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At least 541 records · Page 30
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1993

Identification of modeled ocean plumes in Greenland gyre ERS-1 SAR data

Oceanic convective plumes modeled with a thermobaric large-eddy simulation and driven by conditions similar to those of the Greenland Sea are compared to observations from ERS-1 Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data from the Greenland Sea for the winter of 1992. In both form and size the two representations are seen to compare favorably. The plume-filled area of the SAR image occupies a region about 20 km by 90 km at the ice edge of the open water in 'Nordbukta', the large seasonal ice retreat, in the 'Odden' ice protuberance in the southern Greenland gyre. In the SAR data the plumes appear to be ice covered while the convective-return areas are open.

Carsey, Frank D.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Space Shuttle Main Engine plume diagnostics: OPAD approach to vehicle health monitoring

The process of applying spectroscopy to the Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME) for plume diagnostics, as it exists today, originated at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, and its implementation was assured largely through the efforts of Sverdrup, AEDC, in Tullahoma, Tennessee. This process, Optical Plume Anomaly Detection (OPAD), has formed the basis for various efforts in the development of in-flight plume spectroscopy and in addition produced a viable test stand vehicle health monitor. The purpose of this paper will be to provide an introduction to the OPAD system by discussing the process of obtaining data as well as the methods of examining and interpreting the data.

Powers, W. T.↗
NASA NTRS1995

Predicting engine parameters using the optic spectrum of the space shuttle main engine exhaust plume

The Optical Plume Anomaly Detection (OPAD) system is under development to predict engine anomalies and engine parameters of the Space Shuttle's Main Engine (SSME). The anomaly detection is based on abnormal metal concentrations in the optical spectrum of the rocket plume. Such abnormalities could be indicative of engine corrosion or other malfunctions. Here, we focus on the second task of the OPAD system, namely the prediction of engine parameters such as rated power level (RPL) and mixture ratio (MR). Because of the high dimensionality of the spectrum, we developed a linear algorithm to resolve the optical spectrum of the exhaust plume into a number of separate components, each with a different physical interpretation. These components are used to predict the metal concentrations and engine parameters for online support of ground-level testing of the SSME. Currently, these predictions are labor intensive and cannot be done online. We predict RPL using neural networks and give preliminary results.

Srivastava, Ashok N.↗
NASA NTRS1995

Analyzing rocket plume spectral data with neural networks

The Optical Plume Anomaly Detection (OPAD) system is under development to provide early-warning failure detection in support of ground-level testing of the Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME). Failure detection is to be achieved through the acquisition of spectrally resolved plume emissions and subsequent identification of abnormal levels indicative of engine corrosion or component failure. Two computer codes (one linear and the other non-linear) are used by the OPAD system to iteratively determine specific element concentrations in the SSME plume, given emission intensity and wavelength information. Since this analysis is extremely labor intensive, a study was initiated to develop neural networks that would model the 'inverse' of these computer codes. Optimally connected feed-forward networks with imperceptible prediction error have been developed for each element modeled by the linear code, SPECTRA4. Radial basis function networks were developed for the non-linear code, SPECTRA5, and predict combustion temperature in addition to element concentrations.

Whitaker, Kevin W.↗
NASA NTRS1996

Temperature, Pressure, and Infrared Image Survey of an Axisymmetric Heated Exhaust Plume

The focus of this research is to numerically predict an infrared image of a jet engine exhaust plume, given field variables such as temperature, pressure, and exhaust plume constituents as a function of spatial position within the plume, and to compare this predicted image directly with measured data. This work is motivated by the need to validate computational fluid dynamic (CFD) codes through infrared imaging. The technique of reducing the three-dimensional field variable domain to a two-dimensional infrared image invokes the use of an inverse Monte Carlo ray trace algorithm and an infrared band model for exhaust gases. This report describes an experiment in which the above-mentioned field variables were carefully measured. Results from this experiment, namely tables of measured temperature and pressure data, as well as measured infrared images, are given. The inverse Monte Carlo ray trace technique is described. Finally, experimentally obtained infrared images are directly compared to infrared images predicted from the measured field variables.

