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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 1,027 records · Page 57
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2002

Aeroacoustic Flow Phenomena Accurately Captured by New Computational Fluid Dynamics Method

One of the challenges in the computational fluid dynamics area is the accurate calculation of aeroacoustic phenomena, especially in the presence of shock waves. One such phenomenon is "transonic resonance," where an unsteady shock wave at the throat of a convergent-divergent nozzle results in the emission of acoustic tones. The space-time Conservation-Element and Solution-Element (CE/SE) method developed at the NASA Glenn Research Center can faithfully capture the shock waves, their unsteady motion, and the generated acoustic tones. The CE/SE method is a revolutionary new approach to the numerical modeling of physical phenomena where features with steep gradients (e.g., shock waves, phase transition, etc.) must coexist with those having weaker variations. The CE/SE method does not require the complex interpolation procedures (that allow for the possibility of a shock between grid cells) used by many other methods to transfer information between grid cells. These interpolation procedures can add too much numerical dissipation to the solution process. Thus, while shocks are resolved, weaker waves, such as acoustic waves, are washed out.

Blech, Richard A.↗
DOE OSTI2020

Eulerian thermo-mechanical simulations of heterogeneous solid propellants using an approximate projection method

We present a mathematical model that describes thermo-mechanical deformations and thermal gradients on the unsteady burning of a heterogeneous solid propellant. A scaling study shows that the deformations in solid at combustion timescales can be treated as quasi-static. The resulting thermo-mechanical formulation is formulated on a Cartesian grid and makes use of a weak form of Chorin-type projection method to deal with large difference in shear modulus of constituent materials. Further, a one-dimensional verification study is carried out by comparing numerical simulations with those of an analytical model. In addition, convergence studies for a two-dimensional propellant sandwich configuration are presented for the stress, velocity, and reference map components. Finally, simulations are carried out for a two-dimensional random propellant pack and the time-averaged burn rate and strains are reported.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2026

Routes to high-performance operation in Wendelstein 7-X: turbulence suppression with shaping of the density profile

Steep density gradients generally lead to improved plasma performance in the neoclassically optimized stellarator W7-X. This is evident in the global energy confinement time as well as in the ion temperature and can be explained by a strong reduction of the ion temperature gradient turbulence. Such conditions can experimentally be realized by several methods: injection of cryogenic hydrogen pellets, appropriate combination of neutral beam and electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH) and, in some cases, with low power of ECRH after preconditioning of the first wall. The duration of the improved phases is determined by the ability to sustain the steep density gradient, by technical limitations of the involved systems and, eventually, by the plasma stability. This paper gives an overview of relevant experimental results and presents example discharges where the improved confinement conditions could be extended to multiple seconds: up to 4 s using neutral beam injection and from 14 to 40 s with steady state pellet injection. In these plasmas the turbulent thermal diffusivity is reduced by a factor of 3 to 4 in a broad radial range, which allows high ion temperatures of up to 3 keV at the densities of about 1.5 • 10 20 m −3 .

high performance plasma↗
NASA NTRS2002

Interchange Method in Compressible Magnetized Couette Flow: Magnetorotational and Magnetoconvective Instabilities

We obtain the general forms of the axisymmetric stability criteria in a magnetized compressible Couette flow using an energy variational principle, the so-called interchange or Chandrasekhar s met hod, which we applied successfully in the incompressible case. This formulation accounts for the simultaneous presence of gravity, rotation, a toroidal magnetic field, a weak axial magnetic field, entropy gradients, and density gradients in the initial equilibrium state. The power of the method lies in its simplicity which allows us to derive extremely compact and physically clear expressions for the relevant stability criteria despite the inclusion of so many physical effects. In the implementation of the method, all the applicable conservation laws are explicitly taken into account during the variations of a quantity with dimensions of energy which we call the free energy function. As in the incompressible case, the presence of an axial field invalidates the conservation laws of angular momentum and azimuthal magnetic flux and introduces instead isorotation and axial current conservation along field lines. Our results are therefore markedly different depending on whether an axial magnetic field is present, and generalize in two simple expressions all previously known, partial stability criteria for the appearance of magnetorotational instability. Furthermore, the coupling between magnetic tension and buoyancy and its influence to the dynamics of nonhomoentropic magnetized flows becomes quite clear from our results. In the limits of plane-parallel atmospheres and homoentropic flows, our formulation easily recovers the stability criteria for suppression of convective and Parker instabilities, as well as some related special cases studied over 40 years ago by Newcomb and Tserkovnikov via laborious variational techniques.

