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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2020

Spontaneous Raman–LIF–CO–OH measurements of species concentration in turbulent spray flames

This paper presents new measurements of species concentrations, temperature and mixture fraction in selected regions of a turbulent ethanol spray flame. The line-Raman–LIF–COsingle bondOH setup developed at the Sandia's Combustion Research Facility is utilised to probe regions of a spray flame where laser breakdown of liquid droplets is avoided and the remaining interferences can be corrected. The spray flame is stabilised on the piloted Sydney needle spray burner, where axial translation of the liquid injecting needle in the air-blast stream can transition the spray from dilute to dense. The solution to obtaining successful measurements is found to be multifaceted and includes: the appropriate selection of flame conditions; high sensitivity of the Raman detection system permitting reduced laser energies; development of a pre-processing algorithm to reject strong droplet interferences; and application of the hybrid matrix inversion method combined with wavelet denoising to account for interference corrections and noise at the very low signal levels obtained. Unique and necessary for the successful measurements reported in this paper, a pre-processing algorithm is outlined that removes data points corrupted with strong interferences from droplets. These interferences arise from a range of sources, but the most intense are due to the laser interaction with surrounding mist or liquid fragments, such that measurements near the jet centreline are corrupted and hence discarded. Reliable measurements of mixture fraction, temperature obtained from the sum of the species number densities, and species mole fractions are reported for regions in the flames sufficiently far from the centreline. The paper demonstrates the feasibility of the judicious use of Raman scattering in turbulent spray flames, the results of which will be extremely useful for validating numerical simulations.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2020

Application of end-of-shift respirable crystalline silica monitoring to construction

A pilot project was conducted to determine the effect of common construction dusts as interferences in a new portable end-of-shift (EoS), direct-on-filter (DoF) sampling and analysis method for respirable crystalline silica (RCS), in this case, quartz. Construction dusts were prepared from plaster, drywall, cement and brick by grinding, aerosolizing, and collecting respirable dust with high flow rate cyclones. Filters were loaded with different levels of commercial α-quartz powder Min-u-Sil 5, and different levels of interfering dusts, singly and in combination. Samples were analyzed by Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR). Good correlations were found between nominal quartz loading (0 µg, 25 µg, 50 µg, and 100 µg) adjusted for quartz in the interfering dust and FTIR absorbance alone and in the presence of all interfering dusts. The slopes of the correlations were similar whether the loading was quartz without interference, or with plaster, drywall, and cement dusts, regardless of quantity. The results show that (a) plaster and drywall dusts do not interfere substantially; (b) cement does not interfere, but a change in the intercept suggests an effect on the background absorbance of the filter; and (c) in addition to having a substantial quartz content, brick dust contains an additional material, probably a silicate mineral, which interferes with the quartz peak. Thus, the presence of cement leads to lower quartz values and brick leads to higher values, but overall, 83% of the quartz contents predicted from the calibration data agreed within 50% of the adjusted nominal loadings within the range 20–110 µg. This result is encouraging given the high levels of interfering dusts. Nine samples loaded with smaller amounts of all four dusts together gave results within 25% of the adjusted nominal loadings. A single mixture addition of the dusts to the filter gave tighter variance in results than sequential additions. Unexpectedly, the two Certified Reference Materials (CRMs) 1878a and 1878b, gave different results when used to calibrate XRD analysis of Min-u-Sil 5.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2024

Four Channel Time Multiplexed Photonic Doppler Velocimetry using an Optical Switch

Photonic Doppler Velocimetry (PDV) is a diagnostic commonly used in shock physics and dynamic compression experiments to reliably get velocity information from experiments. In PDV systems, a common method of reducing experimental cost is to use time and frequency multiplexing to increase the number of PDV probes. With time multiplexing, interference between probes is a frequent problem. In this report, we look at using a high-speed optical switch to reduce this interference, including measuring the amount of interference generated to determine if it has the potential to affect experiments and integrating a time multiplexing system into an experiment. We find that, when applied to PDV systems, there is approximately (-23.4 ± 0.9) dB of interference measured in the short time Fourier transform between switch inputs. When an optical switch based time multiplexing system was integrated into a dynamic compression experiment, the system was able to successfully combine the signals from four different PDV probes onto a single optical cable without unacceptable levels of interference in the spectrogram. An optical switch based time multiplexing system appears to be a promising method for reducing the cost of fielding larger numbers of PDV probes in an experiment.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
NASA NTRS1975

