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At least 73 records · Page 4

Improved Re-Configurable Sliding Mode Controller for Reusable Launch Vehicle of Second Generation Addressing Aerodynamic Surface Failures and Thrust Deficiencies

In this report we present a time-varying sliding mode control (TV-SMC) technique for reusable launch vehicle (RLV) attitude control in ascent and entry flight phases. In ascent flight the guidance commands Euler roll, pitch and yaw angles, and in entry flight it commands the aerodynamic angles of bank, attack and sideslip. The controller employs a body rate inner loop and the attitude outer loop, which are separated in time-scale by the singular perturbation principle. The novelty of the TVSMC is that both the sliding surface and the boundary layer dynamics can be varied in real time using the PD-eigenvalue assignment technique. This salient feature is used to cope with control command saturation and integrator windup in the presence of severe disturbance or control effector failure, which enhances the robustness and fault tolerance of the controller. The TV-SMC is developed and tuned up for the X-33 sub-orbital technology demonstration vehicle in launch and re-entry modes. A variety of nominal, dispersion and failure scenarios have tested via high fidelity 6DOF simulations using MAVERIC/SLIM simulation software.

Shtessel, Yuri B.↗

UAVSAR Active Electronically-Scanned Array

The Uninhabited Airborne Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR) L-band (1.2-1.3 GHz) repeat pass, interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) used for Earth science applications. Using complex radar images collected during separate passes on time scales of hours to years, changes in surface topography can be measured. The repeat-pass InSAR technique requires that the radar look angle be approximately the same on successive passes. Due to variations in aircraft attitude between passes, antenna beam steering is required to replicate the radar look angle. This paper describes an active, electronically steered array (AESA) that provides beam steering capability in the antenna azimuth plane. The array contains 24 transmit/receive modules generating 2800 W of radiated power and is capable of pulse-to-pulse beam steering and polarization agility. Designed for high reliability as well as serviceability, all array electronics are contained in single 178cm x 62cm x 12 cm air-cooled panel suitable for operation up 60,000 ft altitude.

Sadowy, Gregory↗

Liquid-liquid phase separation in supercooled water from ultrafast heating of low-density amorphous ice

Recent experiments continue to find evidence for a liquid-liquid phase transition (LLPT) in supercooled water, which would unify our understanding of the anomalous properties of liquid water and amorphous ice. These experiments are challenging because the proposed LLPT occurs under extreme metastable conditions where the liquid freezes to a crystal on a very short time scale. Here, we analyze models for the LLPT to show that coexistence of distinct high-density and low-density liquid phases may be observed by subjecting low-density amorphous (LDA) ice to ultrafast heating. We then describe experiments in which we heat LDA ice to near the predicted critical point of the LLPT by an ultrafast infrared laser pulse, following which we measure the structure factor using femtosecond x-ray laser pulses. Consistent with our predictions, we observe a LLPT occurring on a time scale <100 ns and widely separated from ice formation, which begins at times >1 μs.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Predicting aerodynamic sound utilizing a two-point, two-time turbulence theory

The feasibility of determining two-point, two-time turbulent velocity correlations based on extending closure models for one-point, one-time turbulence correlations is demonstrated. The procedure used is based on a spatial moment integral formulation of the governing equations using approximate, parameterized trial functions for the two-point, two-time velocity correlations. Solution of the equations is shown to give a set of anisotropic length scales and the separation-time-dependent decorrelation of the ensemble averaged turbulent velocities. The analysis is simplified using the assumption of homogeneous stationary turbulence and a constant shear, unidirectional mean flow. It is shown that the anisotropic behavior of measured turbulence correlations can be characterized through this technique.

Hecht, A. M.↗

Analysis of the tensile stress-strain behavior of elastomers at constant strain rates. I - Criteria for separability of the time and strain effects

A theoretical analysis of the tensile stress-strain relation of elastomers at constant strain rate is presented which shows that the time and the stress effect are separable if the experimental time scale coincides with a segment of the relaxation modulus that can be described by a single power law. It is also shown that time-strain separability is valid if the strain function is linearly proportional to the Cauchy strain, and that when time-strain separability holds, two strain-dependent quantities can be obtained experimentally. In the case where time and strain effect are not separable, superposition can be achieved only by using temperature and strain-dependent shift factors.

