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At least 145 records · Page 8

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NASA NTRS1943

On a new method for calculating the potential flow past a body of revolution

A new method is presented for obtaining the velocity potential of the flow about a body of revolution moving uniformly in the direction of its axis of symmetry in a fluid otherwise at rest. This method is based essentially on the fact that the form of the differential equation for the velocity potential is invariant with regard to conformal transformation of the meridian plane. By means of the conformal transformation of the meridian profile into a circle a system of orthogonal curvilinear coordinates is obtained, the main feature of which is that one of the coordinate lines is the meridian profile itself. The use of this type of coordinate system yields a simple expression of the boundary condition at the surface of the solid and leads to a rational process of iteration for the solution of the differential equation for the velocity potential. It is shown that the velocity potential for an arbitrary body of revolution may be expressed in terms of universal functions which, although not normal, are obtainable by means of simple quadratures. The general results are applied to a body of revolution obtained by revolving a symmetrical Joukowski profile about its axis of symmetry. A numerical example further serves to illustrate the theory.

Kaplan, Carl↗

NASA NTRS1953

Impingement of Droplets in 90 deg Elbows with Potential Flow

Trajectories were determined for droplets in air flowing through 90 deg elbows especially designed for two-dimensional potential motion with low pressure losses. The elbows were established by selecting as walls of each elbow two streamlines of the flow field produced by a complex potential function that establishes a two-dimensional flow around a 90 deg bend. An unlimited number of elbows with slightly different shapes can be established by selecting different pairs of streamlines as walls. The elbows produced by the complex potential function selected are suitable for use in aircraft air-intake ducts. The droplet impingement data derived from the trajectories are presented along with equations in such a manner that the collection efficiency, the area, the rate, and the distribution of droplet impingement can be determined for any elbow defined by any pair of streamlines within a portion of the flow field established by the complex potential function. Coordinates for some typical streamlines of the flow field and velocity components for several points along these streamlines are presented in tabular form.

Hacker, Paul T.↗

NASA NTRS1975

Numerical calculation of unsteady transonic potential flow over helicopter rotor blades

The small-disturbance potential equation appropriate to a helicopter in forward flight is derived. This equation is then solved for the flow over a nonlifting transonic rotor blade, using a completely implicit scheme that is an extension of the Murman-Cole mixed-difference technique. The flow in the tip region is most unsteady in the decelerating flow region, after the blade passes the psi = 90 deg azimuthal station. The unsteadiness appears to be caused by expansion and compression waves that move slowly upstream of the blade as the relative incident flow decelerates. The influence of aspect ratio, advance ratio, and Mach number on this process is discussed.

Caradonna, F. X.↗

NASA NTRS1984

Vectorized schemes for conical potential flow using the artificial density method

A method is developed to determine solutions to the full-potential equation for steady supersonic conical flow using the artificial density method. Various update schemes used generally for transonic potential solutions are investigated. The schemes are compared for speed and robustness. All versions of the computer code have been vectorized and are currently running on the CYBER-203 computer. The update schemes are vectorized, where possible, either fully (explicit schemes) or partially (implicit schemes). Since each version of the code differs only by the update scheme and elements other than the update scheme are completely vectorizable, comparisons of computational effort and convergence rate among schemes are a measure of the specific scheme's performance. Results are presented for circular and elliptical cones at angle of attack for subcritical and supercritical crossflows.

Bradley, P. F.↗

NASA NTRS1980

General design method for three-dimensional potential flow fields. 1: Theory

A general design method was developed for steady, three dimensional, potential, incompressible or subsonic-compressible flow. In this design method, the flow field, including the shape of its boundary, was determined for arbitrarily specified, continuous distributions of velocity as a function of arc length along the boundary streamlines. The method applied to the design of both internal and external flow fields, including, in both cases, fields with planar symmetry. The analytic problems associated with stagnation points, closure of bodies in external flow fields, and prediction of turning angles in three dimensional ducts were reviewed.

