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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1975

Thermodynamic properties of small aggregates of rare-gas atoms

The present work reports on the equilibrium thermodynamic properties of small clusters of xenon, krypton, and argon atoms, determined from a biased random-walk Monte Carlo procedure. Cluster sizes ranged from 3 to 13 atoms. Each cluster was found to have an abrupt liquid-gas phase transition at a temperature much less than for the bulk material. An abrupt solid-liquid transition is observed for thirteen- and eleven-particle clusters. For cluster sizes smaller than 11, a gradual transition from solid to liquid occurred over a fairly broad range of temperatures. Distribution of number of bond lengths as a function of bond length was calculated for several systems at various temperatures. The effects of box boundary conditions are discussed. Results show the importance of a correct description of boundary conditions. A surprising result is the slow rate at which system properties approach bulk behavior as cluster size is increased.

Etters, R. D.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Quantitative characterization of spatial distribution of particles in materials: Application to materials processing

Most engineering materials contain second phase particles or fibers which serve to reinforce the matrix phase. The effect of reinforcements on material properties is usually analyzed in terms of the average volume fraction and spacing of reinforcements, quantities which are global microstructural characteristics. However, material properties can also depend on local microstructural characteristics; for example, on how uniformly the reinforcing phase is distributed in the material. The analysis method will then be applied to a materials processing problem to discover how processing parameters can be selected to maximize redistribution of the reinforcing phase during processing. Several mathematical analysis methods could be adapted to the problem of characterizing the distribution of particles in materials. A tessellation-based method was selected. In the first phase of the investigation, a software package was written to automate the analysis. Typical results are shown. The analysis technique allows the degree to which particles are clustered together, the size and spacing of particle clusters, and the particle density in clusters to be found. The analysis methods were applied to computer-generated distributions and to a few real particle-containing materials. Methods for analyzing a nonuniform particle distribution in a material can be applied to two broad classes of materials science problems: understanding how the resulting particle distribution affects properties. The analysis method described is applied to a materials processing problem: how to select extrusion conditions to maximize the redistribution of reinforcing particles that are initially nonuniformly distributed. In addition, the tessellation-based method to analyze star distributions in spiral galaxies was adapted, illustrating the diverse types of problems to which the analysis method can be applied.

Parse, J. B.↗
NASA NTRS1972

A second quantized model of anharmonicity.

A heuristic description is given for a simple harmonic oscillator as a basis for a model of anharmonicity. A formalism is applied in the process, which applies to complex excitation fields involving particle clusters and also facilitates a description of nonequilibrium multibody configurations by classical methods. The heuristic description is based on Streit's results (1965) and is free of linearization requirements in most physically interesting situations.

Rasetti, M.↗
NASA NTRS1982

Heterogeneous atmospheric chemistry

The present conference on heterogeneous atmospheric chemistry considers such topics concerning clusters, particles and microparticles as common problems in nucleation and growth, chemical kinetics, and catalysis, chemical reactions with aerosols, electron beam studies of natural and anthropogenic microparticles, and structural studies employing molecular beam techniques, as well as such gas-solid interaction topics as photoassisted reactions, catalyzed photolysis, and heterogeneous catalysis. Also discussed are sulfur dioxide absorption, oxidation, and oxidation inhibition in falling drops, sulfur dioxide/water equilibria, the evidence for heterogeneous catalysis in the atmosphere, the importance of heterogeneous processes to tropospheric chemistry, soot-catalyzed atmospheric reactions, and the concentrations and mechanisms of formation of sulfate in the atmospheric boundary layer.

Schryer, D. R.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Workshop on Cosmic Ray and High Energy Gamma Ray Experiments for the Space Station Era, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, October 17-20, 1984, Proceedings

The potential of the Space Station as a platform for cosmic-ray and high-energy gamma-ray astronomy is discussed in reviews, reports, and specific proposals. Topics examined include antiparticles and electrons, science facilities and new technology, high-energy nuclear interactions, nuclear composition and energy spectra, Space Shuttle experiments, Space Station facilities and detectors, high-energy gamma rays, and gamma-ray facilities and techniques. Consideration is given to universal-baryon-symmetry testing on the scale of galactic clusters, particle studies in a high-inclination orbit, balloon-borne emulsion-chamber results on ultrarelativistic nucleus-nucleus interactions, ionization states of low-energy cosmic rays, a large gamma-ray telescope for point-source studies above 1 GeV, and the possible existence of stable quark matter.

