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NASA NTRS2010

Possible Influences of Air Pollution, Dust and Sandstorms on the Indian Monsoon

In Asian monsoon countries, such as China and India, human health and safety problems caused by air pollution are becoming increasingly serious, due to the increased loading of atmospheric pollutants from waste gas emissions and from rising energy demand associated with the rapid pace of industrialization and modernization. Meanwhile, uneven distribution of monsoon rain associated with flash floods or prolonged drought, has caused major loss of human life and damage to crops and.property with devastating societal impacts. Historically, air-pollution and monsoons research are treated as separate problems. However recent studies have suggested that the two problems may be intrinsically linked and need to be studied jointly. Fundamentally, aerosols can affect precipitation through radiative effects cif suspended particles in the atmosphere (direct effect) and/or by interfering and changing: the cloud and precipitation formation processes (indirect effect). Based on their optical properties, aerosols can be classified into two types.: those that absorb solar radiation, and those that do not. Both types of aerosols scatter sunlight and reduce the amount of solar radiation from reaching the Earth's surface, causing it to cool. The surface cooling increases atmospheric stability and reduces convection potential, Absorbing aerosols, however, in addition to cooling the surface, can heat the atmosphere. The heating of the atmosphere may reduce the amount of low clouds by increased evaporation in cloud drops. The heating, however, may induce rising motion, enhance low-level moisture, convergence and, hence, increases rainfall, The latent heating from enhanced rainfall may excite feedback processes in the large-scale circulation, further amplify.the initial response to aerosol heating and producing more rain. Additionally, aerosols can increase the concentration of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN), increase cloud amount and decrease coalescence and collision rates, leading to reduced precipitation. However, in the presence of increasing moist and warm air, the reduced coalescence/collision may lead to supercooled drops at higher altitudes where ice precipitation falls and melts. The latent heat release from freezing aloft and melting below implies greater upward heat transport in polluted clouds and invigorate deep convection. In this way, aerosols may lead to increased local convection. Hence, depending on the ambient large-scale conditions and dynamical feedback processes, aerosols' effect on precipitation can be positive, negative or mixed. In the Asian monsoon and adjacent regions, the aerosol forcing and responses of the water cycle are even more complex, Both direct and indirect effects may take place locally and simultaneously, interacting with each other. in addition to local effects, monsoon rainfall may be affected by aerosols transported from other regions and intensified through large-scale circulation and moisture feedback. Thus, dust transported by the large-scale circulation from the adjacent deserts to northern India may affect rainfall over the Bay of Bengal; sulphate and black carbon front industrial pollution in central, southern China and northern India may affect the rainfall regime over the Korean peninsula and Japan; organic and black carbon front biomass burning from Indo-China may modulate the pre-monsoon rainfall regime over southern China and coastal regions, contributing to variability in differential heating and cooling of the atmosphere and to the land-sea thermal contrast. During the pre-monsoon season and monsoon breaks, it has been suggested that radiative forcing by absorbing aerosols have nearly the same order of magnitude as the forcing due to latent heating from convection and surface fluxes. The magnitude of the total aerosol radiative cooling due to sulphates and soot is of the order of 20-40 W/m2 over the Asian monsoon land region in the pre-monsoon season, compared to about 1-2 W/m2 for global warng. However, the combined forcing at the surface and in the atmosphere, including all species. if aerosols, and details of aerosol mixing, and impacts on the energy and water cycles in the monsoon land regions, are not well known.

