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At least 487 records · Page 27

Airfoil design by numerical optimization using a minicomputer

A computer program developed for the automated design of low speed airfoils utilizes a generalized Joukowski method for aerodynamic analysis coupled with a conjugate gradient, penalty function, numerical optimization algorithm to give an efficient calculation technique for use with minicomputers. The program designs airfoils with a prescribed pressure distribution as well as those which minimize or maximize some aerodynamic force coefficient. At present the method is restricted to inviscid, incompressible flow. A typical design problem will execute in 4.5 hr on an HP 9830 minicomputer.

Hicks, R. M.↗

Overset Grid Methods for Multidisciplinary Applications in Rotorcraft Problems

A methodology for the coupling of an advanced computational fluid dynamics method based on an overset grid flow-solver and an advanced computational structural dynamics method based on a finite element analysis is presented. Various procedures for the fluid-structure interactions modeling along with their limitations are also discussed. The flight test data for the four-bladed UH-60A Blackhawk helicopter rotor is chosen for the validation of the results. Convergence and accuracy are tested by numerical experiments with a single-bladed rotor. A comparison of airload predictions with flight test data as well as with a rigid blade case is presented. Grid and interpolation related issues for this aeroelastic application are described.

Ahmad, J. U.↗

A scheme for computing surface fluxes from mean flow observations

A computational method for estimating turbulent surface stress, sensible heat flux, and humidity flux from mean velocity, temperature, and humidity at a single height in the atmospheric surface layer is presented. The method is based on coupling a Monin-Obukhov similarity profile to a 'force-restore' formulation for the evolution of surface soil temperature to yield the local values of shear stress, heat flux, and surface temperature. In addition to reference-level mean flow properties, the parameters required to implement this method are the thermal heat capacity of the soil, the surface aerodynamic roughness, latitude, solar declination, surface albedo, surface emissivity, and atmospheric transmissivity. Sample calculations are presented for (1) constant atmospheric forcing at the reference level, and (2) variable atmospheric forcing corresponding to Kahle's (1977) measurements of windspeed, air temperature, and radiometer soil surface temperature under dry vegetatively sparse conditions in the Mohave Desert, Calif.

Hoffert, M. I.↗

Full potential integral solution for transonic flows with and without embedded Euler domains

Two methods are presented to solve for the transonic airfoil flow problems. The first method is based on the integral equation solution of the full-potential equation in terms of the velocity field, and a Shock Capturing-Shock Fitting (SCSF) scheme has been developed. The SCSF-scheme consists of a shock-capturing part and a shock-fitting part in which shock panels are introduced at the shock location. The sock panels are fitted and crossed by using the Rankine-Hugoniot relations. The second method is based on coupling the integral equation of the full-potential equation with the pseudo time integration of Euler equations in a small embedded region around the shock. The integral solution provides the initial and boundary conditions for the Euler domain. This scheme is named as the Integral Equation-Embedded Euler (IEEE) scheme. The two methods are applied to NACA 0012 and NACA 64A010A over a wide range of Mach numbers, and the reults are in good agreement with the experimental data and other computational results. The schemes converge within a number of iterations which is one-order of magnitude less than the finite-difference schemes.

Kandil, Osama A.↗

Three-dimensional elastic stress and displacement analysis of finite circular geometry solids containing cracks

A seminumerical method is presented for solving a set of coupled partial differential equations subject to mixed and coupled boundary conditions. The use of this method is illustrated by obtaining solutions for two circular geometry and mixed boundary value problems in three-dimensional elasticity. Stress and displacement distributions are calculated in an axisymmetric, circular bar of finite dimensions containing a penny-shaped crack. Approximate results for an annular plate containing internal surface cracks are also presented.

Gyekenyesi, J. P.↗

Transonic CFD applications at Boeing

The use of computational methods for three dimensional transonic flow design and analysis at the Boeing Company is presented. A range of computational tools consisting of production tools for every day use by project engineers, expert user tools for special applications by computational researchers, and an emerging tool which may see considerable use in the near future are described. These methods include full potential and Euler solvers, some coupled to three dimensional boundary layer analysis methods, for transonic flow analysis about nacelle, wing-body, wing-body-strut-nacelle, and complete aircraft configurations. As the examples presented show, such a toolbox of codes is necessary for the variety of applications typical of an industrial environment. Such a toolbox of codes makes possible aerodynamic advances not previously achievable in a timely manner, if at all.

