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At least 397 records · Page 22
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1985

Multiple Raman up-conversion of radiation from pre-existing Langmuir turbulence

Little is known regarding the mechanisms involved in the production of radiation at frequencies which are much higher than the maximum plasma frequency in nonmagnetic plasmas. It is pointed out that radiation at high multiples of the plasma frequency has been observed in laser-pellet experiments, in relativistic beam-plasma interactions, and in low-energy beam-plasma interactions. Radiation at twice the plasma frequency can be produced by coalescence of two Langmuir waves. Another approach is based on radiation near the plasma frequency or its second harmonic, produced by instability or by external sources. Raman scatter from preexisting Langmuir turbulence is permitted repeatedly. At each step such scattering will produce frequency upshifts (anti-Stokes process) and downshifts (Stokes process). The present paper is concerned with this process. Attention is given to equilibrium spectra, analytic approximations, laser-plasma interaction and coherent radiation from relativistic electron beams.

Russell, D.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Thermalization of neutral-beam-injected ions by lower hybrid waves in Jupiter's magnetosphere

A theoretical analysis of lower-hybrid wave generation by a ring distribution of superthermal ions is presented. A kinetic instability of waves traveling across the magnetic field occurs when fast neutrals escaping from the Io plasma torus are reionized and accelerated to corotation speed in Jupiter's magnetosphere. Instability is possible for modest threshold values of V/a0 = 3 - 7 where V is the pickup gyrospeed and a0 is the background-ion thermal speed. Consequent effects include the relaxation of the pickup-ion distribution and the acceleration of superthermal electrons.

Barbosa, D. D.↗
NASA NTRS1988

Instability-related delamination growth in thermoset and thermoplastic composites

Mixed-mode crack propagation in compressively loaded thermoset and thermoplastic composite columns with an imbedded through-width delamination is investigated. Beam theory is used to analyze the geometrically nonlinear load-deformation relationship of the delaminated subregion. The elastic restraint model (ERM), combined with existing FSM modeling of the crack-tip region, yields expressions for the Mode I and Mode II components of the strain energy release rate G(I) and G(II) to predict the critical load at the onset of delamination growth. Experimental data were generated for geometries yielding a wide range of G(I)/G(II) ratios at the onset of crack growth. A linear mixed-mode crack growth criterion in conjunctuion with the ERM provides good agreement between predicted and measured critical loads for both materials studied.

Gillespie, John W., Jr.↗
NASA NTRS1978

The dynamics and control of large flexible space structures. Part B: Development of continuum model and computer simulation

The equations of motion of an arbitrary flexible body in orbit were derived. The model includes the effects of gravity with all its higher harmonics. As a specific example, the motion of a long, slender, uniform beam in circular orbit was modelled. The example considers both the inplane and three dimensional motion of the beam in orbit. In the case of planar motion with only flexible vibrations, the pitch motion is not influenced by the elastic motion of the beam. For large values of the square of the ratio of the structural modal frequency to the orbital angular rate the elastic motion was decoupled from the pitch motion. However, for small values of the ratio and small amplitude pitch motion, the elastic motion was governed by a Hill's 3 term equation. Numerical simulation of the equation indicates the possibilities of instability for very low values of the square of the ratio of the modal frequency to the orbit angular rate. Also numerical simulations of the first order nonlinear equations of motion for a long flexible beam in orbit were performed. The effect of varying the initial conditions and the number of modes was demonstrated.

Bainum, P. M.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Investigation of plasma instabilities in the polar cusp

During the last six months, considerable progress was made in studying the excitation of electromagnetic waves in the whistler frequency range by an anisotropic or gyrating electron beam. A paper entitled 'Electron Cyclotron Wave Generation by Relativistic Electrons' was published in the Journal of Geophysical Research. Another paper entitled 'Electron Beam Excitation of Upstream Waves in the Whistler Mode Frequency Range' was submitted for publication in Journal of Geophysical Research. This paper is in collaboration with Dr. C. W. Smith at Bartol Research Institute. In this paper, it was shown that an anisotropic electron beam (or gyrating electron beam) is capable of generating both left-hand and right-hand polarized electromagnetic waves in the whistler frequency range. Our earlier paper 'Electromagnetic Components of Auroral Hiss and Lower Hybrid Waves in the Polar Magnetosphere' was accepted for publication in the AGU Chapman Conference on Micro and Meso Scale Phenomena in Space Plasmas. Electromagnetic waves in the lower hybrid and whistler waves regime were identified and a mechanism of how these waves are generated was suggested.

