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NASA NTRS2003

Three-Dimensional Effects in Multi-Element High Lift Computations

In an effort to discover the causes for disagreement between previous two-dimensional (2-D) computations and nominally 2-D experiment for flow over the three-element McDonnell Douglas 30P-30N airfoil configuration at high lift, a combined experimental/CFD investigation is described. The experiment explores several different side-wall boundary layer control venting patterns, documents venting mass flow rates, and looks at corner surface flow patterns. The experimental angle of attack at maximum lift is found to be sensitive to the side-wall venting pattern: a particular pattern increases the angle of attack at maximum lift by at least 2 deg. A significant amount of spanwise pressure variation is present at angles of attack near maximum lift. A CFD study using three-dimensional (3-D) structured-grid computations, which includes the modeling of side-wall venting, is employed to investigate 3-D effects on the flow. Side-wall suction strength is found to affect the angle at which maximum lift is predicted. Maximum lift in the CFD is shown to be limited by the growth of an off-body corner flow vortex and consequent increase in spanwise pressure variation and decrease in circulation. The 3-D computations with and without wall venting predict similar trends to experiment at low angles of attack, but either stall too early or else overpredict lift levels near maximum lift by as much as 5%. Unstructured-grid computations demonstrate that mounting brackets lower the lift levels near maximum lift conditions.

Rumsey, Christopher L.↗

NASA NTRS1997

Development of Processing Techniques for Advanced Thermal Protection Materials

During the period June 1, 1996 through May 31, 1997, the main effort has been in the development of materials for high temperature applications. Thermal Protection Systems (TPS) are constantly being tested and evaluated for thermal shock resistance, high temperature dimensional stability, and tolerance to environmental effects. Materials development was carried out by using many different instruments and methods, ranging from intensive elemental analysis to testing the physical attributes of a material. The material development concentrated on two key areas: (1) development of coatings for carbon/carbon composites, and (2) development of ultra-high temperature ceramics (UHTC). This report describes the progress made in these two areas of research during this contract period.

Selvaduray, Guna↗

NASA NTRS1994

Numerical design of advanced multi-element airfoils

The current study extends the application of computational fluid dynamics to three-dimensional high-lift systems. Structured, overset grids are used in conjunction with an incompressible Navier-Stokes flow solver to investigate flow over a two-element high-lift configuration. The computations were run in a fully turbulent mode using the one-equation Baldwin-Barth turbulence model. The geometry consisted of an unswept wing which spanned a wind tunnel test section. Flows over full and half-span Fowler flap configurations were computed. Grid resolution issues were investigated in two dimensional studies of the flapped airfoil. Results of the full-span flap wing agreed well with experimental data and verified the method. Flow over the wing with the half-span was computed to investigate the details of the flow at the free edge of the flap. The results illustrated changes in flow streamlines, separation locations, and surface pressures due to the vortex shed from the flap edge.

Mathias, Donovan L.↗

NASA NTRS1980

Three-dimensional interactions and vortical flows with emphasis on high speeds

Diverse kinds of three-dimensional regions of separation in laminar and turbulent boundary layers are discussed that exist on lifting aerodynamic configurations immersed in flows from subsonic to hypersonic speeds. In all cases of three dimensional flow separation, the assumption of continuous vector fields of skin-friction lines and external-flow streamlines, coupled with simple topology laws, provides a flow grammar whose elemental constituents are the singular points: nodes, foci, and saddles. Adopting these notions enables one to create sequences of plausible flow structures, to deduce mean flow characteristics, expose flow mechanisms, and to aid theory and experiment where lack of resolution in numerical calculations or wind tunnel observation causes imprecision in diagnosing the three dimensional flow features.

Peake, D. J.↗

NASA NTRS1982

High-resolution imaging with a two-dimensional resistive anode photon counter

A method to achieve high spatial resolution readout of individual photoelectron events using microchannel plates and a resistive anode is presented. A clamped pair of microchannel plates is used, followed by a gap and a clamped triplet of microchannel plates in cascade to achieve a high stable electron gain of 3 x 10 to the 7th. The gain allows the position determination of each photoelectron event with a very high signal-to-noise ratio. A model consisting of a windowless vacuum-ultraviolet image sensor is presented to demonstrate 500 x 500 pixel images of 50 micron FWHM over a 25-mm circular field of view. The detector offers sufficient speed, sensitivity and resolution for a variety of applications, and the mount design is compatible with planar, remotely-processed, proximity-focused photocathodes.

