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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 NTRS1990

Improvement of pump tubes for gas guns and shock tube drivers

In a pump tube, a gas is mechanically compressed, producing very high pressures and sound speeds. The intensely heated gas produced in such a tube can be used to drive light gas guns and shock tubes. Three concepts are presented that have the potential to allow substantial reductions in the size and mass of the pump tube to be achieved. The first concept involves the use of one or more diaphragms in the pump tube, thus replacing a single compression process by multiple, successive compressions. The second concept involves a radical reduction in the length-to-diameter ratio of the pump tube and the pump tube piston. The third concept involves shock heating of the working gas by high explosives in a cyclindrical geometry reusable device. Preliminary design analyses are performed on all three concepts and they appear to be quite feasible. Reductions in the length and mass of the pump tube by factors up to about 11 and about 7, respectively, are predicted, relative to a benchmark conventional pump tube.

Bogdanoff, D. W.↗
NASA NTRS1973

A shock-tube study of radiation behind shock waves in CO2 with application to Venus entry

The arc-driven Langley 6-inch shock tube has been used to produce shock waves in CO2 in the speed range between 9 and 13 km/sec at ambient pressures between 0.1 and 5 torr. These pressures correspond approximately to equivalent Venus altitudes between 100 and 80 km. Radiation intensity profiles behind the shock waves have been observed for several wavelengths at which the important species emit. Observation and analysis of the luminosity profiles in the zone of chemical nonequilibrium have been given particular emphasis. The results of the measurements are employed in the prediction of nonequilibrium radiative heating to a typical blunt-body probe entering the Venus atmosphere on a ballistic trajectory.

Nealy, J. E.↗
NASA NTRS1974

Jupiter entry simulation with the ANAA shock tube

An annular arc accelerator (ANAA) shock tube has been built which produces shock velocities and pressures that simulate entry into the atmosphere of Jupiter. The ANAA driver deposits the energy of an arc discharge into a flowing gas, which then expands and cools without any delay for the opening of a diaphragm. A flow transducer, trigger system, and spark gap switches have been developed to coordinate the flow from a high-pressure helium driver with the discharge from a 300-kJ capacitor bank. Shock velocities up to 47 km/sec have been produced in 1.0 torr of hydrogen with the ANAA shock tube, compared with 35 km/sec velocity produced in a conical arc driver with three times the available energy. Attenuation with the ANAA shock tube is comparable to that of a conical arc driver shock tube, and initial spectroscopic measurements indicate that an impurity-free test slug is formed behind the shock wave.

Leibowitz, L. P.↗
NASA NTRS2016

Optimizing Facility Configurations and Operating Conditions for Improved Performance in the NASA Ames 24 Inch Shock Tube

The Ames Electric Arc Shock Tube (EAST) is a shock tube wherein the driver gas can be heated by an electric arc discharge. The electrical energy is stored in a 1.2 MJ capacitor bank. Four inch and 24 inch diameter driven tubes are available. The facility is described and the need for testing in the 24 inch tube to better simulate low density NASA mission profiles is discussed. Three test entries, 53, 53B and 59, are discussed. Tests are done with air or Mars gas (95.7% CO2/2.7% N2/1.6% Ar) at pressures of 0.01 to 0.14 Torr. Velocities spanned 6.3-9.2 km/s, with a nominal center of 7 km/s. Many facility configurations are studied in an effort to improve data quality. Various driver and driven tube configurations and the use of a buffer section between the driver and the driven tube are studied. Diagnostics include test times, time histories of the shock light pulses and tilts of the shock wave off the plane normal to the tube axis. The report will detail the results of the various trials, give the best configuration/operating conditions found to date and provide recommendations for further improvements. Finally, diaphragm performance is discussed.

Shock Tube↗
DOE OSTI2021

Temporally and spatially resolved X-ray densitometry in a shock tube

Gas densities were measured by x-ray absorption spectroscopy to examine spatial inhomogeneity in density behind incident and reflected shock waves in a miniature (12.7 mm bore) high repetition rate shock tube. Shock waves were generated in argon. The pressure and temperature behind the incident shock were P 2 ~ 1.72 bar and T 2 ~ 800 K, while those behind the reflected shock were P 5 ~ 6.5 bar and T 5 ~ 1480 K. Time-resolved line-of-sight transmission measurements using x-rays at 9 keV photon energy were made along various axial and transverse locations covering the entire shock tube cross section. The x-ray transmission at each location was converted to pathlength-integrated densities, which in some conditions could be further converted to pathlength-averaged densities. The measured gas densities were compared with those calculated by the normal shock wave relations, and good agreement was found in the preshock and immediately behind the incident shock regions. Similar agreement was found for reflected shock conditions very near the endwall. However, increasingly large differences between the measured and calculated gas densities were found as distance from the endwall increased. Furthermore, reconstruction by Abel inversion allowed time and radially resolved densities to be obtained from the transverse measurements. While the profiles measured in this experiment are of insufficient signal-to noise level and resolution to definitively assign boundary layer thicknesses, future improvements may be able to do this. The radially resolved densities reveal growing sidewall thermal boundary layers in gases behind the reflected shock. These reconstructions were compared with a model of the thermal boundary layer and are consistent with values of the thermal boundary layer thickness being between 0.25 mm and 1 mm at 0.7 ms after shock reflection.

