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NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Analysis of Ice Mass Growth Over Time on the CRM65 Midspan Hybrid Model

The Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate at NASA is developing and applying tools to enable future technologies towards sustainable flight. Aircraft icing has been identified as a potential barrier to entry into service for innovative designs necessitating improvements to computational ice accretion tools. NASA is developing the Glenn Icing Computational Environment (GlennICE) to address deficiencies in the computational modeling capabilities of previously developed ice accretion solvers. To benchmark and improve the ability to model highly three-dimensional ice accretion, high quality validation data against experimental data is required. The CRM65 Midspan Hybrid geometry was previously tested at the NASA Icing Research Tunnel to generate experimental data for swept wing geometries typical for commercial transport aircraft. As a part of a 2018 icing test campaign, experimental data characterizing the relationship between ice accretion time and ice mass growth was obtained and can be leveraged for use in validation of computational tools. The desire for computational ice accretion solvers to predict ice shapes profiles accreted experimentally has often overshadowed the comparison to the mass and bulk volume of ice accreted. To address this deficiency, an analysis is presented in which GlennICE is applied to simulations of the CRM65 Midspan Hybrid model tested in the NASA Icing Research Tunnel. Results from the computational fluid dynamics simulations compared favorably to the experimental pressure coefficient data, thus validating the modeling setup. The experimental data showed excellent repeatability for the 15.0 minute accretion time. The comparisons between the experimental and computational ice mass over time showed good agreement up to 10.0 minutes after which the ice mass was underpredicted. The experimental ice mass was largely linear with some nonlinear data. The bulk volume of ice accreted experimentally compared well to GlennICE for the scanned ice shapes and mean combined cross section ice shapes, but was underpredicted for the maximum combined cross section ice shapes at longer accretion times. The experimental minimum combined cross section, mean combined cross section, and maximum combined cross section profiles when compared to GlennICE show good agreement for the mean combined cross section up to 15.0 minutes. The analyses show that with a single-shot method, GlennICE currently underpredicts the ice mass for longer accretion times, is not able to match the bulk volume of the maximum combined cross section due to dominating scallop features, and future work is required to generate a more generalized ice bulk density model.

Icing↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Analysis of Ice Mass Growth Over Time on the CRM65 Midspan Hybrid Model

Icing↗

DOE OSTI2024

Direct prediction of saturated neoclassical tearing modes in slab using an equilibrium approach

We demonstrate for the first time that the nonlinear saturation of neoclassical tearing modes (NTMs) can be found directly using a variational principle based on Taylor relaxation, without needing to simulate the intermediate, resistivity-dependent dynamics. As in previous investigations of classical tearing mode saturation (Loizu et al 2020 Phys. Plasmas 27 070701; Loizu and Bonfiglio 2023 J. Plasma Phys. 89 905890507), we make use of Stepped Pressure Equilibrium Code (SPEC) (Hudson et al 2012 Phys. Plasmas 19 112502), an equilibrium solver based on the variational principle of the multi-region relaxed magnetohydrodynamics (MHDs), featuring stepped pressure profiles and arbitrary magnetic topology. We work in slab geometry and employ a simple bootstrap current model J bs = C$\boldsymbol{\nabla}$p to study the bootstrap-driven tearing modes, scanning over the asymptotic matching parameter Δ' and bootstrap current strength. Saturated island widths produced by SPEC agree well with the predictions of an initial value resistive MHDs code (Huang and Bhattacharjee 2016 Astrophys. J. 818 20) while being orders of magnitude faster to calculate. Additionally, we observe good agreement with a simple analytical modified Rutherford equation, without requiring any fitting coefficients. The match is obtained for both linearly unstable classical tearing modes in the presence of bootstrap current, and NTMs, which are linearly stable but nonlinear-unstable due to the effects of the bootstrap current.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

DOE OSTI2024

Method for Coupled Electromagnetic and Circuit Simulations to Evaluate Surge Arrester Performance in Protecting Equipment Against E1 HEMP

