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At least 1,225 records · Page 68

Evaluation of the impact of noise metrics on tiltrotor aircraft design

A subjective noise evaluation was conducted in which the test participants evaluated the annoyance of simulated sounds representative of future civil tiltrotor aircraft. The subjective responses were correlated with the noise metrics of A-weighted sound pressure level, overall sound pressure level, and perceived level. The results indicated that correlation between subjective response and A-weighted sound pressure level is considerably enhanced by combining it in a multiple regression with overall sound pressure level. As a single metric, perceived level correlated better than A-weighted sound pressure level due to greater emphasis on low frequency noise components. This latter finding was especially true for indoor noise where the mid and high frequency noise components are attenuated by typical building structure. Using the results of the subjective noise evaluation, the impact on tiltrotor aircraft design was also evaluated. While A-weighted sound pressure level can be reduced by reduction in tip speed, an increase in number of rotor blades is required to achieve significant reduction of low frequency noise as measured by overall sound pressure level. Additional research, however, is required to achieve comparable reductions in impulsive noise due to blade-vortex interaction, and also to achieve reduction in broad band noise.

Sternfeld, H.↗

Breakdown of the Static Dielectric Screening Approximation of Coulomb Interactions in Atomically Thin Semiconductors

Coulomb interactions in atomically thin materials are remarkably sensitive to variations in the dielectric screening of the environment, which can be used to control exotic quantum many-body phases and engineer exciton potential landscapes. For decades, static or frequency-independent approximations of the dielectric response, where increased dielectric screening is predicted to cause an energy redshift of the exciton resonance, have been sufficient. These approximations were first applied to quantum wells and were more recently extended with initial success to layered transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs). Here, we use charge-tunable exciton resonances to investigate screening effects in TMD monolayers embedded in materials with low-frequency dielectric constants ranging from 4 to more than 1000, a range of 2 orders of magnitude larger than in previous studies. In contrast to the redshift predicted by static models, we observe a blueshift of the exciton resonance exceeding 30 meV in higher dielectric constant environments. We explain our observations by introducing a dynamical screening model based on a solution to the Bethe-Salpeter equation (BSE). When dynamical effects are strong, we find that the exciton binding energy remains mostly controlled by the low-frequency dielectric response, while the exciton self-energy is dominated by the high-frequency one. Our results supplant the understanding of screening in layered materials and their heterostructures, introduce a knob to tune selected many-body effects, and reshape the framework for detecting and controlling correlated quantum many-body states and designing optoelectronic and quantum devices.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Forward velocity effects on jet noise with dominant internal noise source

Acoustic data, with and without forward velocity, were obtained with a circular nozzle using a quiet flow system and one dominated by a low frequency internal noise source (analogous to combustion noise). Forward velocity effects were obtained by installing the test nozzle in a free jet. Farfield noise data were obtained at jet pressure ratios from 1.3 to 1.7 and forward velocities up to 260 ft/sec. With a quiet flow system, jet noise is reduced by forward velocity. With a dominant low frequency core noise source, the portion of the noise spectra dominated by this source was not appreciably affected by forward velocity.

Vonglahn, U. H.↗

Maximizing Wave Energy Converter Power Extraction by Utilizing a Variable Negative Stiffness Magnetic Spring

Complex conjugate impedance matching is a key concept for wave energy converter design. Matching the impedance of the power take-off (PTO) system to the complex conjugate of the wave energy converter's (WEC) impedance ensures efficient transfer of energy from the WEC body motion to electrical power. In low frequency waves, impedance matching often requires a negative PTO stiffness. In this paper, an adjustable stiffness magnetic torsion spring will be presented and modeled to understand its potential to improve WEC performance. The spring has the ability to provide a negative stiffness, allowing the PTO impedance to more closely match the complex conjugate of the WEC impedance at low frequencies. The spring also supports an adjustable stiffness value, meaning it can be tuned according to the incoming wave conditions. The spring's tunability may put less stress on the rest of the PTO system in wave conditions outside its normal operation zone without sacrificing electrical power output. The adjustable magnetic spring's effects are modeled and explored in this paper by examining the resultant average annual electrical power and capacity factor. The study suggests that the tunable magnetic spring has the potential to significantly improve capacity factor while maintaining a high average electrical power.

