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At least 1,063 records · Page 59
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1984

Elevated temperature compressive steady state deformation and failure in the oxide dispersion strengthened alloy MA 6000E

The compressive flow strength-strain rate behavior of the oxide-dispersion-strengthened alloy MA 6000E has been studied in the temperature range 1144-1366 K, with strain rates ranging from 2.1 x 10 to the -5th to 2.1 x 10 to the -7th per s. It is found that the inherent strength of the alloy is essentially the same in all test directions and that the low strength observed in tensile tests results from the inability of grain boundaries to support high tensile stresses. The failure of MA 6000E under high-temperature, slow plastic flow conditions is shown to be the result of concentrated slip. Slow plastic deformation in MA 6000E can be described by a threshold stress model of creep where threshold stresses are calculated from relatively fast testing procedures and the effective stress exponent for creep is assumed to be 3.5.

Whittenberger, J. D.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Detection of low frequency impulsive noise from large wind turbine generators

The thresholds of detection of low frequency, impulsive wind turbine sounds in the presence of background noise were examined. Seven wind turbine sounds, six of which were synthesized, were used in conjunction with three background noise conditions; quiet, 35, and 45 dB(A). The results indicate that thresholds of detection are predictable based on assumed characteristics of the auditory system. The synthesized wind turbine sounds were found to adequately represent a real recording.

Shepherd, K. P.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Space station crew safety: Human factors interaction model

A model of the various human factors issues and interactions that might affect crew safety is developed. The first step addressed systematically the central question: How is this space station different from all other spacecraft? A wide range of possible issue was identified and researched. Five major topics of human factors issues that interacted with crew safety resulted: Protocols, Critical Habitability, Work Related Issues, Crew Incapacitation and Personal Choice. Second, an interaction model was developed that would show some degree of cause and effect between objective environmental or operational conditions and the creation of potential safety hazards. The intermediary steps between these two extremes of causality were the effects on human performance and the results of degraded performance. The model contains three milestones: stressor, human performance (degraded) and safety hazard threshold. Between these milestones are two countermeasure intervention points. The first opportunity for intervention is the countermeasure against stress. If this countermeasure fails, performance degrades. The second opportunity for intervention is the countermeasure against error. If this second countermeasure fails, the threshold of a potential safety hazard may be crossed.

Cohen, M. M.↗
NASA NTRS1984

SARSAT 121.5/243 MHz technical evaluation

The NOAA 8 SARSAT system performance was tested at 121.5/243 MHz to measure detection probability, detection threshold, location accuracy, ambiguity resolution, and multiple access capacity. Detection probability exceeds 0.95 for a single satellite pass. Detection threshold margin varies from 2 dB (243 MHz, incoherent) to 20 dB (121.5, coherent). Position location error is 20 km 68% of the time. Ambiguity is resolved 75% of the time. The system can locate 10 separate test signals.

Hayes, E. J.↗
NASA NTRS1985

A solid-state framework for terrestrial upper mantles

A framework is proposed for understanding the upper mantle structure of the terrestrial planets which is based on solid state dislocation processes. It is proposed that the base of the lithosphere on any planet with a Mg-Fe silicate rich upper mantle is defined by the threshold temperatures of low energy dislocation glide systems in olivine and the pyroxenes. This threshold temperature is approximately 1100 to 1200 K and is directly tied to the mobility of olivine and pyroxene dislocations. Using this definition, all terrestrial planets of the Inner Solar System are expected to have mantle lithospheres. Second, the anomalous properties of the asthenosphere in the Earth are related to the rheological properties of an olivine rich differentiate approximately 220 km thick. All of these properties can be the result of the abundant low energy glide systems in olivine which are mobile at temperatures above approximately 1200 K. It is proposed that a true planetary asthenosphere must be both olivine rich and at temperatures above approximately 1200 K. This mode for the asthenosphere does not require partial melting and is therefore less sensitive to the constraints of volatile content in the upper mantle. The thickness of planetary lithospheres is estimated as is maximum thickness of the olivine rich differentiate on each planet. The cooling of the olivine rich layer on Mars (and hence disappearance of the asthenosphere) may coincide with the cessation of global tectonic activity approximately 1 Gyr ago.

