82 research outputs found
Tension fracture of laminates for transport fuselage. Part 2: Large notches
Tests were conducted on over 200 center-crack specimens to evaluate: (a) the tension-fracture performance of candidate materials and laminates for commercial fuselage applications; and (b) the accuracy of several failure criteria in predicting response. Crack lengths of up to 12 inches were considered. Other variables included fiber/matrix combination, layup, lamination manufacturing process, and intraply hybridization. Laminates fabricated using the automated tow-placement process provided significantly higher tension-fracture strengths than nominally identical tape laminates. This confirmed earlier findings for other layups, and possibly relates to a reduced stress concentration resulting from a larger scale of repeatable material inhomogeneity in the tow-placed laminates. Changes in material and layup result in a trade-off between small-notch and large-notch strengths. Toughened resins and 0 deg-dominate layups result in higher small-notch strengths but lower large-notch strengths than brittle resins, 90 deg and 45 deg dominated layups, and intraply S2-glass hybrid material forms. Test results indicate that strength-prediction methods that allow for a reduced order singularity of the crack-tip stress field are more successful at predicting failure over a range of notch sizes than those relying on the classical square-root singularity. The order of singularity required to accurately predict large-notch strength from small-notch data was affected by both material and layup. Measured crack-tip strain distributions were generally higher than those predicted using classical methods. Traditional methods of correcting for finite specimen width were found to be lacking, confirming earlier findings with other specimen geometries. Fracture tests of two stiffened panels, identical except for differing materials, with severed central stiffeners resulted in nearly identical damage progression and failure sequences. Strain-softening laws implemented within finite element models appear attractive to account for load redistribution in configured structure due to damage-induced crack tip softenin
Global Cost and Weight Evaluation of Fuselage Side Panel Design Concepts
This report documents preliminary design trades conducted under NASA contracts NAS1 18889 (Advanced Technology Composite Aircraft Structures, ATCAS) and NAS1-19349 (Task 3, Pathfinder Shell Design) for a subsonic wide body commercial aircraft fuselage side panel section utilizing composite materials. Included in this effort were (1) development of two complete design concepts, (2) generation of cost and weight estimates, (3) identification of technical issues and potential design enhancements, and (4) selection of a single design to be further developed. The first design concept featured an open-section stringer stiffened skin configuration while the second was based on honeycomb core sandwich construction. The trade study cost and weight results were generated from comprehensive assessment of each structural component comprising the fuselage side panel section from detail fabrication through airplane final assembly. Results were obtained in three phases: (1) for the baseline designs, (2) after global optimization of the designs, and (3) the results anticipated after detailed design optimization. A critical assessment of both designs was performed to determine the risk associated with each concept, that is the relative probability of achieving the cost and weight projections. Seven critical technical issues were identified as the first step towards side panel detailed design optimization
Dynamics of Electric Field Domains and Oscillations of the Photocurrent in a Simple Superlattice Model
A discrete model is introduced to account for the time-periodic oscillations
of the photocurrent in a superlattice observed by Kwok et al, in an undoped 40
period AlAs/GaAs superlattice. Basic ingredients are an effective negative
differential resistance due to the sequential resonant tunneling of the
photoexcited carriers through the potential barriers, and a rate equation for
the holes that incorporates photogeneration and recombination. The
photoexciting laser acts as a damping factor ending the oscillations when its
power is large enough. The model explains: (i) the known oscillatory static I-V
characteristic curve through the formation of a domain wall connecting high and
low electric field domains, and (ii) the photocurrent and photoluminescence
time-dependent oscillations after the domain wall is formed. In our model, they
arise from the combined motion of the wall and the shift of the values of the
electric field at the domains. Up to a certain value of the photoexcitation,
the non-uniform field profile with two domains turns out to be metastable:
after the photocurrent oscillations have ceased, the field profile slowly
relaxes toward the uniform stationary solution (which is reached on a much
longer time scale). Multiple stability of stationary states and hysteresis are
also found. An interpretation of the oscillations in the photoluminescence
spectrum is also given.Comment: 34 pages, REVTeX 3.0, 10 figures upon request, MA/UC3M/07/9
Advanced Technology Composite Fuselage: Program Overview
