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Technical Paper

A Fuel Consumption Simulator for Teaching Efficient Driving Practices

2008-04-14
2008-01-1291
A fuel consumption simulator was developed to help students in driver's education courses identify driving practices that maximize a vehicle's fuel economy. To maintain the interest of teenage students, a computer program was developed as a first-person driving simulation and was made to resemble the video-game driving simulators that are available for recreation. To keep the costs of using the simulator reasonably low for high schools, the simulator was developed for use with Windows based computers and off-the-shelf driving controls for video games. While the simulator was created for use with off-the-shelf equipment, the simulator uses an incompressible flow model of the intake and exhaust processes with realistic transmission and torque converter models to predict fuel consumption and vehicle performance. The engine and transmission models were calibrated using manufacturer reported engine performance data.
Technical Paper

A Biodiesel Mini Baja Vehicle and Student Competition

2008-04-14
2008-01-1293
The SAE Mini Baja® competition is an extremely popular design competition that focuses on the design of an off-road vehicle for performance and cost-of-production. A 2006-07 EPA P3 Phase I grant was awarded to the University of Alabama at Birmingham to convert a vehicle created for the SAE Mini Baja® competition to a biodiesel vehicle. Because of the major size difference in the diesel engine chosen compared to the much smaller gasoline engine, conversion of the Baja vehicle required considerably more effort than expected. While many mechanical aspects of the bio-diesel conversion were more complicated than expected, the students were successful in creating bio-diesel and in modifying important vehicle systems. The students also gained a substantial understanding of the economical and environmental aspects of alternative fuel generation. Through the conversion experience gained at UAB, the rules for a new competition were explored.
Technical Paper

Simulation of Drop Collection with Non-Uniform Cloud Distributions for Collection Efficiency Sensor Validation

2023-06-15
2023-01-1405
Large icing wind tunnels typically have sufficient distance for drops from spray nozzles to spread evenly producing small spatial variations of cloud properties at the wind tunnel test section. As the size of a wind tunnel gets smaller, producing clouds with uniform properties becomes challenging because of 1) the reduced distance from the spray bar system to the test section and 2) the spray characteristics of most air-assisted nozzles used for spray generation. For this paper, discrete-phase simulations using FLUENT were used to explore droplet collection on a partial NACA 0012 model at different angles of attack in the Baylor Liquid Film and Cloud Tunnel (LFACT). McClain et al. (2022) used the LFACT to validate a new microwave sensor system to measure collection efficiency variations along the surface of a wind tunnel model. However, the sensors used in the investigation were essentially the same size as the measured non-uniform cloud features in the wind tunnel test section.
Technical Paper

Cold Soaked Fuel Frost Roughness Evolution on a Simulated Integrated Fuel Tank with Aluminum Skins

2023-06-15
2023-01-1442
Cold soaked fuel frost (CSFF) is frost that forms on aircraft wing surfaces following a flight because of cold excess fuel remaining in integrated fuel tanks. Previous investigations by Zhang et al. (2021a) and Zhang et al. (2021b) have focused on experimental measurements and correlation development for frost observed using a small frost wind tunnel employing a thermo-electric cooler to impose a surface temperature for a range of environmental conditions. To model the CSFF approach in more detail, an experimental facility was developed and described by McClain et al. (2020) using a thermal model of an integrated wing fuel tank placed inside of a climatic chamber. In this paper, experimental measurements of CSFF are presented using two aluminum wing skins. One of the skins was created using an aluminum rib structure, and the other skin was created without the rib.
Technical Paper

A Reevaluation of Appendix C Ice Roughness Using Laser Scanning

2015-06-15
2015-01-2098
Many studies have been performed to quantify the formation and evolution of roughness on ice shapes created in Appendix C icing conditions, which exhibits supercooled liquid droplets ranging from 1-50 µm. For example Anderson and Shin (1997), Anderson et al. (1998), and Shin (1994) represent early studies of ice roughness during short-duration icing events measured in the Icing Research Tunnel at the NASA Glenn Research Center. In the historical literature, image analysis techniques were employed to characterize the roughness. Using multiple images of the roughness elements, these studies of roughness focused on extracting parametric representations of ice roughness elements. While the image analysis approach enabled many insights into icing physics, recent improvements in laser scanning approaches have revolutionized the process of ice accretion shape characterization.
Technical Paper

Convection from a Simulated NACA 0012 Airfoil with Realistic Ice Accretion Roughness Variations

