Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “vortex flows”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 685 records · Page 38
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1980

Predicted vortex shedding from noncircular bodies in supersonic flow

A method to predict nose vortex shedding from circular and noncircular bodies in supersonic flow at angles of attack and roll is presented. The body is represented by a supersonic panel method, and the lee side vortex wake is modeled by discrete vortices in crossflow planes. The three-dimensional steady flow problem is reduced to a two-dimensional, unsteady, separated flow problem for solution. Comparison of measured and predicted surface pressure distributions, flow field surveys, and aerodynamic characteristics are presented for circular and elliptic bodies.

Mendenhall, M. R.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Wind tunnel investigations of forebody strakes for yaw control on F/A-18 model at subsonic and transonic speeds

Wind tunnel investigations have been conducted of forebody strakes for yaw control on 0.06-scale models of the F/A-18 aircraft at free-stream Mach numbers of 0.20 to 0.90. The testing was conducted in the 7- by 10-Foot Transonic Tunnel at the David Taylor Research Center and the Langley 7- by 10-Foot High-Speed Tunnel. The principal objectives of the testing were to determine the effects of the Mach number and the strake plan form on the strake yaw control effectiveness and the corresponding strake vortex induced flow field. The wind tunnel model configurations simulated an actuated conformal strake deployed for maximum yaw control at high angles of attack. The test data included six-component forces and moments on the complete model, surface static pressure distributions on the forebody and wing leading-edge extensions, and on-surface and off-surface flow visualizations. The results from these studies show that the strake produces large yaw control increments at high angles of attack that exceed the effect of conventional rudders at low angles of attack. The strake yaw control increments diminish with increasing Mach number but continue to exceed the effect of rudder deflection at angles of attack greater than 30 degrees. The character of the strake vortex induced flow field is similar at subsonic and transonic speeds. Cropping the strake planform to account for geometric and structural constraints on the F-18 aircraft has a small effect on the yaw control increments at subsonic speeds and no effect at transonic speeds.

Erickson, Gary E.↗
NASA NTRS2004

Numerical Simulations of Vortex Shedding in Hydraulic Turbines

Turbomachines for rocket propulsion applications operate with many different working fluids and flow conditions. Oxidizer boost turbines often operate in liquid oxygen, resulting in an incompressible flow field. Vortex shedding from airfoils in this flow environment can have adverse effects on both turbine performance and durability. In this study the effects of vortex shedding in a low-pressure oxidizer turbine are investigated. Benchmark results are also presented for vortex shedding behind a circular cylinder. The predicted results are compared with available experimental data.

Dorney, Daniel↗
NASA NTRS1982

Three-dimensional flow studies on a slotted transonic wind tunnel wall

Three-dimensional flow field measurements were made near a transonic slotted wall. Field velocity vectors and static pressure distributions have been obtained. The boundary layer displacement thickness was found to vary in the transverse plane with its maximum at the slot center line but decreased with increasing suction rate through the slot. The boundary layer characteristics were sensitive to the mass transfer through the slot. The projection on the flow field velocity vectors on the transverse plane reveals a vortex-like flow formation. The center of this secondary flow was located nearly at the edge of the wall shear layer and decreased in strength with applied suction. The secondary vortex motion may be attributed to the mean flow skewing, inhomogeneous transverse plane boundary layer and the wall turbulence anisotropy.

Wu, J. M.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Turbulence modeling for separated flow

Two projects are described in this report. The first involves assessing turbulence models in separated flow. The second addresses the anomalous behavior of certain turbulence models in stagnation point flow. The primary motivation for developing turbulent transport models is to provide tools for computing non-equilibrium, or complex, turbulent flows. Simple flows can be analyzed using data correlations or algebraic eddy viscosities, but in more complicated flows such as a massively separated boundary layer, a more elaborate level of modeling is required. It is widely believed that at least a two-equation transport model is required in such cases. The transport equations determine the evolution of suitable velocity and time-scales of the turbulence. The present study included assessment of second-moment closures in several separated flows, including sharp edge separation; smooth wall, pressure driven separation; and unsteady vortex shedding. Flows with mean swirl are of interest for their role in enhancing mixing both by turbulent and mean motion. The swirl can have a stabilizing effect on the turbulence. An axi-symmetric extension to the INS-2D computer program was written adding the capability of computing swirling flow. High swirl can produce vortex breakdown on the centerline of the jet and it occurs in various combustors.

