TFAWS 2016 session content encompasses paper sessions, instructor-led short courses, hands-on software training, and vendor demonstrations to further advance the thermal-fluids aerospace community.
Paper Sessions
Paper sessions provide the opportunity for those in the thermal-fluids community to present their work to their peers. This allows for greater dissemination of this material within the community as well as provides a valuable forum for discussion about its applicability to other advancements within the various disciplines. The paper sessions are split into five categories based on the general focus for each topic area: Active Thermal, Passive Thermal, Heat Pipes, Aerothermal, and Interdisciplinary.
To learn more about paper session submission guidelines, visit the Paper Submissions page.
To review the detailed schedule for each paper session, please see the TFAWS 2016 Paper Sessions Schedule.
Short Courses
Aerothermal Ground Testing: How, Where and Why?
Monday, August 1, 8:00am – 10:00am, Room 114
Instructor: Karen Berger, NASA Langley Research Center
Karen Berger is the Facility Manager for the Langley Aerothermodynamics Laboratory at NASA Langley Research Center. She started at NASA as a co-op student in 2003, joined the Aerothermodynamics Branch in 2005 as a researcher and transferred to the facility manager role in 2014. She got her BS and MS in Aerospace Engineering from Virginia Tech in 2005 and 2009 respectively.
This course will include an overview of the major hypersonic ground test facilities around the country and their capabilities. Test techniques and instrumentation available to researchers will be covered as well. A summary of a number of major ground testing and flight programs over the years will be covered and will highlight the significant contributions obtained through ground testing. This will include blunt, slender and winged configurations.
Spacecraft Thermal Vacuum Test – A Point in Time
Monday, August 1, 10:00am – 12:00pm, Room 114
Instructor: Eric Grob, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
After initially working for the US Navy as a test engineer, Mr. Grob’s career in heat transfer began with US Navy radar electronics packaging at RCA, then with satellites at General Electric and Lockheed-Martin where he helped develop the thermal control for several commercial and civil space satellites. Since coming to Goddard Space Flight Center in 1999, Mr. Grob has led the thermal design for several missions, including the Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS launched 2003) that pioneered the use of propylene loop heat pipes for thermal control in NASA missions. Following this, he was project manager for a solar observing instrument before returning to the GSFC thermal engineering branch as Chief Engineer where he conducts peer reviews and supports mission review panels for numerous GSFC projects, and also provides thermal support for various projects – currently the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES-R) program.
Mr. Grob received his BSME degree from West Virginia University in 1980 and his MSME from Drexel University in 1989.
Spacecraft thermal vacuum testing is the most complicated and longest duration environmental test. This course will look at a specific case – thermal vacuum testing of the first in the latest series of NOAA weather satellites, the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite System – that spanned almost two months and was completed late last summer. Based on a heritage satellite bus (the 43rd), and employing watrod to simulate environmental heating, the test design, completion, and post-test analysis is covered in detail, concluding with some remarkable Lessons Learned.
Common Thermal Modeling Mistakes
Wednesday, August 3, 9:00am – 12:00pm, Room 114
Instructor: Ruth Amundsen, NASA Langley Research Center
Ms. Amundsen has a BS in physics from Stanford University, and dual master’s in materials science and aerospace engineering from University of Michigan. She started in aerospace work at Martin Marietta, and has been at NASA Langley since 1990 doing thermal design and engineering for spacecraft and launch vehicles.
This course will cover the some of the common mistakes made in thermal modeling, and how to avoid them. Thermal Desktop will be used as a platform to demonstrate many of the common errors by both new analysts as well as experienced engineers in building a thermal model. Other non-software-associated errors will also be covered. Topics covered will include common errors in assumptions, materials, configurations, radiation, orbital analysis, and common faults in problem setup, analysis case runs and record-keeping. The course should help you as an engineer to watch for these common errors in the future, and help you avoid them.
Short Course on Lithium-on Batteries: Fundamental Concepts, Heating Mechanisms and Simulation Techniques
This course will be offered online at a later date. Details will be sent to attendees via e-mail.
Instructor: William Walker, NASA Johnson Space Center
Mr. Walker graduated from West Texas A&M University with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and began his career with Johnson Space Center (JSC) after the spring 2012 semester. He is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Houston with a research focus on thermo-electrochemical testing and analysis of lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery assemblies designed for human spaceflight applications. W. Walker is the recipient of a 2015-2016 JSC Academic Fellowship for which he is conducting Li-ion battery thermal runaway research. W. Walker has been involved in the development and design efforts for the Orion battery assembly and the Robonaut 2 battery “backpack.” In addition, W. Walker is working with the NASA Engineering and Safety Center (NESC) to characterize the thermal runaway energy release distributions of various commercial Li-ion cells via accelerating rate calorimetry (ARC).
