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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 109 records · Page 6
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2022

Full 3D Kinetic Modeling and Quantification of Positive Streamer Evolution in an Azimuthally Swept Pin-to-Plane Wedge Geometry

Cathode-directed streamer evolution in near atmospheric air is modeled in 3D pin-to-plane geometries using a 3D kinetic Particle-In-Cell (PIC) code that simulates particle-particle collisions via the Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method. Due to the computational challenges associated with a complete 360° volumetric domain, a practical alternative was achieved using a wedge domain and a range of azimuthal angles was explored (5°, 15°, 30°, and 45°) to study possible effects on the streamer growth and propagation due to the finite wedge angle. A DC voltage of 6 kV is administered to a hemispherical anode of radius 100 μm, with a planar cathode held at ground potential, generating an over-volted state with an electric field of 4 MV/m across a 1500 μm gap. The domain is seeded with an initial ion and electron density of 10 18 m -3 at 1 eV temperature confined to a spherical region of radius 100 μm centered at the tip of the anode. The air chemistry model [1] includes standard Townsend breakdown mechanisms (electron-neutral elastic, excitation, ionization, attachment, and detachment collision chemistry and secondary electron emission) as well as streamer mechanisms (photoionization and ion-neutral collisions) via tracking excited state neutrals which can then either quench via collisions or spontaneously emit a photon based on specific Einstein-A coefficients [2, 3]. In this work, positive streamer dynamics are formally quantified for each wedge angle in terms of electron velocity and density as temporal functions of coordinates r, Φ, and z. Applying a random plasma seed for each simulation, particles of interest are tracked with near femtosecond temporal resolution out to 1.4 ns and spatially binned. This process is repeated six times and results are averaged. Prior 2D studies have shown that the reduced electric field, E/n, can significantly impact streamer evolution [4]. We extend the analysis to 3D wedge geometries, to limit computational costs, and examine the wedge angle’s effect on streamer branching, propagation, and velocity. Results indicate that the smallest wedge angle that produced an acceptably converged solution is 30°. The potential effects that a mesh, when under-resolved with respect to the Debye length, can impart on streamer dynamics and numerical heating were not investigated, and we explicitly state here that the smallest cell size was approximately 10 times the minimum λ D in the streamer channel at late times. This constraint on cell size was the result of computational limitations on total mesh count.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Fluid-Kinetic Coupling: Advanced Discretizations for Simulations on Emerging Heterogeneous Architectures (LDRD FY20-0643)

Plasma physics simulations are vital for a host of Sandia mission concerns, for fundamental science, and for clean energy in the form of fusion power. Sandia's most mature plasma physics simulation capabilities come in the form of particle-in-cell (PIC) models and magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) models. MHD models for a plasma work well in denser plasma regimes when there is enough material that the plasma approximates a fluid. PIC models, on the other hand, work well in lower-density regimes, in which there is not too much to simulate; error in PIC scales as the square root of the number of particles, making high-accuracy simulations expensive. Real-world applications, however, almost always involve a transition region between the high-density regimes where MHD is appropriate, and the low-density regimes for PIC. In such a transition region, a direct discretization of Vlasov is appropriate. Such discretizations come with their own computational costs, however; the phase-space mesh for Vlasov can involve up to six dimensions (seven if time is included), and to apply appropriate homogeneous boundary conditions in velocity space requires meshing a substantial padding region to ensure that the distribution remains sufficiently close to zero at the velocity boundaries. Moreover, for collisional plasmas, the right-hand side of the Vlasov equation is a collision operator, which is non-local in velocity space, and which may dominate the cost of the Vlasov solver. The present LDRD project endeavors to develop modern, foundational tools for the development of continuum-kinetic Vlasov solvers, using the discontinuous Petrov-Galerkin (DPG) methodology, for discretization of Vlasov, and machine-learning (ML) models to enable efficient evaluation of collision operators. DPG affords several key advantages. First, it has a built-in, robust error indicator, allowing us to adapt the mesh in a very natural way, enabling a coarse velocity-space mesh near the homogeneous boundaries, and a fine mesh where the solution has fine features. Second, it is an inherently high-order, high-intensity method, requiring extra local computations to determine so-called optimal test functions, which makes it particularly suited to modern hardware in which floating-point throughput is increasing at a faster rate than memory bandwidth. Finally, DPG is a residual-minimizing method, which enables high-accuracy computation: in typical cases, the method delivers something very close to the $L^2$ projection of the exact solution. Meanwhile, the ML-based collision model we adopt affords a cost structure that scales as the square root of a standard direct evaluation. Moreover, we design our model to conserve mass, momentum, and energy by construction, and our approach to training is highly flexible, in that it can incorporate not only synthetic data from direct-simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) codes, but also experimental data. We have developed two DPG formulations for Vlasov-Poisson: a time-marching, backward-Euler discretization and a space-time discretization. We have conducted a number of numerical experiments to verify the approach in a 1D1V setting. In this report, we detail these formulations and experiments. We also summarize some new theoretical results developed as part of this project (published as papers previously): some new analysis of DPG for the convection-reaction problem (of which the Vlasov equation is an instance), a new exponential integrator for DPG, and some numerical exploration of various DPG-based time-marching approaches to the heat equation. As part of this work, we have contributed extensively to the Camellia open-source library; we also describe the new capabilities and their usage. We have also developed a well-documented methodology for single-species collision operators, which we applied to argon and demonstrated with numerical experiments. We summarize those results here, as well as describing at a high level a design extending the methodology to multi-species operators. We have released a new open-source library, MLC, under a BSD license; we include a summary of its capabilities as well.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2023

