SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “hydrodynamics methods”

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.

SourceResearch connectionFrom yearThrough year

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 991 records · Page 55

All sources NASA NTRS DOE OSTI

DOE OSTI2021

Modification of the magneto-hydrodynamic equilibrium by the lower-hybrid wave driven fast electrons on the TST-2 spherical tokamak

Presence of a large population of fast particles may qualitatively modify the tokamak equilibrium from the one that can be described by standard magneto-hydrodynamics (MHD). The kinetic modification of the MHD equilibrium was studied for a lower-hybrid (LH) wave driven plasma on the TST-2 spherical tokamak. The analysis was performed using an equilibrium reconstruction method based on an extended MHD model that considers a two-component plasma of bulk MHD fluid and kinetic fast electrons. Scrape-off-layer current appeared naturally in the extended MHD analysis because of the finite electron orbit excursion from the flux surfaces. This reduced the bulk pressure contribution to the toroidal current substantially. Furthermore, the resulting poloidal flux profile was more consistent with that inferred from the Thomson scattering measurement.

extended magneto-hydrodynamics↗

DOE OSTI2016

A unified gas-kinetic scheme for continuum and rarefied flows IV: Full Boltzmann and model equations

Fluid dynamic equations are valid in their respective modeling scales, such as the particle mean free path scale of the Boltzmann equation and the hydrodynamic scale of the Navier–Stokes (NS) equations. With a variation of the modeling scales, theoretically there should have a continuous spectrum of fluid dynamic equations. Even though the Boltzmann equation is claimed to be valid in all scales, many Boltzmann solvers, including direct simulation Monte Carlo method, require the cell resolution to the order of particle mean free path scale. Therefore, they are still single scale methods. In order to study multiscale flow evolution efficiently, the dynamics in the computational fluid has to be changed with the scales. A direct modeling of flow physics with a changeable scale may become an appropriate approach. The unified gas-kinetic scheme (UGKS) is a direct modeling method in the mesh size scale, and its underlying flow physics depends on the resolution of the cell size relative to the particle mean free path. The cell size of UGKS is not limited by the particle mean free path. With the variation of the ratio between the numerical cell size and local particle mean free path, the UGKS recovers the flow dynamics from the particle transport and collision in the kinetic scale to the wave propagation in the hydrodynamic scale. The previous UGKS is mostly constructed from the evolution solution of kinetic model equations. Even though the UGKS is very accurate and effective in the low transition and continuum flow regimes with the time step being much larger than the particle mean free time, it still has space to develop more accurate flow solver in the region, where the time step is comparable with the local particle mean free time. In such a scale, there is dynamic difference from the full Boltzmann collision term and the model equations. This work is about the further development of the UGKS with the implementation of the full Boltzmann collision term in the region where it is needed. The central ingredient of the UGKS is the coupled treatment of particle transport and collision in the flux evaluation across a cell interface, where a continuous flow dynamics from kinetic to hydrodynamic scales is modeled. The newly developed UGKS has the asymptotic preserving (AP) property of recovering the NS solutions in the continuum flow regime, and the full Boltzmann solution in the rarefied regime. In the mostly unexplored transition regime, the UGKS itself provides a valuable tool for the non-equilibrium flow study. The mathematical properties of the scheme, such as stability, accuracy, and the asymptotic preserving, will be analyzed in this paper as well.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

DOE OSTI2014

Stochastic interactions of two Brownian hard spheres in the presence of depletants

A quantitative analysis is presented for the stochastic interactions of a pair of Brownian hard spheres in non-adsorbing polymer solutions. The hard spheres are hypothetically trapped by optical tweezers and allowed for random motion near the trapped positions. The investigation focuses on the long-time correlated Brownian motion. The mobility tensor altered by the polymer depletion effect is computed by the boundary integral method, and the corresponding random displacement is determined by the fluctuation-dissipation theorem. From our computations it follows that the presence of depletion layers around the hard spheres has a significant effect on the hydrodynamic interactions and particle dynamics as compared to pure solvent and uniform polymer solution cases. The probability distribution functions of random walks of the two interacting hard spheres that are trapped clearly shift due to the polymer depletion effect. The results show that the reduction of the viscosity in the depletion layers around the spheres and the entropic force due to the overlapping of depletion zones have a significant influence on the correlated Brownian interactions.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

NASA NTRS1967

Computer analysis of large structural systems.

