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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 235 records · Page 13
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1995

Computing Instability In Combustion Of Liquid Propellants

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code developed for use in design analyses of flow instabilities associated with combustion of sprayed liquid propellants in rocket engines. Code also contributes to design of improved commercial sprayed-fuel combustors in furnaces and jet engines. Proves robust, user-friendly software tool with comprehensive analysis capability. Enables characterization of stability or instability of engine in terms of such physically meaningful parameters as initial conditions of spray, spatial distribution of ratio between concentrations of fuel and oxidizer at injector faces, geometry of combustor, and configurations of baffles.

Chen, Yen-Sen↗
NASA NTRS2015

Characterization of the Scale Model Acoustic Test Overpressure Environment using Computational Fluid Dynamics

The Scale Model Acoustic Test (SMAT) is a 5% scale test of the Space Launch System (SLS), which is currently being designed at Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC). The purpose of this test is to characterize and understand a variety of acoustic phenomena that occur during the early portions of lift off, one being the overpressure environment that develops shortly after booster ignition. The pressure waves that propagate from the mobile launcher (ML) exhaust hole are defined as the ignition overpressure (IOP), while the portion of the pressure waves that exit the duct or trench are the duct overpressure (DOP). Distinguishing the IOP and DOP in scale model test data has been difficult in past experiences and in early SMAT results, due to the effects of scaling the geometry. The speed of sound of the air and combustion gas constituents is not scaled, and therefore the SMAT pressure waves propagate at approximately the same speed as occurs in full scale. However, the SMAT geometry is twenty times smaller, allowing the pressure waves to move down the exhaust hole, through the trench and duct, and impact the vehicle model much faster than occurs at full scale. The DOP waves impact portions of the vehicle at the same time as the IOP waves, making it difficult to distinguish the different waves and fully understand the data. To better understand the SMAT data, a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis was performed with a fictitious geometry that isolates the IOP and DOP. The upper and lower portions of the domain were segregated to accomplish the isolation in such a way that the flow physics were not significantly altered. The Loci/CHEM CFD software program was used to perform this analysis.

Nielsen, Tanner↗
NASA NTRS2014

Computational Aerodynamic Analysis of Three-Dimensional Ice Shapes on a NACA 23012 Airfoil

The present study identifies a process for performing computational fluid dynamic calculations of the flow over full three-dimensional (3D) representations of complex ice shapes deposited on aircraft surfaces. Rime and glaze icing geometries formed on a NACA23012 airfoil were obtained during testing in the NASA Glenn Research Center's Icing Research Tunnel (IRT). The ice shape geometries were scanned as a cloud of data points using a 3D laser scanner. The data point clouds were meshed using Geomagic software to create highly accurate models of the ice surface. The surface data was imported into Pointwise grid generation software to create the CFD surface and volume grids. It was determined that generating grids in Pointwise for complex 3D icing geometries was possible using various techniques that depended on the ice shape. Computations of the flow fields over these ice shapes were performed using the NASA National Combustion Code (NCC). Results for a rime ice shape for angle of attack conditions ranging from 0 to 10 degrees and for freestream Mach numbers of 0.10 and 0.18 are presented. For validation of the computational results, comparisons were made to test results from rapid-prototype models of the selected ice accretion shapes, obtained from a separate study in a subsonic wind tunnel at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The computational and experimental results were compared for values of pressure coefficient and lift. Initial results show fairly good agreement for rime ice accretion simulations across the range of conditions examined. The glaze ice results are promising but require some further examination.

Aerodynamics↗
NASA NTRS2008

Flight, Wind-Tunnel, and Computational Fluid Dynamics Comparison for Cranked Arrow Wing (F-16XL-1) at Subsonic and Transonic Speeds

The data contained on this CD are a supplement to NASA/TP-2001-210629 published in February 2001. This CD replaces a web-site database search and retrieval system - noted as reference 36 in the NASA/TP - that was to supply the aeronautical community with access to the flight data. Unfortunately, this web-site was only available for a short time after the publication of NASA/TP-2001-21068 due to software and support issues. The contents of this CD are organized into five folders containing data from the flight test and reference 1. In particular, the following are provided: (1) tabular data of the Flight Conditions from Table 5; (2) boundary layer data from Table 12 for three flights in multiple formats; (3) skin-friction data - xmgr format (ref. 3) - used to generate Figure 26; (4) surface pressure data with a listing of the parameters; and (5) tuft-images from three cameras in two formats.

