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At least 19 records

Liquid Crystalline Thermosets from Ester, Ester-Imide, and Ester-Amide Oligomers

Main chain thermotropic liquid crystal esters, ester-imides, and ester-amides were prepared from AA, BB, and AB type monomeric materials and were end-capped with phenylacetylene, phenylmaleimide, or nadimide reactive end-groups. The resulting reactive end-capped liquid crystal oligomers exhibit a variety of improved and preferred physical properties. The end-capped liquid crystal oligomers are thermotropic and have, preferably, molecular weights in the range of approximately 1000-15,OOO grams per mole. The end-capped liquid crystal oligomers have broad liquid crystalline melting ranges and exhibit high melt stability and very low melt viscosities at accessible temperatures. The end-capped liquid crystal oligomers are stable for up to an hour in the melt phase. These properties make the end-capped liquid crystal oligomers highly processable by a variety of melt process shape forming and blending techniques including film extrusion, fiber spinning, reactive injection molding (RIM), resin transfer molding (RTM), resin film injection (RFI), powder molding, pultrusion, injection molding, blow molding, plasma spraying and thermo-forming. Once processed and shaped, the end- capped liquid crystal oligomers were heated to further polymerize and form liquid crystalline thermosets (LCT). The fully cured products are rubbers above their glass transition temperatures. The resulting thermosets display many properties that are superior to their non-end-capped high molecular weight analogs.

Theodornus J Dingemans↗

Liquid crystalline thermosets from ester, ester-imide, and ester-amide oligomers

Main chain thermotropic liquid crystal esters, ester-imides, and ester-amides were prepared from AA, BB, and AB type monomeric materials and were end-capped with phenylacetylene, phenylmaleimide, or nadimide reactive end-groups. The resulting reactive end-capped liquid crystal oligomers exhibit a variety of improved and preferred physical properties. The end-capped liquid crystal oligomers are thermotropic and have, preferably, molecular weights in the range of approximately 1000-15,000 grams per mole. The end-capped liquid crystal oligomers have broad liquid crystalline melting ranges and exhibit high melt stability and very low melt viscosities at accessible temperatures. The end-capped liquid crystal oligomers are stable for up to an hour in the melt phase. These properties make the end-capped liquid crystal oligomers highly processable by a variety of melt process shape forming and blending techniques including film extrusion, fiber spinning, reactive injection molding (RIM), resin transfer molding (RTM), resin film injection (RFI), powder molding, pultrusion, injection molding, blow molding, plasma spraying and thermo-forming. Once processed and shaped, the end-capped liquid crystal oligomers were heated to further polymerize and form liquid crystalline thermosets (LCT). The fully cured products are rubbers above their glass transition temperatures. The resulting thermosets display many properties that are superior to their non-end-capped high molecular weight analogs.

Dingemans, Theodorous J.↗

Electron-Spin Filters Based on the Rashba Effect

Semiconductor electron-spin filters of a proposed type would be based on the Rashba effect, which is described briefly below. Electron-spin filters more precisely, sources of spin-polarized electron currents have been sought for research on, and development of, the emerging technological discipline of spintronics (spin-based electronics). There have been a number of successful demonstrations of injection of spin-polarized electrons from diluted magnetic semiconductors and from ferromagnetic metals into nonmagnetic semiconductors. In contrast, a device according to the proposal would be made from nonmagnetic semiconductor materials and would function without an applied magnetic field. The Rashba effect, named after one of its discoverers, is an energy splitting, of what would otherwise be degenerate quantum states, caused by a spin-orbit interaction in conjunction with a structural-inversion asymmetry in the presence of interfacial electric fields in a semiconductor heterostructure. The magnitude of the energy split is proportional to the electron wave number. The present proposal evolved from recent theoretical studies that suggested the possibility of devices in which electron energy states would be split by the Rashba effect and spin-polarized currents would be extracted by resonant quantum-mechanical tunneling. Accordingly, a device according to the proposal would be denoted an asymmetric resonant interband tunneling diode [a-RITD]. An a-RITD could be implemented in a variety of forms, the form favored in the proposal being a double-barrier heterostructure containing an asymmetric quantum well. It is envisioned that a-RITDs would be designed and fabricated in the InAs/GaSb/AlSb material system for several reasons: Heterostructures in this material system are strong candidates for pronounced Rashba spin splitting because InAs and GaSb exhibit large spin-orbit interactions and because both InAs and GaSb would be available for the construction of highly asymmetric quantum wells. This mate-rial system affords a variety of energy-band alignments that can be exploited to obtain resonant tunneling and other desired effects. The no-common-atom InAs/GaSb and InAs/AlSb interfaces would present opportunities for engineering interface potentials for optimizing Rashba spin splitting.

