Engineering topics

Balakumar, Ponnampalam

Publications and source records attributed to Balakumar, Ponnampalam.

At least 19 records

NASA NTRS2019

Supersonic Crossflow Transition Control in Ground and Flight Tests

This paper describes the use of distributed-roughness-element (DRE) patterns along a Mach 2 design swept-wing leading edge to increase the laminar flow extent and thereby reduce drag. One swept-wing model was tested in a supersonic wind tunnel as well as beneath a supersonic flight vehicle. Wing model surface data acquired during these tests included pressures, temperatures, and boundary-layer transition locations. Similarities and differences in experimental results are discussed. While wind tunnel and flight results show some differences, the wind tunnel results still provide key insights necessary for understanding how to design effective DRE patterns for use in flight applications. Experimental results demonstrate a DRE flow control effect observed in flight similar to that observed in the wind tunnel. Finally, a different perspective is discussed concerning what flow control role RE patterns might perform in any future swept-wing laminar flow control applications.

Owens, Lewis R.↗

NASA NTRS2016

Measurements in a Transitioning Cone Boundary Layer at Freestream Mach 3.5

An experimental study was conducted in the Supersonic Low-Disturbance Tunnel to investigate naturally-occurring instabilities in a supersonic boundary layer on a 7 deg half- angle cone. All tests were conducted with a nominal freestream Mach number of M(sub infinity) = 3:5, total temperature of T(sub 0) = 299:8 K, and unit Reynolds numbers of Re(sub infinity) x 10(exp -6) = 9:89, 13.85, 21.77, and 25.73 m(exp -1). Instability measurements were acquired under noisy- ow and quiet- ow conditions. Measurements were made to document the freestream and the boundary-layer edge environment, to document the cone baseline flow, and to establish the stability characteristics of the transitioning flow. Pitot pressure and hot-wire boundary- layer measurements were obtained using a model-integrated traverse system. All hot- wire results were single-point measurements and were acquired with a sensor calibrated to mass ux. For the noisy-flow conditions, excellent agreement for the growth rates and mode shapes was achieved between the measured results and linear stability theory (LST). The corresponding N factor at transition from LST is N 3:9. The stability measurements for the quiet-flow conditions were limited to the aft end of the cone. The most unstable first-mode instabilities as predicted by LST were successfully measured, but this unstable first mode was not the dominant instability measured in the boundary layer. Instead, the dominant instabilities were found to be the less-amplified, low-frequency disturbances predicted by linear stability theory, and these instabilities grew according to linear theory. These low-frequency unstable disturbances were initiated by freestream acoustic disturbances through a receptivity process that is believed to occur near the branch I locations of the cone. Under quiet-flow conditions, the boundary layer remained laminar up to the last measurement station for the largest Re1, implying a transition N factor of N greater than 8:5.

King, Rudolph A.↗

NASA NTRS2013

Roughness Induced Transition in a Supersonic Boundary Layer

Direct numerical simulation is used to investigate the transition induced by threedimensional isolated roughness elements in a supersonic boundary layer at a free stream Mach number of 3.5. Simulations are performed for two different configurations: one is a square planform roughness and the other is a diamond planform roughness. The mean-flow calculations show that the roughness induces counter rotating streamwise vortices downstream of the roughness. These vortices persist for a long distance downstream and lift the low momentum fluid from the near wall region and place it near the outer part of the boundary layer. This forms highly inflectional boundary layer profiles. These observations agree with recent experimental observations. The receptivity calculations showed that the amplitudes of the mass-flux fluctuations near the neutral point for the diamond shape roughness are the same as the amplitude of the acoustic disturbances. They are three times smaller for the square shape roughness.

