Engineering topics

Chen, M. F.

Publications and source records attributed to Chen, M. F..

6 records

NASA NTRS1991

High Tc superconductors: The scaling of Tc with the number of bound holes associated with charge transfer neutralizing the multivalence cations

It is observed that for the known high-T(sub c) Cu-, Tl-, and Bi-based superconductors, T(sub c) scales consistently with the number of bound holes per unit cell which arise from charge transfer excitations of frequency approximately = 3 x 10(exp 13) that neutralized the multivalence cations into diamagnetic states. The resulting holes are established on the oxygens. Extrapolation of this empirical fit in the up-temperature direction suggests a T(sub c) of about 220-230 K at a value of 25 holes/unit cell (approximately the maximum that can be materials-engineered into a high-T(sub c) K2MnF4 or triple Perovskite structure). In the down-temperature direction, the extrapolation gives a T(sub c) in the vicinity of 235 K for the Y-Ba-Cu-O system as well as the known maximum temperature of 23 K for low-T(sub c) materials shown by Nb3Ge. The approach is also consistent with the experimental findings that only multivalence ions which are diamagnetic in their atomic state (Cu, Tl, Bi, Pb, and Sb) associate with high-T(sub c) compounds.

Vezzoli, G. C.↗

NASA NTRS1989

The generation of surface targets with specified surface statistics

Results are presented from efforts to generate physical surfaces from known or desired surface statistical properties, proceeding from previous work on the generation of random surfaces for use in computer simulations. The known statistical surface is extended using a bicubic spline technique; these results are interfaced with a numerically controlled machine in order to generate the physical surface. A portion of a complete surface with Gaussian statistics was constructed and tested to measure conformity to the desired statistics.

Rochier, J. D.↗

NASA NTRS1989

Modelling of microwave emission and scattering from snow and soil

In the past a snow layer has been modeled as a homogeneous layer embedded with sparsely populated Rayleigh scatterers above an irregular ground surface. The effect of the ground surface can be ignored if the layer is sufficiently lossy due to wetness in the snow. The top surface of the snow layer may be treated as plane or irregular depending upon its actual shape and its wetness condition. For a dry snow condition where the electromagnetic wave can penetrate easily one can ignore the air-snow interface. As a result a variety of emission and scattering models exist. An improvement to the existing scattering or emission model would consist of an irregular layer with densely populated correlated scatterers. The development of this model and its application to scattering and emission from a snow layer are discussed. Also disucssed is a surface scattering model for a soil surface.

Fung, Adrian K.↗

NASA NTRS1988

Polarimetric microwave scattering from known randomly rough surfaces

Scattering from rough surfaces is reviewed, and artificial randomly rough surfaces are described. Measurements were made from 4 to 18 GHz for the 4 linear polarization states. The target consists of a metalized randomly rough surface constructed from known surface statistical information. The surface was generated using surface generation routines on the computer, and then the data was converted for the machining of the surface on a computer controlled mill. Bistatic and monostatic measurements were acquired at incident angles from 25 to 60 deg. At the 13.5 to 18 GHz frequencies, the effects of backscatter enhancement and depolarization effects can be studied in a regime which does not satisfy Kirchoff or small perturbation assumptions. This allows scattering mechanisms to be introduced into models, which may show missing elements in the more standard formulations. At lower frequency bands such as 4 to 8.5 GHz the scattering behavior was also examined to see the behavior as assumptions of other formulations are satisfied.

Nance, C. E.↗

NASA NTRS1987

Fresnel field interaction applied to scattering from a vegetation layer

Models for scattering from a vegetation layer treated as a collection of discrete scatterers usually assume far field interaction among scatterers. In a real vegetation medium such as a deciduous forest or a soybean field it is not always true that each leaf is in the far field of other leaves. This paper examines the additional effect when scatterers are permitted to be in the Fresnel zone of one another. Both disc-shaped and needle-shaped leaves are considered. It is found that in general this causes the backscattering coefficient to be lower for the disk-shaped leaves and may be higher or lower for the needle-shaped leaves depending upon polarization, incidence angle, and frequency than those computed under the assumption of conventional far field interaction.

Fung, A. K.↗

NASA NTRS1986

Methods for the solution of radiative transfer equation

To obtain an exact solution of the radiative-transfer equation in media where both absorption and scattering are significant, the usual approach is to use a numerical method. Three methods are known in the literature: invariant imbedding, eigenvalue-eigenfunction, and matrix doubling. This paper examines the practical application of these methods to the problem of emission from an inhomogeneous (Rayleigh) layer, the effects of layer parameters on the stability. It is found that invariant imbedding is most suitable for computing emission from an inhomogeneous layer with a temperature profile but tends to be unstable as the optical thickness of the layer increases beyond 0.5. On the other hand, the matrix-doubling method is stable for arbitrary optical thickness but is not suitable for handling multilayers. The eigenvalue-eigenfunction method is more stable than the invariant imbedding as optical thickness increases up to 2.0. It also permits temperature profile in the layer, but the computation is much more complicated. It is less stable than the matrix-doubling method when optical thickness is larger than 2.0. In general, the choice of a method is dependent on the nature of the problem.

Chen, M. F.↗