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At least 307 records · Page 17
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NASA NTRS2017

A Dynamic Model for the Evaluation of Aircraft Engine Icing Detection and Control-Based Mitigation Strategies

Aircraft flying in regions of high ice crystal concentrations are susceptible to the buildup of ice within the compression system of their gas turbine engines. This ice buildup can restrict engine airflow and cause an uncommanded loss of thrust, also known as engine rollback, which poses a potential safety hazard. The aviation community is conducting research to understand this phenomena, and to identify avoidance and mitigation strategies to address the concern. To support this research, a dynamic turbofan engine model has been created to enable the development and evaluation of engine icing detection and control-based mitigation strategies. This model captures the dynamic engine response due to high ice water ingestion and the buildup of ice blockage in the engines low pressure compressor. It includes a fuel control system allowing engine closed-loop control effects during engine icing events to be emulated. The model also includes bleed air valve and horsepower extraction actuators that, when modulated, change overall engine operating performance. This system-level model has been developed and compared against test data acquired from an aircraft turbofan engine undergoing engine icing studies in an altitude test facility and also against outputs from the manufacturers customer deck. This paper will describe the model and show results of its dynamic response under open-loop and closed-loop control operating scenarios in the presence of ice blockage buildup compared against engine test cell data. Planned follow-on use of the model for the development and evaluation of icing detection and control-based mitigation strategies will also be discussed. The intent is to combine the model and control mitigation logic with an engine icing risk calculation tool capable of predicting the risk of engine icing based on current operating conditions. Upon detection of an operating region of risk for engine icing events, the control mitigation logic will seek to change the engines operating point to a region of lower risk through the modulation of available control actuators while maintaining the desired engine thrust output. Follow-on work will assess the feasibility and effectiveness of such control-based mitigation strategies.

engine control↗
NASA NTRS1982

Compression Ratio Adjuster

New mechanism alters compression ratio of internal-combustion engine according to load so that engine operates at top fuel efficiency. Ordinary gasoline, diesel and gas engines with their fixed compression ratios are inefficient at partial load and at low-speed full load. Mechanism ensures engines operate as efficiently under these conditions as they do at highload and high speed.

Akkerman, J. W.↗
NASA NTRS2005

The Physics of Cooling Flow Clusters with Central Radio Sources

Central galaxies in rich clusters are the sites of cluster cooling flows, with large masses of gas cooling through part of the X-ray band. Many of these galaxies host powerful radio sources. These sources can displace and compress the X-ray gas leading to enhanced cooling and star formation. We observed the bright cooling flow Abell 2626 with a strangely distorted central radio source. We wished to understand the interaction of radio and X-ray thermal plasma, and to determine the dynamical nature of this cluster. One aim was to constrain the source of additional pressure in radio "holes" in the X-ray emission needed to support overlying shells of X-ray gas. We also aimed to study the problem of the lack of kT < 1-2 keV gas in cooling flows by searching for abundance inhomogeneities, heating from the radio source, and excess absorption. We also have a Chandra observation of this cluster. There were problems with the pipeline processing of this data due to a telemetry dropout. We are publishing the Chandra and XMM data together. Delays with the Chandra data have slowed up the publication. At the center of the cluster, there is a complex interaction of the odd, Z-shaped radio source, and the X-ray plasma. However, there are no clear radio bubbles. Also, the cluster SO galaxy IC 5337, which is projected 1.5 arcmin west of the cluster center, has unusual tail-like structures in both the radio and X-ray. It appears to be falling into the cluster center. There is a hot, probably shocked region of gas to the southwest, which is apparently due to the merger of a subcluster in this part of the system. There is also a merging subcluster to the northeast. The axes of these two mergers agrees with a supercluster filament structure.

Sarazin, Craig L.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Analysis Of Stepped Labyrinth Seals

Report presents analysis of compressible flow in stepped labyrinth gas seal in turbomachine. Part of continuing effort to understand and suppress self-excited vibrations caused by stepped labyrinth seals. Rotordynamic coefficients derived for compressible flow.

