Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “Core Analysis”

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 37 records · Page 2

Global Precipitation Measurement - Report 9 Core Coverage Trade Space Analysis

This paper summarizes the GPM-Core coverage trade space analysis. The goal of this analysis was to determine the GPM-Core sensitivity to changes in altitude and inclination for the three onboard instruments: the radiometer, the KU band radar and the KA band radar. This study will enable a better choice of the nominal GPM-Core orbit as well as the optimal size of the maintenance box (+/-1 km, +/-5 km..). For this work, we used two different figures-of-merit: (1) the time required to cover 100% of the +/-65 deg latitude band and (2) the coverage obtained for a given propagation time (7 days and 30 days). The first figure-of-merit is used for the radiometer as it has a sensor cone half-angle between 3 to 5 times bigger than the radars. Thus, we anticipate that for this instrument the period of the orbit (i.e. altitude) will be the main driver and that the 100% coverage value will be reached within less than a week. The second figure-of-merit is used for the radar instruments as they have small sensor cone half-angle and will, in some cases, never reach the 100% coverage threshold point.

Mailhe, Laurie↗

Nonlinear behavior of solar gravity modes driven by He-3 in the core. I - Bifurcation analysis

The nonlinear development of solar gravity modes driven by He-3 burning in the solar core is investigated by means of an idealized dynamical model. Possible outcomes that have been suggested in the literature include the triggering of subcritical direct convection, leading to core mixing, and the saturation of the excitation processes, leading to sustained finite-amplitude oscillations. The present simple model suggests that the latter is the more likely. The limiting amplitude of the oscillations is estimated, ignoring possible resonances with other gravity modes, to be of order 10 km/s at the solar surface. Such oscillations would be easily observable. That large-amplitude gravity modes have not been observed suggests either that these modes are not unstable in the present era or that they are limited to much smaller amplitudes by resonant coupling.

Merryfield, William J.↗

Compression After Impact Experiments and Analysis on Honeycomb Core Sandwich Panels with Thin Facesheets

A better understanding of the effect of impact damage on composite structures is necessary to give the engineer an ability to design safe, efficient structures. Current composite structures suffer severe strength reduction under compressive loading conditions, due to even light damage, such as from low velocity impact. A review is undertaken to access the current state-of-development in the areas of experimental testing, and analysis methods. A set of experiments on honeycomb core sandwich panels, with thin woven fiberglass cloth facesheets, is described, which includes detailed instrumentation and unique observation techniques.

McQuigg, Thomas D.↗

Multi-Core Processor Memory Contention Benchmark Analysis Case Study

Multi-core processors dominate current mainframe, server, and high performance computing (HPC) systems. This paper provides synthetic kernel and natural benchmark results from an HPC system at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center that illustrate the performance impacts of multi-core (dual- and quad-core) vs. single core processor systems. Analysis of processor design, application source code, and synthetic and natural test results all indicate that multi-core processors can suffer from significant memory subsystem contention compared to similar single-core processors.

Simon, Tyler↗

Dynamic analysis of gas-core reactor system

A heat transfer analysis was incorporated into a previously developed model CODYN to obtain a model of open-cycle gaseous core reactor dynamics which can predict the heat flux at the cavity wall. The resulting model was used to study the sensitivity of the model to the value of the reactivity coefficients and to determine the system response for twenty specified perturbations. In addition, the model was used to study the effectiveness of several control systems in controlling the reactor. It was concluded that control drums located in the moderator region capable of inserting reactivity quickly provided the best control.

Turner, K. H., Jr.↗

Efficient Design and Analysis of Lightweight Reinforced Core Sandwich and PRSEUS Structures

Design, analysis, and sizing methods for two novel structural panel concepts have been developed and incorporated into the HyperSizer Structural Sizing Software. Reinforced Core Sandwich (RCS) panels consist of a foam core with reinforcing composite webs connecting composite facesheets. Boeing s Pultruded Rod Stitched Efficient Unitized Structure (PRSEUS) panels use a pultruded unidirectional composite rod to provide axial stiffness along with integrated transverse frames and stitching. Both of these structural concepts are ovencured and have shown great promise applications in lightweight structures, but have suffered from the lack of efficient sizing capabilities similar to those that exist for honeycomb sandwich, foam sandwich, hat stiffened, and other, more traditional concepts. Now, with accurate design methods for RCS and PRSEUS panels available in HyperSizer, these concepts can be traded and used in designs as is done with the more traditional structural concepts. The methods developed to enable sizing of RCS and PRSEUS are outlined, as are results showing the validity and utility of the methods. Applications include several large NASA heavy lift launch vehicle structures.

