3,375 research outputs found
Advanced rocket engine cryogenic turbopump bearing thermal model
A lumped node thermal model was developed representing the Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME) liquid oxygen (LOX) turbopump turbine end bearings operating in a cryogenically cooled bearing tester. Bearing elements, shaft, carrier, housing, cryogen flow characteristics, friction heat, and fluid viscous energy are included in the model. Heat transfer characteristics for the regimes of forced convection boiling are modeled for liquid oxygen (LOX) and liquid nitrogen (LN2). Large temperature differences between the cryogenic fluid and baring contact surfaces require detailed nodal representation in these areas. Internal loads and friction heat are affected by temperature dependent operating clearances requiring iterations between bearing thermal and mechanical models. Analyses indicate a thermal-mechanical coupling resulting in reduced operating clearances, increased loading and heating which can contribute to premature bearing failure. Contact surfaces operate at temperatures above local saturation resulting in vapor rather than liquid in the contacts, precluding possible liquid film lubrication. Elevated temperatures can reduce lubrication, increase friction, and reduce surface hardness supporting a surface failure mode rather than subsurface fatigue
3-Dimensional Core-Collapse
In this paper, we present the results of 3-dimensional collapse simulations
of rotating stars for a range of stellar progenitors. We find that for the
fastest spinning stars, rotation does indeed modify the convection above the
proto-neutron star, but it is not fast enough to cause core fragmentation.
Similarly, although strong magnetic fields can be produced once the
proto-neutron star cools and contracts, the proto-neutron star is not spinning
fast enough to generate strong magnetic fields quickly after collapse and, for
our simulations, magnetic fields will not dominate the supernova explosion
mechanism. Even so, the resulting pulsars for our fastest rotating models may
emit enough energy to dominate the total explosion energy of the supernova.
However, more recent stellar models predict rotation rates that are much too
slow to affect the explosion, but these models are not sophisticated enough to
determine whether the most recent, or past, stellar rotation rates are most
likely. Thus, we must rely upon observational constraints to determine the true
rotation rates of stellar cores just before collapse. We conclude with a
discussion of the possible constraints on stellar rotation which we can derive
from core-collapse supernovae.Comment: 34 pages (5 of 17 figures missing), For full paper, goto
http://qso.lanl.gov/~clf/papers/rot.ps.gz accepted by Ap
Computational Relativistic Astrophysics With Adaptive Mesh Refinement: Testbeds
We have carried out numerical simulations of strongly gravitating systems
based on the Einstein equations coupled to the relativistic hydrodynamic
equations using adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) techniques. We show AMR
simulations of NS binary inspiral and coalescence carried out on a workstation
having an accuracy equivalent to that of a regular unigrid simulation,
which is, to the best of our knowledge, larger than all previous simulations of
similar NS systems on supercomputers. We believe the capability opens new
possibilities in general relativistic simulations.Comment: 7 pages, 16 figure
Gravitational Waves from the Dynamical Bar Instability in a Rapidly Rotating Star
A rapidly rotating, axisymmetric star can be dynamically unstable to an m=2
"bar" mode that transforms the star from a disk shape to an elongated bar. The
fate of such a bar-shaped star is uncertain. Some previous numerical studies
indicate that the bar is short lived, lasting for only a few bar-rotation
periods, while other studies suggest that the bar is relatively long lived.
This paper contains the results of a numerical simulation of a rapidly rotating
gamma=5/3 fluid star. The simulation shows that the bar shape is long lived:
once the bar is established, the star retains this shape for more than 10
bar-rotation periods, through the end of the simulation. The results are
consistent with the conjecture that a star will retain its bar shape
indefinitely on a dynamical time scale, as long as its rotation rate exceeds
the threshold for secular bar instability. The results are described in terms
of a low density neutron star, but can be scaled to represent, for example, a
burned-out stellar core that is prevented from complete collapse by centrifugal
forces. Estimates for the gravitational-wave signal indicate that a dynamically
unstable neutron star in our galaxy can be detected easily by the first
generation of ground based gravitational-wave detectors. The signal for an
unstable neutron star in the Virgo cluster might be seen by the planned
advanced detectors. The Newtonian/quadrupole approximation is used throughout
this work.Comment: Expanded version to be published in Phys. Rev. D: 13 pages, REVTeX,
13 figures, 9 TeX input file
Numerical Methods for the Simulation of Dynamical Mass Transfer in Binaries
We describe computational tools that have been developed to simulate
dynamical mass transfer in semi-detached, polytropic binaries that are
initially executing synchronous rotation upon circular orbits. Initial
equilibrium models are generated with a self-consistent field algorithm; models
are then evolved in time with a parallel, explicit, Eulerian hydrodynamics code
with no assumptions made about the symmetry of the system. Poisson's equation
is solved along with the equations of ideal fluid mechanics to allow us to
treat the nonlinear tidal distortion of the components in a fully
self-consistent manner. We present results from several standard numerical
experiments that have been conducted to assess the general viability and
validity of our tools, and from benchmark simulations that follow the evolution
of two detached systems through five full orbits (up to approximately 90
stellar dynamical times). These benchmark runs allow us to gauge the level of
quantitative accuracy with which simulations of semi-detached systems can be
performed using presently available computing resources. We find that we should
be able to resolve mass transfer at levels per
orbit through approximately 20 orbits with each orbit taking about 30 hours of
computing time on parallel computing platforms.Comment: 34 pages, 20 eps figures, submitted to ApJ
Variability of signal to noise ratio and the network analysis of gravitational wave burst signals
The detection and estimation of gravitational wave burst signals, with {\em a
priori} unknown polarization waveforms, requires the use of data from a network
of detectors. For determining how the data from such a network should be
combined, approaches based on the maximum likelihood principle have proven to
be useful. The most straightforward among these uses the global maximum of the
likelihood over the space of all waveforms as both the detection statistic and
signal estimator. However, in the case of burst signals, a physically
counterintuitive situation results: for two aligned detectors the statistic
includes the cross-correlation of the detector outputs, as expected, but this
term disappears even for an infinitesimal misalignment. This {\em two detector
paradox} arises from the inclusion of improbable waveforms in the solution
space of maximization. Such waveforms produce widely different responses in
detectors that are closely aligned. We show that by penalizing waveforms that
exhibit large signal-to-noise ratio (snr) variability, as the corresponding
source is moved on the sky, a physically motivated restriction is obtained that
(i) resolves the two detector paradox and (ii) leads to a better performing
statistic than the global maximum of the likelihood. Waveforms with high snr
variability turn out to be precisely the ones that are improbable in the sense
mentioned above. The coherent network analysis method thus obtained can be
applied to any network, irrespective of the number or the mutual alignment of
detectors.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figure
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