Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “viscosity”

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.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 325 records · Page 18

Mantle viscosity, J2 and the nontidal acceleration of Earth rotation

Recent interpretations of laser ranging for the LAGEOS satellite have rather conclusively established that the observed acceleration in the node of its orbit is just that expected to exist as a residual effect of the last deglaciation event which ended about 6000 years ago. The nontidal acceleration of rotation would be rather different than that observed if there were any significant melting of high latitude continental ice masses currently ongoing. The sensitivity of the expected nontidal acceleration to variations of several elements of the radial viscoelastic structure of the planet is explored using a new normal mode method for the computation of viscoelastic relaxation spectra. These calculations establish that the most important sensitivity is to variations in the mantle viscosity profile. Although the predicted nontidal acceleration does depend upon lithospheric thickness and on the elastic component of the radial structure, the dependence on these components of the structure is much weaker than it is upon mantle viscosity. The observed J sub 2 is therefore a particularly useful determinant of radial variations in the latter parameter.

Peltier, W. R.↗

The numerical viscosity of entropy stable schemes for systems of conservation laws

Discrete approximations to hyperbolic systems of conservation laws are studied. The amount of numerical viscosity present in such schemes, is quantified and related to their entropy stability by means of comparison. To this end, conservative schemes which are also entropy conservative are constructed. These entropy conservative schemes enjoy second-order accuracy; moreover, they admit a particular interpretation within the finite-element frameworks, and hence can be formulated on various mesh configurations. It is then shown that conservative schemes are entropy stable if and only if they contain more viscosity than the mentioned above entropy conservative ones.

Tadmor, E.↗

Viscosity profile of the lower mantle

The viscosity of the earth's mantle is an important factor in studies of mantle convection and other problems in geodynamics. The present investigation is concerned with a determination of the variation of effective viscosity across the lower mantle from models of the Gibb's free energy of activation G(asterisk) and the adiabatic temperature profile. The variation of G(asterisk) with depth is calculated using both an elastic strain energy model, in which G(asterisk) is related to the seismic velocities, and a model which assumes G(asterisk) is proportional to the melting temperature.

Ellsworth, K.↗

Viscosity and the Chew-Goldberger-Low equations in the solar corona

A general discussion of the dominant terms in the stress tensor in a magnetized plasma such as the solar corona is presented. The importance of dissipative terms such as electrical resistivity, heat conduction, and interspecies collisions is assessed. For average coronal conditions, the proton stress tensor is found to reduce to the dominant terms in the classical expression for the viscous stress. The classical expression can fail in the transition region, however. In the diffusion region of reconnection, classical viscosity will be appropriate if the resistivity is very large, so that the diffusion region is broad, but in that case the viscous heating is small compared to the resistive heating. On the other hand, the more general expression for the stress tensor is required if the diffusion region is thin; the stress tensor will be important in this case. The electron stress tensor is also considered, and it is shown how the classical expression for electron viscosity can fail in the transition region and lower corona.

Hollweg, J. V.↗

Measuring Viscosities of Gases at Atmospheric Pressure

Variant of general capillary method for measuring viscosities of unknown gases based on use of thermal mass-flowmeter section for direct measurement of pressure drops. In technique, flowmeter serves dual role, providing data for determining volume flow rates and serving as well-characterized capillary-tube section for measurement of differential pressures across it. New method simple, sensitive, and adaptable for absolute or relative viscosity measurements of low-pressure gases. Suited for very complex hydrocarbon mixtures where limitations of classical theory and compositional errors make theoretical calculations less reliable.

Singh, Jag J.↗

Convection without eddy viscosity: An attempt to model the interiors of giant planets

In the theory of hydrostatic quasi-geostrophic flow in the Earth's atmosphere the principal results do not depend on the eddy viscosity. This contrasts with published theories of convection in deep rotating fluid spheres, where the wavelength of the fastest growing disturbance varies as E sup 1/3, where E, the Ekman number, is proportional to the eddy viscosity. A new theory of quasi-columnar motions in stably stratified fluid spheres attempts to capture the luck of the meteorologists. The theory allows one to investigate the stability of barotropic and baroclinic zonal flows that extend into the planetary interior. It is hypothesized that the internal heat Jupiter and Saturn comes out not radially but on sloping surfaces defined by the internal entropy distribution. To test the hypothesis one searches for basic states in which the wavelength of the fastest-growing disturbance remains finite as E tends to zero, and is which the heat flux vector is radially outward and poleward.

