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At least 55 records · Page 3

An efficient procedure for computing partial ionization of a gas in numerical fluid dynamics

A numerical procedure is described that allows efficient solution for the three nonlinear and implicit equations of state relating the equilibrium properties of a partially (and singly) ionized neutral gas. In the computation, the values for the intensive variables, that is pressure, temperature and ionization coefficient, are iteratively obtained with a given accuracy starting from assigned values for energy and volume per unit mass. Iterative computation is performed only when the value for the ionization coefficient lies within the lower and the upper bounds fixed by the required number of significant digits; otherwise the two explicit equations of state for nonionized or for fully ionized gases are employed.

Garribba, S.↗

High enthalpy hypersonic boundary layer flow

A theoretical and experimental study of an ionizing laminar boundary layer formed by a very high enthalpy flow (in excess of 12 eV per atom or 7000 cal/gm) with allowance for the presence of helium driver gas is described. The theoretical investigation has shown that the use of variable transport properties and their respective derivatives is very important in the solution of equilibrium boundary layer equations of high enthalpy flow. The effect of low level helium contamination on the surface heat transfer rate is minimal. The variation of ionization is much smaller in a chemically frozen boundary layer solution than in an equilibrium boundary layer calculation and consequently, the variation of the transport properties in the case of the former was not essential in the integration. The experiments have been conducted in a free piston shock tunnel, and a detailed study of its nozzle operation, including the effects of low levels of helium driver gas contamination has been made. Neither the extreme solutions of an equilibrium nor of a frozen boundary layer will adequately predict surface heat transfer rate in very high enthalpy flows.

Yanow, G.↗

Failure Mode Analysis of V-Shaped Pyrotechnically Actuated Valves

Current V-shaped stainless steel pyrovalve initiators have rectified many of the deficiencies of the heritage Y-shaped aluminum design. However, a credible failure mode still exists for dual simultaneous initiator (NSI) firings in which low temperatures were detected at the booster cap and less consistent ignition was observed than when a single initiator was fired. In order to asses this issue, a numerical framework has been developed for predicting the flow through pyrotechnically actuated valves. This framework includes a fully coupled solution of the gas-phase equation with a non-equilibrium dispersed phase for solid particles as well as the capability to model conjugate gradient heat transfer to the booster cap. Through a hierarchy of increasingly complex simulations, a hypothesis for the failure mode of the nearly simultaneous dual NSI firings has been proven. The simulations indicate that the failure mode for simultaneous dual NSI firings may be caused by flow interactions between the flame channels. The shock waves from each initiator interact in the booster cavity resulting in a high pressure that prevents the gas and particulate velocity from rising in the booster cap region. This impedes the bulk of the particulate phase from impacting the booster cap and reduces the heat transfer to the booster cap since the particles do not impact it. Heat transfer calculations to the solid metal indicate that gas-phase convective heat transfer may not be adequate by itself and that energy transfer from the particulate phase may be crucial for the booster cap burn through.

Sachdev, Jai S.↗

Water and Solute Activities Regulate CO 2 Reduction in Gas-Diffusion Electrodes

Electrolysis of CO 2 at gas-diffusion electrodes (GDEs) has typically been limited by the supply of gas to the electrocatalyst, overshadowing the importance of the supply of water. However, at high current densities that approach 1 A cm –2 , where the electrolyte becomes highly concentrated in the catalyst layer of a GDE, the activity of water and solutes deviate from their bulk dilute solution values, potentially slowing reaction rates and changing reaction equilibrium potentials. In addition, as flow plates for the gas stream are introduced to enable larger electrodes and high single pass conversion of CO 2 to product, variations in the gas composition will become important. By drawing upon literature for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), here we explain how to account for these effects in future modeling and experimental work, with particular attention to accurate use of the Nernst equation for electrode potentials and the Arrhenius equation for reaction rates. Specifically, using measurements of KOH solvent and solute activity reported in literature, and assuming the second protonation of CO 2 by water as the rate-determining step, we show the Nernst equation dilute-solution approximation of the CO 2 to CO equilibrium potential to be accurate below 5 M KOH, but it has a 74 mV error when increasing the concentration up to 10 M KOH. Finally, a simple one-dimensional model of a serpentine flow-field on a GDE demonstrated that a reactor with constant pressure of 1 bar and 1 A cm –2 at the inlet had only ~0.3 A cm –2 at the outlet for a conversion in CO 2 partial pressure from 0.90 to 0.48 bar, showing the significant practical implications of this work.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Isotopically labelled inorganic carbon delivered to algalcultures via bubbler bottle

