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At least 937 records · Page 52
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1994

Effect of Reynolds number and turbulence on airfoil aerodynamics at -90-degree incidence

A method has been developed for calculating the viscous flow about airfoils with and without deflected flaps at -90 deg incidence. This method provides for the solution of the unsteady incompressible Navier-Stokes equations by means of an implicit technique. The solution is calculated on a body-fitted computational mesh using a staggered-grid method. The vorticity is defined at the node points, and the velocity components are defined at the mesh-cell sides. The staggered-grid orientation provides for accurate representation of vorticity at the node points and the continuity equation at the mesh-cell centers. The method provides for the noniterative solution of the flowfield and satisfies the continuity equation to machine zero at each time step. The method is evaluated in terms of its stability to predict two-dimensional flow about an airfoil at -90-deg incidence for varying Reynolds number and laminar/turbulent models. The variations of the average loading and surface pressure distribution due to flap deflection, Reynolds number, and laminar or turbulent flow are presented and compared with experimental results. The comparisom indicate that the calculated drag and drag reduction caused by flap deflection and the calculated average surface pressure are in excellent agreement with the measured results at a similar Reynolds number.

Stremel, Paul M.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Direct calculations of waves in fluid flows using high-order compact difference scheme

The solution of the unsteady Euler equations by a sixth-order compact difference scheme combined with a fourth-order Runge-Kutta method is investigated. Closed-form expression for the amplification factors and their corresponding dispersion correlations are obtained by Fourier analysis of the fully discretized, two-dimensional Euler equations. The numerical dissipation, dispersion, and anisotropic effects are assessed. It is found that the Courant-Friedrichs-Lewy (CFL) limit for stable calculations is about 0.8. For a CFL number equal to 0.6, the smallest wavelength which is resolved without numerical damping is about six - eight grid nodes. For phase speeds corresponding to acoustic waves, the corresponding time period is resolved by about 200 - 300 time steps. Three numerical examples of waves in compressible flow are included: (1) sound propagation in a duct with linear shear, (2) linear wave growth in a compressible free shear layer, and (3) vortex pairing in a compressible free shear layer perturbed at two frequencies.

Yu, Sheng-Tao↗
NASA NTRS1992

A numerical study of three-dimensional surface tension driven convection with fre surface deformation

The steady three-dimensional thermocapillary motion with a deformable free surface is studied numerically in both normal and zero gravity environments. Flow configurations consist of a square cavity heated from the side. In the analysis, the free surface is allowed to deform and the grid distribution is adapted to the surface deformation. The divergence-free condition is satisfied by using a dual time-stepping approach in the numerical scheme. Convective flux derivatives are evaluated using a third-order accurate upwind-biased flux-split differencing technique. The numerical solutions at the midplane of the square cavity are compared with the results from two-dimensional calculations. In addition, numerial results for cases under zero and normal gravity conditions are compared. Significantly different flow structures and surface deformation have been observed. The comparison of calculated results will be compared with experimental data in the updated version of this paper.

Hsieh, Kwang-Chung↗
NASA NTRS1995

Updated Panel-Method Computer Program

Panel code PMARC_12 (Panel Method Ames Research Center, version 12) computes potential-flow fields around complex three-dimensional bodies such as complete aircraft models. Contains several advanced features, including internal mathematical modeling of flow, time-stepping wake model for simulating either steady or unsteady motions, capability for Trefftz computation of drag induced by plane, and capability for computation of off-body and on-body streamlines, and capability of computation of boundary-layer parameters by use of two-dimensional integral boundary-layer method along surface streamlines. Investigators interested in visual representations of phenomena, may want to consider obtaining program GVS (ARC-13361), General visualization System. GVS is Silicon Graphics IRIS program created to support scientific-visualization needs of PMARC_12. GVS available separately from COSMIC. PMARC_12 written in standard FORTRAN 77, with exception of NAMELIST extension used for input.

