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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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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2000

Smoke-Point Properties of Nonbuoyant Round Laminar Jet Diffusion Flames

The laminar smoke-point properties of non-buoyant round laminar jet diffusion flames were studied emphasizing results from long-duration (100-230 s) experiments at microgravity carried out in orbit aboard the space shuttle Columbia. Experimental conditions included ethylene- and propane-fueled flames burning in still air at an ambient temperature of 300 K, pressures of 35-130 kPa, jet exit diameters of 1.6 and 2.7 mm, jet exit velocities of 170-690 mm/s, jet exit Reynolds numbers of 46-172, characteristic flame residence times of 40-302 ms, and luminous flame lengths of 15-63 mm. Contrary to the normal-gravity laminar smoke point, in microgravity the onset of laminar smoke-point conditions involved two flame configurations: closed-tip flames with soot emissions along the flame axis and open-tip flames with soot emissions from an annular ring about the flame axis. Open-tip flames were observed at large characteristic flame residence times with the onset of soot emissions associated with radiative quenching near the flame tip: nevertheless, unified correlations of laminar smoke-point properties were obtained that included both flame configurations. Flame lengths at laminar smoke-point conditions were well correlated in terms of a corrected fuel flow rate suggested by a simplified analysis of flame shape. The present steady and nonbuoyant flames emitted soot more readily than non-buoyant flames in earlier tests using ground-based microgravity facilities and than buoyant flames at normal gravity, as a result of reduced effects of unsteadiness, flame disturbances, and buoyant motion. For example, present measurements of laminar smokepoint flame lengths at comparable conditions were up to 2.3 times shorter than ground-based microgravity measurements and up to 6.4 times shorter than buoyant flame measurements. Finally, present laminar smoke-point flame lengths were roughly inversely proportional to pressure to a degree that is a somewhat smaller than observed during earlier tests both at microgravity (using ground-based facilities) and at normal gravity,

Urban, D. L.↗
NASA NTRS1986

Correspondence between AXAF TMA X-ray performance and models based upon mechanical and visible light measurements

The AXAF Technology Mirror Assembly (TMA) was characterized prior to X-ray testing by properties measured mechanically or with visible light; these include alignment offsets, roundness and global-axial-slope errors, axial-figure errors with characteristic lengths greater than about five mm, and surface roughness with scale lengths between about 0.005 and 0.5 mm. The X-ray data of Schwartz et al. (1985) are compared with predictions based upon the mechanical and visible light measurements.

Van Speybroeck, L.↗
NASA NTRS2010

Very Large-Scale Motions in Smooth and Rough Wall Boundary Layers

Structural skeleton of high Reynolds number flow gives insight into smooth and rough walls. (modeling implications not yet clear) Dynamic roughness as a model of "designer" roughness: a) Impose length scale(s) and dominant frequency. b) Irregular roughness well-represented by first "few" POD modes (Christensen, 2009). Experiments and simple model demonstrate: a) Harmonics associated with forcing (and w) important. b) Change to the mean profile (skin friction).

McKeon, Beverley J.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Accretion disks in active galactic nuclei - Vertically explicit models

A region of the parameter space accessible to accretion disks in AGN is explored using vertically integrated models to describe the thin-disk structure. Particular attention is paid to the role of convection. From a comparison of strongly convective solutions with varying mixing lengths to solutions obtained using a recent theory of convection developed for accretion disks, it is argued that it may be appropriate to take the mixing length to be roughly one-third of a pressure scale height when applying standard mixing-length theory to disks. Scalings are presented for various critical points in the locus of steady-state solutions, and rough estimates of time scales for behavior associated with disk instability are provided.

Cannizzo, John K.↗
NASA NTRS1953

Investigation of the Attenuation of Plane Shock Waves Moving over very Rough Surfaces

Experimental measurements of the attenuation of plane shock waves moving over rough walls have been made in a shock tube. Measurements of the boundary-layer characteristics, including thickness and velocity distribution behind the shock, have also been made with the aid of new cal techniques which provide direct information on the local boundary-layer conditions at the rough walls. Measurements of shock speed and shock pressure ratio are presented for both smooth-wall and rough-wall flow over lengths of machined-smooth and rough strips which lined all four walls of the shock tube. A simplified theory based on Von Karman's expression for skin-friction coefficient for flow over rough walls, along with a wave-model concept and extensions to include time effects, is presented. In this theory, the shock-tube flow is assumed to be one-dimensional at all times and the wave-model concept is used to relate the local layer growth to decreases in shock strength. This concept assumes that local boundary-layer growths act as local mass-flow sinks, which give rise to expansion waves which, in turn, overtake the shock and lower its mass flow accordingly.

