SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “scalar fluctuations”

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.

SourceResearch connectionFrom yearThrough year

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 55 records · Page 3

All sources NASA NTRS DOE OSTI

NASA NTRS2003

A Self-Contained Mapping Closure Approximation for Scalar Mixing

Scalar turbulence exhibits interplays of coherent structures and random fluctuations over a broad range of spatial and temporal scales. This feature necessitates a probabilistic description of the scalar dynamics, which can be achieved comprehensively by using probability density functions (PDFs). Therefore, the challenge is to obtain the scalar PDFs (Lundgren 1967; Dopazo 1979). Generally, the evolution of a scalar is governed by three dynamical processes: advection, diffusion and reaction. In a PDF approach (Pope 1985), the advection and reaction can be treated exactly but the effect of molecular diffusion has to be modeled. It has been shown (Pope 1985) that the effect of molecular diffusion can be expressed as conditional dissipation rates or conditional diffusions. The currently used models for the conditional dissipation rates and conditional diffusions (Pope 1991) have resisted deduction from the fundamental equations and are unable to yield satisfactory results for the basic test cases of decaying scalars in isotropic turbulence, although they have achieved some success in a variety of individual cases. The recently developed mapping closure approach (Pope 1991; Chen, Chen & Kraichnan 1989; Kraichnan 1990; Klimenko & Pope 2003) provides a deductive method for conditional dissipation rates and conditional di usions, and the models obtained can successfully describe the shape relaxation of the scalar PDF from an initial double delta distribution to a Gaussian one. However, the mapping closure approach is not able to provide the rate at which the scalar evolves. The evolution rate has to be modeled. Therefore, the mapping closure approach is not closed. In this letter, we will address this problem.

He, Guo-Wei↗

NASA NTRS1991

Non-Gaussian microwave background fluctuations from nonlinear gravitational effects

Whether the statistics of primordial fluctuations for structure formation are Gaussian or otherwise may be determined if the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) Satellite makes a detection of the cosmic microwave-background temperature anisotropy delta T(sub CMB)/T(sub CMB). Non-Gaussian fluctuations may be generated in the chaotic inflationary model if two scalar fields interact nonlinearly with gravity. Theoretical contour maps are calculated for the resulting Sachs-Wolfe temperature fluctuations at large angular scales (greater than 3 degrees). In the long-wavelength approximation, one can confidently determine the nonlinear evolution of quantum noise with gravity during the inflationary epoch because: (1) different spatial points are no longer in causal contact; and (2) quantum gravity corrections are typically small-- it is sufficient to model the system using classical random fields. If the potential for two scalar fields V(phi sub 1, phi sub 2) possesses a sharp feature, then non-Gaussian fluctuations may arise. An explicit model is given where cold spots in delta T(sub CMB)/T(sub CMB) maps are suppressed as compared to the Gaussian case. The fluctuations are essentially scale-invariant.

Salopek, D. S.↗

NASA NTRS1992

The gravitational wave contribution to cosmic microwave background anisotropies and the amplitude of mass fluctuations from COBE results

A stochastic background of primordial gravitational waves may substantially contribute, via the Sachs-Wolfe effect, to the large-scale cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies recently detected by COBE. This implies a bias in any resulting determination of the primordial amplitude of density fluctuations. We consider the constraints imposed on n is less than 1 ('tilted') power-law fluctuation spectra, taking into account the contribution from both scalar and tensor waves, as predicted by power-law inflation. The gravitational wave contribution to CMB anisotropies generally reduces the required rms level of mass fluctuation, thereby increasing the linear bias parameter, even in models where the spectral index is close to the Harrison-Zel'dovich value n = 1. This 'gravitational wave bias' helps to reconcile the predictions of CDM models with observations on pairwise galaxy velocity dispersion on small scales.

Lucchin, Francesco↗

NASA NTRS1975

Effects of friction and heat conduction on sound propagation in ducts

A theoretical formulation of the propagation of sound in a viscous and heat conducting medium is presented. The problem is reduced to the determination of two scalar potentials related to pressure and entropy fluctuations respectively, and a vector potential related to vorticity fluctuations. The particular case of a two-dimensional duct of constant width is thoroughly investigated in the low, high, and very high frequency ranges. It is shown that three distinct families of modes may propagate along the duct axis, namely, pressure, entropy, and vorticity dominated modes. Perturbation methods are used to study the variations of attenuation rates, phase velocities, and mode shapes, as a function of frequency and duct width.

