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At least 163 records · Page 9
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NASA NTRS2016

Review of Potential Wind Tunnel Balance Technologies

This manuscript reviews design, manufacture, materials, sensors, and data acquisition technologies that may benefit wind tunnel balances for the aerospace research community. Current state-of-the-art practices are used as the benchmark to consider advancements driven by researcher and facility needs. Additive manufacturing is highlighted as a promising alternative technology to conventional fabrication and has the potential to reduce both the cost and time required to manufacture force balances. Material alternatives to maraging steels are reviewed. Sensor technologies including piezoresistive, piezoelectric, surface acoustic wave, and fiber optic are compared to traditional foil based gages to highlight unique opportunities and shared challenges for implementation in wind tunnel environments. Finally, data acquisition systems that could be integrated into force balances are highlighted as a way to simplify the user experience and improve data quality. In summary, a rank ordering is provided to support strategic investment in exploring the technologies reviewed in this manuscript.

Burns, Devin E.↗
NASA NTRS2018

Internal Radio-Frequency Instrumentation System (IRIS) Overview

Wireless instrumentation has long been sought for spaceflight applications, but practical implementations capable of providing the utility of wired sensors have proven elusive. The power needed to drive transmitters/receivers in traditional "active" wireless sensor radios requires either frequent battery replacement or prohibitive duty cycling. This prevents installing such sensors early in a vehicle's integration and treating them as always-on throughout its operation. "Passive" solutions such as radio frequency identification (RFID) techniques provide an appealing alternative, though most common RFID sensing approaches such as surface acoustic wave (SAW) RFID do not lend themselves easily to integrating arbitrary suites of sensors and sensor processors. In this talk we detail the design, fabrication, and evaluation of the Internal Radio-frequency Instrumentation System (IRIS), an RFID-enabled instrumentation solution that integrates an EPC Global Class 1 Generation 2 interface with processor-based wireless sensors. IRIS thermocouple sensors can operate in a low-power hibernation state with instantaneous over-the-air wakeup for nearly a decade on a small (255 mAh) coin cell battery. In their active state, they can acquire and stream 10 Hz data for more than 200 days. This allows wireless sensors to be installed and powered on early in vehicle integration and continue to operate after launch through a lengthy mission, opening the vehicle design trade space to wireless sensing in a meaningful and unprecedented way.

Wagner, Raymond↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Seeking & Evaluating Applications of SAWs (SEASAWs)

Surface Acoustic Wave sensors (SAWs) offer a battery less, wireless, passive, noninvasive, durable means of sensing which might be appealing to many fields in space technology. Developments in many aspects of SAWs including the miniaturization of associated hardware, improvements in interrogation and device fabrication / characterization allow for the use of SAWs in many aerospace settings where traditional sensors may have sufficed but SAWs might enhance. In order to place this technology in relevant environments, an inherent understanding of operation and capabilities must be understood. With the many possibilities of SAWs in their implementation, breaking down their tradeoffs and primary systems allows for their application.

Michael Szostak↗
NASA NTRS1995

A numerical study of fundamental shock noise mechanisms

The results of this thesis demonstrate that direct numerical simulation can predict sound generation in unsteady aerodynamic flows containing shock waves. Shock waves can be significant sources of sound in high speed jet flows, on helicopter blades, and in supersonic combustion inlets. Direct computation of sound permits the prediction of noise levels in the preliminary design stage and can be used as a tool to focus experimental studies, thereby reducing cost and increasing the probability of a successfully quiet product in less time. This thesis reveals and investigates two mechanisms fundamental to sound generation by shocked flows: shock motion and shock deformation. Shock motion is modeled by the interaction of a sound wave with a shock. During the interaction, the shock wave begins to move and the sound pressure is amplified as the wave passes through the shock. The numerical approach presented in this thesis is validated by the comparison of results obtained in a quasi-one dimensional simulation with linear theory. Analysis of the perturbation energy demonstrated for the first time that acoustic energy is generated by the interaction. Shock deformation is investigated by the numerical simulation of a ring vortex interacting with a shock. This interaction models the passage of turbulent structures through the shock wave. The simulation demonstrates that both acoustic waves and contact surfaces are generated downstream during the interaction. Analysis demonstrates that the acoustic wave spreads cylindrically, that the sound intensity is highly directional, and that the sound pressure level increases significantly with increasing shock strength. The effect of shock strength on sound pressure level is consistent with experimental observations of shock noise, indicating that the interaction of a ring vortex with a shock wave correctly models a dominant mechanism of shock noise generation.

