Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “vector fields”

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.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 811 records · Page 45
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2014

A Vortical Dawn Flank Boundary Layer for Near-Radial IMF: Wind Observations on 24 October 2001

We present an example of a boundary layer tailward of the dawn terminator which is entirely populated by rolled-up flow vortices. Observations were made by Wind on 24 October 2001 as the spacecraft moved across the region at the X plane approximately equal to −13 Earth radii. Interplanetary conditions were steady with a near-radial interplanetary magnetic field (IMF). Approximately 15 vortices were observed over the 1.5 hours duration of Wind's crossing, each lasting approximately 5 min. The rolling up is inferred from the presence of a hot tenuous plasma being accelerated to speeds higher than in the adjoining magnetosheath, a circumstance which has been shown to be a reliable signature of this in single-spacecraft observations. A blob of cold dense plasma was entrained in each vortex, at whose leading edge abrupt polarity changes of field and velocity components at current sheets were regularly observed. In the frame of the average boundary layer velocity, the dense blobs were moving predominantly sunward and their scale size along the X plane was approximately 7.4 Earth radii. Inquiring into the generation mechanism of the vortices, we analyze the stability of the boundary layer to sheared flows using compressible magnetohydrodynamic Kelvin-Helmholtz theory with continuous profiles for the physical quantities. We input parameters from (i) the exact theory of magnetosheath flow under aligned solar wind field and flow vectors near the terminator and (ii) the Wind data. It is shown that the configuration is indeed Kelvin-Helmholtz (KH) unstable. This is the first reported example of KH-unstable waves at the magnetopause under a radial IMF.

Magnetosheath↗
NASA NTRS2016

Optical Measurement Techniques for Rocket Engine Testing and Component Applications: Digital Image Correlation and Dynamic Photogrammetry

NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) has been advancing dynamic optical measurement systems, primarily Digital Image Correlation, for extreme environment rocket engine test applications. The Digital Image Correlation (DIC) technology is used to track local and full field deformations, displacement vectors and local and global strain measurements. This technology has been evaluated at MSFC through lab testing to full scale hotfire engine testing of the J-2X Upper Stage engine at Stennis Space Center. It has been shown to provide reliable measurement data and has replaced many traditional measurement techniques for NASA applications. NASA and AMRDEC have recently signed agreements for NASA to train and transition the technology to applications for missile and helicopter testing. This presentation will provide an overview and progression of the technology, various testing applications at NASA MSFC, overview of Army-NASA test collaborations and application lessons learned about Digital Image Correlation.

Gradl, Paul↗
DOE OSTI2021

Gene editing through microfluidic delivery

Gene editing can be performed by introducing gene-editing components into a cell by mechanical cell disruption. Related apparatus, systems, techniques, and articles are also described. The methods and systems of the invention solve the problem of intracellular delivery of gene editing components and gene editing complexes to target cells. The results described herein indicate that delivery of gene editing components, e.g., protein, ribonucleic acid (RNA), and deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), by mechanical disruption of cell membranes leads to successful gene editing. Because intracellular delivery of gene editing materials is a current challenge, the methods provide a robust mechanism to engineer target cells without the use of potentially harmful viral vectors or electric fields.

Sharei, Armon R.↗
NASA NTRS1979

Application of the minimum correlation technique to the correction of the magnetic field measured by magnetometers on spacecraft

Some aspects of the problem of obtaining precise, absolute determination of the vector of low magnetic fields existing in the interplanetary medium are addressed. In the case of a real S/C, there is always the possibility of a spurious field which includes the spacecraft residual field and/or possible field from the sensors, due to both electronic drifts or changes of the magnetic properties of the sensor core. These latter effects may occur during storage of the sensors prior to launching and/or in-flight. The reliability is demonstrated for a method which postulates that there should be no correlation between changes in measured field magnitude and changes in the measured inclination of the field with respect to any one of three fixed Cartesian component directions. Application of this minimum correlation technique to data from IMP-8 and Helios 1-2 shows it is appropriate for determination of the zero offset corrections of triaxial magnetometers. In general, a number of the order of 1000 consecutive data points is sufficient for a good determination.

