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NASA NTRS2015

Physics-Based Modeling of Meteor Entry and Breakup

A new research effort at NASA Ames Research Center has been initiated in Planetary Defense, which integrates the disciplines of planetary science, atmospheric entry physics, and physics-based risk assessment. This paper describes work within the new program and is focused on meteor entry and breakup. Over the last six decades significant effort was expended in the US and in Europe to understand meteor entry including ablation, fragmentation and airburst (if any) for various types of meteors ranging from stony to iron spectral types. These efforts have produced primarily empirical mathematical models based on observations. Weaknesses of these models, apart from their empiricism, are reliance on idealized shapes (spheres, cylinders, etc.) and simplified models for thermal response of meteoritic materials to aerodynamic and radiative heating. Furthermore, the fragmentation and energy release of meteors (airburst) is poorly understood. On the other hand, flight of human-made atmospheric entry capsules is well understood. The capsules and their requisite heatshields are designed and margined to survive entry. However, the highest speed Earth entry for capsules is less than 13 km/s (Stardust). Furthermore, Earth entry capsules have never exceeded diameters of 5 m, nor have their peak aerothermal environments exceeded 0.3 atm and 1 kW/cm2. The aims of the current work are: (i) to define the aerothermal environments for objects with entry velocities from 13 to greater than 20 km/s; (ii) to explore various hypotheses of fragmentation and airburst of stony meteors in the near term; (iii) to explore the possibility of performing relevant ground-based tests to verify candidate hypotheses; and (iv) to quantify the energy released in airbursts. The results of the new simulations will be used to anchor said risk assessment analyses. With these aims in mind, state-of-the-art entry capsule design tools are being extended for meteor entries. We describe: (i) applications of current simulation tools to spherical geometries of diameters ranging from 1 to 100 m for an entry velocity of 20 km/s and stagnation pressures ranging from 1 to 100 atm; (ii) the influence of shape and departure of heating environment predictions from those for a simple spherical geometry; (iii) assessment of thermal response models for silica subject to intense radiation; and (iv) results for porosity-driven gross fragmentation of meteors, idealized as a collection of smaller objects. Lessons learned from these simulations will be used to help understand the Chelyabinsk meteor entry up to its first point of fragmentation.

Aerothermodynamics↗
NASA NTRS2015

Physics-Based Modeling of Meteor Entry and Breakup

A new research effort at NASA Ames Research Center has been initiated in Planetary Defense, which integrates the disciplines of planetary science, atmospheric entry physics, and physics-based risk assessment. This paper describes work within the new program and is focused on meteor entry and breakup. Over the last six decades significant effort was expended in the US and in Europe to understand meteor entry including ablation, fragmentation and airburst (if any) for various types of meteors ranging from stony to iron spectral types. These efforts have produced primarily empirical mathematical models based on observations. Weaknesses of these models, apart from their empiricism, are reliance on idealized shapes (spheres, cylinders, etc.) and simplified models for thermal response of meteoritic materials to aerodynamic and radiative heating. Furthermore, the fragmentation and energy release of meteors (airburst) is poorly understood. On the other hand, flight of human-made atmospheric entry capsules is well understood. The capsules and their requisite heat shields are designed and margined to survive entry. However, the highest speed Earth entry for capsules is 13 kms (Stardust). Furthermore, Earth entry capsules have never exceeded diameters of 5 m, nor have their peak aerothermal environments exceeded 0.3 atm and 1 kWcm2. The aims of the current work are: (i) to define the aerothermal environments for objects with entry velocities from 13 to 20 kms; (ii) to explore various hypotheses of fragmentation and airburst of stony meteors in the near term; (iii) to explore the possibility of performing relevant ground-based tests to verify candidate hypotheses; and (iv) to quantify the energy released in airbursts. The results of the new simulations will be used to anchor said risk assessment analyses.With these aims in mind, state-of-the-art entry capsule design tools are being extended for meteor entries. We describe: (i) applications of current simulation tools to spherical geometries of diameters ranging from 1 to 100 m for an entry velocity of 20 kms and stagnation pressures ranging from 1 to 100 atm; (ii) the influence of shape and departure of heating environment predictions from those for a simple spherical geometry; (iii) assessment of thermal response models for silica subject to intense radiation; and (iv) results for porosity-driven gross fragmentation of meteors, idealized as a collection of smaller objects. Lessons learned from these simulations will be used to help understand the Chelyabinsk meteor entry up to its first point of fragmentation.

