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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 73 records · Page 4

A split-recoupled-semidirect computational technique applied to transonic flow over lifting airfoils

A new version of the semidirect iterative method eliminates significant restrictions of previous versions of the method. A semidirect method solves finite-difference equations by a rapid globally implicit iterative process driven by a fast direct elliptic solver. The new approach can treat complex systems of equations in an efficient 'correction form', and allows the use of general, nonorthogonal, boundary-fitted coordinate transformations. These features are expected to lead to significant practical applications with conservation-equation systems in either two or three dimensions. The present application to the full potential equations for steady transonic flow over an airfoil at angle of attack illustrates the utility of the technique.

Martin, E. D.↗

Choice of profile for the wings of an airplane. Part II

This report gives a general method for drawing airplane profiles. This method is useful, but it leads to a somewhat laborious drawing which becomes quite complicated when we take a transformation function having terms of a high degree.

WINGS - DESIGN & THEORY↗

Inviscid interpenetration of two streams with unequal total pressures

A theory is proposed for analyzing the inviscid interpretation of two streams in the case when the difference in total pressure between the streams is relatively small. A stream is considered which discharges from a nozzle or reservoir into a partially moving and partially stationary environment in such a way that the flows leave the solid boundaries in a tangential direction where the two streams first interact. The problem is solved by expanding in a small parameter related to the difference in total pressure between the streams, the zeroth-order solution is obtained by classical methods, and a technique similar to that employed in thin-airfoil theory is used to transfer the first-order boundary conditions to the zeroth-order boundary. A procedure is developed to transform the problem into one that can be solved by standard techniques of the theory of sectionally analytic functions. Solutions are obtained for flows with and without free streamlines, and the general theory is applied to several specific flow configurations.

Goldstein, M. E.↗

Rapid, high-order accurate calculation of flows due to free source or vortex distributions

Fast Fourier transform (FFT) techniques are applied to the problem of finding the flow due to source or vortex distributions in the field outside an airfoil or other two-dimensional body. Either the complex potential or the complex velocity may be obtained to a high order of accuracy, with computational effort similar to that required by second-order fast Poisson solvers. These techniques are applicable to general flow problems with compressibility and rotation. An example is given of their use for inviscid compressible flow.

Halsey, D.↗

Holographic interferometry and tomography at Ames Research Center

A YAG laser holographic interferometer system and reconstruction laboratory for the Ames 2- by 2-Foot Transonic Wind Tunnel are discussed. This system provides dual plate and double pulse holography for quantitative and qualitative measurements, respectively. Interferometric measurements of two-dimensional airfoils and three-dimensional bodies of revolution for a tomography feasibility study were made. The two-dimensional work included supercritical airfoils, an oscillating airfoil undergoing dynamic stall, and a circulation control airfoil. The tomography experiments centered around hemispherical nose and tangent ogive models. In addition, the tomography work covered the development of a Fourier transform code for the retrieval of the three dimensional density distributions from the interferograms.

Lee, G.↗

The Use of Heavy Gas for Increased Reynolds Numbers in Transonic Wind Tunnels

The use of a high molecular weight test gas to increase the Reynolds number range of transonic wind tunnels is explored. Modifications to a small transonic wind tunnel are described and the real gas properties of the example heavy gas (sulfur hexafluoride) are discussed. Sulfur hexafluoride is shown to increase the test Reynolds number by a factor of more than 2 over air at the same Mach number. Experimental and computational pressure distributions on an advanced supercritical airfoil configuration at Mach 0.7 in both sulfur hexafluoride and nitrogen are presented. Transonic similarity theory is shown to be partially successful in transforming the heavy gas results to equivalent nitrogen (air) results, provided the correct definition of gamma is used.

Anders, J. B.↗

A diagonal implicit multigrid algorithm for the Euler equations

A multigrid implementation of the Alternating Direction Implicit algorithm has been developed to solve the Euler equations of inviscid, compressible flow. The equations are approximated using a finite-volume spatial approximation with added dissipation provided by an adaptive blend of second and fourth differences. For computational efficiency, the equations are diagonalized by a local similariity transformation so that only a decoupled system of scalar pentadiagonal systems need be solved along each line. Results are computed for transonic flows past airfoils and include pressure distributions to verify the accuracy of the basic scheme and convergence histories to demonstrate the efficiency of the method.

