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At least 1,567 records · Page 87

Realistic fuel spray modeling for gasoline direct injection engine applications

Fuel spray modeling plays a critical role during modern gasoline direct injection (GDI) engine development due to fuel injection’s dominant impact on engine performance and emissions as well as the complex physical processes involved. In engineering three-dimensional (3D) computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations, the liquid-phase fuel atomization, evaporation, and mixing are usually modeled with the discrete droplet model (DDM) adopting a Lagrangian approach for multiphase CFD simulations. To this end, general practices heavily depend on the reduced order characterization of the injector nozzle flow. However, such simplified injector modeling may lead to insufficient representations of the complex spray dynamics. To tackle this problem, this study proposes a novel workflow to numerically evaluate GDI sub-cooled and flash-boiling sprays under engine-relevant conditions using a side-mounted GDI injector together with real gasoline fuel properties. The workflow introduces a one-way coupling (OWC) method leveraging high-fidelity nozzle flow simulations to provide realistic boundary conditions to the Lagrangian injector model. The proposed workflow was first verified in a constant volume chamber (CVC) environment and then implemented in a practical GDI engine setup to study spray morphology, fuel-air mixing, and wall-wetting propensity. In addition, detailed comparison was performed between the OWC method and the conventional rate of injection (ROI) routine. In conclusion, quantitative analysis of spray characteristics was conducted to highlight possible source of discrepancies of the conventional ROI method.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗

Micrometer: Micromechanics transformer for predicting full field mechanical responses of heterogeneous materials

Predicting mechanical responses of heterogeneous materials across scales remains a significant challenge. Traditional computational methods often struggle with complex and multiscale nature of these materials, limiting their effectiveness in real-world applications. Here, in this paper, we introduce Micrometer, a vision transformer based deep learning model designed to predict full field mechanical responses of heterogeneous materials, bridging the gap between computer vision and solid mechanics problems. We show that Micrometer, trained on a large-scale high-resolution dataset of 2D fiber-reinforced composites, can achieve state-of-the-art performance in predicting microscale strain fields across a wide range of material properties and loading conditions. Our model demonstrates accuracy and computational efficiency in applications such as computational homogenization and multiscale modeling, reducing computational time by up to two orders of magnitude compared to conventional numerical solvers while maintaining less than 1 % errors in predicting macroscale stress fields. Furthermore, we showcase Micrometer’s adaptability through transfer learning experiments on new materials with limited data, highlighting its potential to tackle diverse scenarios in computational solid mechanics. These results represent a significant step towards AI-driven innovation in materials science, addressing the limitations of traditional numerical methods and paving the way for more efficient simulations of heterogeneous materials across various industrial applications.

Composite materials↗

Maximum Entropy/Optimal Projection (MEOP) control design synthesis: Optimal quantification of the major design tradeoffs

The underlying philosophy and motivation of the optimal projection/maximum entropy (OP/ME) stochastic modeling and reduced control design methodology for high order systems with parameter uncertainties are discussed. The OP/ME design equations for reduced-order dynamic compensation including the effect of parameter uncertainties are reviewed. The application of the methodology to several Large Space Structures (LSS) problems of representative complexity is illustrated.

Hyland, D. C.↗

Earth anisotropic reflection and the orbit of LAGEOS

Radiation pressure due to sunlight anisotropically reflected from the oceans apparently cannot explain the fluctuations in the anomalous along-track deceleration of the LAGEOS satellite. It fails by about a factor of 2 to account for the major peaks in the acceleration. This result is based on an extreme model: a cloudless earth whose northern hemisphere consists of continent, and whose southern hemisphere consists of ocean. The continent is assumed to reflect sunlight according to Lambert's law, while the ocean reflects anisotropically according to a simple analytical law which mimics Nimbus 7 observations. The inclusion of clouds into the model would reduce the acceleration to perhaps an order of magnitude below those observed. Some other explanation for the fluctuations, which have magnitude about 2 x 10 to the -12th m/sec sq, must be sought.

