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At least 271 records · Page 15

NASA Tech Briefs, September 2006

Topics covered include: Improving Thermomechanical Properties of SiC/SiC Composites; Aerogel/Particle Composites for Thermoelectric Devices; Patches for Repairing Ceramics and Ceramic- Matrix Composites; Lower-Conductivity Ceramic Materials for Thermal-Barrier Coatings; An Alternative for Emergency Preemption of Traffic Lights; Vehicle Transponder for Preemption of Traffic Lights; Automated Announcements of Approaching Emergency Vehicles; Intersection Monitor for Traffic-Light-Preemption System; Full-Duplex Digital Communication on a Single Laser Beam; Stabilizing Microwave Frequency of a Photonic Oscillator; Microwave Oscillators Based on Nonlinear WGM Resonators; Pointing Reference Scheme for Free-Space Optical Communications Systems; High-Level Performance Modeling of SAR Systems; Spectral Analysis Tool 6.2 for Windows; Multi-Platform Avionics Simulator; Silicon-Based Optical Modulator with Ferroelectric Layer; Multiplexing Transducers Based on Tunnel-Diode Oscillators; Scheduling with Automated Resolution of Conflicts; Symbolic Constraint Maintenance Grid; Discerning Trends in Performance Across Multiple Events; Magnetic Field Solver; Computing for Aiming a Spaceborne Bistatic- Radar Transmitter; 4-Vinyl-1,3-Dioxolane-2-One as an Additive for Li-Ion Cells; Probabilistic Prediction of Lifetimes of Ceramic Parts; STRANAL-PMC Version 2.0; Micromechanics and Piezo Enhancements of HyperSizer; Single-Phase Rare-Earth Oxide/Aluminum Oxide Glasses; Tilt/Tip/Piston Manipulator with Base-Mounted Actuators; Measurement of Model Noise in a Hard-Wall Wind Tunnel; Loci-STREAM Version 0.9; The Synergistic Engineering Environment; Reconfigurable Software for Controlling Formation Flying; More About the Tetrahedral Unstructured Software System; Computing Flows Using Chimera and Unstructured Grids; Avoiding Obstructions in Aiming a High-Gain Antenna; Analyzing Aeroelastic Stability of a Tilt-Rotor Aircraft; Tracking Positions and Attitudes of Mars Rovers; Stochastic Evolutionary Algorithms for Planning Robot Paths; Compressible Flow Toolbox; Rapid Aeroelastic Analysis of Blade Flutter in Turbomachines; General Flow-Solver Code for Turbomachinery Applications; Code for Multiblock CFD and Heat-Transfer Computations; Rotating-Pump Design Code; Covering a Crucible with Metal Containing Channels; Repairing Fractured Bones by Use of Bioabsorbable Composites; Kalman Filter for Calibrating a Telescope Focal Plane; Electronic Absolute Cartesian Autocollimator; Fiber-Optic Gratings for Lidar Measurements of Water Vapor; Simulating Responses of Gravitational-Wave Instrumentation; SOFTC: A Software Correlator for VLBI; Progress in Computational Simulation of Earthquakes; Database of Properties of Meteors; Computing Spacecraft Solar-Cell Damage by Charged Particles; Thermal Model of a Current-Carrying Wire in a Vacuum; Program for Analyzing Flows in a Complex Network; Program Predicts Performance of Optical Parametric Oscillators; Processing TES Level-1B Data; Automated Camera Calibration; Tracking the Martian CO2 Polar Ice Caps in Infrared Images; Processing TES Level-2 Data; SmaggIce Version 1.8; Solving the Swath Segment Selection Problem; The Spatial Standard Observer; Less-Complex Method of Classifying MPSK; Improvement in Recursive Hierarchical Segmentation of Data; Using Heaps in Recursive Hierarchical Segmentation of Data; Tool for Statistical Analysis and Display of Landing Sites; Automated Assignment of Proposals to Reviewers; Array-Pattern-Match Compiler for Opportunistic Data Analysis; Pre-Processor for Compression of Multispectral Image Data; Compressing Image Data While Limiting the Effects of Data Losses; Flight Operations Analysis Tool; Improvement in Visual Target Tracking for a Mobile Robot; Software for Simulating Air Traffic; Automated Vectorization of Decision-Based Algorithms; Grayscale Optical Correlator Workbench; "One-Stop Shopping" for Ocean Remote-Sensing and Model Data; State Analysis Database Tool; Generating CAHV and CAHVOmages with Shadows in ROAMS; Improving UDP/IP Transmission Without Increasing Congestion; FORTRAN Versions of Reformulated HFGMC Codes; Program for Editing Spacecraft Command Sequences; Flight-Tested Prototype of BEAM Software; Mission Scenario Development Workbench; Marsviewer; Tool for Analysis and Reduction of Scientific Data; ASPEN Version 3.0; Secure Display of Space-Exploration Images; Digital Front End for Wide-Band VLBI Science Receiver; Multifunctional Tanks for Spacecraft; Lightweight, Segmented, Mostly Silicon Telescope Mirror; Assistant for Analyzing Tropical-Rain-Mapping Radar Data; and Anion-Intercalating Cathodes for High-Energy- Density Cells.

