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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 415 records · Page 23

Numerical analysis of the asymptotic two-point boundary value solution for N-body trajectories.

Previously published asymptotic solutions for lunar and interplanetary trajectories have been modified and combined to formulate a general analytical boundary value solution applicable to a broad class of trajectory problems. In addition, the earlier first-order solutions have been extended to second-order to determine if improved accuracy is possible. Comparisons between the asymptotic solution and numerical integration for several lunar and interplanetary trajectories show that the asymptotic solution is generally quite accurate. Also, since no iterations are required, a solution to the boundary value problem is obtained in a fraction of the time required for numerically integrated solutions.

Lancaster, J. E.↗

User's guide for NETS/PROSSS

Expensive analysis programs are often combined with optimization procedures to solve engineering problems. To obtain an optimal solution requires numerous iterations between the analysis program and the optimizer. This often becomes prohibitive due to the cost and amount of computer time needed to converge to an optimal solution. NETS/PROSSS was developed to address this problem. The purpose of this paper is to serve as a user's guide for NETS/PROSSS. The key features include the neural network, determining the training pairs for the neural network, and the approximated analysis/optimization process. A small problem is given to serve as an example of how to apply the system.

Rogers, James L.↗

Solution of structural analysis problems on a parallel computer

The problems of a blade-stiffened panel with a hole subjected to compression, and a deployable space mast subjected to tip loads, are treated through the application of FEM to model generation followed by the solution of a linear system of equations. Direct and iterative approaches to the solution of the linear systems are solved in turn; for the panel problems using varying numbers of processors, the incomplete Cholesky-conjugate gradient method was the fastest iterative method on all but two instances in which the number of processors was large.

Storaasli, Olaf↗

Frequency-Domain Analysis of Diffusion-Cooled Hot-Electron Bolometer Mixers

A new theoretical model is introduced to describe heterodyne mixer conversion efficiency and noise (from thermal fluctuation effects) in diffusion-cooled superconducting hot-electron bolometers. The model takes into account the non-uniform internal electron temperature distribution generated by Wiedemann-Franz heat conduction, and accepts for input an arbitrary (analytical or experimental) superconducting resistance-versus- temperature curve. A non-linear large-signal solution is solved iteratively to calculate the temperature distribution, and a linear frequency-domain small-signal formulation is used to calculate conversion efficiency and noise. In the small-signal solution the device is discretized into segments, and matrix algebra is used to relate the heating modulation in the segments to temperature and resistance modulations. Matrix expressions are derived that allow single-sideband mixer conversion efficiency and coupled noise power to be directly calculated. The model accounts for self-heating and electrothermal feedback from the surrounding bias circuit.

Skalare, A.↗

Solution of separated flows using a simultaneous iteration technique

Generalization and improvement of an earlier work developed for studying separated flows using boundary layer type equations are presented. The improvements include extensions to a general coordinate system and use of a more general zonal technique for solving the coupled equations. In order to be able to consider arbitrary geometries, second order accurate (in space) conservative differences are generated by considering the integral formulation of the governing equations in a general coordinate system. The general coordinate system is handled in as general a manner as possible to allow for the use of either analytically or numerically generated coordinate systems. A marching procedure was used for solving the Partially Parabolized Navier-Stokes (PPNS) equations in the viscous region coupled in a fully implicit manner with the elliptic inviscid equation. To test the algorithm and compare to other solutions, solutions for flow over a flat plate and flow past the symmetrical 12 percent thick Joukowski airfoil (J012) at zero angle of attack were presented.

Source record↗

Accelerating an iterative process by explicit annihilation

A slowly convergent stationary iterative process can be accelerated by explicitly annihilating (i.e., eliminating) the dominant eigenvector component of the error. The dominant eigenvalue or complex pair of eigenvalues can be estimated from the solution during the iteration. The corresponding eigenvector or complex pair of eigenvectors can then be annihilated by applying an explicit Richardson process over the basic iterative method. This can be done entirely in real arithmetic by analytically combining the complex conjugate annihilation steps. The technique is applied to an implicit algorithm for the calculation of two dimensional steady transonic flow over a circular cylinder using the equations of compressible inviscid gas dynamics. This demonstrates the use of explicit annihilation on a nonlinear problem.

