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At least 1,441 records · Page 80
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2024

Multiwavelength Afterglow Analysis of GRB 221009A: Unveiling the Evolution of a Cooling Break in a Wind-like Medium

Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are the most energetic explosions in the Universe, and their afterglow emission provides an opportunity to probe the physics of relativistic shock waves in an extreme environment. Several key pieces for completing the picture of GRB afterglow physics are still missing, including jet properties, the emission mechanism, and particle acceleration. Here, we present a study of the afterglow emission of GRB 221009A, the most energetic GRB ever observed. Using optical, X-ray, and gamma-ray data up to approximately 2 days after the trigger, we trace the evolution of the multiwavelength spectrum and the physical parameters behind the emission process. The broadband spectrum is consistent with the synchrotron emission emitted by relativistic electrons with its index of p = 2.29 ± 0.02. We identify a break energy at keV and an exponential cutoff at GeV in the observed multiwavelength spectrum. The break energy increases in time from $16.0^{+7.1}_{-4.9}$ keV at 0.65 days to $46.8^{+25.0}_{-15.5}$ keV at 1.68 days, favoring a stellar-wind-like profile of the circumburst medium with k = 2.4 ± 0.1 as in ρ(r) ∝ r -k . The high-energy attenuation at around 0.4 to 4 GeV is attributed to the maximum of the particle acceleration in the relativistic shock wave. This study confirms that the synchrotron process can explain the multiwavelength afterglow emission and its evolution.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
NASA NTRS1979

Contributions to the Fourth Solar Wind Conference

Recent results in interplanetary physics are examined. These include observations of shock waves and post-shock magnetic fields made by Voyager 1, 2; observations of the electron temperature as a function of distance between 1.36 AU and 2.25 AU; and observations of the structure of sector boundaries observed by Helios 1. A theory of electron energy transport in the collisionless solar wind is presented, and compared with observations. Alfven waves and Alvenic fluctuations in the solar wind are also discussed.

Acuna, M. H.↗
NASA NTRS2001

Impact and Collisional Processes in the Solar System

In the past year, we have successfully developed the techniques necessary to conduct impact experiments on ice at very low temperatures. We employ the method of embedding gauges within a target to measure the shock wave and material properties. This means that our data are not model dependent; we directly measure the essential parameters needed for numerical simulations of impact cratering. Since then we have developed a new method for temperature control of icy targets that ensures temperature equilibrium throughout a porous target. Graduate student, Sarah Stewart-Mukhopadhyay, is leading the work on ices and porous materials as the main thrust of her thesis research. Our previous work has focused on icy materials with no porosity, and we propose to extend our research to include porous ice and porous ice-silicate mixtures. There is little shockwave data for porous ice, and none of the data was acquired under conditions applicable to the outer solar system. The solid ice Hugoniot is only defined for initial temperatures above -20 C. Our program uniquely measures the properties of ice at temperatures directly applicable to the solar system. Previous experiments were conducted at ambient temperatures soon after removing the target from a cold environment, usually just below freezing, or in a room just below freezing. Since ice has an extremely complicated phase diagram, it is important to conduct experiments at lower temperatures to determine the true outcome of impacts in the outer solar system. This research is complementary to other programs on icy materials. Our work focuses on the inherent material properties by measuring the shock wave directly; this complements the macroscopic observations and immediately provides the parameters necessary to extend this research to the gravity regime. Our numerical simulations of impacts in porous ice under very low gravity conditions, such as found on comets, show that the final crater size and shape is very dependent on the dynamic strength of the material.

