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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 523 records · Page 29

Three-Dimensional Nonequilibrium Boundary Layer Stability & Transition Analysis For Martian Entry

In this work, we apply the boundary layer stability code LASTRAC, modified to include chemical and thermal nonequilibrium capabilities, to a simulated test case based on literature, with three-dimensional effects. LASTRAC provides Parabolized Stability Equations (PSE)as well as Linear Stability Theory (LST) to predict the stability of a boundary layer and transition with semiempirical eN methods. Tests of the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL)indicated a range of laminar to transitional flow conditions. In order to reduce the weight of Thermal Protection Systems (TPS), reliable prediction of transition and an understanding of the environmental factors that contribute to transition are necessary. This work is a step towards addressing this need, including the effects of thermochemical nonequilibrium but neglecting radiation, ablation, and ionization effects. Our results indicate that an oblique first mode produces maximum N-Factors on the symmetry plane, however with N-Factors too small to explain transition. Although we are able to show nonequilibrium three-dimensional PSE results inCO2, further study with improved mean flow solutions, accounting for some of the uncertainties inherent in this analysis, or evaluation of alternative transition mechanisms is needed to explain transition in the wind tunnel cases examined here.

H L Kline↗

Resilient Cooperative Voltage Control for Distribution Network with High Penetration Distributed Energy Resources

Here, this paper considers the problem of designing a resilient distributed voltage control algorithm for distribution systems with high penetration of distributed energy resources in the presence of an unknown cyber-attack. The purpose of the attack is to force the system to violate the operating voltage limit by intercepting its communication channels and inserting exogenous signals to perturb and/or modify the information being exchanged. We first review the cooperative voltage control proposed in our previous work and provide a new stability analysis for it. Next, we present a resilient cooperative voltage control algorithm by introducing a virtual system interconnected with the original system such that the voltage can be maintained within the operational limit under unknown attacks. The resiliency of the proposed algorithm is demonstrated via simulations on the IEEE 8500-node system when subjected to an attack which consists of corrupting the data being exchanged in the communication network between two generation units.

cooperative control↗

A multiloop generalization of the circle criterion for stability margin analysis

In order to provide a theoretical tool suited for characterizing the stability margins of multiloop feedback systems, multiloop input-output stability results generalizing the circle stability criterion are considered. Generalized conic sectors with 'centers' and 'radii' determined by linear dynamical operators are employed to specify the stability margins as a frequency dependent convex set of modeling errors (including nonlinearities, gain variations and phase variations) which the system must be able to tolerate in each feedback loop without instability. The resulting stability criterion gives sufficient conditions for closed loop stability in the presence of frequency dependent modeling errors, even when the modeling errors occur simultaneously in all loops. The stability conditions yield an easily interpreted scalar measure of the amount by which a multiloop system exceeds, or falls short of, its stability margin specifications.

Safonov, M. G.↗

Separation and Transition on a Cone-Cylinder-Flare: Computational Investigations

Base flow computation and stability analysis were conducted for hypersonic flow over a cone-cylinder-flare (CCF) geometry for conditions that correspond to the experimental runs carried out in three wind tunnels. Owing to the presence of an attached boundary layer, a separation bubble induced by a shock-boundary layer interaction, and a reattachment region, the chosen flow configuration is physically rich. The complexity of this flowfield encompasses a combination of convective instabilities developing on the cone, global instabilities in the separation bubble, and shear-layer modes and streaks in the reattachment region. Thus, the selected CCF configuration provides the opportunity for a comprehensive comparison of the currently available methodologies for analyzing boundary layer instabilities. Various tools are used for the analysis, including global stability codes as well as convective instability analyses based on a local theory, a weakly non-parallel analysis, and tools that are applicable to strongly non-parallel flows. The paper presents a comparison of the convective instability characteristics based on different methodologies, such as linear stability theory (LST), the harmonic form of linearized Navier-Stokes equations (HLNSE), and resolvent analysis. The CCF configuration provided an effective framework for conducting a detailed cross-validation of this type, which had not yet been addressed in existing literature. This document is accompanied by a companion paper that is focused on the experimental aspects of the CCF configuration. Both papers are being presented in a dedicated session that highlights the research activities of the NATO STO Research Task Group AVT-346.