Mariani, F.↗
NASA NTRS1975

Preliminary model studies of the magnetosphere of Jupiter: Pioneer 10

Observations of the Jovian magnetic field and its interaction with the solar wind plasma were made while the Pioneer 10 spacecraft was within about 100 R sub j of the planet. The magnetosphere was found to be severely stretched due to the presence of an intense current sheet, which was particularly evident during the outbound passage of Pioneer 10 near the dawn terminator. Plots of the angle between the orientation of the outbound field and the radius vector from the planet to the spacecraft showed a strong tendency for the field to become radial at large distances from the planet. A similar trend has also been seen in both the inbound and outbound Pioneer 11 data. Preliminary work on a mathematical model of the magnetosphere of Jupiter is given, based upon the Pioneer 10 outbound data. Some of the implications of the radial field configuration inferred from the Pioneer 10 and 11 data are also discussed.

Jones, D. E.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Flight-path estimation in passive low-altitude flight by visual cues

A series of experiments was conducted, in which subjects had to estimate the flight path while passively being flown in straight or in curved motion over several types of nominally flat, textured terrain. Three computer-generated terrain types were investigated: (1) a random 'pole' field, (2) a flat field consisting of random rectangular patches, and (3) a field of random parallelepipeds. Experimental parameters were the velocity-to-height (V/h) ratio, the viewing distance, and the terrain type. Furthermore, the effect of obscuring parts of the visual field was investigated. Assumptions were made about the basic visual-field information by analyzing the pattern of line-of-sight (LOS) rate vectors in the visual field. The experimental results support these assumptions and show that, for both a straight as well as a curved flight path, the estimation accuracy and estimation times improve with the V/h ratio. Error scores for the curved flight path are found to be about 3 deg in visual angle higher than for the straight flight path, and the sensitivity to the V/h ratio is found to be considerably larger. For the straight motion, the flight path could be estimated successfully from local areas in the far field. Curved flight-path estimates have to rely on the entire LOS rate pattern.

Grunwald, Arthur J.↗
NASA NTRS2005

Attitude-Independent Magnetometer Calibration for Spin-Stabilized Spacecraft

The paper describes a three-step estimator to calibrate a Three-Axis Magnetometer (TAM) using TAM and slit Sun or star sensor measurements. In the first step, the Calibration Utility forms a loss function from the residuals of the magnitude of the geomagnetic field. This loss function is minimized with respect to biases, scale factors, and nonorthogonality corrections. The second step minimizes residuals of the projection of the geomagnetic field onto the spin axis under the assumption that spacecraft nutation has been suppressed by a nutation damper. Minimization is done with respect to various directions of the body spin axis in the TAM frame. The direction of the spin axis in the inertial coordinate system required for the residual computation is assumed to be unchanged with time. It is either determined independently using other sensors or included in the estimation parameters. In both cases all estimation parameters can be found using simple analytical formulas derived in the paper. The last step is to minimize a third loss function formed by residuals of the dot product between the geomagnetic field and Sun or star vector with respect to the misalignment angle about the body spin axis. The method is illustrated by calibrating TAM for the Fast Auroral Snapshot Explorer (FAST) using in-flight TAM and Sun sensor data. The estimated parameters include magnetic biases, scale factors, and misalignment angles of the spin axis in the TAM frame. Estimation of the misalignment angle about the spin axis was inconclusive since (at least for the selected time interval) the Sun vector was about 15 degrees from the direction of the spin axis; as a result residuals of the dot product between the geomagnetic field and Sun vectors were to a large extent minimized as a by-product of the second step.

Natanson, Gregory↗
NASA NTRS1972

The earth's bow shock in an oblique interplanetary field.

