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At least 937 records · Page 52
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2012

Correction of Excessive Precipitation Over Steep and High Mountains in a General Circulation Model

Excessive precipitation over steep and high mountains (EPSM) is a well-known problem in GCMs and meso-scale models. This problem impairs simulation and data assimilation products. Among the possible causes investigated in this study, we found that the most important one, by far, is a missing upward transport of heat out of the boundary layer due to the vertical circulations forced by the daytime upslope winds, which are forced by the heated boundary layer on subgrid-scale slopes. These upslope winds are associated with large subgrid-scale topographic variation, which is found over steep and high mountains. Without such subgridscale heat ventilation, the resolvable-scale upslope flow in the boundary layer generated by surface sensible heat flux along the mountain slopes is excessive. Such an excessive resolvablescale upslope flow combined with the high moisture content in the boundary layer results in excessive moisture transport toward mountaintops, which in turn gives rise to EPSM. Other possible causes of EPSM that we have investigated include 1) a poorly-designed horizontal moisture flux in the terrain-following coordinates, 2) the condition for cumulus convection being too easily satisfied at mountaintops, 3) the presence of conditional instability of the computational kind, and 4) the absence of blocked flow drag. These are all minor or inconsequential. We have parameterized the ventilation effects of the subgrid-scale heated-slope-induced vertical circulation (SHVC) by removing heat from the boundary layer and depositing it in layers higher up when the topographic variance exceeds a critical value. Test results using NASA/Goddard's GEOS-S GCM have shown that this largely solved the EPSM problem.

Chao, Winston C.↗
NASA NTRS1987

Boundary effects on Marangoni-Rayleigh and morphological instabilities

Effects of boundaries (vertical sides) on the Marangoni-Rayleigh problem are reviewed. Spectral crowding and a dimensional singularity when Rayleigh effects are neglected are discussed. In the unbounded case, there is a unique Ma with unique eigenfunction for fixed Ra but infinite Ra for fixed Ma. These infinite values of Ra correspond to vertical cellular modes. In the bounded case, there is infinite Ma for a fixed Ra. The stress free side wall case gives double infinite of Ra for fixed Ma and wave number. Clearly, a dimensional singularity occurs for the Marangoni problem when the side walls go to infinity and a fixed Ra is considered. There is no direct analogy regarding this singularity in the morphological instability problem. Results on the behavior of Mac, Rac with boundary conditions also show only marginal connection to the morphological stability problem.

Narayanan, R.↗
NASA NTRS1986

Certification aspects of airplanes which may operate with significant natural laminar flow

Recent research by NASA indicates that extensive natural laminar flow (NLF) is attainable on modern high performance airplanes currently under development. Modern airframe construction methods and materials, such as milled aluminum skins, bonded aluminum skins, and composite materials, offer the potential for production of aerodynamic surfaces having waviness and roughness below the values which are critical for boundary layer transition. Areas of concern with the certification aspects of Natural Laminar Flow (NLF) are identified to stimulate thought and discussion of the possible problems. During its development, consideration has been given to the recent research information available on several small business and experimental airplanes and the certification and operating rules for general aviation airplanes. The certification considerations discussed are generally applicable to both large and small airplanes. However, from the information available at this time, researchers expect more extensive NLF on small airplanes because of their lower operating Reynolds numbers and cleaner leading edges (due to lack of leading-edge high lift devices). Further, the use of composite materials for aerodynamic surfaces, which will permit incorporation of NLF technology, is currently beginning to appear in small airplanes.

Gabriel, Edward A.↗
NASA NTRS1958

The Turbulent Boundary Layer on a Rough Curvilinear Surface

A number of semiempirical approximate methods exist for determining the characteristics of the turbulent boundary layer on a curvilinear surface. At present, among these methods, the one proposed by L. G. Loitsianskii is given frequent practical application. This method is sufficiently effective and permits, in the case of wing profiles with technically smooth surfaces, calculating the basic characteristics of the boundary layer and the values of the overall drag with an accuracy which suffices for practical purposes. The idea of making use of the basic integral momentum equation ((d delta(sup xx))/dx) + ((V' delta(sup xx))/V) (2 + H) = (tau(sub 0))/(rho V(exp 2)) proves to be fruitful also for the solution of the problems in the determination of the characteristics of the turbulent boundary layer on a rough surface.

