Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “RADIATION SOURCES”

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.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 163 records · Page 9

Critical radiation fluxes and luminosities of black holes and relativistic stars

The critial luminosity at which the outward force of radiation balances the inward force of gravity plays an important role in many astrophysical systems. We present expressions for the radiation force on particles with arbitrary cross sections and analyze the radiation field produced by radiating matter, such as a disk, ring, boundary layer, or stellar surface, that rotates slowly around a slowly rotating gravitating mass. We then use these results to investigate the critical radiation flux and, where possible, the critical luminosity of such a system in genral relativity. We demonstrate that if the radiation source is axisymmetric and emission is back-front symmetric with repect to the local direction of motion of the radiating matter, as seen in the comoving frame, then the radial component of the radiation flux and the diagonal components of the radiation stress-energy tensor outside the source are the same, to first order in the rotation rates, as they would be if the radiation source and gravitating mass were not rotating. We argue that the critical radiation flux for matter at rest in the locally nonrotating frame is often satisfactory as an astrophysical benchmark flux and show that if this benchmark is adopted, many of the complications potentially introduced by rotation of the radiation source and the gravitating mass are avoided. We show that if the radiation field in the absence of rotation would be spherically symmetric and the opacity is independent of frequency and direction, one can define a critical luminosity for the system that is independent of frequency and direction, one can define a critical luminosity for the system that is independent of the spectrum and angular size of the radiation source and is unaffected by rotation of the source and mass and orbital motion of the matter, to first order. Finally, we analyze the conditions under which the maximum possible luminosity of a star or black hole powered by steady spherically symmetric radial accretion is the same in general relativity as in the Newtonian limit.

Lamb, Frederick K.↗

Nongray radiative gas analyses using the S-N discrete ordinates method

The S-N discrete ordinates method is applied to analyze radiative heat transfer in nongray gases. Spectral correlation between the terms in the equation of transfer is considered for black or nearly nonreflecting walls. Formulations to apply the S-N method using a narrow-band or the exponential wide-band model are presented. The net radiative wall heat fluxes and the radiative source distributions are obtained for uniform, parabolic, and boundary layer-type temperature profiles, as well as for a parabolic concentration profile. The narrow- and wide-band nongray solutions are compared with gray-band approximations using the same band models. The computational speed of the gray-band approximation is obtained at the expense of accuracy in the internal fluxes and radiative source distributions. The wall radiative flux predictions by the gray-band approximation are satisfactory.

Kim, T. K.↗

Synchrotron radiation - Applications in the earth sciences

Synchrotron-radiation sources and their characteristics are overviewed along with recent synchrotron-based research on earth materials and future earth-science applications utilizing the next generation of synchrotron-radiation sources presently under construction. Focus is placed on X-ray scattering studies of earth materials (crystalline and noncrystalline) under ambient conditions, diffraction studies of earth materials at high pressures and/or temperatures, spectroscopic studies, primarily X-ray absorption spectroscopy, and spatially resolved X-ray fluorescence studies of compositional variations in earth materials. It is noted that other synchrotron-based methods, such as X-ray tomography and topography may become important in characterizing earth materials, while soft X-ray/vacuum ultraviolet radiation from synchrotron sources can be applied to problems involving the structural environments of low-atomic-number elements and the characterization of surface reactions of minerals with liquids and gases.

Bassett, W. A.↗

Silicon-Equivalent Neutron Dose Estimations

Radiation transport calculations are often used to estimate dose or exposure to components and personnel surrounding a radiation source. The sources for these calculations are decaying radionuclides within the various nuclear materials. Under long-term radiation exposure, some components may show signs of material damage such as hardening, cracking, discoloration, etc. resulting from the dose received from nearby radioactive sources. Radiation dose quantities are a useful means to correlate material damage or degradation to radiation interactions. The degradation is often dependent on how incident radiation interacts and deposits energy into the material. This dependence implies that radiation dose should be properly defined for the material effect of interest. Generic dose quantities, such as total energy deposited, may not necessarily correlate well for degradation of any given material.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Demonstration of a ring-FEL as an EUV lithography tool

In this work, we present the required structure and function of a ring-FEL as a radiation source for extreme ultraviolet radiation lithography (EUVL). A 100 m-long straight section that conducts an extremely low emittance beam from a fourth-generation storage ring can increase the average power at 13.5 nm wavelength to up to 1 kW without degrading the beam in the rest of the ring. Here, simulation results for a ring-FEL as a EUVL source are described.

