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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 253 records · Page 14
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NASA NTRS2015

Monitoring Earth's Shortwave Reflectance: GEO Instrument Concept

In this paper we present a GEO instrument concept dedicated to monitoring the Earth's global spectral reflectance with a high revisit rate. Based on our measurement goals, the ideal instrument needs to be highly sensitive (SNR greater than 100) and to achieve global coverage with spectral sampling (less than or equal to 10nm) and spatial sampling (less than or equal to 1km) over a large bandwidth (380-2510 nm) with a revisit time (greater than or equal to greater than or equal to 3x/day) sufficient to fully measure the spectral-radiometric-spatial evolution of clouds and confounding factor during daytime. After a brief study of existing instruments and their capabilities, we choose to use a GEO constellation of up to 6 satellites as a platform for this instrument concept in order to achieve the revisit time requirement with a single launch. We derive the main parameters of the instrument and show the above requirements can be fulfilled while retaining an instrument architecture as compact as possible by controlling the telescope aperture size and using a passively cooled detector.

geoengineering↗
NASA NTRS1991

Impact of inertia, friction, and backlash upon force control in telemanipulation

The mechanical behavior of master controllers of telemanipulators has been a concern of both designers and implementors of telerobotic systems. In general, the literature recommends that telemanipulator systems be constructed that minimize inertia, friction, and backlash in an effort to improve telemanipulative performance. For the most part, these recommendations are founded upon theoretical analysis or simply intuition. Although these recommendations are not challenged on their merit, the material results are measured of building and fielding telemanipulators that possess less than ideal mechanical behaviors. Experiments are described in which forces in a mechanical system with human input are evaluated as a function of mechanical characteristics such as inertia, friction, and backlash. Results indicate that the ability of the human to maintain gripping forces was relatively unaffected by dynamic characteristics in the range studied, suggesting that telemanipulator design in this range should be based on task level force control requirements rather than human factors.

Duffie, Neil A.↗
NASA NTRS1987

Application of a flux-split algorithm to chemically relaxing, hypervelocity blunt-body flows

Viscous, nonequilibrium, hypervelocity flow fields over two axisymmetric configurations are numerically simulated using a factored, implicit, flux-split algorithm. The governing gas-dynamic and species-continuity equations for laminar flow are presented. The gas-dynamics/nonequilibrium-chemistry coupling procedure is developed as part of the solution procedure and is described in detail. Numerical solutions are presented for hypervelocity flows over a hemisphere and over an axisymmetric aeroassisted orbital transfer vehicle using three different chemistry models. The gas models considered are those for an ideal gas, for a frozen gas, and for chemically relaxing air consisting of five species. The calculated results are compared with existing numerical solutions in the literature along the stagnation line of the hemisphere. The effects of free-stream Reynolds number on the nonequilibrium flow field are discussed.

Balakrishnan, A.↗
NASA NTRS1982

Subjective scaling of mental workload in a multi-task environment

Those factors in a multi-task environment that contribute to the operators' "sense" of mental workload were identified. The subjective judgment as conscious experience of mental effort was decided to be the appropriate method of measurement. Thurstone's law of comparative judgment was employed in order to construct interval scales of subjective mental workload from paired comparisons data. An experimental paradigm (Simulated Multi-Task Decision-Making Environment) was employed to represent the ideal experimentally controlled environment in which human operators were asked to "attend" to different cases of Tulga's decision making tasks. Through various statistical analyses it was found that, in general, a lower number of tasks-to-be-processed per unit time (a condition associated with longer interarrival times), results in a lower mental workload, a higher consistency of judgments within a subject, a higher degree of agreement among the subjects, and larger distances between the cases on the Thurstone scale of subjective mental workload. The effects of various control variables and their interactions, and the different characteristics of the subjects on the variation of subjective mental workload are demonstrated.