Rubincam, David Parry↗

Effects of buoyancy-driven flow and thermal boundary conditions on physical vapor transport

A 2D numerical model was developed in order to ascertain if reduced gravity conditions are beneficial to physical vapor transport (PVT) and to determine its tolerance limits to residual accelerations. This was solved using the PHOENICS finite-volume code. Reduction of gravitational accelerations to less than 0.1 g0 was found to be sufficient to suppress buoyancy-driven convection to an extent that diffusion was the dominant transport mode, whence a greater uniformity in the growth rate could be obtained. It is shown that a uniform temperature gradient on the ampoule walls causes the vapor to be supersaturated throughout the ampoule, potentially resulting in undesirable nucleation at the walls. A 'hump' in the wall temperature profile can be used to avoid this. The prevailing transport conditions determine the size of the hump needed.

Nadarajah, Arunan↗

Dynamic analysis of Space Shuttle/RMS configuration using continuum approach

The initial assembly of Space Station Freedom involves the Space Shuttle, its Remote Manipulation System (RMS) and the evolving Space Station Freedom. The dynamics of this coupled system involves both the structural and the control system dynamics of each of these components. The modeling and analysis of such an assembly is made even more formidable by kinematic and joint nonlinearities. The current practice of modeling such flexible structures is to use finite element modeling in which the mass and interior dynamics is ignored between thousands of nodes, for each major component. The model characteristics of only tens of modes are kept out of thousands which are calculated. The components are then connected by approximating the boundary conditions and inserting the control system dynamics. In this paper continuum models are used instead of finite element models because of the improved accuracy, reduced number of model parameters, the avoidance of model order reduction, and the ability to represent the structural and control system dynamics in the same system of equations. Dynamic analysis of linear versions of the model is performed and compared with finite element model results. Additionally, the transfer matrix to continuum modeling is presented.

Ramakrishnan, Jayant↗

A modified Monte Carlo model for the ionospheric heating rates.

A Monte Carlo method is adopted as a basis for the derivation of the photoelectron-heat input into the ionospheric plasma. Since a great number of Monte Carlo runs are required normally for the computation of the heating rates, this approach is modified in an attempt to minimize the computation time. The heat-input distributions are computed for arbitrarily small source elements that are spaced apart at distances corresponding to the photoelectron dissipation range. By means of a nonlinear interpolation procedure their individual heating-rate distributions are utilized to produce synthetic ones that fill the gaps between the Monte Carlo generated distributions. By varying these gaps and the corresponding number of Monte Carlo runs the accuracy of the results is tested to verify the validity of this procedure. It is concluded that this model can reduce the computation time by as much as an order of magnitude, thus improving the feasibility of including Monte Carlo calculations in self-consistent ionosphere models.

Mayr, H. G.↗

Mathematical algorithms to maximize performance in numerical weather prediction

Numerical weather prediction models, which involve the solution of non-linear partial differential equations at points on an extensive three dimensional grid, are ideally suited for processing on vector machines. It was logical therefore that the new global forecast model to be implemented at the Meteorological Office should be written in vector code for the CYBER 205. In order to achieve full efficiency and to reduce storage requirements the model used 32-bit arithmetic which was found to provide high enough precision. Unfortunately, however, the trigonometrical and logarithmic functions provided by CDC could only handle 64-bit vectors and, although written in efficient scalar code, did not take advantage of the special facilities of a vector processor. It was therefore necessary to rewrite the functions in vector code to handle both 32 and 64-bit vectors. There was also no half-precision compiler available for the Cyber 205 at that time and so the functions, like the model, had to make extensive use of the special call syntax. This made the code more difficult to write but it allowed much greater flexibility in that it became possible to access the exponent of a floating-point number independently of its coefficient. A description is given of the technique and the results which were achieved are summarized.

