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NASA NTRS2001

DSMC Computations for Regions of Shock/Shock and Shock/Boundary Layer Interaction

This paper presents the results of a numerical study of hypersonic interacting flows at flow conditions that include those for which experiments have been conducted in the Calspan-University of Buffalo Research Center (CUBRC) Large Energy National Shock (LENS) tunnel and the ONERA R5Ch low-density wind tunnel. The computations are made with the direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method of Bird. The focus is on Mach 9.3 to 11.4 flows about flared axisymmetric configurations, both hollow cylinder flares and double cones. The results presented highlight the sensitivity of the calculations to grid resolution, provide results concerning the conditions for incipient separation, and provide information concerning the flow structure and surface results for the extent of separation, heating, pressure, and skin friction.

Moss, James N.↗

NASA NTRS2008

Calculations of High-Temperature Jet Flow Using Hybrid Reynolds-Average Navier-Stokes Formulations

Two multiscale-type turbulence models are implemented in the PAB3D solver. The models are based on modifying the Reynolds-averaged Navier Stokes equations. The first scheme is a hybrid Reynolds-averaged- Navier Stokes/large-eddy-simulation model using the two-equation k(epsilon) model with a Reynolds-averaged-Navier Stokes/large-eddy-simulation transition function dependent on grid spacing and the computed turbulence length scale. The second scheme is a modified version of the partially averaged Navier Stokes model in which the unresolved kinetic energy parameter f(sub k) is allowed to vary as a function of grid spacing and the turbulence length scale. This parameter is estimated based on a novel two-stage procedure to efficiently estimate the level of scale resolution possible for a given flow on a given grid for partially averaged Navier Stokes. It has been found that the prescribed scale resolution can play a major role in obtaining accurate flow solutions. The parameter f(sub k) varies between zero and one and is equal to one in the viscous sublayer and when the Reynolds-averaged Navier Stokes turbulent viscosity becomes smaller than the large-eddy-simulation viscosity. The formulation, usage methodology, and validation examples are presented to demonstrate the enhancement of PAB3D's time-accurate turbulence modeling capabilities. The accurate simulations of flow and turbulent quantities will provide a valuable tool for accurate jet noise predictions. Solutions from these models are compared with Reynolds-averaged Navier Stokes results and experimental data for high-temperature jet flows. The current results show promise for the capability of hybrid Reynolds-averaged Navier Stokes and large eddy simulation and partially averaged Navier Stokes in simulating such flow phenomena.

Abdol-Hamid, Khaled S.↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

New Capabilities and Improvements to the High-Order Glenn Flux Reconstruction Code

The Glenn Flux Reconstruction (GFR) code is a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code under development at NASA Glenn Research Center. GFR is based on the high-order flux reconstruction (FR) method and provides a large-eddy simulation (LES) capability that is both accurate and efficient for complex aeropropulsion flows. Three significant new capabilities have been added to the code that improve its performance and functionality. First, a variety of explicit Runge-Kutta methods, including some with adaptive time stepping, were added to GFR with two methods offering a 33% improvement in time-to-solution. Second, GFR can now utilize fully unstructured, mixed-element meshes to more easily facilitate the grid generation process for complex geometries. Finally, a rotating reference frame capability has been added to GFR for solving rotating turbomachinery problems. A selection of results demonstrating these new capabilities are presented in this work. The Taylor-Green vortex problem is used to verify the new unstructured capability by showing similar accuracy and resolution for all element types. LES of the Turbulent Heat Flux Phase III (THX3) experiment with comparison to another high-order LES code and a popular Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) code demonstrates the accuracy of the code for complex aeropropulsion flows. Finally, LES of a spacecraft cabin ventilation fan shows the ability of GFR to efficiently establish a fan performance map and identify operating points for further analysis at high orders of accuracy.