This protocol describes a method for delivering labelled inorganic carbon as 13 CO 2 to algal cultures by bubbling air through a solution of H 13 CO 3 - , and then into the culture. We developed this method to deliver label to cultures grown under continuous bubbling with air, without the use of 13 CO 2 labelled gas and the necessary equipment to mix labelled gas with air at near-atmospheric levels. Bubbling precludes the more common approach of adding H 13 CO 3 - label directly to the media, because dissolved HCO 3 - is in equilibrium with atmospheric CO 2 . Thus, excess HCO 3 - added to a solution will leave the solution as CO 2 gas as it equilibrates. Bubbling rapidly accelerates this equilibration which is typically diffusion limited. The method described here takes advantage of this aspect of carbonate chemistry, and uses a solution of H 13 CO 3 - —which is less expensive and more convenient than 13 CO 2 gas—to generate a flux of 13 CO 2 that can be bubbled into a culture.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Radiolytic and Thermolytic Bubble Gas Hydrogen Composition

The original version of this report described the development of a mathematical model for the estimation of the hydrogen composition of gas bubbles trapped in radioactive waste. The model described therein used a material balance approach to accurately incorporate the rates of hydrogen generation by several physical phenomena and scale the aforementioned rates in a manner that allows calculation of the final hydrogen composition. The proposed model accounted for the following physical phenomena: H 2 generation by primary radiolysis of water and salt solutions; H 2 generation by secondary radiolysis of formate and glycolate molecules in solution; Observation of negligible H 2 generation by thermolysis of formate at temperatures below 120 °C; H 2 generation by thermolysis of glycolate in caustic solutions; O 2 consumption by radiolysis and thermolysis of organic species. Additionally, the originally-proposed model conservatively excluded the following physical phenomena that are known to contribute slightly to the hydrogen composition in trapped gas bubbles: Equilibrium concentration of water vapor in trapped gas bubbles; Generation of N 2 O during radiolysis of nitrite solutions; Incomplete consumption of O 2 by organics. In this revision, the methodology for glycolate thermolysis has been improved to agree with recent findings published by Woodham and Martino. Furthermore, considerations for the thermolysis of organics other than glycolate have been made. In the case of non-glycolate organics, no evidence of non-flammable gas formation exists. Therefore, non-glycolate thermolysis is considered additive for conservatism.

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗

Multiscale modeling and laser diagnostics to reveal non-equilibrium reaction chemistry at a plasma-liquid interface

Low-temperature, atmospheric-pressure plasmas in contact with liquid are at the core of a wide range of applications including water treatment, medicine, materials synthesis, and chemical transformation. In general, plasma-liquid processes are scientifically compelling because reactivity can be produced without a catalyst, in relatively inert molecules, such as air or nitrogen and liquid water, in their native states at ambient conditions. However, reactions at a plasma-liquid interface are extremely complex, occurring at a multiphase, gas-liquid boundary where excited or dissociate gaseous species dissolve and react with solution-phase species, and unique reaction pathways are induced by non-equilibrium chemistry. In particular, detailed knowledge of the physical and chemical processes, including what species are produced in the gas phase and how these species are subsequently transported across and react near the interfacial region, remains largely unanswered. In this project, modeling of the non-equilibrium reaction chemistry at the interface of low-temperature, atmospheric-pressure plasmas and liquid water is developed, supported by advanced laser diagnostics.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Supersonic Flow of Chemically Reacting Gas-Particle Mixtures. Volume 2: RAMP - A Computer Code for Analysis of Chemically Reacting Gas-Particle Flows

A computer program written in conjunction with the numerical solution of the flow of chemically reacting gas-particle mixtures was documented. The solution to the set of governing equations was obtained by utilizing the method of characteristics. The equations cast in characteristic form were shown to be formally the same for ideal, frozen, chemical equilibrium and chemical non-equilibrium reacting gas mixtures. The characteristic directions for the gas-particle system are found to be the conventional gas Mach lines, the gas streamlines and the particle streamlines. The basic mesh construction for the flow solution is along streamlines and normals to the streamlines for axisymmetric or two-dimensional flow. The analysis gives detailed information of the supersonic flow and provides for a continuous solution of the nozzle and exhaust plume flow fields. Boundary conditions for the flow solution are either the nozzle wall or the exhaust plume boundary.