Ingersoll, A. P.↗

An analysis of artificial viscosity effects on reacting flows using a spectral multi-domain technique

Standard techniques used to model chemically-reacting flows require an artificial viscosity for stability in the presence of strong shocks. The resulting shock is smeared over at least three computational cells, so that the thickness of the shock is dictated by the structure of the overall mesh and not the shock physics. A gas passing through a strong shock is thrown into a nonequilibrium state and subsequently relaxes down over some finite distance to an equilibrium end state. The artificial smearing of the shock envelops this relaxation zone which causes the chemical kinetics of the flow to be altered. A method is presented which can investigate these issues by following the chemical kinetics and flow kinetics of a gas passing through a fully resolved shock wave at hypersonic Mach numbers. A nonequilibrium chemistry model for air is incorporated into a spectral multidomain Navier-Stokes solution method. Since no artificial viscosity is needed for stability of the multidomain technique, the precise effect of this artifice on the chemical kinetics and relevant flow features can be determined.

Macaraeg, M. G.↗

The numerical viscosity of entropy stable schemes for systems of conservation laws. I

Discrete approximations to hyperbolic systems of conservation laws are studied. The amount of numerical viscosity present in such schemes is quantified and related to their entropy stability by means of comparison.To this end, conservative schemes which are also entropy-conservative are constructed. These entropy-conservative schemes enjoy second-order accuracy; moreover, they can be interpreted as piecewise-linear finite-element methods, and hence can be formulated on various mesh configurations. It is then shown that conservative schemes are entropy stable, if and (for three-point schemes) only they contain more viscosity than that present in the above-mentioned entropy-conservative ones.

Tadmor, Eitan↗

The effects of rotational flow, viscosity, thickness, and shape on transonic flutter dip phenomena

The transonic flutter dip phenomena on thin airfoils, which are employed for propfan blades, is investigated using an integrated Euler/Navier-Stokes code and a two degrees of freedom typical section structural model. As a part of the code validation, the flutter characteristics of the NACA 64A010 airfoil are also investigated. In addition, the effects of artificial dissipation models, rotational flow, initial conditions, mean angle of attack, viscosity, airfoil thickness and shape on flutter are investigated. The results obtained with a Euler code for the NACA 64A010 airfoil are in reasonable agreement with published results obtained by using transonic small disturbance and Euler codes. The two artificial dissipation models, one based on the local pressure gradient scaled by a common factor and the other based on the local pressure gradient scaled by a spectral radius, predicted the same flutter speeds except in the recovery region for the case studied. The effects of rotational flow, initial conditions, mean angle of attack, and viscosity for the Reynold's number studied seem to be negligible or small on the minima of the flutter dip.

Reddy, T. S. R.↗

Degree of cure and viscosity of Hercules HBRF-55 resin

The rate of cure and viscosity were measured for Hercules HBRF-55 resin. The rate of cure was measured by differential scanning calorimetry, while the viscosity was measured by a parallel disk and plate type apparatus. The data were fitted to analytic expressions to make them suitable for use in numerical calculations.

Bhi, S. T.↗

Lake Bonneville - Constraints on lithospheric thickness and upper mantle viscosity from isostatic warping of Bonneville, Provo, and Gilbert stage shorelines

Data collected from three deformed shorelines of Lake Bonneville (the Bonneville, Provo, and Gilbert shorelines) are used to constrain the effective elastic lithospheric thickness to 23 + or - 2 km, the mantle viscosity to (1.2 + or - 0.2) x 10 to the 20th Pa sec, and the depth to a significant viscosity increase to no less than 300 km. A modification of the earth model of Nakiboglu and Lambeck (1982, 1983) is used for the calculations, and the water load is computed at each time step from a digital terrain model and a specified lake elevation. Differences noted between the observed and computed shoreline elevations indicate a regional tilt down to the NE of about 6 x 10 to the -5th, which is suggested to be due to collapse of the peripheral bulge formed by the Laurentide ice sheet.

Bills, Bruce G.↗

Renormalization-group theory for the eddy viscosity in subgrid modeling

Renormalization-group theory is applied to incompressible three-dimensional Navier-Stokes turbulence so as to eliminate unresolvable small scales. The renormalized Navier-Stokes equation now includes a triple nonlinearity with the eddy viscosity exhibiting a mild cusp behavior, in qualitative agreement with the test-field model results of Kraichnan. For the cusp behavior to arise, not only is the triple nonlinearity necessary but the effects of pressure must be incorporated in the triple term. The renormalized eddy viscosity will not exhibit a cusp behavior if it is assumed that a spectral gap exists between the large and small scales.

