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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

Comparing Ice Jam Hindcasting Models with Tree Scar Data

Hindcasting models can use historic ice jam observations and hydroclimatic data to identify conditions that form ice jams.However, historic ice jam records are often sparse or incomplete. New sources of historic ice jam data could improve hindcasting models, leading to better ice jam forecasting and flood warning systems. Because ice jams damage riparian trees, marker rings associated with historic scars include information about ice jam frequency and severity. This study examined marker rings from 56 trees along the Muskegon River to supplement the historic ice jam data on this system. The study team compared tree ring data to results from hindcasting models, which were independently validated with newspaper reports on 1,500 separate days. Logistic regression converted the marker ring data into annual ice jam probabilities. Ice jam dates from the dendrochronology data were too noisy to train or validate a hindcasting model. However, the marker ring data did confirm that ice jams on the Muskegon are nonstationary. Ice jams are significantly more likely now than they were before 1966.The marker rings also helped to distinguish between false-negatives and nondetects in the hindcasting model.

Stanford Gibson↗

Jamming, fragility and pinning phenomena in superconducting vortex systems

Abstract We examine driven superconducting vortices interacting with quenched disorder under a sequence of perpendicular drive pulses. As a function of disorder strength, we find four types of behavior distinguished by the presence or absence of memory effects. The fragile and jammed states exhibit memory, while the elastic and pinning dominated regimes do not. In the fragile regime, the system organizes into a pinned state during the first pulse, flows during the second perpendicular pulse, and then returns to a pinned state during the third pulse which is parallel to the first pulse. This behavior is the hallmark of the fragility proposed for jamming in particulate matter. For stronger disorder, we observe a robust jamming state with memory where the system reaches a pinned or reduced flow state during the perpendicular drive pulse, similar to the shear jamming of granular systems. We show signatures of the different states in the spatial vortex configurations, and find that memory effects arise from coexisting elastic and pinned components of the vortex assembly. The sequential perpendicular driving protocol we propose for distinguishing fragile, jammed, and pinned phases should be general to the broader class of driven interacting particles in the presence of quenched disorder.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

FH/MFSK performance in multitone jamming

The performance of frequency-hopped (FH) M-ary frequency-shift keyed (MFSK) signals in partial-band noise was analyzed in the open literature. The previous research is extended to the usually more effective class of multitone jamming. Some objectives researched are: (1) To categorize several different multitone jamming strategies; (2) To analyze the performance of FH/MSFK signaling, both uncoded with diversity, assuming a noncoherent energy detection metric with linear combining and perfect jamming state side information, in the presence of worst case interference for each of these multitone categories; and (3) To compare the effectiveness of the various multitone jamming techniques, and contrast the results with the partial band noise jamming case.

Levitt, B. K.↗

FH/MFSK performance in multitone jamming

The performance of frequency-hopped (FH) M-ary frequency-shift keyed (MFSK) signals in partial-band noise as analyzed in the open literature. The previous research is extended to the usually more effective class of multitone jamming. Some objectives researched are: (1) To categorize several different multitone jamming strategies; (2) To analyze the performance of FH/MSFK signaling, both uncoded with diversity, assuming a noncoherent energy detection metric with linear combining and perfect jamming state side information, in the presence of worst case interference for each of these multitone categories; and (3) To compare the effectiveness of the various multitone jamming techniques, and contrast the results with the partial band noise jamming case.

Levitt, B. K.↗

Cognitive Anti-Jamming Satellite-To-Ground Communications on NASA's SCaN Testbed

Machine learning aided cognitive anti-jamming communications is designed, developed and demonstrated on a live satellite-to-ground link. A wideband autonomous cognitive radio (WACR) is designed and implemented as a hardware-in-the- loop (HITL) prototype. The cognitive engine (CE) of the WACR is implemented on a PC while the software-defined radio (SDR) platform utilized two different radios for spectrum sensing and actual communications. The cognitive engine performs spectrum knowledge acquisition over the complete spectrum range available for the SATCOM system operation and learns an anti-jamming communications protocol to avoid both intentional jammers and inadvertent interferers using reinforcement learning. When the current satellite-to-ground link is jammed, the cognitive engine of the ground receiver directs the satellite transmitter to switch to a new channel that is predicted to be jammer-free for the longest possible duration. The end-to-end, closed-loop system was tested on the NASA Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) Testbed on the International Space Station (ISS). The experimental results demonstrated the feasibility of satellite-to-ground cognitive anti-jamming communications along with excellent anti-jamming capability of machine learning aided cognitive protocols against several different types of jammers.

