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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 1,009 records · Page 56
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2013

Numerical Simulation of the Aircraft Wake Vortex Flowfield

The near wake vortex flowfield from a NACA0012 half-wing was simulated using a fully unstructured Navier-Stokes flow solver in three dimensions at a chord Reynolds number of 4.6 million and a Mach number of approximately 0.15. Several simulations were performed to examine the effect of boundary conditions, mesh resolution and turbulence scheme on the formation of wingtip vortex and its downstream propagation. The standard Spalart-Allmaras turbulence model was compared with the Dacles-Mariani and Spalart-Shur corrections for rotation and curvature effects. The simulation results were evaluated using the data from experiment performed at NASA Ames' 32in x 48in low speed wind tunnel.

Ahmad, Nashat N.↗
NASA NTRS2000

Recommendations for Achieving Accurate Numerical Simulation of Tip Clearance Flows in Transonic Compressor Rotors

The tip clearance flows of transonic compressor rotors are important because they have a significant impact on rotor and stage performance. While numerical simulations of these flows are quite sophisticated. they are seldom verified through rigorous comparisons of numerical and measured data because these kinds of measurements are rare in the detail necessary to be useful in high-speed machines. In this paper we compare measured tip clearance flow details (e.g. trajectory and radial extent) with corresponding data obtained from a numerical simulation. Recommendations for achieving accurate numerical simulation of tip clearance flows are presented based on this comparison. Laser Doppler Velocimeter (LDV) measurements acquired in a transonic compressor rotor, NASA Rotor 35, are used. The tip clearance flow field of this transonic rotor was simulated using a Navier-Stokes turbomachinery solver that incorporates an advanced k-epsilon turbulence model derived for flows that are not in local equilibrium. Comparison between measured and simulated results indicates that simulation accuracy is primarily dependent upon the ability of the numerical code to resolve important details of a wall-bounded shear layer formed by the relative motion between the over-tip leakage flow and the shroud wall. A simple method is presented for determining the strength of this shear layer.

VanZante, Dale E.↗
DOE OSTI2025

A scalable multidimensional fully implicit solver for Hall magnetohydrodynamics

We propose an optimally performant fully implicit algorithm for the Hall magnetohydrodynamics (HMHD) equations based on multigrid-preconditioned Jacobian-free Newton-Krylov methods. HMHD is a challenging system to solve numerically because it supports stiff fast dispersive waves. The preconditioner is formulated using an operator-split approximate block factorization (Schur complement), informed by physics insight. We use a vector-potential formulation (instead of a magnetic field one) to allow a clean segregation of the problematic $\nabla$ x $\nabla$ x operator in the electron Ohm's law subsystem. This segregation allows the formulation of an effective damped block-Jacobi smoother for multigrid. We demonstrate by analysis that our proposed block-Jacobi iteration is convergent and has the smoothing property. The resulting HMHD solver is verified linearly with wave propagation examples, and nonlinearly with the GEM challenge reconnection problem by comparison against another HMHD code. We demonstrate the excellent algorithmic and parallel performance of the algorithm up to 16384 MPI tasks in two dimensions.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2021

A physics-based model for frost buildup under turbulent flow using direct numerical simulations

We present a new model for frost buildup under turbulent (and laminar) flow using direct numerical simulations. The physical model consists of two layers, the air and the frost. The air layer is fully resolved and consists of solving for the velocity, temperature, and vapor mass fraction fields. The frost layer thickness is resolved using conservation of mass and energy. Both phases are dynamically coupled using the immersed boundary method. Three-dimensional simulations are conducted in an open-channel configuration. A number of challenges need to be overcome to make these simulations feasible. First, to enforce far-field conditions of zero gradient and prescribed mean temperature and humidity, a source term is added to the energy and transport equations in the flow solver. Second, the mean frost thickness is subtracted after each time step to ensure a constant mean flow thickness and level of turbulence in the numerical domain. Third, a slow-time acceleration approach, which accelerates the frost buildup by a predetermined factor, is employed to bridge the gap between the fast turbulent and slow frost buildup time scales. Finally, a frost densification scheme is used to overcome the difficulties of vertically varying frost properties. The model is validated by comparing the frost thickness and frost thickness buildup rate over a period of one hour from a cooled flat plate experiment. As a result, both quantities compare favorably with experiments.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
NASA NTRS1990

Three-dimensional flux-split Euler schemes involving unstructured dynamic meshes

Improved algorithms for the solution of the three-dimensional time-dependent Euler equations are presented for aerodynamic analysis involving unstructured dynamic meshes. The improvements have been developed recently to the spatial and temporal discretizations used by unstructured grid flow solvers. The spatial discretization involves a flux-split approach which is naturally dissipative and captures shock waves sharply with at most one grid point within the shock structure. The temporal discretization involves either an explicit time-integration scheme using a multi-stage Runge-Kutta procedure or an implicit time-integration scheme using a Gauss-Seidel relaxation procedure which is computationally efficient for either steady or unsteady flow problems. With the implicit Gauss-Seidel procedure, very large time steps may be used for rapid convergence to steady state, and the step size for unsteady cases may be selected for temporal accuracy rather than for numerical stability. Steady flow results are presented for both the NACA 0012 airfoil and the ONERA M6 wing to demonstrate applications of the new Euler solvers. The paper presents a description of the Euler solvers along with results and comparisons which assess the capability.