Zhou, YE↗

The effects of rotational flow, viscosity, thickness, and shape on transonic flutter dip phenomena

The transonic flutter dip phenomena on thin airfoils, which are employed for propfan blades, is investigated using an integrated Euler/Navier-Stokes code and a two degrees of freedom typical section structural model. As a part of the code validation, the flutter characteristics of the NACA 64A010 airfoil are also investigated. In addition, the effects of artificial dissipation models, rotational flow, initial conditions, mean angle of attack, viscosity, airfoil thickness, and shape on flutter are investigated. The results obtained with an Euler code for the NACA 64A010 airfoil are in reasonable agreement with published results obtained by using transonic small disturbance and Euler codes. The two artifical dissipation models, one based on the local pressure gradient scaled by a common factor and the other based on the local presure gradient scaled by a spectral radius, predicted the same flutter speeds except in the recovery region for the case studied. The effects of rotation flow, initial conditions, mean angle of attack, and viscosity for the Reynolds number studied seem to be negligible or small on the minima of the flutter dip.

Reddy, T. S. R.↗

Effects of eddy viscosity and thermal conduction and Coriolis force in the dynamics of gravity wave driven fluctuations in the OH nightglow

The chemical-dynamical model of Walterscheid et al. (1987), which describes wave-driven fluctuations in OH nightglow, was modified to include the effects of both eddy thermal conduction and viscosity, as well as the Coriolis force (with the shallow atmosphere approximation). Using the new model, calculations were performed for the same nominal case as used by Walterscheid et al. but with only wave periods considered. For this case, the Coriolis force was found to be unimportant at any wave period. For wave periods greater than 2 or 3 hours, the inclusion of thermal conduction alone greatly modified the results (in terms of a complex ratio 'eta' which expresses the relationship between the intensity oscillation about the time-averaged intensity and the temperature oscillation about the time-averaged temperature); this effect was reduced with the further inclusion of the eddy viscosity.

Hickey, M. P.↗

On convection-induced viscosity in accretion disks in cataclysmic variables

The vertical structure of accretion disks in cataclysmic variable systems is examined on the assumption that the convection is solely responsible for inducing the viscous heating. The viscous heating is distributed over the entire vertical structure so that purely radiative zones are able to carry a radial mass flux. The convective flux is computed by two different methods in separate calculations and the results from each method are compared. The values of the viscosity obtained are compared with those values inferred from the observed time scales of dwarf nova eruptions. Sequences of equilibrium solutions for constant radius and varying mass accretion rate are examined, the relations between viscosity and surface density are discussed in the context of recent models for the eruptions of dwarf novae.

Cannizzo, John K.↗

An eddy viscosity for three-dimensional boundary-layer flows

This paper proposes an isotropic eddy viscosity model for three-dimensional boundary-layer flows which is an improved version of the Cebeci-Smith model. Both turbulence models are tested by comparison with two experiments. The proposed model is found to perform much better than the Cebeci-Smith model. This improvement is due to a reduction of the eddy viscosity coefficient.

Abid, Ridha↗

Critical exponent for the viscosity of four binary liquids

The viscosity of the following binary mixtures was measured near their consolute points: (1) methanol + cyclohexane, (2) isobutyric acid + water, (3) nitroethane + 3-methylpentane, and (4) 2-butoxyethanol + water. It is shown that the multiplicative hypothesis is valid for these mixtures. It is also found that the concentration closest to critical has the largest viscosity enhancement.

Berg, Robert F.↗

Analysis of artificial viscosity effects on reacting flows using a spectral multidomain technique

Standard techniques used to model chemically-reacting flows require an artificial viscosity for stability in the presence of strong shocks. The resulting shock is smeared over at least three computational cells, so that the thickness of the shock is dictated by the structure of the overall mesh and not the shock physics. A gas passing through a strong shock is thrown into a nonequilibrium state and subsequently relaxes down over some finite distance to an equilibrium end state. The artificial smearing of the shock envelops this relaxation zone which causes the chemical kinetics of the flow to be altered. A method is presented which can investigate these issues by following the chemical kinetics and flow kinetics of a gas passing through a fully resolved shock wave at hypersonic Mach numbers. A nonequilibrium chemistry model for air is incorporated into a spectral multidomain Navier-Stokes solution method. Since no artificial viscosity is needed for stability of the multidomain technique, the precise effect of this artifice on the chemical kinetics and relevant flow features can be determined.

Macaraeg, Michele G.↗