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At least 955 records · Page 53

Identification of a non-axisymmetric mode in laboratory experiments searching for standard magnetorotational instability

Abstract The standard magnetorotational instability (SMRI) is a promising mechanism for turbulence and rapid accretion in astrophysical disks. It is a magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) instability that destabilizes otherwise hydrodynamically stable disk flow. Due to its microscopic nature at astronomical distances and stringent requirements in laboratory experiments, SMRI has remained unconfirmed since its proposal, despite its astrophysical importance. Here we report a nonaxisymmetric MHD instability in a modified Taylor-Couette experiment. To search for SMRI, a uniform magnetic field is imposed along the rotation axis of a swirling liquid-metal flow. The instability initially grows exponentially, becoming prominent only for sufficient flow shear and moderate magnetic field. These conditions for instability are qualitatively consistent with SMRI, but at magnetic Reynolds numbers below the predictions of linear analyses with periodic axial boundaries. Three-dimensional numerical simulations, however, reproduce the observed instability, indicating that it grows linearly from the primary axisymmetric flow modified by the applied magnetic field.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Design of Distributed Controllers Seeking Optimal Power Flow Solutions Under Communication Constraints

This paper focuses on power distribution networks featuring inverter-interfaced distributed energy resources (DERs), and develops feedback controllers that drive the DER output powers to solutions of time-varying AC optimal power flow (OPF) problems. Control synthesis is grounded on primal-dual-type methods for regularized Lagrangian functions, as well as linear approximations of the AC power-flow equations. Convergence and OPF-solution-tracking capabilities are established while acknowledging: i) communication-packet losses, and ii) partial updates of control signals. The latter case is particularly relevant since it enables asynchronous operation of the controllers where DER setpoints are updated at a fast time scale based on local voltage measurements, and information on the network state is utilized if and when available, based on communication constraints. As an application, the paper considers distribution systems with high photovoltaic integration, and demonstrates that the proposed framework provides fast voltage-regulation capabilities, while enabling the near real-time pursuit of solutions of AC OPF problems.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

An oscillatory kernel function method for lifting surfaces in mixed transonic flow

A study was conducted on the use of combined subsonic and supersonic linear theory to obtain economical and yet realistic solutions to unsteady transonic flow problems. With some modification, existing linear theory methods were combined into a single computer program. The method was applied to problems for which measured steady Mach number distributions and unsteady pressure distributions were available. By comparing theory and experiment, the transonic method showed a significant improvement over uniform flow methods. The results also indicated that more exact local Mach number effects and normal shock boundary conditions on the perturbation potential were needed. The validity of these improvements was demonstrated by application to steady flow.

Cunningham, A. M., Jr.↗

A Three-Dimensional Linearized Unsteady Euler Analysis for Turbomachinery Blade Rows

A three-dimensional, linearized, Euler analysis is being developed to provide an efficient unsteady aerodynamic analysis that can be used to predict the aeroelastic and aeroacoustic response characteristics of axial-flow turbomachinery blading. The field equations and boundary conditions needed to describe nonlinear and linearized inviscid unsteady flows through a blade row operating within a cylindrical annular duct are presented. In addition, a numerical model for linearized inviscid unsteady flow, which is based upon an existing nonlinear, implicit, wave-split, finite volume analysis, is described. These aerodynamic and numerical models have been implemented into an unsteady flow code, called LINFLUX. A preliminary version of the LINFLUX code is applied herein to selected, benchmark three-dimensional, subsonic, unsteady flows, to illustrate its current capabilities and to uncover existing problems and deficiencies. The numerical results indicate that good progress has been made toward developing a reliable and useful three-dimensional prediction capability. However, some problems, associated with the implementation of an unsteady displacement field and numerical errors near solid boundaries, still exist. Also, accurate far-field conditions must be incorporated into the FINFLUX analysis, so that this analysis can be applied to unsteady flows driven be external aerodynamic excitations.

Montgomery, Matthew D.↗

Forcing function effects on unsteady aerodynamic gust response. I - Forcing functions

The paper investigates the fundamental gust modeling assumption on the basis of a series of experiments performed in the Purdue Annular Cascade Research Facility. The measured unsteady flow fields are compared to linear-theory gust requirements. The perforated plate forcing functions closely resemble linear-theory forcing functions, with the static pressure fluctuations small and the periodic velocity vectors parallel to the downstream mean-relative flow angle over the entire periodic cycle. The airfoil forcing functions exhibit characteristics far from linear-theory gusts, with the alignment of the velocity vectors and the static pressure fluctuation amplitudes dependent on the rotor-loading condition, rotor solidity, and the inlet mean-relative flow angle. It is shown that airfoil wakes, both compressor and turbine, cannot be modeled with the boundary conditions of current state-of-the-art linear unsteady aerodynamic theory.

