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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 199 records · Page 11
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1994

Cycle life versus depth of discharge update on modeling studies

The topics are presented in viewgraph form and cycle life vs. depth of discharge data for the following are presented: data as of three years ago; Air Force/Crane-Fuhr-Smithrick; Ken Fuhr's Data; Air Force/Crane Data; Eagle-Pitcher Data; Steve Schiffer's Data; John Smithrick's Data; temperature effects; and E-P, Yardney, and Hughes 26% Data. Other topics covered include the following: LeRC cycling tests of Yardney Space Station Cells; general statements; general observations; two different models of cycle life vs. depth of discharge; and other degradation modes.

Thaller, Lawrence H.↗
NASA NTRS2003

Global 3-D Modeling Studies Of Tropospheric Ozone And Related Gases

Our research was targeted at three issues: (1) the factors controlling ozone in the tropical troposphere, (2) the Asian outflow of ozone and its precursors, and (3) the causes of decadal trends observed in ozone and CO. We have also used support from this ACMAP grant to (1) work with Kelly Chance on the retrieval and interpretation of HCHO and NO2 observations from GOME, and (2) develop GEOS-CHEM into a versatile model supporting the work of a large number of users including outside Harvard. ACMAP has provided the core support for GEOS-CHEM development. Applications of the GEOS-CHEM model with primary support from ACMAP are discussed below. A list of publications resulting from this grant is given at the end of the report.

Jacob, Daniel J.↗
NASA NTRS2003

A Model Study of the Impact of Magnetic Field Reversal on Atmospheric Composition during Solar Proton Events

During a polarity transition of the Earth's magnetic field, the structure and strength of the field change significantly from their present values. This will alter the global pattern of charged particle precipitation into the atmosphere. Thus, particle precipitation is possible into regions that are at the moment effectively shielded by the Earth's magnetic field. A two-dimensional global fbHy coupled chemistry, radiation, and transport model of the atmosphere has been used to investigate how the increased particle precipitation affects the chemical composition of the middle and lower atmosphere. Ozone losses resulting from large energetic particle events are found to increase significantly, with resultant losses similar to those observed m the Antarctic ozone hole of the 1990s. This results in significant increases in surface UV-B radiation as well as changes in stratospheric temperature and circulation over a period of several months after large particle events.

Sinnhuber, Miaiam↗
NASA NTRS1991

Linear and nonlinear aspects of the tropical 30-60 day oscillation: A modeling study

The scientific problem focused on study of the tropical 30-60 day oscillation and explanation for this phenomenon is discussed. The following subject areas are covered: the scientific problem (the importance of low frequency oscillations; suggested mechanisms for developing the tropical 30-60 day oscillation); proposed research and its objective; basic approach to research; and results (satellite data analysis and retrieval development; thermodynamic model of the oscillation; the 5-level GCM).

Stevens, Duane E.↗
NASA NTRS1999

Impacts of Large-Scale Circulation on Convection: A 2-D Cloud Resolving Model Study

Studies of impacts of large-scale circulation on convection, and the roles of convection in heat and water balances over tropical region are fundamentally important for understanding global climate changes. Heat and water budgets over warm pool (SST=29.5 C) and cold pool (SST=26 C) were analyzed based on simulations of the two-dimensional cloud resolving model. Here the sensitivity of heat and water budgets to different sizes of warm and cold pools is examined.

Li, X↗
NASA NTRS1971

Heat and momentum transfer model studies applicable to once-through, forced convection potassium boiling

A number of heat transfer and fluid flow mechanisms that control once-through, forced convection potassium boiling are studied analytically. The topics discussed are: (1) flow through tubes containing helical wire inserts, (2) motion of droplets entrained in vapor flow, (3) liquid phase distribution in boilers, (4) temperature distributions in boiler tube walls, (5) mechanisms of heat transfer regime change, and (6) heat transfer in boiler tubes. Whenever possible, comparisons of predicted and actual performances are made. The model work presented aids in the prediction of operating characteristics of actual boilers.