Source record↗

A genuinely multidimensional upwind scheme and efficient multigrid solver for the compressible Euler equations

We present a new approach towards the construction of a genuinely multidimensional high-resolution scheme for computing steady-state solutions of the Euler equations of gas dynamics. The unique advantage of this approach is that the Gauss-Seidel relaxation is stable when applied directly to the high-resolution discrete equations, thus allowing us to construct a very efficient and simple multigrid steady-state solver. This is the only high-resolution scheme known to us that has this property. The two-dimensional scheme is presented in detail. It is formulated on triangular (structured and unstructured) meshes and can be interpreted as a genuinely two-dimensional extension of the Roe scheme. The quality of the solutions obtained using this scheme and the performance of the multigrid algorithm are illustrated by the numerical experiments. Construction of the three dimensional scheme is outlined briefly as well.

Sidilkover, David↗

Numerical Schemes for the Hamilton-Jacobi and Level Set Equations on Triangulated Domains

Borrowing from techniques developed for conservation law equations, we have developed both monotone and higher order accurate numerical schemes which discretize the Hamilton-Jacobi and level set equations on triangulated domains. The use of unstructured meshes containing triangles (2D) and tetrahedra (3D) easily accommodates mesh adaptation to resolve disparate level set feature scales with a minimal number of solution unknowns. The minisymposium talk will discuss these algorithmic developments and present sample calculations using our adaptive triangulation algorithm applied to various moving interface problems such as etching, deposition, and curvature flow.

Barth, Timothy J.↗

A structured and unstructured remeshing method for high speed flows

An adaptive remeshing method using both triangular and quadrilateral elements suitable for high speed flows is presented. For inviscid flows the method generates completely unstructured meshes. For viscous flows the boundary layer edge is identified adaptively and a structured mesh is generated in the boundary layer, and an unstructured mesh is generated in the inviscid region. Examples of inviscid and viscous mesh adaptations for high speed flows are presented. A comparison is made between first order and higher order finite element algorithms when used in association with the remeshing method.

Vemaganti, Gururaja R.↗

Partitioning of unstructured problems for parallel processing

Many large-scale computational problems are based on unstructured computational domains. Primary examples are unstructured grid calculations based on finite volume methods in computational fluid dynamics, or structural analysis problems based on finite element approximations. The question of how to distribute such unstructured computational domains over a large number of processors in a MIMD machine with distributed memory is addressed. A graph theoretical framework for these problems is established. Based on this framework three decomposition algorithms are introduced. In particular a new decomposition algorithm is discussed, which is based on the computation of an eigenvector of the Laplacian matrix associated with the graph. Numerical comparisons on large-scale two- and three-dimensional problems demonstrate the superiority of the new spectral bisection algorithm.

