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NASA NTRS1976

Unsteady flow past wings having sharp-edge separation

A vortex-lattice technique is developed to model unsteady, incompressible flow past thin wings. This technique predicts the shape of the wake as a function of time; thus, it is not restricted by planform, aspect ratio, or angle of attack as long as vortex bursting does not occur and the flow does not separate from the wing surface. Moreover, the technique can be applied to wings of arbitrary curvature undergoing general motion; thus, it can treat rigid-body motion, arbitrary wing deformation, gusts in the freestream, and periodic motions. Numerical results are presented for low-aspect rectangular wings undergoing a constant-rate, rigid-body rotation about the trailing edge. The results for the unsteady motion are compared with those predicted by assuming quasi-steady motion. The present results exhibit hysteretic behavior.

Atta, E. H.↗

NASA NTRS1976

A local diffusion process associated with the sweeping of energetic particles by Io

A local, turbulent diffusion process which may rapidly refill the partial cavity of energetic particles created by Io's passage through a flux tube is discussed. A model is developed of Io's sweeping action on energetic particles in which a wake is formed behind the flux tube threading Io. It is shown to be possible that this wake contains an excess of positive charge, thereby creating an electric field. The particle drift produced by this field, coupled with the density gradient of energetic protons, can generate an instability. It is this instability that is responsible for the turbulent diffusion process. The sweeping of energetic particles is also discussed in relation to particle energy and pitch angle distribution.

Huba, J. D.↗

NASA NTRS1978

Nitric oxide production by Tunguska meteor

The nonequilibrium chemical processes of nitric oxide formation are computed for the wake of the Tunguska meteor of 1908. The wake characteristics are derived by carrying out an optically-thick radiation field analysis for ablation of the meteoroid. The wake flow field is approximated by a one-dimensional, well-stirred reactor model. Known characteristics of the Tunguska event are imposed as constraints, and three controlling parameters - chemical composition, density, and velocity - are varied over a range around the values derived by Korobeinikov et al. (1976) and Petrov and Stulov (1975). The calculation shows that at least 19 million tons of nitric oxide is produced between the altitudes of 10 and 50 km. The anomalous atmospheric phenomena following the event are attributed to the reactions involving nitric oxide thus produced and atmospheric ozone. It is speculated that the nitric oxide produced by the event fertilized the area near the fall, causing the observed rapid plant growth.

Park, C.↗

NASA NTRS1985

Wakes and differential charging of large bodies in low Earth orbit

Highlights of earlier results using the Inside-Out WAKE code on wake structures of LEO spacecraft are reviewed. For conducting bodies of radius large compared with the Debye length, a high Mach number wake develops a negative potential well. Quasineutrality is violated in the very near wake region, and the wake is relatively empty for a distance downstream of about one half of a Mach number of radii. There is also a suggestion of a core of high density along the axis. A comparison of rigorous numerical solutions with in situ wake data from the AE-C satellite suggests that the so called neutral approximation for ions (straight line trajectories, independent of fields) may be a reasonable approximation except near the center of the near wake. This approximation is adopted for very large bodies. Work concerned with the wake point potential of very large nonconducting bodies such as the shuttle orbiter is described. Using a cylindrical model for bodies of this size or larger in LEO (body radius up to 10 to the 5th power Debye lengths), approximate solutions are presented based on the neutral approximation (but with rigorous trajectory calculations for surface current balance). There is a negative potential well if the body is conducting, and no well if the body is nonconducting. In the latter case the wake surface itself becomes highly negative. The wake point potential is governed by the ion drift energy.

Parker, L. W.↗

NASA NTRS1986

Triple-velocity products in a channel with a backward-facing step

Attention is given to the evaluation of tripple velocity products in the reattaching and developing region behind a backward facing step. The change in tripple velocity products is significant in the wake region, yielding substantial variation in the diffusion rate of the Reynolds stresses. Four models of the third-order closure are examined, and the results are compared with the experimental data for Chandrsuda and Bradshaw (1980).

