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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 397 records · Page 22
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2003

Laminar Soot Processes (Lsp) Experiment: Findings From Ground-Based Measurements

Processes of soot formation and oxidation must be understood in order to achieve reliable computational combustion calculations for nonpremixed (diffusion) flames involving hydrocarbon fuels. Motivated by this observation, the present investigation extended earlier work on soot formation and oxidation in laminar jet ethylene/air and methane/oxygen premixed and acetylene-nitrogen/air diffusion flames at atmospheric pressure in this laboratory, emphasizing soot surface growth and early soot surface oxidation in laminar diffusion flames fueled with a variety of hydrocarbons at pressures in the range 0.1 - 1.0 atm.

Kim, C. H.↗
NASA NTRS1996

A Method for the Constrained Design of Natural Laminar Flow Airfoils

A fully automated iterative design method has been developed by which an airfoil with a substantial amount of natural laminar flow can be designed, while maintaining other aerodynamic and geometric constraints. Drag reductions have been realized using the design method over a range of Mach numbers, Reynolds numbers and airfoil thicknesses. The thrusts of the method are its ability to calculate a target N-Factor distribution that forces the flow to undergo transition at the desired location; the target-pressure-N-Factor relationship that is used to reduce the N-Factors in order to prolong transition; and its ability to design airfoils to meet lift, pitching moment, thickness and leading-edge radius constraints while also being able to meet the natural laminar flow constraint. The method uses several existing CFD codes and can design a new airfoil in only a few days using a Silicon Graphics IRIS workstation.

Green, Bradford E.↗
NASA NTRS1996

Neurochemical, morphologic, and laminar characterization of cortical projection neurons in the cingulate motor areas of the macaque monkey

The primate cingulate gyrus contains multiple cortical areas that can be distinguished by several neurochemical features, including the distribution of neurofilament protein-enriched pyramidal neurons. In addition, connectivity and functional properties indicate that there are multiple motor areas in the cortex lining the cingulate sulcus. These motor areas were targeted for analysis of potential interactions among regional specialization, connectivity, and cellular characteristics such as neurochemical profile and morphology. Specifically, intracortical injections of retrogradely transported dyes and intracellular injection were combined with immunocytochemistry to investigate neurons projecting from the cingulate motor areas to the putative forelimb region of the primary motor cortex, area M1. Two separate groups of neurons projecting to area M1 emanated from the cingulate sulcus, one anterior and one posterior, both of which furnished commissural and ipsilateral connections with area M1. The primary difference between the two populations was laminar origin, with the anterior projection originating largely in deep layers, and the posterior projection taking origin equally in superficial and deep layers. With regard to cellular morphology, the anterior projection exhibited more morphologic diversity than the posterior projection. Commissural projections from both anterior and posterior fields originated largely in layer VI. Neurofilament protein distribution was a reliable tool for localizing the two projections and for discriminating between them. Comparable proportions of the two sets of projection neurons contained neurofilament protein, although the density and distribution of the total population of neurofilament protein-enriched neurons was very different in the two subareas of origin. Within a projection, the participating neurons exhibited a high degree of morphologic heterogeneity, and no correlation was observed between somatodendritic morphology and neurofilament protein content. Thus, although the neurons that provide the anterior and posterior cingulate motor projections to area M1 differ morphologically and in laminar origin, their neurochemical profiles are similar with respect to neurofilament protein. This suggests that neurochemical phenotype may be a more important unifying feature for corticocortical projections than morphology.

NASA Discipline Neuroscience↗
NASA NTRS1956

Laminar Flow About a Rotating Body of Revolution in an Axial Airstream

We have set ourselves the problem of calculating the laminar flow on a body of revolution in an axial flow which simultaneously rotates about its axis. The problem mentioned above, the flow about a rotating disk in a flow, which we solved some time ago, represents the first step in the calculation of the flow on the rotating body of revolution in a flow insofar as, in the case of a round nose, a small region about the front stagnation point of the body of revolution may be replaced by its tangential plane. In our problem regarding the rotating body of revolution in a flow, for laminar flow, one of the limiting cases is known: that of the body which is in an axial approach flow but does not rotate. The other limiting case, namely the flow in the neighborhood of a body which rotates but is not subjected to a flow is known only for the rotating circular cylinder, aside from the rotating disk. In the case of the cylinder one deals with a distribution of the circumferential velocity according to the law v = omega R(exp 2)/r where R signifies the cylinder radius, r the distance from the center, and omega the angular velocity of the rotation. The velocity distribution as it is produced here by the friction effect is therefore the same as in the neighborhood of a potential vortex. When we treat, in what follows, the general case of the rotating body of revolution in a flow according to the calculation methods of Prandtl's boundary-layer theory, we must keep in mind that this solution cannot contain the limiting case of the body of revolution which only rotates but is not subjected to a flow. However, this is no essential limitation since this case is not of particular importance for practical purposes.

