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At least 415 records · Page 23

Supersonic flow computations by two-equation turbulence modeling

In the present work a solver for the Reynolds averaged compressible Navier-Stokes equations, to compute high speed turbulent flows characterized by interacting shock waves and viscous layers, is presented. A k-epsilon turbulence model that accounts for compressibility effects is developed. The numerical algorithm is based on a finite volume multistage Runge Kutta technique that is explicit for the solution of the mean flow variables, and implicit for the solution of the k-epsilon equations. The model is validated by extensive comparison with experimental results of flows over compression ramps characterized by interacting shock waves/boundary layers.

Grasso, Francesco↗

Low angle injection into a supersonic flow

A study of helium jets injected into a Mach 3 airflow through circular sonic nozzles angled downstream at 15 and 30 deg is presented. An aspirating hot-film probe was employed to measure helium concentrations. The results of Schlieren and nonoshadowgraph photography show the presence of large-scale turbulent structures in the high pressure jets. Concentration data reveal some asymmetries both in the cross section of the jet and in the trajectory of the jet relative to the centerline of the jet. Plotting the decay of maximum concentration with axial distance, it is found that the mixing rate can be increased significantly by increasing the pressure ratio. These low angle jets display good cross-stream penetration.

Mays, R. B.↗

Transient behavior of supersonic flow through inlets

A solution technique to compute inlet flow behavior is presented. The phenomena of inlet unstart and restart are investigated using a flux-split procedure applied to the Euler and Reduced Navier Stokes (RNS) equations. A time consistent direct sparse matrix solver in conjunction with a domain decomposition strategy is applied to compute the transient flow behavior both internal and external to the inlet. Time varying shocks and time varying recirculation regions are efficiently analyzed. The code is quite general and is suitable for the computation of flow for a wide variety of geometries and over a wide range of Mach and Reynolds numbers.

Pordal, H. S.↗

Effects of yaw on low angle injection into a supersonic flow

This paper presents the results of a study of transverse gas injection into supersonic/hypersonic streams with low downstream transverse angles in addition to yaw angles varying from zero to approximately 30 deg. The primary data are concentration measurements, with nanoshadowgraphs and oil flow visualization pictures also included. Two sets of experiments were performed. The first set studied the effects of yaw angle, specifically beta = 15 and 28 deg, on a helium injector with a 30-deg transverse angle in a Mach 3 freestream. Axial measurement stations were x/d = 30, 50, and 100. It was found that, as beta was increased, the maximum concentration mixing rate did not vary, but the jet core penetration decreased more at beta = 15 deg than at beta = 28 deg. A shearing effect between the portion of the jet in the boundary layer and the portion in the freestream increased the area of a typical constant concentration contour. The second set of experiments, conducted at NASA Langley, studied the effect of yawed injection at a transverse angle of 15 deg in a Mach 6 flow. Axial stations of x/d = 20, 40, 60, and 80 were used. A yaw angle of beta = 15 deg was found to decrease both the jet core mixing rate and penetration. The primary benefit of yaw was to increase lateral spreading. For similar injection conditions, the results show less near-field mixing at Mach 6 than Mach 3, but a faster mixing rate in the far-field at Mach 6.

Thomas, R. H.↗

Continuous wave laser absorption techniques for gasdynamic measurements in supersonic flows

Line-of-sight measurements of velocity, temperature, pressure, density, and mass flux were performed in a transient shock tube flow using three laser absorption schemes. All methods employed an intracavity-doubled ring dye laser tuned to an OH transition at 306 nm. In the first scheme, the gas was labeled by 193.3-nm excimer photolysis of H2O, and the passage of the generated OH was detected downstream. In the second method, the laser was tuned at a rate of 3 kHz over the R1(7) and R1(11) line pair, and absorption was simultaneously monitored at 90 and 60 deg with respect to the flow. Velocity was determined from the Doppler shift of the profiles and the temperature from the intensity ratio of the lines. Pressure was determined from both the magnitude of absorption and the collisional broadening. In the third method, the laser wavelength was fixed at a single frequency, and a continuous measurement of velocity and pressure was obtained using the signals from the two beam paths. All methods gave results which compare favorably to calculated values.

Davidson, David F.↗

LV software support for supersonic flow analysis

During 1991, the software developed allowed an operator to configure and checkout the TSI, Inc. laser velocimeter (LV) system prior to a run. This setup procedure established the operating conditions for the TSI MI-990 multichannel interface and the RMR-1989 rotating machinery resolver. In addition to initializing the instruments, the software package provides a means of specifying LV calibration constants, controlling the sampling process, and identifying the test parameters.

Bell, William A.↗

Finite element nonlinear panel flutter with arbitrary temperatures in supersonic flow

A finite element frequency domain method for predicting nonlinear flutter response of panels with temperature effects is presented. By using the principle of virtual work, the element nonlinear stiffness formulation for a panel under a combined thermal and aerodynamic loads is derived on the bases of von Karman's large deflection plate theory, the first-order piston theory aerodynamics and the quasi-steady thermal stress theory. The system equations of motion can be mathematically separated into two sets of equations and then solved in sequence. The first set of equations yields the panel thermal-aerodynamic equilibrium and the second set of equations of motion leads to the flutter limit-cycle oscillations. Stability and flutter boundaries can also be obtained from the two sets of system equations. Finite element large amplitude limit-cycle flutter results at different uniform temperatures are obtained for a simply supported square panel and are compared with existing Galerkin/time integration and other finite element solutions. Effects of nonuniform temperature distributions, panel length-to-width ratios, and boundary conditions on flutter responses of rectangular and triangular panels are presented.

