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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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NASA NTRS1975

Large Area Crop Inventory Experiment (LACIE). LANDSAT 3X gain study

The author has identified the following results. The maximum likelihood classifier on the ERIPS failed to show any improvement in accuracy when comparing high-gain LANDSAT data with the simulated normal-gain data. Even if an improvement in accuracy had been detected, the timespan within the crop growing season when the use of high-gain data could be advantageous is limited. A total of six sets of LANDSAT-1 imagery is available for the analysis of gain effects. Three of the sets are high-gain data in MSS bands 4 and 5, whereas the other three are simulated normal-gain. The four sets obtained over Imperial Valley have good supporting ground truth information for training; the two sets over Kansas do not. The use of various combinations of the six data sets is recommended in order to uncover the possible advantages of using the data.

Source record↗

NASA NTRS1981

Variable gain for a wind turbine pitch control

The gain variation is made in the software logic of the pitch angle controller. The gain level is changed depending upon the level of power error. The control uses low gain for low pitch activity the majority of the time. If the power exceeds ten percent offset above rated, the gain is increased to a higher gain to more effectively limit power. A variable gain control functioned well in tests on the Mod-0 wind turbine.

Seidel, R. C.↗

NASA NTRS1988

Analysis and design of gain scheduled control systems

Gain scheduling, as an idea, is to construct a global feedback control system for a time varying and/or nonlinear plant from a collection of local time invariant designs. However in the absence of a sound analysis, these designs come with no guarantees on the robustness, performance, or even nominal stability of the overall gain schedule design. Such an analysis is presented for three types of gain scheduling situations: (1) a linear parameter varying plant scheduling on its exogenous parameters, (2) a nonlinear plant scheduling on a prescribed reference trajectory, and (3) a nonlinear plant scheduling on the current plant output. Conditions are given which guarantee that the stability, robustness, and performance properties of the fixed operating point designs carry over to the global gain scheduled designs, such as the scheduling variable should vary slowly and capture the plants nonlinearities. Finally, an alternate design framework is proposed which removes the slowing varying restriction or gain scheduled systems. This framework addresses some fundamental feedback issues previously ignored in standard gain.

Shamma, Jeff S.↗

NASA NTRS1991

Coding gains and error rates from the Big Viterbi Decoder

A prototype hardware Big Viterbi Decoder (BVD) was completed for an experiment with the Galileo Spacecraft. Searches for new convolutional codes, studies of Viterbi decoder hardware designs and architectures, mathematical formulations, and decompositions of the deBruijn graph into identical and hierarchical subgraphs, and very large scale integration (VLSI) chip design are just a few examples of tasks completed for this project. The BVD bit error rates (BER), measured from hardware and software simulations, are plotted as a function of bit signal to noise ratio E sub b/N sub 0 on the additive white Gaussian noise channel. Using the constraint length 15, rate 1/4, experimental convolutional code for the Galileo mission, the BVD gains 1.5 dB over the NASA standard (7,1/2) Maximum Likelihood Convolution Decoder (MCD) at a BER of 0.005. At this BER, the same gain results when the (255,233) NASA standard Reed-Solomon decoder is used, which yields a word error rate of 2.1 x 10(exp -8) and a BER of 1.4 x 10(exp -9). The (15, 1/6) code to be used by the Cometary Rendezvous Asteroid Flyby (CRAF)/Cassini Missions yields 1.7 dB of coding gain. These gains are measured with respect to symbols input to the BVD and increase with decreasing BER. Also, 8-bit input symbol quantization makes the BVD resistant to demodulated signal-level variations which may cause higher bandwidth than the NASA (7,1/2) code, these gains are offset by about 0.1 dB of expected additional receiver losses. Coding gains of several decibels are possible by compressing all spacecraft data.