Meadows, Kristine R.↗
NASA NTRS1989

An investigation of the diffraction of an acoustic plane wave by a curved surface of finite impedance

Phenomena associated with long range propagation of sound over irregular topography motivated this work, which was to analyze the diffraction effects which would occur near the tops of hills and ridges. The diffraction of a high frequency plane wave due to its grazing of a two-dimensional curved surface of finite impedance was also studied. Laboratory scale models were constructed and measurements were made of the field on, above, and behind either of two curved surfaces possessing distinctly different impedances; that is, one was soft while the other was hard. The experimental technique consisted of simultaneously measuring the pressure at a reference point and at a field point due to a transient pulse generated by an electric spark. The pressure waveforms were digitized and processed. The ratio of the discrete Fourier transforms of the two waveforms provided an estimate of the insertion loss between them. The results of the measurements were compared with the predictions of a theory which was derived by Pierce using the method of Matched Asymptotic Expansions (MAE). The predictions relied upon the experimental evaluation of the impedance of each surface at grazing angles of incidence. This evaluation was achieved by a fairly standard technique involving empirical models of various generic types of surfaces. An example was shown of the important role that the structural intricacies of a surface play in the determination of an appropriate model. The comparison between the measurements and predictions indicated that the theory gives an excellent description of the field anywhere near a curved surface. Further, with a simple modification, the theory was also shown to give nearly as good of a description of the field surrounding a curved surface even at distances far behind the surface yet near the line of sight.

Kearns, James A.↗
NASA NTRS2004

Computation of Gust-Cascade Interaction Using the CE/SE Method

The problem 2 in Category 3 of the 4th Computational Aeroacoustic(CAA) Workshop is solved using the space-time conservation element and solution element (CE/SE) method. This problem models rotor-stator interaction in a 2D cascade. It involves complex geometries and flow physics including vortex shedding and acoustic radiation. The parallel version of the 2D nonlinear Euler solver is used with an unstructured triangular mesh to solve this problem. The Giles approach is incorporated with the CE/SE method to handle non-equal pitches of the rotor and stator. Validation on the Giles approach is performed using Problem 3.1 in the 2nd CAA Workshop. The space-time CE/SE method is a finite volume method with second-order accuracy in both space and time. The flux conservation is enforced in both space and time instead of space only. It has low numerical dissipation and dispersion errors. It uses simple non-reflecting boundary conditions and is compatible with unstructured meshes. It is simple, flexible, and generate reasonably accurate solutions. The CE/SE method has been successfully applied to solve numerous practical problems, especially aeroacoustic problems. Some preliminary numerical results of the benchmark problem 3.2 of the 4th CAA Workshop are shown. The steady-state pressure contour is plotted. The mean pressure distribution on the blade surface is compared with Turbo solution showing a good agreement. The sound pressure level versus the rotor harmonic n at the six designated positions on the blade surface, three locations at inlet plane, and three locations at the outlet plane are plotted. It can be seen that the acoustic response exists only at the excitation frequencies (n = 1,2,3). On the blade surface, the acoustic wave at n = 1 is dominant, while at the inlet and outlet planes, the sound pressure level at n = 2 becomes the largest, which is similar to the results presented. The distribution of sound pressure level at different spatial modes along the z- direction is plotted for n = 1,2,3, respectively. It shows that the spatial modes m = -32 and 22 at n = 1 exponentially decay, and the spatial modes m = 10 at n = 2, m = -42 and 12 at n = 3 propagate both upstream and downstream, which agrees with the prediction based on the linearized theory. Some oscillations are observed, which needs to be investigated further. In the final paper, the numerical results will be compared with a frequency-domain solver LINFLUX solution if it is available.

