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At least 199 records · Page 11

Finite element solution for energy conservation using a highly stable explicit integration algorithm

Theoretical derivation of a finite element solution algorithm for the transient energy conservation equation in multidimensional, stationary multi-media continua with irregular solution domain closure is considered. The complete finite element matrix forms for arbitrarily irregular discretizations are established, using natural coordinate function representations. The algorithm is embodied into a user-oriented computer program (COMOC) which obtains transient temperature distributions at the node points of the finite element discretization using a highly stable explicit integration procedure with automatic error control features. The finite element algorithm is shown to posses convergence with discretization for a transient sample problem. The condensed form for the specific heat element matrix is shown to be preferable to the consistent form. Computed results for diverse problems illustrate the versatility of COMOC, and easily prepared output subroutines are shown to allow quick engineering assessment of solution behavior.

Baker, A. J.↗

A Discrete Constraint for Entropy Conservation and Sound Waves in Cloud-Resolving Modeling

Ideal cloud-resolving models contain little-accumulative errors. When their domain is so large that synoptic large-scale circulations are accommodated, they can be used for the simulation of the interaction between convective clouds and the large-scale circulations. This paper sets up a framework for the models, using moist entropy as a prognostic variable and employing conservative numerical schemes. The models possess no accumulative errors of thermodynamic variables when they comply with a discrete constraint on entropy conservation and sound waves. Alternatively speaking, the discrete constraint is related to the correct representation of the large-scale convergence and advection of moist entropy. Since air density is involved in entropy conservation and sound waves, the challenge is how to compute sound waves efficiently under the constraint. To address the challenge, a compensation method is introduced on the basis of a reference isothermal atmosphere whose governing equations are solved analytically. Stability analysis and numerical experiments show that the method allows the models to integrate efficiently with a large time step.

Zeng, Xi-Ping↗

A high order accurate finite element algorithm for high Reynolds number flow prediction

A Galerkin-weighted residuals formulation is employed to establish an implicit finite element solution algorithm for generally nonlinear initial-boundary value problems. Solution accuracy, and convergence rate with discretization refinement, are quantized in several error norms, by a systematic study of numerical solutions to several nonlinear parabolic and a hyperbolic partial differential equation characteristic of the equations governing fluid flows. Solutions are generated using selective linear, quadratic and cubic basis functions. Richardson extrapolation is employed to generate a higher-order accurate solution to facilitate isolation of truncation error in all norms. Extension of the mathematical theory underlying accuracy and convergence concepts for linear elliptic equations is predicted for equations characteristic of laminar and turbulent fluid flows at nonmodest Reynolds number. The nondiagonal initial-value matrix structure introduced by the finite element theory is determined intrinsic to improved solution accuracy and convergence. A factored Jacobian iteration algorithm is derived and evaluated to yield a consequential reduction in both computer storage and execution CPU requirements while retaining solution accuracy.

Baker, A. J.↗

Accuracy and convergence of a finite element algorithm for laminar boundary layer flow

The Galerkin-weighted residuals formulation is employed to derive an implicit finite element solution algorithm for a generally non-linear initial-boundary value problem. Solution accuracy and convergence with discretization refinement are quantized in several error norms, for the non-linear parabolic partial differential equation system governing laminar boundary layer flow, using linear, quadratic and cubic functions. Richardson extrapolation is used to isolate integration truncation error in all norms, and Newton iteration is employed for all equation solutions performed in double-precision. The mathematical theory supporting accuracy and convergence concepts for linear elliptic equations appears extensible to the non-linear equations characteristic of laminar boundary layer flow.

Soliman, M. O.↗

Accuracy and convergence of a finite element algorithm for turbulent boundary layer flow

The Galerkin-Weighted Residuals formulation is employed to derive an implicit finite element solution algorithm for the nonlinear parabolic partial differential equation system governing turbulent boundary layer flow. Solution accuracy and convergence with discretization refinement are quantized in several error norms using linear and quadratic basis functions. Richardson extrapolation is used to isolate integration truncation error in all norms, and Newton iteration is employed for all equation solutions performed in double-precision. The mathematical theory supporting accuracy and convergence concepts for linear elliptic equations appears extensible to the nonlinear equations characteristic of turbulent boundary layer flow.

