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At least 379 records · Page 21

High angle of attack inviscid flow calculations over a Shuttle-like vehicle with comparisons to flight data

Recent advances in computational techniques and computer hardware have made it possible to attack the problem of computing steady-state inviscid flowfields over complex three-dimensional bodies such as the Space Shuttle Orbiter. Certain problems have arisen in connection with cases involving high angles of attack. Weilmuenster et al. (1981, 1982) have, therefore, presented a time asymptotic computational method, HALIS, designed to handle the high angle-of-attack problem for the inviscid flow over the Space Shuttle vehicle. The code was modified to include all of the Shuttle vehicle forward of the wing root. Body surface pressures generated by the HALIS code were shown to be in excellent agreement with flight pressures measured on the Shuttle vehicle. In the present investigation, results from the HALIS code, which has been extended to cover the first 1212 inches of the Shuttle vehicle, are compared with flight surface pressures. Shock shapes at several angles of attack are also presented.

Weilmuenster, K. J.↗

A study of aerodynamic heating distributions on a tip-fin controller installed on a Space Shuttle Orbiter model

The aerodynamic heating of a tip-fin controller mounted on a Space Shuttle Orbiter model was studied experimentally in the Calspan Advanced Technology Center 96 inch Hypersonic Shock Tunnel. A 0.0175 scale model was tested at Mach numbers from 10 to 17.5 at angles of attack typical of a shuttle entry. The study was conducted in two phases. In phase 1 testing a thermographic phosphor technique was used to qualitatively determine the areas of high heat-transfer rates. Based on the results of this phase, the model was instrumented with 40 thin-film resistance thermometers to obtain quantitative measurements of the aerodynamic heating. The results of the phase 2 testing indicate that the highest heating rates, which occur on the leading edge of the tip-fin controller, are very sensitive to angle of attack for alpha or = 30 deg. The shock wave from the leading edge of the orbiter wing impinges on the leading edge of the tip-fin controller resulting in peak values of h/h(Ref) in the range from 1.5 to 2.0. Away from the leading edge, the heat-transfer rates never exceed h/h(Ref) = 0.25 when the control surface, is not deflected. With the control surface deflected 20 deg, the heat-transfer rates had a maximum value of h/h(Ref) = 0.3. The heating rates are quite nonuniform over the outboard surface and are sensitive to angle of attack.

Wittliff, C. E.↗

Some observations on the aerodynamics of an airfoil with a jet exhausting from the lower surface

A preliminary investigation was carried out to study the aerodynamics of an 18% symmetrical airfoil with a rectangular jet exhausting from the lower surface. Static pressures on the airfoil surface and total pressures in the near wake were measured at jet momentum coefficients ranging from 0 to 2. Results from these measurements were used to study the effects of a jet-cross flow interaction on the aerodynamics of an airfoil. These results were also compared with those obtained from a two-dimensional inviscid theoretical model. Measurements indicate positive and negative pressure regions in front of and behind the jet respectively. The intensity of the pressure in these regions increases with increasing jet strength. Upper surface pressures also decrease due to an effective angle of attack induced by the jet-cross flow interaction. The pressure variations on the upper and lower surfaces induce a positive sectional lift coefficient on the airfoil. The magnitude of the lift coefficient for a given momentum coefficient decreases with decreasing aspect ratio of the nozzle.

Leopold, D.↗

Surface protection overview

A first-cut integrated environmental attack life prediction methodology for hot section components is addressed. The HOST program is concerned with oxidation and hot corrosion attack of metallic coatings as well as their degradation by interdiffusion with the substrate. The effects of the environment and coatings on creep/fatigue behavior are being addressed through a joint effort with the Fatigue sub-project. An initial effort will attempt to scope the problem of thermal barrier coating life prediction. Verification of models will be carried out through benchmark rig tests including a 4 atm. replaceable blade turbine and a 50 atm. pressurized burner rig.

