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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 127 records · Page 7
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1981

Jet oscillations caused by vorticity interactions with shock waves

A linear theory is developed for the amplification of disturbances along a jet containing shock waves. The theory indicates that near grazing angles (i.e., wave angles near 90 deg) horizontal vorticity is greatly amplified after passing through the two shock waves that exist in a shock cell. The cumulative amplification and the mode that is amplified most can be obtained if the changes in shock parameters from cell to cell are known. Rapid rates of growth of disturbances are exhibited by shadowgraphs and rates of angular displacement of about 10 are observed. The linear two-dimensional theory also indicates that such rates of amplification occur, and that the behavior of a two-dimensional jet is qualitatively similar to that of a round jet.

Parthasarathy, S. P.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Direct numerical study of crossflow instability

Disturbances in the swept Hiemenz flow are calculated by solving the Navier-Stokes equations. The spatially-evolving base flow is treated exactly, allowing a check of the 'local' stability theories. Different types of disturbances such as random noise, waves, and wave packets, are input near the attachment line, develop in space, and exit through an outflow boundary. They all generate streamwise vortices. The effect of the Reynolds number, of the time-dependence of the noise, and of nonlinearity, are investigated.

Spalart, P. R.↗
NASA NTRS1993

A dual-mode disturbance-accommodating controller for the Hubble Space Telescope

Cyclic thermal expansions and mechanical stiction effects in the Solar Arrays on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) are triggering repeated occurrences of damped, relaxation-type flex-body vibrations of the solar arrays. Those solar array vibrations are, in turn, causing unwanted, oscillating disturbance torques on the HST main body, which cause unwanted deviations of the telescope from its specified pointing direction. In this paper we propose two strategies one can adopt in designing a telescope-pointing controller to cope with the aforementioned disturbances: (1) a `total isolation' (TI) control strategy whereby the HST controller torques are designed to adaptively counteract and cancel-out the persistent disturbing torques that are causing the unwanted telescope motions, and (2) an `array damping' (AD) control strategy whereby the HST controller torques are used to actively augment the natural dampening of the solar array vibrations and the attendant telescope motions, between triggerings of the stiction-related flex-body relaxation oscillations. Using the principles of Disturbance-Accommodating Control (DAC) Theory a dual-mode controller for a generic, planar-motion (single-axis) model of the HST is proposed. This controller incorporates both the TI and AD modes of disturbance-accommodation. Simulation studies of the closed-loop system using generic parameter values clearly indicate, qualitatively, the enhanced pointing-performance such a controller can achieve.

Addington, Stewart↗
NASA NTRS1981

Three-dimensional periodic disturbances acting upon airfoils in cascade

A theory for three dimensional periodic gusts interacting with loaded airfoils was developed. The unsteady disturbances are linearized with respect to the mean potential flow of the airfoils. The vorticity transport equation is integrated analytically in a Lagrangian form. The vorticity vector shows strong variations in its magnitude and wavelength as it interacts with the flow field of a lifting airfoil. The streamwise component of vorticity increases significantly with flow acceleration and flow turning. The rectangular fan approximation is used and a single Helmholtz equation is derived that characterizes the unsteady three dimensional flow field.

Atassi, H.↗
NASA NTRS1981

Three-dimensional periodic disturbances acting upon airfoils in cascade

A theory is developed for three-dimensional periodic gusts interacting with loaded airfoils. The unsteady disturbances are linearized with respect to the mean potential flow of the airfoils. The vorticity transport equation is then integrated analytically in a Lagrangian form. The vorticity vector shows strong variations in its magnitude and wavelength as it interacts with the flowfield of a lifting airfoil. The streamwise component of the vorticity increases significantly with flow acceleration and flow turning. For simplicity the rectangular fan approximation is used and a single Helmholtz-like equation is derived to characterize the unsteady 3D flowfield. This is a new and significant result. The present theory is first applied to symmetric airfoils.

Atassi, H.↗
NASA NTRS1988

Analysis of nonuniform subsonic flows about a row of moving blades

The motion of a nonuniform flow about a row of moving blades is modeled as that of a three-dimensional rotational disturbance convected by the mean flow. The aerodynamic theories for such flows are reviewed for both linearly propagating disturbances and disturbances distorted by the mean flow. Linear theories results are examined to assess the effects of the gust variables, the Mach number, and the blade spacing, on the unsteady blade response. For loaded blades, the upstream disturbances are distorted by the blade mean flow. For a potential mean flow, the governing equations can be reduced to a single inhomogeneous nonconstant coefficient convective wave equation. A numerical procedure is developed using an elliptic grid system. The accuracy of the solutions strongly depends on the far-field radiation condition and the optimum determination of the grid system. Solutions are presently obtained for thick symmetric airfoils in three-dimensional gusts.