Surge arrester behavioral modeling for realistic systems embedded in an E1 high-altitude electromagnetic pulse environment inherently encompasses three interconnected complications: (1) the need to account for signal propagation across two domains, electromagnetics and electrical; (2) the need to include both linear and nonlinear circuit components in the analysis; and (3) the need to understand that the over-current and over-voltage mitigation performance is dependent not only on the properties of the surge arrester and protected load but also on the topology of the overall electrical network. This study presents a framework to address these challenges in a systematic manner to consider the effectiveness of protective measures for a common class of equipment in power generation facilities. Full-wave simulations were carried out to derive circuit-domain (i.e., lumped element–based) equivalent models for the excitation waveform and the physical components of the system. Then, these equivalent models were imported to a circuit solver and combined with a high-frequency surge arrester model to evaluate mitigation performance. The methodology outlined is general enough such that it can be applied for other electromagnetic interference problems that involve E2/E3 HEMP or microwave emissions.

42 ENGINEERING↗

NASA NTRS1999

Computational Assessment of Aft-Body Closure for the HSR Reference H Configuration

A study has been conducted to determine how well the USM3D unstructured Euler solver can be utilized to predict the flow over the High Speed Research (HSR) Reference H configuration with an ultimate goal of prediction of Sting interference so after body closure effects may be evaluated. This study has shown that the code can be used to predict the interference effects of a lower mounted blade sting with a high degree of confidence. It has been shown that wing and fuselage pressures, both levels and trends, can be predicted well. Force and moment levels are not predicted well but experimental trends are predicted. Based upon this, predicted force and moment increments are assumed to be predicted accurately. Deflection of the horizontal tail was found to cause a non-linear increment from the non-deflected sting interference effects.

Londenberg, W. Kelly↗

DOE OSTI2026

Benchmarking core turbulence and transport predictions for an inductive compact tokamak reactor plasma

Motivated by the need for accurate, timely, and efficient calculations of plasma transport, predictions of plasma turbulence properties made using different TGLF saturation rules are benchmarked against corresponding predictions from linear and nonlinear gyrokinetic CGYRO simulations. This benchmarking is carried out using parameters taken from an inductive burning plasma scenario in a hypothetical compact high-field (R maj = 4 m, B T = 8 T) tokamak, lying in a much different regime of parameter space than either the TGLF calibration regime or current-day experiments. The core turbulent transport in this scenario is predicted to be dominated by ion temperature gradient (ITG) turbulence. In general, the ITG critical gradients predicted by various TGLF saturation rules are quite close to the CGYRO predictions. Both codes predict similar linear ITG growth rates and frequency spectra, as well as their scaling with R/L T i = −Rd ln(T i )/dr. However, TGLF systematically predicts unstable trapped-electron modes (TEMs) above k y ρ s ≃ 0.5 not seen by CGYRO for the same parameters, due to TGLF predicting a lower threshold in R/L T e than CGYRO for TEM onset. It is shown that for this scenario, nonlinear CGYRO simulations predict stiffer ITG turbulence than the TGLF SAT0 and SAT1 saturation rules, with energy fluxes close in magnitude and scaling with R/L T i to what is predicted by the SAT2 saturation rule. Self-consistent core profiles calculated using nonlinear CGYRO flux predictions and the PORTALS transport solver are shown to agree fairly well with corresponding predictions made using the TGLF SAT2 model, including a similar level of density peaking.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

DOE OSTI2025

Spectrally Stabilized Interface Capturing Formulation and Implementation in Nek5000/NekRS

