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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 145 records · Page 8
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1982

Laminar flow transition: A large-eddy simulation approach

A vectorized, semi-implicit code was developed for the solution of the time-dependent, three dimensional equations of motion in plane Poiseuille flow by the large-eddy simulation technique. The code is tested by comparing results with those obtained from the solutions of the Orr-Sommerfeld equation. Comparisons indicate that finite-differences employed along the cross-stream direction act as an implicit filter. This removes the necessity of explicit filtering along this direction (where a nonhomogeneous mesh is used) for the simulation of laminar flow transition into turbulence in which small scale turbulence will be accounted for by a subgrid scale turbulence model.

Biringen, S.↗
NASA NTRS1981

The promise of remote sensing in the atmospheric sciences

The applications and advances in remote sensing technology for weather prediction, mesoscale meteorology, severe storms, and climate studies are discussed. Doppler radar permits tracking of the three-dimensional field of motion within storms, thereby increasing the accuracy of convective storm modeling. Single Doppler units are also employed for detecting mesoscale storm vortices and tornado vortex signatures with lead times of 30 min. Clear air radar in pulsed and high resolution FM-CW forms reveals boundary layer convection, Kelvin-Helmoltz waves, shear layer turbulence, and wave motions. Lidar is successfully employed for stratospheric aerosol measurements, while Doppler lidar provides data on winds from the ground and can be based in space. Sodar is useful for determining the structure of the PBL. Details and techniques of satellite-based remote sensing are presented, and results from the GWE and FGGE experiments are discussed.

Atlas, D.↗
NASA NTRS1989

The formation of topological defects in phase transitions

It was argued, and fought through numerical work that the results of non-dynamical Monte Carlo computer simulations cannot be applied to describe the formation of topological defects when the correlation length at the Ginzburg temperature is significantly smaller than the horizon size. To test the current hypothesis that infinite strings at formation are essentially described by Brownian walks of size the correlation length at the Ginzburg temperature, fields at the Ginzburg temperature were equilibrated. Infinite structure do not exist in equilibrium for reasonable definitions of the Ginzburg temperature, and horizons must be included in a proper treatment. A phase transition, from small-scale to large-scale string or domain wall structure, is found to occur very close to the Ginzburg temperature, in agreement with recent work. The formation process of domain walls and global strings were investigated through the breaking of initially ordered states. To mimic conditions in the early Universe, cooling times are chosen so that horizons exist in the sample volume when topological structure formation occurs. The classical fields are evolved in real-time by the numerical solution of Langevin equations of motion on a three dimensional spatial lattice. The results indicate that it is possible for most of the string energy to be in small loops, rather than in long strings, at formation.

Hodges, Hardy M.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Numerical solutions of forward-flight rotor flow using an upwind method

A finite-volume upwind algorithm for solving the 3-D Euler equations with a moving grid has been developed for computing helicopter forward-flight rotor flows. The computed pressure distributions and shock positions of high-speed rotor flow are compared with various experimental data as well as with other numerical results, and the agreement is encouraging. A comparison of quasi-steady solutions with unsteady solutions reveals that when a shock occurs in the flowfield, the assumption of quasi-steady flow may fail due to the time-lag of the shock motion. Similarly, three-dimensional effects cannot be neglected. Sufficient subiterations for each time step are required to avoid numerical lag effects in using the present method. The redistribution of the residual due to the coordinate transformation is discussed. For high-order MUSCL-type schemes, a coordinate-independent solution can be obtained by interpolating primitive variables.

Chen, C. L.↗
NASA NTRS2006

Recent trends in digital human modeling and the concurrent issues that face human modeling approach

Tremendous strides have been made in the recent years to digitally represent human beings in computer simulation models ranging from assembly plant maintenance operations to occupants getting in and out of vehicles to action movie scenarios. While some of these tools are being actively pursued by the engineering communities, there is still a lot of work that remains to be done for the newly planned planetary exploration missions. For example, certain unique and several common challenges are seen in developing computer generated suited human models for designing the next generation space vehicle. The purpose of this presentation is to discuss NASA s potential needs for better human models and to show also many of the inherent yet not too obvious pitfalls that still are left unresolved in this new arena of digital human modeling. As part of NASA s Habitability and Human Factors Branch, the Anthropometry and Biomechanics Facility has been engaged in studying the various facets of computer generated human physical performance models; for instance, it has been engaged in utilizing three-dimensional laser scan data along with three dimensional video based motion and reach data to gather suited anthropometric and shape and size information that are not available yet in the form of computer mannequins. Our goal is to bring in new approaches to deal with heavily clothed humans (such as, suited astronauts) and to overcome the current limitations of wrongly identifying humans (either real or virtual) as univariate percentiles. We are looking at whole-body posture based anthropometric models as a means to identify humans of significantly different shapes and sizes to arrive at mathematically sound computer models for analytical purposes.

