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At least 109 records · Page 6

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NASA NTRS1987

Navier-Stokes and viscous shock-layer solutions for radiating hypersonic flows

Results are presented from the Navier-Stokes and viscous shock-layer (VSL) calculations with nonequilibrium and equilibrium chemistry, respectively. These calculations contain coupling to the Aerotherm radiation code RAD. A simplified form of the electron energy equation is used to obtain an electron temperature in the Navier-Stokes calculations. The radiation in the flowfield is calculated using this temperature. The Navier-Stokes code is used at high altitude only, whereas the VSL code is employed for the entire entry period to make estimates of the radiative and convective heating to the Fire II vehicle. Results from the Navier-Stokes code have also been compared with the predictions of Lee and Kawamura, who used gray-gas radiation model and thin-layer Navier-Stokes equations. Quite good agreement is obtained between the measured and computed values of radiative and convective heating from the VSL code in th medium-to-low altitude flight regime of the Fire II vehicle. At high altitudes, the Navier-Stokes calculations considerably overpredict the Fire II flight data for radiative intensity. This is attributed to the deficiencies in the Aerotherm radiation model when used for low-density flight conditions. This model contains the thermal equilibrium assumption and precludes accounting for the collision-limiting phenomenon at high altitudes. Present Navier-Stokes calculations highlight the effect of these assumptions on radiative heating calculations for such conditions.

Gupta, Roop N.↗

NASA NTRS1988

The development of flux-split algorithms for flows with non-equilibrium thermodynamics and chemical reactions

A finite-volume method for the numerical computation of flows with nonequilibrium thermodynamics and chemistry is presented. A thermodynamic model is described which simplifies the coupling between the chemistry and thermodynamics and also results in the retention of the homogeneity property of the Euler equations (including all the species continuity and vibrational energy conservation equations). Flux-splitting procedures are developed for the fully coupled equations involving fluid dynamics, chemical production and thermodynamic relaxation processes. New forms of flux-vector split and flux-difference split algorithms are embodied in a fully coupled, implicit, large-block structure, including all the species conservation and energy production equations. Several numerical examples are presented, including high-temperature shock tube and nozzle flows. The methodology is compared to other existing techniques, including spectral and central-differenced procedures, and favorable comparisons are shown regarding accuracy, shock-capturing and convergence rates.

Grossman, B.↗

NASA NTRS1989

Computational fluid dynamics and aerothermodynamics

The primary objective was the development of nonequilibrium radiation and chemistry models suitable for engineering applications associated with the flow fields about aeroassisted orbital transfer vehicles (AOTVs), the aero-assisted flight experiment vehicle (AFE), and other vehicles operating at superorbital velocities and very high attitudes.

Carlson, Leland A.↗

NASA NTRS1988

The computation of non-equilibrium chemically-reacting flows

Numerical techniques for the analysis of flows with nonequilibrium thermodynamics and chemistry are developed and demonstrated. Particular attention is given to the formulation of the thermodynamic and chemical gas models, the derivation of the governing equations, and the solution procedures. Results for typical problems involving shock tubes and supersonic diffusers are presented in extensive graphs and briefly characterized.

Grossman, B.↗

NASA NTRS2008

How Very Massive Metal-Free Stars Start Cosmological Reionization

The initial conditions and relevant physics for the formation of the earliest galaxies are well specified in the concordance cosmology. Using ab initio cosmological Eulerian adaptive mesh refinement radiation hydrodynamical calculations, we discuss how very massive stars start the process of cosmological reionization. The models include nonequilibrium primordial gas chemistry and cooling processes and accurate radiation transport in the case B approximation using adaptively ray-traced photon packages, retaining the time derivative in the transport equation. Supernova feedback is modeled by thermal explosions triggered at parsec scales. All calculations resolve the local Jeans length by at least 16 grid cells at all times and as such cover a spatial dynamic range of approx.10(exp 6). These first sources of reionization are highly intermittent and anisotropic and first photoionize the small-scale voids surrounding the halos they form in, rather than the dense filaments they are embedded in. As the merging objects form larger, dwarf-sized galaxies, the escape fraction of UV radiation decreases and the H II regions only break out on some sides of the galaxies, making them even more anisotropic. In three cases, SN blast waves induce star formation in overdense regions that were formed earlier from ionization front instabilities. These stars form tens of parsecs away from the center of their parent DM halo. Approximately five ionizing photons are needed per sustained ionization when star formation in 10(exp 6) stellar Mass halos is dominant in the calculation. As the halos become larger than approx.10(exp 7) Stellar Mass, the ionizing photon escape fraction decreases, which in turn increases the number of photons per ionization to 15-50, in calculations with stellar feedback only. Radiative feedback decreases clumping factors by 25% when compared to simulations without star formation and increases the average temperature of ionized gas to values between 3000 and 10,000 K.

