Plasmas and controlled nuclear fusion
Studies and experiments to determine time dependency of plasma density, high frequency electron-phonon interactions in magnetic fields, and operation of stuffed-cusp plasma facility
SOUND WAVE↗
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Results for “SOUND WAVES”
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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Kirchhoff's theorem in the acoustics of a moving medium
Generalized Kirchhoff law in acoustic energy calculation for moving point source of sound
SOUND WAVE↗
Sterilizing effect of high intensity airborne sound and ultrasound.
Lethal effects of high intensity airborne sound and ultrasound and irradiation time on Bacillus Subtilis for applications to spacecraft sterilization
BACTERIOLOGY↗
Continuous Deflection of Laser Beams
Optical beam deflection method based on polarization change of acoustically deflected light as compared to incident beam
POLARIZATION CHARACTERISTICS↗
Influence of internally generated pure tones on the broadband noise radiated from a jet
An experimental study was conducted to determine subsonic-jet-noise amplification by plane waves of sound (pure tones) generated upstream of the nozzle over wide ranges of frequency and amplitude. The data were used to evaluate the behavior of the pure tone and the broadband parts of the radiated sound in the far field. It is shown that a significant increase of broadband noise occurs only when the amplitude of the tone in the far field exceeds the sound pressure of the broadband noise at the same location in the far field. Therefore, the sensitivity of the jet to the pure-tone excitation is not large.
Parthasarathy, S. P.↗
Analysis of a method for precisely relating a seafloor point to a distant point on land
A study of the environmental constraints and engineering aspects of the acoustic portion of a system for making geodetic ties between undersea reference points and others on land is described. Important areas in which to make such observations initially would be from the California mainland out to oceanic points seaward of the San Andreas fault, and across the Aleutian Trench. The overall approach would be to operate a GPS receiver in a relative positioning (interferometric) mode to provide the long range element of the baseline determination (10 to 1,000 km) and an array of precision sea floor acoustic transponders to link the locally moving sea surface GPS antenna location to a fixed sea floor point. Analyses of various environmental constrants (tides, waves, currents, sound velocity variations) lead to the conclusion that, if one uses a properly designed transponder having a remotely controllable precise retransmission time delay, and is careful with regard to methods for installing these on the sea floor, one should, in many ocean locations, be able to achieve sub-decimeter overall system accuracy. Achievements of cm accuracy or better will require additional understanding of time and space scales of variation of sound velocity structure in the ocean at relevant locations.
Spiess, F. N.↗
The "limiting line" in mixed subsonic and supersonic flow of compressible fluids
It is well known that the vorticity for any fluid element is constant if the fluid is non-viscous and the change of state of the fluid is isentropic. When a solid body is placed in a uniform stream, the flow far ahead of the body is irrotational. Then if the flow is further assumed to be isentropic, the vorticity will be zero over the whole filed of flow. In other words, the flow is irrotational. For such flow over a solid body, it is shown by Theodorsen that the solid body experiences no resistance. If the fluid has a small viscosity, its effect will be limited in the boundary layer over the solid body and the body will have a drag due to the skin friction. This type of essentially isentropic irrotational flow is generally observed for a streamlined body placed in a uniform stream, if the velocity of the stream is kept below the so-called "critical speed." At the critical speed or rather at a certain value of the ratio of the velocity of the undisturbed flow and the corresponding velocity of sound, shock waves appear. This phenomenon is called the "compressibility bubble." Along a shock wave, the change of state of the fluid is no longer isentropic, although still adiabatic. This results in an increase in entropy of the fluid and generally introduces vorticity in an originally irrotational flow. The increase in entropy of the fluid is, of course, the consequence of changing part of the mechanical energy into heat energy. In other words, the part of fluid affected by the shock wave has a reduced mechanical energy. Therefore, with the appearance of shock waves, the wake of the streamline body is very much widened, and the drag increases drastically. Furthermore, the accompanying change in the pressure distribution over the body changes the aerodynamic moment acting on it and in the case of an airfoil decreases the lift force. All these consequences of the breakdown of isentropic irrotational flow are generally undesirable in applied aerodynamics. Its occurrence should be delayed as much as possible by modifying the shape or contour of the body. However, such endeavor will be very much facilitated if the cause or the criterion for the breakdown can be found first.
