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At least 1,639 records · Page 91

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NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Updates to Implicit Edge-Based Gradient Methods

In this paper, we report updates to the implicit edge-based gradient methods originally introduced in [H. Nishikawa, AIAA Paper 2020-3048, 2020]. First, we clarify the relationship between gradient accuracy and truncation error and show that the quadratic method involves a free parameter. Then, we provide a complete description and a simplified matrix form of the implicit gradient systems including a consistent boundary treatment, and derive a set of parameters for achieving fourth-order gradient accuracy on regular tetrahedral grids. A stability analysis is performed for a relaxation scheme used to solve the implicit gradient systems, and the result serves as a guide for choosing parameters. Numerical results are shown for accuracy verification and also for realistic inviscid flow problems in three dimensions, including flows with shock waves.

Weighted Least-Squares↗

NASA NTRS1982

Effects of rotation and magnetic field on the onset of convective instability in a liquid layer due to buoyancy and surface tension

Thermocapillary stability characteristics of a horizontal liquid layer heated from below rotating about a vertical axis and subjected to a uniform vertical magnetic field are analyzed under a variety of thermal and electromagnetic boundary conditions. Results based on analytical solutions to the pertinent eigenvalue problems are discussed in the light of earlier work on special cases of the more general problem considered here to show in particular the effects of the heat transfer, nonzero curvature and gravity waves at the two-fluid interface. Although the expected stabilizing action of the Coriolis and Lorentz force fields in this configuration are in evidence the optimal choice of an appropriate range for the relevant parameters is shown to be critically dependent on the interfacial effects mentioned above.

Sarma, G. S. R.↗

NASA NTRS2022

Interaction of a Tunnel-like Acoustic Disturbance Field with a Blunt Cone Boundary Layer at Mach 8

The existing measurements of laminar-to-turbulent transition over circular cones in conventional (i.e., “noisy”) hypersonic wind tunnels have established that the transition location moves downstream when the nose radius is increased from zero. However, this initially downstream movement slows down and ultimately reverses beyond a critical value of the nose radius, and may be related to external forcing in the form of freestream disturbances and/or surface roughness. To understand the effects of freestream acoustic disturbances on transition reversal over a blunt body, hypersonic boundary-layer receptivity to broadband freestream acoustic disturbances from the nozzle wall of a digital conventional wind tunnel is investigated by both direct numerical simulations (DNS) and modal and nonmodal stability analysis. A Mach 8 flow over a 7 deg half-angle cone with a nose radius of 𝑅 𝑛 = 5.2mm and freestream Reynolds number of 12.2 × 10 6 m -1 is considered. The results show that the broadband tunnel noise in the free stream of a convectional hypersonic wind tunnel (i.e., outside of the nozzle-wall turbulent boundary layer) can be well represented by an acoustic model with an ansatz of slow acoustic waves. With successful calibration of the model parameters against the precursor tunnel DNS, such an acoustic ansatz can successfully reproduce both the frequency-wavenumber spectra and the temporal evolution of the broadband tunnel noise radiated from the nozzle wall. Additionally, the DNS of the Mach 8 blunt cone with tunnel-like acoustic input above the bow shock showed that the spectra of wall-pressure and heat-transfer fluctuations recovers the signature of the axisymmetric waves predicted by the nonmodal analysis. Furthermore, the azimuthal wavenumber and frequency spectrum of the temperature fluctuations as a function of the wall-normal distance show higher amplitudes for three-dimensional waves above the boundary-layer edge. The numerical schlieren contours show the inclined structures commonly observed in blunt cone experiments, demonstrating that they correspond to three-dimensional structures due to freestream disturbances in the presence of an entropy layer.

Boundary-layer transition↗

NASA NTRS2022

Interaction of a Tunnel-like Acoustic Disturbance Field with a Blunt Cone Boundary Layer at Mach 8

Boundary layer transition↗

DOE OSTI2022

Deep Learning for Subgrid‐Scale Turbulence Modeling in Large‐Eddy Simulations of the Convective Atmospheric Boundary Layer

Abstract In large‐eddy simulations, subgrid‐scale (SGS) processes are parameterized as a function of filtered grid‐scale variables. First‐order, algebraic SGS models are based on the eddy‐viscosity assumption, which does not always hold for turbulence. Here we apply supervised deep neural networks (DNNs) to learn SGS stresses from a set of neighboring coarse‐grained velocity from direct numerical simulations of the convective boundary layer at friction Reynolds numbers Re τ up to 1243 without invoking the eddy‐viscosity assumption. The DNN model was found to produce higher correlation between SGS stresses compared to the Smagorinsky model and the Smagorinsky‐Bardina mixed model in the surface and mixed layers and can be applied to different grid resolutions and various stability conditions ranging from near neutral to very unstable. The DNN model can capture key statistics of turbulence in a posteriori (online) tests when applied to large‐eddy simulations of the atmospheric boundary layer.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

