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At least 1,531 records · Page 85

Effects of Downstream Vortex Generators on Film Cooling a Flat Plate Fed by Crossflow

This presentation describes experimental and CFD results of a novel idea to improve film cooling effectiveness. This concept involves downstream vortex generators to control counter-rotating vortices that can degrade discrete film cooling jets. The performance can be influenced significantly by how the coolant is supplied to the film cooling holes. In this paper, the effects of a coolant supply channel that is normal to the hot gas path are investigated and discussed.

Straub, Douglas↗

Two-Piece Screens for Decontaminating Granular Material

Two-piece screens have been designed specifically for use in filtering a granular material to remove contaminant particles that are significantly wider or longer than are the desired granules. In the original application for which the twopiece screens were conceived, the granular material is ammonium perchlorate and the contaminant particles tend to be wires and other relatively long, rigid strands. The basic design of the twopiece screens can be adapted to other granular materials and contaminants by modifying critical dimensions to accommodate different grain and contaminant- particle sizes. A two-piece screen of this type consists mainly of (1) a top flat plate perforated with circular holes arranged in a hexagonal pattern and (2) a bottom plate that is also perforated with circular holes (but not in a pure hexagonal pattern) and is folded into an accordion structure. Fabrication of the bottom plate begins with drilling circular holes into a flat plate in a hexagonal pattern that is interrupted, at regular intervals, by parallel gaps. The plate is then folded into the accordion structure along the gaps. Because the folds are along the gaps, there are no holes at the peaks and valleys of the accordion screen. The top flat plate and the bottom accordion plate are secured within a metal frame. The resulting two-piece screen is placed at the bottom opening of a feed hopper containing the granular material to be filtered. Tests have shown that such long, rigid contaminant strands as wires readily can pass through a filter consisting of the flat screen alone and that the addition of the accordion screen below the flat screen greatly increases the effectiveness of removal of wires and other contaminant strands. Part of the reason for increased effectiveness is in the presentation of the contaminant to the filter surface. Testing has shown that wire type contamination will readily align itself parallel to the material direction flow. Since this direction of flow is nearly always perpendicular to the filter surface holes, the contamination is automatically aligned to pass through. The two-filter configuration reduces the likelihood that a given contaminant strand will be aligned with the flow of material by eliminating the perpendicular presentation angle. Thus, for wires of a certain diameter, a two-piece screen is 20 percent more effective than is the corresponding flat perforated plate alone, even if the holes in the flat plate are narrower. An accordion screen alone is similarly effective in catching contaminants, but lumps of agglomerated granules of the desired material often collect in the valleys and clog the screen. The addition of a flat screen above the accordion screen prevents clogging of the accordion screen. Flat wire screens have often been used to remove contaminants from granular materials, and are about as effective as are the corresponding perforated flat plates used alone.

Backes, Douglas↗

Correcting Thermal Deformations in an Active Composite Reflector

Large, high-precision composite reflectors for future space missions are costly to manufacture, and heavy. An active composite reflector capable of adjusting shape in situ to maintain required tolerances can be lighter and cheaper to manufacture. An active composite reflector testbed was developed that uses an array of piezoelectric composite actuators embedded in the back face sheet of a 0.8-m reflector panel. Each individually addressable actuator can be commanded from 500 to +1,500 V, and the flatness of the panel can be controlled to tolerances of 100 nm. Measuring the surface flatness at this resolution required the use of a speckle holography interferometer system in the Precision Environmental Test Enclosure (PETE) at JPL. The existing testbed combines the PETE for test environment stability, the speckle holography system for measuring out-of-plane deformations, the active panel including an array of individually addressable actuators, a FLIR thermal camera to measure thermal profiles across the reflector, and a heat source. Use of an array of flat piezoelectric actuators to correct thermal deformations is a promising new application for these actuators, as is the use of this actuator technology for surface flatness and wavefront control. An isogrid of these actuators is moving one step closer to a fully active face sheet, with the significant advantage of ease in manufacturing. No extensive rib structure or other actuation backing structure is required, as these actuators can be applied directly to an easy-to-manufacture flat surface. Any mission with a surface flatness requirement for a panel or reflector structure could adopt this actuator array concept to create lighter structures and enable improved performance on orbit. The thermal environment on orbit tends to include variations in temperature during shadowing or changes in angle. Because of this, a purely passive system is not an effective way to maintain flatness at the scale of microns over several meters. This technology is specifically referring to correcting thermal deformations of a large, flat structure to a specified tolerance. However, the underlying concept (an array of actuators on the back face of a panel for correcting the flatness of the front face) could be extended to many applications, including energy harvesting, changing the wavefront of an optical system, and correcting the flatness of an array of segmented deployable panels.