Simon, H. D.↗

Parametric binary dissection

Binary dissection is widely used to partition non-uniform domains over parallel computers. This algorithm does not consider the perimeter, surface area, or aspect ratio of the regions being generated and can yield decompositions that have poor communication to computation ratio. Parametric Binary Dissection (PBD) is a new algorithm in which each cut is chosen to minimize load + lambda x(shape). In a 2 (or 3) dimensional problem, load is the amount of computation to be performed in a subregion and shape could refer to the perimeter (respectively surface) of that subregion. Shape is a measure of communication overhead and the parameter permits us to trade off load imbalance against communication overhead. When A is zero, the algorithm reduces to plain binary dissection. This algorithm can be used to partition graphs embedded in 2 or 3-d. Load is the number of nodes in a subregion, shape the number of edges that leave that subregion, and lambda the ratio of time to communicate over an edge to the time to compute at a node. An algorithm is presented that finds the depth d parametric dissection of an embedded graph with n vertices and e edges in O(max(n log n, de)) time, which is an improvement over the O(dn log n) time of plain binary dissection. Parallel versions of this algorithm are also presented; the best of these requires O((n/p) log(sup 3)p) time on a p processor hypercube, assuming graphs of bounded degree. How PBD is applied to 3-d unstructured meshes and yields partitions that are better than those obtained by plain dissection is described. Its application to the color image quantization problem is also discussed, in which samples in a high-resolution color space are mapped onto a lower resolution space in a way that minimizes the color error.

Bokhari, Shahid H.↗

PLUM: Parallel Load Balancing for Unstructured Adaptive Meshes

Dynamic mesh adaption on unstructured grids is a powerful tool for computing large-scale problems that require grid modifications to efficiently resolve solution features. Unfortunately, an efficient parallel implementation is difficult to achieve, primarily due to the load imbalance created by the dynamically-changing nonuniform grid. To address this problem, we have developed PLUM, an automatic portable framework for performing adaptive large-scale numerical computations in a message-passing environment. First, we present an efficient parallel implementation of a tetrahedral mesh adaption scheme. Extremely promising parallel performance is achieved for various refinement and coarsening strategies on a realistic-sized domain. Next we describe PLUM, a novel method for dynamically balancing the processor workloads in adaptive grid computations. This research includes interfacing the parallel mesh adaption procedure based on actual flow solutions to a data remapping module, and incorporating an efficient parallel mesh repartitioner. A significant runtime improvement is achieved by observing that data movement for a refinement step should be performed after the edge-marking phase but before the actual subdivision. We also present optimal and heuristic remapping cost metrics that can accurately predict the total overhead for data redistribution. Several experiments are performed to verify the effectiveness of PLUM on sequences of dynamically adapted unstructured grids. Portability is demonstrated by presenting results on the two vastly different architectures of the SP2 and the Origin2OOO. Additionally, we evaluate the performance of five state-of-the-art partitioning algorithms that can be used within PLUM. It is shown that for certain classes of unsteady adaption, globally repartitioning the computational mesh produces higher quality results than diffusive repartitioning schemes. We also demonstrate that a coarse starting mesh produces high quality load balancing, at a fraction of the cost required a fine initial mesh. Results indicate that our parallel load balancing strategy will remain viable on large numbers of processors.

Oliker, Leonid↗

Unstructured viscous flow solution using adaptive hybrid grids

A three dimensional finite volume scheme based on hybrid grids containing both tetrahedral and hexahedral cells is presented. The application to hybrid grids offers the possibility to combine the flexibility of tetrahedral meshes with the accuracy of hexahedral grids. An algorithm to compute a dual mesh for the entire computational domain was developed. The dual mesh technique guarantees conservation in the whole flow field even at interfaces between hexahedral and tetrahedral domains and enables the employment of an accurate upwind flow solver. The hybrid mesh can be adapted to the solution by dividing cells in areas of insufficient resolution. The method is tested on different viscous and inviscid cases for hypersonic, transonic and subsonic flows.

Galle, Martin↗

Self-Avoiding Walks Over Adaptive Triangular Grids

Space-filling curves is a popular approach based on a geometric embedding for linearizing computational meshes. We present a new O(n log n) combinatorial algorithm for constructing a self avoiding walk through a two dimensional mesh containing n triangles. We show that for hierarchical adaptive meshes, the algorithm can be locally adapted and easily parallelized by taking advantage of the regularity of the refinement rules. The proposed approach should be very useful in the runtime partitioning and load balancing of adaptive unstructured grids.

