Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “Collision Rates”

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 973 records · Page 54
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2017

Measurement of the C P Violation Parameter A Γ in D 0 → K + K - and D 0 → π + π - Decays

Asymmetries in the time-dependent rates of D 0 →K + K - and D 0 →$π$ + $π$ - decays are measured in a $pp$ collision data sample collected with the LHCb detector during LHC Run 1, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3 fb -1 . The asymmetries in effective decay widths between $D$ 0 and $\bar{D}$ 0 decays, sensitive to indirect $CP$ violation, are measured to be A $Γ$ (K + K - ) = (-0.30 ± 0.32 ± 0.10) × 10 -3 and A $Γ$ ($π$ + $π$ - ) = (0.46 ± 0.58 ± 0.12) × 10 -3 , where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second systematic. These measurements show no evidence for $CP$ violation and improve on the precision of the previous best measurements by nearly a factor of two.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
NASA NTRS1986

What have we learned about galaxies through large computations?

Numerical models permit modelling processes within galaxies that are seemingly beyond the reach of physical contact or close-up viewing from different angles. N-body equations permit simple computations of the interactions of individual stars within galaxies, but the motions of these objects feature nonlinear characteristics because of the forces exerted by the complex as a whole which are not amenable to examination with Newtonian laws of force. The models have, however, revealed that thin disk galactic are not stable forms, that barlike structures rotating end-over-end are more stable structures, and that galactic contraction occurs during collisions between galaxies. Internal effects have been successfully predicted for galaxies which are part of clusters, growth rate disturbances due to the expansion of the Universe have been quantified as 2-3 percent and dynamical friction has been shown to damage galaxies which are sliding into background material.

Miller, R. H.↗
NASA NTRS1998

Modeling Electric Field Influences on Plasmaspheric Refilling

We have a new model of ion transport that we have applied to the problem of plasmaspheric flux tube refilling after a geomagnetic disturbance. This model solves the Fokker-Planck kinetic equation by applying discrete difference numerical schemes to the various operators. Features of the model include a time-varying ionospheric source, self-consistent Coulomb collisions, field-aligned electric field, hot plasma interactions, and ion cyclotron wave heating. We see refilling rates similar to those of earlier observations and models, except when the electric field is included. In this case, the refilling rates can be quite different that previously predicted. Depending on the populations included and the values of relevant parameters, trap zone densities can increase or decrease. In particular, the inclusion of hot populations near the equatorial region (specifically warm pancake distributions and ring current ions) can dramatically alter the refilling rate. Results are compared with observations as well as previous hydrodynamic and kinetic particle model simulations.

Liemohn, M. W.↗
DOE OSTI2015

Quantum mechanical calculations of state-to-state cross sections and rate constants for the F + DCl → Cl + DF reaction

We present accurate state-to-state quantum wave packet calculations of integral cross sections and rate constants for the title reaction. Calculations are carried out on the best available ground 1{sup 2}A′ global adiabatic potential energy surface of Deskevich et al. [J. Chem. Phys. 124, 224303 (2006)]. Converged state-to-state reaction cross sections have been calculated for collision energies up to 0.5 eV and different initial rotational and vibrational excitations, DCl(v = 0, j = 0 − 1; v = 1, j = 0). Also, initial-state resolved rate constants of the title reaction have been calculated in a temperature range of 100-400 K. It is found that the initial rotational excitation of the DCl molecule does not enhance reactivity, in contract to the reaction with the isotopologue HCl in which initial rotational excitation produces an important enhancement. These differences between the isotopologue reactions are analyzed in detail and attributed to the presence of resonances for HCl(v = 0, j), absent in the case of DCl(v = 0, j). For vibrational excited DCl(v = 1, j), however, the reaction cross section increases noticeably, what is also explained by another resonance.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2021

Development, Implementation, and Verification of Partially-Ionized Collisional Multifluid Plasma Models in Drekar

