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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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At least 19 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1988

Finite element procedures for time-dependent convection-diffusion-reaction systems

New finite element procedures based on the streamline-upwind/Petrov-Galerkin formulations are developed for time-dependent convection-diffusion-reaction equations. These procedures minimize spurious oscillations for convection-dominated and reaction-dominated problems. The results obtained for representative numerical examples are accurate with minimal oscillations. As a special application problem, the single-well chemical tracer test (a procedure for measuring oil remaining in a depleted field) is simulated numerically. The results show the importance of temperature effects on the interpreted value of residual oil saturation from such tests.

Tezduyar, T. E.↗
NASA NTRS1998

A Quantitative Investigation of Entrainment and Detrainment in Numerically Simulated Convective Clouds: Model Development - Pt. 1

A method is developed which uses numerical tracers to make accurate diagnoses of entraimnent and detrainment rates and of the properties of the entrained and detrained air in numerically simulated clouds. The numerical advection scheme is modified to make it nondispersive, as required by the use of the tracers. Tests of the new method are made, and an appropriate definition of clouds is selected. Distributions of mixing fractions in the model consistently show maximums at the end points, for nearly undilute environmental air or nearly undilute cloud air, with a uniform distribution between. The cumulonimbus clouds simulated here entrain air that had been substantially changed by the clouds, and detrained air that is not necessarily representative of the cloud air at the same level.

Cohen, Charles↗
NASA NTRS1992

Lidar Tracking of Multiple Fluorescent Tracers: Method and Field Test

Past research and applications have demonstrated the advantages and usefulness of lidar detection of a single fluorescent tracer to track air motions. Earlier researchers performed an analytical study that showed good potential for lidar discrimination and tracking of two or three different fluorescent tracers at the same time. The present paper summarizes the multiple fluorescent tracer method, discusses its expected advantages and problems, and describes our field test of this new technique.

Eberhard, Wynn L.↗
NASA NTRS1981

Experimental study of the effects of secondary air on the emissions and stability of a lean premixed combustor

Tests were run using a perforated plate flameholder with a relatively short attached recirculation zone and a vee gutter flameholder with a relatively long attached recirculation zone. Combustor streamlines were traced in cold flow tests at ambient pressure. The amount of secondary air entrainment in the recirculation zones of the flameholders was determined by tracer gas testing at cold flow ambient pressure conditions. Combustion tests were caried out at entrance conditions of 0.5 MPa/630K and emission of NOx, CO and unburned hydrocarbons were measured along with lean stability and flashback limits. The degree of entrainment increases as dilution air injection decreases. Flashback appears to be a function of overall equivalence ratio and resistance to flashback increases with increasing combustor entrance velocity. Lean stability limit appears to be a function of both primary zone and flameholder recirculation zone equivalence ratios and resistance to lean blowout increases with increasing combustor entrance velocity.

Roffe, G.↗
NASA NTRS1967

Simple colorimetric method determines uranium in tissue

Simple colorimetric micromethod determines concentrations of uranium in tissue. The method involves dry ashing organic extraction, and colorimetric determination of uranyl ferrocyanide. This uranium determination technique could be used in agricultural research, tracer studies, testing of food products, or medical research.

Doran, D.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Simulations of the trend and annual cycle in stratospheric CO2

Literature data on mid-latitude balloon soundings of CO2 and aircraft sampling in the lower polar stratosphere during the winter are used as a fundamental test of tracer transport in the middle atmospheric version of the GISS GCM (Rind et al., 1990) to predict the propagation into the stratosphere of the annual increase and annual cycle of CO2. The results predict significant propagation of the CO2 annual cycle into the lower stratosphere, an effect which must be accounted for when interpreting observations.

Hall, Timothy M.↗
NASA NTRS2008

Cloud-Resolved Simulations of Lightning NOx in an Observed Hector Thunderstorm

Cloud chemistry simulations are being performed for a "Hector" storm observed on 16 November 2005 during the SCOUT-03lACTIVE campaigns based in Darwin, Australia. The primary objective of these simulations is to estimate the average production of NO per lightning flash during the storm. The 3-D WRF-AqChem model is being used for these calculations. This modeling package contains the WRF nonhydrostatic cloud-resolving model, online gas- and aqueous-phase chemistry, and a lightning algorithm (Barth et al., 2007). Early morning soundings of temperature, water vapor and winds are used to initialize the model. Surface heating of the Tiwi Islands is simulated in the model to induce convection. Observations from the Egrett, Falcon, Geophysica, and Dornier aircraft in air undisturbed by the storm are used to construct composite initial condition chemical profiles. Convective transport in the model is tested using tracer species such as CO and O3. Lightning flashes observed by the LINET network are input to the model and a lightning placement scheme is used to inject the resulting NO into the simulated cloud. Various scenarios of NO production per flash are used for cloud-to-ground and intracloud flashes in a series of simulations for the storm. Resulting NO, mixing ratios from each simulation are compared with upper tropospheric anvil observations (from the Geophysica and Egrett aircraft) to determine the best fit with the mean NOx at anvil altitudes, the profile shape, and the frequency distribution of NOx values. We will compare the results for lightning NO production from this tropical thunderstorm with similar analyses conducted for several midlatitude and subtropical convective events.

