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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 415 records · Page 23

Computer program for calculating the flow field of supersonic ejector nozzles

An analytical procedure for computing the performance of supersonic ejector nozzles is presented. This procedure includes real sonic line effects and an interaction analysis for the mixing process between the two streams. The procedure is programmed in FORTRAN 4 and has operated successfully on IBM 7094, IBM 360, CDC 6600, and Univac 1108.

Anderson, B. H.↗

Field calibration of reference reflectance panels

A procedure for calibrating reference reflectance panels using the sun as the radiation source and a pressed-polytetrafluoroethylene powder standard is described. The directional/directional reflectance factor and the directional/hemispheric reflectance factor are examined. Directional/directional voltage responses for pressed-halon are analyzed. Three painted BaSO4 and one painted halon were calibrated using the proposed procedure. The effects of diffuse irradiance on reflectance-factor measurements are investigated. It is determined that the method has an accuracy on the order of 1 percent. The advantages and disadvantages of this method are discussed.

Jackson, Ray D.↗

Radiation Shielding System Using a Composite of Carbon Nanotubes Loaded with Electropolymers

Single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) coated with a hydrogen-rich, electrically conducting polymer such as polyethylene, receive and dissipate a portion of incoming radiation pulse energy to electrical signals that are transmitted along the CNT axes, and are received at energy-dissipating terminals. In this innovation, an array of highly aligned nanowires is grown using a strong electric field or another suitable orientation procedure. Polyethylene (PE), polymethymlethacrylate (PMMA), or other electrically conducting polymer is spin-coated onto the SWCNTs with an average thickness of a few hundred nanometers to a few tenths of micrometers to form a PE/SWCNT composite. Alternatively, the polymer is spin-coated onto the nanowire array or an anodized alumina membrane (AAM) to form a PE/metal core shell structure, or PE can be electropolymerized using the SWCNTs or the metal nanowires as an electrode to form a PE/SWCNT core shell structure. The core shell structures can be extruded as anisotropic fibers. A monomer can be polymerized in the presence of SWCNTs to form highly cross-linked PE/SWCNT films. Alternatively, Pb colloid solution can be impregnated into a three-dimensional PE/SWCNT nanostructure to form a PW/SWCNT/Pb composite structure. A face-centered cubic (FCC) arrangement provides up to 12 interconnection channels connected to each core, with transverse channel dimensions up to 20 nm, with adequate mechanical compressive strength, and with an associated electrical conductivity of around 3 Seimens/cm for currents ranging from 0.01 to 10 mA. This threedimensional nanostructure is used as a host material to house appropriate radiation shielding material such as hydrogen- rich polymer/CNT structures, metal nanoparticles, and nanowires. Thicknesses of this material required to attenuate 10 percent, 50 percent, and 90 percent of an incident beam (gamma, X-ray, ultraviolet, neutron, proton, and electron) at energies in the range of 0 440 MeV are being determined, for example, by measuring fluence rate reduction. For example, a radiation field arrives first at an exposed surface of the innovation and produces an associated first electric field within the metal-like fingers of the three-dimensional nanostructure. This field is intensified near the exposed tips of the fingers, and this intensified field generates an intensified second electric field near the adjacent exposed tips of the coated CNSs. This generates an associated electrical current in the CNSs, and the associated electropolymer coating. The current is received by the second substrate transport component and is transported to the dissipation mechanism located contiguously to the second substrate.

McKay, Chris↗

Aligned fields double copy to Kerr-NUT-(A)dS

We find Abelian gauge fields that double copy to a large class of black hole spacetimes with spherical horizon topology known as the Kerr-NUT-(A)dS family. Using a multi-Kerr-Schild prescription, we extend the previously-known double copy structure for arbitrarily rotating general dimension black holes, to include NUT charges and an arbitrary cosmological constant. In all cases, these single copy gauge fields are ‘aligned fields’, because their nonzero components align with the principal tensor which generates the Killing structure of the spacetime. In five dimensions, we additionally derive the same single-copy field strengths via the Weyl double copy procedure.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

A consistent design procedure for supercritical airfoils in free air and a wind tunnel

A computational inverse procedure for transonic airfoils in which shapes are determined supporting prescribed pressure distributions is presented. The method uses the small disturbance equation and a consistent analysis-design differencing procedure at the airfoil surface. This avoids the intermediate analysis-design-analysis iterations. The effect of any openness at the trailing edge is taken onto account by adding an effective source term in the far field. The final results from a systematic expansion procedure which models the far field for solid, ideal slotted, and free jet tunnel walls are presented along with some design results for the associated boundary conditions and those for a free flight.

