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NASA NTRS1973

Heating and flow-field studies on a straight-wing hypersonic reentry vehicle at angles of attack from 20 to 80 deg with simulation of real-gas trends

Data are presented from a series of phase-change heat transfer and flow visualization tests at Mach 7.4, 8, and 10.3 in air, Mach 19.5 in nitrogen, Mach 20.3 in helium, and Mach 6 in tetrafluoromethane (CF4) on the windward surface of a straight wing hypersonic reentry configuration for angles of attack from 20 deg to 80 deg. The results indicate that: (1) for hypersonic stream Mach numbers, the flow field over the straight-wing configuration is essentially independent of Mach number, (2) transition Reynolds number decreases with increasing angle of attack, (3) at some critical angle of attack, the wing-shock standoff distance is greatly increased and the stagnation line moves downstream from the wing leading edge, (4) value of the critical angle of attack is very sensitive to the flow shock density ratio or effective gamma, and (5) at angles of attack above the critical value for all gases, the nondimensional level of heat transfer to the wing is higher for the higher shock density ratio flows.

Hunt, J. L.↗

NASA NTRS1984

Numerical simulation of flow through inlets/diffusers with terminal shocks

Two-dimensional Euler and Navier-Stokes solutions of the flow through three inlet/diffuser configurations with terminal shock systems are reported. Calculations without bleed indicate that the terminal shock location is very sensitive to the outflow back pressure. For cases where there are no available experimental results, it becomes difficult to estimate the back pressure that will result in a terminal shock. Estimates based on quasi-one-dimensional analysis are not found adequate for complex two-dimensional flows. It is found that since the flow downstream of the terminal shock is subsonic, and what happens at the outflow boundary affects the flow inside the inlet, enough of the subsonic diffuser must be modeled to accurately predict the terminal shock region. The diffuser portion should be fairly long with the outflow boundary occurring in a region of more or less uniform flow to be able to prescribe a uniform back pressure. The third configuration studied was investigated with and without incorporating bleed in the code. It is found that the use of bleed stabilizes the shock location and allows solutions which without bleed result in unstarting of the inlet. Comparisons are made with available experimental data.

Talcott, N. A., Jr.↗

NASA NTRS2021

Skin Friction Extracted from Surface Pressure in Incident Shock-Wave/Boundary-Layer Interaction

High-resolution skin-friction fields are extracted from pressure-sensitive paint (PSP) data obtained in shock-wave/boundary-layer interaction (SWBLI). The method of extracting skin friction from surface pressure is described, including the fundamental relation between skin friction and surface pressure, the variational method, error analysis, and an approximate iterative method. The proposed method is based on a coupling relation between skin friction and surface pressure, where the boundary enstrophy flux is suitably modeled or approximated. This method is applied to unsteady PSP data obtained in incident SWBLIs at Mach 2.5 for different Reynolds numbers, revealing the skin-friction structures of the flows: particularly, the separation bubble induced by the incident shock wave. The extracted results are in good agreement with the data obtained by the surface-stress-sensitive film.

skin friction↗

NASA NTRS1972

Ogo 5 magnetic-field data near the earth's bow shock - A correlation with theory.

Magnetic-field data obtained in the earth's bow-shock region with a high-resolution triaxial fluxgate magnetometer aboard the Ogo 5 satellite have been correlated with a theory of Tidman and Northrop (1968). These authors have shown that either of two hypotheses about the nature of low-frequency magnetic waves could be invoked to explain previous observations. We have observed exponentially decaying upstream waves that are consistent with only one of these hypotheses. This observation allows use of the theory to infer the local shock velocity and frequency of driving currents within the shock. This method of finding the shock velocity is less sensitive to errors in the plasma parameters than is the method based on the Rankine-Hugoniot relations.

