Modeling and parameter uncertainties for aircraft flight control system design

Values of plant dynamic uncertainties for some recent aircraft design and development programs are given. Histories of pertinent aerodynamic, inertial, and structural parameter variations are given for a period of time from program initiation to aircraft certification. These data can be used as typical of future vehicles so that control system design concepts are evaluated with due consideration to their sensitivity to uncertainties in plant dynamics

Detailed investigation of a vaporising fuel spray. Part 1: Experimental investigation of time averaged spray

A laser tomographic light scattering technique provides rapid and accurate high resolution measurements of droplet sizes, concentrations, and vaporization. Measurements using a computer interfaced thermocouple are presented and it is found that the potential exists for separating gas and liquid temperature measurements and diagnosing local spray density by in situ analysis of the response characteristics of the thermocouple. The thermocouple technique provides a convenient means for measuring mean gas velocity in both hot and cold two phase flows. The experimental spray is axisymmetric and has carefully controlled initial and boundary conditions. The flow is designed to give relatively insignificant transfer of momentum and mass from spray to air flow. The effects of (1) size-dependent droplet dispersion by the turbulence, (2) the initial spatial segregation of droplet sizes during atomization, and (3) the interaction between droplets and coherent large eddies are diagnosed

The High Resolution X-ray Spectrum of SS 433 using the Chandra HETGS

We present observations of SS 433 using the Chandra High Energy Transmission Grating Spectrometer. Many emission lines of highly ionized elements are detected with the relativistic blue and red Doppler shifts. The lines are measurably broadened to 1700 km/s (FWHM) and the widths do not depend significantly on the characteristic emission temperature, suggesting that the emission occurs in a freely expanding region of constant collimation with opening angle of 1.23 +/- 0.06 deg. The blue shifts of lines from low temperature gas are the same as those of high temperature gas within our uncertainties, again indicating that the hottest gas we observe to emit emission lines is already at terminal velocity. Fits to the emission line fluxes give a range of temperatures in the jet from 5e6 to 1e8 K. We derive the emission measure as a function of temperature for a four component model that fits the line flux data. Using the density sensitive Si XIII triplet, the characteristic electron density is 1e14 cm^{-3}, where the gas temperature is about 1.3e7 K. Based on an adiabatic expansion model of the jet, the electron densities drop from ~2e15 to 4e13 cm^{-3} at distances of 2e10 to 2e11 cm from the apex of the jet cone. The jet mass outflow rate is 1.5e-7 Msun / yr. The kinetic power is 3.2e38 erg/s, which is x1000 larger than the unabsorbed 2-10 keV X-ray luminosity. The bremsstrahlung emission associated with the lines can account for the entire continuum; we see no direct evidence for an accretion disk. The image from zeroth order shows extended emission at a scale of ~2", aligned in the general direction of the radio jets.Comment: 28 pages, 12 figures (1, 4, 5, and 6 are color), to appear in the Astrophysical Journa

Abiotic O_2 Levels on Planets around F, G, K, and M Stars: Effects of Lightning-produced Catalysts in Eliminating Oxygen False Positives

Over the last few years, a number of authors have suggested that, under certain circumstances, molecular oxygen (O_2) or ozone (O_3) generated by abiotic processes may accumulate to detectable concentrations in a habitable terrestrial planet's atmosphere, producing so-called "false positives" for life. But the models have occasionally disagreed with each other, with some predicting false positives, and some not, for the same apparent set of circumstances. We show here that photochemical false positives derive either from inconsistencies in the treatment of atmospheric and global redox balance or from the treatment (or lack thereof) of lightning. For habitable terrestrial planets with even trace amounts of atmospheric N_2, NO produced by lightning catalyzes the recombination of CO and O derived from CO_2 photolysis and should be sufficient to eliminate all reported false positives. Molecular oxygen thus remains a useful biosignature gas for Earth-like extrasolar planets, provided that the planet resides within the conventional liquid water habitable zone and has not experienced distinctly non-Earth-like, irrecoverable water loss

Multi-step self-guided pathways for shape-changing metamaterials

Multi-step pathways, constituted of a sequence of reconfigurations, are central to a wide variety of natural and man-made systems. Such pathways autonomously execute in self-guided processes such as protein folding and self-assembly, but require external control in macroscopic mechanical systems, provided by, e.g., actuators in robotics or manual folding in origami. Here we introduce shape-changing mechanical metamaterials, that exhibit self-guided multi-step pathways in response to global uniform compression. Their design combines strongly nonlinear mechanical elements with a multimodal architecture that allows for a sequence of topological reconfigurations, i.e., modifications of the topology caused by the formation of internal self-contacts. We realized such metamaterials by digital manufacturing, and show that the pathway and final configuration can be controlled by rational design of the nonlinear mechanical elements. We furthermore demonstrate that self-contacts suppress pathway errors. Finally, we demonstrate how hierarchical architectures allow to extend the number of distinct reconfiguration steps. Our work establishes general principles for designing mechanical pathways, opening new avenues for self-folding media, pluripotent materials, and pliable devices in, e.g., stretchable electronics and soft robotics.Comment: 16 pages, 3 main figures, 10 extended data figures. See https://youtu.be/8m1QfkMFL0I for an explanatory vide