Christodoulou, Dimitris M.↗
NASA NTRS1998

A Preconditioning Method for Shape Optimization Governed by the Euler Equations

We consider a classical aerodynamic shape optimization problem subject to the compressible Euler flow equations. The gradient of the cost functional with respect to the shape variables is derived with the adjoint method at the continuous level. The Hessian (second order derivative of the cost functional with respect to the shape variables) is approximated also at the continuous level, as first introduced by Arian and Ta'asan (1996). The approximation of the Hessian is used to approximate the Newton step which is essential to accelerate the numerical solution of the optimization problem. The design space is discretized in the maximum dimension, i.e., the location of each point on the intersection of the computational mesh with the airfoil is taken to be an independent design variable. We give numerical examples for 86 design variables in two different flow speeds and achieve an order of magnitude reduction in the cost functional at a computational effort of a full solution of the analysis partial differential equation (PDE).

Arian, Eyal↗
DOE OSTI2020

Observations regarding inclusions in the growth of $\mathrm{Cs}$ 2 $\mathrm{HfCl}$ 6 single crystal scintillators

Cs 2 HfCl 6 (CHC) is a promising high density, high-Z, non-hygroscopic, and high energy resolution scintillator. In CHC, many crystals have CsCl inclusions that form during growth. In this paper, we investigate how material synthesis, growth rate, and thermal gradient affect the formation of CsCl inclusions and their effect on scintillation performance. First, precursor material was made through a methanol synthesis process both with and without hydrochlorination. Next, five crystals were grown using Bridgman method, at growth rates of 1 or 0.5 mm/h, and thermal gradients of 21 °C or 34 °C per millimeter. The best overall performance was observed in a 22 mm diameter crystal produced using hydrochlorination which was grown at 1 mm/h in a thermal gradient of 34 °C per millimeter. It had a light yield of 36,000 photons/MeV and an energy resolution of 4.0% at 662 keV. Finally, we have also shown that poorer scintillation performance in the lower quality crystals is most likely due to reduced light collection caused by a higher concentration of inclusions.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
NASA NTRS1989

Effect of temperature gradient on the optical quality of mercurous chloride crystals

Single crystals of mercurous chloride were grown at temperature gradients of 8, 11 and 17 K/cm by the physical vapor transport method. The optical quality of these crystals was evaluated by measuring bulk scattering and inhomogeneity of refractive index by birefringence interferometry. It was observed that a high temperature gradient at the solid-vapor interface induced thermal stresses and crystals showed higher scattering and irregular fringes.

Singh, N. B.↗
DOE OSTI2025

Double-Crucible Vertical Bridgman Technique for Stoichiometry-Controlled Chalcogenide Crystal Growth

Precise stoichiometry control in single-crystal growth is essential for both technological applications and fundamental research. However, conventional growth methods often face challenges such as non-stoichiometry, compositional gradients, and phase impurities, particularly in non-congruent melting systems. Even in congruent melting systems like Bi₂Se₃, deviations from the ideal stoichiometric composition can lead to significant property degradation, such as excessive bulk conductivity, which limits its topological applications. In this study, we introduce the double-crucible vertical Bridgman (DCVB) method, a novel approach that enhances stoichiometry control through the combined use of continuous source material feeding, traveling-solvent growth, and liquid encapsulation, which suppresses volatile element loss under high pressure. Using Bi₂Se₃ as a model system, we demonstrate that crystals grown via DCVB exhibit enhanced stoichiometric control, significantly reducing defect density and achieving much lower carrier concentrations compared to those produced by conventional Bridgman techniques. Moreover, the continuous feeding of source material enables the growth of large crystals. As a result, this approach presents a promising strategy for synthesizing high-quality, large-scale crystals, particularly for metal chalcogenides and pnictides that exhibit challenging non-congruent melting behaviors.