This short course provides participants with an in-depth discussion on three aspects of lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries that are relevant to the TFAWS community. First an understanding of Li-ion battery fundamentals is provided through a brief discussion centered around (a) the aerospace industry’s choice to use Li-ion batteries, (b) general performance characteristics and (c) electrochemical reaction basics. Secondly, Li-ion battery heat generation is discussed with respect to (a) Ohmic heating that occurs during nominal charge-discharge operations and (b) the heating mechanisms associated with a thermal runaway event. Understanding both heating mechanisms is critical to the development of effective thermal management systems. Lastly, this course will lead the participants through the basic construction process of a thermal model of a Li-ion battery assembly that is capable of simulating nominal heating and thermal runaway heating. The overall goal of the course is to provide participants with an in-depth understanding of both the fundamental and thermal aspects of Li-ion batteries.
Introduction to Numerical Methods in Heat Transfer
Thursday, August 4, 8:00am – 12:00pm, Room 114
Instructor: Steve Rickman, NASA Engineering and Safety Center
Steve Rickman joined the NASA Engineering and Safety Center in January 2009 as the NASA Technical Fellow for Passive Thermal. In this capacity, he leads a cross-agency Technical Discipline Team, leveraging expertise from within and outside of the Agency to solve high risk technical problems and foster a community of practice for the passive thermal control and thermal protection disciplines. His primary interest has been in the area of passive thermal control of orbiting spacecraft. He has authored or co-authored 15 technical papers and conference presentations including public testimony given with the U.S. Air Force to the Columbia Accident Investigation Board. He authored a textbook chapter on natural and induced thermal environments. He holds a U.S. patent as a co-inventor of an innovative space station concept. Steve has received numerous mentoring, Group Achievement, Tech Brief and Space Act Awards and has been honored with the NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal and the Silver Snoopy. In autumn 2011, he was named an Adjunct Professor/Lecturer of Mechanical Engineering at Rice University. Mr. Rickman received a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Cincinnati and earned his M.S. in Physical Science from the University of Houston-Clear Lake.
This course provides an overview and introduction to numerical methods in heat transfer. The Heat Equation, the governing differential equation, is derived from first principles and solved for an example problem. The finite difference method is derived from the governing differential equation and applied in example problems including the effects of radiation, steady state and transient response. Numerical solution accuracy and the concept of the time constant are discussed. The Calculus of Variations is applied to derive the Euler-Lagrange equation leading to a formulation of the finite element method and applied to a variety of examples. This course is an excellent introduction for those engineers early in their career in thermal analysis or seeking information in this field and a review for experienced analysts.
Two Phase Flow, Boiling and Condensation
Thursday, August 4, 1:00pm – 5:00pm, Room 114
Instructor: Dr. Henry Nahra, NASA Glenn Research Center
Dr. Nahra is the Flow Boiling and Condensation Experiment fluid systems project lead engineer. He holds a Ph.D. in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering-Fluid and Thermal Sciences, a Master degree in Physics from Case Western Reserve University, and a Master and a Bachelor degree in Chemical Engineering from Cleveland State University. Dr. Nahra served as the project scientist for various flight and ground microgravity experiment including critical point phenomena and bubble suspension flight experiments. Dr. Nahra’s research interests are in the areas of Bubble flows, Bubble Formation and Detachment and Hydrodynamic Forces on Bubbles. Dr. Nahra is an AIAA Associate Fellow since 2003. Dr. Nahra is an adjunct faculty in the mechanical engineering department at Cleveland State University.
This short course provides the basics of two phase flow hydrodynamics and heat transfer. Physical parameters of practical interest used in the analysis of two-phase flows will be discussed. In specific, methods for computing pressure drop and heat transfer coefficients in two phase flows will be presented. Solution methods will be elaborated and applied to specific cases of engineering applications pertaining to boiling and condensation. Moreover, a treatment of the boiling heat transfer and the critical heat flux, including the effects of microgravity will be presented in this short course.
Hands-On Software Training
Introduction to C&R Thermal Desktop® and FloCAD®
Monday, August 1, 8:00am – 12:00pm, Room 103/104
Instructor: Douglas Bell
Mr. Bell has been involved in heat transfer and fluid flow since 1993 and has been using C&R Thermal Desktop since 2000. With a BS degree in Aerospace Engineering from North Carolina State University, Mr. Bell has worked for NASA, Lockheed Martin and CRTech. Mr. Bell has performed thermal or fluid analyses on: stratospheric airships and research balloons and their flight control electronics; the thermal protection systems of X-33 and hypersonic vehicles; launch control electronics for missile launchers; missile storage containers and launch tubes; boilers; and on-orbit spacecraft.