Single- and dual-carrier microwave noise abatement in the deep space network

The NASA/JPL Deep Space Network (DSN) microwave ground antenna systems are presented which simultaneously uplink very high power S-band signals while receiving very low level S- and X-band downlinks. Tertiary mechanisms associated with elements give rise to self-interference in the forms of broadband noise burst and coherent intermodulation products. A long-term program to reduce or eliminate both forms of interference is described in detail. Two DSN antennas were subjected to extensive interference testing and practical cleanup program; the initial performance, modification details, and final performance achieved at several planned stages are discussed. Test equipment and field procedures found useful in locating interference sources are discussed. Practices deemed necessary for interference-free operations in the DSN are described. Much of the specific information given is expected to be easily generalized for application in a variety of similar installations. Recommendations for future investigations and individual element design are given.

Bathker, D. A.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Adaptive antenna arrays for weak interfering signals

The interference protection provided by adaptive antenna arrays to an Earth station or satellite receive antenna system is studied. The case where the interference is caused by the transmission from adjacent satellites or Earth stations whose signals inadverently enter the receiving system and interfere with the communication link is considered. Thus, the interfering signals are very weak. To increase the interference suppression, one can either decrease the thermal noise in the feedback loops or increase the gain of the auxiliary antennas in the interfering signal direction. Both methods are examined. It is shown that one may have to reduce the noise correlation to impractically low values and if directive auxiliary antennas are used, the auxiliary antenna size may have to be too large. One can, however, combine the two methods to achieve the specified interference suppression with reasonable requirements of noise decorrelation and auxiliary antenna size. Effects of the errors in the steering vector on the adaptive array performance are studied.

Gupta, I. J.↗
NASA NTRS1985

EMI characteristics of a potential control system

With the development and use of charged particle sources for controlling spacecraft potentials there is a need to better understand the effects of these systems on spacecraft operations. The emission of charged particles perturbs the spacecraft environment and signals are generated which may interfere with other vehicle functions. In particular, the generated signals are apt to interfere with detectors for observing waves that exist naturally in the space environment. Examples of this type of interference are presented from the SCATHA satellite during a period when the vehicle was highly charged. A plasma source on board the spacecraft succeeded in discharging the vehicle with each of four different operating modes. The VLF broadband receiver on SCATHA detected interference over the entire 0-5 kHz range of both the electric and magnetic field detectors during these charged particle emissions. This frequency range includes the 2 kHz electron gyrofrequency but is below the 9 kHz electron plasma frequency. The observations suggest that interference occurs through introduction of anomalous signals, and through suppression of background field measurements.

Donatelli, D. E.↗
NASA NTRS1987

Experimental evaluation of blockage ratio and plenum evacuation system flow effects on pressure distribution for bodies of revolution in 0.1 scale model test section of NASA Lewis Research Center's proposed altitude wind tunnel

An experimental investigation was conducted in the slotted test section of the 0.1-scale model of the proposed Altitude Wind Tunnel to evaluate wall interference effects at tunnel Mach numbers from 0.70 to 0.95 on bodies of revolution with blockage rates of 0.43, 3, 6, and 12 percent. The amount of flow that had to be removed from the plenum chamber (which surrounded the slotted test section) by the plenum evacuation system (PES) to eliminate wall interference effects was determined. The effectiveness of tunnel reentry flaps in removing flow from the plenum chamber was examined. The 0.43-percent blockage model was the only one free of wall interference effects with no PES flow. Surface pressures on the forward part of the other models were greater than interference-free results and were not influenced by PES flow. Interference-free results were achieved on the aft part of the 3- and 6-percent blockage models with the proper amount of PES flow. The required PES flow was substantially reduced by opening the reentry flaps.