Amano, R. S.↗

NASA NTRS1986

Progress in tail rotor noise analysis

Helicopter tail rotor noise generated by interactions with the main rotor tip vortices and with the fuselage separation mean wake is investigated. The tail rotor blade-main rotor tip vortex interaction is modeled as an airfoil of infinite span cutting through a moving vortex. The present results are compared to the tail rotor loading and high speed thickness noise and are found to be significant. This noise mechanism is a function of the helicopter operating conditions and the location of the tail relative to the main rotor. Tail rotor self-generated noise due to turbulent vortex shedding from blunt trailing edges is also analyzed.

Chou, S.-T.↗

NASA NTRS1989

Lifting-surface theory for propfan vortices impinging on a downstream wing

Retrofitment of commercial aircraft with propfans could introduce undesirable aerodynamic sources of structure-borne noise that are absent for current turbojet powerplants. This paper theoretically examines the whipping action of the vortex wake from a generic propeller on the downstream rigid wing that supports it. The model addresses the high-frequency/compressible regime of most anticipated propfan implementations and produces an analytic solution for the distributed wing airload due to the periodic vortex impingement. The analysis also yields an expression for the local unsteady lift obtained from integration over an arbitrary internal patch of wing surface, for the purpose of applying a practical number of such forces at the nodes of a finite-element model for the corresponding structure (wing response results are not included in the present paper). Reported estimates of induced wing loads for a conventional-propeller example of demonstration appear to be in the reasonable range of expectation.

Martinez, R.↗

NASA NTRS2000

A Real-Time Method for Estimating Viscous Forebody Drag Coefficients

This paper develops a real-time method based on the law of the wake for estimating forebody skin-friction coefficients. The incompressible law-of-the-wake equations are numerically integrated across the boundary layer depth to develop an engineering model that relates longitudinally averaged skin-friction coefficients to local boundary layer thickness. Solutions applicable to smooth surfaces with pressure gradients and rough surfaces with negligible pressure gradients are presented. Model accuracy is evaluated by comparing model predictions with previously measured flight data. This integral law procedure is beneficial in that skin-friction coefficients can be indirectly evaluated in real-time using a single boundary layer height measurement. In this concept a reference pitot probe is inserted into the flow, well above the anticipated maximum thickness of the local boundary layer. Another probe is servomechanism-driven and floats within the boundary layer. A controller regulates the position of the floating probe. The measured servomechanism position of this second probe provides an indirect measurement of both local and longitudinally averaged skin friction. Simulation results showing the performance of the control law for a noisy boundary layer are then presented.