Huber, Paul W.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Application of neural network to remote sensing of soil moisture using theoretical polarimetric backscattering coefficients

This paper investigates the potential application of neural network to inversion of soil moisture using polarimetric remote sensing data. The neural network used for the inversion of soil parameters is multi-layer perceptron trained with the back-propagation algorithm. The training data include the polarimetric backscattering coefficients obtained from theoretical surface scattering models together with an assumed nominal range of soil parameters which are comprised of the soil permittivity and surface roughness parameters. Soil permittivity is calculated from the soil moisture and the assumed soil texture based on an empirical formula at C-, L-, and P-bands. The rough surface parameters for the soil surface, which is described by the Gaussian random process, are the root-mean-square (rms) height and correlation length. For the rough surface scattering, small perturbation method is used for the L-band frequency, and Kirchhoff approximation is used for the C-band frequency to obtain the corresponding backscattering coefficients. During the training, the backscattering coefficients are the inputs to the neural net and the output from the net are compared with the desired soil parameters to adjust the interconnecting weights. The process is repeated for each input-output data entry and then for the entire training data until convergence is reached. After training, the backscattering coefficients are applied to the trained neural net to retrieve the soil parameters which are compared with the desired soil parameters to verify the effectiveness of this technique. Several cases are examined. First, for simplicity, the correlation length and rms height of the soil surface are fixed while soil moisture is varied. Soil moisture obtained using the neural networks with either L-band or C-band backscattering coefficients for the HH and VV polarizations as inputs is in good agreement with the desired soil moisture. The neural net output matches the desired output for the soil moisture range of 16 to 60 percent for the C-band case. The next case investigated is to vary both soil moisture and rms height while keeping the correlation length fixed. For this case, C-band backscattering coefficients are not sufficient for retrieving two parameters because the Kirchhoff approximation gives the same HH and VV backscattering coefficients. Therefore, the backscattering coefficients at two different frequency bands are necessary to find both the soil moisture and rms height. Finally, the neural nets are also applied to simultaneously invert soil moisture, rms height, and correlation length. Overall, the soil moisture retrieved from the neural network agrees very well with the desired soil moisture. This suggests that the neural network shows potential for retrieval of soil parameters from remote sensing data.

Wang, L.↗
NASA NTRS1988

Electromagnetic scattering from a layer of finite length, randomly oriented, dielectric, circular cylinders over a rough interface with application to vegetation

A scattering model for defoliated vegetation is developed by treating a layer of defoliated vegetation as a collection of randomly oriented dielectric cylinders of finite length over an irregular ground surface. Both polarized and depolarized backscattering are computed and their behavior versus the volume fraction, the incidence angle, the frequency, the angular distribution and the cylinder size are illustrated. It is found that both the angular distribution and the cylinder size have significant effects on the backscattered signal. The present theory is compared with measurements from defoliated vegetations.

Karam, M. A.↗
NASA NTRS1986

Optical surface evaluation by soft X-ray scattering

During the fabrication of the mirrors for the Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer (EUVE), methods for evaluating the surface quality of the optics have been developed. Measurement of soft X-ray scattering profiles allows for the determination of the surface roughness and correlation lengths for highly polished metal surfaces. With this method, the surface parameters for one of the Wolter Schwarzschild type I mirrors that had been fabricated for the EUVE mission have been determined. The techniques employed, the theoretical basis for the method, and the data that had been taken are presented. The measurements show that the best mirrors have a surface roughness of 20A rms or less.

Green, James C.↗
NASA NTRS2010

The Long Range Persistence of Wakes Behind a Row of Roughness Elements

We consider a periodic array of relatively small roughness elements whose spanwise separation is of the order of the local boundary-layer thickness and construct a local asymptotic high-Reynolds-number solution that is valid in the vicinity of the roughness. The resulting flow decays on the very short streamwise length scale of the roughness, but the solution eventually becomes invalid at large downstream distances and a new solution has to be constructed in the downstream region. This latter result shows that the roughness-generated wakes can persist over very long streamwise distances, which are much longer than the distance between the roughness elements and the leading edge. Detailed numerical results are given for the far wake structure.

