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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1991

Radio telescopes as the detectors of super-high-energy neutrinos

The registration of super high energy neutrinos is a very difficult and also very important problem that requires construction of detectors with large effective target masses. Askaryan pointed out the possibility of registering cascades in dense media by the Cherenkov radio emission of an excess of negative charges in the cascades which arose in interaction between high energy particles and the atoms of medium. The telescopes for cosmic high energy neutrino detection by radioemission of cascades induced underground, but whose development continues in the atmosphere were proposed by others. The effective target masses of such detectors could be approx. 10(exp 9) tons and more. The properties of Cherenkov radio emission of cascades and the properties of ice in the Antarctic Region make it possible to propose Radio Antarctic Muon and Neutrino Detection (RAMAND): antennas should be placed on the ice surface of approx. 10 sq km to search for radio signals for neutrino (muon) cascades of energy. It is evident from data given that the largest radio telescopes gives the opportunity for registration of the cascades induced by neutrinos with the energies E is greater than or = 10(exp 20) eV.

Dagkesamansky, R. D.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Development of deterministic transport methods for low energy neutrons for shielding in space

Transport of low energy neutrons associated with the galactic cosmic ray cascade is analyzed in this dissertation. A benchmark quality analytical algorithm is demonstrated for use with BRYNTRN, a computer program written by the High Energy Physics Division of NASA Langley Research Center, which is used to design and analyze shielding against the radiation created by the cascade. BRYNTRN uses numerical methods to solve the integral transport equations for baryons with the straight-ahead approximation, and numerical and empirical methods to generate the interaction probabilities. The straight-ahead approximation is adequate for charged particles, but not for neutrons. As NASA Langley improves BRYNTRN to include low energy neutrons, a benchmark quality solution is needed for comparison. The neutron transport algorithm demonstrated in this dissertation uses the closed-form Green's function solution to the galactic cosmic ray cascade transport equations to generate a source of neutrons. A basis function expansion for finite heterogeneous and semi-infinite homogeneous slabs with multiple energy groups and isotropic scattering is used to generate neutron fluxes resulting from the cascade. This method, called the FN method, is used to solve the neutral particle linear Boltzmann transport equation. As a demonstration of the algorithm coded in the programs MGSLAB and MGSEMI, neutron and ion fluxes are shown for a beam of fluorine ions at 1000 MeV per nucleon incident on semi-infinite and finite aluminum slabs. Also, to demonstrate that the shielding effectiveness against the radiation from the galactic cosmic ray cascade is not directly proportional to shield thickness, a graph of transmitted total neutron scalar flux versus slab thickness is shown. A simple model based on the nuclear liquid drop assumption is used to generate cross sections for the galactic cosmic ray cascade. The ENDF/B V database is used to generate the total and scattering cross sections for neutrons in aluminum. As an external verification, the results from MGSLAB and MGSEMI were compared to ANISN/PC, a routinely used neutron transport code, showing excellent agreement. In an application to an aluminum shield, the FN method seems to generate reasonable results.

Ganapol, Barry↗
NASA NTRS1995

Sensitivity analysis for aeroacoustic and aeroelastic design of turbomachinery blades

A new method for computing the effect that small changes in the airfoil shape and cascade geometry have on the aeroacoustic and aeroelastic behavior of turbomachinery cascades is presented. The nonlinear unsteady flow is assumed to be composed of a nonlinear steady flow plus a small perturbation unsteady flow that is harmonic in time. First, the full potential equation is used to describe the behavior of the nonlinear mean (steady) flow through a two-dimensional cascade. The small disturbance unsteady flow through the cascade is described by the linearized Euler equations. Using rapid distortion theory, the unsteady velocity is split into a rotational part that contains the vorticity and an irrotational part described by a scalar potential. The unsteady vorticity transport is described analytically in terms of the drift and stream functions computed from the steady flow. Hence, the solution of the linearized Euler equations may be reduced to a single inhomogeneous equation for the unsteady potential. The steady flow and small disturbance unsteady flow equations are discretized using bilinear quadrilateral isoparametric finite elements. The nonlinear mean flow solution and streamline computational grid are computed simultaneously using Newton iteration. At each step of the Newton iteration, LU decomposition is used to solve the resulting set of linear equations. The unsteady flow problem is linear, and is also solved using LU decomposition. Next, a sensitivity analysis is performed to determine the effect small changes in cascade and airfoil geometry have on the mean and unsteady flow fields. The sensitivity analysis makes use of the nominal steady and unsteady flow LU decompositions so that no additional matrices need to be factored. Hence, the present method is computationally very efficient. To demonstrate how the sensitivity analysis may be used to redesign cascades, a compressor is redesigned for improved aeroelastic stability and two different fan exit guide vanes are redesigned for reduced downstream radiated noise. In addition, a framework detailing how the two-dimensional version of the method may be used to redesign three-dimensional geometries is presented.