Batina, John T.↗
NASA NTRS2015

Tetrahedral-Mesh Simulation of Turbulent Flows with the Space-Time Conservative Schemes

Direct numerical simulations of turbulent flows are predominantly carried out using structured, hexahedral meshes despite decades of development in unstructured mesh methods. Tetrahedral meshes offer ease of mesh generation around complex geometries and the potential of an orientation free grid that would provide un-biased small-scale dissipation and more accurate intermediate scale solutions. However, due to the lack of consistent multi-dimensional numerical formulations in conventional schemes for triangular and tetrahedral meshes at the cell interfaces, numerical issues exist when flow discontinuities or stagnation regions are present. The space-time conservative conservation element solution element (CESE) method - due to its Riemann-solver-free shock capturing capabilities, non-dissipative baseline schemes, and flux conservation in time as well as space - has the potential to more accurately simulate turbulent flows using unstructured tetrahedral meshes. To pave the way towards accurate simulation of shock/turbulent boundary-layer interaction, a series of wave and shock interaction benchmark problems that increase in complexity, are computed in this paper with triangular/tetrahedral meshes. Preliminary computations for the normal shock/turbulence interactions are carried out with a relatively coarse mesh, by direct numerical simulations standards, in order to assess other effects such as boundary conditions and the necessity of a buffer domain. The results indicate that qualitative agreement with previous studies can be obtained for flows where, strong shocks co-exist along with unsteady waves that display a broad range of scales, with a relatively compact computational domain and less stringent requirements for grid clustering near the shock. With the space-time conservation properties, stable solutions without any spurious wave reflections can be obtained without a need for buffer domains near the outflow/farfield boundaries. Computational results for the isotropic turbulent flow decay, at a relatively high turbulent Mach number, show a nicely behaved spectral decay rate for medium to high wave numbers. The high-order CESE schemes offer very robust solutions even with the presence of strong shocks or widespread shocklets. The explicit formulation in conjunction with a close to unity theoretical upper Courant number bound has the potential to offer an efficient numerical framework for general compressible turbulent flow simulations with unstructured meshes.

Chang, Chau-Lyan↗
DOE OSTI2020

A fully implicit, scalable, conservative nonlinear relativistic Fokker–Planck 0D-2P solver for runaway electrons

Upon application of a sufficiently strong electric field, electrons break away from thermal equilibrium and approach relativistic speeds. These highly energetic ‘runaway’ electrons (~ MeV) play a significant role in tokamak disruption physics, and therefore their accurate understanding is essential to develop reliable mitigation strategies. As such, we have developed a fully implicit solver for the 0D-2P (i.e., including two momenta coordinates) relativistic nonlinear Fokker–Planck equation (rFP). As in earlier implicit rFP studies (NORSE, CQL3D), electron–ion interactions are modeled using the Lorentz operator, and synchrotron damping using the Abraham–Lorentz–Dirac reaction term. However, our implementation improves on these earlier studies by (1) ensuring exact conservation properties for electron collisions, (2) strictly preserving positivity, and (3) being scalable algorithmically and in parallel. Key to our proposed approach is an efficient multigrid preconditioner for the linearized rFP equation, a multigrid elliptic solver for the Braams–Karney potentials, and a novel adaptive technique to determine the associated boundary values. We verify the accuracy and efficiency of the proposed scheme with numerical results ranging from small electric-field electrical conductivity measurements to the accurate reproduction of runaway tail dynamics when strong electric fields are applied.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Direct numerical simulations for hybrid rocket boundary layers: Performance modeling and scaling

