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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 19 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2015

The Constrained Vapor Bubble Experiment - Interfacial Flow Region

Internal heat transfer coefficient of the CVB correlated to the presence of the interfacial flow region. Competition between capillary and Marangoni flow caused Flooding and not a Dry-out region. Interfacial flow region growth is arrested at higher power inputs. 1D heat model confirms the presence of interfacial flow region. 1D heat model confirms the arresting phenomena of interfacial flow region Visual observations are essential to understanding.

microgravity↗
DOE OSTI2015

Recent numerical and algorithmic advances within the volume tracking framework for modeling interfacial flows

A review of recent advances made in numerical methods and algorithms within the volume tracking framework is presented. The volume tracking method, also known as the volume-of-fluid method has become an established numerical approach to model and simulate interfacial flows. Its advantage is its strict mass conservation. However, because the interface is not explicitly tracked but captured via the material volume fraction on a fixed mesh, accurate estimation of the interface position, its geometric properties and modeling of interfacial physics in the volume tracking framework remain difficult. Several improvements have been made over the last decade to address these challenges. In this study, the multimaterial interface reconstruction method via power diagram, curvature estimation via heights and mean values and the balanced-force algorithm for surface tension are highlighted.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
NASA NTRS2023

Heat Transfer and Interfacial Flow Physics of Microgravity Flow Boiling in Single-Side-Heated Rectangular Channel with Subcooled Inlet Conditions – Experiments Onboard the International Space Station

This study is the culmination of a long-term collaborative effort between researchers from the Purdue University Boiling and Two-Phase Flow Laboratory (PU-BTPFL) and the NASA Glenn Research Center to investigate gravitational effects on flow boiling and flow condensation. The science and design concepts for this large-scale effort were initiated in 2011 and included several studies detailing various aspects of two-phase fluid physics in both Earth gravity and microgravity, culminating in construction of the large-scale experimental facility named “Flow Boiling and Condensation Experiment (FBCE)”. The experiment was launched to the International Space Station (ISS) in August 2021. Following the successful installation of FBCE, equipped with the Flow Boiling Module (FBM), onboard the ISS and completion of several safety checks, flow boiling experiments were performed for five months from February 2022 until July 2022. This resulted in a large flow boiling database covering broad ranges of operating parameters and heating configurations spanning several research objectives. This study investigates microgravity flow boiling of n-perfluorohexane with subcooled inlet in a single-side-heated rectangular channel of dimensions 114.6-mm heated length, 2.5-mm heated width, and 5.0-mm height. Key operating parameters investigated are mass velocity (199.90 – 3200.13 kg/m 2 s), inlet subcooling (0.10 – 45.76°C), and inlet pressure (113.30 – 164.29 kPa). Images and image sequences acquired via high-speed-video are presented to elucidate the interfacial flow physics. To analyze and explain the effects of various parameters in microgravity, heat transfer results are presented as flow boiling curves, streamwise profiles of wall temperature and heat transfer coefficient, and parametric trends of local and averaged heat transfer coefficient. Mass velocity and inlet subcooling significantly influenced most of the aforementioned aspects of flow boiling, whereas effects of inlet pressure were comparatively insignificant. Although the data and observed flow physics might be different, the parametric effects and trends in microgravity are similar to vertical upflow in Earth gravity. Some cases, especially low mass velocities, high heat fluxes, and large degrees of inlet subcooling, experienced temporally anomalous flow behaviors caused by two-phase flow instabilities manifesting as flow reversals and resulted in deviations in overall trends. Severe thermodynamic non-equilibrium is observed throughout the channel. Overall, FBCE’s ISS experiments were successful for subcooled inlet with single-sided heating of rectangular channel, and the collected data well established the various effects on flow boiling physics in highly controlled long-term microgravity conditions.

flow boiling↗
DOE OSTI2017

A finite-volume HLLC-based scheme for compressible interfacial flows with surface tension

