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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1995

Particle interactions with obliquely propagating magnetosonic waves

Four cases of nonlinear obliquely propagating magnetosonic (MS) waves are considered using a test particle approach for particles interaction with (1) monochromatic waves propagating both sunward and antisunward, (2) monochromatic waves propagating unidirectionally toward the Sun, (3) a broad band spectrum, propagating both sunward and antisunward, and (4) a broadband spectrum, propagating sunward only. As the solar wind decelerates rapidly inside the bow shock, the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) increases. Calculations have been performed taking into account such a spatially dependent IMF (based on observations). We find that significant particle acceleration is achieved for both the monochromatic wave and the 'turbulent' MS waves, for oblique propagation (angles between the interplanetary magnetic field and the propagation vector larger than 30 deg). This is due to the fact that at oblique angles resonance width increases. We have compared the relative acceleration of particles for the four cases. Pitch angle scattering and acceleration of particles are found to be much larger in the case of sunward and antisunward propagating waves than those for the sunward waves only. This is due to larger relative phase velocities in the two cases. Also, acceleration of particles is less in the case of a uniform magnetic field than that in the case of spatially increasing magnetic field. The particles get more pitch angle scattered and accelerated in the latter case.

Srivastava, Krishna M.↗
NASA NTRS1983

Microscopic Lagrangian description of warm plasmas. IV - Macroscopic approximation

The averaged-Lagrangian method is applied to linear wave propagation and nonlinear three-wave interaction in a warm magnetoplasma, in the macroscopic approximation. The microscopic Lagrangian treated by Kim and Crawford (1977) and by Galloway and Crawford (1977) is first expanded to third order in perturbation. Velocity integration is then carried out, before applying Hamilton's principle to obtain a general description of wave propagation and coupling. The results are specialized to the case of interaction between two electron plasma waves and an Alfven wave. The method is shown to be more powerful than the alternative possibility of working from the beginning with a macroscopic Lagrangian density.

Kim, H.↗
NASA NTRS1974

Nonlinear acoustic propagation in rectangular ducts

The method of multiple scales is used to obtain a second-order uniformly valid expansion for nonlinear acoustic wave propagation in a rectangular duct whose walls are treated with a nonlinear acoustic material. The wave propagation in the duct is characterized by the unsteady nonlinear Euler equations. The results show that nonlinear materials attenuate sound more than linear materials except at high acoustic frequencies. The nonlinear materials produce higher and combination tones which have higher attenuation rates than the fundamentals. Moreover, the attenuation rates of the fundamentals increase with increasing amplitude.

Nayfeh, A. H.↗
NASA NTRS1974

Nonlinear acoustic propagation in two-dimensional ducts

The method of multiple scales is used to obtain a second-order uniformly valid expansion for the nonlinear acoustic wave propagation in a two-dimensional duct whose walls are treated with a nonlinear acoustic material. The wave propagation in the duct is characterized by the unsteady nonlinear Euler equations. The results show that nonlinear effects tend to flatten and broaden the absorption versus frequency curve, in qualitative agreement with the experimental observations. Moreover, the effect of the gas nonlinearity increases with increasing sound frequency, whereas the effect of the material nonlinearity decreases with increasing sound frequency.

Nayfeh, A. H.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Group-kinetic theory and modeling of atmospheric turbulence

A group kinetic method is developed for analyzing eddy transport properties and relaxation to equilibrium. The purpose is to derive the spectral structure of turbulence in incompressible and compressible media. Of particular interest are: direct and inverse cascade, boundary layer turbulence, Rossby wave turbulence, two phase turbulence; compressible turbulence, and soliton turbulence. Soliton turbulence can be found in large scale turbulence, turbulence connected with surface gravity waves and nonlinear propagation of acoustical and optical waves. By letting the pressure gradient represent the elementary interaction among fluid elements and by raising the Navier-Stokes equation to higher dimensionality, the master equation was obtained for the description of the microdynamical state of turbulence.

Tchen, C. M.↗
NASA NTRS1977

Reduction of the equation for lower hybrid waves in a plasma to a nonlinear Schroedinger equation

Equations describing the nonlinear propagation of waves in an anisotropic plasma are rarely exactly soluble. However it is often possible to make approximations that reduce the exact equations into a simpler equation. The use of MACSYMA to make such approximations, and so reduce the equation describing lower hybrid waves into the nonlinear Schrodinger equation which is soluble by the inverse scattering method is demonstrated. MACSYMA is used at several stages in the calculation only because there is a natural division between calculations that are easiest done by hand, and those that are easiest done by machine.

