On the equivalence of the planet-satellite formation processes
Quantitative equivalence model in planet-satellite formation within Jupiter and Uranus systems
Black, D. C.↗
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Results for “Process Modeling”
Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.
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Thermodynamics and kinetics of the sulfation of porous calcium silicate
The sulfation of plasma sprayed calcium silicate in flowing SO2/air mixtures at 900 and 1000 C was investigated thermogravimetrically. Reaction products were analyzed using electron microprobe and X-ray diffraction analysis techniques, and results were compared with thermodynamic predictions. The percentage, by volume, of SO2 in air was varied between 0.036 and 10 percent. At 10 percent SO2 the weight gain curve displays a concave downward shoulder early in the sulfation process. An analytical model was developed which treats the initial process as one which decays exponentially with increasing time and the subsequent process as one which decays exponentially with increasing weight gain. At lower SO2 levels the initial rate is controlled by the reactant flow rate. At 1100 C and 0.036 percent SO2 there is no reaction, in agreement with thermodynamic predictions.
Miller, R. A.↗
The motion of bubbles inside drops in containerless processing
A theoretical model of thermocapillary bubble motion inside a drop, located in a space laboratory, due to an arbitrary axisymmetric temperature distribution on the drop surface was constructed. Typical results for the stream function and temperature fields as well as the migration velocity of the bubble were obtained in the quasistatic limit. The motion of bubbles in a rotating body of liquid was studied experimentally, and an approximate theoretical model was developed. Comparison of the experimental observations of the bubble trajectories and centering times with theoretical predictions lends qualified support to the theory.
Shankar, N.↗
Measurements and predictions for nonevaporating sprays in a quiescent environment
Yule et al. (1982) have conducted a study of vaporizing sprays with the aid of laser techniques. The present investigation has the objective to supplement the measurements performed by Yule et al., by considering the limiting case of a spray in a stagnant environment. Mean and fluctuating velocities of the continuous phase are measured by means of laser Doppler anemometry (LDA) techniques, while Fraunhofer diffraction and slide impaction methods are employed to determine drop sizes. Liquid fluxes in the spray are found by making use of an isokinetic sampling probe. The obtained data are used as a basis for the evaluation of three models of the process, including a locally homogeneous flow (LHF) model, a deterministic separated flow (DSF) model, and a stochastic separated flow (SSF) model. It is found that the LHF and DSF models do not provide very satisfactory predictions for the test sprays, while the SSF model does provide reasonably good predictions of the observed structure.
Solomon, A. S. P.↗
A theoretical and experimental study of turbulent nonevaporating sprays
Measurements and analysis limited to the dilute portions of turbulent nonevaporating sprays injected into a still air environment were completed. Mean and fluctuating velocities and Reynolds stress were measured in the continuous phase. Liquid phase measurements included liquid mass fluxes, drop sizes and drop size and velocity correlation. Initial conditions needed for model evaluation were measured at a location as close to the injector exit as possible. The test sprays showed significant effects of slip and turbulent dispersion of the discrete phase. The measurements were used to evaluate three typical models of these processes: (1) a locally homogenous flow (LHF) model, where slip between the phases were neglected; (2) a deterministic separated flow (DSF) model, where slip was considered but effects of drop dispersion by turbulence were ignored; and (3) a stochastic separated flow (SSF) model, where effects of interphase slip and turbulent dispersion were considered using random-walk computations for drop motion. The LHF and DSF models did not provide very satisfactory predictions for the present measurements. In contrast, the SSF model performed reasonably well with no modifications in the prescription of eddy properties from its original calibration. Some effects of drops on turbulence properties were observed near the dense regions of the sprays.