We consider the development of multifluid models for partially ionized multispecies plasmas. The models are composed of a standard set of five-moment fluid equations for each species plus a description of electromagnetics. The most general model considered utilizes a full set of fluid equations for each charge state of each atomic species, plus a set of fluid equations for electrons. The fluid equations are coupled through source terms describing electromagnetic coupling, ionization, recombination, charge exchange, and elastic scattering collisions in the low-density coronal limit. The form of each of these source terms is described in detail, and references for required rate coefficients are identified for a diverse range of atomic species. Initial efforts have been made to extend these models to incorporate some higher-density collisional effects, including ionization potential depression and three- body recombination. Some reductions of the general multifluid model are considered. First, a reduced multifluid model is derived which averages over all of the charge states (including neutrals) of each atomic species in the general multifluid model. The resulting model maintains full consistency with the general multifluid model from which it is derived by leveraging a quasi-steady-state collisional ionization equilibrium assumption to recover the ionization fractions required to make use of the general collision models. Further reductions are briefly considered to derive certain components of a single-fluid magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) model. In this case, a generalized Ohm's law is obtained, and the standard MHD resistivity is expressed in terms of the collisional models used in the general multifluid model. A number of numerical considerations required to obtain robust implementations of these multifluid models are discussed. First, an algebraic flux correction (AFC) stabilization approach for a continuous Galerkin finite element discretization of the multifluid system is described in which the characteristic speeds used in the stabilization of the fluid systems are synchronized across all species in the model. It is demonstrated that this synchronization is crucial in order to obtain a robust discretization of the multifluid system. Additionally, several different formulations are considered for describing the electromagnetics portion of the multifluid system using nodal continuous Galerkin finite element discretizations. The formulations considered include a parabolic divergence cleaning method and an implicit projection method for the traditional curl formulation of Maxwell's equations, a purely- hyperbolic potential-based formulation of Maxwell's equations, and a mixed hyperbolic-elliptic potential-based formulation of Maxwell's equations. Some advantages and disadvantages of each formulation are explored to compare solution robustness and the ease of use of each formulation. Numerical results are presented to demonstrate the accuracy and robustness of various components of our implementation. Analytic solutions for a spatially homogeneous damped plasma oscillation are derived in order to verify the implementation of the source terms for electromagnetic coupling and elastic collisions between fluid species. Ionization balance as a function of electron temperature is evaluated for several atomic species of interest by comparing to steady-state calculations using various sets of ionization and recombination rate coefficients. Several test problems in one and two spatial dimensions are used to demonstrate the accuracy and robustness of the discretization and stabilization approach for the fluid components of the multifluid system. This includes standard test problems for electrostatic and electromagnetic shock tubes in the two-fluid and ideal shock-MHD limits, a cylindrical diocotron instability, and the GEM challenge magnetic reconnection problem. A one-dimensional simplified prototype of an argon gas puff configuration as deployed on Sandia's Z-machine is used as a demonstration to exercise the full range of capabilities associated with the general multifluid model.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
NASA NTRS1989

Dynamics of a class of vortex rings

The contour dynamics method is extended to vortex rings with vorticity varying linearly from the symmetry axis. An elliptic core model is also developed to explain some of the basic physics. Passage and collisions of two identical rings are studied focusing on core deformation, sound generation and stirring of fluid elements. With respect to core deformation, not only the strain rate but how rapidly it varies is important and accounts for greater susceptibility to vortex tearing than in two dimensions. For slow strain, as a passage interaction is completed and the strain relaxes, the cores return to their original shape while permanent deformations remain for rapidly varying strain. For collisions, if the strain changes slowly the core shapes migrate through a known family of two-dimensional steady vortex pairs up to the limiting member of the family. Thereafter energy conservation does not allow the cores to maintain a constant shape. For rapidly varying strain, core deformation is severe and a head-tail structure in good agreement with experiments is formed. With respect to sound generation, good agreement with the measured acoustic signal for colliding rings is obtained and a feature previously thought to be due to viscous effects is shown to be an effect of inviscid core deformation alone. For passage interactions, a component of high frequency is present. Evidence for the importance of this noise source in jet noise spectra is provided. Finally, processes of fluid engulfment and rejection for an unsteady vortex ring are studied using the stable and unstable manifolds. The unstable manifold shows excellent agreement with flow visualization experiments for leapfrogging rings suggesting that it may be a good tool for numerical flow visualization in other time periodic flows.

