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NASA NTRS2009

CFD Technology for Rotorcraft Gearbox Windage Aerodynamics Simulation

A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method is adapted, validated and applied to spinning gear systems with emphasis on predicting windage losses. Several spur gears and a disc are studied. The CFD simulations return good agreement with measured windage power loss. Turbulence modeling choices, the relative importance of viscous and pressure torques with gear speed and the physics of the complex 3-D unsteady flow field in the vicinity of the gear teeth are studied.

Handschuh, Robert↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Application of OpenFOAM to Plume Impingement in Space Environments

After 30 years of continuous human presence in low-earth orbit, NASA is returning to the moon and eventually will go to Mars. Travelling beyond low earth orbit requires NASA to learn how humans can live in Deep Space environments – beyond the protection of Earth’s magnetosphere and at distances from Earth that prevent a quick return in case of trouble. To this end, NASA is constructing the Lunar Gateway, an ISS-like space station to be put in orbit around the moon to act as a home base for Lunar exploration for NASA astronauts. The Gateway Lunar outpost will be built incrementally, via modules which will arrive at separate times and dock to the existing structure. The incremental addition of Gateway modules, and the docking of visiting vehicles, is achieved via a sequence of firings from the approaching body’s onboard reaction control system (RCS) thrusters to achieve the required approach trajectory. The typical hypergolic chemical RCS thrusters work by firing hot gases to produce adverse thrust and the needed change in velocity to safely finish the docking process. The exhaust gas from the RCS thrusters form plumes that expand into the vacuum of space and can impinge onto the outer surfaces of the Lunar Gateway, causing unwanted forces and moments, heat loads, sediment deposition, and in extreme cases, even surface erosion - all mechanisms that can damage the Lunar Gateway and must be minimized. Both permanent and visiting modules will have this RCS thruster exhaust impingement problem. This research aims to establish existing OpenFOAM solvers as a methodology for improving simulation techniques of rocket exhaust plume impingement in space environments. The flow structure of a plume in a space environment is complex; a plume that originates from a hypergolic chemical RCS thruster and expands into a vacuum will experience several regimes of rarefication. This range includes the continuum flow in the rocket nozzle through the fully rarefied free molecular flow further from the nozzle. The flow physics is different at these two extremes, and as such, the simulation approach for plumes is generally divided into a traditional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation in and near the nozzle which is coupled to a subsequent direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) simulation. At this time, the scope of this research is developing, verifying, and validating a method using existing solvers in the OpenFOAM framework for performing coupled CFD/DSMC calculations to determine the extent of plume impingement loading on generic space structures. This presentation will detail code-to-code comparisons between the hyStrath dsmcFoam+ solver, developed using OpenFOAM and available as open-source, and NASA’s in-house DSMC Analysis Code (DAC). Comparisons to several open-source publication findings using DAC [3,4] are presented, and advantages of using an OpenFOAM based solver are also discussed. The presentation concludes with a discussion of future work, and a plan for coupling the dsmcFoam+ solver with CFD simulations of chemical rocket engines for unified coupled plume simulation.

DSMC↗

NASA NTRS2012

Methods for Computationally Efficient Structured CFD Simulations of Complex Turbomachinery Flows

This research presents more efficient computational methods by which to perform multi-block structured Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations of turbomachinery, thus facilitating higher-fidelity solutions of complicated geometries and their associated flows. This computational framework offers flexibility in allocating resources to balance process count and wall-clock computation time, while facilitating research interests of simulating axial compressor stall inception with more complete gridding of the flow passages and rotor tip clearance regions than is typically practiced with structured codes. The paradigm presented herein facilitates CFD simulation of previously impractical geometries and flows. These methods are validated and demonstrate improved computational efficiency when applied to complicated geometries and flows.

