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At least 937 records · Page 52
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2023

Experimental Characterization of the Space Launch System Block 1B Liftoff and Transition Environment

A wind tunnel test was conducted at the NASA Langley Research Center 14- by 22-Foot Subsonic Tunnel to evaluate the liftoff and transition flow environment of the Space Launch System Block 1B launch vehicles and tower interference effects with the newly designed Mobile Launcher 2. This test leveraged several unique diagnostic capabilities, including eight distributed force and moment measurements on the launch tower tiers, new umbilical and crew access arm configurations, and unsteady pressure acquisition on the rocket nose in the cargo configuration. The tower loading revealed a strong impact of the SLS vehicle height on force coefficients for individual tiers. Although the umbilicals produced weak influence on the loading on both vehicle and launch tower, unsteady pressure measurements revealed a slight increase in fundamental pressure oscillation frequency at specific wind azimuth directions. Multimodal flow states were observed in the gap flow between the vehicle and solid rocket boosters, producing different load profiles along the vehicle that are now incorporated in the vehicle database. This phenomenon was investigated using time-series measurements of forces as well as tufts and smoke flow visualization.

SLS↗
NASA NTRS2013

Mode Transitions in Hall Effect Thrusters

Mode transitions have been commonly observed in Hall Effect Thruster (HET) operation where a small change in a thruster operating parameter such as discharge voltage, magnetic field or mass flow rate causes the thruster discharge current mean value and oscillation amplitude to increase significantly. Mode transitions in a 6-kW-class HET called the H6 are induced by varying the magnetic field intensity while holding all other operating parameters constant and measurements are acquired with ion saturation probes and ultra-fast imaging. Global and local oscillation modes are identified. In the global mode, the entire discharge channel oscillates in unison and azimuthal perturbations (spokes) are either absent or negligible. Downstream azimuthally spaced probes show no signal delay between each other and are very well correlated to the discharge current signal. In the local mode, signals from the azimuthally spaced probes exhibit a clear delay indicating the passage of "spokes" and are not well correlated to the discharge current. These spokes are localized oscillations propagating in the ExB direction that are typically 10-20% of the mean value. In contrast, the oscillations in the global mode can be 100% of the mean value. The transition between global and local modes occurs at higher relative magnetic field strengths for higher mass flow rates or higher discharge voltages. The thrust is constant through mode transition but the thrust-to-power decreased by 25% due to increasing discharge current. The plume shows significant differences between modes with the global mode significantly brighter in the channel and the near-field plasma plume as well as exhibiting a luminous spike on thruster centerline. Mode transitions provide valuable insight to thruster operation and suggest improved methods for thruster performance characterization.

interplanetary exploration↗
NASA NTRS1993

Navier-Stokes computations on full-span wing-body configuration with oscillating control surfaces

Unsteady Navier-Stokes simulations have been performed for vortical flows over an 'arrow-wing' configuration of a supersonic transport in the transonic regime. Computed steady pressures and integrated force coefficients with and without control surface deflection at a moderate angle of attack are compared with experiment. For unsteady cases, oscillating trailing-edge control surfaces are modeled by using moving grids. Response characteristics between symmetric and anti-symmetric oscillatory motions of the control surfaces on the left and right wings are studied. The anti-symmetric case produces higher lift than the steady case with no deflection, and the unsteady symmetric case produces higher lift than the anti-symmetric case. The detailed analysis of the wake structure revealed a strong interaction between the primary vortex and the wake vortex sheet from the flap region when the flap is deflected up.

Obayashi, Shigeru↗
NASA NTRS1995

Navier-Stokes Computations on Full Wing-Body Configuration with Oscillating Control Surfaces

Unsteady Navier-Stokes simulations have been performed for vortical flows over an "arrow-wing" configuration of a supersonic transport in the transonic regime. Computed steady pressures and integrated force coefficients with and without control surface deflection at a moderate angle of attack are compared with experiment. For unsteady cases, oscillating trailing-edge control surfaces are modeled by using moving grids. Response characteristics between symmetric and antisymmetric oscillatory motions of the control surfaces on the left and right wings are studied. The antisymmetric case produces higher lift than the steady case with no deflection and the unsteady symmetric case produces higher lift than the antisymmetric case. The detailed analysis of the wake structure revealed a strong interaction between the primary vortex and the wake vortex sheet from the flap region when the flap is deflected up.

