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NASA NTRS2011

The Crucial Role of Error Correlation for Uncertainty Modeling of CFD-Based Aerodynamics Increments

The Ares I ascent aerodynamics database for Design Cycle 3 (DAC-3) was built from wind-tunnel test results and CFD solutions. The wind tunnel results were used to build the baseline response surfaces for wind-tunnel Reynolds numbers at power-off conditions. The CFD solutions were used to build increments to account for Reynolds number effects. We calculate the validation errors for the primary CFD code results at wind tunnel Reynolds number power-off conditions and would like to be able to use those errors to predict the validation errors for the CFD increments. However, the validation errors are large compared to the increments. We suggest a way forward that is consistent with common practice in wind tunnel testing which is to assume that systematic errors in the measurement process and/or the environment will subtract out when increments are calculated, thus making increments more reliable with smaller uncertainty than absolute values of the aerodynamic coefficients. A similar practice has arisen for the use of CFD to generate aerodynamic database increments. The basis of this practice is the assumption of strong correlation of the systematic errors inherent in each of the results used to generate an increment. The assumption of strong correlation is the inferential link between the observed validation uncertainties at wind-tunnel Reynolds numbers and the uncertainties to be predicted for flight. In this paper, we suggest a way to estimate the correlation coefficient and demonstrate the approach using code-to-code differences that were obtained for quality control purposes during the Ares I CFD campaign. Finally, since we can expect the increments to be relatively small compared to the baseline response surface and to be typically of the order of the baseline uncertainty, we find that it is necessary to be able to show that the correlation coefficients are close to unity to avoid overinflating the overall database uncertainty with the addition of the increments.

Hemsch, Michael J.↗

NASA NTRS2011

CFD Modeling of Launch Vehicle Aerodynamic Heating

The Loci-CHEM 3.2 Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) code is being used to predict Ares-I launch vehicle aerodynamic heating. CFD has been used to predict both ascent and stage reentry environments and has been validated against wind tunnel tests and the Ares I-X developmental flight test. Most of the CFD predictions agreed with measurements. On regions where mismatches occurred, the CFD predictions tended to be higher than measured data. These higher predictions usually occurred in complex regions, where the CFD models (mainly turbulence) contain less accurate approximations. In some instances, the errors causing the over-predictions would cause locations downstream to be affected even though the physics were still being modeled properly by CHEM. This is easily seen when comparing to the 103-AH data. In the areas where predictions were low, higher grid resolution often brought the results closer to the data. Other disagreements are attributed to Ares I-X hardware not being present in the grid, as a result of computational resources limitations. The satisfactory predictions from CHEM provide confidence that future designs and predictions from the CFD code will provide an accurate approximation of the correct values for use in design and other applications

Tashakkor, Scott B.↗

NASA NTRS2011

CFD Simulations of Supersonic Highly Swirling Flow Exiting a Turbine Vane Row Compared with Experimental Observations

Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) has been heavily involved in developing the J2-X engine. The Center has been testing a Work Horse Gas Generator (WHGG) to supply gas products to J2-X turbine components at realistic flight-like operating conditions. Three-dimensional time accurate CFD simulations and analytical fluid analysis have been performed to support WHGG tests at MSFC. The general purpose CFD program LOCI/Chem was utilized to simulate flow of products from the WHGG through a turbine manifold, a stationary row of turbine vanes, into a Can and orifice assembly used to control the back pressure at the turbine vane row and finally through an aspirator plate and flame bucket. Simulations showed that supersonic swirling flow downstream of the turbine imparted a much higher pressure on the Can wall than expected for a non-swirling flow. This result was verified by developing an analytical model that predicts wall pressure due to swirling flow. The CFD simulations predicted that the higher downstream pressure would cause the pressure drop across the nozzle row to be approximately half the value of the test objective. With CFD support, a redesign of the Can orifice and aspirator plate was performed. WHGG experimental results and observations compared well with pre-test and post-test CFD simulations. CFD simulations for both quasi-static and transient test conditions correctly predicted the pressure environment downstream of the turbine row and the behavior of the gas generator product plume as it exited the WHGG test article, impacted the flame bucket and interacted with the external environment.