Nelson, Edward L.↗
NASA NTRS1995

Plume particle collection and sizing from static firing of solid rocket motors

A unique dart system has been designed and built at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center to collect aluminum oxide plume particles from the plumes of large scale solid rocket motors, such as the space shuttle RSRM. The capability of this system to collect clean samples from both the vertically fired MNASA (18.3% scaled version of the RSRM) motors and the horizontally fired RSRM motor has been demonstrated. The particle mass averaged diameters, d43, measured from the samples for the different motors, ranged from 8 to 11 mu m and were independent of the dart collection surface and the motor burn time. The measured results agreed well with those calculated using the industry standard Hermsen's correlation within the standard deviation of the correlation . For each of the samples analyzed from both MNASA and RSRM motors, the distribution of the cumulative mass fraction of the plume oxide particles as a function of the particle diameter was best described by a monomodal log-normal distribution with a standard deviation of 0.13 - 0.15. This distribution agreed well with the theoretical prediction by Salita using the OD3P code for the RSRM motor at the nozzle exit plane.

Sambamurthi, Jay K.↗
NASA NTRS1997

The Kinetic Nonequilibrium Processes in the Internal Flow and in the Plume of Subsonic and Supersonic Aircrafts

(1) Our results show that under combustion of thermal destruction products of n-C8H18, and other hydrocarbon fuels with air at the equivalent ratio -0.5 and less the chemical equilibrium is not realized at the exit plane of combustion chamber and in the gas turbine and nozzle for most of small components such as NO2, NO3, HNO, HNO2, HNO3, N(x)H(y), HO2, OH. The chemical equilibrium is not realized in the internal flow of ramjet hydrogen combustion engine too. So at the nozzle exit plane both of gas-turbine hydrocarbon combustion engine and of ramjet hydrogen combustion engine the relatively large values of concentration of such small components as NO3, HNO2, N2O, HNO3, HNO, NH, N2H, HO2, H2O2 may be realized. The exact definition of these component concentration as well as concentration of NO(x), OH, SO2, O, H, H2, H2O at the nozzle exit plane is very important for plume chemistry. (2) The results which were obtained for subsonic and hypersonic aircrafts indicate on the considerable change of the composition of the gas mixture along the plume. This change can be caused not only by the mixture of combustion products with the atmosphere air but by proceeding of whole complex of nonequilibrium photochemical reactions. The photodissociation processes begin to influence on the formation of the free atoms and radicals at flight altitude H greater than or equal to 18 km. Neglect of these processes can result in essential (up to 10(exp 4) times) mistakes of values gamma(sub OH), gamma(sub O), gamma(sub H), gamma(sub HSO3) and some products of CFC's disintegration. It was found that penetration of Cl-containing species from the atmosphere into the exhaust flow and its interaction with nitrogen oxides leads to essential increasing of the concentration of Cl, Cl2, ClO2, ClNO3, CH3Cl and sometimes HCl and the decreasing of ClO concentration by comparison with background values. The results of our analysis show that the plume aircraft with both hydrocarbon and hydrogen combustion engine may be source of various pollutant components such as HNO, HNO4,ClO2, CH3NO2, CH3NO3, CH2O, Cl, H2O2, but not only NO, NO2, HNO2, HNO3, N2O5, SO2, SO3, H2SO4 as it was supposed before.

Starik, Alexander M.↗
NASA NTRS1998

Analysis of Linear Aerospike Plume Induced X-33 Base Heating Environment

Computational analysis is conducted to study the effect of an linear aerospike engine plume on the X-33 base-heating environment during ascent flight. To properly account for the freestream-body interaction and to allow for potential plume-induced flow-separation, the thermo-flowfield of the entire vehicle at several trajectory points is computed. A sequential grid-refinement technique is used in conjunction with solution-adaptive, patched, and embedded grid methods to limit the model to a manageable size. The computational methodology is based on a three-dimensional, finite-difference, viscous flow, chemically reacting, pressure-based computational fluid dynamics formulation, and a three-dimensional, finite-volume, spectral-line based weighted-sum-of-gray-gases absorption, computational radiation heat transfer formulation. The computed forebody and afterbody surface pressure coefficients and base pressure characteristic curves are compared with those of a cold-flow test. The predicted convective and radiative base-heat fluxes, the effect of base-bleed, and the potential of plume-induced flow separation are presented.

