Effective Coulomb force modeling for spacecraft in Earth orbit plasmas

Coulomb formation flight is a concept that utilizes electrostatic forces to control the separations of close proximity spacecraft. The Coulomb force between charged bodies is a product of their size, separation, potential and interaction with the local plasma environment. A fast and accurate analytic method of capturing the interaction of a charged body in a plasma is shown. The Debye–Hückel analytic model of the electrostatic field about a charged sphere in a plasma is expanded to analytically compute the forces. This model is fitted to numerical simulations with representative geosynchronous and low Earth orbit (GEO and LEO) plasma environments using an effective Debye length. This effective Debye length, which more accurately captures the charge partial shielding, can be up to 7 times larger at GEO, and as great as 100 times larger at LEO. The force between a sphere and point charge is accurately captured with the effective Debye length, as opposed to the electron Debye length solutions that have errors exceeding 50%. One notable finding is that the effective Debye lengths in LEO plasmas about a charged body are increased from centimeters to meters. This is a promising outcome, as the reduced shielding at increased potentials provides sufficient force levels for operating the electrostatically inflated membrane structures concept at these dense plasma altitudes.     

Non-parametric regional VTEC modeling with Multivariate Adaptive Regression B-Splines

In this work Multivariate Adaptive Regression B-Splines (BMARS) is applied to regional spatio-temporal mapping of the Vertical Total Electron Content (VTEC) using ground based Global Positioning System (GPS) observations. BMARS is a non-parametric regression technique that utilizes compactly supported tensor product B-splines as basis functions, which are automatically obtained from the observations. The algorithm uses a scale-by-scale model building strategy that searches for B-splines at each scale fitting adequately to the data and provides smoother approximations than the original Multivariate Adaptive Regression Splines (MARS). It is capable to process high dimensional problems with large amounts of data and can easily be parallelized. The real test data is collected from 32 ground based GPS stations located in North America. The results are compared numerically and visually with both the regional VTEC modeling generated via original MARS using piecewise-linear basis functions and another regional VTEC modeling based on B-splines.     

空间可展桁架结构等效动力学模型研究进展与展望

随着航天重大工程的逐步实施，桁架式空间可展结构正朝着大型化、轻量化和多功能等方向发展，该类桁架结构具有周期性、大柔度、构型复杂等特点。为满足大型空间结构的高精度、高可靠性要求，其动力学建模、非线性振动与振动控制等问题越来越复杂且难于处理。因此，大型空间可展结构的等效连续体建模成为研究热点。本文着重介绍大型空间可展桁架结构等效动力学建模的研究现状，综述了等效动力学建模的研究对象、方法及已取得的成果，提炼出等效动力学建模和与之相应的非线性振动与振动控制研究领域中亟待深入研究的关键科学问题。     

Fast coating analysis and modeling for RCS reduction of aircraft

In order to fast analyze the aircraft Radar Cross Section(RCS) and accurately reduce it with Radar Absorbing Materials(RAM), a comprehensive analysis method based on Higher-Order Method of Moments(HOMOM), termed Locally Coating Method(LCM), is proposed in this paper. There are two steps to fast analyze coatings for RCS reduction in this method: analyze the RCS of various parts before coating the aircraft; model a coating over the aircraft and analyze the wave absorbing effect of it. The aircraft RCS is calculated as a whole but analyzed in various parts by LCM, and thus the RCS contribution of different parts can be compared without disturbing the current continuity. A model expansion algorithm is also presented in LCM to model absorption coatings on specified aircraft parts for later stage RCS calculation of the coated aircraft.     

Study on dependence of hydrodynamic characteristics on gravity in a vertical upward channel bubbly flow

Since the bubbly flow has extensive applications in the space field, it is very necessary to comprehend the dependence of hydrodynamic characteristics on gravity. In this paper, the dependence of the microbubble distribution and the liquid turbulence modulation by the microbubbles on gravity was investigated in detail with the Euler–Lagrange method. The liquid Navier–Stokes equation was solved using direct numerical simulations (DNS), and the microbubble motion was tracked with Newtonian motion equation considering drag force, shear lift force, added mass force, pressure gradient force, and wall lift force. The coupling between the gas and the liquid phases regarded the interphase force as a momentum source term in the momentum equation of the liquid. The results showed that the phase profile and the turbulence modulation by the microbubbles strongly depend on the magnitude of gravity. When the influence of gravity is relatively weak, the microbubbles approximately uniformly disperse in the wide central region of the channel, and the average statistics of the liquid turbulence are almost not influenced due to the addition of the microbubbles. However, when the influence of gravity is comparatively important, the majority of the microbubbles accumulate near the wall of the channel, and the injection of the microbubbles modifies the profiles of the liquid average statistics.     