Lorence, Christopher B.↗
NASA NTRS1975

Calculation of the radio emission from EAS

Time-varying features of an electron-photon cascade are considered, particularly those associated with radio emission. The cosmic ray shower is represented as a superposition of collinear 10 GeV electron-photon cascades launched at different heights in the atmosphere. Actual simulations are performed for only 10 cascades at each of 40 heights and the results are scaled to represent the total number of cascades required. The apparent angular motions of the cascade particles as detected by antennas located at various positions up to 300 m from the shower axis are simulated. The radio pulse waveform and the corresponding frequency spectrum are obtained from these motions.

Allan, H. R.↗
NASA NTRS1981

Supersonic Stall Flutter of High Speed Fans

An analytical model is developed for predicting the onset of supersonic stall bending flutter in axial flow compressors. The analysis is based on a modified two dimensional, compressible, unsteady actuator disk theory. It is applied to a rotor blade row by considering a cascade of airfoils whose geometry and dynamic response coincide with those of a rotor blade element at 85 percent of the span height (measured from the hub). The rotor blades are assumed to be unshrouded (i.e., free standing) and to vibrate in their first flexural mode. The effects of shock waves and flow separation are included in the model through quasi-steady, empirical, rotor total-pressure-loss and deviation-angle correlations. The actuator disk model predicts the unsteady aerodynamic force acting on the cascade blading as a function of the steady flow field entering the cascade and the geometry and dynamic response of the cascade. Calculations show that the present model predicts the existence of a bending flutter mode at supersonic inlet Mach numbers. This flutter mode is suppressed by increasing the reduced frequency of the system or by reducing the steady state aerodynamic loading on the cascade. The validity of the model for predicting flutter is demonstrated by correlating the measured flutter boundary of a high speed fan stage with its predicted boundary. This correlation uses a level of damping for the blade row (i.e., the log decrement of the rotor system) that is estimated from the experimental flutter data. The predicted flutter boundary is shown to be in good agreement with the measured boundary.

Adamczyk, J. J.↗
NASA NTRS1985

New analysis of nuclear interaction observed by Mt. Kanbara emulsion chamber experiment

To date the analysis of the air cascade family has been performed using a full Monte Carlo simulation. It is difficult to draw a definite conclusion about the interaction mechanism by using only this kind of simulation. On the other hand, attempts to reproduce the original gamma ray at the interaction point, for example decascading, have also been made. This method makes it possible to observe the interaction directly and to analyze the data from various angles. All of these methods, however, assume a constant ER in the cascade shower, where E is energy and R is the distance from the center of the cascade shower. It is impossible to reproduce the exact interaction height and energy by these methods. A relative method in separating one cascade shower from others is adopted. This method makes it possible to estimate the interaction height and energy by using information about the lateral spread of the cascade shower.

Nanjo, H.↗
NASA NTRS1993

The dynamics of hydroponic crops for simulation studies of the CELSS initial reference configurations

During the past several years, the NASA Program in Controlled Ecological Life Support Systems (CELSS) has continued apace with crop research and logistic, technological, and scientific strides. These include the CELSS Test Facility planned for the space station and its prototype Engineering Development Unit, soon to be active at Ames Research Center (as well as the advanced crop growth research chamber at Ames); the large environmental growth chambers and the planned human test bed facility at Johnson Space Center; the NSCORT at Purdue with new candidate crops and diverse research into the CELSS components; the gas exchange data for soy, potatoes, and wheat from Kennedy Space Center (KSC); and the high-precision gas exchange data for wheat from Utah State University (USU). All these developments, taken together, speak to the need for crop modeling as a means to connect the findings of the crop physiologists with the engineers designing the system. A need also exists for crop modeling to analyze and predict the gas exchange data from the various locations to maximize the scientific yield from the experiments. One fruitful approach employs what has been called the 'energy cascade'. Useful as a basis for CELSS crop growth experimental design, the energy cascade as a generic modeling approach for CELSS crops is a featured accomplishment in this report. The energy cascade is a major tool for linking CELSS crop experiments to the system design. The energy cascade presented here can help collaborations between modelers and crop experimenters to develop the most fruitful experiments for pushing the limits of crop productivity. Furthermore, crop models using the energy cascade provide a natural means to compare, feature for feature, the crop growth components between different CELSS experiments, for example, at Utah State University and Kennedy Space Center.

