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At least 811 records · Page 45

Preliminary Report of NRC Twin Otter Operations in the 1997 Southern Great Plains Experiment

From June 18 to July 17, 1997, the NRC Twin Otter atmospheric research aircraft was operated from Oklahoma City, U.S.A., in the Southern Great Plains 1997 (SGP97) Hydrology Experiment. The primary role of the aircraft was to measure the vertical fluxes of sensible and latent heat, CO2, ozone and momentum in the atmospheric boundary layer, along with supporting meteorological and radiometric data. Approximately 400 flux runs and 100 soundings were flown in 27 project flights over rural areas near Oklahoma City. This preliminary report documents the flight program, lists the instrumentation aboard the aircraft, and presents a summary of run-averaged data from each flux run. These data are from the in-field analysis and must be considered preliminary. A re-analysis incorporating updated calibrations is planned for the fall of 1997 followed by a more comprehensive technical report.

MacPherson, J. Ian↗

Vapor transport growth of organic solids in microgravity and unit gravity: some comparisons and results to date

Thin films of an organic nonlinear optical (NLO) material, N, N-dimethyl-p-(2,2-dicyanovinyl) aniline (DCVA), have been grown in space and on the ground by physical vapor transport in an effusive ampoule arrangement. The thin film growth technique developed on the ground is a direct result of information gleaned from experiments in microgravity. This paper covers the results of our experimental investigations for establishing "ideal" terrestrial conditions for deposition of a DCVA film. The active control during the deposition process was exercised by three deposition variables: the material source temperature, the background pressure external to the growth ampoule and the substrate temperature. Successful growth occurred when the difference in temperature between the source material and the copper substrate was 14 degrees C and the background nitrogen pressure was such that the transport was either diffusive or convective. A qualitative diffusion limited boundary was estimated to occur at a pressure of approximately 20 torr. We have probed the DCVA thin films with visible-near infrared reflection absorption spectroscopy, polarized Fourier transform infrared spectrometry, differential interference contrast optical microscopy, and stylus profilometry.

short duration↗

Molecular Modeling for Calculation of Mechanical Properties of Epoxies with Moisture Ingress

Atomistic models of epoxy structures were built in order to assess the effect of crosslink degree, moisture content and temperature on the calculated properties of a typical representative generic epoxy. Each atomistic model had approximately 7000 atoms and was contained within a periodic boundary condition cell with edge lengths of about 4 nm. Four atomistic models were built with a range of crosslink degree and moisture content. Each of these structures was simulated at three temperatures: 300 K, 350 K, and 400 K. Elastic constants were calculated for these structures by monitoring the stress tensor as a function of applied strain deformations to the periodic boundary conditions. The mechanical properties showed reasonably consistent behavior with respect to these parameters. The moduli decreased with decreasing crosslink degree with increasing temperature. The moduli generally decreased with increasing moisture content, although this effect was not as consistent as that seen for temperature and crosslink degree.

Clancy, Thomas C.↗

A New Method for Predicting Turbulent Flow Reattachment Location: Application of Stratford Criterion for Reattaching Flows

A new method for predicting turbulent flow reattachment location has been developed. The method predicts the reattachment location using the surface static pressure distribution and requires only a single empirical parameter. The method is based on the well-known Stratford’s flow separation criterion, which results from an approximate solution to the equations of motion within the boundary layer. Because of the large pressure rise, the original Stratford separation criterion is not valid for reattaching flows. In order to apply the Stratford criterion for reattaching flows, the reference location was moved to the pressure drop conditions instead of pressure rise conditions. In addition, the pressure distribution was scaled using a technique that was originally introduced for supersonic base flows. A new empirical parameter was also obtained for the modified Stratford criterion. The method has been tested for 30 different separated flow configurations from the literature. The variety of test cases include subsonic flows, transonic flows, 2D flows, and axisymmetric flows, with experimental as well as high resolution numerical simulation results. The flow reattachment predictions with the new method agree very well with the reported data. The error is less than 5% and typically about 2%. The new method is an extremely simple and a quick way of finding the reattachment location. Given the complexities of the existing experimental techniques for finding the reattachment location, the method easily and quickly provides the flow reattachment location, which could be used to estimate the physical extent of separation bubbles, as a performance index for flow control methods, or to assess the predictive capability of turbulence models.

