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At least 253 records · Page 14

Forced Diffusion of Trailing Vorticity from a Hovering Rotor

A small turbulence generating device was Attached near the tip of a hovering rotor blade In order to alter the structure of the trailing vortex. Stereo particle image velocimetry (PIV) images were used to quantify the wake behind the rotor blade during the first revolution. An analysis of the 3D-velocity field includes a method for accounting for vortex wander. The results show that a major change in the size and intensity of the trailing vortex can be achieved.

McAlister, Kenneth W.↗

Evaluation of a Terminal Area In-Trail Approach Spacing, Project and Study

Reported here are the results of work completed as a precursor to Distributed Air Ground (DAG), Concept Element 11 (CE11) research. CE11 is a NASA, Advanced Air Transportation Technologies (AATT) concept initiated to promote research on in-trail merging and spacing during approach in the terminal area environment, such that improvements to the National Air Space (NAS) may be realized. A description of the project concept, results of a preliminary study, and a literature review are presented. In terms of conclusions, study results, and reference material respectively: 1) the concept is supported as being significant to NAS capacity improvement, 2) the preliminary study indicated that having more than one downstream, in-trail aircraft present on a CDTI during approach may be advantageous, and that flying traditional Standard Terminal Arrival Routes (STAR) utilizing advanced decision support tools (DST) may be complicated by wake turbulence considerations, a lack of vertical awareness on the part of the flight crew, and the 'step-down' nature of many terminal area approaches, and 3) the results of a literature review are presented for future reference.

Shelden, Stephen↗

Near Field Trailing Edge Tone Noise Computation

Blunt trailing edges in a flow often generate tone noise due to wall-jet shear layer and vortex shedding. In this paper, the space-time conservation element (CE/SE) method is employed to numerically study the near-field noise of blunt trailing edges. Two typical cases, namely, flow past a circular cylinder (aeolian noise problem) and flow past a flat plate of finite thickness are considered. The computed frequencies compare well with experimental data. For the aeolian noise problem, comparisons with the results of other numerical approaches are also presented.

Loh, Ching Y.↗

Cooling of Gas Turbines, IV - Calculated Temperature Distribution in the Trailing Part of a Turbine Blade Using Direct Liquid Cooling

A theoretical analysis of the temperature distribution through the trailing portion of a blade near the coolant passages of liquid cooled gas turbines was made. The analysis was applied to obtain the hot spot temperatures at the trailing edge and influence of design variables. The effective gas temperature was varied from 2000 degrees to 5000 degrees F in each investigation.

Brown, W. Byron↗

Calculated Normal Load Factors on Light Airplanes Traversing the Trailing Vortices of Heavy Transport Airplanes

Results are presented of normal-load-factor calculations made for a lightnormal-category airplane and a light transport-category airplane traversing the trailing vortices generated by each of three heavy transport airplanes. With each light airplane, the normal load factors were determined for several penetration paths lying i n a plane perpendicular to the trailing vortices and for three center-of-gravity locations and velocities. Also determined for the light normal-category airplane were the elevator deflections required to maintain 1 g flight and the vertical displacements of the airplane from the prescribed penetration paths while transversing the vortices.

McGowan, William A.↗

Simulation of Acoustic Scattering from a Trailing Edge

Three model problems were examined to assess the difficulties involved in using a hybrid scheme coupling flow computation with the the Ffowcs Williams and Hawkings equation to predict noise generated by vortices passing over a sharp edge. The results indicate that the Ffowcs Williams and Hawkings equation correctly propagates the acoustic signals when provided with accurate flow information on the integration surface. The most difficult of the model problems investigated inviscid flow over a two-dimensional thin NACA airfoil with a blunt-body vortex generator positioned at 98 percent chord. Vortices rolled up downstream of the blunt body. The shed vortices possessed similarities to large coherent eddies in boundary layers. They interacted and occasionally paired as they convected past the sharp trailing edge of the airfoil. The calculations showed acoustic waves emanating from the airfoil trailing edge. Acoustic directivity and Mach number scaling are shown.

Singer, Bart A.↗

Performance of Swashplateless Ultralight Helicopter Rotor with Trailing-edge Flaps for Primary Flight Control

The objective of present study is to evaluate the rotor performance, trailing-edge deflections and actuation requirement of a helicopter rotor with trailing-edge flap system for primary flight control. The swashplateless design is implemented by modifying a two-bladed teetering rotor of an production ultralight helicopter through the use of plain flaps on the blades, and by replacing the pitch link to fixed system control system assembly with a root spring. A comprehensive rotorcraft analysis based on UMARC is carried out to obtain the results for both the swashplateless and a conventional baseline rotor configuration. The predictions show swashplateless configuration achieve superior performance than the conventional rotor attributed from reduction of parasite drag by eliminating swashplate mechanic system. It is indicated that optimal selection of blade pitch index angle, flap location, length, and chord ratio reduces flap deflections and actuation requirements, however, has virtually no effect on rotor performance.

