Engineering topics
Crawford, David A.
Publications and source records attributed to Crawford, David A..
The Role of Target Heterogeneity in Impact Crater Formation: Numerical Results.
Abstract not provided.
Coils Codes and Comets - My Attempts to Partially Understand Some Particular Aspects of Hypervelocity Impacts.
Abstract not provided.
Origin and implications of non-radial Imbrium Sculpture on the Moon
Rimmed grooves, lineations and elongate craters around Mare Imbrium shape much of the nearside Moon. This pattern was coined the Imbrium Sculpture 1 , and it was originally argued that it must have been formed by a giant oblique (~30°) impact, a conclusion echoed by later studies 2 . Some investigators, however, noticed that many elements of the Imbrium Sculpture are not radial to Imbrium, thereby implicating an endogenic or structural origin 3, 4 . Here we use these non-radial trends to conclude that the Imbrium impactor was a proto-planet (half the diameter of Vesta), once part of a population of large proto-planets in the asteroid belt. Such independent constraints on the sizes of the Imbrium and other basin-forming impactors markedly increase estimates for the mass in the asteroid belt before depletion caused by the orbital migration of Jupiter and Saturn 5 . Furthermore, laboratory impact experiments, shock physics codes and the groove widths indicate that multiple fragments (up to 2% of the initial diameter) from each oblique basin-forming impactor, such as the one that formed Imbrium, should have survived planetary collisions and contributed to the heavy impact bombardment between 4.3 and 3.8 billion years ago.
DIATOM (Data Initialization and Modification) Library Version 7.0
DIATOM is a library that provides numerical simulation software with a computational geometry front end that can be used to build up complex problem geometries from collections of simpler shapes. The library provides a parser which allows for application-independent geometry descriptions to be embedded in simulation software input decks. Descriptions take the form of collections of primitive shapes and/or CAD input files and material properties that can be used to describe complex spatial and temporal distributions of numerical quantities (often called “database variables” or “fields”) to help define starting conditions for numerical simulations. The capability is designed to be general purpose, robust and computationally efficient. By using a combination of computational geometry and recursive divide-and-conquer approximation techniques, a wide range of primitive shapes are supported to arbitrary degrees of fidelity, controllable through user input and limited only by machine resources. Through the use of call-back functions, numerical simulation software can request the value of a field at any time or location in the problem domain. Typically, this is used only for defining initial conditions, but the capability is not limited to just that use. The most recent version of DIATOM provides the ability to import the solution field from one numerical solution as input for another.
Computational modeling of electrostatic charge and fields produced by hypervelocity impact
Following prior experimental evidence of electrostatic charge separation, electric and magnetic fields produced by hypervelocity impact, we have developed a model of electrostatic charge separation based on plasma sheath theory and implemented it into the CTH shock physics code. Preliminary assessment of the model shows good qualitative and quantitative agreement between the model and prior experiments at least in the hypervelocity regime for the porous carbonate material tested. The model agrees with the scaling analysis of experimental data performed in the prior work, suggesting that electric charge separation and the resulting electric and magnetic fields can be a substantial effect at larger scales, higher impact velocities, or both.
Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 Fragment Size Estimates: How Big was the Parent Body?
The impact of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 on Jupiter in July, 1994 was the largest, most energetic impact event on a planet ever witnessed. Because it broke up during a close encounter with Jupiter in 1992, it was bright enough to be discovered more than a year prior to impact, allowing the scientific community an unprecedented opportunity to assess the effects such an event would have. Many excellent observations were made from Earth-based telescopes, the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), and the Galileo spacecraft en route to Jupiter. In this paper, these observations are used in conjunction with computational simulations performed with the CTH shock-physics hydrocode to determine the sizes of the fifteen fragments that made discernible impact features on the planet. To do this, CTH was equipped with a radiative ablation model and a postprocessing radiative ray-trace capability that enabled light-flux predictions (often called the impact flash) for the viewing geometries of Galileo and ground-based observers. The five events recorded by Galileo were calibrated to give fragment size estimates. Compared against ground-based and HST observations, these estimates were extended using a least-squares analysis to assess the impacts of the remaining ten fragments. Some of the largest impacts (L, G, and K) were greater that 1 km in diameter, but the density of the fragments was low, about 0.25 g/cm(exp 3). The volume of the combined fifteen fragments would make a sphere 1.8 km in diameter. Assuming a prebreakup density of 0.5 g/cm(exp 3), the parent body of Shoemaker-Levy 9 had a probable diameter of 1.4 km. The total kinetic energy of all the impacts was equivalent to the explosive yield of 300 Gigatons of TNT.
Shoemaker-Levy 9 and Plume-Forming Collisions on Earth
Computational models for the July, 1994 collision of comet Shoemaker Levy 9 with Jupiter have provided a framework for interpreting the observational data. Imaging, photometry, and spectroscopy data from ground-based, Hubble Space Telescope, and Galileo spacecraft instruments are consistent with phenomena that were dominated by the generation of incandescent fireballs that were ballistically ejected to high altitudes, where they formed plumes that subsequently collapsed over large areas of Jupiter's atmosphere. Applications of similar computational models to collisions into Earth's atmosphere show that a very similar sequence of events should take place for NEO impacts with energies as low as 3 megatons, recurring on 100 year timescales or less. This result suggests that the 1908 Tunguska event was a plume-forming atmospheric explosion, and that some of the phenomena associated with it might be related to the ejection and collapse of a high plume. Hazards associated with plume growth and collapse should be included in the evaluation of the impact threat to Earth, and opportunities should be sought for observational validation of atmospheric impact models by exploiting data already being collected from the natural flux of multikiloton to megaton sized objects that constantly enter Earth's atmosphere on annual to decadal timescales.
Laboratory investigations of impact-generated plasma
The characteristics of plasma that was produced in laboratory by hypervelocity impacts were investigated to demonstrate the feasibility of generation of magnetic fields by meteoritic impacts and to explain the presence of paleomagnetic fields on the lunar surface. The impact-generated magnetic fields were found to exhibit spatial and temporal complexity that depended on the impact angle, the velocity, and the projectile/target composition. The results suggest that crater-related paleomagnetism associated with this mechanism should exhibit similar complexity with spatial wavelengths on the order of a fraction of the crater radius.