Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “splitter”

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.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 271 records · Page 15

Wind dynamic range video camera

A television camera apparatus is disclosed in which bright objects are attenuated to fit within the dynamic range of the system, while dim objects are not. The apparatus receives linearly polarized light from an object scene, the light being passed by a beam splitter and focused on the output plane of a liquid crystal light valve. The light valve is oriented such that, with no excitation from the cathode ray tube, all light is rotated 90 deg and focused on the input plane of the video sensor. The light is then converted to an electrical signal, which is amplified and used to excite the CRT. The resulting image is collected and focused by a lens onto the light valve which rotates the polarization vector of the light to an extent proportional to the light intensity from the CRT. The overall effect is to selectively attenuate the image pattern focused on the sensor.

Craig, G. D.↗

Double passing the Kitt Peak 1-m Fourier transform spectrometer

Attention is given to a simple technique for performing the conversion of the Kitt Peak 1-m Fourier transform spectrometer's dual input/output optical configuration to a double pass configuration that improves spectral resolution by a factor of 2. The modification is made by placing a flat mirror in the output beam from each cat's eye, retroreflecting the beams back through the cat's eyes to the first beam splitter. A single detector is placed at the second input port, which then becomes the instrument's output.

Jennings, D. E.↗

Multiband selection device

Current science projections for future earth-imaging instruments indicate the need for as many as 25 spectral bands, with bandwidths as narrow as 20 nanometers. The desire for a multiplicity of bands has led researchers to study various spectrally dispersive instrument designs as a means of providing the desired future capability. These instrument designs, however, are costly, complex, and of high technical risk. This paper describes a 'multiband selection device' containing several spectral filters that can be placed at the exit faces of a broadband multiport beam splitter and thereby provide a multiplicity of spectral bands with a high degree of spatial coregistration while utilizing state-of-the-art linear array detectors. Fabrication of the multiband selection device has been successfully accomplished, and the design and test results are described.

Richard, H. L.↗

Technology achievements and projections for communication satellites of the future

Multibeam systems of the future using monolithic microwave integrated circuits to provide phase control and power gain are contrasted with discrete microwave power amplifiers from 10 to 75 W and their associated waveguide feeds, phase shifters and power splitters. Challenging new enabling technology areas include advanced electrooptical control and signal feeds. Large scale MMIC's will be used incorporating on chip control interfaces, latching, and phase and amplitude control with power levels of a few watts each. Beam forming algorithms for 80 to 90 deg wide angle scanning and precise beam forming under wide ranging environments will be required. Satellite systems using these dynamically reconfigured multibeam antenna systems will demand greater degrees of beam interconnectivity. Multiband and multiservice users will be interconnected through the same space platform. Monolithic switching arrays operating over a wide range of RF and IF frequencies are contrasted with current IF switch technology implemented discretely. Size, weight, and performance improvements by an order of magnitude are projected.

Bagwell, J. W.↗

Device Applies Films to Optical Elements

Clamping device applies protective or antireflective dielectric coating to lenses or other optical elements. Alternative version of device applies thin sheet of dielectric film to ring or stretches it for clamping in holder to form pellicle or beam splitter. Defects avoided by new apparatus, which uniformly stretches dielectric films in radial direction and creates vacuum between them before thermally bonded to optical element.

Augason, Gordon C.↗

Projection lens scanning laser velocimeter system

A laser Doppler velocimeter system is disclosed that has a laser, a waist position adjusting lens, and a beam splitter which direct laser beams parallel to the optical axis of the negative lens. The negative lens is fixed relative to an afocal lens pair. A pair of planar mirrors intersect at right angles and respectively intersect the optical axis and the optical axis of the afocal lens pair. Mirrors are movable along the optical axis toward and away from the afocal lens pair to focus the laser beams in focus area while maintaining a constant beam waist, crossing angle, and intersection with other laser beams. This produces a constant sensitive volume as the focus is changed.