Herrick, Gregory P.↗

NASA NTRS2017

Progress of High Efficiency Centrifugal Compressor Simulations Using TURBO

Three-dimensional, time-accurate, and phase-lagged computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations of the High Efficiency Centrifugal Compressor (HECC) stage were generated using the TURBO solver. Changes to the TURBO Parallel Version 4 source code were made in order to properly model the no-slip boundary condition along the spinning hub region for centrifugal impellers. A startup procedure was developed to generate a converged flow field in TURBO. This procedure initialized computations on a coarsened mesh generated by the Turbomachinery Gridding System (TGS) and relied on a method of systematically increasing wheel speed and backpressure. Baseline design-speed TURBO results generally overpredicted total pressure ratio, adiabatic efficiency, and the choking flow rate of the HECC stage as compared with the design-intent CFD results of Code Leo. Including diffuser fillet geometry in the TURBO computation resulted in a 0.6 percent reduction in the choking flow rate and led to a better match with design-intent CFD. Diffuser fillets reduced annulus cross-sectional area but also reduced corner separation, and thus blockage, in the diffuser passage. It was found that the TURBO computations are somewhat insensitive to inlet total pressure changing from the TURBO default inlet pressure of 14.7 pounds per square inch (101.35 kilopascals) down to 11.0 pounds per square inch (75.83 kilopascals), the inlet pressure of the component test. Off-design tip clearance was modeled in TURBO in two computations: one in which the blade tip geometry was trimmed by 12 mils (0.3048 millimeters), and another in which the hub flow path was moved to reflect a 12-mil axial shift in the impeller hub, creating a step at the hub. The one-dimensional results of these two computations indicate non-negligible differences between the two modeling approaches.

turbomachinery↗

NASA NTRS2007

Predicting Rocket or Jet Noise in Real Time

A semi-empirical theoretical model and a C++ computer program that implements the model have been developed for use in predicting the noise generated by a rocket or jet engine. The computer program, entitled the Realtime Rocket and Jet Engine Noise Analysis and Prediction Software, is one of two main subsystems of the Acoustic Prediction/Measurement Tool, which comprises software, acoustic instrumentation, and electronic hardware combined to afford integrated capabilities for real-time prediction and measurement of noise emitted by rocket and jet engines. [The other main subsystem, consisting largely of acoustic instrumentation and electronic hardware, is described in Wireless Acoustic Measurement System, which appears elsewhere in this section.] The theoretical model was derived from the fundamental laws of fluid mechanics, as first was done by M. J. Lighthill in his now famous theory of aerodynamically generated sound. The far-field approximation of the Lighthill theory is incorporated into this model. Many other contributions from various researchers have also been introduced into the model. The model accounts for two noise components: shear noise and self noise. The final result of the model is expressed in terms of a volume integral of the acoustic intensities attributable to these two components, subject to various directivity coefficients. The computer program was written to solve the volume integral. The inputs required by the program are two data files from a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation of the flow of interest: the computational-grid file and the solution file. The CFD solution should be one that has been obtained for conditions that closely approximate those of an experimental test that is yet to be performed. In the current state of development of the model and software, it is recommended that the observation points lie along a radius at an angle >60 from the jet axis. The software provides, and is driven via, a graphical user interface, which facilitates its use. Optionally, the program accepts additional input in the form of data on the measured sound pressure level as a function of frequency at a given far-field location, preferably at an angle of 90 from the jet axis. The user is prompted to use default empirical constants or to choose constants based the measurement data. The user can view the results and compare them with other computational or experimental data. Once satisfied with the results, the user can save a graph of the results in a file that can be imported into documents.

Frendi, Kader↗

NASA NTRS1997

On spurious behavior of CFD simulations

Spurious behavior in underresolved grids and/or semi-implicit temporal discretizations for four computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations are studied. The numerical simulations consist of (a) a 1-D chemically relaxed nonequilibrium model, (b) the direct numerical simulation (DNS) of 2-D incompressible flow over a backward facing step, (c) a loosely-coupled approach for a 2-D fluid-structure interaction, and (d) a 3-D compressible unsteady flow simulation of vortex breakdown in delta wings. Using knowledge from dynamical systems theory, various types of spurious behaviors that are numerical artifacts were systematically identified. These studies revealed the various possible dangers of misinterpreting numerical simulation of realistic complex flows that are constrained by the available computing power. In large scale computations underresolved grids, semi-implicit procedures, loosely-coupled implicit procedures, and insufficiently long time integration in DNS are most often unavoidable. Consequently, care must be taken in both computation and in interpretation of the numerical data. The results presented confirm the important role that dynamical systems theory can play in the understanding of the nonlinear behavior of numerical algorithms and in aiding the identification of the sources of numerical uncertainties in CFD.

Numerical Solution↗

NASA NTRS2006

Simulations of SSLV Ascent and Debris Transport

A viewgraph presentation on Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) Simulation of Space Shuttle Launch Vehicle (SSLV) ascent and debris transport analysis is shown. The topics include: 1) CFD simulations of the Space Shuttle Launch Vehicle ascent; 2) Debris transport analysis; 3) Debris aerodynamic modeling; and 4) Other applications.

