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At least 145 records · Page 8
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1990

A closer look at the induced drag of crescent-shaped wings

Recent interest in the induced drag characteristics of crescent-shaped wings has led to a closer look at the methods used for determination of induced drag from computational aerodynamic methods. Induced drag may be computed by integration of surface pressure, or by evaluation of a contour integral in the Trefftz plane. A high-order panel method was used to study the induced drag of crescent and elliptical wings using both techniques. Induced drag computations using surface-pressure integration were strongly affected by panel density and angle of attack. Accurate drag computations for the crescent wing were obtained only when the spanwise as well as chordwise panel density was extremely high. Trefftz-plane results for the two wing planforms do not show this sensitivity to panel density or angle of attack. Span efficiencies of 0.994 for the crescent wing and 0.987 for the elliptical wing were computed by the Trefftz-plane technique. Substitution of a force-free, rolled-up wake geometry on the crescent wing did not change the pressure-integrated drag significantly. The slightly higher span efficiency of the crescent wing is attributed to a more nearly elliptical spanwise lift distribution. The chord distribution of the elliptical wing was modified to produce an elliptical span-loading on a wing with an unswept quarter-chord line. This wing demonstrated a span efficiency equal to that of the crescent wing.

Smith, Stephen C.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Least-squares finite element methods for compressible Euler equations

A method based on backward finite differencing in time and a least-squares finite element scheme for first-order systems of partial differential equations in space is applied to the Euler equations for gas dynamics. The scheme minimizes the L-sq-norm of the residual within each time step. The method naturally generates numerical dissipation proportional to the time step size. An implicit method employing linear elements has been implemented and proves robust. For high-order elements, computed solutions based on the L-sq method may have oscillations for calculations at similar time step sizes. To overcome this difficulty, a scheme which minimizes the weighted H1-norm of the residual is proposed and leads to a successful scheme with high-degree elements. Finally, a conservative least-squares finite element method is also developed. Numerical results for two-dimensional problems are given to demonstrate the shock resolution of the methods and compare different approaches.

Jiang, Bo-Nan↗
NASA NTRS1989

The determination of third order linear models from a seventh order nonlinear jet engine model

Results are presented that demonstrate how good reduced-order models can be obtained directly by recursive parameter identification using input/output (I/O) data of high-order nonlinear systems. Three different methods of obtaining a third-order linear model from a seventh-order nonlinear turbojet engine model are compared. The first method is to obtain a linear model from the original model and then reduce the linear model by standard reduction techniques such as residualization and balancing. The second method is to identify directly a third-order linear model by recursive least-squares parameter estimation using I/O data of the original model. The third method is to obtain a reduced-order model from the original model and then linearize the reduced model. Frequency responses are used as the performance measure to evaluate the reduced models. The reduced-order models along with their Bode plots are presented for comparison purposes.

Lalonde, Rick J.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Understanding transition and turbulence through direct simulations

Direct simulations consist in solving the full Navier-Stokes equations, without any turbulence model, and describing all the detailed features of the flow. Usually the flows are three-dimensional and time-dependent and contain both coarse and fine structures, which makes the numerical task very challenging in terms of both the algorithm and the computational effort. Most of the work until now has involved spectral methods, which are highly accurate but not very flexible in terms of geometry or complex equations. For that reason, future work will also rely on high-order finite-difference or other methods. Direct simulations complement experimental work, and both contribute to the theory and the empirical knowledge of turbulence. Once such a simulation has been shown to be accurate, the flow field is completely known in three dimensions and time, including the pressure, the vorticity and any other quantity. On the other hand, most simulations to date solved the incompressible equations in rather simple geometries, and direct simulations will always be limited to moderate Reynolds numbers. Extensive simulations have been conducted in homogeneous turbulence, channel flows, boundary layers, and mixing layers. Much effort is devoted to addressing flows with compressibility and chemical reactions, and to new geometries such as a backward-facing step.

Spalart, P. R.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Numerical solution of the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations

The current work is initiated in an effort to obtain an efficient, accurate, and robust algorithm for the numerical solution of the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations in two- and three-dimensional generalized curvilinear coordinates for both steady-state and time-dependent flow problems. This is accomplished with the use of the method of artificial compressibility and a high-order flux-difference splitting technique for the differencing of the convective terms. Time accuracy is obtained in the numerical solutions by subiterating the equations in psuedo-time for each physical time step. The system of equations is solved with a line-relaxation scheme which allows the use of very large pseudo-time steps leading to fast convergence for steady-state problems as well as for the subiterations of time-dependent problems. Numerous laminar test flow problems are computed and presented with a comparison against analytically known solutions or experimental results. These include the flow in a driven cavity, the flow over a backward-facing step, the steady and unsteady flow over a circular cylinder, flow over an oscillating plate, flow through a one-dimensional inviscid channel with oscillating back pressure, the steady-state flow through a square duct with a 90 degree bend, and the flow through an artificial heart configuration with moving boundaries. An adequate comparison with the analytical or experimental results is obtained in all cases. Numerical comparisons of the upwind differencing with central differencing plus artificial dissipation indicates that the upwind differencing provides a much more robust algorithm, which requires significantly less computing time. The time-dependent problems require on the order of 10 to 20 subiterations, indicating that the elliptical nature of the problem does require a substantial amount of computing effort.

