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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

Density, Velocity and Ionization Structure in Accretion-Disc Winds

This was a project to exploit the unique capabilities of FUSE to monitor variations in the wind- formed spectral lines of the luminous, low-inclination, cataclysmic variables(CV) -- RW Sex. (The original proposal contained two additional objects but these were not approved.) These observations were intended to allow us to determine the relative roles of density and ionization state changes in the outflow and to search for spectroscopic signatures of stochastic small-scale structure and shocked gas. By monitoring the temporal behavior of blue-ward extended absorption lines with a wide range of ionization potentials and excitation energies, we proposed to track the changing physical conditions in the outflow. We planned to use a new Monte Carlo code to calculate the ionization structure of and radiative transfer through the CV wind. The analysis therefore was intended to establish the wind geometry, kinematics and ionization state, both in a time-averaged sense and as a function of time.

Sonneborn, George↗

Trajectory Specification Applied to Terminal Airspace

Despite major efforts to automate air traffic control (ATC), it is still performed by humans today. The complexity and safety-criticality of ATC makes it very difficult to safely automate, but it must be automated to increase airspace capacity (the density of traffic that can be safely managed) and airport throughput (the number of arrivals and departures that an airport can safely handle in a given period of time) beyond what is possible with human controllers. This paper presents the Trajectory Specification (TS) concept, which can help to safely automate ATC. TS is a method of specifying aircraft trajectories such that the position at any given time in flight is restricted to a precisely defined bounding space, removing all ambiguity as to where the flight is allowed to be. The bounding space or volume is determined by tolerances relative to a reference trajectory (position as a function of time). The tolerances are dynamic and are based on the aircraft navigation capabilities and the traffic situation. The tolerances can be a piecewise linear function of time or distance along the route, allowing the tolerances to vary as needed, typically increasing with time for departures and decreasing for arrivals. A Trajectory Specification Language (TSL) is proposed for communicating trajectories from aircraft to ATC as requests and from ATC to aircraft as assignments. The TS concept requires a new generation of airborne Flight Management Systems (FMS) that understand the TSL and can fly the assigned trajectories, but this paper focuses on the ATC functions and the prototype ATC algorithms and software that were developed to test the TS concept. Assuming conformance, TS can guarantee safe separation for an arbitrary length of time even in the event of an ATC system or communication outage. It can help to achieve the high level of safety and reliability needed for ATC automation, and it can also reduce the reliance on ATC backup systems for tactical conflict detection and resolution during normal operation. TS can be applied to any controlled airspace, including enroute, terminal, and urban airspace, but this paper presents algorithms and software for arrival spacing and conflict detection and resolution in the terminal airspace serving a major airport. In a fast-time simulation of a full day of traffic in a major terminal airspace, all conflicts were resolved in near real time, demonstrating the computational feasibility and the preliminary operational feasibility of the TS concept. This paper is a compilation of previous papers, and it adds significant information that was omitted from those papers due to length limitations. It also updates some of the results of those earlier papers due to algorithm refinements and corrections of minor software errors.

air traffic control, trajectory↗

Constraints on the development of the early continental crust from isotopic data

Aspects of the origin and development of the early (AE) continential crust are addressed by radiogenic isotope and trace element studies. The most important ones are: (1) at what time did the earliest continental crust form; (2) what was its composition; (3) by what processes did it grow and by what processes was it destroyed; (4) what were the rates of production and destruction as a function of time during this time period? Nd is isotopic data on the oldest terrestrial rocks indicate that the mantle at this time had already suffered substantial depletion in incompatible elements due to earlier continent forming events. Isotopic data on young volcanic rocks derived from the depleted mantle show no evidence of this early history. The observed isotopic patterns of Nd, Sr, Hf and Pb through time together with the presently observed age spectrum of crustal rocks are considered. These patterns can be modelled by a transport model in which the continental growth and destruction rates are allowed to vary as a function of time. It is suggest that the mass of the continents at 3.8 AE ago was about 25% of the current continental mass. However, due to the very high recycling rates obtained in the early Archean only a few percent of this crust has been preserved up to the present.

