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At least 37 records · Page 2

Computational Modeling of the Ames 11-Ft Transonic Wind Tunnel in Conjunction with IofNEWT

Technical advances in Computational Fluid Dynamics have now made it possible to simulate complex three-dimensional internal flows about models of various size placed in a Transonic Wind Tunnel. TWT wall interference effects have been a source of error in predicting flight data from actual wind tunnel measured data. An advantage of such internal CFD calculations is to directly compare numerical results with the actual tunnel data for code assessment and tunnel flow analysis. A CFD capability has recently been devised for flow analysis of the NASA/Ames 11-Ft TWT facility. The primary objectives of this work are to provide a CFD tool to study the NASA/Ames 11-Ft TWT flow characteristics, to understand the slotted wall interference effects, and to validate CFD codes. A secondary objective is to integrate the internal flowfield calculations with the Pressure Sensitive Paint data, a surface pressure distribution capability in Ames' production wind tunnels. The effort has been part of the Ames IofNEWT, Integration of Numerical and Experimental Wind Tunnels project, which is aimed at providing further analytical tools for industrial application. We used the NASA/Ames OVERFLOW code to solve the thin-layer Navier-Stokes equations. Viscosity effects near the model are captured by Baldwin-Lomax or Baldwin-Barth turbulence models. The solver was modified to model the flow behavior in the vicinity of the tunnel longitudinal slotted walls. A suitable porous type wall boundary condition was coded to account for the cross-flow through the test section. Viscous flow equations were solved in generalized coordinates with a three-factor implicit central difference scheme in conjunction with the Chimera grid procedure. The internal flow field about the model and the tunnel walls were descretized by the Chimera overset grid system. This approach allows the application of efficient grid generation codes about individual components of the configuration; separate minor grids were developed to resolve the model and overset onto a main grid which discretizes the interior of the tunnel test section. Individual grid components axe not required to have mesh boundaries joined in any special way to each other or to the main tunnel grid. Programs have been developed to rotate the model about the tunnel pivot point and rotation axis, similar to that of the tunnel turntable mechanism for adjusting the pitch of the physical model in the test section.

Djomehri, M. Jahed↗

Viscous-inviscid interaction for transonic wing-body configurations including wake effects

An existing three-dimensional compressible integral boundary-layer method was modified to account for mean dilatation effects, to model transition properly, and to provide better numerical stability near computational boundaries. Results of this method were compared against those from a three-dimensional finite-difference boundary-layer method on a difficult test case. An interaction procedure was developed to couple this integral method with a number of wing-alone and wing-body transonic potential codes to account for viscous effects. A strip wake model, including thickness and curvature effects, was developed and incorporated into this interaction procedure. Results from this procedure were compared against experimental data and results from previous procedures, on test cases where viscous effects were large.

Streett, C. L.↗

An Implicit Finite Difference Solution to the Viscous Radiating Shock Layer with Strong Blowing

An implicit finite difference scheme is developed for the fully coupled solution of the viscous radiating stagnation line equations, including strong blowing. Solutions are presented for both air injection and carbon phenolic ablation products injection into air at conditions near the peak radiative heating point in an earth entry trajectory from interplanetary return missions. A detailed radiative transport code that accounts for the important radiative exchange processes for gaseous mixtures in local thermodynamic and chemical equilibrium is utilized.

Garrett, L. B.↗

An implicit finite-difference solution to the viscous shock layer, including the effects of radiation and strong blowing

An implicit finite-difference scheme is developed for the fully coupled solution of the viscous, radiating stagnation-streamline equations, including strong blowing. Solutions are presented for both air injection and injection of carbon-phenolic ablation products into air at conditions near the peak radiative heating point in an earth entry trajectory from interplanetary return missions. A detailed radiative-transport code that accounts for the important radiative exchange processes for gaseous mixtures in local thermodynamic and chemical equilibrium is utilized in the study. With minimum number of assumptions for the initially unknown parameters and profile distributions, convergent solutions to the full stagnation-line equations are rapidly obtained by a method of successive approximations. Damping of selected profiles is required to aid convergence of the solutions for massive blowing. It is shown that certain finite-difference approximations to the governing differential equations stabilize and improve the solutions. Detailed comparisons are made with the numerical results of previous investigations. Results of the present study indicate lower radiative heat fluxes at the wall for carbonphenolic ablation than previously predicted.

Garrett, L. B.↗

Effect of bow-type initial imperfection on the buckling load and mass of graphite-epoxy blade-stiffened panels

A structural synthesis computer code which accounts for first order effects of an initial bow and which can be used for sizing stiffened composite panels having an arbitrary cross section is used to study graphite blade-stiffened panels. The effect of a small initial bow on both the load carrying ability of panels and on the mass of panels designed to carry a specified load is examined. Large reductions in the buckling load caused by a small initial bow emphasize the need for considering a bow when a panel is designed.

