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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 739 records · Page 41

Quantitative measurements of vaporization, burst ionization, and emission characteristics of shaped charge barium releases

Intensity-calibrated color video recordings of three barium-shaped charge injections in the ionopshere were used to determine the initial ionization, the column density corresponding to unity optical depth, and the yield of vaporized barium in the fast jet. It was found that the initial ionization at the burst was less than 1% and that 0% burst ionization was consistent with the observations. Owing to the Doppler shift, the column density for optical thickness in the neutral barium varies somewhat according to the velocity distribution. For the cases examined here, the column density was 2-5 x 10(exp 10) atoms/sq cm. This value, which occurred 12 to 15 s after release, should be approximately valid for most shaped charge experiments. The yield was near 30% (15% in the fast jet) for two of the releases and was somewhat lower in the third, which also had a lower peak velocity. This study also demonstrated the applicability of the computer simulation code developed for chemical releases by Stenbaek-Nielsen and provided experimental verification of the Doppler-corrected emission rates calculated b Stenbaek-Nielsen (1989).

Hoch, Edward L.↗

The appliation of potential CFD methods to helicopter hover flows

Fixed-wing code development is now aimed primarily at the solution of problems dominated by separation--based on the assumptions that the ability to solve such problems implies the ability to solve all other problems and that present inviscid method are already adequate for most other problems. Neither of the above assumptions are correct for rotary wing problems. This is because of the unique and overriding importance of wake modeling to rotor problems and also due to the well-known numerical diffusion problems which convectional Eulerian Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method encounter when called on to convect strong vortical regions for long distances. The need for accurate wake analyses is probably the most fundamental difference between rotory and fixed-wing aerodynamics. In addition, rotary wing complexity requires a much more intimate relationship between test and analysis than is common in fixed-wing work. With these issues in mind, this paper will review some of our recent experience in using a unique-Eulerian-Lagrangian Computational fluid dynamics (CFC) method for the solution of a critical rotor-wake problem--the prediction of hover performance.

Caradonna, F. X.↗

Program Helps To Determine Chemical-Reaction Mechanisms

General Chemical Kinetics and Sensitivity Analysis (LSENS) computer code developed for use in solving complex, homogeneous, gas-phase, chemical-kinetics problems. Provides for efficient and accurate chemical-kinetics computations and provides for sensitivity analysis for variety of problems, including problems involving honisothermal conditions. Incorporates mathematical models for static system, steady one-dimensional inviscid flow, reaction behind incident shock wave (with boundary-layer correction), and perfectly stirred reactor. Computations of equilibrium properties performed for following assigned states: enthalpy and pressure, temperature and pressure, internal energy and volume, and temperature and volume. Written in FORTRAN 77 with exception of NAMELIST extensions used for input.

Bittker, D. A.↗

Compression research on the REINAS Project

We present approaches to integrating data compression technology into a database system designed to support research of air, sea, and land phenomena of interest to meteorology, oceanography, and earth science. A key element of the Real-Time Environmental Information Network and Analysis System (REINAS) system is the real-time component: to provide data as soon as acquired. Compression approaches being considered for REINAS include compression of raw data on the way into the database, compression of data produced by scientific visualization on the way out of the database, compression of modeling results, and compression of database query results. These compression needs are being incorporated through client-server, API, utility, and application code development.

Rosen, Eric↗

Angled injection: Hybrid fluid film bearings for cryogenic applications

A computational bulk-flow analysis for prediction of the force coefficients of hybrid fluid film bearings with angled orifice injection is presented. Past measurements on water-lubricated hybrid bearings with angle orifice injection have demonstrated improved rotordynamic performance with virtual elimination of cross-coupled stiffness coefficients and nul or negative whirl frequency ratios. A simple analysis reveals that the fluid momentum exchange at the orifice discharge produces a pressure rise in the recess which retards the shear flow induced by journal rotation, and consequently, reduces cross-coupling forces. The predictions from the model correlate well with experimental measurements from a radial and 45 deg angled orifice injection, five recess water hybrid bearings (C = 125 microns) operating at 10.2, 17.4, and 24.6 krpm and with nominal supply pressures equal to 4, 5.5, and 7 MPa. An application example for a liquid oxygen six recess/pad hybrid journal bearing shows the advantages of tangential orifice injection on the rotordynamic force coefficients and stability indicator for forward whirl motions and without performance degradation on direct stiffness and damping coefficients. The computer program generated, 'hydrojet,' extends and complements previously developed codes.