Bednarcyk, Brett A.↗

Plasmaspheric Density Troughs: Global IMAGE EUV Observations and Analysis via Global Core Plasma Modeling

To date, the IMAGE EUV camera has observed several plasmaspheric density trough features inside the plasmapause under a wide range of geomagnetic activity. From the perspective of EUV, a density trough feature appears as a channel of diminished pixel counts which spans a width of L-shell (DELTA L) and magnetic local time (MLT) inside the plasmapause. Plasmaspheric density troughs are found to be morphologically complex possessing considerable spatial and temporal variability. We present an analysis of the evolution of trough DELTA L and MLT extent as functions of associated D (sub ST) and K (sub p) history. Trough features range in size from 0.16 less than or equal to DELTA L less than or equal to 1.2 with azimuthal extent from 1500 less than or equal to MLT less than or equal to 1200. All cases of plasmaspheric density troughs studied to date appear to have evolved as a result of the inner edge of the afternoon/evening plasma drainage plume being wrapped around through the nightside plasmasphere. The structure of plasmaspheric density trough features is further probed by analyzing simulated EUV images produced by forward modeling artificially introduced regions of depleted density into both static and dynamic global core plasmaspheric models. Forward modeling suggests that (1) L-shell refilling of density troughs during storm recovery can be modeled as filling from the ionosphere toward the equator (i.e., bottom-up refilling), and (2) that an erosion process is operating within flux tubes beyond the outer L-shell wall of the observed density troughs.

Adrian, M. L.↗

Analysis of Volatile Organic Compounds in the Apollo Next Generation Sample Analysis (ANGSA) 73002 Core Sample

Understanding the organic content of lunar regolith was an early priority upon the return of Apollo samples, with amino acids being of special interest because of their importance to life on Earth and their astrobiological relevance. Many initial studies focused on the detection of amino acids in these samples and attempts to determine the origin of those compounds. Although no consensus on the origin of the amino acids was reached in those early studies, more recent work determined that the detected amino acids originated from both terrestrial contamination and meteoritic or cometary in fall to the lunar surface. A majority of the amino acids in the Apollo samples studied originated from precursor molecules, either indigenous to the lunar samples or contaminants, that reacted during the water extraction and acid hydrolysis process for analysis in the laboratory, but the identities of the amino acid precursors still remain poorly understood. Such precursors could include hydrogen cyanide (HCN) and other volatile organic compounds such as amines, carboxylic acids, or aldehydes and ketones. The identities of these compounds, as well as the effects of years of curation on their abundances in lunar regolith samples stored at ambient temperature under nitrogen gas purge, are not clear. The specially curated samples available through the Apollo Next Generation Sample Analysis (ANGSA) program provide a unique opportunity to use state-of- the-art analytical techniques to examine previously unstudied lunar materials. The ANGSA samples include three types of samples: 1) samples stored frozen since <1 month after Earth arrival; 2) samples stored under helium; and 3) a double drive tube collected by Apollo 17 astronauts, with the bottom portion of the drive tube sealed under vacuum on the Moon and never opened. In contrast to the typically curated Apollo samples that have been kept for decades at room temperature under flowing nitrogen purge that may have significantly reduced the abundance of volatiles, the vacuum-sealed and frozen samples may have enhanced preservation of these volatiles. Our initial investigation examines amino acids and their potential volatile precursors, including hydrogen cyanide (HCN), aldehydes, ketones, amines, and mono-carboxylic acids, in a sample from the top portion of the Apollo 17 double drive tube. These results will aid in understanding the lunar abundances of these molecules and will also be compared to future analyses of other drive tube and frozen ANGSA samples.

Elsila, J. E.↗

Globular cluster photometry with the Hubble Space Telescope. I - Description of the method and analysis of the core of 47 Tuc

Accurate photometry for individual post-main-sequence stars in the core of the Galactic globular cluster 47 Tuc is presented and analyzed using an empirical point spread function model and Monte Carlo simulations. A V vs. V-I color-magnitude diagrams is constructed which shows several distinct stellar types, including RGB and HB stars. Twenty-four blue straggler stars are detected in 47 Tuc, more concentrated toward the center of the cluster than the giants. This supports the hypothesis is that the stragglers are either coalesced stars or members of binary systems that are more massive than single stars. The radial profile of the projected stellar density is flat in the central region of 47 Tuc with a core radius of 23 +/- 2 arcsec. No signature of a collapsed core is evident. The observed radial cumulative distribution of stars rules out the presence of a massive compact object in the center.

