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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

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NASA NTRS1992

Development of a CFD code for casting simulation

The task of developing a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code to accurately model the mold filling phase of a casting operation was accomplished in a systematic manner. First the state-of-the-art was determined through a literature search, a code search, and participation with casting industry personnel involved in consortium startups. From this material and inputs from industry personnel, an evaluation of the currently available codes was made. It was determined that a few of the codes already contained sophisticated CFD algorithms and further validation of one of these codes could preclude the development of a new CFD code for this purpose. With industry concurrence, ProCAST was chosen for further evaluation. Two benchmark cases were used to evaluate the code's performance using a Silicon Graphics Personal Iris system. The results of these limited evaluations (because of machine and time constraints) are presented along with discussions of possible improvements and recommendations for further evaluation.

Murph, Jesse E.↗

NASA NTRS1988

Probabilistic structural analysis computer code (NESSUS)

Probabilistic structural analysis has been developed to analyze the effects of fluctuating loads, variable material properties, and uncertain analytical models especially for high performance structures such as SSME turbopump blades. The computer code NESSUS (Numerical Evaluation of Stochastic Structure Under Stress) was developed to serve as a primary computation tool for the characterization of the probabilistic structural response due to the stochastic environments by statistical description. The code consists of three major modules NESSUS/PRE, NESSUS/FEM, and NESSUS/FPI. NESSUS/PRE is a preprocessor which decomposes the spatially correlated random variables into a set of uncorrelated random variables using a modal analysis method. NESSUS/FEM is a finite element module which provides structural sensitivities to all the random variables considered. NESSUS/FPI is Fast Probability Integration method by which a cumulative distribution function or a probability density function is calculated.

Shiao, Michael C.↗

NASA NTRS1985

Investigation of flowfields found in typical combustor geometries

Activities undertaken during the entire course of research are summarized. Studies were concerned with experimental and theoretical research on 2-D axisymmetric geometries under low speed nonreacting, turbulent, swirling flow conditions typical of gas turbine and ramjet combustion chambers. They included recirculation zone characterization, time-mean and turbulence simulation in swirling recirculating flow, sudden and gradual expansion flowfields, and furher complexities and parameter influences. The study included the investigation of: a complete range of swirl strengths; swirler performance; downstream contraction nozzle sizes and locations; expansion ratios; and inlet side-wall angles. Their individual and combined effects on the test section flowfield were observed, measured and characterized. Experimental methods included flow visualization (with smoke and neutrally-buoyant helium-filled soap bubbles), five-hole pitot probe time-mean velocity field measurements, and single-, double-, and triple-wire hot-wire anemometry measurements of time-mean velocities, normal and shear Reynolds sresses. Computational methods included development of the STARPIC code from the primitive-variable TEACH computer code, and its use in flowfield prediction and turbulence model development.

Lilley, D. G.↗

NASA NTRS1991

Navier-Stokes calculation of transonic flow past the NTF 65 deg delta wing

Models of four delta wings were built and tested in the 8 x 8 ft Transonic Wind Tunnel at LaRC. The wings are identical in planform shape with a swept-back angle of 65 degrees, but bear different leading edge profiles. The models were tested under pressurized and cryogenic conditions to simulate true flight Reynolds numbers. Data on the aerodynamic forces and pressure distributions at various locations on the wings were taken at various flight Mach numbers and angles of attack. Effects of high Reynolds number and leading edge radius on the aerodynamic characteristics of the wings are being accessed. To thoroughly understand the turbulent, vortical flow around the wings, an effort to perform computational aerodynamic analysis is being made. The objective of the analysis is to supplement and validate the experimental data and explain the high Reynolds number and leading edge effects. GRIDGEN, a software developed by General Dynamics, is being used to generate the grid topology for the flow field around the wings. The flow solver to be used is CFL3D, a computation fluid dynamics code developed at LaRC. Based on the geometric description of the wings, a FORTRAN program called WINGSURF was written to generate the databases defining the surface geometry of the wings. To match the true geometry of the models in the wind tunnel for realistic comparison with experimental results, databases defining the sting support for the wing models were also created by two other FORTRAN programs, STINJOIN and STINREAR. Listing of the programs are attached and the geometry of a typical wing model with the sting support is shown. Other aspects of the investigation are discussed.

