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At least 487 records · Page 27

A collection of flow visualization techniques used in the Aerodynamic Research Branch

Theoretical and experimental research on unsteady aerodynamic flows is discussed. Complex flow fields that involve separations, vortex interactions, and transonic flow effects were investigated. Flow visualization techniques are used to obtain a global picture of the flow phenomena before detailed quantitative studies are undertaken. A wide variety of methods are used to visualize fluid flow and a sampling of these methods is presented. It is emphasized that the visualization technique is a thorough quantitative analysis and subsequent physical understanding of these flow fields.

Source record↗

rNets: a standalone package to visualize reaction networks

In the study of chemical processes, visualizing reaction networks is pivotal for identifying crucial compounds and transformations. Traditional methods, such as network schematics and reaction path linear plots, often struggle to effectively represent complex reaction networks due to their size and intricate connectivity. Alternatives capable of leading with complexity include graph methods, but they are not user-friendly, lacking simplicity and modularity, which hinders their integration with widely-used research software. This work introduces rNets an innovative tool designed for the efficient visualization of reaction networks with a user-friendly interface, modularity, and seamless integration with existing software packages. The effectiveness of rNets is demonstrated through its application in analyzing three catalytic reactions, showcasing its potential to significantly enhance research both in homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis fields. This tool not only simplifies the visualization process but also opens new avenues for exploring complex reaction networks in diverse research contexts.

Pablo-García, Sergio↗

Geometric transformations for video compression and human teleoperator display

A method for bandwidth-efficient processing of video imagery to be viewed by the teleoperator of a remotely-operated vehicle on which the camera is mounted is described. The method comprises image coding, transmission, and reconstruction. It is assumed that the transmission bandpass is the limiting factor rather than encoding/decoding schemata; that image coding and reconstruction will be done within the general abilities of the NASA/TI Programmable Remapper; and that the ratio of retained local detail to the operator's visual resolution is held constant throughout the large-field image that is seen. Novel features include that the compression and reconstruction address certain characteristics of the human visual system, that two-way communication controls a moving 'fovea' in the transformation, and that resolution varies over the image. Conventional motivations accommodated include the Cartesian raster-scan nature of available imagers and display devices and a need for low bandwidth in the image transmission. Unique image processing hardware, NASA's Programmable Remapper, allows demonstration of the method. Once refined, the technology could be adapted to special purpose imagers and display devices, or otherwise to dedicated image processing hardware.

Juday, Richard D.↗

A Separation Control CFD Validation Test Case: Baseline and Steady Suction - Part 1

Low speed flow separation over a wall-mounted hump, and its control using steady suction, were studied experimentally in order to generate a data set for a workshop aimed at validating CFD turbulence models. The baseline and controlled data sets comprised static and dynamic surface pressure measurements, flow field measurements using Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) and wall shear stress obtained via oil-film interferometry. In addition to the specific test cases studied, surface pressures for a wide variety of conditions were reported for different Reynolds numbers and suction rates. Stereoscopic PIV and oil-film flow visualization indicated that the baseline separated flow field was mainly two- dimensional. With the application of control, some three-dimensionality was evident in the spanwise variation of pressure recovery, reattachment location and spanwise pressure fluctuations. Part 2 of this paper, under preparation for the AIAA Meeting in Reno 2005, considers separation control by means of zero-efflux oscillatory blowing.

David Greenblatt↗

A Separation Control CFD Validation Test Case: Baseline and Steady Suction - Part 1

Low speed flow separation over a wall-mounted hump, and its control using steady suction, were studied experimentally in order to generate a data set for a workshop aimed at validating CFD turbulence models. The baseline and controlled data sets comprised static and dynamic surface pressure measurements, flow field measurements using Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) and wall shear stress obtained via oil-film interferometry. In addition to the specific test cases studied, surface pressures for a wide variety of conditions were reported for different Reynolds numbers and suction rates. Stereoscopic PIV and oil-film flow visualization indicated that the baseline separated flow field was mainly two-dimensional. With the application of control, some three-dimensionality was evident in the spanwise variation of pressure recovery, reattachment location and spanwise pressure fluctuations. Part 2 of this paper, under preparation for the AIAA Meeting in Reno 2005, considers separation control by means of zero-efflux oscillatory blowing.

