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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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At least 37 records · Page 2
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1992

Shapes of strong shock fronts propagating through the coronal streamer belt

The effect of the coronal streamer belt on the propagation of a shock front in the solar wind is modeled. The model predicts a meridional deviation in the shock normal, resulting in a tendency for the shock normals to point toward the current sheet, which is straddled by the coronal streamer belt. Normals of eight shocks indpendently assessed to be within the expected range of influence of the belt are presented. Six of the eight shocks showed the predicted distortion. The null hypothesis would yield the same result in one out of 14 tries. The dimple shape induces a postshock confluence in the center of the belt of material pushed centerward from the top and bottom of the belt. It is suggested that this confluence of material might drive field line reconnection at the heliospheric current sheet in the center of the belt, as MHD simulations have observed.

Burton, M. E.↗
NASA NTRS1984

A Neutral Gas Jet in a Low Velocity Shock Front at the Boundary of the Draco Nebula

Twenty-one cm line observations with the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope of a dust and molecular filament at the boundary of the Draco Nebula reveal a jet like neutral hydrogen feature funneling through an outlet in the low velocity shock front at the interface between the Draco Nebula and the surrounding gas. The jet like feature is apparently connected with a high velocity filament at VLSR = -180 km/sec. It is suggested that soft X-ray emission observed in the area is thermal bremsstrahlung produced by the deceleration of high velocity gas in galactic gas.

Kalberla, P. W. M.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Monte Carlo simulation of nonequilibrium shock fronts

A direct simulation of a shock-tube experiment carried by AVCO (pressure of 1 Torr and velocity of 6.4 km/sec), repeated by Sharma and Gillespie (1990), and used by Park (1988) to develop his two-temperature model, is presented. Results show that the electronic ground state of N2 is not in rotational nor vibrational equilibrium with that of N2(+). Moreover, a two-temperature model is inadequate to describe nonequilibrium flows behind shocks. The role of impurities is examined. It is shown that the effects of a small fraction of H2O are insignificant. Good agreement with the measurements of Sharma and Gillespie is indicated.

Olynick, David P.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Studies of non-equilibrium radiation signatures behind hypersonic shock fronts

A new electric arc-driven shock tube facility is described. The radiative diagnostics include two optical multichannel analyzers, which can provide spectrally resolved snapshots of ultraviolet and visible shock fluorescence in both nonequilibrium and equilibrium regions behind the incident shock, as well as a bank of six filtered radiometers which allow temporal monitoring of key spectral features. Preliminary measurements of the radiative signatures behind low pressure shocks in air and nitrogen are presented for the shock velocity range of 6 to 12 km/s.

Donohue, K.↗
NASA NTRS1987

On the acceleration of charged particles at relativistic shock fronts

The diffusive acceleration of highly relativistic particles at a shock is reconsidered. Using the same physical assumptions as Blandford and Ostriker (1978), but dropping the restriction to nonrelativistic shock velocities, the authors find approximate solutions of the particle kinetic equation by generalizing the diffusion approximation to higher order terms in the anisotropy of the particle distribution. The general solution of the transport equation on either side of the shock is constructed, which involves the solution of an eigenvalue problem. By matching the two solutions at the shock, the spectral index of the resulting power law is found by taking into account a sufficiently large number of eigenfunctions. Low-order truncation corresponds to the standard diffusion approximation and to a somewhat more general method described by Peacock (1981). In addition to the energy spectrum, the method yields the angular distribution of the particles and its spatial dependence.

Kirk, J. G.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Nonequilibrium and equilibrium shock front radiation measurements

The intensities of the radiation emitted behind a normal shock wave in N were measured in an electric-arc driven shock tube at a shock velocity of 6.2 km/sec. Both a time-resolved broad-band radiation intensity measurement and a time-frozen spectral measurement were conducted. The rotational and vibrational temperatures are determined in both the equilibrium and the nonequilibrium regions. The results are compared with the similar data obtained by Allen et al. (1961). The measured rotational temperature seems to be in nonequilibrium, contradicting the two-temperature assumption of Park (1988), but the measured vibrational temperature agrees with Park's model.

Sharma, Surendra P.↗
NASA NTRS1981

Electron acceleration in magnetosonic shock fronts

It is shown that the low frequency turbulence driven by ions reflected in the foot of magnetosonic shocks can accelerate electrons to large energies. The mechanism seems to account for the energetic electron fluxes and the associated wave activity observed in the Earth bow shock.

Papadopoulos, K.↗
DOE OSTI2024

Quantifying motion blur by imaging shock front propagation with broadband and narrowband X-ray sources

Time-integrated radiography using MeV Bremsstrahlung X-ray sources is the norm for imaging during system-level testing of components and structures under dynamic condition. One source of error in the analysis of the time-integrated radiography data sets stems from motion blur which smears out sharp interfaces to a greater degree with longer exposure times, which become necessary to provide sufficient signal-to-noise with low X-ray penetration of objects of interest. To quantify motion blur, a 1D shock wave through PMMA was investigated experimentally at The Dynamic Compression Sector at The Advanced Photon Source (DCS@APS) with tapered broadband and 25.46 ± 1.06 keV narrowband X-rays. Four cameras with different exposure times were used for each experiment to compare the effect that exposure time has on motion blur. In addition, our methodology to accurately simulate motion blur in terms of transmission and shape is presented and compared to our experimental results and quantified. There is a high level of agreement between the experimental and simulation results across the range of data sets investigated in this study with a percent difference range of 0.29–1.31% for the four shots. The methodology of this work serves as a steppingstone towards a physically validated model that could be used in conjunction with experimental results to deconvolve physical parameters, densities, and interfaces of interest in a way that would not be possible with experimental results alone.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
NASA NTRS1999

