Measurement of tonal-noise characteristics and periodic flow structure around NACA0018 airfoil

The characteristics of tonal noise and the variations of flow structure around NACA0018 airfoil in a uniform flow are studied by means of simultaneous measurement of noise and velocity field by particle-image velocimetry to understand the generation mechanism of tonal noise. Measurements are made on the noise characteristics, the phase-averaged velocity field with respect to the noise signal, and the cross-correlation contour of velocity fluctuations and noise signal. These experimental results indicate that the tonal noise is generated from the periodic vortex structure on the pressure surface of the airfoil near the trailing edge of the airfoil. It is found that the vortex structure is highly correlated with the noise signal, which indicates the presence of noise-source distribution on the pressure surface. The vorticity distribution on the pressure surface breaks down near the trailing edge of the airfoil and forms a staggered vortex street in the wake of the airfoil.     

Experimental study of three-dimensional vortex structures in translating and rotating plates

Motivated by the unsteady force generation of flying animals, vortex formation and vorticity transport processes around small aspect-ratio translating and rotating plates with a high angle of attack are investigated. Defocusing Digital Particle Image Velocimetry was employed to explore the structure and dynamics of the vortex generated by the plates. For both translating and rotating cases, we observe the presence of a spanwise flow over the plate and the consequent effect of vorticity transport due to the tilting of the leading-edge vortex. While the spanwise flow is confined inside the leading-edge vortex for the translating case, it is widely present over the plate and the wake region of the rotating case. The distribution of the spanwise flow is a prominent distinction between the vortex structures of these two cases. As the Reynolds number decreases, due to the increase in viscosity, the leading-edge and tip vortices tend to spread inside the area swept by the rotating plate. The different vorticity distributions of the low and high Reynolds number cases are consistent with the difference in measured lift forces, which is confirmed using the vorticity moment theory.     

基于涡量矩理论的绕振荡水翼涡动力学分析

文章采用标准k-ω SST湍流模型和动网格技术, 实现了绕俯仰振荡NACA66水翼非定常流动结构与水动力特性的数值模拟, 并基于有限域涡量矩理论定量表征了局部旋涡结构对水翼动力特性的影响. 研究结果表明: 在水翼升程阶段, 当攻角较小时, 层流向湍流的转捩点由水翼尾缘向前缘移动; 在较大攻角时, 顺时针尾缘涡?TEV在水翼吸力面上生成并向前缘发展, 同时与吸力面上的顺时针前缘涡?LEV融合发展为附着在整个吸力面上的新前缘涡?LEV, 新的?LEV与逆时针尾缘涡+TEV相互作用直至完全脱落, 直接导致了水翼的动力失速, 在回程阶段, 绕振荡水翼的流场结构逐渐由湍流转变为层流. 基于有限域涡量矩理论的定量分析发现, 有限域内附着的?LEV和?TEV提供正升力, 当?LEV发展覆盖整个吸力面时对升力的贡献最大, 占总升力近50%, 而+TEV提供负升力. 同时发现, 有限域内各旋涡内部的不同区域提供的升力有正有负; 而逸出有限域的旋涡内部不同区域提供的升力方向均保持一致, 其中顺时针涡提供正升力, 而逆时针涡提供负升力. 在失速阶段, 域外旋涡整体对升力贡献较小且存在小幅波动, 体现了流动的非定常性.      

Experimental investigation of a blunt trailing edge flow field with application to sound generation

The unsteady lift generated by turbulence at the trailing edge of an airfoil is a source of radiated sound. The objective of the present research was to measure the velocity field in the near wake region of an asymmetric beveled trailing edge in order to determine the flow mechanisms responsible for the generation of trailing edge noise. Two component velocity measurements were acquired using particle image velocimetry. The chord Reynolds number was 1.9 × 10⁶. The data show velocity field realizations that were typical of a wake flow containing an asymmetric periodic vortex shedding. A phase average decomposition of the velocity field with respect to this shedding process was utilized to separate the large scale turbulent motions that occurred at the vortex shedding frequency (i.e., those responsible for the production of tonal noise) from the smaller scale turbulent motions, which were interpreted to be responsible for the production of broadband sound. The small scale turbulence was found to be dependent on the phase of the vortex shedding process implying a dependence of the broadband sound generated by the trailing edge on the phase of the vortex shedding process.     