Scharrer, Joseph K.↗
NASA NTRS2013

Prediction of Ablation Rates from Solid Surfaces Exposed to High Temperature Gas Flow

A mathematical model and a solution algorithm is developed to study the physics of high temperature heat transfer and material ablation and identify the problems associated with the flow of hydrogen gas at very high temperatures and velocities through pipes and various components of Nuclear Thermal Rocket (NTR) motors. Ablation and melting can be experienced when the inner solid surface of the cooling channels and the diverging-converging nozzle of a Nuclear Thermal Rocket (NTR) motor is exposed to hydrogen gas flow at temperatures around 2500 degrees Kelvin and pressures around 3.4 MPa. In the experiments conducted on typical NTR motors developed in 1960s, degradation of the cooling channel material (cracking in the nuclear fuel element cladding) and in some instances melting of the core was observed. This paper presents the results of a preliminary study based on two types of physics based mathematical models that were developed to simulate the thermal-hydrodynamic conditions that lead to ablation of the solid surface of a stainless steel pipe exposed to high temperature hydrogen gas near sonic velocities. One of the proposed models is one-dimensional and assumes the gas flow to be unsteady, compressible and viscous. An in-house computer code was developed to solve the conservations equations of this model using a second-order accurate finite-difference technique. The second model assumes the flow to be three-dimensional, unsteady, compressible and viscous. A commercial CFD code (Fluent) was used to solve the later model equations. Both models assume the thermodynamic and transport properties of the hydrogen gas to be temperature dependent. In the solution algorithm developed for this study, the unsteady temperature of the pipe is determined from the heat equation for the solid. The solid-gas interface temperature is determined from an energy balance at the interface which includes heat transfer from or to the interface by conduction, convection, radiation, and ablation. Two different ablation models are proposed to determine the heat loss from the solid surface due to the ablation of the solid material. Both of them are physics based. Various numerical simulations were carried out using both models to predict the temperature distribution in the solid and in the gas flow, and then predict the ablation rates at a typical NTR motor hydrogen gas temperature and pressure. Solid mass loss rate per foot of a pipe was also calculated from these predictions. The results are presented for fully developed turbulent flow conditions in a sample SS pipe with a 6 inch diameter.

Akyuzlu, Kazim M.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Models of the Cartwheel ring galaxy: Spokes and starbursts

Recent observations of this famous ring galaxy, including optical and near-infrared CCD surface photometry, and VLA radio continuum and 21 cm line mapping (Higdon 1992b, in prep.), have inspired a renewed modeling effort. Toomre's (1978, in The Large-scale Structure of the Universe, eds. Longair and Einasto) series of restricted three-body simulations demonstrated how the multiple rings could be produced in a nearly head-on galaxy collision. New models with a halo-dominated potential based on the 21 cm rotation curve are able to reproduce such details as the spacing between rings, ring widths, offset of the nucleus, and several kinematical features, thus providing strong support for the collisional theory. The new observations have shown there are little or no old stars in Cartwheel; it may consist almost entirely of gas and stars produced as a result of compression in the ring wave. To model this process Smooth Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) simulations of the Cartwheel disk have been performed. Fixed gravitational potentials were used to represent the Cartwheel and a roughly 30 percent mass collision partner. The interaction dynamics was treated as in the usual restricted three-body approximation, and the effects of local self-gravity between disk particles were calculated. We are particularly interested in testing the theory that enhanced star formation in waves is the result of gravitational instability in the compressed region (see e.g. Kennicutt 1989, ApJ 344, 685). The gas surface density in a number of simulations was initialized to a value slightly below the threshold for local gravitational instability throughout most of the disk. The first ring wave produces relatively modest compressions (a factor of order a few), triggering instability in a narrow range of wavelengths. Self-gravity in the disk is calculated over a comparable range of scales. Simulations were run with isothermal, adiabatic, and adiabatic with radiative cooling characterized by a relatively short timescale. The isothermal approximation is good except in the vicinity of the strong second (inner) ring, and several snapshots from one case are shown in the figure below. Flocculent spiral segments are present before the collision, and these are compressed into dense knots in the ring wave. These knots are likely to be sites of vigorous star formation. In the strong rarefaction behind the outer ring most of the knots are radially stretched and sheared, giving rise to spoke-like features. A few dense knots are evidently very tightly bound, because they retain their coherence and are stretched relatively little through the rarefaction. This is in accord with evidence for continuing star formation in some spokes (Marcum, Appleton and Higdon 1992). The number and spacing of spokes is a direct function of the scale of the gravitational instability in the disk. Thus, the gravitational instability theory, together with the hypothesis that massive stars are only formed in dense knots of gas, can account for most of the distinct morphology of the Cartwheel.

