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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 469 records · Page 26
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1978

Heliocentric distance dependence of the interplanetary magnetic field

Numerous spacecraft measurements bearing on the heliocentric distance dependencies of both large- and small-scale properties of the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) are assembled and compared. These data tend to indicate that the average of the radial field component varies as the inverse square of distance. However, the azimuthal component is rather strongly a function of time, being influenced by both the time-dependent solar wind speed and the evolution of the source field at the sun. Thus, unless the solar wind speed dependence is taken into account, individual sets of measurements by a single spacecraft give an azimuthal component gradient which is steeper than the inverse distance dependence predicted from the Parker spiral model. A least squares fit to the composite (five spacecraft) solar rotation average data set gives a result close to the inverse distance dependence. Preliminary Helios results suggest general consistency with the spiral model.

Behannon, K. W.↗
NASA NTRS1973

Development of a global cloud model for simulating earth-viewing space missions.

Existing global cloud models are improved and expanded so that they might be more effectively used in planning and evaluating potential earth-viewing space missions. A relationship is developed between the ground and satellite-derived cloud-amount frequency distributions. This relationship is used to improve internal consistency between the ground-observed unconditional statistics and the satellite-derived conditional statistics as tabulated in previous models. A statistical technique is developed which permits the scaling of the conditional statistics to time and distance separations other than those for which the data base is tabulated. A new technique to increase or decrease the representative area size of the statistical data base is developed. Both the scaling and area adjustment techniques are shown to represent significant improvements over the techniques previously employed.

Greaves, J. R.↗
NASA NTRS1995

Brightest cluster galaxies as standard candles

We investigate the use of brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs) as standard candles for measuring galaxy peculiar velocities on large scales. We have obtained precise large-format CCD surface photometry and redshifts for an all-sky, volume-limited (z less than or = 0.05) sample of 199 BCG. We reinvestigate the Hoessel (1980) relationship between the metric luminosity, L(sub m), within the central 10 kpc/h of the BCGs and the logarithmic slope of the surface brightness profile, alpha. The L(sub m)-alpha relationship reduces the cosmic scatter in L(sub m) from 0.327 mag to 0.244 mag, yielding a typical distance accuracy of 17% per BCG. Residuals about the L(sub m)-alpha relationship are independent of BCG luminosity, BCG B - R(sub c) color, BCG location within the host cluster, and richness of the host cluster. The metric luminosity is independent of cluster richness even before correcting for its dependence on alpha, which provides further evidence for the unique nature of the BCG luminosity function. Indeed, the BCG luminosity function, both before and after application of the alpha-correction, is consistent with a single Gaussian distribution. Half the BCGs in the sample show some evidence of small color gradients as a function of radius within their central 50 kpc/h regions but with almost equal numbers becoming redder as becoming bluer. However, with the central 10 kpc/h the colors are remarkably constant -- the mean B - R(sub c) color is 1.51 with a dispersion of only 0.06 mag. The narrow photometric and color distributions of the BCGs, the lack of 'second-parameter' effects, as well as the unique rich cluster environment of BCGs, argue that BCGs are the most homogeneous distance indicators presently available for large-scale structure research.

Postman, Marc↗
NASA NTRS1982

Subjective scaling of mental workload in a multi-task environment

Those factors in a multi-task environment that contribute to the operators' "sense" of mental workload were identified. The subjective judgment as conscious experience of mental effort was decided to be the appropriate method of measurement. Thurstone's law of comparative judgment was employed in order to construct interval scales of subjective mental workload from paired comparisons data. An experimental paradigm (Simulated Multi-Task Decision-Making Environment) was employed to represent the ideal experimentally controlled environment in which human operators were asked to "attend" to different cases of Tulga's decision making tasks. Through various statistical analyses it was found that, in general, a lower number of tasks-to-be-processed per unit time (a condition associated with longer interarrival times), results in a lower mental workload, a higher consistency of judgments within a subject, a higher degree of agreement among the subjects, and larger distances between the cases on the Thurstone scale of subjective mental workload. The effects of various control variables and their interactions, and the different characteristics of the subjects on the variation of subjective mental workload are demonstrated.