This session will provide an introduction to the capabilities of Thermal Desktop and FloCAD through the creation of simple models that include radiation and fluid flow. Thermal Desktop is a pre- and postprocessor for SINDA; FloCAD adds fluid model development based on thermal model geometry and flow path centerlines. No previous experience with Thermal Desktop is expected. Experienced users are welcome but are requested to allow new users to have priority at the workstations.
Introduction to RadCAD®
Monday, August 1, 1:00pm – 5:00pm, Room 103/104
Instructor: Douglas Bell
This session will provide an introduction to the capabilities of RadCAD through the creation of simple radiation models. RadCAD performs surface-to-surface radiation exchange calculations and environmental heating calculations. No previous experience with Thermal Desktop is expected. Experienced users are welcome but are requested to allow new users to have priority at the workstations.
Introduction to TSS and v15.01
Monday, August 1, 8:00am – 5:00pm, Room 105/106
Instructor: Joe Lepore, Joe Clay (SpaceDesign)
Joe Lepore received a BS degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1987, and shortly thereafter began working as a Thermal Systems Engineer for Lockheed Corporation at the Johnson Space Center. He was lead thermal analyst on a variety of NASA projects for Space Shuttle and Space Station, and performed Independent Assessment for Space Station projects while a Systems Engineering Specialist for SAIC Corporation. Since 2001, he has worked as an Engineering Technologist at Spacedesign Corporation providing technical support and development of the Thermal Synthesizer System (TSS).
Joe Clay received a BS and MS degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Iowa in 1993 and 1995, respectively. Mr. Clay worked as a Researcher at the University of Iowa prior to taking a position with Lockheed Martin Corporation at Johnson Space Center in 1996. He worked on EVA thermal analysis until moving to become the Technical Lead on Thermal Synthesizer System (TSS) at Lockheed Martin. In 1998, he left Lockheed Martin forming Spacedesign Corporation and won the commercial rights to TSS. Mr. Clay ported TSS to the Windows operating system using Hummingbird Exceed and today continues managing the programming, science, and mathematics for the native .NET Windows version of TSS while managing the day-to-day operations of Spacedesign Corporation.
This hands-on class will progress through a thermal analysis of a spacecraft using version v15.01. The student will go through each major step in the analysis process using a simple example. This is the basic framework needed to create, analyze, and obtain temperatures using TSS. The spacecraft model will begin as a CAD file, which is moved into TSS by using the Transfer application. As each TSS application is used, user interface and TSS features are demonstrated by the instructor and utilized by the student. Calculations of radks, heating rates, conduction/capacitance network, and temperatures are performed. The latest TSS capabilities demonstrated in this class include the return of the Executive application for Windows and SindaWin application. Everyone interested in learning how to perform satellite thermal analysis should attend this class.
COMSOL Multiphysics for Thermal and Fluid Analysis
Tuesday, August 2, 8:00am – 12:00pm, Room 103/104
Instructor: John Dunec, VP of Sales, NW U.S., COMSOL Inc.
John Dunec received his Ph.D. from Stanford in 1983. Prior to joining COMSOL, he had over 20 years of industrial experience: first with IBM, then with an early multiphysics startup, then running a successful product development firm. As a consultant, he was COMSOL’s first U.S. customer and is now Vice President of Sales, NW U.S., and Manager of the Palo Alto office. He has been teaching a wide range of COMSOL courses throughout the U.S. since 2003.
COMSOL Multiphysics® is a general-purpose analysis platform, based on advanced numerical methods, for modeling and simulating a wide range of single-physics or coupled-multiphysics phenomena. These include: fluid flow, heat transfer, mass transfer, chemical reactions, structural mechanics, acoustics, electromagnetics, optics, particle tracing and combinations thereof. This workshop will concentrate on COMSOL’s thermal and fluid-flow capabilities, sometimes coupled with other physics. Through lecture and a series of worked examples we will explore laminar and turbulent flow, fluid-structure interaction (FSI), thermal radiation, convection and conduction as well as reactive and multiphase flows. Workshop participants will see how easy this software is to learn, get a flavor of its power and adaptability, and explore its wide range of application in the thermal-fluid arena.
Introduction to CRTech TD Direct®
Tuesday, August 2, 1:00pm – 5:00pm, Room 103/104
Instructor: Douglas Bell
This session will provide an introduction to the capabilities of CRTech TD Direct. TD Direct is powerful software that fills the gap between design geometry and C&R Thermal Desktop. TD Direct is built in ANSYS SpaceClaim, a CAD tool that focuses on preparing geometry for analysis, just as Thermal Desktop is built in AutoCAD. With TD Direct, the user is able to solve many of the problems that have challenged thermal engineers for years. The starting point is the full design geometry in any format. The final product is the completed analysis in Thermal Desktop. The step in between is TD Direct, where the user has the ability to easily simplify, heal, and alter the geometry while working with an exceedingly capable mesher.
