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At least 199 records · Page 11
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1983

Numerical investigation of unsteady flow development in a nozzle-duct configuration

A computational approach has been used to resolve the transient phenomena caused by a rocket engine starting up and exhausting into a short duct. The results are obtained from the finite-difference Navier-Stokes, continuity, and energy equations for a single component gas. Using a recently developed numerical technique to account for the time-varying boundary conditions at the nozzle throat and the duct openings, the numerical simulation of the idealized ignition flow model has yielded some insight into the complex interactions between the wave patterns and the vortical flow. The present findings verify the hypothesis that a lateral expansion of the jetstream outside the nozzle will generate an over-pressure pulse on the duct wall if the jetstream is restricted within the nozzle by flow separation. The numerical simulations of this complex flow problem should be useful for improving simple correlation techniques used for engineering purposes.

Li, C. P.↗
NASA NTRS1983

Embedded cavity drag in steady and unsteady flows

The numerical solution of the laminar boundary-layer flow over an embedded cavity is studied. The purpose is to examine the relevant drag characteristics of laminar cavity flow. The solution field is obtained in terms of velocity and vorticity variables, with the stream function and pressure derivable from the directly computed variables. An analysis and comparison is made among four square cavities, ranging in size from 0.25 to 1.00 boundary-layer thicknesses deep. The dominant flow features are examined in the vicinity of the cavity by means of the stream function and iso-vorticity contours. The dominant physics in the overall drag characteristics of the flow is examined by an analysis of the pressure and wall shear stress distributions in the cavity, and upstream and downstream of the cavity. Pressure forces and frictional forces in, and in the vicinity of, the cavity are determined. Stress relaxation distances, both upstream and downstream of the cavity, are calculated and analyzed. The flow dynamics of the boundary-layer flow over an embedded cavity is summarized. Finally, the relevance of the results to the control of flow separation in such flows is discussed.

Gatski, T. B.↗
NASA NTRS1983

Application of laser velocimetry to unsteady flows in large scale high speed tunnels

Flowfield measurements obtained in several large scale, high speed facilities are presented. Sampling bias and seeding problems are addressed and solutions are outlined. The laser velocimeter systems and data reduction procedures which were used in the experiments are also described. The work demonstrated the potential of the laser velocimeter for applications in other than closely controlled, smallscale laboratory situations.

Owen, F. K.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Canonical solutions for unsteady flow fields

The initial value problem of one-dimensional gas-dynamics involving discontinuous, nonuniform initial data is discussed. Canonical solutions which are valid in a small x, t region aroung a discontinuity, and which include the first order effects of nonuniformities in the data, are derived explicitly. The theory is derived by considering a group of elementary piston problems. Solutions with a shock or with a centered expansion wave are worked out individually in order to relate initial flow properties and their gradients to the speed and acceleration of the discontinuity waves. They are then combined to represent the solution of a general initial value problem by regarding the piston path as a contact line. In addition, problems with chemical reaction are discussed in terms of elementary piston problems which involve strong detonation waves, Chapman-Jouguet detonation waves, and deflagration waves.

Liu, G. C.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Embedded cavity drag in steady and unsteady flows

The numerical solution of the laminar boundary-layer flow over an embedded cavity is studied. The purpose of the study is to examine the relevant drag characteristics of laminar cavity flow. The solution field is obtained in terms of velocity and vorticity variables, with the stream function and pressure derivable from the directly computed variables. An analysis and comparison is made among four square cavities, ranging in size from 0.25 to 1.00 boundary-layer thicknesses deep. The dominant flow features are examined in the vicinity of the cavity by means of the stream function and iso-vorticity contours. The dominant physics in the overall drag characteristics of the flow is examined by an analysis of the pressure and wall shear stress distributions in the cavity, and upstream and downstream of the cavity. Pressure forces and frictional forces in, and in the vicinity of, the cavity are determined. Stress relaxation distances, both upstream and downstream of the cavity, are calculated and analyzed. The flow dynamics of the boundary-layer flow over an embedded cavity is summarized. Finally, the relevance of the present results to the control of flow separation in such flows is discussed.

