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At least 541 records · Page 30

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NASA NTRS1990

Control of the vortical structure in the early stages of transition in boundary layers

The effect of suction and pressure gradient on controlling the production of the three-dimensional vortical structure due to secondary instability is investigated for a boundary layer in the presence of small but finite amplitude Tollmien-Schlichting wave. The subharmonic instability is the focus of the study due to its realistic application in low disturbance flight environment. The spanwise wavelength of the most unstable secondary subharmonic disturbance increases with the increase of control indicating possible alteration of the flow structure from H-type to C-type.

El-Hady, Nabil M.↗

NASA NTRS1992

Multi-dimensional analysis of combustion instabilities in liquid rocket motors

A three-dimensional analysis of combustion instabilities in liquid rocket engines is presented based on a mixed finite difference/spectral solution methodology for the gas phase and a discrete droplet tracking formulation for the liquid phase. Vaporization is treated by a simplified model based on an infinite thermal conductivitiy assumption for spherical liquid droplets of fuel in a convective environment undergoing transient heating. A simple two parameter phenomenological combustion response model is employed for validation of the results in the small amplitude regime. The computational procedure is demonstrated to capture the phenomena of wave propagation within the combustion chamber accurately. Results demonstrate excellent amplitude and phase agreement with analytical solutions for properly selected grid resolutions under both stable and unstable operating conditions. Computations utilizing the simplified droplet model demonstrate stable response to arbitrary pulsing. This is possibly due to the assumption of uniform droplet temperature which removes the thermal inertia time-lag response of the vaporization process. The mixed-character scheme is sufficiently efficient to allow solutions on workstations at a modest increase in computational time over that required for two-dimensional solutions.

Grenda, Jeffrey M.↗

NASA NTRS1994

Cyclogenesis in a saturated environment

The dynamics of baroclinic wave growth in a saturated environment is examined using linear and nonlinear models employing a parameterization of latent heat release that assumes all rising air is saturated, and saturation equivalent potential temperature is conserved on ascent. Piecewise potential vorticity (PV) diagnostics are used to interpret the results. When the stability to vertical displacements in saturated air is allowed to increase with height, as it must in an atmosphere with a constant, positive lapse rate of potential temperature, the growth rates of the most unstable modes of the Eady problem grow only marginally faster than the modes of the dry problem. The vertical variation of moist static stability produces a gradient of moist potential vorticity in the rising air, eliminating the short-wave cutoff present in the dry Eady problem. The destabilization of the short waves is shown to be associated with the interaction between surface potential temperature anomalies and diabatically generated lower-tropospheric potential vorticity anomalies. Nonlinear primitive equation simulations, starting from normal-mode initial conditions, show that while the dry wave grows at nearly the linear growth rate until maximum amplitude is reached, the moist wave grows significantly faster than the linear growth rate at finite amplitude. This enhanced growth is associated with the rapid amplification of a mesoscale PV anomaly generated by latent heat release at the warm front. The rapid amplification of the surface cyclone results from the superposition of the circulation associated with this misoscale PV anomaly upon the circulation associated with the surface and upper boundary potential temperature anomalies. Additional integrations with finite-amplitude initial conditions more typical of atmospheric conditions exhibit similar behavior. It is suggested that many of the rapid cyclogenesis events that occur as upper-troposheric PV anomalies cross the east coasts of continents may arise from the rapid generation of PV anomalies by condensational heating in the moist maritime lower troposphere.

Whitaker, Jeffrey S.↗

NASA NTRS1990

A mathematical model of the structure and evolution of small-scale discrete auroral arcs

A three-dimensional fluid model for the structure and evolution of small-scale discrete auroral arcs originating from Alfven waves is developed and used to study the nonlinear macroscopic plasma dynamics of these auroral arcs. The results of simulations show that stationary auroral arcs can be unstable to a collisionless tearing mode which may be responsible for the observed transverse structuring in the form of folds and curls. At late times, the plasma becomes turbulent having transverse electric field power spectra that tend toward a universal k exp -5/3 spectral form.