Bradford, Samuel C.↗

Twisted bilayer graphene. III. Interacting Hamiltonian and exact symmetries

We derive the explicit Hamiltonian of twisted bilayer graphene (TBG) with Coulomb interaction projected into the flat bands and study the symmetries of the Hamiltonian. First, we show that all projected TBG Hamiltonians can be written as positive semidefinite Hamiltonians, an example of which was found in work by Kang and Vafek [Phys. Rev. Lett. 122, 246401 (2019)]. We then prove that the interacting TBG Hamiltonian exhibits an exact U(4) symmetry in the exactly flat band (nonchiral-flat) limit. We further define, besides a first chiral limit where the AA stacking hopping is zero, a second chiral limit where the AB/BA stacking hopping is zero. In the first chiral-flat limit (or second chiral-flat limit) with exactly flat bands, the TBG is enhanced to have an exact U(4) × U(4) symmetry, whose generators are different between the two chiral limits. While in the first chiral limit and in the nonchiral case these symmetries have been found in work by Bultinck et al. [Phys. Rev. X 10, 031034 (2020)], for the eight lowest bands, we here prove that they are valid for projection into any 8 n max particle-hole symmetric TBG bands, with n max > 1 being the practical case for small twist angles < 1°. Furthermore, in the first or second chiral-nonflat limit without flat bands, an exact U(4) symmetry still remains. We also elucidate the link between the U(4) symmetry presented here and the similar but different U(4) of Kang and Vafek [Phys. Rev. Lett. 122, 246401 (2019)]. Additionally, we show that our projected Hamiltonian can be viewed as the normal-ordered Coulomb interaction plus a Hartree-Fock term from passive bands, and exhibits a many-body particle-hole symmetry which renders the physics symmetric around charge neutrality. We also provide an efficient parametrization of the interacting Hamiltonian. The existence of two chiral limits with an enlarged symmetry suggests a possible duality of the model yet undiscovered.

2-dimensional systems↗

Topology-Bounded Superfluid Weight in Twisted Bilayer Graphene

While regular flat bands are good for enhancing the density of states and hence the gap, they are detrimental to the superfluid weight. We show that the predicted nontrivial topology of the two lowest flat bands of twisted bilayer graphene (TBLG) plays an important role in the enhancement of the superfluid weight and hence of superconductivity. We derive the superfluid weight (phase stiffness) of the TBLG superconducting flat bands with a uniform pairing, and show that it can be expressed as an integral of the Fubini-Study metric of the flat bands. This mirrors results already obtained for nonzero Chern number bands even though the TBLG flat bands have zero Chern number. We further show that the metric integral is lower bounded by the topological $C_{2z}T$ Wilson loop winding number of TBLG flat bands, which renders that the superfluid weight is also bounded by this topological index. In contrast, trivial flat bands have a zero superfluid weight. The superfluid weight is crucial in determining the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition temperature of the superconductor. Based on the transition temperature measured in TBLG experiments, we estimate the topological contribution of the superfluid weight in TBLG.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Connecting Node

A paper describes the Octanode, a connecting node that facilitates the integration of multiple docking mechanisms, hatches, windows, and internal and external systems with the use of flat surfaces. The Octanode is a 26- faced Great Rhombicuboctahedron Archi medean solid with six octagonshaped panels, eight hexagon-shaped panels, and 12 square panels using three unique, simple, flat shapes to construct a spherical approximation. Each flat shape can be constructed with a variety of material and manufacturing techniques, such as honeycomb composite panels or a pocketed skinstringer configuration, using conventional means. The flat shapes can be connected together and sealed to create a pressurizable volume by the use of any conventional means including welding or fastening devices and sealant. The node can then be connected to other elements to allow transfer between those elements, or it could serve as an airlock. The Octanode can be manufactured on the ground and can be integrated with subsystems including hatches and ports. The node can then be transported to its intended location, whether on orbit or on surface. Any of the flat panels could be replaced by curved ones, turning the node into a copula. Windows may be placed on flat panes with optimal viewing angles that are not blocked by large connecting nodes. The advantage of using flat panels to represent a spherical approximation is that this allows for easier integration of subsystems and design features.

