Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “accretion”

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 1,009 records · Page 56
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2017

Stratified Simulations of Collisionless Accretion Disks

This paper presents a series of stratified-shearing-box simulations of collisionless accretion disks in the recently developed framework of kinetic magnetohydrodynamics (MHD), which can handle finite non-gyrotropy of a pressure tensor. Although a fully kinetic simulation predicted a more efficient angular-momentum transport in collisionless disks than in the standard MHD regime, the enhanced transport has not been observed in past kinetic-MHD approaches to gyrotropic pressure anisotropy. For the purpose of investigating this missing link between the fully kinetic and MHD treatments, this paper explores the role of non-gyrotropic pressure and makes the first attempt to incorporate certain collisionless effects into disk-scale, stratified disk simulations. When the timescale of gyrotropization was longer than, or comparable to, the disk-rotation frequency of the orbit, we found that the finite non-gyrotropy selectively remaining in the vicinity of current sheets contributes to suppressing magnetic reconnection in the shearing-box system. This leads to increases both in the saturated amplitude of the MHD turbulence driven by magnetorotational instabilities and in the resultant efficiency of angular-momentum transport. Our results seem to favor the fast advection of magnetic fields toward the rotation axis of a central object, which is required to launch an ultra-relativistic jet from a black hole accretion system in, for example, a magnetically arrested disk state.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2017

Self-gravity in Magnetized Neutrino-dominated Accretion Disks

In the present work we study self-gravity effects on the vertical structure of a magnetized neutrino-dominated accretion disk as a central engine for gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). Some of the disk physical timescales that are supposed to play a pivotal role in the late-time evolutions of the disk, such as viscous, cooling, and diffusion timescales, have been studied. We are interested in investigating the possibility of the occurrence of X-ray flares, observed in late-time GRBs’ extended emission through the “magnetic barrier” and “fragmentation” processes in our model. The results lead us to interpret self-gravity as an amplifier for Blandford–Payne luminosity (BP power) and the generated magnetic field, but a suppressor for neutrino luminosity and magnetic barrier processes via highlighting the fragmentation mechanism in the outer disk, especially for the higher mass accretion rates.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Inverse Compton Cooling in the Coronae of Simulated Black Hole Accretion Flows

Here we present a formulation for a local cooling function to be employed in the diffuse, hot corona region of 3D GRMHD simulations of accreting black holes. This new cooling function calculates the cooling rate due to inverse Compton scattering by considering the relevant microphysics in each cell in the corona and approximating the radiation energy density and Compton temperature thereby integrating over the thermal seed photon flux from the disk surface. The method either assumes the ion and electron temperatures are equal (1T) or calculates them separately (2T) using an instantaneous equilibrium approach predicated on the actual relevant rate equations (Coulomb and Compton). The method is shown to be consistent with a more detailed ray-tracing calculation where the bulk of the cooling occurs, but is substantially less costly to perform. As an example, we apply these methods to a harm3d simulation of a 10M⊙, non-spinning black hole, accreting at nominally 1% the Eddington value. This new approach leads to radiative efficiency values sime65% above Novikov–Thorne, with a larger fraction of total cooling in the corona as compared to simulations performed using the original target-temperature cooling function. Time-averaged post-processing reveals that the continuum spectral observations predicted from these simulations are qualitatively similar to actual X-ray binary data, especially so for the 1T approach, which yields a harder power-law component (Γ = 2.25) compared to the 2T version (Γ = 2.53).

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Circumbinary Disk Accretion into Spinning Black Hole Binaries

Supermassive black hole binaries are likely to accrete interstellar gas through a circumbinary disk. Shortly before merger, the inner portions of this circumbinary disk are subject to general relativistic effects. To study this regime, we approximate the spacetime metric of close orbiting black holes by superimposing two boosted Kerr–Schild terms. After demonstrating the quality of this approximation, we carry out very long-term general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulations of the circumbinary disk. We consider black holes with spin dimensionless parameters of magnitude 0.9, in one simulation parallel to the orbital angular momentum of the binary, but in another anti-parallel. These are contrasted with spinless simulations. We find that, for a fixed surface mass density in the inner circumbinary disk, aligned spins of this magnitude approximately reduce the mass accretion rate by 14% and counter-aligned spins increase it by 45%, leaving many other disk properties unchanged.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Emergent Nucleosynthesis from a 1.2 s Long Simulation of a Black Hole Accretion Disk

