scholarly journals Control of vortex shedding on two- and three-dimensional aerofoils

2011 ◽  
Vol 369 (1940) ◽  
pp. 1525-1539 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tim Colonius ◽  
David R. Williams
Keyword(s):  
Vortex Shedding ◽  
Flight Control ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Leading Edge ◽  
Micro Air Vehicles ◽  
Reynolds Numbers ◽  
Separated Flows ◽  
Flow Conditions ◽  
Flat Plates ◽  
Low Reynolds Numbers

We review and expand on the control of separated flows over flat plates and aerofoils at low Reynolds numbers associated with micro air vehicles. Experimental observations of the steady-state and transient lift response to actuation, and its dependence on the actuator, aerofoil geometry and flow conditions, are discussed and an attempt is made to unify them in terms of their excitation of periodic and transient vortex shedding. We also examine strategies for closed-loop flow and flight control using actuation of leading-edge vortices.

Wake dynamics of external flow past a curved circular cylinder with the free stream aligned with the plane of curvature

2007 ◽  
Vol 592 ◽  
pp. 89-115 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. MILIOU ◽  
A. DE VECCHI ◽  
S. J. SHERWIN ◽  
J. M. R. GRAHAM
Keyword(s):  
Circular Cylinder ◽  
Vortex Shedding ◽  
Free Stream ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Axial Flow ◽  
Leading Edge ◽  
Reynolds Numbers ◽  
The Body ◽  
Vertical Extension ◽  
Flow Past

Three-dimensional spectral/hp computations have been performed to study the fundamental mechanisms of vortex shedding in the wake of curved circular cylinders at Reynolds numbers of 100 and 500. The basic shape of the body is a circular cylinder whose centreline sweeps through a quarter section of a ring and the inflow direction lies on the plane of curvature of the quarter ring: the free stream is then parallel to the geometry considered and the part of the ring that is exposed to it will be referred to as the ‘leading edge’. Different configurations were investigated with respect to the leading-edge orientation. In the case of a convex-shaped geometry, the stagnation face is the outer surface of the ring: this case exhibited fully three-dimensional wake dynamics, with the vortex shedding in the upper part of the body driving the lower end at one dominant shedding frequency for the whole cylinder span. The vortex-shedding mechanism was therefore not governed by the variation of local normal Reynolds numbers dictated by the curved shape of the leading edge. A second set of simulations were conducted with the free stream directed towards the inside of the ring, in the so-called concave-shaped geometry. No vortex shedding was detected in this configuration: it is suggested that the strong axial flow due to the body's curvature and the subsequent production of streamwise vorticity plays a key role in suppressing the wake dynamics expected in the case of flow past a straight cylinder. The stabilizing mechanism stemming from the concave curved geometry was still found to govern the wake behaviour even when a vertical extension was added to the top of the concave ring, thereby displacing the numerical symmetry boundary condition at this point away from the top of the deformed cylinder. In this case, however, the axial flow from the deformed cylinder was drawn into the wake of vertical extension, weakening the shedding process expected from a straight cylinder at these Reynolds numbers. These considerations highlight the importance of investigating flow past curved cylinders using a full three-dimensional approach, which can properly take into account the role of axial velocity components without the limiting assumptions of a sectional analysis, as is commonly used in industrial practice. Finally, towing-tank flow visualizations were also conducted and found to be in qualitative agreement with the computational findings.

Pressure Gradient and Leading Edge Effects on the Corner Boundary Layer

1979 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 471-484 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Zamir ◽  
A.D. Young
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Layer ◽  
Pressure Gradient ◽  
Flow Direction ◽  
Leading Edge ◽  
Reynolds Numbers ◽  
Secondary Flows ◽  
Flat Plates ◽  
Low Reynolds Numbers ◽  
Small Incidence ◽  
Made In

