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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 271 records · Page 15
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1995

Advanced in Visualization of 3D Time-Dependent CFD Solutions

Numerical simulations of complex 3D time-dependent (unsteady) flows are becoming increasingly feasible because of the progress in computing systems. Unfortunately, many existing flow visualization systems were developed for time-independent (steady) solutions and do not adequately depict solutions from unsteady flow simulations. Furthermore, most systems only handle one time step of the solutions individually and do not consider the time-dependent nature of the solutions. For example, instantaneous streamlines are computed by tracking the particles using one time step of the solution. However, for streaklines and timelines, particles need to be tracked through all time steps. Streaklines can reveal quite different information about the flow than those revealed by instantaneous streamlines. Comparisons of instantaneous streamlines with dynamic streaklines are shown. For a complex 3D flow simulation, it is common to generate a grid system with several millions of grid points and to have tens of thousands of time steps. The disk requirement for storing the flow data can easily be tens of gigabytes. Visualizing solutions of this magnitude is a challenging problem with today's computer hardware technology. Even interactive visualization of one time step of the flow data can be a problem for some existing flow visualization systems because of the size of the grid. Current approaches for visualizing complex 3D time-dependent CFD solutions are described. The flow visualization system developed at NASA Ames Research Center to compute time-dependent particle traces from unsteady CFD solutions is described. The system computes particle traces (streaklines) by integrating through the time steps. This system has been used by several NASA scientists to visualize their CFD time-dependent solutions. The flow visualization capabilities of this system are described, and visualization results are shown.

Lane, David A.↗
NASA NTRS2011

Identification of Impact Craters in Foils from the Stardust Interstellar Dust Collector

The Stardust Interstellar Dust Collection tray provides the first opportunity for the direct laboratory-based measurement of contemporary interstellar dust. The total exposed surface of the tray was approximately 0.1 square meters, including 153 square centimeters of Al foil in addition to the silica aerogel tiles that are the primary collection medium. Preliminary examination of aerogel tiles has already revealed 16 tracks from particle impacts with an orientation consistent with an interstellar origin, and to date four of the particles associated with these tracks have a composition consistent with an extraterrestrial origin. Tentative identification of impact craters on three foil samples was also reported previously. Here we present the definitive identification of 20 impact craters on five foils.

Stroud, R. M.↗
NASA NTRS2009

Tracking Debris Shed by a Space-Shuttle Launch Vehicle

The DEBRIS software predicts the trajectories of debris particles shed by a space-shuttle launch vehicle during ascent, to aid in assessing potential harm to the space-shuttle orbiter and crew. The user specifies the location of release and other initial conditions for a debris particle. DEBRIS tracks the particle within an overset grid system by means of a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation of the local flow field and a ballistic simulation that takes account of the mass of the particle and its aerodynamic properties in the flow field. The computed particle trajectory is stored in a file to be post-processed by other software for viewing and analyzing the trajectory. DEBRIS supplants a prior debris tracking code that took .15 minutes to calculate a single particle trajectory: DEBRIS can calculate 1,000 trajectories in .20 seconds on a desktop computer. Other improvements over the prior code include adaptive time-stepping to ensure accuracy, forcing at least one step per grid cell to ensure resolution of all CFD-resolved flow features, ability to simulate rebound of debris from surfaces, extensive error checking, a builtin suite of test cases, and dynamic allocation of memory.

Stuart, Phillip C.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Unequilibrated, equilibrated, and reduced aggregates in anhydrous interplanetary dust particles

Track-rich anhydrous IDP's are probably the most primitive IDP's because they have escaped significant post-accretional alteration; they exhibit evidence of (nebular) gas phase reactions; their mineralogy is similar to comet Halley's dust; and some of them exhibit comet-like IR spectral characteristics. However, basic questions about the mineralogy and petrography of anhydrous IDP's remain unanswered, because they contain aggregated components that can be heterogeneous on a scale of nanometers. In some IDP's, aggregates account for greater than 75 percent of the volume of the particle. The aggregates have been systematically examined using an analytical electron microscope (AEM), which provides probe-forming optics and (x-ray and electron) spectrometers necessary to analyze individual nanometer-sized grains. The AEM results reveal at least three mineralogically distinct classes of aggregates in an hydrous IDP's, with mineralogies reflecting significantly different formation/aggregation environments.

Bradley, J. P.↗
NASA NTRS1986

Solar flare track densities in interplanetary dust particles The determination of an asteroidal versus cometary source of the zodiacal dust cloud

The possibility is explored whether an IDP (interplanetary dust particle) is cometary or asteroidal from measurements of the solar flare track density within its constituent mineral grains. Dust particles that are larger than 1 micron, when injected into the Solar System from comets and asteroids, will spiral into the sun due to the Poynting-Robertson effect. During the process of spiraling in, such dust particles accumulate solar flare tracks. The accumulated track density for a given dust grain is a function of the duration of its space exposure and its distance from the sun. Using a computer model, it was determined that the expected track density distributions from grains produced by comets are very different from those produced by asteroids. Individual asteroids produce populations of particles that arrive at 1 AU with scaled track density distributions containing 'spikes,' while comets supply particles with a flatter and wider distribution of track densities.

