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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 73 records · Page 4
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NASA NTRS2014

Pulsed Inductive Plasma Acceleration: Performance Optimization Criteria

Optimization criteria for pulsed inductive plasma acceleration are developed using an acceleration model consisting of a set of coupled circuit equations describing the time-varying current in the thruster and a one-dimensional momentum equation. The model is nondimensionalized, resulting in the identification of several scaling parameters that are varied to optimize the performance of the thruster. The analysis reveals the benefits of underdamped current waveforms and leads to a performance optimization criterion that requires the matching of the natural period of the discharge and the acceleration timescale imposed by the inertia of the working gas. In addition, the performance increases when a greater fraction of the propellant is initially located nearer to the inductive acceleration coil. While the dimensionless model uses a constant temperature formulation in calculating performance, the scaling parameters that yield the optimum performance are shown to be relatively invariant if a self-consistent description of energy in the plasma is instead used.

Polzin, Kurt A.↗
NASA NTRS1995

Testing Solar Flare Models with BATSE

We propose to use high-sensitivity Burst and Transient Source Experiment (BATSE) hard X-ray observations to test the thick-target and electric field acceleration models of solar flares. We will compare the predictions made by these models with hard X-ray spectral observations obtained with BATSE and simultaneous soft X-ray Ca XIX emission observed with the Yohkoh Bragg Crystal Spectrometer (BCS). The increased sensitivities of the BATSE and BCS (relative to previous detectors) permits a renewed study of the relationship between heating and dynamical motions during the crucial rise phase of flares. With these observations, we will: (1) investigate the ability of the thick-target model to explain the temporal evolution of hard X-ray emission relative to the soft X-ray blueshift during the earliest stages of the impulsive phase; and (2) search for evidence of electric-field acceleration as implied by temporal correlations between hard X-ray spectral breaks and the Ca XIX blueshift. The proposed study will utilize hard X-ray lightcurve and spectral measurements in the 10-100 keV energy range obtained with the BATSE Large Area Detectors (LAD). The DISCLA and CONT data will be the primary data products used in this analysis.

Zarro, Dominic M.↗
NASA NTRS1986

Physics through the 1990s: Gravitation, cosmology and cosmic-ray physics

The volume contains recommendations for space-and ground-based programs in gravitational physics, cosmology, and cosmic-ray physics. The section on gravitation examines current and planned experimental tests of general relativity; the theory behind, and search for, gravitational waves, including sensitive laser-interferometric tests and other observations; and advances in gravitation theory (for example, incorporating quantum effects). The section on cosmology deals with the big-bang model, the standard model from elementary-particle theory, the inflationary model of the Universe. Computational needs are presented for both gravitation and cosmology. Finally, cosmic-ray physics theory (nucleosynthesis, acceleration models, high-energy physics) and experiment (ground and spaceborne detectors) are discussed.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS2013

Modeling of Particle Acceleration at Multiple Shocks via Diffusive Shock Acceleration: Preliminary Results

Successful forecasting of energetic particle events in space weather models require algorithms for correctly predicting the spectrum of ions accelerated from a background population of charged particles. We present preliminary results from a model that diffusively accelerates particles at multiple shocks. Our basic approach is related to box models in which a distribution of particles is diffusively accelerated inside the box while simultaneously experiencing decompression through adiabatic expansion and losses from the convection and diffusion of particles outside the box. We adiabatically decompress the accelerated particle distribution between each shock by either the method explored in Melrose and Pope (1993) and Pope and Melrose (1994) or by the approach set forth in Zank et al. (2000) where we solve the transport equation by a method analogous to operator splitting. The second method incorporates the additional loss terms of convection and diffusion and allows for the use of a variable time between shocks. We use a maximum injection energy (E(sub max)) appropriate for quasi-parallel and quasi-perpendicular shocks and provide a preliminary application of the diffusive acceleration of particles by multiple shocks with frequencies appropriate for solar maximum (i.e., a non-Markovian process).

Parker, L. Neergaard↗
NASA NTRS1974

Acceleration processes in the quasi-steady magnetoplasmadynamic discharge

The flow field characteristics within the discharge chamber and exhaust of a quasi-steady magnetoplasmadynamic (MPD) arcjet were examined to clarify the nature of the plasma acceleration process. The observation of discharge characteristics unperturbed by insulator ablation and terminal voltage fluctuations, first requires the satisfaction of three criteria: the use of refractory insulator materials; a mass injection geometry tailored to provide propellant to both electrode regions of the discharge; and a cathode of sufficient surface area to permit nominal MPD arcjet operation for given combinations of arc current and total mass flow. The axial velocity profile and electromagnetic discharge structure were measured for an arcjet configuration which functions nominally at 15.3 kA and 6 g/sec argon mass flow. An empirical two-flow plasma acceleration model is advanced which delineates inner and outer flow regions and accounts for the observed velocity profile and calculated thrust of the accelerator.