Computing dissipation for molecular-level turbulence simulations

A major difficulty in the analysis of molecular-level simulations is that macroscopic flow quantities are inherently noisy due to molecular fluctuations. An important example for turbulent flows is the kinetic energy dissipation rate. Traditionally, this quantity is calculated from gradients of the macroscopic velocity field, which exacerbates the noise problem. The inability to accurately compute the dissipation rate makes meaningful comparison of molecular-level and continuum simulation results a serious challenge. Herein, we extend previously developed coarse-graining theories to derive an exact molecular-level expression for the dissipation rate, which would circumvent the need to compute gradients of noisy fields. Although the exact expression cannot feasibly be implemented in Sandia’s direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) code SPARTA, we utilize an approximate “hybrid” approach and compare it to the conventional gradient-based approach for planar Couette flow and the two-dimensional Taylor-Green vortex, demonstrating that the hybrid approach is significantly more accurate. Finally, we explore the possibility of adopting a Lagrangian approach to calculate the energy dissipation rate.

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Dynamic population balance in molecular-level simulations of hypersonic flows

This report summarizes the work towards developing stochastic weighted particle methods (SWPM) for future application in hypersonic flows. Extensive changes to Sandia’s direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) solver, SPARTA (Stochastic Particle Real Time Analyzer), were made to enable the necessary particle splitting and reduction capabilities for SWPM. The results from one-dimensional Couette and Fourier flows suggest that SWPM can reproduce the correct transport for a large range of Knudsen numbers with adequate accuracy. The associated velocity and temperature profiles are in good agreement with DSMC. An issue with particle placement during particle number reduction, is identified, to which, a simple but effective solution based on minimizing the center of mass error is proposed. High Mach wheel flows are simulated using the SWPM and DSMC methods. SWPM is capable of providing nearly an order of magnitude increase in efficiency over DSMC while retaining high accuracy.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2021

Velocity-Space Hybridization of Direct Simulation Monte Carlo and a Quasi-Particle Boltzmann Solver

