PIV investigation of flowfield behind perforated Gurney-type flaps

The flow behind perforated Gurney-type flaps was investigated by using particle image velocimetry (PIV) at Re = 5.3 × 10⁴. The PIV measurements were supplemented by force balance and surface pressure data. The near wake was disrupted and narrowed, indicative of a reduced drag, with increasing flap perforation and had a drastically suppressed fluctuating intensity. Depending on the strength of the perforation-generated jet, the vortex shedding process behind the flap could be eliminated. The flap porosity also led to reduced positive camber effects and the decompression of the cavity flow (upstream of the flap), as well as decreased upper and lower surface pressures, compared to the solid flap. The reduction in the drag, however, outweighed the loss in lift and rendered an improved lift-to-drag ratio.     

Lift enhancement and flow structure of airfoil with joint trailing-edge flap and Gurney flap

The impact of Gurney flaps (GF), of different heights and perforations, on the aerodynamic and wake characteristics of a NACA 0015 airfoil equipped with a trailing-edge flap (TEF) was investigated experimentally at Re = 2.54 × 10⁵. The addition of the Gurney flap to the TEF produced a further increase in the downward turning of the mean flow (increased aft camber), leading to a significant increase in the lift, drag, and pitching moment compared to that produced by independently deployed TEF or GF. The maximum lift increased with flap height, with the maximum lift-enhancement effectiveness exhibited at the smallest flap height. The near wake behind the joint TEF and GF became wider and had a larger velocity deficit and fluctuations compared to independent GF and TEF deployment. The Gurney flap perforation had only a minor impact on the wake and aerodynamics characteristics compared to TEF with a solid GF. The rapid rise in lift generation of the joint TEF and GF application, compared to conventional TEF deployment, could provide an improved off-design high-lift device during landing and takeoff.     

Time resolved PIV analysis of flow over a NACA 0015 airfoil with Gurney flap

A NACA 0015 airfoil with and without a Gurney flap was studied in a wind tunnel with Re _c = 2.0 × 10⁵ in order to examine the evolving flow structure of the wake through time-resolved PIV and to correlate this structure with time-averaged measurements of the lift coefficient. The Gurney flap, a tab of small length (1–4% of the airfoil chord) that protrudes perpendicular to the chord at the trailing edge, yields a significant and relatively constant lift increment through the linear range of the C _L versus α curve. Two distinct vortex shedding modes were found to exist and interact in the wake downstream of flapped airfoils. The dominant mode resembles a Kàrmàn vortex street shedding behind an asymmetric bluff body. The second mode, which was caused by the intermittent shedding of fluid recirculating in the cavity upstream of the flap, becomes more coherent with increasing angle of attack. For a 4% Gurney flap at α = 8°, the first and second modes corresponded with Strouhal numbers based on flap height of 0.18 and 0.13. Comparison of flow around ‘filled’ and ‘open’ flap configurations suggested that the second shedding mode was responsible for a significant portion of the overall lift increment.     

Effects of Gurney flaps on the lift enhancement of a cropped nonslender delta wing

An experimental wind-tunnel investigation was undertaken to determine the effects of Gurney flaps on a 40-deg cropped nonslender delta wing at a chord Reynolds number of 250,000. In the experiment, the height of the Gurney flaps was varied from 0.01C to 0.05C, and the sideslip angle of the model was selected as 0, 5, 10 and 20 deg. In addition, the 0.05C Gurney flap was serrated with different heights of 0.01C to 0.05C separately. In comparison with the baseline clean configuration results, it was found that the model with plate Gurney flaps can indeed increase the lift-to-drag ratio at moderate-to-high lift coefficients for the wing, and the greatest increment was obtained for the 0.01C Gurney flap. The effect of Gurney flap on the increment of lift-to-drag ratio tends to be not significant with the increase of sideslip angle. Moreover, the 0.05C serrated Gurney flap provides the best performance among the serrated Gurney flaps. Received: 6 July 2000 / Accepted: 21 June 2001 Published online: 29 November 2001     

