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At least 397 records · Page 22

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NASA NTRS1986

The PROUST radar: First results

Two campaigns took place in 1984 with the PROUST Radar operating in a bistatic mode, the transmitting antenna pointing at the vertical and the receiving one, 1 deg. off the vertical axis. The antenna beam intersection covers an altitude range between 3 and 9 km. The first of these campaigns are analyzed. The results analyzed show the capability of the PROUST Radar to measure the turbulent parameters and study the turbulence-wave interaction. In its present configuration (bistatic mode and 600 m vertical resolution), it has been necessary to make some assumptions that are known not to be truly fulfilled: homogeneous turbulence and constant vertical wind intensity over a 600-m thickness. It is clear that a more detailed study of the interaction between wave and turbulence will be possible with the next version of PROUST Radar (30-m altitude resolution and monostatic mode) that will soon be achieved.

Bertin, F.↗

NASA NTRS1987

Measurement of opaque film thickness

The theoretical and experimental framework for thickness measurements of thin metal films by low frequency thermal waves is described. Although it is assumed that the films are opaque and the substrates are comparatively poor thermal conductors, the theory is easily extended to other cases of technological interest. A brief description is given of the thermal waves and the experimental arrangement and parameters. The usefulness of the technique is illustrated for making absolute measurements of the thermal diffusivities of isotropic substrate materials. This measurement on pure elemental solids provides a check on the three dimensional theory in the limiting case of zero film thickness. The theoretical framework is then presented, along with numerical calculations and corresponding experimental results for the case of copper films on a glass substrate.

Thomas, R. L.↗

NASA NTRS1986

Conceptual design of high power Ka-band radar transmitter

A proposed conceptual design of a 400-kW CW Ka-band transmitter and associated microwave components to be used for planetary radar and serve as a prototype for future spacecraft uplinks is discussed. System requirements for such a transmitter are presented. Performance of the proposed high-power millimeter-wave tube, the gyroklystron, is discussed. Parameters of the proposed power amplifier, beam supply, and monitor and control devices are also presented. Microwave transmission-line components consisting of signal-monitoring devices, mode converter, and an overmoded corrugated feed are discussed. Finally, an assessment of the state-of-the-art technology to meet the system requirements is given, and possible areas of difficulty are summarized.

Bhanji, Alaudin↗

NASA NTRS1988

Dynamical criterion for a marginally unstable, quasi-linear behavior in a two-layer model

A two-layer quasi-geostrophic flow forced by meridional variations in heating can be in regimes ranging from radiative equilibrium to forced geostrophic turbulence. Between these extremes is a regime where the time-mean (zonal) flow is marginally unstable. Using scaling arguments, it is concluded that such a marginally unstable state should occur when a certain parameter, measuring the strength of wave-wave interactions relative to the beta effect and advection by the thermal wind, is small. Numerical simulations support this proposal. A transition from the marginally unstable regime to a more nonlinear regime is then examined through numerical simulations with different radiative forcings. It is found that transition is not caused by secondary instability of waves in the marginally unstable regime. Instead, the time-mean flow can support a number of marginally unstable normal modes. These normal modes interact with each other, and if they are of sufficient amplitude, the flow enters a more nonlinear regime.

Ebisuzaki, W.↗

NASA NTRS1988

Material parameter determination from scattering measurements

The electrical, macroscopic performance of isotropic material can generally be described through their constitutive scalar parameters, permittivity and permeability which are symbolically represented by epsilon and mu, respectively. These parameters relate the electric and magnetic flux densities to the electric and magnetic fields through the following relationships: (1) D=epsilonE; and (2) B=muH. It is through these parameters that the interaction of electromagnetic waves with material can be quantized in terms of reflection and transmission coefficients, and propagation and attenuation factors.

Dominek, A.↗

NASA NTRS1988

The magnetic field investigation on Cluster

The magnetic field investigation of the Cluster four-spacecraft mission is designed to provide intercalibrated measurements of the B magnetic field vector. The instrumentation and data processing of the mission are discussed. The instrumentation is identical on the four spacecraft. It consists of two triaxial fluxgate sensors and of a failure tolerant data processing unit. The combined analysis of the four spacecraft data will yield such parameters as the current density vector, wave vectors, and the geometry and structure of discontinuities.

