizing the high vacuum-pumping capacity of space; and (6) life sciences with experiments in biomedicine and animal and plant biology

Earth Resources: A continuing bibliography with indexes, Issue 35

This bibliography list 587 reports, articles, and other documents introduced into the NASA Scientific and Technical Information System between July 1, and September 30, 1982. Emphasis is placed on the use of remote sensing and geophysical instrumentation in spacecraft and aircraft to survey and inventory natural resources and urban areas. Subject matter is grouped according to agriculture and forestry, environmental changes and cultural resources, geodesy and cartography, geology and mineral resources, hydrology and water management, data processing and distribution systems, instrumentation and sensors, and economic analysis

A Product Lifecycle Management Framework to Support the Exchange of Prototyping and Testing Information.

RÉSUMÉ La conception et développement en tant qu'activité essentielle et motrice du cycle de vie du produit est désormais profondément influencée par les outils informatiques et leur utilisation par les divers acteurs, internes ou externes à l'entreprise et à travers les phases de vie du produit. Dans un contexte où chaque domaine d'expertise possède ses propres outils spécialisés, de nouveaux défis relatifs à la collaboration et à la dissémination de l'information sont présents. Ces défis vont crescendo aussi bien à cause de la croissance, la multiplicité et les relations entre les données générées que le souci de gérer leurs flux et des processus clés tels que le changement. A cet effet, les travaux présentés sont basés sur les transactions spécifiques d'un département de développement et tests dont les activités consistent à planifier et construire des prototypes afin de valider des performances fonctionnelles et opérationnelles du produit. Il s’agit donc de proposer et simuler une plate-forme s'appuyant sur les données configurées d'ingénierie, les structures d'information complémentaires et l'ensemble des pratiques modernes de gestion de données techniques pour converger vers des solutions et concepts répondant aux défis soulevés. Cette convergence devra en outre adhérer durablement à l'optique de gestion de cycle de vie du produit (PLM, Product Lifecycle Management). Dans un premier temps, une étude d'un cas de conception d'un nouveau pylône pour le remplacement d'un moteur de série d'avion est menée afin de détailler et implémenter, autant que possible, les fonctionnalités clés de la plate-forme cible. Cette simulation, mettant en exergue les structures complémentaires et configurables, est réalisée sur un système PLM récent à disposition pour le projet. Dans un second temps, une étude basée sur les logiciels libres et s'appuyant sur un modèle de communication préalablement justifié est déployée afin de démontrer comment des données nativement incompatibles peuvent être transformées, homogénéisées et gérées de manière consistante dans un emplacement commun. L’approche telle qu'implémentée en deux temps permet d'effectuer transpositions et extrapolations de manière à introduire l'Open Exchange Nest en tant que concept générique apte à supporter le travail collaboratif au sens PLM.----------ABSTRACT The modern perspective on product life cycle and the rapid evolution of Information and Communication Technologies in general have opened a new era in product representation and product information sharing between participants, both inside and outside the enterprise and throughout the product life. In particular, the Product Development Process relies on crossfunctional activities involving different domains of expertise that each have their own dedicated tools. This has generated new challenges in terms of collaboration and dissemination of information at large between companies or even within the same organization. Within this context, the work reported herein focuses on a specific stakeholder within product development activities - the prototyping and testing department. Its business is typically related to the planning and building of prototypes in order to perform specific tests on the future product or one of its sub-assemblies. The research project aims at investigating an appropriate framework that leverages configured engineering product information, based on complementary information structures, to share and exchange prototyping and testing information in a Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) perspective. As a first step, a case study based on the retrofit of an aircraft engine is deployed to implement a scenario demonstrating the functionalities to be available within the intended framework. For this purpose, complementary and configurable structures are simulated within the project’s PLM system. In a second step are considered the software interoperability issues that don’t only affect Design – Testing interactions, but many other interfaces within either the company – due to the silo-arrangement – or the consortiums with partners, in which case the whole PLM platforms could simply be incompatible. A study based on an open source initiative and relying on an improved model of communication is described to show how two natively disparate PLM tools can dialogue to merge information in a central environment. The principles applied in both steps are therefore transposed to introduce the Open Exchange Nest as a generic PLM-driven and web-based concept to support the collaborative work in the aforementioned context

NASA oceanic processes program

Current flight projects and definition studies, brief descriptions of individual research activities, and bibliography of referred journal articles are provided