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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 109 records · Page 6
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1988

Three-dimensional trajectory analyses of two drop sizing instruments: PMS OAP and PMS FSSP

Flow induced distortions of water drop fluxes and speeds seen by the instruments were predicted by use of three dimensional flow and trajectory calculation methods. Sensitivities were determined for the instruments, in isolation and mounted under the wing of an airplane, to: water drop diameter (2 to 1000 microns), angle of attack and free stream air speed. For the optical array probe in isolation and on the airplane at 0 deg angle of attack, flux distortions of practical consequence are not found. At 4 deg airplane angle of attack, partial flow stagnation under the uptilted wing causes significant decreases in both flux and speed for cloud size droplets. For the forward scattering spectrometer probe in isolation, only marginally significant sensitivities to free stream air speed are found, and no sensitivity is found to angle of attack. Both speed and flux of cloud size droplets are predicted to be undermeasured by from 12 to 24 percent depending on airplane angle of attack. For the wing-mounted instruments, effects of flow about the instruments themselves are found to be equal in importance to effects of flow about the airplane. Preferred orientation (canting) angles of distorted water drops are found to be functions of drop size, angle of attack and air speed.

Norment, Hillyer G.↗
NASA NTRS1988

Three-dimensional trajectory analyses of two drop sizing instruments - PMS OAP and PMS FSSP

Flow induced distortions of water drop fluxes and speeds seen by the instruments were predicted by use of three dimensional flow and trajectory calculation methods. Sensitivities were determined for the instruments, in isolation and mounted under the wing of an airplane, to: water drop diameter (2 to 1000 microns), angle of attack and free stream air speed. For the optical array probe in isolation and on the airplane at 0 deg angle of attack, flux distortions of practical consequence are not found. At 4 deg airplane angle of attack, partial flow stagnation under the uptilted wing causes significant decreases in both flux and speed for cloud size droplets. For the forward scattering spectrometer probe in isolation, only marginally significant sensitivities to free stream air speed are found, and no sensitivity is found to angle of attack. Both speed and flux of cloud size droplets are predicted to be undermeasured by from 12 to 24 percent depending on airplane angle of attack. For the wing-mounted instruments, effects of flow about the instruments themselves are found to be equal in importance to effects of flow about the airplane. Preferred orientation (canting) angles of distorted water drops are found to be functions of drop size, angle of attack and air speed.

Norment, Hillyer G.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Performance optimization of helicopter rotor blades

As part of a center-wide activity at NASA Langley Research Center to develop multidisciplinary design procedures by accounting for discipline interactions, a performance design optimization procedure is developed. The procedure optimizes the aerodynamic performance of rotor blades by selecting the point of taper initiation, root chord, taper ratio, and maximum twist which minimize hover horsepower while not degrading forward flight performance. The procedure uses HOVT (a strip theory momentum analysis) to compute the horse power required for hover and the comprehensive helicopter analysis program CAMRAD to compute the horsepower required for forward flight and maneuver. The optimization algorithm consists of the general purpose optimization program CONMIN and approximate analyses. Sensitivity analyses consisting of derivatives of the objective function and constraints are carried out by forward finite differences. The procedure is applied to a test problem which is an analytical model of a wind tunnel model of a utility rotor blade.

