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At least 127 records · Page 7

Gaseous jets in Comet P/Halley

Properties of the gas jets in P/Halley reported to exist in images taken in the light of CN are described. The jets also exist in the light of other radicals, specifically C2. The jets do not exist in the continuum images although it appears that one of the jets seen may come from the same area on the nucleus that produces much of the dust. The jets are seen to persist, although with varying geometry, for 2 months or more, from the time of the spacecraft encounters in March to the beginning of May. The strength of the jets is well correlated with fluctuations in the overall production rate of radicals by the comet.

Ahearn, Michael F.↗

A solenoid failure detection system for cold gas attitude control jet valves

The development of a solenoid valve failure detection system is described. The technique requires the addition of a radioactive gas to the propellant of a cold gas jet attitude control system. Solenoid failure is detected with an avalanche radiation detector located in the jet nozzle which senses the radiation emitted by the leaking radioactive gas. Measurements of carbon monoxide leakage rates through a Mariner type solenoid valve are presented as a function of gas activity and detector configuration. A cylindrical avalanche detector with a factor of 40 improvement in leak sensitivity is proposed for flight systems because it allows the quantity of radioactive gas that must be added to the propellant to be reduced to a practical level.

Johnston, P. A.↗

Photoionization measurement study

An analysis was conducted of a gas window photoionization device for studying cosmic X-rays in the region 20 eV to 1 keV. The detecting element is an argon proportional counter whose window is a two-dimensional supersonic gas jet. Spectroscopic features of the incoming radiation can be determined by the choice of gas forming the jet (as well by the fluid dynamic parameters of the flow). The choice of gas can be made from pure substances and/or compounds with Z between 1 and 10. The counter walls can be prepared for selective analysis of the extreme ultraviolet radiation.

Sandri, G.↗

Development of the sonic pump levitator

The process and mechanism involved in producing glass microballoons (GMBs) of acceptable quality for laser triggered inertial fusion through use of glass jet levitation and manipulation are considered. The gas jet levitation device, called sonic pumps, provides positioning by timely and appropriate application of gas mementum from one or more of six sonic pumps which are arranged orthogonally in opposed pairs about the levitation region and are activated by an electrooptical, computer controlled, feedback system. The levitation device was fabricated and its associated control systems were assembled into a package and tested in reduced gravity flight regime of the NASA KC-135 aircraft.

Dunn, S. A.↗

Evaporation Of Clusters Of Drops In A Jet

Report presents theoretical study of evaporation of clusters of liquid drops injected with gas jet flowing into hot ambient gas. One in series of studies of various aspects of behavior of sprays. Simplified mathematical models used to extract qualitative information on trends in interactions.

Bellan, Josette↗

Pressure pulsations on a flat plate normal to an underexpanded supersonic jet

An experiment was devised to study the interaction between an underexpanded supersonic gas jet and a flat plate, with the plate located in a region in which the interaction produces shock wave and flow fluctuations. Nitrogen gas at ambient stagnation temperature flowed through a convergent nozzle with exit diameter of 2.03 cm and impinged on a square metal plate normal to the jet. Results revealed local peak pressure fluctuations on the plate at nozzle pressure ratios of about 2 and 4.5, with the latter case producing fluctuations of the same order as the mean pressure on the plate; the frequency of the oscillations was as large as 20 kHz. For choked jet flow at ambient pressure higher than atmospheric, the pressure fluctuations would increase accordingly, and adjacent solid structures would therefore be subjected to proportionately higher normal stresses.