Huerre, P.↗

NASA NTRS1986

Concentration distributions in a model combustor

A hot-wire concentration probe with a spatial resolution of 0.13 mm is used to measure concentration in a model cylindrical combustor. The flow inside the combustor is simulated by injecting a helium jet into a cylindrical confinement with or without swirling air flow present. Mean concentrations are essentially zero outside of the jet region, indicating complete confinement of the scalar field by the swirling flow. Consequently, concentration fluctuations are found to be relatively weak compared to velocity fluctuations, and are maximum off-axis at a point which corresponds to the interface between helium and air flows. However, in the absence of a swirling air flow, the helium diffuses quickly to fill the combustor. The resulting helium concentrations are constant and do not resemble the jet-like behavior of the velocity field.

Ahmed, S. A.↗

NASA NTRS1996

Inertial Range Dynamics in Boussinesq Turbulence

L'vov and Falkovich have shown that the dimensionally possible inertial range scaling laws for Boussinesq turbulence, Kolmogorov and Bolgiano scaling, describe steady states with constant flux of kinetic energy and of entropy respectively. These scaling laws are treated as similarity solutions of the direct interaction approximation for Boussinesq turbulence. The Kolmogorov scaling solution corresponds to a weak perturbation by gravity of a state in which the temperature is a passive scalar but in which a source of temperature fluctuations exists. Using standard inertial range balances, the renormalized viscosity and conductivity, turbulent Prandtl number, and spectral scaling law constants are computed for Bolgiano scaling.

Rubinstein, Robert↗

NASA NTRS1996

Effect of chemistry and turbulence on NO formation in oxygen-natural gas flames

The effects of chemistry and turbulence on NO formation in oxygen-natural turbulent diffusion flames gas flames have been investigated. The chemistry of nitric oxides has been studied numerically in the counterflow configuration. Systematic calculations with the GRI 2.11 mechanism for combustion of methane and NO chemistry were conducted to provide a base case. It was shown that the 'simple' Zeldovich mechanism accounts for more than 75% of N2 consumption in the flame in a range of strain-rates varying between 10 and 1000 s-l. The main shortcomings of this mechanism are: 1) overestimation (15%) of the NO production rate at low strain-rates because it does not capture the reburn due to the hydrocarbon chemistry, and 2) underestimation (25%) of the NO production rate at high strainrates because it ignores NO production through the prompt mechanism. Reburn through the Zeldovich mechanism alone proves to be significant at low strain-rates. A one-step model based on the Zeldovich mechanism and including reburn has been developed. It shows good agreement with the GRI mechanism at low strain-rates but underestimates significantly N2 consumption (about 50%) at high strain-rates. The role of turbulence has been assessed by using an existing 3-D DNS data base of a diffusion flame in decaying turbulence. Two PDF closure models used in practical industrial codes for turbulent NO formation have been tested. A simpler version of the global one-step chemical scheme for NO compared to that developed in this study was used to test the closure assumptions of the PDF models, because the data base could not provide all the necessary ingredients. Despite this simplification, it was possible to demonstrate that the current PDF models for NO overestimate significantly the NO production rate due to the fact that they neglect the correlations between the fluctuations in oxygen concentration and temperature. A single scalar PDF model for temperature that accounts for such correlations based on laminar flame considerations has been developed and showed excellent agreement with the values given by the DNS.

Samaniego, J. -M.↗

NASA NTRS1987

Pressure gradient alignment with strain rate and scalar gradient in simulated Navier-Stokes turbulence

In a simulated turbulent shear flow the pressure gradient caused by velocity fluctuations alone has increased probability for alignment with the most compressive strain direction, which is similar to passive scalar-gradient behavior. The pressure-gradient component depending on the mean shear indicates no correlation with the strain directions.

Ashurst, Wm. T.↗

NASA NTRS1974

Energy cascade in large-eddy simulations of turbulent fluid flows

The derivation of smoothed or filtered momentum and continuity equations for large-scale, energy-containing eddies is considered. Questions regarding the energy loss of large-scale turbulence are discussed along with aspects of turbulent diffusion of a passive scalar. It is found that the large-scale fluctuations satisfy filtered or averaged momentum and continuity equations. An averaging of the nonlinear advection term yields two terms.

