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At least 271 records · Page 15

Monitoring Delamination of Thermal Barrier Coating During Interrupted High-Heat Flux Laser Testing Using Upconversion Luminescence Imaging

Upconversion luminescence imaging of thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) has been shown to successfully monitor TBC delamination progression during interrupted furnace cycling. However, furnace cycling does not adequately model engine conditions where TBC-coated components are subjected to significant heat fluxes that produce through-thickness temperature gradients that may alter both the rate and path of delamination progression. Therefore, new measurements are presented based on luminescence imaging of TBC-coated specimens subjected to interrupted high-heat-flux laser cycling exposures that much better simulate the thermal gradients present in engine conditions. The TBCs tested were deposited by electron-beam physical vapor deposition (EB-PVD) and were composed of 7wt% yttria-stabilized zirconia (7YSZ) with an integrated delamination sensing layer composed of 7YSZ co-doped with erbium and ytterbium (7YSZ:Er,Yb). The high-heat-flux exposures that produce the desired through-thickness thermal gradients were performed using a high power CO2 laser operating at a wavelength of 10.6 microns. Upconversion luminescence images revealed the debond progression produced by the cyclic high-heat-flux exposures and these results were compared to that observed for furnace cycling.

Eldridge, Jeffrey I.↗

On the Potential Impact of Daytime Surface Sensible Heat Flux on the Dissipation of Martian Cold Air Outbreaks

The Martian daytime soil surface temperature is governed primarily by the net irradiance balance and surface soil heat flux. Thus the outbreak of a cold air mass generates increased sensible heat flux that is conducive to daytime dissipation of the cold air mass thermal characteristics. Conceptual and scaling evaluations of this dissipation are provided while comparison is made with similar situations on Earth. It is estimated that sensible heat flux contribution to the dissipation of the original thermal structure of the cold air could be three times larger than the corresponding situation on Earth. Illustrative numerical model simulations provide scaling of the potential impact on the dissipation of cold air masses for various combinations of background wind speed and latitudes.

Segal, M.↗

Sensible heat flux - Radiometric surface temperature relationship for eight semiarid areas

Measurements of sensible heat flux, radiometric surface temperature, air temperature, and wind speed made at eight semiarid rangeland sites were used to investigate the sensible heat flux-aerodynamic resistance relationship. The individual sites covered a wide range of vegetation (0.1-4 m tall) and cover (3%-95% bare soil) conditions. Mean values of k/B, a quantity related to the resistance of heat versus momentum transfer at the surface, for the individual sites varied between 3.5 and 12.5. A preliminary test of the utility of an excess resistance based on the mean value of k/B showed that the difference between the mean estimated and measured sensible heat fluxes varied +/- 60 W/sq m for the eight semiarid sites. For the eight sites the values of k/B were plotted against the roughness Reynolds number. The plot showed considerable scatter with values ranging between and beyond the theoretical curves for bluff rough and permeable rough surfaces.

Stewart, J. B.↗

Development of physics-consistent conditional diffusion model to overcome data scarcity in critical heat flux

Deep generative modeling provides a powerful pathway to overcome data scarcity in energy-related applications where experimental data are often limited. By learning the underlying probability distribution of the training dataset, deep generative models, such as the diffusion model, can generate high-fidelity synthetic samples that statistically resemble the training data. Such synthetic data generation can significantly enrich the size and diversity of the available training data, and more importantly, improve the robustness of downstream machine learning models in predictive tasks. The objective of this paper is to investigate the effectiveness of diffusion models for overcoming data scarcity in nuclear energy applications. By leveraging a public dataset on critical heat flux which covers a wide range of commercial nuclear reactor operational conditions, we developed a diffusion model that can generate an arbitrary amount of synthetic samples. Since a vanilla diffusion model can only generate samples randomly, we also developed a conditional diffusion model capable of generating targeted critical heat flux data under user-specified thermal-hydraulic conditions. The performance of the diffusion model was evaluated based on its ability to capture empirical feature distributions and pair-wise correlations, as well as to maintain physical consistency. The results showed that both the diffusion model and conditional diffusion model can successfully generate realistic and physics-consistent critical heat flux data. Furthermore, uncertainty quantification results demonstrate that the conditional diffusion model is highly effective in augmenting critical heat flux data while maintaining acceptable levels of uncertainty.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

