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At least 469 records · Page 26

A three-dimensional viscous flow analysis for the helicopter tip vortex generation problem

The tip vortex flow field occurring in the vicinity of the tip region of a a helicopter rotor blade is a very complicated three-dimensional, viscous flow phenomenon. The details of the flow in the tip region can have a major effect in determining the generated rotor noise and can significantly affect the performance and dynamic loading of the rotor blade. The three-dimensional viscous subsonic tip vortex generation processes is investigated by a numerical procedure which allows spatial forward-marching integration, utilizing flow approximations from the velocity-decomposition approach of Briley and McDonald. The approach has been applied to compute the laminar and turbulent tip vortex flows for a constant thickness slab airfoil with a square tip, a constant thickness slab airfoil with a half round tip and a NACA 0012 airfoil with a half round tip. The basic mechanism of the tip vortex generation process as well as the prediction of vortex appearance, strength and secondary flow shown by the calculations are in qualitative agreement with experimental results.

Lin, S. J.↗

Evolution of grains in a turbulent solar nebula

In the present computation of the evolution of grain size distribution in a turbulent disk for turbulent solar nebula models, using realistic collisional outcomes and strengths of grain aggregates, the half space above the central plane of the disk is divided into a series of levels. At each level, the size distribution is represented by the population of a series of discrete size bins, each spanning an order of magnitude in mass. Coagulation, erosion, or disruption, occur for various combinations of relative particle sizes and velocities, together with assumed material strength, based on experimental impact data. The calculation is one-dimensional, in that it is performed at a single radial location in the disk.

Weidenschilling, S. J.↗

A three-dimensional viscous flow analysis for the helicopter tip vortex generation process about square and round tipped blades

The tip vortex flow field occurring in the vicinity of the tip region of a helicopter rotor blade is a very complicated three-dimensional, viscous flow phenomenon. The details of the flow in the tip region can have a major effect in determining the generated rotor noise and can significantly effect the performance and dynamic loading of the rotor blade. The three-dimensional viscous subsonic tip vortex generation processes is investigated by a numerical procedure which allows spatial forward-marching integration, utilizing flow approximations from the velocity-decomposition approach of Briley and McDonald. The approach has been applied to compute the laminar and turbulent tip vortex flows for a constant thickness slab airfoil with a square tip, a constant thickness slab airfoil with a half round tip and a NACA 0012 airfoil with a half round tip. The basic mechanism of the tip vortex generation process as well as the prediction of vortex appearance, strength and secondary flow shown by the calculations are in qualitative agreement with experimental results.

Lin, S.-J.↗

ROCOPT: A user friendly interactive code to optimize rocket structural components

ROCOPT is a user-friendly, graphically-interfaced, microcomputer-based computer program (IBM compatible) that optimizes rocket components by minimizing the structural weight. The rocket components considered are ring stiffened truncated cones and cylinders. The applied loading is static, and can consist of any combination of internal or external pressure, axial force, bending moment, and torque. Stress margins are calculated by means of simple closed form strength of material type equations. Stability margins are determined by approximate, orthotropic-shell, closed-form equations. A modified form of Powell's method, in conjunction with a modified form of the external penalty method, is used to determine the minimum weight of the structure subject to stress and stability margin constraints, as well as user input constraints on the structural dimensions. The graphical interface guides the user through the required data prompts, explains program options and graphically displays results for easy interpretation.

Rule, William K.↗

Ultrasonic study of adhesive bond quality at a steel-to-rubber interface by using quadrature phase detection techniques

The quadrature phase detection technique was used to simultaneously monitor the phase and amplitude of a toneburst signal normally reflected from an adhesively bonded steel-to-rubber interface. The measured phase was found to show a positive shift for all bonded samples with respect to the disbonded state - the phase shift being larger for samples with weaker bonds, as manifested by smaller values of applied tensile loads at failure. A model calculation, which incorporates the concept of interfacial strength into the usual problem of wave propagation in multilayered media, was used to deduce a bond-quality parameter from an experimentally measured phase shift. This bond-quality parameter was found to be correlated with the tensile strength of the adhesive bonds at failure loads.