SanAndres, Luis↗

Theory and Computation of Optimal Low- and Medium- Thrust Orbit Transfers

This report presents new theoretical results which lead to new algorithms for the computation of fuel-optimal multiple-burn orbit transfers of low and medium thrust. Theoretical results introduced herein show how to add burns to an optimal trajectory and show that the traditional set of necessary conditions may be replaced with a much simpler set of equations. Numerical results are presented to demonstrate the utility of the theoretical results and the new algorithms. Two indirect methods from the literature are shown to be effective for the optimal orbit transfer problem with relatively small numbers of burns. These methods are the Minimizing Boundary Condition Method (MBCM) and BOUNDSCO. Both of these methods make use of the first-order necessary conditions exactly as derived by optimal control theory. Perturbations due to Earth's oblateness and atmospheric drag are considered. These perturbations are of greatest interest for transfers that take place between low Earth orbit altitudes and geosynchronous orbit altitudes. Example extremal solutions including these effects and computed by the aforementioned methods are presented. An investigation is also made into a suboptimal multiple-burn guidance scheme. The FORTRAN code developed for this study has been collected together in a package named ORBPACK. ORBPACK's user manual is provided as an appendix to this report.

Goodson, Troy D.↗

A History of Aerospace Problems, Their Solutions, Their Lessons

The positive aspect of problem occurrences is the opportunity for learning and a challenge for innovation. The learning aspect is not restricted to the solution period of the problem occurrence, but can become the beacon for problem prevention on future programs. Problems/failures serve as a point of departure for scaling to new designs. To ensure that problems/failures and their solutions guide the future programs, a concerted effort has been expended to study these problems, their solutions, their derived lessons learned, and projections for future programs. This includes identification of technology thrusts, process changes, codes development, etc. However, they must not become an excuse for adding layers upon layers of standards, criteria, and requirements, but must serve as guidelines that assist instead of stifling engineers. This report is an extension of prior efforts to accomplish this task. Although these efforts only scratch the surface, it is a beginning that others must complete.

Ryan, R. S.↗

Flow Field Around a Hovering Rotor

A lifting surface hover code developed by the Analytical Method Inc. (AMI) was used to compute the average and unsteady velocity flow field of an isolated rotor without ground effect. The predicted velocity field compares well with experimental data obtained by hot-wire anemometry and by Laser Doppler Velocimetry. A subroutine 'DOWNWASH' was written to predict the velocity field at any given point in the wake for a given blade position.

Tung, C.↗

Finite Difference Time Domain Electromagnetic Scattering from Frequency-Dependent Lossy Materials

During this effort the tasks specified in the Statement of Work have been successfully completed. The extension of Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) to more complicated materials has been made. A three-dimensional FDTD code capable of modeling interactions with both dispersive dielectric and magnetic materials has been written, validated, and documented. This code is efficient and is capable of modeling interesting targets using a modest computer work station platform. However, in addition to the tasks in the Statement of Work, a significant number of other FDTD extensions and calculations have been made. RCS results for two different plate geometries have been reported. The FDTD method has been extended to computing far zone time domain results in two dimensions. Finally, the capability to model nonlinear materials has been incorporated into FDTD and validated. The FDTD computer codes developed have been supplied, along with documentation, and preprints describing the other FDTD advances have been included with this report as attachments.