Back, L. H.↗

Scalar Measurements and Analysis of Helium Jets in Earth Gravity and Microgravity using Rainbow Schlieren Deflectometry

Recent experiments have shown that low-density gas jets injected into a high-density gas undergo an instability mode leading to highly periodic oscillations in the flow field. The transition from laminar to turbulent flow in these jets is abrupt, without a gradual change in scales. Although this type of instability at high Richardson numbers has been attributed to buoyancy, direct physical evidence was not acquired through experiments. In this study, several experiments were conducted in Earth gravity and microgravity to acquire qualitative data on near field flow structure of helium jets injected into air. Microgravity conditions were simulated in the 2.2-second drop tower at NASA Glenn Research Center. The operating parameters of this study included the tube inside diameter, the jet Reynolds number, and the jet Richardson number. Tubes with inside diameters of 19.05 mm and 31.75 mm were used in the experiments conducted in the drop tower. The jet flow was analyzed using quantitative rainbow schlieren deflectometry, a non-intrusive line of sight measurement technique for the whole field. The flow structure was characterized by distributions of angular deflection and the resulting helium mole fraction obtained from color schlieren images taken at 60 Hz. Three sets of experimental data with respect to three schlieren fields of view were acquired for each tube. Results show that the jet in microgravity was up to 70 percent wider than that in Earth gravity. The global jet flow oscillations observed in Earth gravity were absent in microgravity, providing direct experimental evidence that the flow instability in the low-density jet was buoyancy-induced. This study provides quantitative details of temporal flow evolution as the experiments undergo change in gravity in the drop tower.

Yep, Tze Wing↗

Dynamics and control of escape and rescue from a tumbling spacecraft

Papers on the problem of controlling a tumbling spacecraft before crew rescue is affected are presented. Fluid jets are considered; It is concluded that a gas jet results in long tumble times and low utilization efficiencies and a liquid jet appears more attractive because it can be directed. A conceptual design of an unmanned antitumbling module for automatic dock and detumble is formulated, and analyses of its dynamics and control, synthesis of position and attitude control systems, and sequence of operations are given. The minimum time detumble operation is analyzed with respect to (1) to a constraint on the magnitude of the control moment vector and (2) to constraints on the magnitude of each of the three components of the control moment vector. Internal passive and active mechanisms of energy dissipation are also considered. Structural flexibility modelling techniques and detumbling effects of structural flexibility on free-tumbling motion, are reviewed. Mass expulsion, momentum exchange, and moveable mass techniques are described, and methods of analyzing these devices are surveyed.

Kaplan, M. H.↗

Effect of convective Mach number on mixing of coaxial circular and rectangular jets

Rectangular supersonic free and coaxial jets were used to enhance mixing relative to a circular jet in a convective Mach number range of 0.5 to 2.2. The different convective Mach numbers were obtained by changing the central jet gas composition, the temperatures of the inner and outer flows, and the velocity of the coaxial flow. The experimental techniques used were schlieren photography, total pressure, and gas-sampling measurements. For all test conditions the rectangular jets showed substantial improved mixing relative to a circular jet. The free jets showed high mixing in the circumferential region of the jet while the coaxial jet had a high mixing rate inside the central jet.

Gutmark, E.↗

Effect of a simulated engine jet blowing above an arrow wing at Mach 2.0

The effects of a gas jet simulating a turbojet engine exhaust blowing above a cambered and twisted arrow wing were investigated. Tests were conducted in the Langley 4-foot supersonic pressure tunnel at a Mach number of 2.0. Nozzle pressure ratios from 1 to 64 were tested with both helium and air used as jet gases. The tests were conducted at angles of attack from -2 deg to 8 deg at a Reynolds number of 9,840,000 per meter. Only the forces and moments on the wing were measured. Results of the investigation indicated that the jet blowing over the wing caused reductions in maximum lift-drag ratio of about 4 percent for helium and 6 percent for air at their respective design nozzle pressure ratios, relative to jet-off data. Moderate changes in the longitudinal, vertical, or angular positions of the jet relative to the wing had little effect on the wing aerodynamic characteristics.