Hong, S. D.↗

Computations of Internal and External Axisymmetric Nozzle Aerodynamics at Transonic Speeds

Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analyses of axisymmetric circular-arc boattail nozzles have been completed in support of NASA's Next Generation Launch Technology Program to investigate the effects of high-speed nozzle geometries on the nozzle internal flow and the surrounding boattail regions. These computations span the very difficult transonic flight regime, with shock-induced separations and strong adverse pressure gradients. External afterbody and internal nozzle pressure distributions computed with the Wind code are compared with experimental data. A range of turbulence models were examined in Wind, including an Explicit Algebraic Stress model (EASM). Computations on two nozzle geometries have been completed at freestream Mach numbers ranging from 0.6 to 0.9, driven by nozzle pressure ratios (NPR) ranging from 2.9 to 5. Results obtained on converging-only geometry indicate reasonable agreement to experimental data, with the EASM and Shear Stress Transport (SST) turbulence models providing the best agreement. Calculations completed on a converging-diverging geometry involving large-scale internal flow separation did not converge to a true steady-state solution when run with variable timestepping (steady-state). Calculations obtained using constant timestepping (time-accurate) indicate less variations in flow properties compared with steady-state solutions. This failure to converge to a steady-state solution was found to be the result of difficulties in using variable time-stepping with large-scale separations present in the flow. Nevertheless, time-averaged boattail surface pressure coefficient and internal nozzle pressures show fairly good agreement with experimental data. The SST turbulence model demonstrates the best over-all agreement with experimental data.

Dalbello, Teryn↗

X-ray Variability Characteristics of the Narrow line SEYFERT 1 MKN 766 I: Energy Dependent Timing Properties

We present the energy-dependent power spectral density (PSD) and cross-spectral properties of Mkn 766 obtained from a six-revolution XMM-Newton observation in 2005. The resulting PSDs, which have highest temporal frequency resolution for an AGN PSD to date, show breaks which increase in temporal frequency as photon energy increases; break frequencies differ by an average of approx.0.4 in the log between the softest and hardest bands. The consistency of the 2001 and 2005 observations variability properties, namely PSD shapes and the linear rms-flux relation, suggests the 2005 observation is simply a low-flux extension of the 2001 observation. The coherence function is measured to be approx.0.6-0.9 at temporal frequencies below the PSD break, and is lower for relatively larger energy band separation; coherence also drops significantly towards zero above the PSD break frequency. Temporal frequency-dependent soft-to-hard time lags are detected in this object for the first time: lags increase towards longer time scales and as energy separation increases. Cross-spectral properties are the thus consistent with previous measurements for Mkn 766 (Vaughan & Fabian 2003) and other accreting black hole systems. The results are discussed in the context of several variability models, including those based on inwardly-propagating viscosity variations in the accretion disk.

Markowitz, A.↗

Charge separation in the photosystem II reaction center resolved by multispectral two-dimensional electronic spectroscopy

The photosystem II reaction center (PSII RC) performs the primary energy conversion steps of oxygenic photosynthesis. While the PSII RC has been studied extensively, the similar time scales of energy transfer and charge separation and the severely overlapping pigment transitions in the Qy region have led to multiple models of its charge separation mechanism and excitonic structure. Here, we combine two-dimensional electronic spectroscopy (2DES) with a continuum probe and two-dimensional electronic vibrational spectroscopy (2DEV) to study the cyt b559-D1D2 PSII RC at 77 K. This multispectral combination correlates the overlapping Qy excitons with distinct anion and pigment-specific Q x and mid-infrared transitions to resolve the charge separation mechanism and excitonic structure. Through extensive simultaneous analysis of the multispectral 2D data, we find that charge separation proceeds on multiple time scales from a delocalized excited state via a single pathway in which Pheo D1 is the primary electron acceptor, while Chl D1 and P D1 act in concert as the primary electron donor.

30 DIRECT ENERGY CONVERSION↗

Selective Uptake of Ethane/Ethylene Mixtures by UTSA-280 is Driven by Reversibly Coordinated Water Defects

The metal–organic framework (MOF) UTSA-280 has been shown previously to separate ethane/ethylene mixtures. We show that this separation is kinetic; if full equilibrium is reached, the MOF is not selective. The time scales associated with this kinetic separation are sufficient to make the material potentially interesting for practical separations. The observation of kinetic separation is surprising because the MOF’s one-dimensional (1D) channels are small enough that molecular motion along the channels would be expected to take place by single-file diffusion, which is not observed. We show using a combination of experimental and modeling techniques that diffusion of molecules between adjacent 1D channels through local defects associated with coordinated water molecules allows net mixing of molecules and, moreover, that this process is potentially responsible for the selective nature of the observed kinetic separation. We show how activation and regeneration conditions play an essential role in controlling the density of these local defects.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Excited State Dynamics of a Conformationally Fluxional Copper Coordination Complex

