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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 217 records · Page 12
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1981

Application of a laser interferometer skin-friction meter in complex flows

The application of a nonintrusive laser-interferometer skin-friction meter, which measures skin friction with a remotely located laser interferometer that monitors the thickness change of a thin oil film, is extended both experimentally and theoretically to several complex wind-tunnel flows. These include two-dimensional seperated and reattached subsonic flows with large pressure and shear gradients, and two and three-dimensional supersonic flows at high Reynolds number, which include variable wall temperatures and cross-flows. In addition, it is found that the instrument can provide an accurate location of the mean reattachment length for separated flows. Results show that levels up to 120 N/sq m, or 40 times higher than previous tests, can be obtained, despite encountering some limits to the method for very high skin-friction levels. It is concluded that these results establish the utility of this instrument for measuring skin friction in a wide variety of flows of interest in aerodynamic testing.

Monson, D. J.↗
NASA NTRS1983

A laser interferometer for measuring skin friction in three-dimensional flows

A new, nonintrusive method is described for measuring skin friction in three-dimensional flows with unknown direction. The method uses a laser interferometer to measure the changing slope of a thin oil film applied to a surface experiencing shear stress. The details of the method are described, and skin friction measurements taken in a swirling three-dimensional boundary-layer flow are presented. Comparisons between analytical results and experimental values from the laser interferometer method and from a bidirectional surface-fence gauge are made.

Monson, D. J.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Effects of spacecraft reflections on RF interferometer position location accuracy

This report describes one of three study tasks related to the application of an RF interferometer aboard a low-orbiting spacecraft to determine the location of ground-based transmitters. Computer modeling was used to estimate the error in the measured signal angle-of-arrival caused by reflection and diffraction off the spacecraft. Existing computer codes (NEC-BSC) were modified and used to determine the perturbation, due to the spacecraft, in the phase difference between two interferometer antennas, suspended on either side of the spacecraft. This phase perturbation was found as a function of the angle-of-arrival of the signal from a far-field source. The spacecraft antennas were assumed to be circularly polarized with a cardioid pattern. It was found that the perturbation was as much 12.4 deg within the + or - 60 deg field-of-view. This suggests that phase calibration and correction of phase measurements are essential for precision position location using this technique.

Wallace, R. G.↗
NASA NTRS1983

Nd:YAG holographic interferometer for aerodynamic research

A holographic interferometer system has been installed in the NASA Ames 2- by 2-Foot Transonic Wind Tunnel. The system incorporates a modern 10 pps, Nd:YAG pulsed laser which provides reliable operation and is easy to align. The spatial filtering requirements of the unstable resonator beam are described, as well as the integration of the system into the existing schlieren system. A two-plate holographic interferometer is used to reconstruct flow field data. For static wind tunnel models, the single exposure holograms are recorded in the usual manner; however, for dynamic models such as oscillating airfoils, synchronous laser hologram recording is used.

Craig, J. E.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Mesospheric measurements of irregularity patches using a 3-antenna interferometer, part 3.6B

Three events of mesospheric radar returns have been isolated to illustrate the potential of a three-antenna interferometer in the study of the neutral atmosphere. Contour plots of echo intensity and the presence of irregularities in isolated and well-defined regions are shown. These measurements were carried out using the SOUSY radar in the Harz mountains in Germany, on September 9, 1980. The system frequency is 53.5 MHz. Local time is 2 hours in advance of Universal time. The irregularities wavelength is 2.81 m and the three arms of the interferometer were sampled with 167 ms of time difference. To provide precise estimates of vertical velocities, the measured (radial) Doppler shift has to be corrected to subtract the contribution due to the horizontal motions. For near-vertical observations (zenith angle less than about 10 deg) it is readily shown that the rate of change of the measured phases are related to the velocities V sub eq, V sub ns (in the East-West and North-South directions).

