ALBERT

Description: The objective of this paper is to describe current results from an on-going study of the mechanisms that led to the failure of the TIBB. Experimental and analytical results are presented. Experimental results include load, strain, and deflection data for the TIBB (Technology Integration Box Beam). An analytical investigation was conducted to compliment the experimental investigation and to gain additional insight into the TIBB structural response. Analytical results include strain and deflection results from a global analysis of the TIBB. A local analysis of the failure region is being completed. These analytical results are validated through comparisons with the experimental results from the TIBB tests. The experimental and analytical results from the TIBB tests are used to determine a sequence of events that may have resulted in failure of the TIBB. A potential cause of failure is high stresses in a stiffener runout region. Typical analytical results are presented for a stiffener runout specimen that is being defined to simulate the TIBB failure mechanisms. The results of this study are anticipated to provide better understanding of potential failure mechanisms in composite aircraft structures, to lead to future design improvements, and to identify needed analytical tools for design and analysis.

Description: Composite structures have the potential to be cost-effective, structurally efficient primary aircraft structures. The Advanced Composites Technology (ACT) Program has the goal to develop the technology to exploit this potential for heavily loaded aircraft structures. As part of the ACT Program, Lockheed Aeronautical Systems Company completed the design and fabrication of the Technology Integration Box Beam (TIBB). The TIBB is an advanced composite prototype structure for the center wing section of the C-130 aircraft. Lockheed subjected the TIBB to downbending, upbending, torsion and combined upbending and torsion load conditions to verify the design. The TIBB failed at 83 percent of design ultimate load for the combined upbending and torsion load condition. The objective of this paper is to describe the mechanisms that led to the failure of the TIBB. The results of a comprehensive analytical and experimental study are presented. Analytical results include strain and deflection results from both a global analysis of the TIBB and a local analysis of the failure region. These analytical results are validated by experimental results from the TIBB tests. The analytical and experimental results from the TIBB tests are used to determine a sequence of events that resulted in failure of the TIBB. A potential cause of failure is high stresses in a stiffener runout region. Analytical and experimental results are also presented for a stiffener runout specimen that was used to simulate the TIBB failure mechanisms.

Description: An indicator for recording the load at which a fatigue specimen breaks during the last cycle of a fatigue test is described. A load cell is attached to the specimen which is alternately subjected to tension and compression loads. The output of the load cell which is proportional to the load on the specimen is applied to the input of a peak detector. Each time the specimen is subjected to a compression load, means are provided for applying a positive voltage to the rest of the peak detector to reset it. During the last cycle of the tension load the peak detector measures the maximum load on the specimen. Means are provided for disconnecting the load cell from the peak detector when there is a failure in the specimen.

Description: We report the confirmation of X-ray substructure in two rich clusters of galaxies, A1656 (Coma) and A2256. Using data from the Einstein Observatory imaging proportional counter, we present a technique of fitting the cluster profile and searching for contributions to the X-ray emission from small regions within the cluster. Using this method we find substructure in both A1656 and A2256 while simultaneously fitting the cluster profile. We obtain the ellipticity and position angle of both clusters as a function of radius and find that both have ellipticity and position angles which vary with radius. We interpret the existence of substructure along with the variable ellipticity and position angle as evidence for a recent merger in both of these clusters.

Description: The discovery of diffuse X-ray emission from the NGC 2300 group of galaxies using the ROSAT Position Sensitive Proportional Counter is reported. The gas distributions is roughly symmetric and extends to a radius of at least 0.2/h(50) Mpc. A Raymond-Smith hot plasma model provides an excellent fit the X-ray spectrum with a best-fit value temperature of 0.9 + -/15 or - 0.14 keV and abundance 0.06 + 0/.12 or - 0.05 solar. The assumption of gravitational confinement leads to a total mass of the group of 3.0 + 0.4 or - 0.5 x 10 exp 13 solar. Baryons can reasonably account for 4 percent of this mass, and errors could push this number not higher than 10-15 percent. This is one of the strongest pieces of evidence that dark matter dominates small groups such as this one. The intragroup medium in this system has the lowest metal abundance yet found in diffuse gas in a group or cluster.