Jespersen, D. C.↗

Accelerating an iterative process by explicit annihilation

A slowly convergent stationary iterative process can be accelerated by explicitly annihilating (i.e., eliminating) the dominant eigenvector component of the error. The dominant eigenvalue or complex pair of eigenvalues can be estimated from the solution during the iteration. The corresponding eigenvector or complex pair of eigenvectors can then be annihilated by applying an explicit Richardson process over the basic iterative method. This can be done entirely in real arithmetic by analytically combining the complex conjugate annihilation steps. The technique is applied to an implicit algorithm for the calculation of two dimensional steady transonic flow over a circular cylinder using the equations of compressible inviscid gas dynamics. This demonstrates the use of explicit annihilation on a nonlinear problem.

Jespersen, D. C.↗

Application of the Two-Step Filter to Process Ranging Measurements for Relative Navigation in an Elliptical Orbit

This estimator breaks a nonlinear estimation problem into a set of over determined 'first step' states which are linear in the observations and 'second step' states which are ultimately the states of interest. Linear estimation methods are applied to filter the observations and produce the optimal first step state estimate. The 'second step' states are obtained through iterative nonlinear parameter estimation considering the first step states as observations. It has been shown that this process exactly minimizes the least squares cost function for static problems and provides a better solution than the iterated extended Kalman filter (EKF) for dynamic problems. The two step filter is applied in this paper to process range and range rate measurements between the two spacecraft. Details of the application of the two step estimator to this problem will be given, highlighting the use of a test for ill-conditioned covariance estimates that can result from the first order covariance propagation. A comparison will be made between the performance of the two step filter and the IEKF.

Garrison, James L.↗

SYNTHESIS OF NOVEL ALL-DIELECTRIC GRATING FILTERS USING GENETIC ALGORITHMS

We are concerned with the design of inhomogeneous, all dielectric (lossless) periodic structures which act as filters. Dielectric filters made as stacks of inhomogeneous gratings and layers of materials are being used in optical technology, but are not common at microwave frequencies. The problem is then finding the periodic cell's geometric configuration and permittivity values which correspond to a specified reflectivity/transmittivity response as a function of frequency/illumination angle. This type of design can be thought of as an inverse-source problem, since it entails finding a distribution of sources which produce fields (or quantities derived from them) of given characteristics. Electromagnetic sources (electric and magnetic current densities) in a volume are related to the outside fields by a well known linear integral equation. Additionally, the sources are related to the fields inside the volume by a constitutive equation, involving the material properties. Then, the relationship linking the fields outside the source region to those inside is non-linear, in terms of material properties such as permittivity, permeability and conductivity. The solution of the non-linear inverse problem is cast here as a combination of two linear steps, by explicitly introducing the electromagnetic sources in the computational volume as a set of unknowns in addition to the material unknowns. This allows to solve for material parameters and related electric fields in the source volume which are consistent with Maxwell's equations. Solutions are obtained iteratively by decoupling the two steps. First, we invert for the permittivity only in the minimization of a cost function and second, given the materials, we find the corresponding electric fields through direct solution of the integral equation in the source volume. The sources thus computed are used to generate the far fields and the synthesized triter response. The cost function is obtained by calculating the deviation between the synthesized value of reflectivity/transmittivity and the desired one. Solution geometries for the periodic cell are sought as gratings (ensembles of columns of different heights and widths), or combinations of homogeneous layers of different dielectric materials and gratings. Hence the explicit unknowns of the inversion step are the material permittivities and the relative boundaries separating homogeneous parcels of the periodic cell.

Zuffada, Cinzia↗

Unstructured Mesh Methods for the Simulation of Hypersonic Flows

This report describes the research work undertaken at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The aim of this research is to identify effective algorithms and methodologies for the efficient and routine solution of hypersonic viscous flows about re-entry vehicles. For over ten years we have received support from NASA to develop unstructured mesh methods for Computational Fluid Dynamics. As a result of this effort a methodology based on the use, of unstructured adapted meshes of tetrahedra and finite volume flow solvers has been developed. A number of gridding algorithms flow solvers, and adaptive strategies have been proposed. The most successful algorithms developed from the basis of the unstructured mesh system FELISA. The FELISA system has been extensively for the analysis of transonic and hypersonic flows about complete vehicle configurations. The system is highly automatic and allows for the routine aerodynamic analysis of complex configurations starting from CAD data. The code has been parallelized and utilizes efficient solution algorithms. For hypersonic flows, a version of the, code which incorporates real gas effects, has been produced. One of the latest developments before the start of this grant was to extend the system to include viscous effects. This required the development of viscous generators, capable of generating the anisotropic grids required to represent boundary layers, and viscous flow solvers. In figures I and 2, we show some sample hypersonic viscous computations using the developed viscous generators and solvers. Although these initial results were encouraging, it became apparent that in order to develop a fully functional capability for viscous flows, several advances in gridding, solution accuracy, robustness and efficiency were required. As part of this research we have developed: 1) automatic meshing techniques and the corresponding computer codes have been delivered to NASA and implemented into the GridEx system, 2) a finite element algorithm for the solution of the viscous compressible flow equations which can solve flows all the way down to the incompressible limit and that can use higher order (quadratic) approximations leading to highly accurate answers, and 3) and iterative algebraic multigrid solution techniques.

