Optimization of Zero Net-mass Flow Actuators for Aero-optics Applications

Using experimental methods, zero net-mass flow actuators were optimized to manipulate flow around an airborne laser turret in order to reduce destructive aero-optics effects. Synthetic jets are created by 50 mm and 27 mm piezoelectric disk actuators. Our optimization process involved identifying an actuator’s cavity size, driving frequency, and amplitude to achieve the strongest, most consistent jet possible. The effects of driving a single actuator versus driving two actuators in or out of phase with one another were also investigated. An initial cavity depth was determined using the Helmholtz resonator cavity approximation which estimates the ideal cavity depth for a given resonance frequency. Hotwires were used to collect data and time series for the velocity profile of each actuator at different cavity depths, driving frequencies, and amplitudes. The length and area of the resonance cavity’s opening slot are being held constant throughout our optimization process. When operating at optimized cavity and input settings, the piezoelectric disk actuators were found to produce synthetic jets with velocities as high as 90 m/s. Two local maxima for synthetic jet velocities were located at driving frequencies approximating those of the piezoelectric actuators and resonance cavity. Changing the phase and number of actuators resulted in similar velocities, but at a different distribution of driving frequencies. The effects of the synthetic jets produced by these actuators on the flow acting over a spherical turret is being analyzed in wind tunnel testing utilizing flow visualization and pressure measurements

Optimization of Zero Net-mass Flow Actuators for Aero-optics Applications

Using experimental methods, zero net-mass flow actuators were optimized to manipulate flow around an airborne laser turret in order to reduce destructive aero-optics effects. Synthetic jets are created by 50 mm and 27 mm piezoelectric disk actuators. Our optimization process involved identifying an actuator’s cavity size, driving frequency, and amplitude to achieve the strongest, most consistent jet possible. The effects of driving a single actuator versus driving two actuators in or out of phase with one another were also investigated. An initial cavity depth was determined using the Helmholtz resonator cavity approximation which estimates the ideal cavity depth for a given resonance frequency. Hotwires were used to collect data and time series for the velocity profile of each actuator at different cavity depths, driving frequencies, and amplitudes. The length and area of the resonance cavity’s opening slot are being held constant throughout our optimization process. When operating at optimized cavity and input settings, the piezoelectric disk actuators were found to produce synthetic jets with velocities as high as 90 m/s. Two local maxima for synthetic jet velocities were located at driving frequencies approximating those of the piezoelectric actuators and resonance cavity. Changing the phase and number of actuators resulted in similar velocities, but at a different distribution of driving frequencies. The effects of the synthetic jets produced by these actuators on the flow acting over a spherical turret is being analyzed in wind tunnel testing utilizing flow visualization and pressure measurements

Pressure-Dependent, Infrared-Emitting Phenomenon in Hypervelocity Impact

A series of hypervelocity impact experiments were conducted with variable target chamber atmospheric pressure ranging from 0.9 to 21.5 Torr. Using a two-stage light-gas gun, 5.7 mg nylon 6/6 right-cylinders were accelerated to speeds ranging between 6.0 and 6.3 km/s to impact 1.5 mm thick 6061-T6 aluminum plates. Full-field images of near-IR emission (0.9 to 1.7 μm) were measured using a high-speed spectrograph system with image exposure times of 1 μs. The radial expansion of an IR-emitting impact-generated phenomenon was observed to be dependent upon the ambient target chamber atmospheric pressures. Higher chamber pressures demonstrated lower radial expansions of the subsequently measured IR-emitting region uprange of the target. Dimensional analysis, originally presented by Taylor to describe the expansion of a hemispherical blast wave, is applied to describe the observed pressure-dependence of the IR-emitting cloud expansion. Experimental results are used to empirically determine two dimensionless constants for the analysis. The maximum radial expansion of the observed IR-emitting cloud is described by the Taylor blast-wave theory, with experimental results demonstrating the characteristic nonlinear dependence on atmospheric pressure. Furthermore, the edges of the measured IR-emitting clouds are observed to expand at extreme speeds ranging from approximately 13 to 39 km/s. In each experiment, impact ejecta and debris are simultaneously observed in the visible range using an ultrahigh-speed laser shadowgraph system. For the considered experiments, ejecta and debris speeds are measured between 0.6 and 5.1 km/s. Such a disparity in observed phenomena velocities suggests the IR-emitting cloud is a distinctly different phenomenon to both the uprange ejecta and downrange debris generated during a hypervelocity impact