Abstract We simulate a black hole accretion disk system with full-transport general relativistic neutrino radiation magnetohydrodynamics for 1.2 s. This system is likely to form after the merger of two compact objects and is thought to be a robust site of r -process nucleosynthesis. We consider the case of a black hole accretion disk arising from the merger of two neutron stars. Our simulation time coincides with the nucleosynthesis timescale of the r -process (∼1 s). Because these simulations are time-consuming, it is common practice to run for a “short” duration of approximately 0.1–0.3 s. We analyze the nucleosynthetic outflow from this system and compare the results of stopping at 0.12 and 1.2 s. We find that the addition of mass ejected in the longer simulation as well as more favorable thermodynamic conditions from emergent viscous ejecta greatly impacts the nucleosynthetic outcome. We quantify the error in nucleosynthetic outcomes between short and long cuts.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2017

Ringed Accretion Disks: Evolution of Double Toroidal Configurations

We investigate ringed accretion disks composed of two tori (rings) orbiting on the equatorial plane of a central supermassive Kerr black hole. We discuss the emergence of the instability phases of each ring of the macro-configuration (ringed disk) according to the Paczynski violation of mechanical equilibrium. In the full general relativistic treatment, we consider the effects of the geometry of the Kerr spacetimes relevant to the characterization of the evolution of these configurations. The discussion of ring stability in different spacetimes enables us to identify particular classes of central Kerr attractors depending on their dimensionless spin. As a result of this analysis, we set constraints on the evolutionary schemes of the ringed disks relative to the torus morphology and on their rotation relative to the central black hole and to each other. The dynamics of the unstable phases of this system is significant for the high-energy phenomena related to accretion onto supermassive black holes in active galactic nuclei and the extremely energetic phenomena in quasars, which could be observed in their X-ray emission.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2016

ON THE LAMPPOST MODEL OF ACCRETING BLACK HOLES

We study the lamppost model, in which the X-ray source in accreting black hole (BH) systems is located on the rotation axis close to the horizon. We point out a number of inconsistencies in the widely used lamppost model relxilllp, e.g., neglecting the redshift of the photons emitted by the lamppost that are directly observed. They appear to invalidate those model fitting results for which the source distances from the horizon are within several gravitational radii. Furthermore, if those results were correct, most of the photons produced in the lamppost would be trapped by the BH, and the luminosity generated in the source as measured at infinity would be much larger than that observed. This appears to be in conflict with the observed smooth state transitions between the hard and soft states of X-ray binaries. The required increase of the accretion rate and the associated efficiency reduction also present a problem for active galactic nuclei. Then, those models imply the luminosity measured in the local frame is much higher than that produced in the source and measured at infinity, due to the additional effects of time dilation and redshift, and the electron temperature is significantly higher than that observed. We show that these conditions imply that the fitted sources would be out of the e{sup ±} pair equilibrium. On the other hand, the above issues pose relatively minor problems for sources at large distances from the BH, where relxilllp can still be used.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2017

A High-mass Protobinary System with Spatially Resolved Circumstellar Accretion Disks and Circumbinary Disk

High-mass multiples might form via fragmentation of self-gravitational disks or alternative scenarios such as disk-assisted capture. However, only a few observational constraints exist on the architecture and disk structure of high-mass protobinaries and their accretion properties. Here, we report the discovery of a close (57.9 ± 0.2 mas = 170 au) high-mass protobinary, IRAS17216-3801, where our VLTI/GRAVITY+AMBER near-infrared interferometry allows us to image the circumstellar disks around the individual components with ∼3 mas resolution. We estimate the component masses to ∼20 and ∼18 M {sub ⊙} and find that the radial intensity profiles can be reproduced with an irradiated disk model, where the inner regions are excavated of dust, likely tracing the dust sublimation region in these disks. The circumstellar disks are strongly misaligned with respect to the binary separation vector, which indicates that the tidal forces did not have time to realign the disks, pointing toward a young dynamical age of the system. We constrain the distribution of the Br γ and CO-emitting gas using VLTI/GRAVITY spectro-interferometry and VLT/CRIRES spectro-astrometry and find that the secondary is accreting at a higher rate than the primary. VLT/NACO imaging shows L ′-band emission on (3–4)× larger scales than the binary separation, matching the expected dynamical truncation radius for the circumbinary disk. The IRAS17216-3801 system is ∼3× more massive and ∼5× more compact than other high-mass multiplies imaged at infrared wavelength and the first high-mass protobinary system where circumstellar and circumbinary dust disks could be spatially resolved. This opens exciting new opportunities for studying star–disk interactions and the role of multiplicity in high-mass star formation.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
NASA NTRS2009