Advanced TSS including v15.01B and CAD Transfer
Tuesday, August 2, 8:00am – 5:00pm, Room 105/106
Instructor: Joe Lepore, Joe Clay (SpaceDesign)
This hands-on class will demonstrate more TSS features and modeling techniques. Topics will include: Radiation analysis of CAD surfaces using STEP and IGES Translators, SindaWin application and using LDDATA to automatically record local minimum and maximum temperatures, Geometry model validation, building models with Symbols, distributed processing, managing Boolean surfaces and chains, adjusting conductor values, using the Mesh and FEM applications, and SATSTRAN. Topics of specific interest to users and v15 enhancements will be discussed. Example topics include the rich feature set in TSS such as programming in the command language, utilizing TSS as a prototyping tool, eliminating costly 3rd party applications to move data from a CAD package to a thermal software system, and utilizing TSS as a simple CAD package.
The Transfer application is used to view CAD models and transfer them into TSS geometry format. Transfer has a ‘CAD viewer’ built-in, allowing you to view any CAD model saved in IGES, STEP, or OBJ format. This viewer shows a meshed representation of the model which can then be transferred to TSS Geometry format in a single step. Using advanced 2-D and 3-D Boolean capabilities (computational geometry), complex CAD entities are converted into thermal surfaces using fewer surfaces for radiation analysis. Transfer methods available include direct conversion to files compatible with specific TSS versions, plus a 2-D mesh approximation using surfaces or boundary representation. This class will present a detailed walk-through of the Transfer process, including discussion of B-splines, sequence numbers, composite closed loops, and troubleshooting.
MSC Apex
Wednesday, August 3, 8:00am – 12:00pm, Room 103/104
Instructor: Dr. Shekhar Kanetkar
Dr. Shekhar Kanetkar received his PhD in Metallurgical Engineering from The University of Alabama in 1988. He has over 25 years of experience in doing Thermal Analysis with Phase transformations, Spacecraft Thermal Analysis and Nonlinear Structural analysis (FEA) for aerospace and automotive industry. In his role at MSC, he has been supporting customers including NASA KSC and MSFC for over 16 years.
MSC Apex: a CAE-specific direct modeling and meshing solution that streamlines CAD clean-up, simplification, and meshing workflow for 10x productivity gain!
MSC Apex is a new CAE platform developed by MSC that has won 13 major innovation awards including NASA Tech Brief 2014 – Product of the Year. It is an easy to learn and easy to use tool that give a use a ‘unique and fun experience’. The demo will focus on use of Apex to achieve 10x productivity gain in CAD to mesh process. It will also showcase its fully integrated and its generative analysis solution as well as exciting technology of computational parts and assemblies
Mentor Graphics – CFD hands-on workshop for FloEFD, CAD Embedded CFD
Wednesday, August 3, 1:00pm – 5:00pm, Room 103/104
Instructor: Chris Watson and Adrian Townsend
Chris is the Technical Manager for FloEFD Products for the Mechanical Analysis Division of Mentor Graphics. He is responsible for technical leadership of Mentor’s FloEFD product line in North America. His engineering roles through the years have included consulting, technical support, customer training, and pre and post sales application engineering. Currently he works in the software development group to help influence the direction of FloEFD and promote its growth in North America. Prior to Mentor Graphics, Chris worked for NIKA and CD-adapco, starting his career in the commercial CFD industry in 1995. Chris received his BS in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin, and his MS in Mechanical Engineering from Texas A&M University.
Adrian is an Applications Engineer for the Mechanical Analysis Division of Mentor Graphics. Based in Fremont, California his role involves sales support and consulting and workflow improvement services throughout the Bay Area and western U.S. region. His expertise includes the FloTHERM, FloEFD and FloTHERM XT CFD tools as well as the T3Ster hardware suite. Adrian’s work with Mentor Graphics spans a broad range of applications including consumer electronics design, thermal testing of semiconductors for power-conversion, building ventilation, datacenter thermal analysis, external aerodynamics and turbo-machinery. Before joining Mentor Graphics, Adrian was an Energy Efficiency Consultant with a focus on industrial plant retro-commissioning and capital investment and an Aerodynamicist with Boeing commercial New Airplane Product Development. He received a BS in Aeronautics and Astronautics from MIT and an MS in Applied Mathematics from the University of Washington.