Balakumar, Ponnampalam↗

NASA NTRS2013

DNS, Enstrophy Balance, and the Dissipation Equation in a Separated Turbulent Channel Flow

The turbulent flows through a plane channel and a channel with a constriction (2-D hill) are numerically simulated using DNS and RANS calculations. The Navier-Stokes equations in the DNS are solved using a higher order kinetic energy preserving central schemes and a fifth order accurate upwind biased WENO scheme for the space discretization. RANS calculations are performed using the NASA code CFL3D with the komega SST two-equation model and a full Reynolds stress model. Using DNS, the magnitudes of different terms that appear in the enstrophy equation are evaluated. The results show that the dissipation and the diffusion terms reach large values at the wall. All the vortex stretching terms have similar magnitudes within the buffer region. Beyond that the triple correlation among the vorticity and strain rate fluctuations becomes the important kinematic term in the enstrophy equation. This term is balanced by the viscous dissipation. In the separated flow, the triple correlation term and the viscous dissipation term peak locally and balance each other near the separated shear layer region. These findings concur with the analysis of Tennekes and Lumley, confirming that the energy transfer terms associated with the small-scale dissipation and the fluctuations of the vortex stretching essentially cancel each other, leaving an equation for the dissipation that is governed by the large-scale motion.

Balakumar, Ponnampalam↗

NASA NTRS2012

Parametric Study of Decay of Homogeneous Isotropic Turbulence Using Large Eddy Simulation

Numerical simulations of decaying homogeneous isotropic turbulence are performed with both low-order and high-order spatial discretization schemes. The turbulent Mach and Reynolds numbers for the simulations are 0.2 and 250, respectively. For the low-order schemes we use either second-order central or third-order upwind biased differencing. For higher order approximations we apply weighted essentially non-oscillatory (WENO) schemes, both with linear and nonlinear weights. There are two objectives in this preliminary effort to investigate possible schemes for large eddy simulation (LES). One is to explore the capability of a widely used low-order computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code to perform LES computations. The other is to determine the effect of higher order accuracy (fifth, seventh, and ninth order) achieved with high-order upwind biased WENO-based schemes. Turbulence statistics, such as kinetic energy, dissipation, and skewness, along with the energy spectra from simulations of the decaying turbulence problem are used to assess and compare the various numerical schemes. In addition, results from the best performing schemes are compared with those from a spectral scheme. The effects of grid density, ranging from 32 cubed to 192 cubed, on the computations are also examined. The fifth-order WENO-based scheme is found to be too dissipative, especially on the coarser grids. However, with the seventh-order and ninth-order WENO-based schemes we observe a significant improvement in accuracy relative to the lower order LES schemes, as revealed by the computed peak in the energy dissipation and by the energy spectrum.

Swanson, R. C.↗

NASA NTRS2012

Receptivity of Hypersonic Boundary Layers to Distributed Roughness and Acoustic Disturbances

Boundary-layer receptivity and stability of Mach 6 flow over smooth and rough 7 half-angle sharp-tipped cones are numerically investigated. The receptivity of the boundary layer to slow acoustic disturbances, fast acoustic disturbances, and vortical disturbances are considered. The effects of two-dimensional isolated and distributed roughness on the receptivity and stability are also simulated. The results show that the instability waves are generated in the leading edge region and that the boundary layer is much more receptive to slow acoustic waves than to the fast waves. Vortical disturbances also generate unstable second modes, however the receptivity coefficients are smaller than that of the slow acoustic wave. An isolated two-dimensional roughness element of height h/delta =1/4 did not produce any difference in the receptivity or in the stability of the boundary layer. Distributed roughness elements produced a small decrease in the receptivity coefficient and also stabilized the boundary layer by small amounts.

Balakumar, Ponnampalam↗

NASA NTRS2011

Effects of Nose Bluntness on Hypersonic Boundary-Layer Receptivity and Stability Over Cones

The receptivity to freestream acoustic disturbances and the stability properties of hypersonic boundary layers are numerically investigated for boundary-layer flows over a 5 straight cone at a freestream Mach number of 6.0. To compute the shock and the interaction of the shock with the instability waves, the Navier-Stokes equations in axisymmetric coordinates were solved. In the governing equations, inviscid and viscous flux vectors are discretized using a fifth-order accurate weighted-essentially-non-oscillatory scheme. A third-order accurate total-variation-diminishing Runge-Kutta scheme is employed for time integration. After the mean flow field is computed, disturbances are introduced at the upstream end of the computational domain. The appearance of instability waves near the nose region and the receptivity of the boundary layer with respect to slow mode acoustic waves are investigated. Computations confirm the stabilizing effect of nose bluntness and the role of the entropy layer in the delay of boundary-layer transition. The current solutions, compared with experimental observations and other computational results, exhibit good agreement.

