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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 181 records · Page 10

Acceleration effects in solid propellant rocket motors

The performance variations due to acceleration loads imposed on spinning solid propellant rocket motors are investigated. The four potentially most significant modes of acceleration-induced phenomena are identified from a study of the literature and modeled. The four modes are a mechanical mode which deals with deformations of the propellant and case: a thermodynamic mode which covers acceleration-induced combustion phenomena; a stress mode which covers the stressed propellant's effect on burn rate; and a gas dynamic mode which deals with changes in gas flow in the chamber and through the nozzle. Simplified models of each mode are developed or taken from the literature and are added to an internal ballistics evaluation computer program. The resulting analysis is the first to include all of the modes. In order to do this an original analysis of the mechanical and stress modes was necessary. However, the analysis shows that the stress mode is not important for the circular perforated grains studied. The other effects are shown to have a significant influence on solid rocket motor performance. The magnitude of the different mode effects are such that one may not be ignored over the others as has been done in the past. The results of the analysis are compared to published rocket motor data. The comparisons indicate an erosive burning effect that is a function of spin rate. A qualitative explanation of the erosive effect is presented.

Langhenry, M. T.↗

Kinetic Model Development of the Carbon Vapor Deposition Reactor to Predict Performance Versus Design

To enable complete closure of a Sabatier-based atmosphere revitalization system where oxygen recovery is predicated by carbon dioxide reduction to methane and water, there must be a means of recovering the hydrogen from the byproduct methane. Honeywell’s carbon vapor deposition (CVD) reactor is a potential technology that provides a thermochemical means by which methane decomposes at high temperatures (> 1,000 °C) into hydrogen, solid carbon, and a small percentage of hydrocarbons. This advanced methane pyrolysis reactor utilizes a carbon fiber substrate to capture and immobilize the solid pyrolytic carbon rather than allowing continuation toward undesirable soot. The CVD reactor is a highly dynamic system whose characteristic geometry changes while operating. The reactor model was developed to provide predictive performance assessment capabilities at different operating conditions, geometries, and configurations to aid in technology development. Modeling of the CVD reactor considered the multitude of simultaneous and interdependent physicochemical processes that are entailed, including: (1) the homogeneous gas-phase pyrolysis reactions, (2) the heterogeneous deposition reactions, and (3) the transport of gaseous species in the reactor domains. A 1-D CVD reactor model was developed based on a general packed-bed, axial-dispersion plug flow reactor model with a solid substrate balance to account for carbon deposition. The model includes 59 species and 243 reactions constituting the methane pyrolysis reaction network, carbon deposition, and interconversions of oxygenate species. The reactor model was compared to brassboard test data, where it was shown to be able to capture the pertinent physicochemical phenomena as evidenced by its agreement with short-duration run data (i.e., looking at different temperature and flow rate conditions), as well as trend agreement with the brassboard reactor’s long-duration test data. Recommendations are provided on further model development steps as well as its use cases.

Air Revitalization↗

Cyber-Physical Simulation of the Cold Startup of Solid Oxide Fuel Cell – Gas Turbine (SOFC-GT) Hybrid Systems

This work introduces experimental studies for the cold startup process (CPS) of the SOFC-GT hybrid system using the cyber-physical simulation approach. The physical gas turbine is coupled with a cyber-physical SOFC stack, which is represented using the integration of a real time dynamic SOFC model with physical components (e.g., pressure chamber, natural gas burner, etc.). Different ramp rates of the turbine speed were tested out during the startup processes. Bypass valves were also used to manipulate the airflow during SOFC-GT hybrid system start-up process. Different ramp rates enable the rapid start-up of the turbine to avoid surge and stall, meanwhile enable acceptable warm rate of the fuel cell stack without damaging the cell material. CPS can enable dynamic characterizations of highly integrated systems at lower cost.