Volk, Tyler↗
NASA NTRS1995

Ion Acceleration and Transport in Solar Flares

The purpose of the work proposed for this grant was to develop a promising model for ion acceleration in impulsive solar flares. Solar flares are among the most energetic and interesting phenomena in the solar system, releasing up to 10(exp 32) ergs of energy over timescales ranging from a few tens of seconds to a few tens of minutes. Much of this energy appears as energetic electrons and ions, which produce a wide range of observable radiations. These radiations, in turn, are valuable diagnostics of the acceleration mechanism, the identification of which is the fundamental goal of solar flare research. The specific mechanism we proposed to investigate was based on cascading Alfven waves, the essence of which was as follows: During the primary flare energy release, it is widely believed that magnetic free energy is made available through the large-scale restructuring of the flare magnetic field. Any perturbation of a magnetic field will lead to the formation of MagnetoHydroDynamic (MHD) waves of wavelength comparable to the initial scale of the perturbation. Since the scalesize of a flare energy release region will likely be 10(exp 8)-10(exp 9) cm, the MHD waves will be of very long wavelength. However, it is well known that wave steepening will lead to a cascade of wave energy to smaller wavelengths. Now, MHD waves consist of two specific modes-the Alfven wave and the fast mode wave, and it is the Alfven wave which can interact with the ambient ions and accelerate them via cyclotron resonance. As the Alfven waves cascade to smaller wavenumbers, they can resonate with ions of progressively lower energy, until they eventually (actually, this is less than approx. 1 s) can resonate with ions in the thermal distribution. These ions are then energized out of the thermal background and, since lower-frequency waves are already present as a result of the cascading, to relativistic energies. Hence, cascading Alfven waves naturally accelerate ions from thermal to relativistic energies in one step with one basic mechanism.

Miller, James A.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Pair Plasmas in the Central Engine of Active Galactic Nuclei

As the most promising model for the X-ray emission from a class of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs) represented by radio-quiet quasars and Seyfert nuclei, here we introduce the non-thermal pair cascade model, where soft photons are Comptonized by non-thermal electron-positron pair plasmas produced by (gamma)-rays. After summarizing the simplest model of this kind, the "homogeneous spherical cascade model", our most recent work on the "surface cascade model" is presented, where a geometrical effect is introduced. Many characteristics of this model are qualitatively similar to the homogeneous cascade model. However, an important difference is that (gamma)-ray depletion is much more efficient in the surface cascade, and consequently this model naturally satisfies the severe observational constraint imposed by the (gamma)-ray background radiation.

Tsuruta, S.↗
NASA NTRS2001

Application of TURBO-AE to Flutter Prediction: Aeroelastic Code Development

The TURBO-AE program has been evaluated by comparing the obtained results to cascade rig data and to prediction made from various in-house programs. A high-speed fan cascade, a turbine cascade, a turbine cascade and a fan geometry that shower flutter in torsion mode were analyzed. The steady predictions for the high-speed fan cascade showed the TURBO-AE predictions to match in-house codes. However, the predictions did not match the measured blade surface data. Other researchers also reported similar disagreement with these data set. Unsteady runs for the fan configuration were not successful using TURBO-AE .

Hoyniak, Daniel↗
NASA NTRS1956

Flow of Gas Through Turbine Lattices

This report is concerned with fluid mechanics of two-dimensional cascades, particularly turbine cascades. Methods of solving the incompressible ideal flow in cascades are presented. The causes and the order of magnitude of the two-dimensional losses at subsonic velocities are discussed. Methods are presented for estimating the flow and losses at high subsonic velocities. Transonic and supersonic flows in lattices are then analyzed. Some three-dimensional features of the flow in turbines are noted.

BOUNDARY LAYER - AIRFOILS - CASCADES↗
NASA NTRS1974

Blade selection for a modern axial-flow compressor

The procedures leading to successful design of an axial flow compressor are discussed. The three related approaches to cascade selection are: (1) experimental approach which relies on the use of experimental results from identical cascades to satisfy the velocity diagrams calculated, (2) a purely analytical procedure whereby blade shapes are calculated from the theoretical cascade and viscous flow equations, and (3) a semiempirical procedure which used experimental data together with the theoretically derived functional relations to relate the cascade parameters. Diagrams of typical transonic blade sections with uncambered leading edges are presented.