Examining the temporal evolution of hypervelocity impact phenomena via high-speed imaging and ultraviolet-visible emission spectroscopy

The temporal evolution of a previously observed hypervelocity impact-induced vapor cloud [Mihaly et al., Int. J. Impact Eng. 62, 13 (2013)] was measured by simultaneously recording several full-field, near-IR images of the resulting emission using an OMA-V high-speed camera. A two-stage light-gas gun was used to accelerate 5 mg Nylon 6/6 right-cylinders to speeds between 5 km/s and 7 km/s to impact 1.5 mm thick 6061-T6 aluminum target plates. Complementary laser-side-lighting [Mihaly et al., Int. J. Impact Eng. 62, 13 (2013); Proc. Eng. 58, 363 (2013)] and front-of-target (without laser illumination) images were also captured using a Cordin ultra-high-speed camera. The rapid expansion of the vapor cloud was observed to contain a bright, emitting exterior, and a darker, optically thick interior. The shape of this phenomenon was also observed to vary considerably between experiments due to extremely high-rate (>250 000 rpm) of tumbling of the cylindrical projectiles. Additionally, UV-vis emission spectra were simultaneously recorded to investigate the temporal evolution of the atomic and molecular composition of the up-range, impact-induced vapor plume. A PI-MAX3 high-speed camera coupled to an Acton spectrograph was utilized to capture the UV-vis spectra, which shows an overall peak in emission intensity between approximately 6–10 ls after impact trigger, corresponding to an increased quantity of emitting vapor/plasma passing through the spectrometer slit during this time period. The relative intensity of the numerous spectral bands was also observed to vary according to the exposure delay of the camera, indicating that the different atomic/molecular species exhibit a varied temporal evolution during the vapor cloud expansion. Higher resolution spectra yielded additional emission lines/bands that provide further evidence of interaction between fragmented projectile material and the 1 mmHg atmosphere inside the target chamber. A comparison of the data to down-range emission spectra also revealed differences in the relative intensities of the atomic/molecular composition of the observed vapor clouds

High spatial resolution imaging of methane and other trace gases with the airborne Hyperspectral Thermal Emission Spectrometer (HyTES)

Currently large uncertainties exist associated with the attribution and quantification of fugitive emissions of criteria pollutants and greenhouse gases such as methane across large regions and key economic sectors. In this study, data from the airborne Hyperspectral Thermal Emission Spectrometer (HyTES) have been used to develop robust and reliable techniques for the detection and wide-area mapping of emission plumes of methane and other atmospheric trace gas species over challenging and diverse environmental conditions with high spatial resolution that permits direct attribution to sources. HyTES is a pushbroom imaging spectrometer with high spectral resolution (256 bands from 7.5 to 12 µm), wide swath (1–2 km), and high spatial resolution (∼ 2 m at 1 km altitude) that incorporates new thermal infrared (TIR) remote sensing technologies. In this study we introduce a hybrid clutter matched filter (CMF) and plume dilation algorithm applied to HyTES observations to efficiently detect and characterize the spatial structures of individual plumes of CH_4, H_2S, NH_3, NO_2, and SO_2 emitters. The sensitivity and field of regard of HyTES allows rapid and frequent airborne surveys of large areas including facilities not readily accessible from the surface. The HyTES CMF algorithm produces plume intensity images of methane and other gases from strong emission sources. The combination of high spatial resolution and multi-species imaging capability provides source attribution in complex environments. The CMF-based detection of strong emission sources over large areas is a fast and powerful tool needed to focus on more computationally intensive retrieval algorithms to quantify emissions with error estimates, and is useful for expediting mitigation efforts and addressing critical science questions

High spatial resolution imaging of methane and other trace gases with the airborne Hyperspectral Thermal Emission Spectrometer (HyTES)