Stanitz, J. D.↗

NASA NTRS2004

The Use 0f AVIRIS Imagery To Assess Clay Mineralogy And Debris-Flow Potential In Cataract Canyon, Utah: A Preliminary Report

Worldwide debris flows destroy property and take human lives every year (Costa, 1984). As a result of extensive property damage and loss of life there is a pressing need to go beyond just describing the nature and extent of debris flows as they occur. Most of the research into debris-flow initiation has centered on rainfall, slope angle, and existing debris-flow deposits (Costa and Wieczorek, 1987). The factor of source lithology has been recently addressed by studies in the sedimentary terranes of Grand Canyon (Webb et al., 1996; Griffiths et al., 1996) and on the Colorado Plateau as a whole.3 On the Colorado Plateau shales dominated by kaolinite and illite clays are significantly more likely to be recent producers of debris-flows than are shales in which smectite clays dominate.3 Establishing the location of shales and colluvial deposits containing kaolinite and illite clays in sedimentary terranes on the Colorado Plateau is essential to predicting where debris flows are likely to occur. AVIRIS imagery can be used to distinguish between types of clay minerals (Chabrillat et al., 2001), providing the basis for surface-materials maps. The ultimate product of this study will be a model that can be used to estimate the debris-flow hazard in Cataract Canyon, Utah. This model will be based on GIS overlay analysis of debris-flow initiation factor maps, including surface-materials maps derived from AVIRIS data.

Rudd, Lawrence↗

NASA NTRS1984

Nonunique solutions to the transonic potential flow equation

Steinhoff and Jameson (1981) have shown that within a certain range of angle of attack and freestream Mach number, numerical solutions of the full-potential equation for flow past an airfoil are not unique. This study was mainly concerned with showing that the anomaly is inherent to the partial-differential equation governing the flow and not a result of its discrete representation. Steinhoff and Jameson conjectured that the anomaly may have a physical basis. The present investigation has two objectives. Results are to be presented which indicate that the anomaly is due to a breakdown in the potential approximation, rather than a phenomenon associated with the inviscid flowfield. The second objective is to show that the lift coefficient, predicted by the potential equation, is a smooth but multivalued function of the angle of attack.

Salas, M. D.↗

NASA NTRS1987

Computation of transonic potential flow on helicopter rotor blades

Two computer codes, the full-potential three-dimensional (FP3D) code and the full-potential rotor (FPR) code have recently been developed. Both of these codes solve the three-dimensional conservative formulation of the full potential equation. The FPR code was developed at the U.S. Army Aeroflightdynamics Directorate (AFDD) while the FP3D code was a joint development by ONERA and AFDD. Both of these codes were used to predict the nonlifting, unsteady flow over a rotor operating at high advance ratio and tip speed. Three different rotor tip planform shapes were studied: a rectangular tip, a 30 deg aft swept tip and a 30 deg forward swept tip. Results of these computations are compared to results obtained using an earlier small-disturbances code. Also, the lifting flow over a rectangular tip operating at a slightly different condition was computed. These results are also compared with the small disturbances computations and with experimental results.

Costes, M.↗

NASA NTRS1975

Optimum performance and potential flow field of hovering rotors

Rotor and propeller performance and induced potential flowfields were studied on the basis of a rotating actuator disk concept, with special emphasis on rotors hovering out of ground effect. A new theory for the optimum performance of rotors hovering OGE is developed and presented. An extended theory for the optimum performance of rotors and propellers in axial motion is also presented. Numerical results are presented for the optimum distributions of blade-bound circulation together with axial inflow and ultimate wake velocities for the hovering rotor over the range of thrust coefficient of interest in rotorcraft applications. Shapes of the stream tubes and of the velocities in the slipstream are obtained, using available methods, for optimum and off-optimum circulation distributions for rotors hovering in and out of ground effect. A number of explicit formulae useful in computing rotor and propeller induced flows are presented for stream functions and velocities due to distributions of circular vortices over axi-symmetric surfaces.

Wu, J. C.↗

NASA NTRS1978

Recent experiences with three-dimensional transonic potential flow calculations

Some recent experiences with computer programs capable of solving finitie-difference approximations to the full potential equation for the transonic flow past three dimensional swept wings and simple wing-fuselage combinations are discussed. The programs used are a nonconservative program for swept wings, a quasi-conservative finite-volume program capable of treating swept wings mounted on fuselages of slowly varying circular cross section, and a fully conservative finite volume scheme capable of treating swept wings and wing-cylinder combinations. The present capabilities of these codes are reviewed. The relative merits of the conservative and nonconservative formulations are discussed, and the results of calculations including corrections for the boundary-layer displacement effect are presented.

Caughey, D. A.↗

NASA NTRS1986

An entropy correction method for unsteady full potential flows with strong shocks

An entropy correction method for the unsteady full potential equation is presented. The unsteady potential equation is modified to account for entropy jumps across shock waves. The conservative form of the modified equation is solved in generalized coordinates using an implicit, approximate factorization method. A flux-biasing differencing method, which generates the proper amounts of artificial viscosity in supersonic regions, is used to discretize the flow equations in space. Comparisons between the present method and solutions of the Euler equations and between the present method and experimental data are presented. The comparisons show that the present method more accurately models solutions of the Euler equations and experiment than does the isentropic potential formulation.