Boundary Layer Transition↗

Grassy ELM regime at low pedestal collisionality in high-power tokamak plasma

Spontaneous mitigation of giant ELMs and appearance of grassy ELMs have been observed repeatedly at low pedestal collisionality (${\nu }_{\mathrm{e},\mathrm{p}\mathrm{e}\mathrm{d}}^{{\ast}}\sim 0.15$) in the high-power (P inj > 13 MW) hybrid scenario in DIII-D. Higher β p and higher q 95 appear to be beneficial to achieving the grassy ELM regime. The grassy ELM H-mode plasma shows high energy confinement performance (H 98y2 up to over 1.5) under the conditions of high neutral beam torque and high core rotation. The pedestal width appears to exceed the EPED1.0 model prediction by more than 50%. Pedestal stability analysis performed with the ELITE code indicates that the stability against low-n kink/peeling modes is improved with increased auxiliary heating power and the operational point in the grassy ELM regime is located near the ballooning boundary. The pedestal stability characteristics during the grassy ELM crashes have been investigated in comparison with the giant ELM crashes based on plasma profiles experimentally measured with high resolution and accuracy. It has been found that the underlying mechanism for the observed small-amplitude ELM crashes is mainly the expansion of the ballooning stability boundary induced by an initial radially localized collapse in the pedestal, which helps to stop the growth of instabilities and further collapse of the pedestal. The effect of electron density pedestal on mitigating edge localized instabilities has been analyzed by numerical simulation, suggesting that the electron density pedestal characterized by high n e,sep /n e,ped and low density gradient helps to stabilize peeling-ballooning modes because of a low pressure pedestal gradient and to lower the ballooning boundary mainly because of a low ion diamagnetic frequency in the pedestal region, thus triggering ballooning instabilities and producing the intrinsic grassy ELMs. Numerical simulation of the Chinese fusion engineering test reactor (CFETR) with the SOLPS code indicates that the separatrix density might be insensitive to the electron diffusivity in the pedestal region and increase with the power flowing from the core region to the edge region. Furthermore, pedestal stability analysis suggests that the flat density pedestal with high separatrix density obtained in the high-power plasma in CFETR would make the operational point close to the ballooning boundary, which is considered to help destabilize ballooning instabilities and facilitate the access to the grassy ELM regime.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Extension of Liouville Formalism to Postinstability Dynamics

A mathematical formalism has been developed for predicting the postinstability motions of a dynamic system governed by a system of nonlinear equations and subject to initial conditions. Previously, there was no general method for prediction and mathematical modeling of postinstability behaviors (e.g., chaos and turbulence) in such a system. The formalism of nonlinear dynamics does not afford means to discriminate between stable and unstable motions: an additional stability analysis is necessary for such discrimination. However, an additional stability analysis does not suggest any modifications of a mathematical model that would enable the model to describe postinstability motions efficiently. The most important type of instability that necessitates a postinstability description is associated with positive Lyapunov exponents. Such an instability leads to exponential growth of small errors in initial conditions or, equivalently, exponential divergence of neighboring trajectories. The development of the present formalism was undertaken in an effort to remove positive Lyapunov exponents. The means chosen to accomplish this is coupling of the governing dynamical equations with the corresponding Liouville equation that describes the evolution of the flow of error probability. The underlying idea is to suppress the divergences of different trajectories that correspond to different initial conditions, without affecting a target trajectory, which is one that starts with prescribed initial conditions.