Lau, William K. M.↗

DOE OSTI2022

A reinvestigation into Munson’s model for room closure in bedded rock salt

Accurate predictions of room closure are important for hazardous waste repositories in rock salt formations, such as the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). When Munson and co-workers simulated several room closure experiments conducted at the WIPP during the 1980’s and 1990’s, their simulated closure curves closely agreed with the closure measurements. A careful review of their work, however, raised concerns and prompted the reinvestigation in this paper. Here, to begin the reinvestigation, Munson’s legacy Room D closure simulation was reasonably recreated in a current-day finite element code. Next, special care was taken to obtain numerically converged results, re-introduce the anhydrite strata intermittently ignored by Munson, and calibrate the Munson–Dawson (M–D) constitutive model for salt as much as possible from laboratory test measurements. When this new model was used to simulate Room D’s closure, it under-predicted the horizontal and vertical closure rates by 2.34x and 3.10x, respectively, at 5.7 years after room excavation. As a result, the M–D model was extended to capture the newly established creep behavior at low equivalent stresses (<8 MPa) and replace the Tresca with the Hosford equivalent stress. Simulations using the new M–D model over-predicted the horizontal closure rate by 1.15x and under-predicted the vertical closure rate by 1.08x at 5.7 years, averaged over three room closure experiments. Although further improvements could be made, the new model has a stronger scientific foundation than Munson’s legacy model and appears ready for careful engineering use.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2023

Muon capture on deuteron using local chiral potentials

The muon capture reaction μ – + d → n + n + ν μ in the doublet hyperfine state is studied using nuclear potentials and consistent currents derived in the chiral effective field theory, which are local and expressed in coordinate space (the so-called Norfolk models). Only the largest contribution due to the 1 S 0 nn scattering state is considered. Particular attention is given to the estimate of theoretical uncertainty, for which four sources have been identified: 1) the model dependence, 2) the chiral-order convergence for the weak nuclear current, 3) the uncertainty in the single-nucleon axial form factor, and 4) the numerical technique adopted to solve the bound and scattering A = 2 systems. This last source of uncertainty has turned out to be essentially negligible. For the 1 S 0 doublet muon capture rate Γ D ( 1 S 0 ), we obtain Γ D ( 1 S 0 ) = 255.8(0.6) (4.4)(2.9) s –1 , where the three errors come from the first three sources of uncertainty. The value for Γ D ( 1 S 0 ) obtained within this local chiral framework is compared with previous calculations and found in very good agreement.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

NASA NTRS1981

Flow and acoustic properties of low Reynolds number supersonic underexpanded jets

Flow and acoustic measurements are made of cold model jets exhausting from a choked nozzle at pressure conditions corresponding to those of Mach 1.4 and 2.1 jets to investigate noise production properties of underexpanded supersonic jets. Mean flow measurements are made using pitot and static pressure probes, with flow fluctuation measurements made with a hot-wire probe and acoustic measurements made with a transversing microphone. Two convergent nozzles with exit diameters of 7.0 and 7.9 mm are used with an exciter consisting of a 0.8 mm tungsten electrode positioned 2 mm from the exit. Shock structure is observed as having a significant effect on the development of the flow field, while large-scale instabilities have higher growth rates in the shock containing underexpanded jets. The role of the asymmetric n = + or - 1 sinusoidal instability is clarified, and results suggest that the broadband shock associated noise of conventional high Reynolds number jets is not related to large-scale jet instability.

Hu, T. F.↗

NASA NTRS1984

Multigrid applications to three-dimensional elliptic coordinate generation

The multigrid algorithm was applied to solve the coupled set of elliptic quasilinear partial differential equations associated with three-dimensional coordinate generation. The results indicate that the multigrid scheme is more than twice as fast as conventional relaxation schemes on moderate-size grids. Convergence factors of order 0.90 per work unit were achieved on 36,000-point grids. The paper covers the form of transformation, develops the set of generation equations, and gives details on the multigrid approach used. Included are a development of the full-approximation storage scheme, details of the smoothing-rate analysis, and a section devoted to rational programming techniques applicable to the multigrid algorithm.

Thames, F. C.↗

DOE OSTI2024

High‐speed 4‐dimensional scanning transmission electron microscopy using compressive sensing techniques