16 TIDAL AND WAVE POWER↗

Behavioral analysis of signals that guide learned changes in the amplitude and dynamics of the vestibulo-ocular reflex

We characterized the dependence of motor learning in the monkey vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR) on the duration, frequency, and relative timing of the visual and vestibular stimuli used to induce learning. The amplitude of the VOR was decreased or increased through training with paired head and visual stimulus motion in the same or opposite directions, respectively. For training stimuli that consisted of simultaneous pulses of head and target velocity 80-1000 msec in duration, brief stimuli caused small changes in the amplitude of the VOR, whereas long stimuli caused larger changes in amplitude as well as changes in the dynamics of the reflex. When the relative timing of the visual and vestibular stimuli was varied, brief image motion paired with the beginning of a longer vestibular stimulus caused changes in the amplitude of the reflex alone, but the same image motion paired with a later time in the vestibular stimulus caused changes in the dynamics as well as the amplitude of the VOR. For training stimuli that consisted of sinusoidal head and visual stimulus motion, low-frequency training stimuli induced frequency-selective changes in the VOR, as reported previously, whereas high-frequency training stimuli induced changes in the amplitude of the VOR that were more similar across test frequency. The results suggest that there are at least two distinguishable components of motor learning in the VOR. One component is induced by short-duration or high-frequency stimuli and involves changes in only the amplitude of the reflex. A second component is induced by long-duration or low-frequency stimuli and involves changes in the amplitude and dynamics of the VOR.

NASA Discipline Neuroscience↗

Cross correlation between cosmic-ray fluctuations and interplanetary magnetic-field fluctuations

Study of the cross-correlation between cosmic-ray intensity fluctuations and the interplanetary magnetic field, using the low-frequency limit of the theory of the interplanetary scintillations of cosmic rays. Cross-spectral analysis of the flux of the Alert neutron monitor and simultaneous values of the interplanetary magnetic field components are presented which support the theory. A model of cosmic-ray fluctuations is described, with effects of gradients and interplanetary sector structure dominating for very low frequencies (less than or about equal to .000005 Hz) and magnetic-field induced interplanetary scintillations of cosmic rays dominating for higher frequencies.

Jokipii, J. R.↗

Forward velocity effects on jet noise with dominant internal noise source

Acoustic data, with and without forward velocity, were obtained with a circular nozzle using a quiet flow system and one dominated by a low-frequency internal noise source (analogous to combustion noise). Forward velocity effects were obtained by installing the test nozzle in a free jet. Far-field noise data were obtained at jet pressure ratios from 1.3 to 1.7 and forward velocities up to 260 ft/sec. With a quiet flow system, jet noise is reduced by forward velocity. With a dominant low-frequency core noise source, the portion of the noise spectra dominated by this source was not appreciably affected by forward velocity.

Von Glahn, U.↗

Heating of ion conics in the cusp/cleft

Ion conic distributions are often observed in the cusp/cleft region of the dayside magnetosphere. These ions can be heated by resonant interaction with broadband low-frequency (near the ion gyrofrequency) waves. Data from one cusp/cleft crossing of the polar orbiting DE-1 satellite is studied in detail. Observed cool O(+) distributions and observed wave intensities are used as input to a Monte Carlo simulation. The theoretically obtained hot O(+) distributions are in good agreement with the corresponding observed distributions. This resonant heating by broadband low-frequency waves is important for the outflow of ionospheric ions into the magnetosphere.

Andre, Mats↗

In Situ Detection of Strong Langmuir Turbulence Processes in Solar Type III Radio Bursts

The high time resolution observations obtained by the WAVES experiment of the STEREO spacecraft in solar type III radio bursts show that Langmuir waves often occur as intense localized wave packets. These wave packets are characterized by short durations of only a few ms and peak intensities, which well exceed the supersonic modulational instability (MI) thresholds. These timescales and peak intensities satisfy the criterion of the solitons collapsed to spatial scales of a few hundred Debye lengths. The spectra of these wave packets consist of primary spectral peaks corresponding to beam-resonant Langmuir waves, two or more sidebands corresponding to down-shifted and up-shifted daughter Langmuir waves, and low frequency enhancements below a few hundred Hz corresponding to daughter ion sound waves. The frequencies and wave numbers of these spectral components satisfy the resonance conditions of the modulational instability (MI). Moreover, the tricoherences, computed using trispectral analysis techniques show that these spectral components are coupled to each other with a high degree of coherency as expected of the MI type of four wave interactions. The high intensities, short scale lengths, sideband spectral structures and low frequency spectral enhancements and, high levels of tricoherences amongst the spectral components of these wave packets provide unambiguous evidence for the supersonic MI and related strong turbulence processes in type III radio bursts. The implication of these observations include: (1) the MI and related strong turbulence processes often occur in type III source regions, (2) the strong turbulence processes probably play very important roles in beam stabilization as well as conversion of Langmuir waves into escaping radiation at the fundamental and second harmonic of the electron plasma frequency, fpe, and (3) the Langmuir collapse probably follows the route of MI in type III radio bursts.

