Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “steep”

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 307 records · Page 17
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1975

The vertical distribution of soluble gases in the troposphere

The thermodynamic properties of several water-soluble gases are reviewed to determine the likely effect of the atmospheric water cycle on their vertical profiles. It is found that gaseous HCl, HNO3, and HBr are sufficiently soluble in water to suggest that their vertical profiles in the troposphere have a similar shape to that of water vapor. It is predicted that HCl, HNO3, and HBr exhibit a steep negative gradient with altitude roughly equal to the altitude gradient of water vapor. Therefore, ground-based sources of inorganic chlorine, odd nitrogen, and inorganic bromine compounds are not likely to affect the stratosphere directly in the mean. Calculations also show that while SO2 and NH3 are significantly affected by the atmospheric water cycle, their abundances may not decrease with altitude as rapidly as does that of water vapor.

Stedman, D. H.↗
NASA NTRS1975

Effects of jet exhaust gas properties on exhaust simulation and afterbody drag

The effect of varying the jet exhaust's ratio of specific heats, gas constant, and temperature on airplane afterbody drag was investigated. Jet exhaust simulation parameters were evaluated also. Subsonic and transonic tests were made using a single nacelle model with afterbodies having boattail angles of 10 deg and 20 deg. Besides air, three other jet exhaust gases were investigated. The ratios of specific heats, gas constants, and total temperatures of the four exhaust gases ranged from 1.40 to 1.26, 287 to 376 J/kg-K, and 300 to 1013 K, respectively. For steep boattail angles, and transonic speeds and typical turbojet pressure ratios, the current data indicate that the use of air to simulate a dry turbojet exhaust can result in an overprediction of afterbody drag as high as 17 percent of the dry turbojet value.

Compton, W. B., III↗
NASA NTRS1975

Thermoelastic analysis of solar window of a vacuum chamber

It has been noted during space simulation test programs that the chamber penetration window becomes the limiting factor as the solar intensity increases. The temperature at the center of the window normally attains a level of 550 C, while the edge temperature remains at about 35 C. The stresses produced by this thermal gradient combined with the atmospheric pressure are studied within the framework of classical theory of elasticity. The solution for the problem is obtained by solving the static uncoupled thermoelastic equations for a circular blank, subjected to nonuniform heat on one face, by introduction of two auxiliary variables. The displacements are expressed in terms of Bessel functions and parameters of interest are computed at various mesh points of the window. The maximum principal stresses thus obtained show that even with steep temperature gradient, the safety factor is acceptable.

Amba-Rao, C. L.↗
NASA NTRS1975

Current from a dilute plasma measured through holes in insulators

The current collected from a plasma through holes in insulated electrodes was measured. Holes of 0.051- and 2.54-cm diameters in Kapton H film and plasma number densities of 100 and 10,000 electrons/cu cm were used. The current collected by bare electrodes, that is, electrodes with no surrounding insulation, is also presented. For all the samples the current at a given voltage was a function of the surrounding insulator area rather than of the hole size or the underlying electrode size. In addition, at the low plasma density the I-V characteristic showed very steep rises for voltages below 1 kV. In one case the current jumped by a factor of approximately 70 to 200 V. Results are given for positive biases to 10 kV. For negative biases, sparking prevented testing most samples to the 10-kV limit.

Grier, N. T.↗
NASA NTRS1976

Electrons in a closed galaxy model of cosmic rays

The consistency of positrons and electrons was studied using a propagation model in which the cosmic rays are stopped by nuclear collisions or energy losses before they can escape from the galaxy (the closed-galaxy model). The fact that no inconsistency was found between the predictions and the data implies that the protons which produce the positrons by nuclear reactions could have their origin in a large number of distant sources, as opposed to the heavier nuclei which in this model come from a more limited set of sources. The closed-galaxy model predicts steep electron and positron spectra at high energies. None of these are inconsistent with present measurements; but future measurements of the spectrum of high-energy positrons could provide a definite test for the model. The closed-galaxy model also predicts that the interstellar electron intensity below a few GeV is larger than that implied by other models. The consequence of this result is that electron bremsstrahlung is responsible for about 50% of the galactic gamma-ray emission at photon energies greater than 100 MeV.

Ramaty, R.↗
NASA NTRS1976

A simulation study of curved, descending, decelerating, landing approaches for transport aircraft

A system which is capable of controlling an aircraft automatically along a curved, descending, decelerating approach was described. A simulation study was conducted to determine the necessary modifications to the basic flight-proven control system. This basic system is presently being used to accomplish straight-in automatic landing approaches on a short-haul transport aircraft (B-737 terminal configured vehicle). This study shows that both 3 deg (normal) and 5 deg (steep) approaches could be accomplished with only minor modifications to the basic control system.