Zhou, Nana↗

Microwave catalytic conversion of acetylene for co-production of hydrogen and carbon nanotubes

Natural gas conversion to hydrogen and solid carbon can drastically reduce the carbon footprint. Microwave plasma pyrolysis is an emerging process for chemical industries to directly convert methane (CH 4 ), the major component of natural gas, to hydrogen and carbon, which offers benefits such as fast process dynamics, flexibility, and high product yield. However, the formation of unwanted by-products, like acetylene (C 2 H 2 ), will require extra cost for gas separation. Plasma pyrolysis of CH 4 produces large amount of acetylene at downstream, which is currently used mainly for welding. Here, to avoid gas separation and upgrade acetylene from the downstream of methane plasma reactor, a novel approach toward its transformation to carbon nanotubes (CNT) and pure hydrogen (H 2 ) over Ni-based bimetallic catalyst driven by microwave irradiation has been reported in this work. The dominant gas product was hydrogen. Low concentrations of methane, ethane, and ethylene were observed in the product stream. Catalytic acetylene decomposition was carried out at 400 °C over Al 2 O 3 supported Ni catalyst. The results showed that, at 400 °C, acetylene was dehydrogenated to CNT and hydrogen was the dominant gas in product stream over 10Ni-1Pd-Al 2 O 3 catalyst. Characterizations of spent catalysts was conducted using Raman spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) to investigate the properties of carbon deposited over the catalyst during the catalytic acetylene decomposition. The results highlight that methane can be efficiently converted to hydrogen and CNT through 2-step process, microwave plasma and microwave catalytic conversion of intermediate acetylene, operated in a single reactor system driven by microwave.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

An experimental platform for investigating astrophysically relevant magnetized plasma jets on the COBRA facility

A new platform has been developed for the 1-MA COBRA generator to investigate the physical processes affecting the formation, collimation, and stability of high-speed outflows in magnetically driven laboratory plasma jets. Such experiments serve as diagnostically accessible surrogates for astrophysical jets under the assumption that the underlying dynamics are scale invariant. In contrast to previous current driven high energy density laboratory jet experiments that use radial/conical wire arrays or foils, the platform described here uses azimuthally symmetric gas-puff injection. This avoids the ablation phase from a solid target, allowing the jets to develop earlier and be driven longer without depleting their mass source and disrupting. A permanent magnet provides an initial poloidal magnetic field, which links the two concentric electrodes and mimics the boundary conditions of a star-accretion disk system. Extended magnetohydrodynamic effects can be assessed using a polarity convolute, which allows for reversal of the electrode bias. The resulting plasma jets exhibit remarkable stability, persisting for hundreds of nanoseconds and achieving aspect ratios ≳30:1.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Spectroscopic Measurement Techniques for Aerospace Flows

The conditions that characterize aerospace flows are so varied, that a single diagnostic technique is not sufficient for its measurement. Fluid dynamists use knowledge of similarity to help categorize and focus on different flow conditions. For example, the Reynolds number represents the ratio of inertial to viscous forces in a flow. When the velocity scales, length scales, and gas density are large and the magnitude of the molecular viscosity is low, the Reynolds number becomes large. This corresponds to large scale vehicles (e.g Airbus A380), fast moving objects (e.g. artillery projectiles), vehicles in dense fluids (e.g. submarine in water), or flows with low dynamic viscosity (e.g. skydiver in air). In each of these cases, the inertial forces dominate viscous forces, and unsteady turbulent fluctuations in the flow variables are observed. In contrast, flows with small length scales (e.g. dispersion of micro-particles in a solid rocket nozzle), slow moving objects (e.g. micro aerial vehicles), flows with low density gases (e.g. atmospheric re-entry), or fluids with a large magnitude of viscosity (e.g. engine coolant flow), all have low Reynolds numbers. In these cases, viscous forces become very important and often the flows can be steady and laminar. The Mach number, which is the ratio of the velocity to the speed of sound in the medium, also helps to differentiate types of flows. At very low Mach numbers, acoustic waves travel much faster than the object, and the flow can be assumed to be incompressible (e.g. Cessna 172 aircraft). As the object speed approaches the speed of sound, the gas density can become variable (e.g. flow over wing of Learjet 85). When the object speed is higher than the speed of sound (Ma > 1), the presences of shock waves and other gas dynamic features can become important to the vehicle performance (e.g. SR-71 Blackbird). In the hypersonic flow regime (Ma > 5), large changes in temperature begin to affect flow properties, causing real-gas effects to occur (e.g. X-43 Scramjet). At even higher Mach numbers, chemistry and nonequilibrium effects come into play (e.g. Startdust re-entry capsule), further complicating the measurement. These limits can be predicted by calculating the ratio of chemical and thermal relaxation time to the flow time scales. Other non-dimensional numbers can be used to further differentiate types of aerospace flows.