Gunter, William D., Jr.↗

An investigation of turbulence structure in a low-Reynolds-number incompressible turbulent boundary

An existing high turbulence intensity level (5%) atmospheric boundary-layer wind tunnel has been successfully converted to a relatively low level turbulence (0.3%) wind tunnel through extensive modification, testing, and calibration. A splitter plate was designed, built, and installed into the wind-tunnel facility to create thick, mature, two-dimensional turbulent boundary layer flow at zero pressure gradient. Single and cross hot-wire measurements show turbulent boundary layer characteristics of good quality with unusually large physical size, i.e., viscous sublayer of the order of 1 mm high. These confirm the potential ability of the tunnel to be utilized for future high-quality near-wall turbulent boundary layer measurements. It compares very favorably with many low turbulence research tunnels.

White, B. R.↗

Method and apparatus for making an optical element having a dielectric film

A film-application device (FAD) comprising a pair of exterior, tapered, O-ring bearing plate members and a central plate member for simplifying the process of thermally bonding a thin dielectric film to a substrate comprising an optical element are discussed. In use, the film is sandwiched between the O rings and stretched across the optical element by squeezing the exterior plates together before bonding to the element. The film may be used for protecting the optical element or to reduce surface reflection of radiation. The FAD may also be used without the center plate to stretch a dielectric film prior to its attachment to or insertion in a holder to make pellicles or beam-splitters.

Augason, Gordon C.↗

Vortex-scalar element calculations of a diffusion flame stabilized on a plane mixing layer

The vortex-scalar element method, a scheme which utilizes vortex elements to discretize the region of high vorticity and scalar elements to represent species or temperature fields, is utilized in the numerical simulations of a two-dimensional reacting mixing layer. Computations are performed for a diffusion flame at high Reynolds and Peclet numbers without resorting to turbulence models. In the nonreacting flow, the mean and fluctuation profiles of a conserved scalar show good agreement with experimental measurements. Results for the reacting flow indicate that for temperature independent kinetics, the chemical reaction begins immediately downstream of the splitter plate where mixing starts. Results for the reacting flow with Arrhenius kinetics show an ignition delay, which depends on reactant temperature, before significant chemical reaction occurs. Harmonic forcing changes the structure of the layer, and concomitantly the rates of mixing and reaction, in accordance with experimental results. Strong stretch within the braids in the nonequilibrium kinetics case causes local flame quenching due to the temperature drop associated with the large convective fluxes.

Ghoniem, Ahmed F.↗

Calculating Flows In Multiple-Blade-Element Cascades

Computer code written to analyze flows on blade-to-blade surfaces of turbomachinery. Analyzes rows containing blades of several different shapes and/or spacings. Capability makes code useful for calculating flows in centrifugal machinery with splitter blades or in mistuned blade rows, where blade spacing varies. Written primarily in FORTRAN IV.

Mcfarland, Eric F.↗

Closed-Loop Optical Rotation Sensor

Optical/electronic system senses rotation and emits pulses at angular increments. System provides linear scale factor across wide range of rotation rates with no lockup at null. Design needs analog-to-digital converters with elaborate signal-processing circuits. Light from laser diode split evenly into two beams propagating in opposite directions around rotation-sensing coil of optical-fiber waveguide. Beams acquire phase difference proportional to rotation rate as they pass through coil. After emerging from coil, beams recombine in beam splitter, and coherent sum led to photodiode.

Goss, Willis C.↗

A flow visualization study of the leading edge separation bubble on a NACA 0012 airfoil with simulated glaze ice

As a part of an ongoing research in aircraft icing, the leading edge separation bubble on a NACA 0012 model with a 5 min simulated glaze ice was investigated. The flow visualization methods using oil, tuft, splitter plate, smoke, and liquid crystals were employed to get reattachment line data for the leading edge separation bubble on both surfaces of the airfoil. On the upper surface, the separation bubble was found to grow larger with increasing angles of attack and reduce in size with decreasing angle of attack. On the lower surface, the bubble was found to grow larger with increasing negative angles of attack and reduce in size with increasing angles of attack. The separated flow fails to reattach beyond 6° for the upper surface and -5° for the loser surface. Their results of this study compared well with those of other experiments and computational results.