Goldstein, M. E.↗
NASA NTRS1988

Positioning Rotors In Turbine Flowmeters

Lengths of wakes roughly proportional to thickness of vanes. Mathematical model simplifies analysis of effects of flow-straightening vanes in turbine flowmeter. Yields numerical solution of differential equations of flow for quick examination of efforts of thicknesses of vanes and rate of flow on extent of wake behind vanes. From examination, minimum distance at which flowmeter rotor placed behind vanes determined.

Lynch, Edward D.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Western Eisila Regio, Venus - Radar properties of volcanic deposits

The 1988 Arecibo Observatory dual-polarization radar images are presented for Western Eisila Regio, Venus. The polarization information and Pioneer-Venus Orbiter reflectivity and altimetry data are analyzed for volcanic deposits on two 400-500 km radius constructs, Sif and Gula Montes. Many of the large effusive deposits studied appear to require superposed flows or multiple vents to explain the observed progression of roughness along their length. High Fresnel reflectivity material may be present along the summit region of Gula Mons and in an embayed tessera-like region to the N. Radar-dark units on the flanks of Sif Mons are inferred to be pyroclastic deposits, but radar-dark features near the summits of both edifices are more consistent with very smooth lava flows. Higher spatial resolution Magellan data will be useful in testing these predictions.

Campbell, Bruce A.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Polarimetric backscattering from sea ice

Polarimetric backscattering from sea ice is presented. Theoretical models for backscattering are first presented for various ice types. Then, theoretical results are compared with experimental data for new thin ice, first-year ice, and multi-year ice. Sea ice is modeled as a layer medium containing random scatterers and rough interfaces. For multi-year sea ice with snow cover, the sea ice layer is modeled as an ice background with embedded spheroidal air bubbles and the snow layer as air with ice grains. The hummocky topography on multi-year ice is characterized by a Gaussian distribution which has an averaging effect on backscattering coefficients. First-year sea ice is described by an ice medium hosting ellipsoidal brine inclusions. These inclusions are oriented preferentially in the vertical direction due to the columnar structure of first-year sea ice. Azimuthally, the orientation of the brine pockets are random corresponding to the random c-axes in sea ice, unless the axes are oriented by sea currents. For thin ice in newly opened leads, it has been observed that there exists a thin brine layer with very high salinity on the top surface of the new ice. This brine layer is depicted as a medium with high permittivity which can significantly affect electromagnetic scattering signatures from the lower thin ice layer, with a higher fractional volume of brine inclusions due to higher salinity as compared to thick first-year sea ice. The rough medium interfaces are described as Gaussian rough surfaces characterized by root-mean-square heights and surface correlation lengths. The contribution from rough surface, calculated under the Kirchhoff approximation or small perturbation method, is assumed to be independent from volume scattering. The total loss including absorption and scattering losses in the scattering media is represented by the imaginary part of effective permittivity obtained from the strong fluctuation theory. The polarimetric scattering coefficients for different ice types are then derived under the distorted Born approximation.

Nghiem, S. V.↗
NASA NTRS2020

Possible Climate Histories of Venus Type Worlds

There are two well-known scenarios for Venus’ climate evolution. In one Venus had a long-lived magma ocean phase in its first 100Myr with a steam and CO2 dominated atmosphere. The faint young sun with its high XUV flux would cause photodissociation of the steam atmosphere and hydrodynamic escape would cause most of the hydrogen to escape & left-over oxygen would be absorbed by the magma ocean. Hence Venus would have started out hot and dry and the high D/H ratio measured by Pioneer Venus would be from this period of water loss. The other scenario is that Venus’ magma ocean lifetime would have been roughly the same length of time as Earth’s (~1Myr) and water would have condensed on its surface in its early history and had a short period of habitability before increasing solar insolation through time drove it into a runaway greenhouse. However, results from 2016 showed that if Venus remains in the slowly rotating climate dynamics regime (as seen in exoplanet related climate studies) its cloud albedo feedback would have kept it temperate for possibly billions of years. The only way to confirm which one of these scenarios occurred for Venus is to visit it and make the necessary measurements of noble and volatile gases. But exoplanet observations of young exo-Venus type worlds around young F,G,K dwarf stars may constrain which scenario is more probable for a population of such planets. We present a vision of Venus’ climate history that places it and its exoVenus cousins in an ‘Optimistic Venus Zone’ for ~3 billion years within the conventionally named ‘Venus Zone’ and hence encourage the exoplanet communit as possible habitable environments.