John E Lamar↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Performance of Coupled Physics Solvers for Multidisciplinary Hypersonic Flow Simulations on Several Classes of Computer Architectures

The application of hypersonic flow simulation tools to realistic flight scenarios will require the coupling of multiple physical effects to the baseline fluid dynamics. Such multiphysics effects can include the aerooelastic response of the airframe or engine components, dynamic transport of atmospheric particles, the deformation of solid-fluid interfaces that can ablate, pyrolyze, or erode, as well as a host of other processes, all of which are governed by unique sets of physical equations and models. Coupling multiple (and potentially disparate) physics solvers to a robust compressible flow solver poses additional challenges related to the stability, performance and scalability of the combined solver. The choices made during the software design process can therefore lead to a variation in simulation efficiency across different computer architectures. In this paper, we will consider two representative multiphysics hypersonic flow scenarios: the interaction of solid particulates with the flow field created by a hypersonic lifting body and the aerooelastic deformation of a model airframe under high-Mach-number flow conditions. For these simulations we explore the behavior of several hypersonic simulation tools, including Kestrel, FUN3D, US3D, and JENRE multiphysics framework, on several high performance computing systems containing various CPU and GPU architectures.

architecture↗
NASA NTRS1991

FAST: A multi-processed environment for visualization of computational fluid

Three dimensional, unsteady, multizoned fluid dynamics simulations over full scale aircraft is typical of problems being computed at NASA-Ames on CRAY2 and CRAY-YMP supercomputers. With multiple processor workstations available in the 10 to 30 Mflop range, it is felt that these new developments in scientific computing warrant a new approach to the design and implementation of analysis tools. These large, more complex problems create a need for new visualization techniques not possible with the existing software or systems available as of this time. These visualization techniques will change as the supercomputing environment, and hence the scientific methods used, evolve ever further. Visualization of computational aerodynamics require flexible, extensible, and adaptable software tools for performing analysis tasks. FAST (Flow Analysis Software Toolkit), an implementation of a software system for fluid mechanics analysis that is based on this approach is discussed.

Bancroft, Gordon V.↗
NASA NTRS1991

FAST: A multi-processed environment for visualization of computational fluid dynamics

Three-dimensional, unsteady, multi-zoned fluid dynamics simulations over full scale aircraft are typical of the problems being investigated at NASA Ames' Numerical Aerodynamic Simulation (NAS) facility on CRAY2 and CRAY-YMP supercomputers. With multiple processor workstations available in the 10-30 Mflop range, we feel that these new developments in scientific computing warrant a new approach to the design and implementation of analysis tools. These larger, more complex problems create a need for new visualization techniques not possible with the existing software or systems available as of this writing. The visualization techniques will change as the supercomputing environment, and hence the scientific methods employed, evolves even further. The Flow Analysis Software Toolkit (FAST), an implementation of a software system for fluid mechanics analysis, is discussed.

Bancroft, Gordon V.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Instrumentation, performance visualization, and debugging tools for multiprocessors

The need for computing power has forced a migration from serial computation on a single processor to parallel processing on multiprocessor architectures. However, without effective means to monitor (and visualize) program execution, debugging, and tuning parallel programs becomes intractably difficult as program complexity increases with the number of processors. Research on performance evaluation tools for multiprocessors is being carried out at ARC. Besides investigating new techniques for instrumenting, monitoring, and presenting the state of parallel program execution in a coherent and user-friendly manner, prototypes of software tools are being incorporated into the run-time environments of various hardware testbeds to evaluate their impact on user productivity. Our current tool set, the Ames Instrumentation Systems (AIMS), incorporates features from various software systems developed in academia and industry. The execution of FORTRAN programs on the Intel iPSC/860 can be automatically instrumented and monitored. Performance data collected in this manner can be displayed graphically on workstations supporting X-Windows. We have successfully compared various parallel algorithms for computational fluid dynamics (CFD) applications in collaboration with scientists from the Numerical Aerodynamic Simulation Systems Division. By performing these comparisons, we show that performance monitors and debuggers such as AIMS are practical and can illuminate the complex dynamics that occur within parallel programs.

