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At least 145 records · Page 8

Atmospheric circulation of Venus

Observational data of Venus are utilized to study rotational effects on atmospheric circulations. The high surface temperature and planetary-scale turbulent motion at cloud tops, and the relation between energy and momentum budget are examined. The limited amount of data available on the vertical and horizontal distribution of net radiative heating, the zonal wind structure, and waves affects the study of the temperature and motion on Venus. The limitations of the scaling analysis used to estimate the properties of the circulation as regards the cyclostrophic balance, the extent of the Hadley circulation, large-scale wave transport, vertical propagation of waves, convection, and turbulence are considered. Hypotheses concerned with the deep, cloud-level, and upper atmospheres of Venus are proposed. Future research in the areas of propagating planetary- scale waves, zonal flow and planetary-scale wave instability processes, and convection is suggested.

Rossow, W. B.↗

Assessment of Axial Wave Number and Mean Flow Uncertainty on Acoustic Liner Impedance Education

A key parameter in designing and assessing advanced broadband acoustic liners to achieve the current and future noise reduction goals is the acoustic impedance presented by the liner. This parameter, intrinsic to a specific liner configuration, is dependent on sound pressure level and grazing flow velocity. Current impedance eduction approaches have, in general, provided excellent results and continue to be employed throughout the acoustic liner community. However, some recent applications have indicated a possible dependence of the educed impedance on the direction of incident waves relative to the mean flow. The purpose of the current study is to investigate this unexpected behavior for various impedance eduction methods based on the Pridmore-Brown and convected Helmholtz equations. Specifically, the effects of flow profile and axial wavenumber uncertainties on educed impedances for upstream and downstream sources are investigated. The uniform flow results demonstrate the importance of setting a correct Mach number value in obtaining consistent educed impedances for upstream and downstream sources. In fact, the consistency of results over the two source locations was greatly improved by a slight modification of the uniform flow Mach number. In addition, uncertainty in educed axial wavenumber was also illustrated to correlate well with differences in the educed impedances, even with modified uniform flow Mach number. Finally, while less straightforward than in the uniform flow case, it appears that modification of the mean flow profile may also improve consistency of results for upstream and downstream results when shear flow is included.

Nark, Douglas M.↗

Intraseasonal oscillations in the extratropics - Hopf bifurcation and topographic instabilities

A potential vorticity model in a beta-channel is used to analyze the resonant response of equivalent-barotropic flow to topography in the presence of a forced zonal jet with arbitrary meridional structure. The nonlinear dynamics near different resonances is studied considering both wave-wave and wave-zonal flow interactions. It is shown that Hopf bifurcations from stationary to periodic flows are possible due to the nonlinear instability of nonzonal, topographically forced flow. Low-frequency, finite-amplitude oscillations arise due to a combination of two factors: (1) nonlinear wave-wave interactions, which tend to reduce the Rossby wave frequency; and (2) wave-zonal flow interactions, which reflect the importance of wave momentum transport in shifting the westerly jet and of the topographic form drag. The physical mechanism of atmospherically realistic Hopf bifurcations depends crucially on the meridional profile of the mean zonal flow giving rise to a dipole-shaped resonance.

Jin, F.-F.↗

Flow visualization of a wave packet on a rotating disk

A wave packet on a disk rotating in still air has been investigated using the somke wire flow visualization technique. The packet was initiated by a short duration suction pulse through a small surface orifice at a radius corresponding to a sub-critical Reynolds number equal to 256. Photographs show that the initial disturbance evolves into a wave packet consisting of three or four waves which spread and grow along a path dictated by the stationary crossflow vortex emanating from the orifice. The data suggests that the packet may have a higher growth rate than the stationary vortex and further experimental and theoretical study is indicated.

Wilkinson, S. P.↗

Nonlinear interaction of waves in boundary-layer flows

First-order nonlinear interactions of Tollmien-Schlichting waves of different frequencies and initial amplitudes in boundary-layer flows are analyzed by using the method of multiple scales. For the case of two waves, a strong nonlinear interaction exists if one of the frequencies w2 is twice the other frequency w1. Numerical results for flow past a flat plate show that this interaction mechanism is strongly destabilizing even in regions where either the fundamental or its harmonic is damped in the absence of the interaction. For the case of three waves, a strong nonlinear interaction exists when w3 = w2- w1. This combination resonance causes the amplitude of the wave with the difference frequency w3 to multiply many times in magnitude in a short distance even if it is damped in the absence of the interaction. The initial amplitudes play a dominant role in determining the changes in the amplitudes of the waves in both of these mechanisms.

Nayfeh, A. H.↗

Finite-amplitude steady waves in plane viscous shear flows

Computations of two-dimensional solutions of the Navier-Stokes equations are carried out for finite-amplitude waves on steady unidirectional flow. Several cases are considered. The numerical method employs pseudospectral techniques in the streamwise direction and finite differences on a stretched grid in the transverse direction, with matching to asymptotic solutions when unbounded. Earlier results for Poiseuille flow in a channel are re-obtained, except that attention is drawn to the dependence of the minimum Reynolds number on the physical constraint of constant flux or constant pressure gradient. Attempts to calculate waves in Couette flow by continuation in the velocity of a channel wall fail. The asymptotic suction boundary layer is shown to possess finite-amplitude waves at Reynolds numbers orders of magnitude less than the critical Reynolds number for linear instability. Waves in the Blasius boundary layer and unsteady Rayleigh profile are calculated by employing the artifice of adding a body force to cancel the spatial or temporal growth. The results are verified by comparison with perturbation analysis in the vicinity of the linear-instability critical Reynolds numbers.

