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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 NTRS1983

Requirements for a mobile communications satellite system. Volume 3: Large space structures measurements study

This study report defines a set of tests and measurements required to characterize the performance of a Large Space System (LSS), and to scale this data to other LSS satellites. Requirements from the Mobile Communication Satellite (MSAT) configurations derived in the parent study were used. MSAT utilizes a large, mesh deployable antenna, and encompasses a significant range of LSS technology issues in the areas of structural/dynamics, control, and performance predictability. In this study, performance requirements were developed for the antenna. Special emphasis was placed on antenna surface accuracy, and pointing stability. Instrumentation and measurement systems, applicable to LSS, were selected from existing or on-going technology developments. Laser ranging and angulation systems, presently in breadboard status, form the backbone of the measurements. Following this, a set of ground, STS, and GEO-operational were investigated. A third scale (15 meter) antenna system as selected for ground characterization followed by STS flight technology development. This selection ensures analytical scaling from ground-to-orbit, and size scaling. Other benefits are cost and ability to perform reasonable ground tests. Detail costing of the various tests and measurement systems were derived and are included in the report.

Akle, W.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Mesh refinement in a two-dimensional large eddy simulation of a forced shear layer

A series of large eddy simulations are made of a forced shear layer and compared with experimental data. Several mesh densities were examined to separate the effect of numerical inaccuracy from modeling deficiencies. The turbulence model that was used to represent small scale, 3-D motions correctly predicted some gross features of the flow field, but appears to be structurally incorrect. The main effect of mesh refinement was to act as a filter on the scale of vortices that developed from the inflow boundary conditions.

Claus, R. W.↗
NASA NTRS2018

Systems Engineering for the PRANDTL-D 3c Aircraft

The purpose of the Preliminary Research in AerodyNamicDesign to Lower Drag (PRANDTL-D) project is to show that birds fly using a "bell" shaped spanload rather than using an elliptical shaped spanload and to demonstrate the extensive benefits of this alternative spanload. This validation is done by flying a research glider with a twenty five foot wingspan that collects a range of parameters in flight. To ensure the data collection computers and suite of sensors work together and mesh well with the aircraft, systems engineering principles are applied. Needs for new one-off parts require a systems engineering approach as all the criteria of the plane, such as aerodynamics, structures, and avionics, must be taken into account when making decisions. The result of this approach were effective solutions that had a minimal negative impact on other systems that were not related to the original problem.

Larson, James G.↗
DOE OSTI2015

3D model generation using an airborne swarm

Using an artificial kinematic field to provide co-ordination between multiple inspection UAVs, the authors herein demonstrate full 3D modelling capability based on a photogrammetric system. The operation of the system is demonstrated by generating a full 3D surface model of an intermediate level nuclear waste storage drum. Such drums require periodic inspection to ensure that drum distortion or corrosion is carefully monitored. Performing this inspection with multiple airborne platforms enables rapid inspection of structures that are inaccessible to on-surface remote vehicles and are in human-hazardous environments. A three-dimensional surface-meshed model of the target can then be constructed in post-processing through photogrammetry analysis of the visual inspection data. The inspection environment uses a tracking system to precisely monitor the position of each aerial vehicle within the enclosure. The vehicles used are commercially available Parrot AR. Drone quadcopters, controlled through a computer interface connected over an IEEE 802.11n (WiFi) network, implementing a distributed controller for each vehicle. This enables the autonomous and distributed elements of the control scheme to be retained, while alleviating the vehicles of the control algorithm’s computational load. The control scheme relies on a kinematic field defined with the target at its centre. This field defines the trajectory for all the drones in the volume relative to the central target, enabling the drones to circle the target at a set radius while avoiding drone collisions. This function enables complete coverage along the height of the object, which is assured by transitioning to another inspection band only after completing circumferential coverage. Using a swarm of vehicles, the time until complete coverage can be significantly reduced.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Time Domain Boundary Element Method Prediction of Noise Shielding by a NACA 0012 Airfoil

As aircraft noise constraints become more stringent and the number/mixture of aircraft configurations grows, it becomes more important to understand the interaction of individual aircraft noise sources with nearby aircraft structures. Understanding these interactions and exploring possible approaches to mitigate or exploit their acoustic impact is essential for overcoming key noise barriers. This paper describes the further validation of a time domain boundary element approach for the prediction of the interactions between incident noise sources and nearby aircraft structures. Predictions were completed for multiple source locations and comparisons of these results with measured data are presented. Overall, very good agreement between the predicted and measured quantities was obtained in both the pressure time histories and pressure spectra. The effects of surface mesh resolution and source waveform are also presented. The very promising results demonstrate the capabilities of the time domain methodology employed in this study and provide further confidence in its continued development and application in future studies.