Pickering, Kenneth↗
NASA NTRS1973

Leak testing

Leak-testing methods for gas and liquid systems are described. The physical principles of molecular, liquid, and gas flow; relations of leak-testing methods and instrumentation; and tracer gases used in testing vacuum systems are discussed.

Engelhardt, R. E.↗
NASA NTRS1996

Leakage Through a Channel Formed by a Gasket, a Sealing Surface, and a Filament Trapped Between Them

Plumbing for the transport of liquid Hydrogen or liquid Oxygen at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) is very critical. Every piece of hardware for handling such a hazardous cryogen is subject to testing prior to installation and use. Safe, realistic testing of all such hardware is prohibitively expensive, which leads, perforce, to expidients such as: (1) lead testing with non-flammable tracer fluids (e.g, liquid nitrogen) and (2) leak testing with room temperature tracer fluids (e.g. liquid helium). Such expedients undermine the realism of the tests. If however, one could apply rational fluid dynamics methods to derive a general analytical expression with which one could relate the throughput of gaseous Helium through a given leak channel to the throughput of liquid Hydrogen through the same channel, then one could recover much of the information that one would otherwise forfeit through these expedients. These facts lead to the following questions: (1) What would be an example of a generic flaw in a gasket?; and (2) How can one calculate the flow of fluid in it? The report addresses these questions. It considers a particular leak geometry, namely one formed by a gasket, a sealing surface, and a filament trapped between them (so that the cross section of the leak channel is a flat bottomed curvilinear triangle, two sides of which are circular arcs and which has cusps on all three corners).

Russell, John↗
NASA NTRS2003

A Sounding Rocket Investigation of the Fine Structure in the Mesopause Region in Conjunction with High Spatial Resolution Lidar Measurements

The grant funds were provided to carry out chemical tracer wind and turbulence measurements in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere as part of the Turbulent Oxygen Mixing Experiment (TOMEX) for which Dr. James Hecht of the Aerospace Corp. was the Principal Investigator. Clemson University designed, built, and tested two chemical tracer release payload sections for the 21.126 and 21.127 payloads which, in addition, had photometer and ionization gauge instrumentation. The tracer chemical was trimethyl aluminum (TMA). The experiment was carried out at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico on October 26,2000. The location was chosen because of the proximity to the Starfire Optical Range (SOR) which hosted the powerful University of Illinois sodium lidar for an extended period prior to and also during the launch window. Since the SOR telescope is fully steerable, lidar measurements in the same volume sampled by the rocket were possible. The primary objective of the experiment was to measure the turbulent diffusion and mixing in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere, especially in layers characterized by convective and/or dynamical instabilities. The lidar, which is capable of measuring the sodium density, temperatures, and winds with good range and time resolution, provided the launch criteria, as well as context measurements for the in situ rocket observations.

Larsen, M. F.↗
NASA NTRS1988

Tracer water transport and subgrid precipitation variation within atmospheric general circulation models

A capability is developed for monitoring tracer water movement in the three-dimensional Goddard Institute for Space Science Atmospheric General Circulation Model (GCM). A typical experiment with the tracer water model follows water evaporating from selected grid squares and determines where this water first returns to the Earth's surface as precipitation or condensate, thereby providing information on the lateral scales of hydrological transport in the GCM. Through a comparison of model results with observations in nature, inferences can be drawn concerning real world water transport. Tests of the tracer water model include a comparison of simulated and observed vertically-integrated vapor flux fields and simulations of atomic tritium transport from the stratosphere to the oceans. The inter-annual variability of the tracer water model results is also examined.