Durbin, Paul A.↗
NASA NTRS1975

A Three-Dimensional Solution of Flows over Wings with Leading-Edge Vortex Separation. Part 1: Engineering Document

A method of predicting forces, moments, and detailed surface pressures on thin, sharp-edged wings with leading-edge vortex separation in incompressible flow is presented. The method employs an inviscid flow model in which the wing and the rolled-up vortex sheets are represented by piecewise, continuous quadratic doublet sheet distributions. The Kutta condition is imposed on all wing edges. Computed results are compared with experimental data and with the predictions of the leading-edge suction analogy for a selected number of wing planforms over a wide range of angle of attack. These comparisons show the method to be very promising, capable of producing not only force predictions, but also accurate predictions of detailed surface pressure distributions, loads, and moments.

Brune, G. W.↗
NASA NTRS1972

Design of vortex fluid amplifiers with asymmetrical flow fields.

Variation of geometric parameters, including supply area, control area, chamber length, and outlet diameter, of a large scale, modular design vortex fluid amplifier with single supply and control jets, has confirmed and extended a previously published design method, developed for vortex amplifiers with symmetric flow fields. This allows application of the method to devices which are more representative of practical, production type components.

Lawley, T. J.↗
NASA NTRS1976

A vortex model of cavity flow

The paper presents a model of two-dimensional cavity flow in which the shear layer over the cavity is represented by discrete rectilinear vortices which are free to move as the flow progresses. Although the model is initially started impulsively, the computation is continued until a statistically steady flow is attained. The broadband noise generation of the cavity is calculated by first running the model until the steady state is reached and then computing a stationary record of far-field density fluctuation through an equation that is suitable for calculating the quadrupole noise generation by the model. The discrete time series obtained can be analyzed by ordinary digital spectral techniques to determine the spectra and overall levels of the noise in airframe noise testing of real aircraft.

Hardin, J. C.↗
NASA NTRS1988

Aircraft vortices - Juncture, wing, and wake

Many real aircraft flows contain regions of three-dimensional separation with vortices. This paper presents selected results for three representative flows: juncture vortex, lifting-wing vortex, and wake vortex. Due to the difficulty of studying vortices, flow visualization was used as a primary research tool. Vortices are found to depend in subtle ways on details of the configuration, Reynolds number, or the environment. Examples showing the effect of filleting on the juncture flow, Reynolds number on the wing flow, and density gradients on the wake flow are presented.

Greene, George C.↗
NASA NTRS1988

Vortex shedding experiment with flat and curved bluff plates in water

Vortex shedding experiments were conducted in a water flow facility in order to simulate the strong discrete 4000-Hz vibration detected in the Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME) which is thought to be associated with the SSME LOX inlet tee splitter vanes on the Main Injector. For the case of a flat vane with a blunt trailing edge excited by flow induced vortex shedding, lock-in with the first bending mode of the plate was observed. A curved vane displayed similar behavior, with the lock-in being a more discrete higher amplitude response. Aluminum vanes were employed to decouple the first vane bending mode from the vortex shedding mode. The application of an asymmetric 30-deg trailing edge bevel to both the flat and curved vanes was found to greatly reduce the strength of the shed vortices.

Reed, D.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Explicit and implicit calculations of turbulent cavity flows with and without yaw angle

Computations were performed to simulate turbulent supersonic flows past three-dimensional deep cavities with and without yaw. Simulation of these self-sustained oscillatory flows were generated through time accurate solutions of the Reynolds averaged complete Navier-Stokes equations using two different schemes: (1) MacCormack, finite-difference; and (2) implicit, upwind, finite-volume schemes. The second scheme, which is approximately 30 percent faster, is found to produce better time accurate results. The Reynolds stresses were modeled, using the Baldwin-Lomax algebraic turbulence model with certain modifications. The computational results include instantaneous and time averaged flow properties everywhere in the computational domain. Time series analyses were performed for the instantaneous pressure values on the cavity floor. The time averaged computational results show good agreement with the experimental data along the cavity floor and walls. When the yaw angle is nonzero, there is no longer a single length scale (length-to-depth ratio) for the flow, as is the case for zero yaw angle flow. The dominant directions and inclinations of the vortices are dramatically different for this nonsymmetric flow. The vortex shedding from the cavity into the mainstream flow is captured computationally. This phenomenon, which is due to the oscillation of the shear layer, is confirmed by the solutions of both schemes.