Smith, A. C.↗

Adhesive bond evaluation using phase sensitive detection techniques

Quadrature phase detection techniques have been used to monitor the amplitude and phase of a toneburst ultrasonic wave normally reflected from adhesively-bonded steel/rubber interface. The measured phase change values of the reflected signals were found to correlate with variations in sample preparation. It was determined that measured phase shift changes were larger for samples with weaker bonds as manifested by smaller measured values of the applied tensile loads at failure. A model calculation which incorporates the concept of interfacial strength into the usual problem of wave propagation in multi-layered isotropic elastic media was used to deduce a bond-quality parameter from an experimentally measured phase shift.

Smith, Alphonso C.↗

The ionospheric effects of a weak intrinsic magnetic field at Mars

An improved model of the Martian ionosphere which allows the magnetic field to have any direction in the horizontal plane is presented, as well as results of calculations for several different intrinsic magnetic field strengths and directions. When the solar wind dynamic pressure exceeds the Martian ionospheric thermal pressure, the plasma motion is weakly downward throughout the ionosphere for the case of no intrinsic magnetic field, but when the intrinsic and induced fields are in opposite directions, the plasma flow tends to converge toward the current sheet. As a consequence of this convergence, the plasma density is somewhat enhanced near the current sheet, which is located near an altitude of 170 km. The ionosphere above an altitude of about 190 km is not significantly affected by the existence of an intrinsic field as weak as 60 nT.

Shinagawa, H.↗

Excitation of positive ions by low-energy electrons - Relevance to the Io Torus

The importance of measuring electron-ion excitation cross sections in singly and multiply charged positive ions is outlined, and recent results for Mg II and O II ions are given using the JPL's electron energy-loss merged-beams apparatus. Theoretical comparisons are given with two five-state close-coupling calculations. The energy variation of the collision strength is fitted with a semiempirical analytic function which includes approximations to polarization, resonance, and exchange contributions. In O II, first spectra anywhere of electron excitation of the optically allowed transitions are presented. In addition, excitations of two low lying, optically forbidden transitions are detected for the first time.

Smith, Steven J.↗

Durability and Damage Tolerance of High Temperature Polymeric Composites

Modern durability and damage tolerance predictions for composite material systems rely on accurate estimates of the local stress and material states for each of the constituents, as well as the manner in which the constituents interact. In this work, an number of approaches to estimating the stress states and interactions are developed. First, an elasticity solution is presented for the problem of a penny-shaped crack in an N-phase composite material system opened by a prescribed normal pressure. The stress state around such a crack is then used to estimate the stress concentrations due to adjacent fiber fractures in composite materials. The resulting stress concentrations are then used to estimate the tensile strength of the composite. The predicted results are compared with experimental values. In addition, a cumulative damage model for fatigue is presented. Modifications to the model are made to include the effects of variable amplitude loading. These modifications are based upon the use of remaining strength as a damage metric and the definition of an equivalent generalized time. The model is initially validated using results from the literature. Also, experimental data from APC-2 laminates and IM7/K3B laminates are used in the model. The use of such data for notched laminates requires the use of an effective hole size, which is calculated based upon strain distribution measurements. Measured remaining strengths after fatigue loading are compared with the predicted values for specimens fatigued at room temperature and 350 F (177 C).

Case, Scott W.↗

Fracture Behavior of a Stitched Warp-Knit Carbon Fabric Composite

Tests were conducted on several types of fracture specimens made from a carbon/epoxy composite. The composite material was stitched prior to introducing epoxy resin. Boeing, used this material to develop a composite wing box for a transport aircraft in the NASA Advanced Composites Transport Program. The specimens included compact, extended compact, and center notched tension specimens. The specimens were cut from panels with three orientations in order to explore the effects of anisotropy. The panels were made with various thicknesses to represent a wing, skin from tip to root. All fractures were not self-similar depending on specimen type and orientation. Unnotched tension specimens were also tested to measure elastic constants and strengths. The normal and shear strains were calculated on fracture planes using a series representation of strain fields for plane anisotropic crack problems. The fracture parameters were determined using a finite element method. Characteristic distances for critical tension and shear strains were calculated for each specimen and a failure criterion based on the interaction of tension and shear strains was proposed.

