Browsing by Author "Dr. Stephen Reynolds, Committee Member"

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    Hydrodynamics of Mass Transfer and Accretion in Close Binary Systems With Compact Objects
    (2003-10-31) Owen, Michael Parker; Dr. John Blondin, Committee Chair; Dr. Stephen Reynolds, Committee Member; Dr. Fred Lado, Committee Member; Dr. John Kessel, Committee Member
    Most stars are formed in binary or multiple systems. Many of these stars will undergo some period of mass transfer at some point during their lifetimes. Hence it is useful to understand the dynamics of mass transfer in binary star systems in order to better understand the current population of stars in the Galaxy and their evolution. A natural class of objects for study are the close binary stars that contain compact objects such as neutron stars or black holes. These systems are bright X-ray emitters, allowing us to study the circumstellar gas within them. We use numerical hydrodynamic modeling to study mass transfer processes in the high-mass X-ray binaries, including the evolutionary sequence between wind fed and disk fed systems, elliptical orbit X-ray binaries, and the global dynamics of LMC X-4 in 3D. We also investigate the properties of high resolution 3D accretion disks, including transport via global wave modes, the effects of tidal stream impact, and the fluid response of tilted disks.
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    Spherical Microwave Confinement and Ball Lightning
    (2010-04-14) Robinson, William Richard; Dr. David Aspnes, Committee Chair; Dr. Stephen Reynolds, Committee Member; Dr. Dean Lee, Committee Member; Dr. Mohamed Bourham, Committee Member
    This dissertation presents the results of research done on unconventional energy technologies from 1995 to 2009. The present civilization depends on an infrastructure that was constructed and is maintained almost entirely using concentrated fuels and ores, both of which will run out. Diffuse renewable energy sources rely on this same infrastructure, and hence face the same limitations. I first examined sonoluminescence directed toward fusion, but demonstrated theoretically that this is impossible. I next studied Low Energy Nuclear Reactions and developed methods for improving results, although these have not been implemented. In 2000 I began Spherical Microwave Confinement (SMC), which confines and heats plasma with microwaves in a spherical chamber. The reactor was designed and built to provide the data needed to investigate the possibility of achieving fusion conditions with microwave confinement. A second objective was to attempt to create ball lightning (BL). The reactor featured 20 magnetrons, which were driven by a capacitor bank and operated in a 0.2 s pulse mode at 2.45 GHz. These provided 20 kW to an icosahedral array of 20 antennas. Video of plasmas led to a redesign of the antennas to provide better coupling of the microwaves to the plasma. A second improvement was a grid at the base of the antennas, which provided corona electrons and an electric field to aid quick formation of plasmas. Although fusion conditions were never achieved and ball lightning not observed, experience gained from operating this basic, affordable system has been incorporated in a more sophisticated reactor design intended for future research. This would use magnets that were originally planned. The cusp geometry of the magnetic fields is suitable for electron cyclotron resonance in the same type of closed surface that in existing reactors has generated high-temperature plasmas. Should ball lightning be created, it could be a practical power source with nearly ideal characteristics that could solve many of our current energy-production problems.