Langmuir↗

Observations and Modeling of the Transient General Circulation of the North Pacific Basin

Because of recent progress in satellite altimetry and numerical modeling and the accumulation and archiving of long records of hydrographic and meteorological variables, it is becoming feasible to describe and understand the transient general circulation of the ocean (i.e., variations with spatial scales larger than a few hundred kilometers and time scales of seasonal and longer-beyond the mesoscale). We have carried out various studies in investigation of the transient general circulation of the Pacific Ocean from a coordinated analysis of satellite altimeter data, historical hydrographic gauge data, scatterometer wind observations, reanalyzed operational wind fields, and a variety of ocean circulation models. Broadly stated, our goal was to achieve a phenomenological catalogue of different possible types of large-scale, low-frequency variability, as a context for understanding the observational record. The approach is to identify the simplest possible model from which particular observed phenomena can be isolated and understood dynamically and then to determine how well these dynamical processes are represented in more complex Oceanic General Circulation Models (OGCMs). Research results have been obtained on Rossby wave propagation and transformation, oceanic intrinsic low-frequency variability, effects of surface gravity waves, pacific data analyses, OGCM formulation and developments, and OGCM simulations of forced variability.

McWilliams, James C.↗

Core noise measurements from a small, general aviation turbofan engine

As part of a program to investigate combustor and other core noises, simultaneous measurements of internal fluctuating pressure and far field noise were made with a JT15D turbofan engine. Acoustic waveguide probes, located in the engine at the combustor, at the turbine exit and in the core nozzle wall, were used to measure internal fluctuating pressures. Low frequency acoustic power determined at the core nozzle exit corresponds in level to the far field acoustic power at engine speeds below 65% of maximum, the approach condition. At engine speeds above 65% of maximum, the jet noise dominates in the far field, greatly exceeding that of the core. From coherence measurements, it is shown that the combustor is the dominant source of the low frequency core noise. The results obtained from the JT15D engine were compared with those obtained previously from a YF102 engine, both engines having reverse flow annular combustors and being in the same size class.

Reshotko, M.↗

Unsteady aerodynamics could dominate the space shuttle booster aeroelastic stability

Quasi-steady techniques are used in a preliminary, order of magnitude, analysis of the aeroelastic stability of a number of space shuttle boost configurations. The configurations analyzed all have at least one low frequency free-free bending mode that is aerodynamically undamped due to aerodynamic interference effects. Typically, the aerodynamic interference effects involve flow conditions at one vehicle station influencing the loads at another. Due to the finite flow convection velocity and the aerodynamic coupling of flow conditions at different locations on the vehicle, these interference loads result in aerodynamic undamping of one or more of the low frequency free-free elastic modes. The implication of these results, i.e., the possibility of undamped, divergent, oscillations leading to structural failure, (if the aerodynamic undamping should dominate the structural damping) is serious enough to warrant further analytic and experimental investigations.

Reding, J. P.↗

A study of the coherence length of ULF waves in the earth's foreshock

High-time-resolution magnetic-field data for different separations of ISEE 1 and 2 in the earth's ion foreshock region are examined to study the coherence length of upstream ULF waves. Examining the correlation coefficients of the low-frequency waves as a function of separation distance shows that the correlation coefficient depends mainly on the separation distance of ISEE 1 and 2 transverse to the solar-wind flow. It drops to about 0.5 when the transverse separation is about 1 earth radius, a distance much larger than the proton thermal gyroradius in the solar wind. Thus the coherence length of the low-frequency waves is about one earth radius, which is of the order of the wavelength, and is consistent with that estimated from the bandwidth of the waves.

Le, G.↗

Runaway electron beam dynamics at low plasma density in DIII-D: energy distribution, current profile, and internal instability

Parameters of the post-disruption runaway electron (RE) beam in the collisionless background plasma achieved after deuterium injection are investigated in DIII-D. The spatially resolved RE energy distribution function is measured for the first time during the RE plateau stage by inverting hard X-ray bremsstrahlung spectra. It has maximum energy up to 20 MeV and a non-monotonous feature at 5{6 MeV observed only in the core of the beam supporting the possibility of kinetic instabilities. The RE current profile is reconstructed for the first time using the spatially resolved RE energy distribution. It is found to be more peaked than the pre-disruption plasma current, with higher internal inductance, suggesting preferential formation of REs in the core plasma or potentially a radially inward motion of the REs. The accessed relatively low-current (180 kA) RE beam is found stable, likely due to its elevated q profile. From this base stable equilibrium, instability is accessed by ramping the solenoid current. Under a large applied accelerating loop voltage an internal kink mode is observed. The kink mode leads to sawtooth-like relaxation of the RE current profile, but drives no RE loss. Under conditions of a large decelerating voltage, chirping Alfvénic instabilities driven by REs during the RE plateau stage are observed for the first time. The low-frequency (0.1{7 MHz) Alfvénic instabilities, supposedly compressional Alfvén eigenmodes, are found to be correlated with a RE loss signal. Finally, this provides novel plasma conditions to study these instabilities and investigate opportunities to utilize them for RE control. Bifurcated electron cyclotron emission (ECE) spectrum is measured during the collisionless RE plateau, with a break point at ≈100 GHz suggesting resonant absorption of the ECE at low frequencies.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Core noise measurements from a small, general aviation turbofan engine