Numerical procedure for structural systems analysis, discussing computer application to hydrodynamic, electric, magnetic, thermodynamic, elastostatic and elastodynamic problems

NUMERICAL ANALYSIS↗

DOE OSTI2015

Development of an Efficient Meso- scale Multi-phase Flow Solver in Nuclear Applications

The proposed research aims at formulating a predictive high-order Lattice Boltzmann Equation for multi-phase flows relevant to nuclear energy related application - namely, saturated and sub-cooled boiling in reactors, and liquid- liquid mixing and extraction for fuel cycle separation. An efficient flow solver will be developed based on the Finite Element based Lattice Boltzmann Method (FE- LBM), accounting for phase-change heat transfer and capable of treating multiple phases over length scales from the submicron to the meter. A thermal LBM will be developed in order to handle adjustable Prandtl number, arbitrary specific heat ratio, a wide range of temperature variations, better numerical stability during liquid-vapor phase change, and full thermo-hydrodynamic consistency. Two-phase FE-LBM will be extended to liquid–liquid–gas multi-phase flows for application to high-fidelity simulations building up from the meso-scale up to the equipment sub-component scale. While several relevant applications exist, the initial applications for demonstration of the efficient methods to be developed as part of this project include numerical investigations of Critical Heat Flux (CHF) phenomena in nuclear reactor fuel bundles, and liquid-liquid mixing and interfacial area generation for liquid-liquid separations. In addition, targeted experiments will be conducted for validation of this advanced multi-phase model.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

DOE OSTI2024

Weak boundary conditions for Lagrangian shock hydrodynamics: A high-order finite element implementation on curved boundaries

Here, we propose a new Nitsche-type approach for weak enforcement of normal velocity boundary conditions for a Lagrangian discretization of the compressible shock-hydrodynamics equations using high-order finite elements on curved boundaries. Specifically, the variational formulation is appropriately modified to enforce free-slip wall boundary conditions, without perturbing the structure of the function spaces used to represent the solution, with a considerable simplification with respect to traditional approaches. Total energy is conserved and the resulting mass matrices are constant in time. The robustness and accuracy of the proposed method are validated with an extensive set of tests involving nontrivial curved boundaries.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

DOE OSTI2019

Global anomalies, discrete symmetries and hydrodynamic effective actions

We derive effective actions for parity-violating fluids in both (3 + 1) and (2 + 1) dimensions, including those with anomalies. As a corollary we confirm the most general constitutive relations for such systems derived previously using other methods. We discuss in detail connections between parity-odd transport and underlying discrete symmetries. In (3+1) dimensions we elucidate connections between anomalous transport coefficients and global anomalies, and clarify a previous puzzle concerning transports and local gravitational anomalies.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

DOE OSTI2017

Experimental study and discrete element method simulation of Geldart Group A particles in a small-scale fluidized bed

Geldart Group A particles are of great importance in various chemical processes because of advantages such as ease of fluidization, large surface area, and many other unique properties. It is very challenging to model the fluidization behavior of such particles as widely reported in the literature. In this study, a pseudo-2D experimental column with a width of 5 cm, a height of 45 cm, and a depth of 0.32 cm was developed for detailed measurements of fluidized bed hydrodynamics of fine particles to facilitate the validation of computational fluid dynamic (CFD) modeling. The hydrodynamics of sieved FCC particles (Sauter mean diameter of 148 µm and density of 1300 kg/m3) and NETL-32D sorbents (Sauter mean diameter of 100 µm and density of 480 kg/m3) were investigated mainly through the visualization by a high-speed camera. Numerical simulations were then conducted by using NETL’s open source code MFIX-DEM. Both qualitative and quantitative information including bed expansion, bubble characteristics, and solid movement were compared between the numerical simulations and the experimental measurement. Furthermore, the cohesive van der Waals force was incorporated in the MFIX-DEM simulations and its influences on the flow hydrodynamics were studied.