Boyle, M. J.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Correlation between the He/H ratios in upstream particle events and in the solar wind

The ratio of helium to proton differential intensities at a fixed energy per charge in the diffuse ion population during long-lived upstream particle events is compared with the simultaneously measured solar wind He/H ratio. It is found that the He/H intensity ratio at about 30 keV in upstream events is highly correlated with and on the average directly proportional to the He/H ratio in the solar wind, and larger than the He/H ratio in the solar wind by an average factor of 1.6. It is concluded that the solar wind is the parent population for the diffuse ions. The He abundance in the diffuse component is on average observed to be larger than in the solar wind. The observations are consistent with the predictions of Fermi acceleration models for a seed particle population drawn from the solar wind with little compositional bias and moderately enhanced in He during the acceleration process.

Ipavich, F. M.↗
NASA NTRS2012

Comparison of Computed and Measured Performance of a Pulsed Inductive Thruster Operating on Argon Propellant

Pulsed inductive plasma accelerators are electrodeless space propulsion devices where a capacitor is charged to an initial voltage and then discharged through a coil as a high-current pulse that inductively couples energy into the propellant. The field produced by this pulse ionizes the propellant, producing a plasma near the face of the coil. Once a plasma is formed if can be accelerated and expelled at a high exhaust velocity by the Lorentz force arising from the interaction of an induced plasma current and the magnetic field. A recent review of the developmental history of planar-geometry pulsed inductive thrusters, where the coil take the shape of a flat spiral, can be found in Ref. [1]. Two concepts that have employed this geometry are the Pulsed Inductive Thruster (PIT)[2, 3] and the Faraday Accelerator with Radio-frequency Assisted Discharge (FARAD)[4]. There exists a 1-D pulsed inductive acceleration model that employs a set of circuit equations coupled to a one-dimensional momentum equation. The model was originally developed and used by Lovberg and Dailey[2, 3] and has since been nondimensionalized and used by Polzin et al.[5, 6] to define a set of scaling parameters and gain general insight into their effect on thruster performance. The circuit presented in Fig. 1 provides a description of the electrical coupling between the current flowing in the thruster I1 and the plasma current I2. Recently, the model was upgraded to include an equation governing the deposition of energy into various modes present in a pulsed inductive thruster system (acceleration, magnetic flux generation, resistive heating, etc.)[7]. An MHD description of the plasma energy density evolution was tailored to the thruster geometry by assuming only one-dimensional motion and averaging the plasma properties over the spatial dimensions of the current sheet to obtain an equation for the time-evolution of the total energy. The equation set governing the dynamics of the coupled electrodynamic-current sheet system is composed of first-order, coupled ordinary differential equations that can be easily solved numerically without having to resort to much more complex 2-D finite element plasma simulations.

Polzin, Kurt A.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

REACTER: A Versatile Tool for Large-Scale Reactive Molecular Dynamics

Accurately describing reactive events over long length and time scales remains a grand challenge of computational materials science. REACTER is a general protocol for modeling chemical reactions using classical force fields, and is implemented in the popular molecular dynamics software LAMMPS. REACTER has a growing user base and has been used as a model-building tool for a variety of materials, including thermoplastics, thermosets, glassy materials and composites. The method has also been applied to accelerated modeling of reversible chemical reactions, such as the formation of electrochemical components for batteries. Recently, the REACTER protocol has received some major upgrades to enhance its ability to predict when reactions occur and to make it easier to use. Force field parameters can now be automatically assigned to newly created bonds, angles and other interactions. Advanced reaction constraints have also been added, including an Arrhenius constraint to enforce an effective activation energy, a root-mean-square-deviation option for complex geometrical constraints, and a constraint based on the total potential energy of the atoms involved in a reactive site. This potential energy constraint allows for the accurate reproduction of DFT-based tight-binding (DFTB3) predicted bond dissociation curves for mechanically induced bond breaking.