Danehy, Paul M.↗

LeRC-HT: NASA Lewis Research Center General Multiblock Navier-Stokes Heat Transfer Code Developed

For the last several years, LeRC-HT, a three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) computer code for analyzing gas turbine flow and convective heat transfer, has been evolving at the NASA Lewis Research Center. The code is unique in its ability to give a highly detailed representation of the flow field very close to solid surfaces. This is necessary for an accurate representation of fluid heat transfer and viscous shear stresses. The code has been used extensively for both internal cooling passage flows and hot gas path flows--including detailed film cooling calculations, complex tip-clearance gap flows, and heat transfer. In its current form, this code has a multiblock grid capability and has been validated for a number of turbine configurations. The code has been developed and used primarily as a research tool (at least 35 technical papers have been published relative to the code and its application), but it should be useful for detailed design analysis. We now plan to make this code available to selected users for further evaluation.

Heidmann, James D.↗

Investigation of the starting transients of high performance solid-propellant motors

The starting transients of solid propellant engines were investigated to develop design principles for predicting transients in high performance igniter and engine configurations. Research and diagnosis were conducted on the processes affecting ignition transients, such as heat flux, igniter, flame spreading over the surface, and nonsteady combustion gas dynamics. Abstracts of published reports related to this research are presented. Topics discussed include: development of an analytical model, analytical prediction of the entire ignition transient, transient behavior of pressure and regression rate during reignition after shut-down, and problems associated with restarting hybrid rocket engines.

Summerfield, M.↗

Glenn-HT: The NASA Glenn Research Center General Multi-Block Navier Stokes Heat Transfer Code

For the last several years, Glenn-HT, a three-dimensional (3D) Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) computer code for the analysis of gas turbine flow and convective heat transfer has been evolving at the NASA Glenn Research Center. The code is unique in the ability to give a highly detailed representation of the flow field very close to solid surfaces in order to get accurate representation of fluid beat transfer and viscous shear stresses. The code has been validated and used extensively for both internal cooling passage flow and for hot gas path flows, including detailed film cooling calculations and complex tip clearance gap flow and heat transfer. In its current form, this code has a multiblock grid capability and has been validated for a number of turbine configurations. The code has been developed and used primarily as a research tool, but it can be useful for detailed design analysis. In this presentation, the code is described and examples of its validation and use for complex flow calculations are presented, emphasizing the applicability to turbomachinery.

Gaugler, Raymond E.↗

Glenn-HT: The NASA Glenn Research Center General Multi-Block Navier-Stokes Heat Transfer Code

For the last several years, Glenn-HT, a three-dimensional (3D) Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) computer code for the analysis of gas turbine flow and convective heat transfer has been evolving at the NASA Glenn Research Center. The code is unique in the ability to give a highly detailed representation of the flow field very close to solid surfaces in order to get accurate representation of fluid heat transfer and viscous shear stresses. The code has been validated and used extensively for both internal cooling passage flow and for hot gas path flows, including detailed film cooling calculations and complex tip clearance gap flow and heat transfer. In its current form, this code has a multiblock grid capability and has been validated for a number of turbine configurations. The code has been developed and used primarily as a research tool, but it can be useful for detailed design analysis. In this paper, the code is described and examples of its validation and use for complex flow calculations are presented, emphasizing the applicability to turbomachinery for space launch vehicle propulsion systems.

Gaugler, Raymond E.↗

Glenn-HT: The NASA Glenn Research Center General Multi-Block Navier-Stokes Heat Transfer Code

For the last several years, Glenn-HT, a three-dimensional (3D) Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) computer code for the analysis of gas turbine flow and convective heat transfer has been evolving at the NASA Glenn Research Center. The code is unique in the ability to give a highly detailed representation of the flow field very close to solid surfaces in order to get accurate representation of fluid heat transfer and viscous shear stresses. The code has been validated and used extensively for both internal cooling passage flow and for hot gas path flows, including detailed film cooling calculations and complex tip clearance gap flow and heat transfer. In its current form, this code has a multiblock grid capability and has been validated for a number of turbine configurations. The code has been developed and used primarily as a research tool, but it can be useful for detailed design analysis. In this presentation, the code is described and examples of its validation and use for complex flow calculations are presented, emphasizing the applicability to turbomachinery.

