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At least 1,531 records · Page 85
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NASA NTRS2011

Drop Shapes Versus Fall Velocities in Rain: 2 Contrasting Examples

Rainfall retrievals from polarimetric radar measurements require the knowledge of four fundamental rain microstructure parameters, namely, drop size distribution, drop shape distribution, canting angles and drop fall velocities. Some recent measurements of all four parameters in natural rain are summarized in [1]. In this paper, we perform an in-depth analysis of two events, using two co-located 2D video disdrometers (2DVD; see [2]) both with high calibration accuracy, and a C-band polarimetric radar [3], located 15 km away. The two events, which occurred 7 days apart (on the 18th and the 25th of Dec 2009), had moderate-to-intense rainfall rates, but the second event had an embedded convection line within the storm. The line had passed over the 2DVD site, thus enabling the shapes and fall velocities to be determined as the line crossed the site. The first event was also captured in a similar manner by both the 2DVDs as well as the C-band radar. Drop fall velocity measurements for, say, the 3 mm drops show noticeable differences between the two events. Whereas for the first event, the velocity distribution showed a narrow and symmetric distribution, with a mode at the expected value (7.95 m/s, as given by the formula in [4]), the second event produced a wider distribution with a significant skewness towards lower velocities (although its mode too was close to the expected value). Moreover, the slower 3 mm drops in the second event occurred when the convection line was directly over the 2DVD site (03:35-03:45 utc), and not before nor after. A similar trend was observed in terms of the horizontal dimensions of the 3 mm drops, i.e. large fluctuations during the same time period, but not outside the period. Vertical dimensions of the drops also fluctuated but not to the same extent. Interestingly, the horizontal dimensions tended towards larger values during the 10-minute period, implying an increase in drop oblateness, which in turn indicates the possibility of the horizontal mode oscillation, one of the three fundamental modes of drop oscillations [5], albeit the most difficult one to excite.

Thurai, M.↗
NASA NTRS1998

Application of Aeroelastic Solvers Based on Navier-Stokes Equations

A pre-release version of the Navier-Stokes solver (TURBO) was obtained from MSU. Along with Dr. Milind Bakhle of the University of Toledo, subroutines for aeroelastic analysis were developed and added to the TURBO code to develop versions 1 and 2 of the TURBO-AE code. For specified mode shape, frequency and inter-blade phase angle the code calculates the work done by the fluid on the rotor for a prescribed sinusoidal motion. Positive work on the rotor indicates instability of the rotor. The version 1 of the code calculates the work for in-phase blade motions only. In version 2 of the code, the capability for analyzing all possible inter-blade phase angles, was added. The version 2 of TURBO-AE code was validated and delivered to NASA and the industry partners of the AST project. The capabilities and the features of the code are summarized in Refs. [1] & [2]. To release the version 2 of TURBO-AE, a workshop was organized at NASA Lewis, by Dr. Srivastava and Dr. M. A. Bakhle, both of the University of Toledo, in October of 1996 for the industry partners of NASA Lewis. The workshop provided the potential users of TURBO-AE, all the relevant information required in preparing the input data, executing the code, interpreting the results and bench marking the code on their computer systems. After the code was delivered to the industry partners, user support was also provided. A new version of the Navier-Stokes solver (TURBO) was later released by MSU. This version had significant changes and upgrades over the previous version. This new version was merged with the TURBO-AE code. Also, new boundary conditions for 3-D unsteady non-reflecting boundaries, were developed by researchers from UTRC, Ref. [3]. Time was spent on understanding, familiarizing, executing and implementing the new boundary conditions into the TURBO-AE code. Work was started on the phase lagged (time-shifted) boundary condition version (version 4) of the code. This will allow the users to calculate non-zero interblade phase angles using, only one blade passage for analysis.

Keith, Theo G., Jr.↗
NASA NTRS1998

Differential Thermal Analysis of Hg(1-x)Mn(x)Te Alloys in the X=0 to 0.3 Range

Understanding the experimental conditions necessary for the development of radial and axial compositional homogeneity in directionally solidified Hg(0.89)Mn(0.11)Te(MMT) crystals has been difficult due to the lack of segregation coefficient data on the Hg(1-x)Mn(x)Te alloy system in the X = 0 to 0.3 composition range. Determining segregation coefficient data from the available Hg(1-x)Mn(x)Te alloy phase equilibria data is not practical due to discrepancies in the shape of the reported solidus and liquidus curves in the X = 0 to 0.3 range. To resolve these discrepancies and to obtain segregation coefficient data which can be used to understand homogeneity in directionally solidified MMT crystals, the solidus and liquidus temperatures of seven Hg(1-x)Mn(x)Te alloys in the X = 0 to 0.3 range were determined using differential thermal analysis (DTA). The Hg(1-x)Mn(x)Te phase diagram constructed for the X = 0 to 0.3 range of this alloy system from the DTA measurements clarifies the shape of the solidus and liquidus curves in this range. The segregation coefficient for the Hg(1-x)Mn(x)Te system was found to vary from 5 to 4.4 as the solidus composition increased from 0-30 atomic percent MnTe. This information will be useful in the analysis of axial and radial homogeneity of directionally solidified MMT crystals.