Burley, Richard R.↗
NASA NTRS1988

Adaptive wall research with two- and three-dimensional models in low speed and transonic tunnels

This paper summarises recent research at the University of Southampton into adaptive wall technology and outlines the direction of current efforts. The work is aimed at developing techniques for use in test sections where the top and bottom walls may be adjusted in single curvature. Wall streamlining eliminates, as far as experimentally possible, the top and bottom wall interference in low speed and transonic aerofoil testing. A streamlining technique has been developed for low speeds which allows the testing of swept wing panels in low interference environments. At higher speeds, a comparison of several two-dimensional transonic streamlining algorithms has been made and a technique for streamlining with a choked test section has also been developed. Three-dimensional work has mainly concentrated on tests of sidewall mounted half-wings and the development of the software packages required to assess interference and to adjust the flexible walls. It has been demonstrated that two-dimensional wall adaptation can significantly modify the level of wall interference around relatively large three-dimensional models. The residual interferences are small and are probably amenable to standard post-test correction methods. Tests on a calibrated wing-body model are planned in the near future to further validate the proposed streamlining technique.

Lewis, M. C.↗
NASA NTRS1989

A two-dimensional adaptive-wall test section with ventilated walls in the Ames 2- by 2-foot transonic wind tunnel

The first tests conducted in the adaptive-wall test section of the Ames Research Center's 2- by 2-Foot Transonic Wind Tunnel are described. A procedure was demonstrated for reducing wall interference in transonic flow past a two-dimensional airfoil by actively controlling flow through the slotted walls of the test section. Flow through the walls was controlled by adjusting pressures in compartments of plenums above and below the test section. Wall interference was assessed by measuring (with a laser velocimeter) velocity distributions along a contour surrounding the model, and then checking those measurements for their compatibility with free-air far-field boundary conditions. Plenum pressures for minimum wall interference were determined from empirical influence coefficients. An NACA 0012 airfoil was tested at angles of attach of 0 and 2, and at Mach numbers between 0.70 and 0.85. In all cases the wall-setting procedure greatly reduced wall interference. Wall interference, however, was never completely eliminated, primarily because the effect of plenum pressure changes on the velocities along the contour could not be accurately predicted.

Schairer, Edward T.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Comparison of conventional and adaptive wall wind tunnel results with regard to Reynolds number effects

A comparison of results from conventional and adaptive wall wind tunnels with regard to Reynolds number effects was carried out. The special objective of this comparison was to confirm or reject earlier conclusions, soley based on conventional wind tunnel results, concerning the influence of viscous effects on the characteristics of partially open wind tunnel walls, hence wall interference. The following postulations could be confirmed: (1) certain classes of supercritical airfoils exhibit a non-linear increase in lift which is, at least in part, related to viscous-inviscid interactions on the airfoil. This non-linear lift characteristic can erroneously be suppressed by sidewall interference effects in addition to being affected by changes in Reynolds number. Adaptive walls seem to relieve the influence of sidewall interference; (2) the degree of (horizontal) wall interference effects can be significantly affected by changes in Reynolds number, thus appearing as true Reynolds number effects; (3) perforated wall characteristics seem much more susceptible to viscous changes than the characteristics of slotted walls; here, blockage interference may be most severely influenced by viscous changes; and (4) real Reynolds number effects are present on the CAST 10-2/DOA 2 airfoil; they were shown to be appreciable also by the adaptive wall wind tunnel tests.

Stanewsky, E.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Two-dimensional adaptive-wall tests in the NASA Ames two- by two-foot transonic wind tunnel

The first tests conducted in the adaptive-wall test section of the Ames Research Center's 2- by 2-Foot Transonic Wind Tunnel are described. A procedure was demonstrated for reducing wall interference in transonic flow past a two-dimensional airfoil by actively controlling flow through the slotted walls of the test section. Flow through the walls was controlled by adjusting pressures in compartments of plenums above and below the test section. Wall interference was assessed by measuring (with a laser velocimeter) velocity distributions along a contour surrounding the model, and then checking those measurements for their compatibility with free-air far-field boundary conditions. Plenum pressures for minimum wall interference were determined from empirical influence coefficients. An NACA 0012 airfoil was tested at angles of attack of 0 and 2, and at Mach numbers between 0.70 and 0.85. In all cases the wall-setting procedure greatly reduced wall interference. Wall interference, however, was never completely eliminated, primarily because the effect of plenum pressure changes on the velocities along the contour could not be accurately predicted.

