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At least 163 records · Page 9

NASA Heavy Lift Rotorcraft Systems Investigation

The NASA Heavy Lift Rotorcraft Systems Investigation examined in depth several rotorcraft configurations for large civil transport, designed to meet the technology goals of the NASA Vehicle Systems Program. The investigation identified the Large Civil Tiltrotor as the configuration with the best potential to meet the technology goals. The design presented was economically competitive, with the potential for substantial impact on the air transportation system. The keys to achieving a competitive aircraft were low drag airframe and low disk loading rotors; structural weight reduction, for both airframe and rotors; drive system weight reduction; improved engine efficiency; low maintenance design; and manufacturing cost comparable to fixed-wing aircraft. Risk reduction plans were developed to provide the strategic direction to support a heavy-lift rotorcraft development. The following high risk areas were identified for heavy lift rotorcraft: high torque, light weight drive system; high performance, structurally efficient rotor/wing system; low noise aircraft; and super-integrated vehicle management system.

Johnson, Wayne↗

Designs and Technology Requirements for Civil Heavy Lift Rotorcraft

The NASA Heavy Lift Rotorcraft Systems Investigation examined in depth several rotorcraft configurations for large civil transport, designed to meet the technology goals of the NASA Vehicle Systems Program. The investigation identified the Large Civil Tiltrotor as the configuration with the best potential to meet the technology goals. The design presented was economically competitive, with the potential for substantial impact on the air transportation system. The keys to achieving a competitive aircraft were low drag airframe and low disk loading rotors; structural weight reduction, for both airframe and rotors; drive system weight reduction; improved engine efficiency; low maintenance design; and manufacturing cost comparable to fixed-wing aircraft. Risk reduction plans were developed to provide the strategic direction to support a heavy-lift rotorcraft development. The following high risk areas were identified for heavy lift rotorcraft: high torque, light weight drive system; high performance, structurally efficient rotor/wing system; low noise aircraft; and super-integrated vehicle management system.

Johnson, Wayne↗

The Triggering Mechanism of Quiet-Region Coronal Jet Eruptions: Flux Cancelation

Coronal jets are frequent transient features on the Sun, observed in EUV and X-ray emissions. They occur in active regions, quiet Sun and coronal holes, and appear as a bright spire with base brightenings. Recent studies show that many coronal jets are driven by the eruption of a minifilament. Here we investigate the magnetic cause of jet-driving minifilament eruptions. We study ten randomly-found on-disk quiet-region coronal jets using SDO/AIA intensity images and SDO/HMI magnetograms. For all ten events, we track the evolution of photospheric magnetic flux in the jet-base region in EUV images and find that (a) a cool (transition-region temperature) minifilament is present prior to each jet eruption; (b) the pre-eruption minifilament resides above the polarity-inversion line between majority-polarity and minority-polarity magnetic flux patches; (c) the opposite-polarity flux patches converge and cancel with each other; (d) the cancelation between the majority-polarity and minority-polarity flux patches eventually destabilizes the field holding the minifilament to erupt outwards; (e) the envelope of the erupting field barges into ambient oppositely-directed far-reaching field and undergoes external reconnection (interchange reconnection); (f) the external reconnection opens the envelope field and the minifilament field inside, allowing reconnected-heated hot material and cool minifilament material to escape along the far-reaching field, producing the jet spire. In summary, we found that each of our ten jets resulted from a minifilament eruption following flux cancelation at the magnetic neutral line under the pre-eruption minifilament. These observations show that flux cancelation is usually the trigger of quiet-region coronal jet eruptions.

coronal jet↗

Collection of Disk Failure Events from Alpine, the Parallel File System for Summit Supercomputer

This dataset contains disk (HDD) failure events collected from the Alpine storage system of the Summit supercomputer, hosted at OLCF, spanning from January 4, 2019, to December 21, 2023 (a total of 4 years, 11 months, and 18 days), covering 89% of its operational lifetime. It includes 3,766 disk failure events, each recorded with its detection timestamp (in ISO 8601 format) and detailed by its location within the storage system - rack, enclosure, and drive slot number.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Surface temperatures and glassy state investigations in tribology, part 4

Measurements were made of the limiting shear stress for two naphthenic oils of differing molecular weight and three blends of the lower molecular weight oil and polyalkylmethacrylate polymers of differing molecular weight. The two base oils reached the same limiting shear stress for the same temperature and pressure. This was also true for all the polymer solutions although the polymer reduced the limiting shear stress by about 15 percent. It is shown that limiting stress is more a function of material type than viscosity or molecular weight. A new falling body viscometer was constructed to operate to 230 C and 0.6 GPa. Another viscometer was constructed to extend the pressure range to 1.1 GPa. A concentrated contact simulator was developed which allows recording of the traction force while the slide-roll ratio is continuously varied and the rolling speed is maintained essentially constant by a single drive motor. The configuration is that of a crowned roller against a disk. Measurement of lubricant minimum film thickness of elliptical EHD contacts of various aspect ratios were made by optical interferometry. The data collected were used to evaluate the Hamrock and Dowson minimum film thickness model over a range of contract ellipticity ratio where the major axis of the contact ellipse was aligned both parallel and perpendicular to the direction of motion. A statistical analysis of the measured film thickness data showed that on the average the experimental data were 30 percent greater than the film thickness predicted by the model. Preliminary development of the application of a scanning infrared radiation system to a tribo-system was completed.

