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At least 775 records · Page 43

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NASA NTRS1982

Feasibility of SPF/DB titanium sandwich for LFC wings

The feasibility of fabricating SPF/DB titanium structures of sufficient smoothness to be used for laminar flow wing surfaces was demonstrated. Two methods of fabricating panels which meet the surface smoothness criteria were demonstrated. The first consists of superplasticity forming/diffusion bonding a panel using steel dies, then machining the surface to the required flatness and finish after forming. This approach, however, was estimated to be more costly than the second approach, in which the panel is formed against ceramic platens which produce the desired surface smoothness without subsequent finishing. Four panels were fabricated, and their surface quality was evaluated. The specified criteria for waviness compared with actual measured values on the panels is shown. The acceptable surface quality as well as feasibility of the laminar flow control surface design, in which separate strips incorporating the boundary layer bleed provisions are bonded into slots on the surface, was also demonstrated.

Mcquilkin, F. T.↗

NASA NTRS1982

Synthesis of offset dual reflector antennas transforming a given feed illumination pattern into a specified aperture distribution

The problem of transforming a given primary feed pattern into a desired aperture field distribution through two reflections by an offset dual reflector system is investigated using the concepts of geometrical optics. A numerically rigorous solution for the reflector surfaces is developed which realizes an exact aperture phase distribution and an aperture amplitude distribution that is accurate to within an arbitrarily small numerical tolerance. However, this procedure does not always yield a smooth solution, i.e., the reflector surfaces thus realized may not be continuous or their slopes may vary too rapidly. In the event of nonexistence of a numerically rigorous smooth solution, an approximate solution that enforces the smoothness of the reflector surfaces can be obtained. In the approximate solution, only the requirement for the aperture amplitude distribution is relaxed, and the condition on the aperture phase distribution is continued to be satisfied exactly.

Mittra, R.↗

NASA NTRS1982

Regolith maturation on the earth and the moon with an example from Apollo 15

Petrographic data on twelve Apollo 15 surface samples and on twelve samples from the double drive tube 15010/011 are presented in the form of triangular AML (agglutinate-monomineralic fragments-lithic fragments) plots. The triangular AML plots for different grain sizes show smoothly varying contour lines only for the solids derived mainly from mare basalts. These contour lines are interpreted as lines of isomaturity. The AML plots with isomature contours are somewhat similar to QFR (quartz-feldspar-rock fragments) triangular plots used for terrestrial clastic sediments. Both kinds of plots are sensitive to maturity and both may be used to predict evolution paths. Soils from predominantly highland areas and from other mixed terrains at Apollo 15 sites do not make smooth contours on AML diagrams. By analogy with QFR diagrams, the lack of smooth contours may be due to mixed source rock families, or to recent mixing, or both.

Basu, A.↗

NASA NTRS1983

Forming Mirrors on Composite Materials

Smooth coatings deposited on hard-to-polish substrates. Lightweight mirror, leaning against conventional glass mirror, consists of metallic relective layer on substrate coated with polyester resin. Smooth surface of polyester resin made by covering freshly applied resin with piece of smooth glass coated with release agent.

Gauldin, R. E.↗

NASA NTRS1982

Turbulent boundary layer over solid and porous surfaces with small roughness

The wind tunnel models and instrumentation used as well as data reduction and error analysis techniques employed are described for an experimental study conducted to measure directly skin friction and obtain profiles of mean velocity, axial and normal turbulence intensity, and Reynolds stress in the untripped boundary on a large diameter axisymmetric body. Results are given for such a body with a (1) smooth, solid surface; (2) a sandpaper roughened, solid surface; (3) a sintered metal, porous surface; (4) a ""smooth'' performated titanium surface; (5) a rough, solid surface made of fine diffusion bonded screening; and (6) a rough, porous surface made of the same screening. The roughness values were in low range (k+ 5 to 7) just above what is normally considered ""hydraulically smooth''. Measurements were taken at several axial locations and tow or normal stream freestream velocities, 45.1 m/sec and 53.5 m/sec.