Jones, W. V.↗
NASA NTRS1988

Short-crack growth behaviour in an aluminum alloy: An AGARD cooperative test program

An AGARD Cooperative Test Program on the growth of short fatigue cracks was conducted to define the significance of the short-crack effect, to compare test results from various laboratories, and to evaluate an existing analytical crack-growth prediction model. The initiation and growth of short fatigue cracks (5 micrometer to 2 mm) from the surface of a semi-circular notch in 2024-T3 aluminum alloy sheet material were monitored under various load histories. The cracks initiated from inclusion particle clusters or voids on the notch surface and generally grew as surface cracks. Tests were conducted under several constant-amplitude (stress ratios of -2, -1, 0, and 0.5) and spectrum (FALSTAFF and Gaussian) loading conditions at 3 stress levels each. Short crack growth was recorded using a plastic-replica technique. Over 250 edge-notched specimens were fatigue tested and nearly 950 cracks monitored by 12 participants from 9 countries. Long crack-growth rate data for cracks greater than 2 mm in length were obtained over a wide range in rates (10 to the -8 to 10 to the -1 mm/cycle) for all constant-amplitude loading conditions. Long crack-growth rate data for the FALSTAFF and Gaussian load sequences were also obtained.

Newman, J. C., Jr.↗
NASA NTRS1996

Migrational Instabilities in Particle Suspensions

This work deals with an instability arising from the shear-induced migration of particles in dense suspensions coupled with a dependence of viscosity on particle concentration. The analysis summarized here treats the inertialess (Re = O) linear stability of homogeneous simple shear flows for a Stokesian suspension model of the type proposed by Leighton and Acrivos (1987). Depending on the importance of shear-induced migration relative to concentration-driven diffusion, this model admits short-wave instability arising from wave-vector stretching by the base flow and evolving into particle-depleted shear bands. Moreover, this instability in the time-dependent problem corresponds to loss of ellipticity in the associated static problem (Re = O, Pe = O). While the isotropic version of the Leighton-Acrivos model is found to be stable with their experimentally determined parameters for simple shear, it is known that the stable model does not give a good quantitative description of particle clustering in the core of pipe flow (Nott and Brady 1994). This leads to the conjecture that an appropriate variant on the above model could explain such clustering as a two-phase bifurcation in the base flow.

Goddard, Joe D.↗
NASA NTRS1996

Restructuring of Dust Aggregates in the Solar Nebula

We discuss the results of a recent effort to analyze the mechanical stability of dust aggregates with a detailed model of the physical properties of a contact between grains. This model contains both elastic repulsion forces and attractive van der Waals/dipole/metallic forces along with a description of the energy dissipation due to rolling, sliding, and breaking of contacts. We find that (1) aggregates formed from single sized grains via Particle-Cluster-Aggregation remain fluffy, (2) collisions with other aggregates and with large grains may lead to compaction (3) the velocities of small grains and aggregates in the early solar nebula are too small to produce marked compaction as long as the aggregates are small, and (4) internal restructuring of aggregates is a potentially large sink of energy which could enable the sticking of large bodies even at collision velocities of the order of several hundred cm/s.

Dominik, C.↗
NASA NTRS1988

Active galactic nuclei. II - The acceleration of relativistic particles in a cluster of accreting black holes

An accreting cluster of black holes in an active galactic nucleus is a natural site for a system of shock structures with a hierarchy of sizes, corresponding to the distribution of masses in the cluster. Accreted gas containing some magnetic fields and supersonically falling onto the core forms shocks on the outside of each hole and these shocks are capable of accelerating relativistic particles. The energies reached in a single shock are size rather than acceleration time limited and are proportional to the mass of the hole with a proportionality constant being a function of the position of the hole within a cluster and the model of the cluster and the shock formation. These energies are adequate to explain the observed properties of synchrotron and inverse-Compton radiation from these objects. The resulting energy spectrum of particles in the cluster in 'zeroth' approximation has the form of a doubly broken power law with indices of two and three on both extremes of the energy domain respectively, bridged by an index of about 2.5.

