Inlet distortion research has become increasingly important over the past several years as demands for aircraft flight efficiency and performance has increased. To accommodate these demands, research progression has shifted the emphasis onto airframe-engine integration and improved understanding of engine operability in less than ideal conditions. Swirl distortion, which is considered a type of non-uniform inflow inlet distortion, is characterized by the presence of swirling flow in an inlet. The presence of swirling flow entering an engine can affect the compression systems performance and operability, therefore it is an area of current research. A swirl distortion generation device created by Virginia Tech, identified as the StreamVane, has the ability to produce various swirl distortion flow profiles. In its current state, the StreamVane methodology generates a design swirl distortion at the trailing edge of the device. However, in many applications the plane at which the researcher wants a desired distortion is downstream of the StreamVane trailing edge. After the distortion is discharged from the StreamVane it develops as it moves downstream. Therefore, to more accurately replicate a desired swirl distortion at a given downstream plane, distortion development downstream of the StreamVane must be considered. Currently Virginia Tech utilizes a numerical modeling design tool, designated StreamFlow, that generates predictions of how a StreamVane-generated distortion propagates downstream. However, due to the non-linear physics of the flow problem, StreamFlow cannot directly calculate an accurate inverse solution that can predict upstream conditions from a downstream boundary, as needed to design a StreamVane. To solve this problem, in this research, an efficient estimation process has been created, combining the use of the StreamFlow model with a Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) parameter estimation tool to estimate upstream flow profiles that will produce the desired downstream profiles. The process is designated the StreamFlow-MC2 Estimation Process. The process was tested on four fundamental types of swirl distortions. The desired downstream distortion was input into the estimation process to predict an upstream profile that would create the desired downstream distortion. Using the estimated design profiles, 6-inch diameter StreamVanes were designed then wind tunnel tested to verify the distortion downstream. Analysis and experimental results show that using this method, the upstream distortion needed to create the desired distortion was estimated with excellent accuracy. Based on those results, the StreamFlow-MC2 Estimation Process was validated. / Master of Science

Epstein-Barr virus nuclear antigen 1 (EBNA1) is the only viral product needed for replication of the latent Epstein-Barr virus genome. The latent origin of replication, oriP, consists of two cis-acting elements, the family of repeats (FR) containing twenty EBNA1 recognition sites, and the dyad symmetry element (DS) containing four recognition sites. Bidirectional DNA replication is known to occur within or near the DS. Previous studies have suggested that EBAN1 binds cooperatively to its recognition sites in the DS and have shown that EBNA1 binding induces DNA distortion within site 1 and site 4 of the DS. I have used EBNA1 mutants in electrophoretic mobility shift assays, methylation protection footprinting, and potassium permanganate reactivity analysis to examine EBAN1 assembly on the DS and the requirements for DNA distortion. I have found that: 1) EBNA1 has a 10-11 fold higher affinity for the outer two sites of the DS than the inner two sites due to DNA sequence variation, 2) the minimum region of EBNA1 necessary for site specific binding is contained within amino acids (a. A.) 470-607 but a.a. 459-470 greatly affect binding affinity, 3) EBNA1 dimers bind cooperatively on adjacent binding sites and the region responsible for this interaction is also contained between a.a. 470-607. I have also shown that EBNA1 binding to a single DS site 1 recognition site is sufficient to induce DNA distortion within that site and this distortion can be caused by a truncation mutant spanning a.a. 463-607 but not a.a. 468-607. Finally, although wild type spacing between recognition sites of the DS is critical for replication it is not crucial for EBNA1 binding or EBNA1 induced DNA distortion. / Thesis / Master of Science (MS)

