High Altitude Plume Simulations for a Solid Propellant Rocket

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/76644/1/AIAA-2007-1013-267.pd

A High Statistics Search for Ultra-High Energy Gamma-Ray Emission from Cygnus X-3 and Hercules X-1

We have carried out a high statistics (2 Billion events) search for ultra-high energy gamma-ray emission from the X-ray binary sources Cygnus X-3 and Hercules X-1. Using data taken with the CASA-MIA detector over a five year period (1990-1995), we find no evidence for steady emission from either source at energies above 115 TeV. The derived upper limits on such emission are more than two orders of magnitude lower than earlier claimed detections. We also find no evidence for neutral particle or gamma-ray emission from either source on time scales of one day and 0.5 hr. For Cygnus X-3, there is no evidence for emission correlated with the 4.8 hr X-ray periodicity or with the occurrence of large radio flares. Unless one postulates that these sources were very active earlier and are now dormant, the limits presented here put into question the earlier results, and highlight the difficulties that possible future experiments will have in detecting gamma-ray signals at ultra-high energies.Comment: 26 LaTeX pages, 16 PostScript figures, uses psfig.sty to be published in Physical Review

The Search for the Sidereal and Solar Diurnal Modulations in the Total MACRO Muon Data Set

We have analyzed 44.3M single muons collected by MACRO from 1991 through 2000 in 2,145 live days of operation. We have searched for the solar diurnal, apparent sidereal, and pseudo-sidereal modulation of the underground muon rate by computing hourly deviations of the muon rate from 6 month averages. We find evidence for statistically significant modulations with the solar diurnal and the sidereal periods. The amplitudes of these modulations are <0.1%, and are at the limit of the detector statistics. The pseudo-sidereal modulation is not statistically significant. The solar diurnal modulation is due to the daily atmospheric temperature variations at 20 km, the altitude of primary cosmic ray interactions with the atmosphere; MACRO is the deepest experiment to report this result. The sidereal modulation is in addition to the expected Compton-Getting modulation due to solar system motion relative to the Local Standard of Rest; it represents motion of the solar system with respect to the galactic cosmic rays toward the Perseus spiral arm.Comment: 18 pages, 8 of which are figures, 1 is a table. Accepted by Phys. Rev.

Thermoelectrically controlled micronozzle - A novel application for thermoelements

This paper introduces and assesses the concept of the recently invented thermoelectrically controlled micronozzle (TECMN). A generalized quasi-one-dimensional model for gas flow, which is influenced by area variation and by wall heat transfer, is considered. In order to assess the merits of wall temperature control in micronozzles, the flow in the micronozzle is solved numerically for cases of convergent wall heating, divergent wall cooling, and a combination of both. Thermal efficiency and specific impulse are affected by heat exchange through the side wall of the micronozzle. By cooling the divergent section, kinetic energy increases, thus improving thermal efficiency. The mass flow rate is decreased in all cases that include convergent section heating, thereby enhancing specific impulse. The combination of convergent section heating with divergent part cooling results in significant performance enhancement in terms of thermal efficiency and specific impulse. To determine the TECMN wall temperature profile, we developed a one-dimensional general energy model for a thermoelement (TE) subject to an electric field as well as for heat convection on the lateral surface. The energy equation is analytically solved for constant properties and for Joule heating equivalent to heat convection. The temperature profile is then imposed on the quasi-one-dimensional flow model, which is solved numerically for various mass flow rates and exit wall temperature (cold junction). As the exit section wall temperature and mass flow rate decrease, the utilization of TEs to control the temperature of micronozzle walls considerably increases the Mach number at exit

Factors affecting the output pulse flatness of the linear transformer driver cavity systems with 5th harmonics

We describe the study we have undertaken to evaluate the effect of component tolerances in obtaining a voltage output flat top for a linear transformer driver (LTD) cavity containing 3rd and 5th harmonic bricks [A. A. Kim et al., in Proc. IEEE Pulsed Power and Plasma Science PPPS2013 (San Francisco, California, USA, 2013), pp. 1354–1356.] and for 30 cavity voltage adder. Our goal was to define the necessary component value precision in order to obtain a voltage output flat top with no more than ±0.5% amplitude variation