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562 records · Page 32

Three-dimensional numerical simulation of gradual opening in a wave rotor passage

The evolution of the contact interface and the propagation of compression waves inside a single wave rotor passage gradually opening to and traversing an inlet port is studied numerically using an inviscid formulation of the governing equations. Insights into the response of the interface and kinematics of the flow field to various opening times are given. Since the opening time is inversely proportional to the rotational speed of the rotor, the effects of passage rotation such as centripetal and Coriolis accelerations are intrinsically coupled to the gradual opening process. Certain three-dimensional features associated with the gradual opening process as a result of centripetal and Coriolis accelerations are illustrated. For the range of opening times or rotational speeds considered, a portion of the interface behaves like a vortex sheet that can degenerate into a complex interfacial structure. The vortices produced along the interface can serve as a stirring mechanism to promote local mixing. Coriolis and centripetal accelerations can introduce three dimensional effects such as interfacial distortions in meridional planes and spanwise migration of fluid elements.

Larosiliere, Louis M.↗

Evaluation of F/A-18A HARV inlet flow analysis with flight data

The F/A-18A aircraft has experienced engine stalls at high angles-of-attack and yaw flight conditions which were outside of its flight envelope. Future aircraft may be designed to operate routinely in this flight regime. Therefore, it is essential that an understanding of the inlet flow field at these flight conditions be obtained. Due to the complex interactions of the fuselage and inlet flow fields, a study of the flow within the inlet must also include external effects. Full Navier-Stokes (FNS) calculations on the F/A-18A High Alpha Research Vehicle (HARV) inlet for several angles-of-attack with sideslip and free stream Mach numbers have been obtained. The predicted forebody/fuselage surface static pressures agreed well with flight data. The surface static pressures along the inlet lip are in good agreement with the numerical predictions. The major departure in agreement is along the bottom of the lip at 30 deg and 60 deg angle-of-attack where a possible streamwise flow separation is not being predicted by the code. The circumferential pressure distributions at the engine face are in very good agreement with the numerical results. The variation in surface static pressure in the circumferential direction is very small with the exception of 60 angle-of-attack. Although the simulation does not include the effect of the engine, it appears that this omission has a second order effect on the circumferential pressure distribution. An examination of the unsteady flight test data base has shown that the secondary vortex migrates a significant distance with time. In fact, the extent of this migration increases with angle-of-attack with increasing levels of distortion. The effects of the engine on this vortex movement is unknown. This implies that the level of flow unsteadiness increases with increasing distortion. Since the computational results represent an asymptotic solution driven by steady boundary conditions, these numerical results may represent an arbitrary point in time. A comparison of the predicted total pressure contours with flight data indicates that the numerical results are within the excursion range of the unsteady data which is the best the calculations can attain unless an unsteady simulation is performed.

Smith, C. Frederic↗

Silicon Microleaks for Inlets of Mass Spectrometers

Microleaks for inlets of mass spectrometers used to analyze atmospheric gases can be fabricated in silicon wafers by means of photolithography, etching, and other techniques that are commonly used in the manufacture of integrated circuits and microelectromechanical systems. The microleaks serve to limit the flows of the gases into the mass-spectrometer vacuums to specified very small flow rates consistent with the capacities of the spectrometer vacuum pumps. There is a need to be able to precisely tailor the dimensions of each microleak so as to tailor its conductance to a precise low value. (As used here, "conductance" signifies the ratio between the rate of flow in the leak and the pressure drop from the upstream to the downstream end of the leak.) To date, microleaks have been made, variously, of crimped metal tubes, pulled glass tubes, or frits. Crimped-metal and pulled-glass-tube microleaks cannot readily be fabricated repeatably to precise dimensions and are susceptible to clogging with droplets or particles. Frits tend to be differentially chemically reactive with various gas constituents and, hence, to distort the gas mixtures to be analyzed. The present approach involving microfabrication in silicon largely overcomes the disadvantages of the prior approaches.

Harpold, Dan↗

DRDMannTurb: A Python package for scalable, data-driven synthetic turbulence

Synthetic turbulence models (STMs) are used in wind engineering to generate realistic flow fields and are employed as inputs to industrial wind simulations. Examples include prescribing inlet conditions in large eddy simulations that model loads on wind turbines and tall buildings. We are interested in STMs capable of generating fluctuations based on prescribed second-moment statistics since such models can simulate environmental conditions that closely resemble on-site observations. To this end, the widely used Mann model (see Mann, 1994, 1998) is the inspiration for DRDMannTurb. The Mann model is described by three physical parameters: a magnitude parameter influencing the global variance of the wind field and corresponding to the Kolmogorov constant multiplied by the rate of viscous dissipation of the turbulent kinetic energy to the two-thirds, αϵ 2/3 , a turbulence length scale parameter L, and a nondimensional parameter Γ related to the lifetime of the eddies. A number of studies, as well as international standards (e.g., those by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC)), include recommended values for these three parameters with the goal of standardizing wind simulations according to observed energy spectra. Yet, having only three parameters, the Mann model faces limitations in accurately representing the diversity of observable spectra. This Python package enables users to extend the Mann model and more accurately fit field measurements through flexible neural network models of the eddy lifetime function. Following Keith et al. (2021), we refer to this class of models as Deep Rapid Distortion (DRD) models. DRDMannTurb also includes a general module implementing an efficient method for synthetic turbulence generation based on a domain decomposition technique. This technique is also described in Keith et al. (2021).

17 WIND ENERGY↗