There has been lots of interest in designing more fuel efficient aircraft using concepts such as boundary layer ingestion (BLI) that cause large amounts of pressure and swirl distortion that enter the jet engines. To enable ground testing the performance of these engines in different distortion patterns, the StreamVane and ScreenVane systems have been developed. A StreamVane consists of a complex vane pack that is custom designed for each distortion profile and the ScreenVane combines the StreamVane with a pressure distortion screen for testing engines under both pressure and swirl distortions. The complexity and uniqueness of these devices make predicting their structural integrity and propensity to flutter a challenge, necessitating the need for studying flutter in these complex vane packs. In order to study flutter of these complex vane packs, a methodology was created to obtain trailing edge displacements and frequencies from high speed video of a StreamVane and was used on a quad swirl StreamVane and a Simplified model. Unsteady CFD with periodic mesh deformation based off of its modal analysis was used to validate if it can predict the flutter velocity as well as understanding what the unsteady aerodynamic response to flutter is. A parameter study was then conducted along with oilflow visualization to better understand the potential causes of flutter and the impact of different design parameters. A harmonic response analysis was conducted on each of these designs and a correlation between the amplitude from the harmonic response and the flutter Mach number was obtained that can be used to predict when a StreamVane will flutter. A new series of StreamVanes were designed and based off of computational analysis, two were selected for manufacture. They both successfully avoided fluttering in flutter tests and were found to accurately replicate the goal swirl profile when measured with a 5 hole probe. These results provide a basis for understanding and predicting flutter in StreamVanes. / Master of Science / There has been lots of interest in designing more fuel efficient aircraft using concepts such as boundary layer ingestion (BLI) that cause large amounts of pressure and swirl distortion that enter the jet engines. To enable ground testing the performance of these engines in different distortion patterns, the StreamVane and ScreenVane systems have been developed. A StreamVane consists of a complex vane pack that is custom designed for each distortion profile and the ScreenVane combines the StreamVane with a pressure distortion screen for testing engines under both pressure and swirl distortions. The complexity and uniqueness of these devices make predicting their structural integrity and propensity to flutter a challenge, necessitating the need for studying flutter in these complex vane packs. Flutter is when a structure experiences excess vibration when exposed to unsteady aerodynamic loads. In order to study flutter of these complex vane packs, a methodology was created to obtain trailing edge displacements and frequencies from high speed video of a StreamVane and was used on a quad swirl StreamVane and a Simplified model. Unsteady computation fluid dynamics (CFD) with periodic mesh deformation was used to validate if it can predict the flutter velocity as well as understanding what the unsteady aerodynamic response to flutter is. A parameter study was then conducted along with oilflow visualization to better understand the potential causes of flutter and the impact of different design parameters. A harmonic response analysis, which consists of a dynamic structural analysis with sinusoidal loading applied, was conducted on each of these designs. A correlation between the amplitude from the harmonic response and the flutter Mach number was obtained that can be used to predict when a StreamVane will flutter. A new series of StreamVanes were then designed and based off of computational analyses, two were selected for manufacture. They both successfully avoided fluttering in flutter tests and were found to accurately replicate the goal swirl profile when measured with a 5 hole probe downstream of the StreamVane. These results provide a basis for understanding and predicting flutter in StreamVanes and other complex vane packs.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 25-28, 1999 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / Coupling a distortion-free telemetry signal from an encanistered missile by using a pickup antenna inside the canister can be difficult, because the RF energy leaving the missile antenna travels through the canister and is reflected and absorbed in a complex manner before being received by the pickup antenna. In this paper the distortion incurred by a PCM/FM signal is described and used to predict the resulting distortion on the video after demodulation. Effects on bit error rate are presented as a function of delay distortion and bit rate. A demonstrated method of receiving a relatively undistorted telemetry signal using a pickup antenna is described.

No description available.

No description available.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 25-28, 1993 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / Group delay variations are a potential problem in many communication systems. This paper is slanted towards the effects of group delay variations in analog magnetic recorder/reproducer systems but the results are applicable in general. Because it is difficult to get an arbitrary group delay profile at the output of a recorder/reproducer, a method of generating arbitrary group delays for bit error probability (BEP) testing was developed. A 32-bit pattern in which all five-bit sequences appear with equal probability was selected as the test signal. The amplitude and phase of the discrete Fourier components were calculated for both non-return-to-zero-level (NRZ-L) and biphase-level (BI -L) waveforms. Filtering and group delay variations were computer generated by varying the amplitude and phase of the Fourier components. The modified signals were then programmed into an arbitrary waveform generator. Noise was added and the composite signal was applied to a bit synchronizer and bit error detector. BEPs were measured for various noise levels and group delay profiles.