Aperiodicity in the near field of full-scale rotor blade tip vortices

Blade tip vortices are the dominant vortical structures of the helicopter flow field. The inherent complexity of the vortex dynamics has led to an increasing interest in full-scale in situ experiments, where the near field, closely behind the blade, is of particular interest, since measures of vortex control mostly target this initial stage of development. To examine the near field, three-component particle image velocimetry (PIV) measurements of blade tip vortices of a full-scale helicopter in simulated hover flight in ground effect were conducted. A feasible and robust evaluation procedure was developed to minimise the shortcomings of full-scale PIV applications, such as a moderate spatial resolution and an elevated measurement noise level. At vortex ages ranging from y_v=1^°\psi_{\rm v}=1^{\circ} to 30°, a pronounced aperiodicity and asymmetry of the vortex were observed in -sections perpendicular to the vortex axes. At y_v=1^°\psi_{\rm v}=1^{\circ}, a preferential orientation of the vortex was observed. For increasing wake age, vortex wandering increased while the asymmetry of the vortex cores decreased. The high level of aperiodicity and core asymmetry must be taken into account when considering phase-averaged vortex characteristics in the near wake region.     

Scanning PIV investigation of the laminar separation bubble on a SD7003 airfoil

A laminar separation bubble occurs on the suction side of the SD7003 airfoil at an angle of attack α =  4–8° and a low Reynolds number less than 100,000, which brings about a significant adverse aerodynamic effect. The spatial and temporal structure of the laminar separation bubble was studied using the scanning PIV method at α =  4° and Re = 60,000 and 20,000. Of particular interest are the dynamic vortex behavior in transition process and the subsequent vortex evolution in the turbulent boundary layer. The flow was continuously sampled in a stack of parallel illuminated planes from two orthogonal views with a frequency of hundreds Hz, and PIV cross-correlation was performed to obtain the 2D velocity field in each plane. Results of both the single-sliced and the volumetric presentations of the laminar separation bubble reveal vortex shedding in transition near the reattachment region at Re = 60,000. In a relatively long distance vortices characterized by paired wall-normal vorticity packets retain their identities in the reattached turbulent boundary layer, though vortices interact through tearing, stretching and tilting. Compared with the restricted LSB at Re = 60,000, the flow at Re = 20,000 presents an earlier separation and a significantly increased reversed flow region followed by “huge” vortical structures.     

A rotating elliptic airfoil in fluid at rest and in a parallel freestream

This paper reports results of DPIV measurements on a two-dimensional elliptic airfoil rotating about its own axis of symmetry in a fluid at rest and in a parallel freestream. In the former case, we examined three rotating speeds (Re _c,Ω = 400, 1,000 and 2,000), and in the later case, four rotating speeds (Ro _c,Ω = 2.4, 1.2, 0.6 and 0.4), together with two freestream velocities (Re _c,u  = 200 and 1,000) and two starting configurations of the airfoil (i.e., chord parallel to (α ₀ = 0°) or normal (α ₀ = 90°) to the freestream). Results show that a rotating airfoil in a stationary fluid produces two distinct types of vortex structures depending on the Reynolds number. The first type occurs at the lowest Reynolds number (Re _c,Ω = 400), where vortices shed from the two edges or tips of the airfoil dissipated quickly, resulting in the airfoil rotating in a layer of diffused vorticity. The second type occurs at higher Reynolds numbers (i.e., Re _c,Ω = 1,000 and 2,000), where the corresponding vortices rotated together with the airfoil. Due to the vortex suction effect, the torque characteristics are likely to be heavily damped for the first type because of the rapidly subsiding vortex shedding, and more oscillatory for the second type due to persistent presence of tip vortices. In a parallel freestream, increasing the tip-speed ratio (V/U) of the airfoil (i.e., decreasing the Rossby number, Ro _c,Ω) transformed the flow topology from periodic vortex shedding at Ro _c,Ω = 2.4 to the generation of a “hovering vortex” at Ro _c,Ω = 0.6 and 0.4. The presence of the hovering vortex, which has not been reported in literature before, is likely to enhance the lift characteristics of the airfoil. Freestream Reynolds number is found to have minimal effect on the vortex formation and shedding process, although it enhances shear layer instability and produces more small-scale flow structures that affect the dynamics of the hovering vortex. Likewise, initial starting configuration of the airfoil, while affecting the flow transient during the initial phase of rotation, has insignificant effect on the overall flow topology. Unfortunately, technical constraint of our apparatus prevented us from carrying out complimentary force measurements; nevertheless, the results presented herein, which are more extensive than those computed by Lugt and Ohring (1977), will provide useful benchmark data, from which more advanced numerical calculations can be carried out to ascertain the corresponding force characteristics, particularly for those conditions with the presence of hovering vortex.     

