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At least 145 records · Page 8
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1993

Low-Reynolds-number k-epsilon model for unsteady turbulent boundary-layer flows

An assessment of the near-wall and low-Reynolds-number functions used in low-Reynolds-number k-epsilon models suggests that they are not suitable for the near-wall region of unsteady turbulent boundary layers, where the flow is characterized by rapid changes in phase. An improved low-Reynolds-number k-epsilon model is developed in this paper. The near-wall and low-Reynolds-number functions in this model are formulated as functions of the local turbulent Reynolds numbers instead of the inner variable y(+). The present model also has the correct asymptotic behavior in the near-wall region. The turbulence model has been incorporated in an unsteady boundary-layer code and validated for unsteady turbulent boundary layers with and without adverse pressure gradients. The predictions agree well with the experimental data and the theoretical analysis. For the cases tested, the present model correctly predicts the unsteady near-wall flow and the unsteady shin friction at various frequencies.

Fan, Sixin↗
NASA NTRS1959

A Simple Method for Determining Heat Transfer, Skin Friction, and Boundary-Layer Thickness for Hypersonic Laminar Boundary-Layer Flows in a Pressure Gradient

A procedure based on the method of similar solutions is presented by which the skin friction, heat transfer, and boundary-layer thickness in a laminar hypersonic flow with pressure gradient may be rapidly evaluated if the pressure distribution is known. This solution, which at present is. restricted to power-law variations of pressure with surface distance, is presented for a wide range of exponents in the power law corresponding to both favorable and adverse pressure gradients. This theory has been compared to results from heat-transfer experiments on blunt-nose flat plates and a hemisphere cylinder at free-stream Mach numbers of 4 and 6.8. The flat-plate experiments included tests made at a Mach number of 6.8 over a range of angle of attack of +/- 10 deg. Reasonable agreement of the experimental and theoretical heat-transfer coefficients has been obtained as well as good correlation of the experimental results over the entire range of angle of attack studied. A similar comparison of theory with experiment was not feasible for boundary-layer-thickness data; however, the hypersonic similarity theory was found to account satisfactorily for the variation in boundary-layer thickness due to local pressure distribution for several sets of measurements.

Bertram, Mitchel H.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Three-dimensional boundary layer flow with streamwise adverse pressure gradient

The present study examines the effects of a strong adverse pressure gradient on a 3D turbulent boundary layer in an axisymmetric spinning cylinder geometry. Velocity measurements made with a three-component laser Doppler velocimeter include all three mean flow components, all six Reynolds stress components, and all ten triple-product correlations. Total Reynolds shear stress diminishes as the flow becomes 3D. Lower levels of shear stress were found to persist under adverse pressure gradient conditions. This low stress level was observed to roughly correlate with the magnitude of the crossflow. Variations in the pressure gradient do not alter this correlation. It is inferred that a 3D boundary layer is more prone to separate than a 2D boundary layer.

Driver, David M.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Finite-Difference Solution for Laminar or Turbulent Boundary Layer Flow over Axisymmetric Bodies with Ideal Gas, CF4, or Equilibrium Air Chemistry

A computer code was developed that uses an implicit finite-difference technique to solve nonsimilar, axisymmetric boundary layer equations for both laminar and turbulent flow. The code can treat ideal gases, air in chemical equilibrium, and carbon tetrafluoride (CF4), which is a useful gas for hypersonic blunt-body simulations. This is the only known boundary layer code that can treat CF4. Comparisons with experimental data have demonstrated that accurate solutions are obtained. The method should prove useful as an analysis tool for comparing calculations with wind tunnel experiments and for making calculations about flight vehicles where equilibrium air chemistry assumptions are valid.

Hamilton, H. Harris, II↗
NASA NTRS1996

Nonlinear Excitation of Inviscid Stationary Vortex in a Boundary-Layer Flow

We examine the excitation of inviscid stationary crossflow instabilities near an isolated surface hump (or indentation) underneath a three-dimensional boundary layer. As the hump height (or indentation depth) is increased from zero, the receptivity process becomes nonlinear even before the stability characteristics of the boundary layer are modified to a significant extent. This behavior contrasts sharply with earlier findings on the excitation of the lower branch Tollmien-Schlichting modes and is attributed to the inviscid nature of the crossflow modes, which leads to a decoupling between the regions of receptivity and stability. As a result of this decoupling, similarity transformations exist that allow the nonlinear receptivity of a general three-dimensional boundary layer to be studied with a set of canonical solutions to the viscous sublayer equations. The parametric study suggests that the receptivity is likely to become nonlinear even before the hump height becomes large enough for flow reversal to occur in the canonical solution. We also find that the receptivity to surface humps increases more rapidly as the hump height increases than is predicted by linear theory. On the other hand, receptivity near surface indentations is generally smaller in comparison with the linear approximation. Extension of the work to crossflow receptivity in compressible boundary layers and to Gortler vortex excitation is also discussed.