Schairer, Edward T.↗
NASA NTRS1994

RINGSAT

Radio frequency interference (RFI) presents a serious problem to naval communications. Unauthorized transmissions on the same frequencies that FLTSAT or LEASAT use cause a loss of one or more transponders on a satellite. The problem is not correctable until the emitter is located and turned off, or until it runs off on its own. The present geolocation system cannot deal with the RFI problem adequately. This causes the Navy to lose operational capability and money. The proposed Radio Frequency Interference Navy Geolocation Satellite (RINGSAT) would locate the source of the interference within 3 hours, an outstanding improvement over current equipment. Furthermore, RINGSAT can be built quickly, at minimal cost, and can be used concurrently for other military missions. Currently, geolocation to identify the RFI is done at Naval Space Command. Using single satellite doppler, time delay of arrival, and frequency delay of arrival techniques, it is possible to locate the interfering emitter. However, for the first quarter of fiscal year 1993, about 50 different channels used by the Navy were nonoperational for over 500 hours. Almost 30 percent of the interference occurrences lasted for over 12 hours. In only one quarter of the cases was the interference turned off in less than two_hours either by our detection or on its own.

DOWDY↗
NASA NTRS2005

Third Generation Wireless Phone Threat Assessment for Aircraft Communication and Navigation Radios

Radiated emissions in aircraft communication and navigation bands are measured from third generation (3G) wireless mobile phones. The two wireless technologies considered are the latest available to general consumers in the US. The measurements are conducted using reverberation chambers. The results are compared against baseline emissions from laptop computers and personal digital assistant devices that are currently allowed to operate on aircraft. Using existing interference path loss data and receivers interference threshold, a risk assessment is performed for several aircraft communication and navigation radio systems. In addition, cumulative interference effects of multiple similar devices are conservatively estimated or bounded. The effects are computed by summing the interference power from individual devices that is scaled according to the interference path loss at its location.

Nguyen, Truong X.↗
NASA NTRS1999

Laser Light Scattering with Multiple Scattering Suppression Used to Measure Particle Sizes

Laser light scattering is the technique of choice for noninvasively sizing particles in a fluid. The members of the Advanced Technology Development (ATD) project in laser light scattering at the NASA Lewis Research Center have invented, tested, and recently enhanced a simple and elegant way to extend the concentration range of this standard laboratory particle-sizing technique by several orders of magnitude. With this technique, particles from 3 nm to 3 mm can be measured in a solution. Recently, laser light scattering evolved to successfully size particles in both clear solutions and concentrated milky-white solutions. The enhanced technique uses the property of light that causes it to form tall interference patterns at right angles to the scattering plane (perpendicular to the laser beam) when it is scattered from a narrow laser beam. Such multiple-scattered light forms a broad fuzzy halo around the focused beam, which, in turn, forms short interference patterns. By placing two fiber optics on top of each other and perpendicular to the laser beam (see the drawing), and then cross-correlating the signals they produce, only the tall interference patterns formed by singly scattered light are detected. To restate this, unless the two fiber optics see the same interference pattern, the scattered light is not incorporated into the signal. With this technique, only singly scattered light is seen (multiple-scattered light is rejected) because only singly scattered light has an interference pattern tall enough to span both of the fiber-optic pickups. This technique is simple to use, easy to align, and works at any angle. Placing a vertical slit in front of the signal collection fibers enhanced this approach. The slit serves as an optical mask, and it significantly shortens the time needed to collect good data by selectively masking out much of the unwanted light before cross-correlation is applied.

Meyer, William V.↗
NASA NTRS2006

Spectral Analysis Tool 6.2 for Windows

Spectral Analysis Tool 6.2 is the latest version of a computer program that assists in analysis of interference between radio signals of the types most commonly used in Earth/spacecraft radio communications. [An earlier version was reported in Software for Analyzing Earth/Spacecraft Radio Interference (NPO-20422), NASA Tech Briefs, Vol. 25, No. 4 (April 2001), page 52.] SAT 6.2 calculates signal spectra, bandwidths, and interference effects for several families of modulation schemes. Several types of filters can be modeled, and the program calculates and displays signal spectra after filtering by any of the modeled filters. The program accommodates two simultaneous signals: a desired signal and an interferer. The interference-to-signal power ratio can be calculated for the filtered desired and interfering signals. Bandwidth-occupancy and link-budget calculators are included for the user s convenience. SAT 6.2 has a new software structure and provides a new user interface that is both intuitive and convenient. SAT 6.2 incorporates multi-tasking, multi-threaded execution, virtual memory management, and a dynamic link library. SAT 6.2 is designed for use on 32- bit computers employing Microsoft Windows operating systems.