Shankar, V.↗

Equipotential doming in flooded circular basins on the moon

A procedure is presented that permits determination of the shape of the gravity field due to an arbitrary mass configuration with circular symmetry. The procedure is used to model the shape of the field associated with the lunar circular basins. The mean slopes of the equipotential surfaces generated by a superisostatic deposit corresponding to a near-surface Crisium-size mascon are calculated to fall within the range from 1:700 to 1:1000; those generated by a mantle rebound of the same excess mass, at 60 km below the lunar surface, cluster around the value of 1:1500.

Roth, L. E.↗

Three-dimensional nearfield characterization of a VSTOL jet in turbulent crossflow

This paper documents the measurement and prediction of the near-field evolution of the steady, subsonic, turbulent three-dimensional external aerodynamic flow-field associated with a high speed jet issued from an orifice perpendicular to an imposed crossflow velocity field. A parabolic Navier-Stokes CFD solver is employed, utilizing a Kappa-epsilon closure system with algebraic Reynolds stress equation, in concert with suitably defined porous far-field boundary conditions and a virtual source initial condition procedure. The CFD results correlate well with NASA generated near-field LDA experimental data on mean velocity and rms fluctuation velocity (interpolated to turbulent kinetic energy) distributions. The numerical results in the farther field predict the vortex roll-up and jet deflection/entrainment characterization verified by pitot-static mean velocity experimental data. Detailed results are presented for a circular jet for velocity ratios ranging 4 to 8.

Baker, A. J.↗

On the acquisition and representation of procedural knowledge

Historically knowledge acquisition has proven to be one of the greatest barriers to the development of intelligent systems. Current practice generally requires lengthy interactions between the expert whose knowledge is to be captured and the knowledge engineer whose responsibility is to acquire and represent knowledge in a useful form. Although much research has been devoted to the development of methodologies and computer software to aid in the capture and representation of some of some types of knowledge, little attention has been devoted to procedural knowledge. NASA personnel frequently perform tasks that are primarily procedural in nature. Previous work is reviewed in the field of knowledge acquisition and then focus on knowledge acquisition for procedural tasks with special attention devoted to the Navy's VISTA tool. The design and development is described of a system for the acquisition and representation of procedural knowledge-TARGET (Task Analysis and Rule Generation Tool). TARGET is intended as a tool that permits experts to visually describe procedural tasks and as a common medium for knowledge refinement by the expert and knowledge engineer. The system is designed to represent the acquired knowledge in the form of production rules. Systems such as TARGET have the potential to profoundly reduce the time, difficulties, and costs of developing knowledge-based systems for the performance of procedural tasks.

Saito, T.↗

CRITICAL EVALUATION OF MAGNETIC FIELD DETECTIONS REPORTED FOR PULSATING B-TYPE STARS IN LIGHT OF ESPaDOnS, NARVAL, AND REANALYZED FORS1/2 OBSERVATIONS

Recent spectropolarimetric studies of seven slowly pulsating B (SPB) and {beta} Cep stars have suggested that photospheric magnetic fields are more common in B-type pulsators than in the general population of B stars, suggesting a significant connection between magnetic and pulsational phenomena. We present an analysis of new and previously published spectropolarimetric observations of these stars. New Stokes V observations obtained with the high-resolution ESPaDOnS and Narval instruments confirm the presence of a magnetic field in one of the stars ({epsilon} Lup), but find no evidence of magnetism in five others. A re-analysis of the published longitudinal field measurements obtained with the low-resolution FORS1/2 spectropolarimeters finds that the measurements of all stars show more scatter from zero than can be attributed to Gaussian noise, suggesting the presence of a signal and/or systematic underestimation of error bars. Re-reduction and re-measurement of the FORS1/2 spectra from the ESO archive demonstrates that small changes in reduction procedure lead to substantial changes in the inferred longitudinal field, and substantially reduces the number of field detections at the 3{sigma} level. Furthermore, we find that the published periods are not unique solutions to the time series of either the original or the revised FORS1/2 data. We conclude that the reported field detections, proposed periods, and field geometry models for {alpha} Pyx, 15 CMa, 33 Eri, and V1449 Aql are artifacts of the data analysis and reduction procedures, and that magnetic fields at the reported strength are no more common in SPB/{beta} Cep stars than in the general population of B stars.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Solar Field Optical Characterization at Stillwater Geothermal/Solar Hybrid Plant