This paper presents a new method for modeling rarefied gas flows based on hybridization of direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) and discrete velocity method (DVM)-based quasi-particle representations of the velocity distribution function. It is aimed at improving the resolution of the tails of the distribution function (compared with DSMC) and computational efficiency (compared with DVM). Details of the method, such as the collision algorithm and the particle merging scheme, are discussed. The hybrid approach is applied to the study of noise in a Maxwellian distribution, computation of electron-impact ionization rate coefficient, as well as numerical simulation of a supersonic Couette flow. The hybrid-based solver is compared with pure DSMC and DVM approaches in terms of accuracy, computational speed, and memory use. It is shown that such a hybrid approach can provide a lower computational cost than a pure DVM approach, while being able to retain accuracy in modeling high-velocity tails of the distribution function. For problems where trace species have a significant impact on the flow physics, the proposed method is shown to be capable of providing better computational efficiency and accuracy compared with standard fixed-weight DSMC.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
NASA NTRS1984

Direct simulation of transitional flow for hypersonic reentry conditions

This paper presents results of flowfield calculations for typical hypersonic reentry conditions encountered by the nose region of the Space Shuttle Orbiter. Most of the transitional flow regime is covered by the altitude range of 150 to 92 km. Calculations were made with the Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method that accounts for translational, rotational, vibrational, and chemical nonequilibrium effects. Comparison of the DSMC heating results with both Shuttle flight data and continuum predictions showed good agreement at the lowest altitude considered. However, as the altitude increased, the continuum predictions, which did not include slip effects, departed rapidly from the DSMC results by overpredicting both heating and drag. The results demonstrate the effects of rarefaction on the shock and the shock layer, along with the extent of the slip and temperature jump at the surface. Also, the sensitivity of the flow structure to the gas-surface interaction model, thermal accommodation, and surface catalysis are studied.

Moss, J. N.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Monte Carlo simulations in support of the Shuttle upper atmospheric mass spectrometer experiment

This paper presents the results of calculations obtained with a Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method that describes both the external flow about the nose region of the Shuttle Orbiter and the internal flow in an inlet tube that provides the initial path between the shock-processed gases and a mass spectrometer mounted inside the Orbiter. A dedicated, three-dimensional version of the DSMC was developed during this study for the internal flow simulation along with the procedure for interfacing the external and internal flows. The calculations span the 140 to 95 km altitude range, which includes most of the hypersonic transitional flow encountered during reentry. All calculations were for a multicomponent gas mixture consisting of five chemical species while simulating the effects of transitional, rotational, vibrational, and chemical nonequilibrium. The results of the calculations show that within the entry region of the inlet tube where the gas has equilibrated with the sidewall tube temperature, the pressure is substantially less than the pressure at the external surface. This pressure correction for the entry region is significant for all conditions investigated and increases with altitude. The results highlight the structure of both the external and internal flow. Results of parametric studies show the sensitivity of the equilibrated inlet sidewall pressure to mass flow rates, gas-surface reflection model, tube side-wall temperature variations, and surface recombinations.

Moss, J. N.↗
NASA NTRS1986

Direct simulation of hypersonic flows over blunt slender bodies

Results of a numerical study of low-density hypersonic flow about cylindrically blunted wedges and spherically blunted cones with body half angles of 0, 5, and 10 deg are presented. Most of the transitional flow regime encountered during entry between the free molecule and continuum regimes is simulated for a reentry velocity of 7.5 km/s by including freestream conditions of 70 to 100 km. The bodies are at zero angle of incidence and have diffuse and finite catalytic surfaces. Translational, thermodynamic, and chemical nonequilibrium effects are considered in the numerical simulation by utilizing the direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method. The numerical simulations show that noncontinuum effects such as surface temperature jump, and velocity slip are evident for all cases considered. The onset of chemical dissociation occurs at a simulated altitude of 96 km for the two-dimensional configurations. Comparisons between the DSMC and continuum viscous shock-layer calculations highlight the significant difference in flowfield structure predicted by the two methods.

