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At least 631 records · Page 35
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1989

Ocean radar backscatter relationship with near-surface winds - A case study during Fasinex

A case study of the ocean radar backscatter dependence on near-surface wind and wind stress is presented using the data obtained on February 18, 1986 during the Frontal Air-Sea Interaction Experiment. The particular wind-wave conditions and their variations across a sharp sea surface temperature front are described. The small change in wind speed across the front cannot account for the large change in wind stress implying significant changes in the drag coefficient and surface roughness length. The results strengthen the hypothesis that radar backscatter is closely correlated to wind stress, and therefore, could be used for remote sensing of the wind stress itself over the global oceans.

Li, F.↗
NASA NTRS1990

A summary of spin-recovery parachute experience on light airplanes

From 1977 to 1989, the NASA Langley Research Center conducted stall/spin flight tests of variations of four typical light airplanes. Each was equipped with an identical tail-mounted, spin-recovery parachute system. The system was used 29 times to arrest otherwise unrecoverable spins and was used at least twice on each airplane. The 10.5 ft diameter, ring-slot, spin-recovery parachute with 20 ft attachment lines and drag coefficient of .545 provided recovery from spins at angles of attack of 32 to 79 degrees and rotation rates of 122 to 261 degrees per second in less than 3 1/2 turns.

Stough, H. Paul, III↗
NASA NTRS1989

Procedure for estimating aerodynamics of three-dimensional bodies in transitional flow

Based on considerations of fluid dynamic simulation appropriate to hypersonic, viscous flow over blunt-nosed lifting bodies, a method was presented earlier for estimating drag coefficients in the transitional-flow regime. The extension of the same method to prediction of lift coefficients is presented in this paper. Correlation of available experimental data by a simulation parameter appropriate for this purpose is the basis of the procedure described. Under low-density, hypersonic flow conditions, the overriding importance of projected and wetted areas, rather than details of body configuration, support this approach for finding aerodynamic forces. The ease of application of the method makes it useful for preliminary studies that involve a wide variety of three-dimensional vehicle configurations or a range of angles of attack of a given vehicle. It is also easy to examine the influence of different assumptions regarding gas/surface interaction parameters.

Potter, J. Leith↗
NASA NTRS1990

Calculation of real-gas effects on airfoil aerodynamic characteristics

The effects of high temperature thermochemical phenomena on the aerodynamic characteristics at hypersonic speeds are calculated for two-dimensional airfoils in air. The calculations are performed on an airfoil similar to that used for the Space Shuttle Orbiter, and ellipses of thickness ratios varying between 5 and 15 percent. For the airfoil, one flight condition is considered. For the ellipses, the calculations are carried out over a range of chord lengths, flight velocities, flight altitudes, and angles of attack. It is shown that the lift and drag coefficients are consistently reduced by the thermochemical phenomena, and that the behavior can be represented by a specific heat ratio value less than 1.4. The center of pressure shifts forward due to the thermochemical phenomena, but its extent is sensitively affected by the geometry and angle of attack and cannot be represented by a fixed specific heat ratio. The calculated results are in qualitative agreement with the data obtained during the entry flights of the Space Shuttle vehicle.

Park, Chul↗
NASA NTRS1991

Atmospheric turbulence review of space shuttle launches

Research and analysis on the identification of turbulent regions from the surface to 16 km during Space Shuttle launches are discussed. It was demonstrated that the results from the FPS-16 radar/jimsphere balloon system in measuring winds can indeed indicate the presence or conditions ripe for turbulence in the troposphere and lower stratosphere. It was further demonstrated that atmospheric data obtained during the shuttle launches by the rawinsonde in conjunction with the jimsphere provides the necessary meteorological data to compute aerodynamic parameters to identify turbulence, such as Reynolds number drag coefficient, turbulent stresses, total energy, stability parameter, vertical gradient of kinetic energy, Richardson number, and the turbulence probability index. Enhanced temperature lapse rates and inversion rates, strong vector wind shears, and large changes in wind direction identify the occurrence of turbulence at the troposphere. When any two of the above conditions occur simultaneously, a significant probability of turbulence can occur.