Pacholczyk, A. G.↗
NASA NTRS2008

Friction-Stir Welding - Heavy Inclusions in Bi-metallic welds of Al 2219/2195

Heavy Inclusions (HI) were detected for the first time by radiographic examination in aluminum alloy 2219forging/2195plate (advancing/retreating side) Friction Sir Welds (FSW) for the Space Shuttle External Tank (ET) Program. Radiographic HI indications appear as either small (approx.0.005"-0.025") individual particles or clusters of small particles. Initial work was performed to verify that the HI was not foreign material or caused by FSW pin tool debris. That and subsequent elemental analysis determined that the HI were large agglomerations of Al2Cu (theta phase), which is the strengthening precipitate in Al2219. A literature search on that subject determined that the agglomeration of phase has also been found in Al2219 bead on plate FSW [Ref. 1]. Since this was detected in ET space flight hardware, an investigative study of the effect of agglomerated theta phase particles in FSW Al2219f/2195p was performed. Numerous panels of various lengths were welded per ET weld procedures and radiographically inspected to determine if any HI was detected. Areas that had HI were sampled for room temperature and cyclic cryogenic (-423F) tensile testing and determined no significant adverse affect on mechanical properties when compared to test specimens without HI and historical data. Fracture surface examination using the Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) revealed smaller phase agglomerations undetectable by radiographic inspection dispersed throughout the Al2219f/2195p FSW. This indicates that phase agglomeration is inherent to the Al2219f/2195p FSW process and only rarely creates agglomerations large enough to be detected by radiography. HI has not been observed in FSW of plate to plate material for either Al2219 or AL2195.

Rietz, Ward W., Jr.↗
NASA NTRS1974

Effect of the cluster integrals on three particles on the calculated electron density of a hydrogen plasma

The effect of the calculation of the cluster integrals on three particles is analyzed and evaluated for a hydrogen plasma where a pairwise-additive hard sphere-Coulomb potential is assumed. The Mayer cluster integral method was used to calculate the Helmholtz free energy which was then applied to the calculation of the electron number density through an iterative technique using a corrected Saha equation. It is seen that the three particle integrals provide a substantial correction to the calculations in the low energy-high density region of the hydrogen plasma.

Mcintyre, R. G.↗
NASA NTRS1995

Fast Multipole Methods for Three-Dimensional N-body Problems

We are developing computational tools for the simulations of three-dimensional flows past bodies undergoing arbitrary motions. High resolution viscous vortex methods have been developed that allow for extended simulations of two-dimensional configurations such as vortex generators. Our objective is to extend this methodology to three dimensions and develop a robust computational scheme for the simulation of such flows. A fundamental issue in the use of vortex methods is the ability of employing efficiently large numbers of computational elements to resolve the large range of scales that exist in complex flows. The traditional cost of the method scales as Omicron (N(sup 2)) as the N computational elements/particles induce velocities at each other, making the method unacceptable for simulations involving more than a few tens of thousands of particles. In the last decade fast methods have been developed that have operation counts of Omicron (N log N) or Omicron (N) (referred to as BH and GR respectively) depending on the details of the algorithm. These methods are based on the observation that the effect of a cluster of particles at a certain distance may be approximated by a finite series expansion. In order to exploit this observation we need to decompose the element population spatially into clusters of particles and build a hierarchy of clusters (a tree data structure) - smaller neighboring clusters combine to form a cluster of the next size up in the hierarchy and so on. This hierarchy of clusters allows one to determine efficiently when the approximation is valid. This algorithm is an N-body solver that appears in many fields of engineering and science. Some examples of its diverse use are in astrophysics, molecular dynamics, micro-magnetics, boundary element simulations of electromagnetic problems, and computer animation. More recently these N-body solvers have been implemented and applied in simulations involving vortex methods. Koumoutsakos and Leonard (1995) implemented the GR scheme in two dimensions for vector computer architectures allowing for simulations of bluff body flows using millions of particles. Winckelmans presented three-dimensional, viscous simulations of interacting vortex rings, using vortons and an implementation of a BH scheme for parallel computer architectures. Bhatt presented a vortex filament method to perform inviscid vortex ring interactions, with an alternative implementation of a BH scheme for a Connection Machine parallel computer architecture.

