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Results for “flow efficiency”

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 19 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2017

Quantifying the flow efficiency in constant-current capacitive deionization

In this work, we detail a previously unappreciated loss mechanism inherent to capacitive deionization (CDI) cycling operation that has a substantial role determining performance. This mechanism reflects the fact that desalinated water inside a cell is partially lost to re-salination if desorption is carried out immediately after adsorption. We describe such effects by a parameter called the flow efficiency, and show that this efficiency is distinct from and yet multiplicative with other highly-studied adsorption efficiencies. Flow losses can be minimized by flowing more feed solution through the cell during desalination; however, this also results in less effluent concentration reduction. While the rationale outlined here is applicable to all CDI cell architectures that rely on cycling, we validate our model with a flow-through electrode CDI device operated in constant-current mode. We find excellent agreement between flow efficiency model predictions and experimental results, thus giving researchers simple equations by which they can estimate this distinct loss process for their operation.

42 ENGINEERING↗
NASA NTRS1972

Orifice In-flow Efficiency Tests. Volume 1: Test Results. Volume 2: Application to Shuttle Venting During Entry

An investigation was made of the capability for computing internal pressures throughout flight for compartments located within space shuttle vehicles. A test program was conducted at a 6 x 6 foot supersonic wind tunnel to determine orifice efficiencies for the flow of air into a compartment from a flowing external stream. Measurements were made over a Mach number range of 0.7 to 1.9 for varying orifice geometry, vent orientation, vent plate thickness, flat plate boundary layer thickness, and pressure ratio across the vent plate. A computer program developed for outflow venting was modified for use in computing compartment pressures for inflow conditions. Results from both the outflow and inflow computer programs are included. A user's manual and program listing of the inflow venting program are also included.

Haukohl, J.↗
DOE OSTI2023

Quantifying unitary flow efficiency and entanglement for many-body localization

Holography tells us that there should be a mapping between a boundary Hamiltonian and bulk degrees of freedom. We probe the bulk geometry of the Wegner Wilson Flow (WWF) in the context of many-body localization by addressing efficiency and bulk entanglement growth measures through approximating upper bounds on the boundary entanglement entropy. Here, we connect these upper bounds to the Fubini-Study metric and clarify how a central quantity, the information fluctuation complexity, distinguishes bulk unitary rotation from entanglement production. We also give a short new proof of the small incremental entangling theorem in the absence of ancillas, achieving a dimension independent, universal factor of c = 2.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
NASA NTRS2017

Geometrically Flexible and Efficient Flow Analysis of High Speed Vehicles Via Domain Decomposition, Part 1: Unstructured-Grid Solver for High Speed Flows

The ability to solve the equations governing the hypersonic turbulent flow of a real gas on unstructured grids using a spatially-elliptic, 2nd-order accurate, cell-centered, finite-volume method has been recently implemented in the VULCAN-CFD code. This paper describes the key numerical methods and techniques that were found to be required to robustly obtain accurate solutions to hypersonic flows on non-hex-dominant unstructured grids. The methods and techniques described include: an augmented stencil, weighted linear least squares, cell-average gradient method, a robust multidimensional cell-average gradient-limiter process that is consistent with the augmented stencil of the cell-average gradient method and a cell-face gradient method that contains a cell skewness sensitive damping term derived using hyperbolic diffusion based concepts. A data-parallel matrix-based symmetric Gauss-Seidel point-implicit scheme, used to solve the governing equations, is described and shown to be more robust and efficient than a matrix-free alternative. In addition, a y+ adaptive turbulent wall boundary condition methodology is presented. This boundary condition methodology is deigned to automatically switch between a solve-to-the-wall and a wall-matching-function boundary condition based on the local y+ of the 1st cell center off the wall. The aforementioned methods and techniques are then applied to a series of hypersonic and supersonic turbulent flat plate unit tests to examine the efficiency, robustness and convergence behavior of the implicit scheme and to determine the ability of the solve-to-the-wall and y+ adaptive turbulent wall boundary conditions to reproduce the turbulent law-of-the-wall. Finally, the thermally perfect, chemically frozen, Mach 7.8 turbulent flow of air through a scramjet flow-path is computed and compared with experimental data to demonstrate the robustness, accuracy and convergence behavior of the unstructured-grid solver for a realistic 3-D geometry on a non-hex-dominant grid.

White, Jeffery A.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Energy efficient continuous flow ash lockhopper

The invention relates to an energy efficient continuous flow ash lockhopper, or other lockhopper for reactor product or byproduct. The invention includes an ash hopper at the outlet of a high temperature, high pressure reactor vessel containing heated high pressure gas, a fluidics control chamber having an input port connected to the ash hopper's output port and an output port connected to the input port of a pressure letdown means, and a control fluid supply for regulating the pressure in the control chamber to be equal to or greater than the internal gas pressure of the reactor vessel, whereby the reactor gas is contained while ash is permitted to continuously flow from the ash hopper's output port, impelled by gravity. The main novelty resides in the use of a control chamber to so control pressure under the lockhopper that gases will not exit from the reactor vessel, and to also regulate the ash flow rate. There is also novelty in the design of the ash lockhopper shown in two figures. The novelty there is the use of annular passages of progressively greater diameter, and rotating the center parts on a shaft, with the center part of each slightly offset from adjacent ones to better assure ash flow through the opening.

