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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 973 records · Page 54

Experimental Investigations on Solidification of 500-kg Steel Ingots with Laboratory Trials

The present work focuses on the solidification process of large steel ingots. Several complex solidification phenomena in large ingots were investigated by means of experimental hot modeling and cold modeling. In hot modeling, a 500 kg ingot solidified slowly in a specially insulated mold and this slow solidification process simulates the solidification of industrial scale ingots with a weight between 3 and 6 t. Temperature was measured by thermocouples during solidification and curves were plotted, and as-cast structure and macrosegregation of alloying elements were quantified. The A segregates were produced in the laboratory hot trials and quantitatively investigated. Meanwhile, water modeling (cold modeling) using NH{sub 4}Cl solution was conducted with different cooling/heating conditions. Macroscopic crystal growth phenomena, such as dendritic growth, sedimentation of crystals, and convective fluid flow, were directly observed and analyzed, and flow channels were also observed and compared with A segregates in the hot modeling.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Quasi-one-dimensional compressible flow across face seals and narrow slots. 1: Analysis

An analysis is presented for compressible fluid flow across shaft face seals and narrow slots. The analysis includes fluid inertia, viscous friction, and entrance losses. Subsonic and choked flow conditions can be predicted and analyzed. The model is valid for both laminar and turbulent flows. Results agree with experiment and with solutions which are more limited in applicability. Results show that a parallel film can have a positive film stiffness under choked flow conditions.

Zuk, J.↗

Optimization of flow in additively manufactured porous columns with graded permeability

Chemical engineering systems often involve a functional porous medium, such as in catalyzed reactive flows, fluid purifiers, and chromatographic separations. Ideally, the flow rates throughout the porous medium are uniform, and all portions of the medium contribute efficiently to its function. The permeability is a property of a porous medium that depends on pore geometry and relates flow rate to pressure drop. Additive manufacturing techniques raise the possibilities that permeability can be arbitrarily specified in three dimensions, and that a broader range of permeabilities can be achieved than by traditional manufacturing methods. Using numerical optimization methods, we show that designs with spatially varying permeability can achieve greater flow uniformity than designs with uniform permeability. We consider geometries involving hemispherical regions that distribute flow, as in many glass chromatography columns. By several measures, significant improvements in flow uniformity can be obtained by modifying permeability only near the inlet and outlet.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Coupled Hydromechanical Modeling of Induced Seismicity From CO 2 Injection in the Illinois Basin

Injection of CO 2 for geologic carbon sequestration into deep sedimentary formations involves fluid pressure increases that engage hydromechanical processes that can cause seismicity by activation of existing faults. In this work, we use a coupled multiphase fluid flow and geomechanical simulator to model spatiotemporal fluid pressure and stress changes in order to study the poroelastic effect of CO 2 injection on faults in crystalline basement rock below the injection zone. The seismicity rate along features interpreted to be basement faults is modeled using Dieterich's rate-and-state earthquake nucleation model. The methodology is applied to microseismicity detected during CO 2 injection into the Mount Simon formation during the Illinois Basin—Decatur Project. The modeling accurately captures an observed reduction in seismicity rate when the injection in the second well was into a slightly shallower zone above the base of the Mount Simon formation. Moreover, the modeling shows that it is important to consider poroelastic stress changes, in addition to fluid pressure changes for accurately modeling of the observed seismicity rate.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

Dataset for scientific paper "Simulated plant‑mediated oxygen input has strong impacts on fine‑scale porewater biogeochemistry and weak impacts on integrated methane fluxes in coastal wetlands", a modeling study based on field observation at the tidal salt marshes of the Parker River Estuary, Massachusetts, United States

This dataset is the raw and processed data for the paper "Simulated plant ‑ mediated oxygen input has strong impacts on fine ‑ scale porewater biogeochemistry and weak impacts on integrated methane fluxes in coastal wetlands". This study investigated how plant-mediated oxygen input affects subsurface biogeochemical reactions of organic carbon degradation and the resulting methane emissions of coastal wetlands by model simulation. We used the subsurface geochemical simulator PFLOTRAN for the modeling, which produced the simulated changes in porewater chemical substances and methane emissions over 10 days under different scenarios of plant-mediated oxygen input.Specifically, this dataset contains: 1) the input files for PFLOTRAN of all simulation runs conducted in this study. Those files are with an extension of ".in", containing information of the biogeochemical reaction network (stoichiometry, reaction rate, Monod constants, etc), fluid flow rate and oxygen concentration in the fluid which together simulated the plant-mediated oxygen input, the configuration of artificial reactions that simulated the methane fluxes, etc. The PFLOTRAN input files are text files, which can be opened by NotePad, but running these input files will require proper installation of PFLOTRAN (instruction: https://documentation.pflotran.org/user_guide/how_to/installation/installation.html). 2) the raw and processed model output from PFLOTRAN of all simulation runs, and 3) the python scripts used to process the raw model output, including random allocation of root cells, converting raw data into organized formats, calculating the methane fluxes based on the model output, data visualization, etc. The raw and processed model output from PFLOTRAN are in .spydata format, which can be viewed with Python. and 3) the python scripts for data processing and analysis are programming scripts, which can be opened with Python.This modeling work, in particular the model parameterization of root density and initial conditions of porewater concentrations of biogeochemical substances, was based on field measurements at the salt marsh of the Upper Parker River Estuary, Massachusetts, United States.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Low-temperature heat pipe research program