Greenblatt, David↗

New Computational Methods for the Prediction and Analysis of Helicopter Noise

This paper describes several new methods to predict and analyze rotorcraft noise. These methods are: 1) a combined computational fluid dynamics and Kirchhoff scheme for far-field noise predictions, 2) parallel computer implementation of the Kirchhoff integrations, 3) audio and visual rendering of the computed acoustic predictions over large far-field regions, and 4) acoustic tracebacks to the Kirchhoff surface to pinpoint the sources of the rotor noise. The paper describes each method and presents sample results for three test cases. The first case consists of in-plane high-speed impulsive noise and the other two cases show idealized parallel and oblique blade-vortex interactions. The computed results show good agreement with available experimental data but convey much more information about the far-field noise propagation. When taken together, these new analysis methods exploit the power of new computer technologies and offer the potential to significantly improve our prediction and understanding of rotorcraft noise.

Strawn, Roger C.↗

An experimental investigation of delta wing vortex flow with and without external jet blowing

A visual and quantitative study of the vortex flow field over a 70-deg delta wing with an external jet blowing parallel to and at the leading edge was conducted. In the experiment, the vortex core was visually marked with TiCl4, and LDA was used to measure the velocity parallel and normal to the wing surface. It is found that jet blowing moved vortex breakdown farther downstream from its natural position and influenced the breakdown characteristics.

Iwanski, Kenneth P.↗

Holographic interferometry technique for rotary wing aerodynamics and noise

The concepts of holography and holographic interferometry, as applied to the visualization and measurement of the three dimensional flow field near a rotor tip, are previewed, and initial experimental results of investigations of local shock structures and tip vortices behind the blade are presented. An additional method to visualize the flow in a three dimensional manner is demonstrated, and finally, a method to quantitatively measure the three dimensional flow, which will provide the necessary information to help improve helicopter performance and reduce noise, is introduced.

Kittleson, J. K.↗

Image analysis of particle field by means of computed tomography

In order to visualize and investigate spray structures, computed tomography technique is applied to analyze droplet information. From the transmitted light intensity through the spray and/or the data of particle size distribution obtained from a Fraunhofer diffraction principle, the quantitative volume of spray droplet or local particle size was calculated and the reconstruction of spray structures was made. The background of computed tomography is described along with some experimental results of the structure of intermittent spray such as diesel spray.

Nakayama, Mitsushige↗

The Identification and Modeling of Visual Cue Usage in Manual Control Task Experiments

Many fields of endeavor require humans to conduct manual control tasks while viewing a perspective scene. Manual control refers to tasks in which continuous, or nearly continuous, control adjustments are required. Examples include flying an aircraft, driving a car, and riding a bicycle. Perspective scenes can arise through natural viewing of the world, simulation of a scene (as in flight simulators), or through imaging devices (such as the cameras on an unmanned aerospace vehicle). Designers frequently have some degree of control over the content and characteristics of a perspective scene; airport designers can choose runway markings, vehicle designers can influence the size and shape of windows, as well as the location of the pilot, and simulator database designers can choose scene complexity and content. Little theoretical framework exists to help designers determine the answers to questions related to perspective scene content. An empirical approach is most commonly used to determine optimum perspective scene configurations. The goal of the research effort described in this dissertation has been to provide a tool for modeling the characteristics of human operators conducting manual control tasks with perspective-scene viewing. This is done for the purpose of providing an algorithmic, as opposed to empirical, method for analyzing the effects of changing perspective scene content for closed-loop manual control tasks.