Sabin, C. M.↗
NASA NTRS2000

Model Study of the Sources of Upper Tropospheric Ozone Over The Atlantic, with Emphasis on Interhemispheric Asymmetries

Measurements of ozone and aerosols from ships transecting the Atlantic Ocean reveal considerable interhemispheric asymmetries in the vertical structure of the ozone distribution. There is much more upper tropospheric ozone to the South of the Equator than in the northern hemisphere. These profiles suggest that the air in the southern hemispheric tropics and subtropics has a source in the stratosphere, while that in the northern hemisphere originates in the boundary layer. A model experiment designed to investigate this problem will be discussed. They are based on a new general circulation model, based on a Finite-Volume dynamical core and the physical parametrizations from the Community Climate Model at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). The model simulates a climatological state in reasonable agreement with observations, comparable to other contemporary climate models, but has a much more accurate transport capability than most other present-day models. The experiment involves using a suite of tracers, designed to highlight air from different source regions. Some of these (water vapor and ozone) represent real atmospheric quantities, while others are markers which indicate whether the air originates in the stratosphere, the boundary layer, or has traversed regions of convection (for example). The experiments were run for periods of up to one month, initialized from snapshots from a long climate integration of the model. A sample of results will be presented, chosen to illustrate the different sources of air in the upper troposphere and the physical mechanisms by which these air parcels arrived there.

Pawson, Steven↗
NASA NTRS2001

Enhanced Climatic Warming Over the Tibetan Plateau Due to Doubling CO2: A Model Study

A number of studies have presented the evidences that surface climate change associated with global warming at high elevation sites shows more pronounced warming than at low elevations, i.e. an elevation dependency of climatic warming pointed out that snow-albedo feedback may be responsible for the excessive warming in the Swiss Alps. From an ensemble of climate change experiments of increasing greenhouse gases and aerosols using an air-sea coupled climate model, Eyre and Raw (1999) found a marked elevation dependency of the simulated surface screen temperature increase over the Rocky Mountains. Using almost all available instrumental records, Liu and Chen (2000) showed that the main portion of the Tibetan Plateau (TP) has experienced significant ground temperature warming since the middlebrows, especially in winter, and that there is a tendency for the warming trend to increase with elevation in the TP as well as its surrounding areas. In this paper, we will investigate the mechanism of elevation dependency of climatic warming in the TP by using a high-resolution regional climate model.

Chen, Baode↗
NASA NTRS1994

Numerical modeling studies of wake vortex transport and evolution within the planetary boundary layer

The proposed research involves four tasks. The first of these is to simulate accurately the turbulent processes in the atmospheric boundary layer. TASS was originally developed to study meso-gamma scale phenomena, such as tornadic storms, microbursts and windshear effects in terminal areas. Simulation of wake vortex evolution, however, will rely on appropriate representation of the physical processes in the surface layer and mixed layer. This involves two parts. First, a specified heat flux boundary condition must be implemented at the surface. Using this boundary condition, simulation results will be compared to experimental data and to other model results for validation. At this point, any necessary changes to the model will be implemented. Next, a surface energy budget parameterization will be added to the model. This will enable calculation of the surface fluxes by accounting for the radiative heat transfer to and from the ground and heat loss to the soil rather than simple specification of the fluxes. The second task involves running TASS with prescribed wake vortices in the initial condition. The vortex models will be supplied by NASA Langley Research Center. Sensitivity tests will be performed on different meteorological environments in the atmospheric boundary layer, which include stable, neutral, and unstable stratifications, calm and severe wind conditions, and dry and wet conditions. Vortex strength may be varied as well. Relevant non-dimensional parameters will include the following: Richardson number or Froude number, Bowen ratio, and height to length scale ratios. The model output will be analyzed and visualized to better understand the transport, decay, and growth rates of the wake vortices. The third task involves running simulations using observed data. MIT Lincoln Labs is currently planning field experiments at the Memphis airport to measure both meteorological conditions and wake vortex characteristics. Once this data becomes available, it can be used to validate the model for vortex behavior under different atmospheric conditions. The fourth task will be to simulate the wake in a more realistic environment covering a wider area. This will involve grid nesting, since high resolution will be required in the wake region but a larger total domain will be used. During the first allocation year, most of the first task will be accomplished.

Lin, Yuh-Lang↗
NASA NTRS1996

(abstract) Role of Long Equatorial Wave Reflection in the Low-Frequency Variability Observed During the TOPEX/POSEIDON Period: Data Analysis and Coupled Model Study

The analysis of TOPEX/POSEIDON sea level and ERS-1 zonal wind stress data gives evidence that first mode meridonal long Rossby waves fully reflected into Kelvin waves at the equatorial western Pacific boundary at different periods including the January-June 1994 period. The evolution of the conditions (zonal wind stress, sea surface temperature and sea level anomalies) in the central Pacific suggests that this reflection may have played a role in the reversal of cold to warm anomalies observed in the central Pacific in June-July 1994. To investigate the actual role of reflected Kelvin waves observed by TOPEX/POSEIDON, a simple ocean-atmosphere coupled model is designed. Starting from these initial conditions, several simulations are run for testing the role western bundary reflection evidenced in TOPEX/POSEIDON data. Coupled mechanisms are suggested to explain the low-frequency variability observed during this period.

