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Article
Publication date: 8 July 2019

Massoud Tatar, Mojtaba Tahani and Mehran Masdari

In this paper, the applicability of shear stress transport k-ω model along with the intermittency concept has been investigated over pitching airfoils to capture the laminar…

Abstract

Purpose

In this paper, the applicability of shear stress transport k-ω model along with the intermittency concept has been investigated over pitching airfoils to capture the laminar separation bubble (LSB) position and the boundary layer transition movement. The effect of reduced frequency of oscillations on boundary layer response is also examined.

Design/methodology/approach

A two-dimensional computational fluid dynamic code was developed to compute the effects of unsteadiness on LSB formation, transition point movement, pressure distribution and lift force over an oscillating airfoil using transport equation of intermittency accompanied by the k-ω model.

Findings

The results indicate that increasing the angle of attack over the stationary airfoil causes the LSB size to shorten, leading to a rise in wall shear stress and pressure suction peak. In unsteady cases, both three- and four-equation models are capable of capturing the experimentally measured transition point well. The transition is delayed for an unsteady boundary layer in comparison with that for a static airfoil at the same angle of attack. Increasing the unsteadiness of flow, i.e. reduced frequency, moves the transition point toward the trailing edge of the airfoil. This increment also results in lower static pressure suction peak and hence lower lift produced by the airfoil. It was also found that the fully turbulent k-ω shear–stress transport (SST) model cannot capture the so-called figure-of-eight region in lift coefficient and the employment of intermittency transport equation is essential.

Practical implications

Boundary layer transition and unsteady flow characteristics owing to airfoil motion are both important for many engineering applications including micro air vehicles as well as helicopter blade, wind turbine and aircraft maneuvers. In this paper, the accuracy of transition modeling based on intermittency transport concept and the response of boundary layer to unsteadiness are investigated.

Originality/value

As a conclusion, the contribution of this paper is to assess the ability of intermittency transport models to predict LSB and transition point movements, static pressure distribution and aerodynamic lift variations and boundary layer flow pattern over dynamic pitching airfoils with regard to oscillation frequency effects for engineering problems.

Details

Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, vol. 91 no. 8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1748-8842

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 6 July 2010

Hamed Sadeghi, Mahmoud Mani and S.M. Hossein Karimian

The primary purpose of this paper is to investigate the characteristics of the unsteady flow field in the wake of Eppler‐361 airfoil undergoing harmonic pitch oscillation in both…

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Abstract

Purpose

The primary purpose of this paper is to investigate the characteristics of the unsteady flow field in the wake of Eppler‐361 airfoil undergoing harmonic pitch oscillation in both pre‐stall and post‐stall regimes.

Design/methodology/approach

Experimental measurements were carried out to study the characteristics of the unsteady flow field within the wake of an airfoil. All of the experiments were conducted in a low‐speed wind tunnel, and the velocity field was measured by a hot‐wire anemometry. The airfoil was given a harmonic pitching motion about its half chord axis at two reduced frequencies of 0.091 and 0.273. All experimental data were taken at the oscillation amplitude of 8°. During the experiments, the mean angle of attack was altered from 2.5 to 10° that this made it possible to study the wake in both pre‐stall and post‐stall regimes.

Findings

From the results, it can be concluded that different velocity profiles are formed in the wake at different phase angles. In addition, the hysteresis of the velocity field in the wake is captured between increasing and decreasing incidences. It is also found that the velocity field in the wake is strongly affected by the operating conditions of the airfoil, e.g. mean angle of attack, reduced frequency and instantaneous angle of attack. Huge variations in the profiles of the wake are observed at high instantaneous angles of attack when the mean angle of attack is 10°, i.e. when the airfoil experiences significant oscillations beyond the static stall. It is concluded that this is due to dynamic stall phenomenon.

Practical implications

Findings of the present study give valuable information, which can be used to characterize wakes of micro air vehicles, helicopter's rotor blades, and wind turbine blades. In addition to this, present findings can be used to predict dynamic stall of the above applications.

Originality/value

The paper is the first to investigate the unsteady wake of Eppler‐361 airfoil and to predict the dynamic stall phenomenon of this airfoil.

Details

Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, vol. 82 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0002-2667

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 20 August 2021

Enrique Sanmiguel-Rojas and Ramon Fernandez-Feria

This paper aims to analyze the propulsive performance of small-amplitude pitching foils at very high frequencies with double objectives: to find out scaling laws for the…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to analyze the propulsive performance of small-amplitude pitching foils at very high frequencies with double objectives: to find out scaling laws for the time-averaged thrust and propulsive efficiency at very high frequencies; and to characterize the Strouhal number above which the effect of turbulence on the mean values cannot be neglected.