Bair, S. S.↗

Liquid Scavenger for Separator/Pump

Pump for hydrogen modified to remove moisture that condenses in impeller stage. Impeller-pump housing has circumferential groove leading to exit hole near high-pressure outlet. As impeller disk rotates, flings water droplets condensed in pump toward groove. Aerodynamic drag drives water around groove to exit hole.

Berg, P. F.↗

Low cost, microcomputer-based interactive analysis system for direct-reception and archived remote sensing data

A hardware/software system has been developed for use in meteorological field experiments and by developing countries which need low-cost remote sensing data analysis capabilities. The system can directly receive satellite transmissions of the AVHRR, TOVS, Argos, GOES, GMS, and Meteosat systems. Also, the system can process computer tapes from Landsat. Received data are ingested directly into the computer's disk storage, eliminating the need for a wide-band analog tape drive. Data may be interpreted in terms of cloud imagery, cloudtop temperature, sea surface temperature, vegetation index, and temperature/humidity profiles with overlays of geographic boundaries and latitude/longitude grids. The image processing, enhancement functions, and modeling capabilities of the system are discussed.

Vermillion, Charles H.↗

Probing the core of Cepheus A - Millimeter and submillimeter observations

Moderate and high angular resolution (40-7 arcsec) maps are presented of the core of the Cepheus A star-forming region using CS J = 3-2 and J = 7-6 emission, which traces the dense gas component of the cloud core, and using far-infrared (450 and 800 microns) continuum emission tracing the warm dust component. Three regimes in the core are traced by these observations: (1) a small (about 0.14 pc), nearly circular central core of high density (1-10 x 10 to the 6th/cu cm) and temperature (30-100 K) containing at least 25 percent of the mass and which contains the active early-type star formation; (2) an extended (0.5 x 0.25 pc), NE-SW oriented core of mass 200-300 solar masses, temperature 30-40 K, and average density nH2 of about 10 to the 5th/cu cm and which, together with the central core, contains 60-80 percent of the total core mass; and (3) an extended core envelope of dimensions 0.5 x 0.85 pc oriented primarily north-south, and a lower density. The velocity structure of the core suggests that it is being disrupted by the high-velocity winds driving the molecular outflow and is not due to a rotating circumstellar disk.

Moriarty-Schieven, G. H.↗

iPTF Discovery of the Rapid "Turn-On" of a Luminous Quasar

We present a radio-quiet quasar at z = 0.237 discovered ''turning on'' by the intermediate Palomar Transient Factory (iPTF). The transient, iPTF 16bco, was detected by iPTF in the nucleus of a galaxy with an archival Sloan Digital Sky Survey spectrum with weak narrow-line emission characteristic of a low-ionization nuclear emission-line region (LINER). Our follow-up spectra show the dramatic appearance of broad Balmer lines and a power-law continuum characteristic of a luminous (L(sub bol) approx. equal 10(exp 45) erg/s) type 1 quasar 12 yr. later. Our photometric monitoring with PTF from 2009-2012 and serendipitous X-ray observations from the XMM-Newton Slew Survey in 2011 and 2015 constrain the change of state to have occurred less than 500 days before the iPTF detection. An enhanced broad H(alpha)/[O III] (lambda)5007 line ratio in the type 1 state relative to other changing-look quasars also is suggestive of the most rapid change of state yet observed in a quasar. We argue that the greater than 10 increase in Eddington ratio inferred from the brightening in UV and X-ray continuum flux is more likely due to an intrinsic change in the accretion rate of a preexisting accretion disk than an external mechanism such as variable obscuration, microlensing, or the tidal disruption of a star. However, further monitoring will be helpful in better constraining the mechanism driving this change of state. The rapid ''turn-on'' of the quasar is much shorter than the viscous infall timescale of an accretion disk and requires a disk instability that can develop around a approx. equal 10(exp 8)solar mass black hole on timescales less than 1 yr.

