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At least 289 records · Page 16

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NASA NTRS1986

Transonic Navier-Stokes wing solution using a zonal approach. Part 1: Solution methodology and code validation

A fast diagonalized Beam-Warming algorithm is coupled with a zonal approach to solve the three dimensional Euler/Navier-Stokes equations. The computer code, called Transonic Navier-Stokes (TNS), uses a total of four zones for wing configurations (or can be extended to complete aircraft configurations by adding zones). In the inner blocks near the wing surface, the thin-layer Navier-Stokes equations are solved, while in the outer two blocks the Euler equations are solved. The diagonal algorithm yields a speedup of as much as a factor of 40 over the original algorithm/zonal method code. The TNS code, in addition, has the capability to model wind tunnel walls. Transonic viscous solutions are obtained on a 150,000-point mesh for a NACA 0012 wing. A three-order-of-magnitude drop in the L2-norm of the residual requires approximately 500 iterations, which takes about 45 min of CPU time on a Cray-XMP processor. Simulations are also conducted for a different geometrical wing called WING C. All cases show good agreement with experimental data.

Flores, J.↗

NASA NTRS1991

Helmet of a laminate construction of polycarbonate and polysulfone polymeric material

An article of laminate construction is disclosed which is comprised of an underlayer of polycarbonate polymer material to which is applied a chemically resistant outer layer of polysulfone. The layers which are joined by compression-heat molding, are molded to form the shape of a body protective shell such as a space helmet comprising a shell of polycarbonate, polysulfone laminate construction attached at its open end to a sealing ring adapted for connection to a space suit. The front portion of the shell provides a transparent visor for the helmet. An outer visor of polycarbonate polysulfone laminate construction is pivotally mounted to the sealing ring for covering the transparent visor portion of the shell during extravehicular activities. The polycarbonate under layer of the outer visor is coated on its inner surface with a vacuum deposit of gold to provide additional thermal radiation resistance.

Kosmo, Joseph J.↗

NASA NTRS1993

Hard apex transition in quasi-periodic oscillators - Closing of the accretion gap

We propose that the 'hard apex' transition in the X-ray two-color diagrams for low-mass X-ray binaries exhibiting quasi-periodic oscillation is associated with closure of a gap between the accretion disk and the star. At low accretion rates, gas crosses this gap intermittently. However, when the mass accretion rate increases, the disk thickens and its inner edge touches the star, thus forming a boundary layer through which the gas flows steadily. This explanation is viable provided that the equation of state of nuclear matter is not significantly harder than the Bethe-Johnson I prescription. Accretion gap scenarios are possibly distinguishable from models which invoke a small magnetosphere around the neutron star, in that they preclude large stellar magnetic fields and associate the high-frequency (horizontal-branch) oscillations with different sites.

Biehle, Garrett T.↗

NASA NTRS2013

Properties of the Lunar Interior: Preliminary Results from the GRAIL Mission

The Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission [1] has provided lunar gravity with unprecedented accuracy and resolution. GRAIL has produced a high-resolution map of the lunar gravity field [2,3] while also determining tidal response. We present the latest gravity field solution and its preliminary implications for the Moon's interior structure, exploring properties such as the mean density, moment of inertia of the solid Moon, and tidal potential Love number k(sub 2). Lunar structure includes a thin crust, a thick mantle layer, a fluid outer core, and a suspected solid inner core. An accurate Love number mainly improves knowledge of the fluid core and deep mantle. In the future, we will search for evidence of tidal dissipation and a solid inner core using GRAIL data.

moon gravity↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Controls for Electrified Aircraft Propulsion

Advanced electrified aircraft propulsion (EAP) concepts with integrated power, propulsion, and thermal systems require the development of equally sophisticated controllers to fly safe and efficient missions. Hybrid electric aircraft utilize electric machines mechanically coupled to the engine shafts to extract and insert power for a variety of purposes. Additionally, electric machines may drive propulsive fans pulling from a combination of on-board energy storage devices and engine extracted power. NASA’s investment in hybrid electric aircraft hardware-in-the-loop testing enables controls research on representative engine models using a novel emulation and scaling methodology. High-voltage, high-power electrical powertrain presents several technical risks at altitude. High-power requires high efficiency to minimize losses. Superconducting electric machines and power distribution research at NASA has identified key challenges with potential controls solutions. These risks necessitate the development of controllers robust to model uncertainty, disturbances, and fault conditions. System health management and fault detection schemes play an important role in a multi-layer controls approach that utilizes a supervisor which oversees inner loops for the highly coupled power, propulsion, and thermal systems. Such a supervisory controller enables coordinates energy transfer between engines, energy storage devices, electric machines, propulsors, and heat exchangers. Existing methods have shown an improvement in engine operability using the hybrid electric powertrain.

