Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “CASCADE”

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 91 records · Page 5
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1989

Experimental investigation of transonic oscillating cascade aerodynamics

Fundamental experiments are performed in the NASA Lewis Transonic Oscillating Cascade Facility to investigate the subsonic and transonic aerodynamics of cascaded airfoils executing torsion mode oscillations at realistic values of reduced frequency. In particular, an unsteady aerodynamic influence coefficient technique is developed and utilized. In this technique, only one airfoil in the cascade is oscillated at a time, with the resulting airfoil surface unsteady pressure distribution measured on one dynamically-instrumented reference airfoil. The unsteady aerodynamics of an equivalent cascade with all airfoils oscillating at any specified interblade phase angle are then determined through a vector summation of these data.

Buffum, Daniel H.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Numerical analysis of flow through oscillating cascade sections

The design of turbomachinery blades requires the prevention of flutter for all operating conditions. However, flow field predictions used for aeroelastic analysis are not well understood for all flow regimes. The present research focuses on numerical solutions of the Euler and Navier-Stokes equations using an ADI procedure to model two-dimensional, transonic flow through oscillating cascades. The model prescribes harmonic pitching motions for the blade sections for both zero and nonzero interblade phase angles. The code introduces the use of a deforming grid technique for convenient specification of the perioidic boundary conditions. Approximate nonreflecting boundary conditons were coded for the inlet and exit boundary conditions. Sample unsteady solutions were performed for an oscillating cascade and compared to experimental data. Also, test cases were run for a flat plate cascade to compare with the unsteady, small-perturbation, subsonic analysis. The predictions for oscillating cascades with nonzero interblade phase angle cases, which were near a resonant condition, differ from the experiment and theory. The zero degree interblade phase angle cases, which were near a resonant condition, differ from the experiment and theory. Studies on reflecting versus nonreflecting inlet and exit boundary conditions show that the treatment of the boundary can have a significant effect on the first harmonic, unsteady pressure distribution for certain flow conditions.

Huff, Dennis L.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Numerical analysis of flow through oscillating cascade sections

The design of turbomachinery blades requires the prevention of flutter for all operating conditions. However, flow field predictions used for aeroelastic analysis are not well understood for all flow regimes. The present research focuses on numerical solutions of the Euler and Navier-Stokes equations using an ADI procedure to model two-dimensional, transonic flow through oscillating cascades. The model prescribes harmonic pitching motions for the blade sections for both zero and non-zero inter-blade phase angles. The code introduces the use of a deforming grid technique for convenient specification of the periodic boundary conditions. Approximate nonreflecting boundary conditions have been coded for the inlet and exit boundary conditions. Sample unsteady solutions have been performed for an oscillating cascade and compared to experimental data. Also, test cases were fun for a flat plate cascade to compare with an unsteady, small-perturbation, subsonic analysis. The predictions for oscillating cascades with non-zero inter-blade phase angles are in good agreement with experimental data and small-perturbation theory. The zero degree inter-blade phase angle cases, which were near a resonant condition, differ from the experiment and theory. Studies on reflecting versus non-reflecting inlet and exit boundary conditions show that the treatment of the boundary can have a significant effect on the first harmonic, unsteady pressure distributions for certain flow conditions. This code is expected to be used as a tool for reviewing simpler models that do not include the full nonlinear aerodynamics or as a final check for designs against flutter in turbomachinery.

Huff, Dennis L.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Wind tunnel wall effects in a linear oscillating cascade

Experiments in a linear oscillating cascade reveal that the wind tunnel walls enclosing the airfoils have, in some cases, a detrimental effect on the oscillating cascade aerodynamics. In a subsonic flow field, biconvex airfoils are driven simultaneously in harmonic, torsion-mode oscillations for a range of interblade phase angle values. It is found that the cascade dynamic periodicity - the airfoil to airfoil variation in unsteady surface pressure - is good for some values of interblade phase angle but poor for others. Correlation of the unsteady pressure data with oscillating flat plate cascade predictions is generally good for conditions where the periodicity is good and poor where the periodicity is poor. Calculations based upon linearized unsteady aerodynamic theory indicate that pressure waves reflected from the wind tunnel walls are responsible for the cases where there is poor periodicity and poor correlation with the predictions.