Wick fluid flow and evaporator performance data of various fluids and materials varying in structure and thickness derived for low temperature spacecraft heat pipe design

Phillips, E. C.↗

Double-Poppet Valve

New valve design includes two poppet/seat combinations actuated simultaneously. If one fails, other continues to seal against fluid flow. Valve primarily useful for handling dangerous fluids and lighter and more compact than comparable redundant-valve systems used at present.

Huber, W. C.↗

Evaluation of new techniques for the calculation of internal recirculating flows

The performance of discrete methods for the prediction of fluid flows can be enhanced by improving the convergence rate of solvers and by increasing the accuracy of the discrete representation of the equations of motion. This paper evaluates the gains in solver performance that are available when various acceleration methods are applied. Various discretizations are also examined and two are recommended because of their accuracy and robustness. Insertion of the improved discretization and solver accelerator into a TEACH code, that has been widely applied to combustor flows, illustrates the substantial gains that can be achieved.

Van Doormaal, J. P.↗

Improved numerical methods for turbulent viscous recirculating flows

The performance of discrete methods for the prediction of fluid flows can be enhanced by improving the convergence rate of solvers and by increasing the accuracy of the discrete representation of the equations of motion. This report evaluates the gains in solver performance that are available when various acceleration methods are applied. Various discretizations are also examined and two are recommended because of their accuracy and robustness. Insertion of the improved discretization and solver accelerator into a TEACH mode, that has been widely applied to combustor flows, illustrates the substantial gains to be achieved.

Turan, A.↗

A package for unstructured grid generation and finite element flow solvers

A set of programs for unstructured mesh construction, fluid flow calculation and flow field visualization in two and three dimensions is described. The grid generators are based on the advancing front concept. The flow solvers use the finite element methods with Flux Corrected Transport techniques to solve several sets of equations including the Euler and Burger's equations. Several examples show the flexibility and accuracy of the methods.

Gumbert, Clyde↗

Flux-split algorithms for hypersonic flows

This study reviews numerical techniques for the simulation of fluid flows spanning the range of reactive regimes, from local chemical equilibrium to full thermochemical non-equilibrium. In particular, characteristic-based algorithms are considered, of the flux-vector and the flux-difference type, which are becoming ever more popular due to their accurate rendition of physically complicated, shock-wave dominated flows. Consideration is given to the problems associated with modeling the thermo-chemical behavior of reactive mixtures of thermally perfect gases, and a few topics of current research are outlined.

Cinnella, P.↗

Modeling Cyclic Phase Change and Energy Storage in Solar Heat Receivers

Numerical results pertaining to cyclic melting and freezing of an encapsulated phase change material (PCM), integrated into a solar heat receiver, have been reported. The cyclic nature of the present melt/freeze problem is relevant to latent heat thermal energy storage (LHTES) systems used to power solar Brayton engines in microgravity environments. Specifically, a physical and numerical model of the solar heat receiver component of NASA Lewis Research Center's Ground Test Demonstration (GTD) project was developed and results compared with available experimental data. Multi-conjugate effects such as the convective fluid flow of a low-Prandtl-number fluid, coupled with thermal conduction in the phase change material, containment tube and working fluid conduit were accounted for in the model. A single-band thermal radiation model was also included to quantify reradiative energy exchange inside the receiver and losses through the aperture. The eutectic LiF-CaF2 was used as the phase change material (PCM) and a mixture of He/Xe was used as the working fluid coolant. A modified version of the computer code HOTTube was used to generate results for comparisons with GTD data for both the subcooled and two-phase regimes. While qualitative trends were in close agreement for the balanced orbit modes, excellent quantitative agreement was observed for steady-state modes.