Yen, Guan-Wei↗
NASA NTRS1996

An Investigation of Cavity Vortex Generators in Supersonic Flow

The purpose of this report is to document the results of experiments performed at the University of Kansas and at the NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) into the use of shaped cavities to generate vortices in supersonic flow, as well as the progress made in simulating the observed flow using the PAB3D flow solver. The investigation was performed on 18 different cavity configurations installed in a convergent-divergent nozzle at the Jet Exit Facility at the LaRC. Pressure sensitive paint, static-pressure ports, focusing Schliern, and water tunnel flow visualization techniques were used to study the nature of the flow created by these cavities. The results of these investigations revealed that a shaped cavity can generate a pair of counter-rotating streamwise vortices in supersonic flow by creating weak, compression Mach waves and weak shocks. The PAB3D computer program, developed at the LaRC, was used to attempt to reproduce the experimental results. Unfortunately, due to problems with matching the grid blocks, no converged results were obtained. However, intermediate results, as well as a complete definition of the grid matching problems and suggested courses of actions are presented.

Hazlewood, Richard↗
NASA NTRS2010

Closed-Loop Control of Vortex Formation in Separated Flows

In order to phase lock the flow at the desired shedding cycle, particularly at Phi,best, We designed a feedback compensator. (Even though the open-loop forcing at Wf below Wn can lead to phase-locked limit cycles with a high average lift,) This feedback controller resulted in the phase-locked limit cycles that the open-loop control could not achieve for alpha=30 and 40 Particularly for alpha=40, the feedback was able to stabilize the limit cycle that was not stable with any of the open-loop periodic forcing. This results in stable phase-locked limit cycles for a larger range of forcing frequencies than the open-loop control. Also, it was shown that the feedback achieved the high-lift unsteady flow states that open-loop control could not sustain even after the states have been achieved for a long period of time.

Colonius, Tim↗
NASA NTRS2015

2nd-Order CESE Results For C1.4: Vortex Transport by Uniform Flow

The Conservation Element and Solution Element (CESE) method was used as implemented in the NASA research code ez4d. The CESE method is a time accurate formulation with flux-conservation in both space and time. The method treats the discretized derivatives of space and time identically and while the 2nd-order accurate version was used, high-order versions exist, the 2nd-order accurate version was used. In regards to the ez4d code, it is an unstructured Navier-Stokes solver coded in C++ with serial and parallel versions available. As part of its architecture, ez4d has the capability to utilize multi-thread and Messaging Passage Interface (MPI) for parallel runs.

Space-time CE/SE method↗
NASA NTRS1994

Numerical simulation of incidence and sweep effects on delta wing vortex breakdown

The structure of the vortical flowfield over delta wings at high angles of attack was investigated. Three-dimensional Navier-Stokes numerical simulations were carried out to predict the complex leeward-side flowfield characteristics, including leading-edge separation, secondary separation, and vortex breakdown. Flows over a 75- and a 63-deg sweep delta wing with sharp leading edges were investigated and compared with available experimental data. The effect of variation of circumferential grid resolution grid resolution in the vicinity of the wing leading edge on the accuracy of the solutions was addressed. Furthermore, the effect of turbulence modeling on the solutions was investigated. The effects of variation of angle of attack on the computed vortical flow structure for the 75-deg sweep delta wing were examined. At moderate angles of attack no vortex breakdown was observed. When a critical angle of attack was reached, bubble-type vortex breakdown was found. With further increase in angle of attack, a change from bubble-type breakdown to spiral-type vortex breakdown was predicted by the numerical solution. The effects of variation of sweep angle and freestream Mach number were addressed with the solutions on a 63-deg sweep delta wing.

INCIDENCE↗
NASA NTRS1974

On the inlet vortex system

The flow field of a jet engine with an inlet vortex, which can pick up heavy debris from the ground and damage the engine, was simulated in a small water tunnel by means of the hydrogen bubble technique. It was found that the known engine inlet vortex is accompained by a vortex system, consisting of two inlet vortices (the ground based and the trailing one), secondary vortices, and ground vortices. Simulation of the ground effect by an inlet image proved that the inlet vortex feeds on free stream vorticity and can exist without the presence of a ground boundary layer. The structural form of the inlet vortex system was explained by a simple potential flow model, which showed the number, location, and the importance of the stagnation points. A retractable horizontal screen or an up-tilt of the engine is suggested as countermeasure against debris ingestion.

Bissinger, N. C.↗