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At least 235 records · Page 13

Investigating the Origins of Cyclic Variability in Internal Combustion Engines Using Wall-Resolved Large Eddy Simulations

Modern internal combustion engines (ICE) operate at the ragged edge of stable operation characterized by high cycle-to-cycle variations (CCV). A key scientific challenge for ICE is the understanding, modeling, and control of CCV in engine performance, which can contribute to partial burns, misfire, and knock. The objective of this study is to use high-fidelity numerical simulations to improve the understanding of the causes of CCV. Nek5000, a leading high-order spectral element, open source code, is used to simulate the turbulent flow in the engine combustion chamber. Multicycle, wall-resolved large-eddy simulations (LESs) are performed for the General Motors (GM), Transparent Combustion Chamber (TCC-III) optical engine under motored operating conditions. The mean and root-mean-square (rms) of the in-cylinder flow fields at various piston positions are validated using particle image velocimetry (PIV) measurements during the intake and compression strokes. The large-scale flow structures, including the swirl and tumble flow patterns, are analyzed in detail and the causes for cyclic variabilities in these flow features are explained. The energy distribution across the different scales of the flow are quantified using one-dimensional (1D) energy spectra, and the effect of the tumble breakdown process on the energy distribution is examined. Finally, the insights from this study can help us develop improved engine designs with reduced cyclic variabilities in the in-cylinder flow leading to enhanced engine performance.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗

Benchmark study of the DTU OWC chamber with both two-way and one-way absorption

This paper reports on a benchmark study based on small-scale (1:50) measurements of a single, oscillating water column chamber mounted sideways in a long flume. The geometry of the OWC chamber is extracted from a barge-like, attenuator-type floating concept “KNSwing” with 40 chambers targeted for deployment in the Danish part of the North Sea. In addition to traditional two-way energy extraction we also consider one-way energy extraction with passive venting and compare chamber response, pressures and total absorbed energy between the two methods. A blind study was established for the numerical modeling, with participants applying several implementations of weakly nonlinear potential flow theory and commercial Navier–Stokes solvers (CFD). Both compressible and incompressible models were used for the air phase. Potential flow calculations predict more energy absorption near the chamber resonance for one-way absorption than for two-way absorption, but the opposite is found from the experimental measurements. This outcome is mainly attributed to energy losses in the experimental passive valve system, but this conclusion must be confirmed by better experimental measurements. Modeling the one-way valve in CFD proved to be very challenging and only one team was able to provide results which were generally closer to the experiments. The study illustrates the challenges associated with both numerical and experimental analysis of OWC chambers. Air compressibility effects were not found to be important at this scale, even with the large volume of additional air used for the one-way case.

16 TIDAL AND WAVE POWER↗

High-Speed Diagnostic and Simulation Capabilities for Reacting Hypersonic Reentry Flows (LDRD Final Report)

High-enthalpy hypersonic flight represents an application space of significant concern within the current national-security landscape. The hypersonic environment is characterized by high-speed compressible fluid mechanics and complex reacting flow physics, which may present both thermal and chemical nonequilibrium effects. We report on the results of a three-year LDRD effort, funded by the Engineering Sciences Research Foundation (ESRF) investment area, which has been focused on the development and deployment of new high-speed thermochemical diagnostics capabilities for measurements in the high-enthalpy hypersonic environment posed by Sandia's free-piston shock tunnel. The project has additionally sponsored model development efforts, which have added thermal nonequilibrium modeling capabilities to Sandia codes for subsequent design of many of our shock-tunnel experiments. We have cultivated high-speed, chemically specific, laser-diagnostic approaches that are uniquely co-located with Sandia's high-enthalpy hypersonic test facilities. These tools include picosecond and nanosecond coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering at 100-kHz rates for time-resolved thermometry, including thermal nonequilibrium conditions, and 100-kHz planar laser-induced fluorescence of nitric oxide for chemically specific imaging and velocimetry. Key results from this LDRD project have been documented in a number of journal submissions and conference proceedings, which are cited here. The body of this report is, therefore, concise and summarizes the key results of the project. The reader is directed toward these reference materials and appendices for more detailed discussions of the project results and findings.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Streaming Compression of Scientific Data via Weak-SINDy

