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Macaraeg, M. G.

Publications and source records attributed to Macaraeg, M. G..

Fundamental Investigations of Airframe Noise

An extensive numerical and experimental study of airframe noise mechanisms associated with a subsonic high-lift system has been performed at NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC). Investigations involving both steady and unsteady computations and experiments on a small-scale, part-span flap model are presented. Both surface (steady and unsteady pressure measurements, hot films, oil flows, pressure sensitive paint) and off surface (5 hole-probe, particle-imaged velocimetry, laser velocimetry, laser light sheet measurements) were taken in the LaRC Quiet Flow Facility (QFF) and several hard-wall tunnels up to flight Reynolds number. Successful microphone array measurements were also taken providing both acoustic source maps on the model, and quantitative spectra. Critical directivity measurements were obtained in the QFF. NASA Langley unstructured and structured Reynolds- Averaged Navier-Stokes codes modeled the flap geometries excellent comparisons with surface and offsurface experimental data were obtained. Subsequently, these meanflow calculations were utilized in both linear stability and direct numerical simulations of the flap-edge flow field to calculate unsteady surface pressures and farfield acoustic spectra. Accurate calculations were critical in obtaining not only noise source characteristics, but shear layer correction data as well. Techniques utilized in these investigations as well as brief overviews of results will be given.

Macaraeg, M. G.

Numerical studies of transverse curvature effects on transonic flow stability

A numerical study of transverse curvature effects on compressible flow temporal stability for transonic to low supersonic Mach numbers is presented for axisymmetric modes. The mean flows studied include a similar boundary-layer profile and a nonsimilar axisymmetric boundary-layer solution. The effect of neglecting curvature in the mean flow produces only small quantitative changes in the disturbance growth rate. For transonic Mach numbers (1-1.4) and aerodynamically relevant Reynolds numbers (5000-10,000 based on displacement thickness), the maximum growth rate is found to increase with curvature - the maximum occurring at a nondimensional radius (based on displacement thickness) between 30 and 100.

Macaraeg, M. G.

Transition in supersonic flow past axisymmetric bodies

The paper reviews some recent work on the stability of supersonic flow past axisymmetric bodies. Results indicate that tranverse curvature effect can both be stabilizing or destabilizing depending upon the particular instability modes involved. Small nose bluntness is found to have a stabilizing influence on the flow past a cone. The relevance of these results to supersonic boundary-layer transition is brought out and comparison with the experimental data is made where possible.

Malik, M. R.

Spectral multi-domain for large-scale fluid dynamic simulations

A number of successful applications of a spectral collocation method extended by a multi-domain patching technique are shown. The multi-domain technique can be used to improve resolution for problems with widely disparate scales, and to reduce the ill-conditioning of the spectral operators for problems in which a large number of points are required for distributed resolution. A new nonreflecting outflow boundary treatment for unsteady transition-to-turbulence simulations is also presented, which relies on the multi-domain technique. The role of multi-domain in improving the efficiency of such calculations is discussed.

Streett, C. L.

Numerical models of two complex hypersonic flowfields

Numerical solutions of the compressible Navier-Stokes equations assuming a perfect gas and laminar flow are applied to two hypersonic experiments conducted at NASA Langley Research Center. The first is cooling by injection of a gas jet through the nose of an ogive-cone, and the second is the aerothermal environment in the gap formed by the wing and elevon section of a test model of the Space Shuttle. The simulations demonstrate that the model predicts accurate pressures and shock stand-off for the gas jet and accurate pressures for the wing-elevon cove. Experimental heating rates for the gas jet indicate turbulent mixing to be occurring, an effect not modeled in the numerical solution.

Macaraeg, M. G.

A spectral multi-domain technique for viscous compressible reacting flows

The first application of a spectral multidomain method for viscous compressible flow is presented. The method imposes a global flux balance condition at the interface so that high-order continuity of the solution is preserved. The solution scheme can be adapted to the particular requirement in each subdomain. To illustrate these advantages, a Mach 11 shock calculation is presented to study the chemical kinetics initiated as air passes through a fully resolved shock wave.

Macaraeg, M. G.