Firmani, C.↗

NASA NTRS1991

Three-dimensional analysis of the Pratt and Whitney alternate design SSME fuel turbine

The three dimensional viscous time-mean flow in the Pratt and Whitney alternate design space shuttle main engine fuel turbine is simulated using the average passage Navier-Stokes equations. The migration of secondary flows generated by upstream blade rows and their effect on the performance of downstream blade rows is studied. The present simulation confirms that the flow in this two stage turbine is highly three dimensional and dominated by the tip leakage flow. The tip leakage vortex generated by the first blade persists through the second blade and adversely affects its performance. The greatest mixing of the inlet total temperature distortion occurs in the second vane and is due to the large leakage vortex generated by the upstream rotor. It is assumed that the predominant spanwise mixing mechanism in this low aspect ratio turbine is the radial transport due to the deterministically unsteady vortical flow generated by upstream blade rows. A by-product of the analysis is accurate pressure and heat loads for all blade rows under the influence of neighboring blade rows. These aero loads are useful for advanced structural analysis of the vanes and blades.

Kirtley, K. R.↗

NASA NTRS1995

Development of processing techniques for advanced thermal protection materials

The main purpose of this work has been in the development and characterization of materials for high temperature applications. Thermal Protection Systems (TPS) are constantly being tested, and evaluated for increased thermal shock resistance, high temperature dimensional stability, and tolerance to environmental effects. Materials development was carried out through the use of many different instruments and methods, ranging from extensive elemental analysis to physical attributes testing. The six main focus areas include: (1) protective coatings for carbon/carbon composites; (2) TPS material characterization; (3) improved waterproofing for TPS; (4) modified ceramic insulation for bone implants; (5) improved durability ceramic insulation blankets; and (6) ultra-high temperature ceramics. This report describes the progress made in these research areas during this contract period.

Selvaduray, Guna S.↗

NASA NTRS2013

Fully Printed, Flexible, Phased Array Antenna for Lunar Surface Communication

NASAs future exploration missions focus on the manned exploration of the Moon, Mars, and beyond, which will rely heavily on the development of a reliable communications infrastructure from planetary surface-to-surface, surface-to-orbit, and back to Earth. Flexible antennas are highly desired in many scenarios. Active phased array antennas (active PAAs) with distributed control and processing electronics at the surface of an antenna aperture offer numerous advantages for radar communications. Large-area active PAAs on flexible substrates are of particular interest in NASA s space radars due to their efficient inflatable package that can be rolled up during transportation and deployed in space. Such an inflatable package significantly reduces stowage volume and mass. Because of these performance and packaging advantages, large-area inflatable active PAAs are highly desired in NASA s surface-to-orbit and surface-to-relay communications. To address the issues of flexible electronics, a room-temperature printing process of active phased-array antennas on a flexible Kapton substrate was developed. Field effect transistors (FETs) based on carbon nanotubes (CNTs), with many unique physical properties, were successfully proved feasible for the PAA system. This innovation is a new type of fully inkjet-printable, two-dimensional, high-frequency PAA on a flexible substrate at room temperature. The designed electronic circuit components, such as the FET switches in the phase shifter, metal interconnection lines, microstrip transmission lines, etc., are all printed using a special inkjet printer. Using the developed technology, entire 1x4, 2x2, and 4x4 PAA systems were developed, packaged, and demonstrated at 5.3 GHz. Several key solutions are addressed in this work to solve the fabrication issues. The source/drain contact is developed using droplets of silver ink printed on the source/drain areas prior to applying CNT thin-film. The wet silver ink droplets allow the silver to wet the CNT thin-film area and enable good contact with the source and drain contact after annealing. A passivation layer to protect the device channel is developed by bonding a thin Kapton film on top of the device channel. This film is also used as the media for transferring the aligned CNT thin-film on the device substrate. A simple and cost-effective technique to form multilayer metal interconnections on flexible substrate is developed and demonstrated. Contact vias are formed on the second substrate prior to bonding on the first substrate. Inkjet printing is used to fill the silver ink into the via structure. The printed silver ink penetrates through the vias to contact with the contact pads on the bottom layer. It is then annealed to form a good connection. One-dimensional and two-dimensional PAAs were fabricated and characterized. In these circuits, multilayer metal interconnects were used to make a complete PAA system.

