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At least 73 records · Page 4

Prediction of unsteady loads on maneuvering delta wings using time-accurate Euler schemes

Three-dimensional steady and unsteady vortex-dominated flows around sharp-edged delta wings are considered in this paper. The problem is formulated by using the unsteady conservative Euler equations for the flow relative motion with respect to a moving frame of reference. An implicit approximately-factored finite volume scheme is used to solve the resulting equations on a three-dimensional computational grid which is generated by using a modified Joukowski transformation in cross-flow planes at the grid chord stations. The scheme is applied to a delta wing undergoing pitching oscillation around a large angle of attack. The initial conditions correspond to a steady flow around a delta wing of aspect ratio of one, freestream Mach number of 0.3 and mean angle of attack of 20.5. The steady flow results are compared with those of an explicit computational scheme and the experimental data, and they are in good agreement.

Kandil, Osama A.↗

Modeling the Effective Elasticity of Anisotropic Porous Materials

The development and optimization of composite materials designed for thermal protection of NASA’s spacecraft require understanding their physical response to high-enthalpy environments. To predict their macro-scale properties and behavior, high-fidelity 3D simulations are performed at the microscale on realistic representations of these composites. The digital microstructures are generated either synthetically or through X-ray micro-computed tomography reconstructions. One of the main challenges in the prediction of the structural response of heatshield materials is the computation of the effective elasticity of the fibrous composite, as well as the understanding of the deformation and stresses generated at the microscale. These are driven by the fiber layout within the microstructure and the distribution of the infused matrix. In this effort, the micro-mechanical linear elastic behavior of fibrous ablators is modeled using a numerical method based on the Multi-Point Stress Approximation (MPSA) finite volume scheme, a generalization of the more commonly used Multi-Point Flux Approximation (MPFA) that was presented at the 10th Ablation Workshop. To predict the behavior of fibrous and woven architectures, algorithms that compute the local fiber orientation are used. The implementation of the MPSA was verified using analytical solutions, engineering test cases, and compared against legacy Finite Element Analysis (FEA) software. The stress analysis models were then applied to real geometries used by NASA in thermal protection systems such as fibrous preforms and woven materials and the results were compared to experimental data.

Elasticity↗

Unsteady transonic airfoil computation using implicit Euler scheme on body-fixed grid

The unsteady Euler equations have been derived for the flow relative motion with respect to a frame of reference that is rigidly attached to the moving airfoil. The grid is generated once by an elliptic solver without a need for dynamic grid computation. An implicit factored finite-volume scheme has been developed and implemented through a fully vectorized computer program. Implicit second-order and explicit second and fourth-order dissipations are added to the scheme. The boundary conditions are explicitly satisfied. The scheme is applied to steady and unsteady transonic airfoil flows and the results are in good agreement with the experimental data. For forced harmonic airfoil motions, periodic solutions are achieved within the third cycle of oscillation.

Kandil, Osama A.↗

Navier-Stokes calculations of scramjet-afterbody flowfields

Scramjet simulant-gas exhaust flows are computed using two-dimensional Navier-Stokes (NS) equations. The NS equations are solved using an implicit, upwind, finite-volume scheme, and the Reynolds stresses are modeled algebraically. The solutions are compared with experimental data where the freestream and the nozzle exhaust fluids are air. The NS equations for the flow, where the scramjet exhaust simulant gas is a mixture of Freon-12 and argon, are solved by an explicit, finite difference scheme. The results are compared with experimental data, and certain discrepancies are explained.

Baysal, O.↗

Unstructured Grid Adaptation and Solver Technology for Turbulent Flows

Unstructured grid adaptation is a tool to control Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) discretization error. However, adaptive grid techniques have made limited impact on production analysis workflows where the control of discretization error is critical to obtaining reliable simulation results. Issues that prevent the use of adaptive grid methods are identified by applying unstructured grid adaptation methods to a series of benchmark cases. Once identified, these challenges to existing adaptive workflows can be addressed. Unstructured grid adaptation is evaluated for test cases described on the Turbulence Modeling Resource (TMR) web site, which documents uniform grid refinement of multiple schemes. The cases are turbulent flow over a Hemisphere Cylinder and an ONERA M6Wing. Adaptive grid force and moment trajectories are shown for three integrated grid adaptation processes with Mach interpolation control and output error based metrics. The integrated grid adaptation process with a finite element (FE) discretization produced results consistent with uniform grid refinement of fixed grids. The integrated grid adaptation processes with finite volume schemes were slower to converge to the reference solution than the FE method. Metric conformity is documented on grid/metric snapshots for five grid adaptation mechanics implementations. These tools produce anisotropic boundary conforming grids requested by the adaptation process.

