1,225 research outputs found
ARMD Workshop on Materials and Methods for Rapid Manufacturing for Commercial and Urban Aviation
This report documents the goals, organization and outcomes of the NASA Aeronautics Research Mission Directorates (ARMD) Materials and Methods for Rapid Manufacturing for Commercial and Urban Aviation Workshop. The workshop began with a series of plenary presentations by leaders in the field of structures and materials, followed by concurrent symposia focused on forecasting the future of various technologies related to rapid manufacturing of metallic materials and polymeric matrix composites, referred to herein as composites. Shortly after the workshop, questionnaires were sent to key workshop participants from the aerospace industry with requests to rank the importance of a series of potential investment areas identified during the workshop. Outcomes from the workshop and subsequent questionnaires are being used as guidance for NASA investments in this important technology area
An Overview of Innovative Strategies for Fracture Mechanics at NASA Langley Research Center
Engineering fracture mechanics has played a vital role in the development and certification of virtually every aerospace vehicle that has been developed since the mid-20th century. NASA Langley Research Center s Durability, Damage Tolerance and Reliability Branch has contributed to the development and implementation of many fracture mechanics methods aimed at predicting and characterizing damage in both metallic and composite materials. This paper presents a selection of computational, analytical and experimental strategies that have been developed by the branch for assessing damage growth under monotonic and cyclic loading and for characterizing the damage tolerance of aerospace structure
A Strong Upper Limit on the Pulsed Radio Luminosity of the Compact Object 1RXS J141256.0+792204
The ROSAT X-ray source 1RXS J141256.0+792204 has recently been identified as
a likely compact object whose properties suggest it could be a very nearby
radio millisecond pulsar at d = 80 - 260pc. We investigated this hypothesis by
searching for radio pulsations using the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope.
We observed 1RXS J141256.0+792204 at 385 and 1380MHz, recording at high time
and frequency resolution in order to maintain sensitivity to millisecond
pulsations. These data were searched both for dispersed single pulses and using
Fourier techniques sensitive to constant and orbitally modulated periodicities.
No radio pulsations were detected in these observations, resulting in pulsed
radio luminosity limits of L_400 ~ 0.3 (d/250pc)^2 mJy kpc^2 and L_1400 ~ 0.03
(d/250pc)^2 mJy kpc^2 at 400 and 1400MHz respectively. The lack of detectable
radio pulsations from 1RXS J141256.0+792204 brings into question its
identification as a nearby radio pulsar, though, because the pulsar could be
beamed away from us, this hypothesis cannot be strictly ruled out.Comment: To appear in A&A. 3 page
Discovery of three new millisecond pulsars in Terzan 5
We report on the discovery of three new millisecond pulsars (namely
J1748-2446aj, J1748-2446ak and J1748-2446al) in the inner regions of the dense
stellar system Terzan 5. These pulsars have been discovered thanks to a method,
alternative to the classical search routines, that exploited the large set of
archival observations of Terzan 5 acquired with the Green Bank Telescope over 5
years (from 2010 to 2015). This technique allowed the analysis of stacked power
spectra obtained by combining ~206 hours of observation. J1748-2446aj has a
spin period of ~2.96 ms, J1748-2446ak of ~1.89 ms (thus it is the fourth
fastest pulsar in the cluster) and J1748-2446al of ~5.95 ms. All the three
millisecond pulsars are isolated and currently we have timing solutions only
for J1748-2446aj and J1748-2446ak. For these two systems, we evaluated the
contribution to the measured spin-down rate of the acceleration due to the
cluster potential field, thus estimating the intrinsic spin-down rates, which
are in agreement with those typically measured for millisecond pulsars in
globular clusters. Our results increase to 37 the number of pulsars known in
Terzan 5, which now hosts 25% of the entire pulsar population identified, so
far, in globular clusters.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures. ApJ (accepted
Probing the Magnetized Interstellar Medium Surrounding the Planetary Nebula Sh 2-216
We present 1420 MHz polarization images of a 2.5 X 2.5 degree region around
the planetary nebula (PN) Sh 2-216. The images are taken from the Canadian
Galactic Plane Survey (CGPS). An arc of low polarized intensity appears
prominently in the north-east portion of the visible disk of Sh 2-216,
coincident with the optically identified interaction region between the PN and
the interstellar medium (ISM). The arc contains structural variations down to
the ~1 arcminute resolution limit in both polarized intensity and polarization
angle. Several polarization-angle "knots" appear along the arc. By comparison
of the polarization angles at the centers of the knots and the mean
polarization angle outside Sh 2-216, we estimate the rotation measure (RM)
through the knots to be -43 +/- 10 rad/m^2. Using this estimate for the RM and
an estimate of the electron density in the shell of Sh 2-216, we derive a
line-of-sight magnetic field in the interaction region of 5.0 +/- 2.0 microG.
