Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “particle design”

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.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 307 records · Page 17
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2014

Design of Two RadWorks Storm Shelters for Solar Particle Event Shielding

In order to enable long-duration human exploration beyond low-Earth orbit, the risks associated with exposure of astronaut crews to space radiation must be mitigated with practical and affordable solutions. The space radiation environment beyond the magnetosphere is primarily a combination of two types of radiation: galactic cosmic rays (GCR) and solar particle events (SPE). While mitigating GCR exposure remains an open issue, reducing astronaut exposure to SPEs is achievable through material shielding because they are made up primarily of medium-energy protons. In order to ensure astronaut safety for long durations beyond low-Earth orbit, SPE radiation exposure must be mitigated. However, the increasingly demanding spacecraft propulsive performance for these ambitious missions requires minimal mass and volume radiation shielding solutions which leverage available multi-functional habitat structures and logistics as much as possible. This paper describes the efforts of NASA's RadWorks Advanced Exploration Systems (AES) Project to design two minimal mass SPE radiation shelter concepts leveraging available resources: one based upon reconfiguring habitat interiors to create a centralized protection area and one based upon augmenting individual crew quarters with waterwalls and logistics. Discussion items include the design features of the concepts, a radiation analysis of their implementations, an assessment of the parasitic mass of each concept, and the result of a human in the loop evaluation performed to drive out design and operational issues.

Simon, Matthew↗
DOE OSTI2022

Climate impacts of particle physics

The pursuit of particle physics requires a stable and prosperous society. Today, our society is increasingly threatened by global climate change. Human-influenced climate change has already impacted weather patterns, and global warming will only increase unless deep reductions in emissions of CO$_2$ and other greenhouse gases are achieved. Current and future activities in particle physics need to be considered in this context, either on the moral ground that we have a responsibility to leave a habitable planet to future generations, or on the more practical ground that, because of their scale, particle physics projects and activities will be under scrutiny for their impact on the climate. In this white paper for the U.S. Particle Physics Community Planning Exercise ("Snowmass"), we examine several contexts in which the practice of particle physics has impacts on the climate. These include the construction of facilities, the design and operation of particle detectors, the use of large-scale computing, and the research activities of scientists. We offer recommendations on establishing climate-aware practices in particle physics, with the goal of reducing our impact on the climate. We invite members of the community to show their support for a sustainable particle physics field (https://indico.fnal.gov/event/53795/).

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
NASA NTRS2002

Raytracing for Multi-Spacecraft Missions

The numerical simulation of in-situ instruments allows the instrument design to be optimized for particle throughput and allows for the iteration of the design parameters before fabrication. This effort leads to greater efficiency since the hardware itself does not have to be machined and fabricated to test each design change. More importantly for multi-spacecraft missions, the numerical raytracing allows the assessment of manufacturing tolerances so that a low relative accuracy can be obtained between the instruments. We will discuss our experience in optimizing and raytracing our charged particle instruments, obtaining the geometry factor from these simulations, and the comparison with the results of laboratory testing. This discussion with others will support the ISSI Scientific Report on Calibration Techniques for In-Situ Plasma Instrumentation.

Coffey, Victoria↗
NASA NTRS1985

A bi-directional charged particle telescope to observe flux, energy spectrum and angular distribution of relativistic and non-relativistic particles

A Charged Particle Telescope (CPT) was designed, fabricated and calibrated to make the following observations: (1) discrimination between various singly charged particles, e.g., electrons, muons and protons, in about 5 to 100 MeV energy range; (2) measurement of the flux and the energy of the charged particles incident to the telescope from two opposite directions and stopping in the telescope, thus obtaining flux and energy spectrum of downward and upward moving charged particles; and (3) measurement of the broad angular distribution of selected particles as a function of azimuthal angle. This telescope can be used to study low energy electron, muon and proton energy spectra. The experiment was flown in a high altitude balloon from Hyderabad, India, in December 1984. This same equipment is also useful in ground level electron, muon spectrum study.