Gatski, T. B.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Influence of stationary components on unsteady flow in industrial centrifugal compressors

An experimental investigation was performed to determine the characteristics of the onset and the growth of rotating nonuniform flow in a standard low specific speed stage, normally utilized in high pressure applications, in relation to change of stationary component geometry. Four configurations, differing only in the return channel and crossover geometry were tested on an atmospheric pressure open loop test rig. Experimental results make conspicious the effect of return channel geometry and give the possibility of shifting the unstable zone onset varying such geometry. An attempt was made to interpret the experimental results in the Emmons - Stenning's rotating stall theory.

Bonciani, L.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Unsteady flow characteristics in the near-wake of a two-dimensional obstacle

The influence of the characteristics of the boundary layer separation on the formation of vortices and alternate paths in the wake of a bidimensional obstacle at high Reynolds numbers was studied by ultra fast visualization system. It is shown that there are alternate paths for laminar and turbulent flows, with similar flow characteristics. It is found that emission of vortices does not change substantially when the flow passes from laminar to turbulent. A film with a time scale change of 10,000 times illustrates some of the discussed phenomena.

Dyment, A.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Impact of flow unsteadiness on maneuvers and loads of agile aircraft

A program of airload measurements on a family of low-aspect-ratio delta wings with sharp leading edges, subjected to large amplitude pitch transients with angles of attack up to 90 deg, is reviewed. Even for small values of the pitch-rate parameter, representative of maneuvers anticipated for agile aircraft, the force and moment overshoots can exceed by 50 percent their steady-state values. This is explained in terms of the hysteretic behavior of the breakdown locations of leading-edge vortices. An approximate theoretical model is proposed which includes the breakdown hysteresis as part of a three-term representation of the unsteady chordwise load distribution.

Jarrah, M. Ameen↗
NASA NTRS1988

Progress towards the development of an inviscid-viscous interaction method for unsteady flows in turbomachinery cascades

The velocity and heat transfer characteristics of blade passage flows subject to onset velocities that vary in space and time are calculated by means of a general method involving the solution of inviscid and boundary-layer equations coupled with the Hilbert integral. The performance of this boundary layer method for flows with prescribed pressure distribution is evaluated in terms of two model problems that give attention to the stagnation region. One model corresponds to an oscillating airfoil with moving stagnation point; the other is a simulation of a blade which is subject to a uniform onset velocity.

Cebeci, T.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Turbulence in unsteady flow at high frequencies

Turbulent flows subjected to oscillations of the mean flow were simulated using a large-eddy simulation computer code for flow in a channel. The objective of the simulations was to provide better understanding of the effects of time-dependent disturbances on the turbulence of a boundary layer and of the underlying physical phenomena regarding the basic interaction between the turbulence and external disturbances. The results confirmed that turbulence is sensitive to certain ranges of frequencies of disturbances. However, no direct connection was found between the frequency of imposed disturbances and the characteristic 'burst' frequency of turbulence. New insight into the nature of turbulence at high frequencies was found. Viscous phenomena near solid walls were found to be the dominant influence for high-frequency perturbations.

Kuhn, Gary D.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Cost-effective accurate coarse-grid method for highly convective multidimensional unsteady flows

A fundamentally multidimensional convection scheme is described based on vector transient interpolation modeling rewritten in conservative control-volume form. Vector third-order upwinding is used as the basis of the algorithm; this automatically introduces important cross-difference terms that are absent from schemes using component-wise one-dimensional formulas. Third-order phase accuracy is good; this is important for coarse-grid large-eddy or full simulation. Potential overshoots or undershoots are avoided by using a recently developed universal limiter. Higher order accuracy is obtained locally, where needed, by the cost-effective strategy of adaptive stencil expansion in a direction normal to each control-volume face; this is controlled by monitoring the absolute normal gradient and curvature across the face. Higher (than third) order cross-terms do not appear to be needed. Since the wider stencil is used only in isolated narrow regions (near discontinuities), extremely high (in this case, seventh) order accuracy can be achieved for little more than the cost of a globally third-order scheme.