Rogers, Stuart↗

NASA NTRS1978

Suggested architecture for a specialized fluid dynamics computer

Future flow simulations in 3-D will require computers with extremely large main memories and an advantageous ratio between computer cost and arithmetic speed. Since random access memories are very expensive, a pipeline design is proposed which allows the use of much cheaper sequential devices without any sacrifice in speed for vector references (even with arbitrary spacing between successive elements). Also scalar arithmetic can be performed efficiently. The comparatively low speed of the proposed machine (about 10 to the 7th power operations per second) would be offset by a very low price per unit, making mass production possible.

Fornberg, B.↗

NASA NTRS1989

Tools for 3D scientific visualization in computational aerodynamics at NASA Ames Research Center

Hardware, software, and techniques used by the Fluid Dynamics Division (NASA) for performing visualization of computational aerodynamics, which can be applied to the visualization of flow fields from computer simulations of fluid dynamics about the Space Shuttle, are discussed. Three visualization techniques applied, post-processing, tracking, and steering, are described, as well as the post-processing software packages used, PLOT3D, SURF (Surface Modeller), GAS (Graphical Animation System), and FAST (Flow Analysis software Toolkit). Using post-processing methods a flow simulation was executed on a supercomputer and, after the simulation was complete, the results were processed for viewing. It is shown that the high-resolution, high-performance three-dimensional workstation combined with specially developed display and animation software provides a good tool for analyzing flow field solutions obtained from supercomputers.

Bancroft, Gordon↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Autogenous Pressurization of a Cryogenic Tank Using Computational Fluid Dynamics

Well-validated simulation tools can be used to predict long-term storage and transfer of cryogenic propellants, which are essential to NASA’s mission plan to return to the Moon and continue to Mars. Autogenous pressurization of propellant tanks is used to supply rocket engine turbopumps with pressurized liquid fuel and oxidizer, preventing cavitation. Additionally, autogenous pressurization can be used to pressurize propellant tanks to support on-orbit propellant transfer. In lieu of expensive tests conducted on-orbit, accurate predictive computational models of these processes can be used to reduce system and propellant mass as well as mission risk. Using simulation tools also reduces the cost of analyzing and developing this technology. This study presents a multiphase computational fluid dynamics model capable of simulating autogenous pressurization of a large cryogenic tank using the commercial code STAR-CCM+. Experimental data from a full-scale tank pressurization test under terrestrial gravity is compared to simulation results using transient error metrics. Comparisons show good agreement and give confidence in using these and other validated simulation tools to develop cryogenic pressurization systems.

Cryogenics↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Autogenous Pressurization of a Cryogenic Tank using Computational Fluid Dynamics

cryogenics↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

A Holistic DSMC Transport Database for Re-Entry and Ablation Modeling

Hybrid simulation frameworks combining Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) are frequently employed to efficiently perform high-fidelity solutions of environments containing combined continuum/rarified flow. The use of DSMC, a stochastic, particle-based method, is necessary for high-Knudsen flow where continuum-based assumptions governing CFD break down. However, the DSMC methodology is generally very computationally inefficient to model the continuum regime. In a CFD/DSMC hybrid approach, obtaining an accurate, high-fidelity solution hinges on the consistent treatment of transport properties and the used thermo-chemical models employed within the two solvers. In principle, in regions where CFD and DSMC are both employed, the same gas mixture under the same conditions should have the same properties, regardless of simulation type. Observed differences should be due to non-equilibrium processes, rather than differences in physical models. While the transport models governing CFD and DSMC simulations are starkly different, they can effectively be linked via their use of reduced Chapman-Enskog collision integrals. In CFD, these integrals are typically stored as fitted polynomial expressions and used to directly compute gas transport properties via mixing rules or the full Chapman-Enskog formulation. In DSMC, they can be used to derive the collision parameters needed for the phenomenological collision cross-section models that govern particle interactions, via a Nelder-Mead optimization scheme. The goal of this work is to provide a unified DSMC transport database encompassing the vast majority of known gas species encountered during atmospheric entry, on Earth or any other Solar body. This goal is largely possible due to recently performed ab-initio quantum chemistry calculations. Combined with other high-fidelity literature sources, the planned database will consist of collision integral data for over 200 neutral and ionized species and over 17000 binary collisions. From these collision integrals, Nelder-Mead optimization is used to compute Variable Soft Sphere (VSS) collision model parameters for DSMC, fitted from 300 K to 20000 K. Initial comparisons of transport properties of relevant equilibrium gas mixtures show great agreement between CFD and DSMC-derived results. The completed database will be able to be readily applied to model binary collisions of any gas mixture containing the included species over the specified temperature range, making it a valuable tool for future planetary probe modeling efforts. An example is shown below. Equilibrium mixture transport properties for a 19-species Titan atmospheric model [4] are computed using both fitted VSS parameters and the original CFD collision integral values. Deviations in computed properties between the two approaches is less than 5% for the entire temperature range.