V3885 Sagittarius: A Comparison With a Range of Standard Model Accretion Disks

A chi-squared analysis of standard model accretion disk synthetic spectrum fits to combined Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer and Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph spectra of V3885 Sagittarius, on an absolute flux basis, selects a model that accurately represents the observed spectral energy distribution. Calculation of the synthetic spectrum requires the following system parameters. The cataclysmic variable secondary star period-mass relation calibrated by Knigge in 2006 and 2007 sets the secondary component mass. A mean white dwarf (WD) mass from the same study, which is consistent with an observationally determined mass ratio, sets the adopted WD mass of 0.7M(solar mass), and the WD radius follows from standard theoretical models. The adopted inclination, i = 65 deg, is a literature consensus, and is subsequently supported by chi-squared analysis. The mass transfer rate is the remaining parameter to set the accretion disk T(sub eff) profile, and the Hipparcos parallax constrains that parameter to mas transfer = (5.0 +/- 2.0) x 10(exp -9) M(solar mass)/yr by a comparison with observed spectra. The fit to the observed spectra adopts the contribution of a 57,000 +/- 5000 K WD. The model thus provides realistic constraints on mass transfer and T(sub eff) for a large mass transfer system above the period gap.

MASS TRANSFER RATE↗
NASA NTRS2012

FUV Emission from AGB Stars: Modeling Accretion Activity Associated with a Binary Companion

It is widely believed that the late stages of evolution for Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) stars are influenced by the presence of binary companions. Unfortunately, there is a lack of direct observational evidence of binarity. However, more recently, strong indirect evidence comes from the discovery of UV emission in a subsample of these objects (fuvAGB stars). AGB stars are comparatively cool objects (< or =3000 K), thus their fluxes falls off drastically for wavelengths 3000 Angstroms and shorter. Therefore, ultraviolet observations offer an important, new technique for detecting the binary companions and/or associated accretion activity. We develop new models of UV emission from fuvAGB stars constrained by GALEX photometry and spectroscopy of these objects. We compare the GALEX UV grism spectra of the AGB M7 star EY Hya to predictions using the spectral synthesis code Cloudy, specifically investigating the ultraviolet wavelength range (1344-2831 Angstroms). We investigate models composed of contributions from a photoionized "hot spot" due to accretion activity around the companion, and "chromospheric" emission from collisionally ionized plasma, to fit the UV observations.

ultraviolet emission↗
NASA NTRS2016

Nustar Reveals the Extreme Properties of the Super-Eddington Accreting Supermassive Black Hole in PG 1247+267

PG1247+267 is one of the most luminous known quasars at z approximately 2 and is a strongly super-Eddington accreting supermassive black hole (SMBH) candidate. We obtained NuSTAR data of this intriguing source in December 2014 with the aim of studying its high-energy emission, leveraging the broad band covered by the new NuSTAR and the archival XMM-Newton data. Several measurements are in agreement with the super-Eddington scenario for PG1247+267: the soft power law (gamma = 2.3 +/- 0.1); the weak ionized Fe emission line; and a hint of the presence of outflowing ionized gas surrounding the SMBH. The presence of an extreme reflection component is instead at odds with the high accretion rate proposed for this quasar. This can be explained with three different scenarios; all of them are in good agreement with the existing data, but imply very different conclusions: i) a variable primary power law observed in a low state, superimposed on a reflection component echoing a past, higher flux state; ii) a power law continuum obscured by an ionized, Compton thick, partial covering absorber; and iii) a relativistic disk reflector in a lamp-post geometry, with low coronal height and high BH spin. The first model is able to explain the high reflection component in terms of variability. The second does not require any reflection to reproduce the hard emission, while a rather low high-energy cutoff of approximately 100 keV is detected for the first time in such a high redshift source. The third model require a face-on geometry, which may affect the SMBH mass and Eddington ratio measurements. Deeper X-ray broad-band data are required in order to distinguish between these possibilities.