Daryanian, B.↗
NASA NTRS1995

Variances of the components and magnitude of the polar heliospheric magnetic field

The heliolatitude dependences of the variances in the components and the magnitude of the heliospheric magnetic field have been analysed, using the Ulysses magnetic field observations from close to the ecliptic plane to 80 southern solar latitude. The normalized variances in the components of the field increased significantly (by a factor about 5) as Ulysses entered the purely polar flows from the southern coronal hole. At the same time, there was at most a small increase in the variance of the field magnitude. The analysis of the different components indicates that the power in the fluctuations is not isotropically distributed: most of the power is in the components of the field transverse to the radial direction. Examining the variances calculated over different time scales from minutes to hours shows that the anisotropy of the field variances is different on different scales, indicating the influence of the two distinct populations of fluctuations in the polar solar wind which have been previously identified. We discuss these results in terms of evolutionary, dynamic processes as a function of heliocentric distance and as a function of the large scale geometry of the magnetic field associated with the polar coronal hole.

Balogh, A.↗
NASA NTRS1987

Coaxial tube array space transmission line characterization

The coaxial tube array tether/transmission line used to connect an SP-100 nuclear power system to the space station was characterized over the range of reactor-to-platform separation distances of 1 to 10 km. Characterization was done with respect to array performance, physical dimensions and masses. Using a fixed design procedure, a family of designs was generated for the same power level (300 kWe), power loss (1.5 percent), and meteoroid survival probability (99.5 percent over 10 yr). To differentiate between vacuum insulated and gas insulated lines, two different maximum values of the E field were considered: 20 kV/cm (appropriate to vacuum insulation) and 50 kV/cm (compressed SF6). Core conductor, tube, bumper, standoff, spacer and bumper support dimensions, and masses were also calculated. The results of the characterization show mainly how transmission line size and mass scale with reactor-to-platform separation distance.

Switzer, Colleen A.↗
NASA NTRS1987

Coaxial tube array space transmission line characterization

The coaxial tube array tether/transmission line used to connect an SP-100 nuclear power system to the space station was characterized over the range of reactor-to-platform separation distances of 1 to 10 km. Characterization was done with respect to array performance, physical dimensions and masses. Using a fixed design procedure, a family of designs was generated for the same power level (300 kWe), power loss (1.5 percent), and meteoroid survival probability (99.5 percent over 10 yr). To differentiate between vacuum insulated and gas insulated lines, two different maximum values of the E field were considered: 20 kV/cm (appropriate to vacuum insulation) and 50 kV/cm (compressed SF6). Core conductor, tube, bumper, standoff, spacer and bumper support dimensions, and masses were also calculated. The results of the characterization show mainly how transmission line size and mass scale with reactor-to-platform separation distance.

Switzer, Colleen A.↗
DOE OSTI2024

Galaxy bispectrum in the spherical Fourier-Bessel basis

The bispectrum, the three-point correlation in Fourier space, is a crucial statistic for studying many effects targeted by the next-generation galaxy surveys, such as primordial non-Gaussianity (PNG) and general relativistic (GR) effects on large scales. In this work we develop a formalism for the bispectrum in the spherical Fourier-Bessel (SFB) basis—a natural basis for computing correlation functions on the curved sky, as it diagonalizes the Laplacian operator in spherical coordinates. Working in the SFB basis allows for line-of-sight effects such as redshift space distortions and GR to be accounted for exactly, i.e., without having to resort to perturbative expansions to go beyond the plane-parallel approximation. Only analytic results for the SFB bispectrum exist in the literature given the intensive computations needed. We numerically calculate the SFB bispectrum for the first time, enabled by a few techniques: We implement a template decomposition of the redshift-space kernel Z 2 into Legendre polynomials, and separately treat the PNG and velocity-divergence terms. We derive an identity to integrate a product of three spherical harmonics connected by a Dirac delta function as a simple sum and use it to investigate the limit of a homogeneous and isotropic Universe. Furthermore, we present a formalism for convolving the signal with separable window functions and use a toy spherically symmetric window to demonstrate the computation and give insights into the properties of the observed bispectrum signal. While our implementation remains computationally challenging, it is a step toward a feasible full extraction of information on large scales via a SFB bispectrum analysis.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Spatially calibrating polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) as proxies of area burned by vegetation fires: Insights from comparisons of historical data and sedimentary PAH fluxes