Poe, Clarence C., Jr.↗

The Interaction of a Reflected Shock Wave with the Boundary Layer in a Shock Tube

Ideally, the reflection of a shock from the closed end of a shock tube provides, for laboratory study, a quantity of stationary gas at extremely high temperature. Because of the action of viscosity, however, the flow in the real case is not one-dimensional, and a boundary layer grows in the fluid following the initial shock wave. In this paper simplifying assumptions are made to allow an analysis of the interaction of the shock reflected from the closed end with the boundary layer of the initial shock afterflow. The analysis predicts that interactions of several different types will exist in different ranges of initial shock Mach number. It is shown that the cooling effect of the wall on the afterflow boundary layer accounts for the change in interaction type. An experiment is carried out which verifies the existence of the several interaction regions and shows that they are satisfactorily predicted by the theory. Along with these results, sufficient information is obtained from the experiments to make possible a model for the interaction in the most complicated case. This model is further verified by measurements made during the experiment. The case of interaction with a turbulent boundary layer is also considered. Identifying the type of interaction with the state of turbulence of the interacting boundary layer allows for an estimate of the state of turbulence of the boundary layer based on an experimental investigation of the type of interaction. A method is proposed whereby the effect of the boundary-layer interaction on the strength of the reflected shock may be calculated. The calculation indicates that the reflected shock is rapidly attenuated for a short distance after reflection, and this result compares favorably with available experimental results.

Mark, Herman↗

Optimization of a Lunar Pallet Lander Reinforcement Structure Using a Genetic Algorithm

In this paper, a unique system level spacecraft design optimization will be presented. A Genetic Algorithm is used to design the global pattern of the reinforcing structure, while a gradient routine is used to adequately stiffen the sub-structure. The system level structural design includes determining the optimal physical location (and number) of reinforcing beams of a lunar pallet lander deck structure. Design of the substructure includes determining placement of secondary stiffeners and the number of rivets required for assembly.. In this optimization, several considerations are taken into account. The primary objective was to raise the primary natural frequencies of the structure such that the Pallet Lander primary structure does not significantly couple with the launch vehicle. A secondary objective is to determine how to properly stiffen the reinforcing beams so that the beam web resists the shear buckling load imparted by the spacecraft components mounted to the pallet lander deck during launch and landing. A third objective is that the calculated stress does not exceed the allowable strength of the material. These design requirements must be met while, minimizing the overall mass of the spacecraft. The final paper will discuss how the optimization was implemented as well as the results. While driven by optimization algorithms, the primary purpose of this effort was to demonstrate the capability of genetic algorithms to enable design automation in the preliminary design cycle. By developing a routine that can automatically generate designs through the use of Finite Element Analysis, considerable design efficiencies, both in time and overall product, can be obtained over more traditional brute force design methods.

Burt, Adam↗

Anisotropic Solar Wind Sputtering of the Lunar Surface Induced by Crustal Magnetic Anomalies

The lunar exosphere is generated by several processes each of which generates neutral distributions with different spatial and temporal variability. Solar wind sputtering of the lunar surface is a major process for many regolith-derived species and typically generates neutral distributions with a cosine dependence on solar zenith angle. Complicating this picture are remanent crustal magnetic anomalies on the lunar surface, which decelerate and partially reflect the solar wind before it strikes the surface. We use Kaguya maps of solar wind reflection efficiencies, Lunar Prospector maps of crustal field strengths, and published neutral sputtering yields to calculate anisotropic solar wind sputtering maps. We feed these maps to a Monte Carlo neutral exospheric model to explore three-dimensional exospheric anisotropies and find that significant anisotropies should be present in the neutral exosphere depending on selenographic location and solar wind conditions. Better understanding of solar wind/crustal anomaly interactions could potentially improve our results.

exosphere↗

ORNL_AISD-Ex: Quantum chemical prediction of UV/Vis absorption spectra for over 10 million organic molecules