Jacobson, S. B.↗

Viscoelastic properties of addition-cured polyimides used in high temperature polymer matrix composites

Viscoelastic properties of the addition cured polyimide, PMR-15, were studied using dynamic mechanical and stress relaxation tests. For temperatures below the glass transition temperature, T sub g, the dynamic mechanical properties measured using a temperature scan rate of 10 C/min were strongly affected by the presence of absorbed moisture in the resin. Dynamic mechanical properties measured as a function of time during an isothermal hold provided an indication of chemical changes occurring in the resin. For temperatures above (T sub g + 20 C), the storage modulus increased continuously as a function of time indicating that additional crosslinking is occurring in the resin. Because of these changes in chemical structures, the stress relaxation modulus could not be measured over any useful time interval for temperatures above T sub g. For temperatures below T sub g, dynamic mechanical properties appeared to be unaffected by chemical changes for times exceeding 1 hr. Since the duration of the stress relaxation tests was less than 1 hr, the stress relaxation modulus could be measured. As long as the moisture content of the resin was less than 2 pct, stress relaxation curves measured at different temperatures could be superimposed using horizontal shifts along the log(time) axis with only small shifts along the vertical axis.

Roberts, Gary D↗

Report of the Comet Science Working Group

General scientific questions and measurement objectives that can be addressed on a first comet mission relate to: (1) the chemical nature and the physical structure of comet nuclei as well as the changes that occur as functions of time and orbital position; (2) the chemical and physical nature of the atmospheres and ionospheres of comets, the processes which occur in them, and the development of these atmospheres and ionospheres as functions of time and orbital position; and (3) the nature of comet tails, the processes by which they are formed, and the interaction of comets with the solar wind. Capabilities of the various instruments required are discussed.

Source record↗

Computer Simulation of Motion of Heliospheric Termination Shock

A time-dependent computer model is used to study a non-equilibrium structure of the heliosphere, resulting from the interaction between the solar wind and the interstellar plasma. An interaction of the heliospheric termination shock with various disturbances such as density or velocity jumps or interplanetary shocks in upstream solar wind as well as pressure jumps in local interstellar medium is investigated. Consequences of latitudinal variation in dynamic pressure are also discussed. The initial boundary conditions of unsteady calculations are given by the solar wind parameters as functions of time and/or latitude on an inner boundary, and/or by the local interstellar pressure as a function of time (roughly simulating the effect of the local interstellar medium) on an outer boundary.

Ratkiewicz, R. E.↗

Mars Science Laboratory Radiation Assessment Detector (MSLRAD) Modeling Workshop Proceedings

The Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD) (Hassler et al., 2012) onboard the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Curiosity rover (Grotzinger et al., 2012) has been making detailed measurements of the radiation environment on the surface of Mars since landing on 6 August 2012 (Hassler et al., 2014; Zeitlin et al., 2016). These measurements are the first of their kind on the surface of another planet and are providing essential measurements of the radiation environment on Mars in preparation for a human mission in the coming decades. The objectives of RAD are; 1) to characterize the energetic particle spectrum on the surface of Mars as a function of time in the solar cycle, including direct (galactic cosmic rays and solar energetic particles) and indirect (neutrons, etc.) radiation created in the atmosphere and regolith, 2) to determine the dose and dose‐equivalent rates as a function of time in the solar cycle, and 3) to use these observations to test and validate space radiation transport models. Initial results of the charged particle spectra (Ehresmann et al., 2014) and neutral particle spectrum (Köhler et al., 2014), as well as dose and dose‐equivalent during cruise (Zeitlin et al., 2013) and on the surface (Hassler et al., 2014) have been reported, and with almost five years of continuous measurements, RAD continues to characterize the radiation environment as solar minimum is approached.

Donald M Hassler↗

Anticipated results from dust experiments on cometary missions

The major scientific objectives of a mission are: to determine the chemical nature and physical structure of comet nuclei, and to characterize the changes that occur as a function of time orbital position; to characterize the chemical and physical nature of the atmospheres and ionospheres of comets as well as the processes that occur in them, and to characterize the development of the atmospheres and ionospheres as functions of time and orbital position; and to determine the nature of comet tails and processes by which they are formed, and to characterize the interaction of comets with the solar wind. Since dust is a major constituent of a comet, the achievement of these goals requires the intensive study of the paticulate emission from a comet.