Description: State-of-the-art nonlinear finite element analysis techniques are evaluated by applying them to a realistic aircraft structural component. A wing panel from the V-22 tiltrotor aircraft is chosen because it is a typical modern aircraft structural component for which there is experimental data for comparison of results. From blueprints and drawings, a very detailed finite element model containing 2284 9-node Assumed Natural-Coordinate Strain elements was generated. A novel solution strategy which accounts for geometric nonlinearity through the use of corotating element reference frames and nonlinear strain-displacement relations is used to analyze this detailed model. Results from linear analyses using the same finite element model are presented in order to illustrate the advantages and costs of the nonlinear analysis as compared with the more traditional linear analysis.

Description: The role of equation solvers in modern structural analysis software is described. Direct and iterative equation solvers which exploit vectorization on modern high-performance computer systems are described and compared. The direct solvers are two Cholesky factorization methods. The first method utilizes a novel variable-band data storage format to achieve very high computation rates and the second method uses a sparse data storage format designed to reduce the number od operations. The iterative solvers are preconditioned conjugate gradient methods. Two different preconditioners are included; the first uses a diagonal matrix storage scheme to achieve high computation rates and the second requires a sparse data storage scheme and converges to the solution in fewer iterations that the first. The impact of using all of the equation solvers in a common structural analysis software system is demonstrated by solving several representative structural analysis problems.

Description: Microwave communications repeater of telstar

Description: It is noted, in the wake of the recent completion of a redshift survey of about 2300 IRAS galaxies with a characteristic depth of about 4000 km/sec, that the redshift distribution obtained is entirely consistent with that of the observed optical galaxies in the direction of the Great Attractor. The IRAS velocity field also qualitatively reproduces recent observations of the spiral and elliptical galaxies. Although it is not possible to rule out the existence of excess mass in the galactic plane in the direction of the Great Attractor, this is not needed to explain the observed peculiar velocities.

Description: We have constructed a model that predicts the evolution of CO2 on Mars from the end of the heavy bombardment period to the present. The model draws on published estimates of the main processes believed to affect the fate of CO2 during this period: chemical weathering, regolith uptake, polar cap formation, and atmospheric escape. Except for escape, the rate at which these processes act is controlled by surface temperatures which we calculate using a modified version of the Gierasch and Toon energy balance model. The modifications account for the change in solar luminosity with time, the greenhouse effect, and a polar and equatorial energy budget. Using published estimates for the main parameters, we find no evolutionary scenario in which CO2 is capable of producing a warm (global mean temperatures greater than 250 K) and wet (surface pressures greater than 30 mbar) early climate, and then evolves to present conditions with approximately 7 mbar in the atmosphere, less than 300 mbar in the regolith, and less than 5 mbar in the caps. Such scenarios would only exist if the early sun were brighter than standard solar models suggest, if greenhouse gases other than CO2 were present in the early atmosphere, or if the polar albedo were significantly lower than 0.75. However, these scenarios generally require the storage of large amounts of CO2 (greater than 1 bar) in the carbonate reservoir. If the warm and wet early Mars constraint is relaxed, then we find best overall agreement with present day reservoirs for initial CO2 inventories of 0.5-1.0 bar. We also find that the polar caps can have a profound effect on how the system evolves. If the initial amount of CO2 is less than some critical value, then there is not enough heating of the poles to prevent permanent caps from forming. Once formed, these caps control how the system evolves, because they set the surface pressure and, hence, the thermal environment. If the initial amount of CO2 is greater than this critical value, then caps do not form initially, but can form later on, when weathering and escape lower the surface pressure to a point at which polar heating is no longer sufficient to prevent cap formation and the collapse of the climate system. Our modeling suggests this critical initial amount of CO2 is between 1 and 2 bar, but its true value will depend on all factors affecting the polar heat budget.