Moss, J. N.↗
NASA NTRS1986

Hypersonic low-density solutions of the Navier-Stokes equations with chemical nonequilibrium and multicomponent surface slip

Solutions of the Navier-Stokes equations with chemical nonequilibrium and multicomponent surface slip are presented along the stagnation streamline under low-density hypersonic flight conditions. The conditions analyzed are those encountered by the nose region of the Space Shuttle Orbiter during reentry. A detailed comparison of the Navier-Stokes (NS) results is made with the viscous shock-layer (VSL) and Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) predictions. With the inclusion of surface-slip boundary conditions in NS calculations, the surface heat transfer and other flow field quantities adjacent to the surface are predicted favorably with the DSMC calculations from 75 km to 115 km in altitude. Therefore, the practical range for the applicability of Navier-Stokes solutions is much wider than previously thought. This is appealing because the continuum (NS and VSL) methods are commonly used to solve the fluid flow problems and are less demanding in terms of computer resource requirements than the noncontinuum (DSMC) methods. The NS solutions agree well with the VSL results for altitudes less than 92 km. An assessment is made of the frozen flow approximation employed in the VSL calculations.

Gupta, R. N.↗
NASA NTRS1986

Direct simulation of hypersonic transitional flow

A review of recent calculations obtained with Bird's direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method are presented for the transitional flowfield encountered at reentry conditions. Consequently, the emphasis is to simulate the real-gas effects resulting from a highly energetic nonequilibrium flow. The DSMC calculations for both wide-angle and slender bodies are compared with experimental and continuum calculations. The wide angle body calculations simulate the windward nose of the Shuttle Orbiter and projected aeroassisted orbital transfer vehicles. For the slender, blunted configurations, both two-dimensional and axisymmetric results are presented. Comparisons between the DSMC and continuum calculations show the altitude range where differences in flowfield structure and surface quantities become significant.

Moss, J. N.↗
NASA NTRS1987

Nonequilibrium effects for hypersonic transitional flows

Presented are the results of numerical simulations of hypersonic flow about blunt cones and hemispherical nose configurations for reentry velocities of 7.5 and 10 km/s. Cone half angles 0, 5, and 10 deg are considered at zero angle of incidence; however, the focus is for the 5 deg cone. The body size and altitude ranges considered (70 to 110 km) are such that the flow is in the transitional regime. Translational, thermodynamic, and chemical nonequilibrium effects are considered in the numerical simulation by utilizing the direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method of Bird. The DSMC results are compared with those obtained with viscous shock-layer and Navier-Stokes methods. Comparisons between the DSMC and continuum calculations show the altitude range where differences in flowfield structure and surface quantities become significant. The current calculations show that the binary scaling similitude provides a means of correlating the blunt body surface quantities in the hypersonic, transitional regime. Furthermore, for the higher velocity entry conditions, the results highlight some of the concerns in the application of multitemperature continuum formulations, particularly the use of some proposed functional relations for the chemical rate constants under thermodynamic nonequilibrium conditions.

Moss, James N.↗
NASA NTRS1987

Direct simulation of stagnation streamline flow for hypersonic reentry

The direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method is applied to simulate one-dimensional flow along the stagnation streamline. The freestream conditions considered are those encountered by the nose region of the Space Shuttle Orbiter during the hypersonic reentry. The range of altitudes (75 to 92 km) considered in the present calculations covers continuum to the less rarefied portion of the transition flow regime. The calculations account for thermal as well as the chemical nonequilibrium effects. The attention is focused on the flow structure along the stagnation streamline for different specified shock locations at a given altitude. The effect of shock location on the stagnation-point gas composition and heat transfer is analyzed for specific altitude; consequently, these results are appropriate for hemispherical bodies with different nose radii. Finally, comparison is made between the present DSMC results and the viscous shock-layer calculations, which show good agreement at the lowest altitude.

Dogra, Virendra K.↗
NASA NTRS1986

Numerical simulations of rarefied reentry flows

A review of recent calculations obtained with Bird's direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method is presented for the transitional flowfield encountered at reentry conditions. Consequently, the emphasis is the real-gas effects resulting from a highly energetic nonequilibrium flow. The DSMC calculations for both wide-angle and slender bodies are compared with continuum calculations. The wide-angle body calculations simulate the windward nose of the Shuttle Orbiter and projected aeroassisted orbital transfer vehicles. For the slender, blunted configurations, both two-dimensional and axisymmetric results are presented. Comparisons between the DSMC and continuum calculations show the altitude range where differences in flowfield structure and surface quantities become significant.