High-Order Methods↗

NASA NTRS1974

Vibration and stress analysis of soft-bonded shuttle insulation tiles. Modal analysis with compact widely space stringers

An efficient iterative procedure is described for the vibration and modal stress analysis of reusable surface insulation (RSI) of multi-tiled space shuttle panels. The method, which is quite general, is rapidly convergent and highly useful for this application. A user-oriented computer program based upon this procedure and titled RESIST (REusable Surface Insulation Stresses) has been prepared for the analysis of compact, widely spaced, stringer-stiffened panels. RESIST, which uses finite element methods, obtains three dimensional tile stresses in the isolator, arrestor (if any) and RSI materials. Two dimensional stresses are obtained in the tile coating and the stringer-stiffened primary structure plate. A special feature of the program is that all the usual detailed finite element grid data is generated internally from a minimum of input data. The program can accommodate tile idealizations with up to 850 nodes (2550 degrees-of-freedom) and primary structure idealizations with a maximum of 10,000 degrees-of-freedom. The primary structure vibration capability is achieved through the development of a new rapid eigenvalue program named ALARM (Automatic LArge Reduction of Matrices to tridiagonal form).

Ojalvo, I. U.↗

NASA NTRS1985

Planetary Waves

The mean temperature field at various pressure levels for January and July for both hemispheres are given. In summer (July in the Northern Hemisphere, January in the Southern Hemisphere) the fields are nearly zonally symmetric, but in winter large longitudinal variations are evident. These are mainly of low wave number, i.e., they may be represented by Fourier analysis around the globe using just a few (one or two) waves. This is the basis for representing the climatology of longitudinal variation in terms of wave components, since the fields may be defined with fewer values than by using a grid in longitude that has a sufficiently small interval to adequately represent the smooth variations. The amplitude and phase of temperature and geopotential height for wave numbers one and two, with In(pressure) as the vertical coordinate are given. The fields were calculated and plotted at pressure intervals of 0.2 in In(pressure) and at latitude intervals of 4 deg, but were interpolated to intervals of 0.5 in In(pressure) (approximately 3.5 km) and 10 deg latitude for tabulation. Tables and figures give wave coefficients for the monthly mean temperature fields. Thus they represent the quasi-statinary planetary waves.

Barnett, J. J.↗

NASA NTRS1986

Motion and interaction of decaying trailing vortices in spanwise shear wind

A simulation is presented of the drift of trailing vortices in a cross-wind near the ground by an unsteady, two-dimensional, rotational flow field with a concentration of large vorticity in vortical spots (having a finite but small effective size and finite total strength). The problem is analyzed by a combination of the method of matched asymptotic analyses for the decay of the vortical spots and the Euler solution for the unsteady rotational flow. Using the method of averaging, a special numerical method is developed in which the grid size and time step depend only on the length and velocity scales of the background flow and are independent of the effective core size of a vortical spot. The core size can be much smaller than the grid size, whereas the peak velocity in the core is inversely propertional to the spot size. Numerical results are presented to demonstrate the strong interaction between the trajectories of the vortical spots and the change of the vorticity distribution in the background flow field.

Liu, C. H.↗

NASA NTRS1987

Plasma simulation using the massively parallel processor

Two dimensional electrostatic simulation codes using the particle-in-cell model are developed on the Massively Parallel Processor (MPP). The conventional plasma simulation procedure that computes electric fields at particle positions by means of a gridded system is found inefficient on the MPP. The MPP simulation code is thus based on the gridless system in which particles are assigned to processing elements and electric fields are computed directly via Discrete Fourier Transform. Currently, the gridless model on the MPP in two dimensions is about nine times slower that the gridded system on the CRAY X-MP without considering I/O time. However, the gridless system on the MPP can be improved by incorporating a faster I/O between the staging memory and Array Unit and a more efficient procedure for taking floating point sums over processing elements. The initial results suggest that the parallel processors have the potential for performing large scale plasma simulations.

Lin, C. S.↗

NASA NTRS1992

Flowfield predictions for multiple body launch vehicles

A method is developed for simulating inviscid and viscous flow around multicomponent launch vehicles. Grids are generated by the GENIE general-purpose grid-generation code, and the flow solver is a finite-volume Runge-Kutta time-stepping method. Turbulence effects are simulated using Baldwin and Lomax (1978) turbulence model. Calculations are presented for three multibody launch vehicle configurations: one with two small-diameter solid motors, one with nine small-diameter solid motors, and one with three large-diameter solid motors.