Sweet, Barbara Townsend↗

Hippocampal place cell instability after lesions of the head direction cell network

The occurrence of cells that encode spatial location (place cells) or head direction (HD cells) in the rat limbic system suggests that these cell types are important for spatial navigation. We sought to determine whether place fields of hippocampal CA1 place cells would be altered in animals receiving lesions of brain areas containing HD cells. Rats received bilateral lesions of anterodorsal thalamic nuclei (ADN), postsubiculum (PoS), or sham lesions, before place cell recording. Although place cells from lesioned animals did not differ from controls on many place-field characteristics, such as place-field size and infield firing rate, the signal was significantly degraded with respect to measures of outfield firing rate, spatial coherence, and information content. Surprisingly, place cells from lesioned animals were more likely modulated by the directional heading of the animal. Rotation of the landmark cue showed that place fields from PoS-lesioned animals were not controlled by the cue and shifted unpredictably between sessions. Although fields from ADN-lesioned animals tended to have less landmark control than fields from control animals, this impairment was mild compared with cells recorded from PoS-lesioned animals. Removal of the prominent visual cue also led to instability of place-field representations in PoS-lesioned, but not ADN-lesioned, animals. Together, these findings suggest that an intact HD system is not necessary for the maintenance of place fields, but lesions of brain areas that convey the HD signal can degrade this signal, and lesions of the PoS might lead to perceptual or mnemonic deficits, leading to place-field instability between sessions.

NASA Program Biomedical Research and Countermeasur↗

Supersonic jet noise suppression using coaxial flow interaction.

The scope of investigations conducted with coaxial interacting supersonic jet flows covers (1) acoustic measurements in both the far noise field and near noise field, (2) surveys of mean flow properties and fluctuating pressures, optical visualization of interacting jet flows, the associated flow and shock structure changes and the noise field, (3) the effects of different geometrical parameters of the coaxial nozzles, and (4) thrust measurements. It is shown that the flow interaction between two suitable controlled interacting coaxial supersonic axisymmetric jet flows results in substantial noise reduction based on equivalent thrust considerations. This flow interaction technique appears to be potentially an attractive approach for suppression of noise from supersonic jet exhausts.

Dosanjh, D. S.↗

High-Speed PLIF Imaging of Hypersonic Transition over Discrete Cylindrical Roughness

In two separate test entries, advanced laser-based instrumentation has been developed and applied to visualize the hypersonic flow over cylindrical protrusions on a flat plate. Upstream of these trips, trace quantities of nitric oxide (NO) were seeded into the boundary layer. The protuberances were sized to force laminar-to-turbulent boundary layer transition. In the first test, a 10-Hz nitric oxide planar laser-induced fluorescence (NO PLIF) flow visualization system was used to provide wide-field-of-view, high-resolution images of the flowfield. The images had sub-microsecond time resolution. However these images, obtained with a time separation of 0.1 sec, were uncorrelated with each other. Fluorescent oil-flow visualizations were also obtained during this test. In the second experiment, a laser and camera system capable of acquiring NO PLIF measurements at 1 million frames per second (1 MHz) was used. This system had lower spatial resolution, and a smaller field of view, but the images were time correlated so that the development of the flow structures could be observed in time.

Danehy, P. M.↗

System and method for transparent augmented reality

A system and method for displaying augmented reality information for a real object. A transparent display displays the information for the real object within a field of view, such that the information and the real object are simultaneously viewable by a user. Data-gathering peripheral devices gather data of the field of view, including a camera gathering visual data for tracking the real object. An articulating arm moveably supports and facilitates repositioning the display and redirecting the data-gathering peripheral devices in a particular direction. A security interlock disables the data-gathering peripherals when the articulating arm is moved beyond a pre-established threshold, thereby preventing the data-gathering peripherals from gathering data of a real environment outside of a limit of the field of view as determined by the pre-established threshold. The security interlock may include an adjustable contact switch which adjustably defines the pre-established threshold in at least one direction.