SummaryResults are presented of velocity and pressure measurements made in the initially laminar boundary layer in a streamwise corner formed by two flat plates at 90° to each other set at various incidences. The leading edges of the plates were sharp in contrast to earlier tests with an aerofoil type leading edge. It was found impossible to obtain a steady enough flow for useful measurements to be made at zero incidence and pressure gradient, a small incidence associated with a favourable pressure gradient was necessary. This is believed to be because of the development of separation bubbles at the sharp leading edge at very small incidences due to small variations of flow direction to be expected in a wind tunnel. The profiled nose used in earlier tests afforded flow conditions much closer to the ideal theoretical model involving zero pressure gradient, but it is argued that any nose however shaped may introduce disturbances in the form of characteristic secondary flows that may well determine the downstream response of the boundary layer. In any case the corner flow is highly unstable at all but very low Reynolds numbers, and in the absence of a region of favourable pressure gradient a Reynolds number in terms of distance downstream of the leading edge greater than about 105is unlikely to be attained in practice with the flow remaining smooth and laminar.

A Leading-Edge Alula-Inspired Device (LEAD) for Stall Mitigation and Lift Enhancement for Low Reynolds Number Finite Wings

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mihary R. Ito ◽  
Chengfang Duan ◽  
Leonardo P. Chamorro ◽  
Aimy A. Wissa
Keyword(s):  
Aspect Ratio ◽  
Flow Separation ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Leading Edge ◽  
Reynolds Numbers ◽  
Tip Vortices ◽  
Low Reynolds Numbers ◽  
Lift Enhancement ◽  
Low Reynolds ◽  
Torque Transducer

Even though Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) operating at low Reynolds numbers are becoming common, their performance and maneuverability are still greatly limited due to aerodynamic phenomena such as stall and flow separation. Birds mitigate these limitations by adapting their wings and feather shapes during flight. Equipped with a set of small feathers, known as the alula, located near the leading edge and covering 5% to 20% of the span, bird wings can sustain the lift necessary to fly at low velocities and high angles of attack. This paper presents the effect on lift generation of different placements of a Leading-Edge Alula-inpsired Device (LEAD) along the span of a moderate aspect-ratio wing. The device is modeled after the alula on a bird, and it increases the capability of a wing to maintain higher pressure gradients by modifying the near-wall flow close to the leading-edge. It also generates tip vortices that modify the turbulence on the upper-surface of the wing, delaying flow separation. The effect of the LEAD can be compared to traditional slats or vortex generators on two-dimensional wings. For finite wings, on the other hand, the effect depends on the interaction between the LEADs tip vortices and those from the main structure. Wind tunnel experiments were conducted on a cambered wing at post-stall and deep-stall angles of attack at low Reynolds numbers of 100,000 and 135,000. To quantify the aerodynamic effect of the device, the lift generated by the wing with and without the LEAD were measured using a 6-axis force and torque transducer, and the resulting lift coefficients were compared. Results show that the location of the LEAD yielding the highest lift enhancement was 50% semi-span away from the wing root. Lift improvements of up to 32% for post stall and 37% for deep stall were obtained at this location, demonstrating that the three-dimensional effects of the LEAD are important. The lift enhancement was also more prominent on a finite moderate aspect-ratio wing (3D) than on an airfoil (2D), confirming that the LEAD is a three-dimensional device. Identifying the configurations and deployment parameters that improve lift generation the most is needed to design an adaptive LEAD that can be implemented on a UAV wing for increased mission-adaptability.

Vortex separation and interaction in the wake of inclined trapezoidal plates

2015 ◽  
Vol 771 ◽  
pp. 341-369 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuqi Huang ◽  
James Venning ◽  
Mark C. Thompson ◽  
John Sheridan
Keyword(s):  
Aspect Ratio ◽  
Strouhal Number ◽  
Angle Of Attack ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Leading Edge ◽  
Reynolds Numbers ◽  
Taper Angle ◽  
Low Reynolds Numbers ◽  
Vortex Loops ◽  
Trailing Edges