Solomon, A. S. P.↗
A theoretical and experimental study of turbulent evaporating sprays
Measurements and analysis limited to the dilute portions of turbulent evaporating sprays, injected into a still air environment were completed. Mean and fluctuating velocities and Reynolds stress were measured in the continuous phase. Liquid phase measurements included liquid mass fluxes, drop sizes and drop size and velocity correlation. Initial conditions needed for model evaluation were measured at a location as close to the injector exit as possible. The test sprays showed significant effects of slip and turbulent dispersion of the discrete phase. The measurements were used to evaluate three typical models of these processes: (1) a locally homogeneous flow (LHF) model, where slip between the phases were neglected; (2) a deterministic separated flow (DSF) model, where slip was considered but effects of drop dispersion by turbulence were ignored; and (3) a stochastic separated flow (SSF) model, where effects of interphase slip and turbulent dispersion were considered using random-walk computations for drop motion. For all three models, a k-epsilon model as used to find the properties of the continuous phase. The LHF and DSF models did not provide very satisfactory predictions for the present measurements. In contrast, the SSF model performed reasonably well--with no modifications in the prescription of eddy properties from its original calibration.
Solomon, A. S. P.↗
Electrohydrodynamics
Models of electrohydrodynamic processes involving liquids with poorly ionized solutes at high (applied) field strengths were developed and tested. Extant theories which account for the details of physico-chemical processes associated with charged interfaces deal mainly with low field strengths and fully ionized solutes. The model used to describe processes at high field strengths--the leaky dielectric--omits consideration of electric double-layers, adsorption at interfaces, and chemical processes involved in the dissociation and recombination of solute species. Thus, even though the model depicts some features associated with bulk fluid motion, it fails to give a comprehensive picture. One example of the shortcomings of both the classical model of eletrokinetics at low field strengths and the leaky-dielectric model for high field strengths is found in the field strength dependence of the mobility of small particles in apolar liquids. The research will provide a more general model of electrohydrodynamic phenomena capable of application in diverse circumstances.
Saville, D. A.↗
Low level image processing techniques using the pipeline image processing engine in the flight telerobotic servicer
The sensory processing system for the NASA/NBS Standard Reference Model (NASREM) for telerobotic control is described. This control system architecture was adopted by NASA of the Flight Telerobotic Servicer. The control system is hierarchically designed and consists of three parallel systems: task decomposition, world modeling, and sensory processing. The Sensory Processing System is examined, and in particular the image processing hardware and software used to extract features at low levels of sensory processing for tasks representative of those envisioned for the Space Station such as assembly and maintenance are described.
Nashman, Marilyn↗
Nonlinear dynamics of global atmospheric and Earth-system processes
General Circulation Model (GCM) studies of the atmospheric response to change boundary conditions are discussed. Results are reported on an extensive series of numerical studies based on the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) Community Climate Model (CCM) general circulation model. In these studies the authors determined the response to systematic changes in atmospheric CO2 ranging from 100 to 1000 ppm; to changes in the prescribed sea surface temperature (SST) in the Gulf of Mexico, such as occurred during the deglaciation phase of the last ice age; to changes in soil moisture over North America; and to changes in sea ice extent in the Southern Hemisphere. Study results show that the response of surface temperature and other variables is nearly logarithmic, with lower levels of CO2 implying greater sensitivity of the atmospheric state to changes in CO2. It was found that the surface temperature of the Gulf of Mexico exerts considerable control over the storm track and behavior of storm systems over the North Atlantic through its influence on evaporation and the source of latent heat. It was found that reductions in soil moisture can play a significant role in amplifying and maintaining North American drought, particularly when a negative soil moisture anomaly prevails late in the spring.
Saltzman, Barry↗
Carbonate in Comets: A Comparison of Comets 1P/Halley, 9P/Temple 1, and 81P/Wild 2
Comets are generally believed to have formed in a cold region, trapping in the cometary ices the original low-temperature condensate grains of our Solar System. These grains would have been preserved in cold-storage, at a temperature below the freezing point of CO2, for the last 4.5+ billion years. Carbonates are common in hydrous meteorites and hydrous interplanetary dust particles (IDPs), where they are believed to have formed by parent-body aqueous processing. Since simple models of cometary evolution involve no aqueous processing, carbonates were generally presumed not to occur in comets. However, Toppani et al. [1] have performed experiments that indicate carbonate can be formed by non-equilibrium condensation in circumstellar environments where water is present as a vapor, not as a liquid. This suggests carbonate might have condensed in cold regions of the Solar Nebula, and might be present in comets.