Struck-Marcell, Curtis↗
NASA NTRS1999

Entropy Splitting and Numerical Dissipation

A rigorous stability estimate for arbitrary order of accuracy of spatial central difference schemes for initial-boundary value problems of nonlinear symmetrizable systems of hyperbolic conservation laws was established recently by Olsson and Oliger (1994) and Olsson (1995) and was applied to the two-dimensional compressible Euler equations for a perfect gas by Gerritsen and Olsson (1996) and Gerritsen (1996). The basic building block in developing the stability estimate is a generalized energy approach based on a special splitting of the flux derivative via a convex entropy function and certain homogeneous properties. Due to some of the unique properties of the compressible Euler equations for a perfect gas, the splitting resulted in the sum of a conservative portion and a non-conservative portion of the flux derivative. hereafter referred to as the "Entropy Splitting." There are several potential desirable attributes and side benefits of the entropy splitting for the compressible Euler equations that were not fully explored in Gerritsen and Olsson. The paper has several objectives. The first is to investigate the choice of the arbitrary parameter that determines the amount of splitting and its dependence on the type of physics of current interest to computational fluid dynamics. The second is to investigate in what manner the splitting affects the nonlinear stability of the central schemes for long time integrations of unsteady flows such as in nonlinear aeroacoustics and turbulence dynamics. If numerical dissipation indeed is needed to stabilize the central scheme, can the splitting help minimize the numerical dissipation compared to its un-split cousin? Extensive numerical study on the vortex preservation capability of the splitting in conjunction with central schemes for long time integrations will be presented. The third is to study the effect of the non-conservative proportion of splitting in obtaining the correct shock location for high speed complex shock-turbulence interactions. The fourth is to determine if this method can be extended to other physical equations of state and other evolutionary equation sets. If numerical dissipation is needed, the Yee, Sandham, and Djomehri (1999) numerical dissipation is employed. The Yee et al. schemes fit in the Olsson and Oliger framework.

Yee, H. C.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Lifetime prediction of materials exposed to the natural space environment

The goal of this study is to model the lifetime of different types of seal materials based on results obtained from accelerated experiments. A semi-mechanistic approach was taken. Thermal aging data were taken from the literature whereas experiments were conducted at Auburn under this contract for selected environments. The seal materials of interest are Silicone 383, Silicone 650, Viton 835, and Viton 747. The relevant conditions include thermal, oxygen, inert gas, vacuum, and gamma radiation. Compression set data available from NASA were used to examine the thermal effect. Experiments were conducted at Auburn University and at NASA to isolate the role of thermal, oxygen, inert gas, vacuum, gamma irradiation, and proton irradiation. A simple discrete stress relaxation method was developed to determine the relaxation response of the elastomers. Dynamic mechanical thermal analysis was also used to characterize the mechanical response of the specimens. These provide a more meaningful correlation between mechanisms and degradation.

Zee, Ralph↗
NASA NTRS1998

A Gas-Kinetic Scheme for Reactive Flows

In this paper, the gas-kinetic BGK scheme for the compressible flow equations is extended to chemical reactive flow. The mass fraction of the unburnt gas is implemented into the gas kinetic equation by assigning a new internal degree of freedom to the particle distribution function. The new variable can be also used to describe fluid trajectory for the nonreactive flows. Due to the gas-kinetic BGK model, the current scheme basically solves the Navier-Stokes chemical reactive flow equations. Numerical tests validate the accuracy and robustness of the current kinetic method.

Lian,Youg-Sheng↗
NASA NTRS2000

Isentropic Compression of Multicomponent Mixtures of Fuels and Inert Gases

In selected aerospace applications of the fuels hydrazine and monomethythydrazine, there occur conditions which can result in the isentropic compression of a multicomponent mixture of fuel and inert gas. One such example is when a driver gas such as helium comes out of solution and mixes with the fuel vapor, which is being compressed. A second example is when product gas from an energetic device mixes with the fuel vapor which is being compressed. Thermodynamic analysis has shown that under isentropic compression, the fuels hydrazine and monomethylhydrazine must be treated as real fluids using appropriate equations of state. The appropriate equations of state are the Peng-Robinson equation of state for hydrazine and the Redlich-Kwong-Soave equation of state for monomethylhydrazine. The addition of an inert gas of variable quantity and input temperature and pressure to the fuel compounds the problem for safety design or analysis. This work provides the appropriate thermodynamic analysis of isentropic compression of the two examples cited. In addition to an entropy balance describing the change of state, an enthalpy balance is required. The presence of multicomponents in the system requires that appropriate mixing rules are identified and applied to the analysis. This analysis is not currently available.

