Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “linear flow”

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 469 records · Page 26

Complex eigenvalues for the stability of Couette flow

The eigenvalue problem for the linear stability of Couette flow between rotating concentric cylinders to axisymmetric disturbances is considered. It is shown by numerical calculations and by formal perturbation methods that when the outer cylinder is at rest there exist complex eigenvalues corresponding to oscillatory damped disturbances. The structure of the first few eigenvalues in the spectrum is discussed. The results do not contradict the principle of exchange of stabilities, namely, for a fixed axial wavenumber the first mode to become unstable as the speed of the inner cylinder is increased is nonoscillatory as the stability boundary is crossed.

Diprima, R. C.↗

Documentation and Control of Flow Separation on a Low Pressure Turbine Linear Cascade of Pak-B Blades Using Plasma Actuators

This work involved the documentation and control of flow separation that occurs over low pressure turbine (LPT) blades at low Reynolds numbers. A specially constructed linear cascade was utilized to study the flow field over a generic LPT cascade consisting of Pratt & Whitney "Pak-B" shaped blades. Flow visualization, surface pressure measurements, LDV measurements, and hot-wire anemometry were conducted to examine the flow fields with and without separation control. Experimental conditions were chosen to give a range of chord Reynolds numbers (based on axial chord and inlet velocity) from 10,000 to 100,000, and a range of freestream turbulence intensities from u'/U(infinity) = 0.08 to 2.85 percent. The blade pressure distributions were measured and used to identify the region of separation that depends on Reynolds number and the turbulence intensity. Separation control was performed using dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma actuators. Both steady and unsteady actuation were implemented and found to work well. The comparison between the steady and unsteady actuators showed that the unsteady actuators worked better than the steady ones. For the steady actuators, it was found that the separated region is significantly reduced. For the unsteady actuators, where the signal was pulsed, the separation was eliminated. The total pressure losses (a low Reynolds number) was reduced by approximately a factor of two. It was also found that lowest plasma duty cycle (10 percent in this work) was as effective as the highest plasma duty cycle (50 percent in this work). The mechanisms of the steady and unsteady plasma actuators were studied. It was suggested by the experimental results that the mechanism for the steady actuators is turbulence tripping, while the mechanism for the unsteady actuators is to generate a train of spanwise structures that promote mixing.

Corke, Thomas c.↗

On the stability of compressible flow past axisymmetric bodies

Compressible linear stability theory for axisymmetric flows is presented. The theory is applied to flow past a cylinder and a sharp cone at a Mach number of 5 with adiabatic wall conditions. The effect of transverse curvature and body divergence is studied. It is found that transverse curvature has a stabilizing influence on axisymmetric (first and second mode) disturbances while it has a destabilizing influence on the asymmetric (oblique first mode) disturbances. The body divergence effects are stabilizing for both symmetric and asymmetric disturbances. Comparisons made with the results of planar stability theory show that, for a cylinder, curvature effects become more pronounced with increasing distance along the cylinder. For a sharp cone, these effects become less significant further away from the cone tip since the body radius increases faster than the growth of the boundary layer. The effect of cone angle on stability is also studied.

Malik, M. R.↗

Ideal internal kink stability in presence of plasma flow and neoclassical toroidal viscosity due to energetic particles

Abstract The influence of energetic particles (EPs) on the ideal internal kink mode, in rotating tokamak plasmas, is numerically investigated by simultaneously solving MHD-kinetic hybrid equations together with a toroidal momentum balance equation utilizing the MARS-Q code (Liu et al 2013 Phys. Plasmas 20 042503). The neoclassical toroidal viscous (NTV) torque, induced by precessional drift resonances of trapped energetic particles, acts as the momentum sink term to damp the plasma flow. Quasi-linear initial value simulations show local reduction of the flow amplitude and enhancement of the flow shear near the q = 1 rational surface ( q is the safety factor) due to EP induced NTV. Both effects in turn destabilize the internal kink mode. These numerical findings are robust against the initial linear stability of internal kink, the initial plasma flow profile, as well as the equilibrium distribution model for EPs.

Physics↗

Polyimide of Modified Melt Flow and Toughness

Linear aromatic polyphenylene ether sulfideimide (BDSDA/APB) polymer molded, used as resin, and cast into thin films. In effort to improve further both use properties and amenability to process BDSDA/APB, molecular weight of polymer varied by variations in percentage of end capping. Effect of end capping BDSDA/APB determined by measurement of polymer melt viscosity and fracture-energy values for different number average synthesized molecular weights.