Yan, Jerry C.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Recent Advancements in the PATO Material Response Code

Introduction: Predicting the complicated multiphysics phenomena during atmospheric entry requires high-fidelity modeling tools to refine estimates of mission risks during entry. To this end, new capabilities are being added to the Porous-material Analysis Toolbox based on OpenFOAM (PATO). PATO is an open-source software for Computational Material Response (CMR) of reactive porous materials submitted to high-temperature environments. The objective of this work is to highlight current efforts to add to and improve upon the modeling capabilities of PATO. These include efforts to loosely couple PATO with other discipline specialized codes including hypersonic Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), to assess the interaction effects between pyrolysis gas blowing and the boundary layer, and Computational Solid Mechanics (CSM), to address modeling of mechanical erosion. Other refinements include surface phenomena modeling capabilities to address the effects of silicone-based coatings applied to the TPS during flight preparation, and a unified multiphase solver for a mixed porous-material and plain-fluid domain. Coupling CMR with CFD (CMR/CFD): A loose coupling between PATO and the Data Parallel Line Relaxation (DPLR) CFD code has been achieved by making use of a blowing boundary condition at the heatshield surface available in DPLR. Starting with heat flux estimates with no pyrolysis gas blowing at the surface, blowing gases are computed by the CMR and passed to the CFD such that aerothermal properties of the environment can be recomputed for a new CMR computation. This leads to an iterative process which is supplemented with an estimate of the radiative heat flux using the Nonequilibrium air radiation (NEQAIR) program. The entire iterative process is illustrated in Figure 1. This coupling strategy has been utilized in computing the MSL material response. The goal is to compare the coupled CMR/CFD results with material response results obtained using traditional blowing corrections. Coupling CMS with CMR: A mechanical erosion model is currently being implemented in PATO to account for the additional mass removal induced by high shear conditions. The modeling process at each timestep consists of updating the mechanical properties as a function of temperature and computing the stress tensor and displacement fields of the material. Then, a failure criteria model determines the regions in which the stress exceeds the ultimate strength values resulting in mesh movement to account for mass removal. This model allows the material response simulation to compute the recession due to both oxidation and shear-induced erosion. The model is demonstrated by computing material response of sphere-cone arc jet samples. Surface Modeling Capabilities: NuSil, a silicone-based coating, was sprayed onto the MSL and Mars 2020 heatshields to mitigate shedding of phenolic dust. To better understand the effects of the NuSil coating on the material response, a novel model has been implemented in PATO. In this model, the equilibrium of the charred NuSil surface is modeled as pure silica, and a constant offset, inspired by the classical spallation model, is added to the the char blowing rate and wall enthalpy to reproduce HyMETS experimental results. The model has also been used to estimate the 3D material response of the MSL heatshield. Unified Solver: In addition to the iterative loose coupling approach mentioned above, a multiphase unified solver is being developed to couple the environment (plain-fluid phase) and the porous-material phase. The solver is based on the volume averaged conservation of mass, momentum, and energy for the macroscale with closure models which include microscale effects through effective physicochemical properties. The unified solver has been used to compute flow through a porous plug and solve the Beavers and Joseph problem. Since the strong coupling between phases is inherent to this solver, modeling assumptions present in other coupling methods of material response are mitigated. This strategy also makes it feasible to capture the competition between surface and volume ablation in the same computational domain, which is usually not possible with other coupling approaches.

