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Results for “REENTRY PHYSICS”

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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14 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2017

Advanced Technology and Mitigation (ATDM) SPARC Re-Entry Code Fiscal Year 2017 Progress and Accomplishments for ECP.

The SPARC (Sandia Parallel Aerodynamics and Reentry Code) will provide nuclear weapon qualification evidence for the random vibration and thermal environments created by re-entry of a warhead into the earth’s atmosphere. SPARC incorporates the innovative approaches of ATDM projects on several fronts including: effective harnessing of heterogeneous compute nodes using Kokkos, exascale-ready parallel scalability through asynchronous multi-tasking, uncertainty quantification through Sacado integration, implementation of state-of-the-art reentry physics and multiscale models, use of advanced verification and validation methods, and enabling of improved workflows for users. SPARC is being developed primarily for the Department of Energy nuclear weapon program, with additional development and use of the code is being supported by the Department of Defense for conventional weapons programs.

45 MILITARY TECHNOLOGY, WEAPONRY, AND NATIONAL DEF↗
DOE OSTI2020

Four metrics

A central idea in general relativity is that physics should not depend on the spacetime coordinates in use. But the qualitative description of various phenomena can appear superficially quite different. Furthermore, we consider falling into a classical black hole using four distinct but equivalent metrics. First is the Schwarzschild case, with extreme time dilation at the horizon. Second, rescaling the dilation allows falling into the hole in finite proper time. Third, time and space are rescaled into a Penrose motivated picture where light trajectories all have unit slope. Fourth, a white hole variation of the second metric allows passage out through the horizon, with reentry forbidden.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Code-verification techniques for hypersonic reacting flows in thermochemical nonequilibrium

The study of hypersonic flows and their underlying aerothermochemical reactions is particularly important in the design and analysis of vehicles exiting and reentering Earth's atmosphere. Computational physics codes can be employed to simulate these phenomena; however, code verification of these codes is necessary to certify their credibility. To date, few approaches have been presented for verifying codes that simulate hypersonic flows, especially flows reacting in thermochemical nonequilibrium. In this work, we present our code-verification techniques for verifying the spatial accuracy and thermochemical source term in hypersonic reacting flows in thermochemical nonequilibrium. Additionally, we demonstrate the effectiveness of these techniques on the Sandia Parallel Aerodynamics and Reentry Code (SPARC).

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2022

High-Speed Diagnostic and Simulation Capabilities for Reacting Hypersonic Reentry Flows (LDRD Final Report)

High-enthalpy hypersonic flight represents an application space of significant concern within the current national-security landscape. The hypersonic environment is characterized by high-speed compressible fluid mechanics and complex reacting flow physics, which may present both thermal and chemical nonequilibrium effects. We report on the results of a three-year LDRD effort, funded by the Engineering Sciences Research Foundation (ESRF) investment area, which has been focused on the development and deployment of new high-speed thermochemical diagnostics capabilities for measurements in the high-enthalpy hypersonic environment posed by Sandia's free-piston shock tunnel. The project has additionally sponsored model development efforts, which have added thermal nonequilibrium modeling capabilities to Sandia codes for subsequent design of many of our shock-tunnel experiments. We have cultivated high-speed, chemically specific, laser-diagnostic approaches that are uniquely co-located with Sandia's high-enthalpy hypersonic test facilities. These tools include picosecond and nanosecond coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering at 100-kHz rates for time-resolved thermometry, including thermal nonequilibrium conditions, and 100-kHz planar laser-induced fluorescence of nitric oxide for chemically specific imaging and velocimetry. Key results from this LDRD project have been documented in a number of journal submissions and conference proceedings, which are cited here. The body of this report is, therefore, concise and summarizes the key results of the project. The reader is directed toward these reference materials and appendices for more detailed discussions of the project results and findings.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2023

Revisiting Reentry Roll Resonance

Here, this paper revisits the subject of reentry roll resonance, which occurs when the roll rate and pitch frequency become equal in a spinning reentry vehicle. A first-principles model is developed and analyzed numerically and by using a reduced-order pendulum model for the relative phase of the roll and pitch/yaw axes. The results show good qualitative agreement with recent flight data and provide a natural physical interpretation. Based on the model it is suggested that sustained roll resonance depends primarily on the initial phase relationship between the pitch and roll axes, in addition to the vehicle moments of inertia and the vehicle symmetry. Finally the model is used to propose a mechanism for sustained resonance in vehicles spinning about a major axis, a condition previously thought to be forbidden.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗
DOE OSTI2026

Evidence of Recent Material Transport within a Binary Asteroid System

Images acquired by the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) before its impact into Dimorphos—the moon of the Didymos binary asteroid system—unexpectedly reveal a set of discontinuous rays spanning the imaged surface. These albedo features are visible only after correcting for lighting differences, which normalize the effects of the pervasive boulders that cover the surface. Comparison to physical experiments and numerical simulations shows that these bright, fan-shaped albedo features are consistent with the aftermath of a low-velocity impact into a field of boulders and provide our first direct evidence for the transfer of material in a binary asteroid system due to the shedding material from radiative torques. Parts of these and possible additional albedo markings from the reentry of boulders after the DART impact may be visible to the Hera mission when it explores the post-DART Didymos system.