Verma, S. D.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Particle Loading Tests on HEPA Flat Sheet Media at Sub-Ambient Pressures Using a Lunar Dust Simulant

When humans return to the moon under the NASA Artemis program, their activities on the lunar surface will inevitably lead to the intrusion of some level of lunar dust into the lander cabin. Therein the crew would be exposed to the potential hazards of lunar dust and the possibility of subsequent transfer into orbiting segments after docking. The spacecraft’s cabin filtration system will need to be effective at removing the airborne lunar dust to properly purify the breathable cabin air and minimize the spreading of the dust throughout the vehicle and orbital segments through the mission duration. The fine nature of the lunar dust will require high efficiency filtration, such as HEPA. A series of tests were performed in a specially designed recirculating sealed flow loop, for testing filter media and filter elements at the NASA Glenn Research Center. The flow loop was used to assess the performance and capacity of flat sheet filter media at representative cabin pressures using JSC-1AF lunar dust simulant and at high rates of particle loading. The pressure drop across the filter media was measured as a function of accumulated particle mass load at ambient pressure and at two sub-ambient pressures, 0.0703MPa and 0.0565MPa, and at a media velocity that was scaled relative to its pleated configuration. The challenge particle flows were generated by a custom designed particle generator that introduces dispersed particles of the lunar simulant at high concentrations. An optical particle counting instrument provided filter efficiency measurements within the sealed environment. The pressure drop was found to increase linearly with the amount of dust load on the media, for all test conditions, while the starting pressure drop was found to be lower at the lowest sub-ambient pressure case. High filter efficiency was maintained after high particle loads on the media.

Sub-ambient↗
DOE OSTI2024

Hopping and crawling DNA-coated colloids

Understanding the motion of particles with multivalent ligand-receptors is important for biomedical applications and material design. Yet, even among a single design, the prototypical DNA-coated colloids, seemingly similar micrometric particles hop or roll, depending on the study. We shed light on this problem by observing DNA-coated colloids diffusing near surfaces coated with complementary strands for a wide array of coating designs. We find colloids rapidly switch between 2 modes: They hop—with long and fast steps—and crawl—with short and slow steps. Both modes occur at all temperatures around the melting point and over various designs. The particles become increasingly subdiffusive as temperature decreases, in line with subsequent velocity steps becoming increasingly anticorrelated, corresponding to switchbacks in the trajectories. Overall, crawling (or hopping) phases are more predominant at low (or high) temperatures; crawling is also more efficient at low temperatures than hopping to cover large distances. We rationalize this behavior within a simple model: At lower temperatures, the number of bound strands increases, and detachment of all bonds is unlikely, hence, hopping is prevented and crawling favored. We thus reveal the mechanism behind a common design rule relying on increased strand density for long-range self-assembly: Dense strands on surfaces are required to enable crawling, possibly facilitating particle rearrangements.

Science & Technology - Other Topics↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Particle Loading Tests on HEPA Flat Sheet Media at Sub-Ambient Pressures Using a Lunar Dust Simulant

When humans return to the moon under the NASA Artemis program, their activities on the lunar surface will inevitably lead to the intrusion of some level of lunar dust into the lander cabin. Therein the crew would be exposed to the potential hazards of lunar dust and the possibility of subsequent transfer into orbiting segments after docking. The spacecraft’s cabin filtration system will need to be effective at removing the airborne lunar dust to properly purify the breathable cabin air and minimize the spreading of the dust throughout the vehicle and orbital segments through the mission duration. The fine nature of the lunar dust will require high efficiency filtration, such as HEPA. A series of tests were performed in a specially designed recirculating sealed flow loop, for testing filter media and filter elements at the NASA Glenn Research Center. The flow loop was used to assess the performance and capacity of flat sheet filter media at representative cabin pressures using JSC-1AF lunar he filter media was measured as a function of accumulated particle mdust simulant and at high rates of particle loading. The pressure drop across tass load at ambient pressure and at two sub-ambient pressures, 0.0703MPa and 0.0565MPa, and at a media velocity that was scaled relative to its pleated configuration. The challenge particle flows were generated by a custom designed particle generator that introduces dispersed particles of the lunar simulant at high concentrations. An optical particle counting instrument provided filter efficiency measurements within the sealed environment. The pressure drop was found to increase linearly with the amount of dust load on the media, for all test conditions, while the starting pressure drop was found to be lower at the lowest sub-ambient pressure case. High filter efficiency was maintained after high particle loads on the media

Sub-ambient↗
NASA NTRS2007

Design and Simulation of a MEMS Structure for Electrophoretic and Dielectrophoretic Separation of Particles by Contactless Electrodes

