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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 NTRS1995

A kinetic study of solar wind electrons in the transition region from collision dominated to collisionless flow

We have studied the evolution of the velocity distribution function of a test population of electrons in the solar corona and inner solar wind region, using a recently developed kinetic model. The model solves the time dependent, linear transport equation, with a Fokker-Planck collision operator to describe Coulomb collisions between the 'test population' and a thermal background of charged particles, using a finite differencing scheme. The model provides information on how non-Maxwellian features develop in the distribution function in the transition region from collision dominated to collisionless flow. By taking moments of the distribution the evolution of higher order moments, such as the heat flow, can be studied.

Lie-Svendsen, O.↗
NASA NTRS1976

Deviation from a Maxwellian velocity distribution in regions of interstellar molecular hydrogen

The deviation from a Maxwellian velocity distribution caused by excitation of the J = 2 rotational level of parahydrogen (followed by radiative decay) in a molecular hydrogen gas is investigated. It is noted that inelastic collisions deplete the high-velocity tail of the distribution, while elastic collisions tend to refill it; the resulting steady-state distribution has a small depletion in the tail which slightly reduces the cooling rate of the gas. The elastic-collision transport is approximated by a continuous process, a simplified expression is obtained for the inelastic-collision operator, and the Boltzmann equation is then solved analytically. A correction to the inelastic-collision rate is evaluated, and it is found that the relative magnitude of the effect of tail depletion on the inelastic-collision rate is strongly temperature-dependent. The critical molecular density above which the J = 2 level deexcites by superelastic collisions is shown to be a weak function of temperature.

Gould, R. J.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Conjunction Assessment(CA) Support Overview for the EOS Satellites

When a satellite is placed into its desired orbit, to achieve its designed mission objectives, it is imperative to maintain orbit requirements as well as the overall health and safety of the vehicle. One integral part of this process is ensuring that the satellite does not collide with any other vehicle or object in space, which can cause a detrimental consequence to the mission as well as to other satellites within the same orbit regime. To prevent such an occurrence, a thorough collision avoidance process must be followed. This process includes constantly monitoring potential conjunctions and performing collision avoidance maneuvers when necessary, while remaining within the limitations of the mission’s orbit maintenance requirements. This presentation will describe the Earth Observing System (EOS) Aqua, Aura and Terra satellite’s operational collision a! voidance process. It will highlight the routine conjunction assessment screening and data evaluation process performed by the NASA/GSFC EOS Collision Avoidance Engineers. The presentation will include background information, a summary of operational activities and duties, internal tools used for support, EOS High Interest Event statistics, and potential challenges expected in the future.

Syed Hasan↗
NASA NTRS1987

Wilson Cycle studies

The main activity relating to the study during this half year was a three week field trip to study Chinese sedimentary basins (June 10 to July 3, 1986) at no cost to the project. This study, while of a reconnaissance character, permitted progress in understanding how the processes of island arc-collision and micro-continental collision operated during the Paleozoic in far western China (especially the Junggar and Tarim basins and in the intervening Tien Shan Mountains). These effects of the continuing collision of India and Asia on the area were also studied. Most specifically, these result in the elevation of the Tien Shan to more than 4 km above sea level and the depression of Turfan to move 150m below sea level. Both thrusting and large-scale strike-slip motion are important in producing these elevation changes. Some effort during the half year was also devoted to the study of greenstone-belts in terms of the Wilson Cycle.

Burke, Kevin↗
NASA NTRS1983

Density drift instabilities and weak collisions

A model is developed which describes the effects of weak collisions on the linear kinetic theory of electrostatic density drift instabilities. A dispersion equation valid at all frequencies and wave numbers is derived using the assumptions of a weak, uniform density gradient; a uniform magnetic field; and the BGK collision operator with a modification of the local approximation. The properties of the universal and collisional density drift instabilities at maximum growth rates are examined in detail. The thresholds of the instabilities are examined for an ionospheric model which includes ion-neutral, electron-neutral, and electron-ion collisions, and are compared with the threshold of the lower hybrid density drift instability. It is concluded that the k to the -5th short wavelength density power spectra observed above 280 km in the PLUMEX experiment are due to the effects of the universal density drift instability.

