Sensor development programs at NASA Ames Research Center

Two sensor development programs being conducted at the Fluid Mechanics Laboratory, NASA Ames Research Center are described, one in progress and the other being initiated. The ongoing program involves digital image velocimetry for velocity field measurements of time-dependent flows. The new program involves advanced acoustic sensors for wind tunnel applications

Reciprocity principle in duct acoustics

Various reciprocity relations in duct acoustics have been derived on the basis of the spatial reciprocity principle implied in Green's functions for linear waves. The derivation includes the reciprocity relations between mode conversion coefficients for reflection and transmission in nonuniform ducts, and the relation between the radiation of a mode from an arbitrarily terminated duct and the absorption of an externally incident plane wave by the duct. Such relations are well defined as long as the systems remain linear, regardless of acoustic properties of duct nonuniformities which cause the mode conversions

Sound diffraction at wall impedance discontinuities in a circular cylinder, investigated using Wiener-Hopf technique

Rigorous solutions are presented for sound diffraction in a circular cylinder with axial discontinuities of the wall admittance (or impedance). Analytical expressions are derived for the reflection and the transmission coefficients for duct modes. The results are discussed quantitatively in the limits of small admittance shifts (delta) and of low frequencies (ka). One of the results is the low frequency behavior of the reflection coefficient R(o) sub 00 of the fundamental mode. For the mode of a hardwall duct reflected from the junction with a softwall duct, (R(o) sub oo yields - (1-square root of (ka) square root of (2/i delta)); this result is in contrast to the frequency dependence of the reflection from the open end of a hardwall duct, for which R(o) sub oo yields - 1-(ka) squared/2

High-frequency sound propagation in a spatially varying mean flow

An equation for acoustic ray paths in a spatially varying mean flow was examined to determine some of the characteristics of the flow gradient effects on sound propagation. In a potential flow, the acoustic rays are deflected in the direction of increasing mean flow, and the gradient of the mean flow speed is the dominant factor causing the ray deflection. In contrast, in a sheared mean flow, the vorticity is the dominant factor in deflection of the acoustic rays

Higher order mode propagation in nonuniform circular ducts

Higher order mode propagation in a nonuniform circular duct without mean flow was investigated. An approximate wave equation is derived on the assumptions that the duct cross section varies slowly and that mode conversion is negligible. Exact closed form solutions are obtained for a particular class of converging-diverging circular duct which referred to as 'circular cosh duct.' Numerical results are presented in terms of the transmission loss for the various duct shapes and frequencies. The results are applicable to multimodal propagation, single mode propagation, and sound radiation from certain types of contoured inlet ducts, or of sound propagation in a converging-diverging duct of somewhat different shape from a cosh duct

Mode Propagation in Nonuniform Circular Ducts with Potential Flow

A previously reported closed form solution is expanded to determine effects of isentropic mean flow on mode propagation in a slowly converging-diverging duct, a circular cosh duct. On the assumption of uniform steady fluid density, the mean flow increases the power transmission coefficient. The increase is directly related to the increase of the cutoff ratio at the duct throat. With the negligible transverse gradients of the steady fluid variables, the conversion from one mode to another is negligible, and the power transmission coefficient remains unchanged with the mean flow direction reversed. With a proper choice of frequency parameter, many different modes can be made subject to a single value of the power transmission loss. A systematic method to include the effects of the gradients of the steady fluid variables is also described

Symmetric-Gapped Surface States of Fractional Topological Insulators

We construct the symmetric-gapped surface states of a fractional topological insulator with electromagnetic $\theta$-angle $\theta_{em} = \frac{\pi}{3}$ and a discrete $\mathbb{Z}_3$ gauge field. They are the proper generalizations of the T-pfaffian state and pfaffian/anti-semion state and feature an extended periodicity compared with their of "integer" topological band insulators counterparts. We demonstrate that the surface states have the correct anomalies associated with time-reversal symmetry and charge conservation.Comment: 5 pages, 33 references and 2 pages of supplemental materia

Fault-tolerant linear optics quantum computation by error-detecting quantum state transfer

A scheme for linear optical implementation of fault-tolerant quantum computation is proposed, which is based on an error-detecting code. Each computational step is mediated by transfer of quantum information into an ancilla system embedding error-detection capability. Photons are assumed to be subjected to both photon loss and depolarization, and the threshold region of their strengths for scalable quantum computation is obtained, together with the amount of physical resources consumed. Compared to currently known results, the present scheme reduces the resource requirement, while yielding a comparable threshold region.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figure