Shariff, Karim↗
DOE OSTI2013

SUPPRESSION OF DIELECTRONIC RECOMBINATION DUE TO FINITE DENSITY EFFECTS

We have developed a general model for determining density-dependent effective dielectronic recombination (DR) rate coefficients in order to explore finite-density effects on the ionization balance of plasmas. Our model consists of multiplying by a suppression factor those highly-accurate total zero-density DR rate coefficients which have been produced from state-of-the-art theoretical calculations and which have been benchmarked by experiment. The suppression factor is based upon earlier detailed collision-radiative calculations which were made for a wide range of ions at various densities and temperatures, but used a simplified treatment of DR. A general suppression formula is then developed as a function of isoelectronic sequence, charge, density, and temperature. These density-dependent effective DR rate coefficients are then used in the plasma simulation code Cloudy to compute ionization balance curves for both collisionally ionized and photoionized plasmas at very low (n{sub e} = 1 cm{sup -3}) and finite (n{sub e} = 10{sup 10} cm{sup -3}) densities. We find that the denser case is significantly more ionized due to suppression of DR, warranting further studies of density effects on DR by detailed collisional-radiative calculations which utilize state-of-the-art partial DR rate coefficients. This is expected to impact the predictions of the ionization balance in denser cosmic gases such as those found in nova and supernova shells, accretion disks, and the broad emission line regions in active galactic nuclei.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
NASA NTRS1992

Ulysses dust measurements near Jupiter

Submicrometer- to micrometer-sized particles were recorded by the Ulysses dust detector within 40 days of the Jupiter flyby. Nine impacts were recorded within 50 Jupiter radii with most of them recorded after closest approach. Three of these impacts are consistent with particles on prograde orbits around Jupiter and the rest are believed to have resulted from gravitationally focused interplanetary dust. From the ratio of the impact rate before the Jupiter flyby to the impact rate after the Jupiter flyby it is concluded that interplanetary dust particles at the distance of Jupiter move on mostly retrograde orbits. On 10 March 1992, Ulysses passed through an intense dust stream. The dust detector recorded 126 impacts within 26 hours. The stream particles were moving on highly inclined and apparently hyperbolic orbits with perihelion distances of greater than 5 astronomical units. Interplanetary dust is lost rather quickly from the solar system through collisions and other mechanisms and must be almost continuously replenished to maintain observed abundances. Dust flux measurements, therefore, give evidence of the recent rates of production from sources such as comets, asteroids, and moons, as well as the possible presence of interstellar grains.

Gruen, Eberhard↗
DOE OSTI2016

ION COLLISIONAL TRANSPORT COEFFICIENTS IN THE SOLAR WIND AT 1 au

Proton and alpha particle collisional transport coefficients (isotropization, relative deceleration frequencies, and heating rates) at 1 au are quantified using the Wind /Solar Wind Experiment data. In agreement with previous studies, the ion–ion Coulomb collisions are generally important for slow solar wind streams and tend to reduce the temperature anisotropies, the differential streaming, and the differences between the proton and alpha particle temperatures. In slow solar wind streams the Coulomb collisions between protons and alpha particles are important for the overall proton energetics, as well as the relative deceleration between the two species. It is also shown that ion temperature anisotropies and differential streaming need to be taken into account for evaluation of the collisional transport coefficients.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2019

Dust in and around galaxies: dust in cluster environments and its impact on gas cooling

Simulating the dust content of galaxies and their surrounding gas is challenging due to the wide range of physical processes affecting the dust evolution. Here we present cosmological hydrodynamical simulations of a cluster of galaxies, M 200,crit = 6×10 14 M ⊙ , including a novel dust model for the moving mesh code AREPO. This model includes dust production, growth, supernova-shock-driven destruction, ion-collision-driven thermal sputtering, and high-temperature dust cooling through far-infrared reradiation of collisionally deposited electron energies. Adopting a rather low thermal sputtering rate, we find, consistent with observations, a present-day overall dust-to-gas ratio of ~2 × 10 -5 , a total dust mass of ~2×10 9 M ⊙ , and a dust mass fraction of ~3 × 10 -6 . The typical thermal sputtering time-scales within ~100 kpc are around ~10 Myr, and increase towards the outer parts of the cluster to ~10 3 Myr at a cluster-centric distance of 1 Mpc. The condensation of gas-phase metals into dust grains reduces high-temperature metal-line cooling, but also leads to additional dust infrared cooling. The additional infrared cooling changes the overall cooling rate in the outer parts of the cluster, beyond ~1 Mpc, by factors of a few. This results in noticeable changes of the entropy, temperature, and density profiles of cluster gas once dust formation is included. The emitted dust infrared emission due to dust cooling is consistent with observational constraints.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2014

