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Results for “Particle number control”

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 19 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1979

The NASA-Ames Research Center stratospheric aerosol model. 2. Sensitivity studies and comparison with observatories

Sensitivity tests were performed on a one-dimensional, physical-chemical model of the unperturbed stratospheric aerosols, and model calculations were compared with observations. The tests and comparisons suggest that coagulation controls the particle number mixing ratio, although the number of condensation nuclei at the tropopause and the diffusion coefficient at high altitudes are also important. The sulfur gas source strength and the aerosol residence time are much more important than the supply of condensation nuclei in establishing mass and large particle concentrations. The particle size is also controlled mainly by gas supply and residence time. In situ observations of the aerosols and laboratory measurements of aerosols, parameters that can provide further information about the physics and chemistry of the stratosphere and the aerosols found there are provided.

Toon, O. B.↗
NASA NTRS2004

Wave Propagation in 2-D Granular Matrix and Dust Mitigation of Fabrics for Space Exploration Mission

Wave Propagation study is essential to exploring the soil on Mars or Moon and Dust Mitigation is a necessity in terms of crew's health in exploration missions. The study of Dust Mitigation has a significant impact on the crew s health when astronauts track dust back into their living space after exploration trips. We are trying to use piezoelectric fiber to create waves and vibrations at certain critical frequencies and amplitudes so that we can shake the particles off from the astronaut s fabrics. By shaking off the dust and removing it, the astronauts no longer have to worry about breathing in small and possibly hazardous materials, when they are back in their living quarters. The Wave Propagation in 2-D Granular Matrix studies how the individual particles interact with each other when a pressure wave travels through the matrix. This experiment allows us to understand how wave propagates through soils and other materials. By knowing the details about the interactions of particles when they act as a medium for waves, we can better understand how wave propagates through soils and other materials. With this experiment, we can study how less gravity effects the wave propagation and hence device a way to study soils in space and on Moon or Mars. Some scientists treat the medium that waves travel through as a "black box", they did not pay much attention to how individual particles act as wave travels through them. With this data, I believe that we can use it to model ways to measure the properties of different materials such as density and composition. In order to study how the particles interact with each other, I have continued Juan Agui's experiment of the effects of impacts on a 2-D matrix. By controlling the inputs and measuring the outputs of the system, I will be able to study now the particles in that system interact with each other. I will also try to model this with the software called PFC2D in order to obtain theoretical data to compare with the experiment. PFC2D is a program that allows the user to control the number of particle's characteristic, and the environment of the particle. With this I can run simulations that mimic the impulse test. This software uses a language called FISH, probably created by the creator of the software. This means that in order to model anything, one must use the command terminal instead of GUI's. I will also use this program to simulate the Moon/Mars simulate adhering to the fabric for the Dust Mitigation project. My goals for this summer are just to complete preliminary studies of the feasibility of the Shaking Fabric, learn the PFC-2D program, and to complete building and testing the wave propagation experiment.

Thanh, Phi Hung X.↗
NASA NTRS1974

Generation and fluid dynamics of scattering aerosols in laser Doppler velocimetry

An experimental study on the particle-fluid interactions of scattering aerosols was performed using monodisperse aerosols of different particle sizes for the application of laser Doppler velocimeters in subsonic turbulence measurements. Particle response was measured by subjecting the particles to an acoustically excited flow field where the particle Reynolds numbers were controlled to simulate the corresponding values of fluid turbulence. The test aerosols were fairly monodisperse with a mean diameter that could be controlled over the size range from 0.1 to 1.0 micron. Experimental results on the generation of a fairly monodisperse aerosol of solid particles and liquid droplets and on the aerosol response in the frequency range 100 Hz to 100 kHz are presented. The present study indicates that a unit density spherical scatterer of 0.3 micron-diameter would be an optimum choice as tracer particles for subsonic air turbulence measurements.