NASA NTRS2001

Icehouse Effect: A Selective Arctic Cooling Trend Current Models are Missing

The icehouse effect is a hypothesized climate feedback mechanism which could result in human-caused surface cooling trends in polar regions. Once understood in detail, it becomes apparent that these trends, which are discernable in the literature, but have been largely dismissed, do not conflict with the consensus assessment of the evidence, which infers century-scale Arctic warming. In fact, confirmation of the hypothesis would substantially strengthen the argument that there is a detectable human influence on today's climate. This apparent enigma is resolved only through careful attention to the detail of the hypothesis and the data supporting it. The posited surface cooling is entirely dependent on the existence of climate warming in layers capping the stable boundary layer. Also, the cooling is not pandemic, but is selective. It is readily revealed in properly sorted data by making use of the principles of micrometeorological similarity. Specifically, the cooling is manifest under a range of favorable turbulence conditions which can develop and disappear locally on time scales of minutes to hours because of the intrinsically intermittent nature of stable boundary layer turbulence. Because of the fine-scale nature of the processes which produce the cooling, modeling it is a difficult proposition. Vertical resolution on the order of 1 meter is required. Adequate models of intermittent surface fluxes coupled with radiation exchange do not currently exist, not as parameterizations for aggregated systems, nor in large eddy simulation (LES) models. This presentation will introduce the theory. An important testable null hypothesis emerges: the icehouse effect produces a unique signature or "fingerprint" which could not be produced by any other known process. The presence of this signature will be demonstrated using nearly all available Arctic temperature observations. Its aggregate effect is clearly found in Arctic monthly surface temperature trends when sorted by climatological stability. Using all available Arctic rawinsonde ascents - about 1.1 million profiles, "frozen moments" of the icehouse processes are captured in various states. Because turbulent time scales are so short in the stable boundary layer. each of these snapshots can be treated as independent -- their chronology is irrelevant. Micrometeorological similarity is invoked to reassemble the soundings into bins of similar stability and it is in a wide, coherent range of these stability bins where the cooling effect is revealed.

Wetzel, Peter J.↗

DOE OSTI2021

Resistive wall mode stability and resonant field amplification in MAST high beta plasma

The n=1 (n is the toroidal mode number) resistive wall mode (RWM) instability and the resonant field amplification (RFA) due to a stable RWM response are numerically investigated for a MAST high-pressure plasma scenario, utilizing the MARS-F (Liu Y.Q. et al 2000 Phys. Plasmas 7 3681) and MARS-K (Liu Y.Q. et al 2008 Phys. Plasmas 15 112503) codes, for the purpose of understanding the potential RWM behavior in MAST-U plasmas. Ideal kink stability analysis identifies a target plasma, with parameters similar to that of the reference equilibrium reconstructed from a MAST high-pressure discharge, that accesses the RWM regime. The unstable n=1 RWM for the target equilibrium is subject to strong damping by the plasma toroidal flow and/or the drift kinetic effects from thermal particles. As a result, the mode is found to be stable under the experimental flow conditions, or even without flow stabilization if drift kinetic stabilization is included. The stability prediction is robust against variation of the assumed resistive wall minor radius. Active magneto-hydrodynamic (MHD) spectroscopy modeling, using the magnetic coils designed for controlling the edge localized modes (ELMs) in MAST-U as the antenna, shows strong resonant field amplification due to a stable RWM response in the target plasma. Maximal amplification, of 6-7 times larger than the applied vacuum field within the plasma, is obtained assuming a coil phasing of 120-180 degrees between the upper and lower rows of the ELM control coils. The MHD-kinetic hybrid model predicts generally higher RFA than the fluid model, in particular near the low-field and high-field sides of the plasma boundary surface. Furthermore, the MARS-F/K modeling thus shows that the RWM in MAST-U is subject to strong flow and kinetic stabilization, but can nevertheless be detected by active MHD spectroscopy.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

DOE OSTI2021

Critical cooling rates for amorphous-to-ordered complexion transitions in Cu-rich nanocrystalline alloys

Amorphous complexions in nanocrystalline metals have the potential to improve mechanical properties and radiation tolerance, as well as resistance to grain growth. In this study, the stability of amorphous complexions in binary and ternary Cu-based alloys is investigated by observing the effect of cooling rate from high temperature on the occurrence of amorphous-to-ordered complexion transitions. Bulk Cu-Zr and Cu-Zr-Hf alloy samples were annealed to induce boundary premelting and then quenched through a procedure that induces a gradient of local cooling rate through the sample height. Amorphous complexion thickness distributions were found to be invariant to local cooling rate in the Cu-Zr-Hf alloy, demonstrating enhanced stability of the amorphous complexion structure compared to the Cu-Zr alloy, which had thinner amorphous complexions in the regions that were slowly cooled. The experimental results are used to construct time-temperature-transformation diagrams for the amorphous-to-ordered complexion transition in both the binary and ternary alloys, enabling a deeper understanding of the influence of cooling rate and grain boundary chemistry on complexion transitions. In conclusion, the critical cooling rate necessary to avoid complexion transitions in the ternary alloy is found to be at least three orders of magnitude slower than that for the binary alloy.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

