An experimental investigation of unsteady surface pressure on an airfoil in turbulence—Part 2: Sources and prediction of mean loading effects

An experimental investigation into the response of an airfoil in turbulence was undertaken and the results are presented in a two part series of papers. The effects of mean loading on the airfoil response are investigated in Part 1 with the likely origins discussed in this paper (Part 2). Unsteady pressure measurements were made on the surface of a NACA 0015 airfoil immersed in grid turbulence (λ/c=13%) for angles of attack α=0-20°. This paper (Part 2) presents the causes of the low-frequency reduction and high-frequency increase observed in measured lift and pressure spectral levels. Scaling lift spectra on the mean lift reveals the increase in lift spectral level for reduced frequencies greater than 10 is closely related to the airfoils mean pressure field. Based on analysis of the chordwise and spanwise pressure correlation length scale, the reduction in lift spectral level at low reduced frequency appears to result from distortion of the inflow by the mean velocity field. A possible model is developed that accurately predicts mean loading effects on lift spectra. This model uses a circular cylinder fit to the airfoil to compute effects of distortion on the inflow turbulence. The distorted inflow velocity spectrum is then used with Amiet's theory to predict the unsteady loading. This model successfully captures the reduction observed in measured lift spectra at low reduced frequencies. Furthermore, it is shown that the angle of attack effects arising from inflow distortion are significant only when the relative scale of the inflow turbulence to airfoil chord is sufficiently small (λ/c=13% for present experiment).