Stereoscopic and tomographic PIV of a pitching plate

This paper applies particle image velocimetry (PIV) to a simplified, canonical, pitch-hold-return problem of a pitching plate in order to gain some understanding of how three dimensionality develops in such flows. Data from a progression of PIV studies, from stereoscopic PIV yielding three-component, two-dimensional (3C-2D) data to tomographic PIV yielding three-component, three-dimensional (3C-3D) data are presented thus providing progressively more detailed information. A comparison of results is made between the two techniques. The PIV study is performed in a water tunnel facility with cross-sectional area 500 × 500 mm, and involves a full-span (nominally two-dimensional) plate, suspended between a wall end boundary condition and a free surface, pitching at a dimensionless pitch rate of K _c  = 0.93 in flow at Re = 7,500. Results demonstrate the existence of spanwise flows in both the leading edge and trailing edge vortices, but with strong directionality in the leading edge vortex towards the wall end boundary condition. Observations of instantaneous flow patterns suggest also the existence of three-dimensional coherent vortex filament structures in the outer regions of the leading edge vortex.     

Near-wake flow structure downwind of a wind turbine in a turbulent boundary layer

Wind turbines operate in the surface layer of the atmospheric boundary layer, where they are subjected to strong wind shear and relatively high turbulence levels. These incoming boundary layer flow characteristics are expected to affect the structure of wind turbine wakes. The near-wake region is characterized by a complex coupled vortex system (including helicoidal tip vortices), unsteadiness and strong turbulence heterogeneity. Limited information about the spatial distribution of turbulence in the near wake, the vortex behavior and their influence on the downwind development of the far wake hinders our capability to predict wind turbine power production and fatigue loads in wind farms. This calls for a better understanding of the spatial distribution of the 3D flow and coherent turbulence structures in the near wake. Systematic wind-tunnel experiments were designed and carried out to characterize the structure of the near-wake flow downwind of a model wind turbine placed in a neutral boundary layer flow. A horizontal-axis, three-blade wind turbine model, with a rotor diameter of 13 cm and the hub height at 10.5 cm, occupied the lowest one-third of the boundary layer. High-resolution particle image velocimetry (PIV) was used to measure velocities in multiple vertical stream-wise planes (x–z) and vertical span-wise planes (y–z). In particular, we identified localized regions of strong vorticity and swirling strength, which are the signature of helicoidal tip vortices. These vortices are most pronounced at the top-tip level and persist up to a distance of two to three rotor diameters downwind. The measurements also reveal strong flow rotation and a highly non-axisymmetric distribution of the mean flow and turbulence structure in the near wake. The results provide new insight into the physical mechanisms that govern the development of the near wake of a wind turbine immersed in a neutral boundary layer. They also serve as important data for the development and validation of numerical models.     

