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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 19 records

Theory of thin screen scintillations for a spherical wave

A thin screen scintillation theory for a spherical wave is presented under the 'quasi-optical' approximation. We calculate the 'scattering angle', the 'observed angle', the intensity correlation function and the temporal pulse broadening for the random wave. It is found that as the wave propagates outward away from the phase screen, the correlation scale of the intensity fluctuation increases linearly while the 'observed angle' decreases linearly. The calculations are carried out for both Gaussian and power-law spectra of the turbulent medium.

Lee, L. C.↗

Coherent scattering of a spherical wave from an irregular surface

The scattering of a spherical wave from a rough surface using the Kirchhoff approximation is considered. An expression representing the measured coherent scattering coefficient is derived. It is shown that the sphericity of the wavefront and the antenna pattern can become an important factor in the interpretation of ground-based measurements. The condition under which the coherent scattering-coefficient expression reduces to that corresponding to a plane wave incidence is given. The condition under which the result reduces to the standard image solution is also derived. In general, the consideration of antenna pattern and sphericity is unimportant unless the surface-height standard deviation is small, i.e., unless the coherent scattering component is significant. An application of the derived coherent backscattering coefficient together with the existing incoherent scattering coefficient to interpret measurements from concrete and asphalt surfaces is shown.

Fung, A. K.↗

Theory of thin-screen scintillations for a spherical wave

A thin-screen scintillation theory for a spherical wave is presented under the 'quasi-optical' approximation. The 'scattering angle', the 'observed angle', the intensity correlation function, and the temporal pulse broadening are calculated for the random wave. It is found that as the wave propagates outward away from the phase screen, the correlation scale of the intensity fluctuation increases linearly while the 'observed angle' decreases linearly. The calculations are carried out for both Gaussian and power-law spectra of the turbulent medium. The results are applied to an analysis of the scattering data for the Crab Nebula's radiation.

Lee, L. C.↗

Numerical check on the accuracy of spherical-wave expansions.

A simple and sensitive test for evaluating the numerical accuracy of a spherical-wave expansion is presented. The basic idea is to compare two different expansions of the same electromagnetic field, computed with respect to different coordinate origins. The use of the technique is illustrated by an example based on the experimental pattern of a horn antenna.

Ludwig, A. C.↗

Contoured patterns from reflector systems - A spherical wave expansion solution

Any electromagnetic field - e.g., a contoured antenna pattern may be expanded into a sum of spherical waves, similar to a one-dimensional Fourier expansion. This expanded wave could then be scattered from a source reflector to determine a resulting required feed field in the vicinity of the focal region. This is of questionable value, and the more significant information to produce would be the required feed pattern itself. Hence the required contour pattern is instead scattered from the back of the reflector, and the result is the required feed pattern with origin at the focus of the chosen reflector.

Williams, W. F.↗

Reflectarray Demonstrated to Transform Spherical Waves into Plane Waves

The development of low-cost, high-efficiency array antennas has been the research focus of NASA Lewis Research Center's Communications Technology Division for the past 15 years. One area of current interest is reflectarray development. Reflectarrays have generally been used to replace reflector antennas. In this capacity, different configurations (such as prime focus and offset) and various applications (such as dual frequency and scanning) have been demonstrated with great success. One potential application that has not been explored previously is the use of reflectarrays to compensate for phase errors in space-power-combining applications, such as a space-fed lens and power-combining amplifiers. Recently, we experimentally investigated the feasibility of using a reflectarray as an alternative to a dielectric lens for such applications. The experiment involved transforming the spherical waves from an orthomode horn to plane waves at the horn aperture. The reflectarray consists of square patches terminated in open stubs to provide the necessary phase compensation.

Zaman, Afrosz J.↗

Investigation of Spherical-Wave-Initiated Flow Fields Around Bodies

Measurements of the velocity flow fields and vortex movements have been made about various simple blunt models undergoing spherical blast waves with a positive overpressure of 4 pounds per square inch. A bullet-optical method was used to determine flow velocities and is applied to velocity fields in which the gradients are largely normal to the free-stream direction. The velocity flow fields are shown at various flow times following passage of the blast front for different models. Vortex movements with time are compared for square-bar models of various aspect ratios. Corner sharpness had no discernible effect on the overall disturbed velocity fields or vortex movements for the square-box models used.

McFarland, Donald R.↗