Astronomy and AstroPhysics↗
DOE OSTI2022

Modeling rarefied gas chemistry with QuiPS, a novel quasi-particle method

The goal of this work is to build up the capability of quasi-particle simulation (QuiPS), a novel flow solver, such that it can adequately model the rarefied portion of an atmospheric reentry trajectory. Direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) is the conventional solver for such conditions, but struggles to resolve transient flows, trace species, and high-level internal energy states due to stochastic noise. Quasi-particle simulation (QuiPS) is a novel Boltzmann solver that describes a system with a discretized, truncated velocity distribution function. The resulting fixed-velocity, variable weight quasi-particles enable smooth variation of macroscopic properties. The distribution function description enables the use of a variance-reduced collision model, greatly minimizing expense near equilibrium. This work presents the addition of a neutral air chemistry model to QuiPS and some demonstrative 0D simulations. The explicit representation of internal distributions in QuiPS reveals some of the flaws in existing physics models. Overall, variance reduction, a key feature of QuiPS, can greatly reduce expense of multi-dimensional calculations, but is only cheaper when the gas composition is near chemical equilibrium.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2017

Gravitational wave signatures of inflationary models from Primordial Black Hole dark matter

Primordial Black Holes (PBH) could be the cold dark matter of the universe. They could have arisen from large (order one) curvature fluctuations produced during inflation that reentered the horizon in the radiation era. At reentry, these fluctuations source gravitational waves (GW) via second order anisotropic stresses. These GW, together with those (possibly) sourced during inflation by the same mechanism responsible for the large curvature fluctuations, constitute a primordial stochastic GW background (SGWB) that unavoidably accompanies the PBH formation. We study how the amplitude and the range of frequencies of this signal depend on the statistics (Gaussian versus χ{sup 2}) of the primordial curvature fluctuations, and on the evolution of the PBH mass function due to accretion and merging. We then compare this signal with the sensitivity of present and future detectors, at PTA and LISA scales. We find that this SGWB will help to probe, or strongly constrain, the early universe mechanism of PBH production. The comparison between the peak mass of the PBH distribution and the peak frequency of this SGWB will provide important information on the merging and accretion evolution of the PBH mass distribution from their formation to the present era. Different assumptions on the statistics and on the PBH evolution also result in different amounts of CMB μ-distortions. Therefore the above results can be complemented by the detection (or the absence) of μ-distortions with an experiment such as PIXIE.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2018

Introduction to the Special Section on Ab Initio Approaches for Nonequilibrium Flows

Modeling of chemical and ionization reactions at the extreme conditions of upper-atmosphere hypersonic flow has been critical for spacecraft design from the Apollo era to the present because chemical activity in the flow reduces heat transfer. Nitrogen, which behaves as an inert gas in ambient flows, becomes chemically active under conditions of hypersonic reentry (-10,000 K). Atmospheric chemical reactions during hypersonic reentry are dominated by dissociation of diatomic nitrogen and oxygen molecules and exchange reactions involving diatomic molecules and single atoms. At higher temperatures, ionization also occurs.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2023

Space Launch Authorities

This report identifies current best understanding of federal agencies that are responsible for the safe transportation and handling of nuclear materials during various phases of space launch activities and how they interact. It explores the following questions: (1) Which federal agencies have roles, responsibilities, and statutory authorities related to the launch, orbit, and reentry of nuclear materials and components? (2) What relevant current/recent activities are those federal agencies involved in?

98 NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT, SAFEGUARDS, AND PHYSICAL P↗
DOE OSTI2026

Benchmarking Cylindrical Blast Wave Theory Against the OSIRIS-REx Sample Return Capsule Reentry