We believe it more likely the observed magnetic field is interstellar than
stellar, though we cannot completely dismiss the latter possibility. We
interpret our observations via a simple model which describes the ISM magnetic
field around Sh 2-216, and comment on the potential use of old PNe as probes of
the magnetized ISM.Comment: 25 pages, 4 figures. Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical
Journa
Recent Advances in Durability and Damage Tolerance Methodology at NASA Langley Research Center
Durability and damage tolerance (D&DT) issues are critical to the development of lighter, safer and more efficient aerospace vehicles. Durability is largely an economic life-cycle design consideration whereas damage tolerance directly addresses the structural airworthiness (safety) of the vehicle. Both D&DT methodologies must address the deleterious effects of changes in material properties and the initiation and growth of damage that may occur during the vehicle s service lifetime. The result of unanticipated D&DT response is often manifested in the form of catastrophic and potentially fatal accidents. As such, durability and damage tolerance requirements must be rigorously addressed for commercial transport aircraft and NASA spacecraft systems. This paper presents an overview of the recent and planned future research in durability and damage tolerance analytical and experimental methods for both metallic and composite aerospace structures at NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC)
VLBA measurement of the transverse velocity of the magnetar XTE J1810-197
We have obtained observations of the magnetar XTE J1810-197 with the Very
Long Baseline Array at two epochs separated by 106 days, at wavelengths of 6 cm
and 3.6 cm. Comparison of the positions yields a proper motion value of
13.5+-1.0 mas/yr at an equatorial position angle of 209.4+-2.4 deg (east of
north). This value is consistent with a lower-significance proper motion value
derived from infrared observations of the source over the past three years,
also reported here. Given its distance of 3.5+-0.5 kpc, the implied transverse
velocity corrected to the local standard of rest is 212+-35 km/s (1 sigma). The
measured velocity is slightly below the average for normal young neutron stars,
indicating that the mechanism(s) of magnetar birth need not lead to high
neutron star velocities. We also use Australia Telescope Compact Array, Very
Large Array, and these VLBA observations to set limits on any diffuse emission
associated with the source on a variety of spatial scales, concluding that the
radio emission from XTE J1810-197 is >96% pulsed.Comment: Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal. Six pages, 2
figure
Probabilistic Analysis and Design of a Raked Wing Tip for a Commercial Transport
An approach for conducting reliability-based design and optimization (RBDO) of a Boeing 767 raked wing tip (RWT) is presented. The goal is to evaluate the benefits of RBDO for design of an aircraft substructure. A finite-element (FE) model that includes eight critical static load cases is used to evaluate the response of the wing tip. Thirteen design variables that describe the thickness of the composite skins and stiffeners are selected to minimize the weight of the wing tip. A strain-based margin of safety is used to evaluate the performance of the structure. The randomness in the load scale factor and in the strain limits is considered. Of the 13 variables, the wing-tip design was controlled primarily by the thickness of the thickest plies in the upper skins. The report includes an analysis of the optimization results and recommendations for future reliability-based studies
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