Whitmore, Stephen A.↗

NASA NTRS1997

Planar Doppler Velocimetry for Large-Scale Wind Tunnel Testing

Recently, Planar Doppler Velocimetry (PDV) has been shown by several laboratories to offer an attractive means for measuring three-dimensional velocity vectors everywhere in a light sheet placed in a flow. Unlike other optical means of measuring flow velocities, PDV is particularly attractive for use in large wind tunnels where distances to the sample region may be several meters, because it does not require the spatial resolution and tracking of individual scattering particles or the alignment of crossed beams at large distances. To date, demonstrations of PDV have been made either in low speed flows without quantitative comparison to other measurements, or in supersonic flows where the Doppler shift is large and its measurement is relatively insensitive to instrumental errors. Moreover, most reported applications have relied on the use of continuous-wave lasers, which limit the measurement to time-averaged velocity fields. This work summarizes the results of two previous studies of PDV in which the use of pulsed lasers to obtain instantaneous velocity vector fields is evaluated. The objective has been to quantitatively define and demonstrate PDV capabilities for applications in large-scale wind tunnels that are intended primarily for the production testing of subsonic aircraft. For such applications, the adequate resolution of low-speed flow fields requires accurate measurements of small Doppler shifts that are obtained at distances of several meters from the sample region. The use of pulsed lasers provides the unique capability to obtain not only time-averaged fields, but also their statistical fluctuation amplitudes and the spatial excursions of unsteady flow regions such as wakes and separations. To accomplish the objectives indicated, the PDV measurement process is first modeled and its performance evaluated computationally. The noise sources considered include those related to the optical and electronic properties of Charge-Coupled Device (CCD) arrays and to speckle effects associated with coherent illumination from pulsed lasers. The signal noise estimates are incorporated into the PDV signal analysis process and combined with computed scattering signals using a Mie scattering theory for polydisperse smoke particles. The relevant parameters incorporate a range of practical aerodynamic test conditions and facility sizes. The results define the optimum instrument configurations, show that the expected signal levels from a practical PDV system are sufficiently large to allow its useful application in large facilities, and show that the expected velocity measurement uncertainties are small compared to the mean velocities of interest for most subsonic, large-scale wind tunnel testing. Experimental studies using several experimental bench-top setups are then described that validate the physics of the PDV model and to calibrate its computed results. The validated model allows estimates of the uncertainties of PDV measurements and a complete definition of the PDV capabilities to be made with sufficient confidence to decide the viability of PDV for large-scale wind tunnel applications.

McKenzie, Robert L.↗

NASA NTRS2006

Minnowbrook V: 2006 Workshop on Unsteady Flows in Turbomachinery

This CD-ROM contain materials presented at the Minnowbrook V 2006 Workshop on Unsteady Flows in Turbomachinery, held at the Syracuse University Minnowbrook Conference Center, New York, on August 20-23, 2006. The workshop organizers were John E. LaGraff (Syracuse University), Martin L.G. Oldfield (Oxford University), and J. Paul Gostelow (University of Leicester). The workshop followed the theme, venue, and informal format of four earlier workshops: Minnowbrook I (1993), Minnowbrook II (1997), Minnowbrook III (2000), and Minnowbrook IV (2003). The workshop was focused on physical understanding of unsteady flows in turbomachinery, with the specific goal of contributing to engineering application of improving design codes for turbomachinery. The workshop participants included academic researchers from the United States and abroad and representatives from the gas-turbine industry and U.S. Government laboratories. The physical mechanisms discussed were related to unsteady wakes, active flow control, turbulence, bypass and natural transition, separation bubbles and turbulent spots, modeling of turbulence and transition, heat transfer and cooling, surface roughness, unsteady CFD, and DNS. This CD-ROM contains copies of the viewgraphs presented, organized according to the workshop sessions. Full-color viewgraphs and animations are included. The workshop summary and the plenary discussion transcripts clearly highlight the need for continued vigorous research in the technologically important area of unsteady flows in turbomachines.

LaGraff, John E.↗

NASA NTRS2006

Minnowbrook V: 2006 Workshop on Unsteady Flows in Turbomachinery

This volume contains materials presented at the Minnowbrook V 2006 Workshop on Unsteady Flows in Turbomachinery, held at the Syracuse University Minnowbrook Conference Center, New York, on August 20-23, 2006. The workshop organizers were John E. LaGraff (Syracuse University), Martin L.G. Oldfield (Oxford University), and J. Paul Gostelow (University of Leicester). The workshop followed the theme, venue, and informal format of four earlier workshops: Minnowbrook I (1993), Minnowbrook II (1997), Minnowbrook III (2000), and Minnowbrook IV (2003). The workshop was focused on physical understanding of unsteady flows in turbomachinery, with the specific goal of contributing to engineering application of improving design codes for turbomachinery. The workshop participants included academic researchers from the United States and abroad and representatives from the gas-turbine industry and U.S. Government laboratories. The physical mechanisms discussed were related to unsteady wakes, active flow control, turbulence, bypass and natural transition, separation bubbles and turbulent spots, modeling of turbulence and transition, heat transfer and cooling, surface roughness, unsteady CFD, and DNS. The workshop summary and the plenary discussion transcripts clearly highlight the need for continued vigorous research in the technologically important area of unsteady flows in turbomachines. This volume contains abstracts and copies of select viewgraphs organized according to the workshop sessions. Full-color viewgraphs and animations are included in the CD-ROM version only (Doc.ID 20070024781).

