Search results

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

A quantitative study that can identify the primary aerodynamic forces and relate them to individual vortical structures is lacking. The paper aims to clarify the quantitative relationships between the aerodynamic forces and vortical structures.

The various contributions to the aerodynamic forces on the two-dimensional impulsively started plate are investigated from the perspective of the vorticity moment theorem. The angles of attacks are set to 45°, 58.5° and 72°, while the Reynolds number is 10,000 based on the chord length. Compared with the traditional pressure force analysis, this theorem not only tells us the total aerodynamic force during the motion, but also enables us to quantify the forces contributed from the fluid elements with non-zero vorticity.

It is found that the time-dependent force behaviors are dominated by the formations and evolutions of these vortical structures. The analysis of the time-averaged forces demonstrates that the lift contributed from the leading edge vortex (LEV) is nearly four times larger than the total lift and the drag contributed from the starting vortex (SV) is almost equal to the total drag when the angle of attack (AoA) increases to 72°, which means the LEV is “lift structure” whereas the SV is “drag structure”.

The present method provides a better perspective for flow control and drag reduction by relating the forces directly to the individual vorticity structures.

In this paper, the Vorticity Moment Theory is first used to study the quantitative relationships between the aerodynamic forces and the vortices.

A computational procedure based on a hybrid Lagrangian‐Eulerian discrete‐vortical element formulation and conformal transformation schemes are employed in this study to simulate the interaction of an air jet with swirling air flow inside a two‐dimensional cylinder. Such an investigation is of importance to many flow‐related industrial and environmental problems, such as mixing, cooling, combustion and dispersion of air‐borne or water‐borne contaminants because of the role of vortices in the global transport of matter and heat. The basis for the simulation is discussed and numerical results compared with theoretical results for the velocity field and streamfunction obtained by the method of images. The swirling air motion and the features of a real jet are well simulated and numerical results are validated by predictions of theory to within 20 per cent. To illustrate the merging and interaction processes of vortices and the formation of large eddies, velocity vectors, particle trajectories and streamline contours are presented.

The dynamics of a transitional propane jet diffusion flame with a fuel‐jet velocity of 2.2 m/s has been studied using an implicit, third‐order‐accurate, upwind numerical scheme. The large‐scale vortices outside the flame surface and the small‐scale ones inside were simulated simultaneously, and their interactions with the flame surface were investigated. Numerical experiments were conducted to gain insight into the influence of buoyancy and shear‐layer forcing on the development of the outer and inner vortices. In the presence of buoyancy forces, the outer vortices developed as part of the solution, and the vortex‐crossing frequency was approximately 15 Hz. The inner structures were manifested from a weak perturbation the vorticity that was introduced at the nozzle exit, and, at 185 Hz, these vortices were found to travel farther downstream. It was also found that the inner vortices do not play a role in the formation of the outer vortices, and vice versa. However, the growth of the inner vortices in the downstream locations is strongly influenced by the slowly moving outer vortices.

The present study aims to develop a vortex method capable for solving the complex vortical flows past the moving/deforming bodies.

To achieve such a goal, some innovative work is conducted on the basis of vortex-in-cell (VIC) method that uses the improved semi-Lagrangian scheme. The penalization technique is incorporated with the VIC, which makes the complex boundaries of moving/deforming bodies readily treated. Iterative algorithm is further proposed for the penalization and used to solve the Poisson equation, which enhances the vorticity solution accuracy at the body boundary.

The developed method is used to simulate some distinct flows of different boundaries and features: the impulsively started circular cylinder flow represents the one-way coupling; the falling circular cylinder flow and ellipse leaf flow both represent the two-way coupling of moving boundary; the fish-like body flow represents the two-way fluid-structure interaction of deforming boundary. The vortical physics of the above flows are well revealed, and the developed method is proven capable in dealing with the complex fluid-structure interaction problems.

The penalization technique is incorporated with the semi-Lagrangian VIC method, which makes the complex boundaries of moving/deforming bodies readily treated. An iterative algorithm is further proposed for the penalization and used to solve the Poisson equation, which enhances the vorticity solution accuracy at the body boundary. The complex vortical physics of the moving/deforming body flows are well revealed, and the propulsive mechanism of fish-like swimmer is well illustrated with the present method.

The purpose of this paper is to carry out an extensive numerical study in order to understand the flow structures and the resulting noise generated by a supersonic impinging jet on a flat plate. One of the parameters varied in this study is the distance between the jet exit plane and the flat plate.

Because of the unsteady nature of the problem a time-dependent computation is carried out using the detached eddy simulation turbulence model. The OVERFLOW 2 CFD code was used with a highly resolved grid and small time steps.

The authors found that as the separation distance increases, the dominant frequencies in the noise spectrum decrease. In addition, the relative strength of the various frequencies to each other changes with changing distance, indicating the changing modes of the jet. The CFD results indicate a strong interaction between the acoustic waves emanating from the impingement plate and the jet plume. This feedback mechanism is responsible for destabilizing the jet shear layer leading to the jet changing modes. The computed near field spectra, convection velocities of the jet vortical structures and mean jet centerline velocity profile are in good agreement with experimental measurements. The results also show very high sound pressure levels all over the impingement plate but especially near the impingement point. These levels, if sustained, are detrimental to both human operators as well as the surrounding structures.

Given the large-scale nature of the computations carried out, it is very costly to run the computations long enough to collect a good, statistically steady time sample to achieve a low frequency bandwidth resolution. Such a long time sample could actually improve the results in terms of frequency resolution and obtained an even better agreement with experiments. Off course there is always the issue of grid resolution as well, but given the good agreement with experiments that the authors obtained, the authors are confident in their results.