Soliman, M. O.↗

A wall interference assessment/correction interface measurement system for the NASA/ARC 12-ft PWT

Development of complex air vehicle configurations is placing increasing demands on wind tunnel testing capabilities. A major area of concern is wall induced interference. Recent developments in wall interference technology provide a means for assessing and correcting for the wall induced interference using information contained in the distribution of flow variables measured at, or near, the wall. The restoration of the NASA-ARC 12-ft pressure wind tunnel (PWT) provides an opportunity to incorporate a measurement system with which wall interference assessment/correction (WIAC) technology can be applied. In this first phase of the development of a WIAC system for the PWT, the design criteria for the placement and the geometry of wall static pressure orifices were determined with a three step approach. First, the operational environment of the PWT was analyzed as to the requirements for the WIAC system. Second, appropriate wall interference theories were evaluated against the requirements determined from the operational environment. Third, the flow about representative models in the PWT was calculated and, specifically, the pressure signatures at the location of the test section wall were obtained. The number of discrete pressure measurements and their locations were determined by curve fitting the pressure distribution through the discrete measurements and evaluating the resulting error.

Source record↗

Luminance-model-based DCT quantization for color image compression

A model is developed to approximate visibility thresholds for discrete cosine transform (DCT) coefficient quantization error based on the peak-to-peak luminance of the error image. Experimentally measured visibility thresholds for R, G, and B DCT basis functions can be predicted by a simple luminance-based detection model. This model allows DCT coefficient quantization matrices to be designed for display conditions other than those of the experimental measurements: other display luminances, other veiling luminances, and other spatial frequencies (different pixel spacings, viewing distances, and aspect ratios).

Ahumada, Albert J., Jr.↗

Some aspects of high-order numerical solutions of the linear convection equation with forced boundary conditions

A six-stage low-storage Runge-Kutta time-marching method is presented and shown to be an efficient method for use with high-accuracy spatial difference operators for wave propagation problems. The accuracy of the method for inhomogeneous ordinary differential equations is demonstrated through numerical solutions of the linear convection equation with forced boundary conditions. Numerical experiments are presented simulating a sine wave and a Gaussian pulse propagating into and through the domain. For practical levels of mesh refinement corresponding to roughly ten points per wavelength, the six-stage Runge-Kutta method is more accurate than the popular fourth-order Runge-Kutta method. Further numerical experiments are presented which show that the numerical boundary scheme at an inflow boundary can be a significant source of error when high-accuracy spatial discretizations are used.

Zingg, D. W.↗

Problems Associated with Grid Convergence of Functionals

The current use of functionals to evaluate order-of-convergence of a numerical scheme can lead to incorrect values. The problem comes about because of interplay between the errors from the evaluation of the functional, e.g., quadrature error, and from the numerical scheme discretization. Alternative procedures for deducing the order-property of a scheme are presented. The problem is studied within the context of the inviscid supersonic flow over a blunt body; however, the problem and solutions presented are not unique to this example.

Salas, Manuel D.↗

On Problems Associated with Grid Convergence of Functionals

The current use of functionals to evaluate order-of-convergence of a numerical scheme can lead to incorrect values. The problem comes about because of interplay between the errors from the evaluation of the functional, e.g., quadrature error, and from the numerical scheme discretization. Alternative procedures for deducing the order property of a scheme are presented. The problems are studied within the context of the inviscid supersonic flow over a blunt body; however, the problems and solutions presented are not unique to this example.

Salas, Manuael D.↗

Multilayer perceptron, fuzzy sets, and classification

A fuzzy neural network model based on the multilayer perceptron, using the back-propagation algorithm, and capable of fuzzy classification of patterns is described. The input vector consists of membership values to linguistic properties while the output vector is defined in terms of fuzzy class membership values. This allows efficient modeling of fuzzy or uncertain patterns with appropriate weights being assigned to the backpropagated errors depending upon the membership values at the corresponding outputs. During training, the learning rate is gradually decreased in discrete steps until the network converges to a minimum error solution. The effectiveness of the algorithm is demonstrated on a speech recognition problem. The results are compared with those of the conventional MLP, the Bayes classifier, and the other related models.

Pal, Sankar K.↗

An Optimal-Estimation-Based Aerosol Retrieval Algorithm Using OMI Near-UV Observations

An optimal-estimation(OE)-based aerosol retrieval algorithm using the OMI (Ozone Monitoring Instrument) near-ultraviolet observation was developed in this study. The OE-based algorithm has the merit of providing useful estimates of errors simultaneously with the inversion products. Furthermore, instead of using the traditional lookup tables for inversion, it performs online radiative transfer calculations with the VLIDORT (linearized pseudo-spherical vector discrete ordinate radiative transfer code) to eliminate interpolation errors and improve stability. The measurements and inversion products of the Distributed Regional Aerosol Gridded Observation Network campaign in northeast Asia (DRAGON NE-Asia 2012) were used to validate the retrieved aerosol optical thickness (AOT) and single scattering albedo (SSA). The retrieved AOT and SSA at 388 nm have a correlation with the Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) products that is comparable to or better than the correlation with the operational product during the campaign. The OEbased estimated error represented the variance of actual biases of AOT at 388 nm between the retrieval and AERONET measurements better than the operational error estimates. The forward model parameter errors were analyzed separately for both AOT and SSA retrievals. The surface reflectance at 388 nm, the imaginary part of the refractive index at 354 nm, and the number fine-mode fraction (FMF) were found to be the most important parameters affecting the retrieval accuracy of AOT, while FMF was the most important parameter for the SSA retrieval. The additional information provided with the retrievals, including the estimated error and degrees of freedom, is expected to be valuable for relevant studies. Detailed advantages of using the OE method were described and discussed in this paper.