Koster, Randal D.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Aerodynamics of sports balls

Research data on the aerodynamic behavior of baseballs and cricket and golf balls are summarized. Cricket balls and baseballs are roughly the same size and mass but have different stitch patterns. Both are thrown to follow paths that avoid a batter's swing, paths that can curve if aerodynamic forces on the balls' surfaces are asymmetric. Smoke tracer wind tunnel tests and pressure taps have revealed that the unbalanced side forces are induced by tripping the boundary layer on the seam side and producing turbulence. More particularly, the greater pressures are perpendicular to the seam plane and only appear when the balls travel at velocities high enough so that the roughness length matches the seam heigh. The side forces, once tripped, will increase with spin velocity up to a cut-off point. The enhanced lift coefficient is produced by the Magnus effect. The more complex stitching on a baseball permits greater variations in the flight path curve and, in the case of a knuckleball, the unsteady flow effects. For golf balls, the dimples trip the boundary layer and the high spin rate produces a lift coefficient maximum of 0.5, compared to a baseball's maximum of 0.3. Thus, a golf ball travels far enough for gravitational forces to become important.

Mehta, R. D.↗
NASA NTRS2016

Characterization of Candidate Materials for Remote Recession Measurements of Ablative Heat Shield Materials

A method of remotely measuring surface recession of a material sample in a plasma flow through emission spectroscopy of the post shock layer was characterized through experiments in the NASA Langley HYMETS arc jet facility. Different methods for delivering the seed products into the Phenolic Impregnated Carbon Ablator (PICA) material samples were investigated. Three samples were produced by seeding the PICA material with combinations of Al, Si, HfO2, VB2, Al2O3, SiO2, TiC, HfC, NaCl, and MgCl2 through infusing seed materials into a core of PICA, or through encapsulating seed material in an epoxy disk, mechanically bonding the disk to a PICA sample. The PICA samples seeded with the candidate tracers were then tested at surface temperatures near 2400 K under low pressure air plasma. The emission of Al, Ti, V, Na, and Mg in the post-shock layer was observed in the UV with a high resolution imaging spectrometer viewing the whole stagnation line from the side, and from UV to NIR with a fiber-coupled miniaturized spectrometer observing the sample surface in the wavelength range from 200 nm to 1,100 nm from the front through a collimator. Al, Na, and Mg were found to be emitting in the post-shock spectra even before the recession reached the seeding depth - therefore possibly characterizing the pyrolysis process rather than the recession itself. The appearance of Ti and V emission in the spectra was well correlated with the actual recession which was monitored through a video of the front surface of the sample. The applicability of a seed material as an indicator for recession appears to be related to the melting temperature of the seed material. Future parametric studies will be carried out in low power plasma facilities at the University of Kentucky.

Butler, Bradley D.↗
NASA NTRS2014

Chemical Zoning of Feldspars in Lunar Granitoids: Implications for the Origins of Lunar Silicic Magmas

Fine-scale chemical and textural measurements of alkali and plagioclase feldspars in the Apollo granitoids (ex. Fig. 1) can be used to address their petrologic origin(s). Recent findings suggest that these granitoids may hold clues of global importance, rather than of only local significance for small-scale fractionation. Observations of morphological features that resemble silicic domes on the unsampled portion of the Moon suggest that local, sizable net-works of high-silica melt (>65 wt % SiO2) were present during crust-formation. Remote sensing data from these regions suggest high concentrations of Si and heat-producing elements (K, U, and Th). To help under-stand the role of high-silica melts in the chemical differentiation of the Moon, three questions must be answered: (1) when were these magmas generated?, (2) what was the source material?, and (3) were these magmas produced from internal differentiation. or impact melting and crystallization? Here we focus on #3. It is difficult to produce high-silica melts solely by fractional crystallization. Partial melting of preexisting crust may therefore also have been important and pos-sibly the primary mechanism that produced the silicic magmas on the Moon. Experimental studies demonstrate that partial melting of gabbroic rock under mildly hydrated conditions can produce high-silica compositions and it has been suggested by that partial melting by basaltic underplating is the mechanism by which high-silica melts were produced on the Moon. TEM and SIMS analyses, coordinated with isotopic dating and tracer studies, can help test whether the minerals in the Apollo granitoids formed in a plutonic setting or were the result of impact-induced partial melting. We analyzed granitoid clasts from 3 Apollo samples: polymict breccia 12013,141, crystalline-matrix breccia 14303,353, and breccia 15405,78

Mills, R. D↗
NASA NTRS2023

Simulations of 7 Be and 10 Be with the GEOS-Chem global model v14.0.2 using state-of-the-art production rates