Levine, S. R.↗

Nonlinear inversion flight control for a supermaneuverable aircraft

This paper describes the use of nonlinear dynamic inversion for the design of a flight control system for a supermaneuverable aircraft. First, the dynamics to be controlled were separated into fast and slow variables. The fast variables were the angular rates and the slow variables were the attitude angles. Then a nonlinear inversion controller was designed for the fast variables. This stabilized the longitudinal short-period and improved the lateral-directional responses over a wide range of angle of attack by making use of a combination for aerodynamic surfaces and thrust vectoring control. Outer loops were then closed to allow the pilot to control the slow dynamics, the angle of attack, side-slip angle and the velocity bank angle. Nonlinear inversion was also used to design of the outer loop control laws. The dynamic inversion control laws were compared with more conventional, gain-scheduled control laws and were shown to yield much better performance.

Snell, S. Antony↗

Experiments in Aircraft Roll-Yaw Control using Forebody Tangential Blowing

Advantages of flight at high angles of attack include increased maneuverability and lift capabilities. These are beneficial not only for fighter aircraft, but also for future supersonic and hypersonic transport aircraft during take-off and landing. At high angles of attack the aerodynamics of the vehicle are dominated by separation, vortex shedding and possibly vortex breakdown. These phenomena severely compromise the effectiveness of conventional control surfaces. As a result, controlled flight at high angles of attack is not feasible for current aircraft configurations. Alternate means to augment the control of the vehicle at these flight regimes are therefore necessary. The present work investigates the augmentation of an aircraft flight control system by the injection of a thin sheet of air tangentially to the forebody of the vehicle. This method, known as Forebody Tangential Blowing (FTB), has been proposed as an effective means of increasing the controllability of aircraft at high angles of attack. The idea is based on the fact that a small amount of air is sufficient to change the separation lines on the forebody. As a consequence, the strength and position of the vortices are altered causing a change on the aerodynamic loads. Although a very effective actuator, forebody tangential blowing is also highly non-linear which makes its use for aircraft control very difficult. In this work, the feasibility of using FTB to control the roll-yaw motion of a wind tunnel model was demonstrated both through simulations and experimentally. The wind tunnel model used in the experiments consists of a wing-body configuration incorporating a delta wing with 70-degree sweep angle and a cone-cylinder fuselage. The model is equipped with forebody slots through which blowing is applied. There are no movable control surfaces, therefore blowing is the only form of actuation. Experiments were conducted at a nominal angle of attack of 45 degrees. A unique apparatus that constrains the model to two degrees-of-freedom, roll and yaw, was designed and built. The apparatus was used to conduct dynamic experiments which showed that the system was unstable, its natural motion divergent. A model for the unsteady aerodynamic loads was developed based on the basic physics of the flow and results from flow visualization experiments. Parameters of the aerodynamic model were identified from experimental data. The model was validated using data from dynamic experiments. The aerodynamic model completes the equations of motion of the system which were used in the design of control laws using blowing as the only actuator. The unsteady aerodynamic model was implemented as part of the real-time vehicle control system. A control strategy using asymmetric blowing was demonstrated experimentally. A discrete vortex method was developed to help understand the main physics of the flow. The method correctly captures the interactions between forebody and wing vortices. Moreover, the trends in static loads and flow structure are correctly represented. Flow visualization results revealed the vortical structure of the flow to be asymmetric even for symmetric flight conditions. The effects of blowing, and roll and yaw angles on the flow structure were determined. It is shown that superimposing symmetric and asymmetric blowing has a linearizing effect on the actuator characteristics. Transient responses of roll and yaw moments to step input blowing were characterized, and their differences were explained based on the physical mechanisms through which these loads are generated.

Pedreiro, Nelson↗

Interaction of gases with lunar materials - Apollo 12, 14, and 16 samples

Surface properties of lunar fines samples from the Apollo 12, 14, and 16 missions have been investigated by studying the adsorption of nitrogen, argon, oxygen, carbon monoxide (all at 77 K), and water vapor (at 20 or 22 C) on the samples. Initially the samples were all nonporous and had a uniformly low specific surface area (0.3 to 0.6 sq m/g). Water interacts strongly with the surface of lunar fines, chemisorbing at low pressures followed by a massive adsorption at high pressures. Nitrogen adsorption measurements after the interaction with water showed that the surface properties had undergone a severe alteration as a result of the attack by water vapor. This alteration consisted of a marked increase in the specific surface area and the creation of a pore system. The results are interpreted on the basis of a penetration of water into the damage tracks.