Price, M. W.↗
NASA NTRS1986

Preparation, analysis and release of simulated interplanetary grains into low Earth orbit

Astronomical observations which reflect the optical and dynamical properties of interstellar and interplanetary grains are the primary means of identifying the shape, size, and the chemistry of extraterrestrial grain materials. Except for recent samplings of extraterrestrial particles in near-Earth orbit and in the stratosphere observations were the only method of deducing the properties of extraterrestrial particles. In order to elucidate the detailed characteristics of observed dust, the observations must be compared with theoretical studies, some of which are discussed in this volume, or compared with terrestrial laboratory experiments. The formation and optical characterization of simulated interstellar and interplanetary dust with particular emphasis on studying the properties on irregularly shaped particles were discussed. Efforts to develop the techniques to allow dust experiments to be carried out in low-Earth orbit were discussed, thus extending the conditions under which dust experiments may be performed.

Stephens, J. R.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Precise measurement of asteroid sizes and shapes from occultations

The observational techniques (including photoelectric observations, television recordings, and visual timings) used to measure asteroid dimensions from occultations of stars by asteroids are discussed together with the methods of analysis appropriate to occultation data. Results are presented on the determinations of asteroid diameter, density, and internal structure measures learned from occultations of 36 asteroids. Prospects for continued effective applications of the occultation technique to asteroid studies are discussed.

Millis, R. L.↗
NASA NTRS1996

Demonstration and Analysis of Filtered Rayleigh Scattering Flow Field Diagnostic System

Filtered Rayleigh Scattering (FRS) is a diagnostic technique which measures velocity, temperature, and pressure by determining Doppler shift, total intensity, and spectral line shape of laser induced Rayleigh-Brillouin scattering. In the work reported here, this is accomplished by using a narrow line width, injection seeded Nd-YAG laser sheet to induce Rayleigh-Brillouin scattering from a gas flow. This light is passed through an optical notch filter, and transmitted light is imaged onto an intensified charge coupled display (CCD) camera. By monitoring the grayscale value at a particular pixel while the laser frequency is tuned, the convolution between the Rayleigh-Brillouin scattering profile and the filter transmission profile is attained. Since the filter profile can be independently measured, it can be deconvolved from the measuring signal, yielding the Rayleigh-Brillouin scattering profile. From this profile, flow velocity, temperature, and pressure are determined. In this paper the construction and characterization of the optical notch filter and a newly developed frequency apparatus are discussed.

Forkey, Joseph N.↗
NASA NTRS2011

Structural Analysis of Pressurized Small Diameter Lines in a Random Vibration Environment

The pressurization and propellant feed lines for the Ares 1 Upper Stage Reaction and Roll Control Systems (ReCS and RoCS) were required to be in a high g-load random vibration flight environment. The lines connected the system components and were filled with both liquid hydrazine and gaseous helium. They are considered small and varied between one fourth to one inch in diameter. The random vibration of the lines was considered to be base excitation through the mating components and mounting hardware. It was found that reducing the amount of support structure for the lines added flexibility to the system and improved the line stresses from random vibration, but caused higher stresses from the static g-loads. The locations and number of brackets were optimized by analyzing the mode shapes of the lines causing high stresses. The use of brackets that only constrain motion in the direction of concern further reduced the stresses in the lines. Finite element analysis was used to perform the analysis. The lines were pre-stressed by temperature and internal pressure with fluid and insulation included as non-structural mass. Base excitation was added to the model using Power Spectral Density (PSD) data for the expected flight loads. The random vibration and static g-load cases were combined to obtain the total stress in the lines. This approach advances the state of the art in line analysis by using FEA to predict the stresses in the lines and to optimize the entire system based on the expected flight environment. Adding flexibility to lines has been used in piping system for temperature loads, but in flight environments flexibility has been limited for the static stresses. Adding flexibility to the system in a flight environment by reducing brackets has the benefit of reducing stresses and weight

Davis, Mark↗
NASA NTRS1987

Thermal-stress-free fasteners for joining orthotropic materials

Hot structures fabricated from orthotropic materials are an attractive design option for future high speed vehicles. Joining subassemblies of these materials with standard cylindrical fasteners can lead to loose joints or highly stressed joints due to thermal stress. A method has been developed to eliminate thermal stress and maintain a tight joint by shaping the fastener and mating hole. This method allows both materials (fastener and structure), with different coefficients of thermal expansion (CTE's) in each of the three principal material directions, to expand freely with temperature yet remain in contact. For the assumptions made in the analysis, the joint will remain snug, yet free of thermal stress at any temperature. Finite element analysis was used to verify several thermal-stress-free fasteners and to show that conical fasteners, which are thermal-stress-free for isotropic materials, can reduce thermal stresses for transversely isotropic materials compared to a cylindrical fastener. Equations for thermal-stress-free shapes are presented and typical fastener shapes are shown.

