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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 883 records · Page 49
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1980

Mechanism associated with the Space Shuttle main engine oxidizer valve/duct system anomalous high amplitude discrete acoustical excitation

Anomalous high frequency pressure fluctuations in the Space Shuttle main engine have been experienced during hot firings. Through diagnostic analysis of hot firing engine data, it was determined that this excitation originated at the main oxidizer valve. The intensity of these fluctuations was such that the main oxidizer valve was partially consumed in fire, experienced fretting, and had seal damage. Delineated in this paper are the associated dynamical phenomena and the methodologies leading toward understanding the excitation mechanism. The results presented demonstrate that the source of the anomalous frequencies was suppressed by a simple fix and all main oxidizer valve damage was terminated.

Schutzenhofer, L. A.↗
NASA NTRS1980

Natural and artificially injected electron fluxes near discrete auroral arcs

A sounding rocket payload instrumented in order to inject and observe energetic electron fluxes in the ionospheric plasma was flown from Ft. Churchill into a bright auroral display on 9 April 1978. Measurements of one throw-away detector in three energy channels at 1.9, 4 and 8 keV are discussed in order to relate the observed electron echoes to the prevailing geophysical conditions.

Wilhelm, K.↗
NASA NTRS1981

Breakdown voltage of discrete capacitors under single-pulse conditions

For electrostatic capacitors the breakdown voltage is inherently related to the properties of the dielectric, with the important parameters being the dielectric field strength which is related to the dielectric constant and the dielectric thickness. These are not necessarily related to the capacitance value and the rated voltage, but generally the larger values of capacitance have lower breakdown voltages. Foil and wet slug electrolytics can withstand conduction currents pulses without apparent damage (in either direction for foil types). For solid tantalums, damage occurs whenever the capacitor charges to the forming voltage.

Domingos, H.↗
NASA NTRS1981

A multigrid method for the transonic full potential equation discretized with finite elements on an arbitrary body fitted mesh

A multigrid method for the acceleration of transonic potential flow calculations based on a Galerkin finite element approach is described. In order to allow the use of arbitrary body fitted meshes it is necessary to introduce nonuniform interpolation and residual weighting. Emphasis is put on the construction of these operators consistent with the finite element approximation, while standard successive line overrelaxation is used as a smoothing step. Substantial convergence acceleration is obtained and results are presented for different transonic flow configurations including shocks.

Deconinck, H.↗
NASA NTRS1980

On time discretizations for spectral methods

New methods are introduced for the time integration of the Fourier and Chebyshev methods of solution for dynamic differential equations. These methods are unconditionally stable, even though no matrix inversions are required. Time steps are chosen by accuracy requirements alone. For the Fourier method both leapfrog and Runge-Kutta methods are considered. For the Chebyshev method only Runge-Kutta schemes are tested. Numerical calculations are presented to verify the analytic results. Applications to the shallow water equations are presented.

Gottlieb, D.↗
NASA NTRS1981

Optimum shape of a Kirkpatrick-Baez X-ray reflector supported at discrete points for on-axis performance

A method is proposed for optimizing the on-axis resolution of a Kirkpatrick-Baez reflecting element. The proposed procedure provides a way to determine the location of each of the 11,200 support points (175 different points plus repeats) by using a computer-assisted structural-optical software package. This automated procedure will make it possible to determine the optical characteristics of an entire telescope module consisting of seventy mirrors.

Cohen, L. M.↗
NASA NTRS1982

Mass loss at discrete velocities in Be stars: Evidence for non-radiatively driven wind

The temporal behavior of the high velocity, relatively narrow absorption components in C IV, Si III, IV observed in the pole-one Be stars psi Ori, 66 Oph, and HR 4009 and what these observations contribute toward our understanding of the Be phenomenon are discussed. Ground based and X-ray data on these stars are compared as well as their UV differences with similarly active Be stars with larger projected rotational velocities.

Peters, G. P.↗
NASA NTRS1982

Vector splines on the sphere with application to the estimation of vorticity and divergence from discrete, noisy data

Vector smoothing splines on the sphere are defined. Theoretical properties are briefly alluded to. The appropriate Hilbert space norms used in a specific meteorological application are described and justified via a duality theorem. Numerical procedures for computing the splines as well as the cross validation estimate of two smoothing parameters are given. A Monte Carlo study is described which suggests the accuracy with which upper air vorticity and divergence can be estimated using measured wind vectors from the North American radiosonde network.