Susko, Michael↗
NASA NTRS1991

Winglet effectiveness on low aspect ratio wings at supersonic Mach numbers

A computational study has been conducted on two wings of aspect ratios 1.244 and 1.865, each having 65-deg leading edge sweep angles, to determine the effects of nonplanar winglets at supersonic Mach numbers. A design Mach number of 1.62 was selected. The winglets studied were parametrically varied in alignment, length, sweep, camber, and thickness to determine the effects of winglet geometry on predicted performance. For the computational analysis, an existing Euler code that employed a marching technique was used. The results indicated that the possibility existed for wing-winglet geometries to equal the performance of wing-alone bodies in supersonic flows with both bodies having the same semispan length. The performance parameters of main interest were the lift-to-pressure drag ratio and the pressure drag coefficient as functions of lift coefficient. The lift coefficient range for this study was from -0.20 to 0.70 with emphasis on the range of 0.10 to 0.22.

Keenan, J. A.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Cartesian based grid generation/adaptive mesh refinement

Grid adaptation has recently received attention in the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) community as a means to capture the salient features of a flowfield by either moving grid points of a structured or by adding cells in an unstructured manner. An approach based on a background cartesian mesh is investigated from which the geometry is 'cut' out of the mesh. Once the mesh is obtained, a solution on this coarse grid is found, that indicates which cells need to be refined. This process of refining/solving continues until the flow is grid refined in terms of a user specified global parameter (such as drag coefficient etc.). The advantages of this approach are twofold: the generation of the base grid is independent of the topology of the bodies or surfaces around/through which the flow is to be computed, and the resulting grid (in uncut regions) is highly isotropic, so that the truncation error is low. The flow solver (which, along with the grid generation is still under development) uses a completely unstructured data base, and is a finite volume, upwinding scheme. Current and future work will address generating Navier-Stokes suitable grids by using locally aligned and normal face/cell refining. The attached plot shows a simple grid about two turbine blades.

Coirier, William J.↗
NASA NTRS1990

High Reynolds Number Test of the Boeing TR77 Airfoil in the Langley 0.3-Meter Transonic Cryogenic Tunnel

A Boeing TR77 airfoil associated with the Advanced Technology Airfoil Test (ATAT) program was tested in the Langley 0.3 m Transonic Cryogenic Tunnel. Limited analysis of the data indicated that increasing Reynolds number for a fixed Mach number resulted in increased normal-force, nose-down pitching moment, and decreased drag coefficient. Increasing Mach number while keeping the Reynolds number constant yielded the expected increase in normal-force slopes, nose-down pitching moment coefficients, and decrease in angle of attack associated with maximum normal-force coefficient. Turbulent boundary layer flow was achieved over the airfoil at low Reynolds numbers for the test Mach number range using aluminum discs.

Chu, Julio↗
NASA NTRS1992

Parametric investigation of single-expansion-ramp nozzles at Mach numbers from 0.60 to 1.20

An investigation was conducted in the Langley 16-Foot Transonic Tunnel to determine the effects of varying six nozzle geometric parameters on the internal and aeropropulsive performance characteristics of single-expansion-ramp nozzles. This investigation was conducted at Mach numbers from 0.60 to 1.20, nozzle pressure ratios from 1.5 to 12, and angles of attack of 0 deg +/- 6 deg. Maximum aeropropulsive performance at a particular Mach number was highly dependent on the operating nozzle pressure ratio. For example, as the nozzle upper ramp length or angle increased, some nozzles had higher performance at a Mach number of 0.90 because of the nozzle design pressure was the same as the operating pressure ratio. Thus, selection of the various nozzle geometric parameters should be based on the mission requirements of the aircraft. A combination of large upper ramp and large lower flap boattail angles produced greater nozzle drag coefficients at Mach number greater than 0.80, primarily from shock-induced separation on the lower flap of the nozzle. A static conditions, the convergent nozzle had high and nearly constant values of resultant thrust ratio over the entire range of nozzle pressure ratios tested. However, these nozzles had much lower aeropropulsive performance than the convergent-divergent nozzle at Mach number greater than 0.60.

Capone, Francis J.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Determination of balloon drag

The evolution of an empirical drag relationship that has stimulated rethinking regarding the physics of balloon drag phenomena is discussed. Combined parasitic drag from all sources in the balloon system are estimated to constitute less than 10 percent of the total system drag. It is shown that the difference between flight-determined drag coefficients and those based on the spherical assumption should be related to the square of the Froude number.

