Dynamical evolution of high area-to-mass ratio debris released into GPS orbits

A large set of simulations, including all the relevant perturbations, was carried out to investigate the long-term dynamical evolution of fictitious high area-to-mass ratio (A/M) objects released, with a negligible velocity variation, in each of the six orbital planes used by Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites. As with similar objects discovered in near synchronous trajectories, long lifetime orbits, with mean motions of about 2 revolutions per day, were found possible for debris characterized by extremely high area-to-mass ratios. Often the lifetime exceeds 100 years up to A/M ∼ 45 m²/kg, decreasing rapidly to a few months above such a threshold. However, the details of the evolution, which are conditioned by the complex interplay of solar radiation pressure and geopotential plus luni-solar resonances, depend on the initial conditions. Different behaviors are thus possible. In any case, objects like those discovered in synchronous orbits, with A/M as high as 20–40 m²/kg, could also survive in this orbital regime, with semi-major axes close to the semi-synchronous values, with maximum eccentricities between 0.3 and 0.7, and with significant orbit pole precessions (faster and wider for increasing values of A/M), leading to inclinations between 30° and more than 90°.     

Determination of an instantaneous Laplace plane for Mercury’s rotation

Mercury is the target of two space missions: MESSENGER, which carried out its first and second flybys of Mercury on January 14, 2008 and October 6, 2008, and the ESA/JAXA space mission BepiColombo, scheduled to arrive at Mercury in 2020. The preparation of these missions requires a good knowledge of the rotation of Mercury.     

AN IMPROVEMENT FOR LOWER－ORDER PANEL METHOD BASED ON THE DIRICHLET BOUNDARY CONDITION

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直升机的气动弹性问题

直升机的气动弹性问题与固定翼飞机不同,不仅要考虑单片桨叶,更要将旋翼视为一个整体,考虑其动态入流、尾迹影响以及旋翼与机身之间的相互耦合等。就单片桨叶而言,在结构动力学上,需要考虑离心力场、几何非线性以及桨叶的非线性挥舞-摆振-扭转耦合;在气动力上,需要考虑动态入流以及桨尖处可能的失速效应,本质上属于非线性气动弹性力学范畴。由于旋翼气动力通常是以周期形式通过旋翼轴传给机身,并引起机身振动,而机身运动又通过改变桨叶根部形态反过来影响旋翼的气动弹性特性,这种旋翼/机身耦合问题,也是近年来直升机气动弹性问题研究中的重要方向和热点之一。此外,随着旋翼流场数值分析方法的日趋成熟,采用动态重叠网格或滑移网格方法来实现桨叶运动,并通过动网格技术来实现桨叶的弹性变形,从而实现弹性旋翼流场的数值模拟,目前正呈现出勃勃生机,成为直升机气动弹性研究的又一重要方向和热点。随着各种新构型直升机的相继出现,如倾转旋翼机、前行桨叶概念旋翼(ABC)直升机和复合式直升机等,也带来了新的气动弹性问题。不断发现问题、解决问题,推动本学科持续发展,永远是气动弹性工作者终身奋斗的目标。     

柔性扑翼气动结构耦合特性数值研究

微型扑翼体积小、重量轻,其柔性变形对气动特性有显著的影响。通过求解雷诺平均N-S方程(ReynoldsAveraged Navier-Stokes,RANS)和结构动力学方程,对微型柔性扑翼飞行器的气动结构耦合特性进行了数值模拟研究。针对微型扑翼的大幅运动,发展了适用于扑翼的气动结构耦合数值计算方法,研究了微型扑翼的气动结构耦合特性。通过求解雷诺平均Navier-Stokes(RANS)方程得到微型扑翼的非定常气动特性;利用哈密顿原理(Hamilton Principle)推导了扑翼的结构动力学方程,采用结构有限元方法对该动力学方程进行离散并求解,得到扑翼的动态结构特性;采用松耦合方法进行迭代。计算结果与风洞实验结果相比吻合良好,验证了所发展方法的有效性。在此基础上研究了惯性力和关键运动参数对柔性扑翼气动及结构特性的影响规律,有助于比较详细、全面地了解微型扑翼的气动机理,为柔性扑翼的设计提供了参考依据。     

某型卫星测试转台俯仰翻转丝杠动力学分析

以某型卫星测试转台俯仰机构为研究对象,在ADAMS中建立了虚拟样机,得到了在翻转过程中丝杠轴向力曲线,并将仿真结果与理论计算结果及试验结果进行比较,验证了虚拟样机建模的合理性;研究结果为同类物理样机设计中滚珠丝杠的选用校核,台体框架的设计校核以及机电联合仿真提供有利数据支撑。     

Dynamics and Composition of Rings

Planetary rings are found around all four giant planets of our solar system. These collisional and highly flattened disks exhibit a whole wealth of physical processes involving dust grains up to meter-sized boulders. These processes, together with ring composition, can help understand better the formation and evolution of proto-satellite and proto-planetary disks in the early solar system. The present chapter reviews some fundamental aspects of ring dynamics and composition. The forthcoming exploration of the Saturn system by the Cassini mission will bring both high resolution and time-dependent information on Saturn’s rings.     

PC-index fluctuations and intermittency of the magnetospheric dynamics

One minute resolution Polar Cap (PC) index was used for the analysis of magnetospheric dynamics. The 1995–2000 time series analysis revealed that the power spectrum of the PC-index fluctuations is a power law in a wide range of frequencies. However, the obtained exponents differ for low and high frequency regions. The probability distribution functions of the PC-index fluctuations show a strong non-gaussian shape, depending on the time of increment. This indicates that the PC-index exhibits intermittency, previously detected in solar wind and auroral electrojet index fluctuations. The PC-index probability distribution functions were fitted by the functional form proposed by Castaing et al. [Velocity probability density functions of high Reynolds number turbulence. Physica D. 46, 177–200, 1990] to describe intermittency phenomena in ordinary turbulent fluid flows. The agreement between the fitting parameters obtained for the PC index and those reported before for solar wind magnetic field fluctuations is within 30%; which is noticeably less than the difference between the same parameters of solar wind and the AE-index fluctuations. This fact indicates that the PC index reflects the solar wind influence on the high-latitude magnetosphere, especially during the summer.     

Modeling Multifractality of the Solar Wind

The question of multifractality is of great importance because it allows us to investigate interplanetary hydromagnetic turbulence. The multifractal spectrum has been investigated with Voyager (magnetic field) data in the outer heliosphere and with Helios (plasma) data in the inner heliosphere. We use the Grassberger and Procaccia method that allows calculation of the generalized dimensions of the solar wind attractor in the phase space directly from the cleaned experimental signal. We analyze time series of plasma parameters of the low-speed streams of the solar wind measured in situ by Helios in the inner heliosphere. The resulting spectrum of dimensions shows a multifractal structure of the solar wind attractor. In order to quantify that multifractality, we use a simple analytical model of the dynamical system. Namely, we consider the generalized self-similar baker’s map with two parameters describing uniform compression and natural invariant measure on the attractor of the system. The action of this map exhibits stretching and folding properties leading to sensitive dependence on initial conditions. The obtained solar wind singularity spectrum is consistent with that for the multifractal measure on the weighted baker’s map.