Abstract Here we show that compressive sensing allows 4‐dimensional (4‐D) STEM data to be obtained and accurately reconstructed with both high‐speed and reduced electron fluence. The methodology needed to achieve these results compared to conventional 4‐D approaches requires only that a random subset of probe locations is acquired from the typical regular scanning grid, which immediately generates both higher speed and the lower fluence experimentally. We also consider downsampling of the detector, showing that oversampling is inherent within convergent beam electron diffraction (CBED) patterns and that detector downsampling does not reduce precision but allows faster experimental data acquisition. Analysis of an experimental atomic resolution yttrium silicide dataset shows that it is possible to recover over 25 dB peak signal‐to‐noise ratio in the recovered phase using 0.3% of the total data. Lay abstract : Four‐dimensional scanning transmission electron microscopy (4‐D STEM) is a powerful technique for characterizing complex nanoscale structures. In this method, a convergent beam electron diffraction pattern (CBED) is acquired at each probe location during the scan of the sample. This means that a 2‐dimensional signal is acquired at each 2‐D probe location, equating to a 4‐D dataset. Despite the recent development of fast direct electron detectors, some capable of 100kHz frame rates, the limiting factor for 4‐D STEM is acquisition times in the majority of cases, where cameras will typically operate on the order of 2kHz. This means that a raster scan containing 256^2 probe locations can take on the order of 30s, approximately 100‐1000 times longer than a conventional STEM imaging technique using monolithic radial detectors. As a result, 4‐D STEM acquisitions can be subject to adverse effects such as drift, beam damage, and sample contamination. Recent advances in computational imaging techniques for STEM have allowed for faster acquisition speeds by way of acquiring only a random subset of probe locations from the field of view. By doing this, the acquisition time is significantly reduced, in some cases by a factor of 10‐100 times. The acquired data is then processed to fill‐in or inpaint the missing data, taking advantage of the inherently low‐complex signals which can be linearly combined to recover the information. In this work, similar methods are demonstrated for the acquisition of 4‐D STEM data, where only a random subset of CBED patterns are acquired over the raster scan. We simulate the compressive sensing acquisition method for 4‐D STEM and present our findings for a variety of analysis techniques such as ptychography and differential phase contrast. Our results show that acquisition times can be significantly reduced on the order of 100‐300 times, therefore improving existing frame rates, as well as further reducing the electron fluence beyond just using a faster camera.

Robinson, Alex W.↗

NASA NTRS1989

Analysis of the SSME HPOTP bearing inlet cavity

Analysis of the flow in the Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME) high pressure oxygen turbopump (HPOTP) bearing no. 1 inlet cavity was completed in support of return-to-flight. With the incorporation of several design changes in the Phase 2 turbopump, rotordynamic stability of the pumps was enhanced, but the durability and life of the LOX-cooled bearings has decreased. During the post-Challenger SSME recertification, the causes of limited bearing durability were investigated. One topic addressed was the flow environment upstream of the pump-end bearing and the effect of seal exit swirl and a cavity anti-vortex rib on the bearing environment and life. The objective is to define the hydrodynamic environment upstream of the pump-end bearing and determine the effect of seal exit swirl and the anti-vortex rib on bearing inlet swirl. The problem was posed as an axisymmetric cavity flow with the computational domain extending from the seal exit to the bearing inlet. This domain was discretized with 22800 grid points. Boundary conditions were obtained from a 1-D model of the SSME coolant path. The inlet Mach number was 0.19 and the problem was solved with the CMINT code utilizing the Briley-McDonald/Beam-Warming algorithm with preconditioning to speed convergence at low Mach numbers. Three parametric cases with inlet swirl of 50 percent shaft speed (labyrinth seal), 20 percent shaft speed (damping seal), and no inlet swirl were considered. Computational results indicate large vortical flow structures in the cavity, with the labyrinth, damping, and no-swirl cases yielding bearing inlet swirl rates of 14, 10, and 9 percent of shaft speed, respectively. When these results were used as input to the SHABRETH bearing model, limited durability could not be explained by these small differences in swirl. Also, based on these results, a proposed design change for the cavity anti-vortex rib was not implemented by the SSME chief engineer.

Mcconnaughey, P. K.↗

NASA NTRS1975

Characterization of BCL strain gages for use to 1366 K (2000 F)

Strain gage behavior under static and transient heating conditions at various strain rates and high temperatures (1366 K(2000 F) was studied. Optimum time-temperature parameters were developed for preconditioning (prestabilizing) the gages. A limited study was carried out to determine the extent of spalling of platinum cladding during fabrication of platinum-clad wire strain gages. Further verification was also carried out on the convergence and repeatability of the apparent strain characteristics of the gage under heating and cooling cycles. The significance of these characteristics from the standpoint of enhancing measurement accuracy is also discussed. It was concluded that the gage should perform satisfactorily to temperatures approaching 1366 K (2000 F).

