Continuous-flow variable-density wind tunnel facilities

Unique features of wind tunnel facilities at Jet Propulsion Laboratory permit variety of conventional and novel tests to be performed at supersonic and hypersonic speeds. Facilities and operations are described

Breakdown of the linear approximation in the perturbative analysis of heat conduction in relativistic systems

We analyze the effects of thermal conduction in a relativistic fluid just after its departure from spherical symmetry, on a time scale of the order of relaxation time. Using first order perturbation theory, it is shown that, as in spherical systems, at a critical point the effective inertial mass density of a fluid element vanishes and becomes negative beyond that point. The impact of this effect on the reliability of causality conditions is discussed.Comment: 11 pages (Latex2.09) To appear in Physics Letters

Gravitational collapse: A case for thermal relaxation

Two relativistic models for collapsing spheres at different stages of evolution, which include pre-relaxation processes, are presented. The influence of relaxation time on the outcome of evolution in both cases is exhibited and established. It is shown that relaxation processes can drastically change the final state of the collapsing system. In particular, there are cases in which the value of the relaxation time determines the bounce or the collapse of the sphere.Comment: 33 pages, LaTex 2.09, 11 Postscript figures. To be published in General Relativity and Gravitatio

Rocket plume properties measured in space simulators

Molecular sink facility and 25-foot space simulator have been used to distinguish nature of exhaust plumes from nozzles with relatively large internal boundary layer flow. Plume density has been measured by electron beam/photomultiplier system

Relativistic gravitational collapse in comoving coordinates: The post-quasistatic approximation

A general iterative method proposed some years ago for the description of relativistic collapse, is presented here in comoving coordinates. For doing that we redefine the basic concepts required for the implementation of the method for comoving coordinates. In particular the definition of the post-quasistatic approximation in comoving coordinates is given. We write the field equations, the boundary conditions and a set of ordinary differential equations (the surface equations) which play a fundamental role in the algorithm. As an illustration of the method, we show how to build up a model inspired in the well known Schwarzschild interior solution. Both, the adiabatic and non adiabatic, cases are considered.Comment: 14 pages, 11 figures; updated version to appear in Int. J. Modern Phys.

On the Critical Behaviour of Heat Conducting Sphere out of Hydrostatic Equilibrium

We comment further on the behaviour of a heat conducting fluid when a characteristic parameter of the system approaches a critical value.Comment: 4 pages, emTex (LaTex 2.09), submitted to Classical and Quantum Gravity (Comments and Addenda