Ahrens, Thomas J.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Dynamic Analysis of Reynolds Number Effects on Trailing Edge Transonic Vortex Shedding and Its Impact on Turbine Blade Aerodynamic Performance

In this work, we will discuss observations from images acquired from a time-resolved, high-speed self-aligned focusing Schlieren campaign that was performed at the CW-22 facility at NASA Glenn Research Center to understand the dynamic behavior of thick trailing-edge high-pressure turbine blades simulating a ceramic matrix composite (CMC) construction at high inlet turbulence conditions. For the CMC-9 blade, which has a trailing edge thickness of 9% of the axial chord, we identified a regime where an excessive total pressure loss (loss anomaly) is observed only for a narrow range of Reynolds numbers at a fixed exit Mach number of 0.74. The loss anomaly is qualitatively explained by our images, which were taken at 10 distinct blade Reynolds numbers spanning a factor of 6. The images show a significant increase in energy related to the oscillations due to transonic vortex shedding at the Reynolds numbers related to the high loss conditions. This increased energy leads to the formation of strong acoustic waves that turn into shock waves at the highest loss conditions. From our observations stemming from Spectral POD analysis of the high-speed images, we see the acoustic waves produced by the trailing edge vortex shedding exist in all conditions tested; but the shedding frequency has a very slight trend upwards as the Reynolds number is increased, varying about 6% in the range tested. Considering this variation of shedding frequency as a function of Reynolds number, which is well-established for other bluff-body flows, we stipulate there may be a potential feedback mechanism involving an acoustic information transfer path across neighboring blades that may explain why only a narrow range of Reynolds numbers displays strong, shock-forming vortex shedding. We consider a few feedback paths and examine the timing based on the mean flow field from a high-resolution LES simulation. It appears that all feedback mechanisms are viable, presenting an integer number of delay cycles with respect to disturbances generated at the trailing edge. Most noteworthy, however, is the acoustic/shock-boundary layer interaction mechanism at the blade geometric throat. Based on our analysis, this mechanism likely plays an important role in realistic, curved turbine blade passages.

Aerodynamics↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Analysis and Comparison of Surface Roughness Effects on Pressure Data from SLS Wind Tunnel Test

Unsteady flows are becoming a more characterized field of study as advancements in technology is allowing for more high-speed, time-resolved data acquisition. It is important to understand these flows as the shock-wave boundary-layer interactions and separation they are involved with can generate extreme loads caused by high pressure and temperature on the body of a flight vehicle. It is vital to characterize these loads, as they can impede upon the structural integrity of a high-speed system. A common instrument utilized today to characterize pressure distributions caused by unsteady flows are unsteady pressure transducers. Set flush with the surface of a flight vehicle or wind tunnel model, these transducers can provide a pressure distribution, capturing the frequency of unsteady loads that could impinge upon the test article. A couple negative aspects of this instrumentation is that they are expensive, have long lead times, and a pressure distribution can only be determined in one discrete location where the transducer is installed. An optical diagnostic known as unsteady pressure-sensitive paint (uPSP) can help to satisfy these deficiencies. This is a spray paint that can be applied to a surface of a model to provide a global pressure distribution across the whole painted region.2 A complete picture of the fluid dynamic pressures occurring on the surface of a test article can be analyzed, especially in locations where it may have been impossible to install a transducer. Pressure-sensitive paint is also less expensive than traditional pressure transducers, which are, on average, about $2,000 each including the cost of installation.3 Unsteady PSP will not replace unsteady pressure transducers, but the transducers can be used to validate the PSP response to the flow and measure frequencies higher than the frequency response of the paint. One issue that can arise using these tools simultaneously, is that the surface roughness of the uPSP can affect the pressure readings of the transducers. Applying the uPSP to the surface of the model is going to affect the flow in some way as the topography of the model is now different than if it was not painted. One study with steady PSP conducted by Amer, Obara, and Liu at NASA Langley concluded that the PSP surface roughness was minimally intrusive at different test conditions with various lift, drag, etc., however, it was noted that data from some pressure transducers had decreased, likely due to the uneven application of the PSP in the localized region of the transducers.9 Sugioka et. al. tested various formulations of uPSP to study surface roughness effects on a Common Research Model (CRM) in transonic flow. The influence of uPSP on the surface of the model, depending on how it was formulated, was noted to have the possibility of relocating the shock wave present in the flow. This study was conducted to examine and compare transducer data acquired in December 2017 of a 4% scale model of the Space Launch System (SLS) performed at NASA Ames Research Center (ARC) Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel (UPWT). One goal of the test was to demonstrate to the customer the potential of the uPSP system developed at NASA ARC. The effect of uPSP on transducer signals also became an interest in this experiment and is the reason for this data analysis. The results of this study were discussed with the SLS team to help them make decisions regarding the next test on an SLS model with the PSP and Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel teams.