Ting, David Z.-Y.↗

POLAR 5 - An electron accelerator experiment within an aurora. III - Evidence for significant spacecraft charging by an electron accelerator at ionospheric altitudes

The POLAR 5 rocket experiment carried an electron accelerator on a 'daughter' payload which injected a 0.1 A beam of 10 keV electrons in a pulsed mode every 410 ms. With spin and precession, injections were made over a wide range of pitch angles. Measurements from a double probe electric field instrument and from particle detectors on the 'mother' payload and from a crude RPA on the 'daughter' payload are interpreted to indicate that the 'daughter' charges to a potential between several hundred volts and 1 kV. The neutralizing return current to the 'daughter' is shown to be asymmetrically distributed with the majority being collected from the direction of the beam. The additional electrons necessary to neutralize the daughter are thought to be produced and heated through beam-plasma interactions postulated by Maehlum et al. (1980) and Grandal et al. (1980) to explain the particle and optical measurements. Significant electric fields emanating from the charged 'daughter' and the beam are seen at distances exceeding 100 m at the 'mother' payload.

Jacobsen, T. A.↗

A geometric model of a V-slit Sun sensor correcting for spacecraft wobble

A V-Slit sun sensor is body-mounted on a spin-stabilized spacecraft. During injection from a parking or transfer orbit to some final orbit, the spacecraft may not be dynamically balanced. This may result in wobble about the spacecraft spin axis as the spin axis may not be aligned with the spacecraft's axis of symmetry. While the widely used models in Spacecraft Attitude Determination and Control, edited by Wertz, correct for separation, elevation, and azimuthal mounting biases, spacecraft wobble is not taken into consideration. A geometric approach is used to develop a method for measurement of the sun angle which corrects for the magnitude and phase of spacecraft wobble. The algorithm was implemented using a set of standard mathematical routines for spherical geometry on a unit sphere.

Mcmartin, W. P.↗

Large Deployable Antenna Shuttle Experiment

An experiment designed to use the Space Shuttle in tests of the mechanical and electrical properties of spaceborne deployable antennas under zero-gravity conditions is outlined. Space-erectable 20-meter diameter phased arrays or reflector/feed systems, and self-deploying mechanisms, are to be tested. Reflector surface integrity will be tested by an AM laser technique, and electrical behavior will be tested by a spin-stabilized RF beacon injected into orbit prior to unfurlment of the antenna. Focusing and gain measurements, static pattern measurements, dynamic RF gain measurements, and measurements of cross-polarized signals will be conducted, and the reflector will be illuminated by separate feeds for the S-, X-, and K-bands. Mechanical features of the mesh-wrapped rib furlable antenna design are described.

Freeland, R. E.↗

A Long-Lived Neutron Star Merger Remnant in GW170817: Constraints and Clues from X-ray Observations

Multimessenger observations of GW170817 have not conclusively established whether the merger remnant is a black hole (BH) or a neutron star (NS). We show that a long-lived magnetized NS with a poloidal field B ≈ 1012 G is fully consistent with the electromagnetic dataset, when spin-down losses are dominated by gravitational wave (GW) emission. The required ellipticity ε >~ 10−5 can result from a toroidal magnetic field component much stronger than the poloidal component, a configuration expected from an NS newly formed from a merger. Abrupt magnetic dissipation of the toroidal component can lead to the appearance of X-ray flares, analogous to the one observed in gamma-ray burst (GRB) afterglows. In the X-ray afterglow of GW170817, we identify a low-significance (>~3σ) temporal feature at 155 d, consistent with a sudden reactivation of the central NS. Energy injection from the NS spin-down into the relativistic shock is negligible, and the underlying continuum is fully accounted for by a structured jet seen off-axis. Whereas radio and optical observations probe the interaction of this jet with the surrounding medium, observations at X-ray wavelengths, performed with adequate sampling, open a privileged window on to the merger remnant.