Flynn, G. J.↗
Ablator Response Model Development: From Flight Data Back to Fundamental Experiments
The successful Mars atmospheric entry by the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL-Curiosity) combined with the success of the Earth atmospheric entry by the Stardust capsule have established PICA as a major Thermal Protection Systems (TPS) material. We expect that this class of materials will be on the short list selected by NASA for any atmospheric entry missions and that it will be the lead of that list of materials in any planning, feasibility studies or flight readiness studies. In addition to NASAs successes, the Dragon capsule, the successful commercial space vehicle built by SpaceX, uses PICA-X, while the European Space Agency is considering ASTERM for its exploration missions that involve atmospheric entries, both of these materials are of the same family as PICA. In the talk, a high-fidelity model will be detailed and discussed. The model tracks the chemical composition of the gases produced during pyrolysis. As in the conventional models, it uses equilibrium chemistry to determine the recession rate at high temperatures but switches to in-volume finite-rate ablation for lower temperatures. It also tracks the time evolution of the porosity of the material. Progress in implementing this high-fidelity model in a code will be presented. In addition, a set of basic experimental data being supported for model validation will be summarized. The validation process for the model development will be discussed. Preliminary results will be presented for a case where detailed pyrolysis product chemistry is computed. Finally, a wish list for a set of validation experiments will be outlined and discussed.
Mansour, Nagi N.↗
The Livingstone Model of a Main Propulsion System
Livingstone is a discrete, propositional logic-based inference engine that has been used for diagnosis of physical systems. We present a component-based model of a Main Propulsion System (MPS) and say how it is used with Livingstone (L2) in order to implement a diagnostic system for integrated vehicle health management (IVHM) for the Propulsion IVHM Technology Experiment (PITEX). We start by discussing the process of conceptualizing such a model. We describe graphical tools that facilitated the generation of the model. The model is composed of components (which map onto physical components), connections between components and constraints. A component is specified by variables, with a set of discrete, qualitative values for each variable in its local nominal and failure modes. For each mode, the model specifies the component's behavior and transitions. We describe the MPS components' nominal and fault modes and associated Livingstone variables and data structures. Given this model, and observed external commands and observations from the system, Livingstone tracks the state of the MPS over discrete time-steps by choosing trajectories that are consistent with observations. We briefly discuss how the compiled model fits into the overall PITEX architecture. Finally we summarize our modeling experience, discuss advantages and disadvantages of our approach, and suggest enhancements to the modeling process.
Bajwa, Anupa↗
Yield model development project implementation plan
Tasks remaining to be completed are summarized for the following major project elements: (1) evaluation of crop yield models; (2) crop yield model research and development; (3) data acquisition processing, and storage; (4) related yield research: defining spectral and/or remote sensing data requirements; developing input for driving and testing crop growth/yield models; real time testing of wheat plant process models) and (5) project management and support.
Ambroziak, R. A.↗
Viscous flow behavior of four iron-containing silicates with alumina, effects of composition and oxidation condition
The viscosity of a magma is an important parameter in connection with its effect on geologic processes such as melt segregation, magma vesiculation, and crystal fractionation. Though most models of geologic processes assume relatively low values for the magma viscosity less than 10,000 poise, it would be useful to have an empirical model for estimating viscosities when the process occurs during continuous cooling to a temperature region where the viscosity is expected to be very high. The considered work has been carried out to provide the experimental measurements of viscosity at low temperatures which would be used in formulating the empirical model. Ten iron-containing silicate compositions have been investigated by Klein et al. (1981), and four of these compositions have been selected for the present study with alumina. The study involves substitutions of Al2O3 for FeOx at Na2O/Al2O3 moles greater than one. For the four iron-containing silicate glasses with alumina, the viscosity at a given temperature is found to increase with increasing (Fe + Al).