High Energy Observations of X-Ray Binaries and Gamma-Ray Blazars

The report discusses the CGRO observation of X-ray binary systems and studies of gamma-ray blasars. Numerous authors have suggested mechanisms for particle acceleration within X-Ray Binary (XRB) systems. Among the acceleration mechanisms that have been applied are pulsar acceleration, shock acceleration at an accretion shock front, shock acceleration at a pulsar wind termination shock, plasma turbulence excited by the accretion flow, and a number of electrodynamic mechanisms. There are therefore many mechanisms which are capable of generating very energetic particles in the XRB environment. If the reports of TeV/PeV gamma-ray generation in XRBs are correct, then one can show that the accelerated particles must be hadrons and that the most likely gamma-ray production mechanism is the decay of collisionally-produced (or photoproduced) neutral pions. At these ultra-high energies, the emission is so strongly beamed that the target conditions are constrained by the requirement that the column depth be large enough to efficiently generate gamma-rays, but not so large that the gamma-rays are absorbed. These constraints naturally lead to models that explain the periodic, narrow duty-cycle pulses observed at TeV/PeV energies as arising from interactions with, either, the atmosphere of the binary companion, an accretion column, or an accretion disk. The production of these TeV/PeV gamma-rays by the decay of pions from "leading isobars" must also be accompanied by a more isotropic emission component in the EGRET energy band from the decay of slower pions (i.e. the "pionization" component). Since the attenuation of 35 MeV-1 GeV photons by photon-photon pair production is not likely to be significant in most XRBs, the TeV/PeV reports therefore strongly suggest sporadic emission in the EGRET energy band. One of the key unresolved issues for understanding AGN is the relationship between XBLs and RBLs.To test the "reunification" hypothesis, authors conducted a multiwavelength campaign during Cycle 7 of the CGRO observing program. The analysis of the cycle 4 through cycle 6 CGRO measurements was completed. Two previously unknown EGRET sources was discovered.

Vestrand, W. Thomas↗
DOE OSTI2025

Planetesimal Impact Vapor Plumes and Nebular Shocks Form Chondritic Mixtures

The origin of chondrules and the chondritic sedimentary rocks that dominate the meteoritic record is a long-standing problem in planetary science. Here, we develop a physical model for the formation of chondritic mixtures as an outcome of vaporizing collisions between planetesimals that were dynamically excited by the growth and migration of planets. We present calculations of nebular shock waves generated by impact vapor plumes and focus on aspects of the plume interaction with the nebular gas and dust that have been neglected in previous studies of impact ejecta. We find that when water dominates the vapor, the plumes are relatively cool. However, the plume expansion is supersonic and can drive strong shock waves in the dusty nebular gas. Portions of these nebular shock fronts initially melt nebular dust, forming chondrules that are coupled to the moving front. As the shock front expands and cools, the chondrules solidify, while the shock front entrains additional dust. Eventually, the plume expansion stalls and then hydrodynamically collapses, turbulently mixing variably processed dust and size-sorted chondrules. For probable impact parameters and nebular conditions during giant planet growth and migration, the impact-generated mixtures have characteristics that span the range observed in chondritic meteorites, providing an environment for rapid formation of chondritic assemblages after chondrule formation. Our impact vapor and nebular shocks model, named the IVANS model, links chondrule formation to the overall context of planet formation and provides a framework for interpreting the detailed chronological and geochemical record contained in chondritic meteorites.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
NASA NTRS2013

Shock Heating of the Merging Galaxy Cluster A521

A521 is an interacting galaxy cluster located at z = 0.247, hosting a low-frequency radio halo connected to an eastern radio relic. Previous Chandra observations hinted at the presence of an X-ray brightness edge at the position of the relic, which may be a shock front. We analyze a deep observation of A521 recently performed with XMM-Newton in order to probe the cluster structure up to the outermost regions covered by the radio emission. The cluster atmosphere exhibits various brightness and temperature anisotropies. In particular, two cluster cores appear to be separated by two cold fronts. We find two shock fronts, one that was suggested by Chandra and that is propagating to the east, and another to the southwestern cluster outskirt. The two main interacting clusters appear to be separated by a shock-heated region, which exhibits a spatial correlation with the radio halo. The outer edge of the radio relic coincides spatially with a shock front, suggesting that this shock is responsible for the generation of cosmic-ray electrons in the relic. The propagation direction and Mach number of the shock front derived from the gas density jump, M = 2.4 +/- 0.2, are consistent with expectations from the radio spectral index, under the assumption of Fermi I acceleration mechanism.

Bourdin, H.↗
NASA NTRS1980

Interstellar shock waves

The structure of interstellar shocks driven by supernova remnants and by expanding H II regions around early-type stars is discussed. Jump conditions are examined, along with shock fronts, post-shock relaxation layers, collisional shocks, collisionless shocks, nonradiative shocks, radiative atomic shocks, and shock models of observed nebulae. Effects of shock waves on interstellar molecules are examined, with reference to the chemistry behind shock fronts, infrared and vibrational-rotational cooling by molecules, and observations of shocked molecules. Some current problems and applications of the study of interstellar shocks are summarized, including the initiation of star formation by radiative shock waves, interstellar masers, the stability of shocks, particle acceleration in shocks, and shocks in galactic nuclei.

Mckee, C. F.↗