West, Jeff S.↗

NASA NTRS2014

Arbitrary Shape Deformation in CFD Design

Sculptor(R) is a commercially available software tool, based on an Arbitrary Shape Design (ASD), which allows the user to perform shape optimization for computational fluid dynamics (CFD) design. The developed software tool provides important advances in the state-of-the-art of automatic CFD shape deformations and optimization software. CFD is an analysis tool that is used by engineering designers to help gain a greater understanding of the fluid flow phenomena involved in the components being designed. The next step in the engineering design process is to then modify, the design to improve the components' performance. This step has traditionally been performed manually via trial and error. Two major problems that have, in the past, hindered the development of an automated CFD shape optimization are (1) inadequate shape parameterization algorithms, and (2) inadequate algorithms for CFD grid modification. The ASD that has been developed as part of the Sculptor(R) software tool is a major advancement in solving these two issues. First, the ASD allows the CFD designer to freely create his own shape parameters, thereby eliminating the restriction of only being able to use the CAD model parameters. Then, the software performs a smooth volumetric deformation, which eliminates the extremely costly process of having to remesh the grid for every shape change (which is how this process had previously been achieved). Sculptor(R) can be used to optimize shapes for aerodynamic and structural design of spacecraft, aircraft, watercraft, ducts, and other objects that affect and are affected by flows of fluids and heat. Sculptor(R) makes it possible to perform, in real time, a design change that would manually take hours or days if remeshing were needed.

Landon, Mark↗

NASA NTRS2014

Development, Verification and Validation of Parallel, Scalable Volume of Fluid CFD Program for Propulsion Applications

There are many instances involving liquid/gas interfaces and their dynamics in the design of liquid engine powered rockets such as the Space Launch System (SLS). Some examples of these applications are: Propellant tank draining and slosh, subcritical condition injector analysis for gas generators, preburners and thrust chambers, water deluge mitigation for launch induced environments and even solid rocket motor liquid slag dynamics. Commercially available CFD programs simulating gas/liquid interfaces using the Volume of Fluid approach are currently limited in their parallel scalability. In 2010 for instance, an internal NASA/MSFC review of three commercial tools revealed that parallel scalability was seriously compromised at 8 cpus and no additional speedup was possible after 32 cpus. Other non-interface CFD applications at the time were demonstrating useful parallel scalability up to 4,096 processors or more. Based on this review, NASA/MSFC initiated an effort to implement a Volume of Fluid implementation within the unstructured mesh, pressure-based algorithm CFD program, Loci-STREAM. After verification was achieved by comparing results to the commercial CFD program CFD-Ace+, and validation by direct comparison with data, Loci-STREAM-VoF is now the production CFD tool for propellant slosh force and slosh damping rate simulations at NASA/MSFC. On these applications, good parallel scalability has been demonstrated for problems sizes of tens of millions of cells and thousands of cpu cores. Ongoing efforts are focused on the application of Loci-STREAM-VoF to predict the transient flow patterns of water on the SLS Mobile Launch Platform in order to support the phasing of water for launch environment mitigation so that vehicle determinantal effects are not realized.