Ashby, Dale L.↗
NASA NTRS1995

Locomotion training of legged robots using hybrid machine learning techniques

In this study artificial neural networks and fuzzy logic are used to control the jumping behavior of a three-link uniped robot. The biped locomotion control problem is an increment of the uniped locomotion control. Study of legged locomotion dynamics indicates that a hierarchical controller is required to control the behavior of a legged robot. A structured control strategy is suggested which includes navigator, motion planner, biped coordinator and uniped controllers. A three-link uniped robot simulation is developed to be used as the plant. Neurocontrollers were trained both online and offline. In the case of on-line training, a reinforcement learning technique was used to train the neurocontroller to make the robot jump to a specified height. After several hundred iterations of training, the plant output achieved an accuracy of 7.4%. However, when jump distance and body angular momentum were also included in the control objectives, training time became impractically long. In the case of off-line training, a three-layered backpropagation (BP) network was first used with three inputs, three outputs and 15 to 40 hidden nodes. Pre-generated data were presented to the network with a learning rate as low as 0.003 in order to reach convergence. The low learning rate required for convergence resulted in a very slow training process which took weeks to learn 460 examples. After training, performance of the neurocontroller was rather poor. Consequently, the BP network was replaced by a Cerebeller Model Articulation Controller (CMAC) network. Subsequent experiments described in this document show that the CMAC network is more suitable to the solution of uniped locomotion control problems in terms of both learning efficiency and performance. A new approach is introduced in this report, viz., a self-organizing multiagent cerebeller model for fuzzy-neural control of uniped locomotion is suggested to improve training efficiency. This is currently being evaluated for a possible patent by NASA, Johnson Space Center. An alternative modular approach is also developed which uses separate controllers for each stage of the running stride. A self-organizing fuzzy-neural controller controls the height, distance and angular momentum of the stride. A CMAC-based controller controls the movement of the leg from the time the foot leaves the ground to the time of landing. Because the leg joints are controlled at each time step during flight, movement is smooth and obstacles can be avoided. Initial results indicate that this approach can yield fast, accurate results.

Simon, William E.↗
NASA NTRS1995

Rapid Numerical Simulation of Viscous Axisymmetric Flow Fields

A two-dimensional Navier-Stokes code has been developed for rapid numerical simulation of axisymmetric flow fields, including flow fields with an azimuthal velocity component. The azimuthal-invariant Navier-Stokes equations in a cylindrical coordinate system are mapped to a general body-fitted coordinate system, with the streamwise viscous terms then neglected by applying the thin-layer approximation. Turbulence effects are modeled using an algebraic model, typically the Baldwin-Lomax turbulence model, although a modified Cebeci-Smith model can also be used. The equations are discretized using central finite differences and solved using a multistage Runge-Kutta algorithm with a spatially varying time step and implicit residual smoothing. Results are presented for calculations of supersonic flow over a waisted body-of-revolution, transonic flow through a normal shock wave in a straight circular duct of constant cross sectional area, swirling supersonic (inviscid) flow through a strong shock in a straight radial duct, and swirling subsonic flow in an annular-to-circular diffuser duct. Comparisons between computed and experimental results are in fair to good agreement, demonstrating that the viscous code can be a useful tool for practical engineering design and analysis work.

Tweedt, Daniel L.↗
NASA NTRS1996

Assessment of an Unstructured-Grid Method for Predicting 3-D Turbulent Viscous Flows

A method is presented for solving turbulent flow problems on three-dimensional unstructured grids. Spatial discretization is accomplished by a cell-centered finite-volume formulation using an accurate linear reconstruction scheme and upwind flux differencing. Time is advanced by an implicit backward-Euler time-stepping scheme. Flow turbulence effects are modeled by the Spalart-Allmaras one-equation model, which is coupled with a wall function to reduce the number of cells in the sublayer region of the boundary layer. A systematic assessment of the method is presented to devise guidelines for more strategic application of the technology to complex problems. The assessment includes the accuracy in predictions of skin-friction coefficient, law-of-the-wall behavior, and surface pressure for a flat-plate turbulent boundary layer, and for the ONERA M6 wing under a high Reynolds number, transonic, separated flow condition.

