SEARCH · Search NASA
Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.
Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.
Method of solving Navier-Stokes equations of incompressible flow in general nonorthogonal curvilinear coordinates incorporates fractional-step and finite-volume approaches. Developed in continuing effort to achieve accuracy without need for excessive computation time in numerical simulation of time-dependent, three-dimensional flows bounded by surfaces of complicated shape.
Satellite data for the estimation of radiative and turbulent heat fluxes is becoming an increasingly important tool in large-scale studies of climate. One parameter needed in the estimation of these fluxes is surface temperature. To our knowledge, little effort has been directed to the retrieval of the sea ice surface temperature (IST) in the Arctic, an area where the first effects of a changing climate are expected to be seen. The reason is not one of methodology, but rather our limited knowledge of atmospheric temperature, humidity, and aerosol profiles, the microphysical properties of polar clouds, and the spectral characteristics of the wide variety of surface types found there. We have developed a means to correct for the atmospheric attenuation of satellite-measured clear sky brightness temperatures used in the retrieval of ice surface temperature from the split-window thermal channels of the advanced very high resolution radiometer (AVHRR) sensors on-board three of the NOAA series satellites. These corrections are specified for three different 'seasons' and as a function of satellite viewing angle, and are expected to be applicable to the perennial ice pack in the central Arctic Basin.
In a mobile satellite system with a frequency reuse cellular configuration, significant co-channel interference can be experienced due to the antenna sidelobe level. The signal will be subjected not only to its own fading, but also to the effect of the varying degree of fading on co-channel interferer, and this interference will behave differently in the up and in the down link. This paper presents a quantitative evaluation of the combined effects of fades and co-channel interference on a mobile satellite link.
A simulation method is proposed. The simulation was developed to model the peak duration and energy content of signal peaks in a mobile communication satellite operating in a Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) mode and presents an estimate of those power peaks for a system where the channels are modeled as band limited Gaussian noise, which is taken as a reasonable representation for Amplitude Commanded Single Sideband (ACSSB), Minimum Shift Keying (MSK), or Phase Shift Keying (PSK) modulated signals. The simulation results show that, under this hypothesis, the level of the signal power peaks for 10 percent, 1 percent, and 0.1 percent of the time are well described by a Rayleigh law and that their duration is extremely short and inversely proportional to the total FDM system bandwidth.
A large-signal analysis method based on an harmonic balance technique and a 2-D cubic spline interpolation function has been developed and applied to the prediction of InP-based HEMT oscillator performance for frequencies extending up to the submillimeter-wave range. The large-signal analysis method uses a limited number of DC and small-signal S-parameter data and allows the accurate characterization of HEMT large-signal behavior. The method has been validated experimentally using load-pull measurement. Oscillation frequency, power performance, and load requirements are discussed, with an operation capability of 300 GHz predicted using state-of-the-art devices (fmax is approximately equal to 450 GHz).
The Hollweg et al. (1990) analysis of MHD surface waves in a stationary equilibrium is extended. The conservation laws and jump conditions at Alfven and slow resonance points obtained by Sakurai et al. (1990) are generalized to include an equilibrium flow, and the assumption that the Eulerian perturbation of total pressure is constant is recovered as the special case of the conservation law for an equilibrium with straight magnetic field lines and flow along the magnetic field lines. It is shown that the conclusions formulated by Hollweg et al. are still valid for the straight cylindrical case. The effect of curvature is examined.
An innovative approach to fault management was recently demonstrated for the NASA LeRC Space Station Freedom (SSF) power system testbed. This project capitalized on research in model-based reasoning, which uses knowledge of a system's behavior to monitor its health. The fault management system (FMS) can isolate failures online, or in a post analysis mode, and requires no knowledge of failure symptoms to perform its diagnostics. An in-house tool called MARPLE was used to develop and run the FMS. MARPLE's capabilities are similar to those available from commercial expert system shells, although MARPLE is designed to build model-based as opposed to rule-based systems. These capabilities include functions for capturing behavioral knowledge, a reasoning engine that implements a model-based technique known as constraint suspension, and a tool for quickly generating new user interfaces. The prototype produced by applying MARPLE to SSF not only demonstrated that model-based reasoning is a valuable diagnostic approach, but it also suggested several new applications of MARPLE, including an integration and testing aid, and a complement to state estimation.