Wong, H. K.↗
NASA NTRS1987

Evolution of the axial electron cyclotron maser instability, with applications to solar microwave spikes

The nonlinear evolution of cyclotron radiation from streaming and gyrating electrons in an external magnetic field is analyzed. The nonlinear dynamics of both the fields and the particles are treated fully relativistically and self-consistently. The model includes a background plasma and electrostatic effects. The analytical and numerical results show that a substantial portion of the beam particle energy can be converted to electromagnetic wave energy at frequencies far above the electron cyclotron frequency. In general, the excited radiation can propagate parallel to the magnetic field and, hence, escape gyrothermal absorption at higher cyclotron harmonics. The high-frequency Doppler-shifted cyclotron instability can have saturation efficiencies far higher than those associated with well-known instabilities of the electron cyclotron maser type. Although the analysis is general, the possibility of using this model to explain the intense radio emission observed from the sun is explored in detail.

Vlahos, Loukas↗
NASA NTRS1977

Non-symmetric two-stream instability

A theoretical investigation is performed concerning the instability spectrum of quasi-electrostatic waves at shifted half-odd-integer values of the cyclotron frequency due to nonsymmetric counterstreaming electron beams. The beam velocities parallel and perpendicular to the static magnetic field are represented by double Dirac delta functions with no imposition of parameter limitations. Systematic consideration is given to the coupling between plasma modes and cyclotron modes as well as the coupling between cyclotron modes of the two beams that result in shifted half-odd-integer multiples of the cyclotron frequency. The general dispersion equation for quasi-electrostatic waves is analyzed, and plasma-cyclotron coupling in the nonsymmetric case is treated by deriving approximate analytical expressions for maximum growth rates and marginal stability. Exact numerical solutions in both frequency and wavenumber space are obtained and compared with the analytical expressions. Cyclotron-cyclotron coupling modes are treated in the same way, and the results for both types of coupling are compared. It is found that certain modes may be weakened or completely suppressed when the Bessel functions for specific plasma parameters vanish.

Cuperman, S.↗
NASA NTRS1978

Nonlinear stability of solar type 3 radio bursts. 1: Theory

A theory of the excitation of solar type 3 bursts is presented. Electrons initially unstable to the linear bump-in-tail instability are shown to rapidly amplify Langmuir waves to energy densities characteristic of strong turbulence. The three-dimensional equations which describe the strong coupling (wave-wave) interactions are derived. For parameters characteristic of the interplanetary medium the equations reduce to one dimension. In this case, the oscillating two stream instability (OTSI) is the dominant nonlinear instability, and is stablized through the production of nonlinear ion density fluctuations that efficiently scatter Langmuir waves out of resonance with the electron beam. An analytical model of the electron distribution function is also developed which is used to estimate the total energy losses suffered by the electron beam as it propagates from the solar corona to 1 A.U. and beyond.

Smith, R. A.↗
NASA NTRS1979

Nonlinear stability of solar type III radio bursts. I - Theory

A theory of the excitation of solar type III bursts is presented. Electrons initially unstable to the linear bump-in-tail instability are shown to rapidly amplify Langmuir waves to energy densities characteristic of strong turbulence. The three-dimensional equations which describe the strong coupling (wave-wave) interactions are derived. For parameters characteristic of the interplanetary medium the equations reduce to one-dimension. In that case the oscillating two-stream instability (OTSI) is the dominant nonlinear instability. OTSI is stabilized through the production of nonlinear ion density fluctuations that efficiently scatter Langmuir waves out of resonance with the electron beam. An analytical model of the electron distribution function is also developed which is used to estimate the total energy losses suffered by the electron beam as it propagates from the solar corona to 1 AU and beyond.

Smith, R. A.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Hot flow anomaly formation by magnetic deflection

Hot flow anomalies (HFAs) are localized plasma structures observed in the solar wind and magnetosheath near the earth's quasi-parallel bow shock. This paper presents one-dimensional hybrid computer simulations illustrating a formation mechanism for HFAs in which the single hot ion population results from a spatial separation of two counterstreaming ion beams. The higher-density cooler regions are dominated by the background (solar wind) ions, and the lower-density hotter internal regions are dominated by the beam ions. The spatial separation of the beam and background is caused by the deflection of the ions in large-amplitude magnetic fields which are generated by ion/ion streaming instabilities.

Onsager, T. G.↗
NASA NTRS2016

Electromagnetic Cyclotron Waves in the Solar Wind: Wind Observation and Wave Dispersion Analysis

Wind observed long-lasting electromagnetic cyclotron waves near the proton cyclotron frequency on 11 March 2005, in the descending part of a fast wind stream. Bi-Maxwellian velocity distributions are fitted for core protons, beam protons, and alpha-particles. Using the fitted plasma parameters we conduct kinetic linear dispersion analysis and find ion cyclotron and/or firehose instabilities grow in six of 10 wave intervals. After Doppler shift, some of the waves have frequency and polarization consistent with observation, thus may be correspondence to the cyclotron waves observed.