Gaugfer, Raymond E.↗

Discrete Element Method Analysis for Metal Powders Used in Additive Manufacturing, and DEM Simulation Tutorial Using LIGGGHTS-PUBLIC [PowerPoint and paper]

Discrete Element Method (DEM) is a method of analysis to evaluate the dynamic interactions between granular particles. This method has been used in the pharmaceutical industry to improve the powder compaction process for tablet manufacturing. There are also applications in agriculture, food industry, and manufacturing. Direct energy deposition is an additive manufacturing technique which uses metallic powders fed through a nozzle, melted using a directed laser, and transformed into a solid object layer by layer. One way of feeding metal particles into the system involves the use of a vibrating hopper. Given a specified amplitude and frequency input, the hopper will enable the powder to travel up a path, and inject through the system with assistance from a stream of gas. The mechanical properties of a printed object can vary, depending on the characteristics of the powder flow and the particles’ as-received properties. Improved understanding of dynamic interactions of flowing powders could enable additive manufacturing components with 2D or 3D variations in mechanical properties, e.g., density. This work uses DEM simulation software to investigate the effects of particle cohesion, friction, and density on the quality of the flow by performing an angle of repose simulation, which is often used as a metric to evaluate the flowability of powders.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Optimal gas cooling with minimal aero-opticaldistortion for next generation high-average-power lasers (Progress report, Year 2)

Next-generation lasers that combine high-peak-power ultrashort pulses with high repetition rates have the potential to efficiently deliver the high-average-power outputs required for inertial fusion energy generation, laser-based particle acceleration, and to generate compact secondary x- and 𝛾-ray radiation sources, among others. The combination of long gain length with high surface-to-volume ratio to remove residual heat makes gas-cooled multi-slab amplifier heads an inherently aperture- and average power scalable technology that enables this new class of solid-state lasers, and their thermal management becomes the most pressing technical challenge. As the index-of refraction depends on the gas density, heat removal from the slab surfaces unavoidably entails scattering of propagated light from regions of high temperature fluctuations. The requirement to maximize convective heat extraction from the gain medium under the constraint of minimum optical aberration of the beam renders amplifier slab cooling a technological challenge at the intersection of aero-optics, fluid-mechanics and heat transfer. The goal of this research is to leverage computational fluid dynamics and aero optics simulations of different levels of fidelity to devise a numerical modeling and optimization framework for gas-cooled multi-slab amplifiers. The project will be conducted in close collaboration with the Advanced Photon Technologies Group at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where a gas-cooled test stand for laser materials and thermal management structures will be developed and installed. The final goal of the collaborative effort is to manufacture and benchmark a physical prototype of an numerically optimized amplifier head design. Measurement data on solid-state and thermo-optical distortions will be used for the validation of the numerical models. The key technical challenge in this multi-objective design problem is that of balancing optimal heat removal with minimal optical distortion. To facilitate computationally efficient design optimization and, at the same time, deepen our basic understanding of the interaction of light with turbulence, a complementary study that combines high and low-fidelity flow simulations and aero-optical models is proposed. Along the lines of these two objectives and solution strategies, the project is organized into two thrusts.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Non-isolated 30 kW class arcjet PCU

A 30 kW class arcjet Power Conditioning Unit, PCU, was built and tested during this Phase 2 SBIR contract. The PCU is an improved version of two previously developed PCU's. All of these units are 3-phase, 20 kHz buck regulators with current mode feed back to modulate the duty cycle to control the arcjet current at any selected operating point. The steady state control can assure arcjet stability despite the negative dynamic resistance of the arc discharge. The system also has a circuit to produce a high voltage start pulse to breakdown the gas and initiate the arc. The start pulse is formed by temporarily switching a short current path across the output terminals with a special solid state switching array. The switches then open rapidly, and the energy stored in the output inductors of the buck regulator produces a pulse of approximately 2500 V for approximately 500 nsec. The system was tested and modified until the transition to steady operation occurred after start up with a very small surge current overshoot. The system also can withstand a direct short circuit across the output without damage. The automatic feed back control simply reduces the duty cycle to hold the current at the set point. When the short is removed the full power output is immediately restored. This latest version arcjet PCU is conduction cooled to remove waste heat by conduction to the base plate. This unit is closer to flight a type of design than the previous functional bread boards. Waste heat is small because the PCU has a very high efficiency, 296 percent. The PCU was extensively tested with resistor loads to simulate operation with an arcjet. The unit was tested with ammonia arcjets at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Approximately 400 hours of testing were completed, with several starts. Many hours were also demonstrated with resistive loads. Some testing with hydrogen arcjets was also carried out at NASA LeRC. This system concept is now the design base for the ATTD program.