Shrout, B. L.↗

Hydrogen leak detection in the Space Shuttle

This study focuses on a helium gas jet flowing into room air. Measurements of helium concentration and velocity in the jet-air mixture are reported. The objective is to learn about jet characteristics so that dynamically similar hydrogen leaks may be located in the Space Shuttle. The hazardous gas detection system (HGDS) in the mobile launch pad uses mass spectrometers to monitor the shuttle environment for leaks. The mass spectrometers are fed by long sample tubes which draw gas from the payload bay, mid body, aft engine compartment and external tank. The overall purpose of this study is to improve the HGDS especially in its potential for locating hydrogen leaks. A rapid-response leak detection experiment was designed, built, and tested, following on the work done in this program last summer. The apparatus included a Perkin Elmer MGA-1200 mass spectrometer and air velocity transducer, both monitored by a Macintosh IIFX computer using LabVIEW software. A jet of helium flowing into the lab air simulated a gas leak. Steady helium or hydrogen-nitrogen jets were logged for concentration and velocity, and the power spectral density of each was computed. Last year, large eddies and vortices were visually seen with Schlieren imaging, and they were detected in the time plots of the various instruments. The response time of the MGA-1200 was found in the range of 0.05 to 0.1 sec. Pulsed concentration waves were clearly detected at 25 cycles per sec by spectral analysis of MGA data. No peaks were detected in the power spectrum, so in the present study, 10 Hz bandwidth-averaged power levels were examined at regular frequency intervals. The practical consequences of last year's study are as follows: sampling frequency should be increased above the present rate of 1 sample per second so that transients could be observed and analyzed with frequency response methods. Many more experiments and conditions were observed in this second summer, including the effects of orifice diameter, jet velocity, sample tube design, radial effects, vertical flow, and low hydrogen concentrations (1 percent). A frequent observation was that the power spectrum, calculated from the Fourier transform of concentration fluctuations, gives a separate piece of information from concentration. Many of the tests suggest that power is high where mixing occurs at the helium-air interface. This fact is apparently independent of the concentration level, which could be high or low, but depends on the sample location relative to the jet (leak) origin, whereas high concentration may be due to a strong leak far away or a small leak close to the sample tube. If the power is low for any concentration level, this would signify helium is arriving at the sample tube by diffusion, not chaotic mixing caused by the jet interaction with air. The practical result is to propose a modification of the HGDL mass spectrometer data sampling and software so that sampling rates could be capable of observing at least 25 Hz fluctuations.

Barile, Ronald G↗

Reacting Multi-Species Gas Capability for USM3D Flow Solver

The USM3D Navier-Stokes flow solver contributed heavily to the NASA Constellation Project (CxP) as a highly productive computational tool for generating the aerodynamic databases for the Ares I and V launch vehicles and Orion launch abort vehicle (LAV). USM3D is currently limited to ideal-gas flows, which are not adequate for modeling the chemistry or temperature effects of hot-gas jet flows. This task was initiated to create an efficient implementation of multi-species gas and equilibrium chemistry into the USM3D code to improve its predictive capabilities for hot jet impingement effects. The goal of this NASA Engineering and Safety Center (NESC) assessment was to implement and validate a simulation capability to handle real-gas effects in the USM3D code. This document contains the outcome of the NESC assessment.

Frink, Neal T.↗

Numerical Analysis of Flow Evolution in a Helium Jet Injected into Ambient Air

A computational model to study the stability characteristics of an evolving buoyant helium gas jet in ambient air environment is presented. Numerical formulation incorporates a segregated approach to solve for the transport equations of helium mass fraction coupled with the conservation equations of mixture mass and momentum using a staggered grid method. The operating parameters correspond to the Reynolds number varying from 30 to 300 to demarcate the flow dynamics in oscillating and non-oscillating regimes. Computed velocity and concentration fields were used to analyze the flow structure in the evolving jet. For Re=300 case, results showed that an instability mode that sets in during the evolution process in Earth gravity is absent in zero gravity, signifying the importance of buoyancy. Though buoyancy initiates the instability, below a certain jet exit velocity, diffusion dominates the entrainment process to make the jet non-oscillatory as observed for the Re=30 case. Initiation of the instability was found to be dependent on the interaction of buoyancy and momentum forces along the jet shear layer.

Satti, Rajani P.↗