Rajulu, Sudhakar↗
DOE OSTI2020

Sensors and methods for monitoring flying objects

Described herein are sensing methods, sensor systems, and non-transitory, computer-readable, storage media having programs for long-duration, continuous monitoring of flying objects during the day or the night and regardless of weather conditions. The methods and systems are computationally efficient and can provide compact, three-dimensional representations of motion from the observed object. A 3D track of the flying object can be generated from a point-matched pair of stereo composite motion track images and not directly from the videos, wherein each composite motion track image is based on a composite of a plurality of video frames composited in part according to video frame numbers.

Matzner, Shari↗
NASA NTRS2016

Three-Dimensional Generalized Logarithmic Spirals

The family of generalized logarithmic spirals including a control parameter is extended to the three-dimensional case. The in-plane motion is decoupled from the out-of-plane motion in such a way that the integrals of motion found in the planar problem are still preserved in the three-dimensional case. Designing a low-thrust orbit transfer decomposes in two stages: first, orbits are projected on a reference plane and the planar transfer is solved with a generalized logarithmic spiral. Second, the out-of-plane component of the motion is included in order to target the final orbit. The projection of the three-dimensional transfer orbit on the reference plane is a generalized logarithmic spiral. Arbitrary shape-based laws for the 3D motion can be considered. This paper explores a polynomial and a Fourier series shaping method, together with a polynomial steering law. A fictitious low-thrust sample return mission to Ceres is designed to show the versatility of the method.

Roa, Javier↗
NASA NTRS1976

The dynamics of spin stabilized spacecraft with movable appendages, part 2

The dynamics and stability of a spin stabilized spacecraft with a hinged appendage system are treated analytically and numerically. The hinged system consists of a central hub with masses attached to (assumed) massless booms of fixed length whose orientation relative to the main part can change. The general three dimensional deployment dynamics of such a hinged system is considered without any restriction on the location of the hinge points. The equations of motion for the hinged system, with viscous damping at both hinge points, are linearized about the nominal equilibrium position where the booms are orthogonal to the nominal spin axis for the case of two dimensional and three dimensional motion. Analytic stability criteria are obtained from the necessary condition on the sign of all the coefficients in the system characteristic equation.

Bainum, P. M.↗
NASA NTRS1943

Turbulent Flow Between Rotating Cylinders

The turbulent air flow between rotating cylinders was investigated. The distributions of mean speed and of turbulence were measured in the gap between a rotating inner and a stationary outer cylinder. The measurements led to the conclusion that the turbulent flow in the gap cannot be considered two dimensional, but that a particular type of secondary motion takes place. It is shown that the experimentally found velocity distribution can be fully understood under the assumption that this secondary motion consists of three-dimensional ring-shape vortices. The vortices occur only in pairs, and their number and size depend on the speed of the rotating cylinder; the number was found to decrease with increasing speed. The secondary motion has an essential part in the transmission of the moment of momentum. In regions where the secondary motion is negligible, the momentum transfer follows the laws known for homologous turbulence. Ring-shape vortices are known to occur in the laminar flow between rotating cylinders, but it was hitherto unknown that they exist even at speeds that are several hundred times the critical limit.

Shih-I, Pai↗
NASA NTRS1982

A functional video-based anthropometric measuring system

A high-speed anthropometric three dimensional measurement system using the Selcom Selspot motion tracking instrument for visual data acquisition is discussed. A three-dimensional scanning system was created which collects video, audio, and performance data on a single standard video cassette recorder. Recording rates of 1 megabit per second for periods of up to two hours are possible with the system design. A high-speed off-the-shelf motion analysis system for collecting optical information as used. The video recording adapter (VRA) is interfaced to the Selspot data acquisition system.

Nixon, J. H.↗
NASA NTRS1974

Analytical and experimental study of mean flow and turbulence characteristics inside the passages of an axial flow inducer

The effort conducted to gather additional understanding of the complex inviscid and viscid effects existing within the passages of a three-bladed axial flow inducer operating at a flow coefficient of 0.065 is summarized. The experimental investigations included determination of the blade static pressure and blade limiting streamline angle distributions, and measurement of the three components of mean velocity, turbulence intensities and turbulence stresses at locations inside the inducer blade passage utilizing a rotating three-sensor hotwire probe. Applicable equations were derived for the hotwire data reduction analysis and solved numerically to obtain the appropriate flow parameters. Analytical investigations were conducted to predict the three-dimensional inviscid flow in the inducer by numerically solving the exact equations of motion, and to approximately predict the three-dimensional viscid flow by incorporating the dominant viscous terms into the exact equations. The analytical results are compared with the experimental measurements and design values where appropriate.

