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Experimental results suggest that the boundary-layer mean profiles in hypersonic flows may be highly transitional in the outer part of the boundary layer before the transition process is detected at the surface. Means of determining the initial location where the transition process begins in the outer part of the boundary layer are considered.
Measurements, graphs and calculations combined to give realistic and convenient estimates. Pitot-tube measurements made at various distances from wall to obtain pressure distribution in viscous boundary layer. Pressure readings converted to mach numbers, and analytical expressions for mach-number profile of boundary layer fitted to mach numbers derived from pressure by adjusting shape factor. Applied to jet-expansion devices in turbines, compressors, and variety of other equipment.
An analysis of time-mean-turbulent boundary layer velocity profiles measured in a rapidly accelerating flow suggests that the outer region of the velocity profiles consists of essentially inviscid, rotational flow. The extent of this inviscid outer region was observed in some cases to exceed 90 percent of what is ordinarily thought of as the turbulent boundary layer thickness. On the other hand, the inner frictional region of these velocity profiles appears to have turbulent characteristics similar to those of more conventional turbulent boundary layers. Hence, the outer edge boundary condition for this inner region is more properly the external rotational flow region than the free stream.
A numerical solution of the turbulent mass transport equation utilizing the concept of eddy diffusivity is presented as an efficient method of investigating turbulent mass transport in boundary layer type flows. A FORTRAN computer program is used to study the two-dimensional diffusion of ammonia, from a line source on the surface, into a turbulent boundary layer over a flat plate. The results of the numerical solution are compared with experimental data to verify the results of the solution. Several other solutions to diffusion problems are presented to illustrate the versatility of the computer program and to provide some insight into the problem of mass diffusion as a whole.
The research to develop the capabilities for sensing air pollution constituencies using satellite or airborne remote sensors is reported. Sensor evaluation and calibration are analyzed including data reduction. The proposed follow-on research is presented.
A rotating three-sensor, hot-wire probe has been used along with rotor blade static pressure measurements to investigate the complex inviscid and viscid effects in the annulus wall flowfield, including the three components of mean velocity, turbulence intensity, and turbulence stress inside the rotor blade passage. It is found that the tip leakage flow originates near quarter-chord, with peak values occurring near mid-chord. The leakage flow, which is in the form of a jet within the blade row, is augmented by the blade rotation and travels further away from the suction surface than that observed in stationary blade rows and cascades. This leakage flow tends to roll up between the mid-passage and the pressure surface near the tip region; the vortex formation does not occur within the passage in this particular case.
We consider the effects of a small-amplitude, steady, streamwise vorticity field on the flow over an infinitely thin flat plate in an otherwise uniform stream. We show how the initially linear perturbation, ultimately leads to a small-amplitude but nonlinear cross flow far downstream from the leading edge. This motion is imposed on the boundary-layer flow and eventually causes the boundary layer to separate. The streamwise velocity profiles within the boundary layer become inflexional in localized spanwise regions just upstream of the separation point. The flow in these regions is therefore susceptible to rapidly growing inviscid instabilities.
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On the day-of-launch, the 45th Weather Squadron (45 WS) Launch Weather Officers (LWOs) monitor the upper-level winds for their launch customers to include NASA's Launch Services Program and NASA's Ground Systems Development and Operations Program. They currently do not have the capability to display and overlay profiles of upper-level observations and numerical weather prediction model forecasts. The LWOs requested the Applied Meteorology Unit (AMU) develop a tool in the form of a graphical user interface (GUI) that will allow them to plot upper-level wind speed and direction observations from the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) 50 MHz tropospheric wind profiling radar, KSC Shuttle Landing Facility 915 MHz boundary layer wind profiling radar and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) Automated Meteorological Processing System (AMPS) radiosondes, and then overlay forecast wind profiles from the model point data including the North American Mesoscale (NAM) model, Rapid Refresh (RAP) model and Global Forecast System (GFS) model to assess the performance of these models. The AMU developed an Excel-based tool that provides an objective method for the LWOs to compare the model-forecast upper-level winds to the KSC wind profiling radars and CCAFS AMPS observations to assess the model potential to accurately forecast changes in the upperlevel profile through the launch count. The AMU wrote Excel Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) scripts to automatically retrieve model point data for CCAFS (XMR) from the Iowa State University Archive Data Server (http://mtarchive.qeol.iastate.edu) and the 50 MHz, 915 MHz and AMPS observations from the NASA/KSC Spaceport Weather Data Archive web site (http://trmm.ksc.nasa.gov). The AMU then developed code in Excel VBA to automatically ingest and format the observations and model point data in Excel to ready the data for generating Excel charts for the LWO's. The resulting charts allow the LWOs to independently initialize the three models 0-hour forecasts against the observations to determine which is the best performing model and then overlay the model forecasts on time-matched observations during the launch countdown to further assess the model performance and forecasts. This paper will demonstrate integration of observed and predicted atmospheric conditions into a decision support tool and demonstrate how the GUI is implemented in operations.
A flow quality survey (FQS) was conducted in December 2015 and January 2016 to characterize the flow quality of the 9- by 15-Foot Low-Speed Wind Tunnel (9×15 LSWT) test section prior to the start of significant structural and acoustic modifications. The data from this FQS will be compared with data collected during a replicated FQS after completion of the acoustic improvement modifications. This document contains only the FQS data collected in December 2015 and January 2016 using the 15-ft survey rake and the 18-in. boundary layer rakes in the 9×15 LSWT. The spatial variation at one axial test section station (TSTA), nominally TSTA 198, and five vertical heights of the 15-ft survey rake was computed for Mach number, velocity, total and static pressure, total temperature, and flow angularity (pitch and yaw). Three hot-wire probes mounted to the 15-ft survey rake were used to measure turbulence intensity; however, data from a previous test entry were used as the mean turbulence intensity baseline value, as there were issues with the hot-wire performance. The boundary layer pressure profiles around the perimeter of the test section at TSTA 199 were also measured and the boundary layer heights computed. All calculated results are tabulated for each facility condition set point.