Mazumder, M. K.↗
NASA NTRS2017

Optimal Transport Based Control of Granular Imaging System in Space

"Orbiting Rainbows” is a paradigm for creating a space-based observatory (telescope) from confined and aligned granular media. The overall objective is to construct a very large and lightweight aperture in space using a cloud of micron-sized particles held in position and aligned by the application of external electromagnetic fields, thus alleviating the extreme expense of deploying and stabilizing large monolithic telescopes by reducing the mass of the primary aperture. Adaptive optics techniques for wavefront stabilization and computational imaging techniques are then used to remove the optical noise from the scattering reflections of the granular medium, and finally producing clean images within the diffraction limit. In this paper, we address one of the key challenges of this new paradigm, namely controlling the position and orientation of the granules or particles so that the cloud of particles achieves the desired shape of an ultra-lightweight telescope and points into the right orientation. A further complication arises due to the fact that the particles do not have any onboard actuators. A number of external electric-field-based actuators are used to control all the particles simultaneously. Moreover, the number of actuators are orders-of-magnitude smaller than the number of particles, making this system largely under-actuated. Since the cloud of particles in any plausible configuration can be modeled as a probability distribution over the workspace, we formulate this control challenge as an optimal transport problem and then show that our optimal transport based control law drives the cloud of particles from any initial distribution to the desired position distribution (optical surface) and angular distribution (polarization state). Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach.

Bandyopadhyay, Saptarshi↗
NASA NTRS1992

Microbeam studies of the sensitivity of structures within living cells

Determining the biological effects of low doses of radiation with high linear energy transfer (LET) is complicated by the stochastic nature of charged-particle interactions. Populations of cells exposed to very low radiation doses contain a few cells which have been hit by a charged particle, while the majority of the cells receive no radiation damage. At somewhat higher doses, a few cells receive two or more events. Because the effects of damage produced by separate events can interact in the cell, we have had to make assumptions about the nature of these interactions in order to interpret the results of the experiments. Many of those assumptions can be tested if we can be sure of the number of charged-particle events which occur in individual cells, and correlate this number with the biological effect. We have developed a special irradiation facility at Pacific Northwest Laboratory (PNL) to control the actual number of charged particle tracks that pass through cell nuclei. The beam from a 2 MeV tandem accelerator is collimated to approximately 5 microns. Cells, grown in special dishes with 1.5 microns thick plastic bottoms, are positioned so that the desired portion of the cell aligns with the collimator. A shutter in the beam line is opened and closed after the desired number of particle tracks has been counted. This approach can be used to investigate the effects of the interaction between irradiated and unirradiated cells in an organized system, as well as to study the effects of spatial and temporal distribution of radiation damage within single cells.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS).

Non-NASA Center↗
NASA NTRS1976

Chemical equilibrium

The entropy of a gas system with the number of particles subject to external control is maximized to derive relations between the thermodynamic variables that obtain at equilibrium. These relations are described in terms of the chemical potential, defined as equivalent partial derivatives of entropy, energy, enthalpy, free energy, or free enthalpy. At equilibrium, the change in total chemical potential must vanish. This fact is used to derive the equilibrium constants for chemical reactions in terms of the partition functions of the species involved in the reaction. Thus the equilibrium constants can be determined accurately, just as other thermodynamic properties, from a knowledge of the energy levels and degeneracies for the gas species involved. These equilibrium constants permit one to calculate the equilibrium concentrations or partial pressures of chemically reacting species that occur in gas mixtures at any given condition of pressure and temperature or volume and temperature.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS2008

Understanding Ice Supersaturation, Particle Growth, and Number Concentration in Cirrus Clouds

Many factors control the ice supersaturation and microphysical properties in cirrus clouds. We explore the effects of dynamic forcing, ice nucleation mechanisms, and ice crystal growth rate on the evolution and distribution of water vapor and cloud properties in nighttime cirrus clouds using a one-dimensional cloud model with bin microphysics and remote sensing measurements obtained at the Department of Energy's Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Climate Research Facility located near Lamont, OK. We forced the model using both large-scale vertical ascent and, for the first time, mean mesoscale velocity derived from radar Doppler velocity measurements. Both heterogeneous and homogeneous nucleation processes are explored, where a classical theory heterogeneous scheme is compared with empirical representations. We evaluated model simulations by examining both bulk cloud properties and distributions of measured radar reflectivity, lidar extinction, and water vapor profiles, as well as retrieved cloud microphysical properties. Our results suggest that mesoscale variability is the primary mechanism needed to reproduce observed quantities. Model sensitivity to the ice growth rate is also investigated. The most realistic simulations as compared with observations are forced using mesoscale waves, include fast ice crystal growth, and initiate ice by either homogeneous or heterogeneous nucleation. Simulated ice crystal number concentrations (tens to hundreds particles per liter) are typically two orders of magnitude smaller than previously published results based on aircraft measurements in cirrus clouds, although higher concentrations are possible in isolated pockets within the nucleation zone.