Estey, L.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Secondary antiproton production in relativistic plasmas

The possibility is investigated that the reported excess low energy antiproton component of the cosmic radiation results from proton-proton (p-p) interactions in relativistic plasmas. Because of both target and projectile motion in such plasmas, the antiproton production threshold in the frame of the plasma is much lower than the threshold of antiproton production in cosmic ray interactions with ambient matter. The spectrum of the resultant antiprotons therefore extends to much lower energy than in the cosmic ray case. The antiproton spectrum is calculated for relativistic thermal plasmas and the spectrum is estimated for relativistic nonthermal plasmas. As possible production sites, matter accreting onto compact objects located in the galaxy is considered. Possible overproduction of gamma rays from associated neutral pion production can be avoided if the site is optically thick to the photons but not to the antiprotons. A possible scenario involves a sufficiently large photon density that the neutral pion gamma rays are absorbed by photon-photon pair production. Escape of the antiprotons to the interstellar medium can be mediated by antineutron production.

Dermer, C. D.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Observation of cosmic ray positrons from 5 to 25 GeV

The positron data gathered in conjunction with electron data published elsewhere is reported. The basic recognition scheme was to look for low mass positive particles that cause a cascade in a 7 radiation length shower counter. The mass criteria is imposed by selecting particles that were accompanied by Cherenkov light but whose rigidity was below the proton Cherenkov threshold. Thus the proton Cherenkov threshold represents an upper limit to the range of the experiment.

Golden, R. L.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Temporal variations of the anomalous oxygen component, 1977 - 1984

A survey is of the long term temporal variations of 6.6 to 12 MeV/nucleon anomalous oxygen at 1 AU covering the period 1977 to 1984. This time interval included the recent solar maximum, with the recovery at neutron monitor energies beginning in 1982. During this time interval, 6.6 to 12 MeV/nucleon 0 fluxes decreased by at least a factor of 50, and indeed remained below the instrumental detection threshold after 1979. By late 1984, neutron monitors had recovered to roughly 1979 levels from the 1982 solar maximum, and anomalous O still remained below the detection threshold.

Mason, G. M.↗
NASA NTRS1985

High sensitive X-ray films to detect electron showers in 100 GeV region

Nonscreen type X-ray films were used in emulsion chamber experiments to detect high energy showers in cosmic rays. Ranges of the detection threshold is from about 1 to 2 TeV depending on the exposure conditions. Different types of X-ray films and sheets i.e. high sensitive screen type X-ray films and luminescence sheets were tested. The threshold of the shower detection is found to be about 200 GeV, which is much lower than that of nonscreen type X-ray films. These films are useful to detect showers in the medium energy range, a few hundred GeV, of the cosmic ray electrons.

Taira, T.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Average features of the muon component of EAS or = 10(17) eV

Three 10 sq m liquid scintillators were situated at approximately 0 m, 150 m and 250 m from the center of the Haverah Park array. The detectors were shielded by lead/barytes giving muon detection thresholds of 317 MeV, 431 MeV and 488 MeV respectively. During part of the operational period the 431 MeV threshold was lowered to 313 MeV for comparison purposes. For risetime measurement fast phototubes were used and the 10% to 70% amplitude time interval was parameterized by T sub 70. A muon lateral density distribution of the form rho mu (R theta) = krho(500)0.94 1/R(1 + R/490)-eta has been fitted to the data for 120 m R 600 m and 0.27 (500) 2.55. The shower size parameter (500) is the water Cerenkov response at 500 m from the core of the extensive air showers (EAS) and is relatable to the primary energy. The results show general consistency.

Blake, P. R.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Black hole accretion disks - Coronal stabilization of the Lightman-Eardley instability

Physical processes by which the presence of a corona around a black hole can raise the threshold of onset of the Lightman-Eardley (L-E, 1976) instability are explored analytically. The L-E model predicts that an optically thick disk becomes unstable when the disk radiation pressure exceeds the disk gas pressure. The model has important implications for the validity of either the coronal disk or two-temperature disk models for accretion zones around black holes. It is shown that a corona can dissipate accreting gravitational energy through radiative cooling. Specific ratios of hard/soft X-rays are quantified for stable and unstable conditions. X-ray spectra from Cyg X-1 are cited as residing below the instability threshold value and thus are supportive of the coronal disk model.

Ionson, J. A.↗
NASA NTRS1983

Edge discrimination as applied to Thematic Mapper data

An evaluation of suitable edge discrimination techniques and their application to image segmentation is reported. From an analysis of Thematic Mapper Simulator data, it is concluded that segmentation by automated edge discrimination is a valuable technique which can be used in the development of per-field classifiers. A Laplacian convolution operator appears to be the most cost-effective high-pass filter. Spatial frequency domain filtering is more versatile in its ability to enhance different edge types. A simple global gray value threshold can produce good edge discrimination from an enhanced image which may be improved by using a local thresholding technique. A gap-fill postprocessing technique is necessary for useful segmentation. Gradient and other directionally dependent techniques are unsuitable for segmentation.