Leonard, A.↗

NASA NTRS2003

Failure of Anisotropic Unstructured Mesh Adaption Based on Multidimensional Residual Minimization

An automated anisotropic unstructured mesh adaptation strategy is proposed, implemented, and assessed for the discretization of viscous flows. The adaption criteria is based upon the minimization of the residual fluctuations of a multidimensional upwind viscous flow solver. For scalar advection, this adaption strategy has been shown to use fewer grid points than gradient based adaption, naturally aligning mesh edges with discontinuities and characteristic lines. The adaption utilizes a compact stencil and is local in scope, with four fundamental operations: point insertion, point deletion, edge swapping, and nodal displacement. Evaluation of the solution-adaptive strategy is performed for a two-dimensional blunt body laminar wind tunnel case at Mach 10. The results demonstrate that the strategy suffers from a lack of robustness, particularly with regard to alignment of the bow shock in the vicinity of the stagnation streamline. In general, constraining the adaption to such a degree as to maintain robustness results in negligible improvement to the solution. Because the present method fails to consistently or significantly improve the flow solution, it is rejected in favor of simple uniform mesh refinement.

Wood, William A.↗

NASA NTRS1998

Diffusion Characteristics of Upwind Schemes on Unstructured Triangulations

The diffusive characteristics of two upwind schemes, multi-dimensional fluctuation splitting and dimensionally-split finite volume, are compared for scalar advection-diffusion problems. Algorithms for the two schemes are developed for node-based data representation on median-dual meshes associated with unstructured triangulations in two spatial dimensions. Four model equations are considered: linear advection, non-linear advection, diffusion, and advection-diffusion. Modular coding is employed to isolate the effects of the two approaches for upwind flux evaluation, allowing for head-to-head accuracy and efficiency comparisons. Both the stability of compressive limiters and the amount of artificial diffusion generated by the schemes is found to be grid-orientation dependent, with the fluctuation splitting scheme producing less artificial diffusion than the dimensionally-split finite volume scheme. Convergence rates are compared for the combined advection-diffusion problem, with a speedup of 2-3 seen for fluctuation splitting versus finite volume when solved on the same mesh. However, accurate solutions to problems with small diffusion coefficients can be achieved on coarser meshes using fluctuation splitting rather than finite volume, so that when comparing convergence rates to reach a given accuracy, fluctuation splitting shows a 20-25 speedup over finite volume.

Wood, William A.↗

NASA NTRS1987

Transport of passive scalars in a turbulent channel flow

A direct numerical simulation of a turbulent channel flow with three passive scalars at different molecular Prandtl numbers is performed. Computed statistics including the turbulent Prandtl numbers are compared with existing experimental data. The computed fields are also examined to investigate the spatial structure of the scalar fields. The scalar fields are highly correlated with the streamwise velocity; the correlation coefficient between the temperature and the streamwise velocity is as high as 0.95 in the wall region. The joint probability distributions between the temperature and velocity fluctuations are also examined; they suggest that it might be possible to model the scalar fluxes in the wall region in a manner similar to the Reynolds stresses.

Kim, John↗

NASA NTRS1987

Transport of passive scalars in a turbulent channel flow

Kim, John↗

NASA NTRS1998

Comments on the Diffusive Behavior of Two Upwind Schemes

The diffusive characteristics of two upwind schemes, multi-dimensional fluctuation splitting and locally one-dimensional finite volume, are compared for scalar advection-diffusion problems. Algorithms for the two schemes are developed for node-based data representation on median-dual meshes associated with unstructured triangulations in two spatial dimensions. Four model equations are considered: linear advection, non-linear advection, diffusion, and advection-diffusion. Modular coding is employed to isolate the effects of the two approaches for upwind flux evaluation, allowing for head-to-head accuracy and efficiency comparisons. Both the stability of compressive limiters and the amount of artificial diffusion generated by the schemes is found to be grid-orientation dependent, with the fluctuation splitting scheme producing less artificial diffusion than the finite volume scheme. Convergence rates are compared for the combined advection-diffusion problem, with a speedup of 2.5 seen for fluctuation splitting versus finite volume when solved on the same mesh. However, accurate solutions to problems with small diffusion coefficients can be achieved on coarser meshes using fluctuation splitting rather than finite volume, so that when comparing convergence rates to reach a given accuracy, fluctuation splitting shows a speedup of 29 over finite volume.