Frink, Neal T.↗
NASA NTRS1995

A Unified Air-Sea Visualization System: Survey on Gridding Structures

The goal is to develop a Unified Air-Sea Visualization System (UASVS) to enable the rapid fusion of observational, archival, and model data for verification and analysis. To design and develop UASVS, modelers were polled to determine the gridding structures and visualization systems used, and their needs with respect to visual analysis. A basic UASVS requirement is to allow a modeler to explore multiple data sets within a single environment, or to interpolate multiple datasets onto one unified grid. From this survey, the UASVS should be able to visualize 3D scalar/vector fields; render isosurfaces; visualize arbitrary slices of the 3D data; visualize data defined on spectral element grids with the minimum number of interpolation stages; render contours; produce 3D vector plots and streamlines; provide unified visualization of satellite images, observations and model output overlays; display the visualization on a projection of the users choice; implement functions so the user can derive diagnostic values; animate the data to see the time-evolution; animate ocean and atmosphere at different rates; store the record of cursor movement, smooth the path, and animate a window around the moving path; repeatedly start and stop the visual time-stepping; generate VHS tape animations; work on a variety of workstations; and allow visualization across clusters of workstations and scalable high performance computer systems.

Anand, Harsh↗
NASA NTRS1995

Electron distributions in quasi-perpendicular shocks: Simulations

One of the outstanding problems of collisionless shock physics is the microphysical description of electron thermalization and associated wave processes. Observations at the Earth's bow shock have shown various features in the electron velocity distribution such as a loss-cone, temperature anisotropies, and beams before a thermalized, flat-topped distribution is reached downstream. It is generally believed that in addition to the macroscopic fields, which determine the overall mapping of the distribution function, electromagnetic whistler waves and lower hybrid waves are responsible for the pitch-angle scattering and thermalization of the electrons. However, a genuine physical explanation requires analysis of the evolution of the electron distribution in the self-consistent wave fields. Particle simulations are ideally suited to do this, and include processes in which both electrons and ions are involved, such as cross-field streaming instabilities. We show results from l-D and 2-D simulations using an implicit code, which allows time steps large compared to the inverse electron plasma frequency. It is shown that in order to capture the correct propagation characteristics of the waves, a large mass ratio between the protons and electrons is generally necessary. Detailed diagnostics of the waves as well as the evolution of the electron velocity distribution will be presented and will be discussed in the frame work of satellite observations.

Pantellini, F.↗
NASA NTRS1995

Design of object-oriented distributed simulation classes

Distributed simulation of aircraft engines as part of a computer aided design package is being developed by NASA Lewis Research Center for the aircraft industry. The project is called NPSS, an acronym for 'Numerical Propulsion Simulation System'. NPSS is a flexible object-oriented simulation of aircraft engines requiring high computing speed. It is desirable to run the simulation on a distributed computer system with multiple processors executing portions of the simulation in parallel. The purpose of this research was to investigate object-oriented structures such that individual objects could be distributed. The set of classes used in the simulation must be designed to facilitate parallel computation. Since the portions of the simulation carried out in parallel are not independent of one another, there is the need for communication among the parallel executing processors which in turn implies need for their synchronization. Communication and synchronization can lead to decreased throughput as parallel processors wait for data or synchronization signals from other processors. As a result of this research, the following have been accomplished. The design and implementation of a set of simulation classes which result in a distributed simulation control program have been completed. The design is based upon MIT 'Actor' model of a concurrent object and uses 'connectors' to structure dynamic connections between simulation components. Connectors may be dynamically created according to the distribution of objects among machines at execution time without any programming changes. Measurements of the basic performance have been carried out with the result that communication overhead of the distributed design is swamped by the computation time of modules unless modules have very short execution times per iteration or time step. An analytical performance model based upon queuing network theory has been designed and implemented. Its application to realistic configurations has not been carried out.