Flow reattachment location↗

Effect of Roughness on Transition on the BOLT-1a Geometry in Supersonic Flow

Infrared thermography measurements on an 8.8% scale BOLT-1a model were made in the NASA Langley Probe Calibration Tunnel for freestream unit Reynolds numbers from 7.7 × 10^ -6 /m to 30.7 × 10^ -6 /m, a freestream Mach number of 3.5, and nominal angle of attack of 0 degrees. The model was printed from polycarbonate and tested before and after fine-grit sanding to evaluate the effect of surface roughness on transition. Global surface roughness measurements were obtained using a 3D optical profilometer. The temperature distributions on the upper and lower experimental surfaces of the test article were simultaneously captured using two infrared cameras. Prior to testing, the facility’s freestream environment was characterized. At a freestream unit Reynolds number of approximately 17 × 10^ -6 /m, the nozzle-wall boundary layer began to transition non-uniformly, inducing transition on the model. The boundary-layer state was determined by analyzing Stanton number distributions computed from the surface temperature measurements. The present supersonic conditions that were examined on BOLT-1a were found to display both similarities and disparities in comparison to previous hypersonic experiments.

boundary layer transition↗

Modular High Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactor: Safety Design Approach

Deployment Objectives Flexibly co-locate with new industry users of nuclear energy Steam and electric cogeneration applications Direct process heat with temperature ranges from 700°C to 950°C Enabling Requirements Meet regulatory dose limits at the Exclusion Area Boundary (EAB) 25 rem Total Effective Dose Equivalent (TEDE) for duration of the release from 10 CFR 50.34 (10 CFR 52.79) at Exclusion Area Boundary (EAB) for design basis accidents EAB is estimated approximately 400 meters from the modular HTGR plant (to support co-location with industrial facilities) Meet safety goals for cumulative individual risk for normal and off-normal operation Design goal: meet EPA Protective Action Guides (PAGs) at EAB 1 rem TEDE for sheltering Design basis and beyond design basis events are considered Realistically evaluated at the EAB Emergency planning and protection

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

Computed entropy spectra for grain boundary segregation in polycrystals

Abstract Grain boundary solute segregation influences most bulk material properties, and understanding solute thermodynamics at grain boundaries is critical for engineering them. However, the vast grain boundary space in polycrystals is challenging to evaluate due to its size, especially for the intrinsically hard-to-compute segregation excess entropy. Here data science methods are used to generate a database of site-wise grain boundary segregation entropy spectra for 155 dilute binary alloys within the harmonic approximation. The spectral framework allows scale bridging between the calculated atomistic site-wise energy-entropy spectra and macroscopic segregation entropy estimates. The results affirm that macroscopic averaging is not sufficient: a spectral treatment of grain boundary segregation is needed to accurately model bulk temperature dependence of grain boundary solute segregation. The calculated spectral entropy database and thermodynamic framework can be applied for both understanding segregation experiments and alloy design exercises, paving the way to a finite-temperature grain boundary genome.

Chemistry↗

The shape and location of the sector boundary surface in the inner solar system

Simultaneous observations by Helios 1 and Helios 2 over four solar rotations, between January 20 and May 23, 1976, were used to determine the latitudinal dependence of the polarity of the interplanetary magnetic field within plus or minus 7.23 deg of the solar equator and within 1 AU. The longitudinal and latitudinal positions of the sector boundary crossing are consistent with a warped sector boundary which extended from the sun to 1 AU and was inclined approximately 10 deg with respect to the heliographic equator. This is consistent with simultaneous Pioneer 11 observations, which showed unipolar fields at approximately 16 deg latitude at heliocentric distances greater than 3.5 AU. Two sectors were observed at southern latitudes; however, four sectors were observed at northern latitudes on two rotations, indicating a distortion from planarity of the sector boundary surface.

Villante, U.↗

Hypersonic Boundary-Layer Transition over a Blunt Circular Cone in a Mach 8 Digital Wind Tunnel

To understand the effects of freestream acoustic disturbances on transition reversal over a blunt body, three-dimensional direct numerical simulations (DNS) were conducted to investigate the interaction of a tunnel-like acoustic disturbance field with a Mach 8 laminar boundary layer over a 7 deg half-angle blunt cone with a nose radius of 𝑅 𝑛 = 5.2 mm. The flow conditions and the axisymmetric cone geometry matched those measured in the Sandia Hypersonic Wind Tunnel at Mach 8 (Sandia HWT-8), and the incident freestream acoustic disturbances in the DNS were generated by acoustic radiation from the nozzle-wall turbulent boundary layer in the same tunnel. Consistent with the predictions of the nonmodal instability analysis, the study shows the emergence of a second spectral peak for moderately oblique waves between 150 kHz and 200 kHz in the aft part of the cone. The spectral energy of temperature and streamwise velocity fluctuations is initially concentrated within the entropy layer. These fluctiations are eventually “swallowed” by the boundary layer as the entropy-layer thickness 𝛿 𝑆 becomes similar to the boundary-layer thickness 𝛿h𝑡 at downstream locations. The numerical schlieren contours show the same inclined structures commonly observed in blunt cone experiments, and these structures are found to be three dimensional and advect with a constant speed approximately equal to the mean flow speed near the edge of the boundary layer.