Concentrating solar power (CSP) can provide additional thermal energy to boost geothermal plant power generation. For a newly constructed solar field at a geothermal power plant site, it is critical to properly characterize its performance so that the prediction of thermal power generation can be derived to develop an optimum operating strategy for a hybrid system. In the past, laboratory characterization of a solar collector has often extended into the solar field performance model and has been used to predict the actual solar field performance, disregarding realistic impacting factors. In this work, an extensive measurement on mirror slope error and receiver position error has been performed in the field by using the optical characterization tool called Distant Observer (DO). Combining a solar reflectance sampling procedure, a newly developed solar characterization program called FirstOPTIC and public software for annual performance modeling called System Advisor Model (SAM), a comprehensive solar field optical characterization has been conducted, thus allowing for an informed prediction of solar field annual performance. The paper illustrates this detailed solar field optical characterization procedure and demonstrates how the results help to quantify an appropriate tracking-correction strategy to improve solar field performance. In particular, it is found that an appropriate tracking-offset algorithm can improve the solar field performance by about 15%. The work here provides a valuable reference for the growing CSP industry.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

Dynamic decay of a single vortex into vortex-antivortex pairs

A variety of metastable states, including vortices, antivortices, and their combinations, is typical for magnetically soft, thin films and patterned structures. The physics of individual spin vortices in patterned structures has been rather extensively explored. In contrast, there are few studies of the vortex–antivortex–vortex (v-av-v) system, in part because the configuration is rather challenging to obtain experimentally. We demonstrate herein how a recently proposed resonant-spin-ordering technique can be used to induce the dynamic decay of a single vortex into v-av states in elongated elements. The approach is based on first driving the system from the linear regime of constant vortex gyrations to the non-linear regime of vortex-core reversals at a fixed excitation frequency, and then subsequently reducing the excitation field back to the linear regime. This procedure stabilizes the system into a v-av-v state that is completely decoupled from the initialization excitation frequency. The newly acquired state is stable in remanence. The dynamic response of this system is expected to demonstrate a number of collective modes, depending on the combination of the vortex core polarities, and/or the excitation field direction, and, hence, is of interest for future studies.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Model predictive control for optimal dispatch of chillers and thermal energy storage tank in airports

Cost of energy consumption is one of the biggest operational cost for airports, and it is increasing from time to time as airports expand to support growing number of passengers. Various factors affect the energy consumption including efficiency of airport Heating Ventilation and Air conditioning (HVAC) systems, which in turn depends on the efficiency of individual subsystems. Here, in this paper, we present an optimal scheduling method for the central plant system at Dallas Fort Worth airport, involving chillers, pumps, and a thermal energy storage (TES) system. A model predictive control (MPC) problem is formulated to minimize both energy and demand charge costs while satisfying the cooling needs of the airport. The proposed Mixed-Integer Nonlinear Programming (MINLP) formulation includes performance curve based models for chillers and pumps and a simplified state of charge model for TES. The formulation also includes predictions of cooling load and chilled water return temperature. Simulation results for a month in summer show savings around 10% compared to the baseline. Initial recommendations based on insights from simulation results to the manual operation procedures resulted in significant savings. Field test results show a 7% chiller efficiency improvement.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

Impact of Short-Range Forces on Defect Production from High-Energy Collisions

Primary radiation damage formation in solid materials typically involves collisions between atoms that have up to a few hundred keV of kinetic energy. The distance between two colliding atoms can approach 0.05 nm during these collisions. At such small atomic separations, force fields fitted to equilibrium properties tend to significantly underestimate the potential energy of the colliding dimer. To enable molecular dynamics simulations of high-energy collisions, it is common practice to use a screened Coulomb force field to describe the interactions and to smoothly join this to the equilibrium force field at a suitable interatomic spacing. But, there is no accepted standard method for choosing the parameters used in the joining process, and our results prove that defect production is sensitive to how the force fields are linked. A new procedure is presented that involves the use of ab initio calculations to determine the magnitude and spatial dependence of the pair interactions at intermediate distances, along with systematic criteria for choosing the joining parameters. Results are presented for the case of nickel, which demonstrate the use and validity of the procedure.