Air Pollution↗

Design of Multifunctional Hierarchical Space Structures

We describe a system for the design of space structures with tunable structural properties based on the discrete assembly of modular lattice elements. These lattice elements can be constructed into larger beam-like elements, which can then be assembled into large scale truss structures. These discrete lattice elements are reversibly assembled with mechanical fasteners, which allows them to be arbitrarily reconfigured into various application-specific designs. In order to assess the validity of this approach, we design two space structures with similar geometry but widely different structural requirements: an aerobrake, driven by strength requirements, and a precision segmented reflector, driven by stiffness and accuracy requirements. We will show agreement between simplified numerical models based on hierarchical assembly and analytical solutions. We will also present an assessment of the error budget resulting from the assembly of discrete structures. Lastly, we will address launch vehicle packing efficiency issues for transporting these structures to lower earth orbit.

Aeronautics↗

The large discretization step method for time-dependent partial differential equations

A new method for the acceleration of linear and nonlinear time dependent calculations is presented. It is based on the Large Discretization Step (LDS) approximation, defined in this work, which employs an extended system of low accuracy schemes to approximate a high accuracy discrete approximation to a time dependent differential operator. Error bounds on such approximations are derived. These approximations are efficiently implemented in the LDS methods for linear and nonlinear hyperbolic equations, presented here. In these algorithms the high and low accuracy schemes are interpreted as the same discretization of a time dependent operator on fine and coarse grids, respectively. Thus, a system of correction terms and corresponding equations are derived and solved on the coarse grid to yield the fine grid accuracy. These terms are initialized by visiting the fine grid once in many coarse grid time steps. The resulting methods are very general, simple to implement and may be used to accelerate many existing time marching schemes.

Haras, Zigo↗

An optimal numerical filter for wide-field-of-view measurements of earth-emitted radiation

A technique is described in which all data points along an arc of the orbit may be used in an optimal numerical filter for wide-field-of-view measurements of earth emitted radiation. The statistical filter design is derived whereby the filter is required to give a minimum variance estimate of the radiative exitance at discrete points along the ground track of the satellite. An equation for the optimal numerical filter is given by minimizing the estimate error variance equation with respect to the filter weights, resulting in a discrete form of the Wiener-Hopf equation. Finally, variances of the errors in the radiant exitance can be computed along the ground track and in the cross track directions.

Smith, G. L.↗

A Novel Four-Node Quadrilateral Smoothing Element for Stress Enhancement and Error Estimation

A four-node, quadrilateral smoothing element is developed based upon a penalized-discrete-least-squares variational formulation. The smoothing methodology recovers C1-continuous stresses, thus enabling effective a posteriori error estimation and automatic adaptive mesh refinement. The element formulation is originated with a five-node macro-element configuration consisting of four triangular anisoparametric smoothing elements in a cross-diagonal pattern. This element pattern enables a convenient closed-form solution for the degrees of freedom of the interior node, resulting from enforcing explicitly a set of natural edge-wise penalty constraints. The degree-of-freedom reduction scheme leads to a very efficient formulation of a four-node quadrilateral smoothing element without any compromise in robustness and accuracy of the smoothing analysis. The application examples include stress recovery and error estimation in adaptive mesh refinement solutions for an elasticity problem and an aerospace structural component.

Tessler, A.↗

An integrating matrix formulation for buckling of rotating beams including the effects of concentrated masses

The integrating matrix technique of computational mechanics is extended to include the effects of concentrated masses. The stability of a flexible rotating beam with discrete masses is analyzed to determine the critical rotational speeds for buckling in the inplane and out-of-plane directions. In this problem, the beam is subjected to compressive centrifugal forces arising from steady rotation about an axis which does not pass through the clamped end of the beam. To determine the eigenvalues from which stability is assessed, the differential equations of motion are solved numerically by combining the extended integrating matrix method with an eigenanalysis. Stability boundaries for a discrete mass representation of a uniform beam are shown to asymptotically approach the stability boundaries for the corresponding continuous mass beam as the number of concentrated masses is increased. An error in the literature is also noted for the discrete mass problem concerning the behavior of the critical rotational speed for inplane buckling as the radius of rotation of the clamped end of the beam is reduced.

Lakin, William D.↗