This 4 hour hands-on workshop introduces FloEFD, CAD Embedded Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) Software and will include analysis of an internal flow component, an electronics cooling enclosure and one other example from model preparation, user interface, simulation set up, meshing and solution, to accessing results and running parametric studies. CAD-Embedded CFD possible with FloEFD for Siemens NX, PTC Creo, and CATIA V5 and a standalone version feature robust automated meshing, faster time to analysis using CAD geometry directly within the CAD interface, guided simulation set up and straight forward results post-processing. The rapid parametric studies capability for refining geometry or accessing a wide variety of operational conditions will also be introduced.
Mentor Graphics –Mechanical Analysis Division provides 3D Fully CAD Embedded CFD fluid dynamics software (FloEFD™ for Siemens NX, CATIA and PTC CREO) and 1D thermo-fluid computational fluid dynamics software (Flowmaster®) for shortened development in Aerospace, Defense and other Industries/Applications ranging from external flow analysis to internal flow systems and component level analysis. Mentor Graphics also provides electronics cooling specific simulation software (FloTHERM®) and MicReD semiconductor thermal test solutions used for failure diagnosis, reliability studies (combined with power cycling) and thermal characterization (T3Ster® & Power Tester Product Range). MicReD® thermal transient test solutions provide accurate, repeatable thermal characterization of LEDs, packaged ICs to TIM materials, to simulation model calibration and right through to power electronics reliability studies through failure in progress diagnosis combined with active power cycling.
Thermal Analysis Results Processor (TARP) and COVeR: Capture Output and Verify Results
Wednesday, August 3, 8:00am – 5:00pm, Room 105/106
Instructor: Hume Peabody
Hume Peabody graduated from Virginia Tech with a BS in Mechanical Engineering in 1994 and an MS in 1997. Outside of his normal 9-5 day job, Hume founded Thermal Modeling Solutions, LLC in 2005 and released the first version of TARP in 2007, a program dedicated to creating post-processing products from standard thermal solver outputs. Since then, steady improvements and feature additions have been made to increase the types of products available.
The first half of the course will introduce the basic object types in TARP, including: DataSets, Groups, Parameters, Plots, Tables, and HeatMaps. More advanced data objects will also be discussed including: Backloads/Equivalent Sinks, Graphical Tables, Radk Compares and Manipulations, and Binary Heat Maps. The second half of the course will focus on the COVeR environment, including: Data Selection, Groups, Plotting, and Graphical HeatMaps, which are a block diagram way of visualizing heat flow data from model output.
Thermal Modeling Solutions was founded in 2005 by Hume Peabody. The first product TARP (Thermal Analysis Results Processor) was a dedicated post processing environment for interfacing with Microsoft Excel and standard output files from many commercial thermal solvers. Future releases featured additional capabilities for visualizing data and addressing ever growing model sizes. More recently, the COVeR (Capture Output and Verify Results) tool was released, which provides a self contained environment for the processing of model output, with a specific focus on heat flows. The underlying philosophy in both TARP and COVeR is two-fold: be able to read output from many commercial, network based tools and nodal level results can
be grouped to represent physical components of a design. While models may be growing in size, the fundamental behavior of heat flow between components of a design remains unaffected by model size.
ESATAN-TMS Software Training
Thursday, August 4, 9:00am – 5:00pm, Room 103/104
Instructor: Nicolas Bures
Mr. Bures is the support engineer for ESATAN-TMS, as well as the thermal software engineer at ITP Engines UK LTD.
ITP will be providing hands-on training of ESATAN Thermal Modelling Suite (ESATAN-TMS) at TFAWS 2016. This hands-on training will allow the attendees to gain knowledge and valuable experience of ESATAN-TMS. The training will cover geometry definition and modification of an existing model within ESATAN-TMS Workbench. Through ESATAN-TMS Workbench, the design of a satellite test model will be finalised, radiative analysis performed to calculate heat fluxes and radiative exchange factors. Both Steady state and transient thermal analysis will be performed, followed by postprocessing of the results using the extensive capabilities provided within ESATAN-TMS. Design consideration will be given to material selection and other key parameters to achieve the desired thermal requirements. This hands-on training will be an easy step-by-step workflow, with two ESATAN-TMS experts on hand to provide an effective training experience.
Siemens PLM NX Space Systems Thermal Hands-On Training
Thursday, August 4, 8:00am – 10:00am, Room 105/106
Instructor: Carl Poplawsky
Carl Poplawsky is a senior applications engineer with Maya Simulation Technologies, a Siemens PLM value added reseller (VAR), software development partner, and engineering services provider. We are one of the leading VARs in North America, with a focus on CAE software products, offering sales, technical support, training, and custom software development for Siemens PLM NX and Femap. As a software development partner, Maya provides software for the Siemens PLM NX and Femap-based CAE product sets, including NX Thermal, NX Flow, and NX Space Systems Thermal (formerly I-deas TMG). Maya develops and markets additional software tools, including Datacenter Clarity (3D tool set for managing data center infrastructure) and delivers engineering services to clients worldwide, with a focus on CAE-based thermal, flow, and structural analysis.