Kara, Kursat↗

NASA NTRS2011

Receptivity to Roughness, Acoustic, and Vortical Disturbances in Supersonic Boundary Layers Over Swept Wings

The receptivity and interaction of stationary and traveling crossflow instability of three-dimensional supersonic boundary layers over a swept biconvex wing with a blunt leading edge are numerically investigated for a freestream Mach number of 3. The steady and unsteady flow fields are obtained by solving the full Navier-Stokes equations. The receptivity of the boundary layer to surface roughness, freestream acoustic waves, and freestream vorticity waves are numerically investigated. The initial amplitudes of the stationary vortices generated by 1 micron roughness elements is about 2000 times larger than the initial amplitudes of the traveling disturbances generated by vortical disturbances. The interaction of stationary and traveling disturbances was investigated by solving the equations with both surface roughness and vortical disturbances. When the initial amplitudes of the stationary disturbances are large compared to the traveling disturbances, the stationary vortex dominates the perturbation field. When the amplitudes are comparable, the traveling vortex prevails and the stationary vortex is suppressed.

Balakumar, Ponnampalam↗

NASA NTRS2010

Receptivity of Hypersonic Boundary Layers over Straight and Flared Cones

The effects of adverse pressure gradients on the receptivity and stability of hypersonic boundary layers were numerically investigated. Simulations were performed for boundary layer flows over a straight cone and two flared cones. The steady and the unsteady flow fields were obtained by solving the two-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations in axi-symmetric coordinates using the 5th order accurate weighted essentially non-oscillatory (WENO) scheme for space discretization and using third-order total-variation-diminishing (TVD) Runge-Kutta scheme for time integration. The mean boundary layer profiles were analyzed using local stability and non-local parabolized stability equations (PSE) methods. After the most amplified disturbances were identified, two-dimensional plane acoustic waves were introduced at the outer boundary of the computational domain and time accurate simulations were performed. The adverse pressure gradient was found to affect the boundary layer stability in two important ways. Firstly, the frequency of the most amplified second-mode disturbance was increased relative to the zero pressure gradient case. Secondly, the amplification of first- and second-mode disturbances was increased. Although an adverse pressure gradient enhances instability wave growth rates, small nose-tip bluntness was found to delay transition due to the low receptivity coefficient and the resulting weak initial amplitude of the instability waves. The computed and measured amplitude-frequency spectrums in all three cases agree very well in terms of frequency and the shape except for the amplitude.

Balakumar, Ponnampalam↗

NASA NTRS2010

Receptivity and Transition of Supersonic Boundary Layers Over Swept Wings

The receptivity, stability, and transition of three-dimensional supersonic boundary layers over (1) a swept cylinder, (2) a swept wing with a sharp leading edge, and (3) a swept wing with a blunt leading edge are numerically investigated for a free-stream Mach number of 3. These computations are compared to an earlier experimental and computational study performed by Archambaud et al.1 The steady flow fields with and without roughness elements are obtained by solving the full Navier-Stokes equations. The N-factors computed in this study at the transition onset locations reported in Ref. 1 for flow over the swept cylinder are approximately 16.5 for traveling crossflow disturbances and 9 for stationary disturbances. The N-factors for the traveling crossflow are high based on our past experiences. However, they are comparatively smaller than those reported by Archambaud et al., who found N-factor values in the range of 20 to 25 for traveling disturbances and 13 to 20 for stationary disturbances. Similarly, the N-factors computed in this study for the traveling and stationary disturbances for the flow over the sharp wing are approximately 7 and 2.5, respectively, and for the flow over the blunt wing are 6.5 and 4.8, respectively. Using the envelope method, Archambaud et al. obtained values of approximately 8.0 and 4.0 for the sharp wing case and 16.0 and 12.0 for the blunt wing case.