Luebbers, Raymond J.↗

Large Scale Turbulent Structures in Supersonic Jets

Jet noise is a major concern in the design of commercial aircraft. Studies by various researchers suggest that aerodynamic noise is a major contributor to jet noise. Some of these studies indicate that most of the aerodynamic jet noise due to turbulent mixing occurs when there is a rapid variation in turbulent structure, i.e. rapidly growing or decaying vortices. The objective of this research was to simulate a compressible round jet to study the non-linear evolution of vortices and the resulting acoustic radiations. In particular, to understand the effect of turbulence structure on the noise. An ideal technique to study this problem is Direct Numerical Simulations (DNS), because it provides precise control on the initial and boundary conditions that lead to the turbulent structures studied. It also provides complete 3-dimensional time dependent data. Since the dynamics of a temporally evolving jet are not greatly different from those of a spatially evolving jet, a temporal jet problem was solved, using periodicity in the direction of the jet axis. This enables the application of Fourier spectral methods in the streamwise direction. Physically this means that turbulent structures in the jet are repeated in successive downstream cells instead of being gradually modified downstream into a jet plume. The DNS jet simulation helps us understand the various turbulent scales and mechanisms of turbulence generation in the evolution of a compressible round jet. These accurate flow solutions will be used in future research to estimate near-field acoustic radiation by computing the total outward flux across a surface and determine how it is related to the evolution of the turbulent solutions. Furthermore, these simulations allow us to investigate the sensitivity of acoustic radiations to inlet/boundary conditions, with possible appli(,a- tion to active noise suppression. In addition, the data generated can be used to compute, various turbulence quantities such as mean velocities, turbulent stresses, etc. which will aid in turbulence modeling. This report will be presented in two chapters. The first chapter describes some work on the linear stability of a supersonic round jet and the implications of this for the jet noise problem. The second chapter is an extensive discussion of numerical work using the spectral method which we use to solve the compressible Navier-Stokes equations to study turbulent jet flows. The method uses Fourier expansions in the azimuthal and streamwise direction and a 1-D B-spline basis representation in the radial direction. The B-spline basis is locally supported and this ensures block diagonal matrix equations which can be solved in O(N) steps. This is a modification of a boundary layer code developed by Robert Moser. A very accurate highly resolved DNS of a turbulent jet flow is produced.

Rao, Ram Mohan↗

Large Scale Turbulent Structures in Supersonic Jets

Jet noise is a major concern in the design of commercial aircraft. Studies by various researchers suggest that aerodynamic noise is a major contributor to jet noise. Some of these studies indicate that most of the aerodynamic jet noise due to turbulent mixing occurs when there is a rapid variation in turbulent structure, i.e. rapidly growing or decaying vortices. The objective of this research was to simulate a compressible round jet to study the non-linear evolution of vortices and the resulting acoustic radiations. In particular, to understand the effect of turbulence structure on the noise. An ideal technique to study this problem is Direct Numerical Simulations(DNS), because it provides precise control on the initial and boundary conditions that lead to the turbulent structures studied. It also provides complete 3-dimensional time dependent data. Since the dynamics of a temporally evolving jet are not greatly different from those, of a spatially evolving jet, a temporal jet problem was solved, using periodicity ill the direction of the jet axis. This enables the application of Fourier spectral methods in the streamwise direction. Physically this means that turbulent structures in the jet are repeated in successive downstream cells instead of being gradually modified downstream into a jet plume. The DNS jet simulation helps us understand the various turbulent scales and mechanisms of turbulence generation in the evolution of a compressible round jet. These accurate flow solutions will be used in future research to estimate near-field acoustic radiation by computing the total outward flux across a surface and determine how it is related to the evolution of the turbulent solutions. Furthermore, these simulations allow us to investigate the sensitivity of acoustic radiations to inlet/boundary conditions, with possible application to active noise suppression. In addition, the data generated can be used to compute various turbulence quantities such as mean velocities, turbulent stresses, etc. which will aid in turbulence modeling. This report will be presented in two chapters. The first chapter describes some work on the linear stability of a supersonic round jet and the implications of this for the jet noise problem. The second chapter is an extensive discussion of numerical work using the spectral method which we use to solve the compressible Navier-Stokes equations to study turbulent jet flows. The method uses Fourier expansions in the azimuthal and streamwise direction and a 1-D B-spline basis representation in the radial direction. The B-spline basis is locally supported and this ensures block diagonal matrix equations which can be solved in O(N) steps. This is a modification of a boundary layer code developed by Robert Moser. A very accurate highly resolved Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS) of a turbulent jet flow is produced.