UNSTEADY LIFT AND SOUND PRODUCED BY AN AIRFOIL IN A TURBULENT BOUNDARY LAYER

An analysis is made of the unsteady lift exerted on a stationary rigid body immersed in an incompressible, plane-wall turbulent boundary layer. The lift is expressed as a surface integral over the body involving theupwash velocity induced by the “free” vorticity Ω (found by taking explicit account of the interaction of the body with the flow and excluding the bound vorticity) and a harmonic function X₂that depends only on the shape of the body. The upwash velocity is the free-field velocity given in terms of Ω by the Biot–Savart formula, augmented by the velocity field of a conventional distribution of image vortices in the wall. The function X₂can be interpreted as the velocity potential of flow past the body, produced by motion of the wall at unit speed towards the body. Detailed predictions are made of the lift on a slender airfoil placed in the outer region of the boundary-layer. When the airfoil chord is large compared to the boundary-layer thickness, vortex shedding into the wake causes the magnitude of the net upwash velocity near the trailing edge to be small. The main contributions to the surface integral are then from the nose region, where the upwash velocity may be estimated independently of the fluctuations near the trailing edge. Analytical results for a thin plate airfoil of chord 2a at distance h from the wall show that the lift increases as a/h increases; it is ultimately independent of a and scales with the ratio of h to the hydrodynamic wavelength. Application is made to determine the sound generated by the airfoil in a weakly compressible boundary layer flow over a finite elastic plate.     

A study on the mechanism of high-lift generation by an airfoil in unsteady motion at low reynolds number

The aerodynamic force and flow structure of NACA 0012 airfoil performing an unsteady motion at low Reynolds number (Re=100) are calculated by solving Navier-Stokes equations. The motion consists of three parts: the first translation, rotation and the second translation in the direction opposite to the first. The rotation and the second translation in this motion are expected to represent the rotation and translation of the wing-section of a hovering insect. The flow structure is used in combination with the theory of vorticity dynamics to explain the generation of unsteady aerodynamic force in the motion. During the rotation, due to the creation of strong vortices in short time, large aerodynamic force is produced and the force is almost normal to the airfoil chord. During the second translation, large lift coefficient can be maintained for certain time period and , the lift coefficient averaged over four chord lengths of travel, is larger than 2 (the corresponding steady-state lift coefficient is only 0.9). The large lift coefficient is due to two effects. The first is the delayed shedding of the stall vortex. The second is that the vortices created during the airfoil rotation and in the near wake left by previous translation form a short “vortex street” in front of the airfoil and the “vortex street” induces a “wind”; against this “wind” the airfoil translates, increasing its relative speed. The above results provide insights to the understanding of the mechanism of high-lift generation by a hovering insect. The project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (19725210)     

低雷诺数翼型蒙皮主动振动气动特性及流场结构数值研究

针对低雷诺数(Re)翼型气动性能差的特点,文章通过对翼型柔性蒙皮施加主动振动的方法,提高翼型低Re下的气动特性,改善其流场结构.采用带预处理技术的Roe方法求解非定常可压缩Navier-Stokes方程,对NACA4415翼型低Re流动展开数值模拟.通过时均化和非定常方法对比柔性蒙皮固定和振动两种状态下的升阻力气动特性和层流分离流动结构.初步研究工作表明在低Re下柔性蒙皮采用合适的振幅和频率,时均化升阻力特性显著提高,分离泡结构由后缘层流分离泡转变为近似的经典长层流分离泡,分离点后移,分离区缩小.在此基础上,文章更加细致研究了柔性蒙皮两种状态下单周期内的层流分离结构及壁面压力系数分布非定常特性和演化规律.蒙皮固定状态下分离区前部流场结构和压力分布基本保持稳定,表现为近似定常分离,仅在后缘位置出现类似于卡门涡街的非定常流动现象.柔性蒙皮振动时从分离点附近开始便产生分离涡,并不断向下游移动、脱落,表现为非定常分离并出现大范围的压力脉动.蒙皮振动使流体更加靠近壁面运动,大尺度的层流分离现象得到有效抑制.      