Schlichting, H.↗
NASA NTRS2005

Mimicking Natural Laminar to Turbulent Flow Transition: A Systematic CFD Study Using PAB3D

For applied aerodynamic computations using a general purpose Navier-Stokes code, the common practice of treating laminar to turbulent flow transition over a non-slip surface is somewhat arbitrary by either treating the entire flow as turbulent or forcing the flow to undergo transition at given trip locations in the computational domain. In this study, the possibility of using the PAB3D code, standard k-epsilon turbulence model, and the Girimaji explicit algebraic stresses model to mimic natural laminar to turbulent flow transition was explored. The sensitivity of flow transition with respect to two limiters in the standard k-epsilon turbulence model was examined using a flat plate and a 6:1 aspect ratio prolate spheroid for our computations. For the flat plate, a systematic dependence of transition Reynolds number on background turbulence intensity was found. For the prolate spheroid, the transition patterns in the three-dimensional boundary layer at different flow conditions were sensitive to the free stream turbulence viscosity limit, the reference Reynolds number and the angle of attack, but not to background turbulence intensity below a certain threshold value. The computed results showed encouraging agreements with the experimental measurements at the corresponding geometry and flow conditions.

Pao, S. Paul↗
NASA NTRS1999

Stability of Enclosed Laminar Flames Studied in Microgravity

In practical combustion systems, the flame is often anchored at the inlet where the fuel is injected into an air duct. This type of system is found in powerplant combustors, gas turbine combustors, and the jet engine afterburner. Despite its successful use, this configuration is vulnerable to adverse flow conditions that can cause the flame to literally lift off from the inlet or even blowout. Poor flame stability is, of course, unwanted, especially where safety has a high priority. Our understanding of the mechanisms that control flame stability is incomplete in part because the interaction of buoyant (i.e., gravity-induced) convection makes it difficult to interpret normal-gravity results. However, a comparison of normal-gravity and microgravity results can provide a clear indication of the influence of forced and buoyant flows on flame stability. Therefore, a joint microgravity study on the stability of Enclosed Laminar Flames (ELF) was carried out by researchers at The University of Iowa and the NASA Lewis Research Center. The microgravity tests were conducted in the Microgravity Glovebox (MGBX), during the STS-87 space shuttle mission in late 1997, using hardware designed and produced at Lewis. The primary objective of the ELF investigation was to determine the mechanisms controlling the stability of round, laminar, gas-jet diffusion flames in a coflow air duct. The study specifically focused on the effect of buoyancy on the flame characteristics and velocities at the lift-off, reattachment, and blowout of the flame. When the fuel or air velocity is increased to a critical value, the flame base abruptly jumps downstream, and the flame is said to have reached its lift-off condition. Flow conditions are such that the flame cannot be maintained at the burner rim despite the presence of both fuel and oxygen. When the velocity is further increased, the flame eventually extinguishes at its blowout condition. In contrast, if the velocity is reduced, the flame base eventually returns to anchor at the burner rim, at a velocity lower than that of lift-off, indicating a hysteresis effect.

Stocker, Dennis P.↗
NASA NTRS2010

Laminar-Turbulent Transition Behind Discrete Roughness Elements in a High-Speed Boundary Layer

Computations are performed to study the flow past an isolated roughness element in a Mach 3.5, laminar, flat plate boundary layer. To determine the effects of the roughness element on the location of laminar-turbulent transition inside the boundary layer, the instability characteristics of the stationary wake behind the roughness element are investigated over a range of roughness heights. The wake flow adjacent to the spanwise plane of symmetry is characterized by a narrow region of increased boundary layer thickness. Beyond the near wake region, the centerline streak is surrounded by a pair of high-speed streaks with reduced boundary layer thickness and a secondary, outer pair of lower-speed streaks. Similar to the spanwise periodic pattern of streaks behind an array of regularly spaced roughness elements, the above wake structure persists over large distances and can sustain strong enough convective instabilities to cause an earlier onset of transition when the roughness height is sufficiently large. Time accurate computations are performed to clarify additional issues such as the role of the nearfield of the roughness element during the generation of streak instabilities, as well as to reveal selected details of their nonlinear evolution. Effects of roughness element shape on the streak amplitudes and the interactions between multiple roughness elements aligned along the flow direction are also investigated.

