Browsing by Author "Morris, Aaron Benjamin"
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Item Investigation of a discrete velocity Monte Carlo Boltzmann equation(2009-05) Morris, Aaron Benjamin; Goldstein, David B.; Varghese, PhilipA new discrete velocity scheme for solving the Boltzmann equation has been implemented for homogeneous relaxation and one-dimensional problems. Directly solving the Boltzmann equation is computationally expensive because in addition to working in physical space, the nonlinear collision integral must also be evaluated in a velocity space. To best solve the collision integral, collisions between each point in velocity space with all other points in velocity space must be considered, but this is very expensive. Motivated by the Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method, the computational costs in the present method are reduced by randomly sampling a set of collision partners for each point in velocity space. A collision partner selection algorithm was implemented to favor collision partners that contribute more to the collision integral. The new scheme has a built in flexibility, where the resolution in approximating the collision integral can be adjusted by changing how many collision partners are sampled. The computational cost associated with evaluation of the collision integral is compared to the corresponding statistical error. Having a fixed set of velocities can artificially limit the collision outcomes by restricting post collision velocities to those that satisfy the conservation equations and lie precisely on the grid. A new velocity interpolation algorithm enables us to map velocities that do not lie on the grid to nearby grid points while preserving mass, momentum, and energy. This allows for arbitrary post-collision velocities that lie between grid points or completely outside of the velocity space to be projected back onto the nearby grid points. The present scheme is applied to homogeneous relaxation of the non-equilibrium Bobylev Krook-Wu distribution, and the numerical results agree well with the analytic solution. After verifying the proposed method for spatially homogeneous relaxation problems, the scheme was then used to solve a 1D traveling shock. The jump conditions across the shock match the Rankine-Hugoniot jump conditions. The internal shock wave structure was then compared to DSMC solutions, and good agreement was found for Mach numbers ranging from 1.2 to 6. Since a coarse velocity discretization is required for efficient calculation, the effects of different velocity grid resolutions are examined. Although using a relatively coarse approximation for the collision integral is computationally efficient, statistical noise pollutes the solution. The effects of using coarse and fine approximations for the collision integral are examined and it is found that by coarsely evaluating the collision integral, the computational time can be reduced by nearly two orders of magnitude while retaining relatively smooth macroscopic properties.Item Simulation of rocket plume impingement and dust dispersal on the lunar surface(2012-12) Morris, Aaron Benjamin; Varghese, Philip L.; Goldstein, David Benjamin, doctor of aeronautics; Metzger, Philip; Trafton, Laurence M.; Raman, VenkatramananWhen a lander approaches a dusty surface, the plume from the descent engine impinges on the ground and entrains loose regolith into a high velocity spray. This problem exhibits a wide variety of complex phenomena such as highly under-expanded plume impingement, transition from continuum to free molecular flow, erosion, coupled gas-dust motions, and granular collisions for a polydisperse distribution of aerosolized particles. The focus of this work is to identify and model the important physical phenomena and to characterize the dust motion that would result during typical lunar landings. A hybrid continuum-kinetic solver is used, but most of the complex physics are simulated using the direct simulation Monte Carlo method. A descent engine of comparable size and thrust to the Lunar Module Descent Engine is simulated because it allows for direct comparison to Apollo observations. Steady axisymmetric impingement was first studied for different thrust engines and different hovering altitudes. The erosion profiles are obtained from empirically derived scaling relationships and calibrated to closely match the net erosion observed during the Apollo missions. Once entrained, the dust motion is strongly influenced by particle-particle collisions and the collision elasticity. The effects of two-way coupling between the dust and gas motions are also studied. Small particles less than 1 µm in diameter are accelerated to speeds that exceed 1000 m/s. The larger particles have more inertia and are accelerated to slower speeds, approximately 350 m/s for 11 µm grains, but all particle sizes tend obtain their maximum speed within approximately 40 m from the lander. The maximum particle speeds and erosion rates tend to increase as the lander approaches the lunar surface. The erosion rates scale linearly with engine thrust and the maximum particle speed increases for higher thrust engines. Dust particles are able to travel very far from the lander because there is no background atmosphere on the moon to inhibit their motion. The far field deposition is obtained by using a staged calculation, where the first stages are in the near field where the flow is quasi-steady and the outer stages are unsteady. A realistic landing trajectory is approximated by a set of discrete hovering altitudes which range from 20 m to 3 m. Larger particles are accelerated to slower speeds and are deposited closer to the lander than smaller particles. Many of the gas molecules exceed lunar escape speed, but some gas molecules become trapped within the dust cloud and remain on the moon. The high velocity particulate sprays can be damaging to nearby structures, such as a lunar outpost. One way of mitigating this damage is to use a berm or fence to shield nearby structures from the dust spray. This work attempts to predict the effectiveness of such a fence. The effects of fence height, placement, and angle as well as the model sensitivity to the fence restitution coefficient are discussed. The expected forces exerted on fences placed at various locations are computed. The pressure forces were found to be relatively small at fences placed at practical distances from the landing site. The trajectories of particles that narrowly avoid the fence were not significantly altered by the fence, suggesting that the dust motion is weakly coupled to the gas in the near vicinity of the fence. Future landers may use multi-engine configurations that can form 3-dimensional gas and dust flows. There are multiple plume-plume and plume-surface interactions that affect the erosion rates and directionality of the dust sprays. A 4-engine configuration is simulated in this work for different hovering altitudes. The focusing of dust along certain trajectories depends on the lander hovering altitude, where at lower altitudes the dust particles focus along symmetry planes while at higher altitudes the sprays are more uniform. The surface erosion and trenching behavior for a 4-engine lander are also discussed.