pressure-sensitive paint↗
NASA NTRS2019

Field Evaluations of Sampling, Interviewing, and Flight Tracking of NASA's Low Boom Flight Demonstrator Aircraft

The first year’s effort identified sampling and interviewing as the principal risks to assessment of prompt reactions to overflights producing low-amplitude sonic booms. It also 1) established the utility of geo-information system-based route planning for LBFD flight missions, 2) developed and demonstrated a prototype of a geographically-distributed, Internet-enabled instrumentation system capable of wide-area tracking of LBFD aircraft in near-real time. The latter system permits synchronizing the conduct of interviews in multiple overflown communities with arrival times of shock waves at interviewing sites; and of measuring, archiving, and processing their acoustic signatures. Means were also recommended for constructing representative, telephone-based samples of eligible respondents living in households within carpet boom corridors adjacent to LBFD flight tracks, and for conducting interviews with cross-sectional (independent) samples of such respondents about their prompt reactions to exposure to low-amplitude sonic booms. A detailed study design was prepared and accepted by NASA for a set of single-contact attempt telephone interviews with a nationally representative sample of households. The study design focused on testing automated and live agent interview completion rates obtainable without callbacks. A minimal (two monitoring station) version of the aircraft tracking system was built and installed near a civil airport in a successful demonstration of the system’s ability to detect and track aircraft movements. The field exercise also demonstrated the ability of the system to capture the acoustic emissions of departing aircraft, and to serve aircraft position and sound level information to remote, geographically-distributed analysts in near-real time. Upon approval of OMB and IRB of the detailed study plan, a stratified, nationally representative sample of landline and wireless telephone-subscribing households was constructed. A total of 12,734 telephone interview contact attempts of the sort required by a straightforward cross-sectional study design were then made. These contact attempts demonstrated the impracticality of conducting a time-critical, cross-sectional study of prompt community response to low-amplitude sonic booms by means of “independent” (single contact attempt per respondent for each LBFD flight mission) telephone samples of respondents. The observed interview completion rates for these single telephone contact attempts were so low (~ 1% to 3% for automated and live agent interviews, respectively) that: 1) the representativeness of collected opinions would be susceptible to intuitive challenge as inadequate, even absent conclusive evidence of non-representativeness. Refuting challenges to representativeness would have to demonstrate that the composition of the actual sample did not differ from that of the target population, a task that is tantamount to proving a negative; 2) the information required to refute allegations of non-representativeness would require a questionnaire considerably lengthier than that required simply to determine the prevalence of boom-induced startle and annoyance. Such a questionnaire would have to inquire about potentially sensitive and intrusive matters, including respondents’ age, gender, education, employment, home ownership, income, ethnicity, family size, and other demographic factors; and 3) unreasonable numbers of attempts would be required to re-contact households with unsuccessful initial contact attempts, given the limited time available for doing so. For example, if about 500 completed interviews were desired in a supersonically overflown community, approximately 50,000 automated interview attempts would have to be made within ten to fifteen minutes of each LBFD overflight. Such large numbers of contact attempts could well exceed the numbers of households available for interview in areas of similar boom exposure levels in some communities near LBFD flight tracks. Such large numbers of interviews could be cost-effectively undertaken only by means of automated (i.e., outgoing interactive voice response) interviewing, a data collection method ill-suited for complex and sensitive questionnaire items. The infeasibility of independent sampling for evaluating prompt responses to LBFD overflights in a cross-sectional study is due in large part to simple non-response: that is, potential respondents – particularly those contacted on wireless telephones – refusing to answer calls with unfamiliar caller IDs. It is also due in part, however, to 1) the lack of time to attempt to contact the same respondent more than once within a few minutes after the arrival of a shock wave at the respondent’s location; and 2) the need to place calls during weekday/daytime hours, when response rates are notably lower than during evenings and weekends. Despite the poor interview completion rates achieved under the above constraints, cross sectional assessments of delayed reactions to LBFD overflights could still be feasible, if multiple attempts could be made to contact respondents during evening and weekend time periods, over extended time periods. Detailed plans for a longitudinal (panel) sample were developed as an alternative to a cross sectional sample design.

