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Segmented multigrid domain decomposition solutions for three dimensional viscous recirculating flows

A segmented multigrid domain decomposition strategy is combined with a pressure-based form of flux-vector discretization for 3D incompressible and compressible viscous flow applications. A pressure-based form of flux-vector splitting is applied to the Navier-Stokes (NS) equations, which are represented by an implicit lowest-order reduced NS system and a purely diffusive higher-order deferred corrector. A trapezoidal or boxlike form of discretization insures that all mass conservation properties are satisfied at interfacial and outflow boundaries, even for this primitive-variable nonstaggered grid computation. Improvements in gridding strategy are presented by allowing for disjoint subdomains that provide optimal resolution of disparate flow features.

Srinivasan, Kumar

Emerging and Future Computing Paradigms and Their Impact on the Research, Training, and Design Environments of the Aerospace Workforce

The document contains the proceedings of the training workshop on Emerging and Future Computing Paradigms and their impact on the Research, Training and Design Environments of the Aerospace Workforce. The workshop was held at NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, Virginia, March 18 and 19, 2003. The workshop was jointly sponsored by Old Dominion University and NASA. Workshop attendees came from NASA, other government agencies, industry and universities. The objectives of the workshop were to a) provide broad overviews of the diverse activities related to new computing paradigms, including grid computing, pervasive computing, high-productivity computing, and the IBM-led autonomic computing; and b) identify future directions for research that have high potential for future aerospace workforce environments. The format of the workshop included twenty-one, half-hour overview-type presentations and three exhibits by vendors.

Noor, Ahmed K.

Transformation of OODT CAS to Perform Larger Tasks

A computer program denoted OODT CAS has been transformed to enable performance of larger tasks that involve greatly increased data volumes and increasingly intensive processing of data on heterogeneous, geographically dispersed computers. Prior to the transformation, OODT CAS (also alternatively denoted, simply, 'CAS') [wherein 'OODT' signifies 'Object-Oriented Data Technology' and 'CAS' signifies 'Catalog and Archive Service'] was a proven software component used to manage scientific data from spaceflight missions. In the transformation, CAS was split into two separate components representing its canonical capabilities: file management and workflow management. In addition, CAS was augmented by addition of a resource-management component. This third component enables CAS to manage heterogeneous computing by use of diverse resources, including high-performance clusters of computers, commodity computing hardware, and grid computing infrastructures. CAS is now more easily maintainable, evolvable, and reusable. These components can be used separately or, taking advantage of synergies, can be used together. Other elements of the transformation included addition of a separate Web presentation layer that supports distribution of data products via Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds, and provision for full Resource Description Framework (RDF) exports of metadata.

Mattmann, Chris

Predicting Flows of Rarefied Gases

DSMC Analysis Code (DAC) is a flexible, highly automated, easy-to-use computer program for predicting flows of rarefied gases -- especially flows of upper-atmospheric, propulsion, and vented gases impinging on spacecraft surfaces. DAC implements the direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method, which is widely recognized as standard for simulating flows at densities so low that the continuum-based equations of computational fluid dynamics are invalid. DAC enables users to model complex surface shapes and boundary conditions quickly and easily. The discretization of a flow field into computational grids is automated, thereby relieving the user of a traditionally time-consuming task while ensuring (1) appropriate refinement of grids throughout the computational domain, (2) determination of optimal settings for temporal discretization and other simulation parameters, and (3) satisfaction of the fundamental constraints of the method. In so doing, DAC ensures an accurate and efficient simulation. In addition, DAC can utilize parallel processing to reduce computation time. The domain decomposition needed for parallel processing is completely automated, and the software employs a dynamic load-balancing mechanism to ensure optimal parallel efficiency throughout the simulation.

LeBeau, Gerald J.

Computational Aerodynamic Simulations of an 840 ft/sec Tip Speed Advanced Ducted Propulsor Fan System Model for Acoustic Methods Assessment and Development