Lemcoe, M. M.↗

NASA NTRS1984

Computational aspects of the nonlinear normal mode initialization of the GLAS 4th order GCM

Using the normal modes of the GLAS 4th Order Model, a Machenhauer nonlinear normal mode initialization (NLNMI) was carried out for the external vertical mode using the GLAS 4th Order shallow water equations model for an equivalent depth corresponding to that associated with the external vertical mode. A simple procedure was devised which was directed at identifying computational modes by following the rate of increase of BAL sub M, the partial (with respect to the zonal wavenumber m) sum of squares of the time change of the normal mode coefficients (for fixed vertical mode index) varying over the latitude index L of symmetric or antisymmetric gravity waves. A working algorithm is presented which speeds up the convergence of the iterative Machenhauer NLNMI. A 24 h integration using the NLNMI state was carried out using both Matsuno and leap-frog time-integration schemes; these runs were then compared to a 24 h integration starting from a non-initialized state. The maximal impact of the nonlinear normal mode initialization was found to occur 6-10 hours after the initial time.

Navon, I. M.↗

NASA NTRS1990

Arcjet Nozzle Area Ratio Effects

An experimental investigation was conducted to determine the effect of nozzle area ratio on the operating characteristics and performance of a low power dc arcjet thruster. Conical thoriated tungsten nozzle inserts were tested in a modular laboratory arcjet thruster run on hydrogen/nitrogen mixtures simulating the decomposition products of hydrazine. The converging and diverging sides of the inserts had half angles of 30 and 20 degrees, respectively, similar to a flight type unit currently under development. The length of the diverging side was varied to change the area ratio. The nozzle inserts were run over a wide range of specific power. Current, voltage, mass flow rate, and thrust were monitored to provide accurate comparisons between tests. While small differences in performance were observed between the two nozzle inserts, it was determined that for each nozzle insert, arcjet performance improved with increasing nozzle area ratio to the highest area ratio tested and that the losses become very pronounced for area ratios below 50. These trends are somewhat different than those obtained in previous experimental and analytical studies of low Re number nozzles. It appears that arcjet performance can be enhanced via area ratio optimization.

Curran, Francis M.↗

NASA NTRS1990

Arcjet nozzle area ratio effects

Curran, Francis M.↗

NASA NTRS1995

Separation of crack extension modes in orthotropic delamination models

In the analysis of an interface crack between dissimilar elastic materials, the mode of crack extension is typically not unique, due to oscillatory behavior of near-tip stresses and displacements. This behavior currently limits the applicability of interfacial fracture mechanics as a means to predict composite delamination. The Virtual Crack Closure Technique (VCCT) is a method used to extract mode 1 and mode 2 energy release rates from numerical fracture solutions. The mode of crack extension extracted from an oscillatory solution using the VCCT is not unique due to the dependence of mode on the virtual crack extension length, Delta. In this work, a method is presented for using the VCCT to extract Delta-independent crack extension modes for the case of an interface crack between two in-plane orthotropic materials. The method does not involve altering the analysis to eliminate its oscillatory behavior. Instead, it is argued that physically reasonable, Delta-independent modes of crack extension can be extracted from oscillatory solutions. Knowledge of near-tip fields is used to determine the explicit Delta dependence of energy release rate parameters. Energy release rates are then defined that are separated from the oscillatory dependence on Delta. A modified VCCT using these energy release rate definitions is applied to results from finite element analyses, showing that Delta-independent modes of crack extension result. The modified technique has potential as a consistent method for extracting crack extension modes from numerical solutions. The Delta-independent modes extracted using this technique can also serve as guides for testing the convergence of finite element models. Direct applications of this work include the analysis of planar composite delamination problems, where plies or debonded laminates are modeled as in-plane orthotropic materials.