Guha, J. K.↗

NASA NTRS1986

Simulations of collisionless shocks

A problem of critical importance to space and astrophysics is the existence and properties of high-Mach-number shocks. In this letter the results of simulations of perpendicular shocks with Alfven Mach number 22 are presented. It is shown that the shock structure is a sensitive function of resistivity, becoming turbulent when the resistivity is too low. The problem of electron heating, and the extension of the results to higher Mach numbers are discussed.

Quest, K. B.↗

NASA NTRS1995

Oxidation Mechanisms of Toluene and Benzene

An expanded and improved version of a previously published benzene oxidation mechanism is presented and shown to model published experimental data fairly successfully. This benzene submodel is coupled to a modified version of a toluene oxidation submodel from the recent literature. This complete mechanism is shown to successfully model published experimental toluene oxidation data for a highly mixed flow reactor and for higher temperature ignition delay times in a shock tube. A comprehensive sensitivity analysis showing the most important reactions is presented for both the benzene and toluene reacting systems. The NASA Lewis toluene mechanism's modeling capability is found to be equivalent to that of the previously published mechanism which contains a somewhat different benzene submodel.

Bittker, David A.↗

NASA NTRS1998

Statistical Treatment of Earth Observing System Pyroshock Separation Test Data

The Earth Observing System (EOS) AM-1 spacecraft for NASA's Mission to Planet Earth is scheduled to be launched on an Atlas IIAS vehicle in June of 1998. One concern is that the instruments on the EOS spacecraft are sensitive to the shock-induced vibration produced when the spacecraft separates from the launch vehicle. By employing unique statistical analysis to the available ground test shock data, the NASA Lewis Research Center found that shock-induced vibrations would not be as great as the previously specified levels of Lockheed Martin. The EOS pyroshock separation testing, which was completed in 1997, produced a large quantity of accelerometer data to characterize the shock response levels at the launch vehicle/spacecraft interface. Thirteen pyroshock separation firings of the EOS and payload adapter configuration yielded 78 total measurements at the interface. The multiple firings were necessary to qualify the newly developed Lockheed Martin six-hardpoint separation system. Because of the unusually large amount of data acquired, Lewis developed a statistical methodology to predict the maximum expected shock levels at the interface between the EOS spacecraft and the launch vehicle. Then, this methodology, which is based on six shear plate accelerometer measurements per test firing at the spacecraft/launch vehicle interface, was used to determine the shock endurance specification for EOS. Each pyroshock separation test of the EOS spacecraft simulator produced its own set of interface accelerometer data. Probability distributions, histograms, the median, and higher order moments (skew and kurtosis) were analyzed. The data were found to be lognormally distributed, which is consistent with NASA pyroshock standards. Each set of lognormally transformed test data produced was analyzed to determine if the data should be combined statistically. Statistical testing of the data's standard deviations and means (F and t testing, respectively) determined if data sets were significantly different at a 95-percent confidence level. If two data sets were found to be significantly different, these families of data were not combined for statistical purposes. This methodology produced three separate statistical data families of shear plate data. For each population, a P99.1/50 (probability/confidence) per-separation-nut firing level was calculated. By using the binomial distribution, Lewis researchers determined that this pernut firing level was equivalent to a P95/50 per-flight confidence level. The overall envelope of the per-flight P95/50 levels led to Lewis' recommended EOS interface shock endurance specification. A similar methodology was used to develop Lewis' recommended EOS mission assurance levels. The available test data for the EOS mission are significantly larger than for a normal mission, thus increasing the confidence level in the calculated expected shock environment. Lewis significantly affected the EOS mission by properly employing statistical analysis to the data. This analysis prevented a costly requalification of the spacecraft's instruments, which otherwise would have been exposed to significantly higher test levels.