Heber, Gerd↗

EUPDF-II: An Eulerian Joint Scalar Monte Carlo PDF Module : User's Manual

EUPDF-II provides the solution for the species and temperature fields based on an evolution equation for PDF (Probability Density Function) and it is developed mainly for application with sprays, combustion, parallel computing, and unstructured grids. It is designed to be massively parallel and could easily be coupled with any existing gas-phase CFD and spray solvers. The solver accommodates the use of an unstructured mesh with mixed elements of either triangular, quadrilateral, and/or tetrahedral type. The manual provides the user with an understanding of the various models involved in the PDF formulation, its code structure and solution algorithm, and various other issues related to parallelization and its coupling with other solvers. The source code of EUPDF-II will be available with National Combustion Code (NCC) as a complete package.

Raju, M. S.↗

Line relaxation methods for the solution of 2D and 3D compressible flows

An implicit finite element based algorithm for the compressible Navier-Stokes equations is outlined, and the solution of the resulting equation by a line relaxation on general meshes of triangles or tetrahedra is described. The problem of generating and adapting unstructured meshes for viscous flows is reexamined, and an approach for both 2D and 3D simulations is proposed. An efficient approach appears to be the use of an implicit/explicit procedure, with the implicit treatment being restricted to those regions of the mesh where viscous effects are known to be dominant. Numerical examples demonstrating the computational performance of the proposed techniques are given.

Hassan, O.↗

Emerging CFD technologies and aerospace vehicle design

With the recent focus on the needs of design and applications CFD, research groups have begun to address the traditional bottlenecks of grid generation and surface modeling. Now, a host of emerging technologies promise to shortcut or dramatically simplify the simulation process. This paper discusses the current status of these emerging technologies. It will argue that some tools are already available which can have positive impact on portions of the design cycle. However, in most cases, these tools need to be integrated into specific engineering systems and process cycles to be used effectively. The rapidly maturing status of unstructured and Cartesian approaches for inviscid simulations makes suggests the possibility of highly automated Euler-boundary layer simulations with application to loads estimation and even preliminary design. Similarly, technology is available to link block structured mesh generation algorithms with topology libraries to avoid tedious re-meshing of topologically similar configurations. Work in algorithmic based auto-blocking suggests that domain decomposition and point placement operations in multi-block mesh generation may be properly posed as problems in Computational Geometry, and following this approach may lead to robust algorithmic processes for automatic mesh generation.

Aftosmis, Michael J.↗

Essentially nonoscillatory (ENO) reconstructions via extrapolation

In this paper, the algorithm for determining the stencil of a one-dimensional Essentially Nonoscillatory (ENO) reconstruction scheme on a uniform grid is reinterpreted as being based on extrapolation. This view leads to another extension of ENO reconstruction schemes to two-dimensional unstructured triangular meshes. The key idea here is to select several cells of the stencil in one step based on extrapolation rather than one cell at a time. Numerical experiments confirm that the new scheme yields sharp nonoscillatory reconstructions and that it is about five times faster than previous schemes.

Suresh, Ambady↗

A User's Guide to AMR1D: An Instructional Adaptive Mesh Refinement Code for Unstructured Grids

This report documents the code AMR1D, which is currently posted on the World Wide Web (http://sdcd.gsfc.nasa.gov/ESS/exchange/contrib/de-fainchtein/adaptive _mesh_refinement.html). AMR1D is a one-dimensional finite element fluid-dynamics solver, capable of adaptive mesh refinement (AMR). It was written as an instructional tool for AMR on unstructured mesh codes. It is meant to illustrate the minimum requirements for AMR on more than one dimension. For that purpose, it uses the same type of data structure that would be necessary on a two-dimensional AMR code (loosely following the algorithm described by Lohner).

deFainchtein, Rosalinda↗

Simulation of a Periodic Jet in a Crossflow with a RANS Solver Using an Unstructured Grid