42 ENGINEERING↗

DOE OSTI2020

The MFiX Particle-in-Cell Method (MFiX-PIC) Theory Guide

MFiX (Multiphase Flow with Interphase eXchanges) is an open-source multiphase flow solver developed at the National Energy Technology Laboratory. Within the code, users have access to a single phase or interpenetrating continua-based multiphase two-fluid model (TFM), a discrete element model (DEM), and a particle-in-cell model (PIC). TFM, DEM, and PIC can all be used to create multiphase simulations that include hydrodynamics, chemical reactions, and heat transfer.

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT↗

DOE OSTI2018

Multiscale modeling of shock wave localization in porous energetic material

Shock wave interactions with defects, such as pores, are known to play a key role in the chemical initiation of energetic materials. The shock response of hexanitrostilbene is studied through a combination of large-scale reactive molecular dynamics and mesoscale hydrodynamic simulations. In order to extend our simulation capability at the mesoscale to include weak shock conditions (< 6 GPa), atomistic simulations of pore collapse are used here to define a strain-rate-dependent strength model. Comparing these simulation methods allows us to impose physically reasonable constraints on the mesoscale model parameters. In doing so, we have been able to study shock waves interacting with pores as a function of this viscoplastic material response. Finally, we find that the pore collapse behavior of weak shocks is characteristically different than that of strong shocks.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

DOE OSTI2014

LyMAS: Predicting large-scale Lyα forest statistics from the dark matter density field

We describe Lyα Mass Association Scheme (LyMAS), a method of predicting clustering statistics in the Lyα forest on large scales from moderate-resolution simulations of the dark matter (DM) distribution, with calibration from high-resolution hydrodynamic simulations of smaller volumes. We use the 'Horizon-MareNostrum' simulation, a 50 h {sup –1} Mpc comoving volume evolved with the adaptive mesh hydrodynamic code RAMSES, to compute the conditional probability distribution P(F{sub s} |δ {sub s}) of the transmitted flux F{sub s} , smoothed (one-dimensionally, 1D) over the spectral resolution scale, on the DM density contrast δ {sub s}, smoothed (three-dimensionally, 3D) over a similar scale. In this study we adopt the spectral resolution of the SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) at z = 2.5, and we find optimal results for a DM smoothing length σ = 0.3 h {sup –1} Mpc (comoving). In its simplest form, LyMAS draws randomly from the hydro-calibrated P(F{sub s} |δ {sub s}) to convert DM skewers into Lyα forest pseudo-spectra, which are then used to compute cross-sightline flux statistics. In extended form, LyMAS exactly reproduces both the 1D power spectrum and one-point flux distribution of the hydro simulation spectra. Applied to the MareNostrum DM field, LyMAS accurately predicts the two-point conditional flux distribution and flux correlation function of the full hydro simulation for transverse sightline separations as small as 1 h {sup –1} Mpc, including redshift-space distortion effects. It is substantially more accurate than a deterministic density-flux mapping ({sup F}luctuating Gunn-Peterson Approximation{sup )}, often used for large-volume simulations of the forest. With the MareNostrum calibration, we apply LyMAS to 1024{sup 3} N-body simulations of a 300 h {sup –1} Mpc and 1.0 h {sup –1} Gpc cube to produce large, publicly available catalogs of mock BOSS spectra that probe a large comoving volume. LyMAS will be a powerful tool for interpreting 3D Lyα forest data, thereby transforming measurements from BOSS and other massive quasar absorption surveys into constraints on dark energy, DM, space geometry, and intergalactic medium physics.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2019