Wu, Chivey C.↗

NASA NTRS1997

Development of Improved Surface Integral Methods for Jet Aeroacoustic Predictions

The accurate prediction of aerodynamically generated noise has become an important goal over the past decade. Aeroacoustics must now be an integral part of the aircraft design process. The direct calculation of aerodynamically generated noise with CFD-like algorithms is plausible. However, large computer time and memory requirements often make these predictions impractical. It is therefore necessary to separate the aeroacoustics problem into two parts, one in which aerodynamic sound sources are determined, and another in which the propagating sound is calculated. This idea is applied in acoustic analogy methods. However, in the acoustic analogy, the determination of far-field sound requires the solution of a volume integral. This volume integration again leads to impractical computer requirements. An alternative to the volume integrations can be found in the Kirchhoff method. In this method, Green's theorem for the linear wave equation is used to determine sound propagation based on quantities on a surface surrounding the source region. The change from volume to surface integrals represents a tremendous savings in the computer resources required for an accurate prediction. This work is concerned with the development of enhancements of the Kirchhoff method for use in a wide variety of aeroacoustics problems. This enhanced method, the modified Kirchhoff method, is shown to be a Green's function solution of Lighthill's equation. It is also shown rigorously to be identical to the methods of Ffowcs Williams and Hawkings. This allows for development of versatile computer codes which can easily alternate between the different Kirchhoff and Ffowcs Williams-Hawkings formulations, using the most appropriate method for the problem at hand. The modified Kirchhoff method is developed primarily for use in jet aeroacoustics predictions. Applications of the method are shown for two dimensional and three dimensional jet flows. Additionally, the enhancements are generalized so that they may be used in any aeroacoustics problem.

Pilon, Anthony R.↗

NASA NTRS1997

Thermal Response and Ablation Programs for TPS Sizing Computation

The computer programs developed at NASA Ames Research Center for TPS sizing computation have been applied to many NASA's space missions, such as Mars Pathfinder, StarDust, Mars 2001, DS-II, and Saturn Entry Probe. These computer programs include FIAT (Fully Implicit Ablation and Thermal Response Program, MAT (Multi-component Ablation Thermochemistry Program), TPSX (Thermal Protection Systems Expert & Material Properties Database), and TPSGui (Thermal Protection Systems Graphical User Interface). For most planetary missions, the aerothermodynamics and material response are strongly coupled; thus a closed loop iteration technique between the FIAT and CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) codes has been developed to obtain the high fidelity bench mark TPS sizing solution. The computer codes and predictive methods are presented and discussed in detail.

Chen, Y. K.↗

NASA NTRS1970

Prediction of electron density in the boundary layer on entry vehicles with ablation

A rather general computer code has been developed for the numerical solution of the laminar boundary layer and thin shock layer (stagnation point only) equations for a multi-component gas mixture with finite reaction rates. The purpose of this paper is to indicate the capabilities of this computer program by presenting solutions for pure air flows and flows with carbon ablation. At the body surface the effects of oxidation and sublimation of carbon are taken into account with the following species included in the gas model: 0 2 , N 2 , O, N, NO, NO + , C 1 , C 2 , C 3 , CN, CO, and CO 2 . Results for the boundary layer along a 10° half-angle hyperboloid with ablation of carbon are compared to pure air results. Shock layer results for several wall temperatures and altitudes are presented and compared to pure air results. Other types of problems that can be solved with this computer code are indicated.

F. G. Blottner↗

NASA NTRS1987

User manual for semi-circular compact range reflector code: Version 2

A computer code has been developed at the Ohio State University ElectroScience Laboratory to analyze a semi-circular paraboloidal reflector with or without a rolled edge at the top and a skirt at the bottom. The code can be used to compute the total near field of the reflector or its individual components at a given distance from the center of the paraboloid. The code computes the fields along a radial, horizontal, vertical or axial cut at that distance. Thus, it is very effective in computing the size of the sweet spot for a semi-circular compact range reflector. This report describes the operation of the code. Various input and output statements are explained. Some results obtained using the computer code are presented to illustrate the code's capability as well as being samples of input/output sets.