An analysis of artificial viscosity effects on reacting flows using a spectral multi-domain technique

Standard techniques used to model chemically-reacting flows require an artificial viscosity for stability in the presence of strong shocks. The resulting shock is smeared over at least three computational cells, so that the thickness of the shock is dictated by the structure of the overall mesh and not the shock physics. A gas passing through a strong shock is thrown into a nonequilibrium state and subsequently relaxes down over some finite distance to an equilibrium end state. The artificial smearing of the shock envelops this relaxation zone which causes the chemical kinetics of the flow to be altered. A method is presented which can investigate these issues by following the chemical kinetics and flow kinetics of a gas passing through a fully resolved shock wave at hypersonic Mach numbers. A nonequilibrium chemistry model for air is incorporated into a spectral multidomain Navier-Stokes solution method. Since no artificial viscosity is needed for stability of the multidomain technique, the precise effect of this artifice on the chemical kinetics and relevant flow features can be determined.

Macaraeg, M. G.

Preconditioning for first-order spectral discretization

Efficient solution of the equations from spectral discretizations is essential if the high-order accuracy of these methods is to be realized. Direct solution of these equations is rarely feasible, thus iterative techniques are required. A preconditioning scheme for first-order Chebyshev collocation operators is proposed herein, in which the central finite difference mesh is finer than the collocation mesh. Details of the proper techniques for transferring information between the meshes are given here, and the scheme is analyzed by examination of the eigenvalue spectra of the preconditioned operators. The effect of artificial viscosity required in the inversion of the finite difference operator is examined. A second preconditioning scheme, involving a high-order upwind finite difference operator of the van Leer type is also analyzed to provide a comparison with the present scheme. Finally, the performance of the present scheme is verified by application to several test problems.

Streett, C. L.

Improvements in spectral collocation discretization through a multiple domain technique

Spectral collocation methods require that a complicated physical domain must map onto a simple computational domain for discretization. This and other restrictions are presently overcome by splitting the domain into regions, each of which preserve the advantages of spectral collocation, and allow the ratio of mesh spacings between regions to be several orders of magnitude higher than allowable in a single domain.

Macaraeg, M. G.

A spectral multi-domain technique with application to generalized curvilinear coordinates

Spectral collocation methods have proven to be efficient discretization schemes for many aerodynamic and fluid mechanic problems. The high order accuracy and resolution shown by these methods allows one to obtain engineering accuracy solutions on coarse meshes, or alternatively, to obtain solutions with very small error. One drawback to these techniques was the requirement that a complicated physical domain must map into a simple computational domain for discretization. This mapping must be smooth if the high order accuracy and expontential convergence rates associated with spectral methods are to be preserved. Additionally even smooth stretching transformations can decrease the accuracy of a spectral method, if the stretching is severe. A further difficulty with spectral methods was in their implementation on parallel processing computers, where efficient spectral algorithms were lacking. The above restrictions are overcome by splitting the domain into regions, each of which preserve the advantages of spectral collocation, and allow the ratio of the mesh spacing between regions to be several orders of magnitude higher than allowable in a single domain. Such stretchings would be required to resolve the thin viscous region in an external aerodynamic problem. Adjoining regions are interfaced by enforcing a global flux balance which preserves high-order continuity of the solution, regardless of the type of the equations being solved.

Macaraeg, M. G.

A mixed pseudospectral/finite difference method for the axisymmetric flow in a heated, rotating spherical shell

For a Spacelab flight, a model experiment of the earth's atmospheric circulation has been proposed. This experiment is known as the Atmospheric General Circulation Experiment (AGCE). In the experiment concentric spheres will rotate as a solid body, while a dielectric fluid is confined in a portion of the gap between the spheres. A zero gravity environment will be required in the context of the simulation of the gravitational body force on the atmosphere. The present study is concerned with the development of pseudospectral/finite difference (PS/FD) model and its subsequent application to physical cases relevant to the AGCE. The model is based on a hybrid scheme involving a pseudospectral latitudinal formulation, and finite difference radial and time discretization. The advantages of the use of the hybrid PS/FD method compared to a pure second-order accurate finite difference (FD) method are discussed, taking into account the higher accuracy and efficiency of the PS/FD method.

Macaraeg, M. G.

The effect of power-law body forces on a thermally driven flow between concentric rotating spheres

A numerical study is conducted to determine the effect of power-law body forces on a thermally-driven axisymmetric flow field confined between concentric co-rotating spheres. This study is motivated by Spacelab geophysical fluid-flow experiments, which use an electrostatic force on a dielectric fluid to simulate gravity; this force exhibits a (1/r)sup 5 distribution. Meridional velocity is found to increase when the electrostatic body force is imposed, relative to when the body force is uniform. Correlation among flow fields with uniform, inverse-square, and inverse-quintic force fields is obtained using a modified Grashof number.