Choudhari, Meelan M.↗
NASA NTRS2010

Hypersonic Laminar Boundary Layer Velocimetry with Discrete Roughness on a Flat Plate

Laminar boundary layer velocity measurements are made on a 10-degree half-angle wedge in a Mach 10 flow. Two types of discrete boundary layer trips were used to perturb the boundary layer gas. The first was a 2-mm tall, 4-mm diameter cylindrical trip. The second was a scaled version of the Orbiter Boundary Layer Transition (BLT) Detailed Test Objective (DTO) trip. Both 1-mm and 2.5-mm tall BLT DTO trips were tested. Additionally, side-view and plan-view axial boundary layer velocity measurements were made in the absence of these tripping devices. The free-stream unit Reynolds numbers tested for the cylindrical trips were 1.7x10(exp 6)/m and 3.3x10(exp 6)/m. The free-stream unit Reynolds number tested for the BLT DTO trips was 1.7x10(exp 6)/m. The angle of attack was kept at approximately 5-degrees for most of the tests resulting in a Mach number of approximately 8.3. These combinations of unit Reynolds numbers and angle of attack resulted in laminar flowfields. To study the precision of the measurement technique, the angle of attack was varied during one run. Nitric-oxide (NO) molecular tagging velocimetry (MTV) was used to obtain averaged axial velocity values and associated uncertainties. These uncertainties are as low as 20 m/s. An interline, progressive scan CCD camera was used to obtain separate images of the initial reference and shifted NO molecules that had been tagged by the laser. The CCD configuration allowed for sub-microsecond sequential acquisition of both images. The maximum planar spatial resolution achieved for the side-view velocity measurements was 0.07-mm in the wall-normal direction by 1.45-mm in the streamwise direction with a spatial depth of 0.5-mm. For the plan-view measurements, the maximum planar spatial resolution in the spanwise and streamwise directions was 0.69-mm by 1.28-mm, respectively, with a spatial depth of 0.5-mm. Temperature sensitive paint (TSP) measurements are provided to compliment the velocity data and to provide further insight into the behavior of the boundary layers. The experiments were performed at the NASA Langley Research Center 31-Inch Mach 10 Air tunnel.

Bathel, Brett↗
NASA NTRS2011

Correlation of Water Frost Porosity in Laminar Flow over Flat Surfaces

A dimensionless correlation has been proposed for water frost porosity expressing its dependence on frost surface temperature and Reynolds number for laminar forced flow over a flat surface. The correlation is presented in terms of a dimensionless frost surface temperature scaled with the cold plate temperature, and the freezing temperature. The flow Reynolds number is scaled with reference to the critical Reynolds number for laminar-turbulent transition. The proposed correlation agrees satisfactorily with the simultaneous measurements of frost density and frost surface temperature covering a range of plate temperature, ambient air velocity, humidity, and temperature. It is revealed that the frost porosity depends primarily on the frost surface and the plate temperatures and the flow Reynolds number, and is only weakly dependent on the relative humidity. The results also point out the general character of frost porosity displaying a decrease with an increase in flow Reynolds number.

Kandula, Max↗
NASA NTRS2011

Data Analysis for the NASA/Boeing Hybrid Laminar Flow Control Crossflow Experiment

The Hybrid-Laminar Flow Control (HLFC) Crossflow Experiment, completed in 1995. generated a large database of boundary layer stability and transition data that was only partially analyzed before data analysis was abruptly ended in the late 1990's. Renewed interest in laminar flow technologies prompted additional data analysis, to integrate all data, including some post-test roughness and porosity measurements. The objective is to gain new insights into the effects of suction on boundary layer stability. A number of challenges were encountered during the data analysis, and their solutions are discussed in detail. They include the effect of the probe vibration, the effect of the time-varying surface temperature on traveling crossflow instabilities, and the effect of the stationary crossflow modes on the approximation of wall location. Despite the low turbulence intensity of the wind tunnel (0.01 to 0.02%), traveling crosflow disturbances were present in the data, in some cases at amplitudes up to 1% of the freestream velocity. However, the data suggests that transition was dominated by stationary crossflow. Traveling crossflow results and stationary data in the presence of suction are compared with linear parabolized stability equations results as a way of testing the quality of the results.