West, Jeff↗

NASA NTRS2015

3-D CFD Simulation and Validation of Oxygen-Rich Hydrocarbon Combustion in a Gas-Centered Swirl Coaxial Injector using a Flamelet-Based Approach

Injector design is a critical part of the development of a rocket Thrust Chamber Assembly (TCA). Proper detailed injector design can maximize propulsion efficiency while minimizing the potential for failures in the combustion chamber. Traditional design and analysis methods for hydrocarbon-fuel injector elements are based heavily on empirical data and models developed from heritage hardware tests. Using this limited set of data produces challenges when trying to design a new propulsion system where the operating conditions may greatly differ from heritage applications. Time-accurate, Three-Dimensional (3-D) Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modeling of combusting flows inside of injectors has long been a goal of the fluid analysis group at Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) and the larger CFD modeling community. CFD simulation can provide insight into the design and function of an injector that cannot be obtained easily through testing or empirical comparisons to existing hardware. However, the traditional finite-rate chemistry modeling approach utilized to simulate combusting flows for complex fuels, such as Rocket Propellant-2 (RP-2), is prohibitively expensive and time consuming even with a large amount of computational resources. MSFC has been working, in partnership with Streamline Numerics, Inc., to develop a computationally efficient, flamelet-based approach for modeling complex combusting flow applications. In this work, a flamelet modeling approach is used to simulate time-accurate, 3-D, combusting flow inside a single Gas Centered Swirl Coaxial (GCSC) injector using the flow solver, Loci-STREAM. CFD simulations were performed for several different injector geometries. Results of the CFD analysis helped guide the design of the injector from an initial concept to a tested prototype. The results of the CFD analysis are compared to data gathered from several hot-fire, single element injector tests performed in the Air Force Research Lab EC-1 test facility located at Edwards Air Force Base.

Richardson, Brian↗

NASA NTRS2017

Comparisons Between NO PLIF Imaging and CFD Simulations of Mixing Flowfields for High-Speed Fuel Injectors

The current work compares experimentally and computationally obtained nitric oxide (NO) planar laser-induced fluorescence (PLIF) images of the mixing flowfields for three types of high-speed fuel injectors: a strut, a ramp, and a rectangular flush-wall. These injection devices, which exhibited promising mixing performance at lower flight Mach numbers, are currently being studied as a part of the Enhanced Injection and Mixing Project (EIMP) at the NASA Langley Research Center. The EIMP aims to investigate scramjet fuel injection and mixing physics, and improve the understanding of underlying physical processes relevant to flight Mach numbers greater than eight. In the experiments, conducted in the NASA Langley Arc-Heated Scramjet Test Facility (AHSTF), the injectors are placed downstream of a Mach 6 facility nozzle, which simulates the high Mach number air flow at the entrance of a scramjet combustor. Helium is used as an inert substitute for hydrogen fuel. The PLIF is obtained by using a tunable laser to excite the NO, which is present in the AHSTF air as a direct result of arc-heating. Consequently, the absence of signal is an indication of pure helium (fuel). The PLIF images computed from the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations are obtained by combining a fluorescence model for NO with the Reynolds-Averaged Simulation results carried out using the VULCAN-CFD solver to obtain a computational equivalent of the experimentally measured PLIF signal. The measured NO PLIF signal is mainly a function of NO concentration allowing for semi-quantitative comparisons between the CFD and the experiments. The PLIF signal intensity is also sensitive to pressure and temperature variations in the flow, allowing additional flow features to be identified and compared with the CFD. Good agreement between the PLIF and the CFD results provides increased confidence in the CFD simulations for investigations of injector performance.

Drozda, Tomasz, G.↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Requirements and Challenges for CFD Validation within the High-Lift Common Research Model Ecosystem

The High-Lift Common Research Model (CRM-HL) ecosystem is envisioned to become an industry standard set of test cases for high-lift aerodynamics prediction, with data generated providing a strong foundation for CFD validation. Since its original development, preliminary wind tunnel tests have been conducted to further understand and configure the geometry, and several more are in the planning phases. It is anticipated that the data generated in these tests will be used extensively by the CFD community for research, development, and validation of new techniques that yield more accurate results. To derive the maximum benefit from planned wind tunnel testing, data acquisition will be focused in several key areas to address specific shortcomings in CFD predictive capabilities. Significant challenges currently exist in areas including, but not limited to, characterizing high-lift flow phenomena, quantifying effects due to configuration changes, understanding wind tunnel and model installation effects, and establishing data uncertainty. This paper will discuss the current state-of-the-art in high-lift CFD prediction, key limitations of current CFD methods and tools, establishing a validation dialog between test and CFD practitioners, and the flow phenomena of highest interest, in an effort to begin to address these challenges. To this end, it is expected that the data generated from CRM-HL tests will form a strong foundation for future predictive capability.