Caughey, David A.↗

Semi-discrete Galerkin solution of the compressible boundary-layer equations with viscous-inviscid interaction

A semi-discrete Galerkin (SDG) method is under development to model attached, turbulent, and compressible boundary layers for transonic airfoil analysis problems. For the boundary-layer formulation the method models the spatial variable normal to the surface with linear finite elements and the time-like variable with finite differences. A Dorodnitsyn transformed system of equations is used to bound the infinite spatial domain thereby providing high resolution near the wall and permitting the use of a uniform finite element grid which automatically follows boundary-layer growth. The second-order accurate Crank-Nicholson scheme is applied along with a linearization method to take advantage of the parabolic nature of the boundary-layer equations and generate a non-iterative marching routine. The SDG code can be applied to any smoothly-connected airfoil shape without modification and can be coupled to any inviscid flow solver. In this analysis, a direct viscous-inviscid interaction is accomplished between the Euler and boundary-layer codes through the application of a transpiration velocity boundary condition. Results are presented for compressible turbulent flow past RAE 2822 and NACA 0012 airfoils at various freestream Mach numbers, Reynolds numbers, and angles of attack.

Day, Brad A.↗

Reduced order models for nonlinear aerodynamics

Reduced order models are needed for reliable, efficient and accurate prediction of aerodynamic forces to analyze fluid structure interaction problems in turbomachinery, including propfans. Here, a finite difference, time marching Navier-Stokes code is validated for unsteady airfoil motion by comparing results with those from classical potential flow. The Navier-Stokes code is then analyzed for calculation of primitive and exact estimates of eigenvalues and eigenvectors associated with fluid-airfoil interaction. A variational formulation for the Euler equations and Navier-Stokes equations will be the basis for reduction of order through an eigenvector transformation.

Mahajan, Aparajit J.↗

Transonic potential flow and coordinate generation for bodies in a wind tunnel

An accurate method has been developed for computation of transonic potential flow about a 2-D lifting airfoil or an axisymmetric body in a wind tunnel. The computational mesh is nearly orthogonal everywhere and is generated by a sequence of Schwarz-Christoffel transformations and shearings to obtain an '0' grid near the body. A conservative finite-volume scheme for the full-potential equation and exact boundary conditions is used together with 'retarded' density to solve efficiently transonic flow with embedded shocks and large regions of supersonic flow. Supersonic free-stream flows are also solved with captured bow shocks and embedded subsonic regions.

Doria, M. L.↗

Numerical solution of the Navier-Stokes equations for high Reynolds number incompressible turbulent flow

The full Navier-Stokes equations for incompressible turbulent flow must be solved to accurately represent all flow phenomena which occur in a high Reynolds number incompressible flow. A two layer algebraic eddy viscosity turbulence model is used to represent the Reynolds stress in the primitive variable formulation. The development of the boundary-fitted coordinate systems makes the numerical solution of these equations feasible for arbitrarily shaped bodies. The nondimensional time averaged Navier-Stokes equations, including the turbulence mode, are represented by finite difference approximations in the transformed plane. The resulting coupled system of nonlinear algebraic equations is solved using a point successive over relaxation iteration. The test case considered was a NACA 64A010 airfoil section at an angle of attack of two degrees and a Reynolds number of 2,000,000.