Karney, C. F. F.↗
NASA NTRS1974

Self-precession and frequency shift for electromagnetic waves in homogeneous plasmas

The nonlinear propagation of an arbitrarily polarized electromagnetic wave in a uniform plasma is studied. It is shown that nonlinear effects cause precession of the polarization ellipse as the wave propagates. The ellipticity remains constant, but the orientation of the principal axes is rotated relative to its initial value. A relativistic Vlasov model is used to study nonlinear frequency shifts as well as self-precession, in a plasma of arbitrary temperature. Even when the electron temperature is much greater than the product of the electron mass times the square of the velocity of light, the qualitative nature of these two processes remains unchanged, although their dependence on the plasma density is altered in significant ways. Implications of these effects for plasma instabilities driven by strong electromagnetic waves are briefly discussed.

Arons, J.↗
NASA NTRS1995

Study of nonlinear MHD equations governing the wave propagation in twisted coronal loops

The solar corona, modelled by a low beta, resistive plasma slab, sustains MHD wave propagations due to shearing footpoint motions in the photosphere. By using a numerical algorithm the excitation and nonlinear development of MHD waves in twisted coronal loops are studied. The plasma responds to the footpoint motion by sausage waves if there is no twist. The twist in the magnetic field of the loop destroys initially developed sausage-like wave modes and they become kinks. The transition from sausage to kink modes is analyzed. The twist brings about mode degradation producing high harmonics and this generates more complex fine structures. This can be attributed to several local extrema in the perturbed velocity profiles. The Alfven wave produces remnants of the ideal 1/x singularity both for zero and non-zero twist and this pseudo-singularity becomes less pronounced for larger twist. The effect of nonlinearity is clearly observed by changing the amplitude of the driver by one order of magnitude. The magnetosonic waves also exhibit smoothed remnants of ideal logarithmic singularities when the frequency of the driver is correctly chosen. This pseudo-singularity for fast waves is absent when the coronal loop does not undergo any twist but becomes pronounced when twist is included. On the contrary, it is observed for slow waves even if there is no twist. Increasing the twist leads to a higher heating rate of the loop. The larger twist shifts somewhat uniformly distributed heating to layers inside the slab corresponding to peaks in the magnetic field strength.

Parhi, S.↗
NASA NTRS1973

Investigation of scaling characteristics for defining design environments due to transient ground winds and near-field, nonlinear acoustic fields

In order to establish a foundation of scaling laws for the highly nonlinear waves associated with the launch vehicle, the basic knowledge of the relationships among the paramaters pertinent to the energy dissipation process associated with the propagation of nonlinear pressure waves in thermoviscous media is required. The problem of interest is to experimentally investigate the temporal and spacial velocity profiles of fluid flow in a 3-inch open-end pipe of various lengths, produced by the propagation of nonlinear pressure waves for various diaphragm burst pressures of a pressure wave generator. As a result, temporal and spacial characteristics of wave propagation for a parametric set of nonlinear pressure waves in the pipe containing air under atmospheric conditions were determined. Velocity measurements at five sections along the pipes of up to 210 ft. in length were made with hot-film anemometers for five pressure waves produced by a piston. The piston was derived with diaphragm burst pressures at 20, 40, 60, 80 and 100 psi in the driver chamber of the pressure wave generator.

Shih, C. C.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Nonlinear Instability of a Uni-directional Transversely Sheared Mean Flow

It is well known that the presence of a weak cross flow in an otherwise two-dimensional shear flow results in a spanwise variation in the mean streamwise velocity profile that can lead to an amplification of certain three-dimensional disturbances through a kind of resonant-interaction mechanism (Goldstein and Wundrow 1994). The spatial evolution of an initially linear, finite-growth-rate, instability wave in such a spanwise-varying shear flow is considered, The base flow, which is governed by the three-dimensional parabolized Navier-Stokes equations, is initiated by imposing a spanwise- periodic cross-flow velocity on an otherwise two-dimensional shear flow at some fixed streamwise location. The resulting mean-flow distortion initially grows with increasing streamwise distance, reaches a maximum and eventually decays through the action of viscosity. This decay, which coincides with the viscous spread of of the shear layer, means that the local growth rate of the instability wave will eventually decrease as the wave propagates downstream. Nonlinear effects can then become important within a thin spanwise-modulated critical layer once the local instability-wave amplitude and growth rate become sufficiently large and small, respectively. The amplitude equation that describes this stage of evolution is shown to be a generalization of the one obtained by Goldstein and Choi (1989) who considered the related problem of the interaction of two oblique modes in a two-dimensional shear layer.