Onyszchuk, I. M.↗

NASA NTRS1993

Microchannel plate modal gain variations with temperature

Measurements of the modal gain of two high-gain curved-channel microchannel plates (MCPs) at various operating temperatures are presented. Both MCPs were fabricated from the Long Life glass with 12-micron diam channels on 15-micron centers. The modal gain was found to decrease with increasing temperature at a rate of -0.1 percent C. This reduction of gain with temperature is attributed primarily to an axial temperature gradient along each MCP channel creating a nonuniform electric field within the channel that lowers the effective output gain. A lowering of the secondary electron yield resulting from increased phonon scattering of secondary electrons released within the walls of the MCP channels was assessed, but was found to have a negligible contribution to the drop in gain with temperature.

Slater, David C.↗

NASA NTRS1994

Gain weighted eigenspace assignment

This report presents the development of the gain weighted eigenspace assignment methodology. This provides a designer with a systematic methodology for trading off eigenvector placement versus gain magnitudes, while still maintaining desired closed-loop eigenvalue locations. This is accomplished by forming a cost function composed of a scalar measure of error between desired and achievable eigenvectors and a scalar measure of gain magnitude, determining analytical expressions for the gradients, and solving for the optimal solution by numerical iteration. For this development the scalar measure of gain magnitude is chosen to be a weighted sum of the squares of all the individual elements of the feedback gain matrix. An example is presented to demonstrate the method. In this example, solutions yielding achievable eigenvectors close to the desired eigenvectors are obtained with significant reductions in gain magnitude compared to a solution obtained using a previously developed eigenspace (eigenstructure) assignment method.

Davidson, John B.↗

NASA NTRS1998

Rate and Gain Limitations of MSGC's and MGC's Combined with GEM and other Preamplification Structures

We have studied the rate and gain limits of diamond-coated Microstrip Gas Counters (MSGC's) and Micro-Gap Counters (MGC's) when combined with various preamplification structures: Gas Electron Multiplier (GEM), Parallel-Plate Avalanche Chamber (PPAC) or a MICROMEGAS-type structure. Measurements were done both with X rays and alpha particles with various detector geometries and in different gas mixtures at pressures from 0.05 to 10 atm. The results obtained varied significantly with detector design, gas mixture and pressure, but some general features can be identified. We found that in all cases, bare MSGC'S, MGC'S, PPAC's and MICROMEGAS, the maximum achievable gain drops with rate. The addition of preamplification structures significantly increases the gain of MSGC's and MGC'S, but this gain is still rate dependent. There would seem to be a general rate-dependent effect governing the usable gain of all these detectors. We speculate on possible mechanisms for this effect, and identify a safe, spark-free, operation zone for each system (detector + preamplification structure) in the rate-gain coordinate plane.

Fonte, P.↗

NASA NTRS1995

Body Weight Gain during Altered Gravity: Spaceflight, Centrifugation and Transitions

Gravity is a force that influences all living systems, and is often disregarded in the study of environment on growth and development. To assess the effect of gravity exposure on growth, immature rats (130-200 g) were evaluated during chronic altered gravity exposure and during transition between gravity fields. The effects of 14 days of spaceflight on body weight gain were evaluated (n=12) and compared to controls. Spaceflight did not affect weight gain. In 6 rats, the transition from spaceflight to 1 G showed a significant (p less than 0.05) post flight weight loss over 48 hr of 13 g compared to controls. Over subsequent days this loss was compensated for with no difference noted after 5 days. Exposure to hypergravity, 2 G for 16 days, was evaluated in groups of n=6 (Control; On Center Control (OCC); Centrifuged). With centrifugation or OCC there was a reduction in body weight within 24 hr. The OCC regained control weights within 13 days. The weight difference, 26 +/- 1 g, persisted with 2 G with no subsequent difference in weight gain over days 3-16 compared to controls; 3.7 +/- 0.1 versus 3.9 +/- 0.1 g/day respectively. Transition from centrifugation to 1 G resulted in a weight increase within 48 hours. Over 16 days the rate of gain was increased 3.1 +/- 0.1 g/day for centrifuge compared to 2.1 +/- 0.1 g/day for controls between Day 3 to 16. However, differences from control were still noted on Day 16. Transition from one gravity field to another causes acute changes in body weight. Transition to microgravity or 1 G, following the acute changes, results in adjustments to attain a normal weight. In hypergravity the acute reduction in body weight persist, but weight gain is normal. Transitioning from hypergravity to 1G results in an increased weight gain to compensate for the persistent reduction during exposure.

