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Design and Characterization of the Sandia Free-Piston Reflected Shock Tunnel

AIAA Science and Technology Forum and Exposition, AIAA SciTech Forum 2022

Lynch, Kyle P.; Grasser, Thomas W.; Farias, Paul A.; Daniel, Kyle; Spillers, Russell W.; Downing, Charley R.; Wagner, Justin W.

A new reflected shock tunnel has been commissioned at Sandia capable of generating hypersonic environments at realistic flight enthalpies. The tunnel uses an existing free-piston driver and shock tube coupled to a conical nozzle to accelerate the flow to approximately Mach 9. The facility design process is outlined and compared to other ground test facilities. A representative flight enthalpy condition is designed using an in-house state-to-state solver and piston dynamics model and evaluated using quasi-1D modeling with the University of Queensland L1d code. This condition is demonstrated using canonical models and a calibration rake. A 25 cm core flow with 4.6 MJ/kg total enthalpy is achieved over an approximately 1 millisecond test time. Analysis shows that increasing piston mass should extend test time by a factor of 2-3.

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Evaporation and propagation of liquid drop streams at vacuum pressures: Experiments and modeling

Physical Review E

Guildenbecher, Daniel R.; Barnard, John J.; Grasser, Thomas W.; McMaster, Anthony M.; Campbell, Robert B.; Grote, David P.; Nandy, Prabal; Light, Max

Evaporation of streams of liquid droplets in environments at vacuum pressures below the vapor pressure has not been widely studied. Here, experiments and simulations are reported that quantify the change in droplet diameter when a steady stream of ≈100 μm diameter drops is injected into a chamber initially evacuated to <10-8bar. In experiments, droplets fall through the center of a 0.8 m long liquid nitrogen cooled shroud, simulating infinity radiation and vapor mass flux boundary conditions. Experimentally measured changes in drop diameters vary from ≈0 to 6 μm when the initial vapor pressure is increased from 10-6 to 10-3 bar by heating the liquid. Measured diameter changes are predicted by a model based on the Hertz-Knudsen equation. One uncertainty in the calculation is the "sticking coefficient"β. Assuming a constant β for all conditions studied here, predicted diameter changes best match measurements with β≈0.3. This value falls within the range of β reported in the literature for organic liquids. Finally, at the higher vapor pressure conditions considered here, the drop stream disperses transverse to the main flow direction. This spread is attributed to forces imparted by an absolute pressure gradient produced by the evaporating stream.

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A free-piston driven shock tube for generating extreme aerodynamic environments: Design and first shots

AIAA Scitech 2019 Forum

Lynch, Kyle P.; Spitzer, Seth M.; Grasser, Thomas W.; Spillers, Russell W.; Farias, Paul A.; Wagner, Justin W.

A new free-piston driven shock tube is being constructed at Sandia National Laboratories for generating extreme aerodynamic environments relevant for the study of reacting particle dispersal. The high-temperature shock tube (HST) is designed to reach post-incident shock temperatures more than 2000 K, starting from a driven section initially at ambient temperature and pressure. A design study is presented on different driver methods, leading to the selection of a free-piston driver. The tuning and performance of this driver is analyzed using the Hornung one-dimensional model and the L1d quasi-one-dimensional flow solver. The final mechanical design is shown and compared to the X2 free-piston facility. Construction was completed in mid-2018, and an initial analysis of facility performance from the first shots is presented.

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Laser-diagnostic mapping of temperature and soot statistics in a 2-m diameter turbulent pool fire

Combustion and Flame

Kearney, S.P.; Grasser, Thomas W.

We present spatial profiles of temperature and soot-volume-fraction statistics from a sooting, 2-m base diameter turbulent pool fire, burning a 10%-toluene/90%-methanol fuel mixture. Dual-pump coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering and laser-induced incandescence are utilized for simultaneous point measurements of temperature and soot. The research fuel-blend used here results in a lower soot loading than real transportation fuels, but allows us to apply high-fidelity laser diagnostics for spatially resolved measurements in a fully turbulent, buoyant fire of meter-scale base size. Profiles of mean and rms fluctuations are radially resolved across the fire plume, both within the hydrocarbon-rich vapor-dome region near fuel pool, and higher within the actively burning region of the fire. The spatial evolution of the soot and temperature probability density functions is discussed. Soot fluctuations display significant intermittency across the full extent of the fire plume for the research fuel blend used. Simultaneous, spatially overlapped temperature/soot measurements permit us to obtain estimates of joint statistics that are presented as spatially resolved conditional averages across the fire plume, and in terms of a joint pdf obtained by including measurements from multiple spatial locations. Within the actively burning region of the fire, soot is observed to occupy a limited temperature range between ∼1000 and 2000 K, with peak soot concentration occurring at 1600–1700 K across the full radial extent of the fire plume, despite marked changes in the local temperature pdf across the same spatial extent. A wider range of soot temperatures is observed in the fuel vapor-dome region low in the pool fire, with detectable cold soot persisting into conditionally averaged statistics. The results yield insight into soot temperature across a wide spatial extent of a fully turbulent pool fire of meaningful size, which are valuable for development of soot radiative-emission models and for validation of fire fluid-dynamics codes.

