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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 91 records · Page 5

First-order Fermi acceleration in solar flares as a mechanism for the second-step acceleration of prompt protons and relativistic electrons

Solar flare data from June 27, 1980 balloon-based observations were studied in terms of the hard X ray component. A temporal delay of 3 sec was observed for the X ray emissions above 235 keV. The delay occurred relative to the low-energy electrons and indicated a second acceleration stage. An estimation of the acceleration rate of the first-order Fermi process operating in a closed flare loop was found to be in agreement with the resulting data, including the acceleration of both protons and relativistic electrons. Additional support for the first-order Fermi process is noted in the fact that flares generally occur in magnetic loops, a condition which allows energetic particles to continually interact with the upward moving shock fronts. A correlation has also been observed between the delay times and the H-alpha areas, encouraging the interpretation that the delay times are the shock transit times.

Bai, T.↗

First-Order-hold interpolation digital-to-analog converter with application to aircraft simulation

Those who design piloted aircraft simulations must contend with the finite size and speed of the available digital computer and the requirement for simulation reality. With a fixed computational plant, the more complex the model, the more computing cycle time is required. While increasing the cycle time may not degrade the fidelity of the simulated aircraft dynamics, the larger steps in the pilot cue feedback variables (such as the visual scene cues), may be disconcerting to the pilot. The first-order-hold interpolation (FOHI) digital-to-analog converter (DAC) is presented as a device which offers smooth output, regardless of cycle time. The Laplace transforms of these three conversion types are developed and their frequency response characteristics and output smoothness are compared. The FOHI DAC exhibits a pure one-cycle delay. Whenever the FOHI DAC input comes from a second-order (or higher) system, a simple computer software technique can be used to compensate for the DAC phase lag. When so compensated, the FOHI DAC has (1) an output signal that is very smooth, (2) a flat frequency response in frequency ranges of interest, and (3) no phase error. When the input comes from a first-order system, software compensation may cause the FOHI DAC to perform as an FOHE DAC, which, although its output is not as smooth as that of the FOHI DAC, has a smoother output than that of the ZOH DAC.

Cleveland, W. B.↗

Extensional flow convecting a reactant undergoing a first order homogeneous reaction and diffusional mass transfer from a sphere at low to intermediate Peclet and Damkohler numbers

Forced convective diffusion-reaction is considered for viscous axisymmetric extensional convecting velocity in the neighborhood of a sphere. For Peclet numbers in the range 0.1 less than or equal to Pe less than or equal to 500 and for Damkohler numbers increasing with increasing Pe but in the overall range 0.02 less than or equal to Da less than or equal to 10, average and local Sherwood numbers have been computed. By introducing the eigenfunction expansion c(r, Theta) = Sum of c(n)(r)P(n)(cos Theta) into the forced convective diffusion equation for the concentration of a chemical species undergoing a first order homogeneous reaction and by using properties of the Legendre functions Pn(cos Theta), the variable coefficient PDE can be reduced to a system of N + 1 second order ODEs for the radial functions c(sub n)(r), n = 0, 1, 2,..., N. The adaptive grid algorithm of Pereyra and Lentini can be used to solve the corresponding 2(N + 1) first order differential equations as a two-point boundary value problem on 1 less than or equal to r less than or equal to r(sub infinity). Convergence of the expansion for a specific value of N can thus be established and provides 'spectral' behavior as well as the full concentration field c(r, Theta).

Shah, N. Y.↗

First-Order SPICE Modeling of Extreme-Temperature 4H-SiC JFET Integrated Circuits

A separate submission to this conference reports that 4H-SiC Junction Field Effect Transistor (JFET) digital and analog Integrated Circuits (ICs) with two levels of metal interconnect have reproducibly demonstrated electrical operation at 500 C in excess of 1000 hours. While this progress expands the complexity and durability envelope of high temperature ICs, one important area for further technology maturation is the development of reasonably accurate and accessible computer-aided modeling and simulation tools for circuit design of these ICs. Towards this end, we report on development and verification of 25 C to 500 C SPICE simulation models of first order accuracy for this extreme-temperature durable 4H-SiC JFET IC technology. For maximum availability, the JFET IC modeling is implemented using the baseline-version SPICE NMOS LEVEL 1 model that is common to other variations of SPICE software and importantly includes the body-bias effect. The first-order accuracy of these device models is verified by direct comparison with measured experimental device characteristics.

