Dynamic-model investigation of some landings and slideouts of a recoverable booster

Landing impact and slideout stability characteristics of recoverable booste

Production and condensation of organic gases in the atmosphere of Titan

The rates and altitudes for the dissociation of atmospheric constituents on Titan are calculated for solar ultraviolet radiation, the solar wind, Saturn magnetospheric particles, the Saturn co-rotating plasma, and cosmic rays. Laboratory experiments show that a variety of simple gas phase organic molecules and more complex organic solids called tholins are produced by such irradiations of simulated Titanian atmospheres. Except for ultraviolet wavelengths longward of the methane photodissociation continuum, most dissociation events occur between about 3100 and 3600 km altitude, corresponding well to the region of EUV opacity detected by Voyager. For a wide variety of simple to moderately complex organic gases in the Titanian atmosphere, condensation occurs below the top of the main cloud deck at about 2825 km. It is proposed that such condensates, beginning with CH4 at about 2615 km, comprise the principal mass of the Titan clouds. There is a distinct tendency for the atmosphere of Titan to act as a fractional distillation device, molecules of greater complexity condensing out at higher altitudes

Landing impact studies of a 0.3-scale model air cushion landing system for a Navy fighter airplane

An experimental study was conducted in order to determine the landing-impact behavior of a 0.3-scale, dynamically (but not physically) similar model of a high-density Navy fighter equipped with an air cushion landing system. The model was tested over a range of landing contact attitudes at high forward speeds and sink rates on a specialized test fixture at the Langley aircraft landing loads and traction facility. The investigation indicated that vertical acceleration at landing impact was highly dependent on the pitch angle at ground contact, the higher acceleration of approximately 5g occurring near zero body-pitch attitude. A limited number of low-speed taxi tests were made in order to determine model stability characteristics. The model was found to have good pitch-damping characteristics but stability in roll was marginal

QCGAT mixer compound exhaust system design and static big model test report

A mixer exhaust system was designed to meet the proposed performance and exhaust jet noise goals for the AiResearch QCGAT engine. Some 0.35 scale models of the various nozzles were fabricated and aerodynamically and acoustically tested. Preliminary optimization, engine cycle matching, model test data and analysis are presented. A final mixer exhaust system is selected for optimum performance for the overall flight regime

Thermal-structural panel buckling tests

The buckling characteristics of a titanium matrix composite hat-stiffened panel were experimentally examined for various combinations of thermal and mechanical loads. Panel failure was prevented by maintaining the applied loads below real-time critical buckling predictions. The test techniques used to apply the loads, minimize boundary were shown to compare well with a finite-element buckling analysis for previous panels. Comparisons between test predictions and analysis for this panel are ongoing

Errors in finite-difference computations on curvilinear coordinate systems

Curvilinear coordinate systems were used extensively to solve partial differential equations on arbitrary regions. An analysis of truncation error in the computation of derivatives revealed why numerical results may be erroneous. A more accurate method of computing derivatives is presented

Elliptic systems and numerical transformations

Properties of a transformation method, which was developed for solving fluid dynamic problems on general two dimensional regions, are discussed. These include construction error of the transformation and applications to mesh generation. An error and stability analysis for the numerical solution of a model parabolic problem is also presented

Quasiconformal mappings and grid generation

A finite difference scheme is developed for constructing quasiconformal mappings for arbitrary simply and doubly connected regions. Computational grids are generated to reduce elliptic equations to canonical form. Examples of conformal mappings on surfaces are also included

Constraints on Neutron Star Crusts From Oscillations in Giant Flares

We show that the fundamental seismic shear mode, observed as a quasi-periodic oscillation in giant flares emitted by highly-magnetized neutron stars, is particularly sensitive to the nuclear physics of the crust. The identification of an oscillation at ~ 30 Hz as the fundamental crustal shear mode requires a nuclear symmetry energy that depends very weakly on density near saturation. If the nuclear symmetry energy varies more strongly with density, then lower frequency oscillations, previously identified as torsional Alfven modes of the fluid core, could instead be associated with the crust. If this is the case, then future observations of giant flares should detect oscillations at around 18 Hz. An accurate measurement of the neutron skin thickness of lead will also constrain the frequencies predicted by the model.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures; Version to appear in Phys. Rev. Let