Barragan, Michelle↗
NASA NTRS1986

An analysis of ullage heat transfer in the orbital refueling system

The Orbital Refueling System was an experiment flown on Shuttle Mission STS 41-G in October, 1984. Liquid hydrazine fuel was transferred back and forth from one spherical bladder tank to another using pressurized nitrogen as the driving force. Compressive heating of the ullage gas in the receiving tank could lead to a hazardous situation if any hydrazine leaked through to the ullage side of the bladder and was heated above about 175 F, where it can undergo spontaneous exothermic decomposition. Early analysis of the flight data indicated that the ullage compression process was much closer to an isothermal than an adiabatic one. In this study, a thorough review of the pertinent literature was used to make an a priori best-estimate for the ullage gas heat transfer coefficient (defining the Nusselt Number as a function of Reynolds and Rayleigh Numbers). Experimental data from the flight were analyzed in detail. It is evident that there is considerably more heat transfer than can be accounted for by conduction alone, but the observed increases do not correlate well with Reynolds Number, Rayleigh Number or vehicle acceleration. There are large gaps in the present understanding of convective heat transfer in closed containers with internal heat generation, especially in the presence of vibrations or other random disturbances. A program of experiments to fill in these gaps is suggested, covering both ground and orbital environments.

Kauffman, D.↗
NASA NTRS2015

Pressure-Equalizing Cradle for Booster Rocket Mounting

A launch system and method improve the launch efficiency of a booster rocket and payload. A launch aircraft atop which the booster rocket is mounted in a cradle, is flown or towed to an elevation at which the booster rocket is released. The cradle provides for reduced structural requirements for the booster rocket by including a compressible layer, that may be provided by a plurality of gas or liquid-filled flexible chambers. The compressible layer contacts the booster rocket along most of the length of the booster rocket to distribute applied pressure, nearly eliminating bending loads. Distributing the pressure eliminates point loading conditions and bending moments that would otherwise be generated in the booster rocket structure during carrying. The chambers may be balloons distributed in rows and columns within the cradle or cylindrical chambers extending along a length of the cradle. The cradle may include a manifold communicating gas between chambers.

Rutan, Elbert L.↗
NASA NTRS1996

Supersonic Gas-Liquid Cleaning System

The Supersonic Gas-Liquid Cleaning System Research Project consisted mainly of a feasibility study, including theoretical and engineering analysis, of a proof-of-concept prototype of this particular cleaning system developed by NASA-KSC. The cleaning system utilizes gas-liquid supersonic nozzles to generate high impingement velocities at the surface of the device to be cleaned. The cleaning fluid being accelerated to these high velocities may consist of any solvent or liquid, including water. Compressed air or any inert gas is used to provide the conveying medium for the liquid, as well as substantially reduce the total amount of liquid needed to perform adequate surface cleaning and cleanliness verification. This type of aqueous cleaning system is considered to be an excellent way of conducting cleaning and cleanliness verification operations as replacements for the use of CFC 113 which must be discontinued by 1995. To utilize this particular cleaning system in various cleaning applications for both the Space Program and the commercial market, it is essential that the cleaning system, especially the supersonic nozzle, be characterized for such applications. This characterization consisted of performing theoretical and engineering analysis, identifying desirable modifications/extensions to the basic concept, evaluating effects of variations in operating parameters, and optimizing hardware design for specific applications.