TD-FAST↗
DOE OSTI2025

Multidimensional Modeling of Mixture Formation in a Hydrogen-Fueled Heavy-Duty Optical Engine With Direct Injection

Hydrogen (H 2 ), as a carbon-free fuel, is considered as one of the most promising solutions to reduce the carbon footprint of hard-to-decarbonize energy and transportation sectors. As such, hydrogen-fueled internal combustion engines (H 2 ICEs) have recently been receiving increasing attention, particularly in applications such as on-road/off-road heavy-duty transport and combined heat and power. The direct injection (DI) of gaseous hydrogen into the combustion chamber offers great potential for achieving high power density and high engine efficiency, while mitigating the risk of backfire and reducing pre-ignition. However, the numerical simulation of H 2 DI system remains a formidable challenge associated with the high computational cost of reproducing compressible supersonic flow and shocks in narrow injector passages and in near-nozzle regions. In general, there is a lack of well-established and validated practices for the modeling of high-pressure H 2 DI in large-bore engines. Here, to this end, this study focuses on computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling of the mixture formation process in a heavy-duty optical engine employing a medium-pressure H 2 DI system. Both large eddy simulations (LES) and Reynolds Averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) simulations are performed and evaluated against optical data. Gaseous hydrogen is injected into the combustion chamber via a centrally located outward opening hollow-cone injector at a pressure of 40 bar. Simulations are carried out for two injection timings, namely, −120 and −60 °CA. The numerical predictions for H 2 distribution in different horizontal and vertical planes during the compression stroke are systematically compared against optical data obtained through planar laser-induced fluorescence (PLIF) measurements. Overall, the LES approach using the Dynamic Structure model is found to have good predictive capabilities for the early jet penetration in terms of length and shape, as well as the later H 2 distributions. However, the unsteady RANS approach with the renormalization group $k - ϵ$ model, which is widely used by industry to model heavy-duty ICEs, significantly underpredicts the H 2 mixing, even at similar mesh resolution to that used in LES. These results indicate that there is a need for the improvement of mixing submodels within the RANS approach when applied to H 2 DI simulations.

LES↗
DOE OSTI2018

CPU Isosurface Ray Tracing of Adaptive Mesh Refinement Data

Adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) is a key technology for large-scale simulations that allows for adaptively changing the simulation mesh resolution, resulting in significant computational and storage savings. However, visualizing such AMR data poses a significant challenge due to the difficulties introduced by the hierarchical representation when reconstructing continuous field values. Here, we detail a comprehensive solution for interactive isosurface rendering of block-structured AMR data. We contribute a novel reconstruction strategy—the octant method—which is continuous, adaptive and simple to implement. Furthermore, we present a generally applicable hybrid implicit isosurface ray-tracing method, which provides better rendering quality and performance than the built-in sampling-based approach in OSPRay. Finally, we integrate our octant method and hybrid isosurface geometry into OSPRay as a module, providing the ability to create high-quality interactive visualizations combining volume and isosurface representations of BS-AMR data. Lastly, we evaluate the rendering performance, memory consumption and quality of our method on two gigascale block-structured AMR datasets.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
NASA NTRS1984

Application of VISSR Atmospheric Sounder (VAS) data in weather analysis

A technique which analyzes irregularly spaced satellite data is described. An experiment with rawinsonde and VISSR Atmospheric Sounder (VAS) radiance measurements collected on March 6-7, 1982 is conducted to reveal the applicability of the technique. The rawinsonde data are analyzed on a 16 x 12 grid using the two pass analysis scheme of Barnes (1973). A scheme similar to the Barnes (1973) procedure is employed to produce gridded analysis of VAS data over a 200 x 15000 km region in central part of the U.S. The use of a correction pass on the initial gridded field is described; the technique is extremely effective on uniformly spaced observations. The incorporation of the limited fine mesh model to the scheme to analyze data in sparse and cloudy regions is examined. A comparison of rawinsonde data with VAS data is provided. The technique proves effective for studying cloudy and sparse areas with VAS data and produces a four-dimensional data set with significant mesoscale structure.