Deese, Jerry E.↗

NASA NTRS1992

Three-dimensional Navier-Stokes heat transfer predictions for turbine blade rows

Results are shown for a three-dimensional Navier-Stokes analysis of both the flow and the surface heat transfer for turbine applications. Heat transfer comparisons are made with the experimental shock-tunnel data of Dunn and Kim, and with the data of Blair for the rotor of the large scale rotating turbine. The analysis was done using the steady-state, three-dimensional, thin-layer Navier-Stokes code developed by Chima, which uses a multistage Runge-Kutta scheme with implicit residual smoothing. An algebraic mixing length turbulence model is used to calculate turbulent eddy viscosity. The variation in heat transfer due to variations in grid parameters is examined. The effects of rotation, tip clearance, and inlet boundary layer thickness variation on the predicted blade and endwall heat transfer are examined.

Boyle, R. J.↗

NASA NTRS1992

Three-dimensional Navier-Stokes heat transfer predictions for turbine blade rows

Boyle, Robert J.↗

NASA NTRS1988

A stereo triangulation system for structural identification: Analytical and experimental results

Identification of large space structures' distributed mass, stiffness, and energy dissipation characteristics poses formidable analytical, numerical, and implementation difficulties. Development of reliable on-orbit structural identification methods is important for implementing active vibration suppression concepts which are under widespread study in the large space structures community. Near the heart of the identification problem lies the necessity of making a large number of spatially distributed measurements of the structure's vibratory response and the associated force/moment inputs with sufficient spatial and frequency resolution. In the present paper, we discuss a method whereby tens of active or passive (retro-reflecting) targets on the structure are tracked simultaneously by the focal planes of two or more video cameras mounted on an adjacent platform. Triangulation (optical ray intersection) of the conjugate image centroids yield inertial trajectories of each target on the structure. Given the triangulated motion of the targets, we apply and extend methodology developed by Creamer, Junkins, and Juang to identify the frequencies, mode shapes, and updated estimates for the mass/stiffness/damping parameterization of the structure. The methodology is semi-automated, for example, the post experiment analysis of the video imagery to determine the inertial trajectories of the targets typically requires less than thirty minutes of real time. Using methodology discussed herein, the frequency response of a large number of points on the structure (where reflective targets are mounted) on the structure can be determined from optical measurements alone. For comparison purposes, we also utilize measurements from accelerometers and a calibrated impulse hammer. While our experimental work remains in a research stage of development, we have successfully tracked and stereo triangulated 20 targets (on a vibrating cantilevered grid structure) at a sample frequency of 200 HZ, and have established conclusively the feasibility and desirability of this approach. We discuss, in summary, recent advances in analog and digital video processing methodology, actuation methods, and bring them to bear on the structural identification problem. We include a brief discussion of our experimental hardware and some recent experimental results which support the practical feasibility of this structural vibration sensing approach.

Junkins, J. L.↗

NASA NTRS1998

Three-Dimensional Hydrodynamic Simulations of the Postimpact Proto-Earth

Astrophysical fluid configurations are susceptible to a variety of nonaxisymmetric instabilities under the combined effects of rotation, self-gravity, and thermal pressure. When strong enough, they can induce rapid transport of mass and angular momentum. Our own previous studies of nonaxisymmetric instabilities in model protostars and protostellar disks show that significant transport can occur on orbital timescales and that material can be ejected to large distances. In this contribution, we present three-dimensional simulations of the circumterrestrial debris belt that may have resulted from a giant impact. Our three-dimensional hydrodynamics code with self-gravity and artificial viscosity is fully second-order in space and time; the equations of hydrodynamics and the Poisson equation are solved on an Eulerian cylindrical grid. In the preliminary calculations presented here, we use a simplified EOS where the central proto-Earth is treated as an n = 1/2 polytropic fluid, surrounded by a more compressible, rapidly rotating, fluid disk that represents silicate vapor. Our initial disk parameters are generated from the endstate data of recent smoothed particle hydrodynamics giant-impact calculations. Ultimately, we wish to detennine under what conditions nonaxisymmetric instabilities grow in the postimpact disk and whether they facilitate the transport of material outside the proto-Earth's Roche Limit, leading to the formation of the Moon. In future work, we hope to include a more realistic EOS and the consequences of heating, cooling, and phase transitions.