Kong, F. Y.↗

NASA NTRS1983

An experimental study of changes in the structure of a turbulent boundary layer due to surface geometry changes

This investigation attempts to observe changes in the flow structure of a nominally zero pressure gradient turbulent boundary layer by altering the surface of a smooth plate with small triangular riblets oriented in the direction of flow and protruding just above the viscous sublayer. Hot-wire measurements show a reduction in the local skin friction over the riblet valleys by about 40% compared to the smooth surface near the end of the plate. Local skin friction increases by about 10% over the riblet peaks. Results showing the effects of the riblets on the mean, root-mean-square and skewness factor distributions of the streamwise velocity are presented. The mean profile displays characteristics similar to those of drag reducing additives; the streamwise turbulence intensity is reduced by approximately 10-15% near the surface by the riblets; the skewness factor distribution is virtually unchanged. A comparison of results from an application of the VITA 'burst' detection technique to smooth and riblet surface data is also presented although the results are rather inconclusive. Flow visualization of 'bursting' over both surfaces, while dramatically revealing the structure, reveals little difference resulting from the presence of the riblet.

Source record↗

NASA NTRS1984

Delta wings with shock-free cross flow

In order to have a high level of maneuverability, supersonic delta wings should have a cross flow that is free of embedded shock waves. The conical cross flow sonic surface differs from that of plane transonic flow in many aspects. Well-known properties such as the monotone law are not true for conical cross flow sonic surfaces. By using a local analysis of the cross flow sonic line, relevant conditions for smooth cross flow are obtained. A technique to artificially construct a smooth sonic surface and an efficient numerical method to calculate the flow field are used to obtain cones with smooth cross flow.

Sritharan, S. S.↗

NASA NTRS1984

A comparative look at sunspot cycles

On the basis of cycles 8 through 20, spanning about 143 years, observations of sunspot number, smoothed sunspot number, and their temporal properties were used to compute means, standard deviations, ranges, and frequency of occurrence histograms for a number of sunspot cycle parameters. The resultant schematic sunspot cycle was contrasted with the mean sunspot cycle, obtained by averaging smoothed sunspot number as a function of time, tying all cycles (8 through 20) to their minimum occurence date. A relatively good approximation of the time variation of smoothed sunspot number for a given cycle is possible if sunspot cycles are regarded in terms of being either HIGH- or LOW-R(MAX) cycles or LONG- or SHORT-PERIOD cycles, especially the latter. Linear regression analyses were performed comparing late cycle parameters with early cycle parameters and solar cycle number. The early occurring cycle parameters can be used to estimate later occurring cycle parameters with relatively good success, based on cycle 21 as an example. The sunspot cycle record clearly shows that the trend for both R(MIN) and R(MAX) was toward decreasing value between cycles 8 through 14 and toward increasing value between cycles 14 through 20. Linear regression equations were also obtained for several measures of solar activity.

Wilson, R. M.↗

NASA NTRS1985

Delta wings with shock-free cross flow

Sritharan, S. S.↗

NASA NTRS1985

Test results for round-hole-pattern damper seals - Optimum configurations and dimensions for maximum net damping

Test results are presented for nine annular seals which use a roughened stator and smooth rotor to yield an increase in net damping as compared to conventional smooth-rotor/smooth-stator annular seals. Round-hole roughness patterns are used to achieve the desired stator roughness. The results presented demonstrate that the maximum net damping is achieved by (a) a hole pattern which takes up about 34 percent of the surface area, and (b) hole depths which are about three times the radial clearances. When compared to a smooth seal, the optimum configuration increases net damping by 37 percent, while reducing leakage by 46 percent and direct stiffness by 23 percent. Comparisons of experiment to theory are generally satisfactory for hole-patterns near the optimum area ratio of 34 percent. However, the theory is unsatisfactory for seals which have a substantially higher percentage of the surface area taken up by holes.

