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At least 325 records · Page 18

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NASA NTRS1987

Displacement surface calculations for a hypersonic aircraft

A method is presented to calculate the three-dimensional displacement surface about a hypersonic aircraft. This calculation requires a flow-field-solution to at least the thin-layer Navier-Stokes equations about the aircraft as input. An upwind, finite-volume code developed at NASA Langley Research Center was used to obtain the flow-field solution. The displacement surface is the three-dimensional counterpart to the two-dimensional displacement thickness. Flow-field solutions, along with the displacement surface calculations, are presented for a generic hypersonic aircraft at a Mach number of 24.5 and angle of attack of zero and one degree.

Richardson, Pamela F.↗

NASA NTRS1987

Aerodynamic design modification of a hypersonic wind tunnel nozzle by CSCM with high order accuracy

An improved version of the CSCM implicit Navier-Stokes solver with a flexible data structure has been applied, in conjunction with a sophisticated patched grid system, to the aerodynamic analysis of hypersonic axisymmetric contoured nozzles of the NASA-Ames 3.5-foot hypersonic wind tunnel. The results obtained are found to be in good agreement with experiment. Based on the analysis, a newly designed throat contour for the Mach 14 nozzle has been recommended.

Yang, J. Y.↗

NASA NTRS1987

A feasibility study of a hypersonic real-gas facility

A four month feasibility study of a hypersonic real-gas free flight test facility for NASA Langley Research Center (LARC) was performed. The feasibility of using a high-energy electromagnetic launcher (EML) to accelerate complex models (lifting and nonlifting) in the hypersonic, real-gas facility was examined. Issues addressed include: design and performance of the accelerator; design and performance of the power supply; design and operation of the sabot and payload during acceleration and separation; effects of high current, magnetic fields, temperature, and stress on the sabot and payload; and survivability of payload instrumentation during acceleration, flight, and soft catch.

Gully, J. H.↗

NASA NTRS1987

Numerical simulation of the hypersonic flow around lifting vehicles

A method of solving the viscous hypersonic flow field around realistic configurations is presented. The numerical procedure for generating the required finite difference grid and the two-factored implicit flow solver are described. Results are presented for the shuttle orbiter and a generic wing-body configuration at hypersonic Mach numbers.

Rizk, Yehia↗

NASA NTRS1987

Hypersonic propulsion research

The NASA Langley Research Center has conducted hypersonic propulsion research since the 1960s. A variety of inlet concepts were explored and characterized. The emphasis of the inlet program was the development of the short (light weight), fixed geometry, side-wall-compression inlets that operate efficiently over a wide Mach number range. As hypersonic combustion tunnels were developed, programs to study the parameters controlling fuel mixing and combustion with single and multiple strut models were conducted using direct connect test techniques. These various tests supported the design of subscale engine test hardware that integrated inlet and combustor technology and allowed the study of the effect of heat release on thrust and combustor/inlet interaction. A number of subscale engine tests have demonstrated predicted performance levels at Mach 4 and 7 simulated flight conditions.

Northam, G. Burton↗

NASA NTRS1988

Hypersonic blunt body computations including real gas effects

The recently developed second-order explicit and implicit total variation diminishing (TVD) shock-capturing methods of the Harten and Yee, Yee, and van Leer types in conjunction with a generalized Roe's approximate Riemann solver of Vinokur and the generalized flux-vector splittings of Vinokur and Montagne for two-dimensional hypersonic real gas flows are studied. A previous study on one-dimensional unsteady problems indicated that these schemes produce good shock-capturing capability and that the state equation does not have a large effect on the general behavior of these methods for a wide range of flow conditions for equilibrium air. The objective of this paper is to investigate the applicability and shock resolution of these schemes for two-dimensional steady-state hypersonic blunt body flows. The main contribution of this paper is to identify some of the elements and parameters which can affect the convergence rate for high Mach numbers or real gases but have negligible effect for low Mach number cases for steady-state inviscid blunt body flows.