MACH NUMBER↗
Prototype development of a Geostationary Synthetic Thinned Aperture Radiometer, GeoSTAR
Preliminary details of a 2-D synthetic aperture radiometer prototype operating from 50 to 55 GHz will be presented. The laboratory prototype is being developed to demonstrate the technologies and system design needed to do millimeter-wave atmospheric soundings with high spatial resolution from Geostationary orbit. The concept is to deploy a large thinned aperture Y-array on a geostationary satellite, and to use aperture synthesis to obtain images of the Earth without the need for a large mechanically scanned antenna. The laboratory prototype consists of a Y-array of 24 horn antennas, MMIC receivers, and a digital cross-correlation sub-system.
radiometer↗
Thermal Acoustic Oscillation: Causes, Detection, Analysis, and Prevention
Thermal Acoustic Oscillations (TAO) can occur in cryogenic systems and produce significant sources of heat. This source of heat can increase the boil off rate of cryogenic propellants in spacecraft storage tanks and reduce mission life. This paper discusses the causes of TAO, how it can be detected, what analyses can be done to predict it, and how to prevent it from occurring.The paper provides practical insight into what can aggravate instability, practical methods for mitigation, and when TAO does not occur. A real life example of a cryogenic system with an unexpected heat source is discussed, along with how TAO was confirmed and eliminated.
Cryogenics↗
Thermal Acoustic Oscillation: Causes, Detection, Analysis and Prevention
The presentation discusses the causes of Thermal Acoustic Oscillations, how it can be detected, analyzed and prevented. It also discusses where it can occur, where it doesn't occur and practical mitigation techniques.
Sound Waves↗
Sound generation and upstream influence due to instability waves interacting with non-uniform mean flows
Attention is given to the sound produced by artificially excited, spatially growing instability waves on subsonic shear layers. Real flows that always diverge in the downstream direction allow sound to be produced by the interaction of the instability waves with the resulting streamwise variations of the flow. The upstream influence, or feedback, can interact with the splitter plate lip to produce a downstream-propagating instability wave that may under certain conditions be the same instability wave that originally generated the upstream influence. The present treatment is restricted to very low Mach number flows, so that compressibility effects can only become important over large distances.
Goldstein, M. E.↗
Measurement of the speed of sound in ice
The data presented demonstrate the gathering of sound speed measurements in refrigerated ice, using both compressional and shear waves, on the basis of ice thickness and sound wave time-of-travel parameters. Clear and sharp echo reflections were obtained for both compressional and shear waves at the aluminum/ice and ice/aluminum interfaces for ice at -26 C; ice formed at various conditions can have different sound speeds, depending on the density and elastic constants.
Smith, A. C.↗
Jet-noise reduction through liquid-base foam injection.
An experimental investigation has been made of the sound-absorbing properties of liquid-base foams and of their ability to reduce jet noise. Protein, detergent, and polymer foaming agents were used in water solutions. A method of foam generation was developed to permit systematic variation of the foam density. The investigation included measurements of sound-absorption coefficents for both plane normal incidence waves and diffuse sound fields. The intrinsic acoustic properties of foam, e.g., the characteristic impedance and the propagation constant, were also determined. The sound emitted by a 1-in.-diam cold nitrogen jet was measured for subsonic (300 m/sec) and supersonic (422 m/sec) jets, with and without foam injection. Noise reductions up to 10 PNdB were measured.
Manson, L.↗
Sound ranging computations for sounding rocket recovery
Recovery of reentry rocket by sound ranging detection of shock wave
SHOCK WAVE↗
Universal instability associated with the plasmapause and its role in geomagnetic micropulsations.