Wise, John H.↗

NASA NTRS2012

Effect of Non-Equilibrium Surface Thermochemistry in Simulation of Carbon Based Ablators

This study demonstrates that coupling of a material thermal response code and a flow solver using non-equilibrium gas/surface interaction model provides time-accurate solutions for the multidimensional ablation of carbon based charring ablators. The material thermal response code used in this study is the Two-dimensional Implicit Thermal-response and AblatioN Program (TITAN), which predicts charring material thermal response and shape change on hypersonic space vehicles. Its governing equations include total energy balance, pyrolysis gas mass conservation, and a three-component decomposition model. The flow code solves the reacting Navier-Stokes equations using Data Parallel Line Relaxation (DPLR) method. Loose coupling between the material response and flow codes is performed by solving the surface mass balance in DPLR and the surface energy balance in TITAN. Thus, the material surface recession is predicted by finite-rate gas/surface interaction boundary conditions implemented in DPLR, and the surface temperature and pyrolysis gas injection rate are computed in TITAN. Two sets of nonequilibrium gas/surface interaction chemistry between air and the carbon surface developed by Park and Zhluktov, respectively, are studied. Coupled fluid-material response analyses of stagnation tests conducted in NASA Ames Research Center arc-jet facilities are considered. The ablating material used in these arc-jet tests was Phenolic Impregnated Carbon Ablator (PICA). Computational predictions of in-depth material thermal response and surface recession are compared with the experimental measurements for stagnation cold wall heat flux ranging from 107 to 1100 Watts per square centimeter.

Chen, Yih-Kanq↗

NASA NTRS2018

Hypersonic Chemically Reacting Boundary-Layer Stability using LASTRAC

Hypersonic boundary layer transition is critical to the design of all hypersonic vehicles due to its effect on the heat transfer into the vehicle surface and potential drag enhancement or reduction during reentry. Boundary layer transition and boundary layer stability analysis under hypersonic conditions has been studied for decades, yet there is ample room for improved accuracy and further investigations into the relevant phenomena. In this work, we present a recent implementation of chemical equilibrium, finite-rate chemistry, and thermochemical nonequilibrium capabilities into LASTRAC, an existing well-established boundary-layer stability analysis code. Verification against existing numerical results in the literature are presented. LASTRAC was previously able to address calorically perfect flows. By using solutions of the Parabolized Stability Equations (PSE) with chemical and thermal nonequilibrium, we are able to investigate the effects of chemical and thermal nonequilibrium on a variety of phenomena including stationary crossflow instability on a swept wing and 2nd mode instabilities over a wedge.

Kline, H. L.↗

DOE OSTI2021

Simultaneous Imaging of Molecular Rovibrational Nonequilibrium, Reactive Species, and Electric Field for Plasma-Assisted Chemistry

The Sandia-PRF has built a new capability for the low-temperature plasma community for the simultaneous imaging of molecular rotation/vibration nonequilibrium, electric field, and the distribution of OH radical and formaldehyde in reactive low temperature plasma systems. The system is currently investigating the plasma-assisted deflagration to detonation transition in a micro-combustor channel.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

NASA NTRS1978

Organic chemistry on Titan

Observations of nonequilibrium phenomena on the Saturn satellite Titan indicate the occurrence of organic chemical evolution. Greenhouse and thermal inversion models of Titan's atmosphere provide environmental constraints within which various pathways for organic chemical synthesis are assessed. Experimental results and theoretical modeling studies suggest that the organic chemistry of the satellite may be dominated by two atmospheric processes: energetic-particle bombardment and photochemistry. Reactions initiated in various levels of the atmosphere by cosmic ray, Saturn wind, and solar wind particle bombardment of a CH4 - N2 atmospheric mixture can account for the C2-hydrocarbons, the UV-visible-absorbing stratospheric haze, and the reddish color of the satellite. Photochemical reactions of CH4 can also account for the presence of C2-hydrocarbons. In the lower Titan atmosphere, photochemical processes will be important if surface temperatures are sufficiently high for gaseous NH3 to exist. Hot H-atom reactions initiated by photo-dissociation of NH3 can couple the chemical reactions of NH3 and CH4 and produce organic matter.