Childs, D. W.↗

NASA NTRS1987

An experimental and theoretical comparison of rotordynamic coefficients for sawtooth-pattern damper seals

A brief review of the annular seal theory as related to rotordynamics for liquid seals is presented. Also included is an overview of Childs and Kim's current theory for calculating empirical turbulence coefficients and predicting stiffness and damping coefficients for surface roughened damper seals. The designation sawtooth-pattern refers to a seal stator with a roughness pattern whose cross section normal to the seal axis resembles a sawtooth with the teeth directed against the flow. The net stiffness and damping coefficients for the eleven seals are compared to each other, a smooth seal, and the optimum-configuration damper seal previously tested. The experimental force coefficients, the net damping, and the net stiffness coefficients for four of the sawtooth seals are compared to the predictions of Childs and Kim's analysis. The sawtooth-pattern seal had less net damping than the hole-pattern seal but more than the smooth seal. The stiffness was comparable to the hole-pattern. Both the sawtooth and hole-pattern seals leaked less than the smooth seal, while the sawtooth-pattern seal with maximum damping leaked more than the hole-pattern seal. The theoretical predictions compared relatively poorly to the experimental results obtained for the rotordynamic coefficients of the seals investigation.

Nolan, Steven Anthony↗

NASA NTRS1988

A comparison of experimental and theoretical results for labyrinth gas seals with honeycomb stators

Experimental results for the rotordynamic stiffness and damping coefficients of a labyrinth -rotor honeycomb-stator seal are presented. The coefficients are compared to the coefficients of a labyrinth-rotor smooth-stator seal having the same geometry. The coefficients are compared to analytical results from a two-control-volume compressible flow model. The experimental results show that the honeycomb stator configuration is more stable than the smooth stator configuration at low rotor speeds. At high rotor speeds and low clearance, the smooth stator seal is more stable. The theoretical model predicts the cross-coupled stiffness of the honeycomb stator seal correctly within 25 percent of measured values. The model provides accurate predictions of direct damping for large clearance seals. Overall, the model does not perform as well for low clearance seals as for high clearance seals.

Hawkins, Lawrence Allen↗

NASA NTRS1988

An unconditionally stable Runge-Kutta method for unsteady flows

A quasi-three dimensional analysis was developed for unsteady rotor-stator interaction in turbomachinery. The analysis solves the unsteady Euler or thin-layer Navier-Stokes equations in a body fitted coordinate system. It accounts for the effects of rotation, radius change, and stream surface thickness. The Baldwin-Lomax eddy viscosity model is used for turbulent flows. The equations are integrated in time using a four stage Runge-Kutta scheme with a constant time step. Implicit residual smoothing was employed to accelerate the solution of the time accurate computations. The scheme is described and accuracy analyses are given. Results are shown for a supersonic through-flow fan designed for NASA Lewis. The rotor:stator blade ratio was taken as 1:1. Results are also shown for the first stage of the Space Shuttle Main Engine high pressure fuel turbopump. Here the blade ratio is 2:3. Implicit residual smoothing was used to increase the time step limit of the unsmoothed scheme by a factor of six with negligible differences in the unsteady results. It is felt that the implicitly smoothed Runge-Kutta scheme is easily competitive with implicit schemes for unsteady flows while retaining the simplicity of an explicit scheme.

Jorgenson, Philip C. E.↗

NASA NTRS1987

The topology of large-scale structure. I - Topology and the random phase hypothesis

Many models for the formation of galaxies and large-scale structure assume a spectrum of random phase (Gaussian), small-amplitude density fluctuations as initial conditions. In such scenarios, the topology of the galaxy distribution on large scales relates directly to the topology of the initial density fluctuations. Here a quantitative measure of topology - the genus of contours in a smoothed density distribution - is described and applied to numerical simulations of galaxy clustering, to a variety of three-dimensional toy models, and to a volume-limited sample of the CfA redshift survey. For random phase distributions the genus of density contours exhibits a universal dependence on threshold density. The clustering simulations show that a smoothing length of 2-3 times the mass correlation length is sufficient to recover the topology of the initial fluctuations from the evolved galaxy distribution. Cold dark matter and white noise models retain a random phase topology at shorter smoothing lengths, but massive neutrino models develop a cellular topology.