Wahba, G.↗
NASA NTRS1982

Interaction of a cumulus cloud ensemble with the large-scale environment. IV - The discrete model

The Arakawa-Schubert (1974) parameterization is applied to a prognostic model of large-scale atmospheric circulations and used to analyze data in a general circulation model (GCM). The vertical structure of the large-scale model and the solution for the cloud subensemble thermodynamical properties are examined to choose cloud levels and representative regions. A mass flux distribution equation is adapted to formulate algorithms for calculating the large-scale forcing and the mass flux kernel, using either direct solution or linear programming. Finally, the feedback of the cumulus ensemble on the large-scale environment for a given subensemble mass flux is calculated. All cloud subensemble properties were determined from the conservation of mass, moist static energy, and total water.

Lord, S. J.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Band-Pass Amplifier Without Discrete Reactance Elements

Inherent or "natural" device capacitance exploited. Band-Pass Circuit has input impedance of equivalent circuit at frequencies much greater than operational-amplifier rolloff frequency. Apparent inductance and capacitance arise from combined effects of feedback and reactive component of amplifier gain in frequency range.

Kleinberg, L.↗
NASA NTRS1980

Elimination of a discrete frequency acoustical phenomenon associated with the Space Shuttle main engine oxidizer valve-duct system

In the development of the Space Shuttle Main Engines, various unpredictable dynamical phenomena were experienced which resulted in engine shutdown or failures, e.g., fires. One such dynamical phenomenon consisted of an acoustical buzz at 7200 Hz in the vicinity of the main oxidizer valve. The method of isolating the buzz phenomenon, identifying the mechanism, and developing a fix to eliminate the buzz is presented together with supporting data. These data, i.e., fluctuating pressure and acceleration data, were obtained from hot firing engine tests and from liquid nitrogen flow simulation tests conducted at Marshall Space Flight Center.

Schutzenhofer, L. A.↗
NASA NTRS1983

Electromagnetic backscattering from a layer of vegetation - A discrete approach

Electromagnetic backscattering from a layer of vegetation over a flat lossy ground is studied. The vegetated region is composed of leaves which are modeled by lossy circular dielectric discs with prescribed orientation statistics. The mean field in the layer is computed by using the Foldy approximation and a two-variable technique which is valid for small fractional volume. Simple expressions are given for the skin depth of the mean wave. Following this, the distorted Born approximation is used to calculate the co-polarized and cross polarized backscattering coefficients. These are then computed as a function of angle of incidence for different layer depths and leaf configurations.

Lang, R. H.↗
NASA NTRS1983

Inclusion of discrete-to-continuum coupling in multiphoton excitation and dissociation calculations

A nonperturbative approach to multiphoton excitation and dissociation of molecules is presented in which coupling to the continuum is treated explicitly. Transitions among continuum levels are not modeled directly, but something of their effect is represented by assuming that the continuum population density is so low as to be effectively zero at all times. Two trial applications are briefly discussed.

Zimmerman, I. H.↗
NASA NTRS1984

The time evolution of spectral discretizations of hyperbolic systems

A Chebyshev collocation spectral method, applied to hyperbolic systems is considered, particularly for those initial boundary value problems which possess only solutions tending to zero at large times. It is shown that the numerical solutions of the system will also vanish at infinity, if and only if, the numerical solution of a scalar equation of the same type does. This result is then generalized for other spectral approximations.

Lustman, L.↗
NASA NTRS1983

Discrete model improvement by eigenvector updating

An eigenvector updating method is proposed to fit modal test data. The calculated eigenvectors are updated by coinciding some of them with the corresponding measured eigenvectors as a result of an orthogonal transformation. The advantage of the method is the applicability to large complex structures without necessity of recomputation of the eigendata.

Zak, M.↗
NASA NTRS1984

High-resolution frequency determination of discrete signal components

An important problem in many applications involves the determination of the frequency of a limited set of sinusoidal components in a time domain signal. The Fourier transform is used as the fundamental tool for conversion to the frequency domain. In the present investigation, an analysis is conducted of the errors inherent in the use of the Fourier transform without time domain windowing, and an algorithm is developed which makes it possible to obtain the frequency of the component signals with high accuracy. This algorithm combines the advantages of the Gaussian window with the computational efficiency of the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT).

Walton, E. K.↗