Conrad, George R.↗
NASA NTRS1991

The dynamics of dense and dilute clusters of drops evaporating in large, coherent vortices

The behavior of evaporating clusters of drops embedded into large, coherent vortices is described using a formulation which is valid for both dense and dilute clusters. Drops and gas interact both dynamically and thermodynamically. Dynamic coupling occurs through a force on the drops due to drag resulting from a slip velocity between the two phases. The net interaction force on the gas with drops is due to a source thrust from evaporation plus drag on each drop. The drag coefficient accounts for blowing from the drop surface. Thermodynamic coupling is a result of drop heating and evaporation. Limitations due to drop proximity on heating and evaporation are taken into account. The vortical motion of the drops in the cluster results in the formation of a core region devoid of drops at the center of the vortex, and a shell region containing the drops and surrounding the inner core. Results are presented showing the dependence of the evaporation time, the final to initial volume ratio and the final to initial shell thickness ratio upon the initial air/fuel mass ratio and as a function of the initial tangential velocities, upon the initial Stokes number, initial drop radius and initial outer cluster radius. Differences in behavior between and control parameters of dense and dilute clusters are pointed out by these new results. It is found that for dense clusters the final to initial volume ratio and final to initial shell thickness scale with the initial Stokes number, a new result which must be validated experimentally.

Bellan, J.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Particle simulation of rarefied aeropass maneuvers of the Magellan spacecraft

Rarefied and free molecular flowfields corresponding to proposed aeropass maneuvers through the atmosphere of Venus by the Magellan spacecraft are computed with a vectorized particle simulation method. The significance of rarefaction and reaction effects are assessed and surface heat flux, drag coefficients, and flowfield properties are computed. A simple surface heat transfer model is coupled directly to the simulation and assumes that each surface element is in radiative equilibrium with deep space. This allows direct computation of surface temperature distributions rather than requiring prescribed isothermal boundary conditions. Uncoupled dual-node heat transfer models, which account for heat capacity and thermal conductivity within each structural component, permit more accurate determination of surface temperatures. Such temperatures restrict the allowable altitudes and entry speeds of the aeropass maneuvers, and must therefore be estimated accurately. Simulations with an entry velocity of 8600 m/s at altitudes between 125 and 140 km reveal that allowable surface temperatures occur only at the highest altitudes where the flowfield is appropriately modeled as free-molecular. Excessive surface heat flux occurs at lower altitudes where molecular collisions are significant.

Haas, Brian L.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Orbit determination and orbit control for the Earth Observing System (EOS) AM spacecraft

Future NASA Earth Observing System (EOS) Spacecraft will make measurements of the earth's clouds, oceans, atmosphere, land and radiation balance. These EOS Spacecraft will be part of the NASA Mission to Planet Earth. This paper specifically addresses the EOS AM Spacecraft, referred to as 'AM' because it has a sun-synchronous orbit with a 10:30 AM descending node. This paper describes the EOS AM Spacecraft mission orbit requirements, orbit determination, orbit control, and navigation system impact on earth based pointing. The EOS AM Spacecraft will be the first spacecraft to use the TDRSS Onboard Navigation System (TONS) as the primary means of navigation. TONS flight software will process one-way forward Doppler measurements taken during scheduled TDRSS contacts. An extended Kalman filter will estimate spacecraft position, velocity, drag coefficient correction, and ultrastable master oscillator frequency bias and drift. The TONS baseline algorithms, software, and hardware implementation are described in this paper. TONS integration into the EOS AM Spacecraft Guidance, Navigation, and Control (GN&C) System; TONS assisted onboard time maintenance; and the TONS Ground Support System (TGSS) are also addressed.

Herberg, Joseph R.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Atmospheric effects on ejecta emplacement and crater formation on Venus from Magellan

Surface signatures of energy partitioning are used as a framework for testing extrapolations from laboratory experiments and other planetary settings to assess the effects of both gravity and an atmosphere on impact crater formation on Venus. The dense lower atmosphere of Venus is found to assume the role of a low-density target for bodies smaller than about 4 km in diameter. Air blasts created by cratering in the atmosphere produce distinctive surface signatures that allow the derivation of an independent assessment of impactor energy at the limit of break up. Dynamic pressures during entry of larger bodies will exceed their strength limit but may not prevent penetration of the atmosphere due to aerodynamic reshaping that minimizes the drag coefficient. This process may account for the formation of unusually small craters (1-3 km). The dense atmosphere of Venus preserves signatures of early time cratering processes on the surface that are typically lost on atmosphere-free surfaces.