The conversion of solar energy into chemical fuel represents a capstone goal of the 21st century and has the potential to supply terawatts of power in a globally distributed manner. However, the disparate time scales of photodriven charge separation (~fs) and steps in chemical reactions (~μs) represent an inherent bottleneck in solar-to-fuels technology. Here to address this discrepancy, we are developing earth-abundant coordination complexes that undergo light-induced conformational rearrangements such that charge separation (CS) is hastened, while charge recombination (CR) is slowed. To these ends, we report the preparation and characterization of a new series of conformationally fluxional copper coordination complexes that contain a twisted intramolecular charge transfer (TICT) fluorophore as part of their ligand scaffold. Structural and spectroscopic characterization of the Cu(I) and Cu(II) complexes formed with these ligands in their ground states establish oxidation state-dependent conformational dynamicity, while time-resolved emission and transient absorption spectroscopies define the photopysical parameters of photo-induced excited states. Building on initial reports with a related set of molecules, the improved ligand design presented here greatly simplifies the observed photophysics, effectively shutting down unwanted ligand-centered excited states previously observed. Finally, time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) analyses reveal an unusual metal-to-TICT electronic transition only reported once before, and though the formation of a CS state is not observed directly through experiments, TDDFT geometry optimizations in the excited states support the formation of transient Cu(II) CS species, lending credence to the potential success of our approach. These studies establish a clear model for the excited state dynamics at play in proof-of-concept systems and clarify key design parameters for future optimizations toward achieving long-lived CS via photoinduced conformational gating.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Ultra-fast transverse beam orbit control in LCLS copper linac. Part I

We report current and future experiments at LCLS require x-ray pulse trains of variable time separation on the nanosecond scale. For instance, the cavity-based XFEL (CBXFEL) will use up to 4 pulses separated by 218.5 ns, the X-ray Laser Oscillator (XLO) will use 15 to 25 ns spaced pulses, and the Matter under Extreme Conditions (MEC) experiments use pulse trains separated by 5 nanoseconds or less. In this paper, we demonstrate an ultra-fast e-beam trajectory control method based on transverse electro-magnetic (TEM) striplines and state-of-the-art power sources, to enhance LCLS operations in these regimes.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

Dataset for manuscript "Equipartition and the temperature of maximum density of TIP4P/2005 water"

We simulate TIP4P/2005 water in the temperature range of 257 K to 318 K with time-steps 0.25, 0.50, 1.00, 2.00, and 4.00 fs. The density-temperature behavior obtained using 0.25 or 0.50 fs are in excellent agreement with each other but differ from those obtained using time-steps that have been shown earlier to lead to a breakdown of equipartition. The temperature of maximum density (TMD) is 277.15 K with time-step 0.25 or 0.50 fs, but is shifted to progressively lower values for longer time-steps, a trend that holds for different thermostat/barostat combinations. Enhancing the water-water dispersion interaction, as has been recommended for simulating disordered proteins in TIP4P/2005, degrades the description of the liquid-vapor phase envelope. We present a simple physically transparent reasoning to highlight the separation of the time-scales between translational and rotational motion. We also develop a metric, Chi, that we term the equipartition anomaly, to detect equipartition violations in simulations that include molecules that are treated as rigid objects. Calculating Chi is shown to be straightforward and sensitive to equipartition violations. A key takeaway from this study is that using sufficiently short time-steps (less than or equal to 0.5 fs) to preserve equipartition is essential for obtaining meaningful liquid water properties and for producing reliable simulation data, as correct-ensemble sampling is fundamental to ensure reproducibility across codes and simulation alogrithms. The included dataset provides the raw data used in the preparation of the graphs noted in the manuscript.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Pele: An Exascale-Ready Suite of Combustion Codes

High fidelity simulations of realistic combustion devices are extremely demanding computationally because of the requirements to capture complex fuel chemical decomposition, its intricate interactions with turbulent, often multiphase, flows, and the wide separation of space and time scales between the thin flame and the device boundaries. Software required to carry out such computations tends to be extremely complex, particularly when designed to exploit hardware accelerators, and can be difficult to port and maintain. We present Pele, a performance portable suite of tools for the simulation of combustion systems, including codes to evolve reactive multiphase configurations in the low Mach number and compressible flow regimes, along with a set of inter-compatible post processing and in situ analysis tools. The Pele suite of tools is built on top of the AMReX framework for block-structured adaptive mesh refinement, which provides efficient data structures and algorithms that enable the development of a wide variety of efficient mesh and particle based PDE integration schemes. A hierarchical MPI+X parallelism scheme supports CPU-only and accelerated architectures, where X can be OpenMP, CUDA, and HIP based approaches for intra-node computational work distribution. The algorithms and data structures underlying the Pele simulation and analysis tools are highly scalable and performant across a wide variety of high-performance computing platforms, including DOEs newest exascale-class machines, Frontier and Aurora. The simulation and analysis tools are fully documented and freely distributed as open source via GitHub. We present key algorithmic and software challenges, solution strategies, performance and resulting set of capabilities.