Milinazzo, F. A.↗

Advanced Technology Development for Active Acoustic Liners

Objectives include: (1) Develop electro-mechanical/acoustic models of a Helmholtz resonator possessing a compliant diaphragm coupled to a piezoelectric device; (2) Design and fabricate the energy reclamation module and active Helmholtz resonator; (3) Develop and build appropriate energy reclamation/storage circuit; (4) Develop and fabricate appropriate piezoelectric shunt circuit to tune the compliance of the active Helmholtz resonator via a variable capacitor; (5) Quantify energy reclamation module efficiency in a grazing-flow plane wave tube possessing known acoustic energy input; and (6) Quantify actively tuned Helmholtz resonator performance in grazing-flow plane wave tube for a white-noise input

Sheplak, Mark↗

Interactions between gravity waves and cold air outflows in a stably stratified uniform flow

Interactions between gravity waves and cold air outflows in a stably stratified uniform flow forced by various combinations of prescribed heat sinks and sources are studied using a hydrostatic two-dimensional nonlinear numerical model. The formation time for the development of a stagnation point or reversed flow at the surface is not always directly proportional to the Froude number when wave reflections exist from upper levels. A density current is able to form by the wave-otuflow interaction, even though the Froude number is greater than a critical value. This is the result of the wave-outflow interaction shifting the flow response to a different location in the characteristic parameter space. A density current is able to form or be destroyed due to the wave-outflow interaction between a traveling gravity wave and cold air outflow. This is proved by performing experiments with a steady-state heat sink and an additional transient heat source. In a quiescent fluid, a region of cold air, convergence, and upward motion is formed after the collision between two outflows produced by two prescribed heat sinks. After the collision, the individual cold air outflows lose their own identity and merge into a single, stationary, cold air outflow region. Gravity waves tend to suppress this new stationary cold air outflow after the collision. The region of upward motion associated with the collision is confined to a very shallow layer. In a moving airstream, a density current produced by a heat sink may be suppressed or enhanced nonlinearly by an adjacent heat sink due to the wave-outflow interaction.

Lin, Yuh-Lang↗

Nonlinear interaction of two waves in boundary-layer flows

First-order nonlinear interactions of Tollmien-Schlichting waves of different frequencies and initial amplitudes in boundary-layer flows are analyzed using the method of multiple scales. Numerical results for flow past a flat plate show that the spatial detuning wipes out resonant interactions unless the initial amplitudes are very large. Thus, a wave having a moderate amplitude has little influence on its subharmonic although it has a strong influence on its second harmonic. Moreover, two waves having moderate amplitudes have a strong influence on their difference frequency. The results show that the difference frequency can be very unstable when generated by the nonlinear interaction, even though it may be stable when introduced by itself in the boundary layer.

Nayfeh, A. H.↗

On transonic flow past a wave-shaped wall

This report is an extension of a previous investigation (described in NACA rep. 1069) concerned with the solution of the nonlinear differential equation for transonic flow past a wavy wall. In the present work several new notions are introduced which permit the solution of the recursion formulas arising from the method of integration in series. In addition, a novel numerical tests of convergence, applied to the power series (in transonic similarity parameter) representing the local Mach number distribution at the boundary, indicates that smooth symmetrical potential flow past the wavy wall is no longer possible once the critical value of the stream Mach number has been exceeded.

Kaplan, Carl↗

Combustion wave instabilities in turbulent flows

Navier-Stokes solutions are used to calculate oscillatory components of pressure, velocity, and density, which in turn provide necessary data to compute energy growth factors to determine combustion instability. It is shown that wave instabilities are associated with changes in entropy and the space and time averages of oscillatory components of pressure, velocity and density, together with the mean flow field in the energy equation. Compressible laminar and turbulent flows and reacting flows with hydrogen/oxygen combustion are considered in this paper. The space shuttle main engine combustion/thrust chamber is used for illustration of the theory. The analysis shows that the increase of mean pressure and disturbances consistently results in the increase in instability. It is shown that adequate combustion instability analysis requires at least third order nonlinearity in energy growth or decay.

Yoon, W. S.↗

Nonlinear wave interactions in swept wing flows

An analysis is presented which examines the modulation of different instability modes satisfying the triad resonance condition in time and space in a three-dimensional boundary layer flow. Detuning parameters are used for the wave numbers and the frequencies. The nonparallelism of the mean flow is taken into account in the analysis. At the leading-edge region of an infinite swept wing, different resonant triads are investigated that are comprised of travelling crossflow, vertical vorticity and Tollmein-Schlichting modes. The spatial evolution of the resonating triad components are studied.

Elhady, Nabil M.↗

A model of the wave 1 - wave 2 vacillation in the winter stratosphere

A three-dimensional, severely truncated, quasi-geostrophic model in a beta channel is used to explore the dynamics of the observed anticorrelation between the amplitudes of planetary waves 1 and 2 in the Northern Hemisphere winter stratosphere. The model, which includes interactions among eight horizontal modes, generates realistic wave 1-wave 2 vacillations when westward traveling wave 1 interacts with stationary waves 1 and 2. It is found that while wave 1 oscillates in response to wave-mean flow interactions, the oscillations in the amplitude of wave 2 are driven primarily by wave-wave interactions. Experiments with a barotropic model reveal that the timing of the strongest wave-wave interactions is determined by the wave 1 interaction with the mean flow.

Robinson, W. A.↗