St. Clair, T. L.↗

Stability of low-speed reacting flows

Small perturbation, linear, inviscid stability theory is developed and applied to coflowing chemically reacting jets. A necessary condition for the existence of axisymmetric and azimuthal instabilities is derived. The eigenfunction structure provides considerable insight into the underlying physical mechanism. In nonpremixed cases, high temperature tends to occur in regions where the shear layer tries to roll up; this reduces the available momentum, suppressing the growth of instabilties. It is found that chemical reaction during the growth of instabilities is unimportant, suggesting that this effect could be ignored in a viscous theory. Both nonpremixed and premixed flames in axisymmetric shear layers are generally more stable to small perturbations than in the corresponding cold case. However, while for nonpremixed flames the frequency of the most amplified wave decreases with increasing heat release, the opposite occurs for premixed cases.

Mahalingham, S.↗

On the spatial instability of piecewise linear free shear layers

The main goal of this paper is to clarify the spatial instability of a piecewise linear free shear flow. This is done by obtaining numerical solutions to the Orr-Sommerfeld equation of high Reynolds numbers. The velocity profile chosen is very much like a piecewise linear one, with the exception that the corners have been rounded so that the entire profile is infinitely differentiable. It is found that the (viscous) spatial instability of this modified profile is virtually identical to the inviscid spatial instability of the piecewise linear profile and agrees qwalitatively with the inviscid results for the tanh profile when the shear layers are convectively unstable. The unphysical features, previously identified for the piecewise linear velocity profile, arise only when the flow is absolutely unstable. It is concluded that there is nothing wrong with the inviscid spatial instability of piecewise linear shear flows.

Balsa, T. F.↗

Space Suit Portable Life Support System Thermal Control Valve Ball Design

A Thermal Control Valve (TCV) has been in development for the Exploration Extravehicular Mobility Unit Portable Life Support System (xEMU PLSS). The xEMU PLSS TCV controls flow going to the liquid cooling and ventilation garment that the crew member wears during extra-vehicular activity to expel waste heat. A previous TCV version with a linear actuator and diverter valve has been tested to attempt to control the flow accurately. The previous valve has a non-linear flow response relative to valve position and has struggled to meet the setpoints desired for precise thermal control. While many diverter valve design variations have been attempted, all previous designs have had difficulty meeting set points. Additionally, high precision machining is required to create a metal-on-metal seal which has its own drawbacks and does not always meet requirements for internal leakage. This metal seal also requires stalling a linear actuator to load the seal in compression or tension which has caused sticking failures when stalled. A new approach and design for a TCV has been developed which uses a rotational ball to control flow and has demonstrated a much more precise and linear flow control. The design functions like a two-way ball valve with two Teflon seats that cradle and compress the ball for sealing. The ball outlet has a unique geometric design to create a set-able orifice like hole which is more predictable at controlling flow. Additionally, the Teflon seat performs much better for preventing internal leakage than the metal seal and prevents sticking by having a large range in which it is sealed without having to stall the actuator. This paper will review a new proposed xEMU PLSS TCV ball design and compare it with previous iterations of the design.

Ryan Ogilvie↗

Space Suit Portable Life Support System Thermal Control Valve Ball Design

A Thermal Control Valve (TCV) has been in development for the Exploration Extravehicular Mobility Unit Portable Life Support System (xEMU PLSS). The xEMU PLSS TCV controls flow going to the liquid cooling and ventilation garment that the crew member wears during extra-vehicular activity to expel waste heat. A previous TCV version with a linear actuator and diverter valve has been tested to attempt to control the flow accurately. The previous valve has a non-linear flow response relative to valve position and has struggled to meet the setpoints desired for precise thermal control. While many diverter valve design variations have been attempted, all previous designs have had difficulty meeting set points. Additionally, high precision machining is required to create a metal-on-metal seal which has its own drawbacks and does not always meet requirements for internal leakage. This metal seal also requires stalling a linear actuator to load the seal in compression or tension which has caused sticking failures when stalled. A new approach and design for a TCV has been developed which uses a rotational ball to control flow and has demonstrated a much more precise and linear flow control. The design functions like a two-way ball valve with two Teflon seats that cradle and compress the ball for sealing. The ball outlet has a unique geometric design to create a set-able orifice like hole which is more predictable at controlling flow. Additionally, the Teflon seat performs much better for preventing internal leakage than the metal seal and prevents sticking by having a large range in which it is sealed without having to stall the actuator. This paper will review a new proposed xEMU PLSS TCV ball design and compare it with previous iterations of the design.