Walsh, Joanne L.↗
NASA NTRS1998

Polarization Considerations

As light passes through a optical system the reflections and refractions will in general change the polarization state of the light. If we assume that all of the materials in the thin film coatings and substrate are isotropic and homogeneous then calculating the amount of "instrumental" polarization is a relatively straight forward task. In the following sections we will present a of the steps required to perform a 'polarization ray trace' calculation for a single ray and monochromatic and hence polarized light. The thin film portion of the calculation is also shown. The reason for explicitly showing the thin film equations is that there are sign conventions imposed on the boundary value equations by the orientation and handedness of the various coordinate frames which are attached to the geometric rays. The attenuation of light through a optical system, is relatively simple, and requires at the very least a lens (average) reflectivity or transmissivity. Determining the polarization sensitivity of a optical system is still relatively straight forward requiring at least a knowledge of the behavior of the "s" and "p" components at each interface for the chief ray. Determining the thin film induced aberrations of a optical system are somewhat more demanding. Questions about the arithmetic sign of the phase factors and how this relates to the overall "OPD" of a ray are ubiquitous. Many rays are required to construct a wavefront. Thin film codes which modify the OPD's of rays are a requirement for this last mentioned computation. This requires a consistent scheme of coordinate frames and sign conventions and is probably the most demanding task of a polarization ray trace. Only the electric field will used in the discussion. This is not a restriction as the Stokes parameters are functions of the electric field. The following does not attempt to explain, but only to present all of the required concepts and formulas.

Waluschka, Eugene↗
NASA NTRS2008

Experimental Measurement of RCS Jet Interaction Effects on a Capsule Entry Vehicle

An investigation was made in NASA Langley Research Center s 31-Inch Mach 10 Tunnel to determine the effects of reaction-control system (RCS) jet interactions on the aft-body of a capsule entry vehicle. The test focused on demonstrating and improving advanced measurement techniques that would aid in the rapid measurement and visualization of jet interaction effects for the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle while providing data useful for developing engineering models or validation of computational tools used to assess actual flight environments. Measurements included global surface imaging with pressure and temperature sensitive paints and three-dimensional flow visualization with a scanning planar laser induced fluorescence technique. The wind tunnel model was fabricated with interchangeable parts for two different aft-body configurations. The first, an Apollo-like configuration, was used to focus primarily on the forward facing roll and yaw jet interactions which are known to have significant aft-body heating augmentation. The second, an early Orion Crew Module configuration (4-cluster jets), was tested blowing only out of the most windward yaw jet, which was expected to have the maximum heating augmentation for that configuration. Jet chamber pressures and tunnel flow conditions were chosen to approximate early Apollo wind tunnel test conditions. Maximum heating augmentation values measured for the Apollo-like configuration (>10 for forward facing roll jet and 4 for yaw jet) using temperature sensitive paint were shown to be similar to earlier experimental results (Jones and Hunt, 1965) using a phase change paint technique, but were acquired with much higher surface resolution. Heating results for the windward yaw jet on the Orion configuration had similar augmentation levels, but affected much less surface area. Numerical modeling for the Apollo-like yaw jet configuration with laminar flow and uniform jet outflow conditions showed similar heating patterns, qualitatively, but also showed significant variation with jet exit divergence angle, with as much as 25 percent variation in heat flux intensity for a 10 degree divergence angle versus parallel outflow. These results along with the fabrication methods and advanced measurement techniques developed will be used in the next phase of testing and evaluation for the updated Orion RCS configuration.

Buck, Gregory M.↗
DOE OSTI2021

A Transported Livengood–Wu Integral Model for Knock Prediction in Computational Fluid Dynamics Simulation

This work describes the development of a transported Livengood–Wu (L–W) integral model for computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation to predict autoignition and engine knock tendency. The currently employed L–W integral model considers both single-stage and two-stage ignition processes, thus can be generally applied to different fuels such as paraffin, olefin, aromatics, and alcohol. The model implementation is first validated in simulations of homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) combustion for three different fuels, showing good accuracy in prediction of autoignition timing for fuels with either single-stage or two-stage ignition characteristics. Then, the L–W integral model is coupled with G-equation model to indicate end-gas autoignition and knock tendency in CFD simulations of a direct-injection spark-ignition engine. This modeling approach is about 10 times more efficient than the ones that based on detailed chemistry calculation and pressure oscillation analysis. Two fuels with same Research Octane Number (RON) but different octane sensitivity are studied, namely, Co-Optima alkylate and Co-Optima E30. Feed-forward neural network model in conjunction with multivariable minimization technique is used to generate fuel surrogates with targets of matched RON, octane sensitivity, and ethanol content. The CFD model is validated against experimental data in terms of pressure traces and heat release rate for both fuels under a wide range of operating conditions. The knock tendency—indicated by the fuel energy contained in the autoignited region—of the two fuels at different load conditions correlates well with the experimental results and the fuel octane sensitivity, implying the current knock modeling approach can capture the octane sensitivity effect and can be applied to further investigation on composition of octane sensitivity.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Searching for neutrino self-interactions at future muon colliders