Johnson, Christopher J.↗

Validation of Heat Transfer and Film Cooling Capabilities of the 3-D RANS Code TURBO

The capabilities of the 3-D unsteady RANS code TURBO have been extended to include heat transfer and film cooling applications. The results of simulations performed with the modified code are compared to experiment and to theory, where applicable. Wilcox s k-turbulence model has been implemented to close the RANS equations. Two simulations are conducted: (1) flow over a flat plate and (2) flow over an adiabatic flat plate cooled by one hole inclined at 35 to the free stream. For (1) agreement with theory is found to be excellent for heat transfer, represented by local Nusselt number, and quite good for momentum, as represented by the local skin friction coefficient. This report compares the local skin friction coefficients and Nusselt numbers on a flat plate obtained using Wilcox's k-model with the theory of Blasius. The study looks at laminar and turbulent flows over an adiabatic flat plate and over an isothermal flat plate for two different wall temperatures. It is shown that TURBO is able to accurately predict heat transfer on a flat plate. For (2) TURBO shows good qualitative agreement with film cooling experiments performed on a flat plate with one cooling hole. Quantitatively, film effectiveness is under predicted downstream of the hole.

Shyam, Vikram↗

Commissioning of a two-target DC cylindrical magnetron sputter coater for depositing Nb 3 Sn film on Nb superconducting radiofrequency cavities

A DC cylindrical magnetron sputter coater was commissioned and used to coat Nb 2.6 GHz superconducting radiofrequency (SRF) cavity with Nb 3 Sn. The sputter coater has two identical cylindrical magnetrons that can move, with a controlled speed, along the axis of the SRF cavity to coat the inside surface of the cavity. The design of the sputter coater is discussed, along with its performance. Initially, a sample holder that allows coating on flat substrates at positions similar to the equator and beam tubes of a 2.6 GHz SRF cavity was used to test conditions for fabricating Nb 3 Sn layers. Multilayers of Nb and Sn were sequentially sputtered on flat Nb and sapphire substrates mounted on the equivalent positions of the cavity's beam tubes and the equator using the two identical cylindrical magnetrons. Then, the Nb/Sn multilayers were annealed at 950 °C for 3 h. Here, the ~1.2 μm thick Nb 3 Sn film did not show any other Nb–Sn compounds and had a superconducting transition temperature of 17.61–17.76 K. The 2.6 GHz SRF cavity was coated using similar conditions as flat samples. Cryogenic RF testing of the Nb 3 Sn-coated cavity demonstrated a quality factor of 3.2 × 10 8 at an accelerating gradient of 5 MV/m at 4.4 K.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

Twisted bilayer graphene. IV. Exact insulator ground states and phase diagram

Here, we derive the exact insulator ground states of the projected Hamiltonian of magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene (TBG) flat bands with Coulomb interactions in various limits, and study the perturbations away from these limits. We define the (first) chiral limit where the AA stacking hopping is zero, and a flat limit with exactly flat bands. In the chiral-flat limit, the TBG Hamiltonian has a U(4) × U(4) symmetry, and we find that the exact ground states at integer filling – 4 ≤ $\textit{ν}$ ≤ 4 relative to charge neutrality are Chern insulators of Chern numbers $ν_C$ = 4 – |$\textit{ν}$ |, 2 – |$\textit{ν}$ |, $\cdots$, |$\textit{ν}$ | – 4, all of which are degenerate. This confirms recent experiments where Chern insulators are found to be competitive low-energy states of TBG. When the chiral-flat limit is reduced to the nonchiral-flat limit which has a U(4) symmetry, we find $\textit{ν}$ = 0 , ± 2 has exact ground states of Chern number 0, while $\textit{ν}$ = ±1, ± 3 has perturbative ground states of Chern number $ν_C$ = ± 1, which are U(4) ferromagnetic. In the chiral-nonflat limit with a different U(4) symmetry, different Chern number states are degenerate up to second-order perturbations. In the realistic nonchiral-nonflat case, we find that the perturbative insulator states with Chern number $ν_C$ = 0 (0 < |$ν_C$| < 4 – |$\textit{ν}$ |) at integer fillings $\textit{ν}$ are fully (partially) intervalley coherent, while the insulator states with Chern number |$ν_C$| = 4 – |$\textit{ν}$ | are valley polarized. However, for 0 < |$ν_C$| ≤ 4 – |$\textit{ν}$ |, the fully intervalley coherent states are highly competitive (0.005 meV/electron higher). At nonzero magnetic field |$\textit{B}$ | > 0, a first-order phase transition for $\textit{ν}$ = ± 1, ± 2 from Chern number $ν_C$ = sgn ($\textit{νB}$)(2 – |$\textit{ν}$ |) to $ν_C$ = sgn ($\textit{νB}$)(4 – |$\textit{ν}$ |) is expected, which agrees with recent experimental observations. Lastly, the TBG Hamiltonian reduces into an extended Hubbard model in the stabilizer code limit.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