LaGraff, John E.↗

NASA NTRS1987

A linearized Euler analysis of unsteady flows in turbomachinery

A method for calculating unsteady flows in cascades is presented. The model, which is based on the linearized unsteady Euler equations, accounts for blade loading shock motion, wake motion, and blade geometry. The mean flow through the cascade is determined by solving the full nonlinear Euler equations. Assuming the unsteadiness in the flow is small, then the Euler equations are linearized about the mean flow to obtain a set of linear variable coefficient equations which describe the small amplitude, harmonic motion of the flow. These equations are discretized on a computational grid via a finite volume operator and solved directly subject to an appropriate set of linearized boundary conditions. The steady flow, which is calculated prior to the unsteady flow, is found via a Newton iteration procedure. An important feature of the analysis is the use of shock fitting to model steady and unsteady shocks. Use of the Euler equations with the unsteady Rankine-Hugoniot shock jump conditions correctly models the generation of steady and unsteady entropy and vorticity at shocks. In particular, the low frequency shock displacement is correctly predicted. Results of this method are presented for a variety of test cases. Predicted unsteady transonic flows in channels are compared to full nonlinear Euler solutions obtained using time-accurate, time-marching methods. The agreement between the two methods is excellent for small to moderate levels of flow unsteadiness. The method is also used to predict unsteady flows in cascades due to blade motion (flutter problem) and incoming disturbances (gust response problem).

Hall, Kenneth C.↗

NASA NTRS1989

Calculation of unsteady flows in turbomachinery using the linearized Euler equations

Hall, Kenneth C.↗

NASA NTRS1997

Transition Effects on Heating in the Wake of a Blunt Body

A series of aerodynamic heating tests was conducted on a 70-deg sphere-cone planetary entry vehicle model in a Mach 10 perfect-gas wind tunnel at freestream Reynolds numbers based on diameter of 8.23x104 to 3.15x105. Surface heating distributions were determined from temperature time-histories measured on the model and on its support sting using thin-film resistance gages. The experimental heating data were compared to computations made using an axisymmetric/2D, laminar, perfect-gas Navier-Stokes solver. Agreement between computational and experimental heating distributions to within, or slightly greater than, the experimental uncertainty was obtained on the forebody and afterbody of the entry vehicle as well as on the sting upstream of the free-shear-layer reattachment point. However, the distributions began to diverge near the reattachment point, with the experimental heating becoming increasingly greater than the computed heating with distance downstream from the reattachment point. It was concluded that this divergence was due to transition of the wake free shear layer just upstream of the reattachment point on the sting.

Hollis, Brian R.↗

NASA NTRS1973

Some analyses of the chemistry and diffusion of SST exhaust materials during phase 3 of the wake period

In the generally stably stratified lower stratosphere, SST exhaust plumes could spend a significant length of time in a relatively undispersed state. This effort has utilized invariant modeling techniques to simulate the separate and combined effects of atmospheric turbulence, turbulent diffusion, and chemical reactions of SST exhaust materials in the lower stratosphere. The primary results to date are: (1) The combination of relatively slow diffusive mixing and rapid chemical reactions during the Phase III wake period minimizes the effect of SST exhausts on O3 depletion by the so-called NOx catalytic cycle. While the SST-produced NO is substantially above background concentrations, it appears diffusive mixing of NO and O3 is simply too slow to produce the O3 depletions originally proposed. (2) The time required to dilute the SST exhaust plume may be a significant fraction of the total time these materials are resident in the lower stratosphere. If this is the case, then prior estimates of the environmental impact of these materials must be revised significantly downward.