Shen, Jin-Wei↗

Flutter Stability Verified for the Trailing Edge Blowing Fan

The TURBO-AE aeroelastic code has been used to verify the flutter stability of the trailing edge blowing (TEB) fan, which is a unique technology demonstrator being designed and fabricated at the NASA Glenn Research Center for testing in Glenn s 9- by 15-Foot Low-Speed Wind Tunnel. Air can be blown out of slots near the trailing edges of the TEB fan blades to fill in the wakes downstream of the rotating blades, which reduces the rotor-stator interaction (tone) noise caused by the interaction of wakes with the downstream stators. The TEB fan will demonstrate a 1.6-EPNdB reduction in tone noise through wake filling. Furthermore, the reduced blade-row interaction will decrease the possibility of forced-response vibrations and enable closer spacing of blade rows, thus reducing engine length and weight. The detailed aeroelastic analysis capability of the three-dimensional Navier-Stokes TURBO-AE code was used to check the TEB fan rotor blades for flutter stability. Flutter calculations were first performed with no TEB flow; then select calculations were repeated with TEB flow turned on.

Bakhle, Milind A.↗

Noise Benefits of Rotor Trailing Edge Blowing for a Model Turbofan

An advanced model turbofan was tested in the NASA Glenn 9- by 15-Foot Low Speed Wind Tunnel (9x15 LSWT) to explore far field acoustic effects associated with rotor Trailing-Edge-Blowing (TEB) for a modern, 1.294 stage pressure ratio turbofan model. The TEB rotor (Fan9) was designed to be aerodynamically similar to the previously tested Fan1, and used the same stator and nacelle hardware. Fan9 was designed with trailing edge blowing slots using an external air supply directed through the rotor hub. The TEB flow was heated to approximate the average fan exit temperature at each fan test speed. Rotor root blockage inserts were used to block TEB to all but the outer 40 and 20% span in addition to full-span blowing. A configuration with full-span TEB on alternate rotor blades was also tested. Far field acoustic data were taken at takeoff/approach conditions at 0.10 tunnel Mach. Far-field acoustic results showed that full-span blowing near 2.0% of the total flow could reduce the overall sound power level by about 2 dB. This noise reduction was observed in both the rotor-stator interaction tones and for the spectral broadband noise levels. Blowing only the outer span region was not very effective for lowering noise, and actually increased the far field noise level in some instances. Full-span blowing of alternate blades at 1.0% of the overall flow rate (equivalent to full-span blowing of all blades at 2.0% flow) showed a more modest noise decrease relative to full-span blowing of all blades. Detailed hot film measurements of the TEB rotor wake at 2.0% flow showed that TEB was not every effective for filling in the wake defect at approach fan speed toward the tip region, but did result in overfilling the wake toward the hub. Downstream turbulence measurements supported this finding, and support the observed reduction in spectral broadband noise.

Woodward, Richard P.↗

In-Trail Procedure (ITP) Algorithm Design

The primary objective of this document is to provide a detailed description of the In-Trail Procedure (ITP) algorithm, which is part of the Airborne Traffic Situational Awareness In-Trail Procedure (ATSA-ITP) application. To this end, the document presents a high level description of the ITP Algorithm and a prototype implementation of this algorithm in the programming language C.

Munoz, Cesar A.↗

Meteoroid Fragmentation as Revealed in Head- and Trail-Echoes Observed with the Arecibo UHF and VHF Radars

We report recent 46.8/430 MHz (VHF/UHF) radar meteor observations at Arecibo Observatory (AO) that reveal many previously unreported features in the radar meteor return - including flare-trails at both UHF and VHF - that are consistent with meteoroid fragmentation. Signature features of fragmentation include strong intra-pulse and pulse-to-pulse fading as the result of interference between or among multiple meteor head-echo returns and between head-echo and impulsive flare or "point" trail-echoes. That strong interference fading occurs implies that these scatterers exhibit well defined phase centers and are thus small compared with the wavelength. These results are consistent with and offer advances beyond a long history of optical and radar meteoroid fragmentation studies. Further, at AO, fragmenting and flare events are found to be a large fraction of the total events even though these meteoroids are likely the smallest observed by the major radars. Fragmentation is found to be a major though not dominate component of the meteors observed at other HPLA radars that are sensitive to larger meteoroids.