2015-06-15
2015-01-2097
Changes in convection coefficient caused by the changes in surface roughness characteristics along an iced NACA 0012 airfoil were investigated in the 61-cm by 61-cm (24 in. by 24 in.) Baylor Subsonic Wind Tunnel using a 91.4-cm (36-in.) long heated aerodynamic test plate and infrared thermometry. A foam insert was constructed and installed on the wind tunnel ceiling to create flow acceleration along the test plate replicating the scaled flow acceleration the along the leading 17.1% (3.6 in.) of a 53.3-cm (21-in.) NACA 0012 airfoil. Two sets of rough surface panels were constructed for the study, and each surface used the same basic random droplet pattern created using the Lagrangian droplet simulator of Tecson and McClain (2013). For the first surface, the roughness pattern was replicated with the same geometry over the plate following a smooth-to-rough transition location noted in historical literature for the case being replicated.
Technical Paper

Simulations of Thin Film Dynamics on a Flat Plate and an Airfoil

2019-06-10
2019-01-1938
The goal of the present study is to investigate the dynamics of a thin water film on a flat plate and an airfoil using direct numerical simulation (DNS). The first case for a wetted flat plate is used to model former experiments and investigate the dynamics of a wind-driven water film. The second case for a thin film on a NACA 0012 airfoil of chord length 0.5 m is used to investigate the dynamics of a wind-driven water film on a curved surface. Particular attention is paid to the interaction between the liquid film and the air shear-layer above the film. As the incoming airflow moves over the thin water film, instability is triggered at the gas-liquid interface. Interfacial waves develop and are advected downstream. The interaction between the air flow and the interfacial waves induces shedding vortices near the interface, which in turn perturb the liquid film farther downstream. Simulations are performed using the open source multiphase flow solvers, Gerris and Basilisk.
Technical Paper

Photogrammetric Frost Roughness Measurements in Cold-Soaked Conditions

2019-06-10
2019-01-1970
Cold-soaked fuel frost (CSFF) is a form of aircraft wing contamination that occurs when a vehicle caries sufficient fuel for multiple trips or take-offs and landings. Following the first trip, which may reach altitudes above 10,000 m (33,000 ft), the fuel for the subsequent trips is carried in the wing tanks and may reach temperatures below -25 °C. In certain times of the year at some airports, temperatures and humidity levels will form CSFF on the aircraft wing surfaces over the fuel tanks. Unless an exemption is granted for the specific aircraft model, aircraft are not allowed to takeoff if the wing surfaces are contaminated by frost. Because aircraft operators desire to minimize vehicle time spent at airports, aircraft manufacturers are expected to pursue designs that safely operate with CSFF at takeoff and to pursue certification exemptions for aircraft models enabling CSFF takeoffs.
Journal Article

An Assessment of LEWICE Roughness and Convection Enhancement Models

2019-06-10
2019-01-1977
During aircraft design and certification, in-flight ice accretions are simulated using ice prediction codes. LEWICE, the ice accretion prediction code developed by NASA, employs a time-stepping procedure coupled with a thermodynamic model to calculate the location, size and shape of an ice accretion. LEWICE has been extensively validated for a wide range of icing conditions. However, continuing improvements to LEWICE predictive capabilities require better understandings of 1) the fundamental physics of turbulent flow generated by ice accretion roughness during an icing event and 2) the mechanisms responsible for convective enhancement of real ice accretion roughness. Recent experiments in the Icing Research Tunnel (IRT) at NASA Glenn Research Center have enabled significant insights into the nature of ice accretion roughness spatial and temporal variations.
Journal Article

Influence of Freestream Temperature on Ice Accretion Roughness

2019-06-10
2019-01-1993
The influence of freestream static temperature on roughness temporal evolution and spatial variation was investigated in the Icing Research Tunnel (IRT) at NASA Glenn Research Center. A 53.34 cm (21-in.) NACA 0012 airfoil model and a 152.4 cm (60-in.) HAARP-II business jet airfoil model were exposed to Appendix C clouds for fixed exposure times and thus fixed ice accumulation parameter. For the base conditions, the static temperature was varied to produce different stagnation point freezing fractions. The resulting ice shapes were then scanned using a ROMER Absolute Arm system and analyzed using the self-organizing map approach of McClain and Kreeger. The ice accretion prediction program LEWICE was further used to aid in interrogations of the ice accretion point clouds by using the predicted surface variations of local collection efficiency.
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