Park, Michael A.↗

Computing the effective elasticity of anisotropic porous media from X-ray computed micro-tomography images

Development and optimization of composite materials designed for thermal protection of NASA’s spacecraft requires the understanding of their physical response to high-enthalpy environments. To predict their macro-scale properties and behavior, high-fidelity 3D simulations are performed at the micro-scale on realistic representations of these composites. The digital micro-structures are generated either synthetically or through X-ray micro-tomography reconstructions. One of the main challenges in the prediction of heatshield material structural response is the computation of the effective elasticity of the fibrous composite, as well as the understanding of the deformation and stresses generated at the micro-scale. These are driven by the fiber layout within the micro-structure and the distribution of the infused matrix. In this effort, the micro-mechanical linear elastic behavior of fibrous ablators is modeled through the use of a numerical method based on the Multi-Point Stress Approximation (MPSA) finite volume scheme. The MPSA, a generalization of the more commonly used Multi-Point Flux Approximation (MPFA), was discussed in a previous presentation at the 15th USCCN and in reference. To predict the behavior of fibrous and woven architectures, algorithms that compute the local fiber orientation are used. The implementation of the MPSA was verified using analytical solutions, engineering test cases and compared against legacy Finite Element Analysis (FEA) software. The stress analysis models were then applied to real geometries used by NASA in thermal protection systems such as fibrous preforms and woven materials and the results were compared to experimental data.

Federico Semeraro↗

Estimation of Surface Temperature and Heat Flux by Inverse Heat Transfer Methods Using Internal Temperatures Measured While Radiantly Heating a Carbon/Carbon Specimen up to 1920 F

The ability to solve the heat conduction equation is needed when designing materials to be used on vehicles exposed to extremely high temperatures; e.g. vehicles used for atmospheric entry or hypersonic flight. When using test and flight data, computational methods such as finite difference schemes may be used to solve for both the direct heat conduction problem, i.e., solving between internal temperature measurements, and the inverse heat conduction problem, i.e., using the direct solution to march forward in space to the surface of the material to estimate both surface temperature and heat flux. The completed research first discusses the methods used in developing a computational code to solve both the direct and inverse heat transfer problems using one dimensional, centered, implicit finite volume schemes and one dimensional, centered, explicit space marching techniques. The developed code assumed the boundary conditions to be specified time varying temperatures and also considered temperature dependent thermal properties. The completed research then discusses the results of analyzing temperature data measured while radiantly heating a carbon/carbon specimen up to 1920 F. The temperature was measured using thermocouple (TC) plugs (small carbon/carbon material specimens) with four embedded TC plugs inserted into the larger carbon/carbon specimen. The purpose of analyzing the test data was to estimate the surface heat flux and temperature values from the internal temperature measurements using direct and inverse heat transfer methods, thus aiding in the thermal and structural design and analysis of high temperature vehicles.