NASA NTRS1966

A Supersonic/Hypersonic Aerodynamic Investigation of the Saturn 1B/Apollo Upper Stage

The static stability and axial force characteristics of an upper stage Saturn 1B/Apollo model were investigated in a series of wind tunnel tests at Mach numbers between 1. 93 and 8. 05. This report presents and analyzes the results of these small-scale studies. Test procedures and models are described, and consideration of boundary layer characteristics and violated modeling rules yields an assessment of the validity of the data. Four basic models provided evaluation of the basic launch vehicle characteristics, as well as the effects of two modes of mission abort and jettison of the launch escape system. The launch configuration experienced sudden, strong changes in stability derivatives and axial force coefficients near Mach 5. No similar changes were observed on the other configurations. Effects of Reynolds number, Mach number and boundary layer trips were obtained for each shape. The faired curves are believed to be valid for full-scale flight of the Saturn 1B/Apollo upper stage.

Source record↗

NASA NTRS1985

Experiments on the stability of crossflow vortices in swept-wing flows

Experiments are conducted which demonstrate the feasibility of creating crossflow vortices in a flat-plate flow. A swept leading edge and contoured wind-tunnel walls produce a strong pressure gradient and a typical swept-wing flow on the plate. Detailed three-dimensional measurements, made within the boundary layer using hot-wire anemometry, are supplemented with different flow-visualization techniques. Data are presented on the mean flow characteristics as well as on the behavior of the crossflow vortices. Comparisons are made with theoretical flow-field and stability calculations.

Saric, W. S.↗

NASA NTRS1998

Development of an Experimental Data Base to Validate Compressor-Face Boundary Conditions Used in Unsteady Inlet Flow Computations

The ability to predict the dynamics of integrated inlet/compressor systems is an important part of designing high-speed propulsion systems. The boundaries of the performance envelope are often defined by undesirable transient phenomena in the inlet (unstart, buzz, etc.) in response to disturbances originated either in the engine or in the atmosphere. Stability margins used to compensate for the inability to accurately predict such processes lead to weight and performance penalties, which translate into a reduction in vehicle range. The prediction of transients in an inlet/compressor system requires either the coupling of two complex, unsteady codes (one for the inlet and one for the engine) or else a reliable characterization of the inlet/compressor interface, by specifying a boundary condition. In the context of engineering development programs, only the second option is viable economically. Computations of unsteady inlet flows invariably rely on simple compressor-face boundary conditions (CFBC's). Currently, customary conditions include choked flow, constant static pressure, constant axial velocity, constant Mach number or constant mass flow per unit area. These conditions are straightforward extensions of practices that are valid for and work well with steady inlet flows. Unfortunately, it is not at all likely that any flow property would stay constant during a complex system transient. At the start of this effort, no experimental observation existed that could be used to formulate of verify any of the CFBC'S. This lack of hard information represented a risk for a development program that has been recognized to be unacceptably large. The goal of the present effort was to generate such data. Disturbances reaching the compressor face in flight may have complex spatial structures and temporal histories. Small amplitude disturbances may be decomposed into acoustic, vorticity and entropy contributions that are uncoupled if the undisturbed flow is uniform. This study is focused on the response of an inlet/compressor system to acoustic disturbances. From the viewpoint of inlet computations, acoustic disturbances are clearly the most important, since they are the only ones capable of moving upstream. Convective and entropy disturbances may also produce upstream-moving acoustic waves, but such processes are outside the scope of the present study.

Sajben, Miklos↗

DOE OSTI2020

Enzymatic degradation of liquid droplets of DNA is modulated near the phase boundary

Significance Biomolecules, such as proteins or nucleic acids, can condense into liquid droplets whose biological or technological function depends on interactions with other solutes. We explore such interactions using a system of self-assembled DNA particles that forms liquid droplets which are degraded by an active solute, a restriction enzyme. We find that enzymes are able to penetrate the droplets when the liquid is poised near the phase boundary, enhancing the degradation rate and, in certain cases, causing internal bubbling. These results point to a complex interplay of phase stability and solute transport in liquid–liquid phase-separating macromolecular systems.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