Jedlovec, G. J.↗
DOE OSTI2021

Numerical evaluation of AGR-2 fission product release

The AGR-2 experiment produced normal operation and accident condition fuel performance data for tri-structural isotropic (TRISO) particles with UCO and UO 2 kernels. Data for compacts with no failed particles and for compacts with one or more failed particles are available. To model the fission product diffusion and release from these compacts, it is important to consider the computational mesh as well as the heat conduction and mass diffusion properties of the materials in a TRISO particle. Code and solution verification studies with the Bison fuel performance code were performed to show that the code is computing correct solutions. Bison comparisons to post-irradiation examination data and PARFUME predictions were made for several sets of compacts. Furthermore, these comparisons considered silver, cesium, strontium, and krypton with and without failed particles. Bison predictions closely match those of PARFUME, while both codes generally overpredict post-irradiation examination data.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
NASA NTRS1993

Investigation of advanced counterrotation blade configuration concepts for high speed turboprop systems. Task 5: Unsteady counterrotation ducted propfan analysis. Computer program user's manual

The primary objective of this study was the development of a time-marching three-dimensional Euler/Navier-Stokes aerodynamic analysis to predict steady and unsteady compressible transonic flows about ducted and unducted propfan propulsion systems employing multiple blade rows. The computer codes resulting from this study are referred to as ADPAC-AOACR (Advanced Ducted Propfan Analysis Codes-Angle of Attack Coupled Row). This report is intended to serve as a computer program user's manual for the ADPAC-AOACR codes developed under Task 5 of NASA Contract NAS3-25270, Unsteady Counterrotating Ducted Propfan Analysis. The ADPAC-AOACR program is based on a flexible multiple blocked grid discretization scheme permitting coupled 2-D/3-D mesh block solutions with application to a wide variety of geometries. For convenience, several standard mesh block structures are described for turbomachinery applications. Aerodynamic calculations are based on a four-stage Runge-Kutta time-marching finite volume solution technique with added numerical dissipation. Steady flow predictions are accelerated by a multigrid procedure. Numerical calculations are compared with experimental data for several test cases to demonstrate the utility of this approach for predicting the aerodynamics of modern turbomachinery configurations employing multiple blade rows.

Hall, Edward J.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Investigation of advanced counterrotation blade configuration concepts for high speed turboprop systems. Task 5: Unsteady counterrotation ducted propfan analysis

The primary objective of this study was the development of a time-marching three-dimensional Euler/Navier-Stokes aerodynamic analysis to predict steady and unsteady compressible transonic flows about ducted and unducted propfan propulsion systems employing multiple blade rows. The computer codes resulting from this study are referred to as ADPAC-AOAR\CR (Advanced Ducted Propfan Analysis Codes-Angle of Attack Coupled Row). This document is the final report describing the theoretical basis and analytical results from the ADPAC-AOACR codes developed under task 5 of NASA Contract NAS3-25270, Unsteady Counterrotating Ducted Propfan Analysis. The ADPAC-AOACR Program is based on a flexible multiple blocked grid discretization scheme permitting coupled 2-D/3-D mesh block solutions with application to a wide variety of geometries. For convenience, several standard mesh block structures are described for turbomachinery applications. Aerodynamic calculations are based on a four-stage Runge-Kutta time-marching finite volume solution technique with added numerical dissipation. Steady flow predictions are accelerated by a multigrid procedure. Numerical calculations are compared with experimental data for several test cases to demonstrate the utility of this approach for predicting the aerodynamics of modern turbomachinery configurations employing multiple blade rows.

Hall, Edward J.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Structured Overset and Unstructured Grid Simulations for the Third AIAA Sonic Boom Prediction Workshop

Predictions using the Launch Ascent and Vehicle Aerodynamics (LAVA) Unstructured and Structured Curvilinear solvers for the Biconvex and C608 geometries are compared in support of the 3rd AIAA Sonic Boom Prediction workshop. Description of the mesh generation techniques and numerical methods are provided along with a comparison of nearfield and far-field predictions with available experimental data as well as other workshop sub-missions. Strong consistency was observed between the Biconvex and C608 nearfield predictions across the two solvers used for this study, as well as validation and verification data. Additionally, near-field and farfield ground signature results using a combination of a truncated computational fluid dynamics (CFD) domain coupled to a mid-field space marching method and propagated to the ground using sBOOM will be discussed. This approach is shown to provide an efficient way to propagate near-field pressure signatures to the ground with the same accuracy as the near-field CFD coupled to sBOOM, but at less computational cost.

CST↗
DOE OSTI2017

Development of CFD Flow Analysis for Nuclear Facility Ventilation Systems

Understanding and modeling of particulate transport has importance related to safety in ventilated environments that contain hot cells, gloveboxes, and fume hoods. In particular, good modeling of the airflow in these spaces is required to understand areas of stagnation where particles drop out of the free stream and accumulate. This accumulation of particulate can cause either contamination and/or higher than acceptable local dose levels. It is known that multiple sites across the DOE complex take credit for hot cells, gloveboxes, and/or hoods in their safety basis for providing a defense-in-depth benefit for both onsite and offsite releases. By providing confinement of radioactive materials, such features serve to reduce direct doses to facility workers and mitigate the consequences to the environment due to an uncontrolled release. Each of these features has access points that interface with the personnel space. Understanding how air flow behaves at these access points is of great interest to those performing hazard analysis. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) can be used to analyze and model the flows in hot cells and glove boxes as a way to confirm operation. While CFD capability continues to advance, there are still important modeling assumptions that are left to the analyst's discretion. These are most notably the choice of the turbulence models, mesh structure, and wall boundary condition assumptions used in the model. In this work, we apply CFD in modeling airflow through an occupiable work area of the Alpha Gamma Hot Cell Facility (AGHCF) at Argonne National Laboratory (ANL). This modeling is then compared to field test data to both inform and verify the modeling assumptions. Based on the results of field tests, modeling assumptions and boundary conditions are refined and the process is repeated until the results are found to be reliable with a high level of confidence.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
NASA NTRS2003