Computational Aerodynamic simulations of an 840 ft/sec tip speed, Advanced Ducted Propulsor fan system were performed at five different operating points on the fan operating line, in order to provide detailed internal flow field information for use with fan acoustic prediction methods presently being developed, assessed and validated. The fan system is a sub-scale, lownoise research fan/nacelle model that has undergone extensive experimental testing in the 9- by 15- foot Low Speed Wind Tunnel at the NASA Glenn Research Center, resulting in quality, detailed aerodynamic and acoustic measurement data. Details of the fan geometry, the computational fluid dynamics methods, the computational grids, and various computational parameters relevant to the numerical simulations are discussed. Flow field results for three of the five operating conditions simulated are presented in order to provide a representative look at the computed solutions. Each of the five fan aerodynamic simulations involved the entire fan system, excluding a long core duct section downstream of the core inlet guide vane. As a result, only fan rotational speed and system bypass ratio, set by specifying static pressure downstream of the core inlet guide vane row, were adjusted in order to set the fan operating point, leading to operating points that lie on a fan operating line and making mass flow rate a fully dependent parameter. The resulting mass flow rates are in good agreement with measurement values. The computed blade row flow fields for all five fan operating points are, in general, aerodynamically healthy. Rotor blade and fan exit guide vane flow characteristics are good, including incidence and deviation angles, chordwise static pressure distributions, blade surface boundary layers, secondary flow structures, and blade wakes. Examination of the computed flow fields reveals no excessive boundary layer separations or related secondary-flow problems. A few spanwise comparisons between computational and measurement data in the bypass duct show that they are in good agreement, thus providing a partial validation of the computational results.

Tweedt, Daniel L.

Computational Aerodynamic Simulations of a 1215 ft/sec Tip Speed Transonic Fan System Model for Acoustic Methods Assessment and Development

Computational Aerodynamic simulations of a 1215 ft/sec tip speed transonic fan system were performed at five different operating points on the fan operating line, in order to provide detailed internal flow field information for use with fan acoustic prediction methods presently being developed, assessed and validated. The fan system is a sub-scale, low-noise research fan/nacelle model that has undergone extensive experimental testing in the 9- by 15-foot Low Speed Wind Tunnel at the NASA Glenn Research Center. Details of the fan geometry, the computational fluid dynamics methods, the computational grids, and various computational parameters relevant to the numerical simulations are discussed. Flow field results for three of the five operating points simulated are presented in order to provide a representative look at the computed solutions. Each of the five fan aerodynamic simulations involved the entire fan system, which for this model did not include a split flow path with core and bypass ducts. As a result, it was only necessary to adjust fan rotational speed in order to set the fan operating point, leading to operating points that lie on a fan operating line and making mass flow rate a fully dependent parameter. The resulting mass flow rates are in good agreement with measurement values. Computed blade row flow fields at all fan operating points are, in general, aerodynamically healthy. Rotor blade and fan exit guide vane flow characteristics are good, including incidence and deviation angles, chordwise static pressure distributions, blade surface boundary layers, secondary flow structures, and blade wakes. Examination of the flow fields at all operating conditions reveals no excessive boundary layer separations or related secondary-flow problems.

Tweedt, Daniel L.

Computational Aerodynamic Simulations of a 1484 ft/sec Tip Speed Quiet High-Speed Fan System Model for Acoustic Methods Assessment and Development

Computational Aerodynamic simulations of a 1484 ft/sec tip speed quiet high-speed fan system were performed at five different operating points on the fan operating line, in order to provide detailed internal flow field information for use with fan acoustic prediction methods presently being developed, assessed and validated. The fan system is a sub-scale, low-noise research fan/nacelle model that has undergone experimental testing in the 9- by 15-foot Low Speed Wind Tunnel at the NASA Glenn Research Center. Details of the fan geometry, the computational fluid dynamics methods, the computational grids, and various computational parameters relevant to the numerical simulations are discussed. Flow field results for three of the five operating points simulated are presented in order to provide a representative look at the computed solutions. Each of the five fan aerodynamic simulations involved the entire fan system, which includes a core duct and a bypass duct that merge upstream of the fan system nozzle. As a result, only fan rotational speed and the system bypass ratio, set by means of a translating nozzle plug, were adjusted in order to set the fan operating point, leading to operating points that lie on a fan operating line and making mass flow rate a fully dependent parameter. The resulting mass flow rates are in good agreement with measurement values. Computed blade row flow fields at all fan operating points are, in general, aerodynamically healthy. Rotor blade and fan exit guide vane flow characteristics are good, including incidence and deviation angles, chordwise static pressure distributions, blade surface boundary layers, secondary flow structures, and blade wakes. Examination of the computed flow fields reveals no excessive or critical boundary layer separations or related secondary-flow problems, with the exception of the hub boundary layer at the core duct entrance. At that location a significant flow separation is present. The region of local flow recirculation extends through a mixing plane, however, which for the particular mixing-plane model used is now known to exaggerate the recirculation. In any case, the flow separation has relatively little impact on the computed rotor and FEGV flow fields.

Tweedt, Daniel L.