Kissel, J.↗

Towards Energy Scale Calibration and Drift Correction of TES Detectors for Athena X-IFU

The Athena X-Ray Integral Field Unit (X-IFU) comprises a 2376-pixel array of transition edge sensors (TES) read out with time-division multiplexing (TDM). X-IFU will provide spatially resolved, high-resolution spectroscopy (2.5 eV full-width-half-maximum up to 7 keV) over the energy range 0.2 to 12 keV, with an absolute energy scale accuracy of 0.4 eV. The energy scale function maps the optimally filtered pulse height, in arbitrary engineering units, to real calibrated energy. Uncertainties in the calibration can result from imperfect fitting of the energy scale between the known calibration points. Furthermore, temporal changes in the TES operating environment, such as heat-sink temperature, magnetic field and bias voltage, can cause significant variations in the detector gain function over time. If not properly corrected, this can result in degradation of the energy resolution, and systematic errors in the absolute energy scale. The non-linear nature of TES detectors, coupled with the possibility of multiple simultaneously occurring sources of drift, can make effective corrections over the full bandpass of the instrument extremely challenging. Athena X-IFU will employ an on-board calibration source that provides known reference x-ray lines. This provides real-time monitoring of the gain stability of the detector system and information that can be used to correct for gain drifts. For X-IFU the baseline approach is to measure a series of calibration curves under different environmental conditions, which bound the expected drifts the instrument is predicted to see over the course of the mission. Using the information from the in-flight calibration source, these energy scale functions can be interpolated to generate a new corrected energy scale as a function of time. In this paper we discuss progress towards demonstrating that the X-IFU energy scale requirements can be met. We present measurements on ~ 200 pixels in a prototype X-IFU array read out with 8-column x 32-row TDM. We use a rotating target source containing 12 fluorescent targets to generate x-ray lines covering the energy range 4 keV (Sc-Kα) to 12 keV (Br-Kα). We present measurements of the non-linear energy scale function and show how variations in heat-sink temperature, TES bias voltage and magnetic field affect the shape of TES energy scale differently and introduce different residual gain errors over the bandpass. We explore different drift correction algorithms that use either a single or multiple referential lines to track and correct the gain from these various sources of drift. In addition to the pulse-height, the DC ‘baseline’ level of the TES can contain information about its bias conditions. Thus, we test a multi-parameter gain correction algorithm that attempts to incorporate both the pulse height and the additional baseline information into the algorithm.

Stephen J Smith↗

Free vibration and dynamic response analysis of spinning structures

The proposed effort involved development of numerical procedures for efficient solution of free vibration problems of spinning structures. An eigenproblem solution procedure, based on a Lanczos method employing complex arithmetic, was successfully developed. This task involved formulation of the numerical procedure, FORTRAN coding of the algorithm, checking and debugging of software, and implementation of the routine in the STARS program. A graphics package for the E/S PS 300 as well as for the Tektronix terminals was successfully generated and consists of the following special capabilities: (1) a dynamic response plot for the stresses and displacements as functions of time; and (2) a menu driven command module enabling input of data on an interactive basis. Finally, the STARS analysis capability was further improved by implementing the dynamic response analysis package that provides information on nodal deformations and element stresses as a function of time. A number of test cases were run utilizing the currently developed algorithm implemented in the STARS program and such results indicate that the newly generated solution technique is significantly more efficient than other existing similar procedures.

Source record↗

Linear and circular digital spectral analysis of serial data

Two methods of digital spectral analysis of unevenly sampled data are developed and illustrated here. One method uses a linear function of time (or space), the other uses circular functions. The circular method turns out to be essentially equivalent to a least-squares sine-wave analysis. The linear, anharmonic method uses only the field of real numbers and elementary algebraic operations, and hence it can be made computationally very fast and accurate. Both methods are very general, properly handling all kinds of time series ranging from simple series consisting only of the times of events to complicated series consisting of pulses with long duty cycles. The two methods are here applied to the analysis of annual mean relative sunspot numbers.

Stothers, Richard B.↗

Failure detection system risk reduction assessment

A process includes determining a probability of a failure mode of a system being analyzed reaching a failure limit as a function of time to failure limit, determining a probability of a mitigation of the failure mode as a function of a time to failure limit, and quantifying a risk reduction based on the probability of the failure mode reaching the failure limit and the probability of the mitigation.