Schoeffler, James D.↗
NASA NTRS1994

A fundamental aeroservoelastic study combining unsteady CFD with adaptive control

This paper describes a two-dimensional aeroservoelastic study in the time domain. The model, which is based on exact inviscid aerodynamics, correctly represents the large amplitude motions and the associated strong shock dynamics in the transonic regime. The aeroservoelastic system consists of a two degree-of-freedom airfoil with a trailing edge control surface. Using first-order actuator dynamics, a digital adaptive controller is applied to provide active flutter suppression. Comparisons between time-responses of the open-loop and closed loop systems show the ability of the trailing edge control surface to suppress non-linear transonic aeroelastic phenomena. A relation between actuator dynamics, sampling time-step and limits on the flap deflection angle to guarantee the effectiveness of the adaptive controller was demonstrated by the results generated.

Friedmann, P.↗
NASA NTRS1995

An Extended Lagrangian Method

A unique formulation of describing fluid motion is presented. The method, referred to as 'extended Lagrangian method,' is interesting from both theoretical and numerical points of view. The formulation offers accuracy in numerical solution by avoiding numerical diffusion resulting from mixing of fluxes in the Eulerian description. The present method and the Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE) method have a similarity in spirit-eliminating the cross-streamline numerical diffusion. For this purpose, we suggest a simple grid constraint condition and utilize an accurate discretization procedure. This grid constraint is only applied to the transverse cell face parallel to the local stream velocity, and hence our method for the steady state problems naturally reduces to the streamline-curvature method, without explicitly solving the steady stream-coordinate equations formulated a priori. Unlike the Lagrangian method proposed by Loh and Hui which is valid only for steady supersonic flows, the present method is general and capable of treating subsonic flows and supersonic flows as well as unsteady flows, simply by invoking in the same code an appropriate grid constraint suggested in this paper. The approach is found to be robust and stable. It automatically adapts to flow features without resorting to clustering, thereby maintaining rather uniform grid spacing throughout and large time step. Moreover, the method is shown to resolve multi-dimensional discontinuities with a high level of accuracy, similar to that found in one-dimensional problems.

Liou, Meng-Sing↗
NASA NTRS1995

Evaluation of Turbulence Models for Unsteady Flows of an Oscillating Airfoil

Unsteady flowfields of a two-dimensional oscillating airfoil are calculated using an implicit, finite-difference, Navier Stokes numerical scheme. Five widely used turbulence models are used with the numerical scheme to assess the accuracy and suitability of the models for simulating the retreating blade stall of helicopter rotor in forward flight. Three unsteady flow conditions corresponding to an essentially attached flow, light-stall, and deep-stall cases of an oscillating NACA 0015 wing experiment were chosen as test cases for computations. Results of unsteady airloads hysteresis curves, harmonics of unsteady pressures, and instantaneous flowfield patterns are presented. Some effects of grid density, time-step size, and numerical dissipation on the unsteady solutions relevant to the evaluation of turbulence models are examined. Comparison of unsteady airloads with experimental data show that all models tested are deficient in some sense and no single model predicts airloads consistently and in agreement with experiment for the three flow regimes. The chief findings are that the simple algebraic model based on the renormalization group theory (RNG) offers some improvement over the Baldwin Lomax model in all flow regimes with nearly same computational cost. The one-equation models provide significant improvement over the algebraic and the half-equation models but have their own limitations. The Baldwin-Barth model overpredicts separation and underpredicts reattachment. In contrast, the Spalart-Allmaras model underpredicts separation and overpredicts reattachment.

Srinivasan, G. R.↗
NASA NTRS1996

Assessment of an Unstructured-Grid Method for Predicting 3-D Turbulent Viscous Flows

A method Is presented for solving turbulent flow problems on three-dimensional unstructured grids. Spatial discretization Is accomplished by a cell-centered finite-volume formulation using an accurate lin- ear reconstruction scheme and upwind flux differencing. Time is advanced by an implicit backward- Euler time-stepping scheme. Flow turbulence effects are modeled by the Spalart-Allmaras one-equation model, which is coupled with a wall function to reduce the number of cells in the sublayer region of the boundary layer. A systematic assessment of the method is presented to devise guidelines for more strategic application of the technology to complex problems. The assessment includes the accuracy In predictions of skin-friction coefficient, law-of-the-wall behavior, and surface pressure for a flat-plate turbulent boundary layer, and for the ONERA M6 wing under a high Reynolds number, transonic, separated flow condition.