Rossby waves Kelvin waves zonal wind stress TOPEX/↗
NASA NTRS2001

Transport of Aerosols from Asia and Their Radiative Effects Over the Western Pacific: A 3-D Model Study for ACE-Asia Experiment During Spring 2001

The Aerosol Characterization Experiment-Asia (ACE-Asia) took place in Spring 2001 in the East Asia-West Pacific Ocean. During the ACE-Asia intensive field operation period, high concentrations of dust and anthropogenic aerosols were observed over the Yellow Sea and the Sea of Japan, which were transported out from the Asian continent, with the plume often extending to 6-8 km altitude. The multi-component aerosols originated from Asia are expected to exert a significant radiative forcing over the Pacific region. We present here results from the Georgia Tech/Goddard Global Ozone Chemistry Aerosol Radiation and Transport (GOCART) model of aerosol transport and radiative forcing in the context of ACE-Asia. The model calculated aerosol concentrations, extinctions, optical thickness, size distributions, and vertical profiles are compared with the aircraft and ship measurements, and the distributions of aerosols are compared with satellite data. The model will be used to understand the origins of the aerosols observed in ACE-Asia, estimate the contributions from anthropogenic and natural aerosols to the total aerosol optical thickness, investigate the effects of humidification and clouds on aerosol properties, and assess the radiative forcing of Asian aerosols over the Pacific region and in the northern hemisphere.

Chin, Mian↗
NASA NTRS2019

A Model Study of the Relative Influences of Scavenging and Circulation on 230Th and 231Pa in the Western North Atlantic

The oceanic cycles of thorium-230 and protactinium-231 are affected by a number of processes, such as removal by adsorption to settling particles and transport by ocean currents. Measurements obtained as part of GEOTRACES and earlier programs have shown that, in the North Atlantic, the activities of dissolved 230Th (230Thd) and 231Pa (231Pad) at abyssal depths are lower near the western margin than in the basin interior. At least two factors could explain the lower 230Thd and 231Pad near the margin: (i) intensified scavenging in benthic nepheloid layers (BNLs) extending a thousand meters or more above the seafloor; and (ii) ventilation by relatively 230Thd- and 231Pad-poor waters emanating from the Deep Western Boundary Current (DWBC).Here a regional ocean circulation model with ?eddy-permitting' resolution (1/4) that incorporates 230Th and 231Pa is used in an effort to reproduce the observed distributions of 230Th and 231Pa in the western North Atlantic. In this model, 230Th and 231Pa removal from solution is governed by a prescribed distribution of particulate matter that is derived from a recent synthesis of nephelometer and transmissometer data. The model simulates a meandering Gulf Stream and a DWBC along the continental slope and rise, although noticeable differences with physical observations also exist. A model solution is found that explains most of the variance of 230Thd measurements (85%) and 231Pad measurements (81%) from (pre-)GEOTRACES cruises. On the other hand, measurements of particulate 230Th (230Thp) and 231Pa (231Pap) are more difficult to reproduce, with the same solution accounting for only 49% (11%) of the 230Thp (231Pap) variance. Sensitivity experiments suggest that the low 230Thd and 231Pad activities observed near the western margin are due to enhanced removal rates of both nuclides in BNLs rather than to deep water ventilation from the western boundary. The radionuclide activities present in the DWBC at its inflow location are also found to strongly influence the basin-scale distributions of 230Th and 231Pa. Overall, our study points to BNLs as important sites of 230Th and 231Pa scavenging in the ocean and illustrates the difficulty to explain simultaneously radionuclide measurements in dissolved and particulate forms in the studied area.

Lerner, Paul↗
NASA NTRS1987

Space station architectural elements model study

The worksphere, a user controlled computer workstation enclosure, was expanded in scope to an engineering workstation suitable for use on the Space Station as a crewmember desk in orbit. The concept was also explored as a module control station capable of enclosing enough equipment to control the station from each module. The concept has commercial potential for the Space Station and surface workstation applications. The central triangular beam interior configuration was expanded and refined to seven different beam configurations. These included triangular on center, triangular off center, square, hexagonal small, hexagonal medium, hexagonal large and the H beam. Each was explored with some considerations as to the utilities and a suggested evaluation factor methodology was presented. Scale models of each concept were made. The models were helpful in researching the seven beam configurations and determining the negative residual (unused) volume of each configuration. A flexible hardware evaluation factor concept is proposed which could be helpful in evaluating interior space volumes from a human factors point of view. A magnetic version with all the graphics is available from the author or the technical monitor.