Balogh, A.↗

NASA NTRS1989

Inviscid spatial stability of a compressible mixing layer. Part 2: The flame sheet model

The results of an inviscid spatial calculation for a compressible reacting mixing layer are reported. The limit of infinitive activation energy is taken and the diffusion flame is approximated by a flame sheet. Results are reported for the phase speeds of the neutral waves and maximum growth rates of the unstable waves as a function of the parameters of the problem: the ratio of the temperature of the stationary stream to that of the moving stream, the Mach number of the moving streams, the heat release per unit mass fraction of the reactant, the equivalence ratio of the reaction, and the frequency of the disturbance. These results are compared to the phase speeds and growth rates of the corresponding nonreacting mixing layer. We show that the addition of combustion has important, and complex effects on the flow stability.

Jackson, T. L.↗

NASA NTRS1990

Inviscid spatial stability of a compressible mixing layer. II - The flame sheet model

Jackson, T. L.↗

NASA NTRS1991

Experiments concerning the theories of vortex breakdown

An experimental project was undertaken to investigate the character of vortex breakdown with particular regard to the stagnation and wave guide theories of vortex breakdown. Three different wings were used to produce a trailing vortex which convected downstream without undergoing breakdown. Disturbances were then introduced onto the vortex using a moving wire to 'cut' the vortex. The development of upstream and downstream propagating disturbance waves was observed and the propagation velocities measured. A downstream traveling wave was observed to produce a structure similar in appearance to a vortex breakdown. An upstream traveling wave produced a moving turbulent region. The upstream disturbance moved into an axial velocity profile that had a wake-like defect while the downstream moving vortex breakdown moved against a jet-like overshoot. The longitudinal and swirl velocity profiles were documented by LDV measurement. Wave velocities, swirl angles, and swirl parameters are reported.

Panton, Ronald L.↗

NASA NTRS1991

Experimental study of a vortex subjected to imposed strain

An experimental project was undertaken to investigate the character of vortex breakdown with particular regard to the waveguide theories of vortex breakdown. A rectangular wing based on the NACA 0012 airfoil was used to produce a trailing vortex which convected downstream without undergoing breakdown. Dye marked the vortex location. A disturbance was then introduced onto the vortex using a small moving wire to 'cut' the vortex. The development of upstream and downstream propagating disturbance waves was observed and the propagation velocities measured. The downstream traveling wave produced a structure similar in appearance to a vortex breakdown. The upstream wave produced a moving, swirling, turbulent region that was not a vortex breakdown. The waves moving in either direction have the same swirl velocity profiles but quite different axial velocity profiles. The upstream disturbance (turbulence) moved into a flow with an axial velocity profile that had a wake-like defect in the core region. The downstream moving vortex breakdown moved into a flow with a jet-like overshoot in the core region. The fact that no breakdown was observed for the wake-like defect and breakdown was observed for the jet-like overshoot is not consistent with computational fluid dynamics (CFD) calculations. Although there are not a lot of examples, CFD results show breakdown for both types of profiles. The longitudinal and swirl velocity profiles were documented by Laser Doppler Velocimeter (LDV) measurement. Wave velocities, swirl angles, and swirl parameters are reported.

Panton, Ronald L.↗

NASA NTRS1992

Combustion instability analysis for liquid propellant rocket engines

The multi-dimensional numerical model has been developed to analyze the nonlinear combustion instabilities in liquid-fueled engines. The present pressure-based approach can handle the implicit pressure-velocity coupling in a non-iterative way. The additional scalar conservation equations for the chemical species, the energy, and the turbulent transport quantities can be handled by the same predictor-corrector sequences. This method is time-accurate and it can be applicable to the all-speed, transient, multi-phase, and reacting flows. Special emphasis is given to the acoustic/vaporization interaction which may act as the crucial rate-controlling mechanism in the liquid-fueled rocket engines. The subcritical vaporization is modeled to account for the effects of variable thermophysical properties, non-unitary Lewis number in the gas-film, the Stefan flow effect, and the effect of transient liquid heating. The test cases include the one-dimenisonal fast transient non-reacting and reacting flows, and the multi-dimensional combustion instabilities encountered in the liquid-fueled rocket thrust chamber. The present numerical model successfully demonstrated the capability to simulate the fast transient spray-combusting flows in terms of the limiting-cycle amplitude phenomena, correspondence between combustion and acoustics, and the steep-fronted wave and flame propagation. The investigated parameters include the spray initial conditions, air-fuel mixture ratios, and the engine geometry. Stable and unstable operating conditions are found for the liquid-fueled combustors. Under certain conditions, the limiting cycle behavior of the combusting flowfields is obtained. The numerical results indicate that the spray vaporization processes play an important role in releasing thermal energy and driving the combustion instability.

