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At least 379 records · Page 21
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1992

The use of TIMS data to estimate the SO2 concentrations of volcanic plumes: A case study at Mount Etna, Sicily

Thermal Infrared Multispectral Scanner (TIMS) data were acquired over Mount Etna, Sicily, on 29 July 1986. The volcanic activity at that time was characterized by the steady effusion of gas from the Bocca Nuova (BN), Chasm, and Southeast craters. The Northeast crater, quiet at the time of the TIMS overflight, was the site of Strombolian eruptive activity between 31 July and 24 Sep. 1986. In aerial photographs of the Etna summit region acquired during the TIMS overflight, the SO2-rich plume is visible due to the scattering of sunlight by the entrained aerosols. In the TIMS imagery, the plume is revealed by the strong absorption of SO2 between 8 and 9 microns. This absorption feature falls within the first three channels of TIMS, with the strongest absorption falling within Channel 2. Following decorrelation processing, the plume is visible in color-composites of TIMS channels 2, 3, and 5. To estimate the concentration of SO2 within the plume, the LOWTRAN 7 radiative transfer code was used to model the radiance spectra measured by TIMS.

Realmuto, Vincent J.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Space Station flexible dynamics under plume impingement

Assembly of the Space Station requires numerous construction flights by the Space Shuttle. A particularly challenging problem is that of control of each intermediate station configuration when the shuttle orbiter is approaching it to deliver the next component. The necessary braking maneuvers cause orbiter thruster plumes to impinge on the station, especially its solar arrays. This in turn causes both overall attitude errors and excitation of flexible-body vibration modes. These plume loads are predicted to lead to CMG saturation during the approach of the orbiter to the SC-5 station configuration, necessitating the use of the station RCS jets for desaturation. They are also expected to lead to significant excitation of solar array vibrations. It is therefore of great practical importance to investigate the effects of plume loads on the flexible dynamics of station configuration SC-5 as accurately as possible. However, this system possesses a great many flexible modes (89 below 5 rad/s), making analysis time-consuming and complicated. Model reduction techniques can be used to overcome this problem, reducing the system model to one which retains only the significant dynamics, i.e. those which are strongly excited by the control inputs or plume disturbance forces and which strongly couple with the measured outputs. The particular technique to be used in this study is the subsystem balancing approach which was previously developed by the present investigator. This method is very efficient computationally. Furthermore, it gives accurate results even for the difficult case where the structure has many closed-spaced natural frequencies, when standard modal truncation can give misleading results. Station configuration SC-5 is a good example of such a structure.

Williams, Trevor↗
NASA NTRS1993

Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) analysis of axisymmetric plume and base flow of film/dump cooled rocket nozzle

Film/dump cooling a rocket nozzle with fuel rich gas, as in the National Launch System (NLS) Space Transportation Main Engine (STME), adds potential complexities for integrating the engine with the vehicle. The chief concern is that once the film coolant is exhausted from the nozzle, conditions may exist during flight for the fuel-rich film gases to be recirculated to the vehicle base region. The result could be significantly higher base temperatures than would be expected from a regeneratively cooled nozzle. CFD analyses were conduced to augment classical scaling techniques for vehicle base environments. The FDNS code with finite rate chemistry was used to simulate a single, axisymmetric STME plume and the NLS base area. Parallel calculations were made of the Saturn V S-1 C/F1 plume base area flows. The objective was to characterize the plume/freestream shear layer for both vehicles as inputs for scaling the S-C/F1 flight data to NLS/STME conditions. The code was validated on high speed flows with relevant physics. This paper contains the calculations for the NLS/STME plume for the baseline nozzle and a modified nozzle. The modified nozzle was intended to reduce the fuel available for recirculation to the vehicle base region. Plumes for both nozzles were calculated at 10kFT and 50kFT.

Tucker, P. K.↗
NASA NTRS1994

The 21St JANNAF Exhaust Plume Technology Meeting

This volume, the first of three volumes, is a collection of 10 unclassified/unlimited papers which were presented at the 21st Joint Army-Navy-NASA-Air Force (JANNAF) Exhaust Plume Technology Subcommittee Meeting in conjunction with the Combustion Subcommittee and SPIRITS User Group Meeting held 19-21 October 1994 at the Lockheed Missiles and Space Company, Sunnyvale, California. Specific subjects discussed include behavior of aluminum and aluminum oxide in solid rocket plumes, exhaust plume flowfield characterization and plume phenomena at high altitudes.