Comstock, Jennifer M.↗
NASA NTRS2009

Processing circuitry for single channel radiation detector

Processing circuitry is provided for a high voltage operated radiation detector. An event detector utilizes a comparator configured to produce an event signal based on a leading edge threshold value. A preferred event detector does not produce another event signal until a trailing edge threshold value is satisfied. The event signal can be utilized for counting the number of particle hits and also for controlling data collection operation for a peak detect circuit and timer. The leading edge threshold value is programmable such that it can be reprogrammed by a remote computer. A digital high voltage control is preferably operable to monitor and adjust high voltage for the detector.

Holland, Samuel D.↗
NASA NTRS2000

SHIVA (Spaceflight Holography Investigation in a Virtual Apparatus)

This paper provides the description and results of a ground-based experiment designed to support the spaceflight program SHIVA, which started its flight definition in 1998. SHIVA will apply new diagnostic tools and experimental techniques to test the validity of a newly discovered analytical solution to the general equation of motion of a particle in a fluid. We have designed a spaceflight experiment with the help of the theoretical model that is optimized for testing the model, and for measuring g, g-jitter, and other microgravity phenomena. Our ongoing, ground-based particle/fluid experiment supports both the experimental and theoretical aspects of the project. The ultimate spaceflight experiment will be similar to the ground-based experiment. The "virtual spaceflight chamber" concept asserts that certain spaceflight experiments can be recorded in holograms in such a manner that having the holograms on earth is optically equivalent to being back in space with unlimited time to conduct the experiment. Properly exploited, this concept can save a significant amount of experiment time in space by effectively bringing the. experiment optically back to earth. SHIVA will accomplish the following: record a large number of holograms of particle fields in space under controlled conditions, extract the precise, three-dimensional position of all of the particles as a function of time, examine the effects of all parameters on the motion of the particles, and test these against predictions of the Coimbra-Range1 solution to the general equation of motion. Particle sizes will range from hundreds of microns up to about 2 mm in diameter and will cover a range of densities and fluid viscosities. Forcing functions will be introduced onto the particle field, including at least the following: a) No isolation in the Spacelab vibration environment. b) Isolation from Spacelab. c) Oscillatory motion from 1 to 100 Hz with amplitudes of a few millimeters. d) Convective fields to be introduced mechanically. The first objective of this research is to understand the physics of particle interactions with fluids and other particles in low Reynolds number flows in microgravity. Secondary objectives are to: (1) observe and quantify g-jitter effects and microconvection on particles in fluids, (2) validate an exact solution to the general equation of motion of a particle in a fluid, and (3) to characterize'the ability of isolating platforms to isolate experiments containing particles in liquids.

Trolinger, James D.↗
NASA NTRS1999

Investigation of the Influence of Microgravity on Transport Mechanism in a Virtual Spaceflight Chamber: A Flight Definition Program

A need exists for understanding precisely how particles move and interact in a fluid in the absence of gravity. Such understanding is required, for example, for modeling and predicting crystal growth in space where crystals grow from solution around nucleation sites as well as for any study of particles or bubbles in liquids or in experiments where particles are used as tracers for mapping microconvection. We have produced an exact solution to the general equation of motion of particles at extremely low Reynolds number in microgravity that covers a wide range of interesting conditions. We have also developed diagnostic tools and experimental techniques to test the validity of the general equation . This program, which started in May, 1998, will produce the flight definition for an experiment in a microgravity environment of space to validate the theoretical model. We will design an experiment with the help of the theoretical model that is optimized for testing the model, measuring g, g-jitter, and other microgravity phenomena. This paper describes the goals, rational, and approach for the flight definition program. The first objective of this research is to understand the physics of particle interactions with fluids and other particles in low Reynolds number flows in microgravity. Secondary objectives are to (1) observe and quantify g-jitter effects and microconvection on particles in fluids, (2) validate an exact solution to the general equation of motion of a particle in a fluid, and (3) to characterize the ability of isolation tables to isolate experiments containing particle in liquids. The objectives will be achieved by recording a large number of holograms of particle fields in microgravity under controlled conditions, extracting the precise three-dimensional position of all of the particles as a function of time and examining the effects of all parameters on the motion of the particles. The feasibility for achieving these results has already been established in the ongoing ground-based NRA, which led to the "virtual spaceflight chamber" concept.