Frink, Neal T.↗
NASA NTRS1996

The Effects of Dissipation and Coarse Grid Resolution for Multigrid in Flow Problems

The objective of this paper is to investigate the effects of the numerical dissipation and the resolution of the solution on coarser grids for multigrid with the Euler equation approximations. The convergence is accomplished by multi-stage explicit time-stepping to steady state accelerated by FAS multigrid. A theoretical investigation is carried out for linear hyperbolic equations in one and two dimensions. The spectra reveals that for stability and hence robustness of spatial discretizations with a small amount of numerical dissipation the grid transfer operators have to be accurate enough and the smoother of low temporal accuracy. Numerical results give grid independent convergence in one dimension. For two-dimensional problems with a small amount of numerical dissipation, however, only a few grid levels contribute to an increased speed of convergence. This is explained by the small numerical dissipation leading to dispersion. Increasing the mesh density and hence making the problem over resolved increases the number of mesh levels contributing to an increased speed of convergence. If the steady state equations are elliptic, all grid levels contribute to the convergence regardless of the mesh density.

Eliasson, Peter↗
NASA NTRS1995

Visualization and Tracking of Parallel CFD Simulations

We describe a system for interactive visualization and tracking of a 3-D unsteady computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation on a parallel computer. CM/AVS, a distributed, parallel implementation of a visualization environment (AVS) runs on the CM-5 parallel supercomputer. A CFD solver is run as a CM/AVS module on the CM-5. Data communication between the solver, other parallel visualization modules, and a graphics workstation, which is running AVS, are handled by CM/AVS. Partitioning of the visualization task, between CM-5 and the workstation, can be done interactively in the visual programming environment provided by AVS. Flow solver parameters can also be altered by programmable interactive widgets. This system partially removes the requirement of storing large solution files at frequent time steps, a characteristic of the traditional 'simulate (yields) store (yields) visualize' post-processing approach.

Vaziri, Arsi↗
NASA NTRS1997

Attitude and Trajectory Determination using Magnetometers and Estimated Rates

A simultaneous attitude and orbit determination algorithm which uses magnetometer measurements and estimated attitude rates is presented. This is an extension of an algorithm which uses magnetometer and rate gyro measurements. The new algorithm is intended for gyroless spacecraft, or in the case of gyro failures/saturation. Torque control input data is used in forming the rate estimates. Simulation tests of the algorithm are presented. First, tests were performed using the 'true' rate values at each time step. This simulated using accurate gyro measurements. Then, tests were performed estimating the rates. Using estimated rates rather than 'gyro measurements' did not significantly degrade the algorithm's performance if accurate estimates of the initial rates were available. An initial Root-Sum-Square (RSS) position error of 1,400 km was reduced to an average error of approximately 100 km within the first two minutes. The RSS attitude error converged to less than 1.5 degrees within three orbits.

Schierman, J. D.↗
NASA NTRS1994

The Dynamics of Some Iterative Implicit Schemes

The global asymptotic nonlinear behavior of some standard iterative procedures in solving nonlinear systems of algebraic equations arising from four implicit linear multistep methods (LMMs) in discretizing 2 x 2 systems of first-order autonomous nonlinear ordinary differential equations is analyzed using the theory of dynamical systems. With the aid of parallel Connection Machines (CM-2 and CM-5), the associated bifurcation diagrams as a function of the time step, and the complex behavior of the associated 'numerical basins of attraction' of these iterative implicit schemes are revealed and compared. Studies showed that all of the four implicit LMMs exhibit a drastic distortion and segmentation but less shrinkage of the basin of attraction of the true solution than standard explicit methods. The numerical basins of attraction of a noniterative implicit procedure mimic more closely the basins of attraction of the differential equations than the iterative implicit procedures for the four implicit LMMs.

Yee, H. C.↗