Material Response↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Recent Advancements in the PATO Material Response Code

Introduction: Predicting the complicated multiphysics phenomena during atmospheric entry requires high-fidelity modeling tools to refine estimates of mission risks during entry. To this end, new capabilities are being added to the Porous-material Analysis Toolbox based on OpenFOAM (PATO) [1,2,3]. PATO is an open-source software for Computational Material Response (CMR) of reactive porous materials submitted to high-temperature environments. The objective of this work is to highlight current efforts to add to and improve upon the modeling capabilities of PATO. These include efforts to loosely couple PATO with other discipline specialized codes including hypersonic Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), to assess the interaction effects between pyrolysis gas blowing and the boundary layer, and Computational Solid Mechanics (CSM), to address modeling of mechanical erosion. Other refinements include surface phenomena modeling capabilities to address the effects of silicone-based coatings applied to the TPS during flight preparation, and a unified multiphase solver for a mixed porous-material and plain-fluid domain. Coupling CMR with CFD (CMR/CFD): A loose coupling between PATO and the Data Parallel Line Relaxation (DPLR) [4] CFD code has been achieved by making use of a blowing boundary condition at the heatshield surface available in DPLR. Starting with heat flux estimates with no pyrolysis gas blowing at the surface, blowing gases are computed by the CMR and passed to the CFD such that aerothermal properties of the environment can be recomputed for a new CMR computation. This leads to an iterative process which is supplemented with an estimate of the radiative heat flux using the Nonequilibrium air radiation (NEQAIR) [5] program. The entire iterative process is illustrated in Figure 1. This coupling strategy has been utilized in computing the MSL material response. The goal is to compare the coupled CMR/CFD results with material response results obtained using traditional blowing corrections. Coupling CMS with CMR: A mechanical erosion model is currently being implemented in PATO to account for the additional mass removal induced by high shear conditions. The modeling process at each timestep consists of updating the mechanical properties as a function of temperature and computing the stress tensor and displacement fields of the material. Then, a failure criteria model determines the regions in which the stress exceeds the ultimate strength values resulting in mesh movement to account for mass removal. This model allows the material response simulation to compute the recession due to both oxidation and shear-induced erosion. The model is demonstrated by computing material response of sphere-cone arc jet samples. Surface Modeling Capabilities: NuSil, a silicone-based coating, was sprayed onto the MSL and Mars 2020 heatshields to mitigate shedding of phenolic dust. To better understand the effects of the NuSil coating on the material response, a novel model has been implemented in PATO. In this model, the equilibrium of the charred NuSil surface is modeled as pure silica, and a constant offset, inspired by the classical spallation model, is added to the the char blowing rate and wall enthalpy to reproduce HyMETS experimental results. The model has also been used to estimate the 3D material response of the MSL heatshield [6]. Unified Solver: In addition to the iterative loose coupling approach mentioned above, a multiphase unified solver is being developed to couple the environment (plain-fluid phase) and the porous-material phase. The solver is based on the volume averaged conservation of mass, momentum, and energy for the macroscale with closure models which include microscale effects through effective physicochemical properties. The unified solver has been used to compute flow through a porous plug and solve the Beavers and Joseph problem [7]. Since the strong coupling between phases is inherent to this solver, modeling assumptions present in other coupling methods of material response are mitigated. This strategy also makes it feasible to capture the competition between surface and volume ablation in the same computational domain, which is usually not possible with other coupling approaches.

Thermal Protection Systems↗
NASA NTRS1996

Hierarchical and Parallelizable Direct Volume Rendering for Irregular and Multiple Grids