Wood, William A.↗

NASA NTRS1997

Equivalence of Fluctuation Splitting and Finite Volume for One-Dimensional Gas Dynamics

The equivalence of the discretized equations resulting from both fluctuation splitting and finite volume schemes is demonstrated in one dimension. Scalar equations are considered for advection, diffusion, and combined advection/diffusion. Analysis of systems is performed for the Euler and Navier-Stokes equations of gas dynamics. Non-uniform mesh-point distributions are included in the analyses.

Wood, William A.↗

NASA NTRS1992

Variance of phase fluctuations of waves propagating through a random medium

As an electromagnetic wave propagates through a random scattering medium, such as a forest, its energy is attenuated and random phase fluctuations are induced. The magnitude of the random phase fluctuations induced is important in estimating how well a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) can image objects within the scattering medium. The two-layer random medium model, consisting of a scattering layer between free space and ground, is used to calculate the variance of the phase fluctuations induced between a transmitter located above the random medium and a receiver located below the random medium. The scattering properties of the random medium are characterized by a correlation function of the random permittivity fluctuations. The effective permittivity of the random medium is first calculated using the strong fluctuation theory, which accounts for large permittivity fluctuations of the scatterers. The distorted Born approximation is used to calculate the first-order scattered field. A perturbation series for the phase of the received field in the Rytov approximation is then introduced and the variance of the phase fluctuations is also calculated assuming that the transmitter and receiver are in the paraxial limit of the random medium, which allows an analytic solution to be obtained. Results are compared using the paraxial approximation, scalar Green's function formulation, and dyadic Green's function formulation. The effects studied are the dependence of the variance of the phase fluctuations on receiver location in lossy and lossless regions, medium thickness, correlation length and fractional volume of scatterers, depolarization of the incident wave, ground layer permittivity, angle of incidence, and polarization.

Chu, Nelson C.↗

NASA NTRS1983

Modeling of Fluctuating Mass Flux in Variable Density Flows

The approach solves for both Reynolds and Favre averaged quantities and calculates the scalar pdf. Turbulent models used to close the governing equations are formulated to account for complex mixing and variable density effects. In addition, turbulent mass diffusivities are not assumed to be in constant proportion to turbulent momentum diffusivities. The governing equations are solved by a combination of finite-difference technique and Monte-Carlo simulation. Some preliminary results on simple variable density shear flows are presented. The differences between these results and those obtained using conventional models are discussed.

So, R. M. C.↗

NASA NTRS2013

Nine-Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Observations: Final Maps and Results

We present the final nine-year maps and basic results from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) mission. The full nine-year analysis of the time-ordered data provides updated characterizations and calibrations of the experiment. We also provide new nine-year full sky temperature maps that were processed to reduce the asymmetry of the effective beams. Temperature and polarization sky maps are examined to separate cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy from foreground emission, and both types of signals are analyzed in detail.We provide new point source catalogs as well as new diffuse and point source foreground masks. An updated template-removal process is used for cosmological analysis; new foreground fits are performed, and new foreground reduced are presented.We nowimplement an optimal C(exp -1)1 weighting to compute the temperature angular power spectrum. The WMAP mission has resulted in a highly constrained Lambda-CDM cosmological model with precise and accurate parameters in agreement with a host of other cosmological measurements. When WMAP data are combined with finer scale CMB, baryon acoustic oscillation, and Hubble constant measurements, we find that big bang nucleosynthesis is well supported and there is no compelling evidence for a non-standard number of neutrino species (N(sub eff) = 3.84 +/- 0.40). The model fit also implies that the age of the universe is (sub 0) = 13.772 +/- 0.059 Gyr, and the fit Hubble constant is H(sub 0) = 69.32 +/- 0.80 km/s/ Mpc. Inflation is also supported: the fluctuations are adiabatic, with Gaussian random phases; the detection of a deviation of the scalar spectral index from unity, reported earlier by the WMAP team, now has high statistical significance (n(sub s) = 0.9608+/-0.0080); and the universe is close to flat/Euclidean (Omega = −0.0027+0.0039/−0.0038). Overall, the WMAP mission has resulted in a reduction of the cosmological parameter volume by a factor of 68,000 for the standard six-parameter Lambda-CDM model, based on CMB data alone. For a model including tensors, the allowed seven-parameter volume has been reduced by a factor 117,000. Other cosmological observations are in accord with the CMB predictions, and the combined data reduces the cosmological parameter volume even further.With no significant anomalies and an adequate goodness of fit, the inflationary flat Lambda-CDM model and its precise and accurate parameters rooted in WMAP data stands as the standard model of cosmology.

dark matter↗