Gannaway, Mary T.↗
NASA NTRS1995

A 3-D Navier-Stokes CFD study of turbojet/ramjet nozzle plume interactions at Mach 3.0 and comparison with data

Advanced airbreathing propulsion systems used in Mach 4-6 mission scenarios, usually consist of a single integrated turboramjet or as in this study, a turbojet housed in an upper bay with a separate ramjet housed in a lower bay. As the engines transition from turbojet to ramjet, there is an operational envelope where both engines operate simultaneously. One nozzle concept under consideration has a common nozzle, where the plumes from the turbojet and ramjet interact with one another as they expand to ambient conditions. In this paper, the two plumes interact at the end of a common 2-D cowl, when they both reach an approximate Mach 3.0 condition and then jointly expand to Mach 3.6 at the common nozzle exit plane. At this condition, the turbojet engine operated at a higher NPR than the ramjet, where the turbojet overpowers the ramjet plume, deflecting it approximately 12 degrees downward and in turn the turbojet plume is deflected 6 degrees upward. In the process, shocks were formed at the deflections and a shear layer formed at the confluence of the two jets. This particular case was experimentally tested and the data used to compare with the PARC3D code with k-kl two equation turbulence model. The 2-D and 3-D centerline CFD solutions are in good agreement, but as the CFD solutions approach the outer sidewall, a slight variance occurs. The outer wall boundary layers are thin and do not present much of an interaction, however, where the confluence interaction shocks interact with the thin boundary layer on the outer wall, strong vortices run down each shock causing substantial disturbances in the boundary layer. These disturbances amplify somewhat as they propagate downstream axially from the confluence point. The nozzle coefficient (CFG) is reduced 1/2 percent as a result of this sidewall interaction, from 0.9850 to 0.9807. This three-dimensional reduction is in better agreement with the experimental value of 0.9790.

Chang, Ing↗
NASA NTRS1994

Active chlorine and nitric oxide formation from chemical rocket plume afterburning

Chlorine and oxides of nitrogen (NO(x)) released into the atmosphere contribute to acid rain (ground level or low-altitude sources) and ozone depletion from the stratosphere (high-altitude sources). Rocket engines have the potential for forming or activating these pollutants in the rocket plume. For instance, H2/O2 rockets can produce thermal NO(x) in their plumes. Emphasis, in the past, has been placed on determining the impact of chlorine release on the stratosphere. To date, very little, if any, information is available to understand what contribution NO(x) emissions from ground-based engine testing and actual rocket launches have on the atmosphere. The goal of this work is to estimate the afterburning emissions from chemical rocket plumes and determine their local stratospheric impact. Our study focuses on the space shuttle rocket motors, which include both the solid rocket boosters (SRB's) and the liquid propellant main engines (SSME's). Rocket plume afterburning is modeled employing a one-dimensional model incorporating two chemical kinetic systems: chemical and thermal equilibria with overlayed nitric oxide chemical kinetics (semi equilibrium) and full finite-rate chemical kinetics. Additionally, the local atmospheric impact immediately following a launch is modeled as the emissions diffuse and chemically react in the stratosphere.

Leone, D. M.↗
NASA NTRS1995

Exhausted Plume Flow Field Prediction Near the Afterbody of Hypersonic Flight Vehicles in High Altitudes

A two-dimensional computer code to solve the Burnett equations has been developed which computes the flow interaction between an exhausted plume and hypersonic external flow near the afterbody of a flight vehicle. This Burnett-2D code extends the capability of Navier-Stokes solver (RPLUS2D code) to include high-order Burnett source terms and slip-wall conditions for velocity and temperature. Higher-order Burnett viscous stress and heat flux terms are discretized using central-differencing and treated as source terms. Blocking logic is adopted in order to overcome the difficulty of grid generation. The computation of exhaust plume flow field is divided into two steps. In the first step, the thruster nozzle exit conditions are computed which generates inflow conditions in the base area near the afterbody. Results demonstrated that at high altitudes, the computations of nozzle exit conditions must include the effects of base flow since significant expansion exists in the base region. In the second step, Burnett equations were solved for exhaust plume flow field near the afterbody. The free stream conditions are set at an altitude equal to 80km and the Mach number is equal to 5.0. The preliminary results show that the plume expansion, as altitude increases, will eventually cause upstream flow separation.