Weak shock theory based on cylindrical blast waves has been used to interpret meteor infrasound, but it has not been systematically benchmarked against a non-ablating hypersonic source with independently known parameters. The objective of this study is not to propose a new theoretical framework, but to evaluate the operational validity of the existing suite of blast radius formulations against a high-fidelity ground truth dataset. The OSIRIS-REx Sample Return Capsule reentry on 24 September 2023 provides such a benchmark because the capsule geometry, trajectory, and infrasound emission points are constrained from mission data and ray tracing, reducing source-side uncertainty associated with ablation. Using observations from 39 infrasound stations, this benchmarking study evaluates six published blast radius (${R}_{0}$ ) formulations and three weak-shock transition coefficients ( C ) within a stratified atmospheric propagation model to predict signal period and peak overpressure. The benchmarking identifies the Sakurai formulation as the best-performing formulation for non-ablating bodies, with the Jones/Plooster formulation performing comparably when a physically appropriate C is adopted. Sakurai and Jones/Plooster yield linear-period median absolute percentage residuals of 9% and 11%, respectively. The period predictions show only weak sensitivity to C at these propagation distances. The Mach-diameter approximation commonly used in meteor studies overestimates ${R}_{0}$ by more than a factor of 3 in the absence of ablation. Finally, these results establish a performance baseline for applying cylindrical blast wave theory to effectively non-ablating hypersonic bodies and demonstrate that the signal period is a robust observable for constraining ${R}_{0}$.

atmospheric entry↗
DOE OSTI2021

Imaging antiferromagnetic domain fluctuations and the effect of atomic scale disorder in a doped spin-orbit Mott insulator

Correlated oxides can exhibit complex magnetic patterns. Understanding how magnetic domains form in the presence of disorder and their robustness to temperature variations has been of particular interest, but atomic scale insight has been limited. We use spin-polarized scanning tunneling microscopy to image the evolution of spin-resolved modulations originating from antiferromagnetic (AF) ordering in a spin-orbit Mott insulator perovskite iridate Sr 3 Ir 2 O 7 as a function of chemical composition and temperature. We find that replacing only several percent of lanthanum for strontium leaves behind nanometer-scale AF puddles clustering away from lanthanum substitutions preferentially located in the middle strontium oxide layer. Thermal erasure and reentry into the low-temperature ground state leads to a spatial reorganization of the AF puddles, which nevertheless maintain scale-invariant fractal geometry in each configuration. Our experiments reveal multiple stable AF configurations at low temperature and shed light onto spatial fluctuations of the AF order around atomic scale disorder in electron-doped Sr 3 Ir 2 O 7 .

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2018

Plasma Parameters From Reentry Signal Attenuation

This study presents the application of a theoretically developed method that provides plasma parameter solution space information from measured RF attenuation that occurs during reentry. The purpose is to provide reentry plasma parameter information from the communication signal attenuation. The theoretical development centers around the attenuation and the complex index of refraction. The methodology uses an imaginary index of the refraction matching algorithm with a tolerance to find suitable solutions that satisfy the theory. The imaginary matching terms are then used to determine the real index of refraction resulting in the complex index of refraction. Then a filter is used to reject nonphysical solutions. Signal attenuation-based plasma parameter properties investigated include the complex index of refraction, plasma frequency, electron density, collision frequency, propagation constant, attenuation constant, phase constant, complex plasma conductivity, and electron mobility. RF plasma thickness attenuation is investigated and compared to the literature. Finally, similar plasma thickness for a specific signal attenuation can have different plasma properties.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2020

Dynamics of Cation-Induced Conformational Changes in Nanometer-Sized Uranyl Peroxide Clusters

Conformational changes of the pyrophosphate (Pp)-functionalized uranyl peroxide nanocluster [(UO 2 ) 24 (O 2 ) 24 (P 2 O 7 ) 12 ] 48– ({U 24 Pp 12 }), dissolved as a Li/Na salt, can be induced by the titration of alkali cations into solution. The most symmetric conformer of the molecule has idealized octahedral ( O h ) molecular symmetry. One-dimensional 31 P NMR experiments provide direct evidence that both K + and Rb + ions trigger an O h -to- D 4 h conformational change within {U 24 Pp 12 }. Variable-temperature 31 P NMR experiments conducted on partially titrated {U 24 Pp 12 } systems show an effect on the rates; increased activation enthalpy and entropy for the D 4 h -to- O h transition is observed in the presence of Rb + compared to K + . Two-dimensional, exchange spectroscopy 31 P NMR revealed that magnetization transfer links chemically unique Pp bridges that are present in the D 4 h conformation and that this magnetization transfer occurs via a conformational rearrangement mechanism as the bridges interconvert between two symmetries. The interconversion is triggered by the departure and reentry of K (or Rb) cations out of and into the cavity of the cluster. This rearrangement allows Pp bridges to interconvert without the need to break bonds. Cs ions exhibit unique interactions with {U 24 Pp 12 } clusters and cause only minor changes in the solution 31 P NMR signatures, suggesting that O h symmetry is conserved. Single-crystal X-ray diffraction measurements reveal that the mixed Li/Na/Cs salt adopts D 2 h molecular symmetry, implying that while solvated, this cluster is in equilibrium with a more symmetric form. Thus, these results highlight the unusually flexible nature of the actinide-based {U 24 Pp 12 } and its sensitivity to countercations in solution.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