Seyler, Charles E.↗

NASA NTRS1984

Electrostatic ion-cyclotron waves in magnetospheric plasmas Nonlocal aspects

The importance of the effect of the magnetic shear and the finite size of current channel on the electrostatic ion-cyclotron instability for the space plasmas is illustrated. A non-local treatment is used. When the channel width Lc, is larger than the shear length Ls, there is a large reduction in the growth rate along with a noteworthy reduction of the band of the unstable perpendicular wavelengths. For Lc less than or = Ls/10 the growth rate is not much altered from its local value, however for Lc/pi i less than or = 10 to the second power the growth rate starts falling below the local value and vanishes for Lc pi i. The non-local effects lead to enhanced coherence in the ion cyclotron waves. Previously announced in STAR as N84-14917

Ganguli, G.↗

NASA NTRS1993

Stability of an inhomogeneous two-component plasma with magnetic viscosity

The stability of a semiinfinite quasi-neutral inhomogeneous plasma with magnetic viscosity has been discussed by using JWKB approximation in which the parameters are regarded slowing varying. Dispersion relation is obtained and discussed. It is found that the inhomogeneous system is unstable for all perturbations with k(y) = 0. A dispersion relation for homogeneous plasma is also obtained and discussed. It is shown that fast and slow-MHD waves propagate in the homogeneous plasma in the limit of almost perpendicular propagation under certain conditions.

Kumar, Nagendra↗

NASA NTRS1994

Receptivity of flat-plate boundary layer in a non-uniform free stream (vorticity normal to the plate)

Recent progress in both the linear and nonlinear aspects of stability theory has highlighted the importance of the receptivity problem. One of the most unclear aspects of receptivity study is the receptivity of boundary-layer flow normal to vortical disturbances. Some experimental and theoretical results permit the proposition that quasi-steady outer-flow vortical disturbances may trigger by-pass transition. In present work such interaction is investigated for vorticity normal to a leading edge. The interest in these types of vortical disturbances arise from theoretical work, where it was shown that small sinusoidal variations of upstream velocity along the spanwise direction can produce significant variations in the boundary-layer profile. In the experimental part of this work, such non-uniform flow was created and the laminar-turbulent transition in this flow was investigated. The experiment was carried out in a low-turbulence direct-flow wind tunnel T-361 at the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute (TsAGI). The non-uniform flow was produced by laminar or turbulent wakes behind a wire placed normal to the plate upstream of the leading edge. The theoretical part of the work is devoted to studying the unstable disturbance evolution in a boundary layer with strongly non-uniform velocity profiles similar to that produced by outer-flow vorticity. Specifically, the Tollmien-Schlichting wave development in the boundary layer flow with spanwise variations of velocity is investigated.

Kogan, M. N.↗

NASA NTRS1992

Analytic and numerical models of wave-CISK with conditional heating

Wave-CISK with conditional heating is investigated in the equatorial zonal-height plane by analytic and numerical techniques. For two- and three-level models, previous results are extended to give additional evidence that the most unstable mode has a single wet region of infinitesimal width. A three-level model has qualitatively similar behavior as the two-level model except that propagating solutions are possible due to coalescence of internal vertical modes. Phase speeds with conditional heating are found to be slightly greater than those for unconditional heating. The structure has one circulation cell in the vertical and is asymmetric in longitude with stronger motion on the leading edge. Growth rate is inversely proportional to the width of the single wet region. That width can be limited by second-order diffusion. A general integral relationship between growth rate, viscosity, phase speed, and heating is derived. The main conclusion is that the linear wave-CISK catastrophe is modified by conditional heating but not eliminated. The preferred mode of instability has one wet region, but it occurs on the smallest possible scale. It is likely that numerical models that use conditional heating are sensitive to resolution, especially for the commonly used spectral truncations, unless there is sufficiently strong damping at the smallest scales.