Holmes, H. F.↗

Computational Test Cases for a Clipped Delta Wing with Pitching and Trailing-Edge Control Surface Oscillations

Computational test cases have been selected from the data set for a clipped delta wing with a six-percent-thick circular-arc airfoil section that was tested in the NASA Langley Transonic Dynamics Tunnel. The test cases include parametric variation of static angle of attack, pitching oscillation frequency, trailing-edge control surface oscillation frequency, and Mach numbers from subsonic to low supersonic values. Tables and plots of the measured pressures are presented for each case. This report provides an early release of test cases that have been proposed for a document that supplements the cases presented in AGARD Report 702.

Bennett, Robert M.↗

Hypersonic Aerodynamic Characteristics of a Proposed Single-Stage-To-Orbit Vehicle

The hypersonic aerodynamic characteristics of a winged body concept representing a candidate single- stage-to-orbit vehicle which features wing tip fin controllers and elevon/body flap control surfa'Fs are predicted at points along a nominal trajectory for Mach numbers from 5 to 27 and angles of attack from 19 to 32 degrees. Predictions are derived from surface properties based on flow solvers for inviscid and viscous, laminar flows acting as a perfect gas, as a gas in chemical equilibrium and as a gas in chemical non- equilibrium. At a Mach number of 22, the lateral aerodynamic characteristics of the vehicle are determined based on an inviscid analysis at side slip angles of 2 and 4 degrees and 32 degrees angle of attack; a viscous analysis was carried out to determine the effect of gas chemistry model on surface pressure and to determine the incremental aerodynamics for control surface deflections. The results show that the longitudinal pitch characteristics of the baseline configuration, i.e., zero control surface deflections, are significantly altered by real gas chemistry at angles of attack greater than 30 degrees and Mach numbers greater than 9; and, that aerodynamics derived from inviscid solutions are of sufficient accuracy for preliminary analysis. Also, it is shown that a Mach number of 22, the choice of gas chemistry model has a large impact on surface pressure levels at highly localized regions on the vehicle and that the vehicle can be trimmed at control surface deflections less than 11 degrees.

Weilmuenster, K. James↗

Combined LAURA-UPS solution procedure for chemically-reacting flows

A new procedure seeks to combine the thin-layer Navier-Stokes solver LAURA with the parabolized Navier-Stokes solver UPS for the aerothermodynamic solution of chemically-reacting air flowfields. The interface protocol is presented and the method is applied to two slender, blunted shapes. Both axisymmetric and three dimensional solutions are included with surface pressure and heat transfer comparisons between the present method and previously published results. The case of Mach 25 flow over an axisymmetric six degree sphere-cone with a noncatalytic wall is considered to 100 nose radii. A stability bound on the marching step size was observed with this case and is attributed to chemistry effects resulting from the noncatalytic wall boundary condition. A second case with Mach 28 flow over a sphere-cone-cylinder-flare configuration is computed at both two and five degree angles of attack with a fully-catalytic wall. Surface pressures are seen to be within five percent with the present method compared to the baseline LAURA solution and heat transfers are within 10 percent. The effect of grid resolution is investigated and the nonequilibrium results are compared with a perfect gas solution, showing that while the surface pressure is relatively unchanged by the inclusion of reacting chemistry the nonequilibrium heating is 25 percent higher. The procedure demonstrates significant, order of magnitude reductions in solution time and required memory for the three dimensional case over an all thin-layer Navier-Stokes solution.

Wood, William A.↗

Assessment of preliminary prediction techniques for wing leading-edge vortex flows at supersonic speeds

The applicability of existing theoretical models for predicting wing leading edge separated flow characteristics for high-lift supersonic flight was examined with regard to previous experimental force, pressure and flow visualization data. Correlations of data on uncambered delta wings revealed that the upper surface normal force and minimum pressure coefficients decreased nonlinearly with increasing angles of attack. The attainable vacuum pressure decreased with increasing Mach number, while the lower surface normal force increased nonlinearly with increasing speed. The LISTAR and VORCAM linear theory aerodynamic codes generated predictions for comparison with the data. LISTAR displayed better agreement with measured vortex strength and position and lifting characteristics than did VORCAM. The Euler code SWINT was ill-suited to calculating wing performance in separated flows at high lift and low supersonic speeds.