Gorton, C. A.↗
NASA NTRS1999

Development of Optical Diagnostic Techniques for Microgravity Materials Processing

Materials processing including crystal growth, either under a gravity environment on ground or a microgravity environment in space, involves complicated phenomena of fluid motions in gas or liquid phases as well as interaction of various species. To obtain important physical insight, it is very necessary to provide gross-field optical diagnostics for monitoring various physical properties. Materials processing inhibits easy access by ordinary instruments and thus characterizing gross-field physical properties is very challenging. Typical properties of importance can be fluid velocity, temperature, and species concentration for fluids, and surface topology and defects for solids. Observing surface grow rate during crystal growth is also important. Material microstructures, i.e., integrity of crystal structures, is strongly influenced by the existence of thermally-induced flow as well as local nucleation of particles during solidification, which may act in many detrimental ways. In both ground-based and microgravity experiments, the nature of product property changes resulting from three-dimensional fluid or particle motions need be characterized. Gross-field diagnostics is thus required to identify their effects on product defects and process deficiencies. The quantitative visualization techniques can also be used for validation of numerical modeling. For optical nonintrusive gross-field diagnostic techniques, two approaches were developed as summer projects. One optical approach allows us to provide information of species concentration and temperature for monitoring in real time. The other approach, that is, the concept which is formulated for detection of surface topography measurement can provide unprecedented spatial resolution during crystal growth.

Cha, Soyoung Stephen↗
DOE OSTI2020

Three-dimensional phase field sintering simulations accounting for the rigid-body motion of individual grains

Sintering is a widely used powder processing technique in industrial applications. During sintering, atoms migrate to decrease the energy of the system via two main mechanisms: coarsening and densification, both of which lead to significant morphological variation of the sintered microstructure. When simulating sintering dynamics, the phase-field method has been broadly utilized because of its convenience in tracking morphology evolution. When a large number of grains is involved, it is common to use the same order parameter to describe multiple grains that are not in direct contact with one another (in order to reduce the computational memory demands). However, with this treatment it is difficult to handle the rigid-body motion of individual grains during densification. In this work, an implementation scheme is introduced to overcome the challenge of calculating individual particle motion based on existing equations. It uses a grouping algorithm and sets a cutoff radius on each grain for calculating the particle velocity during densification. This method allows for the incorporation of the densification mechanism, which has been commonly ignored in previous work, into phase-field sintering models in three-dimensional simulations with a large number of particles/grains. Moreover, through combination with the smoothed boundary method, material properties of sintered microstructures, such as the effective diffusivity and Young’s modulus, can be calculated during the sintering processes.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2026

On the role of symmetry in quenching OH tunneling in 2,6-dimethylphenol

Here, we model the spectroscopy of the two methyl torsional degrees of freedom coupled to the OH torsional motion in 2,6-dimethylphenol. Recent gas-phase rotational transitions [Welsh et al ., J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 17 , 3749–3758 (2026)] have been interpreted to be the result of certain symmetry states of the methyl groups leading to the quenching of the OH torsional motion. Both a three-dimensional model and an adiabatic model, in which the OH torsion is treated as the slow mode, are developed to test these conjectures. Good agreement is found between the exact and approximate adiabatic models. The adiabatic model is developed to interpret and elucidate the key couplings leading to the quenching of the tunneling splitting.

Sibert, III, Edwin L. [Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison↗
DOE OSTI2021

Fuel/Basket Degradation Modeling Summary

This report documents the activities in a preliminary phase of development for three models: 1) waste package breach model, 2) fuel/basket degradation model, and 3) dual-purpose canister (DPC) crush model. The waste package breach model describes the coupling of mass flow, heat transport, and canister shell deformation in response to a heat-generating (criticality) event. The fuel/basket degradation model describes potential weakening and disaggregation of the DPC structure from corrosion, possibly accelerated by seismic ground motion. Progressively degraded three-dimensional (3D) configurations of the fuel, basket, and shell are generated for future analysis of reactivity (with as-loaded DPC fuel characteristics). Another important application for the fuel/basket degradation model is validation of the two stylized degradation cases currently being used by other investigators for analysis of the as-loaded DPC inventory under disposal conditions. The DPC crush model investigates stability of a typical DPC after breach of the disposal overpack allows fluids from the repository near-field environment to penetrate and externally pressurize the canister shell. Preliminary results show that large deformation of the DPC could occur for external pressure on the order of 10 to 15 MPa, or the shell could be stable (not collapse) with pressure of 20 MPa or greater if the basket plates are fully welded at the connections.

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
NASA NTRS1969

Atmospheric probing by Doppler radar

A survey is presented of the application of Doppler techniques to the study of atmospheric phenomena. Particular emphasis is placed on the requirement of adequate digital processing means for the Doppler signal and the Doppler data which are acquired at a very high rate. The need is discussed of a two or three Doppler method as an ultimate approach to the problem of observing the three-dimensional field of particle motion inside convective storms.

Lhermitte, R. M.↗