Sandford, Scott A.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Hydrated Interplanetary Dust Particles: Implications for Oxygen Reservoirs in the Outer Solar System

A re-evaluation of solar energetic particle (SEP) track densities in interplanetary dust particles (IDPs) show that many are derived from outer solar system parent bodies such as Kuiper belt objects (KBOs) or beyond. Kuiper belt objects are widely believed to represent the frozen remnants from the birth of the solar system. The population of track-rich IDPs include members from both the anhydrous chondritic-porous and hydrated chondritic-smooth classes and earlier work suggested that the hydrated IDPs may represent anhydrous IDP material that was aqueously altered. We are performing systematic studies of the mineralogy, chemistry and isotopic compositions of track-rich IDPs to gain a fuller understanding of the origin and evolution of KBOs. Here, we focus on the identification of hydrated Kuiper belt dust particles that allows for the direct evaluation of their O isotopic compositions and the implications for the oxygen isotopic composition of outer solar system ices.

L. P. Keller↗
NASA NTRS1984

Nuclear particle detection using a track-recording solid

The design of the nuclear particle detector located in Purdue University's Get Away Special package which was flown aboard STS-7 is detailed. The experiment consisted of a stack of particle-detecting polymer sheets. The sheets show positive results of tracks throughout the block. A slide of each sheet was made for further analysis. Recommendations for similar experiments performed in the future are discussed.

Weber, M.↗
NASA NTRS2019

Modeling Heatshield Erosion due to Dust Particle Impacts for a Martian Entry Vehicle

New surface damage models are presented that predict the heat shield erosion due to dust particle impact when a spacecraft enters the Martian atmosphere. Existing models were based on Apollo-era experimental data and approximate methods for tracking the dust particle trajectories through the shock layer. These legacy methods will be compared against new results based on more sophisticated particle tracking methods and recent experimental data.

Planetary entry↗
NASA NTRS1972

Radio tracking of solar energetic particles through interplanetary space.

Satellite observations of traveling solar radio bursts provide information about the propagation of energetic solar particles through interplanetary space. This information leads to data on the solar wind density and gross magnetic field configuration over distances of 1 AU. By placing a radio telescope well above the ionosphere it is possible to observe the radio emission down to frequencies that correspond to emission at distances of the order of 1 AU. The observations reported provide the first 'radio picture' over 1 AU of the spiral magnetic field configuration in interplanetary space.

Fainberg, J.↗
NASA NTRS1998

Scaling Properties of Particle Density Fields Formed in Simulated Turbulent Flows

Direct numerical simulations (DNS) of particle concentrations in fully developed 3D turbulence were carried out in order to study the nonuniform structure of the particle density field. Three steady-state turbulent fluid fields with Taylor microscale Reynolds numbers (Re(sub lambda)) of 40, 80 and 140 were generated by solving the Navier-Stokes equations with pseudospectral methods. Large scale forcing was used to drive the turbulence and maintain temporal stationarity. The response of the particles to the fluid was parameterized by the particle Stokes number St, defined as the ratio of the particle's stopping time to the mean period of eddies on the Kolmogorov scale (eta). In this paper, we consider only passive particles optimally coupled to these eddies (St approx. = 1) because of their tendency to concentrate more than particles with lesser or greater St values. The trajectories of up to 70 million particles were tracked in the equilibrated turbulent flows until the particle concentration field reached a statistically stationary state. The nonuniform structure of the concentration fields was characterized by the multifractal singularity spectrum, f(alpha), derived from measures obtained after binning particles into cells ranging from 2(eta) to 15(eta) in size. We observed strong systematic variations of f(alpha) across this scale range in all three simulations and conclude that the particle concentration field is not statistically self similar across the scale range explored. However, spectra obtained at the 2(eta), 4(eta), and 8(eta) scales of each flow case were found to be qualitatively similar. This result suggests that the local structure of the particle concentration field may be flow-Independent. The singularity spectra found for 2n-sized cells were used to predict concentration distributions in good agreement with those obtained directly from the particle data. This Singularity spectrum has a shape similar to the analogous spectrum derived for the inertial-range energy dissipation fields of experimental turbulent flows at Re(sub lambda) = 110 and 1100. Based on this agreement, and the expectation that both dissipation and particle concentration are controlled by the same cascade process, we hypothesize that singularity spectra similar to the ones found in this work provide a good characterization of the spatially averaged statistical properties of preferentially concentrated particles in higher Re(sub lambda) turbulent flows.

Hogan, Robert C.↗
NASA NTRS2015

Neon and Helium in the Surface of Stardust Cell C2028

Previous studies of light noble gases in Stardust aerogel samples detected a variety of isotopically non-terrestrial He and Ne compositions. However, with one exception, in none of these samples was there visible evidence for the presence of particles that could have hosted the gases. The exception is materials keystoned from track 41, cell C2044, which contained observable fragments of the impacting Wild 2 comet coma grain. Here we report noble gas data from a second aerogel sample in which grains are observed, cut from the surface of a cell (C2028) riddled with tiny tracks and particles that are thought to be secondary in origin, ejected toward the cell when a parent grain collided with the spacecraft structure and fragmented. Interestingly, measured 20Ne/22Ne ratios in the track 41 and C2028 samples are similar, and within error of the meteoritic "Q-phase" Ne composition.

Palma, R. L.↗