Halle E Buescher↗

NASA NTRS1984

Sound generated by instability waves of supersonic flows. I Two-dimensional mixing layers. II - Axisymmetric jets

An investigation is conducted of the phenomenon of sound generation by spatially growing instability waves in high-speed flows. It is pointed out that this process of noise generation is most effective when the flow is supersonic relative to the ambient speed of sound. The inner and outer asymptotic expansions corresponding to an excited instability wave in a two-dimensional mixing layer and its associated acoustic fields are constructed in terms of the inner and outer spatial variables. In matching the solutions, the intermediate matching principle of Van Dyke and Cole is followed. The validity of the theory is tested by applying it to an axisymmetric supersonic jet and comparing the calculated results with experimental measurements. Very favorable agreements are found both in the calculated instability-wave amplitude distribution (the inner solution) and the near pressure field level contours (the outer solution) in each case.

Tam, C. K. W.↗

NASA NTRS1988

Investigation of viscous/inviscid interaction in transonic flow over airfoils with suction

The viscous/inviscid interaction over transonic airfoils with and without suction is studied. The streamline angle at the edge of the boundary layer is used to couple the viscous and inviscid flows. The potential flow equations are solved for the inviscid flow field. In the shock region, the Euler equations are solved using the method of integral relations. For this, the potential flow solution is used as the initial and boundary conditions. An integral method is used to solve the laminar boundary-layer equations. Since both methods are integral methods, a continuous interaction is allowed between the outer inviscid flow region and the inner viscous flow region. To avoid the Goldstein singularity near the separation point the laminar boundary-layer equations are derived in an inverse form to obtain solution for the flows with small separations. The displacement thickness distribution is specified instead of the usual pressure distribution to solve the boundry-layer equations. The Euler equations are solved for the inviscid flow using the finite volume technique and the coupling is achieved by a surface transpiration model. A method is developed to apply a minimum amount of suction that is required to have an attached flow on the airfoil. The turbulent boundary layer equations are derived using the bi-logarithmic wall law for mass transfer. The results are found to be in good agreement with available experimental data and with the results of other computational methods.

Vemuru, C. S.↗

NASA NTRS1995

Accretion disk boundary layers in cataclysmic variables. 1: Optically thick boundary layers

We develop numerical models of accretions disks in cataclysmic variables (CVs), including and emphasizing the boundary layer region where the accretion disk meets the accreting white dwarf. We confine ourselves to solutions where the boundary layer region is vertically optically thick, and find that these solutions share several common features. The angular and radial velocities of the accreting material drop rapidly in a dynamical boundary layer, which has a radial width approximately 1%-3% of the white dwarf radius. The energy dissipated in this region diffuses through the inner part of the disk and is radiated from the disk surface in a thermal boundary layer, which has a radial width comparable to the disk thickness, approximately 5%-15% of the white dwarf radius. We examine the dependence of the boundary layer structure on the mass accretion rate, the white dwarf mass and rotation rate, and the viscosity parameter alpha. We delineate the boundary between optically thick and optically thin boundary layer solutions as a function of these parameters and suggest that by means of a careful comparison with observations it may be possible to estimate alpha in CVs. We derive an expression for the total boundary layer luminosities as a function of the parameters and show that it agrees well with the luminosites of our numerical solutions. Finally, we calcuate simple blackbody continuum spectra of the boundary layer and disk emission for our solutions and compare these to soft X-ray, EUV, and He II emission-line observations of CVs. We show that, through such comparisons, it may be possible to determine the rotation rates of the accreting stars in CVs, and perhaps also the white dwarf masses and the accretion rates. The spectra are quite insensitive to alpha, so the uncertainty in this parameter does not affect such comparisons.

Popham, Robert↗

NASA NTRS1981

Propagating substorm injection fronts

It is argued that a series of two-satellite observations leads to a clarification of substorm plasma injection, in which boundary motion plays a major role. Emphasis is put on a type of event characterized by abrupt, dispersionless changes in electron intensity and a coincident perturbation that consists of both a field magnitude increase and a small rotation toward more dipolar orientation. Comparing plasma observations at two points, it is found that in active, preinjection conditions the two most important features of the plasma sheet are: (1) the low-energy convection boundary for near-zero energy particles, determined by the magnitude of the large-scale convection electric field; and (2) the precipitation-flow boundary layer between the hot plasma sheet and the atmospherically contaminated inner plasma sheet.

Moore, T. E.↗

NASA NTRS1983

The quasi-static (slow-flow) region of the magnetosphere

In the present treatment of the theory of the earth's inner and middle magnetosphere, attention is given to the region earthward and equatorward of the magnetopause and its associated boundary layers in the case of the magnetosphere's dayside, while with regard to the night side, the part of the inner plasma sheet which lies on closed magnetic field lines that experience only those flows that are slow (by comparison to the fast mode speed) are considered. The theoretically determined boundaries of the region discussed are all magnetic field-aligned, since the theory treats each magnetic field line and the particles on it as a discrete entity due to the ease with which the particles and electric currents flow along the magnetic field.