Flow control over a NACA 0012 airfoil using dielectric-barrier-discharge plasma actuator with a Gurney flap

Flow control study of a NACA 0012 airfoil with a Gurney flap was carried out in a wind tunnel, where it was demonstrated that a dielectric-barrier-discharge (DBD) plasma actuator attached to the flap could increase the lift further, but with a small drag penalty. Time-resolved PIV measurements of the near-wake region indicated that the plasma forcing shifted the wake downwards, reducing its recirculation length. Analysis of wake vortex dynamics suggested that the plasma actuator initially amplified the lower wake shear layer by adding momentum along the downstream surface of the Gurney flap. This enhanced mutual entrainment between the upper and lower wake vortices, leading to an increase in lift on the airfoil.     

Investigation of the vortex induced unsteadiness of a separation bubble via time-resolved and scanning PIV measurements

A transitional separation bubble on the suction side of an SD7003 airfoil is considered. The transition process that forces the separated shear layer to reattach seems to be governed by Kelvin–Helmholtz instabilities. Large scale vortices are formed due to this mechanism at the downstream end of the bubble. These vortices possess a three-dimensional structure and detach from the recirculation region, while other vortices are formed within the bubble. This separation of the vortex is a highly unsteady process, which leads to a bubble flapping. The structure of these vortices and the flapping of the separation bubble due to these vortices are temporally and spatially analyzed at angles of attack from 4° to 8° and chord-length based Reynolds numbers Re _c = 20,000–60,000 using time-resolved PIV measurements in a 2D and a 3D set-up, i.e., stereo-scanning PIV measurements are done in the latter case. These measurements complete former studies at a Reynolds number of Re _c = 20,000. The results of the time-resolved PIV measurements in a single light-sheet show the influence of the angle of attack and the Reynolds number. The characteristic parameters of the separation bubble are analyzed focusing on the unsteadiness of the separation bubble, e.g., the varying size of the main recirculation region, which characterizes the bubble flapping, and the corresponding Strouhal number are investigated. Furthermore, the impact of the freestream turbulence is investigated by juxtaposing the current and former results. The stereo-scanning PIV measurements at Reynolds numbers up to 60,000 elucidate the three-dimensional character of the vortical structures, which evolve at the downstream end of the separation bubble. It is shown that the same typical structures are formed, e.g., the c-shape vortex and the screwdriver vortex at each Reynolds number and angle of attack investigated and the occurrence of these patterns in relation to Λ-structures is discussed. To evidence the impact of the freestream turbulence, these results are compared with findings of former measurements.     

Experimental investigation into vortex structure and pressure drop across microcavities in 3D integrated electronics

Hydrodynamics in microcavities with cylindrical micropin fin arrays simulating a single layer of a water-cooled electronic chip stack is investigated experimentally. Both inline and staggered pin arrangements are investigated using pressure drop and microparticle image velocimetry (μPIV) measurements. The pressure drop across the cavity shows a flow transition at pin diameter–based Reynolds numbers (Re _d ) ~200. Instantaneous μPIV, performed using a pH-controlled high seeding density of tracer microspheres, helps visualize vortex structure unreported till date in microscale geometries. The post-transition flow field shows vortex shedding and flow impingement onto the pins explaining the pressure drop increase. The flow fluctuations start at the chip outlet and shift upstream with increasing Re _d . No fluctuations are observed for a cavity with pin height-to-diameter ratio h/d = 1 up to Re _d ~330; however, its pressure drop was higher than for a cavity with h/d = 2 due to pronounced influence of cavity walls.     

Tip gap height effects on the aerodynamic performance of a cavity squealer tip in a turbine cascade in comparison with plane tip results: part 2—aerodynamic losses