Atassi, H. M.↗
NASA NTRS1991

The three-dimensional evolution of a plane mixing layer. Part 1: The Kelvin-Helmholtz roll-up

The Kelvin Helmholtz roll up of three dimensional, temporally evolving, plane mixing layers were simulated numerically. All simulations were begun from a few low wavenumber disturbances, usually derived from linear stability theory, in addition to the mean velocity profile. The spanwise disturbance wavelength was taken to be less than or equal to the streamwise wavelength associated with the Kelvin Helmholtz roll up. A standard set of clean structures develop in most of the simulations. The spanwise vorticity rolls up into a corrugated spanwise roller, with vortex stretching creating strong spanwise vorticity in a cup shaped region at the vends of the roller. Predominantly streamwise rib vortices develop in the braid region between the rollers. For sufficiently strong initial three dimensional disturbances, these ribs collapse into compact axisymmetric vortices. The rib vortex lines connect to neighboring ribs and are kinked in the opposite direction of the roller vortex lines. Because of this, these two sets of vortex lines remain distinct. For certain initial conditions, persistent ribs do not develop. In such cases the development of significant three dimensionality is delayed. When the initial three dimensional disturbance energy is about equal to, or less than, the two dimensional fundamental disturbance energy, the evolution of the three dimensional disturbance is nearly linear (with respect to the mean and the two dimensional disturbances), at least until the first Kelvin Helmholtz roll up is completed.

Rogers, Michael M.↗
NASA NTRS1983

A theory of rotating stall of multistage axial compressors. I - Small disturbances

An analysis is made of rotating stall in compressors of many stages, finding conditions under which a flow distortion can occur which is steady in a traveling reference frame, even through upstream total and downstream static pressure are constant. In the compressor, a pressure-rise hysteresis is assumed. Flow in entrance and exit ducts yield additional lags. These lags balance to give a formula for stall propagation speed. For small disturbances, it is required that the compressor characteristics be flat in the neighborhood of average flow coefficient. Results are compared with the experiments of Day and Cumpsty. If a compressor lag of about twice that due only to fluid inertia is used, predicted propagation speeds agree almost exactly with experimental values, taking into account changes of number of stages, stagger angle, row spacing, and number of stall zones. The agreement obtained gives encouragement for the extension of the theory to account for large amplitudes.

Moore, F. K.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Computational fluid mechanics

Two papers are included in this progress report. In the first, the compressible Navier-Stokes equations have been used to compute leading edge receptivity of boundary layers over parabolic cylinders. Natural receptivity at the leading edge was simulated and Tollmien-Schlichting waves were observed to develop in response to an acoustic disturbance, applied through the farfield boundary conditions. To facilitate comparison with previous work, all computations were carried out at a free stream Mach number of 0.3. The spatial and temporal behavior of the flowfields are calculated through the use of finite volume algorithms and Runge-Kutta integration. The results are dominated by strong decay of the Tollmien-Schlichting wave due to the presence of the mean flow favorable pressure gradient. The effects of numerical dissipation, forcing frequency, and nose radius are studied. The Strouhal number is shown to have the greatest effect on the unsteady results. In the second paper, a transition model for low-speed flows, previously developed by Young et al., which incorporates first-mode (Tollmien-Schlichting) disturbance information from linear stability theory has been extended to high-speed flow by incorporating the effects of second mode disturbances. The transition model is incorporated into a Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes solver with a one-equation turbulence model. Results using a variable turbulent Prandtl number approach demonstrate that the current model accurately reproduces available experimental data for first and second-mode dominated transitional flows. The performance of the present model shows significant improvement over previous transition modeling attempts.

Hassan, H. A.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Numerical Study of Three-dimensional Spatial Instability of a Supersonic Flat Plate Boundary Layer

The behavior of spatially growing three-dimensional waves in a supersonic boundary layer was studied numerically by solving the complete Navier-Stokes equations. Satisfactory comparison with linear parallel and non-parallel stability theories, and experiment are obtained when a small amplitude inflow disturbance is used. The three-dimensional unsteady Navier-Stokes equations are solved by a finite difference method which is fourth-order and second-order accurate in the convection and viscous terms respectively, and second-order accurate in time. Spanwise periodicity is assumed. The inflow disturbance is composed of eigenfunctions from linear stability theory. By increasing the amplitude of the inflow disturbance, nonlinear effects in the form of a relaxation type oscillation of the time signal of rho(u) are observed.