Gupta, Inder J.↗

NASA NTRS1993

A method for the modelling of porous and solid wind tunnel walls in computational fluid dynamics codes

Porous wall wind tunnels have been used for several decades and have proven effective in reducing wall interference effects in both low speed and transonic testing. They allow for testing through Mach 1, reduce blockage effects and reduce shock wave reflections in the test section. Their usefulness in developing computational fluid dynamics (CFD) codes has been limited, however, by the difficulties associated with modelling the effect of a porous wall in CFD codes. Previous approaches to modelling porous wall effects have depended either upon a simplified linear boundary condition, which has proven inadequate, or upon detailed measurements of the normal velocity near the wall, which require extensive wind tunnel time. The current work was initiated in an effort to find a simple, accurate method of modelling a porous wall boundary condition in CFD codes. The development of such a method would allow data from porous wall wind tunnels to be used more readily in validating CFD codes. This would be beneficial when transonic validations are desired, or when large models are used to achieve high Reynolds numbers in testing. A computational and experimental study was undertaken to investigate a new method of modelling solid and porous wall boundary conditions in CFD codes. The method utilized experimental measurements at the walls to develop a flow field solution based on the method of singularities. This flow field solution was then imposed as a pressure boundary condition in a CFD simulation of the internal flow field. The effectiveness of this method in describing the effect of porosity changes on the wall was investigated. Also, the effectiveness of this method when only sparse experimental measurements were available has been investigated. The current work demonstrated this approach for low speed flows and compared the results with experimental data obtained from a heavily instrumented variable porosity test section. The approach developed was simple, computationally inexpensive, and did not require extensive or intrusive measurements of the boundary conditions during the wind tunnel test. It may be applied to both solid and porous wall wind tunnel tests.

Beutner, Thomas John↗

NASA NTRS2003

Simulation of Combustion Systems with Realistic g-jitter

In this project a transient, fully three-dimensional computer simulation code was developed to simulate the effects of realistic g-jitter on a number of combustion systems. The simulation code is capable of simulating flame spread on a solid and nonpremixed or premixed gaseous combustion in nonturbulent flow with simple combustion models. Simple combustion models were used to preserve computational efficiency since this is meant to be an engineering code. Also, the use of sophisticated turbulence models was not pursued (a simple Smagorinsky type model can be implemented if deemed appropriate) because if flow velocities are large enough for turbulence to develop in a reduced gravity combustion scenario it is unlikely that g-jitter disturbances (in NASA's reduced gravity facilities) will play an important role in the flame dynamics. Acceleration disturbances of realistic orientation, magnitude, and time dependence can be easily included in the simulation. The simulation algorithm was based on techniques used in an existing large eddy simulation code which has successfully simulated fire dynamics in complex domains. A series of simulations with measured and predicted acceleration disturbances on the International Space Station (ISS) are presented. The results of this series of simulations suggested a passive isolation system and appropriate scheduling of crew activity would provide a sufficiently "quiet" acceleration environment for spherical diffusion flames.

Mell, William E.↗

NASA NTRS1995

Experimental Results From the Thermal Energy Storage-1 (TES-1) Flight Experiment

The Thermal Energy Storage (TES) experiments are designed to provide data to help researchers understand the long-duration microgravity behavior of thermal energy storage fluoride salts that undergo repeated melting and freezing. Such data, which have never been obtained before, have direct application to space-based solar dynamic power systems. These power systems will store solar energy in a thermal energy salt, such as lithium fluoride (LiF) or a eutectic of lithium fluoride/calcium difluoride (LiF-CaF2) (which melts at a lower temperature). The energy will be stored as the latent heat of fusion when the salt is melted by absorbing solar thermal energy. The stored energy will then be extracted during the shade portion of the orbit, enabling the solar dynamic power system to provide constant electrical power over the entire orbit. Analytical computer codes have been developed to predict the performance of a spacebased solar dynamic power system. However, the analytical predictions must be verified experimentally before the analytical results can be used for future space power design applications. Four TES flight experiments will be used to obtain the needed experimental data. This article focuses on the flight results from the first experiment, TES-1, in comparison to the predicted results from the Thermal Energy Storage Simulation (TESSIM) analytical computer code.

