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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 163 records · Page 9
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1992

Effect of vaporization on cryogenic spray dropsize measurement

The fluid mechanics of multi-phase flow breakup of liquid nitrogen, LN2, jets injected into sonic velocity nitrogen gasflow, was experimentally investigated. A scattered-light scanning instrument was used to measure the characteristic dropsize, D(sub v.5), of LN2 sprays and to determine the effect of droplet vaporization on experimental dropsize measurements. Under sonic gas-velocity conditions, liquid-jet breakup occurred in the regime of aerodynamic stripping. As a result, the following correlation of volume-median drop diameter, D(sub v.5), with atomizing gas flowrate, W(sub g), was derived for two-fluid atomizers; with atomizing gas flowrate, W(sub g), was derived for two-fluid atomizers; (D(sub v.5))(exp -1) = k(sub c)(W(sub g))(sup n), where proportionally constant k(sub c) and exponent n are functions of droplet vaporization rate. Partially vaporized sprays were investigated and it was found that n = 1.11, which is considerably less than the value of 1.33 that is predicted by atomization theory. This was attributed to the evaporative loss of very small droplets. As a result, the following expression was obtained experimentally: (D(sub v.5e))(exp -1) = 301(W(sub g))(sup 1.11). Values of D(sub v.5), that existed prior to partial vaporization of the LN2 sprays, were calculated and the following expression was derived for originally unvaporized LN2 sprays: (D(sub v.5))(exp -1) = 285(W(sub g))(sup 1.33). This expression agrees well with atomization theory that predicts n = 1.33, for liquid jet breakup in high-velocity gasflow.

Ingebo, Robert D.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Effect of vaporization on cryogenic spray dropsize measurement

The fluid mechanics of multi-phase flow breakup of liquid nitrogen, LN2, jets injected into sonic velocity nitrogen gasflow, was experimentally investigated. A scattered-light scanning instrument was used to measure the characteristic dropsize, D(sub v.5), of LN2 sprays and to determine the effect of droplet vaporization on experimental dropsize measurements. Under sonic gas-velocity conditions, liquid-jet breakup occurred in the regime of aerodynamic stripping. As a result, the following correlation of volume-median drop diameter, D(sub v.5), with atomizing gas flowrate, W(sub g), was derived for two-fluid atomizers: (D(sub v.5)) (exp -1) = k(sub c) (W(sub g)) (sup n), where proportionally constant k(sub c) and exponent n are functions of droplet vaporization rate. Partially vaporized sprays were investigated and it was found that n = 1.11, which is considerably less than the value of 1.33 that is predicted by atomization theory. This was attributed to the evaporative loss of very small droplets. As a result, the following expression was obtained experimentally: (D(sub v.5e)) (exp -1) = 301 (W(sub g)) (sub 1.11). Values of D(sub v.5), that existed prior to partial vaporization of the LN2 sprays, were calculated and the following expression was derived for originally unvaporized LN2 sprays: (D(sub v.5)) (exp -1) = 285 (W(sub g)) (sub 1.33). This expression agrees well with atomization theory that predicts n = 1.33, for liquid jet breakup in high-velocity gasflow.

Ingebo, Robert D.↗
NASA NTRS1981

Skin friction drag measurements by LDV

A laser Doppler velocimeter employing a microscope objective as the receiving lens has been developed for measuring fluid velocity inside the boundary layer flow field with a spatial resolution of 40 microns. The method was applied for direct measurement of aerodynamic skin friction drag from the measured velocity gradient at the wall. Experimental results obtained on skin friction and on velocity components in a turbulent boundary layer on a low speed wind tunnel showed good agreement with previously reported data using conventional instruments such as hot-wire anemometers and Preston tubes. The method thus provides a tool for measurement and control of skin friction on aerodynamic bodies without perturbing the flow field.