Way, M. J.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Possible climate histories of Venus type worlds

There are two well-known scenarios for Venus’ climate evolution. In one Venus had a long-lived magma ocean phase in its first 100Myr with a steam and CO2dominated atmosphere[1]. The faint young sun with its high XUV flux would cause photo-dissociation of the steam atmosphere and hydrodynamic escape would cause most of the hydrogen to escape and the left over oxygen would be absorbed by the magma ocean. Hence Venus would have started out hot and dry and the high D/H ratio measured by Pioneer Venus [2] would be from this period of water loss. The other scenario is that Venus’ magma ocean lifetime would have been roughly the same length of time as Earth’s (~1Myr) and water would have condensed on its surface in its early history. As long as Venus remained in the slowly rotating climate dynamics regime [3,4] its cloud albedo feedback would have kept it temperate for possibly billions of years. The only way to confirm which one of these scenarios occurred for Venus is to visit it and make the necessary measurements of noble and volatile gases [5].But exoplanet observations of young exo-Venus type worlds around young F,G,K dwarf stars may constrain whether both scenarios are equally probable for a population of such planets. We present a vision of Venus’ climate history that places it and its exo-Venus cousins in an ‘Optimistic Venus Zone’ within the conventionally named ‘Venus Zone’ [6] and hence encourage the exoplanet community to seek out these worlds as possible habitable environments.

Venus’ climate evolution↗
NASA NTRS2018

Physics-Based Retrieval of Surface Roughness Parameters for Bare Soils from Combined Active-Passive Microwave Signatures

In the past the effect of soil roughness was often considered secondary within the determination of soil moisture from remote sensing data. Several studies showed that accurate determination of soil roughness leads to an improved estimation of soil moisture. Two default parameters to describe the surface roughness are the standard deviation of the surface height variation 𝑠 and the surface correlation length 𝑙 with its corresponding autocorrelation function. Both parameters (𝑠,𝑙) affect the emissivity measured by radiometers as well as the backscattering observed by radars. In this study, we develop a physics-based approach to retrieve 𝑠 and 𝑙 by combining both microwave signals based on active-passive microwave covariation. To test the approach, containing a forward model and a retrieval algorithm, we used active/passive microwave data measured with the ComRAD truck-based SMAP simulator at L-band. Results and validations with corresponding field measurements on ground show that 𝑠 and 𝑙 can be estimated simultaneously when using this approach. The physics-based retrieval algorithm works robustly for two investigated test fields having an RMS-Error of 0.68 cm and 0.69 cm between the microwave-based and field-measured 𝑠-values, and of 3.13 cm and 3.04 cm for 𝑙-values. The first validation of the results reveals that the influence of the autocorrelation function, needed within the retrieval, is distinct.

correlation length↗
NASA NTRS1988

Scattering of electromagnetic waves from a periodic surface with random roughness

Equations for the scattering of electromagnetic waves from a randomly perturbed periodic surface have been formulated using the extended boundary condition method and solved using the small perturbation method. Surface currents and scattered fields are solved for up to the second order. The results indicate that as the correlation length of the random roughness increases, the bistatic scattering patterns of the scattered fields show several beams associated with each Bragg diffraction direction of the periodic surface. The beam shape becomes broader with smaller correlation length. Results obtained using the Kirchhoff approximation are found to agree well with the present results for the hh and vv polarized backscattering coefficients for small angles of incidence.

Yueh, H. A.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Heat transfer in the turbulent boundary layer with a step change in surface roughness

Measurements of Stanton numbers, velocity profiles, temperature profiles, and turbulence intensity profiles are reported for turbulent flat plate boundary layer flows with a step change in surface roughness. The first 0.9 m length of the test surface is roughened with 1.27 mm diameter hemispheres spaced 2 base diameters apart in a staggered array. The remaining 1.5 m length is smooth. The experiments show that the step change from a rough to a smooth surface has a dramatic effect on the convective heat transfer. In many cases, the Stanton number drops below the smooth-wall correlation immediately downstream of the change in roughness. The Stanton number measurements are compared with predictions using the discrete element method with excellent results.

Taylor, Robert P.↗
NASA NTRS1971

The lunar laser ranging experiment

With data from two or more well-located observing stations, the lunar range can be corrected accurately for the effects of polar motion and fluctuations in the earth's rotation rate. Very accurate corrections can be made for the earth tides at each station. It appears that the use of lasers giving roughly 0.1-msec pulse lengths is highly desirable. With them, single-shot ranging accuracies of about 3 cm are expected. The actual lunar range results will be analyzed by fitting a numerical integration for the lunar motion to the data. A mathematical model for lunar range is given. Tests of the theory of gravitation are considered.

Bender, P. L.↗