Full three-dimensional numerical simulations are employed to investigate the flows over inclined trapezoidal low-aspect-ratio plates at low Reynolds numbers, aiming to understand the unsteadiness induced by the interaction between the trailing vortical wake structures originating from the swept edges, and those from the leading and trailing edges. The flows past eighteen different plate geometries in three broad sets are simulated to study the influence of aspect ratio, taper angle and angle of attack on the wake vortices and the force coefficients. Both taper ratio and angle of attack of plates with the same area are found to have a broadly predictable influence on the wake stability and asymptotic forces. Smaller taper ratios result in lower maximum lift, while an increase in the angle of attack results in a reduction in the differences in maximum lift. Two distinct modes of periodic unsteady flow with significant differences in frequency are observed. The corresponding vortex-shedding mechanisms are analysed with the aid of $Q$-criterion isosurfaces and streamlines. A low wake frequency is observed at small taper angles when there is relative independence between the von Kármán vortices originating from the leading and trailing edges, and weak swept-edge vortices. The dominant Strouhal number in this state is approximately 0.09. When the taper angle or angle of attack increases, the flows over the swept edges form stronger trailing vortex structures which interact strongly with the leading-edge vortices, combining to produce a regular stream of vortex loops shed into the wake. In this regime, the dominant Strouhal number increases to approximately 0.14–0.18. Higher Reynolds numbers and/or angles of attack result in a loss of centre plane reflection symmetry in the wake. The aerodynamic forces have been quantified as a function of the problem parameters and plate geometry.

Investigation on the effect of leading edge tubercles of sweptback wing at low reynolds number

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (6) ◽  
pp. 621
Author(s):  
Veerapathiran Thangaraj Gopinathan ◽  
John Bruce Ralphin Rose ◽  
Mohanram Surya
Keyword(s):  
Leading Edge ◽  
Reynolds Numbers ◽  
Sweep Angle ◽  
Laminar Separation ◽  
Low Reynolds Numbers ◽  
Flow Energy ◽  
Airplane Wing ◽  
Low Reynolds ◽  
Naca 0015 ◽  
Wing Performance

Aerodynamic efficiency of an airplane wing can be improved either by increasing its lift generation tendency or by reducing the drag. Recently, Bio-inspired designs have been received greater attention for the geometric modifications of airplane wings. One of the bio-inspired designs contains sinusoidal Humpback Whale (HW) tubercles, i.e., protuberances exist at the wing leading edge (LE). The tubercles have excellent flow control characteristics at low Reynolds numbers. The present work describes about the effect of tubercles on swept back wing performance at various Angle of Attack (AoA). NACA 0015 and NACA 4415 airfoils are used for swept back wing design with sweep angle about 30°. The modified wings (HUMP 0015 A, HUMP 0015 B, HUMP 4415 A, HUMP 4415 B) are designed with two amplitude to wavelength ratios (η) of 0.1 & 0.24 for the performance analysis. It is a novel effort to analyze the tubercle vortices along the span that induce additional flow energy especially, behind the tubercles peak and trough region. Subsequently, Co-efficient of Lift (CL), Co-efficient of Drag (CD) and boundary layer pressure gradients also predicted for modified and baseline (smooth LE) models in the pre & post-stall regimes. It was observed that the tubercles increase the performance of swept back wings by the enhanced CL/CD ratio in the pre-stall AoA region. Interestingly, the flow separation region behind the centerline of tubercles and formation of Laminar Separation Bubbles (LSB) were asymmetric because of the sweep.

3D simulation of emulsion flow using the boundary element method on the heterogeneous computational systems

2012 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 142-146
Author(s):  
O.A. Solnyshkina
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Element Method ◽  
Boundary Element ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Reynolds Numbers ◽  
Problem Size ◽  
Low Reynolds Numbers ◽  
Infinite Domains ◽  
The Matrix ◽  
Computational Systems ◽  
Element Method

In this work the 3D dynamics of two immiscible liquids in unbounded domain at low Reynolds numbers is considered. The numerical method is based on the boundary element method, which is very efficient for simulation of the three-dimensional problems in infinite domains. To accelerate calculations and increase the problem size, a heterogeneous approach to parallelization of the computations on the central (CPU) and graphics (GPU) processors is applied. To accelerate the iterative solver (GMRES) and overcome the limitations associated with the size of the memory of the computation system, the software component of the matrix-vector product

An Experimental Study on the Vertical Flow Past a Finite-Length Horizontal Cylinder at Low Reynolds Numbers