Mazumder, M. K.↗
NASA NTRS1986

Development of buried wire gages for measurement of wall shear stress in Blastane experiments

Buried Wire Gages operated from a Constant Temperature Anemometer System are among the special types of instrumentation to be used in the Boundary Layer Apparatus for Subsonic and Transonic flow Affected by Noise Environment (BLASTANE). These Gages are of a new type and need to be adapted for specific applications. Methods were developed to fabricate Gage inserts and mount those in the BLASTANE Instrumentation Plugs. A large number of Gages were prepared and operated from a Constant Temperature Anemometer System to derive some of the calibration constants for application to fluid-flow wall shear-stress measurements. The final stage of the calibration was defined, but could not be accomplished because of non-availability of a suitable flow simulating apparatus. This report provides a description of the Buried Wire Gage technique, an explanation of the method evolved for making proper Gages and the calibration constants, namely Temperature Coefficient of Resistance and Conduction Loss Factor.

Murthy, S. V.↗
NASA NTRS1974

ASRDI oxygen technology survey. Volume 6: Flow measurement instrumentation

A summary is provided of information available on liquid and gaseous oxygen flowmetering including an evaluation of commercial meters. The instrument types, physical principles of measurement, and performance characteristics are described. Problems concerning flow measurements of less than plus or minus two percent uncertainty are reviewed. Recommendations concerning work on flow reference systems, the use of surrogate fluids, and standard tests for oxygen flow measurements are also presented.

Mann, D. B.↗
NASA NTRS2008

Balanced Flow Measurement and Conditioning Technology (Balanced Orifice Plate 7,051,765 B1) for NASA Inventions and Contributions Board Invention of the Year Evaluation

This viewgraph document reviews the Balanced Flow Measurement (BFM) and Conditioning Technology, and makes the case for this as the NASA Invention of the Year. The BFM technology makes use of a thin, multi-hole orifice plate with holes sized and placed per a unique set of equations. It produces mass flow, volumetric flow,kinelic energy,or momentum BALANCE across the face of the plate. The flow is proportional.to the square root of upstream to downstream differential pressure. Multiple holes lead to smoother pressure measurement. Measures and conditions or can limit fluid flow. This innovation has many uses in and out of NASA.

Kelley, Anthony R.↗
DOE OSTI2020

Estimating perturbed stress from 3-D borehole displacements induced by fluid injection in fractured or faulted shales

SUMMARY Hydrofracturing stress measurements in fractured and anisotropic shales are notoriously difficult, because opening of existing geological features tends to prevent the creation of a pure hydraulic fracture perpendicular to the least compressive principal stress. Here we show how adding 3-D borehole-displacement measurements while conducting the hydraulic injection test helps to better constrain the principal stress orientations and magnitudes. We developed a 3-D fully coupled hydromechanical numerical model to analyse the displacement, fluid pressure and injection flow-rate data measured during an injection pressure-step-rate test conducted to activate a faulted borehole interval in the Mont Terri Opalinus Clay (Switzerland). We find that injected fluids can only penetrate the fault when it is at or above the Coulomb failure pressure. Borehole displacement orientations are sensitive to a ∼15° variation in the stress–tensor orientation and a 1 MPa stress magnitude variation. Although some dispersion occurs while rupture is propagating along the fault plane ∼4 m away from the borehole, the maximum density of displacement orientations consistently informs about the stress orientation. Thus, an extended injection step-rate approach coupled with an accurate in situ measurement of the borehole wall displacements can be used to better constrain the local stress field perturbations in fractured shales and in heterogeneous rock in general.