Blosser, Max L.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Validation of the CQUAD4 element for vibration and shock analysis of thin laminated composite plate structure

The performance of the NASTRAN CQUAD4 membrane and plate element in the analysis of undamped natural vibration modes of thin fiber reinforced composite plates was evaluated. The element provides natural frequency estimates that are comparable in accuracy to alternative formulations, and, in most cases, deviate by less than 10 percent from experimentally measured frequencies. The predictions lie within roughly equal accuracy bounds for the two material types treated (GFRP and CFRP), and for the ply layups considered (unidirectional, cross-ply, and angle-ply). Effective elastic lamina moduli had to be adjusted for fiber volume fraction to attain this level of frequency. The lumped mass option provides more accurate frequencies than the consistent mass option. This evaluation concerned only plates with L/t ratios on the order of 100 to 150. Since the CQUAD4 utilizes first-order corrections for transverse laminate shear stiffness, the element should provide useful frequency estimates for plate-like structures with lower L/t. For plates with L/t below 20, consideration should be given to idealizing with 3-D solid elements. Based on the observation that natural frequencies and mode shapes are predicted with acceptable engineering accuracy, it is concluded that CQUAD4 should be a useful and accurate element for transient shock and steady state vibration analysis of naval ship

Lesar, Douglas E.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Analysis of internal ablation for the thermal control of aerospace vehicles

A new method of thermal protection for transatmospheric vehicles is introduced. The method involves the combination of radiation, ablation and transpiration cooling. By placing an ablating material behind a fixed-shape, porous outer shield, the effectiveness of transpiration cooling is made possible while retaining the simplicity of a passive mechanism. A simplified one-dimensional approach is used to derive the governing equations. Reduction of these equations to non-dimensional form yields two parameters which characterize the thermal protection effectiveness of the shield and ablator combination for a given trajectory. The non-dimensional equations are solved numerically for a sample trajectory corresponding to glide re-entry. Four typical ablators are tested and compared with results obtained by using the thermal properties of water. For the present level of analysis, the numerical computations adequately support the analytical model.

Camberos, Jose A.↗
NASA NTRS1995

Deuterium and the Local Interstellar Medium: Properties for the Procyon and Capella Lines of Sight

We present Goddard High-Resolution Spectrograph observations of the interstellar H I and D I Ly-alpha lines and the Mg II and Fe II resonance lines formed along the lines of sight toward the nearby stars Procyon (3.5 pc, l = 214 deg, b = 13 deg) and Capella (12.5 pc, l = 163 deg, b = 5 deg). New observations of Capella were obtained at orbital phase 0.80, when the radial velocities of the intrinsic Ly-alpha emission lines of each star were nearly reversed from those of the previous observations at phase 0.26. Since the intrinsic Ly-alpha line of the Capella system (the 'continuum' against which the interstellar absorption is measured) has different shapes at phases 0.26 and 0.80, we can derive both the intrinsic stellar profiles and the interstellar absorption lines more precisely by jointly analyzing the two data sets. For the analysis of the Procyon line of sight, we first assumed that the intrinsic Ly-alpha line profile is a broadened solar profile, but this assumption does not lead to a good fit to the observed D I line profile for any value of D/H. We then assumed that (D/H)(sub LISM) = 1.6 x 10(exp -5), the same value as for the Capella line of sight, and we modified the broadened solar profile to achieve agreement between the simulated and observed line profiles. The resulting asymmetric intrinsic stellar line profile is consistent with the shapes of the scaled Mg II line profiles. We believe therefore that the Procyon data are consistent with (D/H)(sub LISM) = 1.6 x 10(exp -5), but the uncertainty in the intrinsic Ly-alpha emission-line profile does not permit us to conclude that the D/H ratio is constant in the local interstellar medium (LISM). The temperature and turbulence in the Procyon line of sight are T = 6900 +/- 80 (+/- 300 systematic error) K and zeta = 1.21 +/- 0.27 km/s. These properties are similar to those of Capella, except that the gas toward Procyon is divided into two velocity components separated by 2.6 km/s and the Procyon line of sight has a mean neutral hydrogen density that is a factor of 2.4 larger than that of the Capella line of sight. This suggests that the first 5.3 pc along the Capella line of sight lies within the local cloud and the remaining 7.2 pc lies in the hot gas surrounding the local cloud. We propose that n(H I) = 0.1065 +/- 0.0028 cm(exp -2) be adopted for the neutral hydrogen density within the local cloud and that zeta = 1.21 +/- 0.27 km/s be adopted for the nonthermal motions. The existence of different second velocity components toward the nearby stars Procyon and Sirius provides the first glimpse of a turbulent cloudlet boundary layer between the local cloud and the surrounding hot interstellar gas.