Kim, Y. M.↗

NASA NTRS1992

CRRES: The combined release and radiation effects satellite program directory

As a result of natural processes, plasma clouds are often injected into the magnetosphere. These chemical releases can be used to study many aspects of such injections. When a dense plasma is injected into the inner magnetosphere, it is expected to take up the motion of the ambient plasma. However, it has been observed in previous releases at moderate altitudes that the cloud preserved its momentum for some time following the release and that parts of the cloud peeled off from the main cloud presumable due to the action of an instability. As one moves outward into the magnetosphere, the mirror force becomes less dominant and the initial conditions following a release are dominated by the formation of a diamagnetic cavity since the initial plasma pressure from the injected Ba ions is greater than the magnetic field energy density. A previous high-altitude release (31,300 km) showed this to be the case initially, but at later times there was evidence for acceleration of the Ba plasma to velocities corresponding to 60,000 K. This effect is not explained. This series of experiments is therefore designed to inject plasma clouds into the magnetosphere under widely varying conditions of magnetic field strength and ambient plasma density. In this way the coupling of injected clouds to the ambient plasma and magnetic field, the formation of striations due to instabilities, and possible heating and acceleration of the injected Ba plasma can be studied over a wide range of magnetosphere parameters. Adding to the scientific yield will be the availability of measurements for the DOD/SPACERAD instruments which can monitor plasma parameters, electric and magnetic fields, and waves before, during and after the releases.

Layman, Laura D.↗

NASA NTRS1993

Open-shell coupled-cluster theory

An efficient formulation of a recently proposed open-shell singles and doubles coupled-cluster (OCCSD) method is presented. This formulation is in terms of spatial orbital one- and two-electron integrals. Our new OCCSD method is based on 'symmetric spin orbitals' and is thus symmetric (or antisymmetric) in the spin indices. It therefore contains about half the number of independent parameters in the coupled-cluster wave function compared to other open-shell CCSD methods. It is shown that the formulation presented here contains less than half the number of n exp 6 steps (where n is the number of molecular orbitals) of other recently proposed open-shell CCSD methods. A new approach by which amplitudes in our method may be compared with amplitudes in a previous OCCSD method is examined.

Jayatilaka, Dylan↗

NASA NTRS1995

Radial energy transport by magnetospheric ULF waves: Effects of magnetic curvature and plasma pressure

The 'radial' transport of energy by internal ULF waves, stimulated by dayside magnetospheric boundary oscillations, is analyzed in the framework of one-fluid magnetohydrodynamics. (the term radial is used here to denote the direction orthogonal to geomagnetic flux surfaces.) The model for the inhomogeneous magnetospheric plasma and background magnetic field is axisymmetric and includes radial and parallel variations in the magnetic field, magnetic curvature, plasma density, and low but finite plasma pressure. The radial mode structure of the coupled fast and intermediate MHD waves is determined by numerical solution of the inhomogeneous wave equation; the parallel mode structure is characterized by a Wentzel-Kramer-Brillouin (WKB) approximation. Ionospheric dissipation is modeled by allowing the parallel wave number to be complex. For boudnary oscillations with frequencies in the range from 10 to 48 mHz, and using a dipole model for the background magnetic field, the combined effects of magnetic curvature and finite plasma pressure are shown to (1) enhance the amplitude of field line resonances by as much as a factor of 2 relative to values obtained in a cold plasma or box-model approximation for the dayside magnetosphere; (2) increase the energy flux delivered to a given resonance by a factor of 2-4; and (3) broaden the spectral width of the resonance by a factor of 2-3. The effects are attributed to the existence of an 'Alfven buoyancy oscillation,' which approaches the usual shear mode Alfven wave at resonance, but unlike the shear Alfven mode, it is dispersive at short perpendicular wavelengths. The form of dispersion is analogous to that of an internal atmospheric gravity wave, with the magnetic tension of the curved background field providing the restoring force and allowing radial propagation of the mode. For nominal dayside parameters, the propagation band of the Alfven buoyancy wave occurs between the location of its (field line) resonance and that of the fast mode cutoff that exists at larger radial distances.

