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At least 703 records · Page 39
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2020

Nitric Oxide Laser-Induced Fluorescence Rotational Thermometry in a Hypersonic Non-Equilibrium Flow

Spatially-resolved nitric oxide (NO) planar laser-induced fluorescence (PLIF) rotational thermometry was performed on a Mach 5 non-equilibrium flow around a blunt-body specimen in the Hypersonic Materials Environmental Test System (HyMETS) arc-heat wind tunnel at the NASA Langley Research Center. Transitions within the (0,0) band in the A(exp⁡ 2)∑(sup⁡ +) - X(exp⁡ 2)Π system of NO were excited with a 10 Hz pulsed ultra-violet laser. A multi-line fitting algorithm was applied to the PLIF spectra and transitions were filtered based on an iterative method that maximizes thermometry accuracy. NO PLIF thermometry results are compared to non-equilibrium computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations reported in the literature. Differences between the experiment and CFD are quantified for the free-stream, post-shock, shear-layer, and expansion-fan regions of the flow. Potential sources of error, applicable to both the CFD and experiment, are discussed.

Connor C McDougall↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Comparison of two Calibrations of NASA's MC60 Five-component Semi-span Balance

Two separate manual calibrations of NASA’s MC60 five–component semi–span balance were compared. The calibrations were performed in 1999 and 2019using CALSPAN Force Measurement System’s Large Load Rig. The Iterative Method was chosen as the load prediction algorithm and data reduction matrices were generated from both calibration data sets. Then, the applied calibration load schedules, the standard deviations of the calibration load residuals, the prime sensitivities of the five gages, and the maximum outputs at capacity of the five gages were compared. In addition, the calibration data of 1999 was used as check load data for the data reduction matrix that was obtained from the 2019 data. Overall, the agreement between the data analysis results is very good considering the facts that two different load schedules were used for the calibrations, different people performed the calibrations, different instrumentation was used to measure the loads and the outputs, the Large Load Rig was moved to a different site in between the calibrations, and no tare load corrections could be applied to the 1999 data set. Nevertheless, the calibration data of 2019 is clearly the better data set. This observation is no surprise considering that CALSPAN Force Measurement Systems made significant investments in calibration hardware and process improvements during the last 20 years.

wind tunnel balance↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Propulsion-Airframe Integration for Conceptual Redesign of a Low-Boom Supersonic Transport

A low-boom supersonic transport was designed for a cruise Mach of 1.7 and 40 passengers. This low-boom aircraft, referred to as the Mach 1.7 40-PAX concept, was generated using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) based sonic boom analysis at the start of overland cruise (SOC). The engine for the Mach 1.7 40-PAX concept was designed using the Numerical Propulsion System Simulation (NPSS) and modeled as a flow-through nacelle for CFD analysis. To understand how the engine plume affects the undertrack ground signature, the Mach 1.7 40-PAX concept is redesigned using an aeropropulsive CFD simulation. A process is developed for approximation of the NPSS engine at SOC by a CFD engine for aeropropulsive CFD simulation. The generated CFD engine has the identical nozzle boundary conditions and approximately the same mass flow and thrust as those of the NPSS engine at SOC. Then, the configuration with the CFD engines is optimized to approximately restore the low-boom characteristics of the Mach 1.7 40-PAX concept. Finally, the CFD simulation data for the optimized concept with the CFD engines is used to calibrate the low-fidelity aerodynamic analyses for mission analysis of this concept. The cyclic dependency of the involved disciplinary analyses is resolved using an iteration method for a consistent coupling of the mission analysis, NPSS engine analysis, and low-boom redesign using the aeropropulsive CFD simulation. This low-boom redesign study is used as an example to demonstrate how the propulsion-airframe integration could be implemented for conceptual design of low-boom supersonic transports.