Atmospheric Entry↗
NASA NTRS2015

Physics-Based Modeling of Meteor Entry and Breakup

A new research effort at NASA Ames Research Center has been initiated in Planetary Defense, which integrates the disciplines of planetary science, atmospheric entry physics, and physics-based risk assessment. This paper describes work within the new program and is focused on meteor entry and breakup.Over the last six decades significant effort was expended in the US and in Europe to understand meteor entry including ablation, fragmentation and airburst (if any) for various types of meteors ranging from stony to iron spectral types. These efforts have produced primarily empirical mathematical models based on observations. Weaknesses of these models, apart from their empiricism, are reliance on idealized shapes (spheres, cylinders, etc.) and simplified models for thermal response of meteoritic materials to aerodynamic and radiative heating. Furthermore, the fragmentation and energy release of meteors (airburst) is poorly understood.On the other hand, flight of human-made atmospheric entry capsules is well understood. The capsules and their requisite heatshields are designed and margined to survive entry. However, the highest speed Earth entry for capsules is 13 kms (Stardust). Furthermore, Earth entry capsules have never exceeded diameters of 5 m, nor have their peak aerothermal environments exceeded 0.3 atm and 1 kW/sq cm. The aims of the current work are: (i) to define the aerothermal environments for objects with entry velocities from 13 to 20 kms; (ii) to explore various hypotheses of fragmentation and airburst of stony meteors in the near term; (iii) to explore the possibility of performing relevant ground-based tests to verify candidate hypotheses; and (iv) to quantify the energy released in airbursts. The results of the new simulations will be used to anchor said risk assessment analyses. With these aims in mind, state-of-the-art entry capsule design tools are being extended for meteor entries. We describe: (i) applications of current simulation tools to spherical geometries of diameters ranging from 1 to 100 m for an entry velocity of 20 kms and stagnation pressures ranging from 1 to 100 atm; (ii) the influence of shape and departure of heating environment predictions from those for a simple spherical geometry; (iii) assessment of thermal response models for silica subject to intense radiation; and (iv) results for porosity-driven gross fragmentation of meteors, idealized as a collection of smaller objects. Lessons learned from these simulations will be used to help understand the Chelyabinsk meteor entry up to its first point of fragmentation.

Near-Earth Asteroids↗
NASA NTRS1997

Numerical simulation of MHD turbulence in three dimensions

The evolution of Alfvenic turbulence in 3D spherical geometry can now be studied. In simulations, a fast stream is sandwiched between two slower streams. The inflow is both supersonic and superAlfvenic. Alfven waves entering the box are convected into the medium and interact nonlinearly with the velocity shear and with any structures (i.e., flux tubes) that might be present. These initial simulations suggest that velocity shear, even in spherical geometry, is able to drive a turbulent cascade which results in approximately Kolmogoroff-like power spectra.

Goldstein, M. L.↗
NASA NTRS1978

One-dimensional outgassing problem

A predominantly numerical study, using the direct-simulation Monte Carlo method, of the flow from outgassing surfaces with plane, cylindrical, or spherical geometry is presented. The numerical results for the plane flow case are compared with existing theoretical and experimental results and also with a new formulation of the jump conditions across the Knudsen layer between the surface and the continuum outflow. This outflow is sonic for the free expansion case but subsonic in the presence of back-pressure effects. The self-scattered return flux is 19% of the outgassed flux in the sonic outflow case and increases at lower Mach numbers. Thermal accomodation and reflection of this return flux produces an outgassing cooling effect. The cylindrical and spherical geometries introduce an additional Knudsen number defined by the ratio of the mean free path in the effusing gas to the radius. The plane flow results apply when this Knudsen number is less than 0.001 and, when it is of order unity or above, the return flux is inversely proportional to it.