Zak, Michail↗

Constrained model calibration of grain structure dependent spall dynamics in shock-loaded tantalum

Here, we perform a gas gun experiment by shock loading tantalum samples of varying grain structures to assess the suitability of a numerical model for simulating spall behavior. The observed differences in spall strength, as well spallation and re-compression history, are not captured in uncalibrated hydrodynamic simulations. An optimization is performed on the Johnson spall model to determine the best parameters that fit the observed trends. Linear stability analysis is employed to motivate bounds on those parameters. Herein, optimized simulations agree well with the experimental results, reproducing pullback depth and recompression timescales across the different samples tested. Further, the observed pullback time of the single crystal sample was found to imply, via the stability analysis, a percolation threshold in good agreement with the theoretical value for a body centered cubic lattice. Therefore, the combined linear stability and percolation analysis shows promise and may be applied to other materials with diverse microstructures. Collectively, the findings demonstrate that the model is suitable for reproducing spall-induced free surface behavior across various microstructures, but also points to caution in using model coefficients for uncalibrated microstructures.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

On the Stochastic Stability of Deep Markov Models

Deep Markov models (DMM) are generative models which are scalable and expressive generalization of Markov models for representation, learning, and inference problems. However, the fundamental stochastic stability guarantees of such models have not been thoroughly investigated. In this paper, we present a novel stability analysis method and provide sufficient conditions of DMM's stochastic stability. The proposed stability analysis is based on the contraction of probabilistic maps modeled by deep neural networks. We make connections between the spectral properties of neural network's weights and different types of used activation function on the stability and overall dynamic behavior of DMMs with Gaussian distributions. Based on the theory, we propose a few practical methods for designing constrained DMMs with guaranteed stability. We empirically substantiate our theoretical results via intuitive numerical experiments using the proposed stability constraints.

Drgona, Jan↗

A comparison of the various helicopter mathematical models used in the methodology assessment

Various features of the computer codes used in the helicopter industry and by government agencies for rotorcraft aeroelastic stability analysis are compared. Mathematical rigor in modeling rotorcraft is given primarily to the rotor-system dynamic behavior; the aerodynamic modeling is still limited to strip theory and to uneven application of corrections for stall, reversed flow, yawed flow, radial flow, and unsteady aerodynamic effects. The forward-flight regime analysis is included in five of the 11 codes surveyed. However, only two of these codes are capable of a Floquet analysis for aeroelastic stability. For the hover regime, nine of the 11 codes use eigen-analysis approach. The remaining codes perform a harmonic analysis of the transient response of system.

Stephens, Wendell B.↗

A stable 1D multigroup high-order low-order method

The high-order low-order (HOLO) method is a recently developed moment-based acceleration scheme for solving time-dependent thermal radiative transfer problems, and has been shown to exhibit orders of magnitude speedups over traditional time-stepping schemes. However, a linear stability analysis by Haut et al. (2015 Haut, T. S., Lowrie, R. B., Park, H., Rauenzahn, R. M., Wollaber, A. B. (2015). A linear stability analysis of the multigroup High-Order Low-Order (HOLO) method. In Proceedings of the Joint International Conference on Mathematics and Computation (M&C), Supercomputing in Nuclear Applications (SNA) and the Monte Carlo (MC) Method; Nashville, TN, April 19–23, 2015. American Nuclear Society.) revealed that the current formulation of the multigroup HOLO method was unstable in certain parameter regions. Since then, we have replaced the intensity-weighted opacity in the first angular moment equation of the low-order (LO) system with the Rosseland opacity. Furthermore, this results in a modified HOLO method (HOLO-R) that is significantly more stable.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Blockchain-Enabled Cyber-Secure Microgrid Control Using Consensus Algorithm