Pizzo, Michelle↗

Mapping unstructured grid computations to massively parallel computers

Investigated here is this mapping problem: assign the tasks of a parallel program to the processors of a parallel computer such that the execution time is minimized. First, a taxonomy of objective functions and heuristics used to solve the mapping problem is presented. Next, we develop a highly parallel heuristic mapping algorithm, called Cyclic Pairwise Exchange (CPE), and discuss its place in the taxonomy. CPE uses local pairwise exchanges of processor assignments to iteratively improve an initial mapping. A variety of initial mapping schemes are tested and recursive spectral bipartitioning (RSB) followed by CPE is shown to result in the best mappings. For the test cases studied here, problems arising in computational fluid dynamics and structural mechanics on unstructured triangular and tetrahedral meshes, RSB and CPE outperform methods based on simulated annealing. Much less time is required to do the mapping and the results obtained are better. Compared with random and naive mappings, RSB and CPE reduce the communication time two fold for the test problems used. Finally, we use CPE in two applications on a CM-2. The first application is a data parallel mesh-vertex upwind finite volume scheme for solving the Euler equations on 2-D triangular unstructured meshes. CPE is used to map grid points to processors. The performance of this code is compared with a similar code on a Cray-YMP and an Intel iPSC/860. The second application is parallel sparse matrix-vector multiplication used in the iterative solution of large sparse linear systems of equations. We map rows of the matrix to processors and use an inner-product based matrix-vector multiplication. We demonstrate that this method is an order of magnitude faster than methods based on scan operations for our test cases.

Hammond, Steven Warren↗

Applications of an adaptive unstructured solution algorithm to the analysis of high speed flows

An upwind cell-centered scheme for the solution of steady laminar viscous high-speed flows is implemented on unstructured two-dimensional meshes. The first-order implementation employs Roe's (1981) approximate Riemann solver, and a higher-order extension is produced by using linear reconstruction with limiting. The procedure is applied to the solution of inviscid subsonic flow over an airfoil, inviscid supersonic flow past a cylinder, and viscous hypersonic flow past a double ellipse. A detailed study is then made of a hypersonic laminar viscous flow on a 24-deg compression corner. It is shown that good agreement is achieved with previous predictions using finite-difference and finite-volume schemes. However, these predictions do not agree with experimental observations. With refinement of the structured grid at the leading edge, good agreement with experimental observations for the distributions of wall pressure, heating rate and skin friction is obtained.

Thareja, R. R.↗

Transonic potential flow and coordinate generation for bodies in a wind tunnel

An accurate method has been developed for computation of transonic potential flow about a 2-D lifting airfoil or an axisymmetric body in a wind tunnel. The computational mesh is nearly orthogonal everywhere and is generated by a sequence of Schwarz-Christoffel transformations and shearings to obtain an '0' grid near the body. A conservative finite-volume scheme for the full-potential equation and exact boundary conditions is used together with 'retarded' density to solve efficiently transonic flow with embedded shocks and large regions of supersonic flow. Supersonic free-stream flows are also solved with captured bow shocks and embedded subsonic regions.

Doria, M. L.↗

Finite volume calculation of three-dimensional potential flow around a propeller

The finite volume scheme of Jameson (1977) is used to calculate potential flow around a propeller rotating at high speed. An H-type mesh is generated and used successfully in the calculations. A test calculation with a thick blade cross section shows that the present code is capable of computing the propeller flow at the advance Mach number 0.8. The possible physical mechanisms which may play an important role in the propeller aerodynamics are discussed.

Jou, W.-H.↗

Recent experiences with three-dimensional transonic potential flow calculations

Some recent experiences with computer programs capable of solving finitie-difference approximations to the full potential equation for the transonic flow past three dimensional swept wings and simple wing-fuselage combinations are discussed. The programs used are a nonconservative program for swept wings, a quasi-conservative finite-volume program capable of treating swept wings mounted on fuselages of slowly varying circular cross section, and a fully conservative finite volume scheme capable of treating swept wings and wing-cylinder combinations. The present capabilities of these codes are reviewed. The relative merits of the conservative and nonconservative formulations are discussed, and the results of calculations including corrections for the boundary-layer displacement effect are presented.

Caughey, D. A.↗

Influence of numerical dissipation in computing supersonic vortex-dominated flows

Steady supersonic vortex-dominated flows are solved using the unsteady Euler equations for conical and three-dimensional flows around sharp- and round-edged delta wings. The computational method is a finite-volume scheme which uses a four-stage Runge-Kutta time stepping with explicit second- and fourth-order dissipation terms. The grid is generated by a modified Joukowski transformation. The steady flow solution is obtained through time-stepping with initial conditions corresponding to the freestream conditions, and the bow shock is captured as a part of the solution. The scheme is applied to flat-plate and elliptic-section wings with a leading edge sweep of 70 deg at an angle of attack of 10 deg and a freestream Mach number of 2.0. Three grid sizes of 29 x 39, 65 x 65 and 100 x 100 have been used. The results for sharp-edged wings show that they are consistent with all grid sizes and variation of the artificial viscosity coefficients. The results for round-edged wings show that separated and attached flow solutions can be obtained by varying the artificial viscosity coefficients. They also show that the solutions are independent of the way time stepping is done. Local time-stepping and global minimum time-steeping produce same solutions.