A second-order unstructured-grid code, developed and used primarily for steady aerodynamic simulations, is applied to the synthetic jet in a cross flow. The code, FUN3D, is a vertex-centered finite-volume method originally developed by Anderson[1, 2], and is currently supported by members of the Fast Adaptive Aerospace Tools team at NASA Langley. Used primarily for design[3] and analysis[4] of steady aerodynamic configurations, FUN3D incorporates a discrete adjoint capability, and supports parallel computations using MPI. A detailed description of the FUN3D code can be found in the references given above. The code is under continuous development and contains a variety of flux splitting algorithms for the inviscid terms, two methods for computing gradients, several turbulence models, and several solution methodologies; all in varying states of development. Only the most robust and reliable components, based on experiences with steady aerodynamic simulations, were employed in this work. As applied in this work, FUN3D solves the Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes equations using the one equation turbulence model of Spalart and Allmaras[5]. The spatial discretization is formed on unstructured meshes using a vertex-centered approach. The inviscid terms are evaluated by a flux-difference splitting formulation using least-squares reconstruction and Roe-type approximate Riemann fluxes. Green-Gauss gradient evaluations are used for viscous and turbulence modeling terms. The discrete spatial operator is combined with a backward time operator which is then solved iteratively using point or line Gauss-Seidel and local time stepping in a pseudo time. For steady flows, the physical time step is set to infinity and the pseudo time step is ramped up with the iteration count. A second-order backward in time operator is used for time accurate flows with 20 to 50 steps in the pseudo time applied at each physical time step. For this effort, FUN3D was modified to support spatially varying boundary and initial conditions, and unsteady boundary conditions. Also, a specialized in/out flow boundary condition was implemented to model the action of the diaphragm. This boundary condition is described below in more detail. The grids were generated using the internally developed codes GridEX[6] for meshing the surfaces and inviscid regions of the domain, and for CAD access; and MesherX[7] for meshing the viscous regions. Grid spacing in on the surfaces and in the inviscid regions are indirectly controlled by specifying sources. The viscous layers are generated using an advancing layer technique. MeshersX allows the user to control the spatial variation of the first step off the surface, growth rates, and the termination criterion by providing small problem dependent subroutines.

Atkins, H. L.↗

Upwind control volumes - A new upwind approach

This paper presents a new algorithm for the solution of the steady Euler equations in two-dimensional flow. It uses an upwind control volume approach in which a standard flux residual on triangular cells is distributed with a downwind bias. The resulting scheme is second order accurate on unstructured triangular meshes and produces sharp shocks without the addition of any shock smoothing. Results demonstrate its performance on a standard AGARD test case using both smooth and irregular unstructured meshes.

Giles, Michael↗

A Walsh Function Module Users' Manual

The solution of partial differential equations (PDEs) with Walsh functions offers new opportunities to simulate many challenging problems in mathematical physics. The approach was developed to better simulate hypersonic flows with shocks on unstructured grids. It is unique in that integrals and derivatives are computed using simple matrix multiplication of series representations of functions without the need for divided differences. The product of any two Walsh functions is another Walsh function - a feature that radically changes an algorithm for solving PDEs. A FORTRAN module for supporting Walsh function simulations is documented. A FORTRAN code is also documented with options for solving time-dependent problems: an advection equation, a Burgers equation, and a Riemann problem. The sample problems demonstrate the usage of the Walsh function module including such features as operator overloading, Fast Walsh Transforms in multi-dimensions, and a Fast Walsh reciprocal.

Gnoffo, Peter A.↗

Comparison of NACA 0012 Laminar Flow Solutions: Structured and Unstructured Grid Methods

In this paper we consider the solution of the compressible Navier-Stokes equations for a class of laminar airfoil flows. The principal objective of this paper is to demonstrate that members of this class of laminar flows have steady-state solutions. These laminar airfoil flow cases are often used to evaluate accuracy, stability and convergence of numerical solution algorithms for the Navier-Stokes equations. In recent years, such flows have also been used as test cases for high-order numerical schemes. While generally consistent steady-state solutions have been obtained for these flows using higher order schemes, a number of results have been published with various solutions, including unsteady ones. We demonstrate with two different numerical methods and a range of meshes with a maximum density that exceeds 8 × 106 grid points that steady-state solutions are obtained. Furthermore, numerical evidence is presented that even when solving the equations with an unsteady algorithm, one obtains steady-state solutions.

Swanson, R. C.↗