Droblenkov, V. F.↗
DOE OSTI2026

Fast Active-Set Thresholding Method for Nonnegative Least Squares

Nonnegative Least Squares (NNLS) is a fundamental constrained optimization problem encountered in many applications such as image deblurring, signal processing, nonnegative matrix factorization, magnetic microscopy, and hyperspectral imaging. Active-set based methods are a common class of algorithms for solving NNLS which identify the optimal variable set of the NNLS solution. They do so by iteratively solving a series of unconstrained least squares problems, identifying which variables violate the nonnegativity constraints, and then swapping variables in/out of consideration until the optimal set of variables is found. Several variations improving upon this method exist in the literature. In this work, we propose an active-set swap heuristic which further improves upon existing active-set based methods for NNLS. Our optimizations are based upon adding multiple variables to the passive set within a threshold of the smallest gradient value and removing variables within a similar threshold of the closest boundary constraint. We leverage these optimizations to yield a Fast Active-Set Thresholding NNLS (FAST-NNLS) algorithm which significantly outperforms the existing state-of-the-art NNLS algorithms for a wide range of problems. Rigorous convergence guarantees are proven for the proposed method. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed method on multiple synthetic datasets and two realworld text analysis applications. In doing so, we present the most comprehensive NNLS solver comparison in the literature to date.

Cobb, Benjamin [Georgia Institute of Technology]↗
NASA NTRS1973

A Finite-Element Formulation for Subsonic Flows Around Complex Configurations

The problem of potential steady subsonic flow around complex configurations is considered. This problem requires the solution of an integral equation relating the values of the potential on the surface of the body to the values of the normal derivative, which is known from the boundary conditions. The surface of the body is divided into small (hyperboloidal quadrilateral) surface elements, which are described in terms of the Cartesian components of the four corner points. The values of the potential (and its normal derivative) within each element is assumed to be constant and equal to its value at the centroid of the element. This yields a set of linear algebraic equations. The coefficients of the equation are given by source and doublet integrals over the surface elements. Closed form evaluations of the integrals are presented.

Morino, L.↗
NASA NTRS1979

A new approach to the correlation of boundary layer mass transfer rates with thermal diffusion and/or variable properties

A rational approach to the correlation of boundary layer mass transport rates, applicable to many commonly encountered laminar flow conditions with thermal diffusion and/or variable properties, is outlined. The correlation scheme builds upon already available constant property blowing/suction solutions by introducing appropriate correction factors to account for the additional ('pseudo' blowing and source) effects identified with variable properties and thermal diffusion. Applications of the scheme to the particular laminar boundary layer mass transfer problems considered herein (alkali and transition metal compound vapor transport) indicates satisfactory accuracy up to effective blowing factors equivalent to about one third of the 'blow off' value. As a useful by-product of the variable property correlation, we extend the heat-mass transfer analogy, for a wide range of Lewis numbers, to include variable property effects.

Srivastava, R.↗
NASA NTRS1982

A numerical method for the dynamics of non-spherical cavitation bubbles

A boundary integral numerical method for the dynamics of nonspherical cavitation bubbles in inviscid incompressible liquids is described. Only surface values of the velocity potential and its first derivatives are involved. The problem of solving the Laplace equation in the entire domain occupied by the liquid is thus avoided. The collapse of a bubble in the vicinity of a solid wall and the collapse of three bubbles with collinear centers are considered.

Lucca, G.↗
NASA NTRS1981

Eigenvalues of the Rayleigh-Benard and Marangoni problems

The eigenvalues of the linear Benard-Marangoni stability problem are discussed. Pearson and Nield boundary conditions, which correspond to a rigid, isothermal lower boundary and a stress-free conducting upper boundary are considered. It is shown that although a critical value of the Marangoni number can be determined, the number is not, strictly speaking, an eigenvalue and cannot be used as an eigenvalue parameter for the determination of an eigenvector set.