This report documents the formulation of a novel level-set method for incompressible two-phase flows in the continuous Galerkin (CG) high order spectral element framework. The overall method hinges on a novel implementation of the spectral vanishing viscosity (SVV) operator for the stabilization of linear/non-linear hyperbolic problems. The multidimensional SVV convolution kernels, which in essence, have a similar effect as a high pass filter applied to the derivatives, are formulated by exploiting the tensor product form, analogous to the construction of the usual stiffness matrix system. The resulting kernels are directionally decoupled and ensure a linear, symmetric positive definite, elliptic matrix operator. The SVV formulation is demonstrated to provide a robust stabilizing mechanism through challenging linear and non-linear hyperbolic problems, including problems pertinent to the level-set formulation. The two-phase framework conceptualized herein is based on the conservative level-set (CLS) method which represents the interface between the fluids by the 0.5 iso-contour of the smoothed Heaviside function. The CLS method is augmented with a preconditioning procedure for interface normals using the signed distance function which precludes the manifestation of spurious oscillations in the vicinty of the interface. Further, the existing mixed explicit-implicit approach for the solution of Navier-Stokes equations in Nek5000, as described in Tomboulides et al, is augmented with a pressure coefficient splitting approach for the Poisson equation, which greatly accelerated the convergence of pressure solver for two-phase systems with large density ratio. The robustness and accuracy of the overall two-phase method is demonstrated through canonical challenging problems involving high density and viscosity ratios, with and without surface tension. The two-phase formulation is wholly implemented in Nek5000 and the SVV stabilization method is implemented in NekRS, which is the essential precursor to the two-phase framework, undergoing active development.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Hardware-Efficient Quantum Optimization Layered Algorithms and Experiments

Quantum optimization algorithms, such as QAOA, that implement parametrized stochastic optimization solvers attempt to identify low-energy solutions of Ising systems by exploiting available quantum effects in noisy-intermediate scale machines. Engineering a well-performing parametrized quantum optimization circuit is indeed an exercise in balancing the trade-off between expressivity and implementation complexity. We show that, for MaxCut QAOA circuits defined on native hardware topology (Rigetti’s Aspen Quantum Processors), error-mitigation techniques recover simulated features of the noiseless theory. Moreover, we explore a design space for QAOA-like ansatze that perform well in theory as well as in hardware for fully-connected problems. We also discuss how efficient coherence and entanglement detection methods that could be coupled with quantum optimization experiments require only linear overhead in benchmarking time.

quantum computing↗

NASA NTRS1987

A generalized procedure for constructing an upwind based TVD scheme

A generalized formulation for constructing second- and higher-order accurate TVD (total variation diminishing) schemes is presented. A given scheme is made TVD by limiting antidiffusive flux differences with some linear functions, so-called limiters. The general idea of the formulation and its mathematical proof of Harten's TVD conditions is shown by applying the Lax-Wendroff method to scalar nonlinear equations and a constant-coefficient system of conservation laws. For the system of equations, several definitions are derived for the argument used in the limiter function and present their performance in numerical experiments. The formulation is extended to the nonlinear system. It is demonstrated that the present procedure can easily convert existing central or upwind, and second- or higher-order differencing schemes to preserve monotonicity and yield physically admissible solutions. The formulation is simple mathematically as well as numerically; both matrix-vector multiplication and Riemann solver are avoided. Although the notion of TVD is based on the initial value problem, application to the steady Euler equations of the formulation is also made.

Liou, Meng-Sing↗

NASA NTRS1990

Domain decomposition methods in aerodynamics

Compressible Euler equations are solved for two-dimensional problems by a preconditioned conjugate gradient-like technique. An approximate Riemann solver is used to compute the numerical fluxes to second order accuracy in space. Two ways to achieve parallelism are tested, one which makes use of parallelism inherent in triangular solves and the other which employs domain decomposition techniques. The vectorization/parallelism in triangular solves is realized by the use of a recording technique called wavefront ordering. This process involves the interpretation of the triangular matrix as a directed graph and the analysis of the data dependencies. It is noted that the factorization can also be done in parallel with the wave front ordering. The performances of two ways of partitioning the domain, strips and slabs, are compared. Results on Cray YMP are reported for an inviscid transonic test case. The performances of linear algebra kernels are also reported.

