Single-strain-gage force/stiffness buckling prediction techniques on a hat-stiffened panel

Predicting the buckling characteristics of a test panel is necessary to ensure panel integrity during a test program. A single-strain-gage buckling prediction method was developed on a hat-stiffened, monolithic titanium buckling panel. The method is an adaptation of the original force/stiffness method which requires back-to-back gages. The single-gage method was developed because the test panel did not have back-to-back gages. The method was used to predict buckling loads and temperatures under various heating and loading conditions. The results correlated well with a finite element buckling analysis. The single-gage force/stiffness method was a valid real-time and post-test buckling prediction technique

Thermal-Mechanical Testing of Hypersonic Vehicle Structures

A viewgraph presentation describing thermal-mechanical tests on the structures of hypersonic vehicles is shown. The topics include: 1) U.S. Laboratories for Hot Structures Testing; 2) NASA Dryden Flight Loads Laboratory; 3) Hot Structures Test Programs; 4) Typical Sequence for Hot Structures Testing; 5) Current Hot Structures Testing; and 6) Concluding Remarks

Google online marketing challenge and research opportunities

The Google Online Marketing Challenge is an ongoing collaboration between Google and academics, to give students experiential learning. The Challenge gives student teams US$200 in AdWords, Google’s flagship advertising product, to develop online marketing campaigns for actual businesses. The end result is an engaging in-class exercise that provides students and professors with an exciting and pedagogically rigorous competition. Results from surveys at the end of the Challenge reveal positive appraisals from the three—students, businesses, and professors—main constituents; general agreement between students and instructors regarding learning outcomes; and a few points of difference between students and instructors. In addition to describing the Challenge and its outcomes, this article reviews the postparticipation questionnaires and subsequent datasets. The questionnaires and results are publicly available, and this article invites educators to mine the datasets, share their results, and offer suggestions for future iterations of the Challenge

Hypersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator (HIAD) Torus Mechanical Testing

The Armstrong Flight Research Center has performed loads testing of a series of developmental atmospheric entry decelerator structural components. Test setup hardware were designed and fabricated. In addition, test plan and checklist were developed for the consistent and efficient execution of the tests. Eight test articles were successfully tested in over one hundred test runs as test objectives were met. Test article buckling shapes and buckling loads were observed. Displacements and strains were also recorded as various load cases were applied. The test data was sent to Langley Research Center to help with the construction of the finite element model of the decelerator assembly

Development and Ground-Test Validation of Fiber Optic Sensor Attachment Techniques for Hot Structures Applications

Fiber Optic Strain Measurements: a) Successfully attached silica fiber optic sensors to both metallics and composites; b) Accomplished valid EFPI strain measurements to 1850 F; c) Successfully attached EFPI sensors to large scale hot-structures; and d) Attached and thermally validated FBG bond and epsilon(sub app). Future Development a) Improve characterization of sensors on C-C and C-SiC substrates; b) Apply application to other composites such as SiC-SiC; c) Assist development of interferometer based Sapphire sensor currently being conducted under a Phase II SBIR; and d) Complete combined thermal/mechanical testing of FBG on composite substrates in controlled laboratory environment

High-Temperature Structural Instrumentation Developments for Hypersonic Airframe Applications

This viewgraph presentation describes the high temperature structural measurements developments for hypersonic airframes applications