Wundrow, David W.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Propagation of nonlinear, radiatively damped longitudinal waves along magnetic flux tubes in the solar atmosphere

For solar magnetic flux tubes three types of waves are compared: longitudinal MHD tube waves, acoustic tube waves propagating in the same tube geometry but with rigid walls and ordinary acoustic waves in plane geometry. It is found that the effect of the distensibility of the tube is small and that longitudinal waves are essentially acoustic tube waves. Due to the tube geometry there is considerable difference between longitudinal waves or acoustic tube waves and ordinary acoustic waves. Longitudinal waves as well as acoustic tube waves show a smaller amplitude growth, larger shock formation heights, smaller mean chromospheric temperature but a steeper dependence of the temperature gradient on wave period.

Herbold, G.↗
NASA NTRS1997

Low-Dispersion Scheme for Nonlinear Acoustic Waves in Nonuniform Flow

The linear dispersion-relation-preserving scheme and its boundary conditions have been extended to the nonlinear Euler equations. This allowed computing, a nonuniform flowfield and a nonlinear acoustic wave propagation in such a medium, by the same scheme. By casting all the equations, boundary conditions, and the solution scheme in generalized curvilinear coordinates, the solutions were made possible for non-Cartesian domains and, for the better deployment of the grid points, nonuniform grid step sizes could be used. It has been tested for a number of simple initial-value and periodic-source problems. A simple demonstration of the difference between a linear and nonlinear propagation was conducted. The wall boundary condition, derived from the momentum equations and implemented through a pressure at a ghost point, and the radiation boundary condition, derived from the asymptotic solution to the Euler equations, have proven to be effective for the nonlinear equations and nonuniform flows. The nonreflective characteristic boundary conditions also have shown success but limited to the nonlinear waves in no mean flow, and failed for nonlinear waves in nonuniform flow.

Baysal, Oktay↗
NASA NTRS1998

A Theoretical and Observational Study of Large and Small-Scale Dynamics in the Mesosphere and Lower Thermosphere in Support of TIMED

The long-term objectives of this IDS component of the TIMED mission are to define, through a combination of modeling and data analysis efforts, the influences of large- and small-scale waves (tidal, planetary, and gravity waves) on the circulation, structure, composition, and variability of the mesosphere and lower thermosphere. Particular emphasis is aimed at the TIMED core science objectives of defining the structure and energetics of the TIMED core region, approx. 60 to 180 km. To do so, however, it is also essential to understand the dynamical influences and contributions because of their considerable direct and indirect influences on structure and energetics. To accomplish these goals, we anticipate two parallel modeling efforts and a significant data analysis effort following TIMED launch. The modeling efforts will address both: the residual circulation response to mean and variable wave forcing of the MLT through development of a spherical model addressing balanced flow dynamics and transience and a more comprehensive effort addressing gravity wave propagation, interactions, nonlinearity, and spectral evolution and transports in canonical and realistic environments. The data analysis effort is envisioned to involve application of ground-based measurements and TIMED data analyses to a quantification of gravity wave forcing and effects at one or more sites with comprehensive measurement suites and extension of the inferred forcing globally, based on distributed ground-based measurements. Research results and publications resulting from the research are included.

Fritts, David C.↗
NASA NTRS1974

Report of the Plasma Physics and Environmental Perturbation Laboratory (PPEPL) working groups. Volume 2: Wave experiments working group

The area of wave experiments for the PPEPL is considered in broad terms. It was found that most experiments in this area can be classified typically by a few generalized experiments. These experiment possibilities are discussed in terms of advantages, disadvantages, and probable areas for future investigation. It was concluded that the areas where wave experiments have the most promise are wave sources, wave propagation, and nonlinear interactions and should be implemented in that order. It was recommended that the PPEPL facility remain sufficiently flexible to handle new ideas as they appear, and a continuing effort should be made to solicit new ideas and approaches. It was also felt that detailed investigations should begin as soon as possible in the areas of antennas, both conventional and particle types, and wave-particle interaction experiments. For Vol. 1, see N74-28169; for Vol. 3, see N74-28171.

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