cyclotron↗
NASA NTRS1986

The quasi-linear relaxation of thick-target electron beams in solar flares

The effects of quasi-linear interactions on thick-target electron beams in the solar corona are investigated. Coulomb collisions produce regions of positive gradient in electron distributions which are initially monotonic decreasing functions of energy. In the resulting two-stream instability, energy and momentum are transferred from electrons to Langmuir waves and the region of positive slope in the electron distribution is replaced by a plateau. In the corona, the timescale for this quasi-linear relaxation is very short compared to the collision time. It is therefore possible to model the effects of quasi-linear relaxation by replacing any region of positive slop in the distribution by a plateau at each time step, in such a way as to conserve particle number. The X-ray bremsstrahlung and collisional heating rate produced by a relaxed beam are evaluated. Although the analysis is strictly steady state, it is relevant to the theoretical interpretation of hard X-ray bursts with durations of the order of a few seconds (i.e., the majority of such bursts).

Mcclements, K. G.↗
NASA NTRS1986

Beam-generated waves in a large plasma chamber

The beam plasma discharge (BPD) and pre-BPD states of plasma waves generated in a large vacuum chamber by an electron beam of energy 0.5-2 keV are measured, and three wave categories are found. The low-frequency waves are suggested to be surface waves on a nonneutral plasma column, with measured properties consistent with the lower hybrid drift instability. The whistler mode spectrum is thought to be a Cerenkov resonance with the lower Trivelpiece-Gould mode, and it may not play an important role in modifying the particle distributions. The high frequency spectrum is seen to be a Cerenkov resonance with the upper Trivelpiece-Gould mode, and it is responsible for the major perturbation of the BPD beam energy.

Kellogg, Paul J.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Radiative instabilities and 1000 second fluctuations in astrophysical masers

A stability analysis for small (linear) perturbations is presented for the radiation in astrophysical masers treated in the usual, linear maser approximation. Instabilities that oscillate with a period of about L/c, where L is the length of the maser are found. They occur (1) when the maser is partly but not heavily saturated, (2) when the decay rate Gamma for the molecular states is near c/L, and (3) when the product of the brightness temperature T sub 0 of the incident radiation and the angle for the beaming is less than a critical value that depends upon the particular masing transition. A fourth parameter, the fractional inversion in the pumping multiplied by (T sub 0/frequency), determines the importance of spontaneous emission which can eliminate the instabilities. These instabilities are a likely cause for the fluctuations in the radiation from the 18 cm OH masers that have been reported to occur on time scales as short as 1000 s. The calculations are applicable to other types of astrophysical masers as well, and suggest that spontaneous emission will prevent similar instabilities in the H2O and SiO masers.

Scappaticci, Gerardo A.↗
NASA NTRS1982

The influence of Coriolis forces on gyroscopic motion of spinning blades

Turbomachine blades on spinning and precessing rotors experience gyroscopically induced instabilities and forcing. With vehicle-mounted turbomachines, either constant or harmonic precession occurs, depending on vehicle or mount motion. Responses of uniform cantilever beams at arbitrary stagger, subjected to the noted rotor motion, are predicted in both self-excited and forced-excitation modes taking into account Coriolis acceleration.

Sisto, F.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Adaptive control of large space structures using recursive lattice filters

The use of recursive lattice filters for identification and adaptive control of large space structures was studied. Lattice filters are used widely in the areas of speech and signal processing. Herein, they are used to identify the structural dynamics model of the flexible structures. This identified model is then used for adaptive control. Before the identified model and control laws are integrated, the identified model is passed through a series of validation procedures and only when the model passes these validation procedures control is engaged. This type of validation scheme prevents instability when the overall loop is closed. The results obtained from simulation were compared to those obtained from experiments. In this regard, the flexible beam and grid apparatus at the Aerospace Control Research Lab (ACRL) of NASA Langley Research Center were used as the principal candidates for carrying out the above tasks. Another important area of research, namely that of robust controller synthesis, was investigated using frequency domain multivariable controller synthesis methods.

Goglia, G. L.↗
NASA NTRS1983

Mirror instability and origin of morningside auroral structure

Auroral optical imagery shows marked differences between auroral features of the evening and morning sectors: the separation between diffuse and discrete auroras in the evening sector is not distinct in the morning sector, which is dominated by auroral patches and multiple banded structures aligned along some direction. Plasma distribution function signatures also show marked differences: downward electron beams and inverted-V signatures prefer the evening sector, while the electron spectra on the morning sector are similar to the diffuse aurora. A theory of morningside auroras consistent with these features was constructed. The theory is based on modulation of the growth rates of electron cyclotron waves by the mirror instability, which is in turn driven by inward-convected ions that have become anisotropic. This modulation produces alternating bands of enhanced and reduced electron precipitation which approximate the observed multiple auroral bands and patches of the morning sector.

Chiu, Y. T.↗