Venkatakrishnan, V.↗

DOE OSTI2024

Pressure stability in explicitly coupled simulations of poromechanics with application to CO 2 sequestration

We study in detail the pressure stabilizing effects of the non-iterated fixed-stress splitting in poromechanical problems which are nearly undrained and incompressible. When applied in conjunction with a spatial discretization which does not satisfy the discrete inf–sup condition, namely a mixed piecewise linear–piecewise constant spatial discretization, the explicit fixed-stress scheme can have a pressure stabilizing effect in transient problems. This effect disappears, however, upon time step refinement or the attainment of steady state. The interpretation of the scheme as an Augmented Lagrangian method similar to Uzawa iteration for incompressible flow helps explain these results. Moreover, due to the slowly evolving solution within undrained seal regions, we show that the explicit fixed-stress scheme requires very large time steps to reveal its pressure stabilizing effect in examples of geologic CO 2 sequestration. We note that large time steps can result in large errors in drained regions, such as the aquifer or reservoir regions of these examples, and can prevent convergence of nonlinear solvers in the case of multiphase flows, which can make the explicit scheme an unreliable source of pressure stabilization. We conclude by demonstrating that pressure jump stabilization is as effective in the explicit fixed-stress setting as in the fully implicit setting for undrained problems, while maintaining the stability and convergence of the fixed-stress split for drained problems.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

NASA NTRS1999

An Elasticity-Based Mesh Scheme Applied to the Computation of Unsteady Three-Dimensional Spoiler and Aeroelastic Problems

This paper presents a modification of the spring analogy scheme which uses axial linear spring stiffness with selective spring stiffening/relaxation. An alternate approach to solving the geometric conservation law is taken which eliminates the need for storage of metric Jacobians at previous time steps. Efficiency and verification are illustrated with several unsteady 2-D airfoil Euler computations. The method is next applied to the computation of the turbulent flow about a 2-D airfoil and wing with two and three- dimensional moving spoiler surfaces, and the results compared with Benchmark Active Controls Technology (BACT) experimental data. The aeroelastic response at low dynamic pressure of an airfoil to a single large scale oscillation of a spoiler surface is computed. This study confirms that it is possible to achieve accurate solutions with a very large time step for aeroelastic problems using the fluid solver and aeroelastic integrator as discussed in this paper.

Bartels, Robert E.↗

NASA NTRS2018

Computational Investigation of Nominally-Orthogonal Pneumatic Active Flow Control for High-Lift Systems

We explore the feasibility of using nominally-orthogonal jets as active aerodynamic load control for multi-element high-lift systems, and whether the nominally-orthogonal jets can offer a variety of performance improvements. These nominally-orthogonal jets inject momentum normal to the airfoil surface near the flap trailing edge, where they create a vortex that entrains flow from the opposing side and change the airfoil circulation. Lift-enhancement opportunities of trailing edge nominally-orthogonal jets have previously been studied by Malavard et al. and Blaylock et al. on single-element airfoils; however, their effect on drag was not thoroughly investigated. In this study, we investigate two- dimensional nominally-orthogonal jet effects on both lift and drag on a two-element airfoil, NLR7301. We utilize Chimera Grid Tools to generate structured curvilinear overset grids, and the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes solver OVERFLOW-2 to solve for the flow field around the airfoil. We perform various computational sensitivity studies on the baseline airfoil without a jet to validate computational results against benchmark experimental data. Using a Chimera overset grid topology, we demonstrate a similar lift-enhancement effect between a nominally-orthogonal jet and a nominally-orthogonal physical tab employed at the same location on the studied airfoil. After we introduce the nominally-orthogonal jet concept, we investigate nominally-orthogonal jets with various momentum coefficient settings, C(sub µ) = 0.00 − 0.04 and present a lift-enhancement relationship ∆C(sub l) ≃ 3.59 (C(sub µ)) for this airfoil. We discuss that utilizing a nominally-orthogonal jet with C(sub µ) = 0.01 can shift the linear region of the lift curve by a ∆C(sub l) = 0.36 for the pressure side jet and by a ∆C(sub l) = −0.27 for the suction side jet. Employing a nominally-orthogonal jet is also shown effective in altering the drag. To study the impact, we carry out a drag decomposition study in the form of drag polars. We show for a given C(sub l) = 2.50, a nominally-orthogonal jet with C(sub µ) = 0.01 on the pressure and suction side of the airfoil results in 113 drag count decrements and 41 drag count increments, respectively, compared to the baseline airfoil with no jet. These results show that large and controllable changes in aerodynamic performance can be achieved by relatively small active flow control inputs using the nominally-orthogonal jets presented in this study.