Chou, Lynn Chen↗
NASA NTRS1997

Shoemaker-Levy 9 and Plume-Forming Collisions on Earth

Computational models for the July, 1994 collision of comet Shoemaker Levy 9 with Jupiter have provided a framework for interpreting the observational data. Imaging, photometry, and spectroscopy data from ground-based, Hubble Space Telescope, and Galileo spacecraft instruments are consistent with phenomena that were dominated by the generation of incandescent fireballs that were ballistically ejected to high altitudes, where they formed plumes that subsequently collapsed over large areas of Jupiter's atmosphere. Applications of similar computational models to collisions into Earth's atmosphere show that a very similar sequence of events should take place for NEO impacts with energies as low as 3 megatons, recurring on 100 year timescales or less. This result suggests that the 1908 Tunguska event was a plume-forming atmospheric explosion, and that some of the phenomena associated with it might be related to the ejection and collapse of a high plume. Hazards associated with plume growth and collapse should be included in the evaluation of the impact threat to Earth, and opportunities should be sought for observational validation of atmospheric impact models by exploiting data already being collected from the natural flux of multikiloton to megaton sized objects that constantly enter Earth's atmosphere on annual to decadal timescales.

Boslough, Mark B. E.↗
NASA NTRS1998

Models of Plumes: Their Flow, Their Geometric Spreading, and Their Mixing with Interplume Flow

There are two types of plume flow models: (1) 1D models using ad hoc spreading functions, f(r); (2) MagnetoHydroDynamics (MHD) models. 1D models can be multifluid, time dependent, and incorporate very general descriptions of the energetics. They confirm empirical results that plume flow is slow relative to requirements for high speed wind. But, no published 1 D model incorporates the rapid local spreading at the base (fl(r)) which has an important effect on mass flux. The one published MHD model is isothermal, but confirms that if b=8*pi*p/absolute value(B)2<<l then the field is nearly potential below -70,000 km. Building on the MHD result, we apply a two scale approximation to calculate fl(r). We also compute the global spreading (fg(r)) out to 5.0 RSUN imposed by coronal hole geometry. Global MHD models provide a potent method of calculating fg(r). Unambiguous plume signatures have not yet been found in the solar wind. This is probably due to strong mixing of plume and interplume flows near the Sun. We describe a physical source for strong mixing due to the observed flows being unstable to shear instabilities that lead to rapid disruption.

Suess, Steven T.↗
NASA NTRS1997

Quasi-periodic compressive waves in polar plumes

The observation of polar plumes in the south polar coronal hole, carried out on 7 March 1996 by the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), are analyzed. These polar plumes are cool density structures that arise from morphologically unipolar magnetic footpoints. Data from the extreme ultraviolet imaging telescope show quasi-periodic perturbations in the brightness of the Fe IX and X line emissions at 171 A from polar plumes. The perturbations have periods of 10 to 15 min, and repeat for several cycles suggesting that they are compressive waves propagating through the plume at or near the Alfven speed. Possible explanations for the observed phenomenon are proposed.

DeForest, C. E.↗
NASA NTRS1999

Chance Encounter with a Stratospheric Kerosene Rocket Plume from Russia over California

During a routine ER-2 aircraft high-altitude test flight on April 18, 1997, an unusual aerosol cloud was detected at 20 km altitude near the California coast at about 370 degrees N latitude. Not visually observed by the ER-2 pilot, the cloud was characterized bv high concentration of soot and sulfate aerosol in a region over 100 km in horizontal extent indicating that the source of the plume was a large hydrocarbon fueled vehicle, most likely a launch vehicle powered only by rocket motors burning liquid oxygen and kerosene. Two Russian Soyuz rockets could conceivably have produced the plume. The first was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan on April 6th; the second was launched from Plesetsk, Russia on April 9. Air parcel trajectory calculations and long-lived tracer gas concentrations in the cloud indicate that the Baikonur rocket launch is the most probable source of the plume. The parcel trajectory calculations do not unambiguously trace the transport of the Soyuz plume from Asia to North America, illustrating serious flaws in the point-to-point trajectory calculations. This chance encounter represents the only measurement of the stratospheric effects of emissions from a rocket powered exclusively with hydrocarbon fuel.