07 ISOTOPE AND RADIATION SOURCES↗

Hazards from High Intensity Lamps and Arcs

The principal occupational health problem generally associated with high intensity arc lamps results from exposure of the eye and skin to ultraviolet radiation. Occasionally, the chorioretinal burns are of concern. The eye is generally more susceptible than the skin to injury from high intensity optical radiation sources whether ultraviolet, visible or infrared. Recent developments in technology have shown that some high intensity optical radiation sources which have output parameters greatly different from those encountered in the natural environment present a serious chorioretinal burn hazard.

Sliney, D. H.↗

Advancements in Afterbody Radiative Heating Simulations for Earth Entry

Four advancements to the simulation of backshell radiative heating for Earth entry are presented. The first of these is the development of a flow field model that treats electronic levels of the dominant backshell radiator, N, as individual species. This is shown to allow improvements in the modeling of electron-ion recombination and two-temperature modeling, which are shown to increase backshell radiative heating by 10 to 40%. By computing the electronic state populations of N within the flow field solver, instead of through the quasi-steady state approximation in the radiation code, the coupling of radiative transition rates to the species continuity equations for the levels of N, including the impact of non-local absorption, becomes feasible. Implementation of this additional level of coupling between the flow field and radiation codes represents the second advancement presented in this work, which is shown to increase the backshell radiation by another 10 to 50%. The impact of radiative transition rates due to non-local absorption indicates the importance of accurate radiation transport in the relatively complex flow geometry of the backshell. This motivates the third advancement, which is the development of a ray-tracing radiation transport approach to compute the radiative transition rates and divergence of the radiative flux at every point for coupling to the flow field, therefore allowing the accuracy of the commonly applied tangent-slab approximation to be assessed for radiative source terms. For the sphere considered at lunar-return conditions, the tangent-slab approximation is shown to provide a sufficient level of accuracy for the radiative source terms, even for backshell cases. This is in contrast to the agreement between the two approaches for computing the radiative flux to the surface, which differ by up to 40%. The final advancement presented is the development of a nonequilibrium model for NO radiation, which provides significant backshell radiation at velocities below 10 km/s. The developed model reduces the nonequilibrium NO radiation by 50% relative to the previous model.

Johnston, Christopher O.↗

Acoustic radiation from sources convected at transonic speeds

Each supersonic jet contains a long segment of transonic flow, and it is known through acoustic experiments that the strongest noise production region is embedded in this segment. The linearized convected wave equation breaks down in the transonic regime and a nonlinear equation must be used. Amplitude, directivity, and the transonic similarity rule for noise radiation can be established through proper matching of the displacement amplitude between the source and the wave field. This paper is a first step towards establishing a general theory of transonic aeroacoustics.

Pao, S. P.↗

Optical Spectrometer With a Pulse-to-Pulse Resolution for Terahertz and mm-Wave Signals

The development of ultra-compact particle accelerators and accelerator-based high-power THz generators are some of the top priorities for research and development programs around the world. These tools require the development of accelerating structures, operating in the mm-Wave and THz range, where diagnostics are not available or are insufficient. This article presents the design of a pulse-to-pulse THz spectrometer, primarily developed for diagnostics of accelerating structures and THz radiation sources. In particular, this spectrometer can be used to detect RF pulse shortening caused by vacuum breakdown and beam misalignment in THz accelerators, as well as for bunch length monitoring and radiation source diagnostics. The spectrometer is based on a diffraction grating and is capable of covering a frequency range where RF-based breakdown measurements are not possible. We have built and tested the first prototype with different sources in a frequency range of 0.1-1.0 THz. In this article, we present the physical design, supported numerical simulations, electronics development, and test results.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

Doppler radar observation of thunderstorm circulation in the 1977 trip program

Storm data obtained on August 1, 1977 are examined in an attempt to interpret the relationship between lightning occurrence and the thunderstorm inner dynamics and precipitation processes. Horizontal maps are presented which indicated the position of radiation sources detected by the Lightning Detection and Ranging (LDAR) network, together with the horizontal motion fields and radar reflectivity data. Detailed inspection of these fields showed that, although radiation sources are found in the vicinity of precipitation cells, they are not located in the heavy precipitation areas, but rather on their rear side in regions where the configuration of the wind fields suggests the presence of updrafts.