Obayashi, Shigeru↗
NASA NTRS1993

Dynamic stall of an oscillating wing. Part 1: Evaluation of turbulence models

Unsteady flowfields of a two-dimensional oscillating wing are calculated using an implicit, finite-difference, Navier-Stokes numerical scheme using five widely used turbulence models. The objective of this study is to identify an appropriate turbulence model for accurate simulation of three-dimensional dynamic stall. Three unsteady flow conditions corresponding to attached flow, light-stall, and deep-stall of an oscillating wing experiment were chosen as test cases for computations. Results of unsteady airload hysteresis curves, harmonics of unsteady pressures, and instantaneous flow pictures are presented. Comparison of unsteady airloads with experiment show that all models are deficient in some sense and not a single model predicts all airloads consistently and in agreement with experiment for all flow conditions. For the attached flow condition, the Renormalization Group Theory (RNG), the Johnoson-King (J-K), and the Spalart-Allmaras (S-A) models have better performance. The Baldwin-Lomax (B-L) and the Baldwin-Barth (B-B) models fair poorly. At the light-stall condition, the results for the RNG, the J-K, and S-A models are in agreement with experiment for the upstroke but they all over predict the separation shown by the experiment and therefore have bigger hysteresis loops than experimental results. The B-B model results are also in good agreement for upstroke but have poor lift hysteresis for downstroke. It has superior drag and pitching-moment predictions. For deep-stall conditions, the airloads for the RNG, the B -B, and the S-A models have fair agreement with experiment, but the B-B model performed better at the extreme deep-stall condition. Overall, the RNG model provides significant improvement over the B-L model in all flow regimes with no additional computational cost. The Baldwin-Barth model is the most expensive of the models considered here, costing about 2.5 times that of the Baldwin-Lomax model. Finally, a brief discussion of the effects of grid density, time-step size, and numerical dissipation on the unsteady solutions are also presented.

Srinivasan, G. R.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Unsteady Navier-Stokes computations past oscillating delta wing at high incidence

The unsteady, thin-layer, compressible Navier-Stokes equations, written in the moving frame of reference for the flow relative motion, is solved for the steady and unsteady supersonic flow around a round-edged delta wing. For supersonic flow, local conical flow solution has been obtained from the three-dimensional equations. Pseudotime stepping is used for the steady flow, while time-accurate stepping is used for the unsteady flow. The computational scheme is an implicit approximately-factored finite volume scheme which uses explicit and implicit dissipation terms. The scheme is verified for the steady flow solution. The scheme is then applied to a delta wing undergoing rolling oscillation at a reduced frequency of 1.137 with 15- deg maximum amplitude about a mean angle of attack of 10 deg for a Mach number of 2 and a Reynolds number of 500,000.

Kandil, Osama A.↗
DOE OSTI2020

Convectively Forced Diurnal Gravity Waves in the Maritime Continent

Long-lived, zonally propagating diurnal rainfall disturbances are a highly pronounced and common feature in the Maritime Continent (MC). A recent study argues that these disturbances can be explained as diurnally phase-locked gravity waves. Here we explore the origins of these waves through regional cloud-permitting numerical model experiments. The gravity waves are reproduced and isolated in the model framework through the combined use of realistic geography and diurnally cyclic lateral boundary conditions representative of both characteristic easterly and westerly background zonal flow regimes. These flow regimes are characteristic of the Madden–Julian oscillation (MJO) suppressed and active phase in the MC, respectively. Tests are conducted wherein Borneo, Sumatra, or both islands and/or their orography are removed. These tests imply that the diurnal gravity waves are excited and maintained directly by latent heating from the vigorous mesoscale convective systems (MCSs) that form nocturnally in both Borneo and Sumatra. Removing orography has only a secondary impact on both the MCSs and the gravity waves, implying that it is not critical to these waves. We therefore hypothesize that diurnal gravity waves are fundamentally driven by mesoscale organized deep convection, and are only sensitive to orography to the measure that the convection is affected by the orography and its mesoscale flows. Factor separation further reveals that the nonlinear interaction of synchronized diurnal cycles in Sumatra and Borneo slightly amplifies this gravity wave mode compared to if either island existed in isolation. This nonlinear feedback appears most prominently at longitudes directly between the two islands.

Ruppert, Jr., James H.↗
DOE OSTI2020

Analytical model of plasma response to external magnetic perturbation in absence of no-slip condition

Recent simulation and experimental results suggest that the magnetic island and flow on a resonant surface often do not satisfy the “no-slip” condition in the steady state. A new theoretical model on a nonlinear plasma response to external magnetic perturbation in the absence of a no-slip condition is proposed. The model is composed of the equations for the evolution of both the width and phase of the magnetic island due to forced reconnection driven by the external magnetic perturbation, and the force-balance equation for the plasma flow. When the island width is much less than the resistive layer width, the island growth is governed by the linear Hahm–Kulsrud–Taylor solution in the presence of time-dependent plasma flow. In the other regime when the island width is much larger than the resistive layer width, the evolution of both the island width and phase can be described using the Rutherford theory. The island solution is used to construct the quasilinear electromagnetic force, which, together with the viscous one, contributes to the nonlinear variation in plasma flow. The no-slip condition assumed in the conventional error field theory is not imposed here, where the island oscillation frequency depends on but does not necessarily equal to the plasma flow frequency at the rational surface.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
NASA NTRS2012