We performed calculations of electronic excitation energies and associated oscillator strengths based on the time-dependent density-functional tight-binding (TD-DFTB) method [1]. The SMILES (Simplified molecular-input line-entry system) strings of the molecules from the AISD HOMO-LUMO database [2] were converted to a 3D atomistic structure and stored in a PDB file after preliminary geometry optimization using the Merck Molecular Force Field (MMFF94) in RDKit [3,4]. The primary information stored in the PDB file archive consists of Cartesian coordinates for each atom of the molecule in their 3D location in space, along with summary information about the structure, sequence, and experiment. We then performed molecular geometry optimization using the density-functional tight-binding (DFTB) method [5] in the electronic ground state, followed by single-point excited states calculations, as described below. We note that, since RDKit employs a random choice for the generation of molecular conformers, the molecular geometries obtained in this dataset could be different from the ones that were generated when the AISD HOMO-LUMO dataset was generated. The computed excitation energies and associated oscillator strengths can be converted to predict UV/Vis absorption spectra, where excitation energies correspond to absorption peak positions, and oscillator strengths are a good measure of the probability of absorption of visible or UV light in transitions between electronic ground and excited states. The conversion of SMILES strings to 3D Cartesian coordinates of fully DFTB-optimized molecules was successful for 10,502,904 out of 10,502,917 molecules. For these molecules, both geometry optimizations and excited states calculations were successful. The DFTB calculations did not complete for 13 molecules of the original AISD HOMO-LUMO dataset. We still provide information about the geometry of these molecules. The molecules are diverse for chemical compositions (which span 5 non-hydrogen elements: oxygen, carbon, nitrogen, fluorine, sulfur) and molecular size (the smallest molecule contains 5 non-hydrogen atoms, and the largest molecule contains 71 non-hydrogen atoms). The DFTB method [5] is an approximation to density functional theory (DFT), utilizing a minimal basis set in conjunction with a two-center approximation to the electronic Hamiltonian and overlap matrix elements. The DFTB total energy is the sum of an electronic and a repulsive energy contribution, and their calculation requires optimized electronic parameters and diatomic repulsive potential energy functions. All DFTB calculations were performed using the DFTB+ code [6] (version 21.2) and the wrapper for DFTB+ in the Atomic Simulation Environment (ASE) (version 3.22.1) [7], which performed an internal conversion of Cartesian coordinates from PDB to the .gen file format. For the geometry optimizations on the electronic ground state potential energy surface of the molecules, we have chosen the third-order DFTB (DFTB3) method [5c] and employed the matching 3ob set of electronic parameters and repulsive potentials [8]. The empirical γ-damping for hydrogen bond correction, and Grimme's D3 empirical dispersion correction with Becke-Johnson damping (D3(BJ)) [9] dispersion correction was included to improve the description of non-covalent interactions. For excited states single-point energy calculations, we employed the TD-DFTB method in conjunction with the DFTB2 method [5b] and the matching mio [5b,10] and halorg [11] parameter sets. We opted to request the simultaneous calculation of 50 excited states for singlet transition to investigate sufficient number of excited states, based on linear response theory using the Casida equation [Ref: T. A. Niehaus, S. Suhai, F. Della Sala, P Lugli, M. Elstner, G. Seifert, and Th. Frauenheim. Tight-binding approach to time-dependent density-functional response theory. Phys. Rev. B, 63:085108, 2001] and the ARPACK diagonalizer [R. B. Lehoucq, D. C. Sorensen, and C. Yang. Arpack users guide: Solution of large-scale eigenvalue problems by implicitly restarted arnoldi methods, 1997. 