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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 379 records · Page 21

Transition to turbulence in laminar hypersonic flow

Progress in a recently started project aimed at the prediction of transition to turbulence in hypersonic flow is briefly discussed. The prediction of transition to turbulence is a very important issue in the design of space vessels. Two space vehicles currently under investigation, namely the aeroassisted transfer vehicle (AOTV) and the trans-atmospheric vehicle (TAV), suffer from strong aerodynamic heating. This heating is strongly influenced by the boundary layer structure. These aerospace vehicles fly in the upper atmospheric layer at a Mach number between 10 and 30 at very low atmospheric pressures. At very high altitudes the flow is laminar, but when the space vessel returns to a lower orbit, the flow becomes turbulent and the heating is dramatically increased. The prediction of this transition process is commonly done by means of experiments. The experimental facilities available nowadays cannot model the hypersonic flow field accurately enough by limitations in Mach and Reynolds number. These facilities also have a large free stream disturbance level which makes it very difficult to investigate transition accurately. An alternative approach is to study transition by theoretical means. Up to now numerical studies of hypersonic flow only discussed steady laminar or turbulent flow. This theoretical approach is extended to the study of transition in hypersonic flow by means of direct numerical simulations and additional theoretical investigations to explain the mechanisms leading to transition. A brief outline of how this research is to be performed is given.

Vandervegt, Jaap↗

The JGOFS North Atlantic Bloom Experiment: An overview

The North Atlantic Bloom Experiment (NABE) of JGOFS presents a unique opportunity and challenge to the data management community because of the diversity and large size of biogeochemical data sets collected. NABE was a pilot study for JGOFS and has also served as a pilot study within the U.S. NODC for management and archiving of the data sets. Here I present an overview to some of the scientific results of NABE, which will be published as an Introduction to a special volume of NABE results in Deep-Sea Research later this year. An overview of NABE data management is given elsewhere in the present report. This is the first collection of papers from the Joint Global Ocean Flux Study (JGOFS). Formed as an international program in 1987, JGOFS has four principal elements: modelling and data management, multidisciplinary regional process studies, a global survey of biogeochemical properties and long-term time series observatories. In 1989-1990 JGOFS conducted a pilot process study of the spring phytoplankton bloom, the North Atlantic Bloom Experiment (NABE). JGOFS decided to conduct a large scale, internationally-coordinated pilot study in the North Atlantic because of its proximity to the founding nations of the project, the size and predictability of the bloom and its fundamental impact on ocean bio-geochemistry (Billett et al., 1983; Watson and Whitfield, 1985; Pfannkuche, 1992). In 1989, six research vessels from Canada, Germany, The Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the USA and over 200 scientists and students from more than a dozen nations participated in NABE. Some of their initial results are reported in this volume.

Ducklow, Hugh W.↗

Decision process for effective system reuse

The speed of growth in high technology differs for software, hardware and firmware. Hardware innovations come in leaps, as opposed to the gradual improvements in software and firmware technologies. This inhibits the full utilization of the hardware advances and reduces the cost benefit ratio of high technology ventures. The Microelectronics Systems Branch has committed its resources to use the look ahead technique whereby the technology is researched in its use, current development track and its future capabilities. This knowledge is used to meet the requirements of the space program not only in the nineties but also through 2005. This paper illustrates Analytical Hierarchy Process techniques used effectively and very successfully to support projects reusing systems with predicted enhancements.

Mirchandani, Chandru↗

NASA Earned Value Management (EVM) Update

Earned Value Management (EVM) is an integrated management control system for assessing, understanding and qualifying what a project is achieving with the resoures. EVM integrates technical cost and schedules with risk management. It allows objective assessment and quantification of current project performance, and helps predict future performance-based trents.