Newman, P. A.↗
NASA NTRS1999

Meteorology of the Southern Global Plume: African and South American Fires Pollute the South Pacific

An immense global plume of CO meanders widely around the world in the Southern Hemisphere. It arises over Southern America and Africa and flows eastward. The first emissions are in tropical Brazil, and the plume circulates around the world to South America again. The plume was largely unexpected until there were aircraft studies made in NASA's Pacific Exploratory Mission - Tropics (Part A). This paper describes the meteorology of the Global Plume, as our simulation, with a synoptic model adapted to global transport, reveals it with a tracer-CO simulation. The observations and their simulation require a particular set of conditions of pollutant accumulation, cumulonimbus venting with required strengths at a narrow range of altitude. Additionally, a particular subtropical conduction region, over the Indian Ocean, Australia, and the westeRNmost South Pacific, relatively free of storms, appears to be a key part of the mechanism. These conclusions are the results of a synoptic reconstruction of the PEMT-A period, September- October, 1996.

Guo, Z.↗
NASA NTRS2000

Hall Effect Thruster Plume Contamination and Erosion Study

The objective of the Hall effect thruster plume contamination and erosion study was to evaluate the impact of a xenon ion plume on various samples placed in the vicinity of a Hall effect thruster for a continuous 100 hour exposure. NASA Glenn Research Center was responsible for the pre- and post-test evaluation of three sample types placed around the thruster: solar cell cover glass, RTV silicone, and Kapton(R). Mass and profilometer), were used to identify the degree of deposition and/or erosion on the solar cell cover glass, RTV silicone, and Kapton@ samples. Transmittance, reflectance, solar absorptance, and room temperature emittance were used to identify the degree of performance degradation of the solar cell cover glass samples alone. Auger spectroscopy was used to identify the chemical constituents found on the surface of the exposed solar cell cover glass samples. Chemical analysis indicated some boron nitride contamination on the samples, from boron nitride insulators used in the body of the thruster. However, erosion outweighted contamination. All samples exhibited some degree of erosion. with the most erosion occurring near the centerline of the plume and the least occurring at the +/- 90 deg positions. For the solar cell cover glass samples, erosion progressed through the antireflective coating and into the microsheet glass itself. Erosion occurred in the solar cell cover glass, RTV silicone and Kapton(R) at different rates. All optical properties changed with the degree of erosion, with solar absorptance and room temperature emittance increasing with erosion. The transmittance of some samples decreased while the reflectance of some samples increased and others decreased. All results are consistent with an energetic plume of xenon ions serving as a source for erosion.

Jaworske, Donald A.↗
NASA NTRS1999

Diagnostics of Laser Produced Plume Under Carbon Nanotube Growth Conditions

This paper presents diagnostic data obtained from the plume of a graphite composite target during carbon nanotube production by the double-pulse laser oven method. The insitu emission spectrum (300 to 650 nm) is recorded at different locations upstream of the target and at different delay times from the lasers (IR and green). Spectral features are identified as emissions from C2 (Swan System: a (sup 3)pi(sub g) - delta (sup 3)pi(sub u) and C3 (Comet Head System: A (sup 1)pi(sub u) - chi (sup 1)sigma(sub u) (sup +). Experimental spectra are compared with computed spectra to estimate vibrational temperatures of excited state C2 in the range of 2500 to 4000 kappa The temporal evolution of the 510 nm band of C2 is monitored for two target positions in various locations which shows confinement of the plume in the inner tube and increase in plume velocity with temperature. The excitation spectra of C2 are obtained by using a dye laser to pump the (0,1) transition of the Swan System and collecting the Laser Induced Fluorescence signal from C2 These are used to obtain "ground-state" rotational and vibrational temperatures which are close to the oven temperature. Images of the plume are also collected and are compared with the spectral measurements.