JFET↗

Analysis of a first order phase locked loop in the presence of Gaussian noise

A first-order digital phase locked loop is analyzed by application of a Markov chain model. Steady state loop error probabilities, phase standard deviation, and mean loop transient times are determined for various input signal to noise ratios. Results for direct loop simulation are presented for comparison.

Blasche, P. R.↗

Application of MACSYMA to first order perturbation theory in celestial mechanics

The application of MACSYMA to general first order perturbation theory in celestial mechanics is explored. Methods of derivation of small variations in the Keplerian orbital elements are developed. As an example of the methods, the small general relativistic perturbations on the two-body Newtonian motion, resulting from the rotation of the central body, are developed in detail.

Anderson, J. D.↗

Implementation of a First-Order Quadratic Program Solver in C

This paper details a translation of a first order quadratic program (QP) solver from MATLAB to C. NASA could use this QP solver to generate online flight path trajectories for powered descent vehicles during landing. Over 12 weeks, the team designed, implemented, and tested two iterations of the QP solver for accuracy and runtime on 104 benchmark QP tests. The final iteration was 541.07% faster than the first, handling most tests in under one second. Additionally, it solved four more QP tests for N≥1383, and all outputs for cost and D_x matched the MATLAB reference values.

Optimization↗

First-order optical analysis of a quasi-microscope for planetary landers

A first-order geometrical optics analysis of a facsimile camera augmented with an auxiliary lens as magnifier is presented. This concept, called quasi-microscope, bridges the gap between surface resolutions of the order of 1 to 10 mm which can be obtained directly with planetary lander cameras and resolutions of the order of 0.2 to 10 microns which can be obtained only with relatively complex microscopes. A facsimile camera was considered in the analysis; however, the analytical results can also be applied to television and film cameras. It was found that quasi-microscope resolutions in the range from 10 to 100 microns are obtainable with current state-of-the-art lander facsimile cameras. For the Viking lander camera having an angular resolution of 0.04 deg, which was considered as a specific example, the best achievable resolution would be about 20 microns. The preferred approach to increase the resolution of the quasi-microscope would be, if possible, through an increase in angular resolution of the camera. A twofold to threefold improvement in resolution could also be achieved with a special camera focus position, but this approach tends to require larger and heavier auxiliary optics.

Huck, F. O.↗

In Pursuit of a Spectroscopic PSF for STlS First Order Modes

We are attempting to characterize the spectroscopic PSF of the STlS first order grating modes, primarily those that utilize the CCD. The goal is to extract spectroscopic information of sources approaching the diffraction limit of HST with STIS. Diffracted and scattered light of HST, scattered light effects within the STlS and performance of the detector are being considered. Filter fringing, CCD fringing, window reflections, scattering by the detector structure and other effects are being characterized. The response of the system when a fiducial is placed in the focal surface of STIS will be described.

Gull, Theodore R.↗

First-order Fermi acceleration in the two-stream limit

A study of the first-order Fermi mechanism for accelerating cosmic-rays at relativistic and nonrelativistic shocks is carried out by using the two-stream approximation. Exact steady-state analytic solutions illustrating the shock acceleration process in the test-particle limit in which monoenergetic (relativistic) seed particles enter the shock through an upstream free-escape boundary are obtained. The momentum spectrum of the shock accelerated particles consists of a series of Dirac delta distributions corresponding to particles that have undergone an integral number of acceleration cycles. Since particles in the model have a finite fixed escape probability from the shock and the particle momenta p are equally spaced in log p, the envelope of the delta functions series is a power law in momentum. The solutions are used to discuss time-dependent aspects of the shock acceleration process in terms of the finite cycle time, escape probability, and momentum change per cycle that can be deduced from the steady-state model. The length-scale over which the accelerated particles extend upstream of the shock is shown to depend upon the particle energy, with the higher energy particles extending further upstream. This effect is shown to be intimately related to the kinematic threshold requirement that the particle speed exceed the fluid speed in order for particles to swim upstream of the shock and participate in the shock acceleration process.

Bogdan, T. J.↗