Mathews, J. D.↗

AMELIA CESTOL Test: Acoustic Characteristics of Circulation Control Wing with Leading-and Trailing-Edge Slot Blowing

Aeroacoustic measurements of the 11 % scale full-span AMELIA CESTOL model with leading- and trailing-edge slot blowing circulation control (CCW) wing were obtained during a recent test in the Arnold Engineering Development Center 40- by 80-Ft. Wind Tunnel at NASA Ames Research Center, Sound levels and spectra were acquired with seven in-flow microphones and a 48-element phased microphone array for a variety of vehicle configurations, CCW slot flow rates, and forward speeds, Corrections to the measurements and processing are in progress, however the data from selected configurations presented in this report confirm good measurement quality and dynamic range over the test conditions, Array beamform maps at 40 kts tunnel speed show that the trailing edge flap source is dominant for most frequencies at flap angles of 0deg and 60deg, The overall sound level for the 60deg flap was similar to the 0deg flap for most slot blowing rates forward of 90deg incidence, but was louder by up to 6 dB for downstream angles, At 100 kts, the in-flow microphone levels were louder than the sensor self-noise for the higher blowing rates, while passive and active background noise suppression methods for the microphone array revealed source levels as much as 20 dB lower than observed with the in-flow microphones,

Horne, Clifton↗

AMELIA CESTOL Test: Acoustic Characteristics of Circulation Control Wing with Leading- and Trailing-Edge Slot Blowing

The AMELIA Cruise-Efficient Short Take-off and Landing (CESTOL) configuration concept was developed to meet future requirements of reduced field length, noise, and fuel burn by researchers at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo and Georgia Tech Research Institute under sponsorship by the NASA Fundamental Aeronautics Program (FAP), Subsonic Fixed Wing Project. The novel configuration includes leading- and trailing-edge circulation control wing (CCW), over-wing podded turbine propulsion simulation (TPS). Extensive aerodynamic measurements of forces, surfaces pressures, and wing surface skin friction measurements were recently measured over a wide range of test conditions in the Arnold Engineering Development Center(AEDC) National Full-Scale Aerodynamics Complex (NFAC) 40- by 80-Ft Wind Tunnel. Acoustic measurements of the model were also acquired for each configuration with 7 fixed microphones on a line under the left wing, and with a 48-element, 40-inch diameter phased microphone array under the right wing. This presentation will discuss acoustic characteristics of the CCW system for a variety of tunnel speeds (0 to 120 kts), model configurations (leading edge(LE) and/or trailing-edge(TE) slot blowing, and orientations (incidence and yaw) based on acoustic measurements acquired concurrently with the aerodynamic measurements. The flow coefficient, Cmu= mVSLOT/qSW varied from 0 to 0.88 at 40 kts, and from 0 to 0.15 at 120 kts. Here m is the slot mass flow rate, VSLOT is the slot exit velocity, q is dynamic pressure, and SW is wing surface area. Directivities at selected 1/3 octave bands will be compared with comparable measurements of a 2-D wing at GTRI, as will as microphone array near-field measurements of the right wing at maximum flow rate. The presentation will include discussion of acoustic sensor calibrations as well as characterization of the wind tunnel background noise environment.

Horne, William C.↗

Target Trailing With Safe Navigation for Maritime Autonomous Surface Vehicles

This software implements a motion-planning module for a maritime autonomous surface vehicle (ASV). The module trails a given target while also avoiding static and dynamic surface hazards. When surface hazards are other moving boats, the motion planner must apply International Regulations for Avoiding Collisions at Sea (COLREGS). A key subset of these rules has been implemented in the software. In case contact with the target is lost, the software can receive and follow a "reacquisition route," provided by a complementary system, until the target is reacquired. The programmatic intention is that the trailed target is a submarine, although any mobile naval platform could serve as the target. The algorithmic approach to combining motion with a (possibly moving) goal location, while avoiding local hazards, may be applicable to robotic rovers, automated landing systems, and autonomous airships. The software operates in JPL s CARACaS (Control Architecture for Robotic Agent Command and Sensing) software architecture and relies on other modules for environmental perception data and information on the predicted detectability of the target, as well as the low-level interface to the boat controls.