Design/methodology/approach

The thrust force and propulsive efficiency of a pitching NACA0012 foil at high reduced frequencies (k) and a Reynolds number Re = 16 000 are analyzed using accurate numerical simulations, both assuming laminar flow and using a transition turbulence model. The time-averaged results are validated with available experimental data for k up to about 12 (Strouhal number, St, up to 0.6). This study also compares the present numerical results with the predictions of theoretical models and existing numerical results. For a foil pitching about its quarter chord with amplitude α0 = 8o, the reduced frequency is varied here up to k = 30 (St up to 2), much higher than in any previous numerical or experimental work.

Findings

For this pitch amplitude, turbulence effects are found negligible for St ≲ 0.8, and affecting less than 10% to the time-averaged thrust coefficient CT¯ for larger St Linear potential theory fails for very large k, even for the small pitch amplitude considered, particularly for the power coefficient, and therefore for the propulsive efficiency. It is found that CT¯St2 for large St, in agreement with recent models, and the propulsive efficiency decays as 1/k, in disagreement with the linear potential theory.

Originality/value

Pitching foils are increasingly studied as efficient propellers and energy harvesting devices. Their performance at very high reduced frequencies has not been sufficiently analyzed before. The authors provide accurate numerical simulations to discern when turbulence is relevant for the computation of the time-averaged thrust and efficiency and how their scaling with the reduced frequency is affected in relation to the laminar-flow predictions. This is relevant because some small-amplitude theoretical models predict high propulsive efficiency of pitching foils at very high frequencies over certain ranges of the structural parameters, and only very accurate numerical simulations may decide on these predictions.

Details

International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow, vol. 32 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0961-5539

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 6 November 2017

Mojtaba Tahani, Mehran Masdari, Hamidreza Eivazi and Massoud Tatar

This paper aims to investigate numerical solution of transonic flow around NACA0012 airfoil under sinusoidal pitch oscillation. Accordingly, effects of the amplitude and frequency…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to investigate numerical solution of transonic flow around NACA0012 airfoil under sinusoidal pitch oscillation. Accordingly, effects of the amplitude and frequency of oscillations on aerodynamic coefficients are evaluated and the efficiency of the turbulent models, K-ω shear-stress transport (SST), scale adaptive simulation (SAS) and delayed detached eddy simulation (DDES), in simulation of the nonlinear phenomena – i.e. the interaction between shock and boundary layer and the shock oscillations – is studied.

Design/methodology/approach

K-ω SST, SAS and DDES models are used as turbulence approaches. The numerical results are compared with available experimental and numerical information.

Findings

According to the results inside the buffet boundaries, the DDES turbulent model expresses results that are more appropriate; however, SAS and SST models are not efficient enough in evaluating the characteristics of nonlinear flow.

Originality/value

In this research study, hybrid RANS-LES turbulence model is engaged to simulate transonic flow around pitching NACA0012 airfoil, and results are compared to the SAS and Reynolds Average Navier–Stocks simulations as well as available numerical and experimental data. In addition, effects of the amplitude and frequency of oscillations on aerodynamic coefficients are evaluated in buffet regions.

Details

International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow, vol. 27 no. 11
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0961-5539

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 6 July 2015

He-yong Xu, Shi-long Xing and Zheng-yin Ye

The purpose of this paper is to investigate and improve a new method of unstructured rotational dynamic overset grids, which can be used to simulate the unsteady flows around…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate and improve a new method of unstructured rotational dynamic overset grids, which can be used to simulate the unsteady flows around rotational parts of aircraft.

Design/methodology/approach

The computational domain is decomposed into two sub-domains, namely, the rotational sub-domain which contains the rotational boundaries, and the stationary sub-domain which contains the remainder flow field including the stationary boundaries. The artificial boundaries and restriction boundaries are used as the restriction condition to generate the entire computational grid, and then the overset grids are established according to the radius parameters of artificial boundaries set previously. The deformation of rotational boundary is treated by using the linear spring analogy method which is suitable for the dynamic unstructured grid. The unsteady Navier-Stokes/Euler equations are solved separately in the rotational sub-domain and stationary sub-domain, and data coupling is accomplished through the overlapping area. The least squares method is used to interpolate the flow variables for the artificial boundary points with a higher calculating precision. Implicit lower-upper symmetric-Gauss-Seidel (LU-SGS) time stepping scheme is implemented to accelerate the inner iteration during the unsteady simulation.