Subbaraman, Harish↗

NASA NTRS1985

Pressure-distribution measurements on a transonic low-aspect ratio wing

Experimental surface pressure distributions and oil flow photographs are presented for a 0.90 m semispan model of NASA/Lockheed Wing C, a generic transonic, supercritical, low aspect ratio, highly 3-dimensional configuration. This wing was tested at the design angle of attack of 5 deg over a Mach number range from 0.25 to 0.96, and a Reynolds number range from 3.4 x 1,000,000 to 10 x 1,000,000. Pressures were measured with both the tunnel floor and ceiling suction slots open for most of the tests but taped closed for some tests to simulate solid walls. A comparison is made with the measured pressures from a small model in high Reynolds number facility and with predicted pressures using two three dimesional, transonic full potential flow wing codes: design code FLO22 (nonconservative) and TWING code (conservative). At the given design condition, a small region of flow separation occurred. At a Mach number of 0.82 the flow was unseparated and the surface flow angles were less than 10 deg, indicating that the boundary layer flow was not 3-D. Evidence indicate that wings that are optimized for mild shock waves and mild pressure recovery gradients generally have small 3-D boundary layer flow at design conditions for unseparated flow.

Keener, E. R.↗

NASA NTRS1994

A note on two-dimensional asymptotic magnetotail equilibria

In order to understand, on the fluid level, the structure, the time evolution, and the stability of current sheets, such as the magnetotail plasma sheet in Earth's magnetosphere, one has to consider magnetic field configurations that are in magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) force equilibrium. Any reasonable MHD current sheet model has to be two-dimensional, at least in an asymptotic sense (B(sub z)/B (sub x)) = epsilon much less than 1. The necessary two-dimensionality is described by a rather arbitrary function f(x). We utilize the free function f(x) to construct two-dimensional magnetotail equilibria are 'equivalent' to current sheets in empirical three-dimensional models. We obtain a class of asymptotic magnetotail equilibria ordered with respect to the magnetic disturbance index Kp. For low Kp values the two-dimensional MHD equilibria reflect some of the realistic, observation-based, aspects of three-dimensional models. For high Kp values the three-dimensional models do not fit the asymptotic MHD equlibria, which is indicative of their inconsistency with the assumed pressure function. This, in turn, implies that high magnetic activity levels of the real magnetosphere might be ruled by thermodynamic conditions different from local thermodynamic equilibrium.

Voigt, Gerd-Hannes↗

NASA NTRS1991

The stability to two-dimensional wakes and shear layers at high Mach numbers

This study is concerned with the stability properties of laminar free-shear-layer flows, and in particular symmetric two-dimensional wakes, for the supersonic through the hypersonic regimes. Emphasis is given to the use of proper wake profiles that satisfy the equations of motion at high Reynolds numbers. In particular the inviscid stability of a developing two-dimensional wake is studied as it accelerates at the trailing edge of a splitter plate. The nonparallelism of the flow is a leading-order effect in the calculation of the basic state, which is obtained numerically. Neutral stability characteristics are computed and the hypersonic stability is obtained by increasing the Mach number. It is found that the stability characteristics are altered significantly as the wake develops. Multiple modes (secondary modes) are found in the near wake that are closely related to the corresponding Blasius ones, but as the wake develops mode multiplicity is delayed to higher and higher Mach numbers. At a distance of about one plate length from the trailing edge, there is only one mode in a Mach number range of 0-20. The dominant mode emerging at all wake stations, and for high enough Mach numbers, is the so-called vorticity mode that is centered around the generalized inflection point layer. The structure of the dominant mode is also obtained analytically for all streamwise wake locations and it is shown how the far-wake limit is approached. Asymptotic results for the hypersonic mixing layer given by a tanh and a Lock distribution are also given.

Papageorgiou, Demetrios T.↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Developing Fast and Accurate Radiative Transfer Models to Meet the Needs of Modern Satellite Remote Sensing Applications