Hilst, G. R.↗

NASA NTRS1987

Boundary-layer and wake measurements on a swept, circulation-control wing

Wind tunnel measurements of boundary layer and wake velocity profiles and surface static pressure distributions are presented for a swept, circulation control wing. The model is an aspect ratio four semispan wing mounted on the tunnel side wall as a sweep angle of 45 deg. A full span, tangetial, rearward blowing, circulation control slot is located ahead of the trailing edge on the upper surface. Flow surveys were obtained at mid-semispan at freestream Mach numbers of 0.425 and 0.70. Boundary layer profiles measured on the forward portions of the wing are approximately streamwise and two dimensional. The flow in the vicinity of the jet exit and in the near wake is highly three dimensional. The jet flow near the slot on the Coanda surface is directed normal to the slot. Near wake surveys show large outboard flows at the center of the wake. At Mach 0.425 and a 5 deg angle of attack, a range of jet blowing rates was found for which an abrupt transition from incipient separation to attached flow occurs in the boundary layer upstream of the slot. The variation in the lower surface separation location with blowing rate was determined from the boundary layer measurements at Mach 0.425.

Spaid, Frank W.↗

NASA NTRS1991

Numerical prediction of wakes in cascades and compressor rotors including the effects of mixing. II - Rotor passage flow and wakes including the effects of spanwise mixing

The results of a numerical investigation to predict the flow field including wakes and mixing in axial-flow compressor rotors are presented. The wake behavior in a moderately loaded compressor rotor is studied numerically using a 3D incompressible Navier-Stokes solver with a high Reynolds number form of a turbulence model. The equations are solved using a time dependent implicit technique. The agreement between the measured data and the predictions is good; including the blade boundary-layer profiles, wake mean-velocity profiles, and decay. The ability of the pseudocompressibility scheme to predict the entire flow field including the near and far wake profiles and its decay characteristics, effect of loading, and the viscous losses of a 3D rotor flow field are demonstrated. The mixing in the downstream regions away from the hub and annulus walls is dominated by wake diffusion. In regions away from the walls the radial mixing is predominantly caused by the transport of mass, momentum, and energy by the radial component of velocity in the wake.

Lakshminarayana, B.↗

NASA NTRS1994

Models of Human Information Requirements: "When Reasonable Aiding Systems Disagree"

Aircraft flight management and Air Traffic Control (ATC) automation are under development to maximize the economy of flight and to increase the capacity of the terminal area airspace while maintaining levels of flight safety equal to or better than current system performance. These goals are being realized by the introduction of flight management automation aiding and operations support systems on the flight deck and by new developments of ATC aiding systems that seek to optimize scheduling of aircraft while potentially reducing required separation and accounting for weather and wake vortex turbulence. Aiding systems on both the flight deck and the ground operate through algorithmic functions on models of the aircraft and of the airspace. These models may differ from each other as a result of variations in their models of the immediate environment. The resultant flight operations or ATC commands may differ in their response requirements (e.g. different preferred descent speeds or descent initiation points). The human operators in the system must then interact with the automation to reconcile differences and resolve conflicts. We have developed a model of human performance including cognitive functions (decision-making, rule-based reasoning, procedural interruption recovery and forgetting) that supports analysis of the information requirements for resolution of flight aiding and ATC conflicts. The model represents multiple individuals in the flight crew and in ATC. The model is supported in simulation on a Silicon Graphics' workstation using Allegro Lisp. Design guidelines for aviation automation aiding systems have been developed using the model's specification of information and team procedural requirements. Empirical data on flight deck operations from full-mission flight simulation are provided to support the model's predictions. The paper describes the model, its development and implementation, the simulation test of the model predictions, and the empirical validation process. The model and its supporting data provide a generalizable tool that is being expanded to include air/ground compatibility and ATC crew interactions in air traffic management.

Corker, Kevin↗