Kandil, O. A.↗

A computational analysis of flow separation over five different airfoil geometries at high angles-of-attack

The flux splitting method of Van Leer (1982) and an implicit, upwind-biased, finite-volume scheme of Rumsey (1985) for solving the two-dimensional Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations were applied to analyze five airfoil geometries (the NACA 0012, 12-percent Joukowski, NACA 4412, NACA 65-015, and LS1-0417 sections), at high angles of attack. The effect of grid density and grid extent on the Strouhal number of the unsteady flow was computed, as well as the effect of variations in Mach number, Reynolds number, and angle of attack. It was found, that past an angle of attack of 20 deg, Strouhal numbers were independent of angle of attack (at a constant value of 0.115), agreeing well with the experimental findings of Tyler (1931).

Rumsey, Christopher L.↗

A finite volume Euler calculation of the aerodynamics of transonic airfoil-vortex interaction

Unsteady inviscid transonic airfoil-vortex interaction is numerically analyzed by solving the two-dimensional unsteady Euler equations in integral form using a finite volume scheme. The solution procedure is based on an explicit Runge-Kutta time-stepping scheme wherein the spatial terms are central-differenced and a combination of second- and fourth-differences in the flow variables is used to form the numerical dissipation terms to stabilize the scheme. A velocity decomposition technique is applied to alleviate the problem of vortex diffusion by the numerical dissipation terms and to treat the interaction of a Rankine vortex with an airfoil accurately. Results obtained are compared with available numerical data.

Damodaran, Murali↗

Computation of steady and unsteady vortex dominated flows

The unsteady Euler equations have been written in the conservation form for the relative motion in a rotating frame of reference. The resulting equations are solved by using a central-difference finite-volume scheme with four-stage Runge-Kutta time stepping. For steady flow problems, local time stepping is used and for unsteady flow problems, the minimum global time stepping is used. A three-dimensional fully vectorized computer program has been developed and applied to steady and unsteady maneuvering delta wing. The capability of the three-dimensional program has been demonstrated for a rigid sharp-edged delta wing undergoing uniform rolling in a conical flow and rolling oscillations in a locally conical flow.

Kandil, Osama A.↗

Performance of a three-dimensional Navier-Stokes code on CYBER 205 for high-speed juncture flows

A vectorized 3D Navier-Stokes code has been implemented on CYBER 205 for solving the supersonic laminar flow over a swept fin/flat plate junction. The code extends MacCormack's predictor-corrector finite volume scheme to a generalized coordinate system in a locally one dimensional time split fashion. A systematic parametric study is conducted to examine the effect of fin sweep on the computed flow field. Calculated results for the pressure distribution on the flat plate and fin leading edge are compared with the experimental measurements of a right angle blunt fin/flat plate junction. The decrease in the extent of the separated flow region and peak pressure on the fin leading edge, and weakening of the two reversed supersonic zones with increase in fin sweep have been clearly observed in the numerical simulation.

Lakshmanan, B.↗

Finite volume computation of unsteady inviscid rotational transonic flows past airfoils in rigid body motion

Unsteady inviscid transonic flow over airfoils in arbitrary rigid body motion is analyzed numerically by solving the two-dimensional unsteady Euler equations in integral form using a finite volume scheme. The solution procedure is based on an explicit Runge-Kutta time-stepping scheme wherein the spatial terms are central-differenced and a combination of second- and fourth-differences in the flow variables are used to form the numerical dissipation terms to stabilize the scheme. Unsteady calculations are started from converged steady-state solutions as initial conditions. Nonreflective boundary conditions are imposed on the far-field boundaries. Results are presented and, where possible, validated against available numerical and experimental data for airfoils subjected to a step change in angle of attack, airfoils oscillating and plunging in transonic flow, and airfoils immersed in a time-varying free stream.

Damodaran, Murali↗