Fidell, Sanford↗
DOE OSTI2020

High-pressure ignition delay time measurements of a four-component gasoline surrogate and its high-level blends with ethanol and methyl acetate

Ignition delay times of a gasoline surrogate (iso-octane/toluene/n-heptane/1-hexene at 55/25/15/5% by liquid volume, developed in McCormick et al. 2017) with high-level bioblendstock-gasoline surrogate blends (50% and 85% biofuel by liquid volume of each ethanol and methyl acetate) were collected behind reflected shock waves. Post-reflected-shock temperatures ranged from 968 to 1361 K at pressures of about 4, 10, 25, and 50 atm. Data were collected for real fuel–air mixtures at fuel lean and stoichiometric conditions (φ = 0.5, 1.0) with focus on the more-practical, fuel-lean conditions. Ignition delay times were measured from OH* chemiluminescence around 307 nm using an endwall diagnostic. The RON and MON of the surrogate were 90.3 and 84.7, respectively. Ethanol was chosen due to its wide use in flex-fuel vehicles and availability, while also providing an increased octane rating. Methyl acetate was chosen for its especially high octane rating to investigate the effect of an extreme case. To validate the gasoline surrogate, the data are compared to real gasoline (RD387) and several gasoline surrogate experiments from the literature. Using the wide range of pressures studied, the gasoline surrogate’s pressure dependence was quantified to account for test-to-test variations using regression analysis. Similarly, a global correlation for gasoline and its surrogates was developed using all available data from the literature. Two modern chemical kinetics models targeting gasoline and its surrogates are compared to the ignition delay time measurements. These new high-pressure, high-bioblendstock concentration tests provide required chemical kinetic data for optimizing fuel and engine design.

42 ENGINEERING↗
NASA NTRS1972

Sonic-boom measurements for SR-71 aircraft operating at Mach numbers to 3.0 and altitudes to 24384 meters

Sonic-boom pressure signatures produced by the SR-71 aircraft at altitudes from 10,668 to 24,384 meters and Mach numbers 1.35 to 3.0 were obtained as an adjunct to the sonic boom evaluation program relating to structural and subjective response which was conducted in 1966-1967 time period. Approximately 2000 sonic-boom signatures from 33 flights of the SR-71 vehicle and two flights of the F-12 vehicle were recorded. Measured ground-pressure signatures for both on-track and lateral measuring station locations are presented and the statistical variations of the overpressure, positive impulse, wave duration, and shock-wave rise time are illustrated.

Maglieri, D. J.↗
NASA NTRS1973

High Reynolds number experimental data for forebody axial force.

Brief review of the operational principle and capability of the high-Reynolds-number wind tunnel developed over the last few years. Its test medium is stored in a Ludwieg tube and held there by means of a diaphragm. When the diaphragm is broken, a rearward-facing centered rarefaction fan propagates upstream through the test section and nozzle into the supply tube, and the useful run time is bounded by the reflected rarefaction wave and the starting shock wave caused by choking at the nozzle. The operating problems center around the ability of model and sting support systems to withstand the loads and to meet the instrumentation requirements. Evaluation tests have shown that satisfactory force and moment measurements can be obtained in this facility.

Davis, J. W.↗
NASA NTRS1974

On the propagation velocity of a detonation-shock combined wave

A quasi-one-dimensional analysis and a generalized Chapman-Jouguet condition are developed for a gaseous free detonation in an inert environment. Two characteristic features derived from the results are that there exists a lower limit on the heat of combustion, the charge diameter, and the molecular weight of the ambient gas and that there are two propagation velocities for a parameter combination above a certain critical value. Therefore the detonation failure of a free gas column is a hydrodynamic rather than a chemical phenomenon.

Tsuge, S.↗