2014 ◽  
Vol 493 ◽  
pp. 68-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
Willy Stevanus ◽  
Yi Jiun Peter Lin
Keyword(s):  
Finite Length ◽  
Vortex Shedding ◽  
Vortex Formation ◽  
Reynolds Numbers ◽  
Horizontal Cylinder ◽  
Vortex Street ◽  
Vertical Flow ◽  
Low Reynolds Numbers ◽  
Vortex Shedding Frequency ◽  
Shedding Frequency

The research studies the characteristics of the vertical flow past a finite-length horizontal cylinder at low Reynolds numbers (ReD) from 250 to 1080. The experiments were performed in a vertical closed-loop water tunnel. Flow fields were observed by the particle tracer approach for flow visualization and measured by the Particle Image Velocimetry (P.I.V.) approach for velocity fields. The characteristics of vortex formation in the wake of the finite-length cylinder change at different regions from the tip to the base of it. Near the tip, a pair of vortices in the wake was observed and the size of the vortex increased as the observed section was away from the tip. Around a distance of 3 diameters of the cylinder from its tip, the vortex street in the wake was observed. The characteristics of vortex formation also change with increasing Reynolds numbers. At X/D = -3, a pair of vortices was observed in the wake for ReD = 250, but as the ReD increases the vortex street was observed at the same section. The vortex shedding frequency is analyzed by Fast Fourier Transform (FFT). Experimental results show that the downwash flow affects the vortex shedding frequency even to 5 diameters of the cylinder from its tip. The interaction between the downwash flow and the Von Kármán vortex street in the wake of the cylinder is presented in this paper.

Suppression of vortex shedding behind a circular cylinder by another control cylinder at low Reynolds numbers

2007 ◽  
Vol 573 ◽  
pp. 171-190 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. DIPANKAR ◽  
T. K. SENGUPTA ◽  
S. B. TALLA
Keyword(s):  
Vortex Shedding ◽  
Physical Mechanism ◽  
Grid Method ◽  
Reynolds Numbers ◽  
Accurate Solution ◽  
Navier Stokes ◽  
Navier Stokes Equation ◽  
Low Reynolds Numbers ◽  
Low Reynolds ◽  
Control Cylinder

Vortex shedding behind a cylinder can be controlled by placing another small cylinder behind it, at low Reynolds numbers. This has been demonstrated experimentally by Strykowski & Sreenivasan (J. Fluid Mech. vol. 218, 1990, p. 74). These authors also provided preliminary numerical results, modelling the control cylinder by the innovative application of boundary conditions on some selective nodes. There are no other computational and theoretical studies that have explored the physical mechanism. In the present work, using an over-set grid method, we report and verify numerically the experimental results for flow past a pair of cylinders. Apart from providing an accurate solution of the Navier–Stokes equation, we also employ an energy-based receptivity analysis method to discuss some aspects of the physical mechanism behind vortex shedding and its control. These results are compared with the flow picture developed using a dynamical system approach based on the proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) technique.

A Computational Study on Airfoils at a Low Reynolds Number

2000 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ajit Pal Singh ◽  
S. H. Winoto ◽  
D. A. Shah ◽  
K. G. Lim ◽  
Robert E. K. Goh
Keyword(s):  
Reynolds Number ◽  
Computational Analysis ◽  
Computational Study ◽  
Low Reynolds Number ◽  
Micro Air Vehicles ◽  
Reynolds Numbers ◽  
Aerodynamic Performance ◽  
Low Reynolds Numbers ◽  
Study Results ◽  
Low Reynolds

Abstract Performance characteristics of some low Reynolds number airfoils for the use in micro air vehicles (MAVs) are computationally studied using XFOIL at a Reynolds number of 80,000. XFOIL, which is based on linear-vorticity stream function panel method coupled with a viscous integral formulation, is used for the analysis. In the first part of the study, results obtained from the XFOIL have been compared with available experimental data at low Reynolds numbers. XFOIL is then used to study relative aerodynamic performance of nine different airfoils. The computational analysis has shown that the S1223 airfoil has a relatively better performance than other airfoils considered for the analysis.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document