42 ENGINEERING↗
NASA NTRS1978

Stratospheric-related research using the shock tube

The capabilities of shock tubes used in stratospheric-related research are considered, and the results of three independent shock tube research projects are reported. The studies are concerned with the evaluation of stratospheric ozone depletion. In the first experiment, photoabsorption cross sections of Freon 11 and 12 at stratospheric temperatures were measured using rarefaction waves. In the second experiment, reaction-rate coefficients were determined from measurements made behind reflected shock waves. In the third experiment, electronic-transition moments of the O2 Schumann-Runge system and the A2Pi-X2Pi system of ClO were deduced from intensity measurements made behind the incident shock.

Cooper, D. M.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Backshell Radiative Heating and Shock Layer Kinetic Measurement in NASA’s Electric Arc Shock Tube Facility

A methodology for creating incident shocks with similarity to the backshell radiative heating environment on planetary probes is presented. Two test series were carried out in the Electric Arc Shock Tube (EAST) at NASA Ames to quantify the backshell environment for planned and executed missions entering the atmospheres of Mars and Titan. The comparison of measured radiance in the shock tube to predicted post shock radiation levels is used to quantify the uncertainty in the model. This model uncertainty may then be related back to the flight condition to assess the error in the flight heating prediction. Tests for Mars entry show the shock tube measurements to be bracketed between two kinetic models by 2-7%. This suggests an 8% error in predicting the measured heating cannot be attributed to radiation. Comparisons to planned Titan entry suggest a substantial overprediction of the backshell radiation, which suggests opportunity for future refinement of radiative heating models.

radiation↗
NASA NTRS1975

Use of shock tubes in high Reynolds number transonic testing

The shock tube as a device to fulfill current needs for testing of transonic airfoils at high Reynolds numbers is considered. Performance analysis of a gas-driven shock tube shows that transonic airfoil flows with chord Reynolds numbers in the range of 100 million can be produced. A study of flow development over a simple airfoil has been carried out in a shock tube at low and intermediate Reynolds numbers to assess the testing technique. Results obtained from schlieren photography and airfoil pressure measurements show that steady transonic flows similar to those produced for the same airfoil in a wind tunnel can be generated within the available testing time in a shock tube with properly contoured test section walls. The study indicates that the shock tube is a viable alternative as a facility for studying high Reynolds number transonic airfoil flows.

Cook, W. J.↗
NASA NTRS2012

Recent Progress in Entry Radiation Measurements in the NASA Ames Electric ARC Shock Tube Facility

The Electric Arc Shock Tube (EAST) at NASA Ames Research Center is NASA's only working shock tube capable of obtaining conditions representative of entry in a multitude of planetary atmospheres. The facility is capable of mapping spectroscopic signatures of a wide range of planetary entries from the Vacuum Ultraviolet through Mid-Wave Infrared (120-5500 nm). This paper summarizes the tests performed in EAST for Earth, Mars and Venus entries since 2008, then focuses on a specific test case for CO2/N2 mixtures. In particular, the paper will focus on providing information for the proper interpretation of the EAST data.

Cruden, Brett A.↗
NASA NTRS1973

Studies of shock focusing and nonlinear resonance in shock tubes

Some current problems in noise pollution which involve the dynamics of weak shock waves can be succesfully investigated using shock tubes and shock-tube techniques. Two examples presently under study are discussed; in one case the experiments are carried out in a large, conventional shock tube originally designed for studies of rarefied gasdynamics, while in the other case the experimental facility is a less conventional 'repeating' shock tube.

Sturtevant, B.↗
NASA NTRS1981

Unsteady turbulent shear flow in shock tube discontinuities

A pressure-ruptured shock tube and an arc driven shock tube, have been used to study the evolution of turbulent fluctuations at contact surfaces with N2O4-2NO2 mixtures and at ionizing shock fronts in argon. The study has focused on point density diagnostics derived from crossed light beam correlations and electric probes. Turbulent bursts are found for which dynamical and spectral analyses suggest a particle-like evolution of fluctuation segments with a unique and characteristic frequency, independent of flow history and overall flow conditions.

Johnson, J. A., III↗