A ballute (balloon-parachute) is an inflatable, aerodynamic drag device for application to planetary entry vehicles. Ballutes may be directly attached to a vehicle, increasing its crosssectional area upon inflation, or towed behind the vehicle as a semi-independent device that can be quickly cut free when the requisite change in velocity is achieved. The aerothermodynamics of spherical and toro...

An experimental investigation into the detailed mixing, combustion and ignition processes occurring in a flow field under the influence of resonant acoustic perturbations has been performed. These acoustic perturbations were created by a pulse combustor of the "Helmholtz" type. Cycle-resolved ensemble-averaged measurements of the velocity field, combined with instantaneous images of chemilumine...

Toroidal droplets are inherently unstable due to surface tension. They can break up, similar to cylindrical jets, but also exhibit a shrinking instability, which is inherent to the toroidal shape. We investigate the evolution of shrinking toroidal droplets using particle image velocimetry. We obtain the flow field inside the droplets and show that as the torus evolves, its cross-section signifi...

The plasma response to resonant magnetic perturbation RMP and nonresonant perturbation fields is computed within a linear, full toroidal, single-fluid resistive magnetohydrodynamic framework. The response of resonant harmonics depends sensitively on the plasma resistivity and on the toroidal rotation. The response of nonresonant harmonics is not sensitive to most of the plasma parameters, excep...

The gyrokinetic toroidal code (GTC) capability has been extended for simulating internal kink instability with kinetic effects in toroidal geometry. The global simulation domain covers the magnetic axis, which is necessary for simulating current-driven instabilities. GTC simulation in the fluid limit of the kink modes in cylindrical geometry is verified by benchmarking with a magnetohydrodynami...