Morgan, Feiming↗
NASA NTRS2012

Apparatus and method for creating a photonic densely-accumulated ray-point

An optical apparatus includes an optical diffraction device configured for diffracting a predetermined wavelength of incident light onto adjacent optical focal points, and a photon detector for detecting a spectral characteristic of the predetermined wavelength. One of the optical focal points is a constructive interference point and the other optical focal point is a destructive interference point. The diffraction device, which may be a micro-zone plate (MZP) of micro-ring gratings or an optical lens, generates a constructive ray point using phase-contrasting of the destructive interference point. The ray point is located between adjacent optical focal points. A method of generating a densely-accumulated ray point includes directing incident light onto the optical diffraction device, diffracting the selected wavelength onto the constructive interference focal point and the destructive interference focal point, and generating the densely-accumulated ray point in a narrow region.

Park, Yeonjoon↗
NASA NTRS2016

Extended Bright Bodies - Flight and Ground Software Challenges on the Cassini Mission at Saturn

Extended bright bodies in the Saturn environment such as Saturn's rings, the planet itself, and Saturn's satellites near the Cassini spacecraft may interfere with the star tracker's ability to find stars. These interferences can create faulty spacecraft attitude knowledge, which would decrease the pointing accuracy or even trip a fault protection response on board the spacecraft. The effects of the extended bright body interference were observed in December of 2000 when Cassini flew by Jupiter. Based on this flight experience and expected star tracker behavior at Saturn, the Cassini AACS operations team defined flight rules to suspend the star tracker during predicted interference windows. The flight rules are also implemented in the existing ground software called Kinematic Predictor Tool to create star identification suspend commands to be uplinked to the spacecraft for future predicted interferences. This paper discusses the details of how extended bright bodies impact Cassini's acquisition of attitude knowledge, how the observed data helped the ground engineers in developing flight rules, and how automated methods are used in the flight and ground software to ensure the spacecraft is continuously operated within these flight rules. This paper also discusses how these established procedures will continue to be used to overcome new bright body challenges that Cassini will encounter during its dips inside the rings of Saturn for its final orbits of a remarkable 20-year mission at Saturn.

Sung, Tina S.↗
DOE OSTI2017

Adaptive OFDM Waveform Design for Spatio-Temporal-Sparsity Exploited STAP Radar

In this chapter, we describe a sparsity-based space-time adaptive processing (STAP) algorithm to detect a slowly moving target using an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) radar. The motivation of employing an OFDM signal is that it improves the target-detectability from the interfering signals by increasing the frequency diversity of the system. However, due to the addition of one extra dimension in terms of frequency, the adaptive degrees-of-freedom in an OFDM-STAP also increases. Therefore, to avoid the construction a fully adaptive OFDM-STAP, we develop a sparsity-based STAP algorithm. We observe that the interference spectrum is inherently sparse in the spatio-temporal domain, as the clutter responses occupy only a diagonal ridge on the spatio-temporal plane and the jammer signals interfere only from a few spatial directions. Hence, we exploit that sparsity to develop an efficient STAP technique that utilizes considerably lesser number of secondary data compared to the other existing STAP techniques, and produces nearly optimum STAP performance. In addition to designing the STAP filter, we optimally design the transmit OFDM signals by maximizing the output signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) in order to improve the STAP performance. The computation of output SINR depends on the estimated value of the interference covariance matrix, which we obtain by applying the sparse recovery algorithm. Therefore, we analytically assess the effects of the synthesized OFDM coefficients on the sparse recovery of the interference covariance matrix by computing the coherence measure of the sparse measurement matrix. Our numerical examples demonstrate the achieved STAP-performance due to sparsity-based technique and adaptive waveform design.

Sen, Satyabrata↗