Low vapor pressure braze alloys for thermionic energy converters

The evaluation of cesium diode electrode materials called for braze fillers with very low vapor pressures and a wide range of melting points. Binary alloys of low vapor pressure refractory metals were chosen to fill this need. These alloys of Th, Zr, Hf, Ru, Nb, Ir, Mo, Ta, Os, Re, and W have reported melting point minima or eutectics from 1,510 K to above 3,000 K. Preliminary data are compiled on the use of several of these braze alloys. Melting points and surface wetting on a Ta base are given. Results of brazing Ir, LaB6, Nb, Re, W, and Zr-22 wt % ZrO2 materials into Ta and Nb-1% Zr bases are presented. Current braze usage is summarized

Some properties of low-vapor-pressure braze alloys for thermionic converters

Property measurements were made for arc-melted, rod-shaped specimens. Density and dc electrical resistivity at 296 K were measured for various binary eutectic alloys. Thermal conductivity was inferred from the electrical conductivity using the Wiedemann, Franz, Lorenz relation. Linear thermal expansion from 293 K to two-thirds melting point, under a helium atmosphere, was measured for Zr, 21.7-wt percent Ru; Zr, 13-wt percent W; Zr, 22.3-wt percent Nb; Nb, 66.9-wt percent Ru; and Zr, 25.7-wt percent Ta

A comparative analysis of the capabilities of three stereo radar techniques when operating in the presence of system errors

Three stereo radar techniques for producing stereo images from which topographic data and maps may be obtained are described and their performance in the presence of system errors is determined. The techniques are: an improved single flight technique which uses a combination of two antenna beam characteristics which permits terrain illumination from nearly the same aircraft position, a previously proposed single flight technique which uses two horizontal linear arrays generating vertical fan beams at different azimuth angles, and an existing two flight technique which uses a horizontal array generating a side-looking fan beam. Error analyses are performed to determine the feasibility of the two single flight techniques. Comparisons are made of the error performance of all three techniques. The analyses show that: (1) both single flight techniques are feasible and could be employed using present day state-of-the-art sensing devices, (2) the most significant error sources for the single flight techniques are the aircraft angular errors, conical beam cone angle error, and imaging errors, while the two flight technique is in general most sensitive to aircraft position and ranging errors, (3) the improved single flight technique has the best performance with errors and the previously proposed single flight technique performs better than the two flight technique when errors are present --Abstract, page ii

Diminiode thermionic conversion with 111-iridium electrodes

Preliminary data indicating thermionic-conversion potentialities for a 111-iridium emitter and collector spaced 0.2 mm apart are presented. These results comprise output densities of current and of power as functions of voltage for three sets of emitter, collector, and reservoir temperatures: 1553, 944, 561 K; 1605, 898, 533 K; and 1656, 1028, 586 K. For the 1605 K evaluation, estimates produced work-function values of 2.22 eV for the emitter and 1.63 eV for the collector with a 2.0-eV barrier index (collector work function plus interelectrode voltage drop) corresponding to the maximum output of 5.5 W/sq cm at 0.24 volt. The current, voltage curve for the 1656 K 111-iridium diminiode yields a 6.2 W/sq cm maximum at 0.25 volt and is comparable with the 1700 K envelope for a diode with an etched-rhenium emitter and a 0.025-mm electrode gap made by TECO and evaluated by NASA

Diminiode thermionic energy conversion with lanthanum-hexaboride electrodes

Thermionic conversion data obtained from a variable gap cesium diminiode with a hot pressed, sintered lanthanum hexaboride emitter and an arc melted lanthanum hexaboride collector are presented. Performance curves cover a range of temperatures: emitter 1500 to 1700 K, collector 750 to 1000 K, and cesium reservoir 370 to 510 K. Calculated values of emitter and collector work functions and barrier index are also given

An interactive modular design for computerized photometry in spectrochemical analysis