Rosenblat, S.↗
NASA NTRS2013

Automatic Data Filter Customization Using a Genetic Algorithm

This work predicts whether a retrieval algorithm will usefully determine CO2 concentration from an input spectrum of GOSAT (Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite). This was done to eliminate needless runtime on atmospheric soundings that would never yield useful results. A space of 50 dimensions was examined for predictive power on the final CO2 results. Retrieval algorithms are frequently expensive to run, and wasted effort defeats requirements and expends needless resources. This algorithm could be used to help predict and filter unneeded runs in any computationally expensive regime. Traditional methods such as the Fischer discriminant analysis and decision trees can attempt to predict whether a sounding will be properly processed. However, this work sought to detect a subsection of the dimensional space that can be simply filtered out to eliminate unwanted runs. LDAs (linear discriminant analyses) and other systems examine the entire data and judge a "best fit," giving equal weight to complex and problematic regions as well as simple, clear-cut regions. In this implementation, a genetic space of "left" and "right" thresholds outside of which all data are rejected was defined. These left/right pairs are created for each of the 50 input dimensions. A genetic algorithm then runs through countless potential filter settings using a JPL computer cluster, optimizing the tossed-out data s yield (proper vs. improper run removal) and number of points tossed. This solution is robust to an arbitrary decision boundary within the data and avoids the global optimization problem of whole-dataset fitting using LDA or decision trees. It filters out runs that would not have produced useful CO2 values to save needless computation. This would be an algorithmic preprocessing improvement to any computationally expensive system.

Mandrake, Lukas↗
DOE OSTI2021

Physics-Informed Neural Network Method for Forward and Backward Advection-Dispersion Equations

Advection-dispersion equations (ADEs) are commonly used to describe transport phenomena in porous media. Even though mature discretization-based numerical methods for ADEs exist, some challenges still remain, especially when it comes to solving advection-dominated forward ADEs and diffusion-dominated backward ADEs. The latter problem usually arises in the source identification context and leads to numerically unstable grid-based solutions that require a form of regularization or should be treated as an inverse problem that is computationally more expensive because it requires solving the forward problem multiple times. In this study, we propose a discretization-free approach based on the physics-informed neural network (PINN) method for solving coupled ADE and Darcy flow equations with space-dependent hydraulic conductivity. In this approach, the hydraulic conductivity, hydraulic head, and concentration fields are approximated with deep neural networks (DNNs). We assume that the conductivity field is given by its values on a grid, and we use these values to train the conductivity DNN. The head and concentration DNNs are trained by minimizing the residuals of the flow equation and ADE and using the initial and boundary conditions as additional constraints. The PINN method is applied to one- and two-dimensional forward ADE problems, where its performance for various P\'{e}clet numbers ($Pe$) is compared with the analytical and numerical solutions. We find that the PINN method is accurate with errors of less than 1\% and outperforms some conventional discretization-based methods for $Pe$ larger that 100. Next, we demonstrate that the PINN method remains accurate for the backward ADEs, with the relative errors in most cases staying under 5\% compared to the reference concentration field. Finally, we show that when available, the concentration measurements can be easily incorporated in the PINN method and significantly improve (by more than 50\% in the considered cases) the accuracy of the PINN solution of the backward ADE.

He, Qizhi↗
DOE OSTI2020

Bi-cross validation of spectral clustering hyperparameters

One challenge impeding the analysis of terabyte scale X-ray scattering data from the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) is determining the number of clusters required for the execution of traditional clustering algorithms. Here, we demonstrate that the previous work using bi-cross validation to determine the number of singular vectors directly maps to the spectral clustering problem of estimating both the number of clusters and hyperparameter values. Here by applying this method to LCLS X-ray scattering data enables the identification of dropped shots without manually setting boundaries on detector fluence and provides a path toward identifying rare and anomalous events.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
NASA NTRS1990

Numerical simulation of the incompressible internal flow through a tilting disk valve

A numerical simulation of the incompressible viscous flow through a prosthetic tilting disk heart valve is presented in order to demonstrate the current capability to model unsteady flows with moving boundaries. Both steady and unsteady flow calculations are performed by solving the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations in three-dimensional generalized curvilinear coordinates. In order to handle the moving boundary problems, the chimera grid embedding scheme which decomposes a complex computational domain into several simple subdomains is used. An algebraic turbulence model for internal flows is incorporated to reach the physiological values of Reynolds number. Good agreement is obtained between the numerical results and experimental measurements. It is found that the tilting disk valve causes large regions of separated flow, and regions of high shear.