Henderson, Gregory H.↗

Boundary Layer Development on a Turbine Blade in a Linear Cascade

Several different boundary-layer development patterns for flow over the suction surface of a turbine airfoil in a linear cascade were studied and documented using a sliding surface hot-film sensor. The state of the boundary layer, whether laminar, transitional or turbulent, was determined at numerous locations along the airfoil suction surface from leading to trailing edge. Boundary-layer transition from laminar to turbulent flow through laminar separation and turbulent reattachment, or through a combination of bypass transition and strong and weak separation and turbulent reattachment, or through solely bypass transition without separation, was observed and benchmark data were recorded. Surface flow visualization and numerical boundary-layer analysis results are consistent with the hot-film data. Flow and geometry information necessary for nmerical code operation is available.

Halstead, Dave↗

Rapid Aeroelastic Analysis of Blade Flutter in Turbomachines

The LINFLUX-AE computer code predicts flutter and forced responses of blades and vanes in turbomachines under subsonic, transonic, and supersonic flow conditions. The code solves the Euler equations of unsteady flow in a blade passage under the assumption that the blades vibrate harmonically at small amplitudes. The steady-state nonlinear Euler equations are solved by a separate program, then equations for unsteady flow components are obtained through linearization around the steady-state solution. A structural-dynamics analysis (see figure) is performed to determine the frequencies and mode shapes of blade vibrations, a preprocessor interpolates mode shapes from the structural-dynamics mesh onto the LINFLUX computational-fluid-dynamics mesh, and an interface code is used to convert the steady-state flow solution to a form required by LINFLUX. Then LINFLUX solves the linearized equations in the frequency domain to calculate the unsteady aerodynamic pressure distribution for a given vibration mode, frequency, and interblade phase angle. A post-processor uses the unsteady pressures to calculate generalized aerodynamic forces, response amplitudes, and eigenvalues (which determine the flutter frequency and damping). In comparison with the TURBO-AE aeroelastic-analysis code, which solves the equations in the time domain, LINFLUX-AE is 6 to 7 times faster.

Trudell, J. J.↗

An outflow acoustic boundary condition for internal duct flows

A boundary condition for the linear acoustic equation has been developed that allows the acoustic pressure waves to propagate out of the computational domain boundary, just as they would propagate in an infinitely long duct. The problem is divided into two domains: numerical and analytical. The boundary condition provides a matching of the two domains. Examples show this method works well in an acoustic panel program for a model problem (simple source in a rectangular duct with several propagating modes present). The boundary condition is described so that it can be used with various duct various duct geometries and numerical methods.

Mosher, M.↗

Aerodynamic Influence Coefficient Computations Using Euler/Navier-Stokes Equations on Parallel Computers

Modem design requirements for an aircraft push current technologies used in the design process to their limit or sometimes require more advanced technologies to meet the requirement. New design requirements always demand to improve the operational performance. Accurate prediction of aerodynamic coefficients is essential to improve the performance. For example, in the design of an advanced subsonic civil transport, since the fluid flow at transonic regime shows strong nonlinearities, high fidelity equations, such as the Euler or Navier-Stokes equations predict flow characteristics more accurately than the linear aerodynamics, which are widely used in the current design process However, high fidelity flow equations are computationally expensive and require an order of magnitude longer time to obtain aerodynamic coefficients required in the design. Parallel computing is one possibility to cut down the computational turn-around time in using high fidelity equations so that high fidelity equations would be incorporated into the design process. By doing so, high fidelity equations would be used in the routine design process. This work will demonstrate the feasibility of using high fidelity flow equations in a design process by computing aerodynamic influence coefficients of a wing-body-empennage configuration on a multiple-instruction, multiple-data parallel computer.