Jayaweera, Sudharman K.↗

Cognitive Anti-jamming Satellite-to-Ground Communications on NASA's SCaN Testbed

Machine learning aided cognitive anti-jamming communications is designed, developed and demonstrated on an experimental satellite-to-ground link. A wideband autonomous cognitive radio (WACR) is designed and implemented as a hardware-in the-loop (HITL) prototype. The cognitive engine (CE) of the WACR is implemented on a PC while the software-defined radio (SDR) platform utilized two different radios for spectrum sensing and actual communications. The cognitive engine performs spectrum knowledge acquisition over the complete spectrum range available for the SATCOM system operation and learns an anti-jamming communications protocol to avoid both intentional jammers and inadvertent interferers using reinforcement learning. When the current satellite-to-ground link is jammed, the cognitive engine of the ground receiver directs the satellite transmitter to switch to a new channel that is predicted to be jammer-free for the longest possible duration. The end-to-end, closed-loop system was tested with the NASA's Space Communications and Networking (SCaN) testbed on the International Space Station (ISS). The experimental results demonstrated the feasibility of satellite-to-ground cognitive anti-jamming communications along with excellent anti-jamming capability of machine-learning aided cognitive protocols against several different types of jammers.

Jayaweera, Sudharman K.↗

Visualizing Interfacial Jamming Using an Aggregation-Induced-Emission Molecular Reporter

With the interfacial jamming of nanoparticles (NPs), a load-bearing network of NPs forms as the areal density of NPs increases, converting the assembly from a liquid-like into a solid-like assembly. Unlike vitrification, the lineal packing of the NPs in the network is denser, while the remaining NPs can remain in a liquid-like state. It is a challenge to determine the point at which the assemblies jam, since both jamming and vitrification lead to a solid-like behavior of the assemblies. Herein, we show a real-time fluorescence imaging method to probe the evolution of the interfacial dynamics of NP surfactants at the water/oil interface using aggregation-induced emission (AIE) as a reporter for the transition of the assemblies into the jammed state. The AIEgens show typical fluorescence behavior at densities at which they can move and rotate. However, when aggregation of these fluorophores occurs, the smaller intermolecular separation distance arrests rotation, and a significant enhancement in the fluorescence intensity occurs.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Aircraft Loss-of-Control Accident Prevention: Switching Control of the GTM Aircraft with Elevator Jam Failures

Switching control, servomechanism, and H2 control theory are used to provide a practical and easy-to-implement solution for the actuator jam problem. A jammed actuator not only causes a reduction of control authority, but also creates a persistent disturbance with uncertain amplitude. The longitudinal dynamics model of the NASA GTM UAV is employed to demonstrate that a single fixed reconfigured controller design based on the proposed approach is capable of accommodating an elevator jam failure with arbitrary jam position as long as the thrust control has enough control authority. This paper is a first step towards solving a more comprehensive in-flight loss-of-control accident prevention problem that involves multiple actuator failures, structure damages, unanticipated faults, and nonlinear upset regime recovery, etc.

Chang, Bor-Chin↗

Jamming Detection for Low-Resolution SC-FDE Systems: A Machine Learning Approach

Jammers interfere with communication between base stations (BSs) and legitimate users, leading to degradation of wireless system performance. Our study focuses on jamming detection for wideband single-carrier frequency domain equalization (SC-FDE) systems with low-resolution analog-to digital converters (ADCs). In such systems, jamming detection is challenging because traditional analytical approaches cannot be directly applied due to the delay dispersion in wideband channels and the non-linearity induced by low-resolution ADCs. We propose a machine learning (ML)-based jamming detection method that directly uses the quantized receive signals. Significantly, our ML-based detector can be integrated into existing standard frameworks, such as unique word (UW)-based SC-FDE systems, as it uses existing pilots without requiring additional pilots for jamming detection. Through numerical simulations, we show that two or more bits provide satisfactory performance compared to unquantized scenarios. Additionally, we demonstrate that using more and well-separated pilot symbols improves performance.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗

Mineralized sclerites in the gorgonian coral Leptogorgia chilensis as a natural jamming system