Wolf, Michael↗

Flow Phenomena in the Very Near Wake of a Flat Plate with a Circular Trailing Edge

The very near wake of a flat plate with a circular trailing edge, exhibiting pronounced shedding of wake vortices, is investigated with data from a direct numerical simulation. The separating boundary layers are turbulent and statistically identical thus resulting in a wake that is symmetric in the mean. The focus here is on the instability of the detached shear layers, the evolution of rib-vortex induced localized regions of reverse flow that detach from the main body of reverse flow in the trailing edge region and convect downstream, and phaseaveraged velocity statistics in the very near wake. The detached shear layers are found to exhibit unstable behavior intermittently, including the development of shear layer vortices as in earlier cylinder flow investigations with laminar separating boundary layers. Only a small fraction of the separated turbulent boundary layers undergo this instability, and form the initial shed vortices. Pressure spectra within the shear layers show a broadband peak at a multiple of shedding frequency. Phase-averaged intensity and shear stress distributions of the randomly fluctuating component of velocity are compared with those obtained in the near wake. The distributions of the production terms in the transport equations for the turbulent stresses are also provided.

Turbulence↗

Transonic Drag Reduction Through Trailing-Edge Blowing on the FAST-MAC Circulation Control Model

A third wind tunnel test of the FAST-MAC circulation control semi-span model was completed in the National Transonic Facility at the NASA Langley Research Center where the model was configured for transonic testing of the cruise configuration with 0deg flap detection to determine the potential for transonic drag reduction with the circulation control blowing. The model allowed independent control of four circulation control plenums producing a high momentum jet from a blowing slot near the wing trailing edge that was directed over a 15% chord simple-hinged ap. Recent upgrades to transonic semi-span flow control testing at the NTF have demonstrated an improvement to overall data repeatability, particularly for the drag measurement, that allows for increased confidence in the data results. The static thrust generated by the blowing slot was removed from the wind-on data using force and moment balance data from wind-o thrust tares. This paper discusses the impact of the trailing-edge blowing to the transonic aerodynamics of the FAST-MAC model in the cruise configuration, where at flight Reynolds numbers, the thrust-removed corrected data showed that an overall drag reduction and increased aerodynamic efficiency was realized as a consequence of the blowing.

Chan, David T.↗

Vortex Shedding Characteristics of the Wake of a Thin Flat Plate with a Circular Trailing Edge

The near and very near wake of a thin flat plate with a circular trailing edge are investigated with direct numerical simulations (DNS). Data obtained for two different Reynolds numbers (based on plate thickness, D) are the main focus of this study. The separating boundary layers are turbulent in both cases. An earlier investigation of one of the cases (Case F) showed shed vortices in the wake that were about 1.0 D to 4.0 D in spanwise length. Considerable variation in both the strength and frequency of these shed vortices was observed. One objective of the present investigation is to determine the important contributors to this variability in strength and frequency of shed vortices and their finite spanwise extent. Analysis of the data shows that streamwise vortices in the separating boundary layer play an important role in strengthening/weakening of the shed vortices and that high/low-speed streaks in the boundary layer are important contributors to variability in shedding frequency. Both these features of the boundary layer contribute to the finite extent of the vortices in the spanwise direction. The second plate DNS (Case G, with 40 percent of the plate thickness of Case F) shows that while shedding intensity is weaker than obtained in Case F, many of the wake features are similar to that of Case F. This is important in understanding the path to the wake of the thin plate with a sharp trailing edge where shedding is absent. Here we also test the efficacy of a functional relationship between the shedding frequency and the Reynolds numbers based on the boundary layer momentum thickness (Re (sub theta) and D (Re (sub D)); data for developing this behavioral model is from Cases F & G and five earlier DNSs of the flat plate wake.

Turbulent wakes↗

The Intermediate Wake of a Thin Flat Plate with a Circular Trailing Edge

The intermediate wakes of thin flat plates with circular trailing edges (TEs) are investigated here with direct numerical simulations (DNSs). The separating boundary layers are turbulent in all cases. The near wake in two thin-plate cases (IN & NS), with a focus on the vortex shedding process, was explored in a recent article. Intermittent shedding was observed in Case IN. Case NS, with half the TE diameter of Case IN, was an essentially non-shedding case. A third case (ST) with a sharp trailing edge was also investigated and found to exhibit an intermittent wake instability. The objectives of the present study are twofold. The first is to determine if the wake instability found in Case ST exists in Cases IN and NS as well. The second is to provide the distributions of the turbulent normal intensities and shear stress in the wake and to understand these distributions via the budget terms in the corresponding transport equations. The results show that both Cases IN & NS exhibit a wake instability in the intermediate wake region, that is similar to that found earlier in Case ST. We note that in Case IN, the presence of an intermediate-wake instability results in the co-existence of two different types of instability within a single wake. The distributions of the turbulent normal intensities and shear stress, and the budget terms for the streamwise intensity are included and discussed here. All the budget terms contribute appreciably to the overall budget in the transport equation for streamwise normal intensity.

Rai, Man Mohan↗