Adam M Clark↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Evaluation of CFD for Simulation of High-Supersonic Control-Surface Effectiveness

As part of studying the ability of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) to accurately model important flow physics in the high-supersonic Mach number range, control-surface effectiveness on an entry vehicle for Mars exploration was examined. As with several other important flow regimes studied under the CFD as Surrogate for Wind Tunnel Testing at High Supersonic Speeds Project, a combined CFD and wind-tunnel study of a proposed Mars landing configuration was undertaken. The testing was performed in high-speed test section of the NASA Langley Research Center’s Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel. The CFD team was an integral part of the overall evaluation team throughout the model development and test planning process and performed pre-test computations predicting the results of the testing. For the CFD predictions of the model in the wind tunnel, the flow into the test section was imposed as a boundary condition. The imposed inflow was based on a previous flow characterization study and companion CFD simulating the flow from the settling chamber through the test section.

James C. Ross↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Evaluation of CFD as a Surrogate for Mach 2.4 to 4.6 Wind-Tunnel Testing – Project Overview

The debate over when wind-tunnel testing will be replaced by Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) comes and goes. More recently the debate has subsided with a more collaborative spirit between practitioners of these two disciplines resulting in significant improvements in the outcomes of both. There may come a time, however, when CFD has sufficient accuracy to supplant WTT as the dominant or perhaps only tool for aerodynamic simulation. If and/or when that happens, financial pressures favor efforts to close or severely limit the operations of wind tunnels. Presumably additional resources will go toward CFD to generate aerodynamic databases, load environments, and new aero/fluid-dynamic knowledge. It is therefore important to develop appropriate processes by which wind-tunnel closure decisions are made to ensure that facilities critical to industry and government research and development aren’t closed prematurely without proof that the available CFD tools have sufficient accuracy and low-enough cost (and enough experts and computational facilities) to take on the traditional role of wind tunnels. This paper will describe a project intended to answer the specific question of whether CFD can replace wind-tunnel testing for the limited Mach-number range 2.4 to 4.6. The project involves wind-tunnel testing and coordinated CFD for a variety of vehicle and flow-physics types in the high-speed leg of the Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel at NASA’s Langley Research Center.

James C Ross↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

A Nonlinear Schur Complement Solver for CFD-Based Multidisciplinary Models

CFD-based multidisciplinary models are the fundamental building blocks of multidis- ciplinary design optimization frameworks. Linear and nonlinear solutions of these coupled models are difficult, especially when the Jacobian matrices represent a saddle point problem, where a block-diagonal corresponding to a discipline is non-invertible. These scenarios necessitate the use of a coupled solver algorithm such as the Newton’s method instead of the popular block Gauss– Seidel-based methods because of this non-invertible block. To address this challenge, we introduce a nonlinear Schur complement solver suitable for CFD-based multidisciplinary models. The solver leverages the specialized linear and nonlinear solvers of the CFD code, and therefore, does not require the solution of a large coupled linear system as the coupled Newton’s method. Further- more, because the solver primarily uses the specialized linear and nonlinear solvers of the CFD code, it does not suffer from the same robustness limitations as the coupled Newton’s method. In this work, we will implement this solver in NASA’s OpenMDAO framework and demonstrate its effectiveness using a CFD-based aeropropulsive model. The solver will contribute to the develop- ment of aeropropulsive design optimization and CFD-based design optimization methods with the ultimate goal of accelerating the design and integration of advanced propulsion systems.