This paper presents a comprehensive performance and scaling analysis of direct numerical simulations for reacting boundary layers, focusing on slab burner configurations. Using a PETSc-based finite volume CFD framework, the study evaluates the scalability and computational cost of flow, chemistry, and radiation evaluations across 2D and 3D simulations. Polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) is the fuel with pure O 2 as the oxidizer, modeled using a detailed chemical kinetics mechanism with 113 species and 660 reactions. A ray-tracing-based radiation solver, designed for distributed memory applications, is implemented to model radiation heat transfer. Parallel scalability is analyzed for the coupled flow, chemistry, and radiation heat transfer processes. Weak and strong scaling studies are conducted on up to 15,000 computational ranks, revealing robust performance when flow cells exceed 200 per rank. Chemistry evaluations dominate the computational cost in large 3D simulations, accounting for approximately 40% of the total runtime, while flow processes contribute around 35%, and radiation solver contributions remain below 10% due to reduced evaluation frequencies. GPU accelerated chemistry evaluation, implemented with Zero-RK, demonstrates significant promise, achieving up to a 4x speedup for workloads exceeding 30,000 cells per GPU. However, diminishing returns are observed for smaller workloads due to CPU-GPU communication overhead. This study identifies key challenges, including memory bottlenecks and the effects of domain partitioning on flow scalability, while highlighting the potential of GPU-accelerated chemistry to reduce computational costs. In conclusion, these findings provide realizable run configurations for 2D, 3D, and GPU-accelerated cases, offering insights for optimizing reactive flow solvers.

CFD Scalability↗
NASA NTRS1993

Time-accurate Navier-Stokes calculations with multigrid acceleration

A numerical scheme to solve the unsteady Navier-Stokes equations is described. The scheme is implemented by modifying the multigrid-multiblock version of the steady Navier-Stokes equations solver, TLNS3D. The scheme is fully implicit in time and uses TLNS3D to iteratively invert the equations at each physical time step. The design objective of the scheme is unconditional stability (at least for first- and second-order discretizations of the physical time derivatives). With unconditional stability, the choice of the time step is based on the physical phenomena to be resolved rather than limited by numerical stability which is especially important for high Reynolds number viscous flows, where the spatial variation of grid cell size can be as much as six orders of magnitude. An analysis of the iterative procedure and the implementation of this procedure in TLNS3D are discussed. Numerical results are presented to show both the capabilities of the scheme and its speed up relative to the use of global minimum time stepping. Reductions in computational times of an order of magnitude are demonstrated.

Melson, N. Duane↗
DOE OSTI2020

A numerical study of particle jetting in a dense particle bed driven by an air-blast

In this work, the particle jetting behavior in a blast-driven dense particle bed is studied at early times. Four-way coupled Euler–Lagrange simulations are performed using a high-order discontinuous Galerkin spectral element solver coupled with a high-order Lagrangian particle solver, wherein the inter-particle collisions are resolved using a discrete element method collision model. Following the experiments of Rodriguez et al. [“Formation of particle jetting in a cylindrical shock tube,” Shock Waves 23(6), 619–634 (2013)] and the simulations of Osnes et al. [“Numerical simulation of particle jet formation induced by shock wave acceleration in a Hele-Shaw cell,” Shock Waves 28(3), 451–461 (2018)], the simulations are performed in a quasi-two-dimensional cylindrical geometry (Hele-Shaw cell). Parametric studies are carried out to assess the impact of the coefficient of restitution and the strength of the incident shock on the particle jetting behavior. The deposition of vorticity through a multiphase (gas–particle) analog of Richtmyer–Meshkov instability is observed to play a crucial role in channeling the particles into well-defined jets at the outer edge of the particle bed. This is confirmed by the presence of vortex pairs around the outer jets. Furthermore, the effect of the relaxation of the relative velocity between the two phases on the vorticity generation is explored by analyzing the correlation between the radial velocity of particles and the radial velocity of the gas at the particle location.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2021

GR-Athena++: Puncture Evolutions on Vertex-centered Oct-tree Adaptive Mesh Refinement

Numerical relativity is central to the investigation of astrophysical sources in the dynamical and strong-field gravity regime, such as binary black hole and neutron star coalescences. Current challenges set by gravitational-wave and multimessenger astronomy call for highly performant and scalable codes on modern massively parallel architectures. We present GR-Athena++, a general-relativistic, high-order, vertex-centered solver that extends the oct-tree, adaptive mesh refinement capabilities of the astrophysical (radiation) magnetohydrodynamics code Athena++. To simulate dynamical spacetimes, GR-Athena++ uses the Z4c evolution scheme of numerical relativity coupled to the moving puncture gauge. We demonstrate stable and accurate binary black hole merger evolutions via extensive convergence testing, cross-code validation, and verification against state-of-the-art effective-one-body waveforms. GR-Athena++ leverages the task-based parallelism paradigm of Athena++ to achieve excellent scalability. We measure strong-scaling efficiencies above 95% for up to ~1.2 × 10 4 CPUs and excellent weak scaling is shown up to ~10 5 CPUs in a production binary black hole setup with adaptive mesh refinement. GR-Athena++ thus allows for the robust simulation of compact binary coalescences and offers a viable path toward numerical relativity at exascale.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2018

Algebraic multigrid for directed graph Laplacian linear systems (NS‐LAMG)