Tinoco, E. N.↗

Efficient Viscous Design of Realistic Aircraft Configurations

This paper addresses the use of the Constrained Direct Iterative Surface Curvature (CDISC) design method in the aircraft design process. A discussion of some of the requirements for practical use of CFD in the design process is followed by a description of different CFD design methods, along with their relative strengths and weaknesses. A detailed description of the CDISC design method highlights some of the aspects of the method that provide computational efficiency and portability, as well as the flow and geometry constraint capabilities. In addition, an efficient approach to multipoint design, the Weighted Averaging of Geometries (WAG) method, is described and illustrated using a couple of simple examples. The CDISC and WAG methods are then applied to a complex generic business jet geometry using an unstructured grid flow solver to demonstrate the multipoint and multicomponent design capabilities of these methods. Introduction

Campbell, Richard L.↗

Technique for Radiometer and Antenna Array Calibration - TRAAC

Highly sensitive receivers are used to detect minute amounts of emitted electromagnetic energy. Calibration of these receivers is vital to the accuracy of the measurements. Traditional calibration techniques depend on calibration reference internal to the receivers as reference for the calibration of the observed electromagnetic energy. Such methods can only calibrate errors in measurement introduced by the receiver only. The disadvantage of these existing methods is that they cannot account for errors introduced by devices, such as antennas, used for capturing electromagnetic radiation. This severely limits the types of antennas that can be used to make measurements with a high degree of accuracy. Complex antenna systems, such as electronically steerable antennas (also known as phased arrays), while offering potentially significant advantages, suffer from a lack of a reliable and accurate calibration technique. The proximity of antenna elements in an array results in interaction between the electromagnetic fields radiated (or received) by the individual elements. This phenomenon is called mutual coupling. The new calibration method uses a known noise source as a calibration load to determine the instantaneous characteristics of the antenna. The noise source is emitted from one element of the antenna array and received by all the other elements due to mutual coupling. This received noise is used as a calibration standard to monitor the stability of the antenna electronics.

Meyer, Paul↗

A robust direct-integration method for rotorcraft maneuver and periodic response

The Newmark-Beta method and the Newton-Raphson iteration scheme are combined to develop a direct-integration method for evaluating the maneuver and periodic-response expressions for rotorcraft. The method requires the generation of Jacobians and includes higher derivatives in the formulation of the geometric stiffness matrix to enhance the convergence of the system. The method leads to effective convergence with nonlinear structural dynamics and aerodynamic terms. Singularities in the matrices can be addressed with the method as they arise from a Lagrange multiplier approach for coupling equations with nonlinear constraints. The method is also shown to be general enough to handle singularities from quasisteady control-system models. The method is shown to be more general and robust than the similar 2GCHAS method for analyzing rotorcraft dynamics.

Panda, Brahmananda↗

Micromechanics-Based Progressive Failure Analysis of Composite Laminates Using Different Constituent Failure Theories

Predicting failure in a composite can be done with ply level mechanisms and/or micro level mechanisms. This paper uses the Generalized Method of Cells and High-Fidelity Generalized Method of Cells micromechanics theories, coupled with classical lamination theory, as implemented within NASA's Micromechanics Analysis Code with Generalized Method of Cells. The code is able to implement different failure theories on the level of both the fiber and the matrix constituents within a laminate. A comparison is made among maximum stress, maximum strain, Tsai-Hill, and Tsai-Wu failure theories. To verify the failure theories the Worldwide Failure Exercise (WWFE) experiments have been used. The WWFE is a comprehensive study that covers a wide range of polymer matrix composite laminates. The numerical results indicate good correlation with the experimental results for most of the composite layups, but also point to the need for more accurate resin damage progression models.

Moncada, Albert M.↗

Intercomparison of Evapotranspiration Measurement Methods for Vegetable Crops in California

Recent drought events in California and legislation passed with the goal of increasing the sustainability of groundwater supplies have led to increased interest in tools to optimize irrigation schedules and increase on-farm water used efficiency. With more than 400 different crops produced in California, evapotranspiration-based irrigation scheduling is a promising and well-established approach. However, there is a need for accurate methods to estimate crop evapotranspiration (ET(sub c)) across the diverse range of crops grown, coupled with cost-effective methods for quantifying the accuracy of these tools. In this study, we evaluated remotely sensed estimates of ET(sub c) and associated crop water requirements from NASA's Satellite Irrigation Support (SIMS) system for two vegetable crops and measured crop evapotranspiration ET(sub c) using multiple methods, including weighing lysimeters, eddy covariance towers (EC), and surface renewal stations. We compared ET(sub c) data from these measurements with remotely sensed basal crop evapotranspiration (ET(sub cb)) data from SIMS as well as ET(sub c) data from a standard FAO-56 crop coefficient approach. Studies were conducted for sugar beets in Five Points, CA from 2014 to 2015 and studies are ongoing for fresh market tomatoes in Firebaugh, CA. We present results from these intercomparison studies and describe implications for future studies to quantify the accuracy of remotely sensed measures of ET(sub c). Highlights from results to date include strong correlations between ET measured with both surface renewal instrumentation and eddy covariance calculations using a 3D sonic anemometer and ET(sub c) data measured with the weighing lysimeter, with respective R2 values of 0.7964 (surface renewal) and 0.8034 (eddy covariance). This study provides insights into agreement between different approaches for monitoring evapotranspiration and provides another reference point for the community working to develop accurate and cost-effective tools that support growers in optimizing irrigation management.