Montagne, J.-L.↗

NASA NTRS1986

Review of convectively cooled structures for hypersonic flight

Resurgent interest in development of Aerospace Plane and Orient Express type vehicles promises to stretch structural technology for hypersonic flight vehicles to the uppermost limits. Significant portions of the structure may require active cooling of some type to survive hostile environments. Despite a lack of recent research activity for cooled structures, a significant body of unclassified knowledge exists concerning such structures. Contractual and in-house research conducted mainly by NASA's Langley Research Center during the 60's and 70's on vehicles very similar to the proposed Orient Express has provided a substantial data base for convectively cooled hypersonic flight structures. Specifically, results are presented for regeneratively cooled structural concepts which have a relatively high heat flux capability and use the hydrogen fuel directly as a coolant; and for structural concepts which use a secondary coolant loop to absorb incident heating and then transfer the absorbed heat to the liquid hydrogen fuel as it flows to the engines. Results are presented to indicate application regions in terms of heat flux capability for various concepts and benefits for each concept. Experience gained and costs are discussed in terms of heat flux capability for various concepts and benefits for each concept. Additionally, experience gained and cost involved with design, fabrication, and testing of full-scale convectively cooled structures are discussed.

Shore, Charles P.↗

NASA NTRS1987

Ground tests confirm the promise of hypersonic propulsion

The feasibility of developing a hypersonic hydrogen-fueled airbreathing vehicle capable of Mach 8 is examined. A modular dual-mode scramjet concept integrated with the airframe has been proposed. The research involved in the formation of this design is discussed. Particular attention is given to studies concerned with airframe integration; the evaluation of hypersonic inlets; and the analysis of viscous phenomena. The injector and combustor configurations of the modular engine, which is designed to operate as a ramjet and scramjet, are analyzed. The engine thrust performance of subscale engine modules was tested, and positive results were obtained. Simulation testing of a full-size model is being planned.

Anderson, Griffin Y.↗

NASA NTRS1987

Retooling CFD for hypersonic aircraft

The CFD facility requirements of hypersonic aircraft configuration design development are different from those thus far employed for reentry vehicle design, because (1) the airframe and the propulsion system must be fully integrated to achieve the desired performance; (2) the vehicle must be reusable, with minimum refurbishment requirements between flights; and (3) vehicle performance must be optimized for a wide range of Mach numbers. An evaluation is presently made of flow resolution within shock waves, transition and turbulence phenomenon tractability, chemical reaction modeling, and hypersonic boundary layer transition, with state-of-the-art CFD.

Dwoyer, Douglas L.↗

NASA NTRS1987

Extension of hypersonic, high-incidence, slender-body similarity

The Sychev (1960) analysis for inviscid hypersonic flow past slender bodies at large angle of attack is shown to be applicable to all slender-body flows whose crossflow Mach numbers are greater than sonic; it is therefore not restricted to flows with hypersonic crossflow Mach number values, as indicated elsewhere in the literature. It is also noted that the Sychev similarity applies to a number of slender-body flows with subsonic crossflow Mach numbers, including incompressible flow.

Barnwell, Richard W.↗

NASA NTRS1988

Computation of hypersonic flow through a narrow expansion slot

The compressible Navier-Stokes equations are numerically solved for hypersonic flow over a three-dimensional ramp with a narrow expansion slot. In a two-dimensional test case, it is shown that a higher order scheme is needed to avoid too much numerical dissipation and hence too much total-pressure loss. The calculation demonstrates the role of viscosity in the expansion process of hypersonic flow through the narrow slot. Cases with various wall temperatures and slot widths are studied. Calculations show that wall cooling reduces the thickness of boundary layer, and hence increases the flow expansion substantially. In the lower portion of the slot, inviscidly, the flow is dominated by a highly expanded low density fluid, and viscously, by a viscous layer. As a direct consequence, as soon as the wedge angle is large enough, the mass flux through the slot is almost constant.

Hung, Ching-Mao↗

NASA NTRS1988

Flow visualization and pressure distributions for an all-body hypersonic aircraft

A CFD code-validation effort has been conducted at the NASA-Ames 3.5-ft hypersonic wind tunnel, using a generic, 'all-body' hypersonic aircraft configuration model. The CFD methods to be validated encompass approximate inviscid ones and the upwind parabolized Navier-Stokes solver code. Flow visualizations and pressure distributions are obtained for the cases of zero and 15 deg angles of attack. A complex leeward flow is observed at angle-of-attack with crossflow separation and vortices, and significant changes are noted in the transition from the forebody's conical to the afterbody's nonconical flows.