Guglielmi, Yves↗
NASA NTRS2006

Balanced Flow Metering and Conditioning: Technology for Fluid Systems

Revolutionary new technology that creates balanced conditions across the face of a multi-hole orifice plate has been developed, patented and exclusively licensed for commercialization. This balanced flow technology simultaneously measures mass flow rate, volumetric flow rate, and fluid density with little or no straight pipe run requirements. Initially, the balanced plate was a drop in replacement for a traditional orifice plate, but testing revealed substantially better performance as compared to the orifice plate such as, 10 times better accuracy, 2 times faster (shorter distance) pressure recovery, 15 times less acoustic noise energy generation, and 2.5 times less permanent pressure loss. During 2004 testing at MSFC, testing revealed several configurations of the balanced flow meter that match the accuracy of Venturi meters while having only slightly more permanent pressure loss. However, the balanced meter only requires a 0.25 inch plate and has no upstream or downstream straight pipe requirements. As a fluid conditioning device, the fluid usually reaches fully developed flow within 1 pipe diameter of the balanced conditioning plate. This paper will describe the basic balanced flow metering technology, provide performance details generated by testing to date and provide implementation details along with calculations required for differing degrees of flow metering accuracy.

Kelley, Anthony R.↗
NASA NTRS2003

Measurement System and Method

System and methods are disclosed for fluid measurements which may be utilized to determine mass flow rates such as instantaneous mass flow of a fluid stream. In a preferred embodiment, the present invention may be utilized to compare an input mass flow to an output mass flow of a drilling fluid circulation stream. In one embodiment, a fluid flow rate is determined by utilizing a microwave detector in combination with an acoustic sensor. The acoustic signal is utilized to eliminate 2pi phase ambiguities in a reflected microwave signal. In another embodiment, a fluid flow rate may be determined by detecting a phase shift of an acoustic signal across two different predetermined transmission paths. A fluid density may be determined by detecting a calibrated phase shift of an acoustic signal through the fluid. In another embodiment, a second acoustic signal may be transmitted through the fluid to define a particular 2pi phase range which defines the phase shift. The present invention may comprise multiple transmitters/receivers operating at different frequencies to measure instantaneous fuel levels of cryogenic fuels within containers positioned in zero or near zero gravity environments. In one embodiment, a moveable flexible collar of transmitter/receivers may be utilized to determine inhomogenuities within solid rocket fuel tubes.

G Dickey Arndt↗
NASA NTRS1985

High speed optical tomography for flow visualization

A novel optical architecture (based on holographic optical elements) for making high speed tomographic measurements is presented. The system is designed for making density or species concentration measurements in a nonsteady fluid or combusting flow. Performance evaluations of the optical system are discussed, and a test phase object has been successfully reconstructed using this optical arrangement.

Snyder, R.↗
NASA NTRS1987

High speed optical tomography for flow visualization

A novel optical architecture (based on holographic optical elements) for making high speed tomographic measurements is presented. The system is designed for making density or species concentration measurements in a nonsteady fluid or combustion flow. Performance evaluations of the optical system are discussed, and a test phase object was successfully reconstructed using this optical arrangement.

Snyder, Ray↗
NASA NTRS1982

The turbulent recirculating flow field in a coreless induction furnace. A comparison of theoretical predictions with measurements

A mathematical representation for the electromagnetic force field and the fluid flow field in a coreless induction furnace is presented. The fluid flow field was represented by writing the axisymmetric turbulent Navier-Stokes equation, containing the electromagnetic body force term. The electromagnetic body force field was calculated by using a technique of mutual inductances. The kappa-epsilon model was employed for evaluating the turbulent viscosity and the resultant differential equations were solved numerically. Theoretically predicted velocity fields are in reasonably good agreement with the experimental measurements reported by Hunt and Moore; furthermore, the agreement regarding the turbulent intensities are essentially quantitative. These results indicate that the kappa-epsilon model provides a good engineering representation of the turbulent recirculating flows occurring in induction furnaces. At this stage it is not clear whether the discrepancies between measurements and the predictions, which were not very great in any case, are attributable either to the model or to the measurement techniques employed.