Buffum, Daniel H.↗
NASA NTRS1990

The aerodynamics of an oscillating cascade in a compressible flow field

Fundamental experiments are performed in the NASA Lewis Research Center Transonic Oscillating Cascade Facility to investigate and quantify the aerodynamics of a cascade of bioconvex airfoils executing torsion mode oscillations at realistic reduced frequency values. Both steady and unsteady airfoil surface pressures are measured at two inlet Mach numbers, 0.65 and 0.80, and two incidence angles, 0 and 7 deg, with the harmonic torsional airfoil cascade oscillations at realistic high reduced frequency and unsteady data obtained at several interblade phase angle values. The time-variant pressures are analyzed by means of discrete Fourier transform techniques, with these unique data compared with predictions from a linearized unsteady cascade model. The experimental results indicate that the interblade phase angle has a major effect on the chordwise distributions of the airfoil surface unsteady pressure, with the effect of reduced frequency, incidence angle, and Mach numbers somewhat less significant.

Buffum, D. H.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Experimental investigation of oscillating cascade aerodynamics

A series of experiments are performed in the NASA Lewis Transonic Oscillating Cascade Facility to provide fundamental data quantifying the high subsonic and transonic steady and oscillating aerodynamics of a biconvex airfoil cascade at realistic reduced frequency values for all interblade phase angles. This is accomplished by developing and utilizing an unsteady aerodynamic influence-coefficient technique in which only one cascaded airfoil is oscillated at a time. The vector summation of the resulting airfoil-surface unsteady pressures (measured on a dynamically instrumented airfoil) makes it possible to determine the unsteady aerodynamics of an equivalent cascade with all airfoils oscillating at any specified interblade phase angle.

Buffum, Daniel H.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Flutter analysis of cascades using a two dimensional Euler solver

Flutter analysis of a cascade of blades in compressible flow is presented, with each blade of the cascade modeled as a typical section having pitching and plunging degrees of freedom. The aerodynamic forces are obtained from an unsteady, 2-D cascade solver based on the Euler equations. To reduce the computational time, an influence coefficient technique and a pulse response technique are also used to obtain the unsteady force coefficients for any frequency and phase angle. The predicted steady and unsteady aerodynamic forces for selected cascade geometries and flow conditions correlate well with the available experimental and analytical data.

Reddy, T. S. R.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Wind tunnel wall effects in a linear oscillating cascade

Experiments in a linear oscillating cascade reveal that the wind tunnel walls enclosing the airfoils have, in some cases, a detrimental effect on the oscillating cascade aerodynamics. In a subsonic flowfield, biconvex airfoils are driven simultaneously in harmonic, torsion-mode oscillations for a range of interblade phase angle values. It is found that the cascade dynamic periodicity - the airfoil to airfoil variation in unsteady surface pressure - is good for some values of interblade phase angle but poor for others. Correlation of the unsteady pressure data with oscillating flat plate cascade predictions is generally good for conditions where the periodicity is good and poor where the periodicity is poor. Calculations based upon linearized unsteady aerodynamic theory indicate that pressure waves reflected from the wind tunnel walls are responsible for the cases where there is poor periodicity and poor correlation with the predictions.

Buffum, D. H.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Experimental unsteady pressures on an oscillating cascade with supersonic leading edge locus

The first experimental data for an oscillating cascade with a supersonic leading edge locus (SLEL) at zero stagger angle is presented which were obtained in the NASA/OSU supersonic oscillating cascade facility. Reduced frequencies from .093 to .146, based on half chord were investigated. An influence coefficient technique for a linear oscillating cascade with constant interblade phase angle has been extended to a cascade with a SLEL.