Nominally-Orthogonal↗

DOE OSTI2025

Computational Algorithms for Unit Commitment with AC Power Flows (Final Report)

Security-constrained unit commitment (SCUC) is a key component in power system operations. When AC power flow constraints are considered in the SCUC model (AC-SCUC), the problem becomes extremely difficult due to its discrete and non-convex nature, as described in “Grid Optimization Competition Challenge 3 Problem Formulation (GOCC)”. There are four main challenges: (i) Discrete decisions regarding unit online/offline status and start-up/shut-down procedures for every single unit. The number of discrete decision variables increases considerably when a system integrates multiple generators; (ii) Configuration-based combined-cycle formulations, and multi-commodity models that include ramping products, spin/non-spin products, and regulation up/down products. The combined-cycle units introduce additional discrete decision variables and auxiliary service products further complicate the model by connecting multi-commodity products’ continuous and discrete variables; (iii) SCUC models with AC power flow constraints are far more complex due to massive bilinear terms in the large-scale nonlinear power balance equations. The nonlinear power balance equations are further complicated by the discrete step control variables of shunts; (iv) N − 1 contingency analysis. The size of the model increases linearly with the number of contingencies considered, greatly increasing the size of the optimization model. Accordingly, there is an emergent need to develop a robust algorithm capable of deriving a high-quality solution in a short time and passing through contingency tests simultaneously. In this project, we explore innovative techniques to address this challenging problem by integrating advanced polyhedral theory, approximation methods, relaxation strategies, decomposition techniques, and parallel computing. Each technique approaches the problem from a different perspective, leveraging its specific strengths to tackle distinct challenges. Each individual method has demonstrated its effectiveness in the PI’s previous research. Their integration is expected to significantly reduce the computational time required to solve the proposed complex problem. Successful completion of this project has the potential to transform the industry by enhancing optimization solvers capable of handling large-scale day-ahead energy market clearing models within strict time constraints, while incorporating AC power flow constraints. This advancement will lead to reduced overall generation costs and, consequently, increased social welfare.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

DOE OSTI2024

A Particle-in-Cell Method for Plasmas with a Generalized Momentum Formulation, Part II: Enforcing the Lorenz Gauge Condition

In a previous paper Christlieb et al. (A particle-in-cell method for plasmas with a generalized momentum formulation, part I: Model formulation, 2024), we developed a new particle-in-cell (PIC) method for the relativistic Vlasov–Maxwell system in which the electromagnetic fields and the equations of motion for the particles were cast in terms of scalar and vector potentials through a Hamiltonian formulation. This new method evolved the potentials under the Lorenz gauge using integral equation methods. New methods to construct spatial derivatives of the potentials that converge at the same rates as the fields were also presented. The new particle method was compared against standard explicit discretizations, including the well-known FDTD-PIC method, for a range of applications involving sheaths and particle beams. Here, this paper extends this new class of methods by focusing on the enforcement the Lorenz gauge condition in both exact and approximate forms using co-located meshes. A time-consistency property of the proposed field solver for the vector potential form of Maxwell’s equations is established, which is shown to preserve the equivalence between the semi-discrete Lorenz gauge condition and the analogous semi-discrete continuity equation. Using this property, we present three methods to enforce a semi-discrete gauge condition. The first method introduces an update for the continuity equation that is consistent with the discretization of the Lorenz gauge condition. Both the finite difference and spectral implementations satisfy this discrete gauge condition to machine precision. The second approach we propose enforces a semi-discrete continuity equation using the boundary integral solution to the field equations. The potential benefit of this approach is that it eliminates spatial derivatives that appear on the particle data, namely the current density, which is often calculated by linear combinations of low-order spline basis functions. This method is ideally suited to boundary integral equation methods that invert multi-dimensional operators without dimensional splitting techniques and will be the subject of future work. The third approach introduces a gauge correcting method that makes direct use of the gauge condition to modify the scalar potential and uses local maps for both the charge and current densities. This results in a gauge error, as the maps do not enforce the continuity equation. The vector potential coming from the current density is taken to be exact, and using the Lorenz gauge, we compute a correction to the scalar potential that makes the two potentials satisfy the gauge condition. This method also enforces the gauge condition to machine precision. We demonstrate two of the proposed methods in the context of periodic domains. Problems defined on bounded domains, including those with complex geometric features remain an ongoing effort. However, this work shows that it is possible to design computationally efficient methods that can effectively enforce the Lorenz gauge condition in a non-staggered PIC formulation.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