Hall, J. R.↗
NASA NTRS1984

A summary of JPL single event upset test data from May 1982, through January 1984

A summary of single event upset data for 42 device types (including RAMs, 4-bit slices, microprocessors, 4-bit counters, and flip-flops) studied at 11 different accelerator tests (performed chiefly with the Berkeley 88-inch cyclotron and the Cal Tech Van de Graaff) is presented. All bipolar and NMOS RAMs were found to be SEU sensitive, some with very low LET thresholds. Some CMOS or CMOS/SOS RAMs were hard; and the CMOS microprocessors were hard, but the bipolar and NMOS microprocessors were soft. Several devices were found to exhibit a cross section that depends strongly on LET, even when the LET is well above the LET threshold. A ranking of hardness is presented for the logic devices tested.

Nichols, D. K.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Radiation effects response data for synthetic organic insulation and dielectrics

Existing radiation response data for 130 materials of the synthetic organic insulation and dielectric class are analyzed, and thresholds and 25-percent change dose levels for these materials are presented. Both the lowest reported threshold dose (LTD) and the 25-percent change dose level are found to vary widely among the different insulators (used as spacecraft components). The LTD is tabulated to indicate the levels where radiation effects become apparent. These level are of use in setting a lower limit where changes can be expected, and could be used to exempt synthetic insulation and dielectrics from radiation considerations when the environments are substantially below this limit. Cautions to be observed in applying the data to current problems are presented.

Bouquet, F. L.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Electron trapping in rad-hard RCA IC's irradiated with electrons and gamma rays

Enhanced electron trapping has been observed in n-channels of rad-hard CMOS devices due to electron and gamma-ray irradiation. Room-temperature annealing results in a positive shift in the threshold potential far beyond its initial value. The slope of the annealing curve immediately after irradiation was found to depend strongly on the gate bias applied during irradiation. Some dependence was also observed on the electron dose rate. No clear dependence on energy and shielding over a delidded device was observed. The threshold shift is probably due to electron trapping at the radiation-induced interface states and tunneling of electrons through the oxide-silicon energy barrier to fill the radiation-induced electron traps. A mathematical analysis, based on two parallel annealing kinetics, hole annealing and electron trapping, is applied to the data for various electron dose rates.

Danchenko, V.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Electromagnetic ion beam instabilities - Hot beams at interplanetary shocks

This paper considers Vlasov instabilities driven by a very hot ion beam streaming parallel to a magnetic field. The linear theory of electromagnetic instabilities driven by such a beam in a homogeneous, collisionless, nonrelativistic plasma is used. Numerical solutions of the full linear dispersion equation for bi-Maxwellian distribution functions are presented. If the thermal speed of the beam is greater than its drift speed, the two dominant modes are the right-hand and left-hand resonant ion beam instabilities. The parametric dependencies of the threshold drift speeds and growth rates for both modes are presented. In particular, the thresholds are shown to be sensitive functions of the beam temperature anisotropies. Arguments are presented that these two modes are driven by the suprathermal ion component at interplanetary shocks, and that the growth of these modes is sufficient to account for the amplitudes of MHD-like waves observed at such shocks.

Gary, S. P.↗
NASA NTRS1985

The temporal evolution of 3-m striations in the modified ionosphere

Experiments were performed at Arecibo, Puerto Rico, to investigate the evolution times of 3-m field-aligned striations produced in the ionosphere by powerful high-frequency (HF) radio waves. The results of this investigation are now summarized. First, the striations' rise times are dependent on the HF electric field. The E region data suggest that this dependence is nonlinear. Second, the threshold value of the HF electric field required to produce detectable striations was experimentally determined. At threshold the component of the HF electric field perpendicular to the geomagnetic field is calculated to be 0.09 V/m in the F region and 0.37 V/m in the E region. Third, both the E and the F region data verify theoretical predictions that the striations' decay times are directly proportional to the electron diffusion across B. Finally, a one-to-one correspondence between the growth of the 3-m striations and the decline of the HF-enhanced plasma line during overshoot is sometimes observed.

Coster, A. J.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Influence of precracked specimen configuration and starting stress intensity on the stress corrosion cracking of 4340 steel

Experimental results are presented from a study of the effects of precracked specimen configuration and initial starting stress intensity on crack growth rate and threshold stress intensity, for both onset of cracking and crack arrest. Attention is given to AISI 4340 steel in a 3.5-percent NaCl solution, for configurations of a single edge-cracked specimen tested in cantilever bending under constant load, and a modified compact specimen bolt loaded to a constant deflection. The threshold stress intensity value determined was independent of specimen configuration, if the stress intensity value associated with the compact specimen is taken where the discontinuous break occurs in the velocity-stress intensity curve.

Lisagor, W. B.↗