Rogers, Stuart E.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Optical information processing for NASA's space exploration

The development status of optical processing techniques under development at NASA-JPL, NASA-Ames, and NASA-Johnson, is evaluated with a view to their potential applications in future NASA planetary exploration missions. It is projected that such optical processing systems can yield major reductions in mass, volume, and power requirements relative to exclusively electronic systems of comparable processing capabilities. Attention is given to high-order neural networks for distortion-invariant classification and pattern recognition, multispectral imaging using an acoustooptic tunable filter, and an optical matrix processor for control problems.

Chao, Tien-Hsin↗
NASA NTRS1990

A numerical method for parameterization of atmospheric chemistry - Computation of tropospheric OH

An efficient and stable computational scheme for parameterization of atmospheric chemistry is described. The 24-hour-average concentration of OH is represented as a set of high-order polynomials in variables such as temperature, densities of H2O, CO, O3, and NO(t) (defined as NO + NO2 + NO3 + 2N2O5 + HNO2 + HNO4) as well as variables determining solar irradiance: cloud cover, density of the overhead ozone column, surface albedo, latitude, and solar declination. This parameterization of OH chemistry was used in the three-dimensional study of global distribution of CH3CCl3. The proposed computational scheme can be used for parameterization of rates of chemical production and loss or of any other output of a full chemical model.

Spivakovsky, C. M.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Modeling the pilot in visually controlled flight

The simplest model for a human operator is a gain with a time delay. However, there have been no comprehensive studies evaluating human control strategies in visually controlled flight. The results of preliminary studies on this topic are described. Human visually guided flight control is important both in low-level flight, where it predominates, and in higher-altitude flights, where instrument failure is always a potential danger. Two general approaches to this problem, one founded on high-order perceptual psychophysics and the other on control systems engineering, are described. Initial results show that the use of control engineering modeling techniques, together with a psychophysical analysis of information in the perspective scene, holds promise for capturing the manual control strategies used during visual flight.

Johnson, Walter W.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Flux-difference split scheme for turbulent transport equations

This paper describes a high accuracy upwind method to solve the mean compressible flow equations closed with two-equation turbulence models. A flux-difference splitting scheme is developed to compute the flowfield without introducing oscillations into the solution. A high-order accuracy scheme is used to predict both the mean flow variables and the turbulence variables. Results comparing two different two-equation turbulence models are presented for supersonic flow over a flat plate and a compressible, free shear-layer. The non-oscillatory behavior of the upwind scheme is demonstrated on the free shear-layer.

Morrison, J. H.↗
NASA NTRS1990

An approach to optimal guidance of an advanced launch vehicle concept

An approximate solution for the maximum payload trajectory of a two-stage launch vehicle using a regular perturbation technique is presented. A zero-order solution for a two-stage vehicle based on a flat-earth approximation and negligible atmospheric effects is obtained in closed form. High-order correction terms are obtained from the solution of nonhomogeneous, first-order linear differential equations by quadrature. This promises the capability for an onboard optimal guidance law implementation.

Leung, Martin S.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Numerical experiments on the accuracy of ENO and modified ENO schemes

Numerical experiments have been performed using different ENO schemes and different time discretizations, in order to assess accuracy-degeneracy phenomena of the type described by Rogerson and Meiburg (1990). A modified ENO scheme recovers the correct order of accuracy for all the test problems with smooth initial conditions and gives results comparable to the original ENO schemes for discontinuous problems. It is concluded that ENO schemes may lose the full high-order accuracy predicted by local truncation-error analysis for scalar linear conservation laws with smooth initial conditions. A modified ENO scheme can overcome this accuracy-degeneracy problem for the test problems without increasing the computational cost.

Shu, Chi-Wang↗
NASA NTRS1990

Control law synthesis and stability robustness improvement using constrained optimization techniques

The present generic optimization procedure for a continuous or discrete control law (of arbitrary order), which will be applicable to a multiinput-multioutput system, is upon constraining used to satisfy conflicting design requirements on the mean-square responses and stability robustness at the plant input and output. The synthesis procedure is especially suitable for flexible airframes and large space structures modeled by a high-order state-space system of equations. Analytical expressions are obtained for the gradients of the cost function, together with design constraints on the mean-square response and minimum singular value.