Crystal structure↗
NASA NTRS1996

Two-Flux Method for Transient Radiative Transfer in a Semitransparent Layer

The two-flux method was used to obtain transient solutions for a plane layer including internal reflections and scattering. The layer was initially at uniform temperature, and was heated or cooled by external radiation and convection. The two-flux equations were examined as a means for evaluating the radiative flux gradient in the transient energy equation. Comparisons of transient temperature distributions using the two-flux method were made with results where the radiative flux gradient was evaluated from the exact radiative transfer equations. Good agreement was obtained for optical thicknesses from 0.5 to 5 and for refractive indices of 1 and 2. Illustrative results obtained with the two-flux method demonstrate the effect of isotropic scattering coupled with changing the refractive index. For small absorption with large scattering the maximum layer temperature is increased when the refractive index is increased. For larger absorption the effect is opposite, and the maximum temperature decreases with increased refractive index .

Siegel, Robert↗
NASA NTRS2017

Horizon Detection for Mars Surface Operations

A new image processing method for automated horizon detection is presented in this paper. This method was developed for the Mars Exploration Rovers mission’s surface operations to aid in determining orbiter visibility periods for downlink data, and is now being considered for all Mars surface missions and for a variety of applications. Starting with images received from Mars rovers or landers, the horizon pixel location is found by (1) obtaining the gradient images using the Sobel operator, (2) calculating the preliminary horizon locations by optimizing the maximum difference between sky and ground regions in the gradient domain, and (3) applying a multi-variable thresholding method. The results are analyzed using a variety of images from the Mars rovers, as an example one dataset’s results were categorized as 94.2% Good, 4.11% Okay, and 1.65% Poor. The pixel location corresponding to the found horizon in an image is converted to azimuth and elevation values using the camera model. The elevation of the terrain surrounding the rover or lander directly affects the duration orbiters are visible for downlink data volume, and when the sun is visible for image quality or solar energy consumption. Having an automated process to detect the elevation of the terrain allows the operation team to better predict the outcome of the plan, reducing heath and safety risks and allowing new operational limits to be defined.

Oij, Stephanie Lynn↗
NASA NTRS2018

Front Delineation and Tracking with Multiple Underwater Vehicles

This work describes a method for detecting and tracking ocean fronts using multiple autonomous underwater vehicles. Multiple vehicles — equally-spaced along the expected frontal boundary — complete near parallel transects orthogonal to the front. Lateral gradients are used to determine the location of the front crossing from each individual vehicle transect by detecting a change in the observed water property. Adaptive control of the vehicles ensure they remain perpendicular to the estimated front boundary as it evolves over time. This method was demonstrated in and around Monterey Bay, California in May of 2017. We compare the front detection method to previously used methods. We introduce a metric in order to evaluate the adaptive control techniques presented. We show the capability of this method for repeated sampling across a dynamic two-dimensional ocean front using short-range Iver AUVs. This method extends to tracking gradients of different properties using a variety of vehicles.

Chavez, Francisco P.↗
NASA NTRS2018

Planning and Execution for Front Delineation and Tracking with Multiple Underwater Vehicles

This work describes a planning architecture for a heterogeneous fleet of marine assets as well as a method for detecting and tracking ocean fronts using multiple autonomous underwater vehicles. Multiple vehicles — equally-spaced along the expected frontal boundary — complete near parallel transects orthogonal to the front. Lateral gradients are used to determine the location of the front crossing from each individual vehicle transect by detecting a change in the observed water property. Adaptive control of the vehicles ensure they remain perpendicular to the estimated frontal boundary as it evolves over time. This method was demonstrated in several experiment periods totaling weeks, in and around Monterey Bay, California in May and June of 2017. We discuss the challenges associated with the implementation of the planning system. We show the capability of this method for repeated sampling across a dynamic two-dimensional ocean front using a fleet of three types of platforms: short-range Iver AUVs, Tethys-Class Long-Range AUVs, and Seagliders. This method extends to tracking gradients of different properties using a variety of vehicles.

Chavez, Francisco P.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Optical experiments on thermophoretically augmented submicron particle deposition from 'dusty' high temperature gas flows

A real-time laser reflectivity method and Pt ribbon targets are used to obtain experimental data on the initial deposition rate of MgO(s) particles of approximately 700 nm diameter from otherwise clean combustion products as a function of target temperature (about 950-1450 K) and mainstream gas temperature (about 1500-1600 K). These preliminary data are used to demonstrate the dominant role of thermophoresis (particle drift down a temperature gradient) and to assess the utility of recently developed theoretical methods for predicting and correlating the temperature dependence of thermophoretically augmented convective-diffusion 'dust' deposition rates from flowing hot gases.