Investigation of Turbulent Tip Leakage Vortex in an Axial Water Jet Pump with Large Eddy Simulation

Detailed steady and unsteady numerical studies were performed to investigate tip clearance flow in an axial water jet pump. The primary objective is to understand physics of unsteady tip clearance flow, unsteady tip leakage vortex, and cavitation inception in an axial water jet pump. Steady pressure field and resulting steady tip leakage vortex from a steady flow analysis do not seem to explain measured cavitation inception correctly. The measured flow field near the tip is unsteady and measured cavitation inception is highly transient. Flow visualization with cavitation bubbles shows that the leakage vortex is oscillating significantly and many intermittent vortex ropes are present between the suction side of the blade and the tip leakage core vortex. Although the flow field is highly transient, the overall flow structure is stable and a characteristic frequency seems to exist. To capture relevant flow physics as much as possible, a Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) calculation and a Large Eddy Simulation (LES) were applied for the current investigation. The present study reveals that several vortices from the tip leakage vortex system cross the tip gap of the adjacent blade periodically. Sudden changes in local pressure field inside tip gap due to these vortices create vortex ropes. The instantaneous pressure filed inside the tip gap is drastically different from that of the steady flow simulation. Unsteady flow simulation which can calculate unsteady vortex motion is necessary to calculate cavitation inception accurately even at design flow condition in such a water jet pump.

Hah, Chunill↗
NASA NTRS1990

Toroidal standing waves excited by a storm sudden commencement - DE 1 observations

A 74-nT sudden commencement on July 13, 1982, was observed in the magnetosphere, with instruments on the Dynamics Explorer 1 satellite. Inbound, near L = 4.5, the satellite was located at 1524 magnetic local time and 20 deg magnetic latitude. The sudden commmencement established a strong, east-west oscillation, with 100-s period, which was observed in the magnetic field, the electric field, and the plasma flow velocity records. There was also a compressional component of this 100-s oscillation and a rapidly damped 300-s compressional pulsation. The compressional oscillations may be an evidence of cavity resonances, excited by the sudden commencement. The cavity waves may, in turn, couple to toroidal waves in field line resonance at the satellite location. In addition, the sudden commencement caused the onset of waves with frequencies from 0.1 up to at least 0.5 Hz. The observations are compared with similar reports from earlier pulsations related to sudden commencements.

Cahill, L. J., Jr.↗
NASA NTRS1974

Noise reduction in transonic wind tunnels

The phenomena of background noise generation in transonic wind tunnels are analyzed. In unsteady aerodynamic tests, background disturbances create problems because the instrumentation senses them in addition to the fluctuations generated by the aerodynamic flow over wind-tunnel models. Calibrations of 25 facilities show that the amplitudes of the background fluctuations are excessive. In porous-wall facilities, one noise source consists of porous-wall edgetones that are generated by the passage of air over the holes. A flow model is developed that yields the frequencies of these oscillations. Test section boundary layers and hole configurations govern the occurrence of these fluctuations. In slotted-wall facilities, a noise source is the slotted-wall shearing caused by the air flowing along the openings. In both types of wind tunnels, other flow mechanisms also cause disturbances, and these phenomena are described. Noise-reduction methods are outlined which will provide valid unsteady aerodynamic results.

Mccanless, G. F., Jr.↗
DOE OSTI2025

Sharp front tracking with geometric interface reconstruction

Here, this paper presents a novel sharp front-tracking method designed to address limitations in classical front-tracking approaches, specifically their reliance on smooth interpolation kernels and extended stencils for coupling the front and fluid mesh. In contrast, the proposed method employs exclusively sharp, localized interpolation and spreading kernels, restricting the coupling to the interfacial fluid cells–those containing the interface/front. This localized coupling is achieved by integrating a divergence-preserving velocity interpolation method with a piecewise parabolic interface calculation (PPIC) and a polyhedron intersection algorithm to compute the indicator function and local interface curvature. Surface tension is computed using the Continuum Surface Force (CSF) method, maintaining consistency with the sharp representation. Additionally, we propose an efficient local roughness smoothing implementation to account for surface mesh undulations, which is easily applicable to any triangulated surface mesh. Building on our previous work, the primary innovation of this study lies in the localization of the coupling for both the indicator function and surface tension calculations. By reducing the interface thickness on the fluid mesh to a single cell, as opposed to the 4–5 cell spans typical in classical methods, the proposed sharp front-tracking method achieves a highly localized and accurate representation of the interface. This sharper representation mitigates parasitic currents and improves force balancing, making it particularly suitable for scenarios where the interface plays a critical role, such as microfluidics, fluid-fluid interactions, and fluid-structure interactions. The proposed method is comprehensively validated and tested on canonical interfacial flow problems, including stationary and translating Laplace equilibria, oscillating droplets, and rising bubbles. The presented results demonstrate that the sharp front-tracking method significantly outperforms the classical approach in terms of accuracy, stability, and computational efficiency. Notably, parasitic currents are reduced by approximately two orders of magnitude and stable results are obtained for parameter ranges where classical front tracking fails to converge.

