When a modal test is to be performed for purposes of correlation with a finite element model, one needs to design the test so that the resulting measurements will provide the data needed for the correlation. There are numerous issues to consider in the design of a modal test; two important ones are the number and location of response sensors, and the number, location, and orientation of input excitation. From a model correlation perspective, one would like to select the response locations to allow a definitive, one-to-one correspondence between the measured modes and the predicted modes. Further, the excitation must be designed to excite all the modes of interest at a sufficiently high level so that the modal estimation algorithms can accurately extract the modal parameters. In this paper these two issues are examined in the context of model correlation with methodologies presented for obtaining an experiment design.
A sensor-based control approach for real-time seam tracking of rocket thrust chamber assemblies has been developed to enable automation of a braze paste dispensing process. This approach utilizes a non-contact Multi-Axis Seam Tracking (MAST) sensor to track the seams. The MAST sensor measures capacitance variations between the sensor and the workpiece and produces four varying voltages which are read directly into the robot controller. A PID control algorithm which runs at the application program level has been designed based upon a simple dynamic model of the combined robot and sensor plant. The control algorithm acts on the incoming sensor signals in real-time to guide the robot motion along the seam path. Experiments demonstrate that seams can be tracked at 100 mm/sec within the accuracy required for braze paste dispensing.
Prosperity Games are an outgrowth and adaptation of move/countermove and seminar War Games. Prosperity Games are simulations that explore complex issues in a variety of areas including economics, politics, sociology, environment, education and research. These issues can be examined from a variety of perspectives ranging from a global, macroeconomic and geopolitical viewpoint down to the details of customer/supplier/market interactions in specific industries. All Prosperity Games are unique in that both the game format and the player contributions vary from game to game. This report documents a 90-minute Prosperity Game conducted as part of Advanced Manufacturing Day on May 17, 1994. This was the fourth game conducted under the direction of the Center for National Industrial Alliances at Sandia. Although previous games lasted from one to two days, this abbreviated game produced interesting and important results. Most of the strategies proposed in previous games were reiterated here. These included policy changes in international trade, tax laws, the legal system, and the educational system. Government support of new technologies was encouraged as well as government-industry partnerships. The importance of language in international trade was an original contribution of this game. The deliberations and recommendations of these teams provide valuable insights as to the views of this diverse group of decision makers concerning policy changes, foreign competition, and the development, delivery and commercialization of new technologies.
A significant number of analytical problems (for example, abnormal-environment safety analysis) depend on data that are partly or mostly subjective. Since fuzzy algebra depends on subjective operands, we have been investigating its applicability to these forms of assessment, particularly for portraying uncertainty in the results of PRA (probabilistic risk analysis) and in risk-analysis-aided decision-making. Since analysis results can be a major contributor to a safety-measure decision process, risk management depends on relating uncertainty to only known (not assumed) information. The uncertainties due to abnormal environments are even more challenging than those in normal-environment safety assessments; and therefore require an even more judicious approach. Fuzzy algebra matches these requirements well. One of the most useful aspects of this work is that we have shown the potential for significant differences (especially in perceived margin relative to a decision threshold) between fuzzy assessment and probabilistic assessment based on subtle factors inherent in the choice of probability distribution models. We have also shown the relation of fuzzy algebra assessment to ``bounds`` analysis, as well as a description of how analyses can migrate from bounds analysis to fuzzy-algebra analysis, and to probabilistic analysis as information about the process to be analyzed is obtained. Instructive examples are used to illustrate the points.
Many organizations face high consequence safety situations where unwanted stimuli due to accidents, catastrophes, or inadvertent human actions can cause disasters. In order to improve interaction among such organizations and to build on each others` experience, preventive approaches, and assessment techniques, the High Consequence Operations Safety Symposium was held July 12--14, 1994 at Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico. The symposium was conceived by Dick Schwoebel, Director of the SNL Surety Assessment Center. Stan Spray, Manager of the SNL System Studies Department, planned strategy and made many of the decisions necessary to bring the concept to fruition on a short time scale. Angela Campos and about 60 people worked on the nearly limitless implementation and administrative details. The initial symposium (future symposia are planned) was structured around 21 plenary presentations in five methodology-oriented sessions, along with a welcome address, a keynote address, and a banquet address. Poster papers addressing the individual session themes were available before and after the plenary sessions and during breaks.
This report is a critical reassessment of the geotechnical risks of continuing oil storage at the Weeks Island Strategic Petroleum Reserve site. It reviews all previous risk abatement recommendations, subsequent mitigative actions, and new information. Of increased concern, due to the discovery of a surface levels, is the long term maintainability of the mine as an oil storage repository. Mine operational changes are supported in order to facilitate monitoring of water entry diagnostics. These changes are also intended to minimize the volume in the mine available for water entry. Specific recommendations are made to implement the mine changes.