Aircraft icing↗

Wind tunnel studies of circulation control elliptical airfoils

Effects of blown jets on the lift and drag of cambered elliptical airfoils are described. Performance changes due to a splitter plate attached to the lower surface of an elliptical airfoil near the trailing edge with and without blowing are indicated. Lift and drag characteristics of airfoils with two blown jets are compared with airfoils with single blowing jets. Airfoil designs that vary the location of a second jet relative to a fixed jet are described.

Franke, M. E.↗

Transport delay compensation for computer-generated imagery systems

In the problem of pure transport delay in a low-pass system, a trade-off exists with respect to performance within and beyond a frequency bandwidth. When activity beyond the band is attenuated because of other considerations, this trade-off may be used to improve the performance within the band. Specifically, transport delay in computer-generated imagery systems is reduced to a manageable problem by recognizing frequency limits in vehicle activity and manual-control capacity. Based on these limits, a compensation algorithm has been developed for use in aircraft simulation at NASA Ames Research Center. For direct measurement of transport delays, a beam-splitter experiment is presented that accounts for the complete flight simulation environment. Values determined by this experiment are appropriate for use in the compensation algorithm. The algorithm extends the bandwidth of high-frequency flight simulation to well beyond that of normal pilot inputs. Within this bandwidth, the visual scene presentation manifests negligible gain distortion and phase lag. After a year of utilization, two minor exceptions to universal simulation applicability have been identified and subsequently resolved.

Mcfarland, Richard E.↗

Influence of base modifications on in-flight base drag in the presence of jet exhaust for Mach numbers from 0.7 to 1.5

The use of external modifications in the base region to reduce the base drag of a blunt-base body in the presence of jet engine exhaust was investigated in flight. Base pressure data were obtained for the following configurations: (1) blunt base; (2) blunt base modified with splitter plate; and (3) blunt base modified with two variations of a vented cavity. Reynolds number based on the length of the aircraft ranged from 1.2 to 3.1 x 10 to the 8th. Mach number M ranges were 0.71 less than or = M less than or = 0.95 and 1.10 less than or = M less than or = 1.51. The data were analyzed using the blunt base for a reference, or baseline condition. For 1.10 less than or = M less than or = 1.51, the reduction in base drag coefficient provided by the vented cavity configuration ranged from 0.07 to 0.05. These increments in base drag coefficient at M = 1.31 and 1.51 result in base drag reductions of 27 and 24 percent, respectively, when compared to the blunt base drag. For M less than 1, the drag increment between the blunt base and the modification is not significant.

Powers, Sheryll Goecke↗

Mixing control in a plane shear layer

An investigation of mixing processes in a plane shear layer by a direct numerical simulation with a high-order numerical technique, the isoparametric spectral element method, is presented. The computational domain includes a region with the splitter plate that allows to start the flow as a laminar (Blasius) boundary layers with different velocities and concentrations, merging in the shear layer and undergoing transition to highly-unsteady structures with intensive mixing. The augmentation of mixing as a function of a downstream location, the intensity and type of vortical structures in the layer is investigated by an introduction of disturbance at the high-velocity inflow. The character of the dynamic mixing is displayed along with time averaged profiles and statistical characteristics.

Korczak, K. Z.↗

Experimental investigation of inlet flow-control cascades for the NFAC 80- by 120-foot Indraft Wind Tunnel

The present investigation of aerodynamic performance for various inlet cascade configurations of an indraft wind tunnel with a short inlet and a low contraction ratio has given attention to the effects of inlet wall shape, antiturbulence screens, and horizontal flow straighteners on test-section flow quality. It is found that an inlet cascade with a tailored vane-splay distribution, antiturbulence screen, and horizontal splitters, will both yield good test section flow quality and furnish isolation from atmospheric winds and turbulence.

Van Aken, Johannes M.↗

Ti:LiNbO3 components for a fiber gyroscope

It is maintained that integrated optics will play a major role in the next generation of fiber gyros since the potential exists for mass producing low-cost integrated gyro front-end circuits. Ti:LiNbO3 wave guide technology has been used to demonstrate all the necessary components. The combined use of the 3dB splitter and polarizer functions in a 3 x 3 directional coupler is considered. Such a device was designed for operation at lambda = 1.3 microns and fabricated with 6.5-micron Ti strip widths, and a 1050 C/6 hr diffusion.

Minford, W. J.↗