Penny, M. M.↗

Geometrically thin, hot accretion disks - Topology of the thermal equilibrium curves

All the possible thermal equilibrium states of geometrically thin alpha-disks around stellar-mass black holes are presented. A (vertically) one-zone disk model is employed and it is assumed that a main energy source is viscous heating of protons and that cooling is due to bremsstrahlung and Compton scattering. There exist various branches of the thermal equilibrium solution, depending on whether disks are effectively optically thick or thin, radiation pressure-dominated or gas pressure-dominated, composed of one-temperature plasmas or of two-temperature plasmas, and with high concentration of e(+)e(-) pairs or without pairs. The thermal equilibrium curves at high temperatures (greater than or approximately equal to 10 exp 8 K) are substantially modified by the presence of e(+)e(-) pairs. The thermal stability of these branches are examined.

Kusunose, Masaaki↗

Interrelated structures of the transport shock and collisional relaxation layer in a multitemperature, multilevel ionized gas

The gas dynamic structures of the transport shock and the downstream collisional relaxation layer are evaluated for partially ionized monatomic gases. Elastic and inelastic collisional nonequilibrium effects are taken into consideration. Three electronic levels are accounted for in the microscopic model of the atom. Nonequilibrium processes with respect to population of levels and species plus temperature are considered. By using an asymptotic technique the shock morphology is found on a continuum flow basis. The asymptotic procedure gives two distinct layers in which the nonequilibrium effects to be considered are different. A transport shock appears as the inner solution to an outer collisional relaxation layer in which the gas reaches local equilibrium. A family of numerical examples is displayed for different flow regimes. Argon and helium models are used in these examples.

Vinolo, A. R.↗

Effect of nose bluntness on flow field over slender bodies in hypersonic flows

A parametric study has been conducted to determine the effects of nose bluntness on the enire flowfield over slender bodies under different hypersonic freestream conditions. The analysis is carried out for air under perfect- and equilibrium-gas assumptions. The analyses range from a few simplified approaches to the solution of the complete Navier-Stokes equations. Specific results obtained for spherically blunted cones and ogives demonstrate that there are significant differences in flowfield and surface quantities between sharp and blunted bodies. Depending upon the flow conditions and geometry, the differences are found to persist as far as 260 nose radii downstream.

Singh, D. J.↗

Determination of elastic stresses in gas-turbine disks

A method is presented for the calculation of elastic stresses in symmetrical disks typical of those of a high-temperature gas turbine. The method is essentially a finite-difference solution of the equilibrium and compatibility equations for elastic stresses in a symmetrical disk. Account can be taken of point-to-point variations in disk thickness, in temperature, in elastic modulus, in coefficient of thermal expansion, in material density, and in Poisson's ratio. No numerical integration or trial-and-error procedures are involved and the computations can be performed in rapid and routine fashion by nontechnical computers with little engineering supervision. Checks on problems for which exact mathematical solutions are known indicate that the method yields results of high accuracy. Illustrative examples are presented to show the manner of treating solid disks, disks with central holes, and disks constructed either of a single material or two or more welded materials. The effect of shrink fitting is taken into account by a very simple device.

Manson, S S↗

On the equilibrium distribution of the elements in the gas in the Coma cluster

The equilibrium distribution of the elements for the case of an isothermal plasma in a gravitational potential well is given governing equations and a rapidly converging iterative procedure for their solution. Results are applied to the intracluster gas in clusters of galaxies, and implications are identified for the controversy as to whether iron nuclei settle out in the cluster core, and with respect to the interpretation of distribution size and shape for continuum X-ray emission from clusters. A model for the Coma cluster is considered in which the intracluster gas is in equilibrium and partially processed. It is found that this model can account for the angular dependence of the continuum X-ray emission from Coma, as determined by Einstein Observatory observations, at least as well as the uniform composition model.

