An In Situ Study of Turbulence near Stellar Bow Shocks

Stellar bow shocks are observed in a variety of interstellar environments and shaped by the conditions of gas in the interstellar medium (ISM). In situ measurements of turbulent density fluctuations near stellar bow shocks are only achievable with a few observational probes, including Hα-emitting bow shocks and the Voyager Interstellar Mission (VIM). In this paper, we examine density variations around the Guitar Nebula, an Hα bow shock associated with PSR B2224+65, in tandem with density variations probed by VIM near the boundary of the solar wind and ISM. High-resolution Hubble Space Telescope observations of the Guitar Nebula taken between 1994 and 2006 trace density variations over scales from hundreds to thousands of au, while VIM density measurements made with the Voyager 1 Plasma Wave System constrain variations from thousands of meters to tens of au. The power spectrum of density fluctuations constrains the amplitude of the turbulence wavenumber spectrum near the Guitar Nebula to log 10 C n 2 = − 0.8 ± 0.2 m−20/3 and for the very local ISM probed by Voyager to log 10 C n 2 = − 1.57 ± 0.02 m−20/3. Spectral amplitudes obtained from multiepoch observations of four other Hα bow shocks also show significant enhancements from values that are considered typical for the diffuse, warm ionized medium, suggesting that density fluctuations near these bow shocks may be amplified by shock interactions with the surrounding medium or selection effects that favor Hα emission from bow shocks embedded in denser media.

CURRENT STATE OF SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL DEVELOPMENTS IN THE FIELD OF IMPROVING THE EFFICIENCY OF VIBRATION EQUIPMENT AND TECHNOLOGIES

The article considers the state of scientific and technical developments in the field of improving the efficiency of vibration technology. Production activity in most branches of industrial production is provided by the work of various technological machines and vehicles. The operation of machines, equipment, mechanisms, apparatus and devices in the conditions of the need to ensure high productivity is often accompanied by significant dynamic loads, vibration processes and manifestations of shock interactions of machine elements. Ensuring the reliability and safety of machines requires at all stages of their life cycle serious attention to compliance with certain restrictions on the parameters of the dynamic state of technical objects, the development of methods and means of assessing control and management of dynamic interactions. Modern mechanical engineering is a scientific basis for solving the main problems of machine dynamics, which, in general, is based on scientific potential created by domestic and foreign scientists in the field of theoretical and applied mechanics, theory of mechanisms, dynamics and strength of machines, development of scientific directions in automatic control theory. applied system synthesis, etc. The results of scientific research are reflected in the works of famous scientists. The formed practice of pre-design researches of the created machines, the equipment and the equipment is based on wide use of means of mathematical modeling, application of means of computer engineering. The choice of equipment in production is based on cost, productivity, size, energy consumption, etc. In this regard, there is a question of the need to find and develop new approaches, methods and means to ensure the efficiency and reliability of technological machines and equipment.

From advanced aircraft design to drug delivery

From advanced aircraft design to drug delivery The ‘NANOSHOCK’ research project aims at providing computational methods for fundamental physical discovery to study shockwave-driven phenomena and exploit their technological potential. The main research question is how to manufacture shock interactions for innovative nanoscale processes. That includes the defined generation and control of shocks in complex environments such as living organisms to design drug-delivery techniques with high precision while minimising side effects. These goals are tackled by means of quantitative and predictive numerical simulations using the latest and novel computational methods.

Experimental investigation of shock–shock interactions with variable inflow Mach number

Experiments on shock–shock interactions were conducted in a transonic–supersonic wind tunnel with variable free-stream Mach number functionality. Transition between the regular interaction (RI) and the Mach interaction (MI) was induced by variation of the free-steam Mach number for a fixed interaction geometry, as opposed to most previous studies where the shock generator angles are varied at constant Mach number. In this paper, we present a systematic flow-based post-processing methodology of schlieren data that enables an accurate tracking of the evolving shock system including the precise and reproducible detection of RI$$\rightleftarrows $$ ⇄ MI transition. In line with previous experimental studies dealing with noisy free-stream environments, transition hysteresis was not observed. However, we show that establishing accurate values of the flow deflections besides the Mach number is crucial to achieve experimental agreement with the von Neumann criterion, since measured flow deflections deviated significantly, up to $$1.2^{\circ }$$ 1 . 2 ∘ , from nominal wedge angles. We also report a study conducted with a focusing schlieren system with variable focal plane that supported the image processing by providing insights into the three-dimensional side-wall effects integrated in the schlieren images.