Nonlinear Solvers↗

NASA NTRS2016

On the Calculation of Uncertainty Statistics with Error Bounds for CFD Calculations Containing Random Parameters and Fields

This chapter discusses the ongoing development of combined uncertainty and error bound estimates for computational fluid dynamics (CFD) calculations subject to imposed random parameters and random fields. An objective of this work is the construction of computable error bound formulas for output uncertainty statistics that guide CFD practitioners in systematically determining how accurately CFD realizations should be approximated and how accurately uncertainty statistics should be approximated for output quantities of interest. Formal error bounds formulas for moment statistics that properly account for the presence of numerical errors in CFD calculations and numerical quadrature errors in the calculation of moment statistics have been previously presented in [8]. In this past work, hierarchical node-nested dense and sparse tensor product quadratures are used to calculate moment statistics integrals. In the present work, a framework has been developed that exploits the hierarchical structure of these quadratures in order to simplify the calculation of an estimate of the quadrature error needed in error bound formulas. When signed estimates of realization error are available, this signed error may also be used to estimate output quantity of interest probability densities as a means to assess the impact of realization error on these density estimates. Numerical results are presented for CFD problems with uncertainty to demonstrate the capabilities of this framework.

Uncertainty↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Experimental and CFD Investigation of the Titled Jet Behavior in the Zero Boil-Off Tank (ZBOT) Experiment

Screens are used in cryogenic storage tanks to diffuse the incoming gas or liquid injection/flow into the tank. Meshed screens were also used in the jet mixing pressure control tests of the Zero Boil-Off Tank (ZBOT) Experiment which was recently performed aboard the International Space Station (ISS). The ZBOT pressure control studies used a liquid jet that was intended to be aligned with the longitudinal axis of the tank. A cartridge consisting of a honeycomb flow straightener and two screen diffusers, one upstream of the honeycomb, and one downstream, were designed to obtain the desired velocity profile in a manner that would be consistent in all the tests and could also be used as an input to the CFD simulations. Unfortunately, during the flight operations, the Digital Particle Image Velocimetry (DPIV) measurements indicated that the jet actually exited the nozzle at an angle to the main axis. This unexpected tilt affected the motion and deformation of the ullage during the pressure control tests, influencing the initial pressure drops. Upon disassembling the experiment hardware, it was discovered that the screen diffuser upstream of the honeycomb was clogged with debris. Since this behavior is important, not only to the follow-on ZBOT-NC experiment, but also to the operation of cryogenics storage tanks in general, a series of ground-based experiments and parametric CFD model simulations were performed to understand and characterize the tilted flow in terms of the clogged area of the upstream screen and the jet velocity. The experimental and CFD results surprisingly and non-intuitively showed that although the modification of the flow originated from the clogging of the upstream screen, the presence of the downstream unclogged screen was also necessary to produce the tilted jet. Two different CFD models were used for the numerical simulations, and only the one using a porous media formulation to capture the screen pressure drop was able to produce the correct tilting behavior. Parametric runs with the porous media CFD model were used to characterize the jet tilt in terms of the blockage area and jet velocity for both the future ZBOT-NC Experiment and other propellant tank applications. Supported by NASA Biological & Physical Sciences (BPS) Division, Physical Sciences Research Program, NASA HQ, USA.

Cryogenic Fluid Management↗

NASA NTRS1983

The impact of CFD on development test facilities - A National Research Council projection

The results of a National Research Council study on the effect that advances in computational fluid dynamics (CFD) will have on conventional aeronautical ground testing are reported. Current CFD capabilities include the depiction of linearized inviscid flows and a boundary layer, initial use of Euler coordinates using supercomputers to automatically generate a grid, research and development on Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (N-S) equations, and preliminary research on solutions to the full N-S equations. Improvements in the range of CFD usage is dependent on the development of more powerful supercomputers, exceeding even the projected abilities of the NASA Numerical Aerodynamic Simulator (1 BFLOP/sec). Full representation of the Re-averaged N-S equations will require over one million grid points, a computing level predicted to be available in 15 yr. Present capabilities allow identification of data anomalies, confirmation of data accuracy, and adequateness of model design in wind tunnel trials. Account can be taken of the wall effects and the Re in any flight regime during simulation. CFD can actually be more accurate than instrumented tests, since all points in a flow can be modeled with CFD, while they cannot all be monitored with instrumentation in a wind tunnel.