Shock waves are often used in experiments to create a shear flow across liquid droplets to study secondary atomization. Similar behavior occurs inside of supersonic combustors (scramjets) under startup conditions, but it is challenging to study these conditions experimentally. In order to investigate this phenomenon further, a numerical approach is developed to simulate compressible multiphase flows under the effects of surface tension forces. The flow field is solved via the compressible multicomponent Euler equations (i.e., the five equation model) discretized with the finite volume method on a uniform Cartesian grid. The solver utilizes a total variation diminishing (TVD) third-order Runge–Kutta method for time-marching and second order TVD spatial reconstruction. Surface tension is incorporated using the Continuum Surface Force (CSF) model. Fluxes are upwinded with a modified Harten–Lax–van Leer Contact (HLLC) approximate Riemann solver. An interface compression scheme is employed to counter numerical diffusion of the interface. The present work includes modifications to both the HLLC solver and the interface compression scheme to account for capillary force terms and the associated pressure jump across the gas–liquid interface. A simple method for numerically computing the interface curvature is developed and an acoustic scaling of the surface tension coefficient is proposed for the non-dimensionalization of the model. The model captures the surface tension induced pressure jump exactly if the exact curvature is known and is further verified with an oscillating elliptical droplet and Mach 1.47 and 3 shock-droplet interaction problems. The general characteristics of secondary atomization at a range of Weber numbers are also captured in a series of simulations.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
NASA NTRS1996

Time-Dependent Thermally-Driven Interfacial Flows in Multilayered Fluid Structures

A computational study of thermally-driven convection in multilayered fluid structures will be performed to examine the effect of interactions among deformable fluid-fluid interfaces on the structure of time-dependent flow in these systems. Multilayered fluid structures in two models configurations will be considered: the differentially heated rectangular cavity with a free surface, and the encapsulated cylindrical liquid bridge. An extension of a numerical method developed as part of our recent NASA Fluid Physics grant will be used to account for finite deformations of fluid-fluid interfaces.

Haj-Hariri, Hossein↗
NASA NTRS1997

Instability Mechanisms of Thermally-Driven Interfacial Flows in Liquid-Encapsulated Crystal Growth

During the past year, a great deal of effort was focused on the enhancement and refinement of the computational tools developed as part of our previous NASA grant. In particular, the interface mollification algorithm developed earlier was extended to incorporate the effects of surface-rheological properties in order to allow the study of thermocapillary flows in the presence of surface contamination. These tools will be used in the computational component of the proposed research in the remaining years of this grant. A detailed description of the progress made in this area is provided elsewhere. Briefly, the method developed allows for the convection and diffusion of bulk-insoluble surfactants on a moving and deforming interface. The novelty of the method is its grid independence: there is no need for front tracking, surface reconstruction, body-fitted grid generation, or metric evaluations; these are all very expensive computational tasks in three dimensions. For small local radii of curvature there is a need for local grid adaption so that the smearing thickness remains a small fraction of the radius of curvature. A special Neumann boundary condition was devised and applied so that the calculated surfactant concentration has no variations normal to the interface, and it is hence truly a surface-defined quantity. The discretized governing equations are solved subsequently using a time-split integration scheme which updates the concentration and the shape successively. Results demonstrate excellent agreement between the computed and exact solutions.

Haj-Hariri, Hossein↗
DOE OSTI2017

Non-Darcy interfacial dynamics of air-water two-phase flow in rough fractures under drainage conditions

Two-phase flow interfacial dynamics in rough fractures is fundamental to understanding fluid transport in fractured media. The Haines jump of non-Darcy flow in porous media has been investigated at pore scales, but its fundamental processes in rough fractures remain unclear. In this study, the micron-scale Haines jump of the air-water interface in rough fractures was investigated under drainage conditions, with the air-water interface tracked using dyed water and an imaging system. The results indicate that the interfacial velocities represent significant Haines jumps when the meniscus passes from a narrow "throat" to a wide "body", with jump velocities as high as five times the bulk drainage velocity. Locally, each velocity jump corresponds to a fracture aperture variation; statistically, the velocity variations follow an exponential function of the aperture variations at a length scale of ~100 µm to ~100 mm. This spatial-scale-invariant correlation may indicate that the high-speed local velocities during the Haines jump would not average out spatially for a bulk system. The results may help in understanding the origin of interface instabilities and the resulting non-uniform phase distribution, as well as the micron-scale essence of the spatial and temporal instability of two-phase flow in fractured media at the macroscopic scale.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2018

A Numerical Study of Two-Phase Flow and Interfacial Mass Transfer in a Wetted Wall Column for Counter-Current Gas Absorption

