Detecting accelerometric nonlinearities in the international space station

The present work aims to study mechanical nonlinearities detected in the accelerometric records during a thermodiffusion experiment performed at the International Space Station, ISS. In that experiment the test cell was subjected to harmonic vibrations of different frequencies and amplitudes. Accelerometric data associated to the runs were downloaded from NASA PIMS website. Second order spectral analysis shows that the shaker modifies the normality of the data and introduces nonlinearities in the distribution of energy. High Order Spectral Analysis, HOSA, based on the bispectrum, bicoherence, trispectrum and tricoherence functions enabled us to study the kind of these nonlinearities. Additionally, a new method using the biphase and triphase histograms helps us to assess if quadratic and/or cubic phase coupling mechanisms are responsible for the anomalous nonlinear energy transfer detected. Finally, the RMS acceleration values are investigated to check if the vibratory limit requirements of the ISS are exceeded. This methodology is important not only in generic research of aerospace engineering but also in space sciences in order to help space researchers to characterize more globally their experiments. It is mentioned finally that HOSA techniques are not new, but never have been used in the analysis of accelerometric data coming from the ISS.