Many regions worldwide have experienced increasing wildfire activity in recent years and climate changes are predicted to result in more frequent and severe fires. Reconstruction of past fire activity offers paleoenvironmental context for modern and future burning. Pyrogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) have been increasingly used as a molecular biomarker for fire occurrence in the paleorecord and offer opportunity for nuanced reconstructions of fire characteristics. A suite of PAHs are produced during combustion, and the emission amount and assemblage is influenced by many variables including fuel type, fire temperature, and oxygen availability. Despite recent advances in understanding the controls and taphonomy of these biomass burning markers, the spatial scale of this proxy is unknown. In this paper, measurements of PAH fluxes preserved in a lake sediment archive from the Sierra Nevada, California were compared with a historical geographic information system dataset of area burned up to 150 km distance from the lake to determine the spatial scales for which these biomarkers are reliable proxies of burning. Comparisons of PAH fluxes with charcoal accumulation rates in the same sediments suggest that pyrogenic particulate transport modulates low to mid-molecular weight PAHs via adsorption. Overall, the results indicate that PAH records integrate a combination of spatial signals of area burned and measurement of individual PAHs may enable cross-scale paleofire reconstructions.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2025

Factorized QED and QCD contribution to deeply inelastic scattering

We present the first calculation of next-to-leading order (NLO) factorized QED and QCD contributions to the short-distance hard coefficients of inclusive lepton-hadron deep inelastic scattering (DIS) in a joint QED and QCD factorization approach. Unlike the traditional radiative correction approach to handle the collision-induced QED contributions to DIS, QED radiation from all charged leptons and quarks are treated equally, and their collinear sensitivities are systematically factorized into corresponding universal lepton and parton distribution functions. We demonstrate that the NLO factorized short-distance QED contribution is completely infrared safe and calculable without the need of any parameters other than the standard factorization scale in the same way as the factorized short-distance QCD contribution. We discuss the potential impact of this joint factorization approach on the extraction of partonic information from lepton-hadron DIS.

Deep inelastic scattering↗
DOE OSTI2024

Scale sensitivity of ethanol production via consolidated bioprocessing with consideration of feedstock cost

We examine feedstock cost and minimum selling price for ethanol production from corn stover as a function of scale, stover yield, participation rate, and price incentives for two conversion technologies: a conventional base case featuring thermochemical pretreatment with added cellulase, and an advanced case featuring consolidated bioprocessing with cotreatment (C-CBP). Delivered feedstock cost ranged from $\$85$ Mg −1 at small (10 million gallons year −1 or ~38 million L year −1 ) scale with high yield and participation rates to $\$124$ Mg −1 at large scale (60 million gallons year −1 or 227 million L year −1 ) and low yield and participation rates. The minimum ethanol selling price (MESP) was approximately twofold lower for the advanced case compared with the base case. The payback period was several times lower for the advanced case compared with the base case, with increasing disparity at smaller scales, and was highly sensitive to ethanol price supports. For both C-CBP and the conventional processing paradigm, MESP decreased with increasing scale, indicating that the cost penalty due to higher feedstock transport distances was more than outweighed by lower capital costs. However, the cost penalty for operation at small scale, expressed in $ gallon −1 ethanol, is lower for C-CBP than for the conventional paradigm by roughly twofold. Particularly for initial applications of C-CBP, we speculate that this cost penalty will likely be modest compared with the anticipated benefits of small-scale operation such as increased opportunity to use existing infrastructure, easier plant siting and supply chain establishment, and lower total investment required.

biorefinery scale↗
NASA NTRS2011

Proximity Effects and Nonequilibrium Superconductivity in Transition-Edge Sensors