Daryanian, B.↗
NASA NTRS2015

A New Metric for Indian Monsoon Rainfall Extremes

Extreme monsoon rainfall in India has disastrous consequences, including significant socio- economic impacts. However, little is known about the overall trends and climate factors associated with extreme rainfall because rainfall greatly varies across India and because few appropriate methods are available to measure extreme rainfall in the context of such heterogeneity. To provide a comprehensive assessment of extreme monsoon rainfall, we developed a metric using record rainfall data to measure the changes in the likelihood of extreme high and extreme low rainfall over time; this metric is independent of the characteristics of the underlying rainfall distributions. Hence, the metric is ideally suited to aggregate extreme rainfall information across heterogeneous regions covering India. We found that from 1930 to 2013, the likelihood of extreme high and extreme low rainfall increases 2-fold and 4-fold, respectively. These overall trend increases are driven by anomalous increases, particularly in the early 2000s; the likelihood of extreme high and extreme low rainfall increases 5-fold and 18-fold in 2005 and 2002, respectively. These findings imply a broadening of the underlying monsoon rainfall distribution over the past century. We also show that the time patterns of the likelihood of extreme rainfall in recent decades are correlated with the El Nino Southern Oscillation, Indian Ocean Dipole, and surface air temperature in the Northern Hemisphere.

Rain↗
NASA NTRS1994

Three-dimensional hydrodynamic Bondi-Hoyle accretion. 2: Homogeneous medium at Mach 3 with gamma = 5/3

We investigate the hydrodynamics of three-dimensional classical Bondi-Hoyle accretion. Totally absorbing spheres of varying sizes (from 10 down to 0.01 accretion radii) move at Mach 3 relative to a homogeneous and slightly perturbed medium, which is taken to be an ideal gas (gamma = 5/3). To accommodate the long-range gravitational forces, the extent of the computational volume is 32(exp 3) accretion radii. We examine the influence of numerical procedure on physical behavior. The hydrodynamics is modeled by the 'piecewise parabolic method.' No energy sources (nuclear burning) or sinks (radiation, conduction) are included. The resolution in the vicinity of the accretor is increased by multiply nesting several (5-10) grids around the sphere, each finer grid being a factor of 2 smaller in zone dimension that the next coarser grid. The largest dynamic range (ratio of size of the largest grid to size of the finest zone) is 16,384. This allows us to include a coarse model for the surface of the accretor (vacuum sphere) on the finest grid, while at the same time evolving the gas on the coarser grids. Initially (at time t = 0-10), a shock front is set up, a Mach cone develops, and the accretion column is observable. Eventually the flow becomes unstable, destroying axisymmetry. This happens approximately when the mass accretion rate reaches the values (+/- 10%) predicted by the Bondi-Hoyle accretion formula (factor of 2 included). However, our three-dimensional models do not show the highly dynamic flip-flop flow so prominent in two-dimensional calculations performed by other authors. The flow, and thus the accretion rate of all quantities, shows quasi-periodic (P approximately equals 5) cycles between quiescent and active states. The interpolation formula proposed in an accompanying paper is found to follow the collected numerical data to within approximately 30%. The specific angular momentum accreted is of the same order of magnitude as the values previously found for two-dimensional flows.

Ruffert, Maximilian↗
NASA NTRS1994

Rotordynamic forces in labyrinth seals: Theory and experiment

A theoretical and experimental investigation of the aerodynamic forces generated by a single gland labyrinth seal executing a simultaneous spinning/whirling motion has been conducted. A lumped parameter model for a single gland seal with coupling to an upstream cavity with leakage is developed along with an appropriate solution technique. From this theory, it is shown that the presence of the upstream cavity can, in some cases, augment the cross-stiffness and direct damping by a factor of four. The parameters that govern the coupling are presented along with predictions on their influence. A simple uncoupled model is used to identify the mechanisms responsible for cross force generation. This reduced system is nondimensionalized and the physical significance of the reduced parameters is discussed. Closed form algebraic formulas are given for some simple limiting cases. It is also shown that the total cross-force predicted by the uncoupled model can be represented as the sum of an ideal component due to an inviscid flow with entry swirl and a viscous part due to the change in swirl created by friction inside the gland. The frequency dependent ideal part is solely responsible for the rotordynamic direct damping. The facility designed and built to measure these frequency dependent forces is described. Experimental data confirm the validity and usefulness of this ideal/viscous decomposition. A method for calculating the damping coefficients based on the force decomposition using only the static measurements is presented. Experimental results supporting the predicted cross force augmentation due to the effect of upstream coupling are presented.