Rao, Ram Mohan↗

Numerical Study of Boundary-Layer in Aerodynamics

The accomplishments made in the following three tasks are described: (1) The first task was to study shock-wave boundary-layer interactions with bleed - this study is relevant to boundary-layer control in external and mixed-compression inlets of supersonic aircraft; (2) The second task was to test RAAKE, a code developed for computing turbulence quantities; and (3) The third task was to compute flow around the Ames ER-2 aircraft that has been retrofitted with containers over its wings and fuselage. The appendices include two reports submitted to AIAA for publication.

Shih, Tom I-P.↗

Nonlinear Dynamic Analysis of Disordered Bladed-Disk Assemblies

In a effort to address current needs for efficient, air propulsion systems, we have developed some new analytical predictive tools for understanding and alleviating aircraft engine instabilities which have led to accelerated high cycle fatigue and catastrophic failures of these machines during flight. A frequent cause of failure in Jets engines is excessive resonant vibrations and stall flutter instabilities. The likelihood of these phenomena is reduced when designers employ the analytical models we have developed. These prediction models will ultimately increase the nation's competitiveness in producing high performance Jets engines with enhanced operability, energy economy, and safety. The objectives of our current threads of research in the final year are directed along two lines. First, we want to improve the current state of blade stress and aeromechanical reduced-ordered modeling of high bypass engine fans, Specifically, a new reduced-order iterative redesign tool for passively controlling the mechanical authority of shroudless, wide chord, laminated composite transonic bypass engine fans has been developed. Second, we aim to advance current understanding of aeromechanical feedback control of dynamic flow instabilities in axial flow compressors. A systematic theoretical evaluation of several approaches to aeromechanical feedback control of rotating stall in axial compressors has been conducted. Attached are abstracts of two .papers under preparation for the 1998 ASME Turbo Expo in Stockholm, Sweden sponsored under Grant No. NAG3-1571. Our goals during the final year under Grant No. NAG3-1571 is to enhance NASA's capabilities of forced response of turbomachines (such as NASA FREPS). We with continue our development of the reduced-ordered, three-dimensional component synthesis models for aeromechanical evaluation of integrated bladeddisk assemblies (i.e., the disk, non-identical bladeing etc.). We will complete our development of component systems design optimization strategies for specified vibratory stresses and increased fatigue life prediction of assembly components, and for specified frequency margins on the Campbell diagrams of turbomachines. Finally, we will integrate the developed codes with NASA's turbomachinery aeromechanics prediction capability (such as NASA FREPS).

McGee, Oliver G., III↗

Implementation of Helioseismic Data Reduction and Diagnostic Techniques on Massively Parallel Architectures

Under the direction of Dr. Rhodes, and the technical supervision of Dr. Korzennik, the data assimilation of high spatial resolution solar dopplergrams has been carried out throughout the program on the Intel Delta Touchstone supercomputer. With the help of a research assistant, partially supported by this grant, and under the supervision of Dr. Korzennik, code development was carried out at SAO, using various available resources. To ensure cross-platform portability, PVM was selected as the message passing library. A parallel implementation of power spectra computation for helioseismology data reduction, using PVM was successfully completed. It was successfully ported to SMP architectures (i.e. SUN), and to some MPP architectures (i.e. the CM5). Due to limitation of the implementation of PVM on the Cray T3D, the port to that architecture was not completed at the time.

Korzennik, Sylvain↗

Studies on Vapor Adsorption Systems

The project consisted of performing experiments on single and dual bed vapor adsorption systems, thermodynamic cycle optimization, and thermal modeling. The work was described in a technical paper that appeared in conference proceedings and a Master's thesis, which were previously submitted to NASA. The present report describes some additional thermal modeling work done subsequently, and includes listings of computer codes developed during the project. Recommendations for future work are provided.