accretion disks↗
NASA NTRS2017

Ice Accretion Roughness Measurements and Modeling

Roughness on aircraft ice accretions is very important to the overall ice accretion process and to the resulting degradation in aircraft aerodynamic performance. Roughness enhances the local convection leading to more rapid ice accumulation rates, and roughness generates local flow perturbations that lead to higher skin friction. This paper presents 1) a review of the developments in ice shape three-dimensional laser scanning developed at NASA Glenn, 2) a review of the approach of McClain and Kreeger employed to characterize ice roughness evolution on an airfoil surface, and 3) a review of the experimental efforts that have been performed over the last five years to characterize, scale, and model ice roughness evolution physics.

SLD↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Additional Large-Drop Ice Accretion Test Results for a Large Scale Swept Wing Section from January 2022

In-flight icing is an important consideration that affects aircraft design, performance, certification and safety. Newer regulations combined with increasing demand to reduce fuel burn, emissions and noise are driving a need for improvements in icing simulation capability. To that end, this paper presents the results of additional ice accretion testing conducted in the NASA Icing Research Tunnel in January 2022 with a large swept wing section typical of a modern commercial transport. The model was based upon a section of the Common Research Model wing at the 64% semispan station with a streamwise chord length of 136 in. The test conditions were developed with an icing scaling analysis to generate similar conditions for a small median volumetric diameter (MVD) = 25 μm cloud and a large MVD = 110 μm cloud. A series of tests were conducted over a range of total temperature from -23.8 ˚C to -1.4 ˚C with all other conditions held constant. Another series of tests explored cloud MVD variations from 50 μm to 230 μm while holding constant certain scaling parameters. The variation in ice mass and scanned ice volume across repeat conditions was approximately 50% lower than the uncertainty in the cloud MVD and liquid water content. The measured ice mass and volume calculated from the 3D scans were used to compute the mass to volume ratio that is sometimes referred to as ice density or void fraction. When the ice volume based on the ice shape maximum combined cross section was used to determine this ratio, the resulting values were in the range of 240 to 455 kg/m 3 . This is consistent with analogous values previously reported in the literature. The ice shape mass and volume increased with MVD from 50 to 230 μm at fixed values of the scaling parameters. The ice mass to volume ratio was approximately constant for all of the cases which showed that the accreted mass and volume increased at approximately the same rate. These results demonstrate the significance of cloud MVD on ice shape mass and volume.

Ice accretion, Large drops, Wind tunnel↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Additional Large-Drop Ice Accretion Test Results for a Large Scale Swept Wing Section from January 2022

In-flight icing is an important consideration that affects aircraft design, performance, certification and safety. Newer regulations combined with increasing demand to reduce fuel burn, emissions and noise are driving a need for improvements in icing simulation capability. To that end, this paper presents the results of additional ice accretion testing conducted in the NASA Icing Research Tunnel in January 2022 with a large swept wing section typical of a modern commercial transport. The model was based upon a section of the Common Research Model wing at the 64% semispan station with a streamwise chord length of 136 in. The test conditions were developed with an icing scaling analysis to generate similar conditions for a small median volumetric diameter (MVD) = 25 μm cloud and a large MVD = 110 μm cloud. A series of tests were conducted over a range of total temperature from -23.8 ˚C to -1.4 ˚C with all other conditions held constant. Another series of tests explored cloud MVD variations from 50 μm to 230 μm while holding constant certain scaling parameters. The variation in ice mass and scanned ice volume across repeat conditions was approximately 50% lower than the uncertainty in the cloud MVD and liquid water content. The measured ice mass and volume calculated from the 3D scans were used to compute the mass to volume ratio that is sometimes referred to as ice density or void fraction. When the ice volume based on the ice shape maximum combined cross section was used to determine this ratio, the resulting values were in the range of 240 to 455 kg/m3. This is consistent with analogous values previously reported in the literature. The ice shape mass and volume increased with MVD from 50 to 230 μm at fixed values of the scaling parameters. The ice mass to volume ratio was approximately constant for all of the cases which showed that the accreted mass and volume increased at approximately the same rate. These results demonstrate the significance of cloud MVD on ice shape mass and volume.