Findings

The airfoil steady flow, airfoil pitching unsteady flow, three-dimensional (3-D) rotor flow field, rotor-fuselage interaction unsteady flow field and the flutter exciting system unsteady flow field are numerically simulated, and the results have good agreements with the experimental data. It is shown that the present method is valid and efficient for the prediction of complicated unsteady problems which contain rotational dynamic boundaries.

Research limitations/implications

The results are entirely based on computational fluid dynamics (CFD), and the 3D simulations are based on the Euler equations in which the viscous effect is ignored. The current work shows further applicable potential to simulate unsteady flow around rotational parts of aircraft.

Practical implications

The current study can be used to simulate the two-dimensional airfoil pitching, 3-D rotor flow field, rotor-fuselage interaction and the flutter exciting system unsteady flow. The work will help the aircraft designer to get the unsteady flow character around rotational parts of aircraft.

Originality/value

A new type of rotational dynamic overset grids is presented and validated, and the current work has a significant contribution to the development of unstructured rotational dynamic overset grids.

Details

Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology: An International Journal, vol. 87 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0002-2667

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 2 August 2018

Nima Vaziri, Ming-Jyh Chern and Tzyy-Leng Horng

The purpose of this study is simulation of dynamic stall behavior around the Eppler 387 airfoil in the low Reynolds number flow with a direct-forcing immersed boundary (DFIB…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is simulation of dynamic stall behavior around the Eppler 387 airfoil in the low Reynolds number flow with a direct-forcing immersed boundary (DFIB) numerical model.

Design/methodology/approach

A ray-casting method is used to define the airfoil geometry. The governing continuity and Navier–Stokes momentum equations and boundary conditions are solved using the DFIB method.

Findings

The purposed method is validated against numerical results from alternative schemes and experimental data on static and oscillating airfoil. A base flow regime and different vortices patterns are observed, in accordance with other previously published investigations. Also, the effects of the reduced frequency, the pitch oscillation amplitude and the Reynolds number are studied. The results show that the reduced frequency has a major effect on the flow field and the force coefficients of the airfoil. On the other hand, the Reynolds number of the flow has a little effect on the dynamic stall characteristics of the airfoil at least in the laminar range.

Practical implications

It is demonstrated that the DFIB model provides an accurate representation of dynamic stall phenomenon.

Originality/value

The results show that the dynamic stall behavior around the Eppler 387 is different than the general dynamic stall behavior understanding in the shedding phase.

Details

Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, vol. 90 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1748-8842

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 3 June 2020

Mehran Masdari, Maryam Ghorbani and Arshia Tabrizian

The purpose of this paper is to analyze experimentally subsonic wake of a supercritical airfoil undergoing a pitch–hold–return motion. The focus of the investigation has been…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to analyze experimentally subsonic wake of a supercritical airfoil undergoing a pitch–hold–return motion. The focus of the investigation has been narrowed to concentrate on the steadiness of the flow field in the wake of the airfoil and the role of reduced frequency, amplitude and the hold phase duration.

Design/methodology/approach

All experiments were conducted in a low sub-sonic closed-circuit wind tunnel, at a Reynolds number of approximately 600,000. The model was a supercritical airfoil having 10% thickness and wall-to-wall in ground test facilities. To calculate the velocity distribution in the wake of the airfoil, total and static pressures were recorded at a distance of one chord far from the trailing edge, using pressure devices. The reduced frequency was set at 0.012, 0.03 and the motion pivot was selected at c/4.

Findings

Analysis of the steadiness of the wake flow field ascertains that an increase in reduced frequency leads to further flow time lag in the hold phase whereas decreases the time that the wake remains steady after the start of the return portion. Also, the roles of amplitude and stall condition are examined.

Practical implications

Examination of a pitch–hold–return motion is substantial in assessment of aerodynamics of maneuvers with a rapid increase in angle of attack. Moreover, study of aerodynamic behavior of downstream flow field and its steadiness in the wake of the airfoil is vital in drag reduction and control of flapping wings, dynamic stability and control of aircrafts.

Originality/value

In the present study, to discuss the steadiness of the flow field behind the airfoil some statistical methods and concept of histogram using an automatic algorithm were used and a specific criterion to characterize the steadiness of flow field was achieved.