Tran Cong, T.↗
NASA NTRS1977

Prediction and measurement results of radiation damage to CMOS devices on board spacecraft

All the currently available results of the flight experiment for all the individually instrumented 130 transistors, relating to both biased and unbiased n- and p-channel RCA and -channel AMI devices were presented. The predictions of dose levels based on a detailed analysis of the space radiation environment as encountered by Explorer-55 and calculated by one dimensional slab geometry, and three dimensional spherical geometry were cited.

Stassinopoulos, E. G.↗
NASA NTRS1983

An upper bound on the radius of a highly electrically conducting lunar core

Parker's (1980) nonlinear inverse theory for the electromagnetic sounding problem is converted to a form suitable for analysis of lunar day-side transfer function data by: (1) transforming the solution in plane geometry to that in spherical geometry; and (2) transforming the theoretical lunar transfer function in the dipole limit to an apparent resistivity function. The theory is applied to the revised lunar transfer function data set of Hood et al. (1982), which extends in frequency from 10 to the -5th to 10 to the -3rd Hz. On the assumption that an iron-rich lunar core, whether molten or solid, can be represented by a perfect conductor at the minimum sampled frequency, an upper bound of 435 km on the maximum radius of such a core is calculated. This bound is somewhat larger than values of 360-375 km previously estimated from the same data set via forward model calculations because the prior work did not consider all possible mantle conductivity functions.

Hobbs, B. A.↗
NASA NTRS1978

Experimental results on mass-thickness distribution in spacecraft equipment

A technique is described for evaluating the shielding properties of spacecraft equipment with respect to cosmic radiation. A gamma-ray source is used in conjunction with a scintillation detector to determine mass-thickness distribution both in plane geometry for equipment units, and in spherical geometry for given points within the spacecraft. Equations are presented for calculating mass-thickness distribution functions, and the results are compared with experimental measurements.

Bodin, V. V.↗
NASA NTRS1996

Solwnd: A 3D Compressible MHD Code for Solar Wind Studies. Version 1.0: Cartesian Coordinates

Solwnd 1.0 is a three-dimensional compressible MHD code written in Fortran for studying the solar wind. Time-dependent boundary conditions are available. The computational algorithm is based on Flux Corrected Transport and the code is based on the existing code of Zalesak and Spicer. The flow considered is that of shear flow with incoming flow that perturbs this base flow. Several test cases corresponding to pressure balanced magnetic structures with velocity shear flow and various inflows including Alfven waves are presented. Version 1.0 of solwnd considers a rectangular Cartesian geometry. Future versions of solwnd will consider a spherical geometry. Some discussions of this issue is presented.

Deane, Anil E.↗
NASA NTRS2013

Development And Testing Of The Inertial Electrostatic Confinement Diffusion Thruster

The Inertial Electrostatic Confinement (IEC) diffusion thruster is an experiment in active development that takes advantage of physical phenomenon that occurs during operation of an IEC device. The IEC device has been proposed as a fusion reactor design that relies on traditional electrostatic ion acceleration and is typically arranged in a spherical geometry. The design incorporates two radially-symmetric spherical electrodes. Often the inner electrode utilizes a grid of wire shaped in a sphere with a radius 15 to 50 percent of the radius of the outer electrode. The inner electrode traditionally has 90 percent or more transparency to allow particles (ions) to pass to the center of the spheres and collide/recombine in the dense plasma core at r=0. When operating the IEC, an unsteady plasma leak is typically observed passing out one of the gaps in the lattice grid of the inner electrode. The IED diffusion thruster is based upon the idea that this plasma leak can be used for propulsive purposes. The IEC diffusion thruster utilizes the radial symmetry found in the IEC device. A cylindrical configuration is employed here as it will produce a dense core of plasma the length of the cylindrical grid while promoting the plasma leak to exhaust through an electromagnetic nozzle at one end of the apparatus. A proof-of-concept IEC diffusion thruster is operational and under testing using argon as propellant (Figure 1).