Fuel consumption and noise reduction trigger the evolution of aircraft engines towards Ultra High Bypass Ratio (UHBR) architectures. Their short air inlet design and the reduction of their interstage length lead to an increased circumferential inhomogeneity of the flow close to the fan. This inhomogeneity, called distortion, may have an impact on the tonal noise radiated from the fan module. Usually, such a noise source is supposed to be dominated by the interaction of fan-blade wakes with Outlet Guide Vanes (OGVs). At transonic tip speeds, the noise generated by the shocks and the steady loading on the blades also appears to be significant. The increased distortion may be responsible for new acoustic sources while interacting with the fan blades and the present work aims at evaluating their contribution. The effects of distortion on the other noise mechanisms are also investigated. The work is based on full-annulus simulations of the Unsteady Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (URANS) equations. A whole fan module including the inlet duct, the fan and the Inlet and Outlet Guide Vanes (IGVs/OGVs) is studied. The OGV row is typical of current engine architecture with an integrated pylon and two different air inlet ducts are compared in order to isolate the effects of inlet distortion. The first one is axisymmetric and does not produce any distortion while the other one is asymmetric and produces a level of distortion typical of the ones expected in UHBR engines. A description and a quantification of the distortion that is caused by both the potential effect of the OGVs and the inlet asymmetry are proposed. The effects of the distortion on aerodynamics are highlighted with significant modifications of the fanblade wakes, the shocks and the unsteady loading on the blades and on the vanes. Both direct and hybrid acoustic predictions are provided and highlight the contribution of the fan-blade sources to the upstream noise. The downstream noise is still dominated by the OGV sources but it is shown to be significantly impacted by the inlet distortion via the modification of the impinging wakes.

Inlet flow distortion is a non-uniform total pressure, total temperature, or swirl (flow angularity) condition at an aircraft engine inlet. Inlet distortion is a critical consideration in modern fan and compressor design. This is especially true as the industry continues to increase the efficiency and operating range of air breathing gas turbine engines. The focus of this paper is to evaluate the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) Harmonic Balance (HB) solver in STAR-CCM+ as a reduced order method for capturing inlet distortion as well as the associated distortion transfer and generation. New methods for quantitatively describing and analyzing distortion transfer and generation are investigated. The geometry used is the rotor 4 fan geometry, consisting of one rotor and one stator. The inlet boundary condition is a 90-degree sector total pressure distortion profile with total pressure and swirl held constant. Multiple HB simulations with varying mode combinations and distortion intensities are analyzed and compared against full annulus Unsteady Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (URANS) simulations. Best practices and recommendations for the implementation of the HB solver are given. The pre-existing Society of Automotive Engineers Aerospace Recommended Practice (SAE-ARP) 1420b descriptors are demonstrated to be inadequate for the purposes of analyzing distortion transfer and generation on a stage-to-stage basis. New implementations of Fourier methods are presented as an alternative to the SAE-ARP 1420b descriptors. These Fourier descriptors are shown to describe distortion transfer and generation to a higher degree of fidelity than the SAE-ARP 1420b descriptors. These new descriptors are demonstrated on the analysis of full annulus URANS and HB simulations. The HB solver is shown to be capable of capturing distortion transfer, generation and performance degradation. Recommendations for the optimal implementation of the HB method are given.

An elasto-visco-plastic deformation model predicts stresses and distortions in a low-carbon steel casting. Features of the model include rate and hardening effects, temperature-dependent properties, and pressure-dependent deformation in the mushy zone. A volume-averaging technique considers the multiple phases during solidification and is used to formulate the conservation equations, which (due to a weak link between temperatures and deformations) are decoupled and solved sequentially using commercial software. Temperature fields are calculated first using MAGMAsoft (MAGMAsoft, MAGMA GmbH, Kackerstrasse 11, 52072 Aachen, Germany) and then exported to a finite element software package, ABAQUS (Abaqus/Standard, Abaqus, Inc., Providence, RI, 2006), which predicts stresses and distortions. In order to simulate the conditions encountered in an industrial casting process, predicted temperatures and distortions are matched with experimental data from in situ casting trials. Preliminary simulations do not agree with the experimental distortions, which suggest that stress-strain data from mechanical tests (from which the mechanical properties were estimated) does not accurately characterize the material behavior of a casting during solidification and cooling. The adjustments needed to match measured and predicted distortions provide valuable insight to the effect a solidified microstructure has on its mechanical properties.