M R Gosma↗

NASA NTRS2003

Three-Dimensional Turbulent RANS Adjoint-Based Error Correction

Engineering problems commonly require functional outputs of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations with specified accuracy. These simulations are performed with limited computational resources. Computable error estimates offer the possibility of quantifying accuracy on a given mesh and predicting a fine grid functional on a coarser mesh. Such an estimate can be computed by solving the flow equations and the associated adjoint problem for the functional of interest. An adjoint-based error correction procedure is demonstrated for transonic inviscid and subsonic laminar and turbulent flow. A mesh adaptation procedure is formulated to target uncertainty in the corrected functional and terminate when error remaining in the calculation is less than a user-specified error tolerance. This adaptation scheme is shown to yield anisotropic meshes with corrected functionals that are more accurate for a given number of grid points then isotropic adapted and uniformly refined grids.

Park, Michael A.↗

DOE OSTI2026

MFC 5.0: An exascale many-physics flow solver

Many problems of interest in engineering, medicine, and the fundamental sciences rely on high-fidelity flow simulation, making performant computational fluid dynamics solvers a mainstay of the open-source software community. Previous work MFC 3.0 was made a published, documented, and open-source solver via Bryngelson et al. Comp. Phys. Comm. (2021) with numerous physical features, numerical methods, and scalable infrastructure. MFC 5.0 is a significant update to MFC 3.0, featuring a broad set of well-established and novel physical models and numerical methods, as well as the introduction of GPU and APU (or superchip) acceleration. Here, we exhibit state-of-the-art performance and ideal scaling on the first two exascale supercomputers, OLCF Frontier and LLNL El Capitan. Combined with MFC’s single-accelerator performance, MFC achieves exascale computation in practice, and achieved the largest-to-date public CFD simulation at 200 trillion grid points as a 2025 ACM Gordon Bell Prize finalist. New physical features include the immersed boundary method, N-fluid phase change, Euler–Euler and Euler–Lagrange sub-grid bubble models, fluid-structure interaction, hypo- and hyper-elastic materials, chemically reacting flow, two-material surface tension, magnetohydrodynamics (MHD), and more. Numerical techniques now represent the current state-of-the-art, including general relaxation characteristic boundary conditions, WENO variants, Strang splitting for stiff sub-grid flow features, and low Mach number treatments. Weak scaling to tens of thousands of GPUs on OLCF Summit and Frontier and LLNL El Capitan achieves efficiencies within 5% of ideal to over 90% of their respective system sizes. Strong scaling results for a 16-times increase in device count show parallel efficiencies over 90% on OLCF Frontier. MFC’s software stack has undergone further improvements, including continuous integration, which ensures code resilience and correctness through over 300 regression tests; metaprogramming, which reduces code length while maintaining performance portability; and code generation for computing chemical reactions

Computational fluid dynamics↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Recommended DSMC Collision Model Parameters for Planetary Entry

Hybrid simulation frameworks combining Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) are frequently employed to efficiently perform high-fidelity simulations of environments consisting of both continuum and rarified flow. DSMC is a stochastic, particle-based method which solves the fundamental Boltzmann equation and is therefore necessary for high-Knudsen flow where continuum-based assumptions governing CFD break down. However, the DSMC methodology is generally computationally inefficient to model the continuum regime. In a CFD/DSMC hybrid approach, obtaining an accurate, high-fidelity solution hinges on the consistent treatment of transport properties and the thermo-chemical models employed within the two solvers. In principle, in regions where CFD and DSMC are both employed, the same gas mixture under the same conditions should have the same properties, regardless of simulation type. Observed differences should be due to non-equilibrium processes, rather than differences in physical models. The goal of this work is to provide a comprehensive DSMC transport database encompassing the vast majority of known gas species encountered during Earth or other planetary atmospheric entry. This goal is largely possible due to recently performed ab initio quantum chemistry calculations. Combined with other high-fidelity data, the planned database will consist of collision integral data for over 200 neutral and ionized species and over 20000 binary collisions. From these collision integrals, Nelder-Mead optimization is used to compute collision-specific Variable Soft Sphere (VSS) collision model parameters, fitted from 300 K to 20000 K. Initial comparisons of transport properties of relevant equilibrium gas mixtures show great agreement between CFD and DSMC-derived results. The completed database can be readily applied to model binary collisions of any gas mixture containing the included species over the specified temperature range, making it a valuable tool for future planetary probe modeling efforts. An example is shown below in Fig. 1. Equilibrium mixture transport properties for a 35-species mixture composed originally of 10% air and 90% pyrolysis species of a carbon-phenolic ablator material [4] are computed using both fitted VSS Parameters and the original CFD collision integral values. Deviations in computed properties between the two approaches are less than 5% for the entire temperature range.