We present a numerical study to investigate the effects of surface waves of falling films on the mass transfer from flowing gas phase into the liquid film. The model employs the volume of fluid method to explicitly track the gas-liquid phase interface and a one-fluid formulation to model the multiphase flow coupled with mass transfer between the two phases. The surface waves are generated by the time-varying injection rate of the falling film. The effects of surface wave frequencies and amplitudes on the overall mass transfer also are investigated for a counter-current gas-liquid flow of oxygen and water. Because of the solubility difference in the two phases, the model can capture the concentration discontinuity across the liquid-gas interface. Good agreement is obtained between the numerical results and experimental data reported in the literature. By systematically varying the frequencies and amplitudes of flow rate for the falling film, the surface waves generated on the film surface enhance mass transfer in general. Here, the model prediction shows a proportional increase in mass transfer for small frequencies of surface waves, but saturation at higher frequencies.

42 ENGINEERING↗
NASA NTRS2000

Fast Particle Methods for Multiscale Phenomena Simulations

We are developing particle methods oriented at improving computational modeling capabilities of multiscale physical phenomena in : (i) high Reynolds number unsteady vortical flows, (ii) particle laden and interfacial flows, (iii)molecular dynamics studies of nanoscale droplets and studies of the structure, functions, and evolution of the earliest living cell. The unifying computational approach involves particle methods implemented in parallel computer architectures. The inherent adaptivity, robustness and efficiency of particle methods makes them a multidisciplinary computational tool capable of bridging the gap of micro-scale and continuum flow simulations. Using efficient tree data structures, multipole expansion algorithms, and improved particle-grid interpolation, particle methods allow for simulations using millions of computational elements, making possible the resolution of a wide range of length and time scales of these important physical phenomena.The current challenges in these simulations are in : [i] the proper formulation of particle methods in the molecular and continuous level for the discretization of the governing equations [ii] the resolution of the wide range of time and length scales governing the phenomena under investigation. [iii] the minimization of numerical artifacts that may interfere with the physics of the systems under consideration. [iv] the parallelization of processes such as tree traversal and grid-particle interpolations We are conducting simulations using vortex methods, molecular dynamics and smooth particle hydrodynamics, exploiting their unifying concepts such as : the solution of the N-body problem in parallel computers, highly accurate particle-particle and grid-particle interpolations, parallel FFT's and the formulation of processes such as diffusion in the context of particle methods. This approach enables us to transcend among seemingly unrelated areas of research.

Koumoutsakos, P.↗
DOE OSTI2025

Sharp front tracking with geometric interface reconstruction

Here, this paper presents a novel sharp front-tracking method designed to address limitations in classical front-tracking approaches, specifically their reliance on smooth interpolation kernels and extended stencils for coupling the front and fluid mesh. In contrast, the proposed method employs exclusively sharp, localized interpolation and spreading kernels, restricting the coupling to the interfacial fluid cells–those containing the interface/front. This localized coupling is achieved by integrating a divergence-preserving velocity interpolation method with a piecewise parabolic interface calculation (PPIC) and a polyhedron intersection algorithm to compute the indicator function and local interface curvature. Surface tension is computed using the Continuum Surface Force (CSF) method, maintaining consistency with the sharp representation. Additionally, we propose an efficient local roughness smoothing implementation to account for surface mesh undulations, which is easily applicable to any triangulated surface mesh. Building on our previous work, the primary innovation of this study lies in the localization of the coupling for both the indicator function and surface tension calculations. By reducing the interface thickness on the fluid mesh to a single cell, as opposed to the 4–5 cell spans typical in classical methods, the proposed sharp front-tracking method achieves a highly localized and accurate representation of the interface. This sharper representation mitigates parasitic currents and improves force balancing, making it particularly suitable for scenarios where the interface plays a critical role, such as microfluidics, fluid-fluid interactions, and fluid-structure interactions. The proposed method is comprehensively validated and tested on canonical interfacial flow problems, including stationary and translating Laplace equilibria, oscillating droplets, and rising bubbles. The presented results demonstrate that the sharp front-tracking method significantly outperforms the classical approach in terms of accuracy, stability, and computational efficiency. Notably, parasitic currents are reduced by approximately two orders of magnitude and stable results are obtained for parameter ranges where classical front tracking fails to converge.