A general volume rendering technique is described that efficiently produces images of excellent quality from data defined over irregular grids having a wide variety of formats. Rendering is done in software, eliminating the need for special graphics hardware, as well as any artifacts associated with graphics hardware. Images of volumes with about one million cells can be produced in one to several minutes on a workstation with a 150 MHz processor. A significant advantage of this method for applications such as computational fluid dynamics is that it can process multiple intersecting grids. Such grids present problems for most current volume rendering techniques. Also, the wide range of cell sizes (by a factor of 10,000 or more), which is typical of such applications, does not present difficulties, as it does for many techniques. A spatial hierarchical organization makes it possible to access data from a restricted region efficiently. The tree has greater depth in regions of greater detail, determined by the number of cells in the region. It also makes it possible to render useful 'preview' images very quickly (about one second for one-million-cell grids) by displaying each region associated with a tree node as one cell. Previews show enough detail to navigate effectively in very large data sets. The algorithmic techniques include use of a kappa-d tree, with prefix-order partitioning of triangles, to reduce the number of primitives that must be processed for one rendering, coarse-grain parallelism for a shared-memory MIMD architecture, a new perspective transformation that achieves greater numerical accuracy, and a scanline algorithm with depth sorting and a new clipping technique.

Wilhelms, Jane↗
NASA NTRS1985

Flow dynamic environment data base development for the SSME

The fluid flow-induced vibration of the Space Shuttle main engine (SSME) components are being studied with a view to correlating the frequency characteristics of the pressure fluctuations in a rocket engine to its operating conditions and geometry. An overview of the data base development for SSME test firing results and the interactive computer software used to access, retrieve, and plot or print the results selectively for given thrust levels, engine numbers, etc., is presented. The various statistical methods available in the computer code for data analysis are discussed. Plots of test data, nondimensionalized using parameters such as fluid flow velocities, densities, and pressures, are presented. Results are compared with those available in the literature. Correlations between the resonant peaks observed at higher frequencies in power spectral density plots with pump geometry and operating conditions are discussed. An overview of the status of the investigation is presented and future directions are discussed.

Sundaram, C. V.↗
NASA NTRS2012

Modeling of Heat Transfer and Ablation of Refractory Material Due to Rocket Plume Impingement

CR Tech's Thermal Desktop-SINDA/FLUINT software was used in the thermal analysis of a flame deflector design for Launch Complex 39B at Kennedy Space Center, Florida. The analysis of the flame deflector takes into account heat transfer due to plume impingement from expected vehicles to be launched at KSC. The heat flux from the plume was computed using computational fluid dynamics provided by Ames Research Center in Moffet Field, California. The results from the CFD solutions were mapped onto a 3-D Thermal Desktop model of the flame deflector using the boundary condition mapping capabilities in Thermal Desktop. The ablation subroutine in SINDA/FLUINT was then used to model the ablation of the refractory material.

Harris, Michael F.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

An Interactive MATLAB Program for Fitting Transfer Functions to Frequency Responses

A computer program called FRFit (Frequency Response Fitting) is described for fitting single-input single-output transfer function models to empirical frequency response data. The program is interactive in that the user specifies ``elementary factors'' (gain, delay, pure differentiators and integrators, and first- and second-order zeros and poles) by entering numerical values or moving sliders in a graphical user interface. A nonlinear optimization can then be performed to obtain maximum likelihood estimates of transfer function parameters and uncertainties to provide feedback on the modeling and refine estimates. Several examples are discussed, including the identification of aircraft pitch dynamics from simulation data and data reported in the literature, approximating Theodorsen's function of unsteady aerodynamics, and obtaining a reduced-order model of a computational fluid dynamics code describing the unsteady aerodynamics around an aeroelastic wing. The program has some usefulness as a teaching aid, and can be applied to model structure determination, reduced-order modeling, preliminary analysis, and simple system identification problems. The program was written in MATLAB and is planned for public release through the NASA Software Catalog.

System identification↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Material Response Modeling of Ablative Thermal Protection Systems using PATO

Developing thermal protection systems (TPS) for future space vehicles involves an extensive design and test cycle. A key component of the cycle is determining margins for a safe design that rely on confidence in the performance of the TPS. Predicting the complicated multiphysics phenomena that occur during atmospheric entry requires high-fidelity modeling tools. To this end, the Porous-material Analysis Toolbox based on OpenFOAM (PATO) has been developed. PATO is an open-source software for computing material response of reactive porous materials submitted to high-temperature environments. Recent applications of PATO include computation of the full heatshield 3D material response from the Mars Science Laboratory atmospheric entry and ablation during arc jet testing. Current efforts are underway to loosely couple PATO with other discipline specialized codes including hypersonic computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to assess the effects of pyrolysis-gas blowing into the boundary layer and computational solid mechanics to address modeling of mechanical erosion. Surface phenomena modeling capabilities to address the effects of silicone-based coatings applied to the TPS during flight preparation are also being added.