Quasi-exospheric heat flux of solar-wind electrons

Density, bulk-velocity, and heat-flow moments are calculated for truncated Maxwellian distributions representing the cool and hot populations of solar-wind electrons, as realized at the base of a hypothetical exosphere. The electrostatic potential is calculated by requiring charge quasi-neutrality and the absence of electrical current. Plasma-kinetic coupling of the cool-electron and proton bulk velocities leads to an increase in the electrostatic potential and a decrease in the heat-flow moment. If the velocities differ by the Alfven speed along the magnetic field, for example, the potential rises to 72.6 V and the heat flux falls to 0.0272 erg/sq cm per sec. In each case, the heat flux is carried mainly by the quasi-exospheric hot electrons.

Eviatar, A.↗

A near-wall two-equation model for turbulent heat fluxes

A near-wall two-equation model for turbulent heat fluxes is derived from the temperature variance and its dissipation-rate equations and the assumption of gradient transport. Only incompressible flows with non-buoyant heat transfer are considered. The near-wall asymptotics of each term in the exact equations are examined and used to derive near-wall correction functions that render the modeled equations consistent with these behavior. Thus modeled, the equations are used to calculate fully-developed pipe and channel flows with heat transfer. It is found that the proposed two-equation model yields asymptotically correct near-wall behavior for the normal heat flux, the temperature variance and its near-wall budget and correct limiting wall values for these properties compared to direct simulation data and measurements obtained under different wall boundary conditions.

Sommer, T. P.↗

Broadening of the Divertor Heat Flux Profile in High Confinement Tokamak Fusion Plasmas with Edge Pedestals Limited by Turbulence in DIII-D

Multimachine empirical scaling predicts an extremely narrow heat exhaust layer in future high magnetic field tokamaks, producing high power densities that require mitigation. Here, in the experiments presented, the width of this exhaust layer is nearly doubled using actuators to increase turbulent transport in the plasma edge. This is achieved in low collisionality, high confinement edge pedestals with their gradients limited by turbulent transport instead of large-scale, coherent instabilities. The exhaust heat flux profile width and divertor leg diffusive spreading both double as a high frequency band of turbulent fluctuations propagating in the electron diamagnetic direction doubles in amplitude. The results are quantitatively reproduced in electromagnetic XGC particle-in-cell simulations which show the heat flux carried by electrons emerges to broaden the heat flux profile, directly supported by Langmuir probe measurements.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Integral Plug-Type Heat-Flux Gauge

Integral thermoplug gauge measures flux of heat across specimen of material. New gauge not screwed or welded into place, but instead thermoplug and annulus electrical-discharge-machined (EDM) into specimen material. EDM process leaves no interface between material and thermoplug, thus inherently increasing gauge accuracy by eliminating interface and associated temperature discontinuity. Process also conducive to accurate fabrication of minute gauges.

Liebert, Curt H.↗

Global Intercomparison of 12 Land Surface Heat Flux Estimates

A global intercomparison of 12 monthly mean land surface heat flux products for the period 1993-1995 is presented. The intercomparison includes some of the first emerging global satellite-based products (developed at Paris Observatory, Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, University of California Berkeley, University of Maryland, and Princeton University) and examples of fluxes produced by reanalyses (ERA-Interim, MERRA, NCEP-DOE) and off-line land surface models (GSWP-2, GLDAS CLM/ Mosaic/Noah). An intercomparison of the global latent heat flux (Q(sub le)) annual means shows a spread of approx 20 W/sq m (all-product global average of approx 45 W/sq m). A similar spread is observed for the sensible (Q(sub h)) and net radiative (R(sub n)) fluxes. In general, the products correlate well with each other, helped by the large seasonal variability and common forcing data for some of the products. Expected spatial distributions related to the major climatic regimes and geographical features are reproduced by all products. Nevertheless, large Q(sub le)and Q(sub h) absolute differences are also observed. The fluxes were spatially averaged for 10 vegetation classes. The larger Q(sub le) differences were observed for the rain forest but, when normalized by mean fluxes, the differences were comparable to other classes. In general, the correlations between Q(sub le) and R(sub n) were higher for the satellite-based products compared with the reanalyses and off-line models. The fluxes were also averaged for 10 selected basins. The seasonality was generally well captured by all products, but large differences in the flux partitioning were observed for some products and basins.

