LOX/hydrocarbon rocket engine analytical design methodology development and validation. Volume 1: Executive summary and technical narrative

During the past three decades, an enormous amount of resources were expended in the design and development of Liquid Oxygen/Hydrocarbon and Hydrogen (LOX/HC and LOX/H2) rocket engines. A significant portion of these resources were used to develop and demonstrate the performance and combustion stability for each new engine. During these efforts, many analytical and empirical models were developed that characterize design parameters and combustion processes that influence performance and stability. Many of these models are suitable as design tools, but they have not been assembled into an industry-wide usable analytical design methodology. The objective of this program was to assemble existing performance and combustion stability models into a usable methodology capable of producing high performing and stable LOX/hydrocarbon and LOX/hydrogen propellant booster engines

Quantum Monte Carlo study of inhomogeneous neutron matter

We present an ab-initio study of neutron drops. We use Quantum Monte Carlo techniques to calculate the energy up to 54 neutrons in different external potentials, and we compare the results with Skyrme forces. We also calculate the rms radii and radial densities, and we find that a re-adjustment of the gradient term in Skyrme is needed in order to reproduce the properties of these systems given by the ab-initio calculation. By using the ab-initio results for neutron drops for close- and open-shell configurations, we suggest how to improve Skyrme forces when dealing with systems with large isospin-asymmetries like neutron-rich nuclei.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, talk given at Horizons on Innovative Theories, Experiments, and Supercomputing in Nuclear Physics 2012, (HITES2012), New Orleans, Louisiana, June 4-7, 2012; to appear in Journal of Physics: Conference Series (JPCS

Comparing Two Thickened Cycles: A Generalization of Spectral Inequalities

Motivated by an effort to simplify the Watts-Strogatz model for small-world networks, we generalize a theorem concerning interlacing inequalities for the eigenvalues of the normalized Laplacians of two graphs differing by a single edge. Our generalization allows weighted edges and certain instances of self loops. These inequalities were first proved by Chen et. al in [2] but our argument generalizes the simplified argument given by Li in [8]

Combustor design and analysis using the Rocket Combustor Interactive Design (ROCCID) methodology

The ROCket Combustor Interactive Design (ROCCID) Methodology is a newly developed, interactive computer code for the design and analysis of a liquid propellant rocket combustion chamber. The application of ROCCID to design a liquid rocket combustion chamber is illustrated. Designs for a 50,000 lbf thrust and 1250 psi chamber pressure combustor using liquid oxygen (LOX)RP-1 propellants are developed and evaluated. Tradeoffs between key design parameters affecting combustor performance and stability are examined. Predicted performance and combustion stability margin for these designs are provided as a function of the combustor operating mixture ratio and chamber pressure

LOX/hydrocarbon rocket engine analytical design methodology development and validation. Volume 2: Appendices

This final report includes a discussion of the work accomplished during the period from Dec. 1988 through Nov. 1991. The objective of the program was to assemble existing performance and combustion stability models into a usable design methodology capable of designing and analyzing high-performance and stable LOX/hydrocarbon booster engines. The methodology was then used to design a validation engine. The capabilities and validity of the methodology were demonstrated using this engine in an extensive hot fire test program. The engine used LOX/RP-1 propellants and was tested over a range of mixture ratios, chamber pressures, and acoustic damping device configurations. This volume contains time domain and frequency domain stability plots which indicate the pressure perturbation amplitudes and frequencies from approximately 30 tests of a 50K thrust rocket engine using LOX/RP-1 propellants over a range of chamber pressures from 240 to 1750 psia with mixture ratios of from 1.2 to 7.5. The data is from test configurations which used both bitune and monotune acoustic cavities and from tests with no acoustic cavities. The engine had a length of 14 inches and a contraction ratio of 2.0 using a 7.68 inch diameter injector. The data was taken from both stable and unstable tests. All combustion instabilities were spontaneous in the first tangential mode. Although stability bombs were used and generated overpressures of approximately 20 percent, no tests were driven unstable by the bombs. The stability instrumentation included six high-frequency Kistler transducers in the combustion chamber, a high-frequency Kistler transducer in each propellant manifold, and tri-axial accelerometers. Performance data is presented, both characteristic velocity efficiencies and energy release efficiencies, for those tests of sufficient duration to record steady state values

Of “Zipper Rings” and “Tatum Ts”, Chile – USA: Intrauterine Devices, Men of Science, and Women in Need

Der Beitrag untersucht die zur Verhütung eingesetzten „Intrauterine Devices“ (IUDs. Zu deutsch: Intrauterinpessare) als „reisende Objekte“, die weltweit auf Konferenzen und in Arztpraxen Gegenstand von Verhandlungen waren. Ebenso wirft er ein Schlaglicht auf die politischen und vergeschlechtlichten Machtstrukturen, die zwischen den “men of science” und “women in need” bezüglich der Einführung und Anwendung der IUDs bestanden. Während die Intrauterinpessare in Nord- und Südamerika im Kontext des Kalten Krieges vorrangig von männlichen Experten mit dem Ziel der Bevölkerungskontrolle entwickelt wurden, oenbart die Nachfrage nach dieser Form der Schwangerschaftsverhütung den dringlichen Wunsch von Frauen, über ihreneigenen Körper bestimmen zu können. Der Beitrag verdeutlicht damit auch die “embodiedness”von Dingen und ihre enge Beziehung zum Körper.The contribution frames the “intrauterine devices“ (IUDs) as “travelling objects,” which were debated and negotiated at conferences and in doctor’s oces on a global scale. It also sheds light on the political and gendered power structures between the “men of science” and “women in need,” especially concerning the introduction and usage of the IUDs. Whereas the IUDs were developed by male experts in North and Latin America in the context of the Cold War with the main aim of population control, the women’s demands for this new form of contraception pointed to their ardent desire to control their own body. The chapter therefore also illustrates the “embodiedness” and close relation of things to the body

Center-of-mass effects on the quasi-hole spectroscopic factors in the 16O(e,e'p) reaction

The spectroscopic factors for the low-lying quasi-hole states observed in the 16O(e,e'p)15N reaction are reinvestigated with a variational Monte Carlo calculation for the structure of the initial and final nucleus. A computational error in a previous report is rectified. It is shown that a proper treatment of center-of-mass motion does not lead to a reduction of the spectroscopic factor for $p$-shell quasi-hole states, but rather to a 7% enhancement. This is in agreement with analytical results obtained in the harmonic oscillator model. The center-of-mass effect worsens the discrepancy between present theoretical models and the experimentally observed single-particle strength. We discuss the present status of this problem, including some other mechanisms that may be relevant in this respect.Comment: 14 pages, no figures, uses Revtex, to be published in Phys. Rev. C 58 (1998