42 ENGINEERING↗
NASA NTRS2001

Microgravity Combustion Science and Fluid Physics Experiments and Facilities for the ISS

At the NASA Glenn Research Center, the Microgravity Science Program supports both ground-based and flight experiment research in the disciplines of Combustion Science and Fluid Physics. Combustion Science research includes the areas of gas jet diffusion flames, laminar flames, burning of droplets and misting fuels, solids and materials flammability, fire and fire suppressants, turbulent combustion, reaction kinetics, materials synthesis, and other combustion systems. The Fluid Physics discipline includes the areas of complex fluids (colloids, gels, foams, magneto-rheological fluids, non-Newtonian fluids, suspensions, granular materials), dynamics and instabilities (bubble and drop dynamics, magneto/electrohydrodynamics, electrochemical transport, geophysical flows), interfacial phenomena (wetting, capillarity, contact line hydrodynamics), and multiphase flows and phase changes (boiling and condensation, heat transfer, flow instabilities). A specialized International Space Station (ISS) facility that provides sophisticated research capabilities for these disciplines is the Fluids and Combustion Facility (FCF). The FCF consists of the Combustion Integrated Rack (CIR), the Fluids Integrated Rack (FIR) and the Shared Accommodations Rack and is designed to accomplish a large number of science investigations over the life of the ISS. The modular, multiuser facility is designed to optimize the science return within the available resources of on-orbit power, uplink/downlink capacity, crew time, upmass/downmass, volume, etc. A suite of diagnostics capabilities, with emphasis on optical techniques, will be provided to complement the capabilities of the subsystem multiuser or principal investigator-specific experiment modules. The paper will discuss the systems concept, technical capabilities, functionality, and the initial science investigations in each discipline.

Lauver, Richard W.↗
NASA NTRS1993

On the nonlinear interfacial instability of rotating core-annular flow

The interfacial stability of rotating core-annular flows is investigated. The linear and nonlinear effects are considered for the case when the annular region is very thin. Both asymptotic and numerical methods are used to solve the flow in the core and film regions which are coupled by a difference in viscosity and density. The long-term behavior of the fluid-fluid interface is determined by deriving its nonlinear evolution in the form of a modified Kuramoto-Sivashinsky equation. We obtain a generalization of this equation to three dimensions. The flows considered are applicable to a wide array of physical problems where liquid films are used to lubricate higher or lower viscosity core fluids, for which a concentric arrangement is desired. Linearized solutions show that the effects of density and viscosity stratification are crucial to the stability of the interface. Rotation generally destabilizes non-axisymmetric disturbances to the interface, whereas the centripetal forces tend to stabilize flows in which the film contains the heavier fluid. Nonlinear affects allow finite amplitude helically travelling waves to exist when the fluids have different viscosities.

Coward, Aidrian V.↗
DOE OSTI2016

The Noble-Abel Stiffened-Gas equation of state

Hyperbolic two-phase flow models have shown excellent ability for the resolution of a wide range of applications ranging from interfacial flows to fluid mixtures with several velocities. These models account for waves propagation (acoustic and convective) and consist in hyperbolic systems of partial differential equations. In this context, each phase is compressible and needs an appropriate convex equation of state (EOS). The EOS must be simple enough for intensive computations as well as boundary conditions treatment. It must also be accurate, this being challenging with respect to simplicity. In the present approach, each fluid is governed by a novel EOS named “Noble Abel stiffened gas,” this formulation being a significant improvement of the popular “Stiffened Gas (SG)” EOS. It is a combination of the so-called “Noble-Abel” and “stiffened gas” equations of state that adds repulsive effects to the SG formulation. The determination of the various thermodynamic functions and associated coefficients is the aim of this article. We first use thermodynamic considerations to determine the different state functions such as the specific internal energy, enthalpy, and entropy. Then we propose to determine the associated coefficients for a liquid in the presence of its vapor. The EOS parameters are determined from experimental saturation curves. Some examples of liquid-vapor fluids are examined and associated parameters are computed with the help of the present method. Comparisons between analytical and experimental saturation curves show very good agreement for wide ranges of temperature for both liquid and vapor.