Wood, R. M.↗

Dual-Code Solution Strategy for Chemically-Reacting Hypersonic Flows

A new procedure seeks to combine the thin-layer Navier-Stokes solver LAURA with the parabolized Navier-Stokes solver UPS for the aerothermodynamic solution of chemically-reacting air flow fields. The interface protocol is presented and the method is applied to two slender, blunted shapes. Both axisymmetric and three-dimensional solutions are included with surface pressure and heat transfer comparisons between the present method and previously published results. The case of Mach 25 flow over an axisymmetric six degree sphere-cone with a non-catalytic wall is considered to 100 nose radii. A stability bound on the marching step size was observed with this case and is attributed to chemistry effects resulting from the non-catalytic wall boundary condition. A second case with Mach 28 flow over a sphere-cone-cylinder-flare configuration is computed at both two and five degree angles of attack with a fully-catalytic wall. Surface pressures are seen to be within five percent with the present method compared to the baseline LAURA solution and heat transfers are within 10 percent. The effect of grid resolution is investigated in both the radial and streamwise directions. The procedure demonstrates significant, order of magnitude reductions in solution time and required memory for the three-dimensional case in comparison to an all thin-layer Navier-Stokes solution.

Wood, William A.↗

Surface Pressure Results for the NATO AVT-298 SWiFT Configuration in the National Transonic Facility

A high Reynolds number wind tunnel test of the Swept Wing Flow Test (SWiFT) configuration was conducted in the National Transonic Facility at the NASA Langley Research Center during the summer of 2023. The test campaign was the culmination of an international collaboration under the NATO AVT-298 research task group. The main objective of the test was to investigate Reynolds number scaling effects on the low-speed stability & control characteristics of the SWiFT model. Surface pressure results corroborate the force & moment results and help to provide more insight into the observed flow behavior. The effect of angle of attack and Reynolds number on the low-speed surface pressure results are analyzed particularly around the leading edge of the model. The onset and progression of flow separation on the wings particularly near the wing crank is also investigated, as well as the cause of an observed double-stall behavior. Finally, the transonic results showed a slight forward movement of the shock location with decreased shock strength as Reynolds number was increased. The data acquired from the test will ultimately help improve computational aerodynamic analysis and design tools for application to future BWB-type vehicle configurations.

NATO AVT-298↗

Surface Pressure Results for the NATO AVT-298 SWiFT Configuration in the National Transonic Facility

A high Reynolds number wind tunnel test of the Swept Wing Flow Test (SWiFT) configuration was conducted in the National Transonic Facility at the NASA Langley Research Center during the summer of 2023. The test campaign was the culmination of an international collaboration under the NATO AVT-298 research task group. The main objective of the test was to investigate Reynolds number scaling effects on the low-speed stability & control characteristics of the SWiFT model. Surface pressure results corroborate the force & moment results and help to provide more insight into the observed flow behavior. The effect of angle of attack and Reynolds number on the low-speed surface pressure results are analyzed particularly around the leading edge of the model. The onset and progression of flow separation on the wings particularly near the wing crank is also investigated, as well as the cause of an observed double-stall behavior. Finally, the transonic results showed a slight forward movement of the shock location with decreased shock strength as Reynolds number was increased. The data acquired from the test will ultimately help improve computational aerodynamic analysis and design tools for application to future BWB-type vehicle configurations.

NATO AVT-298↗

Amplitude effects on dynamic stall of an oscillating airfoil

Amplitude effects on dynamic stall of an oscillating airfoil in locally transonic flow were studied using stroboscopic schlieren flow visualization. The dynamic stall vortex was photographed for various conditions and its properties were documented. Results show a pronounced effect of the amplitude of oscillation. The airfoil flow can sustain the larger amplitudes with the vortex retained on the surface and thus, produce dynamic lift to higher angles of attack at higher amplitudes. A possible explanation for this is offered in terms of the vorticity generation due to surface acceleration and local streamwise pressure gradient. Also, for the first time a shock has been photographed on the airfoil upper surface and some of its characteristics are discussed.