Crum, Francis X.↗

NASA NTRS1994

Penetration below a convective zone

Two-dimensional numerical simulations are used to investigate how fully compressible nonlinear convection penetrates into a stably stratified zone beneath a stellar convection zone. Estimates are obtained of the extent of penetration as the relative stability S of the stable to the unstable zone is varied over a broad range. The model deals with a perfect gas possessing a constant dynamic viscosity. The dynamics is dominated by downward-directed plumes which can extend far into the stable material and which can lead to the excitation of a broad spectrum of internal gravity waves in the lower stable zone. The convection is highly time dependent, with the close coupling between the lateral swaying of the plumes and the internal gravity waves they generate serving to modulate the strength of the convection. The depth of penetration delta, determined by the position where the time-averaged kinetic flux has its first zero in the stable layer, is controlled by a balance between the kinetic energy carried into the stable layer by the plumes and the buoyancy braking they experience there. A passive scalar is introduced into the unstable layer to evaluate the transport of chemical species downward. Such a tracer is effectively mixed within a few convective overturning times down to a depth of delta within the stable layer. Analytical estimates based on simple scaling laws are used to interpret the variation of delta with S, showing that it first involves an interval of adiabatic penetration if the local Peclet number of the convection exceeds unity, followed by a further thermal adjustment layer, the depths of each interval scaling in turn as S(exp -1) and S(exp -1/4). These estimates are in accord with the penetration results from the simulations.

Hurlburt, Neal E.↗

NASA NTRS1981

Modulational instability in a plasma with suprathermal electrons

The consequences of the presence of suprathermal electrons on the linear stage of modulational instabilities are investigated for a range of parameters appropriate to both laboratory and astrophysical plasmas. Substantial modification to the growth rate and secondary spectrum are found to occur for instabilities driven by large amplitude Langmuir waves in the dipole limit due to the kinetic effects of the suprathermal electrons. In particular, for reasonable choices of pump amplitude and suprathermal energy density, additional modes become unstable.

Freund, H. P.↗

NASA NTRS1982

Long wavelength irregularities in the equatorial electrojet

The radar interferometer technique is used at Jicamarca to study in detail irregularities with wavelengths of a few kilometers generated in the unstable equatorial electrojet plasma during strong type 1 conditions. In-situ rocket observations of the same instability process are discussed in a companion paper. These large scale primary waves travel essentially horizontally and have large amplitudes. The vertical electron drift velocities driven by the horizontal wave electric fields reach or exceed the ion-acoustic velocity even though the horizontal phase velocity of the wave is considerably smaller. A straightforward extension to the long wavelength regime of the usual linear theory of the electrojet instability explains this and several other observed features of these dominant primary waves.

Kudeki, E.↗

NASA NTRS1983

Excitation of an electrostatic wave by a cold electron current sheet of finite thickness

Calculations for the threshold of current-driven instabilities and the growth rates of ion acoustic and electrostatic ion cyclotron instabilities in a magnetized plasma driven a current sheet with a finite width are presented. Maxwellian equations are employed to model the velocity distributions of electrons and ions in a direction perpendicular to the sheet. A dispersion relation is defined for the regions of instability, and boundary conditions are characterized in order to obtain a set of eigenvalue equations. Thresholds are delineated for various regions, including ducted mode solutions where only ion-acoustic waves are excited in areas where the frequency range significantly exceeds the ion cyclotron frequency. When a constant electron drift velocity is present, a thick current sheet is more unstable than a thin one. Fewer modes become unstable with a thinner sheet.

Hwang, K. S.↗

NASA NTRS1984

Microwave signature of thick-target electron beams in solar flares

The steady-state behavior of a flux of nonthermal electrons injected into a fully ionized thick target is examined. Owing to the (inverse square) energy dependence of the Coulomb collisional cross section, it is found that injected electron distributions that are monotonically decreasing functions of electron energy develop at finite depths into distributions that have 'humps' in velocity space; the electron energy corresponding to the hump correlates with the overlying particle column density to the target. This results in a two-stream unstable situation. The distribution is constantly being relaxed by quasi-linear relaxation and re-created by collisions; in this way a steady nonthermal level of Langmuir plasma waves is created, and these waves in turn produce microwave plasma radiation with a typical flux of 3 x 10 to the -16th erg/sq cm-sec. This flux can be enhanced by a factor of up to 100 by a high level of low-frequency (such as ion-acoustic) turbulence, which prevents quasi-linear relaxation for a sufficient fraction of the path length.