The pressure, magnetic field, temperature, particle density, and stream velocity throughout the magnetosheath have been calculated in the plane containing the interplanetary field and solar wind velocity vector for various orientations of the interplanetary magnetic field and various assumed ratios of specific heats of the compressed solar wind. Jump conditions at the bow shock gave initial conditions in the shocked plasma from which the appropriate hydromagnetic equations (for blunt bodies in the subsonic region near the subsolar point and for the method of characteristics in the supersonic region back in the tail) were integrated numerically back to the surface of the magnetosphere. Explicit consideration of the magnetic field shows that a net asymmetrical force on the magnetopause produces a side force, or 'lift' in addition to the well-known drag on the magnetosphere.

Shen, W.-W.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Magnetic field line reconnection experiments. VI - Magnetic turbulence

Extensive statistical analysis of the vector components of fluctuating magnetic fields have been performed in a time dependent neutral magnetic sheet. Cross spectral analysis indicates a variety of wave numbers present for each frequency investigated. Comparison of Fourier components of the cross spectral function with dispersion surfaces in k space demonstrates the waves are large amplitude whistlers; this is verified by polarization analysis, which shows the random waves' magnetic fields to be right-hand circular. Ion acoustic and Langmuir turbulence are also observed along with bursts of microwave radiation. Measurements of the electron distribution function f(v, r, t) and its fluctuations in velocity space relate wave and particle activity.

Gekelman, W.↗
NASA NTRS2013

Ponderomotive Force in the Presence of Electric Fields

This paper presents averaged equations of particle motion in an electromagnetic wave of arbitrary frequency with its wave vector directed along the ambient magnetic field. The particle is also subjected to an E cross B drift and a background electric field slowly changing in space and acting along the magnetic field line. The fields, wave amplitude, and the wave vector depend on the coordinate along the magnetic field line. The derivations of the ponderomotive forces are done by assuming that the drift velocity in the ambient magnetic field is comparable to the particle velocity. Such a scenario leads to new ponderomotive forces, dependent on the wave magnetic field intensity, and, as a result, to the additional energy exchange between the wave and the plasma particles. It is found that the parallel electric field can lead to the change of the particle-wave energy exchange rate comparable to that produced by the previously discussed ponderomotive forces.

Plasmas↗
NASA NTRS1975

Saturation spectrum of the parametric decay instability in the presence of an external magnetic field

The effects of an external magnetic field on the saturation spectrum of parametric decay instabilities is examined by means of a modification of the Kuo and Fejer (1972) analysis. The main effect of the magnetic field is shown to be a decrease of the wavenumber with increasing angle between the wave vector and the magnetic field, particularly when the pump frequency is near the second harmonic of the cyclotron frequency. The spread of the phase velocities as measured in the direction of the magnetic field is significantly greater in the saturation spectrum when the pump frequency is near the second harmonic of the cyclotron frequency, facilitating the acceleration of tail electrons to energies of a few electron volts. It is suggested that this effect accounts for the greatly enhanced airglow observed (Haslett and Megill, 1974) under these conditions.

Chen, H. C.↗
NASA NTRS1981

Magnetic field of Jupiter: A generalized inverse approach

The estimation of planetary magnetic fields from observations of the magnetic field gathered along a spacecraft flyby trajectory is examined with the aid of generalized inverse techniques, with application to the internal magnetic field of Jupiter. Model nonuniqueness resulting from the limited spatial extent of the observations and noise on the data is explored and quantitative estimates of the model parameter resolution are found. The presence of a substantial magnetic field of external origin due to the currents flowing in the Jovian magnetodisc is found to be an important source of error in estimates of the internal Jovian field, and new models explicitly incorporating these currents are proposed. New internal field models are derived using the vector helium magnetometer observations and the high field fluxgate observations of Pioneer 11, and knowledge of the external current system gained from the Pioneer 10 and Voyagers 1 and 2 encounters.