Erwin, Daniel↗
NASA NTRS1993

Finite element calculations of transonic flutter in cascades

Aeroelastic stability and response of turbomachinery cascades operating in the transonic regime are explored using a new computational approach. The two-dimensional unsteady Euler equations are used to model the transonic cascade flows, and the cascade blades are modeled as thin plates. To minimize the discretization incompatibility, both the fluid and the solid domains are discretized using finite element procedures. The fluid and the structural models are coupled at the element level by introducing a channel theory, which is analogous to a strip theory in the classical sense. The system of space-discretized equations is marched forward in time using an explicit four-stage Runge-Kutta scheme. Results of free vibration analyses of typical blades are presented and compared to published finite element and Rayleigh-Ritz results. Aeroelastic stability and response characteristics of several transonic cascades are investigated using the new quasi-3D model. These results demonstrate the present 3D finite element blade model is capable of capturing aeroelastic instabilities involving higher modes, including (plate-type) camber bending modes.

Hsiao, Chingteng↗
NASA NTRS1950

Attainable circulation about airfoils in cascade

From consideration of available information on boundary-layer behavior, a relation among profile thickness, maximum surface velocity, Reynolds number, velocity diagram, and solidity is established for a cascade of airfoils immersed in a two-dimensional incompressible fluid flow. Several cascades are computed to show the effect of various cascade design parameters on minimum required cascade solidity. Comparisons with experimentally determined blade performance show that the derived blade loadings are equal or higher for moderate flow deceleration and somewhat lower for large deceleration. Blades with completely laminar flow appear practical for impulse or reaction blading.

Goldstein, Arthur W↗
NASA NTRS1993

Optically thick cascade to the O I 3s 3S state in the Earth's thermosphere

The electron impact excitation cross section for the O I (1304 A) emission is enhanced in the terrestrial thermosphere owing to an optically thick cascade mechanism. Values for the contribution of the cascade have been calculated and deduced from measured 1304-A airglow emissions to between o and 200%. We have developed a model to calculate a large portion of the optically thick cascade contribution, including contributions from the radiative entrapment of the O I (1040, 1027, and 989 A) lines. High-resolution spectroscopic data from a sounding rocket experiment are analyzed using this model. The optically thick cascade contribution for the three lower lying states was evaluated to be 24.5% and compares well with recent calculations. The data, however, support a total contribution of 40%. The 15.5% difference is likely due to the contribution from higher Rydberg states.

Cotton, Daniel M.↗
NASA NTRS1996

Cascade Optimization Strategy for Aircraft and Air-Breathing Propulsion System Concepts

Design optimization for subsonic and supersonic aircraft and for air-breathing propulsion engine concepts has been accomplished by soft-coupling the Flight Optimization System (FLOPS) and the NASA Engine Performance Program analyzer (NEPP), to the NASA Lewis multidisciplinary optimization tool COMETBOARDS. Aircraft and engine design problems, with their associated constraints and design variables, were cast as nonlinear optimization problems with aircraft weight and engine thrust as the respective merit functions. Because of the diversity of constraint types and the overall distortion of the design space, the most reliable single optimization algorithm available in COMETBOARDS could not produce a satisfactory feasible optimum solution. Some of COMETBOARDS' unique features, which include a cascade strategy, variable and constraint formulations, and scaling devised especially for difficult multidisciplinary applications, successfully optimized the performance of both aircraft and engines. The cascade method has two principal steps: In the first, the solution initiates from a user-specified design and optimizer, in the second, the optimum design obtained in the first step with some random perturbation is used to begin the next specified optimizer. The second step is repeated for a specified sequence of optimizers or until a successful solution of the problem is achieved. A successful solution should satisfy the specified convergence criteria and have several active constraints but no violated constraints. The cascade strategy available in the combined COMETBOARDS, FLOPS, and NEPP design tool converges to the same global optimum solution even when it starts from different design points. This reliable and robust design tool eliminates manual intervention in the design of aircraft and of air-breathing propulsion engines where it eases the cycle analysis procedures. The combined code is also much easier to use, which is an added benefit. This paper describes COMETBOARDS and its cascade strategy and illustrates the capability of the combined design tool through the optimization of a subsonic aircraft and a high-bypass-turbofan wave-rotor-topped engine.