Schultz, Peter H.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Comparative wind tunnel tests at high Reynolds numbers of NACA 64 621 airfoils with two aileron configurations

An experimental program to measure the aerodynamic characteristics of the NACA 64-621 airfoil when equipped with plain ailerons of 0.38 chord and 0.30 chord and with 0.38 chord balanced aileron has been conducted in a pressurized 6 x 12-inch High Reynolds Number Wind Tunnel. Surface pressures were measured and integrated to yield lift and pressure drag coefficients for angles of attack from -3 deg to +42 deg, and for selected aileron deflections from 0 to -90 deg at nominal Mach and Reynolds numbers of 0.25 and 5 x l0 exp 6, respectively. When resolved into thrust coefficient for wind turbine aerodynamic control applications, the data indicated the anticipated decrease in thrust coefficient with negative aileron deflection at low angles of attack; however, as angle of attack increased, thrust coefficients eventually became positive. All aileron configurations, even at -90 deg deflections, showed this trend. Hinge moments for each configuration complete the data set.

Gregorek, G. M.↗
NASA NTRS1993

An improved far field drag calculation method for nonlinear CFD codes

An improved method to calculate drag based on far field conditions is presented and demonstrated. The method is illustrated using two CFD codes, PARC and CFL3D, and examining their ability to preserve lift and drag coefficients along grid line defined integration paths. The flow fields were generated by solving the Euler equations for a NACA 0012 airfoil at a free stream Mach number of 0.8 and angle of attack of 1.25 degrees. In comparison to force coefficients obtained by surface pressure integration, neither code acceptably preserved both force coefficients throughout the near and far fields. An investigation into the relationship between numerical prediction error and calculated force coefficients revealed a direct connection between solution mass conservation error and force coefficients error. A method to correct the predicted force coefficients based on integrated mass conservation error is described and demonstrated. The corrected force coefficients for both codes are shown to be more accurate than the uncorrected values. The correction method is applicable to both two and three dimensions and is independent of the algorithm used to generate the flow field.

Sirbaugh, James R.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Computational study of a conical wing having unit aspect ratio at supersonic speeds

A study was conducted to identify and assess a computational method as a preliminary analysis and design tool for advanced military aircraft designs. The method of choice for this study was the Euler Marching Technique for Accurate Computation (EMTAC). Computational and experimental results were compared for a thick unit aspect ratio delta wing at Mach 2.8 and 4.0. This geometry along with the associated flow physics is representative of advanced aircraft designs. The comparisons of the lift and drag coefficients show that the computations agree with experimentally obtained data at Mach 2.8 and 4.0. Further, comparison between EMTAC and experiment shows that the computations accurately predict the overall shape and levels of the surface pressure distributions at Mach 2.8 and 4.0. Qualitative assessment of the computed flow-field properties shows that EMTAC captures the basic flow-field characteristics representative of advanced aircraft designs. The study further suggests that EMTAC can be successfully used in the preliminary analysis and design of advanced military aircraft.

Mcgrath, Brian E.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Ocean tides for satellite geodesy

Spherical harmonic tidal solutions have been obtained at the frequencies of the 32 largest luni-solar tides using prior theory of the author. That theory was developed for turbulent, nonglobal, self-gravitating, and loading oceans possessing realistic bathymetry and linearized bottom friction; the oceans satisfy no-flow boundary conditions at coastlines. In this theory the eddy viscosity and bottom drag coefficients are treated as spatially uniform. Comparison of the predicted degree-2 components of the Mf, P1, and M2 tides with those from numerical and satellite-based tide models allows the ocean friction parameters to be estimated at long and short periods. Using the 32 tide solutions, the frequency dependence of tidal admittance is investigated, and the validity of sideband tide models used in satellite orbit analysis is examined. The implications of admittance variability for oceanic resonances are also explored.

Dickman, S. R.↗