Wang, X.-Y.↗
NASA NTRS2016

Wide-Stopband Aperiodic Phononic Filters

We demonstrate that a phonon stopband can be synthesized from an aperiodic structure comprising a discrete set of phononic filter stages. Each element of the set has a dispersion relation that defines a complete bandgap when calculated under a Bloch boundary condition. Hence, the effective stopband width in an aperiodic phononic filter (PnF) may readily exceed that of a phononic crystal with a single lattice constant or a coherence scale. With simulations of multi-moded phononic waveguides, we discuss the effects of finite geometry and mode-converting junctions on the phonon transmission in PnFs. The principles described may be utilized to form a wide stopband in acoustic and surface wave media. Relative to the quantum of thermal conductance for a uniform mesoscopic beam, a PnF with a stopband covering 1.6-10.4 GHz is estimated to reduce the thermal conductance by an order of magnitude at 75 mK.

bandgap↗
NASA NTRS1994

Active control of turbomachine discrete tones

This paper was directed at active control of discrete frequency noise generated by subsonic blade rows through cancellation of the blade row interaction generated propagating acoustic waves. First discrete frequency noise generated by a rotor and stator in a duct was analyzed to determine the propagating acoustic pressure waves. Then a mathematical model was developed to analyze and predict the active control of discrete frequency noise generated by subsonic blade rows through cancellation of the propagating acoustic waves, accomplished by utilizing oscillating airfoil surfaces to generate additional control propagating pressure waves. These control waves interact with the propagating acoustic waves, thereby, in principle, canceling the acoustic waves and thus, the far field discrete frequency tones. This model was then applied to a fan exit guide vane to investigate active airfoil surface techniques for control of the propagating acoustic waves, and thus the far field discrete frequency tones, generated by blade row interactions.

Fleeter, Sanford↗
NASA NTRS2000

Acoustic Receptivity of a Blasius Boundary Layer with 2-D and Oblique Surface Waviness

An experimental investigation was conducted to examine acoustic receptivity and subsequent boundary-layer instability evolution for a Blasius boundary layer formed on a flat plate in the presence of two-dimensional (2-D) and oblique (3-D) surface waviness. The effect of the non-localized surface roughness geometry and acoustic wave amplitude on the receptivity process was explored. The surface roughness had a well defined wavenumber spectrum with fundamental wavenumber k (sub w). A planar downstream traveling acoustic wave was created to temporally excite the flow near the resonance frequency of an unstable eigenmode corresponding to k (sub ts) = k (sub w). The range of acoustic forcing levels, epsilon, and roughness heights, DELTA h, examined resulted in a linear dependence of receptivity coefficients; however, the larger values of the forcing combination epsilon dot DELTA h resulted in subsequent nonlinear development of the Tollmien-Schlichting (T-S) wave. This study provided the first experimental evidence of a marked increase in the receptivity coefficient with increasing obliqueness of the surface waviness in excellent agreement with theory. Detuning of the 2-D and oblique disturbances was investigated by varying the streamwise wall-roughness wavenumber a,, and measuring the T-S response. For the configuration where laminar-to-turbulent breakdown occurred, the breakdown process was found to be dominated by energy at the fundamental and harmonic frequencies, indicative of K-type breakdown.

King, Rudolph A.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Apparatus for acoustically coupling an ultrasonic transducer with a body

An apparatus for acoustically coupling an ultrasonic transducer with a body along whose surface waves are to be transmitted includes a wedge having a first surface for acoustically contacting a subject surface area of a body to be measured, on which surface waves are to be transmitted, and a second surface for accoustically contacting an ultrasonic transducer. The wedge includes a cylinder in which the second surface is present and which is movably disposed in a recess in a block in which the first surface is present, for orienting the first surface and the second surface relative to each other so that ultrasonic waves emitted by the ultrasonic transducer generate surface waves which travel on the subject surface area of the body when the ultrasonic transducer is in acoustic contact with the second surface and the first surface is in acoustic contact with the subject surface area of the body. In the preferred embodiment, there is a third surface which is orientable relative to the first surface so that ultrasonic waves emitted by an ultrasonic transducer in contact with the third surface generate surface waves which travel on the subject surface area of the body when the first surface is an acoustic contact with the subject surface area of the body.