Details

Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, vol. 92 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1748-8842

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 9 August 2018

Arpan Das and Shaligram Tiwari

Growing application of micro aerial vehicle (MAV) sets in demand for accurate computations of low Reynolds number flows past their wings. The purpose of this study is to…

Abstract

Purpose

Growing application of micro aerial vehicle (MAV) sets in demand for accurate computations of low Reynolds number flows past their wings. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of unsteady freestream velocity or wind gust on a harmonically plunging symmetric NACA0012 airfoil at Re = 1,000. The influence of unsteady parameters, such as reduced frequency of plunging motion (0.25 < k < 1.5), non-dimensional plunging amplitude (ho = 0.2) and non-dimensional amplitude of wind gust (0.1 = λ = 0.4) has been studied.

Design/methodology/approach

Computations have been carried out using commercial software ANSYS Fluent 16.0. To incorporate the plunging motion, the entire reference frame is oscillating, and thereby, a source term is added in the Navier–Stokes equation.

Findings

The results have been presented in the form of streamlines, vorticity contours, lift and drag signals and their spectra. It is observed that the ratio of plunging frequency to gust frequency (f/fg) has strong influence on periodic characteristics of unsteady wake. It has also been observed that for a fixed plunging amplitude, an increase in value of k results into a change from positive drag to thrust.

Practical implications

The research has implications in the development of MAV.

Originality/value

This study is intended to get a better understanding of unsteady parameters associated with gusty flow in flapping wing applications and possible ways to alleviate its adverse effect on it.

Details

Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, vol. 90 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1748-8842

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 10 August 2010

M. Kharati Koopaee, M.M. Alishahi and H. Emdad

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the capability of nonlinear frequency domain (NLFD) method in predicting surface pressure coefficient presented in the time domain in…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the capability of nonlinear frequency domain (NLFD) method in predicting surface pressure coefficient presented in the time domain in unsteady transonic flows.

Design/methodology/approach

In this research, the solution and spatial operator are approximated by discrete form of Fourier transformation and resulting nonlinear equations are solved by use of pseudo‐spectral approach. Considered transonic flows involve different flow pattern on the airfoil surfaces. One of the test cases involves moving shocks on both lower and upper airfoil surfaces and in the two other test cases a moving shock occurs only on the upper surface.

Findings

Pressure distributions presented in the time domain using NLFD are compared with three test cases. Results show that NLFD predicts reasonable pressure distributions in time domain except in vicinity of shock positions. Although this method may predict unfair results near shock positions, however gives good estimates for global properties such as lift coefficient.

Originality/value

In the previous works on NLFD method, the flow field results have been limited to representing the pressure in the frequency domain or global coefficients such as lift coefficients. No details of pressure distributions in the time domain have been provided in such investigations. In this research, by presenting the pressure in the time domain, the conditions on which good pressure distributions are obtained are demonstrated.

Details

International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow, vol. 20 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0961-5539

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 24 May 2013

Hong Wang, Jyri Leskinen, Dong‐Seop Lee and Jacques Périaux

The purpose of this paper is to investigate an active flow control technique called Shock Control Bump (SCB) for drag reduction using evolutionary algorithms.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate an active flow control technique called Shock Control Bump (SCB) for drag reduction using evolutionary algorithms.

Design/methodology/approach

A hierarchical genetic algorithm (HGA) consisting of multi‐fidelity models in three hierarchical topological layers is explored to speed up the design optimization process. The top layer consists of a single sub‐population operating on a precise model. On the middle layer, two sub‐populations operate on a model of intermediate accuracy. The bottom layer, consisting of four sub‐populations (two for each middle layer populations), operates on a coarse model. It is well‐known that genetic algorithms (GAs) are different from deterministic optimization tools in mimicking biological evolution based on Darwinian principle. In HGAs process, each population is handled by GA and the best genetic information obtained in the second or third layer migrates to the first or second layer for refinement.

Findings

The method was validated on a real life optimization problem consisting of two‐dimensional SCB design optimization installed on a natural laminar flow airfoil (RAE5243). Numerical results show that HGA is more efficient and achieves more drag reduction compared to a single population based GA.

Originality/value

Although the idea of HGA approach is not new, the novelty of this paper is to combine it with mesh/meshless methods and multi‐fidelity flow analyzers. To take the full benefit of using hierarchical topology, the following conditions are implemented: the first layer uses a precise meshless Euler solver with fine cloud of points, the second layer uses a hybrid mesh/meshless Euler solver with intermediate mesh/clouds of points, the third layer uses a less fine mesh with Euler solver to explore efficiently the search space with large mutation span.

Details

Engineering Computations, vol. 30 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0264-4401

Keywords

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