Measurement↗

Zonally-decoupled DSMC solutions of hypersonic blunt body wake flows

Direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) solutions are presented for the hypersonic flow behind a blunt body in which the wake region is solved in a zonally-decoupled manner. The forebody flow is solved separately using either a DSMC or a Navier-Stokes method, and the forebody exit plane solution is specified as the inflow condition to the decoupled DSMC solution of the wake region. Results are presented for a 70-deg, blunted cone at flow conditions that can be accommodated in existing low-density wind tunnels with the Knudsen number based on base diameter ranging from 0.03 to 0.001. The zonally-decoupled solutions show good agreement with fully-coupled DSMC solutions of the wake flow densities and velocities. The wake closure predicted by the zonally-decoupled solutions is in better agreement with fully-coupled results than that predicted by a fully-coupled Navier-Stokes method indicating the need to account for rarefaction in the wake for the cases considered. The combined use of Navier-Stokes for the forebody with a decoupled DSMC solution for the wake provides an efficient method for solving transitional blunt-body flows where the forebody flow is continuum and the wake is rarefied.

Wilmoth, Richard G.↗

The Anharmonic Force Field of Ethylene, C2H4, by Means of Accurate Ab Initio Calculations

The quartic force field of ethylene, C2H4, has been calculated ab initio using augmented coupled cluster, CCSD(T), methods and correlation consistent basis sets of spdf quality. For the C-12 isotopomers C2H4, C2H3D, H2CCD2, cis-C2H2D2, trans-C2H2D2, C2HD3, and C2D4, all fundamentals could be reproduced to better than 10 per centimeter, except for three cases of severe Fermi type 1 resonance. The problem with these three bands is identified as a systematic overestimate of the Kiij Fermi resonance constants by a factor of two or more; if this is corrected for, the predicted fundamentals come into excellent agreement with experiment. No such systematic overestimate is seen for Fermi type 2 resonances. Our computed harmonic frequencies suggest a thorough revision of the accepted experimentally derived values. Our computed and empirically corrected re geometry differs substantially from experimentally derived values: both the predicted rz geometry and the ground-state rotational constants are, however, in excellent agreement with experiment, suggesting revision of the older values. Anharmonicity constants agree well with experiment for stretches, but differ substantially for stretch-bend interaction constants, due to equality constraints in the experimental analysis that do not hold. Improved criteria for detecting Fermi and Coriolis resonances are proposed and found to work well, contrary to the established method based on harmonic frequency differences that fails to detect several important resonances for C2H4 and its isotopomers. Surprisingly good results are obtained with a small spd basis at the CCSD(T) level. The well-documented strong basis set effect on the v8 out-of-plane motion is present to a much lesser extent when correlation-optimized polarization functions are used. Complete sets of anharmonic, rovibrational coupling, and centrifugal distortion constants for the isotopomers are available as supplementary material to the paper.

Martin, Jan M. L.↗

Dynamic-overlapped-grid simulation of aerodynamically determined relative motion

Currently, there is a need to develop a means of analyzing and studying unsteady flowfields which involve multiple component configurations with at least one of the components in relative motion with respect to the others. Two of the important phenomena that such analyses can help to understand are the unsteady aerodynamic interference and the boundary-induced component of the flowfield. With this motivation, a computational method is developed which couples the governing equations of the unsteady flowfield and the rigid-body dynamics in six degrees-of-freedom. These equations are solved on composite meshes of overlapped subdomain grids which can move with respect to each other. Initially, several measures that reduce the numerical error are studied and compared with the exact solution of a moving normal shock in a tube. It is concluded that a second-order accurate method, for spatial and temporal discretizations as well as for the moving subdomain interpolations, is needed as a minimum measure. Furthermore, the CFL numbers should be restricted to unity. Then, the method is used to simulate the flowfield history and predict the aerodynamically determined trajectory of a store dropped from its initial position under a wing.