Whitlow, W., Jr.↗

NASA NTRS1986

An entropy correction method for unsteady full potential flows with strong shocks

Whitlow, W., Jr.↗

NASA NTRS1986

Finite-volume scheme for transonic potential flow about airfoils and bodies in an arbitrarily shaped channel

A conservative finite-volume difference scheme is developed for the potential equation to solve transonic flow about airfoils and bodies in an arbitrarily shaped channel. The scheme employs a mesh which is a nearly conformal O mesh about the airfoil and nearly orthogonal at the channel walls. The mesh extends to infinity upstream and downstream, where the mapping is singular. Special procedures are required to treat the singularities at infinity, including computation of the metrics near those points. Channels with exit areas different from inlet areas are solved; a body with a sting mount is an example of such a case.

South, Jerry C., Jr.↗

NASA NTRS1985

General design method for 3-dimensional, potential flow fields. Part 2: Computer program DIN3D1 for simple, unbranched ducts

The general design method for three-dimensional, potential, incompressible or subsonic-compressible flow developed in part 1 of this report is applied to the design of simple, unbranched ducts. A computer program, DIN3D1, is developed and five numerical examples are presented: a nozzle, two elbows, an S-duct, and the preliminary design of a side inlet for turbomachines. The two major inputs to the program are the upstream boundary shape and the lateral velocity distribution on the duct wall. As a result of these inputs, boundary conditions are overprescribed and the problem is ill posed. However, it appears that there are degrees of compatibility between these two major inputs and that, for reasonably compatible inputs, satisfactory solutions can be obtained. By not prescribing the shape of the upstream boundary, the problem presumably becomes well posed, but it is not clear how to formulate a practical design method under this circumstance. Nor does it appear desirable, because the designer usually needs to retain control over the upstream (or downstream) boundary shape. The problem is further complicated by the fact that, unlike the two-dimensional case, and irrespective of the upstream boundary shape, some prescribed lateral velocity distributions do not have proper solutions.

Stanitz, J. D.↗

NASA NTRS1985

Finite-volume scheme for transonic potential flow about airfoils and bodies in an arbitrarily-shaped channel

A conservative finite-volume difference scheme is developed for the potential equation to solve transonic flow about airfoils and bodies in an arbitrary channel. The scheme employs a mesh which is a nearly-conformal 'O' mesh about the airfoil and nearly orthogonal at the channel walls. The mesh extends to infinity upstream and downstream, where the mapping is singular. Special procedures are required to treat the singularities at infinity, including computation of the metrics near those points. Channels with exit areas different from inlet areas are solved; a body with a sting mount is an example of such a case.

South, J. C., Jr.↗

NASA NTRS1982

A vortex wake capturing method for potential flow calculations

A method is presented for modifying finite difference solutions of the potential equation to include the calculation of non-planar vortex wake features. The approach is an adaptation of Baker's 'cloud in cell' algorithm developed for the stream function-vorticity equations. The vortex wake is tracked in a Lagrangian frame of reference as a group of discrete vortex filaments. These are distributed to the Eulerian mesh system on which the velocity is calculated by a finite difference solution of the potential equation. An artificial viscosity introduced by the finite difference equations removes the singular nature of the vortex filaments. Computed examples are given for the two-dimensional time dependent roll-up of vortex wakes generated by wings with different spanwise loading distributions.

Murman, E. M.↗

NASA NTRS2000

Overset Grid Methods Applied to Nonlinear Potential Flows

The objectives of this viewgraph presentation are to develop Chimera-based potential methodology which is compatible with overflow and overflow infrastructure, creating options for an advanced problem solving environment and to significantly reduce turnaround time for aerodynamic analysis and design (primarily cruise conditions).

Holst, Terry↗

NASA NTRS1974

Steady incompressible potential flow around lifting bodies immersed in a fluid

The refinement was investigated of a method for evaluating the pressure distribution on a body surface of arbitrary shape in incompressible flow. The solution was obtained in terms of the velocity potential, through numerical approximations which require the use of a high speed digital computer. The box method and the modal method are described in detail, and were applied to a very thin, rectangular wing in incompressible, steady flow. The box method is found to be more practical as it is applicable to more general geometries (the modal method requires a new set of functions for each geometry), and requires less computer time (fifty percent of that required by the modal method for the same problem).

Chiuchiolo, E. A.↗