Peraire, Jaime↗

Three-layer interactive method for computing supersonic laminar separated flows

An interactive model for numerical computation of complicated two-dimensional flowfields including regions of reversed flow is proposed. The present approach is one of dividing the flowfield into three regions, in each of which a simplified mathematical model is applied: (1) outer, supersonic flow for which the full potential equation (hyperbolic) is used; (2) viscous, laminar layer in which the compressible boundary-layer model (parabolic) is used; and (3) recirculating flow modeled by the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations (elliptic). For matching of the numerical solutions in the three layers, two interaction models are developed: one for pressure interaction, the other for interaction between the shear layer and the recirculating flow. The uniform solution for the whole flowfield is then obtained by iteration of the local solutions under the constraints imposed by matching. The three-layer interactive model is used for solution of the flowfield past an asymmetric cavity. The method is shown to be capable of dealing with backflow without encountering problems at separation, characteristic to the boundary-layer approach.

Brandeis, J.↗

Multi-grid for structures analysis

In structural analysis the amount of computational time necessary for a solution is proportional to the number of degrees of freedom times the bandwidth squared. In implicit time analysis, this must be done at each discrete point in time. If, in addition, the problem is nonlinear, then this solution must be iterated at each point in time. If the bandwidth is large, the size of the problem that can be analyzed is severely limited. The multi-grid method is a possible algorithm which can make this solution much more computationally efficient. This method has been used for years in computational fluid mechanics. It works on the fact that relaxation is very efficient on the high frequency components of the solution (nearest neighbor interactions) and not very good on low frequency components of the solution (far interactions). The multi-grid method is then to relax the solution on a particular model until the residual stops changing. This indicates that the solution contains the higher frequency components. A coarse model is then generated for the lower frequency components to the solution. The model is then relaxed for the lower frequency components of the solution. These lower frequency components are then interpolated to the fine model. In computational fluid mechanics the equations are usually expressed as finite differences.

Kascak, Albert F.↗

INVESTIGATING THE FEASIBILITY AND STABILITY FOR MODELING ACOUSTIC WAVE SCATTERING USING A TIME-DOMAIN BOUNDARY INTEGRAL EQUATION WITH IMPEDANCE BOUNDARY CONDITION

Reducing aircraft noise is a major objective in the field of computational aeroacoustics. When designing next generation quiet and environmentally friendly aircraft, it is important to be able to accurately and efficiently predict the acoustic scattering by an aircraft body from a given noise source. Acoustic liners are an effective tool for aircraft noise reduction and are characterized by a frequency-dependent impedance. Converted into the time-domain using Fourier transforms, an impedance boundary condition can be used to simulate the acoustic wave scattering by geometric bodies treated with acoustic liners. This work considers using either an impedance or an admittance (inverse of impedance) boundary condition to allow for acoustic scattering problems to be modeled with geometries consisting of both un-lined and lined surfaces. Three acoustic liner models are discussed: the Extended Helmholtz Resonator Model, the Three-Parameter Impedance Model, and the Broadband Impedance Model. In both the Helmholtz and Three-Parameter models, liner impedance is specified at a given frequency, whereas the Broadband model allows for the investigation of multiple frequencies simultaneously. The impedance and admittance boundary conditions for acoustic liners are derived for each model and coupled with a time-domain boundary integral equation. The scattering solution is obtained iteratively using a boundary element method with constant spatial and third-order temporal basis functions. Time-domain boundary integral equations are unfortunately prone to numerical instabilities due to resonant frequencies resulting from non-trivial solutions in the interior domain. When reformulated with the Burton-Miller method, the instabilities are eliminated. Using a Burton-Miller reformulation, the stability of the boundary element method assuming a liner boundary condition is assessed using eigenvalue analysis. The stability of each liner model is discussed, and it is shown that the Three-Parameter and Broadband models are sufficient for modeling an acoustic liner on the surface of scattering bodies. The Helmholtz model demonstrates strict limitations for stability, whereas the Three-Parameter and Broadband models are stable for most cases. Also included in this work is an assessment of the spatial accuracy of the time-domain boundary element method with respect to the surface element basis functions, as well as a performance study of the numerical algorithm.