The design of structural containments for testing small explosive devices requires the designer to consider the various aspects of the explosive loading, i.e., shock and gas or quasistatic pressure. Additionally, if the explosive charge has the potential of producing damaging fragments, provisions must be made to arrest the fragments. This may require that the explosive be packed in a fragment attenuating material, which also will affect the loads predicted for containment response. Material also may be added just to attenuate shock, in the absence of fragments. Three charge weights are used in the design. The actual charge is used to determine a design fragment. Blast loads are determined for a {open_quotes}design charge{close_quotes}, defined as 125% of the operational charge in the explosive device. No yielding is permitted at the design charge weight. Blast loads are also determined for an over-charge, defined as 200% of the operational charge in the explosive device. Yielding, but no failure, is permitted at this over-charge. This guide emphasizes the calculation of loads and fragments for which the containment must be designed. The designer has the option of using simplified or complex design-analysis methods. Examples in the guide use readily available single degree-of-freedom (sdof) methods, plus static methods for equivalent dynamic loads. These are the common methods for blast resistant design. Some discussion of more complex methods is included. Generally, the designer who chooses more complex methods must be fully knowledgeable in their use and limitations. Finally, newly fabricated containments initially must be proof tested to 125% of the operational load and then inspected at regular intervals. This specification provides guidance for design, proof testing, and inspection of small explosive containment structures.
Feature extraction transforms an object's image representation to an alternate reduced representation. In one-class object recognition, we would like this alternate representation to give improved discrimination between the object and all possible non-objects and improved generalization between different object poses. Feature selection can be time-consuming and difficult to optimize so we have investigated unsupervised neural networks for feature discovery. We first discuss an inherent limitation in competitive type neural networks for discovering features in gray level images. We then show how Sanger's Generalized Hebbian Algorithm (GHA) removes this limitation and describe a novel GHA application for learning object features that discriminate the object from clutter. Using a specific example, we show how these features are better at distinguishing the target object from other non-target objects with Carpenter's ART 2-A as the pattern classifier.
This report summarizes the results for the first year of a two year Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) effort. This effort included a system study, preliminary data acquisition, and preliminary algorithm development. The system study determined the optimum frequency and bandwidth, surveyed soil parameters and targets, and defined radar cross section in lossy media. The data acquisition imaged buried objects with a rail-SAR. Algorithm development included a radar echo model, three-dimensional processing, sidelobe optimization, phase history data interpolation, and clutter estimation/cancellation.
Robotic automation is examined as a possible alternative to manual spent nuclear fuel, transport cask and Multi-Purpose Canister (MPC) handling at a Monitored Retrievable Storage (MRS) facility. Automation of key operational aspects for the MRS/MPC system are analyzed to determine equipment requirements, throughput times and equipment costs is described. The economic and radiation dose impacts resulting from this automation are compared to manual handling methods.
The potential radiological and nonradiological risks associated with specific radioactive waste shipping campaigns at the Hanford Site are estimated. The shipping campaigns analyzed are associated with the transportation of wastes from the N-Reactor site at the 200-W Area, both within the Hanford Reservation, for disposal. The analysis is based on waste that would be generated from the N-Reactor stabilization program.
High Level Radioactive Waste Management - Proceedings of the Annual International Conference
Ewing, Ronald I.
Verification measurements may be used to help ensure nuclear criticality safety when burnup credit is applied to spent fuel transport and storage systems. The FORK measurement system, designed at Los Alamos National Laboratory for the International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards program, has been used to verify reactor site records for burnup and cooling time for many years. The FORK system measures the passive neutron and gamma-ray emission from spent fuel assemblies while in the storage pool. This report deals with the application of the FORK system to burnup credit operations based on measurements performed on spent fuel assemblies at the Oconee Nuclear Station of Duke Power Company.
A method is presented for input torque shaping for three-dimensional slew maneuvers of a precision pointing flexible spacecraft. The method determines the torque profiles for fixed-time, rest-to-rest maneuvers which minimize a specified performance index. Spacecraft dynamics are formulated in such a manner that the rigid body and flexible motions are decoupled. Furthermore, assembly of the equations of motion is simplified by making use of finite element analysis results. Input torque profiles are determined by solving an associated optimization problem using dynamic programming. Three example problems are provided to demonstrate the application of the method.
Lead zirconate titanate (PZT) thin films are of technological interest for a variety of electronic and optical applications. Fabrication of PZT films by solution deposition techniques is attractive because of stoichiometric control at the molecular level, ease of processing, and both low capital investment and total cost. Control of phase evolution, microstructure, crystallite size and orientation, and ferroelectric domain assemblage during processing is essential to optimize electrical and/or optical properties of the films. Electron microscopy techniques have been used extensively to correlate microstructural features with film processing.