Low-boom supersonic transport↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Propulsion-Airframe Integration for Conceptual Redesign of a Low-Boom Supersonic Transport

A low-boom supersonic transport was designed for a cruise Mach of 1.7 and 40 passengers. This low-boom aircraft, referred to as the Mach 1.7 40-PAX concept, was generated using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) based sonic boom analysis at the start of overland cruise (SOC). The engine for the Mach 1.7 40-PAX concept was designed using the Numerical Propulsion System Simulation (NPSS) and modeled as a flow-through nacelle for CFD analysis. To understand how the engine plume affects the undertrack ground signature, the Mach 1.7 40-PAX concept is redesigned using an aeropropulsive CFD simulation. A process for approximation of the NPSS engine at SOC by a CFD engine is developed. The generated CFD engine has the identical nozzle boundary conditions and approximately the same mass flow and thrust as those of the NPSS engine at SOC. Then, the configuration with the CFD engines is optimized to approximately restore the low-boom characteristics of the Mach 1.7 40-PAX concept. Finally, the CFD simulation data for the optimized concept with the CFD engines is used to calibrate the low-fidelity aerodynamic analyses for mission analysis of this concept. The cyclic dependency of the involved disciplinary analyses is resolved using an iteration method for a consistent coupling of the mission analysis, NPSS engine analysis, and low-boom redesign using the aeropropulsive CFD simulation. This low-boom redesign study is used as an example to demonstrate how the propulsion-airframe integration could be implemented for conceptual design of low-boom supersonic transports.

Low-boom supersonic transport↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Analysis and Evaluation of NASA's MK40B Six-Component Task Balance

The MK40B balance is NASA's newest balance of Task design. Its load range was optimized for use in the NASA Ames 11-ft Transonic Wind Tunnel. The balance was calibrated in 2019 in Calspan's Automatic Balance Calibration System. The data analysis was performed at the Ames Balance Calibration Laboratory. First, bi-directional characteristics of the six gage outputs of the balance were assessed by applying a semi-empirical test to the calibration data. These tests indicated that four of the six gages have bi-directional characteristics. Therefore, the use of absolute value terms in the regression models of the calibration data is justified. Then, the machine calibration data was analyzed using both the Non-Iterative and the Iterative Method. Analysis results for the two methods were compared using the percent contributions, the calibration load residuals, the primary sensitivities, and the principle linear terms. These results confirmed that the two methods describe bi-directional characteristics of the balance gages correctly. In addition, it was concluded that the load prediction accuracies of the two methods are the same for all practical purposes.

wind tunnel balance↗
NASA NTRS2023

Propulsion-Airframe Integration for Conceptual Redesign of a Low-Boom Supersonic Transport

A low-boom supersonic transport was generated in a previous low-boom multidisciplinary optimization (MDO) study that used computational fluid dynamics (CFD) off-body pressure to compute the undertrack sonic boom ground signature and calibrated low-fidelity aerodynamics analyses to compute the mission performance metrics. This low-boom aircraft, referred to as the Mach 1.7 40-PAX concept, can carry 40 passengers for a low-boom overland mission with cruise Mach 1.7 for the airport pairs over the continental US and has the potential to achieve an undertrack sonic boom ground noise level below 70 perceived level of decibels at the start of overland cruise (SOC). The engine for the Mach 1.7 40-PAX concept was designed using the Numerical Propulsion System Simulation (NPSS) for the mission analysis and modeled as a flow-through nacelle for CFD-based sonic boom analysis. To understand how the engine plume affects the undertrack ground signature, the Mach 1.7 40-PAX concept is redesigned in this paper after replacing the flow-through nacelles by CFD engines for sonic boom analysis using aeropropulsive CFD simulation. A process is developed for approximation of the NPSS engine at SOC by a CFD engine for aeropropulsive CFD simulation. The generated CFD engine has the identical nozzle boundary conditions and approximately the same mass flow and thrust as those of the NPSS engine at SOC. Then, the outer mold line of the configuration with the CFD engines is redesigned to approximately restore the low-boom characteristics of the Mach 1.7 40-PAX concept at SOC. Finally, the CFD simulation data for the redesigned concept with the CFD engines is used to calibrate the low-fidelity aerodynamic analyses for mission analysis of this concept. The cyclic dependency of the involved disciplinary analyses is resolved using an iteration method for a consistent coupling of the mission analysis, NPSS engine analysis, and low-boom redesign using the aeropropulsive CFD simulation. This low-boom redesign study is used as an example to demonstrate how the propulsion-airframe integration could be implemented for conceptual design of supersonic transports that satisfy both the low-boom and mission performance requirements.