Kerby, Jerald↗

Simulator Study of Indoor Annoyance Caused by Shaped Sonic Boom Stimuli With and Without Rattle Augmentation

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's High Speed Project is developing a predictive capability for annoyance caused by shaped sonic booms transmitted indoors. The predictive capability is intended for use by aircraft designers as well as by aircraft noise regulators who are considering lifting the current prohibition on overland civil supersonic flight. The goal of the current study is to use an indoor simulator to validate two models developed using headphone tests for annoyance caused by sonic booms with and without rattle augmentation. The predictors in the proposed models include Moore and Glasberg's Stationary Loudness Level, the time derivative of Moore and Glasberg's time-varying short-term Loudness Level, and the difference between two weighted sound exposure levels, CSEL-ASEL. The indoor simulator provides a more realistic listening environment than headphones due to lowfrequency sound reproduction down to 6 Hz, which also causes perceptible tactile vibration. The results of this study show that a model consisting of {PL + (CSEL-ASEL)} is a reliable predictor of annoyance caused by shaped sonic booms alone, rattle sounds alone, and shaped sonic booms and rattle sounds together.

Rathsam, Jonathan↗

NEQAIRv14.0 Release Notes: Nonequilibrium and Equilibrium Radiative Transport Spectra Program

NEQAIR v14.0 is the first parallelized version of NEQAIR. Starting from the last version of the code that went through the internal software release process at NASA Ames (NEQAIR 2008), there have been significant updates to the physics in the code and the computational efficiency. NEQAIR v14.0 supersedes NEQAIR v13.2, v13.1 and the suite of NEQAIR2009 versions. These updates have predominantly been performed by Brett Cruden and Aaron Brandis from ERC Inc at NASA Ames Research Center in 2013 and 2014. A new naming convention is being adopted with this current release. The current and future versions of the code will be named NEQAIR vY.X. The Y will refer to a major release increment. Minor revisions and update releases will involve incrementing X. This is to keep NEQAIR more in line with common software release practices. NEQAIR v14.0 is a standalone software tool for line-by-line spectral computation of radiative intensities and/or radiative heat flux, with one-dimensional transport of radiation. In order to accomplish this, NEQAIR v14.0, as in previous versions, requires the specification of distances (in cm), temperatures (in K) and number densities (in parts/cc) of constituent species along lines of sight. Therefore, it is assumed that flow quantities have been extracted from flow fields computed using other tools, such as CFD codes like DPLR or LAURA, and that lines of sight have been constructed and written out in the format required by NEQAIR v14.0. There are two principal modes for running NEQAIR v14.0. In the first mode NEQAIR v14.0 is used as a tool for creating synthetic spectra of any desired resolution (including convolution with a specified instrument/slit function). The first mode is typically exercised in simulating/interpreting spectroscopic measurements of different sources (e.g. shock tube data, plasma torches, etc.). In the second mode, NEQAIR v14.0 is used as a radiative heat flux prediction tool for flight projects. Correspondingly, NEQAIR has also been used to simulate the radiance measured on previous flight missions. This report summarizes the database updates, corrections that have been made to the code, changes to input files, parallelization, the current usage recommendations, including test cases, and an indication of the performance enhancements achieved.