Arepalli, Sivaram↗
NASA NTRS2000

The Generation of Smooth High Speed Solar Wind From Plume-Interplume Mixing

Ulysses has shown that fast solar wind is extremely smooth, with a variance of less than 5%, in contrast to slow wind with a variance of approximately 30%. Now UVCS has produced the surprising result that the flow speed within coronal holes, the source of fast wind, is not at all smooth. Specifically, Giordano et al. (ApJ, v531, L79-L82, 2000) report that at 1.7 R(sub SUN) the interplume flow speed is typically more than twice the plume flow speed. Other less direct evidence supports this same result, with speeds from less than 300 to over 1000 km/s reported at approximately 5 R(sub SUN). This presents the paradox of how strongly differing plume and interplume flow speeds can exist near the Sun and be absent far from the Sun. The only answer is that plume and interplume material or momentum must be strongly mixed and that the mixing must occur mainly inside 0.3 AU to be consistent with Helios observations of smooth fast wind. Pressure balance structures (PBSs) and He abundance anomalies (Reisenfeld, et al., GRL, v26(13), 1805-1808, 1999) have been identified as interplanetary remnants of plumes, implying momentum mixing is the dominant coronal process. One possible source for plume/interplume momentum mixing is MHD Kelvin-Helmholtz (KH) shear instabilities occurring on the velocity shear interfaces. The velocity shear is a source of free energy and KH fluctuations could, through nonlinear cascade, provide the forcing required for the plasma oscillations (Cranmer, ApJ, v532, 1197-1208, 2000) reported to exist in coronal holes. The physical properties in coronal holes are now sufficiently well known that we can show plume/interplume shear interfaces become unstable to the KH instability at 5 - 10 R(sub SUN). The KH dispersion relation can be used to analyze marginal stability, the most unstable wavelengths, and linear growth rates. Numerical simulations can be used to verify results from the linear analysis and study the nonlinear development of KH modes. Here we will describe the marginal stability criterion for the KH instability, how and where this condition is met in the corona, and the possible character of the resultant fluctuations.

Suess, Steve↗
NASA NTRS2000

Shock Formation of Slow Magnetosonic Waves in Coronal Plumes

We investigate the height of shock formation in coronal plumes for slow magnetosonic waves. The models take into account plume geometric spreading, heat conduction, and radiative damping. The wave parameters as well as the spreading functions of the plumes and the base magnetic field strengths are given by empirical constraints mostly from Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO)/ Ultraviolet Coronograph Spectrometer (UVCS), Extreme Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (EIT), Michelson Doppler Imager (MDI), and Large Angle Spectrometric Coronagraph (LASCO). Our models show that shock formation occurs at relatively low coronal heights, typically within 1.2 RsuN, depending on the model parameters. The shock formation is calculated using the well-established wave breaking criterion given by the intersection of C+ characteristics in the space-time plane. Our models show that shock heating by slow magnetosonic waves is expected to be relevant at most heights in solar coronal plumes, although such waves are probably not the main energy supply mechanism.

Cuntz, Manfred↗
NASA NTRS2000

Plume and Discharge Plasma Measurements of an NSTAR-type Ion Thruster

The success of the NASA Deep Space I spacecraft has demonstrated that ion propulsion is a viable option for deep space science missions. More aggressive missions such as Comet Nuclear Sample Return and Europa lander will require higher power, higher propellant throughput and longer thruster lifetime than the NASA Solar Electric Propulsion Technology Application Readiness (NSTAR) engine. Presented here are thruster plume and discharge plasma measurements of an NSTAR-type thruster operated from 0.5 kW to 5 kW. From Faraday plume sweeps, beam divergence was determined. From Langmuir probe plume measurements on centerline, low energy ion production on axis due to charge-exchange and direct ionization was assessed. Additionally, plume plasma potential measurements made on axis were used to determine the upper energy limits at which ions created on centerline could be radially accelerated. Wall probes flush-mounted to the thruster discharge chamber anode were used to assess plasma conditions. Langmuir probe measurements at the wall indicated significant differences in the electron temperature in the cylindrical and conical sections of the discharge chamber.

Foster, John E↗
NASA NTRS2000

Plume and Discharge Plasma Measurements of an NSTAR-type Ion Thruster

The success of the NASA Deep Space 1 spacecraft has demonstrated that ion propulsion is a viable option for deep space science missions. More aggressive missions such as Comet Nuclear Sample Return and Europa lander will require higher power, higher propellant throughput and longer thruster lifetime than the NASA Solar Electric Propulsion Technology Application Readiness (NSTAR) engine. Presented here are thruster plume and discharge plasma measurements of an NSTAR-type thruster operated from 0.5 kW to 5 kW. From Faraday plume sweeps, beam divergence was determined. From Langmuir probe plume measurements on centerline, low energy ion production on axis due to charge-exchange and direct ionization was assessed. Additionally, plume plasma potential measurements made on axis were used to determine the upper energy limits at which ions created on centerline could be radially accelerated. Wall probes flush-mounted to the thruster discharge chamber anode were used to assess plasma conditions. Langmuir probe measurements at the wall indicated significant differences in the electron temperature in the cylindrical and conical sections of the discharge chamber.

Foster, John E.↗