Stroud, W. J.↗

Effects of design on cost of flat-plate solar photovoltaic arrays for terrestrial central station power applications

The paper examines the impact of module and array designs on the balance-of-plant costs for flat-plate terrestrial central station power applications. Consideration is given to the following types of arrays: horizontal, tandem, augmented, tilt adjusted, and E-W tracking. The life-cycle cost of a 20-year plant life serves as the costing criteria for making design and cost tradeoffs. A tailored code of accounts is developed for determining consistent photovoltaic power plant costs and providing credible photovoltaic system cost baselines for flat-plate module and array designs by costing several varying array design approaches.

Tsou, P.↗

Codes and modalities in multiple resources - A success and a qualification

The relevance of codes and modalities in a multiple-resource model to the prediction of task interference was investigated in an experiment in which either verbal or spatial decision tasks, responded to with either voice or key press, were time-shared with second-order tracking. Results indicate the importance of the dichotomy between verbal and spatial processing codes in accounting for task interference. Interference with tracking was consistently greater, and difficulty/performance trade-offs were stronger, when the spatial decision task was performed and the manual response was used. A review of the literature on the interference between a continuous visual task and a discrete task whose modality is either auditory or visual suggests that scanning produces a dominant cost to intramodal configurations when visual channels are separated in space. In absence of visual separation, the differences between cross-modal and intramodal performance may be best accounted for by a mechanism of preemption.

Wickens, Christopher D.↗

A rapid method of calculating the orbital radiation environment

This paper describes the process of integrating available environment models into a single package that calculates the radiation environment for any earth orbit quickly and accurately with the only input being initial orbit parameters, launch date and length of mission, and units of output. The radiation dose is calculated for particles penetrating varying aluminum shielding thicknesses and incident upon several materials inside. Included also are modifications that have been made to the codes that account for the decrease of the magnetic field with time, which allows the use of data taken in the past to accurately predict a future environment. The complete package has relatively short run times, 20 minutes per mission on a Micro VAX II, allowing multiple iterations for application to mission design and planning.

Gates, Michele M.↗

Prediction of ice accretion on a swept NACA 0012 airfoil and comparisons to flight test results

In the winter of 1989-90, an icing research flight project was conducted to obtain swept wing ice accretion data. Utilizing the NASA Lewis Research Center's DHC-6 DeHavilland Twin Otter aircraft, research flights were made into known icing conditions in Northeastern Ohio. The icing cloud environment and aircraft flight data were measured and recorded by an onboard data acquisition system. Upon entry into the icing environment, a 24 inch span, 15 inch chord NACA 0012 airfoil was extended from the aircraft and set to the desired sweep angle. After the growth of a well defined ice shape, the airfoil was retracted into the aircraft cabin for ice shape documentation. The ice accretions were recorded by ice tracings and photographs. Ice accretions were mostly of the glaze type and exhibited scalloping. The ice was accreted at sweep angles of 0, 30, and 45 degrees. A 3-D ice accretion prediction code was used to predict ice profiles for five selected flight test runs, which include sweep angle of zero, 30, and 45 degrees. The code's roughness input parameter was adjusted for best agreement. A simple procedure was added to the code to account for 3-D ice scalloping effects. The predicted ice profiles are compared to their respective flight test counterparts. This is the first attempt to predict ice profiles on swept wings with significant scalloped ice formations.

Reehorst, Andrew L.↗

Prediction of ice accretion on a swept NACA 0012 airfoil and comparisons to flight test results

In the winter of 1989-90, an icing research flight project was conducted to obtain swept wing ice accretion data. Utilizing the NASA Lewis Research Center's DHC-6 DeHavilland Twin Otter aircraft, research flights were made into known icing conditions in Northeastern Ohio. The icing cloud environment and aircraft flight data were measured and recorded by an onboard data acquisition system. Upon entry into the icing environment, a 24 inch span, 15 inch chord NACA 0012 airfoil was extended from the aircraft and set to the desired sweep angle. After the growth of a well defined ice shape, the airfoil was retracted into the aircraft cabin for ice shape documentation. The ice accretions were recorded by ice tracings and photographs. Ice accretions were mostly of the glaze type and exhibited scalloping. The ice was accreted at sweep angles of 0, 30, and 45 degrees. A 3-D ice accretion prediction code was used to predict ice profiles for five selected flight test runs, which include sweep angle of zero, 30, and 45 degrees. The code's roughness input parameter was adjusted for best agreement. A simple procedure was added to the code to account for 3-D ice scalloping effects. The predicted ice profiles are compared to their respective flight test counterparts. This is the first attempt to predict ice profiles on swept wings with significant scalloped ice formations.