This paper proposes a distributed control method based on a consensus algorithm for distributed energy resources (DERs) using blockchain as a secure communication medium for cyber resilience. Each DER communicates with a local blockchain server that is maintained by the distributed ledger technology to allow for securely sharing local measurements among neighbouring assets to achieve the global control objectives, i.e., voltage and frequency regulation as well as accurate power sharing among the DERs, including collective grid-forming capability. To prove that the distributed control can retain system stability under a blockchain-induced variable communication delay, Lyapunov function-based stability analysis is carried out. This paper demonstrates the concept on an 11-bus test case developed in MATLAB Simulink, which has been modified from the IEEE 9-bus test case, to study dynamic operations of the five inverter-based DERs working with a blockchain-induced variable delay. The results validate the superior performance of the proposed control method, compared to heavily compromised operations of the other test cases without the security measure, affected by heavy communication delays and communication interruptions.

blockchains↗

A multiloop generalization of the circle criterion for stability margin analysis

In order to provide a theoretical tool well suited for use in characterizing the stability margins (e.g., gain and phase margins) of multiloop feedback systems, multiloop input-output stability results generalizing the circle stability criterion are considered. Generalized conic sectors with 'centers' and 'radii' determined by linear dynamical operators are employed to enable an engineer to specify the stability margins which he desires as a frequency-dependent convex set of modeling errors (including nonlinearities, gain variations, and phase variations) which the system must be able to tolerate in each feedback loop without instability. The resulting stability criterion gives sufficient conditions for closed-loop stability in the presence of such frequency-dependent modeling errors, even when the modeling errors occur simultaneously in all loops.

Safonov, M. G.↗

Substructure analysis using NICE/SPAR and applications of force to linear and nonlinear structures

Parallel computing studies are presented for a variety of structural analysis problems. Included are the substructure planar analysis of rectangular panels with and without a hole, the static analysis of space mast, using NICE/SPAR and FORCE, and substructure analysis of plane rigid-jointed frames using FORCE. The computations are carried out on the Flex/32 MultiComputer using one to eighteen processors. The NICE/SPAR runstream samples are documented for the panel problem. For the substructure analysis of plane frames, a computer program is developed to demonstrate the effectiveness of a substructuring technique when FORCE is enforced. Ongoing research activities for an elasto-plastic stability analysis problem using FORCE, and stability analysis of the focus problem using NICE/SPAR are briefly summarized. Speedup curves for the panel, the mast, and the frame problems provide a basic understanding of the effectiveness of parallel computing procedures utilized or developed, within the domain of the parameters considered. Although the speedup curves obtained exhibit various levels of computational efficiency, they clearly demonstrate the excellent promise which parallel computing holds for the structural analysis problem. Source code is given for the elasto-plastic stability problem and the FORCE program.

Razzaq, Zia↗

Reaction-Infiltration Instabilities in Fractured and Porous Rocks

In this project we are developing a multiscale analysis of the evolution of fracture permeability, using numerical simulations and linear stability analysis. Our simulations include fully three-dimensional simulations of the fracture topography, fluid flow, and reactant transport, two-dimensional simulations based on aperture models, and linear stability analysis.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

Dynamics and chemical mode analysis of plasma thermal-chemical instability

The stability of the weakly ionized plasma and the transition from a stable homogeneous discharge to unstable filaments play an important role in gas laser physics, plasma-assisted combustion, chemical reforming, and material synthesis. Here, theoretical stability analysis and thermal-chemical mode analysis were performed to understand the mechanism of plasma thermal-chemical instability by using a zero-dimensional plasma system with both simplified and detailed chemical kinetics of H 2 /O 2 /N 2 mixtures. The plasma dynamic and kinetic models accounted for multiple physical mechanisms in the chemically-reactive weakly ionized plasma, including ionization, attachment/detachment, recombination, vibrational and electronic energy relaxation, convective and diffusive species/heat removal, Joule heating, and detailed chemical kinetics. An analytical criterion and the explosive mode species/temperature pointers were formulated while the representative active species were identified for different thermal-chemical modes. The results showed that in addition to the classical thermal-ionization mechanism, various chemical modes from chemical heat imbalance and elementary kinetics significantly modified the time dynamics and the stability of the weakly ionized plasma. The present analysis provides insights and guidance to control plasma instability using chemical kinetics.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