Rosner, Daniel E.↗
NASA NTRS1952

A Theoretical and Experimental Investigation of the Influence of Temperature Gradients on the Deformation and Burst Speeds of Rotating Disks

The purposes of this investigation were to evaluate the influence of temperature gradients and to test the validity of a recently developed method of calculating plastic flow in disks by comparing the calculated results with experimental observations. Short-time spin tests on parallel-sided, 10-inch-diameter disks were conducted under conditions that subject the disks to a range of temperatures from 70 to 1440 F. The agreement between the theoretical and experimental results was good over the range of temperature conditions investigated. Temperature gradients produced little reduction in the burst speed of the disks which had a high ductility..

LOADS AND STRESSES, STRUCTURAL↗
DOE OSTI2024

Divide and conquer: Learning chaotic dynamical systems with multistep penalty neural ordinary differential equations

Forecasting high-dimensional dynamical systems is a fundamental challenge in various fields, such as geosciences and engineering. Neural Ordinary Differential Equations (NODEs), which combine the power of neural networks and numerical solvers, have emerged as a promising algorithm for forecasting complex nonlinear dynamical systems. However, classical techniques used for NODE training are ineffective for learning chaotic dynamical systems. In this work, we propose a novel NODE-training approach that allows for robust learning of chaotic dynamical systems. Here, our method addresses the challenges of non-convexity and exploding gradients associated with underlying chaotic dynamics. Training data trajectories from such systems are split into multiple, non-overlapping time windows. In addition to the deviation from the training data, the optimization loss term further penalizes the discontinuities of the predicted trajectory between the time windows. The window size is selected based on the fastest Lyapunov time scale of the system. Multi-step penalty(MP) method is first demonstrated on Lorenz equation, to illustrate how it improves the loss landscape and thereby accelerates the optimization convergence. MP method can optimize chaotic systems in a manner similar to least-squares shadowing with significantly lower computational costs. Our proposed algorithm, denoted the Multistep Penalty NODE, is applied to chaotic systems such as the Kuramoto-Sivashinsky equation, the two-dimensional Kolmogorov flow, and ERA5 reanalysis data for the atmosphere. It is observed that MP-NODE provide viable performance for such chaotic systems, not only for short-term trajectory predictions but also for invariant statistics that are hallmarks of the chaotic nature of these dynamics.

Chaotic dynamical systems↗
NASA NTRS1972

System identification computational considerations.

System identification methods may be accurately characterized as inverse computational problems. Three approaches to the computational problem are considered. Equation error methods are based on regression analysis techniques. Attention is given to the maximum conditional likelihood estimate and the maximum unconditional likelihood (Bayesian) estimate. Gradient dependent algorithms for solving the minimization problems are discussed, taking into account Gaussian methods, quadratic model methods, and the homogeneous function model method of Jacobson and Oksman. Some advanced methods are also examined.

Bowles, R. L.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Feedback control for unsteady flow and its application to the stochastic Burgers equation

The study applies mathematical methods of control theory to the problem of control of fluid flow with the long-range objective of developing effective methods for the control of turbulent flows. Model problems are employed through the formalism and language of control theory to present the procedure of how to cast the problem of controlling turbulence into a problem in optimal control theory. Methods of calculus of variations through the adjoint state and gradient algorithms are used to present a suboptimal control and feedback procedure for stationary and time-dependent problems. Two types of controls are investigated: distributed and boundary controls. Several cases of both controls are numerically simulated to investigate the performances of the control algorithm. Most cases considered show significant reductions of the costs to be minimized. The dependence of the control algorithm on the time-descretization method is discussed.

Choi, Haecheon↗
NASA NTRS1972

Pressure-gradient effects on hypersonic turbulent skin friction and boundary-layer profiles.

Local skin friction, total-temperature profiles, and pitot-pressure profiles were measured on the wall of a Mach-7.4 wind tunnel. The wall to adiabatic wall temperature ratio was varied from 0.3 to 0.5. Boundary-layer characteristics were compared with those predicted by a finite-difference method. Local skin friction was predicted to within 15%. Pressure-gradient effects on the temperature and Mach number distributions and the shape factor (displacement thickness/momentum thickness) were underpredicted, but the velocity distributions were closely predicted.

Hopkins, E. J.↗