Reehorst, Andrew L.↗

Advanced electromagnetic methods for aerospace vehicles

During this period the research program addressed the following three topics: (1) composite materials; (2) precipitation static (P-Static); and (3) antenna technology. On the topic of Composite Materials our main efforts were directed toward making measurements on several new samples of composite materials made available to ASU by Stanford Research Institute (SRI) through the efforts of Mr. Frank Casler of AVRADA. These samples can be classified into three distinct materials with each material having its own distinct electrical properties. In addition, attempts were made to make predictions of the effects on antenna patterns by composite materials. This will take a greater emphasis in the next reporting period. In Precipitation Static (P-Static), the main effort was devoted toward developing a Voltage Finite-Difference Time-Domain computer code to account for the voltage variation on a conducting body as the primary source of corona discharge, instead of the electric field. Due to complexities stemming from the interactions between the potentials, the fields, and current sources, the decision was made to begin with a simple two-dimensional problem without the corona discharge and check our programs in a series of simple models, culminating in the full corona discharge problem. This report deals with the first stage of such development. During this reporting period, the main effort in Antenna Technology was toward the design, fabrication, and testing of a cavity-backed slot antenna using ferrite material. Using the ferrite material available to us during this period, the resonances of this antenna were around 5 and 8 GHz. Attempts will be made to model such an antenna and to lower its resonance down into the VHF and UHF bands.

Balanis, Constantine A.↗

Research in robust control for hypersonic vehicles

During the first reporting period research concentrated on finishing the modeling work required for a representative model of a scramjet propulsion system for hypersonic vehicles. An existing hypersonic propulsion code was adjusted to the winged-cone configuration. In this process the complete force and moment calculation was revised. The advantageous feature of the code to account for angle of attack variations was then used to compute the thrust, lift, and pitching moment contributions of the propulsion system not only for various Mach numbers and fuel equivalence ratios, but also for different angles of attack.

Calise, A. J.↗

Calibration of the NOAA 11 solar backscatter ultraviolet (SBUV/2) ozone data set from 1989 to 1993 using in-flight calibration data and SSBUV

Total ozone and ozone profiles are currently being measured by solar backscatter ultraviolet (SBUV/2) instruments onboard NOAA polar orbiting spacecraft using the backscattered ultraviolet technique. The NOAA 11 SBUV/2 operational data set, reprocessed from January 1989 to May 1993 (version 6), includes an updated algorithm and revised prelaunch and postlaunch calibrations of the geometrical albedo observations used to derive ozone values. The postlaunch calibration revisions remove time dependent errors in the ozone amounts due to instrument drift, while the revised prelaunch calibration corrects the absolute value of retrieved ozone. The prelaunch corrections are a result of calibration checks from in-orbit comparisons of ultraviolet geometric albedos measured by shuttle SBUV (SSBUV) and the NOAA 11 SBUV/2. Geometric albedo comparison data are further corrected using a radiative transfer code to account for the small difference in observing conditions between the two spacecraft. The postlaunch corrections rely on in-flight calibration and solar irradiance data to account for time dependent changes in instrument gain, thermal response, and instrument diffuser degradation over time. Comparison of data from three SSBUV flights, which occurred about one year apart, with concurrent SBUV/2 data provided an independent check of the time dependent change derived from the in-flight calibration data. Time independent corrections result in an increase of about 1% for total ozone, 5% for ozone at 1 mbar, and near 0% at 15 mbar. The time dependent corrections amount to an increase of 2% for total ozone, 10% for ozone near 1 mbar, and 3% at 15 mbar at the end of the current record in May 1993. Recent laboratory studies indicate that the absolute radiance calibrations may still be in error by a few percent which results in ozone profile values that are too low. The SBUV/2 total and ozone profile data are compared to the Nimbus SBUV data during the period when the data overlapped. Total ozone values agree to about 1%, while ozone profile differences range from -4% to +6%, depending on latitude and altitude, relative to SBUV. These differences are not statistically significant given the uncertainties of the two data sets.

Hilsenrath, E.↗

Structural Durability of Damaged Metallic Panel Repaired with Composite Patches

Structural durability/damage tolerance characteristics of an aluminum tension specimen possessing a short crack and repaired by applying a fiber composite surface patch is investigated via computational simulation. The composite patch is made of graphite/epoxy plies with various layups. An integrated computer code that accounts for all possible failure modes is used for the simulation of combined fiber-composite/aluminum structural degradation under loading. Damage initiation, growth, accumulation, and propagation to structural fracture are included in the simulation. Results show the structural degradation stages due to tensile loading and illustrate the use of computational simulation for the investigation of a composite patch repaired cracked metallic panel.