Tip gap height effects on aerodynamic losses downstream of a cavity squealer tip have been investigated in a linear turbine cascade for power generation, in comparison with plane tip results. Three-dimensional flow fields are measured with a five-hole probe for tip gap height-to-chord ratios of h/c = 0.5, 1.0, 1.5 and 2.0%. The cavity squealer tip has a full length squealer with its rim height-to-chord ratio of 5.51%. For a fixed value of h/c, the tip leakage vortex for the cavity squealer tip is always weaker than that for the plane tip, and the flow field in the passage vortex region for the cavity squealer tip is less influenced by the tip leakage flow than that for the plane tip. For the cavity squealer tip, there is no appreciable change in local aerodynamic loss with h/c in the passage vortex region, but local aerodynamic loss in the tip leakage vortex region increases with h/c. The roles of the cavity squealer tip in reducing aerodynamic loss in comparison with the plane tip case are twofold: (1) the cavity squealer tip decreases the leakage flow discharge in the region from the leading edge to the mid-chord, which leads to an aerodynamic loss reduction in the passage vortex region and (2) it also decreases the leakage flow discharge downstream of the mid-chord, which results in an aerodynamic loss reduction in the tip leakage vortex region.     

Propeller tip and hub vortex dynamics in the interaction with a rudder

In the present paper, the interaction mechanisms of the vortices shed by a single-screw propeller with a rudder installed in its wake are addressed; in particular, following the works by Felli et al. (Exp Fluids 6(1):1–11, 2006a, Exp Fluids 46(1):147–1641, 2009a, Proceedings of the 8th international symposium on particle image velocimetry: Piv09, Melbourne, 2009b), the attention is focused on the analysis of the evolution, instability, breakdown and recovering mechanisms of the propeller tip and hub vortices during the interaction with the rudder. To investigate these mechanisms in detail, a wide experimental activity consisting in time-resolved visualizations, velocity measurements by particle image velocimetry (PIV) and laser Doppler velocimetry (LDV) along horizontal chordwise, vertical chordwise and transversal sections of the wake have been performed in the Cavitation Tunnel of the Italian Navy. Collected data allows to investigate the major flow features that distinguish the flow field around a rudder operating in the wake of a propeller, as, for example, the spiral breakdown of the vortex filaments, the rejoining mechanism of the tip vortices behind the rudder and the mechanisms governing the different spanwise misalignment of the vortex filaments in the pressure and suction sides of the appendage.     

The formation of vortex rings in a strongly forced round jet

The periodic formation of vortex rings in the developing region of a round jet subjected to high-amplitude acoustic forcing is investigated with High-Speed Particle Image Velocimetry. Harmonic velocity oscillations ranging from 20 to 120% of the mean exit velocity of the jet was achieved at several forcing frequencies determined by the acoustic response of the system. The time-resolved history of the formation process and circulation of the vortex rings are evaluated as a function of the forcing conditions. Overall, high-amplitude forcing causes the shear layers of the jet to breakup into a train of large-scale vortex rings, which share many of the features of starting jets. Features of the jet breakup such as the roll-up location and vortex size were found to be both amplitude and frequency dependent. A limiting time-scale of t/T ≈ 0.33 based on the normalized forcing period was found to restrict the growth of a vortex ring in terms of its circulation for any given arrangement of jet forcing conditions. In sinusoidally forced jets, this time-scale corresponds to a kinematic constraint where the translational velocity of the vortex ring exceeds the shear layer velocity that imposes pinch-off. This kinematic constraint results from the change in sign in the jet acceleration between t = 0 and t = 0.33T. However, some vortex rings were observed to pinch-off before t = 0.33T suggesting that they had acquired their maximum circulation. By invoking the slug model approximations and defining the slug parameters based on the experimentally obtained time- and length-scales, an analytical model based on the slug and ring energies revealed that the formation number for a sinusoidally forced jet is L/D ≈ 4 in agreement with the results of Gharib et al. (J Fluid Mech 360:121–140, 1998).     