Connerney, J. E. P.↗
NASA NTRS1981

The magnetic field of Jupiter - A generalized inverse approach

The estimation of planetary magnetic fields from observations of the magnetic field gathered along a spacecraft flyby trajectory is examined with the aid of generalized inverse techniques, with application to the internal magnetic field of Jupiter. Model non-uniqueness resulting from the limited spatial extent of the observations and noise on the data is explored and quantitative estimates of the model parameter resolution are found. The presence of a substantial magnetic field of external origin due to the currents flowing in the Jovian magnetodisc is found to be an important source of error in estimates of the internal Jovian field, and new models explicitly incorporating these currents are proposed. New internal field models are derived using the vector helium magnetometer observations and the high field fluxgate observations of Pioneer 11, and knowledge of the external current system gained from the Pioneer 10 and Voyagers 1 and 2 encounters.

Connerney, J. E. P.↗
NASA NTRS1991

An evaluation of the Tsyganenko magnetic field model

A data set of more than 22,000 vector averages of the magnetosphere magnetic field over 0.5 R(E) regions is used to evaluate Tsyganenko's 1982 and 1987 magnetospheric magnetic field models. The magnetic field predicted by the model in various regions is compared to observations to find systematic discrepancies which future models might address. While agreement is generally good, discrepancies are noted which include: (1) a lack of adequate field line stretching in the tail and ring current regions; (2) an inability to predict weak enough fields in the polar cusps; and (3) a deficiency of Kp as a predictor of the field configuration.

Fairfield, D. H.↗
NASA NTRS1981

On the presence of electric currents in the solar atmosphere. I - A theoretical framework

The general magnetic field above the solar photosphere is divided by an elementary analysis based on Ampere's law into two parts: a potential field due to electric currents below the photosphere and a field produced by electric currents above the photosphere combined with the induced mirror currents. The latter, by symmetry, has a set of field lines lying in the plane taken to be the photosphere which may be constructed from given vector magnetograph measurements. These field lines also represent all the information on the electric currents above the photosphere that a magnetograph can provide. Theoretical illustrations are given, and implications for data analysis are discussed.

Hagyard, M.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Crosstalk in solar polarization measurements

The instrumental crosstalk associated with the Marshall Space Flight Center Vector Magnetograph and the solar crosstalk created by the magnetic field are described and their impact on the reconstruction of the solar vector magnetic field is analyzed. It is pointed out that identifying and correcting the crosstalk is important in the development of realistic models describing the solar atmosphere. Solar crosstalk is spatially dependent on the structure of the magnetic field while instrumental crosstalk is dependent on the position of the analyzer.

West, E. A.↗
DOE OSTI2023

Mallat Scattering Transformation based surrogate for Magnetohydrodynamics

Abstract A Machine and Deep Learning (MLDL) methodology is developed and applied to give a high fidelity, fast surrogate for 2D resistive MagnetoHydroDynamic (MHD) simulations of Magnetic Liner Inertial Fusion (MagLIF) implosions. The resistive MHD code is used to generate an ensemble of implosions with different liner aspect ratios, initial gas preheat temperatures (that is, different adiabats), and different liner perturbations. The liner density and magnetic field as functions of x , y , and z were generated. The Mallat Scattering Transformation (MST) is taken of the logarithm of both fields and a Principal Components Analysis (PCA) is done on the logarithm of the MST of both fields. The fields are projected onto the PCA vectors and a small number of these PCA vector components are kept. Singular Value Decompositions of the cross correlation of the input parameters to the output logarithm of the MST of the fields, and of the cross correlation of the SVD vector components to the PCA vector components are done. This allows the identification of the PCA vectors vis-a-vis the input parameters. Finally, a Multi Layer Perceptron (MLP) neural network with ReLU activation and a simple three layer encoder/decoder architecture is trained on this dataset to predict the PCA vector components of the fields as a function of time. Details of the implosion, stagnation, and the disassembly are well captured. Examination of the PCA vectors and a permutation importance analysis of the MLP show definitive evidence of an inverse turbulent cascade into a dipole emergent behavior. The orientation of the dipole is set by the initial liner perturbation. The analysis is repeated with a version of the MST which includes phase, called Wavelet Phase Harmonics (WPH). While WPH do not give the physical insight of the MST, they can and are inverted to give field configurations as a function of time, including field-to-field correlations.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