McNelis, Anne M.↗

NASA NTRS2006

X-ray Observations of Binary and Single Wolf-Rayet Stars with XMM-Newton and Chandra

We present an overview of recent X-ray observations of Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars with XMM-Newton and Chandra. These observations are aimed at determining the differences in X-ray properties between massive WR + OB binary systems and putatively single WR stars. A new XMM spectrum of the nearby WN8 + OB binary WR 147 shows hard absorbed X-ray emission (including the Fe Ka line complex), characteristic of colliding wind shock sources. In contrast, sensitive observations of four of the closest known single WC (carbon-rich) WR stars have yielded only nondetections. These results tentatively suggest that single WC stars are X-ray quiet. The presence of a companion may thus be an essential factor in elevating the X-ray emission of WC + OB stars to detectable levels.

Skinner, Stephen↗

NASA NTRS2011

Robust and Accurate Shock Capturing Method for High-Order Discontinuous Galerkin Methods

A simple yet robust and accurate approach for capturing shock waves using a high-order discontinuous Galerkin (DG) method is presented. The method uses the physical viscous terms of the Navier-Stokes equations as suggested by others; however, the proposed formulation of the numerical viscosity is continuous and compact by construction, and does not require the solution of an auxiliary diffusion equation. This work also presents two analyses that guided the formulation of the numerical viscosity and certain aspects of the DG implementation. A local eigenvalue analysis of the DG discretization applied to a shock containing element is used to evaluate the robustness of several Riemann flux functions, and to evaluate algorithm choices that exist within the underlying DG discretization. A second analysis examines exact solutions to the DG discretization in a shock containing element, and identifies a "model" instability that will inevitably arise when solving the Euler equations using the DG method. This analysis identifies the minimum viscosity required for stability. The shock capturing method is demonstrated for high-speed flow over an inviscid cylinder and for an unsteady disturbance in a hypersonic boundary layer. Numerical tests are presented that evaluate several aspects of the shock detection terms. The sensitivity of the results to model parameters is examined with grid and order refinement studies.

Atkins, Harold L.↗

NASA NTRS2020

Simulating the Benesov Bolide Flowfield and Spectrum at Altitudes of 47 and 57 km

This paper develops a computational fluid dynamics capability for simulating the radiative emission from a meteor shock-layer and wake to an external observer. The developed capability includes the impact of radiation and ablation on the meteor flowfield, where coupled radiation accounts for the impact of radiation on the flowfield energy equations and coupled ablation accounts for the injection of ablation species from the meteoroid surface into the ow. This capability includes updated flowfield chemistry and nonequilibrium radiation models, which are compiled from the literature. To provide a level of validation for this capability, the Benesov spectral measurements are considered. Although the meteoroid was likely fragmented at the 47 and 57 km altitudes considered, and the measurement uncertainty is roughly ±50%, these measurements represent the best available spectral measurements for a relatively large (meter-class) bolide. To determine the equivalent meteoroid diameter to simulate, the continuum component of the spectrum in the 570 to 610 nm range is considered. This range is dominated by air emission from the high pressure and temperature shock-layer in front of the meteoroid, which is simulated with a relatively small uncertainty (because of the abundance of relevant shock tube measurements) and sensitive to the equivalent meteoroid diameter. This allows an equivalent diameter between 0.62 to 0.9 m to be determined, based on comparisons between measurements and simulations in the 570 to 610 nm range. The range of equivalent diameters is due to the various meteoroid geometries considered, where increasing the bluntness decreases the required diameter. Applying these diameters to simulations at 47 and 57 km results in simulated spectra that compare within 30% of the measured values, considering the wavelength integrated values between 400 and 650 nm. This agreement is well within the estimated measurement uncertainty of ±50%. All major spectral features are captured by the simulations. This agreement provides a level of validation for the developed model that has not been previously available.