Rotation-dependent catastrophic disruption of gravitational aggregates

We carry out a systematic exploration of the effect of pre-impact rotation on the outcomes of low-speed collisions between planetesimals modeled as gravitational aggregates. We use pkdgrav, a cosmology code adapted to collisional problems and recently enhanced with a new soft-sphere collision algorithm that includes more realistic contact forces. A rotating body has lower effective surface gravity than a non-rotating one and therefore might suffer more mass loss as the result of a collision. What is less well understood, however, is whether rotation systematically increases mass loss on average regardless of the impact trajectory. This has important implications for the efficiency of planet formation via planetesimal growth, and also more generally for the determination of the impact energy threshold for catastrophic disruption (leading to the largest remnant retaining 50% of the original mass), as this has generally only been evaluated for non-spinning bodies. We find that for most collision scenarios, rotation lowers the threshold energy for catastrophic dispersal. For head-on collisions, we develop a semi-analytic description of the change in the threshold description as a function of the target's pre-impact rotation rate, and find that these results are consistent with the 'universal law' of catastrophic disruption developed by Leinhardt and Stewart. Using this approach, we introduce re-scaled catastrophic disruption variables that take into account the interacting mass fraction of the target and the projectile in order to translate oblique impacts into equivalent head-on collisions.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
NASA NTRS1990

Determination of molecular spectroscopic parameters and energy-transfer rates by double-resonance spectroscopy

The spectroscopy of small to medium-size polyatomic molecules can be extremely complex, especially in higher-lying overtone and combination vibrational levels. The high density of levels also complicates the understanding of inelastic collision processes, which is required to model energy transfer and collision broadening of spectral lines. Both of these problems can be addressed by double-resonance spectroscopy, i.e., time-resolved pump-probe measurements using microwave, infrared, near-infrared, and visible-wavelength sources. Information on excited-state spectroscopy, transition moments, inelastic energy transfer rates and propensity rules, and pressure-broadening parameters may be obtained from such experiments. Examples are given for several species of importance in planetary atmospheres, including ozone, silane, ethane, and ammonia.

Steinfeld, J. I.↗
DOE OSTI2014

THE EFFECT OF NONLINEAR LANDAU DAMPING ON ULTRARELATIVISTIC BEAM PLASMA INSTABILITIES

Very high energy gamma-rays from extragalactic sources produce pairs from the extragalactic background light, yielding an electron-positron pair beam. This pair beam is unstable to various plasma instabilities, especially the ''oblique'' instability, which can be the dominant cooling mechanism for the beam. However, recently, it has been claimed that nonlinear Landau damping renders it physically irrelevant by reducing the effective damping rate to a low level. Here we show with numerical calculations that the effective damping rate is 8 × 10{sup –4} the growth rate of the linear instability, which is sufficient for the ''oblique'' instability to be the dominant cooling mechanism of these pair beams. In particular, we show that previous estimates of this rate ignored the exponential cutoff in the scattering amplitude at large wave numbers and assumed that the damping of scattered waves entirely depends on collisions, ignoring collisionless processes. We find that the total wave energy eventually grows to approximate equipartition with the beam by increasingly depositing energy into long-wavelength modes. As we have not included the effect of nonlinear wave-wave interactions on these long-wavelength modes, this scenario represents the ''worst case'' scenario for the oblique instability. As it continues to drain energy from the beam at a faster rate than other processes, we conclude that the ''oblique'' instability is sufficiently strong to make it the physically dominant cooling mechanism for high-energy pair beams in the intergalactic medium.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
NASA NTRS1993

Collision cross sections and diffusion parameters for H and D in atomic oxygen

Modeling the behavior of H and D in planetary exospheres requires detailed knowledge of the differential scattering cross sections for all of the important neutral-neutral and ion-neutral collision processes affecting these species over their entire ranges of interaction energies. In the upper atmospheres of Earth, Venus, and other planets as well, the interactions of H and D with atomic oxygen determine the rates of diffusion of escaping hydrogen isotopes through the thermosphere, the velocity distributions of exospheric atoms that encounter the upper thermosphere, the lifetimes of exospheric orbiters with periapsides near the exobase, and the transfer of momentum in collisions with hot O. The nature of H-O and D-O collisions and the derivation of a data base consisting of phase shifts and the differential, total, and momentum transfer cross sections for these interactions in the energy range 0.001 - 10 eV are discussed. Coefficients of mutual diffusion and thermal diffusion factors are calculated for temperatures of planetary interest.