Particle image velocimetry investigation of flow over unsteady airfoil with trailing-edge strip

The flow over a flapped NACA 0012 airfoil, oscillated slightly through the static-stall angle, was investigated by using particle image velocimetry, and was supplemented by surface pressure and dynamic-load measurements. A significant increase in the dynamic lift force and nose-down pitching moment was observed. The most pronounced flow phenomenon was the formation and detachment of an energetic leading-edge vortex compared to the no-flapped airfoil. The details of the underlying physical mechanisms responsible for the various light-stall flow processes were provided via the instantaneous velocity and vorticity fields measurements. In contrast to the Gurney flap, the inverted trailing-edge strip led to an improved negative damping while a reduced lift force. The addition of an inverted strip always led to the appearance of a Karman-type vortex shedding street immediately downstream of the strip over the entire oscillation cycle.     

定常吹气对倾转旋翼机向下载荷的影响

为进一步提高倾转旋翼机悬停状态下的有效载重,开展了定常吹气流动控制对向下载荷的影响研究。首先应用延迟脱体涡模拟(DDES)方法对翼型-90°迎角下非定常大范围分离流动结构进行了数值分析;然后分别开展了前缘吹气、后缘吹气降载措施研究,揭示了吹气降载的机理,并对不同吹气口位置和吹气动量系数的影响进行了定量分析,最后开展了前、后缘同时吹气作用下降载数值模拟研究。计算结果表明:前缘最佳吹气位置在翼型的前缘点,而后缘吹气最佳位置位于襟翼弦长的15%处;前缘吹气的降载效果要优于后缘吹气,而且吹气动量系数对向下载荷的影响较小;相对于初始未施加流动控制构型,阻力系数减小量可达到32.72%。     

Parameter dependence of vortex interactions on a two-dimensional plunging plate

The structure and dynamics of the flow field created by a plunging flat-plate airfoil are investigated at a chord Reynolds number of 10,000 while varying plunge amplitude and Strouhal number. Digital particle image velocimetry measurements are used to characterize the shedding patterns and the interactions between the leading- and trailing-edge vortex structures (LEV and TEV), resulting in the development of a wake classification system based on the nature and timing of interactions between the leading- and trailing-edge vortices. The streamwise advancement of the LEV during a plunge cycle and its resulting interaction with the TEV is primarily dependent on reduced frequency; however, for Strouhal numbers above approximately 0.4, significant changes are observed in the formation of vortices shed from the leading and trailing edges, as well as the circulation of the leading-edge vortex. The functional form of the relationship between leading-edge vortex circulation and Strouhal number suggests that the Strouhal number dependence is more specifically a manifestation of the effective angle of attack. Comparison with low-Reynolds-number studies of plunging airfoil aerodynamics reveals a high degree of consistency and suggests applicability of the classification system beyond the range examined in the present work.     

Numerical simulation of flapping‐wing insect hovering flight at unsteady flow

A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis was conducted to study the unsteady aerodynamics of a virtual flying bumblebee during hovering flight. The integrated geometry of bumblebee was established to define the shape of a three‐dimensional virtual bumblebee model with beating its wings, accurately mimicking the three‐dimensional movements of wings during hovering flight. The kinematics data of wings documented from the measurement to the bumblebee in normal hovering flight aided by the high‐speed video. The Navier–Stokes equations are solved numerically. The solution provides the flow and pressure fields, from which the aerodynamic forces and vorticity wake structure are obtained. Insights into the unsteady aerodynamic force generation process are gained from the force and flow‐structure information. The CFD analysis has established an overall understanding of the viscous and unsteady flow around the virtual flying bumblebee and of the time course of instantaneous force production, which reveals that hovering flight is dominated by the unsteady aerodynamics of both the instantaneous dynamics and also the past history of the wing. A coherent leading‐edge vortex with axial flow and the attached wingtip vortex and trailing edge vortex were detected. The leading edge vortex, wing tip vortex and trailing edge vortex, which caused by the pressure difference between the upper and the lower surface of wings. The axial flow, which include the spanwise flow and chordwise flow, is derived from the spanwise pressure gradient and chordwise pressure gradient, will stabilize the vortex and gives it a characteristic spiral conical shape. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Large-scale vortical structure of turbulent separation bubble affected by unsteady wake