AMReX↗

Effective fractonic behavior in a two-dimensional exactly solvable spin liquid

In this work we propose a \mathbb{Z}_N ℤ N clock model which is exactly solvable on the lattice. We find exotic properties for the low-energy physics, such as UV/IR mixing and excitations with restricted mobility, that resemble fractonic physics from higher dimensional models. We then study the continuum descriptions for the lattice system in two distinct regimes and find two qualitative distinct field theories for each one of them. A characteristic time scale that grows exponentially fast with N^2 N 2 (and diverges rapidly as function of system parameters) separates these two regimes. For times below this scale, the system is described by an effective fractonic Chern-Simons-like action, where higher-form symmetries prevent quasiparticles from hopping. In this regime, the system behaves effectively as a fracton as isolated particles, in practice, never leave their original position. Beyond the large characteristic time scale, the excitations are mobile and the effective field theory is given by a pure mutual Chern-Simons action. In this regime, the UV/IR properties of the system is captured by a peculiar realization of the translation group.

Delfino, Guilherme↗

Satellite attitude prediction by multiple time scales method

An investigation is made of the problem of predicting the attitude of satellites under the influence of external disturbing torques. The attitude dynamics are first expressed in a perturbation formulation which is then solved by the multiple scales approach. The independent variable, time, is extended into new scales, fast, slow, etc., and the integration is carried out separately in the new variables. The theory is applied to two different satellite configurations, rigid body and dual spin, each of which may have an asymmetric mass distribution. The disturbing torques considered are gravity gradient and geomagnetic. Finally, as multiple time scales approach separates slow and fast behaviors of satellite attitude motion, this property is used for the design of an attitude control device. A nutation damping control loop, using the geomagnetic torque for an earth pointing dual spin satellite, is designed in terms of the slow equation.

Tao, Y. C.↗

Fokker-Planck electron diffusion caused by an obliquely propagating electromagnetic wave packet of narrow bandwidth

The relativistic motion of electrons in an intense electromagnetic wave packet propagating obliquely to a uniform magnetic field is analytically studied on the basis of the Fokker-Planck-Kolmogorov (FPK) approach. The wavepacket consists of circularly polarized electron-cyclotron waves. The dynamical system in question is shown to be reducible to one with three degrees of freedom. Within the framework of the Hamiltonian analysis the nonlinear diffusion tensor is derived, and it is shown that this tensor can be separated into zeroth-, first-, and second-order parts with respect to the relative bandwidth. The zeroth-order part describes diffusive acceleration along lines of constant unperturbed Hamiltonian. The second-order part, which corresponds to the longest time scale, describes diffusion across those lines. A possible transport theory is outlined on the basis of this separation of the time scales.

Hizanidis, Kyriakos↗

On the local nature of the energy cascade

The local nature of the energy cascade in space and time is studied using direct numerical simulation of decaying and forced isotropic turbulence. To examine the concept that large scales evolve into smaller ones, we compute the Lagrangian correlation coefficient between local kinetic energy at different scales. This correlation is found to peak at a Lagrangian time-delay that increases with scale separation. The results show that, on average, the flow of energy to smaller scales is predominantly local in physical space and that the view of eddies decaying into smaller ones while transferring their kinetic energy appears to be, on average, quite realistic. To examine the spectral characteristics of the cascade under unsteady conditions, a pulse of large-scale energy is added to the large-eddy simulation of forced isotropic turbulence. As time progresses, the evolution of this pulse through bands of increasing wavenumbers is studied.

Meneveau, C.↗

Experiments on an unsteady, three-dimensional separation

Unsteady, three-dimensional flow separation occurs in a variety of technical situations including turbomachinery and low-speed aircraft. An experimental program at Stanford in unsteady, three-dimensional, pressure-driven laminar separation has investigated the structure and time-scaling of these flows; of particular interest is the development, washout, and control of flow separation. Results reveal that a two-dimensional, laminar boundary layer passes through several stages on its way to a quasi-steady three-dimensional separation. The quasi-steady state of the separation embodies a complex, unsteady, vortical structure.

Henk, R. W.↗