Beuth, Jack L.↗

NASA NTRS1997

The use of magnetic field data to estimate attitude and trajectory for the Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer (RXTE)

A single augmented extended Kalman filter (EKF) is proposed for the simultaneous and autonomous estimation of spacecraft trajectory and attitude with data from the Rossi X-ray timing explorer (RXTE) magnetometer and gyro-measured body rates. The derivation of the EKF is outlined, including the measurement update and the propagation. The results from a 12 hour span of data are processed and compared with operational estimations computed at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (MD). The filter was found to be able to overcome very large initial errors and converge to steady state averages of less than 30 km in position, 0.05 km/s in velocity and 3 deg in attitude.

Deutschmann, Julie↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Comparison of Non-Combusting Spray Fields in a Model Combustor using Shadowgraphy

Droplet sizes were measured using shadowgraphy in the spray issuing from the center element of the baseline configuration of the NASA 7-element lean direct injector (LDI) array. Each LDI element consisted of a 60 degree clockwise axial air swirler, converging-diverging venturi, and a pressure-swirl atomizer positioned with its tip at the venturi throat. The non-combusting measurements were conducted using water spray in a 3-inch diameter research combustor operating at pressure of 5 bar and air inlet temperature of 700 K. At these inlet conditions, three air flow rates were used, producing reference velocities of 7.6, 15.2, and 22.9 m/s. Only the center nozzle was used. At each reference velocity, water flow rates were adjusted to simulate a common equivalence. Data were collected at a frame rate of 15 Hz over a range of positions near the LDI dump plane, and downstream, along the combustor centerline. Velocity measurements were achieved by use of a dual head Nd:YAG laser and frame transfer PIV camera. Droplet size and velocity, mass and number density, and volume fraction are compared at these inlet conditions to determine the effect of nozzle pressure drop on the measured properties.

lean direct injection↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Comparison of Non-Combusting Spray Fields in a Model Combustor using Shadowgraphy

lean direct injection↗

NASA NTRS1982

Mechanisms for lithospheric heat transport on Venus Implications for tectonic style and volcanism

The mechanisms of plate recycling, lithospheric conduction, and hot spot volcanism are each evaluated to determine which is the dominant mode of lithospheric heat transfer on Venus, with attention given to the implications of each mechanism for the interpretation of Venus surface features. It is thought that plate recycling on Venus cannot be excluded on the basis of either theoretical arguments or present observations on topography and radar backscatter. Landforms caused by plate convergence and divergence on Venus, it is noted, would differ substantially from those on the earth owing to the high surface temperature and the absence of oceans on Venus, the lack of free or hydrated water in subducted material, the possibility that subduction would more commonly be accompanied by lithospheric delamination, and the rapid spreading rates that would be required if plate recycling removed a significant fraction of the internal heat. The possibility that the dominant mechanism early in the history of the planet was different from the one at work now is thought to merit consideration.