computational mathematics↗

High-performance equation solvers and their impact on finite element analysis

The role of equation solvers in modern structural analysis software is described. Direct and iterative equation solvers which exploit vectorization on modern high-performance computer systems are described and compared. The direct solvers are two Cholesky factorization methods. The first method utilizes a novel variable-band data storage format to achieve very high computation rates and the second method uses a sparse data storage format designed to reduce the number of operations. The iterative solvers are preconditioned conjugate gradient methods. Two different preconditioners are included; the first uses a diagonal matrix storage scheme to achieve high computation rates and the second requires a sparse data storage scheme and converges to the solution in fewer iterations that the first. The impact of using all of the equation solvers in a common structural analysis software system is demonstrated by solving several representative structural analysis problems.

Poole, Eugene L.↗

High-performance equation solvers and their impact on finite element analysis

The role of equation solvers in modern structural analysis software is described. Direct and iterative equation solvers which exploit vectorization on modern high-performance computer systems are described and compared. The direct solvers are two Cholesky factorization methods. The first method utilizes a novel variable-band data storage format to achieve very high computation rates and the second method uses a sparse data storage format designed to reduce the number od operations. The iterative solvers are preconditioned conjugate gradient methods. Two different preconditioners are included; the first uses a diagonal matrix storage scheme to achieve high computation rates and the second requires a sparse data storage scheme and converges to the solution in fewer iterations that the first. The impact of using all of the equation solvers in a common structural analysis software system is demonstrated by solving several representative structural analysis problems.

Poole, Eugene L.↗

Development of an Unstructured Mesh Code for Flows About Complete Vehicles

This report describes the research work undertaken at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, under NASA Research Grant NAG4-157. The aim of this research is to identify effective algorithms and methodologies for the efficient and routine solution of flow simulations about complete vehicle configurations. For over ten years we have received support from NASA to develop unstructured mesh methods for Computational Fluid Dynamics. As a result of this effort a methodology based on the use of unstructured adapted meshes of tetrahedra and finite volume flow solvers has been developed. A number of gridding algorithms, flow solvers, and adaptive strategies have been proposed. The most successful algorithms developed from the basis of the unstructured mesh system FELISA. The FELISA system has been extensively for the analysis of transonic and hypersonic flows about complete vehicle configurations. The system is highly automatic and allows for the routine aerodynamic analysis of complex configurations starting from CAD data. The code has been parallelized and utilizes efficient solution algorithms. For hypersonic flows, a version of the code which incorporates real gas effects, has been produced. The FELISA system is also a component of the STARS aeroservoelastic system developed at NASA Dryden. One of the latest developments before the start of this grant was to extend the system to include viscous effects. This required the development of viscous generators, capable of generating the anisotropic grids required to represent boundary layers, and viscous flow solvers. We show some sample hypersonic viscous computations using the developed viscous generators and solvers. Although this initial results were encouraging it became apparent that in order to develop a fully functional capability for viscous flows, several advances in solution accuracy, robustness and efficiency were required. In this grant we set out to investigate some novel methodologies that could lead to the required improvements. In particular we focused on two fronts: (1) finite element methods and (2) iterative algebraic multigrid solution techniques.

Peraire, Jaime↗

Gain weighted eigenspace assignment

This report presents the development of the gain weighted eigenspace assignment methodology. This provides a designer with a systematic methodology for trading off eigenvector placement versus gain magnitudes, while still maintaining desired closed-loop eigenvalue locations. This is accomplished by forming a cost function composed of a scalar measure of error between desired and achievable eigenvectors and a scalar measure of gain magnitude, determining analytical expressions for the gradients, and solving for the optimal solution by numerical iteration. For this development the scalar measure of gain magnitude is chosen to be a weighted sum of the squares of all the individual elements of the feedback gain matrix. An example is presented to demonstrate the method. In this example, solutions yielding achievable eigenvectors close to the desired eigenvectors are obtained with significant reductions in gain magnitude compared to a solution obtained using a previously developed eigenspace (eigenstructure) assignment method.

Davidson, John B.↗