Patnaik, Surya N.↗
NASA NTRS1993

A Mechanism for Bulk Energization in the Impulsive Phase of Solar Flares: MHD Turbulent Cascade

We propose that the large production rate (approximately 10(exp 36)/s) of energetic electrons (greater than or approximately equal to 25 keV) required to account for the impulsive-phase hard X-ray burst in large flares is achieved through MHD turbulent cascade of the bulk kinetic energy of the outflows from many separate reconnection events. Focusing on large two- ribbon eruptive flares as representative of most large flares, we envision the reconnection events to be the driven reconnection of oppositely directed elementary flux tubes pressing into the flare-length current-sheet interface that forms in the wake of the eruption of the sheared core of the preflare bipolar field configuration. We point out that, because the outflows from these driven reconnection events have speeds of order the Alfven speed and because the magnetic field reduces the shear viscosity of the plasma, it is reasonable that the outflows are unstable and turbulent, so that the kinetic energy of an outflow is rapidly dissipated through turbulent cascade. If the largest eddies in the turbulence have diameters of order the expected widths of the outflows (10(exp 7)-10(exp 8)cm), then the cascade dissipation of each of these eddies could produce approximately 10(exp 26) erg burst of energized electrons (approximately 3 x (10(exp 33) 25 keV electrons) in approximately 0.3 s, which agrees well with hard X-ray and radio sub-bursts commonly observed during the impulsive phase. Of order 10(exp 2) simultaneous reconnection events with turbulent outflow would produce the observed rate of impulsive-phase plasma energization in the most powerful flares (approximately 10(exp 36) 25 keV electrons/ s); this number of reconnection sites can easily fit within the estimated 3 x 10(exp 9) cm span of the overall current-sheet dissipation region formed in these large flares. We therefore conclude that MHD turbulent cascade is a promising mechanism for the plasma energization observed in the impulsive phase of solar flares.

LaRosa, T. N.↗
NASA NTRS1998

A High Frequency Model of Cascade Noise

Closed form asymptotic expressions for computing high frequency noise generated by an annular cascade in an infinite duct containing a uniform flow are presented. There are two new elements in this work. First, the annular duct mode representation does not rely on the often-used Bessel function expansion resulting in simpler expressions for both the radial eigenvalues and eigenfunctions of the duct. In particular, the new representation provides an explicit approximate formula for the radial eigenvalues obviating the need for solutions of the transcendental annular duct eigenvalue equation. Also, the radial eigenfunctions are represented in terms of exponentials eliminating the numerical problems associated with generating the Bessel functions on a computer. The second new element is the construction of an unsteady response model for an annular cascade. The new construction satisfies the boundary conditions on both the cascade and duct walls simultaneously adding a new level of realism to the noise calculations. Preliminary results which demonstrate the effectiveness of the new elements are presented. A discussion of the utility of the asymptotic formulas for calculating cascade discrete tone as well as broadband noise is also included.

Envia, Edmane↗
NASA NTRS2000

On Flowfield Periodicity in the NASA Transonic Flutter Cascade: Numerical Study - Part 2

The transonic flutter cascade facility at NASA Glenn Research Center was redesigned based on a combined program of experimental measurements and numerical analyses. The objectives of the redesign were to improve the periodicity of the cascade in steady operation, and to better quantify the inlet and exit flow conditions needed for CFD predictions. Part I of this paper describes the experimental measurements, which included static pressure measurements on the blade and endwalls made using both static taps and pressure sensitive paints, cobra probe measurements of the endwall boundary layers and blade wakes, and shadowgraphs of the wave structure. Part II of this paper describes three CFD codes used to analyze the facility, including a multibody panel code, a quasi-three-dimensional viscous code, and a fully three-dimensional viscous code. The measurements and analyses both showed that the operation of the cascade was heavily dependent on the configuration of the sidewalls. Four configurations of the sidewalls were studied and the results are described. For the final configuration, the quasi-three-dimensional viscous code was used to predict the location of mid-passage streamlines for a perfectly periodic cascade. By arranging the tunnel sidewalls to approximate these streamlines, sidewall interference was minimized and excellent periodicity was obtained.