Yen, Guan-Wei↗

Modeling Self-Pressurization and Spray Bar Pressure Control of A Cryogenic Storage Tank in Normal Gravity

This paper presents computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models for simulating self-pressurization and spray-bar pressure control processes in a large-scale liquid hydrogen storage tank under normal gravity conditions. For self-pressurization, the model employs the kinetics-based Schrage equation alongside the volume-of-fluid (VOF) method to account for interfacial mass transfer. The CFD predictions of pressure and temperature are compared with experimental data from the Multipurpose Hydrogen Test Bed (MHTB) experiment, and the predicted interfacial mass transfer rates are also presented. A CFD model simulating pressure control using a spray bar has also been developed. An Eulerian-Lagrangian approach models the interactions between discrete droplets and the continuous ullage (vapor) phase. The spray model is coupled with the VOF method by tracking droplets in the ullage and removing them when they reach the liquid interface. The T-sat model calculates droplet-ullage heat and mass transfer, where droplets warm up to the saturation temperature corresponding to the ullage vapor pressure before evaporating while remaining at the saturation temperature. The evolution of tank pressure, vapor temperature, and liquid temperature predicted by the CFD model is validated against data from the MHTB spray-bar mixing experiment. Overall, the CFD models agree with experimental data, demonstrating their capability to simulate self-pressurization and pressure control processes in large-scale cryogenic storage tanks. These models can be valuable tools for designing and optimizing cryogenic fluid management systems in future applications.

Computational Fluid Dynamics↗

Modeling Self-Pressurization and Spray Bar Pressure Control of A Cryogenic Storage Tank in Normal Gravity

This paper presents computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models for simulating self-pressurization and spray-bar pressure control processes in a large-scale liquid hydrogen storage tank under normal gravity conditions. For self-pressurization, the model employs the kinetics-based Schrage equation alongside the volume-of-fluid (VOF) method to account for interfacial mass transfer. The CFD predictions of pressure and temperature are compared with experimental data from the Multipurpose Hydrogen Test Bed (MHTB) experiment, and the predicted interfacial mass transfer rates are also presented. A CFD model simulating pressure control using a spray bar has also been developed. An Eulerian-Lagrangian approach models the interactions between discrete droplets and the continuous ullage (vapor) phase. The spray model is coupled with the VOF method by tracking droplets in the ullage and removing them when they reach the liquid interface. The T-sat model calculates droplet-ullage heat and mass transfer, wherein droplets warm up to the saturation temperature corresponding to the ullage vapor pressure before evaporating while remaining at the saturation temperature. The evolution of tank pressure, vapor temperature, and liquid temperature predicted by the CFD model is validated against data from the MHTB spray-bar mixing experiment. Overall, the CFD models agree with experimental data, demonstrating their capability to simulate self-pressurization and pressure control processes in large-scale cryogenic storage tanks. These models can be valuable tools for designing and optimizing cryogenic fluid management systems in future applications.

Self-Pressurization↗

Method for non-destructive estimation of waveguide directional coupler dimensions

A method for estimating the size and location of couplings within a waveguide directional coupler is provided. The method is applied to a waveguide directional coupler having a main transmission waveguide connected to an auxiliary transmission waveguide by a number of bore hold couplings. The bore hold couplings are in the interior of the waveguide directional coupler and, therefore, are not easily measurable. The method generally includes the steps of applying a two-sided tape to a member, inserting and securing the member within the main transmission waveguide, pouring a fine particulate substance such as talc into the auxiliary transmission waveguide such that a portion of the talc enters the bore hole couplings and adheres to the two-sided tape, and withdrawing the member such that the size and location of the bore hole couplings can be determined by measuring the size and location of marks on the two-sided tape caused by the fine particular substance adhering to the two-sided tape.

Perez, Raul M.↗

Coupled rotor/fuselage dynamic analysis of the AH-1G helicopter and correlation with flight vibrations data

Under a research program designated Design Analysis Methods for VIBrationS (DAMVIBS), existing analytical methods are used for calculating coupled rotor-fuselage vibrations of the AH-1G helicopter for correlation with flight test data from an AH-1G Operational Load Survey (OLS) test program. The analytical representation of the fuselage structure is based on a NASTRAN finite element model (FEM), which has been developed, extensively documented, and correlated with ground vibration test. One procedure that was used for predicting coupled rotor-fuselage vibrations using the advanced Rotorcraft Flight Simulation Program C81 and NASTRAN is summarized. Detailed descriptions of the analytical formulation of rotor dynamics equations, fuselage dynamic equations, coupling between the rotor and fuselage, and solutions to the total system of equations in C81 are included. Analytical predictions of hub shears for main rotor harmonics 2p, 4p, and 6p generated by C81 are used in conjunction with 2p OLS measured control loads and a 2p lateral tail rotor gearbox force, representing downwash impingement on the vertical fin, to excite the NASTRAN model. NASTRAN is then used to correlate with measured OLS flight test vibrations. Blade load comparisons predicted by C81 showed good agreement. In general, the fuselage vibration correlations show good agreement between anslysis and test in vibration response through 15 to 20 Hz.

Corrigan, J. C.↗