We have recently shown that normal-metal/superconductor (N/S) bilayer TESs (superconducting Transition-Edge Sensors) exhibit weak-link behavior.l Here we extend our understanding to include TESs with added noise-mitigating normal-metal structures (N structures). We find TESs with added Au structures also exhibit weak-link behavior as evidenced by exponential temperature dependence of the critical current and Josephson-like oscillations of the critical current with applied magnetic field. We explain our results in terms of an effect converse to the longitudinal proximity effect (LoPE) 1, the lateral inverse proximity effect (LaiPE), for which the order parameter in the N/S bilayer is reduced due to the neighboring N structures. Resistance and critical current measurements are presented as a function of temperature and magnetic field taken on square Mol Au bilayer TESs with lengths ranging from 8 to 130 {\mu}m with and without added N structures. We observe the inverse proximity effect on the bilayer over in-plane distances many tens of microns and find the transition shifts to lower temperatures scale approximately as the inverse square of the in- plane N-structure separation distance, without appreciable broadening of the transition width. We also present evidence for nonequilbrium superconductivity and estimate a quasiparticle lifetime of 1.8 \times 10-10 s for the bilayer. The LoPE model is also used to explain the increased conductivity at temperatures above the bilayer's steep resistive transition.

Sadleir, John E.↗
NASA NTRS2018

Measurements to Understand the Flow Mechanisms Contributing to Tandem-Rotor Outwash

Downwash and outwash characteristics of a model-scale tandem-rotor system in the presence of the ground were analyzed by identifying and understanding the physical mechanisms contributing to the observed flow field behavior. A building block approach was followed in simplifying the problem, separating the effects of the fuselage, effects of one rotor on the other, etc. Flow field velocities were acquired in a vertical plane at four aircraft azimuths of a small-scale tandem rotor system using the particle image velocimetry (PIV) technique for radial distances up to 4 times the rotor diameter. Results were compared against full-scale CH-47D measurements. Excellent correlation was found between the small- and full-scale mean flow fields (after appropriate normalization using rotor and wall jet parameters). Following the scalability analysis, the effect of rotor height on the outwash was also studied. Close to the aircraft, an increase in rotor height above ground decreased the outwash velocity at all aircraft azimuths. However, farther away, the longitudinal and lateral axes of the aircraft showed increasing and decreasing outwash velocities, respectively, with increasing rotor height. Measurements also indicated the presence of large-scale (of the size of the rotor height) shear-layer vortical structures along the ground that could be the source of low-frequency (approximately 1 Hz) flow variation observed in the full-scale measurements. Flow visualization studies and PIV measurements were also made on jets of different sizes to complement the observations made on rotors wherever possible. Baseline rotor measurements were made out-of-ground effect to understand the nature of inflow distribution for realistic rotor configurations and their modified characteristics in the presence of ground. Lastly, a feasibility study on applying high-fidelity CFD simulations for outwash study was conducted using Helios to model an isolated rotor configuration IGE at full scale Reynolds number. The results were encouraging and demonstrated the practical challenges associated with predicting rotor outwash.

Measurements↗
NASA NTRS2015

Measurements to Understand the Flow Mechanisms Contributing to Tandem-Rotor Outwash

Downwash and outwash characteristics of a model-scale tandem-rotor system in the presence of the ground were analyzed by identifying and understanding the physical mechanisms contributing to the observed flow field behavior. A building block approach was followed in simplifying the problem, separating the effects of the fuselage, effects of one rotor on the other, etc. Flow field velocities were acquired in a vertical plane at four aircraft azimuths of a small-scale tandem rotor system using the particle image velocimetry (PIV) technique for radial distances up to 4 times the rotor diameter. Results were compared against full-scale CH-47D measurements. Excellent correlation was found between the small- and full-scale mean flow fields (after appropriate normalization using rotor and wall jet parameters). Following the scalability analysis, the effect of rotor height on the outwash was also studied. Close to the aircraft, an increase in rotor height above ground decreased the outwash velocity at all aircraft azimuths. However, farther away, the longitudinal and lateral axes of the aircraft showed increasing and decreasing outwash velocities, respectively, with increasing rotor height. Measurements also indicated the presence of large-scale (of the size of the rotor height) shear-layer vortical structures along the ground that could be the source of low-frequency (approximately 1 Hz) flow variation observed in the full-scale measurements. Flow visualization studies and PIV measurements were also made on jets of different sizes to complement the observations made on rotors wherever possible. Baseline rotor measurements were made out-of-ground effect to understand the nature of inflow distribution for realistic rotor configurations and their modified characteristics in the presence of ground. Lastly, a feasibility study on applying high-fidelity CFD simulations for outwash study was conducted using Helios to model an isolated rotor configuration IGE at full-scale Reynolds number. The results were encouraging and demonstrated the practical challenges associated with predicting rotor outwash.