Weinberg, David H.↗

NASA NTRS1987

Measurements of turbulence moments in boundary layers over transversely grooved surfaces

Wind tunnel measurements of second, third, and fourth order turbulence moments in turbulent boundary layers over d-types and k-types of grooved and smooth surfaces are discussed. The near-wall turbulence structure is found to vary with the spanwise aspect ratio. For decreasing height, the third moment of the normal velocity fluctuations is shown to become negative over crop canopies and model plant canopies, although not in smooth, two-dimensional, sandgrain or gravel roughness. The instantaneous motions related to the flux of shear stress near the wall in smooth and transversely grooved surfaces are shown to be opposite in sign to those in three-dimensional roughness.

Bandyopadhyay, P. R.↗

NASA NTRS1989

Evaluation of the ride quality of a light twin engine airplane using a ride quality meter

A ride quality meter was used to establish the baseline ride quality of a light twin-engine airplane planned for use as a test bed for an experimental gust alleviation system. The ride quality meter provides estimates of passenger ride discomfort as a function of cabin noise and vibration (acceleration) in five axes (yaw axis omitted). According to the ride quality meter, in smooth air the cabin noise was the dominant source of passenger discomfort, but the total discomfort was approximately the same as that for the smooth-air condition. The researcher's subjective opinion, however, is that the total ride discomfort was much worse in the moderate turbulence than it was in the smooth air. The discrepancy is explained by the lack of measurement of the low-frequency accelerations by the ride quality meter.

Stewart, Eric C.↗

NASA NTRS1989

Effect of milling machine roughness and wing dihedral on the supersonic aerodynamic characteristics of a highly swept wing

An experimental investigation was conducted to assess the effect of surface finish on the longitudinal and lateral aerodynamic characteristics of a highly-swept wing at supersonic speeds. A study of the effects of wing dihedral was also made. Included in the tests were four wing models: three models having 22.5 degrees of outboard dihedral, identical except for surface finish, and a zero-dihedral, smooth model of the same planform for reference. Of the three dihedral models, two were taken directly from the milling machine without smoothing: one having a maximum scallop height of 0.002 inches and the other a maximum scallop height of 0.005 inches. The third dihedral model was handfinished to a smooth surface. Tests were conducted in Test Section 1 of the Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel at NASA-Langley over a range of Mach numbers from 1.8 to 2.8, a range of angle of attack from -5 to 8 degrees, and at a Reynolds numbers per foot of 2 x 10(6). Selected data were also taken at a Reynolds number per foot of 6 x 10(6). Drag coefficient increases, with corresponding lift-drag ratio decreases were the primary aerodynamic effects attributed to increased surface roughness due to milling machine grooves. These drag and lift-drag ratio increments due to roughness increased as Reynolds number increased.

Darden, Christine M.↗

NASA NTRS1988

Navier-Stokes calculations using Cartesian grids. I - Laminar flows

A finite-volume formulation for the Navier-Stokes equations using Cartesian grids is used to study flows past airfoils. In addition to the solution of the complete equations, solutions for two simplified versions of the governing equations were obtained and compared with those using body-fitted grids. Results are presented for two airfoil sections, NACA 0012 and RAE 2822, for a range of Mach numbers, angles of attack, and Reynolds numbers. It is shown that the results are highly dependent on the smoothness of the surface grid. Without such smoothness, the skin friction and pressure converge to nonuniform distributions. On the other hand, when surface cells with smoothly varying areas are used, the results compared favorably with calculations employing body-fitted grids.

Frymier, Paul D., Jr.↗