User's guide to the NOZL3D and NOZLIC computer programs

Complete FORTRAN listings and running instructions are given for a set of computer programs that perform an implicit numerical solution to the unsteady Navier-Stokes equations to predict the flow characteristics and performance of nonaxisymmetric nozzles. The set includes the NOZL3D program, which performs the flow computations; the NOZLIC program, which sets up the flow field initial conditions for general nozzle configurations, and also generates the computational grid for simple two dimensional and axisymmetric configurations; and the RGRIDD program, which generates the computational grid for complicated three dimensional configurations. The programs are designed specifically for the NASA-Langley CYBER 175 computer, and employ auxiliary disk files for primary data storage. Input instructions and computed results are given for four test cases that include two dimensional, three dimensional, and axisymmetric configurations.

Thomas, P. D.

A Fractional-Step Method Of Computing Incompressible Flow

Method of computing time-dependent flow of incompressible, viscous fluid involves numerical solution of Navier-Stokes equations on two- or three-dimensional computational grid based on generalized curvilinear coordinates. Equations of method derived in primitive-variable formulation. Dependent variables are pressure at center of each cell of computational grid and volume fluxes across faces of each cell. Volume fluxes replace Cartesian components of velocity; these fluxes correspond to contravariant components of velocity multiplied by volume of computational cell, in staggered grid. Choice of dependent variables enables simple extension of previously developed staggered-grid approach to generalized curvilinear coordinates and facilitates enforcement of conservation of mass.

Kwak, Dochan

3D Structured Grid Generation Codes for Turbomachinery

This report describes the research tasks during the past year. The research was mainly in the area of computational grid generation in support of CFD analyses of turbomachinery components. In addition to the grid generation work, a numerical simulation was obtained for the flow through a centrifugal gas compressor using an unstructured Navier-Stokes solver. Other tasks involved many different turbomachinery component analyses. These analyses were performed for NASA projects or for industrial applications. The work includes both centrifugal and axial machines, single and multiple blade rows, and steady and unsteady analyses. Over the past five years, a set of structured grid generation codes were developed that allow grids to be obtained fairly quickly for the large majority of configurations we encounter. These codes do not comprise a generalized grid generation package; they are noninteractive codes specifically designed for turbomachinery blade row geometries. But because of this limited scope, the codes are small, fast, and portable, and they can be run in the batch mode on small workstations. During the past year, these programs were used to generate computational grids were modified for a wide variety of configurations. In particular, the codes or wrote supplementary codes to improve our grid generation capabilities for multiple blade row configurations. This involves generating separate grids for each blade row, and then making them match and overlap by a few grid points at their common interface so that fluid properties are communicated across the interface. Unsteady rotor/stator analyses were performed for an axial turbine, a centrifugal compressor, and a centrifugal pump. Steady-state single-blade-row analyses were made for a study of blade sweep in transonic compressors. There was also cooperation on the application of an unstructured Navier-Stokes solver for turbomachinery flow simulations. In particular, the unstructured solver was used to analyze the flow through a centriftio compressor impeller.

Loellbach, James

Three-dimensional unstructured grid Euler computations using a fully-implicit, upwind method

A method has been developed to solve the Euler equations on a three-dimensional unstructured grid composed of tetrahedra. The method uses an upwind flow solver with a linearized, backward-Euler time integration scheme. Each time step results in a sparse linear system of equations which is solved by an iterative, sparse matrix solver. Local-time stepping, switched evolution relaxation (SER), preconditioning and reuse of the Jacobian are employed to accelerate the convergence rate. Implicit boundary conditions were found to be extremely important for fast convergence. Numerical experiments have shown that convergence rates comparable to that of a multigrid, central-difference scheme are achievable on the same mesh. Results are presented for several grids about an ONERA M6 wing.

Whitaker, David L.

Setting up a Grid: A Guide for Beginners by a Beginner

A simple compute grid can be constructed for under $ 1,000 with 5 computers on a LAN for the purpose of video compression from captured digital video to MPEG file format. The process for setting up this grid will be covered in detail, including the required operating systems and hardware, the required globus software, and the required video capture and compression software. Pitfalls encountered will be discussed, and the approximate timeline for a motivated but uninformed beginner. The installation, configuration, and operation of additional software that is needed test, measure and otherwise verify that the grid components are functioning as "advertised", will also be presented. This is a true life account for setting up a grid based on instructions in Chapters 9 and 10 of Introduction to Grid Computing with Globus.