Ramasamy, Manikandan↗
NASA NTRS2015

Scaling Relation for Occulter Manufacturing Errors

An external occulter is a spacecraft own along the line-of-sight of a space telescope to suppress starlight and enable high-contrast direct imaging of exoplanets. The shape of an external occulter must be specially designed to optimally suppress starlight and deviations from the ideal shape due to manufacturing errors can result loss of suppression in the shadow. Due to the long separation distances and large dimensions involved for a space occulter, laboratory testing is conducted with scaled versions of occulters etched on silicon wafers. Using numerical simulations for a flight Fresnel occulter design, we show how the suppression performance of an occulter mask scales with the available propagation distance for expected random manufacturing defects along the edge of the occulter petal. We derive an analytical model for predicting performance due to such manufacturing defects across the petal edges of an occulter mask and compare this with the numerical simulations. We discuss the scaling of an extended occulter test-bed.

Sirbu, Dan↗
NASA NTRS1972

Coordinate transformation by minimizing correlations between parameters

This investigation was to determine the transformation parameters (three rotations, three translations and a scale factor) between two Cartesian coordinate systems from sets of coordinates given in both systems. The objective was the determination of well separated transformation parameters with reduced correlations between each other, a problem especially relevant when the sets of coordinates are not well distributed. The above objective is achieved by preliminarily determining the three rotational parameters and the scale factor from the respective direction cosines and chord distances (these being independent of the translation parameters) between the common points, and then computing all the seven parameters from a solution in which the rotations and the scale factor are entered as weighted constraints according to their variances and covariances obtained in the preliminary solutions. Numerical tests involving two geodetic reference systems were performed to evaluate the effectiveness of this approach.

Kumar, M.↗
NASA NTRS1982

Pointwise and scanning laser anemometer measurements in steady and unsteady separated turbulent boundary layers

The physical features of steady and unsteady freestream separating turbulent boundary layers that have been determined by pointwise laser anemometer measurements are outlined. It is seen that the large-scale structures control the outer region's backflow behavior. Near the wall, the mean backflow velocity profile for both the steady and unsteady cases is found to scale on the maximum negative mean velocity and its distance from the wall. A description is given of a scanning laser anemometer that produces nearly instantaneous velocity profiles for examing the temporal features of these large-scale structures. Also described is a 'zero-wake' seeder that supplies particles to the outer shear layer and freestream flow with a minimal disturbance.

Simpson, R. L.↗
DOE OSTI2020

Discovery versus precision in nuclear physics: A tale of three scales

At least three length scales are important in gaining a complete understanding of the physics of nuclei. These are the radius of the nucleus, the average inter-nucleon separation distance, and the size of the nucleon. The connections between the different scales are examined by using examples that demonstrate the direct connection between short-distance and high-momentum transfer physics and also that significant high-momentum content of wave functions is inevitable. The nuclear size is connected via the independent-pair approximation to the nucleon-nucleon separation distance, and this distance is connected via the concept of virtuality to the EMC effect. An explanation of the latter is presented in terms of light-front holographic wave functions of QCD. The net result is that the three scales are closely related, so that a narrow focus on any given specific range of scales may prevent an understanding of the fundamental origins of nuclear properties. It is also determined that, under certain suitable conditions, experiments are able to measure the momentum dependence of wave functions.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