Wade, Charles E.↗

NASA NTRS2002

Context-specific adaptation of saccade gain

Previous studies established that vestibular reflexes can have two adapted states (e.g., gain) simultaneously, and that a context cue (e.g., vertical eye position) can switch between the two states. The present study examined this phenomenon of context-specific adaptationfor horizontal saccades, using a variety of contexts. Our overall goal was to assess the efficacy of different context cues in switching between adapted states. A standard double-step paradigm was used to adapt saccade gain. In each experiment, we asked for a simultaneous gain decrease in one context and gain increase in another context, and then determined if a change in the context would invoke switching between the adapted states. Horizontal eye position worked well as a context cue: saccades with the eyes deviated to the right could be made to have higher gains while saccades with the eyes deviated to the left could be made to have lower gains. Vertical eye position was less effective. This suggests that the more closely related a context cue is to the response being adapted, the more effective it is. Roll tilt of the head, and upright versus supine orientations, were somewhat effective in context switching; these paradigms contain orientation of gravity with respect to the head as part of the context.

NASA Discipline Neuroscience↗

NASA NTRS2002

Context-specific adaptation of the gain of the oculomotor response to lateral translation using roll and pitch head tilts as contexts

Previous studies established that vestibular and oculomotor behaviors can have two adapted states (e.g., gain) simultaneously, and that a context cue (e.g., vertical eye position) can switch between the two states. The present study examined this phenomenon of context-specific adaptation for the oculomotor response to interaural translation (which we term "linear vestibulo-ocular reflex" or LVOR even though it may have extravestibular components). Subjects sat upright on a linear sled and were translated at 0.7 Hz and 0.3 gpeak acceleration while a visual-vestibular mismatch paradigm was used to adaptively increase (x2) or decrease (x0) the gain of the LVOR. In each experimental session, gain increase was asked for in one context, and gain decrease in another context. Testing in darkness with steps and sines before and after adaptation, in each context, assessed the extent to which the context itself could recall the gain state that was imposed in that context during adaptation. Two different contexts were used: head pitch (26 degrees forward and backward) and head roll (26 degrees or 45 degrees, right and left). Head roll tilt worked well as a context cue: with the head rolled to the right the LVOR could be made to have a higher gain than with the head rolled to the left. Head pitch tilt was less effective as a context cue. This suggests that the more closely related a context cue is to the response being adapted, the more effective it is.

Non-NASA Center↗

NASA NTRS2018

Summary of Pressure Gain Combustion Research at NASA

NASA has undertaken a systematic exploration of many different facets of pressure gain combustion over the last 25 years in an effort to exploit the inherent thermodynamic advantage of pressure gain combustion over the constant pressure combustion process used in most aerospace propulsion systems. Applications as varied as small-scale UAV's, rotorcraft, subsonic transports, hypersonics and launch vehicles have been considered. In addition to studying pressure gain combustor concepts such as wave rotors, pulse detonation engines, pulsejets, and rotating detonation engines, NASA has studied inlets, nozzles, ejectors and turbines which must also process unsteady flow in an integrated propulsion system. Other design considerations such as acoustic signature, combustor material life and heat transfer that are unique to pressure gain combustors have also been addressed in NASA research projects. In addition to a wide range of experimental studies, a number of computer codes, from 0-D up through 3-D, have been developed or modified to specifically address the analysis of unsteady flow fields. Loss models have also been developed and incorporated into these codes that improve the accuracy of performance predictions and decrease computational time. These codes have been validated numerous times across a broad range of operating conditions, and it has been found that once validated for one particular pressure gain combustion configuration, these codes are readily adaptable to the others. All in all, the documentation of this work has encompassed approximately 170 NASA technical reports, conference papers and journal articles to date. These publications are very briefly summarized herein, providing a single point of reference for all of NASA's pressure gain combustion research efforts. This documentation does not include the significant contributions made by NASA research staff to the programs of other agencies, universities, industrial partners and professional society committees through serving as technical advisors, technical reviewers and research consultants.