Chang, I-Dee↗
NASA NTRS1991

Simulation of blood flow through an artificial heart

A numerical simulation of the incompressible viscous flow through a prosthetic tilting disk heart valve is presented in order to demonstrate the current capability to model unsteady flows with moving boundaries. Both steady state and unsteady flow calculations are done by solving the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations in 3-D generalized curvilinear coordinates. In order to handle the moving boundary problems, the chimera grid embedding scheme which decomposes a complex computational domain into several simple subdomains is used. An algebraic turbulence model for internal flows is incorporated to reach the physiological values of Reynolds number. Good agreement is obtained between the numerical results and experimental measurements. It is found that the tilting disk valve causes large regions of separated flow, and regions of high shear.

Kiris, Cetin↗
NASA NTRS1974

A finite element formulation for supersonic flows around complex configurations

The problem of small perturbation potential supersonic flow around complex configurations is considered. This problem requires the solution of an integral equation relating the values of the potential on the surface of the body to the values of the normal derivative, which is known from the small perturbation boundary conditions. The surface of the body is divided into small (hyperboloidal quadrilateral) surface elements which are described in terms of the Cartesian components of the four corner points. The values of the potential (and its normal derivative) within each element are assumed to be constant and equal to its value at the centroid of the element. This yields a set of linear algebraic equations whose coefficients are given by source and doublet integrals over the surface elements. Closed form evaluations of the integrals are presented.

Morino, L.↗
NASA NTRS1974

A finite-element analysis for steady and oscillatory supersonic flows around complex configurations

The problem of small perturbation potential supersonic flow around complex configurations is considered. This problem requires the solution of an integral equation relating the values of the potential on the surface of the body to the values of the normal derivative, which is known from the small perturbation boundary conditions. The surface of the body is divided into small (hyperboloidal quadrilateral) surface elements, sigma sub i, which are described in terms of the Cartesian components of the four corner points. The values of the potential (and its normal derivative) within each element is assumed to be constant and equal to its value at the centroid of the element, and this yields a set of linear algebraic equations. The coefficients of the equation are given by source and doublet integrals over the surface elements, sigma sub i. The results obtained using the above formulation are compared with existing analytical and experimental results.

Morino, L.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Thrust vectoring effect on time-optimal 90 degrees angle of attack pitch up maneuvers of a high alpha fighter aircraft

Using thrust vectoring, the problem of pitching up a high alpha fighter aircraft to 90 degrees angle of attack in minimum time is considered. Pontryagin's maximum principle is used together with a two-point boundary value numerical algorithm to derive open-loop controls for various parameterized limits on thrust vectoring angles. Without thrust vectoring, a high alpha fighter with initial conditions 0.6 Mach number and 15,000 feet requires 7.0 seconds to pitch-up to 90 degrees. However, with 20-degree angle thrust vectoring, the pitch-up takes only 1.5 seconds with a final Mach number of 0.47. Also, the gain in altitude is less than 100 feet. More important, additional thrust vectoring yields litle benefit beyond the 20-degree angles. This paper describes control solutions in detail for thrust vectoring angles between 0 and 90 degrees.

Stalford, Harold↗
NASA NTRS1971

The problem of uniqueness in thermosphere dynamics

The unique solution of tidal wave propagation within the thermosphere depends on the boundary conditions of the model. It is shown that the radiation condition leads to such a unique solution. Any other boundary values give rise to deviations from the physical solution with unrealistic physical parameters in the environment of the boundaries. The thickness of these boundary layers with unrealistic solutions is a few scale heights below the upper boundary of the model and a few tens of scale heights above the lower boundary of the model.

Volland, H.↗