Aguilar, Robert B.↗

Dynamic Harris current sheet thickness from Cluster current density and plasma measurements

We use the first accurate measurements of current densities in the plasma sheet to calculate the half-thickness and position of the current sheet as a function of time. Our technique assumes a Harris current sheet model, which is parameterized by lobe magnetic field B(o), current sheet half-thickness h, and current sheet position z(sub o). Cluster measurements of magnetic field, current density, and plasma pressure are used to infer the three parameters as a function of time. We find that most long timescale (6-12 hours) current sheet crossings observed by Cluster cannot be described by a static Harris current sheet with a single set of parameters B(sub o), h, and z(sub o). Noting the presence of high-frequency fluctuations that appear to be superimposed on lower frequency variations, we average over running 6-min intervals and use the smoothed data to infer the parameters h(t) and z(sub o)(t), constrained by the pressure balance lobe magnetic field B(sub o)(t). Whereas this approach has been used in previous studies, the spatial gnuhen& now provided by the Cluster magnetometers were unavailable or not well constrained in earlier studies. We place the calculated hdf&cknessa in a magnetospheric context by examining the change in thickness with substorm phase for three case study events and 21 events in a superposed epoch analysis. We find that the inferred half-thickness in many cases reflects the nominal changes experienced by the plasma sheet during substorms (i.e., thinning during growth phase, thickening following substorm onset). We conclude with an analysis of the relative contribution of (Delta)B(sub z)/(Delta)X to the cross-tail current density during substorms. We find that (Delta)B(sub z)/(Delta)X can contribute a significant portion of the cross-tail c m n t around substorm onset.

Thompson, S. M.↗

Satellite camera image navigation

Pixels within a satellite camera (1, 2) image are precisely located in terms of latitude and longitude on a celestial body, such as the earth, being imaged. A computer (60) on the earth generates models (40, 50) of the satellite's orbit and attitude, respectively. The orbit model (40) is generated from measurements of stars and landmarks taken by the camera (1, 2), and by range data. The orbit model (40) is an expression of the satellite's latitude and longitude at the subsatellite point, and of the altitude of the satellite, as a function of time, using as coefficients (K) the six Keplerian elements at epoch. The attitude model (50) is based upon star measurements taken by each camera (1, 2). The attitude model (50) is a set of expressions for the deviations in a set of mutually orthogonal reference optical axes (x, y, z) as a function of time, for each camera (1, 2). Measured data is fit into the models (40, 50) using a walking least squares fit algorithm. A transformation computer (66 ) transforms pixel coordinates as telemetered by the camera (1, 2) into earth latitude and longitude coordinates, using the orbit and attitude models (40, 50).

Kamel, Ahmed A.↗

Nanoscale Editing of Multi and Single Layer Tungsten Disulfide via Gas‐Assisted Focused Electron Beam Induced Etching for Device Prototyping

Focused electron beam induced etching (FEBIE) with XeF 2 (xenon difluoride) precursor is conducted on multi-layer exfoliated WS 2 (tungsten disulfide) and monolayer WS 2 grown by chemical vapor deposition (CVD). The films are characterized by atomic force microscopy (AFM) and Raman and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy post-etching. The etch rates/efficiencies are reported as a function of electron beam energy, current, dwell time, and XeF 2 pressure. Bulk film Raman spectra are unchanged post-FEBIE, indicating minimal subsurface damage. Monolayer WS 2 shows a decrease in Raman and PL intensity post-FEBIE, with a dose-to-clear of ≈2 nC µm −2 . The study reveals regimes affected by the various mass transport contributions such as refresh time and the ratio of electrons/XeF 2 . Spontaneous etching was discovered during FEBIE of large patterned areas due to the long frame/refresh times. Density functional theory and ab initio molecular dynamics simulations compares desorption of SF x and WF x molecules from pristine WS 2 basal planes and pore edges, revealing the spontaneous etching is consistent with etching of partially etched monolayers during each frame. Single-line etching width of 21 nm, and patterning flakes into 100 nm wide channels are demonstrated. In conclusion, this work demonstrates the possibility of editing WS 2 flakes into electronic devices of arbitrary dimensions for semiconductor applications.

2D materials↗

Theory on acoustic sources

A theory is described for the radiation emission emission from acoustic multipole sources. The sources can be stationary or moving at speeds including supersonic and experience stationary or moving disturbances. The effect of finite source distributions and disturbances is investigated as well as the manner in which they interact. Distinction is made between source distributions that responsed as a function of time and those that respond as a function of space.

Wright, S. E.↗