Jacqmin, David↗

NASA NTRS1987

A simplified computer solution for the flexibility matrix of contacting teeth for spiral bevel gears

A computer code, FLEXM, was developed to calculate the flexibility matrices of contacting teeth for spiral bevel gears using a simplified analysis based on the elementary beam theory for the deformation of gear and shaft. The simplified theory requires a computer time at least one order of magnitude less than that needed for the complete finite element method analysis reported earlier by H. Chao, and it is much easier to apply for different gear and shaft geometries. Results were obtained for a set of spiral bevel gears. The teeth deflections due to torsion, bending moment, shearing strain and axial force were found to be in the order 10(-5), 10(-6), 10(-7), and 10(-8) respectively. Thus, the torsional deformation was the most predominant factor. In the analysis of dynamic load, response frequencies were found to be larger when the mass or moment of inertia was smaller or the stiffness was larger. The change in damping coefficient had little influence on the resonance frequency, but has a marked influence on the dynamic load at the resonant frequencies.

Hsu, C. Y.↗

NASA NTRS1988

Numerical computation of space shuttle orbiter flow field

A new parabolized Navier-Stokes (PNS) code has been developed to compute the hypersonic, viscous chemically reacting flow fields around 3-D bodies. The flow medium is assumed to be a multicomponent mixture of thermally perfect but calorically imperfect gases. The new PNS code solves the gas dynamic and species conservation equations in a coupled manner using a noniterative, implicit, approximately factored, finite difference algorithm. The space-marching method is made well-posed by special treatment of the streamwise pressure gradient term. The code has been used to compute hypersonic laminar flow of chemically reacting air over cones at angle of attack. The results of the computations are compared with the results of reacting boundary-layer computations and show excellent agreement.

Tannehill, John C.↗

NASA NTRS1980

User's guide for vectorized code EQUIL for calculating equilibrium chemistry on Control Data STAR-100 computer

A vectorized code, EQUIL, was developed for calculating the equilibrium chemistry of a reacting gas mixture on the Control Data STAR-100 computer. The code provides species mole fractions, mass fractions, and thermodynamic and transport properties of the mixture for given temperature, pressure, and elemental mass fractions. The code is set up for the electrons H, He, C, O, N system of elements. In all, 24 chemical species are included.

Kumar, A.↗

NASA NTRS1985

Mean velocity and turbulence measurements in a 90 deg curved duct with thin inlet boundary layer

The experimental database established by this investigation of the flow in a large rectangular turning duct is of benchmark quality. The experimental Reynolds numbers, Deans numbers and boundary layer characteristics are significantly different from previous benchmark curved-duct experimental parameters. This investigation extends the experimental database to higher Reynolds number and thinner entrance boundary layers. The 5% to 10% thick boundary layers, based on duct half-width, results in a large region of near-potential flow in the duct core surrounded by developing boundary layers with large crossflows. The turbulent entrance boundary layer case at R sub ed = 328,000 provides an incompressible flowfield which approaches real turbine blade cascade characteristics. The results of this investigation provide a challenging benchmark database for computational fluid dynamics code development.

Crawford, R. A.↗

NASA NTRS2004

Numerical, Analytical, Experimental Study of Fluid Dynamic Forces in Seals: Description of Gas Seal Codes GCYLT and GFACE - Volume 2

The objectives of the program were to develop computational fluid dynamics (CFD) codes and simpler industrial codes for analyzing and designing advanced seals for air-breathing and space propulsion engines. The CFD code SCISEAL is capable of producing full three-dimensional flow field information for a variety of cylindrical configurations. An implicit multidomain capability allow the division of complex flow domains to allow optimum use of computational cells. SCISEAL also has the unique capability to produce cross-coupled stiffness and damping coefficients for rotordynamic computations. The industrial codes consist of a series of separate stand-alone modules designed for expeditious parametric analyses and optimization of a wide variety of cylindrical and face seals. Coupled through a Knowledge-Based System (KBS) that provides a user-friendly Graphical User Interface (GUI), the industrial codes are PC based using an OS/2 operating system. These codes were designed to treat film seals where a clearance exists between the rotating and stationary components. Leakage is inhibited by surface roughness, small but stiff clearance films, and viscous pumping devices. The codes have demonstrated to be a valuable resource for seal development of future air-breathing and space propulsion engines.

Liang, Anita D.↗

NASA NTRS2004

Numerical, Analytical, Experimental Study of Fluid Dynamic Forces in Seals: Description of Spiral-Groove Codes SPIRALG and SPIRALI - Volume 3

Liang, Anita D.↗

NASA NTRS2004

Numerical, Analytical, Experimental Study of Fluid Dynamic Forces in Seals: Description of Incompressible Fluid Seal Codes ICYL and IFACE - Volume 4

Liang, Anita D.↗