Chima, Rodrick V.↗
NASA NTRS2000

Comparison of Analytical and CAA Solution(s): Unsteady Response of a Rectilinear Swept Cascade to an Incident Gust

This problem is aimed at testing the ability of computational aeroacoustic methods to calculate the acoustic pressure field generated as a result of the interaction of a convected harmonic gust with a rectilinear cascade of swept flat plates. All relevant geometric information is the same as the unsteady response of an isolated finite span swept airfoil to an incident gust problem with the exception of the sweep angle alpha, which is now taken to be a variable. Assume a cascade stagger angle of zero (with the x-axis aligned with the chord) and a gap-to-chord ratio of h/c = 1. The mean flow Mach number M(sub 0), gust frequency omega, gust amplitude A, and chordwise wavenumber k(sub x) are the same. But for the cascade problem take k(sub y) = pi and k(sub z) = 0. The appropriate physical scales are also the same, as is the governing equation and boundary conditions. Naturally, the impermeability condition now applies to the entire cascade. For this problem, determine the amplitude of upstream-radiated rms acoustic pressure as a function of the sweep angle at the specified frequency. Specifically, show the variations of rms acoustic pressure amplitude at the upstream location (-5c, 0, l/2) for sweep angle alpha in the range (0.0 deg, 30.0 deg). Use sweep angle increments no larger than 2.5 deg. Express the results in dB using the rms pressure value for alpha = 0.0 deg as the reference level. The appropriate FORTRAN output statement should read "WRITE(IUNIT,*) alpha, 20-log10 (p(sub rms)(alpha)/p(sub rms)(0))".

Envia, Edmane↗
NASA NTRS2003

Resonance Effects in the NASA Transonic Flutter Cascade Facility

Investigations of unsteady pressure loadings on the blades of fans operating near the stall flutter boundary are carried out under simulated conditions in the NASA Transonic Flutter Cascade facility (TFC). It has been observed that for inlet Mach numbers of about 0.8, the cascade flowfield exhibits intense low-frequency pressure oscillations. The origins of these oscillations were not clear. It was speculated that this behavior was either caused by instabilities in the blade separated flow zone or that it was a tunnel resonance phenomenon. It has now been determined that the strong low-frequency oscillations, observed in the TFC facility, are not a cascade phenomenon contributing to blade flutter, but that they are solely caused by the tunnel resonance characteristics. Most likely, the self-induced oscillations originate in the system of exit duct resonators. For sure, the self-induced oscillations can be significantly suppressed for a narrow range of inlet Mach numbers by tuning one of the resonators. A considerable amount of flutter simulation data has been acquired in this facility to date, and therefore it is of interest to know how much this tunnel self-induced flow oscillation influences the experimental data at high subsonic Mach numbers since this facility is being used to simulate flutter in transonic fans. In short, can this body of experimental data still be used reliably to verify computer codes for blade flutter and blade life predictions? To answer this question a study on resonance effects in the NASA TFC facility was carried out. The results, based on spectral and ensemble averaging analysis of the cascade data, showed that the interaction between self-induced oscillations and forced blade motion oscillations is very weak and can generally be neglected. The forced motion data acquired with the mistuned tunnel, when strong self-induced oscillations were present, can be used as reliable forced pressure fluctuations provided that they are extracted from raw data sets by an ensemble averaging procedure.

Lepicovsky, J.↗