Macaraeg, M. G.

Application of CFD to aerothermal heating problems

Numerical solutions of the compressible Navier-Stokes equations by an alternating direction implicit scheme, applied to two experimental investigations are presented. The first is cooling by injection of a gas jet through the nose of an ogive-cone, and the second is the aerothermal environment in the gap formed by the wing and elevon section of a test model of the space shuttle. The simulations demonstrate that accurate pressure calculations are easily obtained on a coarse grid, while convergence is obtained after the residual reduces by four orders of magnitude. Accurate heating rates, however, require a fine grid solution, with convergence requiring at least a reduction of six orders of magnitude in the residual. The effect of artificial dissipation on numerical results is also assessed.

Macaraeg, M. G.

Application of CFD to aerothermal heating problems

Numerical solutions of the compressible Navier-Stokes equations by an Alternating Direction Implicit scheme, applied to two experimental investigations at NASA Langley Research Center are presented. The first is cooling by injection of a gas jet through the nose of an ogive-cone, and the second is the aerothermal environment in the gap formed by the wing and elevon section of a test model of the Space Shuttle. The simulations demonstrate that accurate pressure calculations are easily obtained on a coarse grid, witih convergence being obtained after the residual reduces by four orders of magnitude. However, accurate heating rates require a fine grid solution, with convergence requiring at least a reduction of six orders of magnitude in the residual. The effect of artificial dissipation on numerical results is also assessed.

Macaraeg, M. G.

The effect of power law body forces on a thermally-driven flow between concentric rotating spheres

A numerical study is conducted to determine the effect of power-law body forces on a thermally-driven axisymmetric flow field confined between concentric co-rotating spheres. This study is motivated by Spacelab geophysical fluid-flow experiments, which use an electrostatic force on a dielectric fluid to simulate gravity; this force exhibits a (1/r)sup 5 distribution. Meridional velocity is found to increase when the electrostatic body force is imposed, relative to when the body force is uniform. Correlation among flow fields with uniform, inverse-square, and inverse-quintic force fields is obtained using a modified Grashof number.

Macaraeg, M. G.

A mixed pseudospectral/finite difference method for a thermally driven fluid in a nonuniform gravitational field

A numerical study of the steady, axisymmetric flow in a heated, rotating spherical shell is conducted to model the Atmospheric General Circulation Experiment (AGCE) proposed to run aboard a later shuttle mission. The AGCE will consist of concentric rotating spheres confining a dielectric fluid. By imposing a dielectric field across the fluid a radial body force will be created. The numerical solution technique is based on the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations. In the method a pseudospectral technique is based on the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations. In the method a pseudospectral technique is used in the latitudinal direction, and a second-order accurate finite difference scheme discretizes time and radial derivatives. This paper discusses the development and performance of this numerical scheme for the AGCE which has been modelled in the past only by pure FD formulations. In addition, previous models have not investigated the effect of using a dielectric force to simulate terrestrial gravity. The effect of this dielectric force on the flow field is investigated as well as a parameter study of varying rotation rates and boundary temperatures. Among the effects noted are the production of larger velocities and enhanced reversals of radial temperature gradients for a body force generated by the electric field.

Macaraeg, M. G.

A mixed pseudospectral/finite difference method for a thermally driven fluid in a nonuniform gravitational field

A numerical study of the steady, axisymmetric flow in a heated, rotating spherical shell is conducted to model the Atmospheric General Circulation Experiment (AGCE) proposed to run aboard a later Shuttle mission. The AGCE will consist of concentric rotating spheres confining a dielectric fluid. By imposing a dielectric field across the fluid a radial body force will be created. The numerical solution technique is based on the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations. In the method a pseudospectral technique is used in the latitudinal direction, and a second-order accurate finite difference scheme discretizes time and radial derivatives. This paper discusses the development and performance of this numerical scheme for the AGCE which has been modeled in the past only by pure FD formulations. In addition, previous models have not investigated the effect of using a dielectric force to simulate terrestrial gravity. The effect of this dielectric force on the flow field is investigated as well as a parameter study of varying rotation rates and boundary temperatures. Among the effects noted are the production of larger velocities and enhanced reversals of radial temperature gradients for a body force generated by the electric field.

Macaraeg, M. G.