Experimental Observation and Measurement for Domain Switching Emission Wave and its Average Velocity Emitted from the Near Tip Zone of a Static Crack in PLZT

In this paper the strain-birefringence correlation technique (Lines and 1; 2; Scott, Ferroelectr Rev 1:1–129 3) is used to measure the optical birefringence quantities and the corresponding electric and mechanical quantities in a cracked PLZT-8/65/35 to study the electrical creep problem near a static crack tip. Experimental observations reveal that the domain switching emission wave (abbreviated as DSEW) is emitted from the crack tip as the time increases from 0 to 1,500 s. The measured DSEW spreads very slowly and the average speed of the wave is measured to be approximately1.25 μm/s. Although the wave has apparent anisotropic features emitted from the crack tip, the average wave speeds along three different directions from the tip show small differences. After 1,500 s experimental observations reveal that the DSEW occupies almost the whole region under consideration in the specimen. This phenomenon has not been reported in the literature. Some brief discussions are presented.     

Performances of motion tracking enhanced Tomo-PIV on turbulent shear flows

The motion tracking enhancement technique (MTE) is a recently introduced method to improve the accuracy of tomographic PIV measurements at seeding density higher than currently practiced. The working principle is based on the fact that the particle field and its projections are correlated between the two exposures. Therefore, information from subsequent exposures can be shared within the tomographic reconstruction process of a single object, which largely reduces the energy lost into ghost particles. The study follows a previous work based on synthetic particle images, showing that the MTE technique has an effect similar to that of increasing the number of cameras. In the present analysis, MTE is applied to Tomographic PIV data from two time-resolved experiments on turbulent shear flows: a round jet at Re = 5,000 (f _acq = 1,000 Hz) and a turbulent boundary layer at the trailing edge of an airfoil (Re _c = 370,000) measured at 12,000 Hz. The application of MTE is extended to the case of more than two recordings. The performance is assessed comparing the results from a lowered number of cameras with respect to the full tomographic imaging system. The analysis of the jet flow agrees with the findings of numerical simulations provided the results are scaled taking into account the concept of MTE efficiency based on the volume fraction where ghost-pairs (Elsinga et al. 2010a) are produced. When a large fraction of fluid has uniform motion (stagnant fluid surrounding the jet), only a moderate reduction in ghost intensity is expected by MTE. Nevertheless, a visible recovery of reconstruction quality is observed for the 3-cameras system when MTE is applied making use of 3 recordings. In the turbulent boundary layer, the objective is set to increase the seeding density beyond current practice, and the experiments are performed at approximately 200,000 particles/megapixel. The measurement robustness is monitored with the signal-to-noise ratio S/N for the cross-correlation analysis. An estimate of the precision error is obtained for the turbulent boundary layer case following the peak height of the spatio-temporal cross-correlation function (frozen-turbulence). The MTE approach appears to be essential for the increase in robustness and measurement precision at such seeding density.     

Synchronized analysis of an unsteady laminar flow downstream of a circular cylinder centred between two parallel walls using PIV and mass transfer probes

Experiments are carried out in the wake of a cylinder of d _c  = 10 mm diameter placed symmetrically between two parallel walls with a blockage ratio r = 1/3 and a Reynolds number varying between 75 ≤ Re ≤ 277. Particle image velocimetry is exerted to obtain the instantaneous velocity components in the cylinder wake. A snapshot proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) is also applied to these PIV results in order to extract the dominant modes through the implementation of an inhomogeneous filtering of these different snapshots, apart from an interpolation to estimate the wall shear rate at the lower wall downstream the cylinder. Mass transfer circular probes are placed at the lower wall downstream this obstacle so as to further determine the time evolution of the wall shear rate, by bringing the inverse method to bear on the convective-diffusion equation. Comparisons between the two synchronized techniques demonstrate that electrochemical method can give more accurate information about the coherent structures present in the flow and about the interaction of the von Kármán vortices with the walls of the tunnel as well. The comparison between the two measurement techniques in the flow regions concerns the spatiotemporal evolutions of the wall shear rate obtained from PIV measurements and the wall shear rate using mass transfer probes. Discrepancy between the PIV measurements and the electrochemical ones near the wall, where the secondary vortices P ₁′ are generated at wall, are caused by a PIV bias and a limitations of the singular mass transfer probes.