Hypersonic Flow↗

Hypersonic Boundary-Layer Transition over a Blunt Circular Cone in a Mach 8 Digital Wind Tunnel

To understand the effects of freestream acoustic disturbances on transition reversal over a blunt body, three-dimensional direct numerical simulations (DNS) were conducted to investigate the interaction of a tunnel-like acoustic disturbance field with a Mach 8 laminar boundary layer over a 7 deg half-angle blunt cone with a nose radius of 𝑅 𝑛 = 5.2 mm. The flow conditions and the axisymmetric cone geometry matched those measured in the Sandia Hypersonic Wind Tunnel at Mach 8 (Sandia HWT-8), and the incident freestream acoustic disturbances in the DNS were generated by acoustic radiation from the nozzle-wall turbulent boundary layer in the same tunnel. Consistent with the predictions of the nonmodal instability analysis, the study shows the emergence of a second spectral peak for moderately oblique waves between 150 kHz and 200 kHz in the aft part of the cone. The spectral energy of temperature and streamwise velocity fluctuations is initially concentrated within the entropy layer. These fluctiations are eventually “swallowed” by the boundary layer as the entropy-layer thickness 𝛿 𝑆 becomes similar to the boundary-layer thickness 𝛿h𝑡 at downstream locations. The numerical schlieren contours show the same inclined structures commonly observed in blunt cone experiments, and these structures are found to be three dimensional and advect with a constant speed approximately equal to the mean flow speed near the edge of the boundary layer.

Hypersonic Flow↗

Nonequilibrium chemistry boundary layer integral matrix procedure

The development of an analytic procedure for the calculation of nonequilibrium boundary layer flows over surfaces of arbitrary catalycities is described. An existing equilibrium boundary layer integral matrix code was extended to include nonequilibrium chemistry while retaining all of the general boundary condition features built into the original code. For particular application to the pitch-plane of shuttle type vehicles, an approximate procedure was developed to estimate the nonequilibrium and nonisentropic state at the edge of the boundary layer.

Tong, H.↗

Nonperturbative gravity corrections to bulk reconstruction

Abstract We introduce a new algebraic framework for understanding nonperturbative gravitational aspects of bulk reconstruction with a finite or infinite-dimensional boundary Hilbert space. We use relative entropy equivalence between bulk and boundary with an inclusion of nonperturbative gravitational errors, which give rise to approximate recovery. We utilize the privacy/correctability correspondence to prove that the reconstruction wedge, the intersection of all entanglement wedges in pure and mixed states, manifestly satisfies bulk reconstruction. We explicitly demonstrate that local operators in the reconstruction wedge of a given boundary region can be recovered in a state-independent way for arbitrarily large code subspaces, up to nonperturbative errors in G N . We further discuss state-dependent recovery beyond the reconstruction wedge and the use of the twirled Petz map as a universal recovery channel. We discuss our setup in the context of quantum islands and the information paradox.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Boundary layer transition detection on the X-15 vertical fin using surface-pressure-fluctuation measurements

A flush-mounted microphone on the vertical fin of an X-15 airplane was used to investigate boundary layer transition phenomenon during flights to peak altitudes of approximately 70,000 meters. The flight results were compared with those from wind tunnel studies, skin temperature measurements, and empirical prediction data. The Reynolds numbers determined for the end of transition were consistent with those obtained from wind tunnel studies. Maximum surface-pressure-fluctuation coefficients in the transition region were about an order of magnitude greater than those for fully developed turbulent flow. This was also consistent with wind tunnel data. It was also noted that the power-spectral-density estimates of the surface-pressure fluctuations were characterized by a shift in power from high frequencies to low frequencies as the boundary layer changed from turbulent to laminar flow. Large changes in power at the lowest frequencies appeared to mark the beginning of transition.

Lewis, T. L.↗

Global Discrete Artificial Boundary Conditions for Time-Dependent Wave Propagation

We construct global artificial boundary conditions (ABCs) for the numerical simulation of wave processes on unbounded domains using a special non-deteriorating algorithm that has been developed previously for the long-term computation of wave-radiation solutions. The ABCs are obtained directly for the discrete formulation of the problem; in so doing, neither a rational approximation of 'non-reflecting kernels,' nor discretization of the continuous boundary conditions is required. The extent of temporal nonlocality of the new ABCs appears fixed and limited; in addition, the ABCs can handle artificial boundaries of irregular shape on regular grids with no fitting/adaptation needed and no accuracy loss induced. The non-deteriorating algorithm, which is the core of the new ABCs is inherently three-dimensional, it guarantees temporally uniform grid convergence of the solution driven by a continuously operating source on arbitrarily long time intervals, and provides unimprovable linear computational complexity with respect to the grid dimension. The algorithm is based on the presence of lacunae, i.e., aft fronts of the waves, in wave-type solutions in odd-dimension spaces, It can, in fact, be built as a modification on top of any consistent and stable finite-difference scheme, making its grid convergence uniform in time and at the same time keeping the rate of convergence the same as that of the non-modified scheme. In the paper, we delineate the construction of the global lacunae-based ABCs in the framework of a discretized wave equation. The ABCs are obtained for the most general formulation of the problem that involves radiation of waves by moving sources (e.g., radiation of acoustic waves by a maneuvering aircraft). We also present systematic numerical results that corroborate the theoretical design properties of the ABCs' algorithm.