Storm Surge Modeling in Puget Sound

In this study, a storm surge model of the Salish Sea was developed to simulate storm surge in Puget Sound using the unstructured-grid, finite-volume community ocean model (FVCOM). The model was based on Pacific Northwest National Laboratory’s existing Puget Sound hydrodynamic model that has been validated extensively in previous studies. To identify representative historical storm events, a systematic approach was developed based on the non-tidal residual (NTR) method. A total of 34 storm surge events between 1980 and 2016 were identified and simulated. To accurately simulate storm surge inside Puget Sound, the model was driven by reanalyzed Climate Forecast System Reanalysis meteorological forcing and observed water levels at the entrance of Strait of Juan de Fuca and southern entrance of Johnstone Strait. Model results for total water level, storm surge, and currents were compared with field measurements. A series of error statistics parameters were also calculated to quantify the model’s skills in simulating storm surge in the Salish Sea. Error statistics of model performance metrics demonstrated that the Salish Sea storm surge model was able to simulate storm surge inside Puget Sound with high accuracy. Storm surge propagation into Puget Sound is a nonlinear process that cannot be simply determined by a static approach for the entire domain. The maximum NTR distribution inside Puget Sound suggests that storm surge tends to be amplified in several sub-basins and inlets of the Puget Sound, such as Bellingham Bay, Hood Canal, south Puget Sound, and the multi-inlet basin behind Agate and Rich Passages. Therefore, future study is necessary to further quantify the storm surge level in these high-risk areas through field measurements and refined model simulations.

16 TIDAL AND WAVE POWER↗

DOE OSTI2016

An efficient direct solver for rarefied gas flows with arbitrary statistics

A new numerical methodology associated with a unified treatment is presented to solve the Boltzmann–BGK equation of gas dynamics for the classical and quantum gases described by the Bose–Einstein and Fermi–Dirac statistics. Utilizing a class of globally-stiffly-accurate implicit–explicit Runge–Kutta scheme for the temporal evolution, associated with the discrete ordinate method for the quadratures in the momentum space and the weighted essentially non-oscillatory method for the spatial discretization, the proposed scheme is asymptotic-preserving and imposes no non-linear solver or requires the knowledge of fugacity and temperature to capture the flow structures in the hydrodynamic (Euler) limit. The proposed treatment overcomes the limitations found in the work by Yang and Muljadi (2011) [33] due to the non-linear nature of quantum relations, and can be applied in studying the dynamics of a gas with internal degrees of freedom with correct values of the ratio of specific heat for the flow regimes for all Knudsen numbers and energy wave lengths. The present methodology is numerically validated with the unified treatment by the one-dimensional shock tube problem and the two-dimensional Riemann problems for gases of arbitrary statistics. Descriptions of ideal quantum gases including rotational degrees of freedom have been successfully achieved under the proposed methodology.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

DOE OSTI2018

A New Method to Measure the Post-reionization Ionizing Background from the Joint Distribution of Ly α and Ly β Forest Transmission

The amplitude of the ionizing background that pervades the intergalactic medium (IGM) at the end of the epoch of reionization provides a valuable constraint on the emissivity of the sources that reionized the universe. While measurements of the ionizing background at lower redshifts rely on a simulation-calibrated mapping between the photoionization rate and the mean transmission of the Lyα forest, at z ≳ 6 the IGM becomes increasingly opaque and transmission arises solely in narrow spikes separated by saturated Gunn–Peterson troughs. In this regime, the traditional approach of measuring the average transmission over large ~50 Mpc/h regions is less sensitive and suboptimal. In addition, the five times smaller oscillator strength of the Lyβ transition implies that the Lyβ forest is considerably more transparent at z ≳ 6, even in the presence of contamination by foreground z ~ 5 Lyα forest absorption. We present a novel statistical approach to analyze the joint distribution of transmission spikes in the cospatial z ~ 6 Lyα and Lyβ forests. Our method relies on approximate Bayesian computation (ABC), which circumvents the necessity of computing the intractable likelihood function describing the highly correlated Lyα and Lyβ transmission. We apply ABC to mock data generated from a large-volume hydrodynamical simulation combined with a state-of-the-art model of ionizing background fluctuations in the post-reionization IGM and show that it is sensitive to higher IGM neutral hydrogen fractions than previous techniques. As a proof of concept, we apply this methodology to a real spectrum of a z = 6.54 quasar and measure the ionizing background from 5.4 ≤ z ≤ 6.4 along this sightline with ~0.2 dex statistical uncertainties.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2016