Jimenez, C.↗

Heat flux instrumentation for Hyflite thermal protection system

Using Thermal Protection Tile core samples supplied by NASA, the surface characteristics of the FRCI, TUFI, and RCG coatings were evaluated. Based on these results, appropriate methods of surface preparation were determined and tested for the required sputtering processes. Sample sensors were fabricated on the RCG coating and adhesion was acceptable. Based on these encouraging results, complete Heat Flux Microsensors were fabricated on the RCG coating. The issue of lead attachment was addressed with the annnealing and welding methods developed at NASA Lewis. Parallel gap welding appears to be the best method of lead attachment with prior heat treatment of the sputtered pads. Sample Heat Flux Microsensors were submitted for testing in the NASA Ames arc jet facility. Details of the project are contained in two attached reports. One additional item of interest is contained in the attached AIAA paper, which gives details of the transient response of a Heat Flux Microsensors in a shock tube facility at Virginia Tech. The response of the heat flux sensor was measured to be faster than 10 micro-s.

Diller, T. E.↗

A unique high heat flux facility for testing hypersonic engine components

This paper describes the Hot Gas Facility, a unique, reliable, and cost-effective high-heat-flux facility for testing hypersonic engine components developed at the NASA Lewis Research Center. The Hot Gas Facility is capable of providing heat fluxes ranging from 200 Btu/sq ft per sec on flat surfaces up to 8000 Btu/sq ft per sec at a leading edge stagnation point. The usefulness of the Hot Gas Facility for the NASP community was demonstrated by testing hydrogen-cooled structures over a range of temperatures and pressures. Ranges of the Reynolds numbers, Prandtl numbers, enthalpy, and heat fluxes similar to those expected during hypersonic flights were achieved.

Melis, Matthew E.↗

A Fast Algebraic Multigrid Solver and Accurate Discretization for Highly Anisotropic Heat Flux I: Open Field Lines

We present a novel solver technique for the anisotropic heat flux equation, aimed at the high level of anisotropy seen in magnetic confinement fusion plasmas. Such problems pose two major challenges: (i) discretization accuracy and (ii) efficient implicit linear solvers. We simultaneously address each of these challenges by constructing a new finite element discretization with excellent accuracy properties, tailored to a novel solver approach based on algebraic multigrid (AMG) methods designed for advective operators. We pose the problem in a mixed formulation, introducing the directional temperature gradient as an auxiliary variable. The temperature and auxiliary fields are discretized in a scalar discontinuous Galerkin space with upwinding principles used for discretizations of advection. We demonstrate the proposed discretization’s superior accuracy over other discretizations of anisotropic heat flux, achieving error 1000x smaller for anisotropy ratio of 10 9 , for closed field lines. The block matrix system is reordered and solved in an approach where the two advection operators are inverted using AMG solvers based on approximate ideal restriction, which is particularly efficient for upwind discontinuous Galerkin discretizations of advection. To ensure that the advection operators are nonsingular, in this paper we restrict ourselves to considering open (acyclic) magnetic field lines for the linear solvers. We demonstrate fast convergence of the proposed iterative solver in highly anisotropic regimes where other diffusion-based AMG methods fail.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

The Estimation Surface Latent Heat Flux Over the Ocean and its Relationship to Marine Atmospheric Boundary Layer (MABL) Structure

A new technique combining active and passive remote sensing instruments for the estimation of surface latent heat flux over the ocean is presented. This synergistic method utilizes aerosol lidar backscatter data, multi-channel infrared radiometer data and microwave scatterometer data acquired onboard the NASA P-3B research aircraft during an extended field campaign over the Atlantic ocean in support of the Lidar In-space Technology Experiment (LITE) in September of 1994. The 10 meter wind speed derived from the scatterometers and the lidar-radiometer inferred near-surface moisture are used to obtain an estimate of the surface flux of moisture via bulk aerodynamic formulae. The results are compared with the Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/I) daily average latent heat flux and show reasonable agreement. However, the SSM/I values are biased high by about 30 W/sq m. In addition, the MABL height, entrainment zone thickness and integrated lidar backscatter intensity are computed from the lidar data and compared with the magnitude of the surface fluxes. The results show that the surface latent heat flux is most strongly correlated with entrainment zone top, bottom and the integrated MABL lidar backscatter, with corresponding correlation coefficients of 0.62, 0.67 and 0.61, respectively.