Ryabenkii, V. S.↗

Predicting interface structure using the minima hopping method

Here, we adapt the minima hopping method (MHM) to the problem of interfacial structure prediction and apply it to study a canonical problem, the tilt grain boundaries in SrTiO 3 . Our method employs a hybrid approach by first exploring the potential energy surface (PES) of different grain boundary samplings with an empirical force field, among which the fifteen candidates with lower energies are then refined using ab initio density functional theory (DFT) calculations. During the exploratory stage, we bias the search using a local order parameter to primarily sample various reconstructions in the vicinity of the interface, while preserving the crystallinity of the bulk regions. We further enhance the search by incorporating initial structures with rigid body displacements to account for translational variations between bulk phases, enabling the MHM to effectively generate both stoichiometric and nonstoichiometric SrTiO 3 Σ⁢3(111)[110] and Σ⁢3(112)[110] grain boundaries. From an algorithmic standpoint, MHM outperforms earlier studies based on genetic algorithms (GA) by identifying more stable interfacial structures of several SrTiO 3 grain boundaries. The performance of the present implementation of the MHM approach is primarily limited by exploring an approximate description of the PES with a rather simple Buckingham potential. This limitation leads to variations in performance when compared to approaches utilizing more advanced surrogate PES models, such as direct DFT-PES sampling or GA with the embedded atom method (EAM). Despite the present limitations, the MHM approach is able to yield interfacial structures with comparable or lower interfacial energies in specific cases, such as Σ⁢3(111)[110] Γ=1, ±0.5 and Σ⁢3(112)[110] Γ= ±1, −2, underscoring the robustness of the MHM approach even with a simple approximation of the DFT PES. The MHM interfacial structure prediction method thus offers an efficient approach to understanding the grain boundaries and heterointerfaces at the atomic scale, providing an important prerequisite for effective materials design.

density functional theory↗

Navier-Stokes analysis of an oxidizer turbine blade with tip clearance

The Gas Generator Oxidizer Turbine (GGOT) Blade is being analyzed by various investigators under the NASA MSFC sponsored Turbine Stage Technology Team design effort. The present work concentrates on the tip clearance region flow and associated losses; however, flow details for the passage region are also obtained in the simulations. The present calculations simulate the rotor blade row in a rotating reference frame with the appropriate coriolis and centrifugal acceleration terms included in the momentum equation. The upstream computational boundary is located about one axial chord from the blade leading edge. The boundary conditions at this location were determined by using a Euler analysis without the vanes to obtain approximately the same flow profiles at the rotor as were obtained with the Euler stage analysis including the vanes. Inflow boundary layer profiles are then constructed assuming the skin friction coefficient at both the hub and the casing. The downstream computational boundary is located about one axial chord from the blade trailing edge, and the circumferentially averaged static pressure at this location was also obtained from the Euler analysis. Results were obtained for the 3-D baseline GGOT geometry at the full scale design Reynolds number. Details of the clearance region flow behavior and blade pressure distributions were computed. The spanwise variation in blade loading distributions are shown, and circumferentially averaged spanwise distributions of total pressure, total temperature, Mach number, and flow angle are shown at several axial stations. The spanwise variation of relative total pressure loss shows a region of high loss in the region near the casing. Particle traces in the near tip region show vortical behavior of the fluid which passes through the clearance region and exits at the downstream edge of the gap.

Gibeling, Howard J.↗

Unique determination of solutions to the Burnett equations

Recent success in applying the Burnett equations to the one-dimensional shock-structure problem has raised the issue of whether the full Burnett equations can be used replace the Navier-Stokes equations for solving boundary-value problems in rarefied gasdynamics. As is familiar from the classical rarefied gasdynamics literature, the Burnett equations, if not solved as a successive approximation to the Navier-Stokes equations for a small Knudsen number, would require more boundary conditions than those in the Navier-Stokes system, owing to the presence of the higher-order derivatives. In this paper, this issue is examined with concrete solution examples for the steady Couette flows, addressing specifically whether solutions to the full Burnett equations can be uniquely determined without adding more boundary conditions than those in the Navier-Stokes system. The analysis, supported by detailed numerical solutions, confirms that additional boundary conditions are needed as long as the Knudsen number is not identically zero, lest the solution to the Burnett equations is not unique.

Lee, C. J.↗