Langley Research Center

About: Langley Research Center is a facility organization based out in Hampton, Virginia, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Mach number & Wind tunnel. The organization has 15945 authors who have published 37602 publications receiving 821623 citations. The organization is also known as: NASA Langley & NASA Langley Research Center.

Continuum Models for Beam- and Platelike Lattice Structures

Abstract: A simple, rational approach is presented for developing continuum models for large repetitive beam- and platelike lattices with arbitrary configurations subjected to static, thermal, and dynamic loadings. The continuum models for these structures are shear flexible beams and plates. They account for local effects in the repeating element of the actual structure and are characterized by their thermoelastic strain and kinetic energies, from which the equations of motion and constitutive relations can be derived. The procedure for developing the expressions for thermoelastic strain and kinetic energies of the continuum involves introducing basic assumptions regarding the variation of the temperature, displacement, and strain components in one or two directions (for plate- and beamlike lattices) and obtaining effective thermoelastic and dynamic coefficients of the continuum in terms of material properties and geometry of the original lattice structure. The high accuracy of the continuum models developed is demonstrated by means of numerical examples. AltA2,Ab,Ad

The distribution of carbon monoxide and ozone in the free troposphere

Abstract: The two-dimensional distributions of CO and O3 in the free troposphere during July and August, 1974, are discussed. The data confirm the previous findings that both of these gases are considerably more abundant in the northern hemisphere, but the degree of the asymmetry is somewhat different from what had been reported previously, especially for CO. When examined with respect to other available data sets, the conclusion is drawn that a pronounced seasonal cycle exists for CO in both hemispheres which may be driven by the likely seasonal cycle of the OH radical. The data also indicate that CO concentrations exhibit significant variability with height in the northern hemisphere, whereas southern hemispheric concentrations are quite constant with altitude except in cases where interhemispheric exchange of air may be occurring. A discussion on the vertical and horizontal transport processes inferred from the CO and O3 measurements is presented. The possible interdependence of the photochemical cycles of these two trace gases is also discussed.

$\mathcal {L}_1$ Adaptive Control for Safety-Critical Systems

Abstract: This article presents the development of L1 adaptive-control theory and its application to safety critical flight control system (FCS) development. Several architectures of the theory and benchmark examples are analyzed. The key feature of L1 adaptive-control architectures is the decoupling of estimation and control, which enables the use of arbitrarily fast estimation rates without sacrificing robustness. Rohrs's example and the two-cart system are used as benchmark problems for illustration. NASA's flight tests on subscale commercial jet verify the theoretical claims in a set of safety-critical test flights.

Results of Pioneer 10 and 11 Meteoroid Experiments: Interplanetary and near‐Saturn

Abstract: The meteoroid penetration detectors on Pioneer 10 (channel 0) recorded 95 penetrations through the 25-micron stainless steel test material while the spacecraft was between 1 and 18 AU. The spatial density of 10 to the -9 g meteoroids is found to be essentially constant between 1 and 18 AU. The meteoroid penetration detectors on Pioneer 11 recorded 87 penetrations (55 on channel 0 and 32 on channel 1) through the 50-micron stainless steel test material while the spacecraft was between 1 and 9 AU. It is found that the meteoroids between 4 and 5 AU are not in direct circular or near-circular orbits near the ecliptic plane. The Pioneer 11 data obtained between 4 and 5 AU are best explained by the meteoroids being in randomly inclined orbits of high eccentricity. If meteoroids are in these cometlike orbits, the great increase in penetration flux previously measured near Jupiter with the Pioneer 10 experiment cannot be attributed to gravitational focusing unless the size distribution of meteoroids changes substantially between 1 and 5 AU. At Saturn encounter, the penetration flux increased by about three orders of magnitude, probably as the result of impacts from ring particles. Saturn's ring E is estimated to be 1800 km thick with an optical thickness greater than 10 to the -8.