Choudhari, Meelan↗
NASA NTRS1984

A new turbulence closure model for boundary layer flows with strong adverse pressure gradients and separation

A new turbulence closure model designed specifically to treat two-dimensional, turbulent boundary layers with strong adverse pressure gradients and attendant separation, is presented. The influence of history effects are modeled by using an ordinary differential equation (ODE) derived from the turbulence kinetic-energy equation, to describe the streamwise development of the maximum Reynolds shear stress in conjunction with an assumed eddy-viscosity distribution which has as its velocity scale the maximum Reynolds shear stress. In the outer part of the boundary layer, the eddy viscosity is treated as a free parameter which is adjusted in order to satisfy the ODE for the maximum shear stress. Because of this, the model s not simply an eddy-viscosity model, but contains features of a Reynolds-stress model. Comparisons with experiments are presented which clearly show the proposed model to be superior to the Cebeci-Smith model in treating strongly retarded and separated flows. In contrast to two-equation, eddy-viscosity models, it requires only slightly more computational effort than simple models like the Cebeci-Smith model.

Johnson, D. A.↗
NASA NTRS1986

Modeling of transition and surface roughness effects in boundary-layer flows

Experiments were carried out to examine the influence of three-dimensional, stochastic roughness on the growth of incompressible turbulent boundary layers, as well as the effect of streamwise pressure gradients and freestream turbulence intensity on smooth-wall boundary-layer transition. The modeling of these effects in a two-dimensional boundary-layer computation program was examined with the help of the experiments. A model for surface roughness was developed that relates directly measurable statistical parameters quantifying the roughness geometry to the aerodynamic effects. This model should be valid for a limited class of surfaces found on turbomachinery blading and in other engineering applications. Commonly used criteria for the transition onset performed poorly and presumably need to be modified to account for other factors influencing the process.

Feiereisen, W. J.↗
NASA NTRS1975

Supersonic turbulent boundary-layer flows with mass injection through slots and/or porous walls

An implicit finite-difference method was used to solve the compressible boundary-layer equations, and to study the effects of mass transfer through porous plates, slots, and a combination of the two. The effects of the external pressure field were also included by using a global pressure interaction scheme. Two different eddy viscosity models were used for the slot and slot-porous combination cases: one was a two-layer model with inner and outer laws, and the other was a multi-layer model with as many as five separate layers. Results of the present method were compared with experimental data at a Mach number of 2.8. Comparisons of the skin friction reduction and Mach number profiles gave good to excellent agreement. Pressure interaction had little effect on the slot injection skin friction but increased the skin friction of the porous and slot-porous combination markedly.

Murray, A. L.↗
NASA NTRS1974

Turbulent measurements in supersonic boundary layer flows using laser velocimetry

Laser velocimetry has been applied successfully in the measurement of mean velocities and Reynolds stresses in a zero pressure gradient, Mach 2.9 boundary layer, and upstream and downstream of a two-dimensional, shock-wave boundary layer interaction for the same Mach number. The Reynolds stresses were obtained using a one-component, dual-scatter laser velocimeter operated in a manner analogous to the 'slanted hot-wire' technique. Signal processing was of the single-particle counting type which permitted measurements to be made using only the naturally occurring particles in the tunnel air stream for light scattering. The results for the shock-wave boundary layer interaction are presented along with hot-wire anemometer and pitot-static pressure measurements obtained in the same flow. Also, a data acquisition scheme for use with a two-component laser velocimeter is presented which should provide even better accuracies in future studies.

Johnson, D. A.↗
NASA NTRS1958

On Possible Similarity Solutions for Three-Dimensional Incompressible Laminar Boundary-Layer Flows Over Developable Surfaces and with Proportional Mainstream Velocity Components

Analysis is presented on the possible similarity solutions of the three-dimensional, laminar, incompressible, boundary-layer equations referred to orthogonal, curvilinear coordinate systems. Requirements of the existence of similarity solutions are obtained for the following: flow over developable surface and flow over non-developable surfaces with proportional mainstream velocity components.