Here, in this paper, a streaming weak-SINDy algorithm is developed specifically for compressing streaming scientific data. The production of scientific data, either via simulation or experiments, is undergoing a stage of exponential growth, which makes data compression important and often necessary for storing and utilizing large scientific data sets. As opposed to classical “offline” compression algorithms that perform compression on a readily available data set, streaming compression algorithms compress data “online” while the data generated from simulation or experiments is still flowing through the system. This feature makes streaming compression algorithms well suited for scientific data compression, where storing the full data set offline is often infeasible. This work proposes a new streaming compression algorithm, streaming weak-SINDy, which takes advantage of the underlying data characteristics during compression. The streaming weak-SINDy algorithm constructs feature matrices and target vectors in the online stage via a streaming integration method in a memory efficient manner. The feature matrices and target vectors are then used in the offline stage to build a model through a regression process that aims to recover equations that govern the evolution of the data. For compressing high-dimensional streaming data, we adopt a streaming proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) process to reduce the data dimension and then use the streaming weak-SINDy algorithm to compress the temporal data of the POD expansion. We propose modifications to the streaming weak-SINDy algorithm to accommodate the dynamically updated POD basis. By combining the built model from the streaming weak-SINDy algorithm and a small amount of data samples, the full data flow could be reconstructed accurately at a low memory cost, as shown in the numerical tests.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Boundary-consistent B-spline filtering schemes and application to high-fidelity simulations of turbulence

A filtering operation, based on B-spline discretizations, is introduced to target weakly growing mesh-scale oscillations that can arise in high-fidelity turbulence simulations. This is a spectral regularization that can be described using the singular values of a banded matrix operator, with the filtering strength set by a scalar- or vector-valued penalty parameter. The penalty parameter can be specified though it can also be advantageously selected to minimize the generalized cross validation (GCV) measure of distance between the pre- and post-filtered solutions. Efficient algorithms are developed to compute both the scalar and vector penalty parameters. The B-spline filter has a sharper localization to high-wavenumber than compact or explicit filters of the same stencil width and is demonstrated for solutions of the Burgers' equation, decaying Burgers' turbulence, and compressible Navier–Stokes turbulent channel flow. Furthermore, these simulations confirm the scheme's numerical stability and ability to narrowly target the high wavenumber components of numerical solutions. An advantage over finite-difference filters is that these B-spline filters are stable on bounded domains and even preserve formal order of accuracy.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Extreme shear-deformation-induced modification of defect structures and hierarchical microstructure in an Al–Si alloy

Abstract Extreme shear deformation is used for several material processing methods and is unavoidable in many engineering applications in which two surfaces are in relative motion against each other while in physical contact. The mechanistic understanding of the microstructural evolution of multi-phase metallic alloys under extreme shear deformation is still in its infancy. Here, we highlight the influence of shear deformation on the microstructural hierarchy and mechanical properties of a binary as-cast Al-4 at.% Si alloy. Shear-deformation-induced grain refinement, multiscale fragmentation of the eutectic Si-lamellae, and metastable solute saturated phases with distinctive defect structures led to a two-fold increase in the flow stresses determined by micropillar compression testing. These results highlight that shear deformation can achieve non-equilibrium microstructures with enhanced mechanical properties in Al–Si alloys. The experimental and computational insights obtained here are especially crucial for developing predictive models for microstructural evolution of metals under extreme shear deformation.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Development of low temperature fuel cell holders for Operando x-ray micro and nano computed tomography to visualize water distribution