Foreman, A.↗

Heart Pump Design for Cleveland Clinic Foundation

Through a Lewis CommTech Program project with the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, the NASA Lewis Research Center is playing a key role in the design and development of a permanently implantable, artificial heart pump assist device. Known as the Innovative Ventricular Assist System (IVAS), this device will take on the pumping role of the damaged left ventricle of the heart. The key part of the IVAS is a nonpulsatile (continuous flow) artificial heart pump with centrifugal impeller blades, driven by an electric motor. Lewis is part of an industry and academia team, led by the Ohio Aerospace Institute (OAI), that is working with the Cleveland Clinic Foundation to make IVAS a reality. This device has the potential to save tens of thousands of lives each year, since 80 percent of heart attack victims suffer irreversible damage to the left ventricle, the part of the heart that does most of the pumping. Impeller blade design codes and flow-modeling analytical codes will be used in the project. These codes were developed at Lewis for the aerospace industry but will be applicable to the IVAS design project. The analytical codes, which currently simulate the flow through the compressor and pump systems, will be used to simulate the flow within the blood pump in the artificial heart assist device. The Interdisciplinary Technology Office heads up Lewis' efforts in the IVAS project. With the aid of numerical modeling, the blood pump will address many design issues, including some fluid-dynamic design considerations that are unique to the properties of blood. Some of the issues that will be addressed in the design process include hemolysis, deposition, recirculation, pump efficiency, rotor thrust balance, and bearing lubrication. Optimum pumping system performance will be achieved by modeling all the interactions between the pump components. The interactions can be multidisciplinary and, therefore, are influenced not only by the fluid dynamics of adjacent components but also by thermal and structural effects. Lewis-developed flow-modeling codes to be used in the pump simulations will include a one-dimensional code and an incompressible three-dimensional Navier-Stokes flow code. These codes will analyze the prototype pump designed by the Cleveland Clinic Foundation. With an improved understanding of the flow phenomena within the prototype pump, design changes to improve the performance of the pump system can be verified by computer prior to fabrication in order to reduce risks. The use of Lewis flow modeling codes during the design and development process will improve pump system performance and reduce the number of prototypes built in the development phase. The first phase of the IVAS project is to fully develop the prototype in a laboratory environment that uses a water/glycerin mixture as the surrogate fluid to simulate blood. A later phase of the project will include testing in animals for final validation. Lewis will be involved in the IVAS project for 3 to 5 years.

Source record↗

Robustness of reduced-order multivariable state-space self-tuning controller

In this paper, we present a quantitative analysis of the robustness of a reduced-order pole-assignment state-space self-tuning controller for a multivariable adaptive control system whose order of the real process is higher than that of the model used in the controller design. The result of stability analysis shows that, under a specific bounded modelling error, the adaptively controlled closed-loop real system via the reduced-order state-space self-tuner is BIBO stable in the presence of unmodelled dynamics.

Yuan, Zhuzhi↗

Fractional modeling of viscoelasticity in 3D cerebral arteries and aneurysms

We develop efficient numerical methods for fractional order PDEs, and employ them to investigate viscoelastic constitutive laws for arterial wall mechanics. Recent simulations using one-dimensional models [1] have indicated that fractional order models may offer a more powerful alternative for modeling the arterial wall response, exhibiting reduced sensitivity to parametric uncertainties compared with the integer-calculus-based models. Here, we study three-dimensional (3D) fractional PDEs that naturally model the continuous relaxation properties of soft tissue, and for the first time employ them to simulate flow structure interactions for patient-specific brain aneurysms. To deal with the high memory requirements and in order to accelerate the numerical evaluation of hereditary integrals, we employ a fast convolution method [2] that reduces the memory cost to O(log(N)) and the computational complexity to O(N log(N)). Furthermore, we combine the fast convolution with high-order backward differentiation to achieve third-order time integration accuracy. We confirm that in 3D viscoelastic simulations, the integer order models strongly depends on the relaxation parameters, while the fractional order models are less sensitive. As an application to long-time simulations in complex geometries, we also apply the method to modeling fluid-structure interaction of a 3D patient-specific compliant cerebral artery with an aneurysm. Taken together, our findings demonstrate that fractional calculus can be employed effectively in modeling complex behavior of materials in realistic 3D time-dependent problems if properly designed efficient algorithms are employed to overcome the extra memory requirements and computational complexity associated with the non-local character of fractional derivatives.