Summary We propose nonsymmetric lean algebraic multigrid (NS‐LAMG), a new algebraic multigrid algorithm for directed graph Laplacian systems that combines ideas from undirected graph Laplacian multigrid solvers and multigrid algorithms for Markov chain stationary distribution systems. Low‐degree elimination, proposed in LAMG for undirected graphs, is generalized to directed graphs and is a key component of NS‐LAMG. In the setup phase, we propose a simple stationary‐aggregation multigrid algorithms for Markov chain stationary distribution systems solver enhanced by low‐degree elimination to find the right null‐space vector that is used for the intergrid transfer operators. Numerical results show that low‐degree elimination improves performance and that NS‐LAMG outperforms generalized minimal residual method with restart and stable bi‐conjugate gradient method for real‐world, directed graph Laplacian linear systems.

Fox, Alyson↗
DOE OSTI2019

Convergence analysis of Anderson-type acceleration of Richardson's iteration

We consider here Anderson extrapolation to accelerate the (stationary) Richardson iterative method for sparse linear systems. Using an Anderson mixing at periodic intervals, we assess how this benefits convergence to a prescribed accuracy. The method, named alternating Anderson–Richardson, has appealing properties for high-performance computing, such as the potential to reduce communication and storage in comparison to more conventional linear solvers. We establish sufficient conditions for convergence, and we evaluate the performance of this technique in combination with various preconditioners through numerical examples. Furthermore, we propose an augmented version of this technique.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2022

A self-consistent hybrid model of kinetic striations in low-current argon discharges

A self-consistent hybrid model of standing and moving striations was developed for low-current DC discharges in noble gases. We introduced the concept of surface diffusion in phase space ( r , u ) (where u denotes the electron kinetic energy) described by a tensor diffusion in the nonlocal Fokker–Planck kinetic equation for electrons in the collisional plasma. Electrons diffuse along surfaces of constant total energy ε = u - eφ ( r ) between energy jumps in inelastic collisions with atoms. Numerical solutions of the 1d1u kinetic equation for electrons were obtained by two methods and coupled to ion transport and Poisson solver. We studied the dynamics of striation formation in Townsend and glow discharges in argon gas at low discharge currents using a two-level excitation-ionization model and a ‘full-chemistry’ model, which includes stepwise and Penning ionization. Standing striations appeared in Townsend and glow discharges at low currents, and moving striations were obtained for the discharge currents exceeding a critical value. These waves originate at the anode and propagate towards the cathode. We have seen two types of moving striations with the two-level and full-chemistry models, which resemble the s and p striations previously observed in the experiments. Simulations indicate that processes in the anode region could control moving striations in the positive column plasma. The developed model helps clarify the nature of standing and moving striations in DC discharges of noble gases at low discharge currents and low gas pressures.

Physics↗
DOE OSTI2021

Institutional Computing: Annual Progress Report, Precision early universe simulations to constrain nuclear reactions and beyond standard model physics

The current one-year allocation (w20 qburst) is the first year in a two year allocation of the same name. The project has supported two publications in peer-review journals, another manuscript in preparation for publication, a white paper for the Astro2020 Decadal Survey, and a number of talks (see below). Code development continues on implementing a neutrino quantum kinetic equation solver into BURST, now called QBURST. While implementing coherent and forward-scattering processes into the dynamical neutrino evolution equations, multiple numerical issues have appeared. We have remedied a number of these issues through extensive debugging and testing, which include streamlining interpolation and implementing new ODE integration techniques. Further testing is required to solve the problem at a precision of better than one part in 10 6 . We expect that we will understand the numerical difficulties and implement solutions by end of year 2021.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2020

A robust and efficient generalized real cascade model

This paper describes a new separation cascade model that allows for arbitrary cascade connectivity and includes the effects of mixing, material losses and generalized separation element performance. The model also accommodates mixtures with an arbitrary number of component species. The mathematical and numerical framework of this model includes both time-dependent and steady state cascade simulation. Robust numerical approximations of the continuous mathematical model are accomplished using the Sundials suite of nonlinear algebraic and differential-algebraic equation solvers. Verification of the model is accomplished using manufactured solutions while validation is demonstrated by comparison to published experimental results and benchmarks.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
NASA NTRS1986

On the structure of parallelism in a highly concurrent PDE solver

A parallel multigrid algorithm for solving elliptic partial differential equations is developed and evaluated. A V-cycle multigrid method is altered to increase the degree of parallelism. A numerical analysis of the resulting concurrent-iteration multigrid algorithm is performed; its architectural implications are considered; highly parallel systems without shared memory are examined (including mesh-connected arrays, mesh-shuffle-connected systems, permutation networks, and direct VLSI embeddings); and the results of numerical experiments are presented in tables and graphs.

Gannon, D.↗