Robust and efficient computation of turbulent flows around civil transport aircraft at flight Reynolds numbers

This work aims at providing numerical methods that enable the robust and efficient simulation of turbulent flows around civil transport aircraft configurations at flight Reynolds numbers. Robustness problems related to the multigrid treatment of advanced transport equation turbulence models have been identified preventing convergence of simulations at high or flight Reynolds numbers. Therefore the application of multigrid to the turbulence equations is omitted while the multigrid treatment of the mean flow equations stays unchanged. Moreover, a fully implicit time integration scheme – a DDADI approach – is applied to the turbulence equations. The new approach raised robustness to a sufficient level to converge viscous computations at flight Reynolds numbers. Furthermore, the convergence speed of aerodynamic coefficients for three dimensional applications has also been improved significantly.     

Development of a GNSS water vapour tomography system using algebraic reconstruction techniques

A GNSS water vapour tomography system developed to reconstruct spatially resolved humidity fields in the troposphere is described. The tomography system was designed to process the slant path delays of about 270 German GNSS stations in near real-time with a temporal resolution of 30 min, a horizontal resolution of 40 km and a vertical resolution of 500 m or better. After a short introduction to the GPS slant delay processing the framework of the GNSS tomography is described in detail. Different implementations of the iterative algebraic reconstruction techniques (ART) used to invert the linear inverse problem are discussed. It was found that the multiplicative techniques (MART) provide the best results with least processing time, i.e., a tomographic reconstruction of about 26,000 slant delays on a 8280 cell grid can be obtained in less than 10 min. Different iterative reconstruction techniques are compared with respect to their convergence behaviour and some numerical parameters. The inversion can be considerably stabilized by using additional non-GNSS observations and implementing various constraints. Different strategies for initialising the tomography and utilizing extra information are discussed. At last an example of a reconstructed field of the wet refractivity is presented and compared to the corresponding distribution of the integrated water vapour, an analysis of a numerical weather model (COSMO-DE) and some radiosonde profiles.     

Surface elements and landing strategies for small bodies missions – Philae and beyond

The investigation of small bodies, comets and asteroids, can contribute substantially to our understanding of the formation and history of the Solar System. In-situ observations by Landers play a prominent role in this field.The Rosetta Lander – Philae – is currently on its way to comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. It will land in November 2014 and perform numerous experiments with a suite of 10 scientific instruments.Philae has been designed to cope with a wide range of possible comet properties. The considerations taken during its development are relevant for future Lander missions to small bodies in the Solar System.In addition the paper provides a review of alternative concepts, studied or developed for various missions like Phobos, Hayabusa/Minerva or Géocroiseur/Leonard.Various missions to small bodies in the Solar System, including Landers, are currently studied (e.g., Marco Polo). The paper will address the mission options and compare applicable technologies with the solutions chosen for Philae.     

先进机身结构和材料设计

由于大型商用飞机机身结构的复杂性,其碳纤维复合材料部件的设计、制造和取证都不能借用现有的制造维修基本经验.碳纤维复合材料机身壁板超越了现代化金属技术,对应力应变的保守限制要求必须保证将具有损伤容限的机身结构交付到航空公司.这样,碳纤维复合材料壁板技术的应用至少限制了新飞机家族第一代成员的重量.     

Variability of the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere observed with GPS radio occultation bending angles and temperatures

Recently, Lewis (2009) introduced a new method for the identification of tropopause heights (TPHs) from GPS radio occultation (RO) bending angles (α)$(\alpha )$. The method uses a covariance transform to identify transitions in a ln(α)$\mathit{ln}(\alpha )$ profile. Lewis validates the results with lapse rate tropopause (LRT) heights from one year of FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC data and radiosondes. In this study we apply the new method to the RO data sets from CHAMP/GRACE (2001–2009) and FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC (2006–2009). These results are the basis for TPH trend estimations for the time period between May 2001 and August 2009 (100 months) based on zonal monthly mean GPS RO data from CHAMP (2001–2008), GRACE (since 2006) and FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC (since 2006). Further, we compare the α$\alpha$ based TPH trends with LRT height trends and discuss the differences, which are largest in the subtropical regions (20°–40°) on both the northern and southern hemisphere. A global increase of the TPH between 5 and 9 m/yr is found for both methods and different data sets (CHAMP/GRACE alone and CHAMP/GRACE plus FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC). The results for the TPH trends are linked with bending angle and temperature trends in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere region. Generally, an upper tropospheric warming (bending angle decrease) and a lower stratospheric cooling (bending angle increase) is noted.     