This is an open-door session to try out Siemens PLM NX Space Systems Thermal, the NX space industry vertical application that provides a comprehensive set of tools to simulate orbital thermal analysis within the NX Advanced Simulation environment. Carl Poplawsky will provide a brief introduction to the NX user interface, followed by a self-paced workshop that takes the user through working with large assemblies while leveraging existing simulation models, defining thermal conductances and orbital heating, implementing articulation of spacecraft components, controlling the simulation with a spreadsheet, and addressing free molecular heating.
Siemens PLM FEMAP Advanced Thermal
Thursday, August 4, 10:00am – 12:00pm, Room 105/106
Instructor: Carl Poplawsky
This is an open-door session to try out Siemens PLM Femap Advanced Thermal. Femap Thermal adds state-of-the-art thermal analysis solutions to the Femap environment and provides fast and accurate solutions to complex thermal engineering problems, making it easy to model nonlinear and transient heat transfer processes including conduction, radiation, 1D fluid network modeling, and free and forced convection. Femap Advanced Thermal adds an extensive suite of thermal modeling tools for more sophisticated thermal simulations, such as radiation and spacecraft modeling, (including solar and orbital heating), orbit modeling and display, ray tracing capabilities, and articulating structures. Carl Poplawsky will provide a brief introduction to the Femap user interface, followed by a self-paced workshop that takes the user through a typical spacecraft thermal simulation. For those of you unable to attend the 8AM NX Space Systems Thermal session, that workshop will also be available during this session.
Introduction to Generalized Fluid System Simulation Program (GFSSP)
Thursday, August 4, 1:00pm – 5:00pm, Room 105/106
Instructor: Andre LeClair
Andre LeClair is a propulsion thermal analyst at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. He assists in GFSSP development and user support. His modeling activities include chilldown of cryogenic transfer lines and pressurization of propellant tanks.
GFSSP is a general-purpose computer program for analyzing steady-state and time-dependent flow rates, pressures, temperatures, and concentrations in a complex flow network. The program is capable of modeling phase change, compressibility, mixture thermodynamics, conjugate heat transfer, and fluid transient (waterhammer). GFSSP was been developed at MSFC for flow analysis of rocket engine turbopumps and propulsion systems. This demonstration will show how to the user can quickly develop a system-level thermo-fluid model, discuss the capabilities of the software, and present model examples. Students will build two models as a group activity, and have the opportunity to work one or more hands-on tutorials.
Hardware and Software Demonstrations and Courses
CBAERO
Monday, August 1, 1:00pm – 5:00pm, Room 114
Instructor: David Kinney
Dr. David Kinney received his PhD from University of California at Davis. Dr Kinney is the primary developer of the CBAERO code at NASA Ames research Center.
The Configuration Based Aerodynamics (CBAERO) software package is an engineering level aero-thermodynamics tool used to predict aerodynamic and aero-thermal environments of vehicles.
NEQAIR v14.0 User Tutorial
Tuesday, August 2, 9:00am – 10:00am, Room 114
Instructor: Aaron Brandis
Dr. Brandis received his undergraduate Bachelor of Engineering (Mechanical and Space) in 2003 and his PhD at the University of Queensland and Ecole Central Paris in 2009. Dr Brandis is currently a research scientist employed by AMA Inc in the Thermodynamics branch at NASA Ames. He is the task lead for the model validation component of the Entry Systems Modeling project and PM/PI for NEQAIR, one of the agencies main radiation prediction tools.
NEQAIR is a line-by-line radiation code that computes spontaneous emission, absorption and stimulated emission due to transitions between various energy states of chemical species along a line-of-sight. NEQAIR v14.0 is a complex code that enables the calculation of: (1) Nonequlibrium or equilibrium populations of excited energy levels for atomic and diatomic molecules, (2) Optical radiation emitted and absorbed by atomic and diatomic rotational lines along a line-of-sight or across a shock tube, (3)Transport of optical radiation through a non uniform gas mixture to a solid surface and (4) Detailed spectra at points along a line-of-sight and at a surface and plots them. Presentation to cover how to use and understand the NEQAIR code. The avenues to obtain the code will also be discussed.