Gary, S. P.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Effects of collisions on the nonlinear particle dynamics in the magnetotail

The effects of collisional processes on the nonlinear particle dynamics in the magnetotail are considered.A simple collision operator is developed to model the effects of pitch-angle and energy scattering. It is found that the phase space partition persists for up to moderate scattering amplitudes in pitch-angle and energy, and that certain distribution function features are robust even in the presence of large amplitude collisions. It is shown that if the collisions are due to short scale length electrostatic fields, excessively large field amplitudes are required to signifiantly alter the phase space structures and the resulting distribution function features.

Holland, Daniel L.↗
NASA NTRS1972

Collision matrix elements near a pseudocrossing of potential energy curves.

The cross sections of certain inelastic atomic collision processes can be determined from the matrix elements of the collision operator, d/dR, where R is the separation of the colliding atoms. At one extreme, the matrix element may pass through zero near a pseudocrossing of potential energy curves, while at the other extreme, it may pass through a maximum. The resulting cross sections are entirely different in magnitude and in energy dependence. An attempt is made to predict the qualitative behavior of the collision matrix elements with variations in R from an analysis of the Born-Oppenheimer adiabatic Hamiltonian. The modifications caused by a second pseudocrossing with a third adiabatic state are studied.

Oppenheimer, M.↗
NASA NTRS1970

High frequency Hall current instability

The Hall current electrojet instability was studied to determine if it generates VLF hiss in the auroral zone of magnetic substorms. Using the kinetic equations with particle conserving Krook collision operator for electrons and ions, and Poisson's equation, it is shown that in the low frequency region, the range of frequency of unstable modes increases as the electron density increases, and that the high frequency component must be taken into account in calculations of turbulent saturation of the Hall current instability driven beyond threshold. It is concluded that Hall currents can generate waves in the VLF hiss frequency band which are related to local auroral electrojet activity.

Lee, K.↗
NASA NTRS1972

Microwave conductivity of slightly ionized gases and electromagnetic scintillations

Two areas of research are briefly summarized. The first is concerned with calculating the conductivity of a slightly ionized gas. A method is proposed which involves an expansion of the Boltzmann collision operator (of the electron distribution function, involving the neutral gas-electron interactions) in powers of the electron-gas mass ratio. The second area of investigation focuses on the problem of a radio wave propagating through the interplanetary medium, taking account of the decreasing plasma density with distance from the sun.

Mintzer, D.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Monte Carlo shock-like solutions to the Boltzmann equation with collective scattering

The results of Monte Carlo simulations of steady state shocks generated by a collision operator that isotropizes the particles by means of elastic scattering in some locally defined frame of reference are presented. The simulations include both the back reaction of accelerated particles on the inflowing plasma and the free escape of high-energy particles from finite shocks. Energetic particles are found to be naturally extracted out of the background plasma by the shock process with an efficiency in good quantitative agreement with an earlier analytic approximation (Eichler, 1983 and 1984) and observations (Gosling et al., 1981) of the entire particle spectrum at a quasi-parallel interplanetary shock. The analytic approximation, which allows a self-consistent determination of the effective adiabatic index of the shocked gas, is used to calculate the overall acceleration efficiency and particle spectrum for cases where ultrarelativistic energies are obtained. It is found that shocks of the strength necessary to produce galactic cosmic rays put approximately 15 percent of the shock energy into relativistic particles.

Ellison, D. C.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Regularized Chapman-Enskog expansion for scalar conservation laws

Rosenau has recently proposed a regularized version of the Chapman-Enskog expansion of hydrodynamics. This regularized expansion resembles the usual Navier-Stokes viscosity terms at law wave-numbers, but unlike the latter, it has the advantage of being a bounded macroscopic approximation to the linearized collision operator. The behavior of Rosenau regularization of the Chapman-Enskog expansion (RCE) is studied in the context of scalar conservation laws. It is shown that thie RCE model retains the essential properties of the usual viscosity approximation, e.g., existence of traveling waves, monotonicity, upper-Lipschitz continuity..., and at the same time, it sharpens the standard viscous shock layers. It is proved that the regularized RCE approximation converges to the underlying inviscid entropy solution as its mean-free-path epsilon approaches 0, and the convergence rate is estimated.