Development of a Flexible Framework of Common Hypersonic Navier-Strokes Meshes for the Space Shuttle Orbiter

A flexible framework for the development of block structured volume grids for hypersonic Navier-Stokes flow simulations was developed for analysis of the Shuttle Orbiter Columbia. The development of the flexible framework, resulted in an ability to quickly generate meshes to directly correlate solutions contributed by participating groups on a common surface mesh, providing confidence for the extension of the envelope of solutions and damage scenarios. The framework draws on the experience of NASA Langely and NASA Ames Research Centers in structured grid generation, and consists of a grid generation process that is implemented through a division of responsibilities. The nominal division of labor consisted of NASA Johnson Space Center coordinating the damage scenarios to be analyzed by the Aerothermodynamics Columbia Accident Investigation (CAI) team, Ames developing the surface grids that described the computational volume about the orbiter, and Langely improving grid quality of Ames generated data and constructing the final volume grids. Distributing the work among the participants in the Aerothermodynamic CIA team resulted in significantly less time required to construct complete meshes than possible by any individual participant. The approach demonstrated that the One-NASA grid generation team could sustain the demand for new meshes to explore new damage scenarios within a aggressive timeline.

Alter, Stephen J.↗
DOE OSTI2022

Enabling Parallel Execution of System-level Simulations in SAM

This report summarizes the recent code updates related to “element ghosting” in SAM to enable the parallel execution of system-level simulations using multiple processors/cores. Unlike typical MOOSE-based applications, for system-level simulations, SAM mostly deals with a collection of discrete small pieces of meshes, and the connection of physics on these meshes are realized by using “connector” types of components/code structures, such as conjugate heat transfer and flow junctions. The required code implementation is to correctly mark the necessary ghost elements for each type of such components/code structures; thus, the lower-level libraries can correctly perform the necessary data transfer between processors (CPUs) when executed in parallel mode. After the code updates, SAM can now run system-level simulations in the parallel mode. The parallel execution capability was then tested with an ABTR input model with 23k DOFs. Significant speedup was demonstrated when the optimal number of CPUs were used in parallel mode. Future systematic studies on parallelization performance using additional test cases covering different physics/scenarios will be needed to provide additional insights into the scalability of SAM parallelization.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2014

Adaptive h -refinement for reduced-order models: ADAPTIVE h -refinement for reduced-order models

Our work presents a method to adaptively refine reduced-order models a posteriori without requiring additional full-order-model solves. The technique is analogous to mesh-adaptive h-refinement: it enriches the reduced-basis space online by ‘splitting’ a given basis vector into several vectors with disjoint support. The splitting scheme is defined by a tree structure constructed offline via recursive k-means clustering of the state variables using snapshot data. This method identifies the vectors to split online using a dual-weighted-residual approach that aims to reduce error in an output quantity of interest. The resulting method generates a hierarchy of subspaces online without requiring large-scale operations or full-order-model solves. Furthermore, it enables the reduced-order model to satisfy any prescribed error tolerance regardless of its original fidelity, as a completely refined reduced-order model is mathematically equivalent to the original full-order model. Experiments on a parameterized inviscid Burgers equation highlight the ability of the method to capture phenomena (e.g., moving shocks) not contained in the span of the original reduced basis.

42 ENGINEERING↗
NASA NTRS1992

Modal simulation of gearbox vibration with experimental correlation

A newly developed global dynamic model was used to simulate the dynamics of a gear noise rig at NASA Lewis Research Center. Experimental results from the test rig were used to verify the analytical model. In this global dynamic model, the number of degrees of freedom of the system are reduced by transforming the system equations of motion into modal coordinates. The vibration of the individual gear-shaft system are coupled through the gear mesh forces. A three-dimensional, axial-lateral coupled, bearing model was used to couple the casing structural vibration to the gear-rotor dynamics. The coupled system of modal equations is solved to predict the resulting vibration at several locations on the test rig. Experimental vibration data was compared to the predictions of the global dynamic model. There is excellent agreement between the vibration results from analysis and experiment.

Choy, Fred K.↗