On near wall measurements of wall bounded flows—The necessity of an accurate determination of the wall position

The present review paper is an account on the experimental determination of the wall position relative to the probe in wall-bounded turbulent flow studies. A thorough review on common measurement techniques as well as correction methods reveals, that there are a number of pitfalls, that—when not accounted for—can lead to wrong conclusions about the wall position and thereby also on the near-wall behaviour of mean and turbulence quantities. Employing the state-of-the-art databases from direct numerical simulations of wall-bounded turbulent flows various indirect methods have been tested and assessed in terms of their robustness and accuracy. It is also demonstrated that accurate measurements reaching the viscous sublayer are necessary in order to ensure a correctly deduced wall position, and dependent quantities as for instance the near-wall scaling of mean (e.g. Reynolds number dependence of the buffer region or the log law constants) and turbulence (e.g. the near-wall peak location of Reynolds stresses) quantities.In experiments using hot-wires near the wall it is well known that heat conduction between the hot-wire and the wall gives errors and mean velocity data from the viscous sublayer can usually not be used to determine the wall position. In this paper we introduce a new method which takes advantage of the similarity of the probability density distributions (pdf) in the near wall region. By using the high velocity data of the pdf, which is shown not to be affected by heat conduction, the heat conduction problem can be circumvented.Extensive appendices are included, describing the history and present knowledge about the scaling of the mean velocity in the near wall and overlap regions in wall bounded turbulent flows.     

Laboratory Tests of the Equivalence Principle at the University of Washington

Equivalence principle tests are probes for new fundamental physics. We have conducted several laboratory experiments to test the equivalence principle with unprecedented precision and generality using a torsion balance placed on a continuously rotating turntable. We present preliminary results comparing the differential accelerations of Ti, Be, and Al towards local masses, the earth and the center of our galaxy.     

The GFZ real-time GNSS precise positioning service system and its adaption for COMPASS

Motivated by the IGS real-time Pilot Project, GFZ has been developing its own real-time precise positioning service for various applications. An operational system at GFZ is now broadcasting real-time orbits, clocks, global ionospheric model, uncalibrated phase delays and regional atmospheric corrections for standard PPP, PPP with ambiguity fixing, single-frequency PPP and regional augmented PPP. To avoid developing various algorithms for different applications, we proposed a uniform algorithm and implemented it into our real-time software. In the new processing scheme, we employed un-differenced raw observations with atmospheric delays as parameters, which are properly constrained by real-time derived global ionospheric model or regional atmospheric corrections and by the empirical characteristics of the atmospheric delay variation in time and space. The positioning performance in terms of convergence time and ambiguity fixing depends mainly on the quality of the received atmospheric information and the spatial and temporal constraints. The un-differenced raw observation model can not only integrate PPP and NRTK into a seamless positioning service, but also syncretize these two techniques into a unique model and algorithm. Furthermore, it is suitable for both dual-frequency and sing-frequency receivers. Based on the real-time data streams from IGS, EUREF and SAPOS reference networks, we can provide services of global precise point positioning (PPP) with 5–10 cm accuracy, PPP with ambiguity-fixing of 2–5 cm accuracy, PPP using single-frequency receiver with accuracy of better than 50 cm and PPP with regional augmentation for instantaneous ambiguity resolution of 1–3 cm accuracy. We adapted the system for current COMPASS to provide PPP service. COMPASS observations from a regional network of nine stations are used for precise orbit determination and clock estimation in simulated real-time mode, the orbit and clock products are applied for real-time precise point positioning. The simulated real-time PPP service confirms that real-time positioning services of accuracy at dm-level and even cm-level is achievable with COMPASS only.     

Natriuretic peptide-sensitive guanylyl cyclase expression is down-regulated in human melanoma cells at simulated weightlessness

The membrane-bound guanylyl cyclases A and B (GC-A/B), which are receptors for natriuretic peptides, are expressed in cancer cells including melanomas and may represent new anticancer targets. Here, we report down-regulation of GC-A/B expression in human metastatic melanoma cells at simulated weightlessness in comparison to 1g conditions, suggesting attenuation of metastatic potential in weightlessness.