Kouznetsov, Igor↗

NASA NTRS1996

Influence of Thermocapillary Flow on Capillary Stability: Long Float-Zones in Low Gravity

A model problem is posed to study the influence of flow on the interfacial stability of a nearly cylindrical liquid bridge for lengths near its circumference (the Plateau-Rayleigh limit). The flow is generated by a shear stress imposed on the deformable interface. The symmetry of the imposed shear stress mimics the thermocapillary stress induced on a float-zone by a ring heater (i.e. a full zone). Principal assumptions are (1) zero gravity, (2) creeping flow, and (3) that the imposed coupling at the free surface between flow and temperature fields is the only such coupling. A numerical solution, complemented by a bifurcation analysis, shows that bridges substantially longer than the Plateau-Rayleigh limit are possible. An interaction of the first two capillary instabilities through the stress-induced flow is responsible. Time-periodic standing waves are also predicted in certain parameter ranges. Motivation comes from extra-long float-zones observed in MEPHISTO space lab experiments (June 1994).

Chen, Yi-Ju↗

NASA NTRS2004

On Nonlinear Combustion Instability in Liquid Propellant Rocket Motors

All liquid propellant rocket instability calculations in current use have limited value in the predictive sense and serve mainly as a correlating framework for the available data sets. The well-known n-t model first introduced by Crocco and Cheng in 1956 is still used as the primary analytical tool of this type. A multitude of attempts to establish practical analytical methods have achieved only limited success. These methods usually produce only stability boundary maps that are of little use in making critical design decisions in new motor development programs. Recent progress in understanding the mechanisms of combustion instability in solid propellant rockets"' provides a firm foundation for a new approach to prediction, diagnosis, and correction of the closely related problems in liquid motor instability. For predictive tools to be useful in the motor design process, they must have the capability to accurately determine: 1) time evolution of the pressure oscillations and limit amplitude, 2) critical triggering pulse amplitude, and 3) unsteady heat transfer rates at injector surfaces and chamber walls. The method described in this paper relates these critical motor characteristics directly to system design parameters. Inclusion of mechanisms such as wave steepening, vorticity production and transport, and unsteady detonation wave phenomena greatly enhance the representation of key features of motor chamber oscillatory behavior. The basic theoretical model is described and preliminary computations are compared to experimental data. A plan to develop the new predictive method into a comprehensive analysis tool is also described.

Sims, J. D.↗

NASA NTRS1996

Heat Capacity of Superfluid (sup 4)He in the Presence of a Heat Current Near T

The thermodynamic theory of superfluid helium in the presence of a heat current is presented. We show that there is a thermodynamic relation between the heat capacity and the expression ps(W), which describes the depression of the superfluid density with the counterflow velocity W. Using this relation we show that the heat capacity of superfluid super4He in the presence of a heat current diverges at a depressed lambda transition temperature, suggesting the possibility of a new second order phase transition where the superfluid wave function is not the order parameter.

superfluid helium thermodynamic↗

NASA NTRS2007

Cardiovascular Adaptations to Long Duration Head Down Tilt Bed Rest

Orthostatic hypotension is a recognized risk for crewmembers returning from space. Numerous cardiovascular mechanisms have been proposed to account for this problem including vascular and cardiac dysfunction. We studied arterial and cardiac function in 6-degree head-down tilt bed rest, which is the most widely accepted ground-based analog of spaceflight. Eleven subjects are included in this study (8 men and 3 women). Data analysis was limited to the first 49 days, and compared to pre-bed rest baseline data. Using ultrasound, data was collected on arterial diameters and flows at baseline and during reactive hyperemia and following administration of nitroglycerin. Echocardiography was used to acquire information regarding systolic and diastolic function as well as ventricular mass and diameter. Plasma volumes were significantly decreased by 7 days of bed rest and stayed down through 49 days. There were no differences in reactive hyperemic response in the arm at any time point. However, the hyperemic response in the leg was significantly increased at day 49. Arterial responses to nitroglycerin did not change over the duration of bed rest (day effect) in either the arm or leg, but there was a significant difference between the arm and the leg responses. There was a marked decrease in anterior tibial intimal-medial thickness at days 21, 35 and 49. Several cardiac functional parameters including IVRT, Mitral e-wave, ejection time, velocity of circumferential shortening and myocardial performance index were significantly changed following 49 days of bed rest. These data show that some cardiovascular measures change during bed rest, while others do not. Further study is needed to determine if these measures can provide any insight into the effects of bed rest, or spaceflight, on human cardiovascular performance.

Platts, Steven H.↗