Trolinger, James D.↗
NASA NTRS2010

Depositing nanometer-sized particles of metals onto carbon allotropes

A process for depositing nanometer-sized metal particles onto a substrate in the absence of aqueous solvents, organic solvents, and reducing agents, and without any required pre-treatment of the substrate, includes preparing an admixture of a metal compound and a substrate by dry mixing a chosen amount of the metal compound with a chosen amount of the substrate; and supplying energy to the admixture in an amount sufficient to deposit zero valance metal particles onto the substrate. This process gives rise to a number of deposited metallic particle sizes which may be controlled. The compositions prepared by this process are used to produce polymer composites by combining them with readily available commodity and engineering plastics. The polymer composites are used as coatings, or they are used to fabricate articles, such as free-standing films, fibers, fabrics, foams, molded and laminated articles, tubes, adhesives, and fiber reinforced articles. These articles are well-suited for many applications requiring thermal conductivity, electrical conductivity, antibacterial activity, catalytic activity, and combinations thereof.

Watson, Kent A.↗
NASA NTRS1979

Flocculation of colloidal sols: Diffusion-controlled vs agitation-induced flocculation

A proposal for carrying out flocculation experiments in microgravity is presented. These experiments might allow a correlation between theory and experiment. First, all particles, whether single primary particles or aggregates of primary particles would not settle or cream at any agitation rate, or even in the absence of agitation. This failure to separate would keep all aggregates active, still serving as centers for diffusion-controlled flocculation. Keeping all particles suspended would allow the possibility of determining the total number of particles as a function of time from beginning to end of flocculation. Finally, the experiments would allow a definite separation diffusion-controlled and agitation-induced flocculation by studying diffusion-controlled flocculation with and without agitation.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1972

Response of convectively controlled burning to nonlinear disturbances.

A process where energy release rate is proportional to the square root of the Reynolds number of a burning particle or surface is used to demonstrate some distinctive dynamic properties of a disturbed convectively controlled burning process. The instantaneous energy release rates caused by assumed periodic flow field disturbances are numerically evaluated and examined. Correlation coefficients which express the energy released in-phase with the pressure disturbance are evaluated and analytical solutions for these coefficients are derived. The response of the process is shown to be highly sensitive to the harmonic distortion of the disturbance. For some disturbances the energy released in-phase with the pressure disturbance is an order of magnitude larger than that for linear (sinusoidal) disturbances. The results show that harmonic distortion increases the coupling between the burning process and the flow field. This amplifying effect of harmonic distortion is suppressed when a disturbance becomes steep-fronted; therefore, steepening can act to limit the equilibrium amplitudes in disturbed systems. Amplification is also suppressed when the velocity disturbance is phase shifted with respect to the pressure disturbance or when the process is exposed to a high steady velocity.

Heidmann, M. F.↗
NASA NTRS2016

What Controls the Vertical Distribution of Aerosol? Relationships Between Process Sensitivity in HadGEM3-UKCA and Inter-Model Variation from AeroCom Phase II

The vertical profile of aerosol is important for its radiative effects, but weakly constrained by observations on the global scale, and highly variable among different models. To investigate the controlling factors in one particular model, we investigate the effects of individual processes in HadGEM3-UKCA and compare the resulting diversity of aerosol vertical profiles with the inter-model diversity from the AeroCom Phase II control experiment. In this way we show that (in this model at least) the vertical profile is controlled by a relatively small number of processes, although these vary among aerosol components and particle sizes. We also show that sufficiently coarse variations in these processes can produce a similar diversity to that among different models in terms of the global-mean profile and, to a lesser extent, the zonal-mean vertical position. However, there are features of certain models' profiles that cannot be reproduced, suggesting the influence of further structural differences between models. In HadGEM3-UKCA, convective transport is found to be very important in controlling the vertical profile of all aerosol components by mass. In-cloud scavenging is very important for all except mineral dust. Growth by condensation is important for sulfate and carbonaceous aerosol (along with aqueous oxidation for the former and ageing by soluble material for the latter). The vertical extent of biomass-burning emissions into the free troposphere is also important for the profile of carbonaceous aerosol. Boundary-layer mixing plays a dominant role for sea salt and mineral dust, which are emitted only from the surface. Dry deposition and below-cloud scavenging are important for the profile of mineral dust only. In this model, the microphysical processes of nucleation, condensation and coagulation dominate the vertical profile of the smallest particles by number (e.g. total CN >3 nm), while the profiles of larger particles (e.g. CN>100 nm) are controlled by the same processes as the component mass profiles, plus the size distribution of primary emissions. We also show that the processes that affect the AOD-normalised radiative forcing in the model are predominantly those that affect the vertical mass distribution, in particular convective transport, in-cloud scavenging, aqueous oxidation, ageing and the vertical extent of biomass-burning emissions.