polymer simulations, molecular dynamics↗
NASA NTRS2023

Relativistic Electron Beams Accelerated By an Interplanetary Shock

Context: Collisionless shock waves have long been considered to be among the most prolific particle accelerators in the universe. Shocks alter the plasma they propagate through, and often exhibit complex evolution across multiple scales. Interplanetary (IP) traveling shocks have been recorded in situ for over half a century and act as a natural laboratory for experimentally verifying various aspects of large-scale collisionless shocks. A fundamentally interesting problem in both heliophysics and astrophysics is the acceleration of electrons to relativistic energies (> 300 keV) by traveling shocks. Aims: The reason for an incomplete understanding of electron acceleration at IP shocks is due to scale-related challenges and a lack of instrumental capabilities. This Letter presents the first observations of field-aligned beams of relativistic electrons upstream of an IP shock, observed thanks to the instrumental capabilities of Solar Orbiter. This study presents the characteristics of the electron beams close to the source and contributes to the understanding of their acceleration mechanism. Methods: On 25 July 2022, Solar Orbiter encountered an IP shock at 0.98 AU. The shock was associated with an energetic storm particle event, which also featured upstream field-aligned relativistic electron beams observed 14 min prior to the actual shock crossing. The distance of the beam’s origin was investigated using a velocity dispersion analysis (VDA). Peak-intensity energy spectra were analyzed and compared with those obtained from a semi-analytical fast-Fermi acceleration model. Results: By leveraging Solar Orbiter’s high temporal resolution Energetic Particle Detector (EPD), we successfully showcase an IP shock’s ability to accelerate relativistic electron beams. Our proposed acceleration mechanism offers an explanation for the observed electron beam and its characteristics, while we also explore the potential contributions of more complex mechanisms.

acceleration of particles↗
NASA NTRS1992

Voyager energetic particle observations at interplanetary shocks and upstream of planetary bow shocks - 1977-1990

The Voyager 1 and 2 vehicles include instrumentation that makes comprehensive electron and ion measurements in several energy channels with good energy, temporal, and compositional resolution. Data gathered from 1977 to 1988, including observations downstream and upstream of four planetary bow shocks (earth, Saturn, Uranus, Jupiter) and numerous interplanetary shocks to about 30 AU, are analyzed in the context of the Fermi and shock drift acceleration models. Overall results indicate that electrons and ions observed upstream of planetary bow shocks have their source inside the parent magnetosphere, with first order Fermi acceleration playing a secondary role at best.

Krimigis, S. M.↗
NASA NTRS1996

Hard Gamma Ray Emission from the Starburst Galaxy NGC 253

We have completed the study to search for hard gamma ray emission from the starburst galaxy NGC 253. Since supernovae are thought to provide the hard gamma ray emission from the Milky Way, starburst galaxies, with their extraordinarily high supernova rates, are prime targets to search for hard gamma ray emission. We conducted a careful search for hard gamma ray emission from NGC 253 using the archival data from the EGRET experiment aboard the CGRO. Because this starburst galaxy happens to lie near the South Galactic Pole, the Galactic gamma ray background is minimal. We found no significant hard gamma ray signal toward NGC 253, although a marginal signal of about 1.5 sigma was found. Because of the low Galactic background, we obtained a very sensitive upper limit to the emission of greater than 100 MeV gamma-rays of 8 x 10(exp -8) photons/sq cm s. Since we expected to detect hard gamma ray emission, we investigated the theory of gamma ray production in a dense molecular medium. We used a leaky-box model to simulate diffusive transport in a starburst region. Since starburst galaxies have high infrared radiation fields, we included the effects of self-Compton scattering, which are usually ignored. By modelling the expected gamma-ray and synchrotron spectra from NGC 253, we find that roughly 5 - 15% of the energy from supernovae is transferred to cosmic rays in the starburst. This result is consistent with supernova acceleration models, and is somewhat larger than the value derived for the Galaxy (3 - 10%). Our calculations match the EGRET and radio data very well with a supernova rate of 0.08/ yr, a magnetic field B approx. greater than 5 x 10(exp -5) G, a density n approx. less than 100/sq cm, a photon density U(sub ph) approx. 200 eV/sq cm, and an escape time scale tau(sub 0) approx. less than 10 Myr. The models also suggest that NGC 253 should be detectable with only a factor of 2 - 3 improvement in sensitivity. Our results are consistent with the standard picture of gamma-ray acceleration by supernovae.

Jackson, James M.↗
NASA NTRS1979

On solar cosmic rays

The report summarizes the major results obtained over the last four years in the following areas: (1) transport in interplanetary space which includes solar particle observations combined with theoretical efforts to develop models which simulate the dynamics of the event; (2) transport in the solar corona and release of particles in the interplanetary medium; and (3) characteristics of source spectra and acceleration models. Modelling the propagation of solar cosmic rays through interplanetary space and establishing the magnitude and the radial and energy dependence of the diffusion coefficient K are considered. An important result due to statistical observation is that the coronal propagation must be independent of or weakly dependent on both rigidity and energy. Increasing evidence is found for prolonged injection at the sun.