Dieudonne, J. E.↗
NASA NTRS1976

Her X-1 spectral evidence for a strong magnetic field

The steep high energy cutoff observed in the spectrum for Her X-1 is analyzed in terms of the severely modified Thomson scattering that dominates the radiative transfer in a highly magnetized plasma near the surface of a neutron star. The data are shown to indicate a field of about 10 to the 13th power G near the magnetic poles and the stopping of accreting matter by nuclear collisions in the neighboring plasma.

Boldt, E. A.↗
NASA NTRS1976

Intensity and spectral variations of Cyg X-1 observed from balloons

Observations of Cyg X-1 with a 20 to 200 keV balloon carried X-ray telescope in 1969, 1970, and 1972 are presented. These results reveal the following characteristics of Cyg X-1: The steep spectrum observed at E 10 keV during the radio quiet phase can extend to 200 keV. This phase may have lasted 21 months (July 1969 to March 1971). The low flux values are factors of 3 and 8 below the normal values at 30 and 100 keV respectively, are rarely observed, and may be associated with the early phase of the 1971 April X-ray transition. During some one hour periods, the intensity remained constant to approximately 20% and during other periods it varied a factor 2 in 5 minutes and a factor 10 in 1 hour. Complex spectral variations accompanied the intensity changes.

Matteson, J. L.↗
NASA NTRS1976

Use of thin ionization calorimeters for measurements of cosmic ray energy spectra

The reliability of performing measurements of cosmic ray energy spectra with a thin ionization calorimeter was investigated. Monte Carlo simulations were used to determine whether energy response fluctuations would cause measured spectra to be different from the primary spectra. First, Gaussian distributions were assumed for the calorimeter energy resolutions. The second method employed a detailed Monte Carlo simulation of cascades from an isotropic flux of protons. The results show that as long as the energy resolution does not change significantly with energy, the spectral indices can be reliably determined even for sigma sub e/e = 50%. However, if the energy resolution is strongly energy dependent, the measured spectra do not reproduce the true spectra. Energy resolutions greatly improving with energy result in measured spectra that are too steep, while resolutions getting much worse with energy cause the measured spectra to be too flat.

Jones, W. V.↗
NASA NTRS1975

Hybrid upper surface blown flap propulsive-lift concept for the Quiet Short-Haul Research Aircraft

The hybrid upper surface blowing concept consists of wing-mounted turbofan engines with a major portion of the fan exhaust directed over the wing upper surface to provide high levels of propulsive lift, but with a portion of the fan airflow directed over selected portions of the airframe to provide boundary layer control. NASA-sponsored preliminary design studies identified the hybrid upper surface blowing concept as the best propulsive lift concept to be applied to the Quiet Short-Haul Research Aircraft (QSRA) that is planned as a flight facility to conduct flight research at low noise levels, high approach lift coefficients, and steep approaches. Data from NASA in-house and NASA-sponsored small and large-scale wind tunnel tests of various configurations using this concept are presented.

Cochrane, J. A.↗
NASA NTRS1975

Interstellar scattering of pulsar radiation. I - Scintillation

An investigation of the intensity fluctuations of 28 pulsars near 0.4 GHz indicates that spectra of interstellar scintillation are consistent with a Gaussian shape, that scintillation indices are near unity, and that the scintillation bandwidth depends linearly on dispersion measure. Observations at cm wavelengths show that the observer is in the near field of the scattering medium for objects with the lowest dispersion measures, and confirm the steep dependence of correlation bandwidth on dispersion measure found by Sutton (1971). The variations of scattering parameters with dispersion measure may indicate that the rms deviation of thermal electron density on the scale of 10 to the 11th cm grows with path length through the galaxy.

Backer, D. C.↗
NASA NTRS1976

Cyclotron side-band emissions from ring-current electrons

The paper examines temporal variations in electron energy spectra and pitch-angle distributions during a VLF-emission event observed by Explorer 45 in the main phase of a magnetic storm. It is noted that the observed event occurred outside the plasmasphere on the night side of the magnetosphere and that the dusk-side plasmapause had a double structure during the event. It is found that the VLF emissions consisted of two frequency bands, corresponding to the whistler and electrostatic modes, and that there was a sharp band of 'missing emissions' along frequencies equal to half the equatorial electron gyrofrequency. A peculiar pitch-angle distribution for high-energy electrons (50 to 350 keV) is noted. It is concluded that the VLF-producing particles were enhanced low-energy (about 5 keV) ring-current electrons which penetrated into the night side of the magnetosphere from the magnetotail plasma sheet and which drifted eastward after encountering the steep gradient of the geomagnetic field.

