MASSIVELY PARALLEL COMPUTER BASED, ANALYTICAL PREDICTIVE TECHNIQUES FOR CONTROL/STRUCTURE INTERACTION ANALYSIS

THE PURPOSE OF THIS RESEARCH PROJECT IS TO IDENTIFY AND/OR FORMULATE EFFICIENT METHODS AND ASSOCIATED COMPUTATIONAL ALGORITHMS FOR PREDICTING THE DYNAMIC PERFORMANCE AND STABILITY CHARACTERISTICS OF CONTROL AUGMENTED, DAMPING ENHANCED, LARGE SPACE STRUCTURES IN A MASSIVE DATA PARALLEL ENVIRONMENT. IT IS ASSUMED THAT THE STRUCTURES ARE TO ACT IN CONCERT WITH ON-BOARD DISTRIBUTED CONTROLLERS AS WELL AS DISCRETE CONTROLLERS FOR MANEUVERING, POINTING, AND VIBRATION OR NOISE SUPPRESSION. THE DISPLACEMENT FINITE ELEMENT METHODS WILL BE USED IN DEVELOPING PIEZOELECTRICALLY CONTROLLED BEAM AND TRUSS FINITE ELEMENT MODELS AND FORMULATING THE DISCRETIZED EQUATIONS OF MOTION THAT GOVERN THE STABILITY AND DYNAMIC RESPONSES OF THE COUPLED CONTROL/STRUCTURES STSTEM. BOTH "DIRECT" AND "MODAL" SOLUTION TECHNIQUES WILL BE USED IN SOLVING THE NONPROPORTIONALLY DAMPED, NONCONSERVATIVELY LOADED STABILITY AND DYNAMIC RESPONSE PROBLEMS. IN PHASE I, EFFICIENT ANALYSIS METHODS AND SOLUTION ALGORITHMS WILL BE IDENTIFIED AND/OR FORMULATED AND A SELECTED SUBSET OF THESE ALGORITHMS IMPLEMENTED IN THE MASSIVELY PARALLEL CONNECTION MACHINE CM-2 MODEL COMPUTER. FULL IMPLEMENATIONA OF A SET OF PROMISING ALGORITHMS ON CM-2 COMPUTER WILL BE GIVEN IN PHASE II.