Emslie, A. G.↗

NASA NTRS1997

The Effect of Gravity on the Combustion Synthesis of Porous Ceramics and Metal Matrix Composites

Combustion synthesis (self propagating, high temperature synthesis-SHS) is a novel technique that is capable of producing many advanced materials. The ignition temperature (Tig) of such combustion synthesis reactions is often coincident with that of the lowest melting point reactant. The resultant liquid metal wets and spreads around the other solid reactant particles of higher melting points, thereby improving the reactant contact and kinetics, followed by formation of the required compounds. This ignition initiates a combustion propagating wave whose narrow reaction front rapidly travels through the reactants. Since this process is highly exothermic, the heat released by combustion often melts the reactant particles ahead of the combustion front and ignites the adjacent reactant layer, resulting in a self-sustaining reaction. Whenever a fluid phase (liquid or gas) is generated by the reaction system, gravity-driven phenomena can occur. Such phenomena include convective flows of fluid by conventional or unstable convection and settling of the higher density phases. A combustion process is often associated with various kinds of fluid flow. For instance, if the SHS reaction is carried out under inert or reactive gas atmospheres, or a volatile, e.g., B2O3, is deliberately introduced as a reactant, convective flows of the gas will occur due to a temperature gradient existing in the atmosphere when a combustion wave is initiated. The increased gas flow will produce a porous (or expanded) SHS product. Owing to the highly exothermic nature of many SHS reactions, liquid phase(s) can also form before, at, or after the combustion front. The huge temperature gradient at the combustion front can induce convective flows (conventional or unstable) of the liquid phase. Each of these types of convective fluid flow can change the combustion behavior of the synthesizing reaction, and, therefore, the resultant product microstructure. In addition, when two or more phases of different density are produced at or ahead of the propagating combustion front settling of the higher density phase will occur resulting in a non-uniform product microstructure and properties.

Moore, J. J.↗

NASA NTRS1973

The effects of perturbations on the flammability limits

Based on the mechanism of heat losses, the known effects of external disturbances (pressure waves or turbulences) on the flammability limits are explained. This includes the sensitivity of near-limit flames to perturbations and the flame quenching by disturbances. The significance of the unstable solution as the criterion for dynamic extinction is stressed.

T'Ien, J. S.↗

NASA NTRS1981

Baroclinic instability of a rotating Hadley cell

The stability of a thin fluid layer between two rotating plates which are subjected to a horizontal temperature gradient is investigated. The solution for the stationary basic state is obtained in a closed form. It is pointed out that this solution identifies Ekman and thermal layers adjacent to the plates and interior temperature and velocity fields which are almost linear functions of height. The stability of that basic state with respect to infinitesimal zonal waves is then analyzed via the solution of the complete viscous linear equations for the perturbations. The character of the growth rates is found to be similar to those of the classical baroclinic waves. It is also found that the region of stability depends on the Prandtl number, the vertical stratification parameter, and both the meridional and zonal wavenumbers. The flow is generally unstable for small enough Ekman numbers and for Rossby numbers less than 10.

Antar, B. N.↗

NASA NTRS1991

On spatial instability of a swirling jet - Theory and experiment

The spatial instability of a swirling jet is investigated both experimentally and theoretically. A hydrodynamic stability analysis is applied to an inviscid incompressible top-hat jet, with a swirl distribution of solid-body rotation and free vortex in and outside the vortex core, respectively. Both plane and helical instability modes are examined. It is found that the top-hat jet with swirl distribution of Rankine vortex type is unstable in all the modes studied. The higher the positive helicity, the less spatially unstable the jet behavior; the higher the negative helicity, the more spatially unstable this behavior becomes. A comparison is made between theoretical results and experimental data on a low-intensity swirling jet. The trend of the initial growth of the instability waves in the near field is captured.

Wu, C.↗

NASA NTRS1986

Condensation modes in sheared magnetic fields

The present study of the condensation modes in coronal cylindrical plasmas, with attention to magnetic shear effects on stability, notes that such shear is insignificant in the initiation of condensation in the case of low beta coronal plasmas. The effects of magnetic field shear, twist, and strength on condensation modes differ, depending on the wave vector. The stability of condensation modes strongly depends on the choice of equilibrium temperature and density profiles. If plasma temperature increases with twist but density does not, condensation modes are unstable for low field twist; by contrast, if plasma density increases with twist but temperature does not, condensation modes are unstable for high twist.

An, C.-H.↗