Luminous efficiency↗

NASA NTRS1987

A survey of simulation and diagnostic techniques for hypersonic nonequilibrium flows

The possible means of simulating nonequilibrium reacting flows in hypersonic environments, and the required diagnostic techniques, are surveyed in two categories: bulk flow behavior and determination of chemical rate parameters. Flow visualization of shock shapes for validation of computational-fluid dynamic calculations is proposed. The facilities and the operating conditions necessary to produce the required nonequilibrium conditions, the suitable optical techniques, and their sensitivity requirements, are surveyed. Shock-tubes, shock-tunnels, and ballistic ranges in a wide range of sizes and strengths are found to be useful for this purpose, but severe sensitivity requirements are indicated for the optical instruments, which can be met only by using highly-collimated laser sources. Likewise, for the determination of chemical parameters, this paper summarizes the quantities that need to be determined, required facilities and their operating conditions, and the suitable diagnostic techniques and their performance requirements. Shock tubes of various strengths are found to be useful for this purpose. Vacuum ultraviolet absorption and fluorescence spectroscopy and coherent anti-Stokes Raman spectroscopy are found to be the techniques best suited for the measurements of the chemical data.

Sharma, Surendra P.↗

NASA NTRS1986

Observations of Far-Infrared Molecular Emission Lines from the Orion Molecular Cloud

The Orion Nebula was the subject of intensive study for over one hundred years. Recently, several far infrared transitions among the low-lying levels of OH were observed toward IRc2. The OH is thought to be abundant, and plays an important role in the chemical evolution of shock and post-shock regions. The OH emission serves as a sensitive probe of the temperature and density for the shock-processed gas. A rigorous treatment of the radiative transfer of these measured transitions was performed using the escape probability formalism. From this analysis, the temperature of the OH-emitting region was determined to be on the order of 40K. This suggests that the gas is part of the post-shock gas that has cooled sufficiently, most likely by way of radiative cooling by CO. Such cooling from shock temperatures of several degrees can be accomplished in 100 years. A molecular hydrogen density of 3 million/cubic cm and an OH column density of 1.0 x 10 to the 17th /sq cm is found. The beam filling factor is determined to be 36%.

Viscuso, P. J.↗

NASA NTRS1986

Thermoluminescence and Antarctic meteorites

The level of natural thermoluminescence (TL) in meteorites is the result of competition between build-up, due to exposure to cosmic radiation, and thermal decay. Antarctic meteorites tend to have lower natural TL than non-Antarctic meteorites because of their generally larger terrestrial ages. However, since a few observed falls have low TL due to a recent heating event, such as passage within approximately 0.7 astronomical units of the Sun, this could also be the case for some Antarctic meteorites. Dose rate variations due to shielding, heating during atmospheric passage, and anomalous fading also cause natural TL variations, but the effects are either relatively small, occur infrequently, or can be experimentally circumvented. The TL sensitivity of meteorites reflects the abundance and nature of the feldspar. Thus intense shock, which destroys feldspar, causes the TL sensitivity to decrease by 1 to 2 orders of magnitude, while metamorphism, which generates feldspar through the devitrification of glass, causes TL sensitivity to increase by a factor of approximately 10000. The TL-metamorphism relationship is particularly strong for the lowest levels of metamorphism. The order-disorder transformation in feldspar also affect the TL emission characteristics and thus TL provides a means of paleothermometry.

Sears, D. W. G.↗

NASA NTRS1986

Interplanetary field control of the location of the Venus bow shock - Evidence for comet-like ion pickup

The location of the Venus bow shock is found to be sensitive to both the angle of the IMF to the solar wind flow and the phase of the solar cycle. The former dependence is attributed to the effect of planetary ion pickup by the magnetosheath convection electric field analogous to cometary ion pickup by the solar wind electric field. The latter dependence is attributed to the solar-cycle variation in the density of exospheric neutrals in the magnetosheath analogous to the cometary response to distance from the sun. Both a north-south and a pole-equator asymmetry in the location of the bow shock are also found, controlled by the direction of the IMF in the plane perpendicular to the solar wind flow.

Alexander, C. J.↗

NASA NTRS1988

Evidence of Reynolds number sensitivity in supersonic turbulent shocklets

A local shock wave can destroy the evolution of supersonic combustion in a scramjet. The Reynolds number correlation of the systems of internal shock waves produced in such turbulent free shear layers are presently noted to imply that a direct connection with turbulence intensity exists. By way of this connection, as well as the adjustability of the Reynolds number, opportunities emerge for the control of turbulent shocklets; this will in turn allow control of their influence on supersonic mixing.