NASA NTRS1989

A genuinely multi-dimensional upwind cell-vertex scheme for the Euler equations

The solution of the two-dimensional Euler equations is based on the two-dimensional linear convection equation and the Euler-equation decomposition developed by Hirsch et al. The scheme is genuinely two-dimensional. At each iteration, the data are locally decomposed into four variables, allowing convection in appropriate directions. This is done via a cell-vertex scheme with a downwind-weighted distribution step. The scheme is conservative, and third-order accurate in space. The derivation and stability analysis of the scheme for the convection equation, and the derivation of the extension to the Euler equations are given. Preconditioning techniques based on local values of the convection speeds are discussed. The scheme for the Euler equations is applied to two channel-flow problems. It is shown to converge rapidly to a solution that agrees well with that of a third-order upwind solver.

Powell, Kenneth G.↗

NASA NTRS2002

Multi-dimensional Upwind Fluctuation Splitting Scheme with Mesh Adaption for Hypersonic Viscous Flow

A multi-dimensional upwind fluctuation splitting scheme is developed and implemented for two-dimensional and axisymmetric formulations of the Navier-Stokes equations on unstructured meshes. Key features of the scheme are the compact stencil, full upwinding, and non-linear discretization which allow for second-order accuracy with enforced positivity. Throughout, the fluctuation splitting scheme is compared to a current state-of-the-art finite volume approach, a second-order, dual mesh upwind flux difference splitting scheme (DMFDSFV), and is shown to produce more accurate results using fewer computer resources for a wide range of test cases. A Blasius flat plate viscous validation case reveals a more accurate upsilon-velocity profile for fluctuation splitting, and the reduced artificial dissipation production is shown relative to DMFDSFV. Remarkably, the fluctuation splitting scheme shows grid converged skin friction coefficients with only five points in the boundary layer for this case. The second half of the report develops a local, compact, anisotropic unstructured mesh adaptation scheme in conjunction with the multi-dimensional upwind solver, exhibiting a characteristic alignment behavior for scalar problems. The adaptation strategy is extended to the two-dimensional and axisymmetric Navier-Stokes equations of motion through the concept of fluctuation minimization.

Wood, William A., III↗

DOE OSTI2024

Discrete-Element and Material-Point Method (DEM and MPM) Based Solvers for Sustainable Technologies

We present the use of discrete element method (DEM) and material point method (MPM) in three relevant green technology applications that include biomass feedstock handling, lithium-ion battery manufacturing, and high-pressure reverse osmosis. Our open-source DEM and MPM solvers are developed using performance portable grid and particle management library, AMReX, thus enabling superior performance on NVIDIA and AMD GPUs with > 100 million particles. Our DEM solver resolves the motion of individual particles in a granular system and includes a bonded sphere method for modeling non-spherical particles along with Hertzian and liquid bridge-based contact models. We simulate highly variable biomass feedstock flows in large-scale hoppers for biofuel production and electrode calendering in battery manufacturing using DEM. Our simulations predict flow blockage in large scale biomass hoppers and electrode microstructure variations, thus providing valuable information for biofuel and battery manufacturers, respectively. The second half of the talk will be on MPM and its application towards pore resolved simulations of reverse osmosis membranes under compressive loads. We present a validation study of our MPM simulations with membrane microscopy imaging thus providing useful insights on membrane stability under high pressure conditions. We also present a spectral stability analysis of using linear hat, quadratic and cubic spline basis in MPM indicating regions of numerical stability.

BIOMASS FUELS,MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