Currently large uncertainties exist associated with the attribution and quantification of fugitive emissions of criteria pollutants and greenhouse gases such as methane across large regions and key economic sectors. In this study, data from the airborne Hyperspectral Thermal Emission Spectrometer (HyTES) have been used to develop robust and reliable techniques for the detection and wide-area mapping of emission plumes of methane and other atmospheric trace gas species over challenging and diverse environmental conditions with high spatial resolution that permits direct attribution to sources. HyTES is a pushbroom imaging spectrometer with high spectral resolution (256 bands from 7.5 to 12 µm), wide swath (1–2 km), and high spatial resolution (∼ 2 m at 1 km altitude) that incorporates new thermal infrared (TIR) remote sensing technologies. In this study we introduce a hybrid clutter matched filter (CMF) and plume dilation algorithm applied to HyTES observations to efficiently detect and characterize the spatial structures of individual plumes of CH_4, H_2S, NH_3, NO_2, and SO_2 emitters. The sensitivity and field of regard of HyTES allows rapid and frequent airborne surveys of large areas including facilities not readily accessible from the surface. The HyTES CMF algorithm produces plume intensity images of methane and other gases from strong emission sources. The combination of high spatial resolution and multi-species imaging capability provides source attribution in complex environments. The CMF-based detection of strong emission sources over large areas is a fast and powerful tool needed to focus on more computationally intensive retrieval algorithms to quantify emissions with error estimates, and is useful for expediting mitigation efforts and addressing critical science questions

PDBe-KB: a community-driven resource for structural and functional annotations.

The Protein Data Bank in Europe-Knowledge Base (PDBe-KB, https://pdbe-kb.org) is a community-driven, collaborative resource for literature-derived, manually curated and computationally predicted structural and functional annotations of macromolecular structure data, contained in the Protein Data Bank (PDB). The goal of PDBe-KB is two-fold: (i) to increase the visibility and reduce the fragmentation of annotations contributed by specialist data resources, and to make these data more findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable (FAIR) and (ii) to place macromolecular structure data in their biological context, thus facilitating their use by the broader scientific community in fundamental and applied research. Here, we describe the guidelines of this collaborative effort, the current status of contributed data, and the PDBe-KB infrastructure, which includes the data exchange format, the deposition system for added value annotations, the distributable database containing the assembled data, and programmatic access endpoints. We also describe a series of novel web-pages-the PDBe-KB aggregated views of structure data-which combine information on macromolecular structures from many PDB entries. We have recently released the first set of pages in this series, which provide an overview of available structural and functional information for a protein of interest, referenced by a UniProtKB accession

Mitochondrial physiology

As the knowledge base and importance of mitochondrial physiology to evolution, health and disease expands, the necessity for harmonizing the terminology concerning mitochondrial respiratory states and rates has become increasingly apparent. The chemiosmotic theory establishes the mechanism of energy transformation and coupling in oxidative phosphorylation. The unifying concept of the protonmotive force provides the framework for developing a consistent theoretical foundation of mitochondrial physiology and bioenergetics. We follow the latest SI guidelines and those of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) on terminology in physical chemistry, extended by considerations of open systems and thermodynamics of irreversible processes. The concept-driven constructive terminology incorporates the meaning of each quantity and aligns concepts and symbols with the nomenclature of classical bioenergetics. We endeavour to provide a balanced view of mitochondrial respiratory control and a critical discussion on reporting data of mitochondrial respiration in terms of metabolic flows and fluxes. Uniform standards for evaluation of respiratory states and rates will ultimately contribute to reproducibility between laboratories and thus support the development of data repositories of mitochondrial respiratory function in species, tissues, and cells. Clarity of concept and consistency of nomenclature facilitate effective transdisciplinary communication, education, and ultimately further discovery

Mitochondrial physiology

As the knowledge base and importance of mitochondrial physiology to evolution, health and disease expands, the necessity for harmonizing the terminology concerning mitochondrial respiratory states and rates has become increasingly apparent. The chemiosmotic theory establishes the mechanism of energy transformation and coupling in oxidative phosphorylation. The unifying concept of the protonmotive force provides the framework for developing a consistent theoretical foundation of mitochondrial physiology and bioenergetics. We follow the latest SI guidelines and those of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) on terminology in physical chemistry, extended by considerations of open systems and thermodynamics of irreversible processes. The concept-driven constructive terminology incorporates the meaning of each quantity and aligns concepts and symbols with the nomenclature of classical bioenergetics. We endeavour to provide a balanced view of mitochondrial respiratory control and a critical discussion on reporting data of mitochondrial respiration in terms of metabolic flows and fluxes. Uniform standards for evaluation of respiratory states and rates will ultimately contribute to reproducibility between laboratories and thus support the development of data repositories of mitochondrial respiratory function in species, tissues, and cells. Clarity of concept and consistency of nomenclature facilitate effective transdisciplinary communication, education, and ultimately further discovery