Becnel, Mark D.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Stationary premixed flames in spherical and cylindrical geometries

Stationary source-free spherical flames ('flame balls') in premixed combustible gases were studied by employing low-gravity (micro-g) environments in a drop tower and an aircraft flying parabolic trajectories to diminish the impact of buoyancy-induced convective flow. Flame balls were found in all mixture families tested when: (1) the Lewis number Le of the deficient reactant was sufficiently low; and (2) the compositions were sufficiently close to the flammability limits. Probably as a consequence of the reduction in buoyant convection, the flammability limits at micro-g were significantly more dilute than those at Earth gravity; for example, 3.35% H2 vs 4.0% H2 in lean H2-air mixtures. By comparison with analytical and computational models, it is inferred that the phenomenon is probably related to diffusive-thermal effects in low-Le mixtures in conjunction with flame-front curvature and radiative heat losses from the combustion products. The chemical reaction mechanism appears to play no qualitative role. In the aircraft experiments, the gravity levels (approximately equal 10(exp -2)g(sub 0)) were found to cause noticeable motion of flame balls due to buoyancy, which in turn influenced the behavior of flame balls. At these g levels, a new type of transient, nearly cylindrical flame structure, termed 'flame strings,' was observed.

Ronney, P. D.↗
NASA NTRS1982

The inverse problem of constructing a gravimetric geoid

Computation of a single geoidal height from gravity acceleration data formally requires that the latter be known everywhere on the earth. A computational procedure based on linear inverse theory for estimating geoidal heights from incomplete sets of data is presented. The same scheme can be used to estimate gravity accelerations from altimetry-derived geoids. The systematic error owing to lack of data and the choice of a particular inverse operator is described by using resolution functions and their spherical harmonic expansions. An rms value of this error is also estimated by assuming a spectrum for the unknown geoid. The influence of the size of the data region, the spacing between data, the filtering applied to the data, and the model weighting function chosen are all quantified in a spherical geometry. The examples presented show that when low degree spherical harmonic coefficients are available - from satellite orbit analysis - a band-passed version of the geoid can be constructed from local gravity data, even with a relatively restricted data set.

Zlotnicki, V.↗
NASA NTRS1997

Reactive Hydrodynamics in Rotating Spherical and Cylindrical Geometry

In turbulent spray combustion among many complex interactions between local flow structures called turbulent eddies and droplets are those associated with rotation of droplets. In general, for a complete statistical description of turbulent sprays, consideration of at least four degrees of freedom respectively associated with translational, rotational, vibrational (pulsational), and internal motions of the droplet are needed. Clearly the interactions between all degrees of freedom of the droplets and those for the gaseous background field will be exceedingly complex. For example, one type of interaction between the translational and the rotational velocity of droplets results in droplet helicity, H(d) = w(d).v(d), the significance of which in turbulent spray combustion is yet to be recognized. The role of droplet rotation in turbulent spray combustion modeling and its impact on the evaporation of liquid fuel droplets was recently investigated. Also, the impact of rotation on combustion of solid particles such as is encountered in pulverized coal combustion has been emphasized. The problem of viscous flow around a rotating sphere discussed above also occurs in other areas of physical sciences such as astrophysics and geophysics. Consequently, the subject has been addressed in many classical as well as more recent investigations. According to these investigations, the rotation of a rigid sphere in an otherwise quiescent, unconfined environment results in the motion of the fluid towards the poles. The polar flows from the northern and southern hemispheres move along helical trajectories towards the equatorial plane. Eventually, the polar flows collide at the equatorial plane, thus producing a sheet of rotating fluid that is radially ejected outward on this plane. Therefore, a droplet induces a strained flow field as a result of its rotation. Since the spatial extent of equatorial jets could easily exceed many droplet diameters, interactions between neighboring droplets are enhanced as a result of their rotation. Also, the equatorial jet substantially alters the spherical geometry of the diffusion flame surface that surrounds a rotating droplet. The objective of the research is to gain more knowledge about the hydrodynamics within and around rotating spherical and cylindrical body of fluid, and the behavior of diffusion or premixed flame surfaces that could surround such symmetric body of rotating fluid.