Balakumar, Ponnampalam↗

NASA NTRS2009

Stability of Supersonic Boundary Layers on a Cone at an Angle of Attack

The stability and receptivity of three-dimensional supersonic boundary layers over a 7deg sharp tipped straight cone at an angle of attack of 4.2deg is numerically investigated at a free stream Mach number of 3.5 and at two high Reynolds numbers, 0.25 and 0.50x10(exp 6)/inch. The generation and evolution of stationary crossflow vortices are also investigated by performing simulations with three-dimensional roughness elements located on the surface of the cone. The flow fields with and without the roughness elements are obtained by solving the full Navier-Stokes equations in cylindrical coordinates using the fifth-order accurate weighted essentially non-oscillatory (WENO) scheme for spatial discretization and using the third-order total-variation-diminishing (TVD) Runge-Kutta scheme for temporal integration. Stability computations reveal that the azimuthal wavenumbers are in the range of m approx. 25-50 for the most amplified traveling disturbances and in the range of m approx. 40-70 for the stationary disturbances. The N-Factor computations predicted that transition would occur further forward in the middle of the cone compared to the transition fronts near the windward and the leeward planes. The simulations revealed that the crossflow vortices originating from the nose region propagate towards the leeward plane. No perturbations were observed in the lower part of the cone.

Balakumar, Ponnampalam↗

NASA NTRS2007

Acoustic Receptivity of Mach 4.5 Boundary Layer with Leading- Edge Bluntness

Boundary layer receptivity to two-dimensional slow and fast acoustic waves is investigated by solving Navier-Stokes equations for Mach 4.5 flow over a flat plate with a finite-thickness leading edge. Higher order spatial and temporal schemes are employed to obtain the solution whereby the flat-plate leading edge region is resolved by providing a sufficiently refined grid. The results show that the instability waves are generated in the leading edge region and that the boundary-layer is much more receptive to slow acoustic waves (by almost a factor of 20) as compared to the fast waves. Hence, this leading-edge receptivity mechanism is expected to be more relevant in the transition process for high Mach number flows where second mode instability is dominant. Computations are performed to investigate the effect of leading-edge thickness and it is found that bluntness tends to stabilize the boundary layer. Furthermore, the relative significance of fast acoustic waves is enhanced in the presence of bluntness. The effect of acoustic wave incidence angle is also studied and it is found that the receptivity of the boundary layer on the windward side (with respect to the acoustic forcing) decreases by more than a factor of 4 when the incidence angle is increased from 0 to 45 deg. However, the receptivity coefficient for the leeward side is found to vary relatively weakly with the incidence angle.

Malik, Mujeeb R.↗

NASA NTRS2006

Stability of Supersonic Boundary Layers Over Blunt Wedges

Receptivity and stability of supersonic boundary layers over blunt flat plates and wedges are numerically investigated at a free stream Mach number of 3.5 and at a high Reynolds number of 10(exp 6)/inch. Both the steady and unsteady solutions are obtained by solving the full Navier-Stokes equations using the 5th-order accurate weighted essentially non-oscillatory (WENO) scheme for space discretization and using third-order total-variation-diminishing (TVD) Runge-Kutta scheme for time integration. Computations are performed for a flat plate with leading edge thicknesses of 0.0001, 0.001, 0.005 and 0.01 inches that give Reynolds numbers based on the leading edge thickness ranging from 1000 to 10000. Calculations are also performed for a wedge of 10 degrees half angle with different leading edge radii 0.001 and 0.01 inches. The linear stability results showed that the bluntness has a strong stabilizing effect on the stability of two-dimensional boundary layers. The transition Reynolds number for a flat plate with a leading edge thickness of 0.01 inches is about 3.5 times larger than it is for the Blasius boundary layer. It was also revealed that boundary layers on blunt wedges are far more stable than on blunt flat plates.