Byun, Chansup↗

Towards enhancing and delaying disturbances in free shear flows

The family of shear flows comprising the jet, wake, and the mixing layer are subjected to perturbations in an inviscid incompressible fluid. By modeling the basic mean flows as parallel with piecewise linear variations for the velocities, complete and general solutions to the linearized equations of motion can be obtained in closed form as functions of all space variables and time when posed as an initial value problem. The results show that there is a continuous as well as the discrete spectrum that is more familiar in stability theory and therefore there can be both algebraic and exponential growth of disturbances in time. These bases make it feasible to consider control of such flows. To this end, the possibility of enhancing the disturbances in the mixing layer and delaying the onset in the jet and wake is investigated. It is found that growth of perturbations can be delayed to a considerable degree for the jet and the wake but, by comparison, cannot be enhanced in the mixing layer. By using moving coordinates, a method for demonstrating the predominant early and long time behavior of disturbances in these flows is given for continuous velocity profiles. It is shown that the early time transients are always algebraic whereas the asymptotic limit is that of an exponential normal mode. Numerical treatment of the new governing equations confirm the conclusions reached by use of the piecewise linear basic models. Although not pursued here, feedback mechanisms designed for control of the flow could be devised using the results of this work.

Criminale, W. O.↗

Gyrokinetic and extended-MHD simulations of a flow shear stabilized Z-pinch experiment

Axisymmetric (m = 0) gyrokinetic and extended-MHD simulations of a sheared-flow Z-pinch plasma are performed with the high-order finite volume code COGENT. The present gyrokinetic model solves the long-wavelength limit of the gyrokinetic equation for both ion and electron species coupled to the electrostatic gyro-Poisson equation for the electrostatic potential. The extended-MHD model is electromagnetic and includes the effects of the gyro-viscous pressure tensor, diamagnetic electron and ion heat fluxes, and generalized Ohm's law. Additionally, a prominent feature of this work is that the radial profiles for the plasma density and temperature are taken from the fusion Z-pinch experiment (FuZE), and the magnetic field profile is obtained as a solution of the MHD force balance equation. Such an approach allows to address realistic plasma parameters and provide insights into the current and planned experiments. In particular, it is demonstrated that the radial profiles play an important role in stabilization, as the embedded guiding center (E×B ) drift has a strong radial shear, which can contribute to the Z-pinch stabilization even in the absence of the fluid flow shear. The results of simulations for the FuZE plasma parameters show a decrease in the linear growth rate with an increase in the flow shear; however, full stabilization in the linear regime is not observed even for large (comparable to the Alfvén velocity) radial variations of the axial flow. Nonlinear stability properties of the FuZE plasmas are also studied, and it is found that profile broadening can have a pronounced stabilizing effect in the nonlinear regime.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Viscoelastic-viscoplastic combined hardening constitutive model based on the Drucker Prager yield and flow potentials

A constitutive model is developed which incorporates linear viscoelasticity and combined isotropic and kinematic rate dependent hardening plasticity based on the Drucker-Prager yield criterion and flow potential. Abaqus currently has intrinsic material models for linear viscoelasticity, isotropic hardening Drucker-Prager plasticity, and J2 plasticity with combined hardening, but there is no facility to combine these behaviors in one constitutive model. An Abaqus UMAT is developed using the equations developed in this document and then a code to code comparisons are performed using the Abaqus intrinsic models and the new material model with parameters selected such that only the behaviors Abaqus can produce are present. The comparisons show that the new model can produce the individual behaviors very well. A 1D development of a damage model that could be easily incorporated in this framework is also discussed.

Engineering(42)↗

A modal aeroelastic analysis scheme for turbomachinery blading

An aeroelastic analysis is developed which has general application to all types of axial-flow turbomachinery blades. The approach is based on linear modal analysis, where the blade's dynamic response is represented as a linear combination of contributions from each of its in-vacuum free vibrational modes. A compressible linearized unsteady potential theory is used to model the flow over the oscillating blades. The two-dimensional unsteady flow is evaluated along several stacked axisymmetric strips along the span of the airfoil. The unsteady pressures at the blade surface are integrated to result in the generalized force acting on the blade due to simple harmonic motions. The unsteady aerodynamic forces are coupled to the blade normal modes in the frequency domain using modal analysis. An iterative eigenvalue problem is solved to determine the stability of the blade when the unsteady aerodynamic forces are included in the analysis. The approach is demonstrated by applying it to a high-energy subsonic turbine blade from a rocket engine turbopump power turbine. The results indicate that this turbine could undergo flutter in an edgewise mode of vibration.