Low-boom supersonic transport↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Standalone Hazard Evaluation and Refinement From Instrument Findings (S.H.E.R.I.F)

SHERIF is a novel algorithm which defines a unique, non-iterative method for the combination of LiDAR scans into a Digital Elevation Map (DEM) and the simultaneous evaluation of that DEM for Safe Site Selection (SSL) and Hazard Detection (HD). This creates a sensor independent method for a spacecraft conducting Entry Descent and Landing (EDL) operations to synthesize terrain scans and generate a more complete and evolving understanding of the landing site topography as well as the associated hazards. SHERIF aims to increase safety and mission success probability by more effectively using the data from a single sensor to increase situational awareness, knowledge of the landing site and its hazards, as well as informing a more streamlined transition from Terrain Relative Navigation (TRN) to Hazard Relative Navigation (HRN) during descent.

Hazard Detection↗
DOE OSTI2014

Diverse Power Iteration Embeddings and Its Applications

Abstract—Spectral Embedding is one of the most effective dimension reduction algorithms in data mining. However, its computation complexity has to be mitigated in order to apply it for real-world large scale data analysis. Many researches have been focusing on developing approximate spectral embeddings which are more efficient, but meanwhile far less effective. This paper proposes Diverse Power Iteration Embeddings (DPIE), which not only retains the similar efficiency of power iteration methods but also produces a series of diverse and more effective embedding vectors. We test this novel method by applying it to various data mining applications (e.g. clustering, anomaly detection and feature selection) and evaluating their performance improvements. The experimental results show our proposed DPIE is more effective than popular spectral approximation methods, and obtains the similar quality of classic spectral embedding derived from eigen-decompositions. Moreover it is extremely fast on big data applications. For example in terms of clustering result, DPIE achieves as good as 95% of classic spectral clustering on the complex datasets but 4000+ times faster in limited memory environment.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2014

Physics Integration KErnels (PIKE)

Pike is a software library for coupling and solving multiphysics applications. It provides basic interfaces and utilities for performing code-to-code coupling. It provides simple "black-box" Picard iteration methods for solving the coupled system of equations including Jacobi and Gauss-Seidel solvers. Pike was developed originally to couple neutronics and thermal fluids codes to simulate a light water nuclear reactor for the Consortium for Simulation of Light-water Reactors (CASL) DOE Energy Innovation Hub. The Pike library contains no physics and just provides interfaces and utilities for coupling codes. It will be released open source under a BSD license as part of the Trilinos solver framework (trilinos.org) which is also BSD. This code provides capabilities similar to other open source multiphysics coupling libraries such as LIME, AMP, and MOOSE.

Pawlowski, Roger↗
DOE OSTI2017

Realistic Geochemical Parameter Uncertainty for Performance Assessment Modeling - 17066

Performance assessments (PAs) include uncertain geochemical parameters that affect the fate and transport of contaminants in environmental media, such as partitioning coefficients for water/rock (K{sub d}) and water/air (K{sub H}), diffusion coefficients, and aqueous solubilities. A statistical approach to realistic, as opposed to 'conservative,' stochastic distribution development for geochemical parameters is presented here. For contaminants not identified as focus elements during screening, broad generic distributions are developed. If any parameter is flagged in the subsequent model sensitivity analysis (SA), it becomes a focus element for further research during the next round of distribution development. This iterative approach is efficient and technically defensible at each stage. Data are collected in databases and may be appropriately weighted or filtered. In the relatively few cases where data exist from local or analogous rocks, those data may be prioritized. Once established, the databases can be used for future PAs or other environmental models and can be expanded as needed based on model SA results, additional screening, and as additional relevant data become available. The iterative method is demonstrated for K{sub d} and K{sub H} in a PA model for a radioactive waste disposal facility. An SA was performed based on preliminary geochemical parameter distributions that showed certain model endpoints are sensitive to K{sub d} and K{sub H} values for some contaminants. This underscores the importance of including realistic uncertainty in these geochemical parameters. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2016