Moss, James N.↗
NASA NTRS1987

Direct simulation of high-vorticity gas flows

The computational limitations associated with the molecular dynamics (MD) method and the direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method are reviewed in the context of the computation of dilute gas flows with high vorticity. It is concluded that the MD method is generally limited to the dense gas case in which the molecular diameter is one-tenth or more of the mean free path. It is shown that the cell size in DSMC calculations should be small in comparison with the mean free path, and that this may be facilitated by a new subcell procedure for the selection of collision partners.

Bird, G. A.↗
NASA NTRS1987

Direct simulation of aerothermal loads for an aeroassist flight experiment vehicle

Results of a numerical study using the direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method are presented for the hypersonic flow about an elliptically blunted cone. The flow conditions are those for a proposed Aeroassist Flight Experiment (AFE) vehicle. The altitude range considered is that from 130 to 90 km which encompasses most of the transitional flow regime for the AFE vehicle, that is, the region bounded by free molecular and continuum flow. Freestream velocities of 9.9 to 7.5 km/sec are considered. The numerical simulations show that noncontinuum effects are evident for all cases considered. The onset of chemical dissociation occurs at a simulated altitude of about 130 km. Results presented highlight the thermal and chemical nonequilibrium nature of the flowfield and the impact of these effects on the surface heating and body drag. A calculation which included the additional effects of ionization and thermal radiation demonstrates that the inclusion of such efects would not significantly alter the surface quantities calculated in the present study. The radiative heating is negligible when compared with the convective heating, and the same would be true for the other conditions considered.

Dogra, Virendra K.↗
NASA NTRS1986

Direct simulation of hypersonic transitional flow

A review of recent calculations obtained with Bird's direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method are presented for the transitional flowfield encountered at reentry conditions. Consequently, the emphasis is to simulate the real-gas effects resulting from a highly energetic nonequilibrium flow. The DSMC calculations for both wide-angle and slender bodies are compared with experimental and continuum calculations. The wide angle body calculations simulate the widward nose of the Shuttle Orbiter and projected aeroassisted orbital transfer vehicles. For the slender, blunted configurations, both two-dimensional and axisymmetric results are presented. Comparisons between the DSMC and continuum calculations show the altitude range where differences in flowfield structure and surface quantities become significant.

Moss, J. N.↗
NASA NTRS1986

A continuum analysis of chemical nonequilibrium under hypersonic low-density flight conditions

Results of employing the continuum model of Navier-Stokes equations under the low-density flight conditions are presented. These results are obtained with chemical nonequilibrium and multicomponent surface slip boundary conditions. The conditions analyzed are those encountered by the nose region of the Space Shuttle Orbiter during reentry. A detailed comparison of the Navier-Stokes (NS) results is made with the viscous shock-layer (VSL) and direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) predictions. With the inclusion of new surface-slip boundary conditions in NS calculations, the surface heat transfer and other flowfield quantities adjacent to the surface are predicted favorably with the DSMC calculations from 75 km to 115 km in altitude. This suggests a much wider practical range for the applicability of Navier-Stokes solutions than previously thought. This is appealing because the continuum (NS and VSL) methods are commonly used to solve the fluid flow problems and are less demanding in terms of computer resource requirements than the noncontinuum (DSMC) methods.

Gupta, R. N.↗
NASA NTRS1988

Direct simulation of three-dimensional flow about the AFE vehicle at high altitudes

Three-dimensional hypersonic rarefied flow about the Aeroassist Flight Experiment (AFE) vehicle was studied using the direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) technique. Results are presented for the transitional flow regime encountered between 120 and 200 km altitudes with a reentry velocity of 9.92 km/s. In the simulations, a five-species reacting real-gas model that accounts for internal energies (rotational and vibrational) is used. The results indicate that the transitional effects are significant even at an altitude of 200 km and influence the overall vehicle aerodynamics. For the cases considered, the aerodynamic coefficients, surface pressures, convective heating, and flow field structure variations with rarefaction effects are presented.

Celenligil, M. Cevdet↗