Computer Science↗

SINDA/FLUINT and Thermal Desktop Multi-Node Settled and Unsettled Propellant Tank Modeling of Zero Boil Off Test

Cryogenic propellant storage tank self-pressurization involves complex physical phenomena which are usually analytically modelled via complex multidimensional CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) codes. Unfortunately these codes, even when modelling axisymmetric domains, may take weeks or longer to obtain transient pressure and temperature information for relatively short periods of time (several seconds to several hours). Propellant tank storage end-to-end mission simulations can last a duration of days to weeks to months. Multi-node modelling of propellant tanks is a viable alternative to traditional CFD modelling and presents the advantage of greatly reduced run times on the order of hours and days compared to the weeks or longer for CFD codes. A multi-node model represents the fluid within the storage tank, as well as the storage tank itself, as a fluid-thermal network. This type of setup is not necessarily geometrically based. This can be accomplished using a commercial generalized fluid-thermal network code, such as SINDA/FLUINT (SF). The advantage of using a fluid-thermal network code like SF lies in its extensive ability to model the external environment of the storage tank through the graphical user interface, Thermal Desktop (TD). The total heat load into the tank may be a function of heaters and a complex radiative environment as well. Thermal Desktop may be used to address the detailed radiative environment of the tank as well as building a geometrically accurate depiction of the storage tank itself.

Thermal Desktop↗

SINDA/FLUINT and Thermal Desktop Multi-Node Settled and Unsettled Propellant Tank Modeling of Zero Boil Off Test

Cryogenic propellant storage tank self-pressurization involves complex physical phenomena which are usually analytically modelled via complex multidimensional CFD codes. Unfortunately these codes, even when modelling axisymmetric domains, may takes weeks or longer to obtain transient pressure and temperature information for relatively short periods of time (several seconds to several hours). Propellant tank storage end-to-end mission simulations can last a duration of days to weeks to months. Multi-node modelling of propellant tanks is a viable alternative to traditional CFD modelling and presents the advantage of greatly reduced run times on the order of hours and days compared to the weeks or longer for CFD codes. A multi-node model represents the fluid within the storage tank, as well as the storage tank itself, as a fluid-thermal network. This type of setup is not necessarily geometrically based. This can be accomplished using a commercial generalized fluid-thermal network code, such as SINDA/FLUINT (SF). The advantage of using a fluid-thermal network code like SF lies in its extensive ability to model the external environment of the storage tank through the graphical user interface, Thermal Desktop (TD). The total heat load into the tank may be a function of heaters and a complex radiative environment as well. Thermal Desktop may be used to address the detailed radiative environment of the tank as well as building a geometrically accurate depiction of the storage tank itself.

Sakowski, Barbara↗

A decentralized linear quadratic control design method for flexible structures

A decentralized suboptimal linear quadratic control design procedure which combines substructural synthesis, model reduction, decentralized control design, subcontroller synthesis, and controller reduction is proposed for the design of reduced-order controllers for flexible structures. The procedure starts with a definition of the continuum structure to be controlled. An evaluation model of finite dimension is obtained by the finite element method. Then, the finite element model is decomposed into several substructures by using a natural decomposition called substructuring decomposition. Each substructure, at this point, still has too large a dimension and must be reduced to a size that is Riccati-solvable. Model reduction of each substructure can be performed by using any existing model reduction method, e.g., modal truncation, balanced reduction, Krylov model reduction, or mixed-mode method. Then, based on the reduced substructure model, a subcontroller is designed by an LQ optimal control method for each substructure independently. After all subcontrollers are designed, a controller synthesis method called substructural controller synthesis is employed to synthesize all subcontrollers into a global controller. The assembling scheme used is the same as that employed for the structure matrices. Finally, a controller reduction scheme, called the equivalent impulse response energy controller (EIREC) reduction algorithm, is used to reduce the global controller to a reasonable size for implementation. The EIREC reduced controller preserves the impulse response energy of the full-order controller and has the property of matching low-frequency moments and low-frequency power moments. An advantage of the substructural controller synthesis method is that it relieves the computational burden associated with dimensionality. Besides that, the SCS design scheme is also a highly adaptable controller synthesis method for structures with varying configuration, or varying mass and stiffness properties.