An Introduction to the Data-Parallel Line Relaxation (DPLR) Software Package
Tuesday, August 2, 10:00am – 12:00pm, Room 114
Instructor: Chun Tang
Dr. Chun Tang is an aerospace engineer in the Aerothermodynamics Branch at NASA Ames Research Center. He received his B.S. degree in Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering from the University of California, Davis. He also received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from UC Davis with a specialty in Computational Fluid Dynamics. Dr. Tang has worked on the Space Shuttle and Mars Science Laboratory Projects, and he is currently involved with the Mars 2020 and Orion MPCV Programs.
This training course will provide an introduction to the DPLR software package, a suite of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) tools developed at NASA Ames Research Center for aerothermal simulation of supersonic and hypersonic flows. The DPLR code is an MPI-based, parallel, three-dimensional Navier-Stokes solver with generalized models for thermal and chemical non-equilibrium. This software has been used extensively in atmospheric entry analysis for many projects (such as the Space Shuttle Program, Mars Science Laboratory, and Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle/Space Launch System). The course will outline a step-by-step process for running an aerothermal simulation, and examples on simple two-dimensional and three-dimensional shapes will be demonstrated.
New and Advanced Features in Thermal Desktop, Demo
Tuesday, August 2, 8:00am – 10:00am, Room 120
Instructor: Douglas Bell
This session will provide an overview of new and advanced features within the Thermal Desktop suite and provide demonstration on the use of some of those features. This session is recommended to anyone who wishes to see more advanced capabilities of the Thermal Desktop suite than can be addressed in the introductory session. Since the session is not hands-on, prior experience with Thermal Desktop is not required. Thermal Desktop is a design environment for generating thermal models with additional modules for performing radiation and heating environment calculations (RadCAD) and generating fluid flow circuits (FloCAD). Thermal Desktop is a graphical user interface for SINDA/FLUINT.
ESATAN-TMS Demo
Tuesday, August 2, 10:00am – 11:00am, Room 120
Instructor: Nicolas Bures
ESATAN-TMS provides a complete environment to support the full thermal analysis process, including geometry modelling, radiative analysis, thermal-hydraulic analysis and post-processing of results. The high-productivity user interface supports a wide range of features which allow fast and accurate simulation, however complex the problem. ESATAN-TMS provides the ability to create thermal models comprising of 2D (shells) and/or 3D (solids) geometry, automatically identifying interfaces between the geometric primitives. The user can choose to perform the thermal analysis using either a lumped parameter or a finite element approach; or even a combination of both techniques within the same model, as best suited to the problem being solved.
The session shall start by providing an overview of the product’s thermal modelling capabilities, followed by a live demonstration. The demonstration will show how easy a model can be created in ESATAN-TMS, with the option to import components of the model directly from CAD. A full radiative and thermal analysis will be performed, highlighting the major features of the product, concluding by post-processing of the thermal results. Further experience of ESATAN-TMS can be gained by attending the hands-on TFAWS session scheduled for Thursday, August 4.
Space Design Demo
Tuesday, August 2, 1:00pm – 2:00pm, Room 120
Instructor: Joe Clay (SpaceDesign)
Timing studies which detail significant speed increases using v15.01B will be discussed. Newly released v15.01B highlights will be presented, including: Significant speed improvements over v14.01 for load times and ray-tracing, significant speed improvements to graphics rendering, multi-threaded processes for improved speed when running on both local and network drives, Transfer CAD models directly as thermal surfaces, improved Windows – Linux compatibility, including cross-platform database formats for Radk and Heatrate datasets, 4-Color display allows surface active side coloring to distinguish between active=both and active=up/down, optical property mapping in Geometry, multiple pages for Graphics Text, and listing areas in Radk by node, rather than by surface.
MSC Apex Demonstration
Tuesday, August 2, 2:00pm – 3:00pm, Room 120
Instructor: Dr. Shekhar Kanetkar
MSC Apex is a new CAE platform developed by MSC that has won 13 major innovation awards including NASA tech Brief 2014 – Product of the Year. It is an easy to learn and easy to use tool that give a use a ‘unique and fun experience’. The demo will focus on use of Apex to achieve 10x productivity gain in CAD to mesh process. It will also showcase its fully integrated and its generative analysis solution as well as exciting technology of computational parts and assemblies.
Mentor Graphics Demo: CAD-Embedded CFD Technology
Tuesday, August 2, 3:00pm – 4:00pm, Room 120
Instructor: Chris Watson, Product Development Manager
A technical overview of fully CAD-Embedded CFD possible with FloEFD for PTC Creo, Siemens NX and CATIA V5. The presentation includes discussion of working directly with CAD geometry in the CAD environment for fluid dynamics studies, robust automated meshing and refinement, guided simulation set up and accessing results through to extensive parametric studies for CAD geometry refinement or assessing operational scenarios. Live demonstration will include an external aerodynamics model and an internal flow system component analysis. A brief series of case studies on different applications will be included.