Smith, Todd E.↗

Method of Simulating Flow-Through Area of a Pressure Regulator

The flow-through area of a pressure regulator positioned in a branch of a simulated fluid flow network is generated. A target pressure is defined downstream of the pressure regulator. A projected flow-through area is generated as a non-linear function of (i) target pressure, (ii) flow-through area of the pressure regulator for a current time step and a previous time step, and (iii) pressure at the downstream location for the current time step and previous time step. A simulated flow-through area for the next time step is generated as a sum of (i) flow-through area for the current time step, and (ii) a difference between the projected flow-through area and the flow-through area for the current time step multiplied by a user-defined rate control parameter. These steps are repeated for a sequence of time steps until the pressure at the downstream location is approximately equal to the target pressure.

Hass, Neal E.↗

Analysis of the two-point velocity correlations in turbulent boundary layer flows

The general objective of the present work is to explore the use of Rapid Distortion Theory (RDT) in analysis of the two-point statistics of the log-layer. RDT is applicable only to unsteady flows where the non-linear turbulence-turbulence interaction can be neglected in comparison to linear turbulence-mean interactions. Here we propose to use RDT to examine the structure of the large energy-containing scales and their interaction with the mean flow in the log-region. The contents of the work are twofold: First, two-point analysis methods will be used to derive the law-of-the-wall for the special case of zero mean pressure gradient. The basic assumptions needed are one-dimensionality in the mean flow and homogeneity of the fluctuations. It will be shown that a formal solution of the two-point correlation equation can be obtained as a power series in the von Karman constant, known to be on the order of 0.4. In the second part, a detailed analysis of the two-point correlation function in the log-layer will be given. The fundamental set of equations and a functional relation for the two-point correlation function will be derived. An asymptotic expansion procedure will be used in the log-layer to match Kolmogorov's universal range and the one-point correlations to the inviscid outer region valid for large correlation distances.

Oberlack, M.↗

Dynamic ADMM for Real-Time Optimal Power Flow

This paper considers distribution networks featuring distributed energy resources (DERs), and develops a dynamic optimization method to maximize given operational objectives in real time while adhering to relevant network constraints. The design of the dynamic algorithm is based on suitable linearization of the AC power flow equations, and it leverages the so-called alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM). The steps of the ADMM, however, are suitably modified to accommodate appropriate measurements from the distribution network and the DERs. With the aid of these measurements, the resultant algorithm can enforce given operational constraints in spite of inaccuracies in the representation of the AC power flows, and it avoids ubiquitous metering to gather the state of noncontrollable resources. Optimality and convergence of the proposed algorithm are established in terms of tracking of the solution of a convex surrogate of the AC optimal power flow problem.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

Dynamic ADMM for Real-Time Optimal Power Flow: Preprint

This paper considers distribution networks featuring distributed energy resources (DERs), and develops a dynamic optimization method to maximize given operational objectives in real time while adhering to relevant network constraints. The design of the dynamic algorithm is based on suitable linearizations of the AC power flow equations, and it leverages the so-called alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM). The steps of the ADMM, however, are suitably modified to accommodate appropriate measurements from the distribution network and the DERs. With the aid of these measurements, the resultant algorithm can enforce given operational constraints in spite of inaccuracies in the representation of the AC power flows, and it avoids ubiquitous metering to gather the state of non-controllable resources. Optimality and convergence of the propose algorithm are established in terms of tracking of the solution of a convex surrogate of the AC optimal power flow problem.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

Importance of Multiplicity Fluctuations in Entropy Scaling

One of the greatest uncertainties in heavy-ion collisions is the description of the initial state. Different models predict a wide range of initial energy density distributions based on their underlying assumptions. Final flow harmonics are sensitive to these differences in the initial state due to the nearly linear mapping between eccentricities and anisotropic flow harmonics. The Trento code uses a model-agnostic approach by phenomenologically parameterizing the initial state and constraining those parameters from a Bayesian analysis. There the multiplicity fluctuations were determined by a one parameter Γ distribution. However, initial-state models arising from the Color-Glass Condensate (CGC) framework lead to an initial energy density which is outside the functional form considered in Trento and its later Bayesian analyses because they rely on log-normal multiplicity fluctuations. We compare T A T B scaling (CGC-like) to √T A T B scaling (preferred from a Trento Bayesian analysis) and find that the T A T B form together with log-normal fluctuations is a reasonable candidate to describe the multiplicity fluctuations but leads to larger eccentricities, which would affect the extraction of viscosity in small systems.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