Unbiased Ratio Estimator for k-Eigenvalue in Monte Carlo Criticality Calculations

In criticality calculations, the effective multiplication factor (k{sub eff}) is an important parameter for reactor analysis. It can be interpreted as the ratio of the neutron production rate to the loss rate in a reactor core. In Monte Carlo (MC) criticality calculations, k{sub eff} is obtained for each active cycle i as: k-i = P{sub i}/L{sub i} for I = 1 to I where P{sub i} and L{sub i} are the production rate and the loss rate at cycle i, respectively, and they are normalized by the nominal source size for cycle. Since all neutron particles in a cycle will be absorbed or leaks out at the end, the loss rate, L{sub i}, can be set as the source rate, which is the unity. Thus, in MCNP5, k{sub i} is simply calculated with P{sub i} by using three conventional estimators; collision, absorption, and track-length estimators. In domain decomposed MC criticality calculations based on the fission and surface source (FSS) iteration method, k{sub i} is calculated by a ratio of P{sub i} and L{sub i}, where both P{sub i} and L{sub i} are random variables, sampled by using the same particle histories. When the numerator and the denominator are correlated, the variance of the ratio can be smaller than that of the numerator. Then, the final estimate of k{sub eff} is provided as the sample mean of k{sub i}, which will be referred as 'simple' ratio estimator in this paper. In Ref., it is shown that this ratio estimator converges faster and fluctuates less than the conventional estimator. A similar ratio estimator is also used in Serpent 2, as an implicit estimate of k{sub eff}. However, this type of 'simple' ratio estimator is biased, which means that the expectation of the ratio is different from the ratio of the expectation of the numerator and that of the denominator. In this paper, an unbiased ratio estimator which was originally derived in the cytometry analysis is introduced to estimate k{sub eff} and is tested on a continuous-energy UO{sub 2} pin-cell problem. In this test problem, it is shown that the variance of the unbiased ratio estimator is smaller than those of the conventional estimators provided by MCNP5, while the simple ratio estimator can be significantly biased when the number of histories per cycle is too small. (authors)

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
NASA NTRS1976

The Davidon-Fletcher-Powell penalty function method: A generalized iterative technique for solving parameter optimization problems

The Fletcher-Powell version of the Davidon variable metric unconstrained minimization technique is described. Equations that have been used successfully with the Davidon-Fletcher-Powell penalty function technique for solving constrained minimization problems and the advantages and disadvantages of using them are discussed. The experience gained in the behavior of the method while iterating is also related.

Johnson, I. L., Jr.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Fast secant methods for the iterative solution of large nonsymmetric linear systems

A family of secant methods based on general rank-1 updates was revisited in view of the construction of iterative solvers for large non-Hermitian linear systems. As it turns out, both Broyden's good and bad update techniques play a special role, but should be associated with two different line search principles. For Broyden's bad update technique, a minimum residual principle is natural, thus making it theoretically comparable with a series of well known algorithms like GMRES. Broyden's good update technique, however, is shown to be naturally linked with a minimum next correction principle, which asymptotically mimics a minimum error principle. The two minimization principles differ significantly for sufficiently large system dimension. Numerical experiments on discretized partial differential equations of convection diffusion type in 2-D with integral layers give a first impression of the possible power of the derived good Broyden variant.

Deuflhard, Peter↗
NASA NTRS1990

Linear iterative solvers for implicit ODE methods

The numerical solution of stiff initial value problems, which lead to the problem of solving large systems of mildly nonlinear equations are considered. For many problems derived from engineering and science, a solution is possible only with methods derived from iterative linear equation solvers. A common approach to solving the nonlinear equations is to employ an approximate solution obtained from an explicit method. The error is examined to determine how it is distributed among the stiff and non-stiff components, which bears on the choice of an iterative method. The conclusion is that error is (roughly) uniformly distributed, a fact that suggests the Chebyshev method (and the accompanying Manteuffel adaptive parameter algorithm). This method is described, also commenting on Richardson's method and its advantages for large problems. Richardson's method and the Chebyshev method with the Mantueffel algorithm are applied to the solution of the nonlinear equations by Newton's method.