Koumoutsakos, P.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Time-reversibility and particle sedimentation

This paper studies an ODE model, called the Stokeslet model, and describes sedimentation of small clusters of particles in a highly viscous fluid. This model has a trivial solution in which the n particles arrange themselves at the vertices of a regular n-sided polygon. When n = 3, Hocking and Caflisch et al. (1988) proved the existence of periodic motion (in the frame moving with the center of gravity in the cluster) in which the particles form an isosceles triangle. Here, the study of periodic and quasi-periodic solutions of the Stokeslet model is continued, with emphasis on the spatial and time-reversal symmetry of the model. For three particles, the existence of a second family of periodic solutions and a family of quasi-periodic solutions is proved. It is also indicated how the methods generalize to the case of n particles.

Golubitsky, Martin↗
NASA NTRS1985

Preparation and analysis of particulate metal deposits

Small particles and clusters of palladium were grown by deposition from the vapor phase under ultrahigh vacuum conditions. Amorphous and crystalline support films of Al2O3 and ultrathin amorphous carbon films were used as substrate materials. The growth of the metal deposit was monitored in situ by scanning transmission diffraction of energy-filtered 100 kV electrons and high resolution transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis was performed in a separate instrument. It was established by in situ TEM, however, that the transfer of specimens in this case did not unduly affect the size and distribution of deposit particles. It was found that the cleanness, stoichiometry, crystallinity and structural perfection of the support surface play an essential role in determining the crystalline perfection and structure of the particles. The smallest palladium clusters reproducibly prepared contained not more than six atoms but size determinations below 1 nm average particle diameter are very problematic with conventional TEM. Palladium particles grown on carbon supports feature an impurity-stabilized mosaic structure.

Poppa, H.↗
NASA NTRS1987

The origin of low mass particles within and beyond the dust coma envelopes of Comet Halley

Measurements from the Dust Counter and Mass Analyzer (DUCMA) instruments on VEGA-1 and -2 revealed unexpected fluxes of low mass (up to 10 to the minus 13th power g) dust particles at very great distances from the nucleus (300,000 to 600,000 km). These particles are detected in clusters (10 sec duration), preceded and followed by relatively long time intervals during which no dust is detected. This cluster phenomenon also occurs inside the envelope boundaries. Clusters of low mass particles are intermixed with the overall dust distribution throughout the coma. The clusters account for many of the short-term small-scale intensity enhancements previously ascribed to microjets in the coma. The origin of these clusters appears to be emission from the nucleus of large conglomerates which disintegrate in the coma to yield clusters of discrete, small particles continuing outward to the distant coma.

Simpson, J. A.↗
NASA NTRS2014

Search for Cosmic-Ray-Induced Gamma-Ray Emission in Galaxy Clusters

Current theories predict relativistic hadronic particle populations in clusters of galaxies in addition to the already observed relativistic leptons. In these scenarios hadronic interactions give rise to neutral pions which decay into gamma rays that are potentially observable with the Large Area Telescope (LAT) on board the Fermi space telescope. We present a joint likelihood analysis searching for spatially extended gamma-ray emission at the locations of 50 galaxy clusters in four years of Fermi-LAT data under the assumption of the universal cosmic-ray (CR) model proposed by Pinzke & Pfrommer. We find an excess at a significance of 2.7 delta, which upon closer inspection, however, is correlated to individual excess emission toward three galaxy clusters: A400, A1367, and A3112. We discuss these cases in detail and conservatively attribute the emission to unmodeled background systems (for example, radio galaxies within the clusters).Through the combined analysis of 50 clusters, we exclude hadronic injection efficiencies in simple hadronic models above 21% and establish limits on the CR to thermal pressure ratio within the virial radius, R(sub 200), to be below 1.25%-1.4% depending on the morphological classification. In addition, we derive new limits on the gamma-ray flux from individual clusters in our sample.

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