Radiation Solver↗

Attitude Design for the LADEE Mission

The Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) satellite successfully completed its 148-day science investigation in a low-altitude, near-equatorial lunar orbit on April 18, 2014. The LADEE spacecraft was built, managed and operated by NASA's Ames Research Center (ARC). The Mission Operations Center (MOC) was located at Ames and was responsible for activity planning, command sequencing, trajectory and attitude design, orbit determination, and spacecraft operations. The Science Operations Center (SOC) was located at Goddard Space Flight Center and was responsible for science planning, data archiving and distribution. This paper details attitude design and operations support for the LADEE mission. LADEE's attitude design was shaped by a wide range of instrument pointing requirements that necessitated regular excursions from the baseline one revolution per orbit "Ram" attitude. Such attitude excursions were constrained by a number of flight rules levied to protect instruments from the Sun, avoid geometries that would result in simultaneous occlusion of LADEE's two star tracker heads, and maintain the spacecraft within its thermal and power operating limits. To satisfy LADEE's many attitude requirements and constraints, a set of rules and conventions was adopted to manage the complexity of this design challenge and facilitate the automation of ground software that generated pointing commands spanning multiple days of operations at a time. The resulting LADEE Flight Dynamics System (FDS) that was developed used Visual Basic scripts that generated instructions to AGI's Satellite Tool Kit (STK) in order to derive quaternion commands at regular intervals that satisfied LADEE's pointing requirements. These scripts relied heavily on the powerful "align and constrain" capability of STK's attitude module to construct LADEE's attitude profiles and the slews to get there. A description of the scripts and the attitude modeling they embodied is provided. One particular challenge analysts faced was in the design of LADEE maneuver attitudes. A flight rule requiring pre-maneuver verification of in-flight maneuver conditions by ground operators prior to burn execution resulted in the need to accommodate long periods in the maneuver attitude. This in turn complicated efforts to satisfy star tracker interference and communication constraints in lunar orbit. In response to this challenge, a graphical method was developed and used to survey candidate rotation angles about the thrust vector. This survey method is described and an example of its use on a particular LADEE maneuver is discussed. Finally, the software and methodology used to satisfy LADEE's attitude requirements are also discussed in the context of LADEE's overall activity planning effort. In particular, the way in which strategic schedules of instrument and engineering activities were translated into actual attitude profiles at the tactical level, then converted into precise quaternion commands to achieve those pointing goals is explained. In order to reduce the risk of time-consuming re-planning efforts, this process included the generation of long-term projections of constraint violation predictions for individual attitude profiles that could be used to establish keep-out time-frames for particular attitude profiles. The challenges experienced and overall efficacy of both the overall LADEE ground system and the attitude components of the Flight Dynamics System in meeting LADEE's varied pointing requirements are discussed.

LADEE↗

Ensuring Cassini's End-of-Mission Propellant Margins

The Cassini spacecraft is in its final years. On September 15, 2017, Cassini will plunge deep into Saturn's atmosphere never to reemerge; thus concluding its second extended mission and 13 years in orbit around the ringed planet. As of October 2014, the spacecraft is four years in to its seven-year, second extended mission, the Cassini Solstice Mission (CSM). With three years left and only 2.5% of its loaded bipropellant and 37% of its loaded monopropellant remaining, the Cassini project actively manages the predicted end-of-mission propellant margins to maintain a high confidence in the spacecraft's ability to complete the CSM as designed.

Sturm, Erick J., II↗

Health and Climate Impacts of Ocean-Going Vessels in East Asia

East Asia has the most rapidly growing shipping emissions of both CO2 and traditional air pollutants, but the least in-depth analysis. Full evaluation of all pollutants is needed to assess the impacts of shipping emissions. Here, using an advanced method based on detailed dynamic ship activity data, we show that shipping emissions in East Asia accounted for 16% of global shipping CO2 in 2013, compared to only 4-7% in 2002-2005. Increased emissions lead to large adverse health impacts, with 14,500-37,500 premature deaths per year. Global mean radiative forcing from East Asian shipping is initially negative, but would become positive after approximately eight years for constant current emissions. As a large fraction of vessels are registered elsewhere, joint efforts are necessary to reduce emissions and mitigate the climate and health impacts of shipping in the region.

climate change impacts↗

Structural, Thermal, and Optical Performance (STOP) Modeling and Results for the James Webb Space Telescope Integrated Science Instrument Module

The James Webb Space Telescope includes the Integrated Science Instrument Module (ISIM) element that contains four science instruments (SI) including a Guider. We performed extensive structural, thermal, and optical performance(STOP) modeling in support of all phases of ISIM development. In this paper, we focus on modeling and results associated with test and verification. ISIMs test program is bound by ground environments, mostly notably the 1g and test chamber thermal environments. This paper describes STOP modeling used to predict ISIM system performance in 0g and at various on-orbit temperature environments. The predictions are used to project results obtained during testing to on-orbit performance.

structural↗

Evaluation of APREQCFR Coordination Procedures for Charlotte Douglas International Airport

NASA has been collaborating with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and aviation industry partners to develop and demonstrate new concepts and technologies for the Integrated Arrival, Departure, and Surface (IADS) traffic management capabilities under the Airspace Technology Demonstration 2 (ATD-2) project. One of the goal of The IADS capabilities in the ATD-2 project is to increase predictability and increase throughput via improving TMI compliance. The IADS capabilities that will impact TMI compliance are built upon previous NASA research, the Precision Departure Release Capability (PDRC). The proposed paper will evaluate the APREQCFR process between ATC Tower and Center and information sharing between ATC Tower and the airline Ramp tower. Subjective measures collected from the HITL surveys (e.g., workload, situational awareness, acceptability, usability) and performance metrics such as TMI, TMAT, and pushback advisory compliance from APREQCFR flights and will be reported.