Method of computing time-dependent flow of incompressible, viscous fluid involves numerical solution of Navier-Stokes equations on two- or three-dimensional computational grid based on generalized curvilinear coordinates. Equations of method derived in primitive-variable formulation. Dependent variables are pressure at center of each cell of computational grid and volume fluxes across faces of each cell. Volume fluxes replace Cartesian components of velocity; these fluxes correspond to contravariant components of velocity multiplied by volume of computational cell, in staggered grid. Choice of dependent variables enables simple extension of previously developed staggered-grid approach to generalized curvilinear coordinates and facilitates enforcement of conservation of mass.
A fractional step method is developed for solving the time-dependent three-dimensional incompressible Navier-Stokes equations in generalized coordinate systems. The primitive variable formulation uses the pressure, defined at the center of the computational cell, and the volume fluxes across the faces of the cells as the dependent variables, instead of the Cartesian components of the velocity. This choice is equivalent to using the contravariant velocity components in a staggered grid multiplied by the volume of the computational cell. The governing equations are discretized by finite volumes using a staggered mesh system. The solution of the continuity equation is decoupled from the momentum equations by a fractional step method which enforces mass conservation by solving a Poisson equation. This procedure, combined with the consistent approximations of the geometric quantities, is done to satisfy the discretized mass conservation equation to machine accuracy, as well as to gain the favorable convergence properties of the Poisson solver. The momentum equations are solved by an approximate factorization method, and a novel ZEBRA scheme with four-color ordering is devised for the efficient solution of the Poisson equation. Several two- and three-dimensional laminar test cases are computed and compared with other numerical and experimental results to validate the solution method. Good agreement is obtained in all cases.
Recent observations of this famous ring galaxy, including optical and near-infrared CCD surface photometry, and VLA radio continuum and 21 cm line mapping (Higdon 1992b, in prep.), have inspired a renewed modeling effort. Toomre's (1978, in The Large-scale Structure of the Universe, eds. Longair and Einasto) series of restricted three-body simulations demonstrated how the multiple rings could be produced in a nearly head-on galaxy collision. New models with a halo-dominated potential based on the 21 cm rotation curve are able to reproduce such details as the spacing between rings, ring widths, offset of the nucleus, and several kinematical features, thus providing strong support for the collisional theory. The new observations have shown there are little or no old stars in Cartwheel; it may consist almost entirely of gas and stars produced as a result of compression in the ring wave. To model this process Smooth Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) simulations of the Cartwheel disk have been performed. Fixed gravitational potentials were used to represent the Cartwheel and a roughly 30 percent mass collision partner. The interaction dynamics was treated as in the usual restricted three-body approximation, and the effects of local self-gravity between disk particles were calculated. We are particularly interested in testing the theory that enhanced star formation in waves is the result of gravitational instability in the compressed region (see e.g. Kennicutt 1989, ApJ 344, 685). The gas surface density in a number of simulations was initialized to a value slightly below the threshold for local gravitational instability throughout most of the disk. The first ring wave produces relatively modest compressions (a factor of order a few), triggering instability in a narrow range of wavelengths. Self-gravity in the disk is calculated over a comparable range of scales. Simulations were run with isothermal, adiabatic, and adiabatic with radiative cooling characterized by a relatively short timescale. The isothermal approximation is good except in the vicinity of the strong second (inner) ring, and several snapshots from one case are shown in the figure below. Flocculent spiral segments are present before the collision, and these are compressed into dense knots in the ring wave. These knots are likely to be sites of vigorous star formation. In the strong rarefaction behind the outer ring most of the knots are radially stretched and sheared, giving rise to spoke-like features. A few dense knots are evidently very tightly bound, because they retain their coherence and are stretched relatively little through the rarefaction. This is in accord with evidence for continuing star formation in some spokes (Marcum, Appleton and Higdon 1992). The number and spacing of spokes is a direct function of the scale of the gravitational instability in the disk. Thus, the gravitational instability theory, together with the hypothesis that massive stars are only formed in dense knots of gas, can account for most of the distinct morphology of the Cartwheel.
