A simple procedure to improve the pressure evaluation in hydrodynamic context using the SPH
In literature, it is well know that the Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics method can be affected by numerical noise on the pressure field when dealing with liquids. This can be highly dangerous when an SPH code is dynamically coupled with a structural solver. In this work a simple procedure is proposed to improve the computation of the pressure distribution in the dynamics of liquids. Such a procedure is based on the use of a density diffusion term in the equation for the mass conservation. This diffusion is a pure numerical effect, similar to the well known artificial viscosity originally proposed in SPH method to smooth out the shock discontinuities. As the artificial viscosity, the density…
GrailQuest and HERMES: hunting for gravitational wave electromagnetic counterparts and probing space-time quantum foam
GrailQuest (Gamma-ray Astronomy International Laboratory for Quantum Exploration of Space-Time) is an ambitious astrophysical mission concept that uses a fleet of small satellites whose main objective is to search for a dispersion law for light propagation in vacuo. Within Quantum Gravity theories, different models for space-time quantization predict relative discrepancies of the speed of photons w.r.t. the speed of light that depend on the ratio of the photon energy to the Planck energy. This ratio is as small as 10-23 for photons in the γ- ray band (100 keV). Therefore, to detect this effect, light must propagate over enormous distances and the experiment must have extraordinary sensitivi…
The HERMES-Technologic and Scientific Pathfinder
HERMES-TP/SP (High Energy Rapid Modular Ensemble of Satellites Technologic and Scientific Pathfinder) is a constellation of six 3U nano-satellites hosting simple but innovative X-ray detectors, characterized by a large energy band and excellent temporal resolution, and thus optimized for the monitoring of Cosmic High Energy transients such as Gamma Ray Bursts and the electromagnetic counterparts of Gravitational Wave Events, and for the determination of their positions. The projects are funded by the Italian Ministry of University and Research and by the Italian Space Agency, and by the European Union Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program under Grant Agreement No. 821896. HERMES-TP/S…
Timing techniques applied to distributed modular high-energy astronomy: the H.E.R.M.E.S. project
The HERMES-TP/SP (High Energy Rapid Modular Ensemble of Satellites -- Technologic and Scientific Pathfinder) is an in-orbit demonstration of the so-called distributed astronomy concept. Conceived as a mini-constellation of six 3U nano-satellites hosting a new miniaturized detector, HERMES-TP/SP aims at the detection and accurate localisation of bright high-energy transients such as Gamma-Ray Bursts. The large energy band, the excellent temporal resolution and the wide field of view that characterize the detectors of the constellation represent the key features for the next generation high-energy all-sky monitor with good localisation capabilities that will play a pivotal role in the future …
The scientific payload on-board the HERMES-TP and HERMES-SP CubeSat missions
HERMES (High Energy Rapid Modular Ensemble of Satellites) Technological and Scientific pathfinder is a space borne mission based on a LEO constellation of nano-satellites. The 3U CubeSat buses host new miniaturized detectors to probe the temporal emission of bright high-energy transients such as Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs). Fast transient localization, in a field of view of several steradians and with arcmin-level accuracy, is gained by comparing time delays among the same event detection epochs occurred on at least 3 nano-satellites. With a launch date in 2022, HERMES transient monitoring represents a keystone capability to complement the next generation of gravitational wave experiments. In t…
Free-surface flows solved by means of SPH schemes with numerical diffusive terms
A novel system of equations has been defined which contains diffusive terms in both the continuity and energy equations and, at the leading order, coincides with a standard weakly-compressible SPH scheme with artificial viscosity. A proper state equation is used to associate the internal energy variation to the pressure field and to increase the speed of sound when strong deformations/compressions of the fluid occur. The increase of the sound speed is associated to the shortening of the time integration step and, therefore, allows a larger accuracy during both breaking and impact events. Moreover, the diffusive terms allows reducing the high frequency numerical acoustic noise and smoothing …
On the use of an alternative water state equation in SPH
In this work new equations of state for water are formulated, they improve both the consistency and the accuracy of the Smoothed Particles Hydrodynamics (SPH) method to treat incompressible fluid dynamics. When, both physical and artificial viscous terms are introduced, entropy increases. In liquids, the influence of this entropy variation is negligible, but common SPH formulations treats the water as a weakly compressible gas. Therefore, for violent fluid motions, this increase cannot be neglected anymore and the energy equation has to be introduced. This equation has been time integrated, and connected to alternative water state equations which have been studied heuristically. These equat…