The observed close correlation between the plasmapause and micropulsations is explained on the basis of a universal instability model. Both theoretical and experimental studies of a nonhomogeneous magnetoplasma indicate that a steep plasma density gradient at the plasmapause is likely the origin of the universal instability in the magnetosphere. Drift waves excited at the plasmapause may be unstable in the direction of the electron drift and propagate eastward nearly perpendicularly to the magnetic field. The drift waves, however, tend to convert very quickly to ion sound or Alfven waves with a much larger phase velocity parallel to the magnetic field. This may be a possible source mechanism for rather regular geomagnetic micropulsations, and specific mechanisms are identified for the long- and short-period cases.
Kikuchi, H.↗
Sound radiation from an infinite elastic cylinder with dual-wave propagation-intensity distributions
The radiation of sound from an elastic cylindrical shell filled with fluid and supporting multiwave propagation is studied analytically. Combinations of supersonic and subsonic shell waves are considered. The radiated field is mapped by using acoustic intensity vectors evaluated at various locations. Both time averaged and instantaneous intensity are investigated. The acoustic intensity is seen to vary markedly with axial distance down the cylinder. The effect is shown to be associated with cross terms in the intensity relations, and its magnitude and location to depend upon the relative phase and amplitudes of individual waves. Subsonic shell waves are demonstrated to interact strongly with supersonic shell waves to cause a large modification in the radiated intensity distributions near the shell surface.
Fuller, C. R.↗
Electric Field Observations of Plasma Convection, Shear, Alfven Waves, and other Phenomena Observed on Sounding Rockets in the Cusp and Boundary Layer
On December 14,2002, a NASA Black Brant X sounding rocket was launched equatorward from Ny Alesund, Spitzbergen (79 N) into the dayside cusp and subsequently cut across the open/closed field line boundary, reaching an apogee of771 km. The launch occurred during Bz negative conditions with strong By negative that was changing during the flight. SuperDarn (CUTLASS) radar and subsequent model patterns reveal a strong westward/poleward convection, indicating that the rocket traversed a rotational reversal in the afternoon merging cell. The payload returned DC electric and magnetic fields, plasma waves, energetic particle, suprathermal electron and ion, and thermal plasma data. We provide an overview of the main observations and focus on the DC electric field results, comparing the measured E x B plasma drifts in detail with the CUTLASS radar observations of plasma drifts gathered simultaneously in the same volume. The in situ DC electric fields reveal steady poleward flows within the cusp with strong shears at the interface of the closed/open field lines and within the boundary layer. We use the observations to discuss ionospheric signatures of the open/closed character of the cusp/low latitude boundary layer as a function of the IMF. The electric field and plasma density data also reveal the presence of very strong plasma irregularities with a large range of scales (10 m to 10 km) that exist within the open field line cusp region yet disappear when the payload was equatorward of the cusp on closed field lines. These intense low frequency wave observations are consistent with strong scintillations observed on the ground at Ny Alesund during the flight. We present detailed wave characteristics and discuss them in terms of Alfven waves and static irregularities that pervade the cusp region at all altitudes.
Pfaff, R. F.↗
Intensity moments by path integral techniques for wave propagation through random media, with application to sound in the ocean
A theory is developed which describes intensity moments for wave propagation through random media. It is shown using the path integral technique that these moments are significantly different from those of a Rayleigh distribution in certain asymptotic regions. The path integral approach is extended to inhomogeneous, anisotropic media possessing a strong deterministic velocity profile. The behavior of the corrections to Rayleigh statistics is examined, and it is shown that the important characteristics can be attributed to a local micropath focusing function. The correction factor gamma is a micropath focusing parameter defined in terms of medium fluctuations. The value of gamma is calculated for three ocean acoustic experiments, using internal waves as the medium fluctuations. It is found that all three experiments show excellent agreement as to the relative values of the intensity moments. The full curved ray is found to yield results that are significantly different from the straight-line approximations. It is noted that these methods are applicable to a variety of experimental situations, including atmospheric optics and radio waves through plasmas.
Bernstein, D. R.↗