Millsaps, Knox T.↗
NASA NTRS2003

Frequency Reuse, Cell Separation, and Capacity Analysis of VHF Digital Link Mode 3 TDMA

The most recent studies by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the aviation industry have indicated that it has become increasingly difficult to make new VHF frequency or channel assignments to meet the aviation needs for air-ground communications. FAA has planned for several aggressive improvement measures to the existing systems, but these measures would not meet the projected voice communications needs beyond 2009. FAA found that since 1974 there has been, on the average, a 4 percent annual increase in the number of channel assignments needed to satisfy the air-ground communication traffic (approximately 300 new channel assignments per year). With the planned improvement measures, the channel assignments are expected to reach a maximum number of 16615 channels by about 2010. Hence, the FAA proposed the use of VDL Mode 3 as a new integrated digital voice and data communications systems to meet the future air traffic demand. This paper presents analytical results of frequency reuse; cell separation and capacity estimation of VDL Mode 3 TDMA systems that FAA has planned to implement the future VHF air-ground communications system by the year 2010. For TDMA, it is well understood that the frequency reuse factor is a crucial parameter for capacity estimation. Formulation of this frequency reuse factor is shown, taking into account the limitation imposed by the requirement to have a sufficient Signal to Co-Channel Interference Ratio. Several different values for the Signal to Co-Channel Interference Ratio were utilized corresponding to the current analog VHF DSB-AM systems, and the future digital VDL Mode 3. The required separation of Co-Channel cells is computed for most of the Frequency Protected Service Volumes (FPSV's) currently in use by the FAA. Additionally, the ideal cell capacity for each FPSV is presented. Also, using actual traffic for the Detroit air space, a FPSV traffic distribution model is used to generate a typical cell for channel capacity prediction. Such prediction is useful for evaluating the improvement of future VDL Mode 3 deployment and capacity planning.

Shamma, Mohammed A.↗
NASA NTRS2015

Design and Development of VHF Antennas for Space Borne Signal of Opportunity Receivers for Cubesat Platforms

Design and Development of VHF Antennas for Space Borne Signal of Opportunity Receivers for Cubesat Platforms. Space borne microwave remote sensors at VHF/UHF frequencies are important instruments to observe reflective properties of land surfaces through thick and heavy forestation on a global scale. One of the most cost effective ways of measuring land reflectivity at VHF/UHF frequencies is to use signals transmitted by existing communication satellites (operating at VHF/UHF band) as a signal of opportunity (SoOp) signal and passive receivers integrated with airborne/space borne platforms operating in the Low Earth Orbit (LEO). One of the critical components of the passive receiver is two antennas (one to receive only direct signal and other to receive only reflected signal) which need to have ideally high (>30dB) isolation. However, because of small size of host platforms and broad beam width of dipole antennas, achieving adequate isolation between two channels is a challenging problem and need to be solved for successful implementation of space borne SoOp technology for remote sensing. In this presentation a novel enabling VHF antenna technology for Cubesat platforms is presented to receive direct as well as reflected signal with needed isolation. The novel scheme also allows enhancing the gain of individual channels by factor of 2 without use of reflecting ground plane

Crossed Dipole Antennas↗
NASA NTRS2017

Design VHF Antennas for Space Borne Receivers for SmallSats

Space borne microwave remote sensors at VHF/UHF frequencies are important instruments to observe reflective properties of land surfaces through thick and heavy forestation on a global scale. One of the most cost effective ways of measuring land reflectivity at VHF/UHF frequencies is to use signals transmitted by existing communication satellites (operating at VHF/UHF band) as a signal of opportunity (SoOp) signal and passive receivers integrated with airborne/space borne platforms operating in the Low Earth Orbit (LEO). One of the critical components of the passive receiver is two antennas (one to receive only direct signal and other to receive only reflected signal) which need to have ideally high (>30dB) isolation. However, because of small size of host platforms and broad beam width of dipole antennas, achieving adequate isolation between two channels is a challenging problem and need to be solved for successful implementation of space borne SoOp technology for remote sensing. In this presentation a novel enabling VHF antenna technology for Cubesat platforms is presented to receive direct as well as reflected signal with needed isolation. The novel scheme also allows enhancing the gain of individual channels by factor of 2 without use of reflecting ground plane.

