Below are items from the 49th DCASS, held 5 March 2024.
Plasma Portal
Sidaard Gunasekaran
University of Dayton
Michael Mongin
Air Force Research Laboratory
An ethereal spiral that forms during plasma jet actuation on top of a wing. A portal that is omnipresent which influences our daily lives, the airplanes we fly to the oceans we sail, distant planets, galaxies, and beyond.
L5 Axial Orbit Family in Jupiter-Europa-Io-Ganymede Circular Restricted N-Body Problem (CRNBP)
Annika Gilliam and Robert Bettinger
Air Force Institute of Technology
This plot displays four selected trajectories given by initial conditions in the L5 Axial orbit family of the Jupiter-Europa Circular Restricted 3-Body Problem (CR3BP) propagated instead by utilizing the CRNBP. The additional gravitational perturbations due to the influence of Io and Ganymede on the satellite's trajectory yield interesting patterns when propagated for 200 TU. The two rings demonstrate the approximate locations of Io and Ganymede. Orbits that spend more time in the x-y plane demonstrate significantly more perturbation.
Origami Metal Mirror
David Garcia and Robert A. Bettinger
Air Force Institute of Technology
The origami metal flasher is intricately designed for space operations, showcasing its capability to seamlessly transition from a folded cube state to an unfolded configuration passively, achieving an impressive 86% unfolding capability.
Initiation of a Rotating Detonation Engine with an acoustic liner
Tyler Pritschau
University of Cincinnati
This video shows the detonation-tube driven initiation of our rotating detonation engine looking in from the back. The video is captured at 100,000 frames/second and slowed down to ~1/6000th speed here. In this particular case a perforated acoustic liner was installed in the outer wall which lead to some interesting unintended interactions during the initiation process.
Noisy Transition
Tim Leger
Ohio Aerospace Institute
CFD simulation showing the complex boundary layer transition of f-BoLT 35. Disturbances, in the form of broadband noise, are introduced to a base flow field solution outside and along the bow shock. Flow field slices along the the symmetry and outflow planes show density gradients, while the surface is contours of Stanton number. The nose curvature of f-BoLT creates a stream-wise vortex which sweeps toward the symmetry plane, resulting in two distinct boundary layer regions. As the disturbances reach these boundary layer regions, they stimulate transition to occur in a distinct and visually pleasing pattern. Distribution Statement A: Approved for Public Release; Distribution is Unlimited. PA# AFRL-2024-0796
Star Twinkles at AFIT's Quantum Lab
Anil Patnaik
Air Force Institute of Technology
A laser beam with typical Gaussian beam of when passes through random change in refractive index (RI) creates speckles at image plane. Stars in the night sky twinkle because of the random change in RI caused by atmospheric turbulence. This video shows the "twinkling" caused by an emulated atmospheric turbulence using phase plates at AFIT's Quantum Optics Lab.