Rainbows, polarization, and the search for habitable planets

Current proposals for the characterization of extrasolar terrestrial planets rest primarily on the use of spectroscopic techniques. While spectroscopy is effective in detecting the gaseous components of a planet's atmosphere, it provides no way of detecting the presence of liquid water, the defining characteristic of a habitable planet. In this paper, I investigate the potential of an alternative technique for characterizing the atmosphere of a planet using polarization. By looking for a polarization peak at the "primary rainbow" scattering angle, it is possible to detect the presence of liquid droplets in a planet's atmosphere and constrain the nature of the liquid through its refractive index. Single scattering calculations are presented to show that a well-defined rainbow scattering peak is present over the full range of likely cloud droplet sizes and clearly distinguishes the presence of liquid droplets from solid particles such as ice or dust. Rainbow scattering has been used in the past to determine the nature of the cloud droplets in the Venus atmosphere and by the POLarization and Directionality of Earth Reflectances (POLDER) instrument to distinguish between liquid and ice clouds in the Earth atmosphere. While the presence of liquid water clouds does not guarantee the presence of water at the surface, this technique could complement spectroscopic techniques for characterizing the atmospheres of potential habitable planets. The disk-integrated rainbow peak for Earth is estimated to be at a degree of polarization of 12.7% or 15.5% for two different cloud cover scenarios. The observation of this rainbow peak is shown to be feasible with the proposed Terrestrial Planet Finder Coronograph mission in similar total integration times to those required for spectroscopic characterization.     

气氧甲烷单喷嘴燃烧室壁面热流的测量和数值模拟

为了研究气氧甲烷燃烧室的壁面热载荷,对一个包含同轴剪切喷嘴的燃烧室开展了热试研究,混合比2.647,室压2MPa。根据沿燃烧室轴向测得的壁面温度数据,利用逆向传热计算的方法获得了壁面热流分布。为了更好地分析实验结果,应用商业CFD软件ANSYS Fluent开展了相应的数值模拟研究,采用涡耗散概念模型模拟湍流燃烧过程。在进行分析之前对网格无关性进行了验证,比较了从数值模拟和实验获得的热流分布,结果表明所采取的模拟方法能够有效预测燃烧室壁面热流分布,最大热流值偏差17%,另外还从燃气温度场和流场结构方面分析了造成这种热流分布的原因。     

Acoustic measurements of models of military style supersonic nozzle jets

Modern military aircraft jet engines are designed with variable-geometry nozzles to provide optimal thrust in different operating conditions, depending on the flight envelope. How- ever, acoustic measurements for such nozzles are scarce, due to the cost involved in making full- scale measurements and the lack of details about the exact geometries of these nozzles. Thus the present effort at Pennsylvania State University （PSU） in partnership with GE Aviation and the NASA Glenn Research Center is aiming to study and characterize the acoustic field produced by supersonic jets issuing from converging-diverging military style nozzles, and to identify and test promising noise reduction techniques. An equally important objective is to develop methodology for using data obtained from small- and moderate-scale experiments to reliably predict the full-scale engine noise. The experimental results presented show reasonable agreement between small-scale and medium-scale jets, as well as between heated jets and heat-simulated ones.     

Large eddy simulation of turbulent diffusion flame combustion using a conserved scalar methodology

The present paper describes an LES prediction of turbulent diffusion flame combustion in a simplified axi-symmetric combustor geometry.The calculations are carried out using a well-tested finite volume incompressible LES code which has been modified to handle variable density and reacting flows.The basic mixture fraction conserved scalar method is used with the chemical state relationships described by fast chemistry.The turbulence-chemistry interaction is modelled by a sub-grid PDF method and the PDF is assumed to follow a Beta-function shape.The LES predictions have been time-averaged over 3.5 flow-through times to generate the mean radial profiles of mixture fraction,product mass fraction,temperature,axial velocity and axial rms.The agreement of the LES predictions with the experimental data is good for all the above quantities at four different axial positions with largest differences at the first measurement plane.The LES method also provides information on the unsteady nature of turbulent diffusion combustion. For turbulent reacting flows with large density ratio,it was found necessary to use a relaxation method in order to remove unphysical high-frequency fluctuations and to maintain numerical stability.      

爆轰波-激波迎面作用后的稳定波系

本文为对当量比乙炔氧气混合气体中爆轰波与激波正面对撞产生稳定波系的实验和理论研究.实验主要以高速扫描摄影获取两波对撞的x-t纹影图,一维理论分析则基于三种热完全的组分求解两波对撞的稳定解并探寻它们的规律.实验发现透射波系包括一道激波和爆轰波,以及紧随爆轰波后的稀疏波区,这种波系情况与一维理论分析中CJ解一致.透射CJ爆轰与人射爆轰相比马赫数降低,而相对波前来流的传播速度有轻微提高,但在实验室坐标下其速度显著降低.透射波系受初始压强影响不大;初始温度提高使得爆轰波速度降低,而透射激波速度增加;对波系起实质影响作用的是入射激波强度,激波越强,则整个透射流场呈现偏向激波的趋势;理论分析还指出,稀疏波区的出现不可避免,当激波强度趋于声波时稀疏波区趋于消失,激波越强则疏波区趋于扩大.     

海上舰船目标的机载高分辨率ISAR成像

本文提出了机载高分辨率二维逆合成孔径雷达(ISAR)对舰船目标的侧视成像问题。通过采用舰船运动的简单模型，避免了采用高级的联合-时间频率(JTF)变换。研究了包括运动估计与校正、最佳处理时间与持续时间估计以及目标形状提取的鲁棒处理方案。强调了这样一个事实，即该处理的鲁棒性造就了单个ISAR成像分析而不必由一组雷达图像进行数据融合。     

飞行器围绕小行星的轨道运动

分析了飞行器围绕小行星轨道运动的特点，介绍了所建立的表述这一问题的理论基础。采用三种不同方法从几个侧面揭示了这一问题的本质特征。给出了所完成的研究这一问题的进展、结果和相互联系，其中包括轨道摄动、共振运动和周期轨道运动。这一问题的核心和难点是轨道的稳定性问题。     

激光合成金属间化合物基复合材料研究进展

对激光合成颗粒增强金属间化合物基复合材料进行了研究,包括Ni3Al/WC、NiAl/TiC、Ti3Al/TiC和MoSi2/SiC,用扫描电镜、能谱仪和X射线衍射仪对材料成分和组织特征进行了分析,提出并讨论了影响激光合成金属间化合物基复合材料的关键问题.激光合成具有多种强韧化方法协同、提高金属间化合物强度和塑性的特点,有利于金属间化合物性能的综合改善.