Pickett, B. K.↗

NASA NTRS1995

Managing Complexity in Multidisciplinary Visualization

As high performance computing technology progresses, computational simulations are becoming more advanced in their capabilities. In the computational aerosciences domain, single discipline steady-state simulations computed on a single grid are far from the state-of-the-art. In their place are complex, time-dependent multidisciplinary simulations that attempt to model a given geometry more realistically. The product of these multidisciplinary simulations is a massive amount of data stored in different formats, grid topologies, units of measure, etc., as a result of the differences in the simulated physical domains. In addition to the challenges posed by setting up and performing the simulation, additional challenges exist in analyzing computational results. Visualization plays an important role in the advancement of multidisciplinary simulations. To date, visualization has been used to aid in the interpretation of large amounts of simulation data. Because the human visual system is effective in digesting a large amount of information presented graphically, visualization has helped simulation scientists to understand complex simulation results. As these simulations become even more complex, integrating several different physical domains, visualization will be critical to digest the massive amount of information. Another important role for visualization is to provide a common communication medium from which the domain scientists can use to develop, debug, and analyze their work. Multidisciplinary analyses are the next step in simulation technology, not only in computational aerosciences, but in many other areas such as global climate modeling. Visualization researchers must understand and work towards the challenges posed by multidisciplinary simulation scenarios. This paper addresses some of these challenges, describing technologies that must be investigated to create a useful visualization analysis tool for domain scientists.

Miceli, Kristina D.↗

NASA NTRS2011

Impact of Lightning-NO Emissions on Summertime U.S. Photochemistry as Determined Using the CMAQ Model with NLDN-Constrained Flash Rates

Lightning-NO emissions are responsible for 15-30 ppbv enhancements in upper tropospheric ozone over the eastern United States during the summer time. Enhancements vary from year to year but were particularly large during the summer of 2006, a period during which meteorological conditions were particularly conducive to ozone formation. A lightning-NO parameterization has been developed that can be used with the CMAQ model. Lightning-NO emissions in this scheme are assumed to be proportional to convective precipitation rate and scaled so that monthly average flash rates in each grid box match National Lightning Detection Network (NLDN) observed flash rates after adjusting for climatological intracloud to cloud-to-ground (IC/CG) ratios. The contribution of lightning-NO emissions to eastern United States NOx and ozone distributions during the summer of 2006 will be evaluated by comparing results of 12- km CMAQ simulations with and without lightning-NO emissions to measurements from the IONS field campaign and to satellite retrievals from the Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer (TES) and the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) aboard the Aura satellite. Special attention will be paid to the impact of the assumed vertical distribution of emissions on upper tropospheric NOx and ozone amounts.

Allen, Dale↗

NASA NTRS2019

Global Cloud-Resolving Models

Global cloud-resolving models (GCRMs) are a new category of atmospheric global models designed to solve different flavors of the nonhydrostatic equations through the use of kilometer-scale global meshes. GCRMs make it possible to explicitly simulate deep convection, thereby avoiding the need for cumulus parameterization and allowing for clouds to be “resolved” by microphysical models responding to grid-scale forcing. GCRMs require high-resolution discretization over the globe, for which a variety of mesh structures have been proposed and employed. The first GCRM was constructed 15 years ago, and in recent years, other groups have also begun adopting this approach, enabling the first intercomparison studies of such models. Because conventional general circulation models (GCMs) suffer from large biases associated with cumulus parameterization, GCRMs are attractive tools for researchers studying global weather and climate. In this review, GCRMs are described, with some emphasis on their historical development and the associated literature documenting their use. The advantages of GCRMs are presented, and currently existing GCRMs are listed and described. Future prospects for GCRMs are also presented in the final section.