Thompson, D. S.↗

Cycle II.5 aircraft aero-optical turbulent boundary-layer/shear-layer measurements

The aero-optical effects associated with propagating a laser beam through aircraft turbulent boundary layers and shear layers were examined. Observed laser optical performance levels were compared with those inferred from aerodynamic measurements of unsteady densities and correlation lengths within these random flows. Optical instrumentation included a fast shearing interferometer (FSI). A 9 cm diameter collimated helium neon laser beam made a double pass through the aircraft random flow via an airfoil mirror located one meter from the fuselage. Typical aircraft turbulent boundary layer thickness measured 0.3 meters. Averaging many FSI generated modulation transfer functions (MTFs) and Fourier transforming, this average yields the expected far field intensity degradation associated with an aircraft mounted laser system. Aerodynamic instrumentation included fine wire probes to measure unsteady temperature and mass flux. A laser doppler velocimeter measured unsteady velocity within the flows. An analysis of these data yielded point measurements of unsteady density and correlation length.

Gilbert, K.↗

The semi-discrete Galerkin finite element modelling of compressible viscous flow past an airfoil

A method is developed to solve the two-dimensional, steady, compressible, turbulent boundary-layer equations and is coupled to an existing Euler solver for attached transonic airfoil analysis problems. The boundary-layer formulation utilizes the semi-discrete Galerkin (SDG) method to model the spatial variable normal to the surface with linear finite elements and the time-like variable with finite differences. A Dorodnitsyn transformed system of equations is used to bound the infinite spatial domain thereby permitting the use of a uniform finite element grid which provides high resolution near the wall and automatically follows boundary-layer growth. The second-order accurate Crank-Nicholson scheme is applied along with a linearization method to take advantage of the parabolic nature of the boundary-layer equations and generate a non-iterative marching routine. The SDG code can be applied to any smoothly-connected airfoil shape without modification and can be coupled to any inviscid flow solver. In this analysis, a direct viscous-inviscid interaction is accomplished between the Euler and boundary-layer codes, through the application of a transpiration velocity boundary condition. Results are presented for compressible turbulent flow past NACA 0012 and RAE 2822 airfoils at various freestream Mach numbers, Reynolds numbers, and angles of attack. All results show good agreement with experiment, and the coupled code proved to be a computationally-efficient and accurate airfoil analysis tool.

Meade, Andrew J., Jr.↗

A comparison of two conformal mapping techniques applied to an aerobrake body

Conformal mapping is a classical technique which has been utilized for solving problems in aerodynamics and hydrodynamics. Conformal mapping has been successfully applied in the construction of grids around airfoils, engine inlets and other aircraft configurations. Conformal mapping techniques were applied to an aerobrake body having an axis of symmetry. Two different approaches were utilized: (1) Karman-Trefftz transformation; and (2) Point Wise Schwarz Christoffel transformation. In both cases, the aerobrake body was mapped onto a near circle, and a grid was generated in the mapped plane. The mapped body and grid were then mapped back into physical space and the properties of the associated grids were examined. Advantages and disadvantages of both approaches are discussed.

Hommel, Mark J.↗

Calculations of transonic potential flow over cascades

Transonic flow through a cascade was studied by using the full potential equation and the finite volume method of Jameson and Caughey. The C-type computational grid is generated by an electrostatic analogy and simple shearing transformation. The solution algorithm includes an option of using either an artificial density or an artificial viscosity formulation of the dissipative term. Using the developed code, flows through a cascade of NACA 0012 airfoils and flows through a cascade of shockless blades were computed. It is found that the designed flow through the shockless blade is accurately predicted, the artificial density formulation shows more tolerance to the mesh irregularity, and the C-type mesh does not extend very far upstream for a small pitch-cord ratio.

Jou, W. H.↗

Control theory based airfoil design for potential flow and a finite volume discretization

This paper describes the implementation of optimization techniques based on control theory for airfoil design. In previous studies it was shown that control theory could be used to devise an effective optimization procedure for two-dimensional profiles in which the shape is determined by a conformal transformation from a unit circle, and the control is the mapping function. The goal of our present work is to develop a method which does not depend on conformal mapping, so that it can be extended to treat three-dimensional problems. Therefore, we have developed a method which can address arbitrary geometric shapes through the use of a finite volume method to discretize the potential flow equation. Here the control law serves to provide computationally inexpensive gradient information to a standard numerical optimization method. Results are presented, where both target speed distributions and minimum drag are used as objective functions.

Reuther, J.↗