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS↗

Experimental validation of ultra-thin metalenses for N-beam emissions based on transformation optics

A general design of metalenses for N-beam emissions is proposed based on transformation optics. A linear mapping function is adopted to achieve the homogeneous characterization of the transforming medium, which is therefore easy to be achieved compared with previous designs limited by inhomogeneity based on transformation optics. To verify the theoretical design, a four-beam antenna constructed with ultrathin, homogenous, and uniaxial anisotropic metalens is designed, fabricated, and measured. It is shown that the realized gain of the four-beam antenna is increased by 6 dB compared with the single dipole source, while working frequency and relative bandwidth are kept unchanged. The measured far-field pattern verifies theoretical design procedure.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

MODIFIED EQUIPARTITION CALCULATION FOR SUPERNOVA REMNANTS. CASES α = 0.5 AND α = 1

The equipartition or minimum energy calculation is a well-known procedure for estimating the magnetic field strength and the total energy in the magnetic field and cosmic ray particles by using only the radio synchrotron emission. In one of our previous papers, we have offered a modified equipartition calculation for supernova remnants (SNRs) with spectral indices 0.5 < α < 1. Here we extend the analysis to SNRs with α = 0.5 and α = 1.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

The scintillator surface detector of the Pierre Auger observatory

Data collected so far by the Pierre Auger Observatory have enabled major advances in ultra-high energy cosmic ray physics and demonstrated that improved determination of masses of primary cosmic-ray particles, preferably on an event-by-event basis, is necessary for understanding their origin and nature. Improvement in primary mass measurements was the main motivation for the upgrade of the Pierre Auger Observatory, called AugerPrime. As part of this upgrade, scintillator detectors are added to the existing water-Cherenkov surface detector stations. By making use of the differences in detector response to the electromagnetic particles and muons between scintillator and water-Cherenkov detectors, the electromagnetic and muonic components of cosmic-ray air showers can be disentangled. Since the muonic component is sensitive to the primary mass, such combination of detectors provides a powerful way to improve primary mass composition measurements over the original Auger surface detector design. In this paper, the so-called Scintillator Surface Detectors are discussed, including their design characteristics, production process, testing procedure and deployment in the field.

Detector design and construction technologies and ↗

Sample variance in weak lensing: How many simulations are required?

Constraining cosmology using weak gravitational lensing consists of comparing a measured feature vector of dimension N b with its simulated counterpart. An accurate estimate of the N b × N b feature covariance matrix C is essential to obtain accurate parameter confidence intervals. When C is measured from a set of simulations, an important question is how large this set should be. To answer this question, we construct different ensembles of N r realizations of the shear field, using a common randomization procedure that recycles the outputs from a smaller number N s ≤ N r of independent ray-tracing N-body simulations. We study parameter confidence intervals as a function of (N s , N r ) in the range 1 ≤ N s ≤ 200 and 1 ≤ N r ≲ 105. Previous work [S. Dodelson and M. D. Schneider, Phys. Rev. D 88, 063537 (2013)] has shown that Gaussian noise in the feature vectors (from which the covariance is estimated) lead, at quadratic order, to an O(1/N r ) degradation of the parameter confidence intervals. Using a variety of lensing features measured in our simulations, including shear-shear power spectra and peak counts, we show that cubic and quartic covariance fluctuations lead to additional O(1/N 2 r ) error degradation that is not negligible when N r is only a factor of few larger than N b . We study the large N r limit, and find that a single, 240 Mpc/h sized 512 3 -particle N-body simulation (N s = 1) can be repeatedly recycled to produce as many as N r = few × 10 4 shear maps whose power spectra and high-significance peak counts can be treated as statistically independent. Lastly, a small number of simulations (N s = 1 or 2) is sufficient to forecast parameter confidence intervals at percent accuracy.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