Wong, See-Pok↗

Whose Gas is it anyway? Differentiating the Source of a Large Soil Vapor Plume beneath Two Adjacent Waste Sites - 20487

DOE contractor CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Company is currently responsible for conducting groundwater contamination monitoring at several RCRA treatment, storage, and disposal units located on the Hanford Site in Richland, Washington State. The Nonradioactive Dangerous Waste Landfill treatment, storage, and disposal unit presents a distinct groundwater monitoring problem because of a large multi-contaminant soil vapor plume beneath it that is a likely source of low-level volatile organic compound groundwater contamination. Adjacent to Nonradioactive Dangerous Waste Landfill is the Solid Waste Landfill. Volatile organic compounds are inventory components of both the Nonradioactive Dangerous Waste Landfill and the Solid Waste Landfill. Therefore, it is possible that both sites could be contributing to the soil vapor plume. For regulatory purposes, it is important to differentiate which site is the primary contributor of volatile organic compounds to the plume. An approach was developed to identify the primary volatile organic compound source of the soil vapor plume beneath Nonradioactive Dangerous Waste Landfill and Solid Waste Landfill. The site conceptual model hypothesis of vapor-phase volatile organic compound transport to the dissolved phase in groundwater was tested by a simple mathematical model of vapor/liquid equilibrium concentrations at the groundwater/air interface. Once it was shown that vapor-phase volatile organic compound transport to groundwater was a valid conceptual model for Nonradioactive Dangerous Waste Landfill and Solid Waste Landfill, spatial and statistical methods were used to determine the primary site contributing to the majority of volatile organic compounds to the soil vapor plume. Average groundwater chloroform, tetrachloroethene, and trichloroethene concentrations from Nonradioactive Dangerous Waste Landfill and Solid Waste Landfill monitoring network wells were plotted on maps of the facilities and immediate vicinities and compared to soil vapor sampling probe locations. Principal component analysis and mixing ratios were used to identify source contributions of each treatment, storage, and disposal unit to the plume. Results of the vapor/liquid equilibrium concentrations mathematical model showed that transport phenomena outweigh steady-state equilibria. Estimated vapor/liquid equilibrium concentrations were considerably lower than soil vapor measurements. The results indicate that dynamic vadose zone and groundwater factors such as decreased vapor concentrations with depth, vapor dilution from dispersion in the vadose zone, and advective and diffusional volatile organic compound dilution in groundwater result in groundwater volatile organic compound concentrations much less than would be measured under steady-state equilibrium conditions. Site source contribution differentiation by principal component analysis and mixing ratios was inconclusive using actual soil gas data because of the similarity in concentration values in both datasets for Nonradioactive Dangerous Waste Landfill and Solid Waste Landfill. Similar data populations suggest mixing of the vapor contributions from both sites by dispersion through the soil matrix pore spaces. However, when groundwater volatile organic compound data were compared between the Nonradioactive Dangerous Waste Landfill and Solid Waste Landfill monitoring networks, Solid Waste Landfill mean concentrations were higher, suggesting more vapor-phase volatile organic compound transport to groundwater at those locations. Simulated volatile organic compound soil vapor and groundwater datasets created to test the methods developed for this study show that the method can be successful in source differentiation when significantly different datasets are compared. This paper will describe a method of testing a conceptual model for vapor-phase contaminant transport to groundwater and for differentiating site sources of contaminants comprising a mixed-constituent soil vapor plume. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗

Combustion Processes in Hybrid Rocket Engines

In recent years, there has been a resurgence of interest in the development of hybrid rocket engines for advanced launch vehicle applications. Hybrid propulsion systems use a solid fuel such as hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene (HTPB) along with a gaseous/liquid oxidizer. The performance of hybrid combustors depends on the convective and radiative heat fluxes to the fuel surface, the rate of pyrolysis in the solid phase, and the turbulent combustion processes in the gaseous phases. These processes in combination specify the regression rates of the fuel surface and thereby the utilization efficiency of the fuel. In this paper, we employ computational fluid dynamics (CFD) techniques in order to gain a quantitative understanding of the physical trends in hybrid rocket combustors. The computational modeling is tailored to ongoing experiments at Penn State that employ a two dimensional slab burner configuration. The coordinated computational/experimental effort enables model validation while providing an understanding of the experimental observations. Computations to date have included the full length geometry with and with the aft nozzle section as well as shorter length domains for extensive parametric characterization. HTPB is sed as the fuel with 1,3 butadiene being taken as the gaseous product of the pyrolysis. Pure gaseous oxygen is taken as the oxidizer. The fuel regression rate is specified using an Arrhenius rate reaction, which the fuel surface temperature is given by an energy balance involving gas-phase convection and radiation as well as thermal conduction in the solid-phase. For the gas-phase combustion, a two step global reaction is used. The standard kappa - epsilon model is used for turbulence closure. Radiation is presently treated using a simple diffusion approximation which is valid for large optical path lengths, representative of radiation from soot particles. Computational results are obtained to determine the trends in the fuel burning or regression rates as a function of the head-end oxidizer mass flux, G=rho(e)U(e), and the chamber pressure. Furthermore, computation of the full slab burner configuration has also been obtained for various stages of the burn. Comparisons with available experimental data from small scale tests conducted by General Dynamics-Thiokol-Rocketdyne suggest reasonable agreement in the predicted regression rates. Future work will include: (1) a model for soot generation in the flame for more quantitative radiative transfer modelling, (2) a parametric study of combustion efficiency, and (3) transient calculations to help determine the possible mechanisms responsible for combustion instability in hybrid rocket motors.

Venkateswaran,S.↗

Dynamic oxidation of (Mn,Co) 3 O 4 -Coated interconnects for solid oxide electrolysis cells

Solid oxide electrolysis cell stacks are expected to experience dynamic conditions when using renewable electricity derived from wind or solar power. To address this scenario, (Mn,Co) 3 O 4 (MCO)-coated Crofer 22 APU interconnect coupons are subjected to thermal cycling, and intermittent current density, with gas compositions relevant to high-temperature electrolysis (elevated steam:hydrogen ratio and oxygen content). Defects are also intentionally introduced in the MCO coating, to assess whether the difference in oxidation properties of the adjacent coated and uncoated (defective) surfaces causes sufficient stress to damage the protective oxide scale. Specimens with defects are subjected to oxidation for 1000 h at 800 °C, or thermal cycling. Before thermal cycling, some specimens are pre-oxidized to create a thick oxide scale to mimic the scale thickness expected after ~30 kh operation. In all cases, the coating and oxide scale remain well adhered with no cracking observed. Area-specific resistance (ASR) is monitored in both single-atmosphere and dual-atmosphere conditions, and the ASR is stable and is not impacted by dynamic cycling of the current density. Finally, this work provides confidence that the MCO coated interconnect will function as needed in dynamic operation conditions, even with coating defects.

08 HYDROGEN↗

In situ feature analysis for large-scale multiphase flow simulations

The study of multiphase flow is essential for designing chemical reactors such as fluidized bed reactors (FBR), as a detailed understanding of hydrodynamics is critical for optimizing reactor performance and stability. An FBR allows scientists to conduct different types of chemical reactions involving multiphase materials, especially interaction between gas and solids. During such complex chemical processes, the formation of void regions in the reactor, generally termed as bubbles, is an important phenomenon. The study of these bubbles has a deep implication in predicting the reactor’s overall efficiency. But physical experiments needed to understand bubble dynamics are costly and non-trivial due to the technical difficulties involved and harsh working conditions of the reactors. Therefore, to study such chemical processes and bubble dynamics, a state-of-the-art computational simulation MFIX-Exa is being developed. Despite the proven accuracy of MFIX-Exa in modeling bubbling phenomena, the large-scale output data prohibits the use of traditional post hoc analysis capabilities in both storage and I/O time. Herein, to address these issues and allow the application scientists to explore the bubble dynamics in an efficient and timely manner, we have developed an end-to-end analytics pipeline that enables in situ detection of bubbles, followed by a flexible post hoc visual exploration methodology of bubble dynamics. The proposed method enables interactive analysis of bubbles, along with quantification of several bubble characteristics, enabling experts to understand the bubble interactions in detail. Positive feedback from the experts has indicated the efficacy of the proposed approach for exploring bubble dynamics in very-large-scale multiphase flow simulations.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