Mukhopadhyay, Vivekananda↗
NASA NTRS1991

Three-dimensional simulations of large eddies in the compressible mixing layer

Consideration is given to the effect of compressibility on a plane mixing layer that is a prototype free shear layer, amenable to study by numerical simulation and experiment. The full time-dependent compressible Navier-Stokes equations are solved numerically for a temporally evolving mixing layer employing a mixed spectral and high-order finite difference method. Simulations with random initial conditions confirm the prediction of linear stability theory that at high Mach numbers oblique waves grow faster than two-dimensional waves. Simulations are presented of the nonlinear temporal evolution of the most rapidly amplified linear instability waves.

Sandham, N. D.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Numerical and literal aeroelastic-vehicle-model reduction for feedback control synthesis

The simplification of a high-order, literal model for large flexible aircraft is discussed. Areas of model fidelity that are critical if the model is to be used for control law synthesis are presented. Several simplification techniques, some new and some widely available, that can deliver the necessary model fidelity are presented and applied to a model from the literature. The techniques include both numerical and analytical approaches. An analytical approach, based on first-order sensitivity theory, is shown to lead not only to excellent numerical results, but also to closed-form analytical expressions for key system dynamic properties such as the pole/zero factors of the vehicle transfer-function matrix. The analytical results are expressed in terms of vehicle vibrational characteristics and rigid-body and aeroelastic stability derivatives, thus providing insight into the underlying causes for critical dynamic characteristics.

Newman, Brett↗
NASA NTRS1990

Applications of ultrashort laser pulses in science and technology; Proceedings of the Meeting, The Hague, Netherlands, Mar. 12, 13, 1990

Topics discussed are on the generation of high-intensity femtosecond lasers, the high-repetition and infrared femtosecond pulses, and physics of semiconductors and applications. Papers are presented on the femtosecond pulse generation at 193 nm; the generation of intense subpicosecond and femtosecond pulses; intense tunable subpicosecond and femtosecond pulses in the visible and infrared, generated by optical parametric oscillators; a high-efficiency high-energy optical amplifier for femtosecond pulses; and the generation of solitons, periodic pulsing, and nonlinearities in GaAs. Other papers are on ultrafast relaxation dynamics of photoexcited carriers in GaAs, high-order optical nonlinear susceptibilities of transparent glasses, subnanosecond risetime high-power pulse generation using photoconductive bulk GaAs devices, femtosecond studies of plasma formation in crystalline and amorphous silicon, and subpicosecond dynamics of hot carrier relaxation in InP and GaAs.

Antonetti, Andre↗
NASA NTRS1991

Computational methods for shock waves in three-dimensional supersonic flow

A central artificial-viscosity and an upwind-biased difference method are contrived to solve the Euler equations for flowfields over typical spacecrafts. The spatial discretization is based on either nodal or cell-vertex formulation in the domain extending from free stream to the end of the vehicle. The outer boundary is treated as a bow shock in the first method but is placed in the free stream in the second, which captures both bow and internal shocks using an approximate Riemann solver based on high-order extrapolation to the cell face. These methods were tested for the Shuttle and Hermes orbiters at wind-tunnel conditions and angles of attack ranging from 0 to 60 deg. The artificial-viscosity method incorporated with a shock-fitting procedure shows smeared crossflow and wing-shock positions and required 15 percent more CPU per node than the upwind method. Greater flexibility and robustness is demonstrated by the latter on a fixed grid for all cases considered.

Li, Chien-Peng↗
NASA NTRS1991

Towards large eddy and direct simulation of complex turbulent flows

Recent advances in the methodology for direct numerical simulation of turbulent flows and some of the current applications are reviewed. It is argued that high-order finite difference schemes yield solutions with comparable accuracy to the spectral methods with the same number of degrees of freedom. The effects of random inflow conditions on the downstream evolution of turbulence are discussed.

Moin, Parviz↗
NASA NTRS1991

A new finite element formulation for computational fluid dynamics. X - The compressible Euler and Navier-Stokes equations

A space-time element method is presented for solving the compressible Euler and Navier-Stokes equations. The proposed formulation includes the variational equation, predictor multi-corrector algorithms and boundary conditions. The variational equation is based on the time-discontinuous Galerkin method, in which the physical entropy variables are employed. A least-squares operator and a discontinuity-capturing operator are added, resulting in a high-order accurate and unconditionally stable method. Implicit/explicit predictor multi-corrector algorithms, applicable to steady as well as unsteady problems, are presented; techniques are developed to enhance their efficiency. Implementation of boundary conditions is addressed; in particular, a technique is introduced to satisfy nonlinear essential boundary conditions, and a consistent method is presented to calculate boundary fluxes. Numerical results are presented to demonstrate the performance of the method.

Shakib, Farzin↗