Wang, Ten-See↗
NASA NTRS1998

Uncertainty in Calibration, Detection and Estimation of Metal Concentrations in Engine Plumes Using OPAD

Improvements in uncertainties in the values of radiant intensity (I) can be accomplished mainly by improvements in the calibration process and in minimizing the difference between the background and engine plume radiance. For engine tests in which the plume is extremely bright, the difference in luminance between the calibration lamp and the engine plume radiance can be so large as to cause relatively large uncertainties in the values of R. This is due to the small aperture necessary on the receiving optics to avoid saturating the instrument. However, this is not a problem with the SSME engine since the liquid oxygen/hydrogen combustion is not as bright as some other fuels. Applying the instrumentation to other type engine tests may require a much brighter calibration lamp.

Hopkins, Randall C.↗
NASA NTRS1998

The Geometric Spreading of Coronal Plumes and Coronal Holes

The geometric spreading in plumes and in the interplume region in coronal holes is calculated, using analytic and numerical theoretical models, between 1.0 and 5.0 solar radius. We apply a two-scale approximation that permits the rapid local spreading at the base of plumes (f(sub t)) to be evaluated separately from the global spreading (f(sub g)) imposed by coronal hole geometry. We show that f(sub t) can be computed from a potential-field model and f(sub g) can be computed from global magnetohydrodynamic simulations of coronal structure. The approximations are valid when the plasma beta is mail with respect to unity and for a plume separation small with respect to a solar radius.

Suess, S. T.↗
NASA NTRS1997

The Geometric Spreading of Coronal Plumes and Coronal Holes

The geometric spreading in plumes and in the interplume region in coronal holes is calculated, using analytic and numerical theoretical models, between 1.0 and 5.0 solar radius. We apply two scale approximation that permits the rapid local spreading at the base of plumes to be evaluated separately from the global spreading imposed by coronal hole geometry. We show that fl can be computed from a potential field model and fg can be computed from global magnetohydrodynamic simulations of coronal structure. The approximations are valid when the plasma beta is small with respect to unity and for a plume separation small with respect to a solar radius.

Suess, S. T.↗
NASA NTRS1997

Chromospheric and Coronal Structure of Polar Plumes: Magnetic Structure and Radiative Energy Balance - 1

The Multi-Spectral Solar Telescope Array (MSSTA), a rocket-borne solar observatory, was successfully launched from White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, on May 13, 1991 at 19:05 UT. The telescope systems onboard the MSSTA obtained several full disk solar images in narrow bandpasses centered around strong soft X-ray, EUV, and FUV emission lines. Each telescope was designed to be sensitive to the coronal plasmas at a particular temperature, for seven temperatures ranging from 20,000 K to 4,000,000 K. We report here on the images obtained during the initial flight of the MSSTA, and on the chromospheric and coronal structure of polar plumes observed over both poles of the Sun. We have also co-aligned the MSSTA images with Kitt Peak magnetograms taken on the same day. We are able to positively identify the magnetic structures underlying the polar plumes we analyze as unipolar. We discuss the plume observations and present a radiative energy balance model derived from them.

Allen, Maxwell J.↗
NASA NTRS1999

Can Kelvin-Helmholtz Instabilites of Jet-Like Structures and Plumes Cause Solar Wind Fluctuations at 1 AU?

The long high-latitude sampling of Ulysses provides the opportunity to study fine structures. At latitudes poleward of about -60 degrees the solar wind had fluctuations in velocity gradients which were attributed to "microstreams." The data also suggested fluctuations characterized by magnetic plus thermal pressure balance structures ('PBS'). At higher frequencies, MHD turbulence was observed and found to be less evolved than it is in the ecliptic but essentially independent of heliographic latitude. It is argued here that microstreams, PBS, and MHD turbulence could all be the remnants of mixing due to shear instabilities associated with plumes and other filamentary structures ("jets") in coronal holes. To show this, we simulate a plume-like jet in the presence of an ambient magnetic field. We find that the presence of the ambient field reduces the growth rate of the instability, but the shear between a jet and its ambient still becomes unstable to the MHD Kelvin-Helmholtz instability when the shear speed is larger than the largest local magnetosonic speed, a condition probably satisfied for plumes.