Eppink, Jenna L.↗
NASA NTRS2012

Laminar, Transitional, and Turbulent Heating on Mid Lift-to-Drag Ratio Entry Vehicles

The boundary-layer transition characteristics and convective aeroheating levels on mid lift-to-drag ratio entry vehicle configurations have been studied through wind tunnel testing. Several configurations were investigated, including elliptically-blunted cylinders with both circular and elliptically-flattened cross sections, biconic geometries based on launch vehicle dual-use shrouds, and parametrically-optimized analytic geometries. Vehicles of this class have been proposed for high-mass Mars missions, such as sample return and crewed exploration, for which the conventional sphere-cone entry-vehicle geometries of previous Mars missions are insufficient. Testing was conducted at Mach 6 over a range of Reynolds numbers sufficient to generate laminar, transitional, and turbulent flow. Transition onset locations - both straight-line and cross-flow - and heating rates were obtained through global phosphor thermography. Supporting computations were performed to obtain heating rates for comparison with the data. Laminar data and predictions agreed to well within the experimental uncertainty. Fully-turbulent data and predictions also agreed well. However, in transitional flow regions, greater differences were observed. Additional aerodynamic performance data were also generated through Modified-Newtonian analyses of the geometries.

Hollis, Brian R.↗
NASA NTRS2012

On Laminar to Turbulent Transition of Arc-Jet Flow in the NASA Ames Panel Test Facility

This paper provides experimental evidence and supporting computational analysis to characterize the laminar to turbulent flow transition in a high enthalpy arc-jet facility at NASA Ames Research Center. The arc-jet test data obtained in the 20 MW Panel Test Facility include measurements of surface pressure and heat flux on a water-cooled calibration plate, and measurements of surface temperature on a reaction-cured glass coated tile plate. Computational fluid dynamics simulations are performed to characterize the arc-jet test environment and estimate its parameters consistent with the facility and calibration measurements. The present analysis comprises simulations of the nonequilibrium flowfield in the facility nozzle, test box, and flowfield over test articles. Both laminar and turbulent simulations are performed, and the computed results are compared with the experimental measurements, including Stanton number dependence on Reynolds number. Comparisons of computed and measured surface heat fluxes (and temperatures), along with the accompanying analysis, confirm that that the boundary layer in the Panel Test Facility flow is transitional at certain archeater conditions.

Gokcen, Tahir↗
NASA NTRS2013

Analysis of Low-Speed Stall Aerodynamics of a Swept Wing with Laminar-Flow Glove

Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis was conducted to study the low-speed stall aerodynamics of a GIII aircraft s swept wing modified with a laminar-flow wing glove. The stall aerodynamics of the gloved wing were analyzed and compared with the unmodified wing for the flight speed of 120 knots and altitude of 2300 ft above mean sea level (MSL). The Star-CCM+ polyhedral unstructured CFD code was first validated for wing stall predictions using the wing-body geometry from the First AIAA CFD High-Lift Prediction Workshop. It was found that the Star-CCM+ CFD code can produce results that are within the scattering of other CFD codes considered at the workshop. In particular, the Star-CCM+ CFD code was able to predict wing stall for the AIAA wing-body geometry to within 1 degree of angle of attack as compared to benchmark wind-tunnel test data. Current results show that the addition of the laminar-flow wing glove causes the gloved wing to stall much earlier than the unmodified wing. Furthermore, the gloved wing has a different stall characteristic than the clean wing, with no sharp lift drop-off at stall for the gloved wing.

Bui, Trong↗
NASA NTRS2014

Analysis of Low-Speed Stall Aerodynamics of a Swept Wing with Laminar-Flow Glove

Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis was conducted to study the low-speed stall aerodynamics of a GIII aircraft's swept wing modified with a laminar-flow wing glove. The stall aerodynamics of the gloved wing were analyzed and compared with the unmodified wing for the flight speed of 120 knots and altitude of 2300 ft above mean sea level (MSL). The Star-CCM+ polyhedral unstructured CFD code was first validated for wing stall predictions using the wing-body geometry from the First American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) CFD High-Lift Prediction Workshop. It was found that the Star-CCM+ CFD code can produce results that are within the scattering of other CFD codes considered at the workshop. In particular, the Star-CCM+ CFD code was able to predict wing stall for the AIAA wing-body geometry to within 1 degree of angle of attack as compared to benchmark wind-tunnel test data. Current results show that the addition of the laminar-flow wing glove causes the gloved wing to stall much earlier than the unmodified wing. Furthermore, the gloved wing has a different stall characteristic than the clean wing, with no sharp lift drop-off at stall for the gloved wing.