Ierkic, H. M.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Rainbow schlieren vs Mach-Zehnder interferometer - A comparison

The rainbow schlieren apparatus is simpler, cheaper, and more easily built to large scale than the interferometer. The accuracies of the two instruments are similar but only if refraction is properly accounted for in interferometry. The measurement thresholds of both instruments are similar. The rainbow schlieren device provides more detailed information because the detection threshold of the rainbow schlieren is an order of magnitude better than that of the interferometer.

Howes, W. L.↗
NASA NTRS1986

Interferometer for Observing Compressible Flow

Moving pictures show changing flow-field contours. Optical interferometer enables instantaneous visualization of compressible fluid flows. Relatively immune to vibration, unit suited to observation of flows over models in large wind tunnels. In improved point-diffraction interferometer, reference beam generated by pinhole (point) diffraction at place in object beam outside experimental volume. Object under test positioned so interior or supporting stand lies in shadows of turning mirrors.

Bacnalo, W.↗
NASA NTRS1986

Lens collimation and testing using a Twyman-Green interferometer with a self-pumped phase-conjugating mirror

Ordinarily Twyman-Green interferometers are employed testing optical elements. In a modification of the basic configuration, the ordinary mirror in the test arm is replaced with a self-pumped phase-conjugating mirror using a barium titanate crystal. It is shown that, with a redefinition of components, the new configuration permits retention and improvement of the optical element testing function while simultaneously serving as a sensitive test for collimation. The optical path difference resulting from the double pass in the original Twyman-Green interferometer approximately equals that of the single pass and phase conjugation in the modification.

Howes, W. L.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Planetary searches using optical astrometric interferometers

The detectability of planets is discussed, and observations made with an astrometric interferometer (AI) at Mount Wilson are presented. Planets are detectable as a result of their periodic perturbation of the position of a central observable star. This detection requires relative astrometric accuracies of about 3 x 10 to the -4th for Jovian planets and about 3 x 10 to the -7th arcsec for terrestrial planets. The principles governing astrometric interferometry are explained, and it is conjectured that a two-color optical AI on earth should be capable of about 0.0001 arcsec rms accuracy for stars brighter than magnitude 7-10; small one-color space systems should achieve at least 0.00001 arcsec. Owing to atmospheric turbulence, two-color systems permit correction every few milliseconds for the random wavefront tilt. A 3.4-meter baseline interferometer on Mount Wilson has demonstrated arcsec rms fluctuations of about 0.02 for 1-sec samples. Space-based optical astrometric interferometry is also discussed.

Staelin, D. H.↗
NASA NTRS1986

Comparison of medium frequency pulsed radar interferometer and correlation analysis winds, part 1

In principle, the interferometer analysis determines the radial velocity and direction of single scatterers provided that each has a sufficiently different Doppler frequency to permit separation by spectral analysis. In fact, scatterers will not have constant radial velocity, and their Doppler frequencies as well as their directions will be modulated by their horizontal motion. Thus, there is a tradeoff between the poorer resolution but less smeared scatterers on shorter records and the higher resolution (longer) records. Three or more non-collinear scatterers are sufficient to determine the wind. It appears that the velocity found from the combined interferometer peaks agrees well with the apparent velocity from correlation methods, but the true velocity is a factor of 2 smaller. This difference might be resolved by searching for scatters showing regular movement between adjacent records.

Meek, C. E.↗
NASA NTRS1986

Comparison of medium frequency pulsed radar interferometer and correlation analysis winds, part 2

In order to test whether the chosen Doppler peaks represent localized scatters in motion, as opposed to some sort of integrated composite, an attempt was made to determine the change in position of single scatterers over a series of sequential records. A four-antenna system was employed which had 1 degree of freedom in phase. Due to limitations N-S linear transmission and E-W linear reception were used. The Doppler frequency peak selection criteria were that at least two of the four power spectra should have a local peak, and that normalized phase discrepancy, should be less than 0.3. The lack of success in tracking individual scatters seems to suggest a short lifetime. If this is the case, then the present experiment is not able to resolve the difference found between the correlation analysis true velocity and the interferometer value. On the other hand, it appears that the interferometer may be of some use in tracking waves.