Korkegi, R. H.↗

NASA NTRS1990

The application of CFD to rotary wing flow problems

Rotorcraft aerodynamics is especially rich in unsolved problems, and for this reason the need for independent computational and experimental studies is great. Three-dimensional unsteady, nonlinear potential methods are becoming fast enough to enable their use in parametric design studies. At present, combined CAMRAD/FPR analyses for a complete trimmed rotor soltution can be performed in about an hour on a CRAY Y-MP (or ten minutes, with multiple processors). These computational speeds indicate that in the near future many of the large CFD problems will no longer require a supercomputer. The ability to convect circulation is routine for integral methods, but only recently was it discovered how to do the same with differential methods. It is clear that the differential CFD rotor analyses are poised to enter the engineering workplace. Integral methods already constitute a mainstay. Ultimately, it is the users who will integrate CFD into the entire engineering process and provide a new measure of confidence in design and analysis. It should be recognized that the above classes of analyses do not include several major limiting phenomena which will continue to require empirical treatment because of computational time constraints and limited physical understanding. Such empirical treatment should be included, however, into the developing CFD, engineering level analyses. It is likely that properly constructed flow models containing corrections from physical testing will be able to fill in unavoidable gaps in the experimental data base, both for basic studies and for specific configuration testing. For these kinds of applications, computational cost is not an issue. Finally, it should be recognized that although rotorcraft are probably the most complex of aircraft, the rotorcraft engineering community is very small compared to the fixed-wing community. Likewise, rotorcraft CFD resources can never achieve fixed-wing proportions and must be used wisely. Therefore the fixed-wing work must be gleaned for many of the basic methods.

Caradonna, F. X.↗

NASA NTRS1992

CFD goes to school

The part that universities should play in the future development of CFD, which must be evaluated in light of CFD's pacing elements and challenges, is discussed. Attention is given to CFD pacing items that must be in place before routine aerodynamic simulation can be performed including grid generation and geometry surface definition, solution adaptive meshing, more efficient time-accurate simulation, modeling of real-gas effects, multiple relative body motion, and prediction of transition and turbulence modeling. As universities have contributed to research in CFD from its inception, this research should continue to enhance and motivate teaching, improve CFD as a discipline, and stimulate faculty and students.

Steger, Joseph L.↗

NASA NTRS1990

2nd NASA CFD Validation Workshop

The purpose of the workshop was to review NASA's progress in CFD validation since the first workshop (held at Ames in 1987) and to affirm the future direction of the NASA CFD validation program. The first session consisted of overviews of CFD validation research at each of the three OAET research centers and at Marshall Space Flight Center. The second session consisted of in-depth technical presentations of the best examples of CFD validation work at each center (including Marshall). On the second day the workshop divided into three working groups to discuss CFD validation progress and needs in the subsonic, high-speed, and hypersonic speed ranges. The emphasis of the working groups was on propulsion.

Source record↗

NASA NTRS1992

Status of CFD for LaRC's HSR high-lift program

The viewgraphs for a status report for using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) for NASA Langley's Research Center High Speed Research High-Lift Program are provided. The objectives of CFD applications, the approach to developing appropriate CFD codes, and the dominant flow mechanisms are outlined. Possible CFD codes are compared; graphs comparing force coefficients, surface pressure distribution, and force are included. The plans for using CFD applications are listed.

Waggoner, Edgar G.↗