The NASA/industry Design Analysis Methods for Vibrations (DAMVIBS) program: Boeing Helicopters airframe finite element modeling

Mathematical models based on the finite element method of structural analysis, as embodied in the NASTRAN computer code, are routinely used by the helicopter industry to calculate airframe static internal loads used for sizing structural members. Historically, less reliance has been placed on the vibration predictions based on these models. Beginning in the early 1980's NASA's Langley Research Center initiated an industry wide program with the objective of engendering the needed trust in vibration predictions using these models and establishing a body of modeling guides which would enable confident future prediction of airframe vibration as part of the regular design process. Emphasis in this paper is placed on the successful modeling of the Army/Boeing CH-47D which showed reasonable correlation with test data. A principal finding indicates that improved dynamic analysis requires greater attention to detail and perhaps a finer mesh, especially the mass distribution, than the usual stress model. Post program modeling efforts show improved correlation placing key modal frequencies in the b/rev range with 4 percent of the test frequencies

Fully automatic worst-case execution time analysis for MATLAB/Simulink models

“This material is presented to ensure timely dissemination of scholarly and technical work. Copyright and all rights therein are retained by authors or by other copyright holders. All persons copying this information are expected to adhere to the terms and constraints invoked by each author's copyright. In most cases, these works may not be reposted without the explicit permission of the copyright holder." “Copyright IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or to reuse any copyrighted component of this work in other works must be obtained from the IEEE.”In today's technical world (e.g., in the automotive industry), more and more purely mechanical components get replaced by electro-mechanical ones. Thus the size and complexity of embedded systems steadily increases. To cope with this development, comfortable software engineering tools are being developed that allow a more functionality-oriented development of applications. The paper demonstrates how worst-case execution time (WCET) analysis is integrated into such a high-level application design and simulation tool MATLAB/Simulink-thus providing a higher-level interface to WCET analysis. The MATLAB/Simulink extensions compute and display worst-case timing data for all blocks of a MATLAB/Simulink simulation, which gives the developer of an application valuable feedback about the correct timing of the application being developed. The solution facilitates a fully-automated WCET analysis, i.e., in contrast to existing approaches the programmer does not have to provide path information

Coherent-feedback quantum control with a dynamic compensator

I present an experimental realization of a coherent-feedback control system that was recently proposed for testing basic principles of linear quantum stochastic control theory [M. R. James, H. I. Nurdin and I. R. Petersen, to appear in IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control (2008), arXiv:quant-ph/0703150v2]. For a dynamical plant consisting of an optical ring-resonator, I demonstrate ~ 7 dB broadband disturbance rejection of injected laser signals via all-optical feedback with a tailored dynamic compensator. Comparison of the results with a transfer function model pinpoints critical parameters that determine the coherent-feedback control system's performance.Comment: 4 pages, 4 EPS figure

Smart Materials as Intelligent Insulation

In order to provide a robust infrastructure for the transmission and distribution of electrical power, understanding and monitoring equipment ageing and failure is of paramount importance. Commonly, failure is associated with degradation of the dielectric material; therefore the introduction of a smart moiety into the material is a potentially attractive means of continual condition monitoring. It is important that any introduction of smart groups into the dielectric does not have any detrimental effect on the desirable electrical and mechanical properties of the bulk material. Initial work focussed on the introduction of fluorophores into a model dielectric system. Fluorescence is known to be a visible effect even at very low concentrations of active fluorophores and therefore was thought well suited to such an application. It was necessary both to optimise the active fluorophore itself and to determine the most appropriate manner in which to introduce the fluorophores into the insulating system. This presentation will describe the effect of introducing fluorophores into polymeric systems on the dielectric properties of the material and the findings thus far [1]. Alternative smart material systems will also be discussed along with the benefits and limitations of smart materials as electric field sensors

Updates of PDFs in the MSTW framework

I present results on updates on PDFs which are obtained within the general framework which led to the MSTW2008 PDF sets. There are some theory and procedural improvements and a variety of new data sets, including many relevant up-to-date LHC data. A new set of PDFs is very close to being finalised, with no significant changes expected to the preliminary PDFs shown here.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures,Published in PoS DIS (2014

Interpretation of transverse tune spectra in a heavy-ion synchrotron at high intensities

Two different tune measurement systems have been installed in the GSI heavy-ion synchrotron SIS-18. Tune spectra are obtained with high accuracy using these fast and sensitive systems. Besides the machine tune, the spectra contain information about the intensity dependent coherent tune shift and the incoherent space charge tune shift. The space charge tune shift is derived from a fit of the observed shifted positions of the synchrotron satellites to an analytic expression for the head-tail eigenmodes with space charge. Furthermore, the chromaticity is extracted from the measured head-tail mode structure. The results of the measurements provide experimental evidence of the importance of space charge effects and head-tail modes for the interpretation of transverse beam signals at high intensity

Coexisting periodic attractors in injection locked diode lasers

We present experimental evidence for coexisting periodic attractors in a semiconductor laser subject to external optical injection. The coexisting attractors appear after the semiconductor laser has undergone a Hopf bifurcation from the locked steady state. We consider the single mode rate equations and derive a third order differential equation for the phase of the laser field. We then analyze the bifurcation diagram of the time periodic states in terms of the frequency detuning and the injection rate and show the existence of multiple periodic attractors.Comment: LaTex, 14 pages, 6 postscript figures include

Spectra of magnetic perturbations triggered by pellets in JET plasmas

Aiming at investigating edge localised mode (ELM) pacing for future application on ITER, experiments have been conducted on JET injecting pellets in different plasma configurations, including high confinement regimes with type-I and type-III ELMs, low confinement regimes and Ohmically heated plasmas. The magnetic perturbations spectra and the toroidal mode number, n, of triggered events are compared with those of spontaneous ELMs using a wavelet analysis to provide good time resolution of short-lived coherent modes. It is found that—in all these configurations—triggered events have a coherent mode structure, indicating that pellets can trigger an MHD event basically in every background plasma. Two components have been found in the magnetic perturbations induced by pellets, with distinct frequencies and toroidal mode numbers. In high confinement regimes triggered events have similarities with spontaneous ELMs: both are seen to start from low toroidal mode numbers, then the maximum measured n increases up to about 10 within 0.3 ms before the ELM burst

High-resolution thermal expansion measurements under Helium-gas pressure

We report on the realization of a capacitive dilatometer, designed for high-resolution measurements of length changes of a material for temperatures 1.4 K $\leq T \leq$ 300 K and hydrostatic pressure $P \leq$ 250 MPa. Helium ($^4$He) is used as a pressure-transmitting medium, ensuring hydrostatic-pressure conditions. Special emphasis has been given to guarantee, to a good approximation, constant-pressure conditions during temperature sweeps. The performance of the dilatometer is demonstrated by measurements of the coefficient of thermal expansion at pressures $P \simeq$ 0.1 MPa (ambient pressure) and 104 MPa on a single crystal of azurite, Cu$_3$(CO$_3$)$_2$(OH)$_2$, a quasi-one-dimensional spin S = 1/2 Heisenberg antiferromagnet. The results indicate a strong effect of pressure on the magnetic interactions in this system.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures, published in Rev. Sci. Instrum with minor change