The practical implications of the results the authors obtained are significant in that, the authors now know that hybrid RANS-large eddy simulation methods can be used for this complex, unsteady engineering problems. In addition, the results also show the high noise level both on the impingement surface and in the surroundings of the jet. This could have a negative impact on the structural integrity of the flat surface.

Noisy environments are never desirable anywhere especially in places where human operations take place. Therefore, given the high noise levels obtained in the simulations and confirmed by experiments, any human presence around the jet will be harmful to hearing and precautions need to be taken.

This is a physics-based study; i.e. understanding the physical phenomena involved in supersonic jet impingement. Of particular interest is the interaction of the jet shear layer with the acoustic waves emanating from the impingement area. This feedback loop is found to be responsible for intensifying the instability of the jet shear layer.

The purpose of this paper is the development of a CFD methodology based on LES computations to analyze the rotor–stator interaction in an axial fan stage.

A wall-modeled large eddy simulation (WMLES) has been performed for a spanwise 3D extrusion of the central section of the fan stage. Computations were performed for three different operating conditions, from nominal (Q_N) to off-design (85 per cent Q_N and 70 per cent Q_N) working points. Circumferential periodic conditions were introduced to reduce the extent of the computational domain. The post-processing procedure enabled the segregation of unsteady deterministic features and turbulent scales. The simulations were experimentally validated using wake profiles and turbulent scales obtained from hot-wire measurements.

The transport of rotor wakes and both wake–vane and wake–wake interactions in the stator flow field have been analyzed. The description of flow separation, particularly at off-design conditions, is fully benefited from the LES performance. Rotor wakes impinging on the stator vanes generate a coherent large-scale vortex shedding at reduced frequencies. Large pressure fluctuations in the stagnation region on the leading edge of the vanes have been found.

LES simulations have shown to be appropriate for the assessment of the design of an axial fan, especially for specific operating conditions for which a URANS model presents a lower performance for turbulence description.

This paper describes the development of an LES-based simulation to understand the flow mechanisms related to the rotor–stator interaction in axial fan stages.

The exponential growth in computational capabilities and the increasing reliability of current simulation tools have fostered the use of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) in the design of pioneering aircraft engine architectures, such as the counter rotating open rotor (CROR) engine. Today, this design process is led by tight performance and noise constraints from a very early stage, thus requiring deep investigations of the aerodynamic and acoustic behaviour of the fluid flow. The purpose of this study is to track the trajectory of tip vortices, which is of critical importance to understand and prevent potential vortex–blade interactions with subsequent rows, as this condition strongly influences the aerodynamic and structural performance and acoustic footprints of the engine.

In this paper, a flow feature detection methodology is applied to a particular CROR test case with the goal of visualizing and tracking the development of these coherent structures from the tip of front rotating blades. The suitability and performance of four typical region-based methodologies and one line-based (LB) criteria are firstly evaluated. Then, two novel seeding methodologies are presented as an attempt to improve the performance of the LB algorithm previously investigated.

It was demonstrated that the new seeding algorithms increase the probability of the selected seeds to grow into a tip vortex line and reduce the user’s dependence upon the selection of candidate seeds, providing faster and more accurate answers during the design-to-noise iterative process.

Apart from the new vortex detection initialization methodologies, the paper also attempts to assist the user in the endeavour of extracting rotating structures from their own CFD simulations.

This paper aims to improve the computational efficiency and to achieve high-order accuracy for the computation of helicopter rotor unsteady flows in forward flight during the industrial preliminary design stage.

The integral arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian form of unsteady compressible Navier–Stokes equations with low Mach number preconditioned pseudo time terms based on non-inertial frame of reference undergoing rotating and translating was derived and discretized in the framework of multi-block structured finite volume grid using three types of spatial reconstruction schemes, i.e. the third-order accurate monotonic upwind scheme for conservation laws, the fifth-order accurate weighted essentially non-oscillatory and the fifth-order accurate weighted compact nonlinear schemes.

The results show that the present non-inertial computational method can obtain comparable results with other methods, such as the dynamic overset method, and make sure that the higher-order spatial schemes can significantly improve the tip vortex resolution.

The computational grid used by the present method remained static during the whole unsteady computation process, with only local deformations induced by blade cyclic pitch and other operating motions, which greatly reduced the complexity of grid motion and enhanced the efficiency and robustness.

This study aims to propose an aerodynamic force decomposition which, for the first time, allows for thrust/drag bookkeeping in two-dimensional viscous and unsteady flows. Lamb vector-based far-field methods are used at the scope, and the paper starts with extending recent steady compressible formulas to the unsteady regime.

Exact vortical force formulas are derived considering inertial or non-inertial frames, viscous or inviscid flows, fixed or moving bodies. Numerical applications to a NACA0012 airfoil oscillating in pure plunging motion are illustrated, considering subsonic and transonic flow regimes. The total force accuracy and sensitivity to the control volume size is first analysed, then the axial force is decomposed and results are compared to the inviscid force (thrust) and to the steady force (drag).

Two total axial force decompositions in thrust and drag contributions are proposed, providing satisfactory results. An additional force decomposition is also formulated, which is independent of the arbitrary pole appearing in vortical formulas. Numerical inaccuracies encountered in inertial reference frames are eliminated, and the extended formulation also allows obtaining an accurate force prediction in presence of shock waves.

No thrust/drag bookkeeping methodology was actually available for oscillating airfoils in viscous and compressible flows.