An investigation has been conducted at a Mach number of 3 of the effect of turbulence level and sandpaper-type roughness on transition for a flat plate. The Reynolds number varied from 0.8 x 10(exp 6) to 1.8 x 10(exp 6) per inch; the settling-chamber turbulence level varied from 0.7 percent to 35 percent; and the heat transfer between the plate and the stream was negligible. Transition locations were determined by an optical method. This method was indicative of a permanent change in the boundary-layer density distribution rather than the onset of turbulent bursts. Results showed that, when transition was influenced by roughness, it moved in a way similar to its movement on a smooth plate. That is, it gradually approached the roughness location with either an increase in unit Reynolds number or an increase in turbulence level. For roughness submerged in the linear portion of the boundary-layer velocity profile, the square root of the roughness Reynolds number and the ratio of roughness height to boundary-layer displacement thickness gave similar results as parameters for predicting the effects of roughness. A range of each of these parameters which moved transition less than 10 percent was found and this range was a function of turbulence level.
The boundary-layer velocity profiles in the tip region of an axial-flow compressor downstream of the guide vanes and downstream of the rotor were measured by use of total-pressure and claw-type yaw probes. These velocities were resolved into two components: one along the streamline of the flow outside the boundary layer, and the other perpendicular to it. The affinity among all profiles was thus demonstrated with the boundary-layer thickness and the deflection of the boundary layer at the wall as the generalizing parameters. By use of these results and the momentum-integral equations, boundary-layer characteristics on the walls of an axial-flow compressor were qualitatively evaluated.
The capability of the OVERFLOW code to accurately compute high-speed turbulent boundary layers and turbulent shock-boundary layer interactions is being evaluated. Configurations being investigated include a Mach 2.87 flat plate to compare experimental velocity profiles and boundary layer growth, a Mach 6 flat plate to compare experimental surface heat transfer,a direct numerical simulation (DNS) at Mach 2.25 for turbulent quantities, and several Mach 3 compression ramps to compare computations of shock-boundary layer interactions to experimental laser doppler velocimetry (LDV) data and hot-wire data. The present paper describes outlines the study and presents preliminary results for two of the flat plate cases and two small-angle compression corner test cases.
The Langley 0.3 Meter Transonic Cryogenic Tunnel has provision for boundary removal from the sidewalls to reduce sidewall interference effects on the test data. The tests carried out to determine the change in the empty test section sidewall boundary layer thickness at the model station with upstream boundary layer mass removal are described. The boundary layer measurements showed that the upstream removal region is effective in reducing the boundary layer thickness at the model station. The boundary layer displacement thickness reduced from about 1.2 percent to about .4 percent of the test section width. The boundary layer velocity profiles followed a power law variation in the outer region and showed good correlation when plotted in terms of boundary layer momentum thickness.
The atmospheric general circulation model (GCM) that underlies the MERRA-2 reanalysis includes a suite of physical parameterizations that describe the processes that occur in the planetary boundary layer (PBL). The data assimilation system assures that the atmospheric state variables used as input to these parameterizations are constrained to the best fit to all of the available observations. Many studies, however, have shown that the GCM-based estimates of MERRA-2 PBL heights are biased high, and so are not reliable for boundary layer studies.A 20-year record of PBL heights was derived from Wind Profiler (WP) backscatter data measured at a wide network of stations throughout the US Great Plains and has been validated against independent estimates. The behavior of these PBL heights shows geographical and temporal variations that are difficult to attribute to particular physical processes without additional information that are not part of the observational record.In the present study, we use information on physical processes from MERRA-2 to understand the behavior of the WP derived PBL heights. The behavior of the annual cycle of both MERRA-2 and WP PBL heights shows four classes of behavior: (i) canonical, characterized by a monthly progression in PBL height that follows the solar insolation, (ii) double peak, characterized by canonical behavior that is interrupted by a minimum in July, (iii) late peak, characterized by a suppressed heights in May and June, and return to canonical in July and August, and (iv) early peak where the PBL height rises with solar insolation but is suppressed later in the summer. The explanation for these behaviors and the relationship to local precipitation, temperature, sensible and latent heat fluxes, net radiation and aerosol load is articulated using information from MERRA-2.
A numerical investigation of the temporal eigenvalue spectrum of the ORR-Sommerfeld equation is presented. Two flow profiles are studied, the plane Poiseuille flow profile and the Blasius boundary layer (parallel): flow profile. In both cases a portion of the complex c-plane bounded by 0 less than or equal to CR sub r 1 and -1 less than or equal to ci sub i 0 is searched and the eigenvalues within it are identified. The spectra for the plane Poiseuille flow at alpha = 1.0 and R = 100, 1000, 6000, and 10000 are determined and compared with existing results where possible. The spectrum for the Blasius boundary layer flow at alpha = 0.308 and R = 998 was found to be infinite and discrete. Other spectra for the Blasius boundary layer at various Reynolds numbers seem to confirm this result. The eigenmodes belonging to these spectra were located and discussed.
Turbulence, heat transfer, and boundary layer measurements in conical nozzle