gravitational waves↗

Gas-injection-start and shutdown characteristics of a 2-kilowatt to 15-kilowatt Brayton power system

Two methods of starting the Brayton power system have been considered: (1) using the alternator as a motor to spin the Brayton rotating unit (BRU), and (2) spinning the BRU by forced gas injection. The first method requires the use of an auxiliary electrical power source. An alternating voltage is applied to the terminals of the alternator to drive it as an induction motor. Only gas-injection starts are discussed in this report. The gas-injection starting method requires high-pressure gas storage and valves to route the gas flow to provide correct BRU rotation. An analog computer simulation was used to size hardware and to determine safe start and shutdown procedures. The simulation was also used to define the range of conditions for successful startups. Experimental data were also obtained under various test conditions. These data verify the validity of the start and shutdown procedures.

Cantoni, D. A.↗

Non-Equilibrium Superconductivity and Magnetic Pair Breaking in Perovskite Half-Metallic Ferromagnet-Insulator-Superconductor (F-I-S) Heterostructures

The effect of spin-polarized quasiparticle currents on the critical current density (J-c) of cuprate superconductors is studied in perovskite F-I-S heterostructures as a function of insulator thickness and of underlying magnetic materials. A pulsed current technique is employed to minimize extraneous Joule heating on the superconductor. At temperatures near T-c, F-I-S samples with insulator thicknesses\1e2nm show precipitous decrease in J_c as current injection (I_m) is increased. In contrast, J_c in a controlled sample with a substituted non-magnetic material (N-I-S) exhibit no dependence on I_m. Similarly, a F-I-S sample with a 10 mn insulating barrier also show little J_c effect versus I_m. At low temperatures with I_m = 0, significant suppression of J-c is observed only in the thin barrier F-I-S samples, although T_c and the normal-state resistivity of all samples are comparable. These phenomena can be attributed to the Cooper pair breaking induced by externally-injected and internally-reflected spin-polarized quasiparticle currents. We estimate an order of magnitude range for the spin diffusion length of 100 nm to 100\ mum.

Fu, C.-C.↗

Spin Start Line Effects on the J2X Gas Generator Chamber Acoustics

The J2X Gas Generator engine design has a spin start line connected near to the turbine inlet vanes. This line provides helium during engine startup to begin turbomachinery operation. The spin start line also acts as an acoustic side branch which alters the chamber's acoustic modes. The side branch effectively creates 'split modes' in the chamber longitudinal modes, in particular below the first longitudinal mode and within the frequency range associated with the injection-coupled response of the Gas Generator. Interaction between the spin start-modified chamber acoustics and the injection-driven response can create a higher system response than without the spin start attached to the chamber. This work reviews the acoustic effects of the spin start line as seen throughout the workhorse gas generator test program. A simple impedance model of the spin start line is reviewed. Tests were run with no initial spin start gas existing in the line, as well as being initially filled with nitrogen gas. Tests were also run with varying spin start line lengths from 0" to 40". Acoustic impedance changes due to different spin start gas constituents and line lengths are shown. Collected thermocouple and static pressure data in the spin start line was used to help estimate the fluid properties along the line length. The side branch impedance model was coupled to a chamber impedance model to show the effects on the overall chamber response. Predictions of the spin start acoustic behavior for helium operation are shown and compared against available data.

Kenny, R. Jeremy↗

Progress in ceramic component fabrication technology

Net shape techniques have been used in the production of rotating and static vehicular engine high-temperature components composed of sintered Alpha-SiC (SASC). Injection-molded rotors have been cold spin tested, as well as a slip-cast combustor assembly hot rig. SASC pistons and cylinder liners have also been constructed for an opposed piston, two-cycle diesel test rig while test results are presented. An uncooled, minimum-friction internal combustion engine with multi-fuel capability due to its elevated combustion temperatures appears to be achievable in the near term by means of SASC techniques. The flexural strength of SASC at 1500 C is 446 MPa, identical to that at room temperature, and excellent strength retention has been demonstrated after 3500 hours of cyclic exposure.

Storm, R. S.↗