Taylor, T. C.↗
NASA NTRS2012

A Modeling Study of the On-Going Drought and Heat Wave over the United States

Ensembles of AGCM experiments have been conducted to examine the causes of the on-going drought and heat wave affecting much of the United States. The results show that the drought and hot temperatures that have been especially severe over Texas and parts of Mexico since late 2010 are the result of a combination of SST forcing from both the tropical Pacific and the tropical Atlantic, with the latter playing a particularly important role during later half of the summer of 2011, and the warm SSTs off the East Coast contributing to the warm conditions along the East Coast. An extension of the model simulations into the summer of 2012 suggests that the warm conditions are again primarily driven by SST forcing - despite the return of the tropical Pacific to neutral conditions. The results of additional experiments currently being conducted to separate the influences of the 2012 SST anomalies in the various ocean basins will be discussed.

Schubert, S.↗
NASA NTRS2000

Numerical Modeling Studies of Wake Vortex Transport and Evolution Within the Planetary Boundary Layer

The fundamental objective of this research is study behavior of aircraft wake vortices within atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) in support of developing the system, Aircraft VOrtex Spacing System (AVOSS), under NASA's Terminal Area Productivity (TAR) program that will control aircraft spacing within the narrow approach corridors of airports. The purpose of the AVOSS system is to increase airport capacity by providing a safe reduction in separation of aircraft compared to the now-existing flight rules. In our first funding period (7 January 19994 - 6 April 1997), we have accomplished extensive model development and validation of ABL simulations. Using the validated model, in our second funding period (7 April 1997 - 6 April 2000) we have investigated the effects of ambient atmospheric turbulence on vortex decay and descent, Crow instability, and wake vortex interaction with the ground. Recognizing the crucial influence of ABL turbulence on wake vortex behavior, we have also developed a software generating vertical profiles of turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) or energy dissipation rate (EDR), which are, in turn, used as input data in the AVOSS prediction algorithms.

Lin, Yuh-Lang↗
NASA NTRS2003

Universal Responses of Cyclic-Oxidation Models Studied

Oxidation is an important degradation process for materials operating in the high-temperature air or oxygen environments typical of jet turbine or rocket engines. Reaction of the combustion gases with the component material forms surface layer scales during these oxidative exposures. Typically, the instantaneous rate of reaction is inversely proportional to the existing scale thickness, giving rise to parabolic kinetics. However, more realistic applications entail periodic startup and shutdown. Some scale spallation may occur upon cooling, resulting in loss of the protective diffusion barrier provided by a fully intact scale. Upon reheating, the component will experience accelerated oxidation due to this spallation. Cyclic-oxidation testing has, therefore, been a mainstay of characterization and performance ranking for high-temperature materials. Models simulate this process by calculating how a scale spalls upon cooling and regrows upon heating (refs. 1 to 3). Recently released NASA software (COSP for Windows) allows researchers to specify a uniform layer or discrete segments of spallation (ref. 4). Families of model curves exhibit consistent regularity and trends with input parameters, and characteristic features have been empirically described in terms of these parameters. Although much insight has been gained from experimental and model curves, no equation has been derived that can describe this behavior explicitly as functions of the key oxidation parameters.

Smialek, James L.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

A Preliminary Modeling Study of Biofilm Accumulation in the Water Recovery System

Bacterial biofilms are ubiquitous in wastewater systems on earth and in spacecraft, such as in the International Space Station (ISS) wastewater processing assembly (WPA), where they cause problems in the tank, solenoid valves, and pipelines. Downstream filter applications, tank cycling, and regular biocide water flushing have been used to control biofilm accumulation on board the ISS. Biofilm control is expected to be a challenge for long-term missions with a dormancy period of up to a year, as stagnant water systems are highly susceptible to biofilm growth. Flushing of the system with biocidal water has been proposed to avoid biomass problems for long-term missions. To validate the proposed flush method, a mathematical model, based on the metabolism maintenance rate of bacteria, is being developed to understand the current biofilm accumulation rate in the ISS WPA system and to calculate the biomass production rate under dormancy-like conditions. This method of quantification of biofilm can be applied as a function of nutrient inputs to guide the selection and optimization of biofilm mitigation approaches. The method can also be helpful in understanding, defining, quantifying, visualizing, and simulating the state of the water processing system during operation and after dormancy.

Angie M Diaz↗