Chandrasekhara, M. S.↗

Exploratory wind tunnel investigation of the stability and control characteristics of a three-surface, forward-swept wing advanced turboprop model

The purpose of the present investigation was to parametrically study the stability and control characteristics of a forward-swept wing three-surface turboprop model through an extended angle of attack range, including the deep-stall region. As part of a joint research program between North Carolina State University and NASA Langley Research Center, a low-speed wind tunnel investigation was conducted with a three-surface, forward-swept wing, aft-mounted, twin-pusher propeller, model, representative of an advanced turboprop configuration. The tests were conducted in the NASA Langley 12-Foot Low-Speed Wind Tunnel. The model parameters varied in the test were horizontal tail location, canard size, sweep and location, and wing position. The model was equipped with air turbines, housed within the nacelles and driven by compressed air, to model turboprop power effects. A three-surface, forward-swept wing configuration that provided satisfactory static longitudinal and lateral/directional stability was identified. The three-surface configuration was found to have greater longitudinal control and increased center of gravity range relative to a conventional (two-surface) design. The test showed that power had a large favorable effect on stability and control about all three axis in the post-stall regime.

Coe, Paul L., Jr.↗

Multiple-Flat-Panel System Displays Multidimensional Data

The NASA Ames hyperwall is a display system designed to facilitate the visualization of sets of multivariate and multidimensional data like those generated in complex engineering and scientific computations. The hyperwall includes a 77 matrix of computer-driven flat-panel video display units, each presenting an image of 1,280 1,024 pixels. The term hyperwall reflects the fact that this system is a more capable successor to prior computer-driven multiple-flat-panel display systems known by names that include the generic term powerwall and the trade names PowerWall and Powerwall. Each of the 49 flat-panel displays is driven by a rack-mounted, dual-central-processing- unit, workstation-class personal computer equipped with a hig-hperformance graphical-display circuit card and with a hard-disk drive having a storage capacity of 100 GB. Each such computer is a slave node in a master/ slave computing/data-communication system (see Figure 1). The computer that acts as the master node is similar to the slave-node computers, except that it runs the master portion of the system software and is equipped with a keyboard and mouse for control by a human operator. The system utilizes commercially available master/slave software along with custom software that enables the human controller to interact simultaneously with any number of selected slave nodes. In a powerwall, a single rendering task is spread across multiple processors and then the multiple outputs are tiled into one seamless super-display. It must be noted that the hyperwall concept subsumes the powerwall concept in that a single scene could be rendered as a mosaic image on the hyperwall. However, the hyperwall offers a wider set of capabilities to serve a different purpose: The hyperwall concept is one of (1) simultaneously displaying multiple different but related images, and (2) providing means for composing and controlling such sets of images. In place of elaborate software or hardware crossbar switches, the hyperwall concept substitutes reliance on the human visual system for integration, synthesis, and discrimination of patterns in complex and high-dimensional data spaces represented by the multiple displayed images. The variety of multidimensional data sets that can be displayed on the hyperwall is practically unlimited. For example, Figure 2 shows a hyperwall display of surface pressures and streamlines from a computational simulation of airflow about an aerospacecraft at various Mach numbers and angles of attack. In this display, Mach numbers increase from left to right and angles of attack increase from bottom to top. That is, all images in the same column represent simulations at the same Mach number, while all images in the same row represent simulations at the same angle of attack. The same viewing transformations and the same mapping from surface pressure to colors were used in generating all the images.

Gundo, Daniel↗

Two-dimensional subsonic compressible flow past elliptic cylinders

The method of Poggi is used to calculate, for perfect fluids, the effect of compressibility upon the flow on the surface of an elliptic cylinder at zero angle of attack and with no circulation. The result is expressed in a closed form and represents a rigorous determination of the velocity of the fluid at the surface of the obstacle insofar as the second approximation is concerned. Comparison is made with Hooker's treatment of the same problem according to the method of Janzen and Rayleight and it is found that, for thick elliptic cylinders, the two methods agree very well. The labor of computation is considerably reduced by the present solution.

Kaplan, Carl↗