Collins, Earl R., Jr.↗
NASA NTRS1995

Algorithm For Computation Of Chemically Reacting Flow

Efficient algorithm developed for use in solving differential equations of transient, chemically reacting flows at all speeds from zero to high mach numbers. Mathematical models represent coupling of thermal, chemical, and dynamical effects. Original intended application is numerical simulation of flows in rocket engines; also applicable to other complex flows affected by finite-rate chemistry - for example, flows in turbines and in internal-combustion engines.

Chen, Yen-Sen↗
NASA NTRS1991

Development of iterative techniques for the solution of unsteady compressible viscous flows

Efficient iterative solution methods are being developed for the numerical solution of two- and three-dimensional compressible Navier-Stokes equations. Iterative time marching methods have several advantages over classical multi-step explicit time marching schemes, and non-iterative implicit time marching schemes. Iterative schemes have better stability characteristics than non-iterative explicit and implicit schemes. Thus, the extra work required by iterative schemes can also be designed to perform efficiently on current and future generation scalable, missively parallel machines. An obvious candidate for iteratively solving the system of coupled nonlinear algebraic equations arising in CFD applications is the Newton method. Newton's method was implemented in existing finite difference and finite volume methods. Depending on the complexity of the problem, the number of Newton iterations needed per step to solve the discretized system of equations can, however, vary dramatically from a few to several hundred. Another popular approach based on the classical conjugate gradient method, known as the GMRES (Generalized Minimum Residual) algorithm is investigated. The GMRES algorithm was used in the past by a number of researchers for solving steady viscous and inviscid flow problems with considerable success. Here, the suitability of this algorithm is investigated for solving the system of nonlinear equations that arise in unsteady Navier-Stokes solvers at each time step. Unlike the Newton method which attempts to drive the error in the solution at each and every node down to zero, the GMRES algorithm only seeks to minimize the L2 norm of the error. In the GMRES algorithm the changes in the flow properties from one time step to the next are assumed to be the sum of a set of orthogonal vectors. By choosing the number of vectors to a reasonably small value N (between 5 and 20) the work required for advancing the solution from one time step to the next may be kept to (N+1) times that of a noniterative scheme. Many of the operations required by the GMRES algorithm such as matrix-vector multiplies, matrix additions and subtractions can all be vectorized and parallelized efficiently.

Sankar, Lakshmi N.↗
DOE OSTI2018

An efficient algorithm for simulating ensembles of parameterized flow problems

Abstract Many applications of computational fluid dynamics require multiple simulations of a flow under different input conditions. In this paper, a numerical algorithm is developed to efficiently determine a set of such simulations in which the individually independent members of the set are subject to different viscosity coefficients, initial conditions and/or body forces. The proposed scheme, when applied to the flow ensemble, needs to solve a single linear system with multiple right-hand sides, and thus is computationally more efficient than solving for all the simulations separately. We show that the scheme is nonlinearly and long-term stable under certain conditions on the time-step size and a parameter deviation ratio. A rigorous numerical error estimate shows the scheme is of first-order accuracy in time and optimally accurate in space. Several numerical experiments are presented to illustrate the theoretical results.

Mathematics↗
NASA NTRS2011

Progress Toward Efficient Laminar Flow Analysis and Design

A multi-fidelity system of computer codes for the analysis and design of vehicles having extensive areas of laminar flow is under development at the NASA Langley Research Center. The overall approach consists of the loose coupling of a flow solver, a transition prediction method and a design module using shell scripts, along with interface modules to prepare the input for each method. This approach allows the user to select the flow solver and transition prediction module, as well as run mode for each code, based on the fidelity most compatible with the problem and available resources. The design module can be any method that designs to a specified target pressure distribution. In addition to the interface modules, two new components have been developed: 1) an efficient, empirical transition prediction module (MATTC) that provides n-factor growth distributions without requiring boundary layer information; and 2) an automated target pressure generation code (ATPG) that develops a target pressure distribution that meets a variety of flow and geometry constraints. The ATPG code also includes empirical estimates of several drag components to allow the optimization of the target pressure distribution. The current system has been developed for the design of subsonic and transonic airfoils and wings, but may be extendable to other speed ranges and components. Several analysis and design examples are included to demonstrate the current capabilities of the system.