Lockman, William K.↗

NASA NTRS1988

Fluid dynamic modeling and numerical simulation of low-density hypersonic flow

The concept of a viscous shock-layer and several related versions of continuum theories/methods are examined for their adequacy as a viable framework to study flow physics and aerothermodynamics of relevance to sustained hypersonic flights. Considering the flat plate at angle of attack, or the wedge, as a generic example for the major aerodynamic component of a hypersonic vehicle, the relative importance of the molecular-transport effects behind the shock (in the form of the 'shock slip') and the wall-slip effects are studied. In the flow regime where the shock-transition-zone thickness remains small compared to the shock radius of curvature, a quasi-one-dimensional shock structure under the Burnett/thirteen-moment approximation, as well as particulate/collisional models, can be consistently developed. The fully viscous version of the shock-layer model is shown to provide the crucial boundary condition downstream the shock in this case. The gas-kinetic basis of the continuum description for the flow behind the bow shock, and certain features affecting the non-equilibrium flow chemistry, are also discussed.

Cheng, H. K.↗

NASA NTRS1988

Hypersonic, stratified gas flows past an obstacle - Direct simulation Monte Carlo calculations

Monte Carlo particle dynamics are presently used to study the interaction of a stratified gas that impinges hypersonically on a solid body, whose size is comparable to the gas scale height. Attention is given to the results of these computations for two representative cases, where the obstacle adopted is a short, uniform cylindrical pipe whose upstream end is fully open, facing directly into the flow, while the downstream end is covered by a flat circular endplate containing an 'orifice' at its center. The cases are those of a completely closed and a fully open orifice; together, these bound the full range of obstructed hypersonic, stratified gas flows of interest.

Roberts, William W., Jr.↗

NASA NTRS1988

Interference effects on the hypersonic, rarefied flow about a flat plate

The Direct Simulation Monte Carlo method is used to study the hypersonic, rarified flow interference effects on a flat plate caused by nearby surfaces. Calculations focus on shock-boundary-layer and shock-lip interactions in hypersonic inlets. Results are presented for geometries consisting of a flat plate with different leading-edge shapes over a flat lower wall and a blunt-edge flat plate over a 5-degree wedge. The problems simulated correspond to a typical entry flight condition of 7.5 km/s at altitudes of 75 to 90 km. The results show increases in predicted local heating rates for shock-boundary-layer and shock-lip interactions that are quantitatively similar to those observed experimentally at much higher densities.

Wilmoth, Richard G.↗

NASA NTRS1988

On the instability of hypersonic flow past a wedge

The instability of a compressible flow past a wedge is investigated in the hypersonic limit. Particular attention is given to the Tollmien-Schlichting waves governed by triple-deck theory though some discussion of inviscid modes is given. It is shown that the attached shock has a significant effect on the growth rates of Tollmien-Schlichting waves. Moreover, the presence of the shock allows for more than one unstable Tollmien-Schlichting wave. Indeed, an infinite discrete spectrum of unstable waves is induced by the shock, but these modes are unstable over relatively small but high frequency ranges. The shock is shown to have little effect on the inviscid modes considered by previous authors and an asymptotic description of inviscid modes in the hypersonic limit is given.

Cowley, Stephen↗

NASA NTRS1988

Aerodynamic maneuvering hypersonic flight mechanics

The emergence of current high-interest mission involving aeromaneuvering hypersonic flight has given rise to the corresponding need for preliminary design and performance analyses of such vehicles. This need in turn has motivated efforts to develop simplified analytical and computational methods for parametric analysis of maneuvering hypersonic flight under conditions appropriate to the mission involved. The effort included a review of different formulations of the general equations of motion, their associated coordinate frames, various simplifications of the equations, and previously achieved analytical solutions. This study sought to both extend previous solution methods and to develop new ones. In addition, evaluation of the literature and developing a systematic perspective on the knowledge it represents proved to be a major portion of the effort.

Desautel, Dick↗

NASA NTRS1989

Model formulation of non-equilibrium gas radiation for hypersonic flight vehicles

Several radiation models for low density nonequilibrium hypersonic flow are studied. It is proposed that these models should be tested by the 3-D VRFL code developed at NASA/JSC. A modified and optimized radiation model may be obtained from the testing. Then, the current VRFL code could be expanded to solve hypersonic flow problems with nonequilibrium thermal radiation.

Chang, Ing↗