Solomon, S. C.↗

NASA NTRS2018

Orion Optical Navigation Progress Toward Exploration: Mission 1

Optical navigation of human spacecraft was proposed on Gemini and implemented successfully on Apollo as a means of autonomously operating the vehicle in the event of lost communication with controllers on Earth. It shares a history with the "method of lunar distances" that was used in the 18th century and gained some notoriety after its use by Captain James Cook during his 1768 Pacific voyage of the HMS Endeavor. The Orion emergency return system utilizing optical navigation has matured in design over the last several years, and is currently undergoing the final implementation and test phase in preparation for Exploration Mission 1 (EM-1) in 2019. The software development is being worked as a Government Furnished Equipment (GFE) project delivered as an application within the Core Flight Software of the Orion camera controller module. The mathematical formulation behind the initial ellipse fit in the image processing is detailed in Christian. The non-linear least squares refinement then follows the technique of Mortari as an estimation process of the planetary limb using the sigmoid function. The Orion optical navigation system uses a body fixed camera, a decision that was driven by mass and mechanism constraints. The general concept of operations involves a 2-hour pass once every 24 hours, with passes specifically placed before all maneuvers to supply accurate navigation information to guidance and targeting. The pass lengths are limited by thermal constraints on the vehicle since the OpNav attitude generally deviates from the thermally stable tail-to-sun attitude maintained during the rest of the orbit coast phase. Calibration is scheduled prior to every pass due to the unknown nature of thermal effects on the lens distortion and the mounting platform deformations between the camera and star trackers. The calibration technique is described in detail by Christian, et al. and simultaneously estimates the Brown-Conrady coefficients and the Star Tracker/Camera interlock angles. Accurate attitude information is provided by the star trackers during each pass. Figure 1 shows the various phases of lunar return navigation when the vehicle is in autonomous operation with lost ground communication. The midcourse maneuvers are placed to control the entry interface conditions to the desired corridor for safe landing. The general form of optical navigation on Orion is where still images of the Moon or Earth are processed to find the apparent angular diameter and centroid in the camera focal plane. This raw data is transformed into range and bearing angle measurements using planetary data and precise star tracker inertial attitude. The measurements are then sent to the main flight computer's Kalman filter to update the onboard state vector. The images are, of course, collected over an arc to converge the state and estimate velocity. The same basic technique was used by Apollo to satisfy loss-of-comm, but Apollo used manual crew sightings with a vehicle-integral sextant instead of autonomously processing optical imagery. The software development is past its Critical Design Review, and is progressing through test and certification for human rating. In support of this, a hardware-in-the-loop test rig was developed in the Johnson Space Center Electro-Optics Lab to exercise the OpNav system prior to integrated testing on the Orion vehicle. Figure 2 shows the rig, which the test team has dubbed OCILOT (Orion Camera In the Loop Optical Testbed). Analysis performed to date shows a delivery that satisfies an allowable entry corridor as shown in Figure 3.

Holt, Greg N.↗

DOE OSTI2020

MULTI-DIMENSIONAL MODELING OF THE CFR ENGINE FOR THE INVESTIGATION OF SI NATURAL GAS COMBUSTION AND CONTROLLED END-GAS AUTOIGNITION

Engine knock and misfire are barriers to pathways leading to high-efficiency Spark-Ignited (SI) Natural Gas engines. The general tendency to knock is highly dependent on engine operating conditions and the fuel reactivity. The problem is further complicated by low emission limits and the wide range of chemical reactivity in pipeline quality natural gas. Depending on the region and the source of the natural gas, its reactivity, described by its methane number (analogous to the octane number for liquid SI fuels) can span from 65 - 95. In order to realize diesel-like efficiencies, SI natural gas engines must be designed to operate at high BMEP near knock limits over a wide range of fuel reactivity. This requires a deep understanding regarding the combustion-engine interactions pertaining to flame propagation and end-gas autoignition (EGAI). However, EGAI, if controlled, provides an opportunity to increase SI natural gas engine efficiency by increasing combustion rate and the total burned fuel, mitigating the effects of the slow flame speeds of natural gas fuels which generally reduce BMEP and increase unburned hydrocarbon emissions. For this reason, in order to study EGAI phenomenon, the present work highlights multi-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models of the Cooperative Fuel Research (CFR) engine. The CFR engine models are used to investigate fuel-engine interactions that lead to EGAI with natural gas, including effects of fuel reactivity, engine operating parameters, and exhaust gas recirculation (EGR). A Three-Pressure Analysis, performed with GT-Power, was used to estimate initial and boundary conditions for the three-dimensional CFD model. CONVERGE CFD v2.4 was used for the three-dimensional CFD modeling where the level set G-Equation model and SAGE detailed chemical kinetics solver were used. An assessment of the different modeling approaches is also provided to evaluate their limitations, advantages and disadvantages, and for which situations they are most applicable. Model validation was performed with experimental data taken with a CFR engine over varying compression ratio, CA50, EGR fraction, and IMEP and shows good agreement in Peak Cylinder Pressure (PCP), PCP crank angle, and the location of the 10%, 50%, and 90% mass fraction burned (CA10, CA50, and CA90, respectively). The models can predict the onset crank angle and pressure rise rate for light, medium, and heavy EGAI under a variety of fuel reactivities and engine operating conditions.

Bestel, Diego↗