Lhermitte, R. M.↗

Full-spectrum multiwavelength pyrometry for nongray surfaces

A full-spectrum (encompassing radiation on both sides of the Wien displacement peak) multiwavelength pyrometer was developed. It measures the surface temperature of arbitrary nongray ceramics by curve fitting a spectrum in this spectral region to a Planck function of temperature T. This function of T is modified by the surface spectral emissivity. The emissivity function was derived experimentally from additional spectra that were obtained by using an auxiliary radiation source and from application of Kirchhoff's law. This emissivity was verified by results that were obtained independently by using electromagnetic and solid-state theories. In the presence of interfering reflected radiation this general pyrometry improves the accuracy of the measured temperature by measuring an additional spectrum that characterizes the interfering radiation source.

Ng, Daniel↗

Absolute Radiometric Calibration of EUNIS-06

The Extreme-Ultraviolet Normal-Incidence Spectrometer (EUNIS) is a soundingrocket payload that obtains imaged high-resolution spectra of individual solar features, providing information about the Sun's corona and upper transition region. Shortly after its successful initial flight last year, a complete end-to-end calibration was carried out to determine the instrument's absolute radiometric response over its Longwave bandpass of 300 - 370A. The measurements were done at the Rutherford-Appleton Laboratory (RAL) in England, using the same vacuum facility and EUV radiation source used in the pre-flight calibrations of both SOHO/CDS and Hinode/EIS, as well as in three post-flight calibrations of our SERTS sounding rocket payload, the precursor to EUNIS. The unique radiation source provided by the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) had been calibrated to an absolute accuracy of 7% (l-sigma) at 12 wavelengths covering our bandpass directly against the Berlin electron storage ring BESSY, which is itself a primary radiometric source standard. Scans of the EUNIS aperture were made to determine the instrument's absolute spectral sensitivity to +- 25%, considering all sources of error, and demonstrate that EUNIS-06 was the most sensitive solar E W spectrometer yet flown. The results will be matched against prior calibrations which relied on combining measurements of individual optical components, and on comparisons with theoretically predicted 'insensitive' line ratios. Coordinated observations were made during the EUNIS-06 flight by SOHO/CDS and EIT that will allow re-calibrations of those instruments as well. In addition, future EUNIS flights will provide similar calibration updates for TRACE, Hinode/EIS, and STEREO/SECCHI/EUVI.

Thomas, R. J.↗

Temporal Dependence of Chromosomal Aberration on Radiation Quality and Cellular Genetic Background

Radiation induced cancer risks are driven by genetic instability. It is not well understood how different radiation sources induce genetic instability in cells with different genetic background. Here we report our studies on genetic instability, particularly chromosome instability using fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), in human primary lymphocytes, normal human fibroblasts, and transformed human mammary epithelial cells in a temporal manner after exposure to high energy protons and Fe ions. The chromosome spread was prepared 48 hours, 1 week, 2 week, and 1 month after radiation exposure. Chromosome aberrations were analyzed with whole chromosome specific probes (chr. 3 and chr. 6). After exposure to protons and Fe ions of similar cumulative energy (??), Fe ions induced more chromosomal aberrations at early time point (48 hours) in all three types of cells. Over time (after 1 month), more chromosome aberrations were observed in cells exposed to Fe ions than in the same type of cells exposed to protons. While the mammary epithelial cells have higher intrinsic genetic instability and higher rate of initial chromosome aberrations than the fibroblasts, the fibroblasts retained more chromosomal aberration after long term cell culture (1 month) in comparison to their initial frequency of chromosome aberration. In lymphocytes, the chromosome aberration frequency at 1 month after exposure to Fe ions was close to unexposed background, and the chromosome aberration frequency at 1 month after exposure to proton was much higher. In addition to human cells, mouse bone marrow cells isolated from strains CBA/CaH and C57BL/6 were irradiated with proton or Fe ions and were analyzed for chromosome aberration at different time points. Cells from CBA mice showed similar frequency of chromosome aberration at early and late time points, while cells from C57 mice showed very different chromosome aberration rate at early and late time points. Our results suggest that relative biological effectiveness (RBE) of radiation are different for different radiation sources, for different cell types, and for the same cell type with different genetic background at different times after radiation exposure. Caution must be taken in using RBE value to estimate biological effects from radiation exposure.