Linsky, Jeffrey L.↗
NASA NTRS2019

Conceptual Design of a Counter-Rotating Fan System for Distributed Boundary Layer Ingesting Propulsion

The present paper details the design of the counter rotating fans for a Turboelectric Distributed Propulsion (TeDP) system. Sixteen propulsors installed in mail-slot-shape nacelles are embedded on an aerodynamically optimized hybrid wing-body configuration. The hybrid-wing/body (HWB) configuration which was previously designed to satisfy the conditions of trim, longitudinally static stability and specific cargo space is employed as the baseline configuration in pursuing an optimal distributed propulsion system. A set of distributed propulsors is conceptually designed and the collective performance is evaluated against the target thrust mandated by the mission requirements. The concept of the distributed propulsion allows the fan pressure ratio to be around 1.27~1.32 for the target thrust. In addition, further splitting of the fan pressure ratio by using the counter-rotating fans for each slot realizes the target pressure ratio with low tip speed. In the distributed propulsion system, the nature of the flow conditions and/or the thickness of the ingested boundary layer may differ and result in different propulsive reaction of each individual propulsor. The optimization is, thus, approached from both the propulsion system and individual propulsor perspectives. An optimal distribution of the thrust and power output is determined by how the system utilizes each passage's propulsive characteristics and its interaction with the airframe. These system level analysis and optimization are conducted using an actuator disk model to account for the propulsion-airframe integration numerically. With respect to the propulsor level, aerodynamic shape optimizations of the fan blades are performed in a sequential multi-objective optimization process for various design objectives, such as mass flow rate condition, fan pressure ratio, efficiency and the exit flow angle of the fan stage by using a genetic algorithm, NSGA-II. The radial chord distribution, and meanline distribution of the rotors are designed on the circumferentially averaged axi-symmetric inlet profiles and tested on the six inlet profiles from six divided sectors to reckon flow distortion. The performances of the counter rotating fans are, thus, evaluated accordingly for obtaining distortion tolerant fan. The performance of the distributed propulsion system is evaluated by two CFD tools, i.e., a multi-stage turbo-machinery CFD code and one propulsion-airframe integration flow solver coupled with a body-force model. The optimized boundary layer ingestion propulsion system of 16 distributed slots not only reaches the system target thrust, but also delivers a close to 20% fuel saving benefit against its counterpart 12 distributed clean inlet propulsion system.

Boundary-Layer-Ingestion Propulsion↗
NASA NTRS1972

Technique for rapid determination of relative ages of lunar areas from orbital photography.

Development of a technique for determining relative ages of regions of the lunar surface from orbital photography using a model of small-impact erosion. The erosion model relates the shape of a crater to the integrated flux of debris that has impacted the surface since that crater was fresh. The shape of the most modified crater of a particular diameter is thereby related to the relative age of the surface. Application of this analysis to orbital photography reveals that the major mare units vary in the accumulation of impacts by more than a factor of 3. Comparison of these data with crystallization ages determined from samples collected during the Apollo 11 and 12 missions indicates that the impact fluxes were decreasing during the stages of mare formation. An exponentially decaying flux for the last 3.5 b.y. with a half-life of 0.6 to 1.4 b.y. is compatible with the data.

Soderblom, L. A.↗
NASA NTRS1973

Induced shock pulse testing by transient waveform control

A method of synthesizing an arbitrarily shaped transient time pulse on vibration exciters is described. The transient waveform control technique is based on recent developments in digital time series analysis, the real-time FFT processor. A brief description of the theory, error estimates and hardware/software implementation to the JPL Dynamic Environmental Testing Laboratory is presented.

Kim, B. K.↗
NASA NTRS1976

M-I-S solar cell - Theory and experimental results

The paper presents an operating-mode analysis of an MIS solar cell and discusses the advantages which can arise as a result of the use of transport control, field shaping (increased n factor), and zero bias barrier height modification. It is noted that for an n-type semiconductor, it is relatively easy to obtain an enhanced n factor using acceptor-like states without an increase in diode saturation current, the converse being true for p-type semiconductors. Several MIS configurations are examined: an acceptor-like, localized state configuration producing field shaping and no change in diode saturation current, and acceptor-like localized configurations producing field shaping, with a decrease of diode saturation current, in one case, and an increase in the other.

Childs, R.↗