APREQ scheduling↗

NEQAIR v15.0 Release Notes: Nonequilibrium and Equilibrium Radiative Transport and Spectra Program

NEQAIR v15.0 provides the first steps to improved coupling between NEQAIR and the DPLR CFD code, which will be fully realized in v15.1. The plan is to release NEQAIR v15.1 and DPLR 4.05 at the same time. The improvements implemented in NEQAIR v15.0 have focused on improving stability, solution robustness, usability and providing different options for running the code. It is also the first version of the code to have a new input file and line of sight format since 2009. Backward compatibility with previous formats of the input files (neqair.inp and LOS.dat) has also been provided. NEQAIR v15.0 supersedes the prerelease of this version, as well as NEQAIR v14.0, v13.2, v13.1 and the suite of NEQAIR2009 versions. These updates have predominantly been performed by Brett Cruden and Aaron Brandis from AMA Inc at NASA Ames Research Center between 2016 and 2018. NEQAIR v15.0 is a standalone software tool for line-by-line spectral computation of radiative intensities and/or radiative heat flux, with one-dimensional transport of radiation. In order to accomplish this, NEQAIR v15.0, as in previous versions, requires the specification of distances (in cm), temperatures (in K) and number densities (in parts/cc) of constituent species along lines of sight. Therefore, it is assumed that flow quantities have been extracted from flow fields computed using other tools, such as CFD codes like DPLR or LAURA, and that lines of sight have been constructed and written out in the format required by NEQAIR v15.0. There are two principal modes for running NEQAIR v15.0. In the first mode NEQAIR v15.0 is used as a tool for creating synthetic spectra of any desired resolution (including convolution with a specified instrument/slit function). The first mode is typically exercised in simulating/interpreting spectroscopic measurements of different sources (e.g. shock tube data, plasma torches, etc.). In the second mode, NEQAIR v15.0 is used as a radiative heat flux prediction tool for flight projects. Correspondingly, NEQAIR has also been used to simulate the radiance measured on previous flight missions. This report summarizes the database updates, corrections that have been made to the code, changes to input files, parallelization, the current usage recommendations, including test cases, and an indication of the performance enhancements achieved.

Brandis, Aaron M.↗

Eastern Equatorial Pacific Warming Delayed By Aerosols and Thermostat Response to Co2 Increase

Understanding the tropical Pacific response to global warming remains challenging. Here, we use a range of CMIP6 greenhouse warming experiments to assess the recent and future evolution of the equatorial Pacific east-west temperature gradient and corresponding Walker circulation. In abrupt CO2-increase scenarios many models generate an initial strengthening of this gradient resembling an ocean thermostat (OT), followed by a small weakening; other models generate an immediate weakening that becomes progressively stronger establishing a pronounced eastern equatorial Pacific (EP) warming pattern. The initial response in these experiments is a strong predictor for the future EP pattern simulated in both abrupt and realistic warming scenarios, but not in historical simulations showing no multi-model trend. The likely explanation is that the recent CO2-driven changes in the tropical Pacific are masked by aerosol effects and a potential OT-related delay, while the EP warming pattern will emerge as greenhouse gases overcome aerosol forcing.

Climate and Earth system modelling↗

Importance of Internal Variability for Climate Model Assessment

Benchmarking climate model simulations against observations of the climate is core to the process of building realistic climate models and developing accurate future projections. However, in many cases, models do not match historical observations, particularly on regional scales. If there is a mismatch between modeled and observed climate features, should we necessarily conclude that our models are deficient? Using several illustrative examples, we emphasize that internal variability can easily lead to marked differences between the basic features of the model and observed climate, even when decades of model and observed data are available. This can appear as an apparent failure of models to capture regional trends or changes in global teleconnections, or simulation of extreme events. Despite a large body of literature on the impact of internal variability on climate, this acknowledgment has not yet penetrated many model evaluation activities, particularly for regional climate. We emphasize that using a single or small ensemble of simulations to conclude that a climate model is in error can lead to premature conclusions on model fidelity. A large ensemble of multidecadal simulations is therefore needed to properly sample internal climate variability in order to robustly identify model deficiencies and convincingly demonstrate progress between generations of climate models.

