Three-Dimensional Vortex Structure in the Wake of an Oscillating Discoid Airfoil

Author(s):  
K. Nakagawa ◽  
H. Hasegawa

Flow fields around an oscillating airfoil at the low Reynolds number region are extremely unsteady because the change direction of leading edge produces unsteady vortex motions. Studies of unsteady propulsion system of birds, insects, and fish are few and inconclusive. It has been noted that the unsteady fluid force plays an important role in biological flight. To evaluate the force correctly, it is necessary to know the unsteady properties determined from the vortex dynamics. The actual motion of a hand in swimming is obviously unsteady, and time-dependent fluid forces must be considered, because a quasi-steady-state approach towards predicting the fluid forces acting on a hand under unsteady conditions yielded errors. The three-dimensionality and the unsteady effect of a hand must be important to the estimation of the fluid forces acting on a swimmer’s hand. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between unsteady fluid forces and vortex structures for a three-dimensional airfoil during the pitch-oscillating motion. Particle image velocimetry (PIV) was used to aid in understanding the flow field in the near field of the airfoil edge for the wind tunnel test. It is confirmed that the unsteady fluid forces were affected by the vortices shed from the airfoil edge during up-stroke in pitching oscillation. There are two peaks in the fluid force during one pitch-oscillating due to the vortex behavior. The vortex behavior was strongly affected by the reduced frequency, and the fluid force acting on the airfoil model increases with increasing the reduced frequency.

2018 ◽  
Vol 859 ◽  
pp. 59-88 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip B. Kirk ◽  
Anya R. Jones

The leading-edge vortex (LEV) is a powerful unsteady flow structure that can result in significant unsteady loads on lifting blades and wings. Using force, surface pressure and flow field measurements, this work represents an experimental campaign to characterize LEV behaviour in sinusoidally surging flows with widely varying amplitudes and frequencies. Additional tests were conducted in reverse flow surge, with kinematics similar to the tangential velocity profile seen by a blade element in recent high-advance-ratio rotor experiments. General results demonstrate the variability of LEV convection properties with reduced frequency, which greatly affected the average lift-to-drag ratio in a cycle. Analysis of surface pressure measurements suggests that LEV convection speed is a function only of the local instantaneous flow velocity. In the rotor-comparison tests, LEVs formed in reverse flow surge were found to convect more quickly than the corresponding reverse flow LEVs that form on a high-advance-ratio rotor, demonstrating that rotary motion has a stabilizing effect on LEVs. The reverse flow surging LEVs were also found to be of comparable strength to those observed on the high-advance-ratio rotor, leading to the conclusion that a surging-wing simplification might provide a suitable basis for low-order models of much more complex three-dimensional flows.


Author(s):  
Deman Tang ◽  
Aiqin Li ◽  
Earl H. Dowell

In the present paper, a transient response study of the effectiveness of trailing and leading edge control surfaces has been made for a rolling wing-fuselage model. An experimental model and wind tunnel test are used to assess the theoretical results. The theoretical model includes the inherently nonlinear dry friction damping moment that is present between the spindle support and the experimental aeroelastic wing model. The roll trim equation of motion and the appropriate aeroelastic equations are solved for different combinations of leading and trailing edge control surface rotations using a reduced order aerodynamic model based upon the fluid eigenmodes of three dimensional vortex lattice aerodynamic theory. The present paper provides new insights into the transient dynamic behavior and design of an adaptive aeroelastic wing using trailing and leading edge control surfaces.


2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (14) ◽  
pp. 2050145
Author(s):  
Rennian Li ◽  
Wenna Liang ◽  
Wei Han ◽  
Hui Quan ◽  
Rong Guo ◽  
...  

In order to investigate the turbulence-induced acoustic characteristics of hydrofoils, the flow and sound field for a model NH-15-18-1 asymmetric hydrofoil were calculated based on the mixed method of large eddy simulation (LES) with Lighthill analogy theory. Unsteady fluid turbulent stress source around the hydrofoil were selected as the inducements of quadrupole sound. The average velocity along the mainstream direction was calculated for different Reynolds numbers [Formula: see text]. Compared to experimental measurements, good agreement was seen over a range of [Formula: see text]. The results showed that the larger the [Formula: see text], the larger the vortex intensity, the shorter the vortex initial shedding position to the leading edge of the hydrofoil, and the higher the vortex shedding frequency [Formula: see text]. The maximum sound pressure level (SPL) of the hydrofoil was located at the trailing edge and wake of the hydrofoil, which coincided with the velocity curl [Formula: see text] distribution of the flow field. The maximum SPL of the sound field was consistent with the location of the vortex shedding. There were quadratic positive correlations between the total sound pressure level (TSPL) and the maximum value of the vortex intensity [Formula: see text] and velocity curl, which verified that shedding and diffusion of vortices are the fundamental cause of the generation of the quadrupole source noise.


2008 ◽  
Vol 112 (1138) ◽  
pp. 705-713 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. R. Soltani ◽  
A. Bakhshalipour

Abstract Extensive experiments were conducted to study the effect of various parameters on the surface pressure distribution and transition point of an aerofoil section used in a wind turbine blade. In this paper details of the variation of transition point on the aforementioned aerofoil are presented. The aerofoil spanned the wind-tunnel test section and was oscillated sinusoidally in pitch about the quarter chord. The imposed variables of the experiments were free stream velocity, amplitude of motion, mean angle-of-attack, and oscillation frequency. The spatial-temporal progressions of the leading-edge transition point and the state of the unsteady boundary-layer were measured using eight closely-spaced, hot-film sensors (HFS). The measurements show that: (i) Reduced frequency has a pronounced effect on the variations of the transition point. (ii) There exists a hysteresis loop in the dynamic transition location and its shape varies with the reduced frequency and mean angle-of-attack.


2017 ◽  
Vol 832 ◽  
pp. 697-720 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kyohei Onoue ◽  
Kenneth S. Breuer

We examine the dynamics of the leading-edge vortex (LEV) on a rapidly pitching plate with the aim of elucidating the underlying flow physics that dictates the stability and circulation of the LEV. A wide variety of flow conditions is considered in the present study by systematically varying the leading-edge sweep angle ($\unicode[STIX]{x1D6EC}=0^{\circ }$, $11.3^{\circ }$, $16.7^{\circ }$) and the reduced frequency ($f^{\ast }=0.064{-}0.151$), while keeping the pitching amplitude and the Reynolds number fixed. Tomographic particle image velocimetry is used to characterise the three-dimensional fluid motion inside the vortex core and its relation to the LEV stability and growth. A series of control volume analyses are performed to quantify the relative importance of the vorticity transport phenomena taking place inside the LEV to the overall vortex development. We show that, near the wing apex where tip effects can be neglected, the vortex develops in a nominally two-dimensional manner, despite the presence of inherently three-dimensional vortex dynamics such as vortex stretching and compression. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the vortex formation time and circulation growth are well-described by the principles of optimal vortex formation number, and that the occurrence of vortex shedding is dictated by the relative energetics of the feeding shear layer and the resulting vortex.


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