46, 51]. The dataset contains 1001 tar.gz files. Tar files are named as “ornl_aisd_ex_1.tar.gz†through “ornl_aisd_ex_1000.tar.gzâ€. Additionally, the 13 failed molecules are in “ornl_aisd_ex_unprocessed.tar.gzâ€. Except for the tar files listed below, each tar file contains 10,500 molecules. Tar files numbered 34, 121, 128, 352, 360, 429, 495, 509, 518, 627, 676, 668, and 862 contain 10,499 molecules each. The last tar file numbered 1000 contains 13,417 molecules. The total size of the uncompressed dataset is over 283 Gigabytes. The code for calculating the electronic excitation energies and statistical analysis of the dataset is provided at the following GitLab repository: https://github.com/ORNL/Analysis-of-Large-Scale-Molecular-Datasets-with-Python Calculating the UV spectrum of a molecule requires performing 3 main operations: 1. Converting the smiles string representation of a molecule into a geometric structure where each atom is assigned XYZ coordinates. The geometric structure is written to the file smiles.pdb. 2. Using smiles.pdb to compute the relaxed geometry of the molecule, which corresponds with the position of the atoms at the position of equilibrium at the ground state. This generates the files band.out, detailed.out, and geo_end.gen. 3. Using geo_end.gen to calculate the UV spectrum of the molecule which is written into the file EXC.DAT. Every molecule in the dataset has its own directory. The files contained in each molecule directory are as follows: 1. geo_end.gen 2. detailed.out 3. band.out 4. EXC.DAT 5. smiles.pdb REFERENCES [1] Niehaus, T. A.; Suhai, S.; Della Salla, F.; Lugli, P.; Elstner, M.; Seifert, G.; Frauenheim, Th. Tight-binding approach to time-dependent density-functional response theory. Phys. Rev. B, 2001, 63, 085108/1-9. [2] Blanchard, A.; Gounley, J.; Metha, K.; Yoo, P.; Irle, S. AISD HOMO-LUMO. DOI: 10.13139/ORNLNCCS/1869409 [3] RDKit: Cheminformatics and Machine Learning Software. 2013, [http://www.rdkit.org] [4] Tosco, P.; Stiefl, N. and Landrum, G. Bringing the MMFF force field to the RDKit: implementation and validation. J Cheminform. 2014, 6, 1–4. [5] a) Porezag, D.; Frauenheim, T.; Kohler, T.; Seifert, G.; Kaschner, Construction of tight-binding-like potentials on the basis of density-functional theory: Application to carbon, R. Phys. Rev. B 1995, 51, 12947-12957; b) Elstner, M.; Porezag, D.; Jungnickel, G.; Elsner, J.; Haugk, M.; Frauenheim, Th.; Suhai, S.; Seifert, G.; Phys. Rev. B 1998, 58, 7260-7268; c) Gaus, M.; Cui, Q.; Elstner, M. DFTB3: Extension of the Self-Consistent-Charge Density-Functional Tight-Binding Method (SCC-DFTB), J. Chem. Theory Comput. 2011, 7, 931-948; d) Cui, Q.; Elstner, M. Density functional tight binding: values of semi-empirical methods in an ab initio era, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 2014, 16, 14368-14377. [6] Hourahine, B. et al. DFTB+, a software package for efficient approximate density functional theory based atomistic simulations, J. Chem. Phys. 2020, 152, 124101/1-19. [7] Larsen, A. H. et al. The atomic simulation environment—a Python library for working with atoms. J. Phys.: Cond. Matter 2017, 29, 273002. [8] Kubillus, M.; Kubar, T.; Gaus, M.; Rezac, J.; Elstner, M. Parameterization of the DFTB3 Method for Br, Ca, Cl, F, I, K, and Na in Organic and Biological Systems, J. Chem. Theory Comput. 2015, 11, 332-342. [9] Brandenburg, J. G.; Grimme, S. Accurate Modeling of Organic Molecular Crystals by Dispersion-Corrected Density Functional Tight Binding (DFTB), J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 2014, 5, 1785−1789. [10] a) Niehaus, T. A.; Elstner, M.; Frauenheim, Th.; Suhai, S. Application of an approximate density-functional method to sulfur containing compounds. J. Mol. Struct.: THEOCHEM 2001, 541, 185-94; b) Elstner, M.; Hobza, P.; Frauenheim, Th.; Suhai, S.; Kaxiras, E. Hydrogen bonding and stacking interactions of nucleic acid base pairs: A density-functional-theory based treatment. J. Chem. Phys. 2001, 114, 5149-55. [11] Kubar, T.; Bodrog, Z.; Gaus, M.; Köhler, C.; Aradi, B.; Frauenheim, Th.; Elstner, M. Parametrization of the SCC-DFTB Method for Halogens. J. Chem. Theory Comput. 2013, 9, 2939-49.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Low-energy enhancement in the magnetic dipole γ-ray strength functions of heavy nuclei