Van Hollebeke, M. A. I.↗
NASA NTRS1981

Active head rotations and eye-head coordination

It is pointed out that head movements play an important role in gaze. The interaction between eye and head movements involves both their shared role in directing gaze and the compensatory vestibular ocular reflex. The dynamics of head trajectories are discussed, taking into account the use of parameterization to obtain the peak velocity, peak accelerations, the times of these extrema, and the duration of the movement. Attention is given to the main sequence, neck muscle EMG and details of the head-movement trajectory, types of head model accelerations, the latency of eye and head movement in coordinated gaze, gaze latency as a function of various factors, and coordinated gaze types. Clinical examples of gaze-plane analysis are considered along with the instantaneous change of compensatory eye movement (CEM) gain, and aspects of variability.

Zangemeister, W. H.↗
NASA NTRS1997

Gamma-rays from supernova remnants and the signatures of diffusive shock acceleration

A nonlinear shock acceleration model which generates non-thermal proton distributions and includes a self-consistent determination of shock hydrodynamics, is considered. Gamma ray spectra are obtained for supernova remnants, allowing for the cessation of acceleration to high energies due to the finite ages and the sizes of the remnants. Gamma ray spectral cutoffs can be observed in the TeV range for reasonable remnant parameters and deviations from power law behavior are found at all energies from 1 MeV to cutoff. Correlated observations by the International Gamma Ray Astrophysics Laboratory, Whipple and other instruments may provide stringent constraints to understanding supernova remnants.

Baring, Matthew G.↗
NASA NTRS1976

Io sheath-accelerated electrons and ions

Recent results available from more rigorously analyzed Pioneer 10 data and the preliminary results of Pioneer 11 are used to further revise the satellite Io sheath acceleration model. The revised model is then employed to suggest an explanation for a number of earth-based and Pioneer 10 and 11 observations and to discuss other phenomena which might be detectable with future experiments. Particle acceleration near Io is discussed for the cases of negative sheath (face toward Jupiter) and positive sheath (face away from Jupiter). Io sputtering may explain the presence of atomic hydrogen and sodium in the vicinity of Io, and the accelerated particles may be important to the formation of the Io ionosphere. Directed fluxes of 100-keV electrons in the flux tube may lead to the decametric radio emissions, Jovian atmospheric heating, and optical and X ray emissions. Satellite modulation of decametric radio emissions is discussed.

Shawhan, S. D.↗
NASA NTRS2004

Analysis of Factors Affecting the Performance of RLV Thrust Cell Liners

The reusable launch vehicle (RLV) thrust cell liner, or thrust chamber, is a critical component of the Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME). It is designed to operate in some of the most severe conditions seen in engineering practice. This requirement, in conjunction with experimentally observed 'dog-house' failure modes characterized by bulging and thinning of the cooling channel wall, provides the motivation to study the factors that influence RLV thrust cell liner performance. Factors or parameters believed to be directly related to the observed characteristic deformation modes leading to failure under in-service loading conditions are identified, and subsequently investigated using the cylindrical version of the higher-order theory for functionally graded materials in conjunction with the Robinson's unified viscoplasticity theory and the power-law creep model for modeling the response of the liner s constituents. Configurations are analyzed in which specific modifications in cooling channel wall thickness or constituent materials are made to determine the influence of these parameters on the deformations resulting in the observed failure modes in the outer walls of the cooling channel. The application of thermal barrier coatings and functional grading are also investigated within this context. Comparison of the higher-order theory results based on the Robinson and power-law creep model predictions has demonstrated that, using the available material parameters, the power-law creep model predicts more precisely the experimentally observed deformation leading to the 'dog-house' failure mode for multiple short cycles, while also providing much improved computational efficiency. However, for a single long cycle, both models predict virtually identical deformations. Increasing the power-law creep model coefficients produces appreciable deformations after just one long cycle that would normally be obtained after multiple cycles, thereby enhancing the efficiency of the analysis. This provides a basis for the development of an accelerated modeling procedure to further characterize dog-house deformation modes in RLV thrust cell liners. Additionally, the results presented herein have demonstrated that the mechanism responsible for deformation leading to 'dog-house' failure modes is driven by pressure, creep/relaxation and geometric effects.

Arnold, Steven M.↗
NASA NTRS1982

The energy dependence of cosmic ray propagation at low energy

The interstellar propagation of cosmic rays is investigated using current 'best estimates' for the partial and total cross sections and their energy dependence and the current model of solar modulation. The experimental boron to carbon ratio is reproduced if the mean of the path length distribution decreases with decreasing energy below approximately 1 GeV/nucleon. This energy dependence is compared to shock acceleration models and dynamical halo models using different galactic wind velocities.

Garcia-Munoz, M.↗