42 ENGINEERING↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Flow Boiling and Condensation Experiment: Flow Boiling in a Rectangular Channel with Subcooled Inlet Conditions in Microgravity

Two-phase thermal management subsystems that take advantage of both the sensible and latent heat of a working fluid can potentially yield significant enhancements in overall performance by adopting heat transfer processes that are based on phase transition like boiling and condensation. Performance of terrestrial two-phase flow systems may be predictable because the hydrodynamic and body forces are understood, however, in microgravity, which is predominant during planetary space travel, forces that are masked by the strong body force on Earth (gravitational or buoyancy force) reappear with different magnitude and influence. The need arose for a facility that provides for two-phase flow with phase transition testing in microgravity. The Flow Boiling and Condensation Experiment (FBCE) is a facility that was launched to the International Space Station in August of 2021 and is in operation since February of 2022. This facility enables investigators to perform two-phase flow and phase transition research in flow boiling and condensation. Along with the test module that is experiment specific, the FBCE system consists of the fluid, avionics, and software subsystems. Currently two test modules, namely, the Flow Boiling Module (FBM) and the Condensation Module for Heat Transfer (CM-HT) are available. A third module, the Transfer Line test Module (TL) is being developed. The fluid subsystem conditions and delivers the fluid at the desired thermodynamic state to the test module. It consists of two fluid modules and a heater module that are connected by flex hoses for fluid circulation and by data and electrical cables for control and data acquisition. Two avionics modules acquire pressure and temperature data from various sensors in the flow loop. For FBM, a high-speed camera is available to acquire images of the boiling process. Experiments are operated autonomously by software and are based on an Experiment Parameters Master Table (EPMT) that is uploaded to ISS and is executed by the FBCE flight software. This presentation briefly introduces the objectives of FBCE and provides a system description of the experiment onboard of the ISS/Fluid Integrated Rack (FIR). Results of the test campaign carried out using the FBM are presented. Specifically, microgravity flow boiling of n-perfluorohexane (test fluid) is discussed with subcooled inlet conditions in a single-side-heated rectangular channel of dimensions 114.6-mm heated length, 2.5-mm heated width, and 5.0-mm height. Key operating parameters investigated are mass velocity (199.90 – 3200.13 kg/m2s), inlet subcooling (0.10 – 45.76°C), and inlet pressure (113.30 – 164.29 kPa). Image sequences acquired via high-speed-video are shown to elucidate the interfacial flow physics. The effects of various parameters on flow boiling heat transfer in microgravity, from the onset of boiling to the critical heat flux are discussed. Heat transfer results are presented in terms of flow boiling curves, streamwise profiles of wall temperature and heat transfer coefficient, and parametric trends of local and averaged heat transfer coefficient, and the critical heat flux.

Two-phase flow and phase transition↗
DOE OSTI2019

Tricoupled hybrid lattice Boltzmann model for nonisothermal drying of colloidal suspensions in micropore structures

A tricoupled hybrid lattice Boltzmann model (LBM) is developed to simulate colloidal liquid evaporation and colloidal particle deposition during the nonisothermal drying of colloidal suspensions in micropore structures. An entropic multiple-relaxation-time multirange pseudopotential two-phase LBM for isothermal interfacial flow is first coupled to an extended temperature equation for simulating nonisothermal liquid drying. Then the coupled model is further coupled with a modified convection diffusion equation to consider the nonisothermal drying of colloidal suspensions. Two drying examples are considered. First, drying of colloidal suspensions in a two-pillar micropore structure is simulated in two dimensions (2D), and the final configuration of colloidal particles is compared with the experimental one. Good agreement is observed. Second, at the temperature of 343.15 K ( 70°C ), drying of colloidal suspensions in a complex spiral-shaped micropore structure containing 220 pillars is simulated (also in 2D). The drying pattern follows the designed spiral shape due to capillary pumping, i.e., transport of the liquid from larger pores to smaller ones by capillary pressure difference. Because the colloidal particles are passively carried with liquid, they accumulate at the small menisci as drying proceeds. As liquid evaporates at the small menisci, colloidal particles are deposited, eventually forming solid structures between the pillars (primarily), and at the base of the pillars (secondarily). As a result, the particle deposition conforms to the spiral route. Qualitatively, the simulated liquid and particle configurations agree well with the experimental ones during the entire drying process. Quantitatively, the model demonstrates that the evaporation rate and the particle accumulation rate slowly decrease during drying, similar to what is seen in the experimental results, which is due to the reduction of the liquid-vapor interfacial area. In conclusion, the hybrid model shows the capability and accuracy for simulating nonisothermal drying of colloidal suspensions in a complex micropore structure both qualitatively and quantitatively, as it includes all the required physics and captures all the complex features observed experimentally. Such a tricoupled LBM has a high potential to become an efficient numerical tool for further investigation of real and complex engineering problems incorporating drying of colloidal suspensions in porous media.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