Johnson, J. A., III↗

NASA NTRS1990

Lyman alpha radiation in external galaxies

The Ly alpha line of atomic hydrogen is often a luminous component of the radiation emitted by distant galaxies. Except for those galaxies which have a substantial central source of non-stellar ionizing radiation, most of the Ly alpha radiation emitted by galaxies is generated within regions of the interstellar medium which are photoionized by starlight. Conversely, much of the energy radiated by photoionized regions is carried by the Ly alpha line. Only hot, massive stars are capable of ionizing hydrogen in the interstellar medium which surrounds them, and because such stars are necessarily short-lived, Ly alpha emission traces regions of active star formation. Researchers argue that the strength of the Ly alpha emission observed from external galaxies may be used to estimate quantitatively the dust content of the emitting region, while the Ly alpha line profile is sensitive to the presence of shock waves. Interstellar dust particles and shock waves are intimately associated with the process of star formation in two senses. First, both dust particles and shock waves owe their existence to stellar activity; second, they may both serve as agents which facilitate the formation of stars, shocks by triggering gravitational instabilities in the interstellar gas that they compress, and dust by shielding star-forming molecular clouds from the ionizing and dissociative effects of external UV radiation. By using Ly alpha observations as a probe of the dust content in diffuse gas at high redshift, we might hope to learn about the earliest epochs of star formation.

Neufeld, David A.↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

State-Specific Kinetic Modeling for Predictions of Radiative Heating in H 2 /He Entry Flows

A 23-species State-to-State (StS) thermochemical model for H 2 /He mixtures is developed and used to simulate 1-D shocks at conditions relevant for ice and gas giant entry flows. To implement this StS model, a literature review of the state-specific excitation and ionization rates of atomic H is first performed. While electron impact rates from various sources are found to be in relatively good agreement, large discrepancies are found in the limited data available on heavy particle impact rates. To investigate the impact of these discrepancies on the predicted shock and radiance profiles, simulations are performed for three different versions of the kinetic model, each with a different set of heavy particle impact rates from the literature. Of these three models, two are found to over-predict and one is found to under-predict the radiance values seen in corresponding experimental data from the NASA Ames Electric Arc Shock Tube (EAST) facility. A sensitivity analysis to the electron and heavy particle impact rates is then performed, from which an improved kinetic model with modified rates is proposed. This modified kinetic model is found to reproduce the total integrated radiance seen in the EAST experiments accurately. This suggests that the associated radiative heating that would be encountered by an entry probe in these environments would be well predicted by this kinetic model. However, some discrepancies are still found i the relative contributions to the total radiance from different spectral features, suggesting that additional improvements to the kinetic model still need to be made.

Outer Planet↗

NASA NTRS1983

Shock-wave properties and high-pressure equations of state of geophysically important materials

Shock wave (Hugoniot), shock temperature, and release data are presented for several geophysically important, refractory materials. A sensitive multichannel optical pyrometer was developed to measure shock temperatures (2500 to 5600 K at pressures from 48 to 117 GPa) in anorthite (CaAl2Si2O8) glass. Shock temperatures of 3750 to 6000 K at pressures from 140 to 182 GPa were measured in calcium oxide (CaO). Temperature data were used to constrain the energetics of the B1-B2 phase transition at 70 GPa in CaO, and to construct a finite strain equation of state for CaO consistent with previous Hugoniot data. The CaO equation of state was used with equation of state parameters of other oxides to construct a theoretical mixed oxide Hugoniot of anorthite, which is in agreement with new Hugoniot data above about 50 GPa, determined using experimental techniques developed. The mixed oxide model, however, overestimates the shock temperatures, and does not accurately predict measured release paths.

Boslough, M. B.↗