Gaseous cavity at the base of an underwater projectile

The problem of the behavior of the gaseous cavity which is formed at the base of an underwater launched projectile is treated using different approaches. Asymptotic analysis is used to yield expressions for similarity parameters and a simplified hydrodynamic model of the initial stretching phase. A laboratory facility is described, in which launches can be simulated and analyzed by means of pressure measurements and high speed visualizations. Complete calculations are also performed using a numerical “Volume of Fluid” model solving the unsteady Navier-Stokes equations. Results from the three approaches are presented and compared during the cavity stretching phase. Finally, the thermodynamic aspects of the problem are examined.     

Velocity correlation functions of charged particles derived from the Fokker–Planck equation

An important ingredient in theories for diffusion of charged particles across a mean magnetic field are velocity correlation functions along and across that field. In the current article we present an analytical study of these functions by investigating the two-dimensional Fokker–Planck equation. We show that for an isotropic pitch-angle Fokker–Planck coefficient, the parallel velocity correlation function is an exponential function in agreement with the standard model used previously. For other forms of the pitch-angle diffusion coefficient, however, we find non-exponential forms. Also a new, velocity correlation function based, approach for deriving the so-called Earl-relation is presented. This new derivation is more systematic and simpler than previous derivations. We also discuss higher-order velocity correlations and the applicability of the quasi-normal hypothesis in particle diffusion theory. Furthermore, we compute velocity correlation functions across the mean field and develop an alternative theory for perpendicular diffusion.     

Specification of the Earth’s plasmasphere with data assimilation

In this paper we report on initial work toward data assimilative modeling of the Earth’s plasmasphere. As the medium of propagation for waves which are responsible for acceleration and decay of the radiation belts, an accurate assimilative model of the plasmasphere is crucial for optimizing the accurate prediction of the radiation environments encountered by satellites. On longer time-scales the plasmasphere exhibits significant dynamics. Although these dynamics are modeled well by existing models, they require detailed global knowledge of magnetospheric configuration which is not always readily available. For that reason data assimilation can be expected to be an effective tool in improving the modeling accuracy of the plasmasphere. In this paper we demonstrate that a relatively modest number of measurements, combined with a simple data assimilation scheme, inspired by the ensemble Kalman filtering data assimilation technique does a good job of reproducing the overall structure of the plasmasphere including plume development. This raises hopes that data assimilation will be an effective method for accurately representing the configuration of the plasmasphere for space weather applications.     

IMPLICIT REPRESENTATION FOR THE MODELLING OF HYBRID DYNAMIC SYSTEMS

Differentmodels are proposed for the study ofhybrid systems that are composed of interactingcontinuous and discrete parts as,for instance,inRef.[1 ].Generally,the discrete part is modelledby an automation,and the continuous part by dif-ferent sets of state equations.Jump functions canbe added to represent the discontinuities.But noindication is given about the relations between thedifferent models and the jump functions.　　This paper isconcerned with the modelling forphysical systems with sw…     

Comets and Chemical Composition

It is commonly believed that comets are made of primordial material. As a consequence, they can reveal more information about the origin of our solar system. To interpret the coma composition measurements of comet Churyumov–Gerasimenko that will be collected by the Rosetta mission, models of the coma chemistry have to be constructed. However, programming the chemistry of a cometary coma is extremely complex due to the large number of species and reactions involved. Moreover, such a program needs to be very flexible as one may want to extend, change, or update the set of species, reactions, and reaction rates. Therefore, we developed software to manage a database of species and reactions and to generate code automatically to compute source/loss balances. This database includes the data from the UMIST database and the ion–molecule reactions collected by V.G. Anicich. To use all these databases together, a lot of practical problems need to be solved, but the result is an enormous source of information about chemical reactions that can be used in chemical models, not only for comets but also for other applications.