The cosmogenic radionuclides 7 Be and 10 Be are useful aerosol tracers for atmospheric transport studies. Combining 7 Be and 10 Be measurements with an atmospheric transport model can not only improve our understanding of the radionuclide transport and deposition processes but also provide an evaluation of the transport process in the model. To simulate these aerosol tracers, it is critical to evaluate the influence of radionuclides production uncertainties on simulations. Here we use the GEOS-Chem chemical transport model driven by the MERRA-2 reanalysis to simulate 7 Be and 10 Be with different production scenarios: the default production rate in GEOS-Chem based on an empirical approach (Lal and Peters, 1967; denoted as LP67), and two production rates from the CRAC:Be (Cosmic Ray Atmospheric Cascade: Beryllium; Poluianov et al., 2016) model considering only geomagnetic cut-off rigidities for a geocentric axial dipole (denoted as P16) or realistic spatial geomagnetic cut-off rigidity variations due to non-dipole moments of the geomagnetic field (denoted as P16spa). The model results are comprehensively evaluated with a large number of measurements including surface air concentrations and deposition fluxes. The model with the P16spa production can reproduce the absolute values and temporal variability of 7 Be and 10 Be surface concentrations and deposition fluxes on annual and sub-annual scales, as well as the vertical profiles of air concentrations. Simulations with the LP67 production tend to overestimate the absolute values of 7 Be and 10 Be concentrations. The P16 simulations suggest less than 10% differences compared to P16spa but tend to produce a significant positive bias (>20%) in the 7 Be deposition fluxes over East Asia. We find that the deposition fluxes are more sensitive to the production in the troposphere and downward transport from the stratosphere. Independent of the production models, surface air concentrations and deposition fluxes from all simulations show similar seasonal variations, suggesting a dominant meteorological influence. The model can also simulate reasonably the stratosphere-troposphere exchange process of 7 Be and 10 Be by producing stratospheric contribution and 10 Be/ 7 Be ratio values that agree with measurements. Finally, we illustrate the importance of including the time-varying solar modulation in the production calculation, which can significantly improve the agreement between model results and measurements, especially at mid- and high- latitudes. Reduced uncertainties in the production rates, as demonstrated in this study, improve the utility of 7 Be and 10 Be as aerosol tracers for evaluating and testing transport and scavenging processes in global models.

Minjie Zheng↗
NASA NTRS2024

Improved Modelling of SEP Event Onset Within the WSA–Enlil–SEPMOD Framework

Multi-spacecraft observations of solar energetic particle (SEP) events not only enable a deeper understanding and development of particle acceleration and transport theories but also provide important constraints for model validation efforts. However, because of computational limitations, a given physics-based SEP model is usually best suited to capture a particular phase of an SEP event, rather than its whole development from onset through decay. For example, magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) models of the heliosphere often incorporate solar transients only at the outer boundary of their so-called coronal domain – usually set at a heliocentric distance of 20–30 R⊙. This means that particle acceleration at coronal mass ejection (CME)-driven shocks is also computed from this boundary onwards, leading to simulated SEP event onsets that can be many hours later than observed, since shock waves can form much lower in the solar corona. In this work, we aim to improve the modelled onset of SEP events by inserting a “fixed source” of particle injection at the outer boundary of the coronal domain of the coupled WSA–Enlil 3D MHD model of the heliosphere. The SEP model that we employ for this effort is Solar Energetic Particle MODel (SEPMOD), a physics-based test-particle code based on a field line tracer and adiabatic invariant conservation. We apply our initial tests and results of SEPMOD’s fixed-source option to the 2021 October 9 SEP event, which was detected at five well-separated locations in the inner heliosphere – Parker Solar Probe, STEREO-A, Solar Orbiter, BepiColombo, and near-Earth spacecraft.

Solar eruptions↗
NASA NTRS2019

NASA-STD-7012 Leak Test Requirements: Potential Reference for ASNT Nondestructive Testing Handbook for Leak Testing

Developed in 2018-2019, NASA-STD-7012 Leak Test Requirements, has been drafted based mostly on the NASA technical requirement documents applicable to the International Space Station (ISS) hardware and payloads that were developed over the years taking into consideration many known references such as Leakage Testing Handbook prepared by General Electric for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the ASTM International standards for leak testing, and last, but not least, the ASNT Nondestructive Testing Handbook for Leak Testing. Thus, NASA-STD-7012 has a reference to the above-mentioned handbook in the leak test method/technique descriptions. However, there are some technical details that are described differently in NASA standard and ASNT Handbook. Those technical details are mostly related to the classification of the leak test methods/techniques, and also to tracer gas to working fluid (gas or liquid) leakage rate conversion methodology, and to some definitions used in the text of both NASA standard and ASNT Handbook. Those differences are going to be briefly described in this paper to let ASNT leak test experts decide if they want to refer to NASA-STD-7012 while working on the next edition of the ASNT Handbook, Volume 2 for Leak Testing.

Lvovsky, Oleg M.↗