M. R. Gosma↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Wind-US Simulations of the NASA 1507 Inlet Test Case

Steady-state, Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations were performed of the NASA 1507 Inlet Test Case from the 6th AIAA Propulsion Aerodynamics Workshop (PAW) held in January 2023 using the Wind-US CFD solver. The simulations were performed with bleed regions modeled as surface patches and the Slater bleed boundary condition models were applied within those regions. Both the constant-plenum-pressure and the fixed-plenum-exit bleed models where applied. The vortex generators were modeled using the Bender-Anderson-Yagle (BAY) vortex generator model. The CFD simulations were performed for inlet engine-face flow ratios varying from supercritical to subcritical inlet operation until inlet unstart. The results of the CFD simulations were compared to wind-tunnel data which included boundary layer profiles, axial static pressure distributions, bleed rates, total pressure recovery performance curves, and engine-face total pressure rake profiles. The CFD simulations were able to match most of the boundary layer rake data near the geometric throat, but the boundary layers on the centerbody were thinner than indicated by the wind-tunnel data. For the supercritical CFD simulations, the engine-face flow ratio was at least 2% to 2.5% lower than indicated by the wind-tunnel data, but still consistent with the level of supercritical bleed. The engine-face flow rates of the wind-tunnel tests had an uncertainty of ±2% which could explain the differences. The supercritical engine-face flow rates of the wind-tunnel data indicated a 5% supercritical bleed rate rather than the reported 7.18% bleed rate. The CFD simulations were able to calculate the maximum total pressure recovery of pt2/pt = 0.907 as observed for the wind-tunnel data. The CFD simulations with the constant-pressure bleed model were able to obtain a much lower engine-face total pressure ratio than indicated by both the wind-tunnel data and the CFD simulations using a fixed-plenum-exit bleed model. The CFD simulations indicated a sharp static pressure rise for the terminal shock rather than a more gradual rise indicated by the wind-tunnel data. The CFD simulations were not able to accurately compute the total pressure variation across the engine-face total pressure rake.

Supersonics↗

NASA NTRS2021

Boundary and Initial Condition Issues for Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and Modeling and Simulation (Mod-Sim)

For many important classes of Mod-Sim problems, even quantum computing will not enable accurate predictions/computation vis-à-vis the real world due to boundary/initial condition shortfalls in terms of both range of parameters and requisite amplitudes/coverage. The Mod-Sim community needs to consider going forward the knowability of initial and boundary conditions.

Dennis M. Bushnell↗

NASA NTRS2014

Steady and Unsteady Nozzle Simulations Using the Conservation Element and Solution Element Method

This paper presents results from computational fluid dynamic (CFD) simulations of a three-stream plug nozzle. Time-accurate, Euler, quasi-1D and 2D-axisymmetric simulations were performed as part of an effort to provide a CFD-based approach to modeling nozzle dynamics. The CFD code used for the simulations is based on the space-time Conservation Element and Solution Element (CESE) method. Steady-state results were validated using the Wind-US code and a code utilizing the MacCormack method while the unsteady results were partially validated via an aeroacoustic benchmark problem. The CESE steady-state flow field solutions showed excellent agreement with solutions derived from the other methods and codes while preliminary unsteady results for the three-stream plug nozzle are also shown. Additionally, a study was performed to explore the sensitivity of gross thrust computations to the control surface definition. The results showed that most of the sensitivity while computing the gross thrust is attributed to the control surface stencil resolution and choice of stencil end points and not to the control surface definition itself.Finally, comparisons between the quasi-1D and 2D-axisymetric solutions were performed in order to gain insight on whether a quasi-1D solution can capture the steady and unsteady nozzle phenomena without the cost of a 2D-axisymmetric simulation. Initial results show that while the quasi-1D solutions are similar to the 2D-axisymmetric solutions, the inability of the quasi-1D simulations to predict two dimensional phenomena limits its accuracy.

Nozzle gross thrust calculations↗