Campbell, Richard L.↗
DOE OSTI2023

Training Data Regarding Optimal Power Flow For Efficient Machine Learning

The code is intended to take the data outputted by the MATPOWER OPF solver tools and restructures the data in a way that is best suited for machine learning. The variables are read and the desired values are taken and added to an array in the correct format. This array is then converted into a python array for future use. The code also utilizes MATPOWER's ability to construct different power flow scenarios and repeat them a chosen number of times. Each iteration will add a new line to the formatted array so that the final output is a matrix has a height equal to the number of repetition used.

Seidel, RachaelI↗
DOE OSTI2020

Optimal conditions for efficient flow-electrode capacitive deionization

One of the current barriers to achieving fast and stable performance for flow-electrode capacitive deionization (FCDI) is determining optimal operating parameters. To date, however, no consensus has been reached for universal conditions for FCDI. Through experimental and modeling approaches in this study, we systematically evaluated the influence of applied potential (V = 1.2–2.4 V) and electrolyte concentration (C0 = 0.05–0.5 M) on the FCDI and electrodialysis (ED) desalination processes. Evaluation indicators include the concentration decrease in the desalinated solution, salt removal rates, pH fluctuations, charge efficiency, and energy consumption. Results demonstrated that the dynamic curves of concentration decrease at 2.0 V nearly overlapped with the response at 1.6 V at certain electrolyte concentrations, while the salt removal rates at 0.2 M salt concentration were the best among all concentrations tested at a range of applied potential. Therefore, it was thus concluded that the optimum conditions for FCDI operation are 1.6 V applied potential and 0.2 M initial salt concentration, under which faradaic reactions are not being triggered, and concentration polarization does not significantly affect ion transfer. Furthermore, a comparative study between FCDI and ED indicated that ED has a different dependence on the electrolyte concentration and applied potential, in which the desalination can be linearly enhanced with increasing potential but greatly limited at high concentrations. Due to the presence of carbon particles in FCDI, the enhanced charge/ion transfer is probably the main reason for the different desalination performance of FCDI and ED. Overall, the optimal operating parameters obtained in this work could be used as basic test conditions for further development of new carbon-based materials for FCDI.

42 ENGINEERING↗
NASA NTRS1977

Aircraft energy efficiency laminar flow control wing design study

An engineering design study was performed in which laminar flow control (LFC) was integrated into the wing of a commercial passenger transport aircraft. A baseline aircraft configuration was selected and the wing geometry was defined. The LFC system, with suction slots, ducting, and suction pumps was integrated with the wing structure. The use of standard aluminum technology and advanced superplastic formed diffusion bonded titanium technology was evaluated. The results of the design study show that the LFC system can be integrated with the wing structure to provide a structurally and aerodynamically efficient wing for a commercial transport aircraft.

Bonner, T. F., Jr.↗
DOE OSTI2019

Quantitative guidance for efficient vertical flow measurements at the sediment–water interface using temperature–depth profiles

Upward discharge to surface water bodies can be quantified using analytical models based on temperature–depth (T-z) profiles. The use of sediment T-z profiles is attractive as discharge estimates can be obtained using point-in-time data that are collected inexpensively and rapidly. Previous studies have identified that T-z methods can only be applied at times of the year when there is significant difference between the streambed–water interface and deeper sediment temperatures (e.g., winter and summer). However, surface water temperatures also vary diurnally, and the influence of these variations on discharge estimates from T-z methods is poorly understood. For this study, synthetic T-z profiles were generated numerically using measured streambed interface temperature data to assess the influence of diurnal temperature variations on discharge estimation and provide insight into the suitable application of T-z methods. Results show that the time of day of data collection can have a substantial influence on vertical flux estimates using T-z methods. For low groundwater discharge fluxes (e.g., 0.1 m d -1 ), daily transience in streambed temperatures led to relatively large errors in estimated flow magnitude and direction. For higher discharge fluxes (1.5 m d -1 ), the influence of transient streambed temperatures on discharge estimates was strongly reduced. Discharge estimates from point-in-time T-z profiles were most accurate when the uppermost point in the T-z profile was near the bed interface daily mean (two time periods daily). Where temperature time series data are available, daily averaged T-z profiles can produce accurate discharge estimates across a wide range of discharge rates. Seasonality in shallow groundwater temperature generally had a negligible influence on vertical flow estimates. Finally, these findings can be used to plan field campaigns and provide guidance on the optimal application of T-z methods to quantify vertical groundwater discharge to surface water bodies.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
NASA NTRS1979

Aircraft energy efficiency laminar flow control glove flight conceptual design study

A laminar flow control glove applied to the wing of a short to medium range jet transport with aft mounted engines was designed. A slotted aluminum glove concept and a woven stainless steel mesh porous glove concept suction surfaces were studied. The laminar flow control glove and a dummy glove with a modified supercritical airfoil, ducting, modified wing leading and trailing edges, modified flaps, and an LFC trim tab were applied to the wing after slot spacing suction parameters, and compression power were determined. The results show that a laminar flow control glove can be applied to the wing of a jet transport with an appropriate suction system installed.

Wright, A. S.↗