Abstract Synchrotron x-ray imaging techniques, like x-ray computed tomography (CT) and radiography have proven instrumental in expanding the communities knowledge of complex transport and reaction kinetics in electrochemical devices such as fuel cells and electrolyzers. This work presents the development of novel x-ray CT imaging techniques for operando visualization of water within low temperature fuel cells at spatial resolutions spanning the micro and nano scales. The design of operando sample holders, for both micro x-ray CT and nano CT experiments is described in depth, and prototypes of these sample holders were evaluated across a set of requirements, the most important of which are x-ray transmissibility, electrical conductivity and mechanical stability. Water segmentation from micro x-ray CT data was enabled by an image subtraction method, where the image without water is subtracted from the one with water. Through iterative experimentations, the operando nano CT cell was developed to optimize mechanical compression, electric conductivity and gas flow. While three-dimensional fuel cell reconstructions were shown possible, there remain challenges to overcome at typical lower energies (8 keV) due to beam damage, whereas it is not as significant for higher energies (>17.5 keV).

Kulkarni, Devashish↗

Numerical Investigation of Wall-Cooling Effect on Aero-Optical Distortions for Hypersonic Boundary Layer

Compressible wall-modeled large-eddy simulations of Mach 8 turbulent boundary-layer flows over a flat plate were carried out for the conditions of the hypersonic wind tunnel at Sandia National Laboratories. The simulations provide new insight into the effect of wall cooling on the aero-optical path distortions for hypersonic turbulent boundary-layer flows. Four different wall-to-recovery temperature ratios, 0.3, 0.48, 0.71, and 0.89, are considered. Despite the much lower grid resolution, the mean velocity, temperature, and resolved Reynolds stress profiles from the simulation for a temperature ratio of 0.48 are in good agreement with those from a reference direct numerical simulation. The normalized root-mean-square optical path difference obtained from the present simulations is compared with that from reference direct numerical simulations, Sandia experiments, as well as predictions obtained with a semi-analytical model by Notre Dame University. Here the present analysis focuses on the effect of wall cooling on the wall-normal density correlations, on key underlying assumptions of the aforementioned model such as the strong Reynolds analogy, and on the elevation angle effect on the optical path difference. Wall cooling is found to increase the velocity fluctuations and decrease the density fluctuations, resulting in an overall reduction of the normalized optical path distortion. Compared to the simulations, the basic strong Reynolds analogy overpredicts the temperature fluctuations for cooled walls. Also different from the strong Reynolds analogy, the velocity and temperature fluctuations are not perfectly anticorrelated. Finally, as the wall temperature is raised, the density correlation length, away from the wall but inside the boundary layer, increases significantly for beam paths tilted in the downstream direction.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Aero-Optics of Hypersonic Turbulent Boundary Layers

Aero-optics refers to optical distortions due to index-of-refraction gradients that are induced by aerodynamic density gradients. At hypersonic flow conditions, the bulk velocity is many times the speed of sound and density gradients may originate from shock waves, compressible turbulent structures, acoustic waves, thermal variations, etc. Due to the combination of these factors, aero-optic distortions are expected to differ from those common to sub-sonic and lower super-sonic speeds. This report summarizes the results from a 2019-2022 Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) project led by Sandia National Laboratories in collaboration with the University of Notre Dame, New Mexico State University, and the Georgia Institute of Technology. Efforts extended experimental and simulation methodologies for the study of turbulent hypersonic boundary layers. Notable experimental advancements include development of spectral de-aliasing techniques for highspeed wavefront measurements, a Spatially Selective Wavefront Sensor (SSWFS) technique, new experimental data at Mach 8 and 14, a Quadrature Fringe Imaging Interferometer (QFII) technique for time-resolved index-of-refraction measures, and application of QFII to shock-heated air. At the same time, model advancements include aero-optic analysis of several Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS) datasets from Mach 0.5 to 14 and development of wall-modeled Large Eddy Simulation (LES) techniques for aero-optic predictions. At Mach 8 measured and predicted root mean square Optical Path Differences agree within confidence bounds but are higher than semi-empirical trends extrapolated from lower Mach conditions. Overall, results show that aero-optic effects in the hypersonic flow regime are not simple extensions from prior knowledge at lower speeds and instead reflect the added complexity of compressible hypersonic flow physics.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Performance of high-order Godunov-type methods in simulations of astrophysical low Mach number flows