Ryan Ogilvie↗

Sheared-flow induced confinement transition in a linear magnetized plasma

A magnetized plasma cylinder (12 cm in diameter) is induced by an annular shape obstacle at the Large Plasma Device [W. Gekelman, H. Pfister, Z. Lucky, J. Bamber, D. Leneman, and J. Maggs, Rev. Sci. Instrum. 62, 2875 (1991)]. Sheared azimuthal flow is driven at the edge of the plasma cylinder through edge biasing. Strong fluctuations of density and potential ({delta}n/n{approx}e{delta}{phi}/kT{sub e}{approx}0.5) are observed at the plasma edge, accompanied by a large density gradient (L{sub n}={nabla}lnn{sup -1}{approx}2cm) and shearing rate ({gamma}{approx}300kHz). Edge turbulence and cross-field transport are modified by changing the bias voltage (V{sub bias}) on the obstacle and the axial magnetic field (B{sub z}) strength. In cases with low V{sub bias} and large B{sub z}, improved plasma confinement is observed, along with steeper edge density gradients. The radially sheared flow induced by ExB drift dramatically changes the cross-phase between density and potential fluctuations, which causes the wave-induced particle flux to reverse its direction across the shear layer. In cases with higher bias voltage or smaller B{sub z}, large radial transport and rapid depletion of the central plasma density are observed. Two-dimensional cross-correlation measurement shows that a mode with azimuthal mode number m=1 and large radial correlation length dominates the outward transport in these cases. Linear analysis based on a two-fluid Braginskii model suggests that the fluctuations are driven by both density gradient (drift wave like) and flow shear (Kelvin-Helmholtz like) at the plasma edge.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Investigation of Flow Separation in a Transonic-fan Linear Cascade Using Visualization Methods

An extensive study into the nature of the separated flows on the suction side of modem transonic fan airfoils at high incidence is described in the paper. Suction surface.flow separation is an important flow characteristic that may significantly contribute to stall flutter in transonic fans. Flutter in axial turbomachines is a highly undesirable and dangerous self-excited mode of blade oscillations that can result in high cycle fatigue blade failure. The study basically focused on two visualization techniques: surface flow visualization using dye oils, and schlieren (and shadowgraph) flow visualization. The following key observations were made during the study. For subsonic inlet flow, the flow on the suction side of the blade is separated over a large portion of the blade, and the separated area increases with increasing inlet Mach number. For the supersonic inlet flow condition, the flow is attached from the leading edge up to the point where a bow shock from the upper neighboring blade hits the blade surface. Low cascade solidity, for the subsonic inlet flow, results in an increased area of separated flow. For supersonic flow conditions, a low solidity results in an improvement in flow over the suction surface. Finally, computational results modeling the transonic cascade flowfield illustrate our ability to simulate these flows numerically.

Lepicovsky, Jan↗

Measurement of longitudinal flow decorrelations in Pb+Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\text {NN}}}=2.76$ and 5.02 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Measurements of longitudinal flow correlations are presented for charged particles in the pseudorapidity range |η|<2.4 using 7 and 470 μb -1 of Pb+Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s}$$_ {NN}$= 2.76 and 5.02 TeV, respectively, recorded by the ATLAS detector at the LHC. It is found that the correlation between the harmonic flow coefficients v n measured in two separated η intervals does not factorise into the product of single-particle coefficients, and this breaking of factorisation, or flow decorrelation, increases linearly with the η separation between the intervals. The flow decorrelation is stronger at 2.76 TeV than at 5.02 TeV. Higher-order moments of the correlations are also measured, and the corresponding linear coefficients for the kth-moment of the vn are found to be proportional to k for v 3 , but not for v 2 . The decorrelation effect is separated into contributions from the magnitude of v n and the event-plane orientation, each as a function of η. These two contributions are found to be comparable. The longitudinal flow correlations are also measured between v n of different order in n. The decorrelations of v 2 and v 3 are found to be independent of each other, while the decorrelations of v 4 and v 5 are found to be driven by the nonlinear contribution from v$2\atop{2}$ and v 2 v 3 , respectively.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Linear and nonlinear effect of sheared plasma flow on resistive tearing modes

The effect of sheared plasma flow on the m/n = 2/1 tearing mode is studied numerically (m and n are the poloidal and toroidal mode numbers). It is found that in the linear phase the plasma flow with a weak or moderate shear plays a stabilizing effect on tearing mode. However, the mode is driven to be more unstable by sufficiently strong sheared flow when approaching the shear Alfvén resonance (AR). In the nonlinear phase, a moderate (strong) sheared flow leads to a smaller (larger) saturated island width. The stabilization of tearing modes by moderate shear plasma flow is enhanced for a larger plasma viscosity and a lower Alfvén velocity. It is also found that in the nonlinear phase AR accelerates the plasma rotation around the 2/1 rational surface but decelerates it at the AR location, and the radial location satisfying AR spreads inwards towards the magnetic axis.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Time-domain Green's Function Method for three-dimensional nonlinear subsonic flows