Ice accretion↗
NASA NTRS2023

A polarimetrically oriented X-ray stare at the accreting pulsar EXO 2030+375

Accreting X-ray pulsars (XRPs) are presumed to be ideal targets for polarization measurements, as their high magnetic field strength is expected to polarize the emission up to a polarization degree of ∼80%. However, such expectations are being challenged by recent observations of XRPs with the Imaging X-ray Polarimeter Explorer (IXPE). Here, we report on the results of yet another XRP, namely, EXO 2030+375, observed with IXPE and contemporarily monitored with Insight-HXMT and SRG/ART-XC. In line with recent results obtained with IXPE for similar sources, an analysis of the EXO 2030+375 data returns a low polarization degree of 0%–3% in the phase-averaged study and a variation in the range of 2%–7% in the phase-resolved study. Using the rotating vector model, we constrained the geometry of the system and obtained a value of ∼60° for the magnetic obliquity. When considering the estimated pulsar inclination of ∼130°, this also indicates that the magnetic axis swings close to the observer’s line of sight. Our joint polarimetric, spectral, and timing analyses hint toward a complex accreting geometry, whereby magnetic multipoles with an asymmetric topology and gravitational light bending significantly affect the behavior of the observed source.

EXO 2030+375↗
DOE OSTI2015

Relationship between star formation rate and black hole accretion at z=3: the different contributions in quiescent, normal, and starburst galaxies

We investigate the co-evolution of the black hole accretion rate (BHAR) and the star formation rate (SFR) in 1.5<z<2.5 galaxies displaying a greater diversity of star-forming properties compared to previous studies. We combine X-ray stacking and far-IR photometry of stellar mass-limited samples of normal star-forming, starburst, and quiescent/quenched galaxies in the COSMOS field. We corroborate the existence of a strong correlation between BHAR (i.e., the X-ray luminosity, L{sub X}) and stellar mass (M{sub *}) for normal star-forming galaxies, though we find a steeper relation than previously reported. We find that starbursts show a factor of three enhancement in BHAR compared to normal SF galaxies (against a factor of six excess in SFR), while quiescents show a deficit of a factor times 5.5 at a given mass. One possible interpretation of this is that the starburst phase does not coincide with cosmologically relevant BH growth, or that starburst-inducing mergers are more efficient at boosting SFR than BHAR. Contrary to studies based on smaller samples, we find that the BHAR/SFR ratio of main-sequence (MS) galaxies is not mass invariant, but scales weakly as M{sub ∗}{sup 0.43±0.09}, implying faster BH growth in more massive galaxies at z∼2. Furthermore, BHAR/SFR during the starburst is a factor of two lower than in MS galaxies, at odds with the predictions of hydrodynamical simulations of merger galaxies that foresee a sudden enhancement of L{sub X}/SFR during the merger. Finally, we estimate that the bulk of the accretion density of the universe at z∼2 is associated with normal star-forming systems, with only ∼6(±1)% and ∼11(±1)% associated with starburst and quiescent galaxies, respectively.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2018

Ambient Noise Tomography Images Accreted Terranes and Igneous Provinces in Hispaniola and Puerto Rico

The North American-Caribbean plate boundary near the islands of Hispaniola and Puerto Rico is a complex region in which strain is accommodated by different modes of deformation. In 2013, 16 broadband stations were deployed in the Dominican Republic to densify the local permanent network. One goal is to combine their data with those from permanent networks in the Caribbean to develop a better understanding of the crust and upper mantle structure in the Greater Antilles. Here we use the records of 204 stations spanning almost 7 years of data to obtain group velocity maps. We observe at short periods the contacts between accreted terranes and the igneous provinces of Hispaniola and Puerto Rico, at longer periods the collisional boundary between the buoyant Bahamas Carbonate Platform and Hispaniola, and the transition from Hispaniola's accreted terranes to the faster lithosphere of the Venezuelan Basin and Cayman Trough.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2013

m-Accretive extensions of a sectorial operator

A description of all the maximal accretive extensions and their resolvents is given for a densely defined closed sectorial operator in terms of abstract boundary conditions. These results are applied to parametrize all the m-accretive extensions of a symmetric operator in a planar model of one-centre point interaction. Bibliography: 40 titles.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