Meek, C. E.↗
NASA NTRS1986

Fiber-optic interferometer using frequency-modulated laser diodes

This paper describes an electrically passive fiber-optic interferometer which uses dual frequency-modulated laser diodes. Experimental results show that this type of interferometer can attain a displacement range of 100 micron with subnanometer resolution. This technique can serve as the basis for a number of high-precision fiber-optic sensors.

Beheim, G.↗
NASA NTRS1986

Observation of molecular rotational bands with a single Fabry-Perot interferometer

A method is described for using a single Fabry-Perot interferometer to study the emissions from an entire molecular rotation band, not just a single line to determine atmospheric temperature. It is shown that if the effective line spacing of the band to free spectral range is nearly a rational number, the resulting signal is highly temperature sensitive, particularly at low temperatures. It is shown that the finesse of the instrument is not extremely important but that the instrument function must be known very precisely. The method is illustrated with the O2 atmospheric band and an interferometer flown on the Dynamics Explorer 2 satellite.

Skinner, Wilbert R.↗
NASA NTRS1987

Atmospheric phase measurements with the Mark III stellar interferometer

The effect of atmospheric turbulence on the measurements of stellar positions performed by the Mt. Wilson phase-coherent stellar Mark III interferometer was investigated, both for the case of a simple Kolmogorov spatial spectrum and for the case of a model incorporating a finite outer scale. Measurements of phase difference at a 12-m base line obtained with the Mark III interferometer agreed well with the predictions of a Kolmogorov spatial spectrum over the frequency range 0.001-100 Hz. From these measurements, the outer scale of turbulence for propagation through the entire atmosphere was estimated to be greater than 2 km.

Colavita, M. Mark↗
NASA NTRS1988

Low-noise interferometer for microwave radiometry

An interferometer for precision measurements in microwave radiometry is proposed which uses two low-noise heterodyne receivers based on SIS tunnel junction mixers in the 40-50-GHz band. The antenna interference pattern has lobes which lead to positive output signals and lobes which give negative output, and the radiometer measures the difference in the power from these lobes without beam switching or instrument motion. The present system cancels instrumental signals, has a very low 1/f noise in the output, and has a zero outpus signal when viewing a uniform source. It is noted that application of the interferometer may be limited to radiometry with relatively large beams.

Timbie, P. T.↗
NASA NTRS1988

Radiometric calibration of IR Fourier transform spectrometers - Solution to a problem with the High-Resolution Interferometer Sounder

A calibrated Fourier transform spectrometer, known as the High-Resolution Interferometer Sounder (HIS), has been flown on the NASA U-2 research aircraft to measure the infrared emission spectrum of the earth. The primary use - atmospheric temperature and humidity sounding - requires high radiometric precision and accuracy (of the order of 0.1 and 1 C, respectively). To meet these requirements, the HIS instruments, the HIS instrument performs inflight radiometric calibration, using observations of hot and cold blackbody reference sources as the basis for two-point calibrations at each wavenumber. Initially, laboratory tests revealed a calibration problem with brightness temperature errors as large as 15 C between 600 and 900/cm. The symptom of the problem, which occurred in one of the three spectral bands of HIS, was a source-dependent phase response. Minor changes to the calibration equations completely eliminated the anomalous errors. The new analysis properly accounts for the situation in which the phase response for radiance from the instrument itself differs from that for radiance from an external source. The mechanism responsible for the dual phase response of the HIS instrument is identified as emission from the interferometer beam splitter.

Revercomb, Henry E.↗
NASA NTRS1988

Planned improvements to the Owens Valley frequency-agile interferometer

Three small antennas will be added to the OVRO interferometer to form a five-element solar-dedicated array. This would provide up to 7 or 10 baselines (compared to the present 1 or 3). This would be sufficient to apply microwave diagnostics to most active region and burst sources. By using frequency-synthesis it would also provide an imaging capability comparable to that of an approximately 100 baseline interferometer. Expansion of the array is discussed.

Hurford, Gordon J.↗