Runyan, Paul Ryan↗

Simulation Study of Landau Damping Near the Persisting to Arrested Transition

A one-dimensional electrostatic filtered Vlasov-Poisson simulation study is discussed. The transition from persisting to arrested Landau damping that is produced by increasing the strength of a sinusoidal perturbation on a background Vlasov-Poisson equilibrium is explored. Emphasis is placed on observed features of the electron phase-space distribution when the perturbation strength is near the transition value. A single ubiquitous waveform is found perturbing the space-averaged phase-space distribution at almost any time in all of the simulations; the sole exception is the saturation stage that can occur at the end of the arrested damping scenario. This waveform contains relatively strong, very narrow structures in velocity bracketing (plus or minus velocity (sub res)) - the velocities at which electrons must move to traverse the dominant field mode wavelength in one of its oscillation periods - and propagating with (plus or minus velocity (sub res)) respectively. Local streams of electrons are found in these structures crossing the resonant velocities from low speed to high speed during Landau damping and from high speed to low speed during Landau growth. At the arrest time, when the field strength is briefly constant, these streams vanish. It is conjectured that the expected transfer of energy between electrons and field during Landau growth or damping has been visualized for the first time. No evidence is found in the phase-space distribution to support recent well-established discoveries of a second-order phase transition in the electric field evolution. While trapping is known to play a role for larger perturbation strengths, it is shown that trapping plays no role at any time in any of the simulations near the transition perturbation strength.

plasma simulation↗

Free vorticity field-boundary layer conversions: Effect of boundary configuration and scale

Progress was made on further flow visualization of vortex-leading edge interaction, in conjunction with characterization of the unsteady pressure field. The range of scale of an elliptical leading edge, relative to the incident primary vortex, was determined. The scale of the incident vortex was characterized in terms of mean shear layer parameters. An overview of the interaction mechanism for the range of thin to thick leading-edges is given. The interaction mechanism corresponding to the case where the incident vortex is above the leading-edge is given for hydrogen bubble wires well upstream of and at the tip of the leading edge. A sample of the instantaneous pressure distribution for the case where the incident vortex dives beneath the edge is presented. The effect of scale of the incident vortex relative to that of the leading-edge was examined. The circulation and length scale of the incident vortices in the street are being characterized.

Rockwell, D.↗

Orbiter BLT Flight Experiment Wind Tunnel Simulations: Nearfield Flowfield Imaging and Surface Thermography

This paper reports a series of wind tunnel tests simulating the near-field behavior of the Space Shuttle Orbiter Boundary Layer Transition Detailed Test Objective (BLT DTO) flight experiment. Hypersonic flow over a flat plate with an attached BLT DTO-shaped trip was tested in a Mach 10 wind tunnel. The sharp-leading-edge flat plate was oriented at an angle of 20 degrees with respect to the freestream flow, resulting in post-shock edge Mach number of approximately 4. The flowfield was visualized using nitric oxide (NO) planar laser-induced fluorescence (PLIF). Flow visualizations were performed at 10 Hz using a wide-field of view and high-resolution NO PLIF system. A lower spatial resolution and smaller field of view NO PLIF system visualized the flow at 500 kHz, which was fast enough to resolve unsteady flow features. At the lowest Reynolds number studied, the flow was observed to be laminar and mostly steady. At the highest Reynolds number, flow visualizations showed streak instabilities generated immediately downstream of the trip. These instabilities transitioned to unsteady periodic and spatially irregular structures downstream. Quantitative surface heating imagery was obtained using the Temperature Sensitive Paint (TSP) technique. Comparisons between the PLIF flow visualizations and TSP heating measurements show a strong correlation between flow patterns and surface heating trends.

Danehy, Paul M.↗

Finite element solver for 3-D compressible viscous flows

The space shuttle main engine (SSME) has extremely complex internal flow structure. The geometry of the flow domain is three-dimensional with complicated topology. The flow is compressible, viscous, and turbulent with large gradients in flow quantities and regions of recirculations. The analysis of the flow field in SSME involves several tedious steps. One is the geometrical modeling of the particular zone of the SSME being studied. Accessing the geometry definition, digitalizing it, and developing surface interpolations suitable for an interior grid generator require considerable amount of manual labor. There are several types of grid generators available with some general-purpose finite element programs. An efficient and robust computational scheme for solving 3D Navier-Stokes equations has to be implemented. Post processing software has to be adapted to visualize and analyze the computed 3D flow field. The progress made in a project to develop software for the analysis of the flow is discussed. The technical approach to the development of the finite element scheme and the relaxation procedure are discussed. The three dimensional finite element code for the compressible Navier-Stokes equations is listed.

Reddy, K. C.↗