A low-energy enhancement (LEE), which was observed experimentally in the gamma-ray strength function (γSF) describing the decay of compound nuclei, would have profound effects on r-process nucleosynthesis if it persists in heavy neutron-rich nuclei. The LEE was shown to be a feature of the magnetic dipole (M1) strength function in configuration-interaction shell-model calculations in medium-mass nuclei. However, its existence in heavy open-shell nuclei remains an open question. Here, using a combination of many-body methods, we identify a LEE in the M1 γSFs of heavy samarium nuclei. In particular, we use the static-path plus random-phase approximation (SPA+RPA), which includes static and small-amplitude quantal fluctuations beyond the mean field. Using the SPA+RPA strength as a prior, we apply the maximum-entropy method (MEM) to obtain finite-temperature M1 γSFs from exact imaginary-time response functions calculated with the shell model Monte Carlo (SMMC) method. We find that the slope of the LEE in samarium isotopes is roughly independent of the average initial energy over a wide range below the neutron separation energy. As the neutron number increases, strength transfers to a low-energy excitation, which we interpret as the scissors mode built on top of excited states.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Predicting The Compression Strength Of Impact-Damaged Sandwich Panels

The objective of this work was to develop a technique for predicting the residual compression strength of sandwich panels containing impact damage in one facesheet. The technique was tailored to predict the strength of specimens that exhibit a failure mode involving the formation of kink bands at locations of peak strain in the region of impact damage. Under continued compression loading, the kink bands propagate in a stable manner perpendicular to the applied load. When a critical kink-band length is reached, growth becomes unstable corresponding to panel failure. The analysis follows in two sections. The first section calculates the far-field stress required for stable kink-band growth and the second calculates that required for unstable growth. The residual strength prediction is made when the stress for stable growth becomes equal to that for unstable kink-band growth. Initial comparisons between analysis and experiment show good agreement.

Ratcliffe, James↗

Development of high-speed balancing technology

An investigation into laser material removal showed that laser burns act in a manner typical of mechanical stress raisers causing a reduction in fatigue strength; the fatigue strength is lowered relative to the smooth specimen fatigue strength. Laser-burn zones were studied for four materials: Alloy Steel 4340, Stainless Steel 17-4 PH, Inconel 718, and Aluminum Alloy 6061-T6. Calculations were made of stress concentration factors K, for laser-burn grooves of each material type. A comparison was then made to experimentally determine the fatigue strength reduction factor. These calculations and comparisons indicated that, except for the 17-4 PH material, good agreement (a ratio of close to 1.0) existed between Kt and Kf. The performance of the 17-4 PH material has been attributed to early crack initiation due to the lower fatigue resistance of the soft, unaged laser-affected zone. Also covered in this report is the development, implementation, and testing of an influence coefficient approach to balancing a long, slender shaft under applied-torque conditions. Excellent correlation existed between the analytically predicted results and those data obtained from testing.

Demuth, R.↗

Strengthening mechanisms for microstructures containing unimodal and bimodal γ' precipitates in ATI 718Plus

Here, the influence of γ' precipitate size distribution on the deformation mechanisms under tensile loading in ATI 718Plus was studied. A set of aging treatments within the temperature range of 720 °C–900 °C was performed on solution-treated samples to obtain various γ' precipitate size distributions. Unimodal and bimodal γ' precipitate size distributions were achieved through single-step and two-step aging sequences, respectively, and such microstructures were tensile tested to failure to assess their yield strength, ultimate tensile strength, and elongation-to-failure. Some of the tensile samples were interrupted after achieving 3–4 % plastic strain, and the deformed microstructures were examined using transmission electron microscopy to investigate the γ' precipitate-dislocation interactions. For the unimodal γ' precipitate size distribution samples with the smaller γ' precipitates (radius ~ 7 nm), dislocations sheared through the precipitates. Both dislocation loops and paired dislocations were observed for the microstructures containing larger γ' precipitates (radius ~ 24 nm). The microstructure containing a bimodal γ' precipitate size distribution, which included average γ' precipitate radii of ~6 nm and ~28 nm, exhibited shearing as the dominant deformation mechanism, and this microstructure exhibited the highest strength values. The experimental observations were rationalized based on the theoretically-calculated critical resolved shear stress values for shearing and looping and a modified model for predicting the yield strength for bimodal microstructures was introduced.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