Lu, Tao↗

Spherical time-encoded radiation imaging simulations

Radiation source localization is important for nuclear nonproliferation and can be obtained using time-encoded imaging systems with unsegmented detectors. A scintillation crystal can be used with a moving coded-aperture mask to vary the detected count rate produced from radiation sources in the far field. The modulation of observed counts over time can be used to reconstruct an image with the known coded-aperture mask pattern. Current time-encoded imaging systems incorporate cylindrical coded-aperture masks and have limits to their fully coded imaging field-of-view. This work focuses on expanding the field-of-view to 4π by using a novel spherical coded-aperture mask. A regular icosahedron is used to approximate a spherical mask. This icosahedron consists of 20 equilateral triangles; the faces of which are each subdivided into four equilateral triangle-shaped voxels which are then projected onto a spherical surface, creating an 80-voxel coded-aperture mask. Furthermore, these polygonal voxels can be made from high-Z materials for gamma-ray modulation and/or low-Z materials for neutron modulation. In this work, we present Monte Carlo N-Particle (MCNP) simulations and simple models programmed in Mathematica to explore image reconstruction capabilities of this 80-voxel coded-aperture mask.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

Analysis of diffential absorption lidar technique for measurements of anhydrous hydrogen chloride from solid rocket motors using a deuterium fluoride laser

An active optical technique (differential absorption lidar (DIAL)) for detecting, ranging, and quantifying the concentration of anhydrous HCl contained in the ground cloud emitted by solid rocket motors (SRM) is evaluated. Results are presented of an experiment in which absorption coefficients of HCl were measured for several deuterium fluoride (DF) laser transitions demonstrating for the first time that a close overlap exists between the 2-1 P(3) vibrational transition of the DF laser and the 1-0 P(6) absorption line of HCl, with an absorption coefficient of 5.64 (atm-cm) to the -1 power. These measurements show that the DF laser can be an appropriate radiation source for detecting HCl in a DIAL technique. Development of a mathematical computer model to predict the sensitivity of DIAL for detecting anhydrous HCl in the ground cloud is outlined, and results that assume a commercially available DF laser as the radiation source are presented.

Bair, C. H.↗

Laboratory Investigations of the Complex Refractory Organic Material Produced from Irradiation of Pluto Ice Analogs

Much of Pluto's surface consists of N2 ice with smaller amounts of CH4 and CO ices. Despite the low temperature (approximately 45K), chemistry can be driven in the surface ices by radiation processing such as cosmic ray bombardment. When cosmic rays strike the surface, much of their energy is dispersed in the form of secondary electrons, which in turn drive much of the resulting chemical reactions. Laboratory experiments designed to simulate the conditions on these icy bodies may provide insight into this chemistry. Significant progress has been made in the laboratory toward understanding the smaller, simple compounds produced in the solid phase by radiation processing of (N2, CH4, CO) ices (Bohn et al. 1994; Moore & Hudson 2003; Hodyss et al. 2011; Kim and Kaiser 2012). Recently Materese et al. (2014) used a variety of techniques to better characterize the refractory materials produced from the UV photo-irradiation of N2:CH4:CO ices. However, because Pluto's atmosphere is optically thick to Lyman-alpha UV radiation it is important to re-examine the results using an alternate radiation source. Our latest work has consisted of the analysis of refractory materials produced from the electron bombardment of low temperature N2(‐), CH4(‐), and CO(‐)containing ices (100:1:1). The ice mixture was chosen to be analogous to the known surface ices on Pluto and the radiation source was chosen to mimic the secondary electrons produced by cosmic rays bombardment. The residues were studied using multiple chemical techniques including, infrared (IR) spectroscopy, X‐ray absorption near‐edge structure (XANES) spectroscopy, and gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (GC‐MS). The organic residues produced in these experiments can be seen as an analog for the refractory component of the surface of Pluto, and are compared with the residues previously obtained from UV photo‐irradiation. UV and near‐ IR spectroscopy of the surfaces of Pluto and Charon during the encounter with NASA's New Horizons spacecraft in 2015, will give the first close‐up measurements of ices and their photoproducts. Laboratory measurements and experiments will provide a better context for the data returned by the spacecraft.