Schochet, Steven↗
NASA NTRS2008

The NASA Robotic Conjunction Assessment Process: Overview and Operational Experiences

Orbital debris poses a significant threat to spacecraft health and safety. Recent events such as China's anti-satellite test and the Breeze-M rocket explosion have led to an even greater awareness and concern in the satellite community. Therefore, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has established requirements that routine conjunction assessment screening shall be performed for all maneuverable spacecraft having perigees less than 2000 km or within 200 km of geosynchronous altitude. NASA s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) has developed an operational collision risk assessment process to protect NASA s high-value unmanned (robotic) assets that has been in use since January 2005. This paper provides an overview of the NASA robotic conjunction assessment process, including descriptions of the new tools developed to analyze close approach data and of the risk mitigation strategies employed. In addition, statistical data describing the number of conjunctions experienced are presented. A debris avoidance maneuver performed by Aura in June of 2008 is described in detail to illustrate the process.

Newman, Lauri Kraft↗
NASA NTRS2015

Lattice Boltzmann Method for Spacecraft Propellant Slosh Simulation

A scalable computational approach to the simulation of propellant tank sloshing dynamics in microgravity is presented. In this work, we use the lattice Boltzmann equation (LBE) to approximate the behavior of two-phase, single-component isothermal flows at very low Bond numbers. Through the use of a non-ideal gas equation of state and a modified multiple relaxation time (MRT) collision operator, the proposed method can simulate thermodynamically consistent phase transitions at temperatures and density ratios consistent with typical spacecraft cryogenic propellants, for example, liquid oxygen. Determination of the tank forces and moments relies upon the global momentum conservation of the fluid domain, and a parametric wall wetting model allows tuning of the free surface contact angle. Development of the interface is implicit and no interface tracking approach is required. Numerical examples illustrate the method's application to predicting bulk fluid motion including lateral propellant slosh in low-g conditions.

Orr, Jeb S.↗
NASA NTRS2015

Lattice Boltzmann Method for Spacecraft Propellant Slosh Simulation

A scalable computational approach to the simulation of propellant tank sloshing dynamics in microgravity is presented. In this work, we use the lattice Boltzmann equation (LBE) to approximate the behavior of two-phase, single-component isothermal flows at very low Bond numbers. Through the use of a non-ideal gas equation of state and a modified multiple relaxation time (MRT) collision operator, the proposed method can simulate thermodynamically consistent phase transitions at temperatures and density ratios consistent with typical spacecraft cryogenic propellants, for example, liquid oxygen. Determination of the tank forces and moments is based upon a novel approach that relies on the global momentum conservation of the closed fluid domain, and a parametric wall wetting model allows tuning of the free surface contact angle. Development of the interface is implicit and no interface tracking approach is required. A numerical example illustrates the method's application to prediction of bulk fluid behavior during a spacecraft ullage settling maneuver.

Orr, Jeb S.↗
NASA NTRS2017

Multi-Group Maximum Entropy Model for Translational Non-Equilibrium

The aim of the current work is to describe a new model for flows in translational non- equilibrium. Starting from the statistical description of a gas proposed by Boltzmann, the model relies on a domain decomposition technique in velocity space. Using the maximum entropy principle, the logarithm of the distribution function in each velocity sub-domain (group) is expressed with a power series in molecular velocity. New governing equations are obtained using the method of weighted residuals by taking the velocity moments of the Boltzmann equation. The model is applied to a spatially homogeneous Boltzmann equation with a Bhatnagar-Gross-Krook1(BGK) model collision operator and the relaxation of an initial non-equilibrium distribution to a Maxwellian is studied using the model. In addition, numerical results obtained using the model for a 1D shock tube problem are also reported.

Entropy↗