Multi-TeV muon colliders offer a powerful means of accessing new physics coupled to muons while generating clean and intense high-energy neutrino beams via muon decays. We study a fixed-target experiment leveraging the neutrino beams and a forward detector pointing at the interaction point of the muon collider. The sensitivity to neutrino self-interactions is analyzed as a feasibility study, focusing on the leptonic scalar ϕ exclusively coupled to the Standard Model neutrinos. Our work shows that projections from both the main and forward detectors can enhance the existing limits by two orders of magnitude, surpassing other future experiments.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Early arrival waveform inversion using data uncertainties and matching filters with application to near-surface seismic refraction data

We develop an early arrival waveform inversion (EAWI) technique for high-resolution near-surface velocity estimation by iteratively updating the P-wave velocity model to minimize the difference between the observed and calculated seismic refraction data. Traditional EAWI uses a least-squares penalty function and an acoustic forward-modeling engine. Conventional least-squares error is sensitive to data with low signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) and iterations of EAWI stop at a local-minimum data misfit or at the preassigned maximum number of iterations. These stopping criteria can result in overfitting the data. In addition, fitting the elastic field data with an acoustic modeling engine can introduce artifacts in velocity estimation, especially in land data with significant elastic effects. To overcome these challenges, we develop a robust EAWI (REAWI) method by (1) incorporating the data uncertainties into the penalty function and (2) mitigating the elastic effects using a matching filter workflow. The data uncertainties are estimated from waveform reciprocal errors. When full-waveform reciprocity is not available, trace interpolation is applied. The proposed method prevents closely fitting data with low S/N, avoids overall overfitting by stopping the iterations when a normalized chi-square ([Formula: see text]) waveform misfit of one is achieved, and is less affected by elastic effects. Numerical examples and application to near-surface refraction data at a groundwater contamination site suggest that the final REAWI models are more accurate than the corresponding EAWI models, at the same level of misfit. This is the first known application of a matching filter workflow to real land data. The final REAWI models satisfy an appropriate misfit between the real data and predicted elastic P-wave data, making this approach in this respect equivalent to elastic waveform inversion. We also develop a method to analyze model constraint by examining the energy of the wavefield Fréchet derivative thereby avoiding the influence of the data residuals in traditional Fréchet kernels.

Geochemistry & Geophysics↗
NASA NTRS1981

A description of the UK Meteorological Office CCN counter

The chamber is a thermal gradient diffusion type with the upper plate at room temperature and the lower plate thermoelectrically cooled. The light from a 25W projector bulb is focused in a beam of approximations 1x3 mm in the central part of the chamber. The light scattered by drops is viewed in the forward direction (40 deg) by a microscope and a sensitive photodetector. Experiments were performed to relate the peak output from the photocell with the maximum number of drops in the beam recorded photographically. The microscope is used to check the calibration at low concentrations of CCN. The results of the experiments and the performance of the counter are reported.