High-order Godunov methods for gas dynamics have become a standard tool for simulating different classes of astrophysical flows. Their accuracy is mostly determined by the spatial interpolant used to reconstruct the pair of Riemann states at cell interfaces and by the Riemann solver that computes the interface fluxes. In most Godunov-type methods, these two steps can be treated independently, so that many different schemes can in principle be built from the same numerical framework. Because astrophysical simulations often test out the limits of what is feasible with the computational resources available, it is essential to find the scheme that produces the numerical solution with the desired accuracy at the lowest computational cost. However, establishing the best combination of numerical options in a Godunov-type method to be used for simulating a complex hydrodynamic problem is a nontrivial task. In fact, formally more accurate schemes do not always outperform simpler and more diffusive methods, especially if sharp gradients are present in the flow. For this work, we used our fully compressible Seven-League Hydro (SLH) code to test the accuracy of six reconstruction methods and three approximate Riemann solvers on two- and three-dimensional (2D and 3D) problems involving subsonic flows only. We considered Mach numbers in the range from 10 −3 to 10 −1 , which are characteristic of many stellar and geophysical flows. In particular, we considered a well-posed, 2D, Kelvin–Helmholtz instability problem and a 3D turbulent convection zone that excites internal gravity waves in an overlying stable layer. Although the different combinations of numerical methods converge to the same solution with increasing grid resolution for most of the quantities analyzed here, we find that (i) there is a spread of almost four orders of magnitude in computational cost per fixed accuracy between the methods tested in this study, with the most performant method being a combination of a low-dissipation Riemann solver and a sextic reconstruction scheme; (ii) the low-dissipation solver always outperforms conventional Riemann solvers on a fixed grid when the reconstruction scheme is kept the same; (iii) in simulations of turbulent flows, increasing the order of spatial reconstruction reduces the characteristic dissipation length scale achieved on a given grid even if the overall scheme is only second order accurate; (iv) reconstruction methods based on slope-limiting techniques tend to generate artificial, high-frequency acoustic waves during the evolution of the flow; and (v) unlimited reconstruction methods introduce oscillations in the thermal stratification near the convective boundary, where the entropy gradient is steep.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Numerical Study of Liquid Piston Compression Using Large-Eddy Simulation and Volume-of-Fluid Approach

Efforts to increase the efficiency of residential and commercial air conditioners and heat pumps have demonstrated that the compressor accounts for most of the system’s electrical energy usage. Therefore, the efficiency of this component should be improved to reduce its energy usage. The US Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory developed a near-isothermal liquid piston compressor (LPC) that uses propylene glycol (PG) to compress CO2. This report presents numerical studies of the LPC in which the compression chamber fills with injected PG from the bottom inlet. Numerical simulations were performed using the large-eddy simulation (LES) with the wall-adapting local eddy-viscosity (WALE) subgrid-scale model coupled with the multiphase volume-of-fluid (VOF) model to simulate the transient interface between gas and liquid and to capture the heat and mass transfer within the compression chamber. In this effort, effects of boundary conditions applied to the LES-VOF calculations (e.g., no wall, an adiabatic wall, and a wall with a heat flux subscribed) to the overall pressure and temperature of CO2 gas as well as the transient evolution of flow and heat transfer evolution within the compression chamber are investigated and discussed. It was found that the LES calculation with no wall have shown no dynamical flow patterns and the volume-averaged temperature of CO2 increased from 305 to 392.7 K, while LES calculations with a constant wall temperature or a wall heat flux had similar increases of CO2 temperatures. Results of LES simulation using a wall heat flux showed different stages in the compression process and revealed dynamical formation and interaction of CO2 gas layers and circulation flow patterns within the chamber that contribute to the overall heat transfer between the solid wall, gas, and liquid surface in the compressor.