Thermal Protection Systems↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Material Response Modeling of Ablative Thermal Protection Systems using PATO

Developing thermal protection systems (TPS) for future space vehicles involves an extensive design and test cycle. A key component of the cycle is determining margins for a safe design that rely on confidence in the performance of the TPS. Predicting the complicated multiphysics phenomena that occur during atmospheric entry requires high-fidelity modeling tools. To this end, the Porous-material Analysis Toolbox based on OpenFOAM (PATO) has been developed. PATO is an open-source software for computing material response of reactive porous materials submitted to high-temperature environments. Recent applications of PATO include computation of the full heatshield 3D material response from the Mars Science Laboratory atmospheric entry and ablation during arc jet testing. Current efforts are underway to loosely couple PATO with other discipline specialized codes including hypersonic computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to assess the effects of pyrolysis-gas blowing into the boundary layer and computational solid mechanics to address modeling of mechanical erosion. Surface phenomena modeling capabilities to address the effects of silicone-based coatings applied to the TPS during flight preparation are also being added.

Thermal Protection Systems↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Energy of Fluid (EOF) Simulation of Large-Scale Densification and Solidification of Hydrogen

The current research develops a finite volume-based Computation Fluid Dynamic (CFD) model utilizing an Energy of Fluid (EOF) approach to generate a simulation of the densification of liquid hydrogen (LH2) in the Integrated Refrigeration and Storage (IRAS) experimental tank for the Ground Operations Demonstration Unit for Liquid Hydrogen Project (GODU-LH2) at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC). The computational code will integrate a commercial software pressure-based model with User Defined Functions (UDF) generated and added to the model. The modified model will solve the energy equation in terms of internal energy and provide temperature and pressure calculations for a given tank geometry. This method will decrease computational time when compared to the built-in commercially available Enthalpy solvers. Currently the research focused on utilizing User Defined Scalars (UDS) compared to the enthalpy model and a lumped node analysis to show the written UDS is as accurate as the built-in solvers, and the models will be verified using known solutions for solidification and validated with the experimental results from the Cryogenics Test Laboratory (CTL) at KSC for the IRAS densification process.

C. Mahony↗
NASA NTRS2012

High Fidelity Simulations of Plume Impingement to the International Space Station

With the retirement of the Space Shuttle, the United States now depends on recently developed commercial spacecraft to supply the International Space Station (ISS) with cargo. These new vehicles supplement ones from international partners including the Russian Progress, the European Autonomous Transfer Vehicle (ATV), and the Japanese H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV). Furthermore, to carry crew to the ISS and supplement the capability currently provided exclusively by the Russian Soyuz, new designs and a refinement to a cargo vehicle design are in work. Many of these designs include features such as nozzle scarfing or simultaneous firing of multiple thrusters resulting in complex plumes. This results in a wide variety of complex plumes impinging upon the ISS. Therefore, to ensure safe "proximity operations" near the ISS, the need for accurate and efficient high fidelity simulation of plume impingement to the ISS is as high as ever. A capability combining computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and the Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) techniques has been developed to properly model the large density variations encountered as the plume expands from the high pressure in the combustion chamber to the near vacuum conditions at the orbiting altitude of the ISS. Details of the computational tools employed by this method, including recent software enhancements and the best practices needed to achieve accurate simulations, are discussed. Several recent examples of the application of this high fidelity capability are presented. These examples highlight many of the real world, complex features of plume impingement that occur when "visiting vehicles" operate in the vicinity of the ISS.

Lumpkin, Forrest E., III↗