The Green's Function Method for linearized 3D unsteady potential flow (embedded in the computer code SOUSSA P) is extended to include the time-domain analysis as well as the nonlinear term retained in the transonic small disturbance equation. The differential-delay equations in time, as obtained by applying the Green's Function Method (in a generalized sense) and the finite-element technique to the transonic equation, are solved directly in the time domain. Comparisons are made with both linearized frequency-domain calculations and existing nonlinear results.

Tseng, K.↗

Regularizing the linearly extrapolated BDF2 scheme for incompressible flows with time relaxation

This paper presents a highly-efficient finite element scheme for the time relaxation model (TRM). The efficiency is achieved through the second-order BDF2 time-stepping scheme with linear extrapolation (BDF2LE). The accuracy of the scheme is also greatly enhanced through the use of the divergence-free Scott-Vogeulis finite elements, and van Cittert approximate deconvolution. A complete finite element analysis is provided, which includes rigorous proofs for the stability, well-possessedness, and convergence of both velocity and pressure solutions. Furthermore, we also demonstrate that the inclusion of the linear time relaxation term preserves the long-time stability of the unregularized BDF2LE scheme. Finally, numerical experiments are presented that demonstrate the added stability and accuracy that time relaxation can provide.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Flutter of laminated plates in supersonic flow

A solution procedure was developed using linear small deflection theory for the flutter of simply supported laminated plates. For such plates, the bending and extensional governing equations are coupled and have cross-stiffness terms which do not appear in classical plate theory. An extended Galerkin method is used to obtain approximate solutions to the governing equations, and the aerodynamic pressure loading used in the analysis is that given by linear piston theory with flow at arbitrary cross-flow angle. A limited parametric study was conducted for typical laminated composite plates. The calculations show that both the bending-extensional coupling and the cross-stiffness terms have a large destabilizing effect on flutter. Since classical plate theory does not consider bending-extensional coupling and cross stiffness terms, it usually gives inaccurate and nonconservative flutter boundaries for laminated plates.

Sawyer, J. W.↗

Space Suit Portable Life Support System Thermal Control Valve Ball Design

A Thermal Control Valve (TCV) has been in development for the Exploration Extravehicular Mobility Unit Portable Life Support System (xEMU PLSS). The xEMU PLSS TCV controls flow going to the liquid cooling and ventilation garment that the crew member wears during extra-vehicular activity to expel waste heat. A pervious TCV version with a linear actuator and diverter valve has been tested extensively to attempt to control the flow accurately. The previous TCV diverter valve has a non-linear flow response relative to valve position and has struggled to accurately meet the setpoints desired for precision thermal control. While many diverter valve design variations have been attempted, previous designs have all had difficulty in meeting set points. Additionally, high precision machining is required for these diverter valves to create a metal-on-metal seal which has its own drawbacks and doesn’t always meet requirements for internal leakage. This metal compression seal also requires stalling the linear actuator to load the seal in compression or tension which has demonstrated valve sticking failures when stalled. The xEMU PLSS TCV implements a new approach and design for a TCV which uses a rotational ball to control flow and has demonstrated a much more precise and linear flow control. The design functions like a two-way ball valve with two Teflon seats that cradle and compress the ball for sealing. A new geometric design modification to the ball outlet can create a set-able orifice like hole which is more predictable at controlling flow than using an annulus with the previous diverter valve. Additionally, the Teflon seat performs much better for preventing internal leakage than the metal seal and prevents sticking by having a large range in which it is sealed without having to stall the actuator. This paper will review a new proposed xEMU PLSS TCV ball design and compare it with previous iterations of the design.

Ryan Ogilvie↗

A method to test the coupling strength of the linear and nonlinear contributions to higher-order flow harmonics via event shape engineering

A Multi-Phase Transport (AMPT) model is used to study the efficacy of shape-engineered events to delineate the degree of coupling between the linear and nonlinear contributions to the higher-order flow harmonics v 4 and v 5 . Here, the study shows that the nonlinear contributions are strongly shape-dependent while the linear contributions are shape-independent, indicating little if any, coupling between the linear and nonlinear flow coefficients. The experimental verification of such patterns could be an invaluable tool for robust extraction of the linear and mode-coupled flow coefficients, especially for beam energies where the charged particle multiplicity and the event statistics precludes the use of current methods to establish the coupling strength.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