Nguyen, Thien D.↗

Multifidelity validation of digital surrogates using variable-density turbulent mixing models

In this study, ensembles of experimental data are presented and utilized to compare and validate two models used in the simulation of variable-density (Atwood = 0.22), compressible turbulent mixing. Though models of this kind (Reynolds averaged NavierStokes and large-eddy simulations) have been validated extensively with more canonical flows in previous studies, here the present approach offers novelty in the complexity of the geometry, the ensemble-based validation, and the uniformity of the computational framework on which the models are tested. Moreover, all experimental and computational tasks were completed by the authors which has led to a tightly coupled experimental configuration with its “digital twin.” The experimental divergent-shock-tube facility and its data acquisition methods are described and replicated in simulation space. A 2D Euler model which neglects the turbulent mixing at the interface is optimized to experimental data using a Gaussian process. This model then serves as the basis for both the 2D RANS and 3D LES studies that make comparisons to the mixing-layer data from the experiment. A relatively simple RANS model is shown to produce good agreement with experimental data only at late flow development times. The LES ensembles generally show good agreement with experimental data but display sensitivity to the characterization of initial conditions. Resolution-dependent behavior is also observed for certain higher-order statistics of interest. Overall, the LES model successfully captures the effects of divergent geometry, compressibility, and combined nonlinear instabilities inherent to the problem. The successful prediction of mixing width and its growth rate highlight the existence of three distinct regimes in the development of the instability, each with similarities to previously studied instabilities.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Reentrant pinning, dynamic row reduction, and skyrmion accumulation for driven skyrmions in inhomogeneous pinning arrays

In this work, we examine the dynamics of skyrmions in systems with a region of strong pinning coexisting with a pin-free region, where the equilibrium state has a uniform skyrmion density. Under an applied drive, skyrmions accumulate in the pin-free region along the edge of the pinned region due to the skyrmion Hall effect. As the drive increases, a series of dynamical structural transitions occur in the flowing skyrmion lattice similar to those observed in the compression dynamics of crystals. These transitions correspond to reductions in the number of flowing rows of skyrmions due to the collective motion of the skyrmions into the pinned region, and they are accompanied by a series of steps in the velocity force curves leading to a negative differential conductivity. When the number of pinning sites is sufficiently large, a drive-induced pinning effect can occur in which the skyrmion Hall effect forces all of the skyrmions to enter the strongly pinned region. This reentrant pinning effect becomes more pronounced for increasing intrinsic skyrmion Hall angle and larger pinning sites.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Mechanical properties and deformation mechanisms of single crystal Mg micropillars subjected to high-strain-rate C-axis compression

Here, the mechanical properties and deformation mechanisms of single crystal magnesium under c-axis quasi-static and high-strain rate compressions are investigated through in situ scanning electron microscope (SEM) experiments and post-mortem transmission electron microscope (TEM) characterization. The findings revealed that ductility and high rates of hardening are preserved for pillars as large as 15 μm. Furthermore, rate effects result in a mild increase in flow stress with plastic deformations controlled primarily by the slip of type dislocations. Importantly and in contrast to other literature reports, plastic deformation occurs in the absence of twining. As the strain increases and plastic deformation exceeds about 4%, crystal rotation activates basal slip, <$\mathrm{a}$> type dislocations, resulting in a more rate independent flow stress. TEM observation on micropillars compressed at a strain rate of 250/s, revealed the activation of {${11}$$\bar{2}$$\bar{2}$} < $\bar{1}$$\bar{1}23$ > slip systems and high mobility of screw dislocations as major contributors to plastic strains in excess of 10% without fracture. These findings are relevant to the design of lightweight materials used in transportation systems, e.g., selection of material grain size. Moreover, the experimental data here reported provides the materials science community with a unique opportunity to validate discrete dislocation dynamics (DDD) formulations employed in multiscale design of materials.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Investigation of Cycle-to-Cycle Variations in Internal Combustion Engine Using Proper Orthogonal Decomposition

