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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 595 records · Page 33
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2010

Advanced Stirling Convertor Testing at NASA Glenn Research Center

The NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC) has been testing high-efficiency free-piston Stirling convertors for potential use in radioisotope power systems (RPSs) since 1999. The current effort is in support of the Advanced Stirling Radioisotope Generator (ASRG), which is being developed by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company (LMSSC), Sunpower, Inc., and the NASA GRC. This generator would use two high-efficiency Advanced Stirling Convertors (ASCs) to convert thermal energy from a radioisotope heat source into electricity. As reliability is paramount to a RPS capable of providing spacecraft power for potential multi-year missions, GRC provides direct technology support to the ASRG flight project in the areas of reliability, convertor and generator testing, high-temperature materials, structures, modeling and analysis, organics, structural dynamics, electromagnetic interference (EMI), and permanent magnets to reduce risk and enhance reliability of the convertor as this technology transitions toward flight status. Convertor and generator testing is carried out in short- and long-duration tests designed to characterize convertor performance when subjected to environments intended to simulate launch and space conditions. Long duration testing is intended to baseline performance and observe any performance degradation over the life of the test. Testing involves developing support hardware that enables 24/7 unattended operation and data collection. GRC currently has 14 Stirling convertors under unattended extended operation testing, including two operating in the ASRG Engineering Unit (ASRG-EU). Test data and high-temperature support hardware are discussed for ongoing and future ASC tests with emphasis on the ASC-E and ASC-E2.

Wilson, Scott D.↗
NASA NTRS2005

Particle Acceleration and Magnetic Field Generation in Electron-Positron Relativistic Shocks

Shock acceleration is a ubiquitous phenomenon in astrophysical plasmas. Plasma waves and their associated instabilities (e.g., Buneman, Weibel, and other two-stream instabilities) created in collisionless shocks are responsible for particle (electron, positron, and ion) acceleration. Using a three-dimensional relativistic electromagnetic particle (REMP) code, we have investigated particle acceleration associated with a relativistic electron-positron jet front propagating into an ambient electron-positron plasma with and without initial magnetic fields. We find small differences in the results for no ambient and modest ambient magnetic fields. New simulations show that the Weibel instability created in the collisionless shock front accelerates jet and ambient particles both perpendicular and parallel to the jet propagation direction. Furthermore, the nonlinear fluctuation amplitudes of densities, currents, and electric and magnetic fields in the electron-positron shock are larger than those found in the electron-ion shock studied in a previous paper at a comparable simulation time. This comes from the fact that both electrons and positrons contribute to generation of the Weibel instability. In addition, we have performed simulations with different electron skin depths. We find that growth times scale inversely with the plasma frequency, and the sizes of structures created by tine Weibel instability scale proportionally to the electron skin depth. This is the expected result and indicates that the simulations have sufficient grid resolution. While some Fermi acceleration may occur at the jet front, the majority of electron and positron acceleration takes place behind the jet front and cannot be characterized as Fermi acceleration. The simulation results show that the Weibel instability is responsible for generating and amplifying nonuniform, small-scale magnetic fields, which contribute to the electron s (positron s) transverse deflection behind the jet head. This small- scale magnetic field structure is appropriate to the generation of "jitter" radiation from deflected electrons (positrons) as opposed to synchrotron radiation. The jitter radiation has different properties than synchrotron radiation calculated assuming a uniform magnetic field. The jitter radiation resulting from small-scale magnetic field structures may be important for understanding the complex time structure and spectral evolution observed in gamma-ray bursts or other astrophysical sources containing relativistic jets and relativistic collisionless shocks.

Nishikawa, K.-I.↗
NASA NTRS2012

Crab Flares and Magnetic Reconnection in Pulsar Winds

The striped winds of rotation-powered pulsars are ideal sites for magnetic reconnection. The magnetic fields of the wind near the current sheet outside the light cylinder alternate polarity every pulsar period and eventually encounter a termination shock. Magnetic reconnection in the wind has been proposed as a mechanism for transferring energy from electromagnetic fields to particles upstream of the shock (the "sigma" problem), but it is not clear if, where and how this occurs. Fermi and AGILE have recently observed powerful gamma-ray flares from the Crab nebula, which challenge traditional models of acceleration at the termination shock. New simulations are revealing that magnetic reconnection may be instrumental in understanding the Crab flares and in resolving the "sigma" problem in pulsar wind nebulae.

