ALBERT

Beschreibung: Reexploring convection and its various transitions to chaotic behavior were the central themes of GFD 1981. Our principal lecturer, Dr. Edward A. Spiegel, provided both a rich historical picture and stimulating hours at the current frontiers of this topic. Before the summer was out his research lecture on "A Tale of Two Methods" elegantly merged Pierre Coullet's canonical formalism for studying dynamical systems in a central manifold and the more traditional two-timing amplitude expansions near critical points. Other lecture sequences on convection and its relation to simpler dynamical systems ranged from the fine presentations of John Guckenheimer on bifurcation theory to Fritz Busse's survey of his immense contributions to our understanding of nonlinear convection. The list of other lectures found on the following pages attests to our summer-long exposure to convection in the ocean, the atmosphere, the earth's core and mantle, and in the sun. August brought lectures on new observations of convection in the laboratories of physicists. Albert Libchaber's precise experiments on the many routes convection can take to turbulence, with parallel laboratory and numerical experiments described by J. Gollub and E. Siggia, added much to our language of inquiry.

Beschreibung: Office of Naval Research under Contract N00014-81-G-0089.

Beschreibung: NASA Laboratory Astrophysics Workshop 2006, is the fourth in a series of workshops held at four year intervals, to assess the laboratory needs of NASA's astrophysics missions - past, current and future. Investigators who need laboratory data to interpret their observations from space missions, theorists and modelers, experimentalists who produce the data, and scientists who compile databases have an opportunity to exchange ideas and understand each other's needs and limitations. The multi-wavelength character of these workshops allows cross-fertilization of ideas, raises awareness in the scientific community of the rapid advances in other fields, and the challenges it faces in prioritizing its laboratory needs in a tight budget environment. Currently, we are in the golden age of Space Astronomy, with three of NASA s Great Observatories, Hubble Space Telescope (HST), Chandra X-Ray Observatory (CXO), and Spitzer Space Telescope (SST), in operation and providing astronomers and opportunity to perform synergistic observations. In addition, the Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE), XMM-Newton, HETE-2, Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX), INTEGRAL and Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP), are operating in an extended phase, while Swift and Suzaku are in their prime phase of operations. The wealth of data from these missions is stretching the Laboratory Astrophysics program to its limits. Missions in the future, which also need such data include the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), Space Interferometry Mission (SIM), Constellation-X (Con-X), Herschel, and Planck. The interpretation of spectroscopic data from these missions requires knowledge of atomic and molecular parameters such as transition probabilities, f-values, oscillator strengths, excitation cross sections, collision strengths, which have either to be measured in the laboratory by simulating space plasma and interactions therein, or by theoretical calculations and modeling. Once the laboratory data are obtained, a key step to making them available to the observer is the creation and maintenance of critically compiled databases. Other areas of study, that are important for understanding planet formation, and for detection of molecules that are indicators of life, are also supported by the Laboratory Astrophysics program. Some examples are: studies of ices and dust grains in a space environment; nature and evolution of interstellar carbon-rich dust; and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. In addition, the program provides an opportunity for the investigation of novel ideas, such as simulating radiative shock instabilities in plasmas, in order to understand jets observed in space. A snapshot of the currently funded program, mission needs, and relevance of laboratory data to interpreting observations, will be obtained at this workshop through invited and contributed talks and poster papers. These will form the basis for discussions in splinter groups. The Science Organization Committee will integrate the results of the discussions into a coherent White Paper, which will provide guidance to NASA in structuring the Laboratory Astrophysics program in subsequent years, and also to the scientific community in submitting research proposals to NASA for funding.

Beschreibung: The principal concepts related to the nature of the processes occurring in high-temperature heat pipes with a noncondensable gas are examined, and guidelines for the development of such heat pipes are presented. The discussion is illustrated by experimental results obtained for a horizontal sodium heat pipe (diameter, 18/1 mm; length, 710 mm). In particular, attention is given to the starting dynamics and mechanisms, the shape of the vapor-gas front, and the vapor-gas front velocity.

Beschreibung: A geometrical interpretation of the grouping and variation rate terms of Reynolds stresses in compressible turbulent flow is presented. Examples of applications of the method are also given.

Beschreibung: The response of a tiny gas bubble under reduced pressure is investigated in its relation to cavitation. Equations of motion are formulated for gas mixtures inside the bubble and numerical calculations performed for several examples. The conclusions are as follows: (1) at the onset of bubble growth, the gas mixture inside it adiabatically expands and the temperature decreases. Condensed droplets appear inside the gas mixture due to a uniform nucleation and the temperature recovers, thus the motion of the bubble is apparently isothermal; (2) the evaporation and condensation coefficient largely affects bubble motions (maximum radius, period and rate of attenuation of the bubble oscillation) including the uniform contraction; (3) the oscillation period of the bubble is longer as the equilibrium bubble radius is larger when the surrounding pressure decreases stepwise. In this circumstance the temperature inside the bubble is kept constant due to condensation evaporation phenomena and is nearly isothermal; and (4) when the surrounding pressure decreases in a stepwise fashion, the critical pressure bubble radius relation becomes closer to that for the isothermal process if the bubble radius is larger than 8 microns.

Beschreibung: Data in the literature on heat transfer in the case of nucleate boiling of various liquids in the wicks of heat pipes are reviewed. It is shown that none of the known analytical relationships can be used to generalize, with sufficient accuracy, the experimental data found in the literature. It is further shown that the exponent of the specific heat flux in the heat transfer law changes as a function of the liquid and wick properties. A relationship is obtained which generalizes experimental data for heat transfer agents of moderate temperatures (water, acetone, ethanol, and R-11 and R-113 coolants) and ammonia.

Beschreibung: The requirements for fundamental experimental studies of the influence of free stream turbulence, pressure gradients and wall cooling are discussed. Under turbine-like free stream conditions, comprehensive tests of transitional boundary layers with laminar, reversing and turbulent flow increments were performed to decouple the effects of the parameters and to determine the effects during mutual interaction.

Beschreibung: This survey paper gives an overview of NASA's Aerothermodynamics program. The purpose is to present the elements of, example results from, and projected technology needs for hypersonic fluid and thermal physics. The NASA program is focused on improving the fundamental understanding of aerodynamic and aerothermodynamic flow phenomena over hypersonic vehicles operating in the continuum, transitional, and free molecule flow regime. Vehicle design capabilities, computational fluid dynamics, computational chemistry, turbulence modeling, aerothermal loading, Shuttle Orbiter flight data analysis, and aerothermal facilities are discussed.

Beschreibung: In the range of greater hydrazine vapor pressure, detonation speed depends exclusively on the extent of the ammonia decomposition in the second reaction stage. As vapor pressure decreases, the ammonia disintegration speed becomes increasingly slower and the reaction reached in the reaction zone increasingly decreases until finally, in the vapor pressure range between 53 and 16 Torr, the contribution of the second stage to detonation propagation disappears, and only the first stage remains active. Since the disintegration speed of the hydrazine in this pressure range has decreased markedly as well, no level, but rather only spinning, detonations occur. Temporary separations of the impact front and the reaction zone in the process lead to fluctuations of the detonation speed.

Beschreibung: Results of experimental study of regularities of a natural transition of a laminar boundary layer to a turbulent layer at low subsonic air flow velocities are presented, analyzed and compared with theory and model experiments.