Modern hyperspectral satellite remote sensors provide highly accurate measurements the Earth’s Top-of-Atmosphere (TOA) radiance, reflectance, or polarized spectra with hundreds to thousands of spectral channels and with millions of observations per day. The large data volume and high spectral dimensionality of the data pose challenges for retrieval algorithms. To process the satellite Level-1 data (e.g. calibrated TOA spectra) into Level-2 products (e.g. atmospheric and surface properties) using physical-based retrieval algorithms, accurate and fast Radiative Transfer Models (RTMs) are needed. RTMs are usually the limiting factor in determining the speed of a level-2 algorithm. For example, more than one million Line-by-Line (LBL) radiative transfer (RT) calculations are needed in order to properly capture the spectral contributions of important atmospheric molecules for an IR hyperspectral sensor with a spectral coverage from 3.5 m to 15 m or a solar hyperspectral sensor with spectral coverage from 0.25 m to 2.5 m. In this presentation, we will discuss advantages and disadvantages of different ways (e.g. correlated k and effective transmittance) to accelerate the speed of a fast RTM. We finally describe a Principal Component-based Radiative Transfer Model (PCRTM), which can calculate TOA radiance or reflectance spectra from 50 cm-1 to 40,000 cm-1 (200 m to 0.25 m). It has demonstrated very good accuracy relative to reference LBL RTMs and saves orders of magnitude in computational time. The PCRTM has been used in many satellite remote sensing applications. Examples include forward modeling in Level-2 and Level-3 retrieval algorithms, high fidelity satellite instrument simulators and instrument performance trade studies, spectral and radiometric accuracy characterizations of satellite Level-1 data, tools for inter-satellite calibrations, tools for satellite RTM lookup table generations, and tools for generating physically based training datasets for Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithms.

climate data record↗

NASA NTRS2006

Using Image Tour to Explore Multiangle, Multispectral Satellite Image

This viewgraph presentation reviews the use of Image Tour to explore the multiangle, multispectral satellite imagery. Remote sensing data are spatial arrays of p-dimensional vectors where each component corresponds to one of p variables. Applying the same R(exp p) to R(exp d) projection to all pixels creates new images, which may be easier to analyze than the original because d < p. Image grand tour (IGT) steps through the space of projections, and d=3 outputs a sequence of RGB images, one for each step. In this talk, we apply IGT to multiangle, multispectral data from NASA's MISR instrument. MISR views each pixel in four spectral bands at nine view angles. Multiple views detect photon scattering in different directions and are indicative of physical properties of the scene. IGT allows us to explore MISR's data structure while maintaining spatial context; a key requirement for physical interpretation. We report results highlighting the uniqueness of multiangle data and how IGT can exploit it.

visualization↗

NASA NTRS1987

Euler analysis of the three dimensional flow field of a high-speed propeller: Boundary condition effects

The results of an investigation of the effects of far field boundary conditions on the solution of the three dimensional Euler equations governing the flow field of a high speed single rotation propeller are presented. The results show that the solutions obtained with the nonreflecting boundary conditions are in good agreement with experimental data. The specification of nonreflecting boundary conditions is effective in reducing the dependence of the solution on the location of the far field boundary. Details of the flow field within the blade passage and the tip vortex are presented. The dependence of the computed power coefficient on the blade passage and the tip vortex are presented. The dependence of the computed power coefficient on the blade setting angle is examined.

Nallasamy, M.↗

NASA NTRS1987

Euler analysis of the three-dimensional flow field of a high-speed propeller - Boundary condition effects

Nallasamy, M.↗

NASA NTRS1969

Incipient separation of a turbulent boundary layer at high Reynolds number in two- dimensional supersonic flow over a compression corner

Mach number effects on pressure caused incipient separation of turbulent boundary layer in two dimensional supersonic corner flow

Roshko, A.↗

NASA NTRS1972

Visualization study of flow in axial flow inducer.

A visualization study of the flow through a three ft dia model of a four bladed inducer, which is operated in air at a flow coefficient of 0.065, is reported in this paper. The flow near the blade surfaces, inside the rotating passages, downstream and upstream of the inducer is visualized by means of smoke, tufts, ammonia filament, and lampblack techniques. Flow is found to be highly three dimensional, with appreciable radial velocity throughout the entire passage. The secondary flows observed near the hub and annulus walls agree with qualitative predictions obtained from the inviscid secondary flow theory.

Lakshminarayana, B.↗

NASA NTRS1978

Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD): Future role and requirements as viewed by an applied aerodynamicist

The problem of designing the wing-fuselage configuration of an advanced transonic commercial airliner and the optimization of a supercruiser fighter are sketched, pointing out the essential fluid mechanical phenomena that play an important role. Such problems suggest that for a numerical method to be useful, it must be able to treat highly three dimensional turbulent separations, flows with jet engine exhausts, and complex vehicle configurations. Weaknesses of the two principal tools of the aerodynamicist, the wind tunnel and the computer, suggest a complementing combined use of these tools, which is illustrated by the case of the transonic wing-fuselage design. The anticipated difficulties in developing an adequate turbulent transport model suggest that such an approach may have to suffice for an extended period. On a longer term, experimentation of turbulent transport in meaningful cases must be intensified to provide a data base for both modeling and theory validation purposes.

Yoshihara, H.↗