Marshall, Scot H.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

On A Stabilization of the Ingard-Myers Impedance Boundary Condition

It has been well-known that the Ingard-Myers impedance condition, while simple to apply, is subject to the hydrodynamic Kelvin-Helmholtz instability due to its use of a vortex sheet in modeling the flow at the liner boundary. Recently, in the development of a time domain boundary element method for acoustic scattering by treated surfaces, it was found that by neglecting a certain second-order spatial derivative term in the Ingard-Myers formulation, the hydrodynamic instability can be avoided. The present paper aims to provide further analysis of this modified condition, hereby referred to as Truncated Ingard-Myers Impedance Boundary Condition (TIMIBC). It will be shown, based on the dispersion relations of linear waves, that the instability intrinsic to the Ingard-Myers condition is eliminated in the proposed new formulation. Quantitative assessments on the accuracy of TIMIBC for scattering of acoustic waves by lined surfaces will be carried out, and its effectiveness will be demonstrated by numerical examples. Specifically, the accuracy is assessed by comparing solutions obtained by the Ingard-Myers condition with that by the proposed TIMIBC where theoretical reflection coefficients at a lined surface are derived for cases of plane and spherical incident waves. It is found that the TIMIBC provides a good approximation to the original Ingard-Myers condition for flows of low to mid subsonic Mach numbers. Time domain implementations of TIMIBC are also discussed and illustrated with a numerical example using a finite difference scheme. As many studies have shown the Ingard-Myers condition to be the correct limit of boundary layer thickness going to zero, the proposed TIMIBC can offer a practical solution for overcoming the intrinsic instability associated with the Ingard-Myers condition.

Time Domain BEM↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

On A Stabilization of the Ingard-Myers Impedance Boundary Condition

It has been well-known that the Ingard-Myers impedance condition, while simple to apply, is subject to the hydrodynamic Kelvin-Helmholtz instability due to its use of a vortex sheet in modeling the flow at the liner boundary. Recently, in the development of a time domain boundary element method for acoustic scattering by treated surfaces, it was found that by neglecting a certain second-order spatial derivative term in the Ingard-Myers formulation, the hydrodynamic instability can be avoided. The present paper aims to provide further analysis of this modified condition, hereby referred to as Truncated Ingard-Myers Impedance Boundary Condition (TIMIBC). It will be shown, based on the dispersion relations of linear waves, that the instability intrinsic to the Ingard-Myers condition is eliminated in the proposed new formulation. Quantitative assessments on the accuracy of TIMIBC for scattering of acoustic waves by lined surfaces will be carried out, and its effectiveness will be demonstrated by numerical examples. Specifically, the accuracy is assessed by comparing solutions obtained by the Ingard-Myers condition with that by the proposed TIMIBC where theoretical reflection coefficients at a lined surface are derived for cases of plane and spherical incident waves. It is found that the TIMIBC provides a good approximation to the original Ingard-Myers condition for flows of low to mid subsonic Mach numbers. Time domain implementations of TIMIBC are also discussed and illustrated with a numerical example using a finite difference scheme. As many studies have shown the Ingard-Myers condition to be the correct limit of boundary layer thickness going to zero, the proposed TIMIBC can offer a practical solution for overcoming the intrinsic instability associated with the Ingard-Myers condition.