Wolf, R. A.↗

NASA NTRS1987

Development and testing of a unique carousel wind tunnel to experimentally determine the effect of gravity and the interparticle force on the physics of wind-blown particles

In the study of planetary aeolian processes the effect of gravity is not readily modeled. Gravity appears in the equations of particle motion along with the interparticle forces but the two are not separable. A wind tunnel that perimits multiphase flow experiments with wind blown particles at variable gravity was built and experiments were conducted at reduced gravity. The equations of particle motion initiation (saltation threshold) with variable gravity were experimentally verified and the interparticle force was separated. A uniquely design Carousel Wind Tunnel (CWT) allows for the long flow distance in a small sized tunnel since the test section if a continuous loop and develops the required turbulent boundary layer. A prototype model of the tunnel where only the inner drum rotates was built and tested in the KC-135 Weightless Wonder 4 zero-g aircraft. Future work includes further experiments with walnut shell in the KC-135 which sharply graded particles of widely varying median sizes including very small particles to see how interparticle force varies with particle size, and also experiments with other aeolian material.

Leach, R. N.↗

NASA NTRS1988

Airborne lidar detection of subsurface oceanic scattering layers

The airborne lidar detection and cross-sectional mapping of submerged oceanic scattering layers are reported. The field experiment was conducted in the Atlantic Ocean southeast of Assateague Island, VA. NASA's Airborne Oceanographic Lidar was operated in the bathymetric mode to acquire on-wavelength 532-nm depth-resolved backscatter signals from shelf/slope waters. Unwanted laser pulse reflection from the air-water interface was minimized by spatial filtering and off-nadir operation. The presence of thermal stratification over the shelf was verified by the deployment of airborne expendable bathythermographs. Optical beam transmission measurements acquired from a surface truthing vessel indicated the presence of a layer of turbid water near the sea floor over the inner portion of the shelf.

Hoge, Frank E.↗

NASA NTRS1989

Thermally-induced stresses in graphite-epoxy tubes coated with aluminum foil

Thermally-induced stresses in the foil, adhesive, and graphite-epoxy layers of composite tubes with aluminum foil bonded to the inner and outer surface are computed. The thermal effects are due to a temperature decrease from the processing temperature of the material to a temperature felt to represent the space environment, the intended operating environment of the tubes. Tubes fabricated from T300/934 and P75s/934 material systems are considered. The results indicate that the presence of the foil and adhesive have no detrimental effect on the stresses in the tube.

Knott, Tamara W.↗

NASA NTRS1992

On radial oscillations in viscous accretion discs surrounding neutron stars

Radial oscillations resulting from axisymmetric perturbations in viscous accretion disks surrounding neutron stars in X-ray binary systems have been investigated. Within the framework of the alpha-viscosity model a series of hydrodynamic calculations demonstrates that the oscillations are global for alpha of about 1. On the other hand, for alpha of 0.4 or less, the oscillations are local and confined to the disk boundaries. If viscous stresses acting in the radial direction are included, however, it is found that the disk can be stabilized. The application of such instabilities in accretion disks, without reference to the boundary layer region between the neutron star (or magnetosphere) and the inner edge of the disk, to the phenomenology of quasi-periodic oscillations is brought into question.

Chen, Xingming↗

NASA NTRS2002

Magnetic TRAnsition Region Probe (MTRAP)

MTRAP (Magnetic Transition Region Probe) will reveal the fine-scale physical processes in the Sun's magnetic transition region, the complex layer from the upper photosphere to the upper chromosphere/lower transition region. In the magnetic transition region plasma forces and magnetic forces are of comparable strength, which results in complex interplay of the two, which interplay governs the coupling of the convectively-driven deeper layers to the magnetically-driven upper transition region and inner corona. The fine-scale magnetic structure, processes, and events in the magnetic transition region are key to the genesis of the Sun's entire hot, dynamic outer atmosphere and to the initiation of large eruptive events. MTRAP will be a single spacecraft in Sun-synchronous Earth orbit. Because MTRAP will probe and measure the 3-D structure and dynamics of the magnetic field and plasma in the chromosphere and transition region with unprecedented resolution, the required telescope size and telemetry rates dictate that MTRAP be in Earth orbit, not in deep space. The observations will feature visible and infrared maps of vector magnetic and velocity fields in the magnetic transition region and photosphere. These will have large field of view (greater than 100,000 km), high resolution (greater than 100 km), and high sensitivity (greater than 30 G in transverse field). These observations of the lower atmosphere will be complemented by UV maps of the structure, velocity, and magnetic field (including the full vector field if technically feasible) higher up, in the upper chromosphere and lower transition region. MTRAP will also have an EUV imaging spectrograph observing coronal structure and dynamics in the same field of view with comparable resolution. Specific phenomena to be analyzed include spicules, bright points, jets, the base of plumes, and the triggering of eruptive flares and coronal mass ejections. Additional information is included in the original extended abstract.