Kinney, Frank↗
NASA NTRS1978

Interplanetary gas. XXII - Interaction of comet Kohoutek's ion tail with the compression region of a solar-wind corotating stream

An apparently successful identification of a comet-tail feature with a solar-wind event is presented. Photographs of comet Kohoutek 1973f show a large-scale disturbance in the middle and outer regions of the ion tail early on January 20 of 1974. On the previous and succeeding days the comet had, however, a 'normal' and less active appearance. The peculiar tail structure is linked to an encounter with rapidly changing solar-wind conditions on the forward edge of the high-velocity solar-wind stream which encountered the earth late on January 24. The stream produced a geomagnetic storm of the recurrent type. The high-speed stream appears to have been associated with a large near-equatorial coronal hole which underwent central meridian passage on January 22. It is proposed that the comet was in the compression region on the stream forward edge at the time of formation of the tail disturbance. The accuracy of the time delays is actually tested by an application of the wind shock theory of ionic tail orientations.

Niedner, M. B., Jr.↗
NASA NTRS2004

Part 1 of a Computational Study of a Drop-Laden Mixing Layer

This first of three reports on a computational study of a drop-laden temporal mixing layer presents the results of direct numerical simulations (DNS) of well-resolved flow fields and the derivation of the large-eddy simulation (LES) equations that would govern the larger scales of a turbulent flow field. The mixing layer consisted of two counterflowing gas streams, one of which was initially laden with evaporating liquid drops. The gas phase was composed of two perfect gas species, the carrier gas and the vapor emanating from the drops, and was computed in an Eulerian reference frame, whereas each drop was tracked individually in a Lagrangian manner. The flow perturbations that were initially imposed on the layer caused mixing and eventual transition to turbulence. The DNS database obtained included transitional states for layers with various liquid mass loadings. For the DNS, the gas-phase equations were the compressible Navier-Stokes equations for conservation of momentum and additional conservation equations for total energy and species mass. These equations included source terms representing the effect of the drops on the mass, momentum, and energy of the gas phase. From the DNS equations, the expression for the irreversible entropy production (dissipation) was derived and used to determine the dissipation due to the source terms. The LES equations were derived by spatially filtering the DNS set and the magnitudes of the terms were computed at transitional states, leading to a hierarchy of terms to guide simplification of the LES equations. It was concluded that effort should be devoted to the accurate modeling of both the subgridscale fluxes and the filtered source terms, which were the dominant unclosed terms appearing in the LES equations.

Okong'o, Nora A.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Performance data of the new free-piston shock tunnel T5 at GALCIT

A new free piston shock tunnel has been constructed at the Graduate Aeronautical Laboratories at Caltec. Compression tube length is 30 m and diameter 300 mm. Shock tube length is 12 m and diameter 90 mm. Piston mass is 150 kg and maximum diaphragm burst pressure is 130 MPa. Special features of this facility are that the pressure in the driver gas is monitored throughout the compression process until well after diaphragm rupture, and that the diaphragm burst pressure can be measured dynamically. An analysis of initial performance data including transient behavior of the flow over models is presented.

Hornung, H.↗
NASA NTRS1972

Analysis of face deformation effects on gas film seal performance

Analyses are presented for compressible fluid flow across shaft face seals with face deformation. The solutions are obtained from an approximate integral analysis. The models, used in this analysis, can predict gas film seal behavior operating at subsonic or choked flow conditions. The flow regime can either be laminar or turbulent. Entrance losses can also be accounted for. When fluid inertia effects are negligible and the sealing faces are slightly deformed, the following results are found for both laminar and turbulent flows: (1) The pressure profiles are independent of fluid properties; and (2) the parallel film leakage equation can be used, provided a characteristic film thickness is used. Pressure profiles are presented for both divergent and convergent seal faces under choked flow conditions.

Zuk, J.↗
NASA NTRS1920

Testing balloon gas

In the generation, storage, and use of hydrogen for balloon purposes it is necessary to be able to determine, first, its lifting power, and, secondly, its purity. The lifting power may be determined directly from the specific gravity. Contamination by other gases may be determined by analysis for oxygen, carbon dioxide, etc., by the usual methods of gas analysis. The determination of oxygen is important, since the presence of oxygen in amounts beyond certain limits will make the compressing, handling, and use of the gas hazardous. If the specific gravity of the gas is known, however, it may not be necessary to analyze the gas for oxygen and other gases, because the specific gravity in itself is a delicate criterion of the purity of hydrogen. Report describes a simple, portable apparatus for testing hydrogen, with special reference to its use in balloons.

Edwards, Junius David↗