Chang, S.↗

NASA NTRS1989

A fully-coupled implicit method for thermo-chemical nonequilibrium air at sub-orbital flight speeds

A CFD technique is described in which the finite-rate chemistry in thermal and chemical nonequilibrium air is fully and implicitly coupled with the fluid motion. Developed for use in the suborbital hypersonic flight speed range, the method accounts for nonequilibrium vibrational and electronic excitation and dissociation, but not ionization. The steady-state solution to the resulting system of equations is obtained by using a lower-upper factorization and symmetric Gauss-Seidel sweeping technique through Newton iteration. Inversion of the left-hand-side matrices is replaced by scalar multiplications through the use of the diagonal dominance algorithm. The code, named CENS2H (Compressible-Euler-Navier-Stokes Two-Dimensional Hypersonic), is fully vectorized and requires about 8.8 x 10 to the -5th sec per node point per iteration using a Cray X-MP computer. Converged solutions are obtained after about 2400 iterations. Sample calculations are made for a circular cylinder and a 10 percent airfoil at 5 deg angle of attack. The calculated cylinder flow field agrees with that obtained experimentally. The code predicts a 10 percent change in lift, drag, and pitching moment for the airfoil due to the thermochemical phenomena.

Park, Chul↗

NASA NTRS1975

The NATA code: Theory and analysis, volume 1

A computer program for calculating quasi-one-dimensional gas flow in axisymmetric and two-dimensional nozzles and rectangular channels is presented. Flow is assumed to start from a state of thermochemical equilibrium at a high temperature in an upstream reservoir. The program provides solutions based on frozen chemistry, chemical equilibrium, and nonequilibrium flow with finite reaction rates. Electronic nonequilibrium effects can be included using a two-temperature model. An approximate laminar boundary layer calculation is given for the shear and heat flux on the nozzle wall. Boundary layer displacement effects on the inviscid flow are considered also. Chemical equilibrium and transport property calculations are provided by subroutines. The code contains precoded thermochemical, chemical kinetic, and transport cross section data for high-temperature air, CO2-N2-Ar mixtures, helium, and argon. It provides calculations of the stagnation conditions on axisymmetric or two-dimensional models, and of the conditions on the flat surface of a blunt wedge. The primary purpose of the code is to describe the flow conditions and test conditions in electric arc heated wind tunnels.

Bade, W. L.↗

NASA NTRS1975

The NATA code; theory and analysis. Volume 2: User's manual

The NATA code is a computer program for calculating quasi-one-dimensional gas flow in axisymmetric nozzles and rectangular channels, primarily to describe conditions in electric archeated wind tunnels. The program provides solutions based on frozen chemistry, chemical equilibrium, and nonequilibrium flow with finite reaction rates. The shear and heat flux on the nozzle wall are calculated and boundary layer displacement effects on the inviscid flow are taken into account. The program contains compiled-in thermochemical, chemical kinetic and transport cross section data for high-temperature air, CO2-N2-Ar mixtures, helium, and argon. It calculates stagnation conditions on axisymmetric or two-dimensional models and conditions on the flat surface of a blunt wedge. Included in the report are: definitions of the inputs and outputs; precoded data on gas models, reactions, thermodynamic and transport properties of species, and nozzle geometries; explanations of diagnostic outputs and code abort conditions; test problems; and a user's manual for an auxiliary program (NOZFIT) used to set up analytical curvefits to nozzle profiles.

Bade, W. L.↗

NASA NTRS1989

Calculation of nonequilibrium hydrogen-air reactions with implicit flux vector splitting method

Two methods, fully- and loosely-coupled, are developed to incorporate nonequilibrium hydrogen-air chemistry into the fluid dynamic implicit flux vector splitting code (F3D). The new code (F3D/Chem) is validated against other existing codes for two cases: nozzle expansion, and shock-induced combustion around a blunt body. The shock-induced combustion case is compared also with an experimental data. The reaction rate constants are varied in an effort to reproduce the experimental data. The fully- and loosely-coupled methods are found to yield comparable results, but the computation time is shorter using the loosely-coupled method. The present method is found to reproduce results obtained using different existing codes. The experimental data was not reproduced with any selected rate coefficients set.

Lee, Seung-Ho↗

NASA NTRS1992

Simultaneous temperature and multispecies measurement in a lifted hydrogen diffusion flame

UV spontaneous vibrational Raman scattering and laser-induced predissociative fluorescence (LIPF) techniques are combined and applied to a lifted hydrogen jet diffusion flame. Simultaneous, temporally and spatially resolved point measurements of temperature, major species concentrations (H2, O2, N2, H2O), and absolute hydroxyl radical concentration (OH) are obtained with a 'single' excimer laser for the first time. For OH measurements, the use of LIPF makes quenching corrections unnecessary. Results demonstrate that fuel and oxidizer are in a rich, premixed, and unignited condition in the center core of the lifted flame base. In the lifted zone, combustion occurs in an intermittent annular turbulent flame brush and strong finite-rate chemistry effects result in nonequilibrium values of temperature, major species, and OH radicals. Downstream in the slow three-body recombination zone, the major species concentrations are in partial equilibrium, the OH concentrations are in superequilibrium, and the temperatures are in subequilibrium. Far downstream in the flame, equilibrium values of temperature, OH radical, and major species are found.