Abramopoulos, F.↗

Application of program LAURA to thermochemical nonequilibrium flow through a nozzle

Program LAURA (Langley Aerothermodynamic Upwind Relaxation Algorithm) is an upwind-biased, point-implicit relaxation algorithm for obtaining the numerical solution to the governing equations for 3D viscous hypersonic flows in chemical and thermal nonequilibrium. The algorithm is derived using a finite-volume formulation in which the inviscid components of flux across cell walls are described with a modified Roe's averaging and with second-order corrections based on Yee's Symmetric Total Variation Diminishing scheme. The code has been applied to Problem 8.2 of this workshop for the case of thermochemical nonequilibrium flow through a nozzle. Chemical reaction rates are defined with the model of Park (1987). Thermal nonequilibrium is modeled using a two-temperature approximation in which the vibrational energies of all molecules are assumed to be in equilibrium at a single temperature which is generally different from the translational-rotational temperature. Two grids were used to define the flow for the original problem, with a stagnation temperature of 6500 K. A third case with a stagnation temperature of 10,000 K is also presented. The solution domain includes the converging nozzle, subsonic flow domain in which the gas is substantially in thermochemical equilibrium and the diverging nozzle, hypersonic flow domain in which the gas is substantially in thermochemical nonequilibrium.

Gnoffo, Peter A.↗

On the equilibrium structures of self-gravitating masses of gas containing axisymmetric magnetic fields

The general equations describing the equilibrium shapes of self-gravitating gas clouds containing axisymmetric magnetic fields are presented. The general equations admit of a large class of solutions. It is shown that if one additional (ad hoc) asumption is made that the mass be spherically symmetrically distributed, then the gas pressure and the boundary conditions are sufficiently constraining that the general topological structure of the solution is effectively determined. The further assumption of isothermal conditions for this case demands that all solutions possess force-free axisymmetric magnetic fields. It is also shown how the construction of aspherical (but axisymmetric) configurations can be achieved in some special cases, and it is demonstrated that the detailed form of the possible equilibrium shapes depends upon the arbitrary choice of the functional form of the variation of the gas pressure along the field lines.

Lerche, I.↗

Computational reacting gas dynamics

In the study of high speed flows at high altitudes, such as that encountered by re-entry spacecrafts, the interaction of chemical reactions and other non-equilibrium processes in the flow field with the gas dynamics is crucial. Generally speaking, problems of this level of complexity must resort to numerical methods for solutions, using sophisticated computational fluid dynamics (CFD) codes. The difficulties introduced by reacting gas dynamics can be classified into three distinct headings: (1) the usually inadequate knowledge of the reaction rate coefficients in the non-equilibrium reaction system; (2) the vastly larger number of unknowns involved in the computation and the expected stiffness of the equations; and (3) the interpretation of the detailed reacting CFD numerical results. The research performed accepts the premise that reacting flows of practical interest in the future will in general be too complex or 'untractable' for traditional analytical developments. The power of modern computers must be exploited. However, instead of focusing solely on the construction of numerical solutions of full-model equations, attention is also directed to the 'derivation' of the simplified model from the given full-model. In other words, the present research aims to utilize computations to do tasks which have traditionally been done by skilled theoreticians: to reduce an originally complex full-model system into an approximate but otherwise equivalent simplified model system. The tacit assumption is that once the appropriate simplified model is derived, the interpretation of the detailed numerical reacting CFD numerical results will become much easier. The approach of the research is called computational singular perturbation (CSP).

Lam, S. H.↗

The heating of a thermally conducting stratified medium. I - Self-gravitating gas threaded by magnetic fields

Two theoretical problems are presented to illustrate the equilibrium structure of a gravitating gas threaded by magnetic fields. The gas is heated everywhere at a rate proportional to the local density and cooled by thermal conduction channeled along the magnetic field. Emphasis is placed on the influence of anisotropic thermal conduction on the distribution of the gas. In the first problem, the magnetic field has straight field lines that are nearly parallel. The simple field line geometry allows us to calculate, in closed form, the equilibria configurations of a gas slab which is cooled nonuniformly by thermal conduction along field lines which leave the gas slab at varying angles. The problem involves the gas having a free boundary, which is one of the unknowns to be determined. A discussion is given of the set of all possible equilibria so constructed. In the second problem there is no electric current flowing in the gas but there is a potential magnetic field having curved field lines. Exact solutions of equilibriums are presented to illustrate the heating of stellar and galactic coronas.

Lerche, I.↗