NASA NTRS1971

Concerning the origin of novae and U Geminorum stars

The dynamical stability of the contact component in a semi-detached binary system is investigated by a linear time dependent analysis. The boundary condition imposed on the photosphere by the Roche lobe is assumed to be one of constant pressure over the whole surface of the lobe, which is treated as being spherically symmetric. The eigenvalues of the linear equation of motion are evaluated for sequences of stellar envelope models under the constraint of this boundary condition. An extensive region in the Hertzprung-Russell diagram is found to be dynamically unstable. This region coincides almost precisely with that predicted by a previous quasi-static study. Time scales for the growth of the instability are also evaluated. Color observations of several novae and U Geminorum stars are discussed in an attempt to provide semi-empirical tests of the proposed theoretical model of the outbursts. In particular the track in the H-R diagram of the U Geminorum star, EM Cygni, is shown to be consistent with an outburst which is purely a temperature change at constant radius, as is demanded by the theory.

Bath, G. T.↗

NASA NTRS1974

Some aspects of flox-methane rocket engine throttling

Four injector designs and two chamber profiles were experimentally evaluated for structural integrity, combustion efficiency, and resistance to combustion instabilities. Vacuum thrust measurements were used as a primary measure of combustion efficiency. Stability rating to test the sensitivity of the injectors to high frequency combustion was conducted, but not extensively. To map the boundary between stable operation and chugging instability, chamber pressure was throttled downward from 689.5 to 206.9 kN/sq m abs (100 to 30 psia). Best operational results were obtained with an injector configuration having no hydraulic swirlers, a 0.00102-m (0.040-in.) recessed FLOX tube, and a nonflared exit in the methane annulus. This injector design exhibited stable combustion and good integrity of hardware, and it exceeded the design goal efficiency (88 percent) at the 10 to 1 throttled condition.

Sokolowski, D. E.↗

NASA NTRS1974

The internal structure of the convective envelope of the sun

An axisymmetric hydrodynamic model of the sun consisting of a core at radiant equilibrium and a convective envelope is studied with consideration of gravitational forces, rotation, turbulence effects, and electromagnetic forces. The dimensionless parameters that control the equations of plasma motion within the sun and the boundary conditions are investigated; estimates are given for these parameters on the basis of experimental data and the existing theoretical models. Stability conditions are derived for convective equilibrium, developed cellular convection, and developed turbulent convection with consideration of rotation and turbulent Reynolds stresses. These conditions characterize the possible physical state of the matter in the convective envelope. Using estimates of the dimensionless parameters and models of some of them, a method of successive approximations is proposed for solution of the problem as a whole.

Yavorskaya, I. M.↗

NASA NTRS1980

Stability of several oxide dispersion strengthened alloys and a directionally solidified gamma/gamma prime-alpha eutectic alloy in a thermal gradient

Thermal gradient testing of three oxide dispersion strengthened alloys (two Ni-base alloys, MA 754 and MA 6000 E, and the Fe-base MA 956) and the directionally solidified eutectic alloy, gamma/gamma prime-alpha, have been conducted. Experiments were carried out with maximum temperatures up to 1200 C and thermal gradients on the order of 100 C/mm. The oxide dispersion strengthened alloys were difficult to test because the thermal stresses promoted crack nucleation and growth; thus the ability of these alloys to maintain a thermal gradient may be limited. The stability of individual fibers in gamma/gamma prime-alpha was excellent; however, microstructural changes were observed in the vicinity of grain boundaries. Similar structures were also observed in isothermally annealed material; therefore thermal gradients do not affect the microstructure of gamma/gamma prime-alpha in any significant manner.

Staniek, G.↗

NASA NTRS1981

Amplified crossflow disturbances in the laminar boundary layer on swept wings with suction

Solution charts of the Orr-Sommerfeld equation for stationary crossflow disturbances are presented for 10 typical velocity profiles on a swept laminar flow control wing. The critical crossflow Reynolds number is shown to be a function of a boundary layer shape factor. Amplification rates for crossflow disturbances are shown to be proportional to the maximum crossflow velocity. A computer stability program called MARIA, employing the amplification rate data for the 10 crossflow velocity profiles, is constructed. This code is shown to adequately approximate more involved computer stability codes using less than two percent as much computer time while retaining the essential physical disturbance growth model.

Dagenhart, J. R.↗

NASA NTRS1981

Influence of exit impedance on finite difference solutions of transient acoustic mode propagation in ducts

The cutoff mode instability problem associated with a transient finite difference solution to the wave equation is explained. The steady-state impedance boundary condition is found to produce acoustic reflections during the initial transient, which cause finite instabilities in the cutoff modes. The stability problem is resolved by extending the duct length to prevent transient reflections. Numerical calculations are presented at forcing frequencies above, below, and nearly at the cutoff frequency, and exit impedance models are presented for use in the practical design of turbofan inlets.

Baumeister, K. J.↗