Hansen, Arthur G.↗
NASA NTRS1995

Computation of three-dimensional mixed convective boundary layer flow

The paper presents the numerical solution of heat and mass transfer during cross-flow (orthogonal) mixed convection. In this class of flow, a buoyancy-driven transport in the vertical direction and a forced convective flow in the horizontal direction results in a three-dimensional boundary layer structure adjacent to the plate. The rates of heat and mass transfer are determined by a combined influence of the two transport processes. The equations for the conservation of mass, momentum, energy, and species concentration were solved along with appropriate boundary conditions to determine the distributions of velocity components, temperature, and concentration across the thickness of the boundary layer at different locations on the plate. Results were expressed in dimensionless form using Reynolds number, Richardson number for heat transfer, Richardson number for mass transfer, Prandtl number, and Schmidt number as parameters. It was found that the transport is dominated by buoyancy at smaller vertical locations and at larger distances away from the forced convection leading edge. Effects of forced convection appeared to be very strong at smaller horizontal distances from the leading edge. The cross stream forced convection enhanced the rate of heat and mass transfer by a very significant amount.

Gadepalli, Prashandt↗
NASA NTRS1972

Calculation of three-dimensional laminar boundary-layer flows.

Accuracy tests have been made of the approximation, proposed recently by Wang (1971), which reduces the computation of three-dimensional, laminar, compressible, boundary-layer equations to the problem of solving two-dimensional type boundary-layer equations. The tests were made by a comparison of the results achieved using Wang's method with a fully three-dimensional boundary-layer calculation. Results of the comparison are tabulated and are found to be in good agreement.

Fillo, J. A.↗
NASA NTRS1973

Flight-measured base pressure coefficients for thick boundary-layer flow over an aft-facing step for Mach numbers from 0.4 to 2.5

A 0.56-inch thick aft-facing step was located 52.1 feet from the leading edge of the left wing of an XB-70 airplane. A boundary-layer rake at a mirror location on the right wing was used to obtain local flow properties. Reynolds numbers were near 10 to the 8th power, resulting in a relatively thick boundary-layer. The momentum thickness ranged from slightly thinner to slightly thicker than the step height. Surface static pressures forward of the step were obtained for Mach numbers near 0.9, 1.5, 2.0, and 2.4. The data were compared with thin boundary-layer results from flight and wind-tunnel experiments and semiempirical relationships. Significant differences were found between the thick and the thin boundary-layer data.

Goecke, S. A.↗
NASA NTRS2012

Experimental Study of Boundary Layer Flow Control Using an Array of Ramp-Shaped Vortex Generators

The objective of this study was to obtain a database on the flowfield past an array of vortex generators (VGs) in a turbulent boundary layer. All testing was carried out in a low speed wind tunnel with a flow velocity of 29 ft/sec, giving a Reynolds number of 17,500 based on the width of the VG. The flowfield generated by an array of five ramp-shaped vortex generators was examined with hot wire anemometry and smoke flow visualization. The magnitude and extent of the velocity increase near the wall, the penetration of the velocity deficit into the core flow, and the peak streamwise vorticity are examined. Influence of various parameters on the effectiveness of the array is considered on the basis of the ability to pull high momentum fluid into the near wall region.

Hirt, Stefanie M.↗
NASA NTRS2023

Numerical Investigation of Film Coefficient Approximation for Chemically Reacting Boundary-Layer Flows

Aerothermal analysis of spacecraft planetary entry is heavily dependent on heritage engineering models. The film coefficient heat transfer model examined in this paper estimates the convective heating to the vehicle for a laminar, dissociated, chemically reacting boundary layer for an Earth atmosphere. This model requires information about the vehicle and flowfield for a given trajectory point and estimates a proportional relationship between enthalpy potential and convective heat flux. In practice it is the aerothermal engineer who must decide which assumptions are appropriate for his/her application. This work looks at numerous CFD simulations for an arbitrary, axisymmetric flight vehicle to analyze the relative importance of both the mass and energy constraints imposed at the wall boundary, as well as the effect of various diffusion models. Within the subset of tested energy boundary conditions, it is found that the most desirable energy boundary condition is the radiative equilibrium boundary condition, which permits conservative estimates of convective heat flux, but also generates flowfield-dependent spatial thermal distributions along the surface. Other key findings are presented in an effort to make the film coefficient engineering model readily available to design engineers across industry.

Film coefficient↗
NASA NTRS1994

Active Control of Instabilities in Laminar Boundary-Layer Flow: Use of Sensors and Spectral Controller - Part 2

This study focuses on the suppression of instability growth using an automated active-control technique. The evolution of 2D disturbances that are spatially growing in a flat-plate boundary layer are computed with a spatial DNS code. A controller receives wall sensor information (pressure or shear) as input and provides a signal that controls an actuator response as output. The control law assumes that wave cancellation is valid. The results indicate that a measure of wave cancellation can be obtained for small- and large-amplitude instabilities without feedback; however, feedback is required to optimize the control amplitude and phase for exact wave cancellation.

Joslin, Ronald D.↗