Welch, Clara

Computational Analysis of Dual Radius Circulation Control Airfoils

The goal of the work is to use multiple codes and multiple configurations to provide an assessment of the capability of RANS solvers to predict circulation control dual radius airfoil performance and also to identify key issues associated with the computational predictions of these configurations that can result in discrepancies in the predicted solutions. Solutions were obtained for the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) dual radius circulation control airfoil and the General Aviation Circulation Control (GACC) dual radius airfoil. For the GTRI-DR airfoil, two-dimensional structured and unstructured grid computations predicted the experimental trend in sectional lift variation with blowing coefficient very well. Good code to code comparisons between the chordwise surface pressure coefficients and the solution streamtraces also indicated that the detailed flow characteristics were matched between the computations. For the GACC-DR airfoil, two-dimensional structured and unstructured grid computations predicted the sectional lift and chordwise pressure distributions accurately at the no blowing condition. However at a moderate blowing coefficient, although the code to code variation was small, the differences between the computations and experiment were significant. Computations were made to investigate the sensitivity of the sectional lift and pressure distributions to some of the experimental and computational parameters, but none of these could entirely account for the differences in the experimental and computational results. Thus, CFD may indeed be adequate as a prediction tool for dual radius CC flows, but limited and difficult to obtain two-dimensional experimental data prevents a confident assessment at this time.

Lee-Rausch, E. M.

A rotationally biased upwind difference scheme for the Euler equations

The upwind difference schemes of Godunov, Osher, Roe and van Leer are able to resolve one dimensional steady shocks for the Euler equations within one or two mesh intervals. Unfortunately, this resolution is lost in two dimensions when the shock crosses the computing grid at an oblique angle. To correct this problem, a numerical scheme was developed which automatically locates the angle at which a shock might be expected to cross the computing grid and then constructs separate finite difference formulas for the flux components normal and tangential to this direction. Numerical results which illustrate the ability of this method to resolve steady oblique shocks are presented.

Davis, S. F.

A rotationally biased upwind difference scheme for the Euler equations

The upwind difference schemes of Godunov, Osher, Roe and van Leer are able to resolve one dimensional steady shocks for the Euler equations within one or two mesh intervals. Unfortunately, this resolution is lost in two dimensions when the shock crosses the computing grid at an oblique angle. To correct this problem, a numerical scheme was developed which automatically locates the angle at which a shock might be expected to cross the computing grid and then constructs separate finite difference formulas for the flux components normal and tangential to this direction. Numerical results which illustrate the ability of this method to resolve steady oblique shocks are presented.

Davis, S. F.

A highly parallel multigrid-like method for the solution of the Euler equations

We consider a highly parallel multigrid-like method for the solution of the two dimensional steady Euler equations. The new method, introduced as filtering multigrid, is similar to a standard multigrid scheme in that convergence on the finest grid is accelerated by iterations on coarser grids. In the filtering method, however, additional fine grid subproblems are processed concurrently with coarse grid computations to further accelerate convergence. These additional problems are obtained by splitting the residual into a smooth and an oscillatory component. The smooth component is then used to form a coarse grid problem (similar to standard multigrid) while the oscillatory component is used for a fine grid subproblem. The primary advantage in the filtering approach is that fewer iterations are required and that most of the additional work per iteration can be performed in parallel with the standard coarse grid computations. We generalize the filtering algorithm to a version suitable for nonlinear problems. We emphasize that this generalization is conceptually straight-forward and relatively easy to implement. In particular, no explicit linearization (e.g., formation of Jacobians) needs to be performed (similar to the FAS multigrid approach). We illustrate the nonlinear version by applying it to the Euler equations, and presenting numerical results. Finally, a performance evaluation is made based on execution time models and convergence information obtained from numerical experiments.

Tuminaro, Ray S.

Investigation of transonic flow in a cascade using an adaptive mesh

The solution of two-dimensional full potential equation for the analysis of steady transonic flow through cascades is investigated. Finite element method is employed in the analysis. Accuracy and efficiency of the obtained numerical solutions are discussed in terms of the employed computational grid. Accurate modeling of subsonic and supersonic flow regions together with the shock is discussed. The choice of artificial viscosity and relaxation factors are examined and related to the design of a computational grid. Shock capturing and shock fitting procedures are compared for improved accuracy and efficiency. Numerical results include cascades of Gostelow and NACA 0012 airfoils.

Ecer, A.

Unsteady transonic airfoil computation using implicit Euler scheme on body-fixed grid

The unsteady Euler equations have been derived for the flow relative motion with respect to a frame of reference that is rigidly attached to the moving airfoil. The grid is generated once by an elliptic solver without a need for dynamic grid computation. An implicit factored finite-volume scheme has been developed and implemented through a fully vectorized computer program. Implicit second-order and explicit second and fourth-order dissipations are added to the scheme. The boundary conditions are explicitly satisfied. The scheme is applied to steady and unsteady transonic airfoil flows and the results are in good agreement with the experimental data. For forced harmonic airfoil motions, periodic solutions are achieved within the third cycle of oscillation.

Kandil, Osama A.