Hodges, R. R., Jr.↗
DOE OSTI2017

Cloud-resolving model intercomparison of an MC3E squall line case: Part I-Convective updrafts: CRM Intercomparison of a Squall Line

A constrained model intercomparison study of a mid-latitude mesoscale squall line is performed using the Weather Research & Forecasting (WRF) model at 1-km horizontal grid spacing with eight cloud microphysics schemes, to understand specific processes that lead to the large spread of simulated cloud and precipitation at cloud-resolving scales, with a focus of this paper on convective cores. Various observational data are employed to evaluate the baseline simulations. All simulations tend to produce a wider convective area than observed, but a much narrower stratiform area, with most bulk schemes overpredicting radar reflectivity. The magnitudes of the virtual potential temperature drop, pressure rise, and the peak wind speed associated with the passage of the gust front are significantly smaller compared with the observations, suggesting simulated cool pools are weaker. Simulations also overestimate the vertical velocity and Ze in convective cores as compared with observational retrievals. The modeled updraft velocity and precipitation have a significant spread across the eight schemes even in this strongly dynamically-driven system. The spread of updraft velocity is attributed to the combined effects of the low-level perturbation pressure gradient determined by cold pool intensity and buoyancy that is not necessarily well correlated to differences in latent heating among the simulations. Variability of updraft velocity between schemes is also related to differences in ice-related parameterizations, whereas precipitation variability increases in no-ice simulations because of scheme differences in collision-coalescence parameterizations.

Fan, Jiwen↗
DOE OSTI2015

An accurate potential energy surface for the F + H{sub 2} → HF + H reaction by the coupled-cluster method

A three dimensional potential energy surface for the F + H{sub 2} → HF + H reaction has been computed by the spin unrestricted coupled cluster method with singles, doubles, triples, and perturbative quadruples [UCCSDT(2){sub Q}] using the augmented correlation-consistent polarised valence quadruple zeta basis set for the fluorine atom and the correlation-consistent polarised valence quadruple zeta basis set for the hydrogen atom. All the calculations are based on the restricted open-shell Hartree-Fock orbitals, together with the frozen core approximations, and the UCCSD(T)/complete basis set (CBS) correction term was included. The global potential energy surface was calculated by fitting the sampled ab initio points without any scaling factor for the correlation energy part using a neutral network function method. Extensive dynamics calculations have been carried out on the potential energy surface. The reaction rate constants, integral cross sections, product rotational states distribution, and forward and backward scattering as a function of collision energy of the F + HD → HF + D, F + HD → DF + H, and F + H{sub 2} reaction, were calculated by the time-independent quantum dynamics scattering theory using the new surface. The satisfactory agreement with the reported experimental observations previously demonstrates the accuracy of the new potential energy surface.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2015

High fidelity modeling of thermal relaxation and dissociation of oxygen

A master equation study of vibrational relaxation and dissociation of oxygen is conducted using state-specific O{sub 2}–O transition rates, generated by extensive trajectory simulations. Both O{sub 2}–O and O{sub 2}–O{sub 2} collisions are concurrently simulated in the evolving nonequilibrium gas system under constant heat bath conditions. The forced harmonic oscillator model is incorporated to simulate the state-to-state relaxation of oxygen in O{sub 2}–O{sub 2} collisions. The system of master equations is solved to simulate heating and cooling flows. The present study demonstrates the importance of atom-diatom collisions due to the extremely efficient energy randomization in the intermediate O{sub 3} complex. It is shown that the presence of atomic oxygen has a significant impact on vibrational relaxation time at temperatures observed in hypersonic flow. The population of highly-excited O{sub 2} vibrational states is affected by the amount of atomic oxygen when modeling the relaxation under constant heat bath conditions. A model of coupled state-to-state vibrational relaxation and dissociation of oxygen is also discussed.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