Mentor Graphics Demo: Electronics Cooling – Test Calibration of Package Thermal Models & Power Electronics Reliability Studies
Tuesday, August 2, 4:00pm – 5:00pm, Room 120
Instructor: Adrian Townsend, Applications Engineer
In this presentation, the use of semiconductor thermal transient measurement results and automated calibration of detailed component thermal models in electronics cooling analysis is evaluated. The methodology and technology will be explained and then additionally the presentation will introduce how more accurate component thermal models help with defining mission profile based temperature cycle profiles which can be used to enhance power cycling and failure diagnosis studies on high power semiconductors in target applications.
Siemens PLM NX Thermal, Flow, and Space Systems
Wednesday, August 3, 3:00pm – 4:00pm, Room 114
Instructor: TBA
Siemens PLM NX Thermal, Flow, and Space Systems Thermal will be demonstrated by Carl Poplawsky with Maya Simulation Technologies. These add-on software modules provide heat transfer and fluid flow solutions when used with NX Advanced Simulation. NX Thermal simulates conduction, convection and radiation phenomena and NX Flow provides sophisticated tools to simulate fluid flow for complex parts and assemblies; when used concurrently they provide a fully coupled multi-physics solution. NX Space Systems Thermal is the NX space industry vertical application that provides a comprehensive set of tools to simulate orbital thermal analysis within the NX Advanced Simulation environment.
ThermoAnalytics Human Thermal Modeling Tutorial and Software Demo
Thursday, August 4, 1:00pm – 3:00pm, Room 117
Instructor: Al Curran
Dr. Curran is the Chief Technical Officer and co-founder of ThermoAnalytics, Inc. Dr. Curran’s current research focuses on the development of human thermal physiology and comfort models. His previous research formed the basis of Ford Motor Company’s thermal radiation analysis software, RadTherm, which evolved to become TAITherm. TAITherm is a general-purpose thermal simulation environment, which is in use worldwide, primarily in the automotive industry. Dr. Curran received his BS and MS in Mechanical Engineering from Northwestern University and his PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University.
ThermoAnalytics’ Human Thermal Module (HTM) is an advanced, off-the-shelf thermo-physiological model that plugs into the powerful heat transfer simulation software, TAITherm. The HTM simulates the process by which the body attempts to maintain a constant core temperature. Numerous commercial and government entities use ThermoAnalytics’ HTM. For example, NIOSH uses the HTM to predict skin and core temperatures as well as evaporation rates of mine shelter occupants. Additionally, MIT has used the TAITherm HTM to model its mechanical counter pressure (MCP) suit. In this session, we describe state-of-the-art “segmental” human thermal models and demonstrate the capabilities of the TAITherm Human Thermal Module.
ThermoAnalytics is a leading developer of thermal, fluid flow, and infrared modeling software. Located in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, ThermoAnalytics has been developing the TAITherm thermal simulation software, which models the effects of radiation, conduction, convection, advection, evaporation/condensation, phase change, etc., for over 20 years. They provide software and engineering analysis for complex heat transfer problems. The TAITherm software is used to find solutions for a wide variety of thermal applications, including transient (automotive) brake heating; under-hood, exhaust and underbody heating; HVAC and cabin thermal comfort; battery pack heating for HEVs/EVs; and protecting electronics and other thermally sensitive components. This powerful software offers fast transient thermal analysis and couples to CFD and FEA software, which facilitates an efficient design optimization process. TAITherm finds its greatest use in the automotive, aerospace, heavy vehicle, and railway industries.
COMSOL Demo: Coupling Between Physics, Between Scale, and Between Solutions With COMSOL Multiphysics
Thursday, August 4, 3:00pm – 5:00pm, Room 117
Instructor: John Dunec, VP of Sales, NW U.S., COMSOL Inc.
COMSOL Multiphysics® makes it easy to link multiple physics together either as fully coupled (probably nonlinear) problems or to solve one physics based on the results of another. You can also link between dimension (say, simultaneously 2D and 3D) or between solutions. This demo is designed to show a variety of coupling techniques over a wide range of physics. One particular problem we will build and run involves a combination of thermal expansion due to microwave heating with surface currents, involving both structural shells and solids, with forced convective cooling using both convection coefficients and full CFD simulations. It is purposely designed to involve a large number of physics coupled in a variety of different ways. Those new to COMSOL will see how easy it is to set up and solve models in COMSOL, those more experienced will see advanced methods to link between physics and link between solutions. COMSOL Multiphysics® is a general-purpose analysis platform, based on advanced numerical methods, for modeling and simulating a wide range of single-physics or coupled-multiphysics phenomena.