Perkins, H. Douglas↗

DOE OSTI2024

Spectroscopic performance of Low-Gain Avalanche Diodes for different types of radiation

LGADs (Low-Gain Avalanche Diodes or Detectors) are a type of silicon Avalanche Photo-Diodes originally developed for the fast detection of minimum ionizing particles in high-energy physics experiments. Thanks to their fast timing performance, the LGAD paradigm enables detectors to accurately measure minimum ionizing particles with a timing resolution of a few tens of picoseconds. Such a performance is due to a thin substrate and the presence of a moderate signal gain. This internal gain of a few tens is enough to compensate for the reduced charge deposition in the thinner substrate and the noise of fast read-out systems. While LGADs are optimized for the detection of minimum ionizing particles for high-energy particle detectors, it is critical to study their performance for the detection of different types of particle, such as X-rays, gamma-rays, or alphas. In this paper, we evaluate the gain of three types of LGADs: two devices with different geometries and doping profiles fabricated by Brookhaven National Laboratory, and one fabricated by Hamamatsu Photonics with a different process. Since the gain in LGADs depends on the bias voltage applied to the sensor, pulse-height spectra have been acquired for bias voltages spanning from the depletion voltage up to the breakdown voltage. Finally, the signal-to-noise ratio of the generated signals and the shape of their spectra allow us to probe the underlying physics of the multiplication process.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

DOE OSTI2022

Electrical Switching of Nematic Plasmonic Nanocolloids for Infrared Solar Gain Control

Controlling solar gain is essential to reduce the energy consumption by residential and commercial buildings, which are responsible for ≈40% of all energy generated globally. However, the dynamic control of solar gain in the near-infrared that corresponds to ≈50% of the overall Sun's energy at the Earth's surface, separately from the visible spectral range has been a challenge, albeit commercial coatings provide passive control while retaining highly visible transmission. To address this problem, in this paper switchable silver colloids (SSCs) are demonstrated, colloidal analogs of the common silver coatings used for solar gain control. When dispersed in a nematic liquid crystal, orientations of such plasmonic silver nanoplates are controlled by ≈1 V low-voltage electric fields, allowing for sub-second switching of the near-infrared-based solar gain. Installed and retrofit products made from thin films of such nanoplate dispersions confined between glass and plastic substrates, respectively, exhibit electrically controlled infrared-based solar gain while retaining high visible-range transparency, low haze, and high color rendering index. Furthermore, this study's findings reveal a great potential of soft-matter systems in addressing energy-related problems.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

DOE OSTI2025

Energy resolution and gain measurements in Argon-based gas mixtures: Exploring Ar:CF 4 for low energy measurements with TPCs

Time Projection Chambers (TPCs) are among the most advanced charged-particle detectors. Gas-filled TPCs have tracking capabilities that provide 3D-imaging of charged particles with a good energy resolution for spectroscopy. Different gas mixtures have different properties that determine the energy resolution as well as the spatial resolution. Therefore, optimization of operating conditions is required to simultaneously obtain adequate gain, energy resolution, spatial/track resolution, as well as higher drift velocities for high counting rates applications. Ar:CF 4 gas mixture has higher electron drift velocities and lower electron diffusion, which makes it an attractive candidate for TPC filling gas for low energy nuclear physics applications as compared to commonly used Ar:CH 4 and Ar:CO 2 gas mixtures, namely when tracking information is needed. However, other properties, including energy resolution and gain, remain largely unexplored in Ar:CF 4 especially at pressures and other operating conditions relevant for low-energy nuclear physics applications. Here, in this paper we report on gain and energy resolution measurements, using Gas Electron Multipliers (GEMs), in the less explored Ar:CF 4 mixture (Alfonsi et al., 2006), as well as in the more commonly used gas mixtures Ar:CH 4 and Ar:CO 2 . In addition to obtaining energy resolution and gain, we provide results from Garfield++ simulations for gain fluctuations, and their impact on energy resolution is discussed.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