Su, Tzu-Jeng↗

Quantification of Physical and Numerical Mixing in a Coastal Ocean Model Using Salinity Variance Budgets

Numerical mixing, the spurious mixing primarily generated by the discretization of advection, is often significant in estuarine and coastal models due to sharp, energetic fronts. In this study, we compare on- and offline estimates of numerical mixing in a submesoscale-resolving realistic simulation of the ocean state over the Texas-Louisiana continental shelf. While offline estimates of numerical mixing differ from online estimates, offline methods may be the only analysis available. This study offers insight into the differences between the on- and offline methods. We use two methods to estimate numerical mixing offline, based on salinity squared $s^2$ and volume-mean salinity variance $s^{\prime^2}$. Numerical mixing estimated from the $s^{\prime^2}$ budget is generally within 60\% of the magnitude for the online method but captures the temporal variability well. However, the $s^2$ budget compares poorly due to larger truncation errors associated with the tendency and advection terms, which can be reduced by increasing the model output frequency. We also investigate the effects of horizontal resolution on numerical mixing using a two-way nested grid. The volume-integrated numerical mixing constitutes 57\% of the bulk physical mixing -- the mixing prescribed by the turbulence closure scheme -- in the coarse model and may exceed the physical mixing by half an order of magnitude. We find that numerical mixing is reduced by 35\% on average in the nested model, less than expected based on scaling of the numerical mixing for an upwind advection scheme, likely due to new dynamical processes that emerge in the nested simulation.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Financial and Operational Bundling Strategies for Sustainable Micro-Grid Business Models

One of the biggest barriers to the scale up of mini-grids in Sub Sahara Africa ('SSA') is access to finance. While there are plenty of government and donor-led initiatives, private investment in the mini-grid sector has been slow to take off because of the high level of risk to reward and the relatively high transaction costs compared to larger grid-tied projects. Specific challenges for mini-grids include policy and regulatory risk, a lack of proven business models, and uncertainty about demand and the ability and willingness of customers to pay. Bundling or aggregation of mini-grids is one potential solution to these challenges. At its simplest, bundling means combining projects or different aspects of projects (eg. financial, operational and service) into a portfolio to create economies of scale (eg. lower costs, mitigation of risks, reaching an investment size that is attractive to more financiers.) There are two main types of bundling: Operational bundling - aggregation of similar projects (eg. similar business model, geographical area, technology or customer type) in order to reduce development and operating costs, - Financial bundling - aggregation of projects into a portfolio in order to attract more private investors through the larger ticket size and portfolio de-risking. This report looks at the different mini-grid business and financing models, and the opportunities and challenges around financial bundling. It looks at techniques for bundling through donors and national governments such as tenders, auctions and results based financing. It considers financial pooling mechanisms, including funds for mini-grid growth and end user financing, and financial products for de-risking mini-grid investments. Finally, there are three developer case studies of financial bundling of mini-grids.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

A cautionary tale of decorrelating theory uncertainties

A variety of techniques have been proposed to train machine learning classifiers that are independent of a given feature. While this can be an essential technique for enabling background estimation, it may also be useful for reducing uncertainties. We carefully examine theory uncertainties, which typically do not have a statistical origin. We will provide explicit examples of two-point (fragmentation modeling) and continuous (higher-order corrections) uncertainties where decorrelating significantly reduces the apparent uncertainty while the true uncertainty is much larger. These results suggest that caution should be taken when using decorrelation for these types of uncertainties as long as we do not have a complete decomposition into statistically meaningful components.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