Satoh, Masaki↗

NASA NTRS2002

Measurements of Turbulence Attenuation by a Dilute Dispersion of Solid Particles in Homogeneous Isotropic Turbulence

This research addresses turbulent gas flows laden with fine solid particles at sufficiently large mass loading that strong two-way coupling occurs. By two-way coupling we mean that the particle motion is governed largely by the flow, while the particles affect the gas-phase mean flow and the turbulence properties. Our main interest is in understanding how the particles affect the turbulence. Computational techniques have been developed which can accurately predict flows carrying particles that are much smaller than the smallest scales of turbulence. Also, advanced computational techniques and burgeoning computer resources make it feasible to fully resolve very large particles moving through turbulent flows. However, flows with particle diameters of the same order as the Kolmogorov scale of the turbulence are notoriously difficult to predict. Some simple flows show strong turbulence attenuation with reductions in the turbulent kinetic energy by up to a factor of five. On the other hand, some seemingly similar flows show almost no modification. No model has been proposed that allows prediction of when the strong attenuation will occur. Unfortunately, many technological and natural two-phase flows fall into this regime, so there is a strong need for new physical understanding and modeling capability. Our objective is to study the simplest possible turbulent particle-laden flow, namely homogeneous, isotropic turbulence with a uniform dispersion of monodisperse particles. We chose such a simple flow for two reasons. First, the simplicity allows us to probe the interaction in more detail and offers analytical simplicity in interpreting the results. Secondly, this flow can be addressed by numerical simulation, and many research groups are already working on calculating the flow. Our detailed data can help guide some of these efforts. By using microgravity, we can further simplify the flow to the case of no mean velocity for either the turbulence or the particles. In fact the addition of gravity as a variable parameter may help us to better understand the physics of turbulence attenuation. The experiments are conducted in a turbulence chamber capable of producing stationary or decaying isotropic turbulence with nearly zero mean flow and Taylor microscale Reynolds numbers up to nearly 500. The chamber is a 410 mm cubic box with the corners cut off to make it approximately spherical. Synthetic jet turbulence generators are mounted in each of the eight corners of the box. Each generator consists of a loudspeaker forcing a plenum and producing a pulsed jet through a 20 mm diameter orifice. These synthetic jets are directed into ejector tubes pointing towards the chamber center. The ejector tubes increase the jet mass flow and decrease the velocity. The jets then pass through a turbulence grid. Each of the eight loudspeakers is forced with a random phase and frequency. The resulting turbulence is highly Isotropic and matches typical behavior of grid turbulence. Measurements of both phases are acquired using particle image velocimetry (PIV). The gas is seeded with approximately 1 micron diameter seeding particles while the solid phase is typically 150 micron diameter spherical glass particles. A double-pulsed YAG laser and a Kodak ES-1.0 10-bit PIV camera provide the PIV images. Custom software is used to separate the images into individual images containing either gas-phase tracers or large particles. Modern high-resolution PIV algorithms are then used to calculate the velocity field. A large set of image pairs are acquired for each case, then the results are averaged both spatially and over the ensemble of acquired images. The entire apparatus is mounted in two racks which are carried aboard NASA's KC-135 Flying Microgravity Laboratory. The rack containing the turbulence chamber, the laser head, and the camera floats freely in the airplane cabin (constrained by competent NASA personnel) to minimize g-jitter.

Eaton, John↗

NASA NTRS1982

Investigation of the effects of external current systems on the MAGSAT data utilizing grid cell modeling techniques

Efforts in support of the development of a model of the magnetic fields due to ionospheric and magnetospheric electrical currents are discussed. Specifically, progress made in reading MAGSAT tapes and plotting the deviation of the measured magnetic field components with respect to a spherical harmonic model of the main geomagnetic field is reported. Initial tests of the modeling procedure developed to compute the ionosphere/magnetosphere-induced fields at satellite orbit are also described. The modeling technique utilizes a liner current element representation of the large scale current system.

Klumpar, D. M.↗

NASA NTRS1977

Continuum models for static and dynamic analysis of repetitive lattices

A simple, rational approach is presented for developing continuum models for large repetitive lattice structures subjected to static and dynamic loadings. The procedure involves introducing kinematic assumptions to reduce the dimensionality of the lattice, and equating the strain and kinetic energies of the continuum model to those of the original lattice structure. The proposed procedure is applied to obtain effective elastic and dynamic characteristics of continuum plate models for double-layered grids. Numerical results are presented of stress and free vibration problems for two double-layered grids. These problems demonstrate the high accuracy of the continuum plate models developed. Also, an assessment is made of different approximations to these models.

Noor, A. K.↗