Balakumar, Ponnampalam↗

NASA NTRS2004

Computations of Flow Over a Hump Model Using Higher Order Method With Turbulence Modeling

Turbulent separated flow over a two-dimensional hump is computed by solving the RANS equations with k-omega (SST) turbulence model for the baseline, steady suction and oscillatory blowing/suction flow control cases. The flow equations and the turbulent model equations are solved using a fifth-order accurate weighted essentially nonoscillatory (WENO) scheme for space discretization and a third order, total variation diminishing (TVD) Runge-Kutta scheme for time integration. Qualitatively the computed pressure distributions exhibit the same behavior as they are observed in the experiments. The computed separation regions are much longer than that are observed. However, the percentage reduction in the separation region in the steady suction case is closer to that was measured in the experiment. The computations did not predict the expected reduction in the separation length in the oscillatory case. The predicted turbulent quantities are two to three times smaller than that are measured and it points towards the deficiencies in the existing turbulent models when they are applied to strong steady/unsteady separated flows.

Balakumar, Ponnampalam↗

NASA NTRS2004

Transition in a Supersonic Boundary Layer due to Acoustic Disturbances

The boundary layer receptivity process due to the interaction of three-dimensional slow and fast acoustic disturbances with a blunted flat plate is numerically investigated at a free stream Mach number of 3.5 and at a high Reynolds number of 106/inch. The computations are performed with and without two-dimensional isolated roughness element located near the leading edge. Both the steady and unsteady solutions are obtained by solving the full Navier-Stokes equations using the 5th-order accurate weighted essentially non-oscillatory (WENO) scheme for space discretization and using third-order total-variation-diminishing (TVD) Runge-Kutta scheme for time integration. The simulations showed that the linear instability waves are generated very close to the leading edge. The wavelength of the disturbances inside the boundary layer first increases gradually and becomes longer than the wavelength for the instability waves within a short distance from the leading edge. The wavelength then decreases gradually and merges with the wavelength for the Tollmien_Schlichting wave. The initial amplitudes of the instability waves near the neutral points, the receptivity coefficients, are about 1.20 and 0.07 times the amplitude of the free-stream disturbances for the slow and the fast waves respectively. It was also revealed that small isolated roughness element does not enhance the receptivity process for the given nose bluntness.

Balakumar, Ponnampalam↗

NASA NTRS2001

Hypersonic Boundary Layer Instability Over a Corner

A boundary-layer transition study over a compression corner was conducted under a hypersonic flow condition. Due to the discontinuities in boundary layer flow, the full Navier-Stokes equations were solved to simulate the development of disturbance in the boundary layer. A linear stability analysis and PSE method were used to get the initial disturbance for parallel and non-parallel flow respectively. A 2-D code was developed to solve the full Navier-stokes by using WENO(weighted essentially non-oscillating) scheme. The given numerical results show the evolution of the linear disturbance for the most amplified disturbance in supersonic and hypersonic flow over a compression ramp. The nonlinear computations also determined the minimal amplitudes necessary to cause transition at a designed location.

Balakumar, Ponnampalam↗

NASA NTRS1999

On the Stability of Three-Dimensional Boundary Layers: Secondary Instability - Pt. 2

The secondary instability of three-dimensional incompressible boundary layers is studied using Floquet theory. Starting from the equilibrium solutions that we obtained from the PSE computations documented in Part 1, we investigate the region where a purely stationary crossflow disturbance saturates for its secondary instability characteristics utilizing developed global and local eigenvalue solvers that are based on the Implicitly Restarted Arnoldi Method, and a Newton-Raphson technique, respectively. The main focuses of this study are on the existence of multiple roots in the eigenvalue spectrum that could explain experimental observations of time-dependent occurrences of an explosive growth of traveling disturbances, on the routes by which high-frequency disturbances enter the boundary layer, as well as on gaining more information about threshold amplitudes for the growth of secondary disturbances.

Janke, Erik↗

NASA NTRS1999

On the Stability of Three-Dimensional Boundary Layers: Linear and Nonlinear Stability - Part 1

The primary stability of incompressible three-dimensional boundary layers is investigated using the Parabolized Stability Equations (PSE). We compute the evolution of stationary and traveling disturbances in the linear and nonlinear region prior to transition. As model problems, we choose Swept Hiemenz Flow and the DLR Transition Experiment. The primary stability results for Swept Hiemenz Flow agree very well with computations by Malik et al. For the DLR Experiment, the mean flow profiles are obtained by solving the boundary layer equations for the measured pressure distribution. Both linear and nonlinear results show very good agreement with the experiment.

Janke, Erik↗