Klein, L. C.↗
Predicting Production Costs for Advanced Aerospace Vehicles
For early design concepts, the conventional approach to cost is normally some kind of parametric weight-based cost model. There is now ample evidence that this approach can be misleading and inaccurate. By the nature of its development, a parametric cost model requires historical data and is valid only if the new design is analogous to those for which the model was derived. Advanced aerospace vehicles have no historical production data and are nowhere near the vehicles of the past. Using an existing weight-based cost model would only lead to errors and distortions of the true production cost. This paper outlines the development of a process-based cost model in which the physical elements of the vehicle are soared according to a first-order dynamics model. This theoretical cost model, first advocated by early work at MIT, has been expanded to cover the basic structures of an advanced aerospace vehicle. Elemental costs based on the geometry of the design can be summed up to provide an overall estimation of the total production cost for a design configuration. This capability to directly link any design configuration to realistic cost estimation is a key requirement for high payoff MDO problems. Another important consideration in this paper is the handling of part or product complexity. Here the concept of cost modulus is introduced to take into account variability due to different materials, sizes, shapes, precision of fabrication, and equipment requirements. The most important implication of the development of the proposed process-based cost model is that different design configurations can now be quickly related to their cost estimates in a seamless calculation process easily implemented on any spreadsheet tool.
Bao, Han P.↗
New reflective symmetry design capability in the JPL-IDEAS Structure Optimization Program
The JPL-IDEAS antenna structure analysis and design optimization computer program was modified to process half structure models of symmetric structures subjected to arbitrary external static loads, synthesize the performance, and optimize the design of the full structure. Significant savings in computation time and cost (more than 50%) were achieved compared to the cost of full model computer runs. The addition of the new reflective symmetry analysis design capabilities to the IDEAS program allows processing of structure models whose size would otherwise prevent automated design optimization. The new program produced synthesized full model iterative design results identical to those of actual full model program executions at substantially reduced cost, time, and computer storage.
Strain, D.↗
Modeling, Monitoring and Fault Diagnosis of Spacecraft Air Contaminants
Progress and results in the development of an integrated air quality modeling, monitoring, fault detection, and isolation system are presented. The focus was on development of distributed models of the air contaminants transport, the study of air quality monitoring techniques based on the model of transport process and on-line contaminant concentration measurements, and sensor placement. Different approaches to the modeling of spacecraft air contamination are discussed, and a three-dimensional distributed parameter air contaminant dispersion model applicable to both laminar and turbulent transport is proposed. A two-dimensional approximation of a full scale transport model is also proposed based on the spatial averaging of the three dimensional model over the least important space coordinate. A computer implementation of the transport model is considered and a detailed development of two- and three-dimensional models illustrated by contaminant transport simulation results is presented. The use of a well established Kalman filtering approach is suggested as a method for generating on-line contaminant concentration estimates based on both real time measurements and the model of contaminant transport process. It is shown that high computational requirements of the traditional Kalman filter can render difficult its real-time implementation for high-dimensional transport model and a novel implicit Kalman filtering algorithm is proposed which is shown to lead to an order of magnitude faster computer implementation in the case of air quality monitoring.
Ramirez, W. Fred↗
Comment on 'Modeling of Convective-Stratiform Precipitation Processes: Sensitivity to Partitioning Methods' by Matthias Steiner
Despite the obvious notion that the presence of hail or graupel is a good indication of convection, the model results show this does not provide an objective benchmark partly due to the unrealistic presence of small amounts of hail or graupel throughout the anvil in the model but mainly because of the significant amounts of hail or graupel, especially in the tropical TOGA COARE simulation, in the transition zone. Without use of a "transition" category, it is open to debate as how this region should best be defined, as stratiform or as convective. So, the presence of significant hail or graupel contents in this zone significantly degrades its use an objective benchmark for convection. The separation algorithm comparison was done in the context of a cloud-resolving model. These models are widely used and serve a variety of purposes especially with regard to retrieving information that cannot be directly measured by providing synthetic data sets that are consistent and complete. Separation algorithms are regularly applied in these models. However, as with any modeling system, these types 'of models are constantly being improved to overcome any known deficiencies and make them more accurate representations of observed systems. The presence of hail and graupel in the anvil and the bias towards heavy rainfall rates are two such examples of areas that need improvement. Since, both of these can effect the perceived performance of the separation algorithms, the Lang et al. (2003) study did not want to overstate the relative performance of any specific algorithms.
Lang, Steve↗