Gezari, S.↗

A multiblock/multigrid Euler analysis of a propfan transport with wing-mounted nacelles, including slipstream effects

A multiblock/multigrid computation of the inviscid flow over a wing-mounted propfan transport with propwash is presented. An explicit multistage scheme drives the integral Euler equations to a steady state solution, while an actuator disk approximates the slipstream effects of the propfan blades. Practical applications of detailed surface gridding, multiple block field grids and multigrid convergence acceleration are demonstrated.

Nishida, Brian A.↗

Low-energy ion implantation: Large mass fractionation of argon

The isotropic signatures of noble gases in the atmospheres of the Earth and other planets are considerably evolved when compared to signatures observed in the solar wind. The mechanisms driving the evolution of planetary volatiles from original compositions in the solar accretion disk are currently poorly understood. Modeling of noble-gas compositional histories requires knowledge of fractionating processes that may have operated through the evolutionary stages. Since these gases are chemically inert, information on noble-gas fractionation processes can be used as probes. The importance of understanding these processes extends well beyond 'noble-gas planetology.' Trapped argon acquired by low-energy implantation (approximately less than 100 eV) into solids is strongly mass fractionated (approximately greater than or equal to 3 percent/amu). This has potential implications for the origin and evolution of terrestrial planet atmospheres.

Ponganis, K. V.↗

Earth-Affecting Solar Causes Observatory (EASCO): A Potential International Living with a Star Mission from Sun-Earth L5

This paper describes the scientific rationale for an L5 mission and a partial list of key scientific instruments the mission should carry. The L5 vantage point provides an unprecedented view of the solar disturbances and their solar sources that can greatly advance the science behind space weather. A coronagraph and a heliospheric imager at L5 will be able to view CMEs broadsided, so space speed of the Earth-directed CMEs can be measured accurately and their radial structure discerned. In addition, an inner coronal imager and a magnetograph from L5 can give advance information on active regions and coronal holes that will soon rotate on to the solar disk. Radio remote sensing at low frequencies can provide information on shock-driving CMEs, the most dangerous of all CMEs. Coordinated helioseismic measurements from the Sun Earth line and L5 provide information on the physical conditions at the base of the convection zone, where solar magnetism originates. Finally, in situ measurements at L5 can provide information on the large-scale solar wind structures (corotating interaction regions (CIRs)) heading towards Earth that potentially result in adverse space weather.

Gopalswamy, N.↗

Nonaxisymmetric secular instabilities driven by star/disk coupling

We determine conditions for the onset of nonaxisymmetric secular instabilities in polytropes with a wide range of angular momentum distributions using Lagrangian techniques, and then calculate the growth rate of such instabilities when driven by the coupling of the perturbed star to a circumstellar disk. We use Langrangian displacement vectors with azimuthal dependence proportional to exp (im phi), where m is an integer and phi is the azimuthal coordinate. The onset of secular instability in terms of the quantity T/absolute value of W, the ratio of rotational kinetic energy to gravitational potential energy, is affected by both the compressibility and the angular momentum distribution of the polytrope. The largest effects occur when the angular momentum distribution is varied. For polytropic index n = 3/2, the onset of secular instability for the m = 2 mode (the bar mode), as determined by its neutral point, shifts from T/absolute value of W = 0.141 to 0.093, while the m = 5 mode neutral point shifts from T/absolute value of W = 0.088 to 0.031 over the range of angular momentum distributions we consider. The smallest critical T/absolute value of W-values occur for the angular momentum distributions which are the most peaked toward the equator. For the angular momentum distribution of a Maclaurin spheroid, as the polytropic index n is increased from 3/2 to 5/2, the neutral point for m = 2 shifts from T/absolute value of W = 0.141 to 0.144 and the netural point for m = 5 shifts from T/absolute value of W = 0.069 to 0.078. The netural points for m = 2 and 5 for the Maclaurin sequence (n = 0) are 0.137 and 0.0629, respectively. As the angular momentum distribution becomes more peaked toward the equatorial radius of the polytropes, the critical T/absolute value of W-values generally become less sensitive to the compressibility of the polytrope. Star/disk coupling can drive the secular instability in systems where the star is surrounded by a massive disk and, if the instability can grow to moderate amplitude, then the coupling can transport significant amounts of angular momentum from the star into the circumstellar disk. We find, for the particular case of rotating protostars during the accretion phase, that the instability growth time can be shorter than the accretion time. Further, if the instability can grow to amplitudes on the order of several percent, the star/disk coupling can remove angular momentum from the forming star faster than it is added by accretion.