Harding, Alice K.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Hybrid simulation techniques applied to the earth's bow shock

The application of a hybrid simulation model, in which the ions are treated as discrete particles and the electrons as a massless charge-neutralizing fluid, to the study of the earth's bow shock is discussed. The essentials of the numerical methods are described in detail; movement of the ions, solution of the electromagnetic fields and electron fluid equations, and imposition of appropriate boundary and initial conditions. Examples of results of calculations for perpendicular shocks are presented which demonstrate the need for a kinetic treatment of the ions to reproduce the correct ion dynamics and the corresponding shock structure. Results for oblique shocks are also presented to show how the magnetic field and ion motion differ from the perpendicular case.

Winske, D.↗
NASA NTRS1997

Numerical Study of Magnetic Damping During Unidirectional Solidification

A fully 3-D numerical model is developed to represent magnetic damping of complex fluid flow, heat transfer and electromagnetic field distributions in a melt cavity. The model is developed based on our in-house finite element code for the fluid flow, heat transfer and electromagnetic field calculations. The computer code has been tested against benchmark test problems that are solved by other commercial codes as well as analytical solutions whenever available. The numerical model is tested against numerical and experimental results for water reported in literature. With the model so tested, various numerical simulations are carried out for the Sn-35.5% Pb melt convection and temperature distribution in a cylindrical cavity with and without the presence of a transverse magnetic field. Numerical results show that magnetic damping can be effectively applied to reduce turbulence and flow levels in the melt undergoing solidification and over a certain threshold value a higher magnetic field resulted in a higher velocity reduction. It is found also that for a fully 3-D representation of the magnetic damping effects, the electric field induced in the melt by the applied DC magnetic field does not vanish, as some researchers suggested, and must be included even for molten metal and semiconductors. Also, for the study of the melt flow instability, a long enough time has to be applied to ensure the final fluid flow recirculation pattern. Moreover, our numerical results suggested that there seems to exist a threshold value of applied magnetic field, above which magnetic damping becomes possible and below which the convection in the melt is actually enhanced. Because of the limited financial resource allocated for the project, we are unable to carry out extensive study on this effect, which should warrant further theoretical and experimental study. In that endeavor, the developed numerical model should be very useful; and the model should serve as a useful tool for exploring necessary design parameters for planning magnetic damping experiments and interpreting the experimental results.

Li, Ben Q.↗
NASA NTRS2008

A Holistic Approach to Systems Development

Introduces a Holistic and Iterative Design Process. Continuous process but can be loosely divided into four stages. More effort spent early on in the design. Human-centered and Multidisciplinary. Emphasis on Life-Cycle Cost. Extensive use of modeling, simulation, mockups, human subjects, and proven technologies. Human-centered design doesn t mean the human factors discipline is the most important Disciplines should be involved in the design: Subsystem vendors, configuration management, operations research, manufacturing engineering, simulation/modeling, cost engineering, hardware engineering, software engineering, test and evaluation, human factors, electromagnetic compatibility, integrated logistics support, reliability/maintainability/availability, safety engineering, test equipment, training systems, design-to-cost, life cycle cost, application engineering etc. 9

Wong, Douglas T.↗
NASA NTRS2011

Evaluation of Lightning Induced Effects in a Graphite Composite Fairing Structure

Defining the electromagnetic environment inside a graphite composite fairing due to near-by lightning strikes is of interest to spacecraft developers. This effort develops a transmission-line-matrix (TLM) model with a CST Microstripes to examine induced voltages. on interior wire loops in a composite fairing due to a simulated near-by lightning strike. A physical vehicle-like composite fairing test fixture is constructed to anchor a TLM model in the time domain and a FEKO method of moments model in the frequency domain. Results show that a typical graphite composite fairing provides adequate shielding resulting in a significant reduction in induced voltages on high impedance circuits despite minimal attenuation of peak magnetic fields propagating through space in near-by lightning strike conditions.