Kitchen, M.↗
NASA NTRS2012

Assimilation of the Microwave Limb Sounder Radiances

It has been shown that the assimilation of limb-sounder data can significantly improve the representation of ozone in NASA's GEOS Data Assimilation Systems (GEOS-DAS), particularly in the stratosphere. The studies conducted so far utilized retrieved data from the MIPAS, POAM, ILAS and EOS Microwave Limb Sounder (EOS MLS) instruments. Direct assimilation of the radiance data can be seen as the natural next step to those studies. The motivation behind working with radiances is twofold. First, retrieval algorithms use a priori data which are either climatological or are obtained from previous analyses. This introduces additional uncertainty and, in some cases, may lead to "self-contamination"- when the a priori is taken from the same assimilation system in which subsequently ingests the retrieved observations. Second, radiances can be available in near real time thus providing an opportunity for operational assimilation, which could help improve the use of infrared radiance instruments from operational satellite instruments. In this presentation we summarize our ongoing work on an implementation of the assimilation of EOS MLS radiances into the GEOS-5 DAS. This work focuses on assimilation of band 7 brightness temperatures which are sensitive to ozone. Our implementation uses the MLS Callable Forward Model developed by the MLS team at NASA JPL as the observation operator. We will describe our approach and recent results which are not yet final. In particular, we will demonstrate that this approach has a potential to improve the vertical structure of ozone in the lower tropical stratosphere as compared with the retrieved MLS product. We will discuss the computational efficiency of this implementation.

Wargan, K.↗
NASA NTRS1988

Active control of helicopter air resonance in hover and forward flight

A coupled rotor/fuselage helicopter analysis is presented. The accuracy of the model is illustrated by comparing it with experimental data. The sensitivity of the open loop damping of the unstable resonance mode to such modeling effects as blade torsional flexibility, unsteady aerodynamics, forward flight, periodic terms, and trim solution is illustrated by numerous examples. Subsequently, the model is used in conjunction with linear optimal control theory to stabilize the air resonance mode. The influence of the modeling effects mentioned before on active resonance control is then investigated.

Takahashi, M. D.↗
DOE OSTI2020

A transported Livengood-Wu integral model for knock prediction in CFD simulation

This work describes the development of a transported Livengood-Wu (L-W) integral model for computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation to predict auto-ignition and engine knock tendency. The currently employed L-W integral model considers both single-stage and two-stage ignition processes, thus can be generally applied to different fuels such as paraffin, olefin, aromatics and alcohol. The model implementation is first validated in simulations of homogeneous charge compression ignition combustion for three different fuels, showing good accuracy in prediction of auto-ignition timing for fuels with either single-stage or two-stage ignition characteristics. Then, the L-W integral model is coupled with G-equation model to indicate end-gas auto-ignition and knock tendency in CFD simulations of a direct injection spark ignition engine. This modeling approach is about 10 times more efficient than the ones that based on detailed chemistry calculation and pressure oscillation analysis. Two fuels with same Research Octane Number (RON) but different octane sensitivity are studied, namely Co-Optima Alkylate and Co-Optima E30. Feed-forward neural network model in conjunction with multi-variable minimization technique is used to generate fuel surrogates with targets of matched RON, octane sensitivity and ethanol content. The CFD model is validated against experimental data in terms of pressure traces and heat release rate for both fuels under a wide range of operating conditions. The knock tendency indicated by the fuel energy contained in the auto-ignited region of the two fuels at different load conditions correlates well with the experimental results and the fuel octane sensitivity, implying the current knock modeling approach can capture the octane sensitivity effect and can be applied to further investigation on composition of octane sensitivity.

Yue, Zongyu↗
NASA NTRS1998

Influence of Subpixel Scale Cloud Top Structure on Reflectances from Overcast Stratiform Cloud Layers

Recent observational studies have shown that satellite retrievals of cloud optical depth based on plane-parallel model theory suffer from systematic biases that depend on viewing geometry, even when observations are restricted to overcast marine stratus layers, arguably the closest to plane parallel in nature. At moderate to low sun elevations, the plane-parallel model significantly overestimates the reflectance dependence on view angle in the forward-scattering direction but shows a similar dependence in the backscattering direction. Theoretical simulations are performed that show that the likely cause for this discrepancy is because the plane-parallel model assumption does not account for subpixel, scale variations in cloud-top height (i.e., "cloud bumps"). Monte Carlo simulation, comparing ID model radiances to radiances from overcast cloud field with 1) cloud-top height variation, but constant cloud volume extinction; 2) flat tops but horizontal variations in cloud volume extinction; and 3) variations in both cloud top height and cloud extinction are performed over a approximately equal to 4 km x 4 km domain (roughly the size of an individual GAC AVHRR pixel). The comparisons show that when cloud-top height variations are included, departures from 1D theory are remarkably similar (qualitatively) to those obtained observationally. In contrast, when clouds are assumed flat and only cloud extinction is variable, reflectance differences are much smaller and do not show any view-angle dependence. When both cloud-top height and cloud extinction variations are included, however, large increases in cloud extinction variability can enhance reflectance difference. The reason 3D-1D reflectance differences are more sensitive to cloud-top height variations in the forward-scattering direction (at moderate to low, sun elevations) is because photons leaving the cloud field in that direction experience fewer scattering events (low-order scattering) and are restricted to the topmost portions of the cloud. While reflectance deviations from 1D theory are much larger for bumpy clouds than for flat clouds with variable cloud extinction, differences in cloud albedo are comparable for these two cases.