organics↗

Accuracy of quantum sensors measuring yield photon flux and photosynthetic photon flux

Photosynthesis is fundamentally driven by photon flux rather than energy flux, but not all absorbed photons yield equal amounts of photosynthesis. Thus, two measures of photosynthetically active radiation have emerged: photosynthetic photon flux (PPF), which values all photons from 400 to 700 nm equally, and yield photon flux (YPF), which weights photons in the range from 360 to 760 nm according to plant photosynthetic response. We selected seven common radiation sources and measured YPF and PPF from each source with a spectroradiometer. We then compared these measurements with measurements from three quantum sensors designed to measure YPF, and from six quantum sensors designed to measure PPF. There were few differences among sensors within a group (usually <5%), but YPF values from sensors were consistently lower (3% to 20%) than YPF values calculated from spectroradiometric measurements. Quantum sensor measurements of PPF also were consistently lower than PPF values calculated from spectroradiometric measurements, but the differences were <7% for all sources, except red-light-emitting diodes. The sensors were most accurate for broad-band sources and least accurate for narrow-band sources. According to spectroradiometric measurements, YPF sensors were significantly less accurate (>9% difference) than PPF sensors under metal halide, high-pressure sodium, and low-pressure sodium lamps. Both sensor types were inaccurate (>18% error) under red-light-emitting diodes. Because both YPF and PPF sensors are imperfect integrators, and because spectroradiometers can measure photosynthetically active radiation much more accurately, researchers should consider developing calibration factors from spectroradiometric data for some specific radiation sources to improve the accuracy of integrating sensors.

NASA Center KSC↗

Macroscopic Models of Radiative Transfer as Applied to Computation of the Radiation Field in the Solar Atmosphere

In this paper a new three dimensional half-moment model for radiative transfer is presented for a gray medium. It describes the evolution of the zeroth and first directional half moments of the radiative intensity. The closure is provided, similarly to Dubroca and Klar, by the maximum entropy concept. This work generalizes that model to three dimensions. The model presented here (the derivation being done in Ripoll and Wray, called the M(sup 1/2)(sub 1) model, is a hyperbolic system consisting of a total of eight equations in three dimensions, four equations for each direction. Each half model has the classical form of a macroscopic moment model in which the pressure tensor is constructed from the well-known Eddington tensor with a particular Eddington factor. Moreover, different source and border terms occur. The latter introduce couplings between the macroscopic and microscopic quantities and between the + and - streams, through the intensity in the plane perpendicular to the flux. The main theoretical application of the half moment model, treated in this paper, is its reduction to a full moment model, called M(sup +)(sub 1), for the particular but important case of a hot, opaque source radiating in a cold transparent (or semi-transparent) medium for very specific applications, such as stellar interiors or atmospheres, or combustion problems. The structure of the paper is as follows. In section 2, the model M(sup 1/2)(sub 1) is presented. In section 3, for the particular case of a hot, opaque source radiating into a cold medium, the half moment model is reduced to the M(sup +)(sub 1) model. In section 4, we first solve a simple and academic problem to validate the models, followed by a simplified solar atmosphere.

Ripoll, J.-F.↗