Maeda, K.↗
NASA NTRS1976

An analysis of the interstellar material in the line of sight toward Omicron Persei

Chemical abundances and physical conditions in the interstellar gas toward Omicron Per are analyzed using Copernicus UV spectrophotometric data on 69 lines due to ions and atoms as well as 19 lines of H2 and HD. The UV extinction toward the star is determined along with the column densities of atomic and molecular hydrogen, the atomic column densities and temperature in the H I region, and the nature of the ionized regions along the line of sight. It is concluded that: (1) Omicron Per is apparently embedded in the near edge of an extended dense molecular cloud, the outer parts of which give rise to the observed absorption lines; (2) the H I region may consist of more than one cloud; (3) the far-UV extinction rise is unusually steep, indicating a high proportion of small grains; (4) the element depletions are somewhat greater than in Zeta Oph, particularly for sulfur and argon; and (5) the molecular abundances are generally consistent with gas-phase formation models rather than with molecular formation on grain surfaces, unless a substantial amount of small grains is present to increase the available surface area.

Snow, T. P., Jr.↗
NASA NTRS1976

ELF hiss associated with plasma density enhancements in the outer magnetosphere

The low-frequency narrow hiss bands associated with plasma-density enhancements in the magnetosphere near and beyond L = 4 have been studied with the search coil magnetometer and ion mass spectrometer data from OGO 5. ELF hiss is found to accompany most of the detached plasmas in the outer magnetosphere and to be sharply limited by the steep ion-density gradient at their boundary. The observations indicate that the hiss originates in and is ducted by the plasma-density enhancements. In a particularly favorable case after an interval of low AE and Dst indices, a series of enhanced plasma-density peaks was observed between L = 4 and L = 6 in the afternoon local-time sector. In this case, it was possible to develop an empirical relation among hiss amplitude, plasma density, and L by using in situ simultaneous measurements.

Chan, K.-W.↗
NASA NTRS1976

The Her X-1 spectrum - A measure of the field near the magnetic poles of a neutron star

The steep high energy cutoff observed in the spectrum for Her X-1 is analyzed in terms of the severely modified Thomson scattering that dominates the radiative transfer in a highly magnetized plasma near the surface of a neutron star. The data are shown to indicate a field of about 10 to the 13th G near the magnetic poles and the stopping of accreting matter by nuclear collisions in the neighboring plasma

Boldt, E. A.↗
NASA NTRS1976

The quiet solar wind

Data from nine spacecraft are combined to study the properties of solar wind protons and the interplanetary magnetic field under unusual conditions that proton speed, density, and temperature variations are small over periods comparable to the solar wind expansion time. From the 14 quiet intervals studied it is determined that (1) the square root of T versus velocity relation is less steep than was calculated from long-term-averaged or 3-hour quiet data; (2) the density varies approximately as the inverse square of the velocity; however, the data scatter is large, and an alternative interpretation is that mass flux is constant for velocities over about 400 km/s, in agreement with earlier studies; (3) the magnitude of the interplanetary magnetic field is independent of solar wind speed and density; and (4) the average field direction varies with the solar wind speed as predicted by Parker's spiral model. The intercalibration of solar wind measurements by different spacecraft is discussed in an appendix.

Neugebauer, M.↗
NASA NTRS1976

One-millimeter continuum emission studies of four molecular clouds

Maps with 1-arcmin resolution are presented of 1-mm thermal emission from dust grains in the central portions of the molecular clouds associated with four H II regions: W3, M42 (OMC-1), Sgr B2, and W49. The maps cover regions approximately 5 by 5 arcmin in extent. In each source, a sharp peak in the 1-mm surface brightness is seen at the position of a compact H II region and/or one or several luminous near-infrared sources. The radial density distributions in the center of the clouds have been estimated from the observed distribution of 1-mm surface brightness near the peaks. The results indicate that the central density gradients are quite steep. These gradients may have been established in the clouds by the collapse processes which led to the formation of the central luminous objects.

Westbrook, W. E.↗
NASA NTRS1976

Further studies of unsteady boundary layers with flow reversal

One set of calculations was performed using the first order, time dependent turbulent boundary layer equations, and extended earlier work by Nash and Patel to a wider range of flows. Another set of calculations was performed for laminar flow using the time dependent Navier-Stokes equations. The results of the calculations confirm previous conclusions concerning the existence of a regime of unseparated flow, containing an embedded region of reversal, which is accessible to first order boundary layer theory. However, certain doubts are cast on the precise nature of the events which accompany the eventual breakdown of the theory due to singularity onset. The earlier view that the singularity appears as the final event in a sequence involving rapid thickening of the boundary layer and the formation of a localized region of steep gradients is called into question by the present results. It appears that singularity onset is not necessarily preceded by rapid boundary layer thickening, or even necessarily produces immediate thickening.

Nash, J. F.↗