Imamura, James, N.↗

Dynamics of binary and planetary-system interaction with disks - Eccentricity changes

Protostellar and protoplanetary systems, as well as merging galactic nuclei, often interact tidally and resonantly with the astrophysical disks via gravity. Underlying our understanding of the formation processes of stars, planets, and some galaxies is a dynamical theory of such interactions. Its main goals are to determine the geometry of the binary-disk system and, through the torque calculations, the rate of change of orbital elements of the components. We present some recent developments in this field concentrating on eccentricity driving mechanisms in protoplanetary and protobinary systems. In those two types of systems the result of the interaction is opposite. A small body embedded in a disk suffers a decrease of orbital eccentricity, whereas newly formed binary stars surrounded by protostellar disks may undergo a significant orbital evolution increasing their eccentricities.

Atrymowicz, Pawel↗

High-energy particle acceleration by explosive electromagnetic interaction in an accretion disk

By examining electromagnetic field evolution occurring in an accretion disk around a compact object, we arrive at an explosive mechanism of particle acceleration. Flux-freezing in the differentially rotating disk causes the seed and/or generated magnetic field to wrap up tightly, becoming highly sheared and locally predominantly azimuthal in orientation. We show how asymptotically nonlinear solutions for the electromagnetic fields may arise in isolated plasma blobs as a result of the driving of the fluid equations by the accretion flow. These fields are capable of rapidly accelerating charged particles from the disk. Acceleration through the present mechanism from AGN can give rise to energies beyond 10 exp 20 eV. Such a mechanism may present an explanation for the extragalactic origin of the most energetic observed cosmic rays.

Haswell, C. A.↗

The Evolution of Galaxies and Clusters at High Spatial Resolution with Advanced X-ray Imaging Satellite (AXIS)

Stellar and black hole feedback heat and disperse surrounding cold gas clouds, launching gas flows off circumnuclear and galactic disks, producing a dynamic interstellar medium. On large scales bordering the cosmic web, feedback drives enriched gas out of galaxies and groups, seeding the intergalactic medium with heavy elements. In this way, feedback shapes galaxy evolution by shutting down star formation and ultimately curtailing the growth of structure after the peak at redshift 2–3. To understand the complex interplay between gravity and feedback, we must resolve both the key physics within galaxies and map the impact of these processes over large scales, out into the cosmic web. The Advanced X-ray Imaging Satellite (AXIS) is a proposed X-ray probe mission for the 2030s with arcsecond spatial resolution, large effective area, and low background. AXIS will untangle the interactions of winds, radiation, jets, and supernovae with the surrounding interstellar medium across the wide range of mass scales and large volumes driving galaxy evolution and trace the establishment of feedback back to the main event at cosmic noon. This white paper is part of a series commissioned for the AXIS Probe mission concept; additional AXIS white papers can be found at the AXIS website.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

Evolution of magnetic cataclysmic binaries

The evolution of magnetic cataclysmic binaries is reviewed, with emphasis on the synchronization process by which DQ Herculis stars become AM Herculis stars. The various mechanisms that are thought to drive the evolution of cataclysmic binaries are discussed, and the criterion for stream versus disk accretion, the physics of the accretion and synchronization torques, and the conditions required for synchronization are described. The different physical regimes to which magnetic cataclysmic binaries belong are summarized, and how synchronization may be achieved, and how it may be broken, are considered.

Lamb, Don Q.↗

Radio-Loud Coronal Mass Ejections Without Shocks Near Earth

Type II radio bursts are produced by low energy electrons accelerated in shocks driven by corona) mass ejections (CMEs). One can infer shocks near the Sun, in the Interplanetary medium, and near Earth depending on the wavelength range in which the type II bursts are produced. In fact, type II bursts are good indicators of CMEs that produce solar energetic particles. If the type 11 burst occurs from a source on the Earth-facing side of the solar disk, it is highly likely that a shock arrives at Earth in 2-3 days and hence can be used to predict shock arrival at Earth. However, a significant fraction of CMEs producing type II bursts were not associated shocks at Earth, even though the CMEs originated close to the disk center. There are several reasons for the lack of shock at 1 AU. CMEs originating at large central meridian distances (CMDs) may be driving a shock, but the shock may not be extended sufficiently to reach to the Sun-Earth line. Another possibility is CME cannibalism because of which shocks merge and one observes a single shock at Earth. Finally, the CME-driven shock may become weak and dissipate before reaching 1 AU. We examined a set of 30 type II bursts observed by the Wind/WAVES experiment that had the solar sources very close to the disk center (within a CMD of 15 degrees), but did not have shock at Earth. We find that the near-Sun speeds of the associated CMEs average to approx.600 km/s, only slightly higher than the average speed of CMEs associated with radio-quiet shocks. However, the fraction of halo CMEs is only approx.28%, compared to 40% for radio-quiet shocks and 72% for all radio-loud shocks. We conclude that the disk-center radio loud CMEs with no shocks at 1 AU are generally of lower energy and they drive shocks only close to the Sun.

Gopalswamy, N.↗