Bui, Trong T.↗
NASA NTRS2014

DNS of Laminar-Turbulent Transition in Swept-Wing Boundary Layers

Direct numerical simulation (DNS) is performed to examine laminar to turbulent transition due to high-frequency secondary instability of stationary crossflow vortices in a subsonic swept-wing boundary layer for a realistic natural-laminar-flow airfoil configuration. The secondary instability is introduced via inflow forcing and the mode selected for forcing corresponds to the most amplified secondary instability mode that, in this case, derives a majority of its growth from energy production mechanisms associated with the wall-normal shear of the stationary basic state. An inlet boundary condition is carefully designed to allow for accurate injection of instability wave modes and minimize acoustic reflections at numerical boundaries. Nonlinear parabolized stability equation (PSE) predictions compare well with the DNS in terms of modal amplitudes and modal shape during the strongly nonlinear phase of the secondary instability mode. During the transition process, the skin friction coefficient rises rather rapidly and the wall-shear distribution shows a sawtooth pattern that is analogous to the previously documented surface flow visualizations of transition due to stationary crossflow instability. Fully turbulent features are observed in the downstream region of the flow.

Duan, L.↗
NASA NTRS2013

Laminar, Transitional, and Turbulent Heating on Mid Lift-to-Drag Ratio Entry Vehicles

The boundary-layer transition characteristics and convective aeroheating levels on mid lift-to-drag ratio entry vehicle configurations have been studied through wind-tunnel testing. Several configurations were investigated, including elliptically blunted cylinders with both circular and elliptically flattened cross sections, biconic geometries based on launch vehicle dual-use shrouds, and parametrically optimized analytic geometries. Vehicles of this class have been proposed for high-mass Mars missions, such as sample return and crewed exploration, for which the conventional sphere-cone entry-vehicle geometries of previous Mars missions are insufficient. Testing was conducted at Mach 6 over a range of Reynolds numbers sufficient to generate laminar, transitional, and turbulent flow. Transition onset locations, both straight-line and cross-flow, and heating rates were obtained through global phosphor thermography. Supporting computations were performed to obtain heating rates for comparison with the data. Laminar data and predictions agreed to well within the experimental uncertainty. Fully turbulent data and predictions also agreed well. However, in transitional flow regions, greater differences were observed.

Hollis, Brian R.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Design of a Crossflow Attenuated Natural Laminar Flow Flight Test Article

This abstract includes preliminary information on the computational design and analysis of a flight test article. The flight test aims to experimentally validate the new Crossflow Attenuated Natural Laminar Flow (CATNLF) design method in a flight environment. The CATNLF design method uses geometry shaping to produce specific pressure distributions that enable laminar flow on vehicle components with high sweep and high Reynolds numbers by attenuating the crossflow growth that typically leads to premature transition on such components. The flight test article design is scheduled to be completed at the end of 2019, with model fabrication beginning in early 2020.Design results presented in this abstract are representative of the final test article. The final paper will be updated to include the finalized test article geometry and analysis.

Michelle N. Lynde↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

On Characterization of Laminar to Turbulent Transitional Flow in the Truncated IHF Semi-Elliptical Nozzle

This paper reports computational analysis and experimental data to characterize the laminar to turbulent flow transition in a high-enthalpy panel test facility at NASA Ames Research Center. The recently developed facility configuration uses a truncated version of an existing semi-elliptical nozzle in the 60-MW Interaction Heating Facility, and it provides testing capability for panel test articles as large as 43.2 cm x 43.2 cm (17 in x 17 in). A water-cooled calibration plate, which is attached to the semi-elliptical nozzle bottom surface and instrumented with twenty Gardon-gage heat flux calorimeters and twelve pressure gages, is used to characterize the convective heating environment over the panel test articles. The present analysis comprises computational fluid dynamics simulations of the nonequilibrium flowfield in the facility nozzle and test box, and the flowfields over panel test articles, and comparisons with the measured test data. Both laminar and turbulent simulations are performed. Constant current studies are performed: the measured data are grouped at the same arc current levels with varying mass flow rates, and they are compared with corresponding computations. For all currents studied, these studies indicate that the semi-elliptical nozzle flow is transitional at relatively higher mass flow rates within the facility operating envelope.

Arc-jets↗