Palm, Stephen P.↗

The Estimation of Surface Latent Heat Flux Over the Ocean and its Relationship to Marine Atmospheric Boundary Layer (MABL) Structure

A new technique combining active and passive remote sensing instruments for the estimation of surface latent heat flux over the ocean is presented. This synergistic method uses aerosol lidar backscatter data, multi-channel infrared radiometer data and microwave scatterometer data acquired onboard the NASA P-3B research aircraft during an extended field campaign over the Atlantic ocean in support of the Lidar In-space Technology Experiment (LITE) in September of 1994. The 10 meter wind speed derived from the scatterometers and the lidar-radiometer inferred near-surface moisture are used to obtain an estimate of the surface flux of moisture via bulk aerodynamic formulae. The results are compared with the Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/I) daily average latent heat flux and show reasonable agreement with an rms error and bias of about 50 and 25 W per square meters, respectively. In addition, the MABL height, entrainment zone thickness and integrated lidar backscatter intensity are computed from the lidar data and compared with the magnitude of the surface fluxes. The results show that the surface latent heat flux is most strongly correlated with entrainment zone top, bottom and the integrated MABL lidar backscatter, with corresponding correlation coefficients of 0.62, 0.67 and 0.61, respectively.

Palm, Stephen P.↗

Heat flux and viscosity of ions in the collisionless solar wind

Between 1 and 2 solar radii, the Coulomb-collision mean free path for thermal ions exceeds the scale height of the solar atmosphere. The expanding solar plasma becomes collisionless and the kinetics of the solar wind are no longer dominated by thermalizing collisions. The usual Braginskii-type expressions for solar wind ion heat flux and viscosity are no longer valid. However, another microscale still exists in the solar wind, dictated by the gyro-radius of ions in the turbulent embedded solar wind magnetic field. Wave-particle interactions will act to isotropize (but not thermalize) particle distributions, and the relevant microscale for this process is the ion gyro-radius. The ion distribution can be modelled as undergoing isotropizing 'collisions,' with the relevant mean free path scaling with gyro-radius. Here, the author presents the heat flux and viscosity expected for solar wind protons which are relaxing to isotropy on a microscale that scales with gyro-radius. The collisionless viscosity and heat flux have a functional dependence different than their collisional analogs. The collisional expressions for ion viscosity and heat flux drastically overestimate the efficiency of diffusive energy and momentum transport actually operative in the solar wind.

Williams, L. L.↗

Thin Film Heat Flux Sensor of Improved Design

A new design for a thin film heat flux sensor is presented. It is easier to fabricate than previous designs, for a given heat flux has an order of magnitude larger signal, and is more easily scalable than previous designs. Transient and steady state data are also presented.

Fralick, Gus↗

The Estimation of Surface Latent Heat Flux over the Ocean and its Relationship to Marine Atmospheric Boundary Layer (MABL) Structure

A new technique combining active and passive remote sensing instruments for the estimation of surface latent heat flux over the ocean is presented. This synergistic method utilizes aerosol lidar backscatter data, multi-channel infrared radiometer data, and microwave scatterometer data acquired onboard the NASA P-313 research aircraft during an extended field campaign over the Atlantic ocean in support of the Lidar In-space Technology Experiment (LITE) in September of 1994. The 10 meter wind speed derived from scatterometers and lidar-radiometer inferred near-surface moisture are used to obtain an estimate of the surface flux of moisture via a bulk aerodynamic formula. The results are compared with the Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/I) daily average latent heat flux and show reasonable agreement. However, the SSM/I values are biased low by about 15 W/sq m. In addition, the Marine Atmospheric Boundary Layer (MABL) height, entrainment zone thickness and integrated lidar backscatter intensity are computed from the lidar data and compared with the magnitude of the surface fluxes. The results show that the surface latent heat flux is most strongly correlated with entrainment zone depth, MABL height and the integrated MABL lidar backscatter, with corresponding correlation coefficients of 0.39, 0.43 and 0.71, respectively.

Palm, Stephen P.↗