dust↗
NASA NTRS2011

Validation and Simulation of Ares I Scale Model Acoustic Test - 3 - Modeling and Evaluating the Effect of Rainbird Water Deluge Inclusion

The Ares I Scale Model Acoustics Test (ASMAT) is a series of live-fire tests of scaled rocket motors meant to simulate the conditions of the Ares I launch configuration. These tests have provided a well documented set of high fidelity measurements useful for validation including data taken over a range of test conditions and containing phenomena like Ignition Over-Pressure and water suppression of acoustics. Building on dry simulations of the ASMAT tests with the vehicle at 5 ft. elevation (100 ft. real vehicle elevation), wet simulations of the ASMAT test setup have been performed using the Loci/CHEM computational fluid dynamics software to explore the effect of rainbird water suppression inclusion on the launch platform deck. Two-phase water simulation has been performed using an energy and mass coupled lagrangian particle system module where liquid phase emissions are segregated into clouds of virtual particles and gas phase mass transfer is accomplished through simple Weber number controlled breakup and boiling models. Comparisons have been performed to the dry 5 ft. elevation cases, using configurations with and without launch mounts. These cases have been used to explore the interaction between rainbird spray patterns and launch mount geometry and evaluate the acoustic sound pressure level knockdown achieved through above-deck rainbird deluge inclusion. This comparison has been anchored with validation from live-fire test data which showed a reduction in rainbird effectiveness with the presence of a launch mount.

Strutzenberg, Louise L.↗
NASA NTRS1995

Solar Particle Induced Upsets in the TDRS-1 Attitude Control System RAM During the October 1989 Solar Particle Events

The three large solar particle events, beginning on October 19, 1989 and lasting approximately six days, were characterized by high fluences of solar protons and heavy ions at 1 AU. During these events, an abnormally large number of upsets (243) were observed in the random access memory of the attitude control system (ACS) control processing electronics (CPE) on-board the geosynchronous TDRS-1 (Telemetry and Data Relay Satellite). The RAM unit affected was composed of eight Fairchild 93L422 memory chips. The Galileo spacecraft, launched on October 18, 1989 (one day prior to the solar particle events) observed the fluxes of heavy ions experienced by TDRS-1. Two solid-state detector telescopes on-board Galileo, designed to measure heavy ion species and energy, were turned on during time periods within each of the three separate events. The heavy ion data have been modeled and the time history of the events reconstructed to estimate heavy ion fluences. These fluences were converted to effective LET spectra after transport through the estimated shielding distribution around the TDRS-1 ACS system. The number of single event upsets (SEU) expected was calculated by integrating the measured cross section for the Fairchild 93L422 memory chip with average effective LET spectrum. The expected number of heavy ion induced SEU's calculated was 176. GOES-7 proton data, observed during the solar particle events, were used to estimate the number of proton-induced SEU's by integrating the proton fluence spectrum incident on the memory chips, with the two-parameter Bendel cross section for proton SEU'S. The proton fluence spectrum at the device level was gotten by transporting the protons through the estimated shielding distribution. The number of calculated proton-induced SEU's was 72, yielding a total of 248 predicted SEU'S, very dose to the 243 observed SEU'S. These calculations uniquely demonstrate the roles that solar heavy ions and protons played in the production of SEU's during the October 1989 solar particle events.

Croley, D. R.↗
NASA NTRS1978

The dynamics and control of large flexible space structures. Part A: Discrete model and modal control

Attitude control techniques for the pointing and stabilization of very large, inherently flexible spacecraft systems were investigated. The attitude dynamics and control of a long, homogeneous flexible beam whose center of mass is assumed to follow a circular orbit was analyzed. First order effects of gravity gradient were included. A mathematical model which describes the system rotations and deflections within the orbital plane was developed by treating the beam as a number of discretized mass particles connected by massless, elastic structural elements. The uncontrolled dynamics of the system are simulated and, in addition, the effects of the control devices were considered. The concept of distributed modal control, which provides a means for controlling a system mode independently of all other modes, was examined. The effect of varying the number of modes in the model as well as the number and location of the control devices were also considered.

Bainum, P. M.↗