The Advanced Technology Composite Aircraft Structures (ATCAS) program has studied transport fuselage structure with a large potential reduction in the total direct operating costs for wide-body commercial transports. The baseline fuselage section was divided into four 'quadrants', crown, keel, and sides, gaining the manufacturing cost advantage possible with larger panels. Key processes found to have savings potential include (1) skins laminated by automatic fiber placement, (2) braided frames using resin transfer molding, and (3) panel bond technology that minimized mechanical fastening. The cost and weight of the baseline fuselage barrel was updated to complete Phase B of the program. An assessment of the former, which included labor, material, and tooling costs, was performed with the help of design cost models. Crown, keel, and side quadrant cost distributions illustrate the importance of panel design configuration, area, and other structural details. Composite sandwich panel designs were found to have the greatest cost savings potential for most quadrants. Key technical findings are summarized as an introduction to the other contractor reports documenting Phase A and B work completed in functional areas. The current program status in resolving critical technical issues is also highlighted
Dynamic Acoustic Control of Individual Optically Active Quantum Dot-like Emission Centers in Heterostructure Nanowires
We probe and control the optical properties of emission centers forming in
radial het- erostructure GaAs-Al0.3Ga0.7As nanowires and show that these
emitters, located in Al0.3Ga0.7As layers, can exhibit quantum-dot like
characteristics. We employ a radio frequency surface acoustic wave to
dynamically control their emission energy and occupancy state on a nanosec- ond
timescale. In the spectral oscillations we identify unambiguous signatures
arising from both the mechanical and electrical component of the surface
acoustic wave. In addition, differ- ent emission lines of a single quantum dot
exhibit pronounced anti-correlated intensity oscilla- tions during the acoustic
cycle. These arise from a dynamically triggered carrier extraction out of the
quantum dot to a continuum in the radial heterostructure. Using finite element
modeling and Wentzel-Kramers-Brillouin theory we identify quantum tunneling as
the underlying mech- anism. These simulation results quantitatively reproduce
the observed switching and show that in our systems these quantum dots are
spatially separated from the continuum by > 10.5 nm.Comment: This document is the unedited Author's version of a Submitted Work
that was subsequently accepted for publication in Nano Letters, copyright
\c{copyright} American Chemical Society after peer review. To access the
final edited and published work see
http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/nl404043
Excitonic recombination dynamics in shallow quantum wells
We report a comprehensive study of carrier-recombination dynamics in shallow AlxGa1-xAs/GaAs quantum wells. At low crystal temperature (2 K), the excitonic radiative recombination time is shown to be strongly enhanced in shallow quantum wells with x>0.01, consistently with a model that takes into account the thermal equilibrium between the three-dimensional exciton gas of the barrier and the two-dimensional exciton gas, which are closer in energy as x decreases. Furthermore, we demonstrate the existence of a thermally activated escape mechanism due to the low effective barrier height in these structures. The nonradiative recombination is shown to dominate the carrier dynamics for temperatures as low as 10 K for x≈0.01. Our experimental observations are analyzed using three different variational exciton calculations. In particular, we study the crossover from the two-dimensional to the three-dimensional behavior of the exciton, which occurs for x as low as 0.01 and affects mainly the oscillator strength, whereas the transition energies in shallow quantum wells can be calculated, to a large extent, using the same approximations as for conventional quantum wells. The peculiar behavior of the oscillator strength at the crossover to the weak confinement regime is obtained by expansion in a large basis
Monte Carlo simulation of ultrafast processes in photoexcited semiconductors: Coherent and incoherent dynamics
The ultrafast dynamics of photoexcited carriers in a semiconductor is investigated by using a Monte Carlo simulation. In addition to a ‘‘conventional’’ Monte Carlo simulation, the coherence of the external light field and the resulting coherence in the carrier system are fully taken into account. This allows us to treat the correct time dependence of the generation process showing a time-dependent linewidth associated with a recombination from states off resonance due to stimulated emission. The subsequent dephasing of the carriers due to scattering processes is analyzed. In addition, the simulation contains the carrier-carrier interaction in Hartree-Fock approximation giving rise to a band-gap renormalization and excitonic effects which cannot be treated in a conventional Monte Carlo simulation where polarization effects are neglected. Thus the approach presents a unified numerical method for the investigation of phenomena occurring close to the band gap and those typical for the energy relaxation of hot carriers
Experimental and theoretical investigation of tunable picosecond pulse generation in longitudinally pumped dye laser generators and amplifiers
Passive Q-switching and mode-locking for the generation of nanosecond to femtosecond pulses
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