Climate and Earth system modelling↗

The Surface Albedo of Sea Ice in CMIP6 and the Implications for the Surface Albedo Feedback

The Arctic has experienced rapid sea ice loss and a substantial decline in surface albedo, significantly impacting its radiation budget. Climate models from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6) reproduce these changes. However, inconsistencies remain among models regarding the magnitude, spatial distribution, and seasonal patterns of Arctic surface albedo evolution. This study investigates these discrepancies by comparing model outputs with observation from the Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES). We develop a decomposition method to assess the contributions of sea ice albedo, sea ice concentration, and sea ice extent to Arctic surface albedo. Over land, differences in snow cover account for the substantial inter-model spread in surface albedo, while over the ocean, sea ice albedo, concentration, and extent all contribute. Comparisons between CMIP6 and the Atmospheric Model Intercomparison Project (AMIP) simulations, which use identically prescribed sea ice concentrations, reveals considerable inter-model spread in Arctic Ocean surface albedo due to differences in sea ice albedo. Applying the decomposition method to projections shows that models predicting larger decreases in sea ice concentration and extent, especially in the Central Arctic, exhibit lower surface albedo and stronger sea ice albedo feedback. Beyond 2050, Arctic Ocean surface albedo decline is mainly influenced by sea ice extent indicating that the retreat of the ice edge is the most important process to constrain the surface albedo feedback. This study provides insights into factors contributing to the spread and changes in Arctic surface albedo and the associated sea ice albedo feedback.

Patrick C Taylor↗

Increasing Contribution of the Atmospheric Vertical Motion to Precipitation in a Warming Climate

Global warming already influences precipitation, with more intense precipitation in many locations. Although the ‘wet-get-wetter, dry-get-drier’ tendency in mean precipitation holds in many locations, the situations for precipitation extremes are more complex, due to changes in dynamic and thermodynamic influences on atmospheric moisture distributions. Here, we build a dynamically interactive atmospheric moisture model for the present (2006–2025) and the future climate (2081–2100), using outputs from coupled ocean-atmosphere general circulation models. We find that the dynamic process of vertical advection of moisture dominates the same-day precipitation, while the smaller impact of the thermodynamic process provides available moisture for several days. As climate warms, we find that the dynamical-induced precipitation more completely exhausts the vertically-integrated moisture and the distribution of the dynamic process’s impact on precipitation exhibits a greater spread in the warmer future. The dynamical process is primarily responsible for more extreme heavy precipitation as climate warms, at all latitudes.

Climate and Earth system modelling↗

3-D Radiological Data Acquisition, Visualization and Modeling - 20211

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) was tasked to investigate and remediate low activity radiological contamination from research and production of the nation's first nuclear weapons at the former DuPont Chambers Works Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP) site (DuPont). The DuPont site had several buildings used for the Manhattan project that were demolished in the 1940's and 1950's apparently using heavy earthmoving equipment. Some of the contaminated rubble from the demolition appears to have been spread out by this equipment resulting in somewhat random scattering of radiologically contaminated soil and debris along with aqueous spills. Traditional investigative methods such as soil borings, test pits and 2-dimensional gamma walkovers were only partially successful in delineating the radiological contamination at the site. It was feared that even 'chasing' the contamination during remediation would miss contamination if the demolition resulted in discontinuous trails of radiologically contaminated soils. In evaluating the data generated over the interceding decades, the USACE determined that a better method to collect and process the remedial action radiological data was needed to enable the project team to optimize predictive planning and meet documentation expectations. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the effort and progress to combine and organize radiological survey methods into a highly flexible sampling, modeling, and decision analysis approach that emphasizes the quality of decision-making during remediation. This innovative system blends multiple tools to develop a methodology that can extend MARRSIM [1] into the subsurface and provide tools that can be applied to other sites. (authors)

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