Saylor, Paul E.↗
DOE OSTI2025

An iterative dynamic chemical stiffness removal method for reacting flow simulations

Abstract An iterative dynamic chemical stiffness removal method (IDCSR) based on quasi-steady-state approximation (QSSA) is proposed. The IDCSR method is built on a previously developed non-iterative method which has proved to work well for small timestep sizes. A novel iterative procedure is designed in IDCSR to enable explicit time integration of stiff chemistry at relatively large timestep sizes relevant to practical reacting flow simulations. The effectiveness of the iterative procedure is first demonstrated with a toy problem and homogeneous auto-ignition with fixed integration step sizes, showing that larger timestep sizes can be allowed for explicit time integration using IDCSR compared with the previous non-iterative method. IDCSR is then compared with existing explicit chemistry solvers for simulations of homogeneous auto-ignition and shows similar or lower computational cost but significantly higher accuracy across a wide range of timestep sizes. IDCSR is further combined with an automatic adaptive time-stepping scheme for simulations of 0-D homogeneous auto-ignition and a 2-D laminar lifted n -dodecane jet flame. For the 0-D auto-ignition simulations, IDCSR is shown to reduce both the error (by 43%–90%) and computational cost (by 6–15 times) compared with existing explicit solvers, while achieving speed-up factors of up to 400 compared with VODE for a wide range of timestep sizes and reaction mechanisms. For the 2-D jet flame simulations, speed-up factors of 15 and 31 for chemistry integration, and 5 and 9 for overall simulation, are achieved by IDCSR compared with CVODE with and without analytic Jacobian, respectively.

Xu, Chao (ORCID:0000000153074159)↗
DOE OSTI2016

Fission Matrix Convergence Diagnostic of the Iterated Fission Probability Method

Monte Carlo methods have been applied to reactor problems in order to solve for adjoint-weighted quantities. The Iterated Fission Probability (IFP) method allows adjoint-weighted tallies to be recorded during a forward Monte-Carlo simulation. A key parameter in the IFP method is the number of generations that must pass before the progeny neutrons of a progenitor neutron are tallied. A convergence diagnostic for the IFP is developed using a deterministic code. In particular, a discrete ordinates code is used as a surrogate to demonstrate the theoretical properties of the proposed Monte Carlo convergence diagnostic. The diagnostic is applied to 1-D slab problems and quantifies the error associated with tallying the neutron progeny before an asymptotic distribution is achieved. The results show that the default value of 10 for the number of generations used in MCNP is acceptable for most classes of problems. (authors)

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Efficient and robust phase-split computations in the internal energy, volume, and moles ( UVN ) space

Phase-split computations in an isolated system, which in general may be defined as one where the total internal energy (U), volume (V), and the number of moles (N = N 1 , N 2 ,..., N n ) of the components are fixed at some specified set of values, involves the determination of the temperature (T), pressure (P), plus the amount and composition of the various phases that constitute the system. A simpler, but analogous problem is one where T, P, and N are specified instead. In TPN space, one may first perform a stability analysis to determine whether the system is stable, meaning whether at equilibrium it will split up into multiple phases or remain in single phase. If the single-phase state is unstable, the stability analysis reliably provides a good set of initial guesses in the subsequent phase-split computations. In UVN space, however, we demonstrate that the stability analysis (which is the main subject of our earlier study [1]) may not in general provide good enough initial guesses; we offer alternative strategies for setting up good initial guesses. Furthermore, we show that a combination of successive substitution iteration (SSI) and Newton's method---two iterative methods that are prevalent in the literature in TPN space---facilitates a robust and efficient algorithm for phase-split computations in isolated systems. Finally, this combination has so far not been applied in UVN space.

02 PETROLEUM↗