Chamis, Christos C.↗

Structural Durability of Damaged Metallic Panel Repaired with Composite Patches

Structural durability/damage tolerance characteristics of an aluminum tension specimen possessing a short crack and repaired by applying a fiber composite surface patch is investigated via computational simulation. The composite patch is made of graphite/epoxy plies with various layups. An integrated computer code that accounts for all possible failure modes is utilized for the simulation of combined fiber-composite/aluminum structural degradation under loading. Damage initiation, growth, accumulation, and propagation to structural fracture are included in the simulation. Results show the structural degradation stages due to tensile loading and illustrate the use of computational simulation for the investigation of a composite patch repaired cracked metallic panel.

Minnetyan, Levon↗

PICA Forebody Heatshield Qualification for the Stardust Discovery Class Mission

This paper presents the qualification of the light weight Phenolic Impregnated Carbon Ablators (PICA) as the forebody heatshield for the Stardust Discovery Class Mission. The Stardust spacecraft will be launched in early 1999 and fly by Comet Wild-2 to collect cometary and interstellar dust and return them back to earth in the Sample Return Capsule (SRC). This earth re-entry will be the fastest to date, at 12.6 km/s, and therefore requires a heatshield that can withstand very high heating rates and stagnation pressures, as well as provide the necessary insulation to the vehicle structure. The PICA material was developed as part of the Lightweight Ceramic Ablators program at NASA Ames Research Center, and was baselined as the forebody heatshield because of its low density and superior ablation and thermal performance at severe aerothermodynamic conditions. Under a Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) program with NASA Ames, Fiber Materials, Inc. developed a process to manufacture a single-piece PICA heatshield for the forebody of the SRC, along with witness material for the fabrication of the test models. The test models were fabricated and instrumented by the staff of Lockheed Martin Astronautics in Denver, Colorado. Full body preliminary aerothermal CFD calculations were performed at NASA Ames to determine the heating and stagnation pressure conditions. The Heat shield sizing was also performed at NASA Ames by using a new material response code that accounts for the highly porous characteristics of the PICA material. The ablation and thermal performance of PICA was qualified in the NASA Ames Interaction Heating Arc Jet Facility. A total of 24 models and four test conditions were used to qualify PICA at the predicted peak heat flux, heat load, shear, and stagnation pressure conditions. Surface and in-depth temperatures were measured using optical pyrometers and thermocouples. Surface recession was measured by using a template and a height gage. Several models were tested to evaluate repair procedures, and two models were cold soaked in liquid nitrogen, prior th testing, to investigate the effect of the cold space environment on the performance of the material. In addition, material cored from a demonstration single-piece heatshield was tested to verify that the PICA process can be successfully completed on a large, complex heatshield shape.

Tran, Huy K.↗

Vertical Distribution of Aersols and Water Vapor Using CRISM Limb Observations

Near-infrared spectra taken in a limb-viewing geometry by the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) on-board the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) provide a useful tool for probing atmospheric structure. Specifically, the observed radiance as a function of wavelength and height above the limb allows the vertical distribution of both dust and ice aerosols to be retrieved. These data serve as an important supplement to the aerosol profiling provided by the MRO/MCS instrument allowing independent validation and giving additional information on particle physical and scattering properties through multi-wavelength studies. A total of at least ten CRISM limb observations have been taken so far covering a full Martian year. Each set of limb observations nominally contains about four dozen scans across the limb giving pole-to-pole coverage for two orbits at roughly 100 and 290 W longitude over the Tharsis and Syrtis/Hellas regions, respectively. At each longitude, limb scans are spaced roughly 10 degrees apart in latitude, with a vertical spatial resolution on the limb of roughly 800 m. Radiative transfer modeling is used to model the observations. We compute synthetic CRISM limb spectra using a discrete-ordinates radiative transfer code that accounts for multiple scattering from aerosols and accounts for spherical geometry of the limb observations by integrating the source functions along curved paths in that coordinate system. Retrieved are 14-point vertical profiles for dust and water ice aerosols with resolution of 0.4 scale heights between one and six scale heights above the surface. After the aerosol retrieval is completed, the abundances of C02 (or surface pressure) and H20 gas are retrieved by matching the depth of absorption bands at 2000 nm for carbon dioxide and at 2600 run for water vapor. In addition to the column abundance of water vapor, limited information on its vertical structure can also be retrieved depending on the signal available from aerosol scattering.

Smith, Michael D.↗