The soft corals (Cnidaria, Octocorallia), a diverse group of colonial marine invertebrates, can reversibly tune their body stiffness in response to external stimuli. This capability is attributed to their dynamic skeletal systems, which consist of thousands of mineralized skeletal elements, called sclerites, embedded within a gel-like matrix that swells/deswells and unjams/jams the sclerites, thus modulating skeletal stiffness. While sclerite morphology is widely used for species identification, its role in the mechanical performance of a soft coral’s skeletal system is largely unknown. Here, we investigated structure-jamming relationships in sclerite-based skeletal architectures using the red gorgonian octocoral Leptogorgia chilensis as a model system. The sclerites of L. chilensis exhibit a shaft-like geometry with two axial branches and two sets of triradiate side branches, which are aligned with the crystallographic symmetry of the constituent magnesium-containing calcite. By combining multiscale three-dimensional (3D) structural characterization, parametric geometrical modeling, 3D printing, mechanical testing, and discrete element simulations, we demonstrate how sclerite geometry achieves a balanced jamming performance in terms of stiffness, weight, strength, and fracture resistance in comparison to alternative geometries parametrically modified from the native sclerites (e.g., changes in the length and number of side branches). Here, we also found that these performance metrics are achieved through the effective interlocking among side and axial branches, which is further enhanced by the fractal-like microscopic spikes on the branch tips. The findings in this natural jamming system offer insights for designing synthetic mechanotunable material architectures for a wide range of applications, from soft robotics to mechanical dampeners.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Relaxing Wrinkles in Jammed Interfacial Assemblies

Abstract Dynamic covalent bonding has emerged as a mean by which stresses in a network can be relaxed. Here, the strength of the bonding of ligands to nanoparticles at the interface between two immiscible liquids affect the same results in jammed assemblies of nanoparticle surfactants. Beyond a critical degree of overcrowding induced by the compression of jammed interfacial assemblies, the bonding of ligands to nanoparticles (NPs) can be broken, resulting in a desorption of the NPs from the interface. This reduces the areal density of nanoparticle surfactants at the interface, allowing the assemblies to relax, not to a fluid state but rather another jammed state. The relaxation of the wrinkles caused by the compression reflects the tendency of these assemblies to eliminate areas of high curvature, favoring a more planar geometry. This enabled the generation of giant vesicular and multivesicular structures from these assemblies.

Xie, Ganhua↗

Relaxing Wrinkles in Jammed Interfacial Assemblies

Dynamic covalent bonding has emerged as a mean by which stresses in a network can be relaxed. Here, the strength of the bonding of ligands to nanoparticles at the interface between two immiscible liquids affect the same results in jammed assemblies of nanoparticle surfactants. Beyond a critical degree of overcrowding induced by the compression of jammed interfacial assemblies, the bonding of ligands to nanoparticles (NPs) can be broken, resulting in a desorption of the NPs from the interface. This reduces the areal density of nanoparticle surfactants at the interface, allowing the assemblies to relax, not to a fluid state but rather another jammed state. The relaxation of the wrinkles caused by the compression reflects the tendency of these assemblies to eliminate areas of high curvature, favoring a more planar geometry. Importantly, this enabled the generation of giant vesicular and multivesicular structures from these assemblies.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Leveraging the Polymer Glass Transition to Access Thermally Switchable Shear Jamming Suspensions

Suspensions of polymeric nano-and microparticles are fascinating stress-responsive material systems that, depending on their composition, can display a diverse range of flow properties under shear, such as drastic thinning, thickening, and even jamming (reversible solidification driven by shear). However, investigations to date have almost exclusively focused on nonresponsive particles, which do not allow in situ tuning of the flow properties. Polymeric materials possess rich phase transitions that can be directly tuned by their chemical structures, which has enabled researchers to engineer versatile adaptive materials that can respond to targeted external stimuli. Reported herein are suspensions of (readily prepared) micrometer-sized polymeric particles with accessible glass transition temperatures (T g ) designed to thermally control their non-Newtonian rheology. The underlying mechanical stiffness and interparticle friction between particles change dramatically near T g . Capitalizing on these properties, it is shown that, in contrast to conventional systems, a dramatic and nonmonotonic change in shear thickening occurs as the suspensions transition through the particles' T g . This straightforward strategy enables the in situ turning on (or off) of the system's ability to shear jam by varying the temperature relative to T g and lays the groundwork for other types of stimuli-responsive jamming systems through polymer chemistry.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Large-scale frictionless jamming with power-law particle size distributions