Rapid identification of pathogenic bacterial species is an important factor in combating public health problems such as E. coli contamination. Food and waterborne pathogens account for sickness in 76 million people annually (CDC). Diarrheagenic E. coli is a major source of gastrointestinal illness. Severe sepsis and Septicemia within the hospital environment are also major problems. 75 1,000 cases annually with a 30-50% mortality rate (Crit Care Med, July '01, Vol. 29, 1303-10). Patient risks run the continuum from fever to organ failure and death. Misdiagnosis or inappropriate treatment increases mortality. There exists a need for rapid screening of samples for identification of pathogenic species (Certain E. coli strains are essential for health). Critical to the identification process is the ability to isolate analytes of interest rapidly. This poster discusses novel devices for the separation of particles on the basis of the dielectric properties, mass and surface charge characteristics is presented. Existing designs involve contact between electrode surfaces and analyte medium resulting in contamination of the electrode bearing elements Two different device designs using different bulk micromachining MEMS processes (PolyMUMPS and a PyrexBIGold electrode design) are presented. These designs cover a range of particle sizes from small molecules through eucaryotic cells. The application of separation of bacteria is discussed in detail. Simulation data for electrostatic and microfluidic characteristics are provided. Detailed design characteristics and physical features of the as fabricated PolyMUMPS design are provided. Analysis of the simulation data relative to the expected performance of the devices will be provided and subsequent conclusions discussed.

Shaw, Harry C.↗
DOE OSTI2026

Design of a Level-1 Long-Lived Particle Trigger in the CMS Hadron Calorimeter

The Hadron Calorimeter (HCAL) in the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) was recently upgraded for Run 3 to introduce depth segmentation and online timing measurements, expanding the physics capabilities. In particular, the augmentation of the calorimeter information at the hardware trigger level enables quick identification and recording of long-lived particle decays using lower thresholds on energy-based event quantities. The depth segmentation and online timing capabilities are utilized in novel HCAL-based hardware-level triggers to identify displaced and delayed long-lived particles (LLPs), either decaying inside the calorimeter volume or arriving at a delayed time. This increases the sensitivity to LLP decays occurring up to almost 6 m from the collision point. This two-pronged calorimeter trigger approach leverages the new capabilities of the CMS HCAL to expand the phase space accessible in ongoing LLP searches. These triggers were deployed for Run 3 of the LHC, beginning data-taking in 2022, and we review the trigger implementation and calibration.

Kopp, Gillian Baron [Princeton University, NJ (Uni↗
NASA NTRS2024

Simulation of the Charged Particle Deflection From the Sweeping Magnet Array in the Lunar Environment Heliospheric X-Ray Imager

The Lunar Environment heliospheric X-ray Imager (LEXI) is an instrument built to image x-rays from solar wind charge exchange in Earth’s magneto sheath. Monitoring the position of the magnetopause at the inner boundary of the magneto sheath allows us to understand how magnetic reconnection regulates how energy from the solar wind is deposited into Earth’s magnetosphere. LEXI is part of an upcoming lunar lander mission set to land in Mare Crisium. To repel unwanted charged particles, the instrument carries a permanent magnet array composed of 48 neodymium magnets. The array was designed to maximize charged particle deflection while minimizing stray magnetic fields, which could impact other instruments or spacecraft operation. A Runge–Kutta-based fully kinetic particle tracing model was created to evaluate the effectiveness of LEXI’s unique charged particle deflector array. Combined with the other particle suppression measures of the instrument, including physical structures and filters, the simulations show proton and electron transmission to the LEXI detector is expected to be sufficiently reduced to allow successful imaging. The flexible simulation model can be generalized to be used in examining the magnetic deflector array effectiveness of other instruments whose signals could be compromised by unwanted charged particle contamination.

Space environment effects↗
DOE OSTI2021

Extended particle absorber for efficient modeling of intense laser-solid interactions

Here, an extended thermal particle boundary condition is devised to more efficiently and accurately model laser–plasma interactions in overdense plasmas. Particle-in-cell simulations of such interactions require many particles per cell, and a large region of background plasma is often necessary to correctly mimic a semi-infinite plasma and avoid electron refluxing from a truncated plasma. For long-pulse lasers of many picoseconds, such constraints can become prohibitively expensive. Here, an extended particle boundary condition (absorber) is designed that instantaneously stops and re-emits energetic particles streaming toward the simulation boundary over a defined region, allowing sufficient time and space for a suitably cool return current to develop in the background plasma. Tunable parameters of the absorber are explained, and simulations using the absorber with a 3-ps laser are shown to accurately reproduce those of a causally separated boundary while requiring only 20% the number of particles.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
NASA NTRS1991

Collectors Of Airborne And Spaceborne Particles

Brushlike collectors capture samples of dust and other particles in space vacuum or air for optical, scanning-electron-microscope, and/or x-ray analysis. Gently decelerates particles without damaging them, minimizing tendency of some particles to rebound. Depending on design of specific collector of this type, it captures particles ranging upward in size from fractions of micrometer to few micrometers.

Frazer, Robert E.↗