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Hybrid fs/ps rotational CARS temperature and oxygen measurements and soot LII measurements in a turbulent C2H4-fueled jet flame

54th AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting

Kearney, S.P.; Hoffmeister, Kathryn N.; Guildenbecher, Daniel R.; Winters, Caroline W.; Grasser, Thomas W.; Hewson, John C.

We present a detailed set of measurements from a piloted, sooting, turbulent C2H4-fueled jet flame. Hybrid femtosecond/picosecond coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) is used to monitor temperature and oxygen, while laser-induced incandescence (LII) is applied for imaging of the soot volume fraction in the challenging jet-flame environment at Reynolds number, Re = 20,000. A new dual-detection channel CARS instrument provides the enhanced dynamic range required in this highly intermittent and turbulent environment. LII measurements are made across a wide field of view requiring us to account for spatial variation in the soot-volume-fraction response of the instrument. Single-laser-shot results are used to illustrate the mean and rms statistics, as well as probability densities of all three measured quantities. LII data from the soot-growth region of the jet are used to benchmark the soot source term for one-dimensional turbulence (ODT) modeling of this turbulent flame. The ODT code is then used to predict temperature, oxygen and soot fluctuations within the soot oxidation region higher in the flame.

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KHz rate digital in-line holography applied to quantify secondary droplets from the aerodynamic breakup of a liquid column in a shock-tube

54th AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting

Guildenbecher, Daniel R.; Wagner, Justin W.; Olles, Joseph D.; Mazumdar, Yi C.; DeMauro, Edward P.; Farias, Paul A.; Grasser, Thomas W.; Sojka, Paul E.

The breakup of liquids due to aerodynamic forces has been widely studied. However, the literature contains limited quantified data on secondary droplet sizes, particularly as a function of time. Here, a column of liquid water is subjected to a step change in relative gas velocity using a shock tube. A unique digital in-line holography (DIH) configuration is proposed which quantifies the secondary droplets sizes, three-dimensional position, and three-component velocities at 100 kHz. Results quantify the detailed evolution of the characteristic mean diameters and droplet size-velocity correlations as a function of distance downstream from the initial location of the water column. Accuracy of the measurements is confirmed through mass balance. These data give unprecedented detail on the breakup process which will be useful for improved model development and validation.

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Temperature, Oxygen, and Soot-Volume-Fraction Measurements in a Turbulent C2H4-Fueled Jet Flame

Kearney, S.P.; Guildenbecher, Daniel R.; Winters, Caroline W.; Grasser, Thomas W.; Farias, Paul A.; Hewson, John C.

We present a detailed set of measurements from a piloted, sooting, turbulent C 2 H 4 - fueled diffusion flame. Hybrid femtosecond/picosecond coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) is used to monitor temperature and oxygen, while laser-induced incandescence (LII) is applied for imaging of the soot volume fraction in the challenging jet-flame environment at Reynolds number, Re = 20,000. Single-laser shot results are used to map the mean and rms statistics, as well as probability densities. LII data from the soot-growth region of the flame are used to benchmark the soot source term for one-dimensional turbulence (ODT) modeling of this turbulent flame. The ODT code is then used to predict temperature and oxygen fluctuations higher in the soot oxidation region higher in the flame.

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Digital in-line holography to quantify secondary droplets from the impact of a single drop on a thin film

Experiments in Fluids

Guildenbecher, Daniel R.; Engvall, Luke; Gao, Jian; Grasser, Thomas W.; Reu, Phillip L.; Chen, Jun

Digital in-line holography (DIH) is an optical technique which measures particle sizes and their three-dimensional (3D) positions and velocities. Here DIH and a recently proposed hybrid method of particle detection are applied to quantify the secondary droplets generated by the impact of a single drop on a thin film. By leveraging the expected symmetry between in-plane and out-of-plane velocities, experimental depth uncertainty is measured to be approximately 0.7 of the mean droplet diameter. Furthermore, comparison with previous measurements using alternative techniques shows good agreement with the measured temporal evolution of drop number, size, and velocity components. Finally, the power of DIH to extract the complex 3D morphology of the protruding jets is demonstrated. © 2014 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.

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Results 1–25 of 57
Results 1–25 of 57