Guhathakurta, Puragra↗

Gas-core reactor power transient analysis.

The nuclear fuel in the gas-core reactor concept is a ball of uranium plasma radiating thermal photons. The photons are met by an inflowing hydrogen stream, which is seeded with submicron size, depleted uranium particles. A 'wall-burnout' condition exists if the thermal photons can reach the cavity liner because of insufficient absorption by the hydrogen. An analysis was conducted in order to determine the time for which the maximum steady state reactor power could be exceeded without damage to the cavity liner due to burnout. Wall-burnout time as a function of the power increase above the initial steady state condition is shown in a graph.

Kascak, A. F.↗

On the effects of filtering on convective-core statistics

Analysis of convective events north of Australia during the equatorial Monsoon Experiment (EMEX) reinforces accumulating evidence that convective cores over the tropical ocean are weak, with small diameters and vertical velocities. Superposition of smaller-scale turbulence on the convective core signal could yield artificially small cores, and thus produce sampling bias by aircraft. To investigate this potential source of bias, a side-by-side analysis of filtered and unfiltered vertical velocity data was performed while investigating the EMEX convective cores. Data were collected by the NOAA P3 and NCAR Electra using filtered (Graham filter) and non-filtered cores. The effects of filtering vertical velocity data to identify updraft and downdraft cores were noticeable but smaller than expected. Updraft cores had a vertical velocity greater than 1 m/sec for at least 500 m, and downdraft cores were defined analogously so that the filter eliminated events with less than a 500 m apparent diameter. Median and 10 percent core diameters were increased by 20-25 percent at most, with larger increases at higher levels (fewer small events). The maximum vertical velocity was changed only by changing the individual events in the distribution, but changes were detectable. At the lower levels, where many small, weak cores are introduced by filtering, average vertical velocity for the updraft cores was lowered by up to around 10 percent. Mass flux was changed the least, since diameter and mean vertical velocity respond to filtering in opposite ways. The filtering procedure increased total mass flux slightly due to inclusion of more upward moving air into the sample.

Lemone, Margaret A.↗

Systematic chemical variations in large 3AB iron meteorites: Clues to core crystallization

Analysis of numerous individual iron meteorites have shown that fractional crystallization of iron cores result in variations in chemical concentration of the solid core which span several orders of magnitude. The magnitude and direction of the resulting spatial gradients in the core can provide clues to the physical nature of the core crystallization process. We have analyzed suites of samples from three large 3AB irons (Cape York, 58t; Chupaderos, 24t; Morito, 10t) in order to estimate local chemical gradients. Initial results for the concentrations of Ge, Pd, Pt (Massey group), Ir, Au, As, Co, Os, and Rh (Dalhouse group), and P (Arizona group) show significant ranges among the Cape York and Chupaderos samples and marginally significant ranges among the Morito samples. Measurements of Au, Ir, Co, Ni, Cu, Ga, As, W, Re (from UCLA) and Ni and Co (Arizona group) are in progress. We find a spatial Ir gradient in Chupaderos with a magnitude similar to the one reported for Agpalilik (Cape York iron) by Esbensen et al.

Haack, H.↗

Analysis of circuits including magnetic cores (MTRAC)

Development of automated circuit analysis computer program to provide transient analysis of circuits with magnetic cores is discussed. Allowance is made for complications caused by nonlinearity of switching core model and magnetic coupling among loop currents. Computer program is conducted on Univac 1108 computer using FORTRAN IV.

Hanzen, G. R.↗

Geomagnetic main field analysis at the core-mantle boundary - Spherical harmonics compared with harmonic splines

An optimum truncation level, N, in a spherical-harmonic analysis of the geomagnetic main field at the core-mantle boundary is determined by harmonic-spline analysis. Specifically, that value of N is found at which the two analyses are closest in a well defined sense and, for that value of N, the 'closeness' of two models is determined. Depending slightly on the definition of closeness, optimum N is found to be either 10 or 11. For those values the two analyses give remarkably similar results, showing that the conveniences of spherical harmonics can be retained with little penalty.

Benton, E. R.↗