The large-scale vortical structure of a turbulent separation bubble under the influence of an unsteady wake was investigated. The unsteady wake was generated by a spoked-wheel type wake generator installed in front of the separation bubble. This wake generator was rotated either clockwise or counter-clockwise at Re _H=5.600. The mechanism of vortex shedding from the separation bubble was analyzed in detail by taking a conditional average as well as a phase average. Spatial box filtering (SBF) was used to extract the large-scale vortical structure from the turbulent separation bubble affected by the unsteady wake. To elucidate the influence of the unsteady wake on the large-scale vortical structure, conditional averages of the velocity, vorticity and turbulent kinetic energy were calculated. The nature of the convection of the vortical structure under the influence of an unsteady wake was analyzed. The dipole acoustic pressure level was predicted using Curle's integral of wall-pressure fluctuations.     

Reduced‐order controllers for control of flow past an airfoil

Reduced‐order controller design by means of reduced‐order model for control of a wake flow is presented. Reduced‐order model is derived by combining the Galerkin projection with proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) or with other related reduced‐order approaches such as singular value decomposition or reduced‐basis method. In the present investigation, we discuss the applicability of the reduced‐order approaches for fast computation of the optimal control for control of vortex shedding behind a thin airfoil through unsteady blowing on the airfoil surface. Accuracy of the reduced‐order model is quantified by comparing flow fields obtained from the reduced‐order models with those from the full‐order simulations under the same free‐stream conditions. A control of vortex shedding is demonstrated for Reynolds number 100. It is found that downstream directed blowing on the upper surface of the airfoil near the leading edge is more efficient in mitigating flow separation and suppressing the vortex shedding. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Asymmetric vortex shedding flow past an inclined flat plate at high incidence

This paper reports an experimental investigation of the vortex shedding wake behind a long flat plate inclined at a small angle of attack to a main flow stream. Detailed velocity fields are obtained with particle-image velocimetry (PIV) at successive phases in a vortex shedding cycle at three angles of attack, α=20°, 25° and 30°, at a Reynolds number Re≈5,300. Coherent patterns and dynamics of the vortices in the wake are revealed by the phase-averaged PIV vectors and derived turbulent properties. A vortex street pattern comprising a train of leading edge vortices alternating with a train of trailing edge vortices is found in the wake. The trailing edge vortex is shed directly from the sharp trailing edge while there are evidences that the formation and shedding of the leading edge vortex involve a more complicated mechanism. The leading edge vortex seems to be shed into the wake from an axial location near the trailing edge. After shedding, the vortices are convected downstream in the wake with a convection speed roughly equal to 0.8 the free-stream velocity. On reaching the same axial location, the trailing edge vortex, as compared to the leading edge vortex, is found to possess a higher peak vorticity level at its centre and induce more intense fluid circulation and Reynolds stresses production around it. It is found that the results at the three angles of attack can be collapsed into similar trends by using the projected plate width as the characteristic length of the flow.     

Design and development considerations for biologically inspired flapping-wing micro air vehicles

In this paper, the decade of numerical and experimental investigations leading to the development of the authors’ unique flapping-wing micro air vehicle is summarized. Early investigations included the study of boundary layer energization by means of a small flapping foil embedded in a flat-plate boundary layer, the reduction of the recirculatory flow region behind a backward-facing step by means of a small flapping foil, and the reduction or suppression of flow separation behind blunt or cusped airfoil trailing edges by flapping a small foil located in the wake flow region. These studies were followed by systematic investigations of the aerodynamic characteristics of single flapping airfoils and airfoil combinations. These unsteady flows were described using flow visualization, laser-Doppler velocimetry in addition to panel and Navier–Stokes computations. It is then shown how this flapping-wing database was used to conceive, design and develop a micro air vehicle which has a fixed wing for lift and two flapping wings for thrust generation. While animal flight is characterized by a coupled force generation, the present design appears to separate lift and thrust. However, in fact, the performance of one surface is closely coupled to the other surfaces.     