This paper addresses theoretical aspects of forming images from an airborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) of targets buried below the earth's surface. Soil is generally a lossy, dispersive medium, with wide ranging variability in these attributes depending on soil type, moisture content, and a host of other physical properties. Focussing a SAR subsurface image presents new dimensions of complexity relative to its surface-image counterpart, even when the soil's properties are known. This paper treats the soil as a lossy, dispersive half space, and presents a practical model for the radar echo-delay time to point scatterers within it. This model is then used to illustrate effects of refraction, dispersion, and attenuation on a SAR's phase histories, and the resulting image. Various data collection geometries and processing strategies are examined for both 2-Dimensional and 3-Dimensional SAR images. The conclusions from this work are that 1) focussing a SAR image must generally take into account both refraction and dispersion, 2) resolving targets at different depths in lossy soils requires perhaps unprecedented sidelobe attenuation, that for some soils may only be achievable with specialized window functions, 3) the impulse response of the soil itself places a practical limit on the usable bandwidth of the radar, and 4) dynamic ranges and sensitivities will need to be orders of magnitude greater than typical surface-imaging SARs, leading to significant impact on SAR parameters, for example compressing the usable range of pulse repetition frequencies (PRFs).
This paper demonstrates how certain concepts from the Phase Gradient Autofocus (PGA) algorithm for automated refocus of spotlight mode SAR imagery may be used to design a similar algorithm that applies to SAR imagery formed in the conventional strip-mapping mode. The algorithm derivation begins with the traditional view of strip-map image formation as convolution (compression) using a linear FM chirp sequence. The appropriate analogies and modifications to the spotlight mode case are used to describe a working algorithm for strip-map autofocus.
Statistical methods were used to design and analyze the results of a gettering experiment on four industrial multicrystalline silicon solar cell materials. The experiment studied the effects of temperature and time in the POCl3 diffusion process and the aluminum alloy process using simple diagnostic devices. The time and temperature ranges were restricted to maintain compatibility with commercial fabrication sequences. The design was capable of picking up second order interactions between the various processing factors. Statistically significant gettering effects were detected in only two of the four materials. The results for one of these materials were further tested using full solar cells. Strengths and weaknesses of this approach to gettering studies have become apparent in the present work and are discussed.
Computational physicists at Sandia National Laboratories have moved their production codes to distributed memory parallel computers. Such an effort required the development of parallel algorithms, parallel data bases and parallel support tools. The Eulerian CTH code was rewritten. Moving both ALEGRA and PRONTO to parallel computers required only a modest number of modifications. It involved restructuring the restart and graphics data bases to make them parallel and minimize the I/O to the parallel computer. It also involved developing mesh decomposition tools to divide a rectangular or arbitrary connectivity into sub-meshes. It also involved developing new visualization tools to process the very large, parallel data bases. This paper also discusses Sandia's experiences running these codes on its 1840 compute node Intel Paragon, 1024 processor nCUBE and networked stations.
Techniques for lossless waveform compression can be applied to the transmission of weight vectors from an orbiting satellite. The vectors, which are a part of a hybrid analog/digital adaptive filter, are a representation of the radio frequency background seen by the satellite. An approach is used which treats each adaptive weight as a time-varying waveform.
Transformers models for simulation with Pspice and Analogy's Saber are being developed using experimental B-H Loop and network analyzer measurements. The models are evaluated for accuracy and convergence using several test circuits. Results are presented which demonstrate the effects on circuit performance from magnetic core losses, eddy currents, and mechanical stress on the magnetic cores.
This paper describes the result of a team effort at Sandia to demonstrate the near-term performance potential for multicrystalline silicon modules using commercial mc-Si material and improved cell fabrication processes. Large-area high-performance mc-Si cells were fabricated, prototype modules were built, and world-record module efficiency was confirmed by outdoor testing at over 15% for standard test conditions.
We have developed a capability to make real time concentration measurements of individual chemicals in a complex mixture using a multispectral laser remote sensing system. Our chemical recognition and analysis software consists of three parts: (1) a rigorous multivariate analysis package for quantitative concentration and uncertainty estimates, (2) a genetic optimizer which customizes and tailors the multivariate algorithm for a particular application, and (3) an intelligent neural net chemical filter which pre-selects from the chemical database to find the appropriate candidate chemicals for quantitative analyses by the multivariate algorithms, as well as providing a quick-look concentration estimate and consistency check. Detailed simulations using both laboratory fluorescence data and computer synthesized spectra indicate that our software can make accurate concentration estimates from complex multicomponent mixtures. even when the mixture is noisy and contaminated with unknowns.
This paper discusses the conceptual design considerations and challenges for development of a contactless, mobile, single channel biomagnetic sensor system based on High-Temperature Superconductor (HTS) Superconducting Quantum Interference Devices (SQUIDs) and employing the Three-SQUID Gradiometer (TSG) concept. Operating in magnetically unshielded environments, as are encountered in many medical scenarios, this instrument class would monitor cardiac electrical activity with minimal patient preparation and intrusiveness, and would notionally be coupled with a clinically adaptive human-system interface (HSI).