Time Domain BEM↗
NASA NTRS2011

Receptivity to Roughness, Acoustic, and Vortical Disturbances in Supersonic Boundary Layers Over Swept Wings

The receptivity and interaction of stationary and traveling crossflow instability of three-dimensional supersonic boundary layers over a swept biconvex wing with a blunt leading edge are numerically investigated for a freestream Mach number of 3. The steady and unsteady flow fields are obtained by solving the full Navier-Stokes equations. The receptivity of the boundary layer to surface roughness, freestream acoustic waves, and freestream vorticity waves are numerically investigated. The initial amplitudes of the stationary vortices generated by 1 micron roughness elements is about 2000 times larger than the initial amplitudes of the traveling disturbances generated by vortical disturbances. The interaction of stationary and traveling disturbances was investigated by solving the equations with both surface roughness and vortical disturbances. When the initial amplitudes of the stationary disturbances are large compared to the traveling disturbances, the stationary vortex dominates the perturbation field. When the amplitudes are comparable, the traveling vortex prevails and the stationary vortex is suppressed.

Balakumar, Ponnampalam↗
NASA NTRS1990

Speculation on a Solar Chronometer for Climate

Solar activity has been correlated to climatic fluctuations and has been postulated as a major factor in quasi-periodic global climatic change. However, correlations are not explanations of physical mechanisms and do not couple cause with effect. A mechanism for a chronometer for solar output variability is proposed based on relations between properties of thermonuclear fusion, nuclear magnetic moment, and nuclear magnetic resonance. A fundamental oscillation of a nucleus with a net nuclear magnetic moment (NMM) is the precession of its axis of rotation when subjected to a magnetic field. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is the preferred frequency of precession for a nucleus of a particular isotope when placed in a magnetic field of specific intensity. The NMM for those isotopes involved in the proton-proton (p-p) chain pathway for solar fusion varies from strong positive to strong negative. Individual fusion events, for hydrogen and helium isotopes which release varying amounts of energy, may be controlled by NMR frequencies. The pulses of energy from fusion events occurring at NMR frequencies in the solar interior may be transformed into pressure or gravity waves that emerge as gravity or acoustic waves at the surface. Dictated by spherical harmonics, certain wavelengths may be reinforced and reenter the solar interior to modulate the fusion process. Qualitative analysis of solar and climatic data support the interaction of the three basic components of the chronometer, magnetic activity, oscillation frequency, and solar energy output.

Perry, Charles A.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

3D Radiative MHD Modeling of the Solar Atmospheric Dynamics and Structure

Dramatic dynamical phenomena accompanied by strong thermodynamic and magnetic structuring are the primary drivers of great interest in studying the solar atmosphere with high spatial and temporal resolutions. Using current computational capabilities, it has become possible to model the magnetized solar plasma in different regimes with a high degree of realism. To study the fine structuring of the solar atmosphere and dynamics, we use 3D MHD radiative models covering all layers from the upper convection zone to the corona. Realistic 3D radiative MHD modeling of the solar magnetoconvection and atmosphere allows us to generate synthetic observables that directly link the physical properties of the solar plasma to spectroscopic observables. In the presentation, we discuss qualitative and quantitative changes of the atmospheric structure and dynamics at different layers of the solar atmosphere, properties of acoustic and surface gravity waves, sources of local heating in the chromosphere-corona transition region, formation of shocks, and high-frequency oscillations in the corona, as well as manifestation of these phenomena in the modeled observables.

SMD↗
NASA NTRS1994

Use of acoustic wave travel-time measurements to probe the near-surface layers of the Sun

The variation of solar p-mode travel times with cyclic frequency nu is shown to provide information on both the radial variation of the acoustic potential and the depth of the effective source of the oscillations. Observed travel-time data for waves with frequency lower than the acoustic cutoff frequency for the solar atmosphere (approximately equals 5.5 mHz) are inverted to yield the local acoustic cutoff frequency nu(sub c) as a function of depth in the outer convection zone and lower atmosphere of the Sun. The data for waves with nu greater than 5.5 mHz are used to show that the source of the p-mode oscillations lies approximately 100 km beneath the base of the photosphere. This depth is deeper than that determined using a standard mixing-length calculation.

Jefferies, S. M.↗