On the unsteady motion and stability of a heaving airfoil in ground effect

This study explores the fluid mechanics and force generation capabilities of an inverted heaving airfoil placed close to a moving ground using a URANS solver with the Spalart-Allmaras turbulence model. By varying the mean ground clearance and motion frequency of the airfoil, it was possible to construct a frequency-height diagram of the various forces acting on the airfoil. The ground was found to enhance the downforce and reduce the drag with respect to freestream. The unsteady motion induces hysteresis in the forces’ behaviour. At moderate ground clearance, the hysteresis increases with frequency and the airfoil loses energy to the flow, resulting in a stabilizing motion. By analogy with a pitching motion, the airfoil stalls in close proximity to the ground. At low frequencies, the motion is unstable and could lead to stall flutter. A stall flutter analysis was undertaken. At higher frequencies, inviscid effects overcome the large separation and the motion becomes stable. Forced trailing edge vortex shedding appears at high frequencies. The shedding mechanism seems to be independent of ground proximity. However, the wake is altered at low heights as a result of an interaction between the vortices and the ground.     

An experimental study of the effects of pitch-pivot-point location on the propulsion performance of a pitching airfoil

An experimental investigation was conducted to characterize the evolution of the unsteady vortex structures in the wake of a pitching airfoil with the pitch-pivot-point moving from 0.16C to 0.52C (C is the chord length of the airfoil). The experimental study was conducted in a low-speed wind tunnel with a symmetric NACA0012 airfoil model in pitching motion under different pitching kinematics (i.e., reduced frequency k=3.8–13.2). A high-resolution particle image velocimetry (PIV) system was used to conduct detailed flow field measurements to quantify the characteristics of the wake flow and the resultant propulsion performance of the pitching airfoil. Besides conducting “free-run” PIV measurements to determine the ensemble-averaged velocity distributions in the wake flow, “phase-locked” PIV measurements were also performed to elucidate further details about the behavior of the unsteady vortex structures. Both the vorticity–moment theorem and the integral momentum theorem were used to evaluate the effects of the pitch-pivot-point location on the propulsion performance of the pitching airfoil. It was found that the pitch-pivot-point would affect the evolution of the unsteady wake vortices and resultant propulsion performance of the pitching airfoil greatly. Moving the pitch-pivot-point of the pitching airfoil can be considered as adding a plunging motion to the original pitching motion. With the pitch-pivot-point moving forward (or backward), the added plunging motion would make the airfoil trailing edge moving in the same (or opposite) direction as of the original pitching motion, which resulted in the generated wake vortices and resultant thrust enhanced (or weakened) by the added plunging motion.     

An unsteady airfoil theory applied to pitching motions validated against experiment and computation

An inviscid theoretical method that is applicable to non-periodic motions and that accounts for large amplitudes and non-planar wakes (large-angle unsteady thin airfoil theory) is developed. A pitch-up, hold, pitch-down motion for a flat plate at Reynolds number 10,000 is studied using this theoretical method and also using computational (immersed boundary method) and experimental (water tunnel) methods. Results from theory are compared against those from computation and experiment which are also compared with each other. The variation of circulatory and apparent-mass loads as a function of pivot location for this motion is examined. The flow phenomena leading up to leading-edge vortex shedding and the limit of validity of the inviscid theory in the face of vortex-dominated flows are investigated. Also, the effect of pitch amplitude on leading-edge vortex shedding is examined, and two distinctly different vortex-dominated flows are studied using dye flow visualizations from experiment and vorticity plots from computation.     

High-lift airfoil trailing edge separation control using a single dielectric barrier discharge plasma actuator

Control of flow separation from the deflected flap of a high-lift airfoil up to Reynolds numbers of 240,000 (15 m/s) is explored using a single dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma actuator near the flap shoulder. Results show that the plasma discharge can increase or reduce the size of the time-averaged separated region over the flap depending on the frequency of actuation. High-frequency actuation, referred to here as quasi-steady forcing, slightly delays separation while lengthening and flattening the separated region without drastically increasing the measured lift. The actuator is found to be most effective for increasing lift when operated in an unsteady fashion at the natural oscillation frequency of the trailing edge flow field. Results indicate that the primary control mechanism in this configuration is an enhancement of the natural vortex shedding that promotes further momentum transfer between the freestream and separated region. Based on these results, different modulation waveforms for creating unsteady DBD plasma-induced flows are investigated in an effort to improve control authority. Subsequent measurements show that modulation using duty cycles of 50–70% generates stronger velocity perturbations than sinusoidal modulation in quiescent conditions at the expense of an increased power requirement. Investigation of these modulation waveforms for trailing edge separation control similarly shows that additional increases in lift can be obtained. The dependence of these results on the actuator carrier and modulation frequencies is discussed in detail.