A general functional description of totally automatic photometry of emission spectra is not available for an operating environment in which the sample compositions and analysis procedures are low-volume and non-routine. The advantages of using an interactive approach to computer control in such an operating environment are demonstrated. This approach includes modular subroutines selected at multiple-option, menu-style decision points. This style of programming is used to trace elemental determinations, including the automated reading of spectrographic plates produced by a 3.4 m Ebert mount spectrograph using a dc-arc in an argon atmosphere. The simplified control logic and modular subroutine approach facilitates innovative research and program development, yet is easily adapted to routine tasks. Operator confidence and control are increased by the built-in options including degree of automation, amount of intermediate data printed out, amount of user prompting, and multidirectional decision points

DIAL with heterodyne detection including speckle noise: Aircraft/shuttle measurements of O3, H2O, and NH3 with pulsed tunable CO2lasers

A parametric analysis of DIAL sensitivity with heterodyne detection is presented and comparisons with direct detection are discussed. Examples are given for monitoring vertical distributions of O3, H2O, and NH3 using a ground-, aircraft-, or shuttle-based pulsed tunable CO2 laser DIAL system. Results indicate that maximum sensitivity at minimum laser energy per measurement requires multiple pulse operation with the energy per pulse selected so that the measured photon rate is approximately equal to the detector IF bandwidth. Measurement sensitivities can be maximized and interference effects minimized by fine adjustment of measurement frequencies using the tunability of high pressure lasers. The use of rare isotope lasers minimizes loss due to CO2 atmospheric absorption

DIAL with heterodyne detection including speckle noise: Aircraft/shuttle measurements of O3, H2O, and NH3 with pulsed tunable CO2 lasers

Atmospheric trace constituent measurements with higher vertical resolution than attainable with passive radiometers are discussed. Infrared differential absorption lidar (DIAL), which depends on Mie scattering from aerosols, has special advantages for tropospheric and lower stratospheric applications and has great potential importance for measurements from shuttle and aircraft. Differential absorption lidar data reduction involves comparing large amplitude signals which have small differences. The accuracy of the trace constituent concentration inferred from DIAL measurements depends strongly on the errors in determining the amplitude of the signals. Thus, the commonly used SNR expression (signal divided by noise in the absence of signal) is not adequate to describe DIAL measurement accuracy and must be replaced by an expression which includes the random coherent (speckle) noise within the signal. A comprehensive DIAL computer algorithm is modified to include heterodyne detection and speckle noise. Examples for monitoring vertical distributions of O3, H2O, and NH3 using a ground-, aircraft-, or shuttle-based pulsed tunable CO2 laser DIAL system are given

Probability Of Anomaly Expressions For Random Waveform Registration

Registration by integral-square error correlation of one-dimensional Discrete Time waveforms which are treated as random processes with specified autocorrelation functions is considered. An important design parameter for this class of problems is the probability of anomaly (a false dip in the correlation function) because it gives an indication of system immunity to gross registration errors. Explicit expressions for this parameter are not possible, so bounds and approximations must be derived. Two upper bounds and an approximation for the probability of anomaly are derived here. The use of these expressions is illustrated by an example. The relative utility of these performance indicators is shown for the example by comparison with actual values of the probability of anomaly obtained by computer simulation. Copyright © 1977 by The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc

Performance Comparison Of Techniques For Obtaining Stereo Radar Images

The performance of three stereo radar techniques is compared with respect to both theoretical performance and performance in the presence of errors. The three techniques are: an improved single flight technique, a previously proposed single flight technique, and a two flight technique. Theoretical data for comparison of image parameters affecting performance have been generated with computer simulations of the imaging geometries for the techniques. The comparison shows that the improved technique will have images with greater similarity resulting in improved stereo viewability and measurability. Computer simulations have also been used to generate sensitivities of computed terrain point coordinates to system errors. These sensitivities are shown, and overall error comparisons are made for assumed error values. These comparisons show that the improved single flight technique has the best error performance of the three techniques for the assumed reasonable set of system errors. This technique is followed by the previously proposed single flight technique and then the two flight technique. Copyright © 1974 by The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc