9,758 research outputs found
NASA Proof-of-Concept 1-W(sub e) Stirling Convertor Development for Small Radioisotope Power Systems
Low power Stirling convertors are being developed at NASA Glenn Research Center to provide future small spacecraft with electrical power by converting heat from one or more Light Weight Radioisotope Heater Units (LWRHU). An initial design converts multiple watts of heat to one watt of electrical power output using a Stirling convertor. A variety of mission concepts have been studied by NASA and the U. S. Department of Energy that would utilize low power Radioisotope Power Systems (RPS) for probes, landers, rovers, and repeaters. These missions would contain science instruments distributed across planetary surfaces or near objects of interest where solar flux is insufficient for using solar cells. Landers could be used to provide data such as, radiation, temperature, pressure, seismic activity, and other surface measurements for planetary science and to inform future mission planners. The studies propose using fractional versions of the General Purpose Heat Source or multiple LWRHUs to heat power conversion technologies for science instruments and communication. Dynamic power systems are capable of higher conversion efficiencies, which could enable equal power using less fuel or more power using equal fuel, when compared to less efficient static power conversion technologies. Providing spacecraft with more power would decrease duty cycling of basic functions and, therefore, increase the quality and abundance of science data. Efforts to develop the concept have focused on maturation of a 1-We convertor and controller design and performance evaluation of an evacuated metal foil insulation. A proof-of-concept 1-We convertor, controller, and evacuated metal foil insulation package have been fabricated and are undergoing characterization testing. The current status, findings, and path forward for the effort are explained in this paper
Fast and accurate prediction of numerical relativity waveforms from binary black hole coalescences using surrogate models
Simulating a binary black hole (BBH) coalescence by solving Einstein's
equations is computationally expensive, requiring days to months of
supercomputing time. Using reduced order modeling techniques, we construct an
accurate surrogate model, which is evaluated in a millisecond to a second, for
numerical relativity (NR) waveforms from non-spinning BBH coalescences with
mass ratios in and durations corresponding to about orbits
before merger. We assess the model's uncertainty and show that our modeling
strategy predicts NR waveforms {\em not} used for the surrogate's training with
errors nearly as small as the numerical error of the NR code. Our model
includes all spherical-harmonic waveform modes resolved by
the NR code up to We compare our surrogate model to Effective One
Body waveforms from - for advanced LIGO detectors and find
that the surrogate is always more faithful (by at least an order of magnitude
in most cases).Comment: Updated to published version, which includes a section comparing the
surrogate and effective-one-body models. The surrogate is publicly available
for download at http://www.black-holes.org/surrogates/ . 6 pages, 6 figure
A Surrogate Model of Gravitational Waveforms from Numerical Relativity Simulations of Precessing Binary Black Hole Mergers
We present the first surrogate model for gravitational waveforms from the
coalescence of precessing binary black holes. We call this surrogate model
NRSur4d2s. Our methodology significantly extends recently introduced
reduced-order and surrogate modeling techniques, and is capable of directly
modeling numerical relativity waveforms without introducing phenomenological
assumptions or approximations to general relativity. Motivated by GW150914,
LIGO's first detection of gravitational waves from merging black holes, the
model is built from a set of numerical relativity (NR) simulations with
mass ratios , dimensionless spin magnitudes up to , and the
restriction that the initial spin of the smaller black hole lies along the axis
of orbital angular momentum. It produces waveforms which begin
gravitational wave cycles before merger and continue through ringdown, and
which contain the effects of precession as well as all
spin-weighted spherical-harmonic modes. We perform cross-validation studies to
compare the model to NR waveforms \emph{not} used to build the model, and find
a better agreement within the parameter range of the model than other,
state-of-the-art precessing waveform models, with typical mismatches of
. We also construct a frequency domain surrogate model (called
NRSur4d2s_FDROM) which can be evaluated in and is suitable
for performing parameter estimation studies on gravitational wave detections
similar to GW150914.Comment: 34 pages, 26 figure
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