Trout, Dawn H.↗
NASA NTRS2016

Investigation on Improvements in Lightning Retest Criteria for Spacecraft

Spacecraft are generally protected from a direct strike by launch the vehicle and ground structures, but protocols to evaluate the impact of nearby strikes are not consistent. Often spacecraft rely on the launch vehicle constraints to trigger a retest, but launch vehicles can typically evaluate the impact of a strike within minutes while spacecraft evaluation times can be on the order of hours or even days. For launches at the Kennedy Space Center where lightning activity is among the highest in the United States, this evaluation related delay could be costly with the possibility of missing the launch window altogether. This paper evaluated available data from local lightning measurements systems and computer simulations to predict the coupled effect from various nearby strikes onto a typical payload umbilical. Recommendations are provided to reduce the typical trigger criteria and costly delays.

Models↗
NASA NTRS1996

A Hybrid Nonlinear Control Scheme for Active Magnetic Bearings

A nonlinear control scheme for active magnetic bearings is presented in this work. Magnet winding currents are chosen as control inputs for the electromechanical dynamics, which are linearized using feedback linearization. Then, the desired magnet currents are enforced by sliding mode control design of the electromagnetic dynamics. The overall control scheme is described by a multiple loop block diagram; the approach also falls in the class of nonlinear controls that are collectively known as the 'integrator backstepping' method. Control system hardware and new switching power electronics for implementing the controller are described. Various experiments and simulation results are presented to demonstrate the concepts' potentials.

Xia, F.↗
NASA NTRS2011

The Inner Structure of Collisionless Magnetic Reconnection: The Electron-Frame Dissipation Measure and Hall Fields

It was recently proposed that the electron-frame dissipation measure, the energy transfer from the electromagnetic field to plasmas in the electron s rest frame, identifies the dissipation region of collisionless magnetic reconnection [Zenitani et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 106, 195003 (2011)]. The measure is further applied to the electron-scale structures of antiparallel reconnection, by using two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations. The size of the central dissipation region is controlled by the electron-ion mass ratio, suggesting that electron physics is essential. A narrow electron jet extends along the outflow direction until it reaches an electron shock. The jet region appears to be anti-dissipative. At the shock, electron heating is relevant to a magnetic cavity signature. The results are summarized to a unified picture of the single dissipation region in a Hall magnetic geometry.

Zenitani, Seiji↗
NASA NTRS2009

Shock Structure and Magnetic Fields Generation Associated with Relativistic Jets Unmagnetized Pair Plasma

Using 3D and 2D particle-in-cell simulations we investigate a shock structure, magnetic field generation, and particle acceleration associated with an unmagnetized relativistic electron-positron jet propagating into an unmagnetized pair plasma. The simulations use long computational grids which allow to study the formation and dynamics of the system in a spatial and temporal way. We find for the first time a relativistic shock system comparable to a predicted magnetohydrodynamic shock structure consisting of leading and trailing shocks separated by a contact discontinuity. Strong electromagnetic fields resulting from the Weibel two-stream instability are generated in the trailing shock where jet matter is thermalized and decelerated. We analyze the formation and nonlinear development through saturation and dissipation of those fields and associated particle acceleration. In the AGN context the trailing shock corresponds to the jet shock at the head of a relativistic astrophysical jet. In the GRB context this trailing shock can be identified with the bow shock driven by relativistic ejecta. The strong electromagnetic field region in the trailing shock provides the emission site for the hot spot at the leading edge of AGN jets and for afterglow emission from GRBs.

Niemiec, J.↗
NASA NTRS2000

Ordering Unstructured Meshes for Sparse Matrix Computations on Leading Parallel Systems

The ability of computers to solve hitherto intractable problems and simulate complex processes using mathematical models makes them an indispensable part of modern science and engineering. Computer simulations of large-scale realistic applications usually require solving a set of non-linear partial differential equations (PDES) over a finite region. For example, one thrust area in the DOE Grand Challenge projects is to design future accelerators such as the SpaHation Neutron Source (SNS). Our colleagues at SLAC need to model complex RFQ cavities with large aspect ratios. Unstructured grids are currently used to resolve the small features in a large computational domain; dynamic mesh adaptation will be added in the future for additional efficiency. The PDEs for electromagnetics are discretized by the FEM method, which leads to a generalized eigenvalue problem Kx = AMx, where K and M are the stiffness and mass matrices, and are very sparse. In a typical cavity model, the number of degrees of freedom is about one million. For such large eigenproblems, direct solution techniques quickly reach the memory limits. Instead, the most widely-used methods are Krylov subspace methods, such as Lanczos or Jacobi-Davidson. In all the Krylov-based algorithms, sparse matrix-vector multiplication (SPMV) must be performed repeatedly. Therefore, the efficiency of SPMV usually determines the eigensolver speed. SPMV is also one of the most heavily used kernels in large-scale numerical simulations.

Oliker, Leonid↗
NASA NTRS1995

Experimental Demonstration of Microwave Signal/Electric Thruster Plasma Interaction Effects

An experiment was designed and conducted in the Electric Propulsion Laboratory of NASA Lewis Research Center to assess the impact of ion thruster exhaust plasma plume on electromagnetic signal propagation. A microwave transmission experiment was set up inside the propulsion test bed using a pair of broadband horn antennas and a 30 cm 2.3 kW ion thruster. Frequency of signal propagation covered from 6.5 to 18 GHz range. The stainless steel test bed when enclosed can be depressurized to simulate a near vacuum environment. A pulsed CW system with gating hardware was utilized to eliminate multiple chamber reflections from the test signal. Microwave signal was transmitted and received between the two hours when the thruster was operating at a given power level in such a way that the signal propagation path crossed directly through the plume volume. Signal attenuation and phase shift due to the plume was measured for the entire frequency band. Results for this worst case configuration simulation indicate that the effects of the ion thruster plume on microwave signals is a negligible attenuation (within 0.15 dB) and a small phase shift (within 8 deg.). This paper describes the detailed experiment and presents some of the results.

Zaman, Afroz J.↗
NASA NTRS2004

Lunar and Planetary Science XXXV: Mars: Radar, Gamma Ray Spectrometer, and Cratering Mineralogy

The session "Mars: Radar, Gamma Ray Spectrometer, and Cratering Mineralogy" contained the following reports:The Dielectric Properties of Martian Soil Simulant JSC Mars-1 in the Range from 20Hz to 10kHz; Eastern Sahara Geology from Orbital Radar: Potential Analog to Mars On the Dielectric Properties of the Martian-like Surface Sediments; Radar Observations of Recent Mars Landing Sites; Sounding of Subsurface Water Through Conductive Media in Mars Analog Environments Using Transient Electromagnetics and Low Frequency Ground-penetrating Radar; Burial Depth of the Reservoirs of Hydrogen at the Equatorial Latitudes on Mars; Elemental Composition Variations for Large Dusty and Rocky Regions on Mars Using Gamma-Ray Data from the Mars Odyssey Gamma-Ray Spectrometer; The Distribution of Non-Volatile Elements on Mars: Mars Odyssey GRS Results; Using Mars Odyssey GRS Data to Assess Models for the Bulk Composition of Mars; Mars: The Terra Arabia Low Epithermal Neutron Flux Anomaly; The Isidis Basin of Mars: New Results from MOLA, MOC, and THEMIS; Remote Sensing of the Haughton Impact Structure (HIS): A Terrestrial Proof of Concept for Using the Remote Sensing of Martian Craters as a Probe of Subsurface Composition;and Thermal Emission Spectra of Impact Glass and Shocked Deccan Basalt from Lonar Crater, India and Implications for Remote Sensing of Mars.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS2011

Electromagnetic Launch Vehicle Fairing and Acoustic Blanket Model of Received Power Using FEKO

Evaluating the impact of radio frequency transmission in vehicle fairings is important to sensitive spacecraft. This paper employees the Multilevel Fast Multipole Method (MLFMM) feature of a commercial electromagnetic tool to model the fairing electromagnetic environment in the presence of an internal transmitter. This work is an extension of the perfect electric conductor model that was used to represent the bare aluminum internal fairing cavity. This fairing model includes typical acoustic blanketing commonly used in vehicle fairings. Representative material models within FEKO were successfully used to simulate the test case.

Trout, Dawn H.↗
NASA NTRS2017

Unconventional Imaging with Contained Granular Media

Typically, the cost of a space-borne imaging system is driven by the size and mass of the primary aperture. The solution that we propose uses a method to construct an imaging system in space in which the nonlinear optical properties of a cloud of micron-sized particles, shaped into a specific surface by electromagnetic means, and allows one to form a very large and lightweight aperture of an optical system, hence reducing overall mass and cost. Recent work at JPL has investigated the feasibility of a granular imaging system, concluding that such a system could be built and controlled in orbit. We conducted experiments and simulation of the optical response of a granular lens. In all cases, the optical response, measured by the Modulation Transfer Function, of hexagonal reflectors was closely comparable to that of a conventional spherical mirror. We conducted some further analyses by evaluating the sensitivity to fill factor and grain shape, and found a marked sensitivity to fill factor but no sensitivity to grain shape. We have also found that at fill factors as low as 30%, the reflection from a granular lens is still excellent. Furthermore, we replaced the monolithic primary mirror in an existing integrated model of an optical system (WFIRST Coronagraph) with a granular lens, and found that the granular lens that can be useful for exoplanet detection provides excellent contrast levels. We will present our testbed and simulation results in this paper.

Sidick, Erkin↗
NASA NTRS2007

Simulation Studies of Forest Structure using 3D Lidar and Radar Models

The use of lidars and radars to measure forest structure attributes such as height and biomass are being considered for future Earth Observation missions. Large footprint lidar makes a direct measurement of the heights of scatterers in the illuminated footprint and can yield information about the vertical profile of the canopy. Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) is known to sense the canopy volume, especially at longer wavelengths and is useful for estimating biomass. Interferometric SAR (InSAR) has been shown to yield forest canopy height information. For example, the height of scattering phase retrieved from InSAR data is considered to be correlated with the three height and the spatial structure of the forest stand. There is much interest in exploiting these technologies separately and together to get important information for carbon cycle and ecosystem science. More detailed information of the electromagnetic radiation interactions within forest canopies is needed. And backscattering models can be of much utility here. As part of a NASA funded project to explore data fusion, a three-dimensional (3D) coherent radar backscattering model and a 3D lidar backscatter models were used to investigate the use of large footprint lidar, SAR and InSAR for characterizing realistic forest scenes. For this paper, we use stem maps and other forest measurements to develop a realistic spatial structure of a spruce-hemlock forest canopy found in Maine, USA. The radar and lidar models used measurements of the 3D forest scene as input and simulated the coherent radar backscattering signature and 1064nm energy backscatter, respectively. The relationships of backscatter derived forest structure were compared with field measurements. In addition, we also had detailed airborne lidar (Laser Imaging Vegetation Sensor, LVIS) data available over the stem map sites that was used to study the accuracies of tree height derived from modeled SAR backscatter and the scattering phase center retrieved from the simulated InSAR data will be compared with the height indices, or other structure parameters derived from the lidar data. These results will address the possible synergies between lidar and radar in data in terms of forest structural information.

Sun, Guoqing↗
NASA NTRS2016

The Microwave Radiative Properties of Falling Snow Derived from Nonspherical Ice Particle Models. Part II: Initial Testing Using Radar, Radiometer and In Situ Observations

In this study, two different particle models describing the structure and electromagnetic properties of snow are developed and evaluated for potential use in satellite combined radar-radiometer precipitation estimation algorithms. In the first model, snow particles are assumed to be homogeneous ice-air spheres with single-scattering properties derived from Mie theory. In the second model, snow particles are created by simulating the self-collection of pristine ice crystals into aggregate particles of different sizes, using different numbers and habits of the collected component crystals. Single-scattering properties of the resulting nonspherical snow particles are determined using the discrete dipole approximation. The size-distribution-integrated scattering properties of the spherical and nonspherical snow particles are incorporated into a dual-wavelength radar profiling algorithm that is applied to 14- and 34-GHz observations of stratiform precipitation from the ER-2 aircraft-borne High-Altitude Imaging Wind and Rain Airborne Profiler (HIWRAP) radar. The retrieved ice precipitation profiles are then input to a forward radiative transfer calculation in an attempt to simulate coincident radiance observations from the Conical Scanning Millimeter-Wave Imaging Radiometer (CoSMIR). Much greater consistency between the simulated and observed CoSMIR radiances is obtained using estimated profiles that are based upon the nonspherical crystal/aggregate snow particle model. Despite this greater consistency, there remain some discrepancies between the higher moments of the HIWRAP-retrieved precipitation size distributions and in situ distributions derived from microphysics probe observations obtained from Citation aircraft underflights of the ER-2. These discrepancies can only be eliminated if a subset of lower-density crystal/aggregate snow particles is assumed in the radar algorithm and in the interpretation of the in situ data.

Ice particles; Radiances; Radiative transfer; Airc↗