Hall, Carsie A., III↗

Parametric Analysis of Cyclic Phase Change and Energy Storage in Solar Heat Receivers

A parametric study on cyclic melting and freezing of an encapsulated phase change material (PCM), integrated into a solar heat receiver, has been performed. The cyclic nature of the present melt/freeze problem is relevant to latent heat thermal energy storage (LHTES) systems used to power solar Brayton engines in microgravity environments. Specifically, a physical and numerical model of the solar heat receiver component of NASA Lewis Research Center's Ground Test Demonstration (GTD) project was developed. Multi-conjugate effects such as the convective fluid flow of a low-Prandtl-number fluid, coupled with thermal conduction in the phase change material, containment tube and working fluid conduit were accounted for in the model. A single-band thermal radiation model was also included to quantify reradiative energy exchange inside the receiver and losses through the aperture. The eutectic LiF-CaF2 was used as the phase change material (PCM) and a mixture of He/Xe was used as the working fluid coolant. A modified version of the computer code HOTTube was used to generate results in the two-phase regime. Results indicate that parametric changes in receiver gas inlet temperature and receiver heat input effects higher sensitivity to changes in receiver gas exit temperatures.

Hall, Carsie A., III↗

Strain shift measured from stress-controlled oscillatory shear: Evidence for a continuous yielding transition and new techniques to determine recovery rheology measures

Understanding the yielding of complex fluids is an important rheological challenge that affects our ability to engineer and process materials for a wide variety of applications. Common theoretical understandings of yield stress fluids follow the Oldroyd–Prager formalism in which the material behavior below the yield stress is treated as solidlike, and above the yield stress as liquidlike, with an instantaneous transition between the two states. This formalism was built on a quasi-static approach to the yield stress, while most applications, ranging from material processing to end user applications, involve a transient approach to yielding over a finite timescale. Using stress-controlled oscillatory shear experiments, we show that yield stress fluids flow below their yield stresses. This is quantified through measuring the strain shift, which is the value about which the strain oscillates during a stress-controlled test and is a function of only the unrecoverable strain. Measurements of the strain shift are, therefore, measurements of flow having taken place. These experimental results are compared to the Herschel–Bulkley form of the Saramito model, which utilizes the Oldroyd–Prager formalism, and the recently published Kamani–Donley–Rogers (KDR) model, in which one constitutive equation represents the entire range of material responses. Scaling relationships are derived, which allow us to show why yield stress fluids will flow across all stresses, above and below their yield stress. Finally, derivations are presented that show strain shift can be used to determine average metrics previously attainable only through recovery rheology, and these are experimentally verified.

Mechanics↗

Three-Dimensional Distribution of Hooks in Al-Killed Low-Carbon Continuous Casting Steel Slabs

In the current study, steel samples were etched and hooks on several successive layers of longitudinal and transverse slab sections were obtained to investigate the three-dimensional (3-D) distribution of hooks in low-carbon continuous casting slabs. The data from industrial trials and numerical calculation were used to explain the variation in the distribution and morphology of hooks. Around the slab perimeter, the mean depth of hooks at the center and edge of the wide face and the edge of the narrow face was larger than that of other locations. The 3-D hook demonstrated a varied characteristic on different layers, as the observed surface changed in the longitudinal direction. By several layers of the transverse section being polished off, hooks in the transverse direction below the slab surface were obtained, in which the truncated hook and the joint hook between the wide face and narrow face were observed at the slab corner. The same oscillation mark could show as hook type and depression type, depending on the occurrence of the overflow between the solidified meniscus and the copper plate. Industrial trials and the numerical calculation illustrated that the transient variation of hooks in the 3-D space was related to the level fluctuation of molten steel in the mold and temperature fluctuation with casting time and the fluid flow and temperature near the meniscus. Finally, the influence area and volume of hooks on the capture of inclusions and bubbles were discussed.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Generating aerosols for laser velocimeter seeding

The laser velocimeter (LV) is a unique tool for fluid flow measurements. In such measurements, even though the fluid velocity is of primary interest, the LV signal originates from seed particles present in the fluid and the LV actually measures the velocity of these particles. Thus it is important that a sufficient number of seed particles be present in the fluid and they scatter sufficient light to produce LV signals. Also, the seed particles should follow the fluid with high fidelity. Aerodynamic diameter is the true measure of a particle's ability to follow the flow. The aerodynamic diameter of a particle is defined as the diameter of a unit density sphere with same settling velocity as the particle in question. It is affected by geometric diameter, density and shape of the particle. For LV seeding, particles with smaller aerodynamic diameter are desirable because they follow the flow more readily. On the other hand, in general, the particle's ability to scatter light increases with its geometric diameter and its refractive index.

Agarwal, J. K.↗