42 ENGINEERING↗
NASA NTRS2016

Simulation of Sweep-Jet Flow Control, Single Jet and Full Vertical Tail

This work is a simulation technology demonstrator, of sweep jet flow control used to suppress boundary layer separation and increase the maximum achievable load coefficients. A sweep jet is a discrete Coanda jet that oscillates in the plane parallel to an aerodynamic surface. It injects mass and momentum in the approximate streamwise direction. It also generates turbulent eddies at the oscillation frequency, which are typically large relative to the scales of boundary layer turbulence, and which augment mixing across the boundary layer to attack flow separation. Simulations of a fluidic oscillator, the sweep jet emerging from a nozzle downstream of the oscillator, and an array of sweep jets which suppresses boundary layer separation are performed. Simulation results are compared to data from a dedicated validation experiment of a single oscillator and its sweep jet, and from a wind tunnel test of a full-scale Boeing 757 vertical tail augmented with an array of sweep jets. A critical step in the work is the development of realistic time-dependent sweep jet inflow boundary conditions, derived from the results of the single-oscillator simulations, which create the sweep jets in the full-tail simulations. Simulations were performed using the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) solver Overow, with high-order spatial discretization and a range of turbulence modeling. Good results were obtained for all flows simulated, when suitable turbulence modeling was used.

flow control↗
NASA NTRS1992

Pressure oscillation in the leakage annulus between a shrouded impeller and its housing due to impeller-discharge-pressure disturbances

The perturbed flow in the leakage path between a shrouded-pump impeller and its housing is analyzed using experiences with the Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME), high pressure fuel turbopump (HPFTP) wearing-ring seals. Analysis is based on a bulk-flow model which consists of the path-momentum, circumferential momentum, and continuity equations. The pressure oscillations in the leakage annulus are driven by a circumferential variation of the impeller discharge pressure. It is shown that the occurrence and nature of the pressure oscillations depend on the tangential-velocity ratio of the fluid entering the seal, the order of the Fourier coefficient, the closeness of the precessional frequency of the rotating pressure field to the first natural frequency of the fluid annulus, and the clearance of the wearing-ring seal. The results obtained may explain the internal melting observed on SSME HPFTP seal parts.

Childs, D. W.↗
NASA NTRS1988

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.↗
NASA NTRS1980

Experimental determination of pure rotary stability derivatives using curved and rolling flow wind tunnel

The technique of using a curved and rolling flow wind tunnel to extract pure rotary stability derivatives is presented. Descriptions of the curved flow and the rolling flow test sections of the Virginia Tech Stability Wind Tunnel are given including methods for obtaining the proper velocity profiles and correcting the data acquired. Results of testing current fighter configurations in this facility are presented with particular attention given to comparing pure rotary derivatives with combined rotary and unsteady derivatives obtained by standard oscillation tests. Also the effect of curved and rolling flow on lateral static stability derivatives is examined.

Lutze, F. H.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Recent developments in oscillatory thermocapillary flows

Recent research aimed at understanding the transition of thermocapillary flows from steady to oscillatory states is described. Particular attention is given to conditions for the onset of the oscillations and how they are influenced by changes in configuration such as geometry and thermal signature. It is shown that, for high Prandtl number fluids, the oscillations are caused by the coupling among the imposed thermal signature, the surface flow, and the surface deformations. The surface deformations cause a time lag between the surface and bulk-return flows and alter the driving force (surface-temperature gradient).

Ostrach, Simon↗
NASA NTRS1993

Transonic shock oscillations calculated with a new interactive boundary layer coupling method

A new viscous-inviscid interactive coupling method is described with the aim of allowing time-accurate computation of unsteady transonic flows involving separation and reattachment. A lag-entrainment integral boundary layer method is used in conjunction with a transonic small disturbance potential code. The solutions are coupled with a novel variable gain, integral control method for the boundary layer displacement thickness. Efficient and robust computations of steady and unsteady separated flows, including steady separation bubbles and self-excited shock-induced oscillations, are presented. The buffet onset boundary for the NACA 0012 airfoil is accurately predicted and shown computationally to be a Hopf bifurcation. Shock-induced oscillations are also presented for the 18 percent thick circular arc airfoil. The oscillation onset boundaries and frequencies are accurately predicted, as is the experimentally observed hysteresis of the oscillations with Mach number; this latter stability boundary is identified as a jump phenomenon.

Edwards, John W.↗