Sohrab, Siavash H.↗
NASA NTRS1987

Numerical solution of the radiation transport equation in disk geometry

An efficient numerical method for solving the problem of radiation transport in a dusty medium with two dimensional (2-D) disk geometry is described. It is a generalization of the one-dimensional quasi-diffusion method in which the transport equation is cast in diffusion form and then solved as a boundary value problem. The method should be applicable to a variety of astronomical sources, the dynamics of which are angular-momentum dominated and hence not accurately treated by spherical geometry, e.g., protoplanetary nebulae, circumstellar disks, interstellar molecular clouds, accretion disks, and disk galaxies. The computational procedure and practical considerations for implementing the method are described in detail. To illustrate the effects of 2-D radiation transport, some model results (dust temperature distributions and IR flux spectra) for externally heated, interstellar dust clouds with spherically symmetric and disk geometry are compared.

Spagna, George F., Jr.↗
NASA NTRS2014

Measuring the Coronal Properties of IC 4329A with NuSTAR

We present an analysis of an approximately 160 ks NuSTAR observation of the nearby bright Seyfert galaxy IC 4329A. The highquality broadband spectrum enables us to separate the effects of distant reflection from the direct coronal continuum, and to therefore accurately measure the high-energy cutoff to be E(sub cut) = 178 (+74 / −40) keV. The coronal emission arises from accretion disk photons Compton up-scattered by a thermal plasma, with the spectral index and cutoff being due to a combination of the finite plasma temperature and optical depth. Applying standard Comptonization models, we measure both physical properties independently using the best signal to noise obtained to date in an active galactic nucleus over the 3 - 79 keV band. We derive kT(sub e) = 37(+7 /−6) keV with tau = 1.25(+0.20 / −0.10) assuming a slab geometry for the plasma, and kT(sub e) = 33(+6 / −6) keV with tau = 3.41(+0.58 / −0.38) for a spherical geometry, with both having an equivalent goodness-of-fit.

X-rays: binaries↗
NASA NTRS2014

Measuring the Coronal Properties of IC 4329A with NuSTAR

We present an analysis of an approximately 160 ks NuSTAR observation of the nearby bright Seyfert galaxy IC 4329A. The highquality broadband spectrum enables us to separate the effects of distant reflection from the direct coronal continuum, and to therefore accurately measure the high-energy cutoff to be E(sub cut) = 178 (+74 / −40) keV. The coronal emission arises from accretion disk photons Compton up-scattered by a thermal plasma, with the spectral index and cutoff being due to a combination of the finite plasma temperature and optical depth. Applying standard Comptonization models, we measure both physical properties independently using the best signal to noise obtained to date in an active galactic nucleus over the 3 - 79 keV band. We derive kT(sub e) = 37(+7 /−6) keV with tau = 1.25(+0.20 / −0.10) assuming a slab geometry for the plasma, and kT(sub e) = 33(+6 / −6) keV with tau = 3.41(+0.58 / −0.38) for a spherical geometry, with both having an equivalent goodness-of-fit.

finite plasma temperature↗
NASA NTRS1982

The latitude dependence of the variance of zonally averaged quantities

Geometric characteristics of the spherical earth are shown to be responsible for the increase of variance with latitude of zonally averaged meteorological statistics. An analytic model is constructed to display the effect of a spherical geometry on zonal averages, employing a sphere labeled with radial unit vectors in a real, stochastic field expanded in complex spherical harmonics. The variance of a zonally averaged field is found to be expressible in terms of the spectrum of the vector field of the spherical harmonics. A maximum variance is then located at the poles, and the ratio of the variance to the zonally averaged grid-point variance, weighted by the cosine of the latitude, yields the zonal correlation typical of the latitude. An example is provided for the 500 mb level in the Northern Hemisphere compared to 15 years of data. Variance is determined to increase north of 60 deg latitude.

North, G. R.↗