Cheng, T. S.↗

NASA NTRS1995

Effects of Sonic Line Transition on Aerothermodynamics of the Mars Pathfinder Probe

Flow field solutions over the Mars Pathfinder Probe spanning the trajectory through the Martian atmosphere at angles of attack from 0 to 11 degrees are obtained. Aerodynamic coefficients derived from these solutions reveal two regions where the derivative of pitching moment with respect to angle of attack is positive at small angles of attack. The behavior is associated with the transition of the sonic line location between the blunted nose and the windside shoulder of the 70 degree half-angle cone in a gas with a low effective ratio of specific heats. The transition first occurs as the shock layer gas chemistry evolves from highly nonequilibrium to near equilibrium, above approximately 6.5 km/s and 40 km altitude, causing the effective specific heat ratio to decrease. The transition next occurs in an equilibrium flow regime as velocities decrease through 3.5 km/s and the specific heat ratio increases again with decreasing enthalpy. The effects of the expansion over the shoulder into the wake are more strongly felt on the fustrum when the sonic line sits on the shoulder. The transition also produces a counter-intuitive trend in which windside heating levels decrease with increasing angle of attack resulting from an increase in the effective radius of curvature. Six-degree-of-freedom trajectory analyses utilizing the computed aerodynamic coefficients predict a moderate, 3 to 4 degree increase in total angle of attack as the probe, spinning at approximately 2 revolutions per minute, passes through these regions.

Gnoffo, Peter A.↗

NASA NTRS1990

Characteristic-based algorithms for flows in thermo-chemical nonequilibrium

A generalized finite-rate chemistry algorithm with Steger-Warming, Van Leer, and Roe characteristic-based flux splittings is presented in three-dimensional generalized coordinates for the Navier-Stokes equations. Attention is placed on convergence to steady-state solutions with fully coupled chemistry. Time integration schemes including explicit m-stage Runge-Kutta, implicit approximate-factorization, relaxation and LU decomposition are investigated and compared in terms of residual reduction per unit of CPU time. Practical issues such as code vectorization and memory usage on modern supercomputers are discussed.

Walters, Robert W.↗

NASA NTRS1985

Computational chemistry and aeroassisted orbital transfer vehicles

An analysis of the radiative heating phenomena encountered during a typical aeroassisted orbital transfer vehicle (AOTV) trajectory was made to determine the potential impact of computational chemistry on AOTV design technology. Both equilibrium and nonequilibrium radiation mechanisms were considered. This analysis showed that computational chemistry can be used to predict (1) radiative intensity factors and spectroscopic data; (2) the excitation rates of both atoms and molecules; (3) high-temperature reaction rate constants for metathesis and charge exchange reactions; (4) particle ionization and neutralization rates and cross sections; and (5) spectral line widths.

Cooper, D. M.↗

NASA NTRS1994

Combined LAURA-UPS solution procedure for chemically-reacting flows

A new procedure seeks to combine the thin-layer Navier-Stokes solver LAURA with the parabolized Navier-Stokes solver UPS for the aerothermodynamic solution of chemically-reacting air flowfields. The interface protocol is presented and the method is applied to two slender, blunted shapes. Both axisymmetric and three dimensional solutions are included with surface pressure and heat transfer comparisons between the present method and previously published results. The case of Mach 25 flow over an axisymmetric six degree sphere-cone with a noncatalytic wall is considered to 100 nose radii. A stability bound on the marching step size was observed with this case and is attributed to chemistry effects resulting from the noncatalytic wall boundary condition. A second case with Mach 28 flow over a sphere-cone-cylinder-flare configuration is computed at both two and five degree angles of attack with a fully-catalytic wall. Surface pressures are seen to be within five percent with the present method compared to the baseline LAURA solution and heat transfers are within 10 percent. The effect of grid resolution is investigated and the nonequilibrium results are compared with a perfect gas solution, showing that while the surface pressure is relatively unchanged by the inclusion of reacting chemistry the nonequilibrium heating is 25 percent higher. The procedure demonstrates significant, order of magnitude reductions in solution time and required memory for the three dimensional case over an all thin-layer Navier-Stokes solution.

Wood, William A.↗