Xue, David Y.↗

Computational methods for shock waves in three-dimensional supersonic flow

A central artificial-viscosity and an upwind-biased difference method are contrived to solve the Euler equations for flowfields over typical spacecrafts. The spatial discretization is based on either nodal or cell-vertex formulation in the domain extending from free stream to the end of the vehicle. The outer boundary is treated as a bow shock in the first method but is placed in the free stream in the second, which captures both bow and internal shocks using an approximate Riemann solver based on high-order extrapolation to the cell face. These methods were tested for the Shuttle and Hermes orbiters at wind-tunnel conditions and angles of attack ranging from 0 to 60 deg. The artificial-viscosity method incorporated with a shock-fitting procedure shows smeared crossflow and wing-shock positions and required 15 percent more CPU per node than the upwind method. Greater flexibility and robustness is demonstrated by the latter on a fixed grid for all cases considered.

Li, Chien-Peng↗

LV software for supersonic flow analysis

The NASA Lewis Research Center (LeRC) maintains a leadership position in research into advanced aerospace propulsion systems. For the next generation of aircraft, engine designs continue to involve complex, high-speed flows. Performing the detailed flow diagnostics to properly evaluate these designs requires advanced instrumentation to probe these highly turbulent flows. The hostile flow environment often requires nonintrusive measurement techniques such as the laser velocimeter (LV). Since the LV is a proven instrument for nonintrusive flow measurement, it can provide quantitative velocity data with minimal interference to the flow. Based on anticipated flow conditions, laser velocimeter systems were procured from TSI, Inc. The initial system utilized counter processor technology, but later procurements this past year include a more advanced, correlator-based processor, which significantly improves the overall LV performance. To meet the needs of advanced research into propulsion, this instrument must be integrated into an existing VAX/VMS computer system for data acquisition, processing, and presentation. The work done under this grant before this period concentrated on developing the software required to setup and acquire data from the TSI MI-990 multichannel interface, and the RMR 1989 rotating machinery resolver. With the basis established for controlling the operation of the LV system, software development this past year shifted in emphasis from instrumentation control and data acquisition to data analysis and presentation. The progress of the program is reported.

Bell, William A.↗

LV software support for supersonic flow analysis

The software for configuring a Laser Velocimeter (LV) counter processor system was developed using structured design. The LV system includes up to three counter processors and a rotary encoder. The software for configuring and testing the LV system was developed, tested, and included in an overall software package for data acquisition, analysis, and reduction. Error handling routines respond to both operator and instrument errors which often arise in the course of measuring complex, high-speed flows. The use of networking capabilities greatly facilitates the software development process by allowing software development and testing from a remote site. In addition, high-speed transfers allow graphics files or commands to provide viewing of the data from a remote site. Further advances in data analysis require corresponding advances in procedures for statistical and time series analysis of nonuniformly sampled data.

Bell, William A.↗

Measurements of density, temperature, and their fluctuations in turbulent supersonic flow using UV laser spectroscopy

Nonintrusive measurements of density, temperature, and their turbulent fluctuation levels were obtained in the boundary layer of an unseeded, Mach 2 wind tunnel flow. The spectroscopic technique that was used to make the measurements is based on the combination of laser-induced oxygen fluorescence and Raman scattering by oxygen and nitrogen from the same laser pulse. Results from this demonstration experiment are compared with previous measurements obtained in the same facility using conventional probes and an earlier spectroscopic technique. Densities and temperatures measured with the current technique agree with the previous surveys to within 3 percent and 2 percent, respectively. The fluctuation amplitudes for both variables agree with the measurements obtained using the earlier spectroscopic technique and show evidence of an unsteady, weak shock wave that perturbs the boundary layer.

Fletcher, Douglas G.↗

A hybrid multigrid technique for computing steady-state solutions to supersonic flows

Recently, Li and Sanders have introduced a class of finite difference schemes to approximate generally discontinuous solutions to hyperbolic systems of conservation laws. These equations have the form together with relevant boundary conditions. When modelling hypersonic spacecraft reentry, the differential equations above are frequently given by the compressible Euler equations coupled with a nonequilibrium chemistry model. For these applications, steady state solutions are often sought. Many tens (to hundreds) of super computer hours can be devoted to a single three space dimensional simulation. The primary difficulty is the inability to rapidly and reliably capture the steady state. In these notes, we demonstrate that a particular variant from the schemes presented can be combined with a particular multigrid approach to capture steady state solutions to the compressible Euler equations in one space dimension. We show that the rate of convergence to steady state coming from this multigrid implementation is vastly superior to the traditional approach of artificial time relaxation. Moreover, we demonstrate virtual grid independence. That is, the rate of convergence does not depend on the degree of spatial grid refinement.

Sanders, Richard↗

Single-pulse measurement of density and temperature in a turbulent, supersonic flow using UV laser spectroscopy

Nonintrusive measurements of density and temperature and their turbulent fluctuation levels have been obtained in the boundary layer of an unseeded, Mach 2 wind tunnel flow. The spectroscopic technique that was used to make the measurements is based on the combination of laser-induced oxygen fluorescence and Raman scattering by oxygen and nitrogen from the same laser pulse. Results from this demonstration experiment compare favorably with previous measurements obtained in the same facility from conventional probes and an earlier spectroscopic technique.

Fletcher, D. G.↗