Engineering topics
Publications and source records attributed to Hernan, M. A..
Particle trajectories recorded photographically. Directions and magnitudes of velocities in unsteady liquid flow measured with aid of fluorescent- and phosphorescent-tracing technique. Method accurate and proceeds automatically, requiring minimal labor.
Image-processing microdensitometer/Fourier analyzer yields statistics of subcomponent distribution. Nondestructive method for studying structure heterogeneous materials uses energy-dispersive X-ray analysis in scanning electron microscope. Scanning microdensitometer/Fourier analyzer (SMFA) is applied to SEM images to obtain statistics about sample structure. Method originally developed for studying effect on combustion of fine structure of composite solid propellants.
This paper describes techniques that have been developed at JPL for visualization and measurements of droplet fields in a moving airstream. The techniques have been applied to a variety of problems which include simulation of heavy rain conditions in a wind tunnel, engine ingestion of wheel spray, analysis of fuel nozzle sprays and aerodynamic breakup of non-Newtonian liquids. The approach pursued here is direct imaging using a pulsed laser illumination source, followed by digital processing of photographic images. A laser double pulse technique has been used for determination of droplet velocities. Laser induced fluorescence has been used to enhance droplet definition in photographic images. The image processing software developed is capable of distinguishing between out-of-focus and in-focus drops, retaining only the latter for size determination.
A computerized flow visualization technique capable of quantifying the flow field automatically has been developed. This technique uses afterglowing effect of optically activated phosphorescent particles to retrieve vectorial information on each trace. By using this information, in conjunction with computer image processing, the flow field of a free surface transient vortex was investigated.
Digital Image Processing has been integrated into a new technique for measurements of fuel spray characteristics. The advantages of this technique are: a wide dynamic range of droplet sizes, accounting for nonspherical droplet shapes not possible with other spray assessment techniques. Finally, the technique has been applied to the study of turbojet engine fuel nozzle atomization performance with Jet A and antimisting fuel.
Digital image analysis has been applied to a shadowgraph motion picture of a helium nitrogen mixing layer in order to characterize the coherent vortex structures in the flow. Both the primary spanwise coherent vortices and secondary streamwise vortices are considered. Pattern recognition algorithms were designed to take advantage of the more pronounced features of the vortices and of their temporal coherence to isolate them and to measure their characteristics. The resulting data base permits a deterministic description of the evolution of primary and seconary vortices.