42 research outputs found
Corn Rootworm Insecticide Performance
Commercially available corn rootworm insecticides are evaluated yearly for their ability to protect corn root systems from corn rootworm feeding injury. A two-year summary from five locations throughout Iowa is in this report
Products Evaluated for Corn Rootworm Management
Commercially available corn rootworm products were evaluated for their ability to protect corn-root systems from corn rootworm feeding injury (corn following corn tests). Products were also tested in the absence of corn rootworms (corn following soybean tests) to address the question, “Do corn rootworm transgenics have the same yield potential as their respective isolines?
Finite Element Analysis and Machine Learning Guided Design of Carbon Fiber Organosheet-based Battery Enclosures for Crashworthiness
Carbon fiber composite can be a potential candidate for replacing metal-based
battery enclosures of current electric vehicles (E.V.s) owing to its better
strength-to-weight ratio and corrosion resistance. However, the strength of
carbon fiber-based structures depends on several parameters that should be
carefully chosen. In this work, we implemented high throughput finite element
analysis (FEA) based thermoforming simulation to virtually manufacture the
battery enclosure using different design and processing parameters.
Subsequently, we performed virtual crash simulations to mimic a side pole crash
to evaluate the crashworthiness of the battery enclosures. This high throughput
crash simulation dataset was utilized to build predictive models to understand
the crashworthiness of an unknown set. Our machine learning (ML) models showed
excellent performance (R2 > 0.97) in predicting the crashworthiness metrics,
i.e., crush load efficiency, absorbed energy, intrusion, and maximum
deceleration during a crash. We believe that this FEA-ML work framework will be
helpful in down select process parameters for carbon fiber-based component
design and can be transferrable to other manufacturing technologies
Extra-Zodiacal-Cloud Astronomy via Solar Electric Propulsion
Solar electric propulsion (SEP) is often considered as primary propulsion for robotic planetary missions, providing the opportunity to deliver more payload mass to difficult, high-delta-velocity destinations. However, SEP application to astrophysics has not been well studied. This research identifies and assesses a new application of SEP as primary propulsion for low-cost high-performance robotic astrophysics missions. The performance of an optical/infrared space observatory in Earth orbit or at the Sun-Earth L2 point (SEL2) is limited by background emission from the Zodiacal dust cloud that has a disk morphology along the ecliptic plane. By delivering an observatory to a inclined heliocentric orbit, most of this background emission can be avoided, resulting in a very substantial increase in science performance. This advantage enabled by SEP allows a small-aperture telescope to rival the performance of much larger telescopes located at SEL2. In this paper, we describe a novel mission architecture in which SEP technology is used to enable unprecedented telescope sensitivity performance per unit collecting area. This extra-zodiacal mission architecture will enable a new class of high-performance, short-development time, Explorer missions whose sensitivity and survey speed can rival flagship-class SEL2 facilities, thus providing new programmatic flexibility for NASA's astronomy mission portfolio. A mission concept study was conducted to evaluate this application of SEP. Trajectory analyses determined that a 700 kg-class science payload could be delivered in just over 2 years to a 2 AU mission orbit inclined 15 to the ecliptic using a 13 kW-class NASA's Evolutionary Xenon Thruster (NEXT) SEP system. A mission architecture trade resulted in a SEP stage architecture, in which the science spacecraft separates from the stage after delivery to the mission orbit. The SEP stage and science spacecraft concepts were defined in collaborative engineering environment studies. The SEP stage architecture approach offers benefits beyond a single astrophysics mission. A variety of low-cost astrophysics missions could employ a standard SEP stage to achieve substantial science benefit. This paper describes the results of this study in detail, including trajectory analysis, spacecraft concept definition, description of telescope/instrument benefits, and application of the resulting SEP stage to other missions. In addition, the benefits of cooperative development and use of the SEP stage, in conjunction with a SEP flight demonstration mission currently in definition at NASA, are considered