Wright, L. C.↗
NASA NTRS1975

High-beta turbulence in two-dimensional magnetohydrodynamics

Incompressible turbulent flows were investigated in the framework of ideal magnetohydrodynamics. Equilibrium canonical distributions are determined in a phase whose coordinates are the real and imaginary parts of the Fourier coefficients for the field variables. The magnetic field and fluid velocity have variable x and y components, and all field quantities are independent of z. Three constants of the motion are found which survive the truncation in Fourier space and permit the construction of canonical distributions with three independent temperatures. Spectral densities are calculated. One of the more novel physical effects is the appearance of macroscopic structures involving long wavelength, self-generated, magnetic fields ("magnetic islands"). In the presence of finite dissipation, energy cascades to higher wave numbers can be accompanied by vector potential cascades to lower wave numbers, in much the same way that in the fluid dynamic case, energy cascades to lower wave numbers accompany entropy cascades to higher wave numbers.

Fyfe, D.↗
NASA NTRS1981

Shockless design and analysis of transonic blade shapes

A fast computer program was developed to eliminate the shocks by slightly altering portions of the contour of a given airfoil in the cascade. The program can be used in two basic modes: (1) An analysis for steady, transonic, potential flow through a given planar cascade of airfoils and (2) a design for converting a given cascade into a shockless transonic cascade. The design mode can automatically be followed by the analysis mode, which confirms that the flow field is shock free. The program generates its own multilevel boundary conforming computational grids and solves a full potential equation in a fully conservative form. The shockless design is performed by implementing Sobieczky's fictitious-gas elliptic continuation concept.

Dulikravich, D. S.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Simulation of rotating stall by the vortex method

The vortex method, coupled to a boundary-layer solver, is applied to the numerical simulation of high Reynolds number incompressible flow in two-dimensional cascades. Periodic conditions are imposed along the plane of the cascade, with several blades per period. Good agreement is found with two finite-difference methods for a single-blade case. When a staggered cascade is treated with five independent blades, the simulation predicts rotating stall, for a range of angles of attack and stagger, and the essential features of the flow are correct. The stall cell steadily propagates along the cascade. The sensitivity of this phenomenon to two parameters is studied, and the stall boundary is found. Quantitative results and visualizations are presented.

Spalart, P. R.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Forced response analysis of an aerodynamically detuned supersonic turbomachine rotor

The effect of aerodynamic detuning on the supersonic flow induced forced response behavior of a turbomachine blade row is analyzed using an aeroelastic model. The rotor is modeled as a flat plate airfoil cascade representing an unwrapped rotor annulus; the aerodynamic detuning is achieved by alternating the circumferential spacing of adjacent rotor blades. The total unsteady aerodynamic loading on the blading, due to the convection of the transverse gust past the airfoil cascade as well as that resulting from the motion of the cascade, is developed in terms of influence coefficients. The model developed here is then used to analyze the effect of aerodynamic detuning on the flow induced forced response behavior of a twelve-bladed rotor with Verdon's Cascade B flow geometry.

Hoyniak, D.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Influence of vane sweep on rotor-stator interaction noise

The influence of vane sweep in rotor-stator interaction noise is investigated. In an analytical approach, the interaction of a convected gust representing the rotor viscous wake, with a cascade of cascade of finite span swept airfoils, representing the stator, is analyzed. The analysis is based on the solution of the exact linearized equations of motion. High frequency convected gusts for which noise generation is concentrated near the leading edge of airfoils is considered. In a preliminary study, the problem of an isolated finite span swept airfoil interacting with a convected gust is analyzed. Results indicate that sweep can substantially reduce the farfield noise levels for a single airfoil. Using the single airfoil model, an approximate solution to the problem of noise radiation from a cascade of finite span swept airfoils interacting with a convected gust is derived. A parametric study of noise generated by gust cascade interaction is carried out to assess the effectiveness of vane sweep in reducing rotor-stator interaction noise. The results show that sweep is beneficial in reducing noise levels. Rotor wake twist or circumferential lean substantially influences the effectiveness of vane sweep. The orientation of vane sweep must be chosen to enhance the natural phase lag caused by wake lean, in which case rather small sweep angles substantially reduce the noise levels.

Envia, Edmane↗
NASA NTRS1991

Three-dimensional Navier-Stokes analysis of turbine passage heat transfer

The three-dimensional Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations are numerically solved to obtain the pressure distribution and heat transfer rates on the endwalls and the blades of two linear turbine cascades. The TRAF3D code which has recently been developed in a joint project between researchers from the University of Florence and NASA Lewis Research Center is used. The effect of turbulence is taken into account by using the eddy viscosity hypothesis and the two-layer mixing length model of Baldwin and Lomax. Predictions of surface heat transfer are made for Langston's cascade and compared with the data obtained for that cascade by Graziani. The comparison was found to be favorable. The code is also applied to a linear transonic rotor cascade to predict the pressure distributions and heat transfer rates.

Ameri, Ali A.↗