As part of a program to investigate combustor and other core noises, simultaneous measurements of internal fluctuating pressure and far field noise were made with a JT15D turbofan engine. Acoustic waveguide probes, located in the engine at the combustor, at the turbine exit and in the core nozzle wall, were used to measure internal fluctuating pressures. Low frequency acoustic power determined at the core nozzle exit corresponds in level to the far-field acoustic power at engine speeds below 65% of maximum, the approach condition. At engine speeds above 65% of maximum, the jet noise dominates in the far-field, greatly exceeding that of the core. From coherence measurements, it is shown that the combustor is the dominant source of the low frequency core noise. The results obtained from the JT15D engine were compared with those obtained previously from a YF102 engine, both engines having reverse flow annular combustors and being in the same size class.

Reshotko, M.↗

Preliminary Assessment of the Interior Noise Environment in the Large Civil Tiltrotor (LCTR2)

The second-generation Large Civil Tiltrotor (LCTR2) serves as a representative vehicle under the NASA Fundamental Aeronautics Program (FAP) Subsonic Rotary Wing (SRW) project with a design goal to transport 90 passengers over a distance of 1800 km at a speed of 550 km/hr. The tiltrotor combines the vertical lift capability of a helicopter with the speed, altitude, and range of a turboprop airplane. The blade-passage frequency of the four-bladed rotor is as low as 6.9 Hz during cruise conditions. The resulting low-frequency acoustic excitation and its harmonics, combined with the anticipated use of lightweight composite and sandwich materials for the fuselage sidewall, may pose a challenge to achieving acceptable interior noise levels. The objective of the present study is to perform a preliminary assessment of the expected interior noise environment in the LCTR2 cabin. The approach includes a combination of semi-empirical, analytical, and statistical energy analysis methods. Because the LCTR2 is a notional vehicle, the prediction approach was also applied to the XV-15 tiltrotor and Bombardier Q400 turobprop aircraft to compare predictions with publicly available experimental data. Guidance for the expected interior noise levels in the LCTR2 was obtained by considering both the predicted exterior noise levels and the transmission loss of a basic fuselage sidewall consisting of a skin, porous layer and a trim panel. Structural and acoustic resonances are expected to coincide with low order harmonics of the blade passage frequency. The estimated sound pressure levels in the LCTR2 may not be acceptable when evaluated against known characteristics of human response to low frequency sound.

Grosveld, Ferdinand W.↗

A comparison of the noise characteristics of full scale and model helicopter rotors

Full scale and model rotor noise results are compared in terms of the spectral content, the directivity patterns, and the dependence on tip speed and rotor thrust/pitch angle. Each of the three main noise sources (rotational, low-frequency broadband, and high-frequency broadband) are reviewed separately, and account is taken of the measurement angle relative to the rotor disc. Blade 'scaling' effects are discussed together with the agreement between existing theoretical and semiempirical prediction methods. It is shown that in general good agreement is obtained between the full scale and model rotors for the spectral content and the velocity and thrust dependencies, while the 'scaling' factors associated with the low-frequency broadband noise do not seem to be appropriate.

Leverton, J. W.↗

Flight Evaluation of an Aircraft with Side and Center Stick Controllers and Rate-Limited Ailerons

As part of an ongoing government and industry effort to study the flying qualities of aircraft with rate-limited control surface actuators, two studies were previously flown to examine an algorithm developed to reduce the tendency for pilot-induced oscillation when rate limiting occurs. This algorithm, when working properly, greatly improved the performance of the aircraft in the first study. In the second study, however, the algorithm did not initially offer as much improvement. The differences between the two studies caused concern. The study detailed in this paper was performed to determine whether the performance of the algorithm was affected by the characteristics of the cockpit controllers. Time delay and flight control system noise were also briefly evaluated. An in-flight simulator, the Calspan Learjet 25, was programmed with a low roll actuator rate limit, and the algorithm was programmed into the flight control system. Side- and center-stick controllers, force and position command signals, a rate-limited feel system, a low-frequency feel system, and a feel system damper were evaluated. The flight program consisted of four flights and 38 evaluations of test configurations. Performance of the algorithm was determined to be unaffected by using side- or center-stick controllers or force or position command signals. The rate-limited feel system performed as well as the rate-limiting algorithm but was disliked by the pilots. The low-frequency feel system and the feel system damper were ineffective. Time delay and noise were determined to degrade the performance of the algorithm.

Deppe, P. R.↗