Leonard, B. P.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Effect of splitter plate on unsteady flows around a body of revolution at incidence

Numerical solutions of the thin-layer approximation of the 3D Navier-Stokes equations are presented for flows around an ogive-cylinder body with and without a splitter plate. It is suggested that the presence of the splitter plate prevents the interaction between flows on either side of the symmetry plane. It is concluded that, as a result of the enforced symmetry, the antisymmetric mode of the convective instability near the apex of the body cannot be excited and, therefore, the vortices remain symmetric, staying low and parallel to the upper body surface. The antisymmetric mode of the absolute instability mechanism cannot be initiated, which suppresses the alternate shedding of vortices from the cylindrical portion of the body. High-frequency fluctuations of the shear layer are found to remain virtually unaffected by the presence of the splitter plate.

Degani, David↗
NASA NTRS1992

Long time behavior of unsteady flow computations

This paper addresses a specific issue of time accuracy in the calculation of external aerodynamic problems. The class of problems discussed consists of inviscid compressible subsonic flows. These problems are governed by a convective equation. A key issue that is not understood is the long time behavior of the solution. This is important if one desires transient calculations of problems governed by the Euler equations or its derivatives such as the small disturbance equations or the potential formulations for the gust problem. Difficulties arise for two dimensional problems where the time rate decay solutions of the wave equation is slow. In concert with the above mentioned problem, exterior flows require proper modeling of the boundary conditions. In particular, this requires the truncation of infinite regions into finite regions with the aid of artificial boundaries. These boundary conditions must be consistent with the physics of the unbounded problem as well as consistent in time and space. Our treatment of the problem is discussed in detail and examples are given to verify the results.

Hariharan, S. I.↗
NASA NTRS1992

The present state of using RDT in turbulence modelling of unsteady flows

The dissipation transport equation should not be based upon the local-equilibrium hypothesis, but should instead be based upon the rapid-distortion hypothesis. A differential equation to describe this situation is not currently available. An investigation of this topic is presented in viewgraph form.

Mankbadi, Reda R.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Unsteady flows

The development status of tactical missile dynamic behavior prediction is evaluated, with a view to the formulation of guidelines for high angle-of-attack tests where highly nonlinear aerodynamics are encountered and strong cross-coupling arises between lateral and longitudinal degrees of freedom. Attention is given to the Ericsson (1979) inviscid computer code, which is entirely general within the geometric constraints of axisymmetry and low aspect ratio lifting surfaces. A serious problem in the prediction of full-scale high-alpha dynamics is the almost total dependence on subscale experimental data, whose use is severely restricted by Reynolds number scaling as well as by model support and wind tunnel wall interference.

Ericsson, L. E.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Numerical simulation of unsteady flow in a hypersonic shock tunnel facility

This paper describes the computational work performed on the simulation of a 16-in shock-tunnel facility. The numerical problems encountered during the computation of these flows are discussed along with the validity of some approximations used, notably concerning the reduction of the problem into problems of smaller dimensionality. Quasi-1D simulations can be used to help design experiments, or to better understanding the characteristics of the facility. An application to the design of a nonintrusive diagnostic is shown. The multidimensional flow transients computed include the shock reflection at the end of the driven tube, the shock propagation down the nozzle, and the breaking of the main diaphragm.

Cambier, Jean-Luc↗
NASA NTRS1993

Feedback control for unsteady flow and its application to the stochastic Burgers equation

The study applies mathematical methods of control theory to the problem of control of fluid flow with the long-range objective of developing effective methods for the control of turbulent flows. Model problems are employed through the formalism and language of control theory to present the procedure of how to cast the problem of controlling turbulence into a problem in optimal control theory. Methods of calculus of variations through the adjoint state and gradient algorithms are used to present a suboptimal control and feedback procedure for stationary and time-dependent problems. Two types of controls are investigated: distributed and boundary controls. Several cases of both controls are numerically simulated to investigate the performances of the control algorithm. Most cases considered show significant reductions of the costs to be minimized. The dependence of the control algorithm on the time-descretization method is discussed.

Choi, Haecheon↗