Antennas↗
NASA NTRS1984

Theoretical and experimental studies of error in square-law detector circuits

Square law detector circuits to determine errors from the ideal input/output characteristic function were investigated. The nonlinear circuit response is analyzed by a power series expansion containing terms through the fourth degree, from which the significant deviation from square law can be predicted. Both fixed bias current and flexible bias current configurations are considered. The latter case corresponds with the situation where the mean current can change with the application of a signal. Experimental investigations of the circuit arrangements are described. Agreement between the analytical models and the experimental results are established. Factors which contribute to differences under certain conditions are outlined.

Stanley, W. D.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Dynamics of hard sphere colloidal dispersions

Our objective is to perform on homogeneous, fully equilibrated dispersions the full set of experiments characterizing the transition from fluid to solid and the properties of the crystalline and glassy solid. These include measurements quantifying the nucleation and growth of crystallites, the structure of the initial fluid and the fully crystalline solid, and Brownian motion of particles within the crystal, and the elasticity of the crystal and the glass. Experiments are being built and tested for ideal microgravity environment. Here we describe the ground based effort, which exploits a fluidized bed to create a homogeneous, steady dispersion for the studies. The differences between the microgravity environment and the fluidized bed is gauged by the Peclet number Pe, which measures the rate of convection/sedimentation relative to Brownian motion. We have designed our experiment to accomplish three types of measurements on hard sphere suspensions in a fluidized bed: the static scattering intensity as a function of angle to determine the structure factor, the temporal autocorrelation function at all scattering angles to probe the dynamics, and the amplitude of the response to an oscillatory forcing to deduce the low frequency viscoelasticity. Thus the scattering instrument and the colloidal dispersion were chosen such as that the important features of each physical property lie within the detectable range for each measurement.

Zhu, J. X.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Krylov methods preconditioned with incompletely factored matrices on the CM-2

The performance is measured of the components of the key interative kernel of a preconditioned Krylov space interative linear system solver. In some sense, these numbers can be regarded as best case timings for these kernels. Sweeps were timed over meshes, sparse triangular solves, and inner products on a large 3-D model problem over a cube shaped domain discretized with a seven point template. The performance of the CM-2 is highly dependent on the use of very specialized programs. These programs mapped a regular problem domain onto the processor topology in a careful manner and used the optimized local NEWS communications network. The rather dramatic deterioration in performance was documented when these ideal conditions no longer apply. A synthetic workload generator was developed to produce and solve a parameterized family of increasingly irregular problems.

Berryman, Harry↗
NASA NTRS2002

Dust Mitigation for Mars Solar Arrays

Settling of atmospheric dust onto the surface of the solar array is potentially a lifetime-limiting factor for a power system on any Mars mission. For long-term operation of arrays on Mars, it will be necessary to develop techniques to remove deposited dust. Dust is expected to adhere to the array by Van der Waals adhesive forces. These forces are quite strong at the dust particle sizes expected. Dust removal methods must overcome this force. Removal methods can be categorized briefly into four categories: natural, mechanical, electromechanical, and electrostatic. The environment of Mars is expected to be an ideal one for use of electrostatic dust-removal techniques.