Unsteady shock wave dynamics in accelerating and decelerating flight

Increasingly agile manoeuvre is an advantage in the flight of aircraft, missiles and aerial vehicles, but the principles of accelerating aerodynamics in the transonic regime are only now being fully investigated. This study contributes to the understanding of shock and separation effects on drag during axial acceleration, using a simple geometric configuration. Unsteady shock wave behavior was numerically investigated for an axisymmetric cone-cylinder using a commercial solver and the Moving Reference Frame acceleration technique. This acceleration technique was validated using unsteady numerical and experimental methods. The cone-cylinder was accelerated from Mach number 0.6 to Mach number 1.2 at 100g constant and deceleration was from Mach number 1.2 until Mach number 0.6 at –100g constant. Three cone angles were tested for the cone-cylinder with uniform cylinder diameter. Acceleration through the transonic Mach regime was characterised by a delayed and gradual shock wave development when compared to steady state, demonstrating a clear flow history effect. Deceleration through the transonic Mach regime was characterised by shock wave propagation from the base to the nose. New flow structures appeared during deceleration that do not have counterparts in the steady state, including shock interactions and propagating expansion-compression features. Gross changes in the unsteady drag coefficient curves for each cone-angle are explained with reference to unsteady shock wave behaviour for accelerating and decelerating motion.

Shock interactions in inviscid air and $$\hbox {CO}_2$$–$$\hbox {N}_2$$ flows in thermochemical non-equilibrium

The present study aims at providing insights into shock wave interference patterns in gas flows when a mixture different than air is considered. High-energy non-equilibrium flows of air and $$\hbox {CO}_2$$ CO 2 –$$\hbox {N}_2$$ N 2 over a double-wedge geometry are studied numerically. The impact of freestream temperature on the non-equilibrium shock interaction patterns is investigated by simulating two different sets of freestream conditions. To this purpose, the SU2 solver has been extended to account for the conservation of chemical species as well as multiple energies and coupled to the Mutation++ library (Multicomponent Thermodynamic And Transport properties for IONized gases in C++) that provides all the necessary thermochemical properties of the mixture and chemical species. An analysis of the shock interference patterns is presented with respect to the existing taxonomy of interactions. A comparison between calorically perfect ideal gas and non-equilibrium simulations confirms that non-equilibrium effects greatly influence the shock interaction patterns. When thermochemical relaxation is considered, a type VI interaction is obtained for the $$\hbox {CO}_2$$ CO 2 -dominated flow, for both freestream temperatures of 300 K and 1000 K; for air, a type V six-shock interaction and a type VI interaction are obtained, respectively. We conclude that the increase in freestream temperature has a large impact on the shock interaction pattern of the air flow, whereas for the $$\hbox {CO}_2$$ CO 2 –$$\hbox {N}_2$$ N 2 flow the pattern does not change.

Numerical Investigation of Spray Collapse in GDI with OpenFOAM

During certain operating conditions in spark-ignited direct injection engines (GDI), the injected fuel will be superheated and begin to rapidly vaporize. Fast vaporization can be beneficial for fuel–oxidizer mixing and subsequent combustion, but it poses the risk of spray collapse. In this work, spray collapse is numerically investigated for a single hole and the spray G eight-hole injector of an engine combustion network (ECN). Results from a new OpenFOAM solver are first compared against results of the commercial CONVERGE software for single-hole injectors and validated. The results corroborate the perception that the superheat ratio Rp, which is typically used for the classification of flashing regimes, cannot describe spray collapse behavior. Three cases using the eight-hole spray G injector geometry are compared with experimental data. The first case is the standard G2 test case, with iso-octane as an injected fluid, which is only slightly superheated, whereas the two other cases use propane and show spray collapse behavior in the experiment. The numerical results support the assumption that the interaction of shocks due to the underexpanded vapor jet causes spray collapse. Further, the spray structures match well with experimental data, and shock interactions that provide an explanation for the observed phenomenon are discussed.

The auto and cross angular power spectrum of the Cas A supernova remnant in radio and X-ray

The shell type supernova remnant (SNR) Cas A exhibits structures at nearly all angular scales. Previous studies show the angular power spectrum (Cℓ) of the radio emission to be a broken power law, consistent with MHD turbulence. The break has been identified with the transition from 2D to 3D turbulence at the angular scale corresponding to the shell thickness. Alternatively, this can also be explained as 2D inverse cascade driven by energy injection from knot-shock interactions. Here we present Cℓ measured from archival VLA 5GHz (C band) data, and Chandra X-ray data in the energy ranges A = 0.6 − 1.0 keV and B = 4.2 − 6.0 keV, both of which are continuum dominated. The different emissions all trace fluctuations in the underlying plasma and possibly also the magnetic field, and we expect them to be correlated. We quantify this using the cross Cℓ between the different emissions. We find that X-ray B is strongly correlated with both radio and X-ray A, however X-ray A is only very weakly correlated with radio. This supports a picture where X-ray A is predominantly thermal bremsstrahlung whereas X-ray B is a composite of thermal bremsstrahlung and non-thermal synchrotron emission. The various Cℓ measured here, all show a broken power law behaviour. However, the slopes are typically shallower than those in radio and the position of the break also corresponds to smaller angular scales. These findings provide observational inputs regarding the nature of turbulence and the emission mechanisms in Cas A.