Due to significant computational expense, discrete element method simulations of jammed packings of size-dispersed spheres with size ratios greater than 1:10 have remained elusive, limiting the correspondence between simulations and real-world granular materials with large size dispersity. Here, invoking a recently developed neighbor binning algorithm, we generate mechanically stable jammed packings of frictionless spheres with power-law size distributions containing up to nearly 4 000 000 particles with size ratios up to 1:100. By systematically varying the width and exponent of the underlying power laws, we analyze the role of particle size distributions on the structure of jammed packings. The densest packings are obtained for size distributions that balance the relative abundance of large-large and small-small particle contacts. Although the proportion of rattler particles and mean coordination number strongly depend on the size distribution, the mean coordination of nonrattler particles attains the frictionless isostatic value of six in all cases. The size distribution of nonrattler particles that participate in the load-bearing network exhibits no dependence on the width of the total particle size distribution beyond a critical particle size for low-magnitude exponent power laws. This signifies that only particles with sizes greater than the critical particle size contribute to the mechanical stability. However, for high-magnitude exponent power laws, all particle sizes participate in the mechanical stability of the packing.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Differentially coherent detection of QASK for frequency-hopping systems. II - Performance in the presence of jamming

The performance of differentially coherent detection of frequency-hopped QASK in the presence of partial-band noise and partial-band multitone jamming is presented. In each case, the worst case jamming strategy is determined which consists of specifying the worst case partial-band fraction and the corresponding maximum average error probability. The results obtained are compared with those of M-ary FH-DPSK operating in the same jamming environment.

Simon, M. K.↗

Topology-selective jamming of fully-connected, code-division random-access networks

The purpose is to introduce certain models of topology selective stochastic jamming and examine its impact on a class of fully-connected, spread-spectrum, slotted ALOHA-type random access networks. The theory covers dedicated as well as half-duplex units. The dominant role of the spatial duty factor is established, and connections with the dual concept of time selective jamming are discussed. The optimal choices of coding rate and link access parameters (from the users' side) and the jamming spatial fraction are numerically established for DS and FH spreading.

Polydoros, Andreas↗

Mars Science Laboratory Rover Integrated Pump Assembly Bellows Jamming Failure

The Mars Science Laboratory rover and spacecraft utilize two mechanically pumped fluid loops for heat transfer to and from the internal electronics assemblies and the Radioisotope Thermo-Electric Generator (RTG). The heat transfer fluid is Freon R-11 (CFC-11) which has a large coefficient of thermal expansion. The Freon within the heat transfer system must have a volume for safe expansion of the fluid as the system temperature rises. The device used for this function is a gas-over-liquid accumulator. The accumulator uses a metal bellows to separate the fluid and gas sections. During expansion and contraction of the fluid in the system, the bellows extends and retracts to provide the needed volume change. During final testing of a spare unit, the bellows would not extend the full distance required to provide the needed expansion volume. Increasing the fluid pressure did not loosen the jammed bellows either. No amount of stroking the bellows back and forth would get it to pass the jamming point. This type of failure, if it occurred during flight, would result in significant overpressure of the heat transfer system leading to a burst failure at some point in the system piping. A loss of the Freon fluid would soon result in a loss of the mission. The determination of the source of the jamming of the bellows was quite elusive, leading to an extensive series of tests and analyses. The testing and analyses did indicate the root cause of the failure, qualitatively. The results did not provide a set of dimensional limits for the existing hardware design that would guarantee proper operation of the accumulator. In the end, a new design was developed that relied on good engineering judgment combined with the test results to select a reliable enough solution that still met other physical constraints of the hardware, the schedule, and the rover system.

bellows↗

A Cast Net Thrown onto an Interface: Wrapping 3D Objects with an Interfacially Jammed Amphiphilic Sheet

Wrapping a 3D object with a 2D sheet is not uncommon, but the wrapping behavior becomes complex and interesting when the sheet is bestowed with strong interfacial activities. Amphiphilic lignin macromolecules, isolated from biomass, form a scalable thin surfactant sheet at an oil/water interface through the interfacial jamming process. The process marks three distinct stages of interfacial behavior: a) diffusive assembly, b) viscous assembly with retarded mobility, and c) flexible yet irreversibly jammed rigid sheets. The surfactant sheet wraps, traps, and promptly stabilizes both oil and water droplets in nonequilibrium morphologies upon environmental stimulus. Finally, beyond preserving exotic morphologies, the highly interfacially active surfactant sheet also participates in morphology evolution by creating a vanishing interfacial tension and driving interfacial instability around the wrapped content, leading to novel morphologies as well as many potential applications.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