Landis, Geoffrey A.↗
NASA NTRS2015

Psychophysical Calibration of Mobile Touch-Screens for Vision Testing in the Field

The now ubiquitous nature of touch-screen displays in cell phones and tablet computers makes them an attractive option for vision testing outside of the laboratory or clinic. Accurate measurement of parameters such as contrast sensitivity, however, requires precise control of absolute and relative screen luminances. The nonlinearity of the display response (gamma) can be measured or checked using a minimum motion technique similar to that developed by Anstis and Cavanagh (1983) for the determination of isoluminance. While the relative luminances of the color primaries vary between subjects (due to factors such as individual differences in pre-retinal pigment densities), the gamma nonlinearity can be checked in the lab using a photometer. Here we compare results obtained using the psychophysical method with physical measurements for a number of different devices. In addition, we present a novel physical method using the device's built-in front-facing camera in conjunction with a mirror to jointly calibrate the camera and display. A high degree of consistency between devices is found, but some departures from ideal performance are observed. In spite of this, the effects of calibration errors and display artifacts on estimates of contrast sensitivity are found to be small.

gamma correction↗
NASA NTRS2016

Failure Analysis and Recovery of a 50-mm Highly Elastic Intermetallic NiTi Ball Bearing for an ISS Application

Ball bearings used inside the ISS Distillation Assembly centrifuge require superior corrosion and shock resistance to withstand acidic wastewater exposure and heavy spacecraft launch related loads. These requirements challenge conventional steel bearings and provide an ideal pathfinder application for 50-mm bore, deep-groove ball bearings made from the corrosion immune and highly elastic intermetallic material 60NiTi. During early ground testing in 2014 one 60NiTi bearing unexpectedly and catastrophically failed after operating for only 200 hr. A second bearing running on the same shaft was completely unaffected. An investigation into the root cause of the failure determined that an excessively tight press fit of the bearing outer race coupled with NiTi's relatively low elastic modulus were key contributing factors. The proposed failure mode was successfully replicated by experiment. To further corroborate the root cause theory, a successful bearing life test using improved installation practices (selective fitting) was conducted. The results show that NiTi bearings are suitable for space applications provided that care is taken to accommodate their unique material characteristics.

DellaCorte, Christopher↗
NASA NTRS2017

MATRIX-VBS (v1.0): Implementing an Evolving Organic Aerosol Volatility in an Aerosol Microphysics Model

The gas-particle partitioning and chemical aging of semi-volatile organic aerosol are presented in a newly developed box model scheme, where its effect on the growth, composition, and mixing state of particles is examined. The volatility-basis set (VBS) framework is implemented into the aerosol microphysical scheme MATRIX (Multiconfiguration Aerosol TRacker of mIXing state), which resolves mass and number aerosol concentrations and in multiple mixing-state classes. The new scheme, MATRIX-VBS, has the potential to significantly advance the representation of organic aerosols in Earth system models by improving upon the conventional representation as non-volatile particulate organic matter, often also with an assumed fixed size distribution. We present results from idealized cases representing Beijing, Mexico City, a Finnish forest, and a southeastern US forest, and investigate the evolution of mass concentrations and volatility distributions for organic species across the gas and particle phases, as well as assessing their mixing state among aerosol populations. Emitted semi-volatile primary organic aerosols evaporate almost completely in the intermediate-volatility range, while they remain in the particle phase in the low-volatility range. Their volatility distribution at any point in time depends on the applied emission factors, oxidation by OH radicals, and temperature. We also compare against parallel simulations with the original scheme, which represented only the particulate and non-volatile component of the organic aerosol, examining how differently the condensed-phase organic matter is distributed across the mixing states in the model. The results demonstrate the importance of representing organic aerosol as a semi-volatile aerosol, and explicitly calculating the partitioning of organic species between the gas and particulate phases.

volatility-basis set↗
NASA NTRS1988

The gasdynamics of compact relativistic jets

The gasdynamics of compact relativistic jets is explored by analyzing a specific idealized flow problem using the method of characteristics. The basic flow pattern of the gas and pressure waves within a jet experiencing a drop in external pressure is calculated, with analytic expressions given for many of the important parameters. Scaling laws which relate the intrinsic properties of the jet to the pressure of the surrounding medium are obtained and discussed. The physical properties of the jet depend critically on the value and abruptness of the decrease in external pressure, as well as on the initial Lorentz factor of the flow. A variety of the flow patterns can result, including jets of oscillating cross section, jets with standing shocks, and broad, nearly hollow beams which can break up into multiple jets. These results are discussed in relation to the observed characteristics of superluminal radio sources in general and the superluminal quasar 4C 39.25 in particular.

Daly, Ruth A.↗