Shamsundar, N.↗

In-Flight Aerodynamic Measurements of an Iced Horizontal Tailplane

The effects of tailplane icing on aircraft dynamics and tailplane aerodynamics were investigated using, NASA's modified DHC-6 Twin Otter icing research aircraft. This flight program was a major element of the four-year NASA/FAA research program that also included icing wind tunnel testing, dry-air aerodynamic wind tunnel testing, and analytical code development. Flight tests were conducted to obtain aircraft dynamics and tailplane aerodynamics of the DHC-6 with four tailplane leading-edge configurations. These configurations included a clean (baseline) and three different artificial ice shapes. Quasi-steady and various dynamic flight maneuvers were performed over the full range of angles of attack and wing flap settings with each iced tailplane configuration. This paper presents results from the quasi-steady state flight conditions and describes the range of flow fields at the horizontal tailplane, the aeroperformance effect of various ice shapes on tailplane lift and elevator hinge moment, and suggests three paths that can lead toward ice-contaminated tailplane stall. It was found that wing, flap deflection was the most significant factor in driving the tailplane angle of attack toward alpha(tail stall). However, within a given flap setting, an increase in airspeed also drove the tailplane angle of attack toward alpha(tail stall). Moreover, increasing engine thrust setting also pushed the tailplane to critical performance limits, which resulted in premature tailplane stall.

Ratvasky, Thomas P.↗

Algorithms and Libraries

This exploratory study initiated our inquiry into algorithms and applications that would benefit by latency tolerant approach to algorithm building, including the construction of new algorithms where appropriate. In a multithreaded execution, when a processor reaches a point where remote memory access is necessary, the request is sent out on the network and a context--switch occurs to a new thread of computation. This effectively masks a long and unpredictable latency due to remote loads, thereby providing tolerance to remote access latency. We began to develop standards to profile various algorithm and application parameters, such as the degree of parallelism, granularity, precision, instruction set mix, interprocessor communication, latency etc. These tools will continue to develop and evolve as the Information Power Grid environment matures. To provide a richer context for this research, the project also focused on issues of fault-tolerance and computation migration of numerical algorithms and software. During the initial phase we tried to increase our understanding of the bottlenecks in single processor performance. Our work began by developing an approach for the automatic generation and optimization of numerical software for processors with deep memory hierarchies and pipelined functional units. Based on the results we achieved in this study we are planning to study other architectures of interest, including development of cost models, and developing code generators appropriate to these architectures.

Dongarra, Jack↗

Mission Operations with an Autonomous Agent

The Remote Agent (RA) is an Artificial Intelligence (AI) system which automates some of the tasks normally reserved for human mission operators and performs these tasks autonomously on-board the spacecraft. These tasks include activity generation, sequencing, spacecraft analysis, and failure recovery. The RA will be demonstrated as a flight experiment on Deep Space One (DSI), the first deep space mission of the NASA's New Millennium Program (NMP). As we moved from prototyping into actual flight code development and teamed with ground operators, we made several major extensions to the RA architecture to address the broader operational context in which PA would be used. These extensions support ground operators and the RA sharing a long-range mission profile with facilities for asynchronous ground updates; support ground operators monitoring and commanding the spacecraft at multiple levels of detail simultaneously; and enable ground operators to provide additional knowledge to the RA, such as parameter updates, model updates, and diagnostic information, without interfering with the activities of the RA or leaving the system in an inconsistent state. The resulting architecture supports incremental autonomy, in which a basic agent can be delivered early and then used in an increasingly autonomous manner over the lifetime of the mission. It also supports variable autonomy, as it enables ground operators to benefit from autonomy when L'@ey want it, but does not inhibit them from obtaining a detailed understanding and exercising tighter control when necessary. These issues are critical to the successful development and operation of autonomous spacecraft.

Pell, Barney↗