Assessment of First- and Second-Order Wave-Excitation Load Models for Cylindrical Substructures

The hydrodynamic loads on an offshore wind turbine's support structure present unique engineering challenges for offshore wind. Two typical approaches used for modeling these hydrodynamic loads are potential flow (PF) and strip theory (ST), the latter via Morison's equation. This study examines the first- and second-order wave-excitation surge forces on a fixed cylinder in regular waves computed by the PF and ST approaches to (1) verify their numerical implementations in HydroDyn and (2) understand when the ST approach breaks down. The numerical implementation of PF and ST in HydroDyn, a hydrodynamic time-domain solver implemented as a module in the FAST wind turbine engineering tool, was verified by showing the consistency in the first- and second-order force output between the two methods across a range of wave frequencies. ST is known to be invalid at high frequencies, and this study investigates where the ST solution diverges from the PF solution. Regular waves across a range of frequencies were run in HydroDyn for a monopile substructure. As expected, the solutions for the first-order (linear) wave-excitation loads resulting from these regular waves are similar for PF and ST when the diameter of the cylinder is small compared to the length of the waves (generally when the diameter-to-wavelength ratio is less than 0.2). The same finding applies to the solutions for second-order wave-excitation loads, but for much smaller diameter-to-wavelength ratios (based on wavelengths of first-order waves).

17 WIND ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2017

Assessment of First- and Second-Order Wave-Excitation Load Models for Cylindrical Substructures: Preprint

17 WIND ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2014

Fluctuating hydrodynamics of multispecies nonreactive mixtures

In this study we discuss the formulation of the fluctuating Navier-Stokes equations for multispecies, nonreactive fluids. In particular, we establish a form suitable for numerical solution of the resulting stochastic partial differential equations. An accurate and efficient numerical scheme, based on our previous methods for single species and binary mixtures, is presented and tested at equilibrium as well as for a variety of nonequilibrium problems. These include the study of giant nonequilibrium concentration fluctuations in a ternary mixture in the presence of a diffusion barrier, the triggering of a Rayleigh-Taylor instability by diffusion in a four-species mixture, as well as reverse diffusion in a ternary mixture. Finally, good agreement with theory and experiment demonstrates that the formulation is robust and can serve as a useful tool in the study of thermal fluctuations for multispecies fluids.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

DOE OSTI2015

A new method to quantify the effects of baryons on the matter power spectrum

Future large-scale galaxy surveys have the potential to become leading probes for cosmology provided the influence of baryons on the total mass distribution is understood well enough. As hydrodynamical simulations strongly depend on details in the feedback implementations, no unique and robust predictions for baryonic effects currently exist. In this paper we propose a baryonic correction model that modifies the density field of dark-matter-only N-body simulations to mimic the effects of baryons from any underlying adopted feedback recipe. The model assumes haloes to consist of 4 components: 1- hot gas in hydrostatical equilibrium, 2- ejected gas from feedback processes, 3- central galaxy stars, and 4- adiabatically relaxed dark matter, which all modify the initial dark-matter-only density profiles. These altered profiles allow to define a displacement field for particles in N-body simulations and to modify the total density field accordingly. The main advantage of the baryonic correction model is to connect the total matter density field to the observable distribution of gas and stars in haloes, making it possible to parametrise baryonic effects on the matter power spectrum. We show that the most crucial quantities are the mass fraction of ejected gas and its corresponding ejection radius. The former controls how strongly baryons suppress the power spectrum, while the latter provides a measure of the scale where baryonic effects become important. A comparison with X-ray and Sunyaev-Zel'dovich cluster observations suggests that baryons suppress wave modes above k∼0.5 h/Mpc with a maximum suppression of 10-25 percent around k∼ 2 h/Mpc. More detailed observations of the gas in the outskirts of groups and clusters are required to decrease the large uncertainties of these numbers.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