Loeb, N. G.↗
NASA NTRS1988

A model for active control of helicopter air resonance in hover and forward flight

A coupled rotor/fuselage helicopter analysis is presented. The accuracy of the model is verified by comparing it with the experimental data. The sensitivity of the open loop damping of the unstable air resonance mode to such modeling effects as blade torsional flexibility, unsteady aerodynamics, forward flight, periodic terms, and trim solution is illustrated by numerous examples. Subsequently, the model is used in conjunction with linear optimal control theory to stabilize the air resonance mode. The influence of the modeling effects mentioned before on active air resonance control is then investigated.

Takahashi, M. D.↗
NASA NTRS1976

Aeroelastic stability and control of an oblique wing

Dynamic model tests were staged to compare the aeroelastic stability of a free-flying oblique-winged aircraft and the known divergent instability characterizing swept-forward wing configurations, to test the effect of wing elasticity on aileron control and trim. The aircraft fuselage was clamped in some tests and left free to roll in others. Two rigid wing panels were hinged near the wing center with elastic restraining springs. It is found that the aeroelastic divergence affecting swept-forward wings does not occur with an oblique wing, whose aeroelastic instability sets in at a dynamic pressure exceeding that for static divergence of swept-forward wings, and appears in the form of undamped oscillations. Oblique wing stability is sensitive to the moment of inertia of the fuselage in roll. Roll control and lateral trim are attainable with conventional ailerons, even at speeds at which divergence of a clamped forward wing shows up.

Jones, R. T.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Aerodynamic canard/wing parametric analysis for general aviation applications

Vortex panel and vortex lattice methods have been utilized in an analytic study to determine the two- and three-dimensional aerodynamic behavior of canard and wing configurations. The purpose was to generate data useful for the design of general aviation canard aircraft. Essentially no two-dimensional coupling was encountered and the vertical distance between the lifting surfaces was found to be the main contributor to interference effects of the three-dimensional analysis. All canard configurations were less efficient than a forward wing with an aft horizontal tail, but were less sensitive to off-optimum division of total lift between the two surfaces, such that trim drag could be less for canard configurations. For designing a general aviation canard aircraft, results point toward large horizontal and vertical distance between the canard and wing, a large wing-to-canard area ratio, and with the canard at a low incidence angle relative to the wing.

Keith, M. W.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Calculation of real-gas effects on airfoil aerodynamic characteristics

The effects of high temperature thermochemical phenomena on the aerodynamic characteristics at hypersonic speeds are calculated for two-dimensional airfoils in air. The calculations are performed on an airfoil similar to that used for the Space Shuttle Orbiter, and ellipses of thickness ratios varying between 5 and 15 percent. For the airfoil, one flight condition is considered. For the ellipses, the calculations are carried out over a range of chord lengths, flight velocities, flight altitudes, and angles of attack. It is shown that the lift and drag coefficients are consistently reduced by the thermochemical phenomena, and that the behavior can be represented by a specific heat ratio value less than 1.4. The center of pressure shifts forward due to the thermochemical phenomena, but its extent is sensitively affected by the geometry and angle of attack and cannot be represented by a fixed specific heat ratio. The calculated results are in qualitative agreement with the data obtained during the entry flights of the Space Shuttle vehicle.

Park, Chul↗