Maestrello, Lucio↗
NASA NTRS1992

Application of narrow band control to reduce vibrations in magnetic bearing systems

The benefits of narrowband control theory for simple, open-loop stable systems are illustrated, and how the approach changes for magnetic bearing systems, which are open-loop unstable, is discussed. Magnetic bearing systems are good applications for narrowband control theory. Two sources of synchronous forces, the measurement error and the magnetic unbalance, are discussed. Both the measurement error and the magnetic unbalance manifest themselves as synchronous disturbances. It is shown that narrowband control theory for simple, open-loop stable systems provides excellent performance and good stability robustness. Because magnetic bearing systems are open-loop stable, the narrowband control approach becomes more complex. Disturbance accommodating control (DAC) theory is introduced as an effective approach to reduce vibrations in magnetic bearing systems. It is used to develop a control/estimation scheme that enables the rotor to spin about its center of mass in the presence of the measurement error disturbances.

Gaffney, Monique S.↗
NASA NTRS2003

Optimal Disturbances in Boundary Layers Subject to Streamwise Pressure Gradient

Laminar-turbulent transition in shear flows is still an enigma in the area of fluid mechanics. The conventional explanation of the phenomenon is based on the instability of the shear flow with respect to infinitesimal disturbances. The conventional hydrodynamic stability theory deals with the analysis of normal modes that might be unstable. The latter circumstance is accompanied by an exponential growth of the disturbances that might lead to laminar-turbulent transition. Nevertheless, in many cases, the transition scenario bypasses the exponential growth stage associated with the normal modes. This type of transition is called bypass transition. An understanding of the phenomenon has eluded us to this day. One possibility is that bypass transition is associated with so-called algebraic (non-modal) growth of disturbances in shear flows. In the present work, an analysis of the optimal disturbances/streamwise vortices associated with the transient growth mechanism is performed for boundary layers in the presence of a streamwise pressure gradient. The theory will provide the optimal spacing of the control elements in the spanwise direction and their placement in the streamwise direction.

Tumin, Anatoli↗
NASA NTRS1971

Expansion of the planetary disturbing function.

Some methods are described for the expansion of the disturbing function in planetary theory. One method uses the classical binomial expansion theorem or a successive approximation process derived from it. Another method is a direct application of the Laplace series expansions. For both methods it is proposed to first prepare the series to be manipulated by a scaling operation. These methods can be applied either in a literal or in a numerical form, or any combination of both, but they are especially designed for use on a large scale digital computer with standard Poisson series programs. No usage is made of Newcomb operators or derivatives of Laplace coefficients.

Broucke, R.↗
NASA NTRS1983

Nonlinear potential analysis techniques for supersonic-hypersonic configuration design

Approximate nonlinear inviscid theoretical techniques for predicting aerodynamic characteristics and surface pressures for relatively slender vehicles at moderate hypersonic speeds were developed. Emphasis was placed on approaches that would be responsive to preliminary configuration design level of effort. Second order small disturbance and full potential theory was utilized to meet this objective. Numerical pilot codes were developed for relatively general three dimensional geometries to evaluate the capability of the approximate equations of motion considered. Results from the computations indicate good agreement with higher order solutions and experimental results for a variety of wing, body and wing-body shapes for values of the hypersonic similarity parameter M delta approaching one. Case computational times of a minute were achieved for practical aircraft arrangements.

Clever, W. C.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Nonlinear potential analysis techniques for supersonic-hypersonic aerodynamic design

Approximate nonlinear inviscid theoretical techniques for predicting aerodynamic characteristics and surface pressures for relatively slender vehicles at supersonic and moderate hypersonic speeds were developed. Emphasis was placed on approaches that would be responsive to conceptual configuration design level of effort. Second order small disturbance and full potential theory was utilized to meet this objective. Numerical codes were developed for relatively general three dimensional geometries to evaluate the capability of the approximate equations of motion considered. Results from the computations indicate good agreement with experimental results for a variety of wing, body, and wing-body shapes.

Shankar, V.↗
NASA NTRS1987

Average electric field behavior in the ionosphere above Arecibo

Plasma drift measurements taken at Arecibo during the solar minimum period of 1974-1977 are examined to determine their average behavior in the E, F2, and F regions. The drifts are generally diurnal in the E region and semidiurnal in the F1 region. These lower thermospheric drifts are set up by polarization fields generated by propagating and in situ atmospheric tides. In the F region the diurnal component is more pronounced, especially in the zonal direction. The magnitude of the drifts is of the order of 25-30 m/s (or 1 mV/m). Enhanced geomagnetic activity appears to increase the westward component of the drift in agreement with the theory of the ionospheric disturbance dynamo (Blanc and Richmond, 1980). Nighttime drifts appear to be at least partly explained in terms of polarization fields.

Ganguly, Suman↗