基于非湍流脉动动能方程的高超声速转捩预测

通过求解基于稳定性理论的非湍流脉动动能输运方程,预测了来流Ma为5.91的裙锥绕流流动的层流-湍流转捩点,并采用SST(Shear-Stress Transport)湍流模型结合代数间歇因子模型对转捩流场进行了数值模拟.结果表明非湍流脉动动能输运方程模型可以很好地捕捉逆压梯度对转捩前期边界层内的不稳定波动频率的影响.等温壁面条件下计算得到的转捩位置与静风洞实验结果基本一致.壁面冷却促进第2模态不稳定波动的增长,使转捩提前发生.代数间歇因子模型模拟高马赫数流动的转捩区长度较短,温度峰值偏低.     

再入飞行器表面磁流体发电装置数值模拟

提出了钝锥型再入飞行器上的表面磁流体发电装置方案,采用低磁雷诺数近似下的磁流体力学模型对其进行了流动与静电场耦合的数值模拟,由此建立了表面磁流体发电装置中的物理图像.数值模拟结果表明,在典型再入条件(飞行高度46 km,速度7 km/s)下,所提出表面磁流体发电装置方案能够实现兆瓦级(电功率1.28MW)能量输出,电能提取导致再入飞行器阻力增大13.7%,对飞行器壁面总热流值的影响并不显著,但发电区域及其下游壁面的热流密度分布发生明显变化,该区域内热流密度峰值发生于电极的前、后缘.     

Biased PNG law for impact with angular constraint

A new homing guidance law is proposed to impact a target with a desired attitude angle. It is a variation of the conventional proportional navigation guidance (PNG) law which includes a supplementary time-varying bias. The proposed guidance law does not require a time-to-go estimation and has a simpler form. Analytic conditions for fulfilling the guidance goal are also provided. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed guidance law has wider launch envelopes than the previous one and shows a good performance even against a maneuvering target     

Design of a practical tracking algorithm with radar measurements

The extended Kalman filter (EKF) has been widely used as a nonlinear filtering method for radar tracking problems. However, it has been found that if cross-range measurement errors of the target position are large, the performance of the conventional EKF degrades considerably due to nonnegligible nonlinear effects. A new filtering algorithm for improving the tracking performance with radar measurements is developed based on the fact that correct evaluation of the measurement error covariance is possible in the Cartesian coordinate system. The proposed algorithm may be viewed as a modification of the EKF in which the variance of the range measurement errors is evaluated in an adaptive manner. The filter structure facilitates the incorporation of the sequential measurement processing scheme, and this makes the resulting algorithm favorable to both estimation accuracy and computational efficiency. Computer simulation results show that the proposed method offers superior performance in comparison to previous methods. Moreover, our developed algorithm provides some useful insight into the radar tracking problem     

CIR Morphology, Turbulence, Discontinuities, and Energetic Particles

Corotating interaction regions (CIRs) in the middle heliosphere have distinct morphological features and associated patterns of turbulence and energetic particles. This report summarizes current understanding of those features and patterns, discusses how they can vary from case to case and with distance from the Sun and possible causes of those variations, presents an analytical model of the morphological features found in earlier qualitative models and numerical simulations, and identifies aspects of the features and patterns that have yet to be resolved. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Space-radiation-induced photon luminescence of the Moon

We report on the results of a continuing study of the photon luminescence of the Moon induced by Galactic Cosmic Rays (GCRs) and space radiation from the Sun, using the Monte Carlo program FLUKA. Understanding the space radiation environment is critical to future exploration of the Moon, and this includes photons. The model of the lunar surface is taken to be the chemical composition of soils found at various landing sites during the Apollo and Luna programs, averaged over all such sites to define a generic regolith for the present analysis. This surface model then becomes the target that is bombarded by Galactic Cosmic Rays (GCRs) and Solar Energetic Particles (SEPs) or Solar Particle Events (SPEs) above 1 keV in FLUKA to determine the photon fluence albedo produced by the Moon’s surface when there is no sunlight and Earthshine. The result is to be distinguished from the gamma-ray spectrum produced by the radioactive decay of radiogenic constituents lying in the surface and interior of the Moon. From the photon fluence we derive the spectrum which can be utilized to examine existing lunar spectral data and to aid future orbiting instrumentation in the measurement of various components of the space-radiation-induced photon luminescence present on the Moon.     

Algorithms for Power Converter Design Optimization

A practical optimization approach for power converters is established which allows conception of a design to meet all powercircuit performance requirements and concurrently to optimize a defined quantity such as weight or losses. In addition to facilitating a cost effective design, the computer-aided approach provides a means to readily assess a) the weight-efficiency tradeoff, b) impacts of converter requirements and component characteristics on a given design, and c) optimum power-system configurations. The following two popular algorithms for nonlinearly constrained optimization are utilized to design the power converter: 1) the sequential unconstrained minimization technique, SUMT Version 4; 2) the ALAG penalty function technique, ALAG5. These algorithms are compared, and suggestions are made for improving the efficiency of the optimization algorithms for power converter design.     

An LS-TLS-based sequential identification algorithm: Application toan accelerometer

Total least squares (TLS) parameter estimation is an alternative to least squares (LS) estimation when there are errors in both data matrix and observation vector. Especially, when some of the columns, not all, of the data matrix A are free of error, we call it a mixed LS-TLS problem. Accordingly, a sequential algorithm for solving a mixed LS-TLS problem is proposed here. The proposed algorithm employs an efficient algorithm to locate the minimum eigenpair, instead of singular value decomposition (SVD) which is computationally exacting. The proposed algorithm is applied to an accelerometer model to identify error parameters which are very important in inertial navigation systems (INS)     

Ulysses' race to the pole: Symposium Summary

This paper reproduces the Symposium Summary presentation at the 28th ESLAB Symposium on The High Latitude Heliosphere. The summary is not comprehensive but with considerable latitude covers the highlights of the conference. Featured are the observations of the high-speed wind from the growing southern polar coronal hole, new measurements of the interstellar gas and pickup ions, new measurements of cosmic ray modulation at high latitude, and our growing awareness of the three-dimensional heliosphere.