Energetic emitting regions have traditionally been studied via x-ray, UV and optical emission lines of highly ionized intermediate mass elements. Such lines are often referred to as 'coronal lines' since the ions, when produced by collisional ionization, reach maximum abundance at electron temperatures of approx. 10(exp 5) - 10(exp 6) K typical of the sun's upper atmosphere. However, optical and UV coronal lines are also observed in a wide variety of Galactic and extragalactic sources including the Galactic interstellar medium, nova shells, supernova remnants, galaxies and QSOs. Infrared coronal lines are providing a new window for observation of energetic emitting regions in heavily dust obscured sources such as infrared bright merging galaxies and Seyfert nuclei and new opportunities for model constraints on physical conditions in these sources. Unlike their UV and optical counterparts, infrared coronal lines can be primary coolants of collisionally ionized plasmas with 10(exp 4) less than T(sub e)(K) less than 10(exp 6) which produce little or no optical or shorter wavelength coronal line emission. In addition, they provide a means to probe heavily dust obscured emitting regions which are often inaccessible to optical or UV line studies. In this poster, we provide results from new model calculations to support upcoming Infrared Space Observatory (ISO) and current ground-based observing programs involving infrared coronal emission lines in AGN. We present a complete list of infrared (lambda greater than 1 micron) lines due to transitions within the ground configurations 2s(2)2p(k) and 3s(2)3p(k) (k = 1 to 5) or the first excited configurations 2s2p and 3s3p of highly ionized (x greater than or equal to 100 eV) astrophysically abundant (n(X)/n(H) greater than or equal to 10(exp -6)) elements. Included are approximately 74 lines in ions of O, Ne, Na, Mg, Al, Si, S, Ar, Ca, Fe, and Ni spanning a wavelength range of approximately 1 - 280 microns. We present new results from detailed balance calculations, new critical densities for collisional de-excitation, intrinsic photon rates, branching ratios, and excitation temperatures for the majority of the compiled transitions. The temperature and density parameter space for dominant cooling via infrared coronal lines is presented, and the relationship of infrared to optical coronal lines is discussed.
A finite-surface technique for the Maxwell equations in generalized nonorthogonal coordinates is developed. It directly applies the integral Faraday's and Ampere's laws to faces of primary and secondary grid cells, respectively. The technique features an accurate treatment of matching conditions at a material interface, grid singularities, and radiation conditions at outer boundaries.
The observed and measured on-orbit performance of various aspects of the fine guidance sensors is presented and discussed in the light of the original requirements and predictions. The fine guidance sensors are shown to meet or exceed the original requirements concerning dynamic pointing errors, photometric repeatability, and moving-target tracking capability. Calibration accuracy has been sufficient for observations to date, and fine-lock acquisitions are approaching a 100 percent success rate. Improvements to the fine-guidance-sensor tolerance of telescope spherical aberration, the South Atlantic anomaly, and solar-panel vibrations have been made, and further improvements are expected.
Resonant absorption of MHD waves on a nonuniform flux tube is investigated as a driven problem for a 1D cylindrical equilibrium. The variation of the fractional absorption is studied as a function of the frequency and its relation to the eigenvalue problem of the MHD radiating eigenmodes of the nonuniform flux tube is established. The optimal frequencies producing maximal fractional absorption are determined and the condition for total absorption is obtained. This condition defines an impedance matching and is fulfilled for an equilibrium that is fine tuned with respect to the incoming wave. The variation of the spatial wave solutions with respect to the frequency is explained as due to the variation of the real and imaginary parts of the dispersion relation of the MHD radiating eigenmodes with respect to the real driving frequency.
Results are presented from detailed balance calculations, and a compilation of atomic data and other model calculations designed to support upcoming ISO and current observing programs involving IR coronal emission lines, together with a table with a complete line list of infrared transitions within the ground configurations 2s2 2p(k), 3s2 3p(k), and the first excited configurations 2s 2p and 3s 3p of highly ionized astrophysically abundant elements. The temperature and density parameter space for dominant cooling via IR coronal lines is presented, and the relationship of IR and optical coronal lines is discussed. It is found that, under physical conditions found in Seyfert nuclei, 14 of 70 transitions examined have significant population inversions in levels that give rise to IR coronal lines. Several IR coronal line transitions were found to have laser gain lengths that correspond to column densities of 10 exp 24-25/sq cm which are modeled to exist in Seyfert nuclei. Observations that can reveal inverted level populations and laser gain in IR coronal lines are suggested.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.