Parhi, S.↗
NASA NTRS1998

Can Kelvin-Helmholtz Instabilities of Jet-Like Structures and Plumes Cause Solar Wind Fluctuations at 1 AU?

The long high latitude sampling of Ulysses provides the opportunity to study fine structures. At latitudes poleward of approx. -60 deg, the solar wind had fluctuations in velocity gradients which were attributed to "microstreams". The data also suggested fluctuations characterized by magnetic plus thermal pressure balance structures ("PBS"). At higher frequencies, MHD turbulence was observed and found to be less evolved than in the ecliptic, but essentially independent of heliographic latitude. It is argued here that microstreams, PBS, and MHD turbulence could all be the remnants of mixing due to shear instabilities associated with plumes and other filamentarystructures ("jets") in coronal holes. To show this we simulate a plume-like jet in the presence of an ambient magnetic field. We find the presence of the ambient field reduces the growth rate of the instability, but the shear between a jet and its ambient still becomes unstable to the MHD Kelvin-Helmholtz ("KH") instability when the shear speed is larger than the largest local magnetosonic speed - a condition probably satisfied for plumes.

Shyamsundar, Parhi↗
NASA NTRS2000

Laser Transmission Measurements of Soot Extinction Coefficients in the Exhaust Plume of the X-34 60K-lb Thrust Fastrac Rocket Engine

A four-channel laser transmissometer has been used to probe the soot content of the exhaust plume of the X-34 60k-lb thrust Fastrac rocket engine at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. The transmission measurements were made at an axial location approximately equal 1.65 nozzle diameters from the exit plane and are interpreted in terms of homogeneous radial zones to yield extinction coefficients from 0.5-8.4 per meter. The corresponding soot mass density, spatially averaged over the plume cross section, is, for Rayleigh particles, approximately equal 0.7 microgram/cc, and alternative particle distributions are briefly considered. Absolute plume radiance at the laser wavelength (515 nm) is estimated from the data at approximately equal 2,200 K equivalent blackbody temperature, and temporal correlations in emission from several spatial locations are noted.

Dobson, C. C.↗
NASA NTRS2000

Laser Transmission Measurements of Soot Extinction Coefficients in the Exhaust Plume of the X-34 60k-lb Thrust Fastrac Rocket Engine

A four-channel laser transmissometer has been used to probe the soot content of the exhaust plume of the X-34 60k-lb thrust Fastrac rocket engine at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. The transmission measurements were made at an axial location about equal 1.65 nozzle diameters from the exit plane and are interpreted in terms of homogeneous radial zones to yield extinction coefficients from 0.5-8.4 per meter. The corresponding soot mass density, spatially averaged over the plume cross section, is, for Rayleigh particles, approximately equal to 0.7 micrograms/cubic cm and alternative particle distributions are briefly considered. Absolute plume radiance at the laser wavelength (515 nm) is estimated from the data at approximately equal to 2.200 K equivalent blackbody temperature, and temporal correlations in emission from several spatial locations are noted.

Dobson, C. C.↗
NASA NTRS2001

High-Speed Observer: Automated Streak Detection in SSME Plumes

A high frame rate digital video camera installed on test stands at Stennis Space Center has been used to capture images of Space Shuttle main engine plumes during test. These plume images are processed in real time to detect and differentiate anomalous plume events occurring during a time interval on the order of 5 msec. Such speed yields near instantaneous availability of information concerning the state of the hardware. This information can be monitored by the test conductor or by other computer systems, such as the integrated health monitoring system processors, for possible test shutdown before occurrence of a catastrophic engine failure.

Rieckoff, T. J.↗
NASA NTRS2003

Transmittance and Radiance Computations for Rocket Engine Plume Environments

Emission and absorption characteristics of several atmospheric and combustion species have been studied and are presented with reference to rocket engine plume environments. The effects of clous, rain, and fog on plume radiance/transmittance has also been studied.Preliminary results for the radiance from the exhaust plume of the space shuttle main engine are shown and discussed.

Tejwani, Gopal D.↗