Moore, R. L.↗

NASA NTRS2011

Helium-Cooled Black Shroud for Subscale Cryogenic Testing

This shroud provides a deep-space simulating environment for testing scaled-down models of passively cooling systems for spaceflight optics and instruments. It is used inside a liquid-nitrogen- cooled vacuum chamber, and it is cooled by liquid helium to 5 K. It has an inside geometry of approximately 1.6 m diameter by 0.45 m tall. The inside surfaces of its top and sidewalls have a thermal absorptivity greater than 0.96. The bottom wall has a large central opening that is easily customized to allow a specific test item to extend through it. This enables testing of scale models of realistic passive cooling configurations that feature a very large temperature drop between the deepspace-facing cooled side and the Sun/Earth-facing warm side. This shroud has an innovative thermal closeout of the bottom wall, so that a test sample can have a hot (room temperature) side outside of the shroud, and a cold side inside the shroud. The combination of this closeout and the very black walls keeps radiated heat from the sample s warm end from entering the shroud, reflecting off the walls and heating the sample s cold end. The shroud includes 12 vertical rectangular sheet-copper side panels that are oriented in a circular pattern. Using tabs bent off from their edges, these side panels are bolted to each other and to a steel support ring on which they rest. The removable shroud top is a large copper sheet that rests on, and is bolted to, the support ring when the shroud is closed. The support ring stands on four fiberglass tube legs, which isolate it thermally from the vacuum chamber bottom. The insides of the cooper top and side panels are completely covered with 25- mm-thick aluminum honeycomb panels. This honeycomb is painted black before it is epoxied to the copper surfaces. A spiral-shaped copper tube, clamped at many different locations to the outside of the top copper plate, serves as part of the liquid helium cooling loop. Another copper tube, plumbed in a series to the top plate s tube, is clamped to the sidewall tabs where they are bolted to the support ring. Flowing liquid helium through these tubes cools the entire shroud to 5 K. The entire shroud is wrapped loosely in a layer of double-aluminized Kapton. The support ring s inner diameter is the largest possible hole through which the test item can extend into the shroud. Twelve custom-sized trapezoidal copper sheets extend inward from the support ring to within a few millimeters of the test item. Attached to the inner edge of each of these sheets is a custom-shaped strip of Kapton, which is aluminum- coated on the warm-facing (outer) side, and has thin Dacron netting attached to its cold-facing side. This Kapton rests against the test item, but the Dacron keeps it from making significant thermal contact. The result is a non-contact, radiatively reflective thermal closeout with essentially no gap through which radiation can pass. In this way, the part of the test item outside the shroud can be heated to relatively high temperatures without any radiative heat leaking to the inside.

Tuttle, James↗

NASA NTRS2019

Heat Transfer Enhancement in Cryogenic Quenching Process

This paper reports a heat transfer advancement in the cryogenic quenching process. An experiment was performed to evaluate the enhancement of quenching heat transfer by the use of metal tubes with low thermal conductivity coating layers. Four coating thicknesses with various coolant mass flow rates of liquid nitrogen were investigated. The results indicated that the tube inner surface coating greatly enhanced the quenching efficiency. The quenching efficiency was found to increase with increasing number of coating layers, and the efficiency also increased with decreasing mass flow rates. In general, the efficiencies cover a range between 40.6% and 80%. Comparing to the bare surface case, the percentage increase in the quenching efficiency was the minimum at 4.2% for a single coated layer at the highest flow rate and the maximum of 109.1% for four coated layers at the lowest flow rate. The coated tubes could save up to 53% in the amount of cryogen consumption.

Surface coating↗

NASA NTRS1984

Theoretical design and analysis of the layered synthetic microstructure optic for the dual path X-ray telescope

A ray tracing analysis was performed for several configurations for the inner channel of the dual path X-ray telescope, which is proposed to use the second mirror of the Stanford/MSFC Wolter-Schwarzchild telescope and a normal incident layered synthetic microstructure (LSM) mirror to form a secondary image near the front of the telescope. The LSM mirror shapes considered were spherical, ellipsoid, hyperboloid, and constant optical path length (OPL) aspheric. Only the constant OPL case gave good axial resolution. All cases had poor off axis resolution as judged by the RMS blur circle radius.

Shealy, D. L.↗