El-Kaddah, N.↗
DOE OSTI2023

Tensor-based flow reconstruction from optimally located sensor measurements

Reconstructing high-resolution flow fields from sparse measurements is a major challenge in fluid dynamics. Existing methods often vectorize the flow by stacking different spatial directions on top of each other, hence confounding the information encoded in different dimensions. Here, we introduce a tensor-based sensor placement and flow reconstruction method which retains and exploits the inherent multidimensionality of the flow. We derive estimates for the flow reconstruction error, storage requirements and computational cost of our method. We show, with examples, that our tensor-based method is significantly more accurate than similar vectorized methods. Furthermore, the variance of the error is smaller when using our tensor-based method. While the computational cost of our method is comparable to similar vectorized methods, it reduces the storage cost by several orders of magnitude. The reduced storage cost becomes even more pronounced as the dimension of the flow increases. We demonstrate the efficacy of our method on three examples: a chaotic Kolmogorov flow, in situ and satellite measurements of the global sea surface temperature and three-dimensional unsteady simulated flow around a marine research vessel.

Mechanics↗
DOE OSTI2022

Outsourced hearing in an orb-weaving spider that uses its web as an auditory sensor

Hearing is a fundamental sense of many animals, including all mammals, birds, some reptiles, amphibians, fish, and arthropods. The auditory organs of these animals are extremely diverse in anatomy after hundreds of millions of years of evolution, yet all are made up of cellular tissue and are morphologically part of the bodies of animals. Here, we show that hearing in the orb-weaving spider Larinioides sclopetarius is not constrained by the organism’s body but is extended through outsourcing hearing to its extended phenotype, the proteinaceous, self-manufactured orb web. We find that the wispy, wheel-shaped orb web acts as a hyperacute acoustic antenna to capture the sound-induced air particle movements that approach the maximum physical efficiency better than the acoustic responsivity of all previously known eardrums. By sensing the motion of web threads, the spider remotely detects and localizes the source of an incoming airborne acoustic wave, such as those emitted by approaching prey or predators. By outsourcing its acoustic sensors to its web, the spider is released from body size constraints and permits the araneid spider to increase its sound-sensitive surface area enormously, up to 10,000 times greater than the spider itself. The spider also enables the flexibility to functionally adjust and regularly regenerate its external "eardrum" according to its needs. The outsourcing and supersizing of auditory function in spiders provides unique features for studying extended and regenerative sensing and designing novel acoustic flow detectors for precise fluid dynamic measurement and manipulation.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
NASA NTRS1977

Pseudo-backscatter laser Doppler velocimeter employing antiparallel-reflector in the forward direction

A laser Doppler velocimeter for measuring the velocity of a flowing fluid was discussed. It comprises laser means for providing first and second beams of collimated coherent monochromatic electromagnetic radiation which are focused to intersect at a predetermined location in a flowing fluid. The movement of the particles of the fluid serve to scatter radiation in substantially all directions. The scattered radiation is shifted in frequency from that of the first beam by an amount corresponding to the velocity of the fluid at the predetermined location. A corner cube is disposed generally forward of the predetermined location, the corner cube responding to a portion of the radiation scattered in the forward direction and being operative to reflect the portion in a direction substantially antiparallel to the forward direction.

Gunter, W. D., Jr.↗
NASA NTRS1979

Improved split-film vector anomometer

Split-film vector anemometer accurately measures magnitude and direction of fluid flow velocity in three-dimensional space using only one of three split films in three-prong split-film system. With procedure, one sensor develops all data previously required by three.

Scheiman, J.↗
NASA NTRS1987

The development of laser speckle or particle image displacement velocimetry. Part 1: The role of photographic parameters

One of the difficult problems in experimental fluid dynamics remains the determination of the vorticity field in fluid flows. Recently, a novel velocity measurement technique, commonly known as Laser Speckle or Particle Image Displacement Velocimetry became available. This technique permits the simultaneous visualization of the 2 dimensional streamline pattern in unsteady flows and the quantification of the velocity field. The main advantage of this new technique is that the whole 2 dimensional velocity field can be recorded with great accuracy and spatial resolution, from which the instantaneous vorticity field can be easily obtained. A apparatus used for taking particle displacement images is described. Local coherent illumination by the probe laser beam yielded Young's fringes of good quality at almost every location of the flow field. These fringes were analyzed and the velocity and vorticity fields were derived. Several conclusions drawn are discussed.

Lourenco, L. M. M.↗