The understanding, modeling and control of the cycle-to-cycle variation (CCV) in the modern internal combustion engine (ICE) is a key scientific challenge to achieve stable engine operation. High CCV in the engine combustion chamber may contribute to partial burn, misfire and knock, which adversely affects the engine performance and may potentially damage the engine. The objective of the current study is to leverage high-fidelity numerical simulations to improve the understanding of the causes of CCV. Using the massively parallel code, Nek5000, multi-cycle, wall-resolved large-eddy simulations (LES) were performed for the General Motors (GM), Transparent Combustion Chamber (TCC-III) optical engine under motored operating conditions. Further, the large-scale structures of the in-cylinder flow were investigated using a triple proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) technique to explore the characteristics of different parts of the flow and their contributions to CCV. The kinetic energy of the subset of flow structures were determined and correlated between the intake and compression strokes. The insights from the analysis of the large-scale flow structures will be used to assist the development of improved engine designs with reduced CCV and enhance the engine performance.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗

Compressible foam electrode

A foam electrode comprising surface treatment by the steps of: 1) impregnating soft compressible polymeric foams with a conductive coating via sequential infiltration synthesis and 2) functionalizing the chemically altered voids with an ultrathin redox coating to enhance capacitive deionization (CDI). The redox coating will allow treated foam to absorb ions under the application of a bias, and mechanical compression/decompression. The CDI apparatus uses the void volume of the foam in the uncompressed state to flow liquids through it while the compressed state is used to enhance desalination by limiting the diffusion pathways for the ions to find an adsorption surface.

Young, Matthias John↗

Axial magnetic flux amplification in Hall-magnetohydrodynamic simulations of externally magnetized z-pinches

It is shown that externally magnetized gas-puff z-pinches under compression can exhibit robust axial flux amplification under suitable axial boundary conditions. This effect relies upon the Hall term in the generalized Ohm's law to generate azimuthal currents in the presence of a driving axial electric field. Under dynamic compression, the total current tends to flow in a mostly force-free boundary layer, separating the predominately azimuthal field outside the layer and the predominately axial field inside the layer. The effect only appears to occur if the axial boundaries allow for outflow or absorption of electromagnetic energy. The effect is mitigated by imposing either periodic or conducting axial boundary conditions. A semi-analytic equilibrium analysis agrees with steady-state solutions of the time-dependent electron-magnetohydrodynamic equations and provides an estimate of the scaling of the boundary layer as well as suggesting a scenario for the formation of the boundary layer. When operative, the effect can significantly impede plasma compression due to the increase in axial flux that diffuses into the pre-compressed plasma or through the presence of conductors that inhibit movement of the generated axial flux. Several facilities have noted unusual implosion behavior in z-pinch experiments with applied axial fields that does not appear to be explainable within the standard magnetohydrodynamic model. In conclusion, it is suggested that these experiments can be explained by the axial flux amplification and concentration effect

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Development and validation of the cavitation-induced erosion risk assessment tool

This work presents the development of a cavitation-induced erosion risk assessment (CIERA) tool that links multiphase flow simulation predictions with the progress towards material erosion. To develop a robust erosion modeling tool, the cavitation and erosion predictions for pressurized diesel fuel flow within a channel geometry were validated over a range of Reynolds and cavitation number conditions in two different aluminum channel geometries, one featuring a rounded inlet corner and the other with a sharp inlet corner. The multiphase flow development within the channel was modeled using a compressible mixture model, where phase change was represented with the homogeneous relaxation model and the turbulent flow evolution was modeled using a dynamic structure approach for Large Eddy Simulations. To improve representation of the incubation period before material rupture over existing approaches, a physics-based metric was derived based on the cumulative energy absorbed by the solid material from repeated hydrodynamic impacts. When the average peak pressure was related to the incubation period, the incubation period and its sensitivity to changes in flow conditions were found to be overpredicted. In contrast, predictions from CIERA provided a more accurate means to qualitatively and quantitatively predict the influence of flow conditions on the incubation period before material erosion. When the predicted stored energy was related to the solid material properties to estimate the incubation period, multiphase flow simulations demonstrated accurate representation of the sensitivity of erosion severity to changes in flow conditions. The use of CIERA led to quantitative agreement of the predicted incubation period within 5% of the experimentally measured incubation period.

42 ENGINEERING↗