DOE OSTI2014

Lateral carrier diffusion and current gain in terahertz InGaAs/InP double-heterojunction bipolar transistors

The DC current gain in In{sub 0.53}Ga{sub 0.47}As/InP double-heterojunction bipolar transistors is computed based on a drift-diffusion model, and is compared with experimental data. Even in the absence of other scaling effects, lateral diffusion of electrons to the base Ohmic contacts causes a rapid reduction in DC current gain as the emitter junction width and emitter-base contact spacing are reduced. The simulation and experimental data are compared in order to examine the effect of carrier lateral diffusion on current gain. The impact on current gain due to device scaling and approaches to increase current gain are discussed.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

DOE OSTI2014

Balancing high gain and bandwidth in multilayer organic photodetectors with tailored carrier blocking layers

We present detailed studies of the high photocurrent gain behavior in multilayer organic photodiodes containing tailored carrier blocking layers we reported earlier in a Letter [W. T. Hammond and J. Xue, Appl. Phys. Lett. 97, 073302 (2010)], in which a high photocurrent gain of up to 500 was attributed to the accumulation of photogenerated holes at the anode/organic active layer interface and the subsequent drastic increase in secondary electron injection from the anode. Here, we show that both the hole-blocking layer structure and layer thickness strongly influence the magnitude of the photocurrent gain. Temporal studies revealed that the frequency response of such devices is limited by three different processes with lifetimes of 10 μs, 202 μs, and 2.72 ms for the removal of confined holes, which limit the 3 dB bandwidth of these devices to 1.4 kHz. Furthermore, the composition in the mixed organic donor-acceptor photoactive layer affects both gain and bandwidth, which is attributed to the varying charge transport characteristics, and the optimal gain-bandwidth product is achieved with approximately 30% donor content. Finally, these devices show a high dynamic range of more than seven orders of magnitude, although the photocurrent shows a sublinear dependence on the incident optical power.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

DOE OSTI2016

High pressure effect on optical gain in type-II InGaAs/GaAsSb nano-heterostructure

This paper reports the simulation of optical gain in type-II InGaAs/GaAsSb quantum well based nano-scale heterostructure. In order to simulate the optical gain, the heterostructure has been modeled with the help of six band k.p method. The 6 × 6 diagonalized k.p Hamiltonian has been solved to evaluate the valence sub-bands (i.e. light and heavy hole energies); and then optical matrix elements and optical gain within TE (Transverse Electric) mode has been calculated. The results obtained suggest that peak optical gain of the order of ∼ 9000 /cm in the heterostructure can be achieved at the lasing wavelength ∼ 1.95 µm (SWIR region). The application of high pressure (2 and 5 GPa) on the structure shows that the gain as well as lasing wavelength both approach to higher values. Thus, the structure can be tuned externally by the application of high pressure.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

DOE OSTI2017

Disturbance-Adaptive Short-Term Frequency Support of a DFIG Associated With the Variable Gain Based on the ROCOF and Rotor Speed

This paper proposes a disturbance-adaptive short-term frequency support scheme of a doubly fed induction generator (DFIG) that can improve the frequency-supporting capability while ensuring stable operation. In the proposed scheme, the output of the additional control loop is determined as the product of the frequency deviation and adaptive gain, which is modified depending on the rate of change of frequency (ROCOF) and rotor speed. To achieve these objectives, the adaptive gain is set to be high during the early stage of a disturbance, when the ROCOF and rotor speed are high. Until the frequency nadir (FN), the gain decreases with the ROCOF and rotor speed. After the FN, the gain decreases only with the rotor speed. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed scheme improves the FN and maximum ROCOF while ensuring the stable operation of a DFIG under various wind conditions irrespective of the disturbance conditions by adaptively changing the control gain with the ROCOF and rotor speed, even if the wind speed decreases and a consecutive disturbance occurs.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