Turbomachinery

The discipline research in turbomachinery, which is directed toward building the tools needed to understand such a complex flow phenomenon, is based on the fact that flow in turbomachinery is fundamentally unsteady or time dependent. Success in building a reliable inventory of analytic and experimental tools will depend on how we treat time and time-averages, as well as how we treat space and space-averages. The challenge is to develop a set of computational and experimental tools which genuinely increase our understanding of the fluid flow and heat transfer in a turbomachine. Examples of the types of computational and experimental tools under current development, with progress to date, are examined. The examples include work in both the time-resolved and time-averaged domains

In-flight flow visualization results from the X-29A aircraft at high angles of attack

Flow visualization techniques were used on the X-29A aircraft at high angles of attack to study the vortical flow off the forebody and the surface flow on the wing and tail. The forebody vortex system was studied because asymmetries in the vortex system were suspected of inducing uncommanded yawing moments at zero sideslip. Smoke enabled visualization of the vortex system and correlation of its orientation with flight yawing moment data. Good agreement was found between vortex system asymmetries and the occurrence of yawing moments. Surface flow on the forward-swept wing of the X-29A was studied using tufts and flow cones. As angle of attack increased, separated flow initiated at the root and spread outboard encompassing the full wing by 30 deg angle of attack. In general, the progression of the separated flow correlated well with subscale model lift data. Surface flow on the vertical tail was also studied using tufts and flow cones. As angle of attack increased, separated flow initiated at the root and spread upward. The area of separated flow on the vertical tail at angles of attack greater than 20 deg correlated well with the marked decrease in aircraft directional stability

Airfoil in a high amplitude oscillating stream

Dieser Beitrag ist mit Zustimmung des Rechteinhabers aufgrund einer (DFG geförderten) Allianz- bzw. Nationallizenz frei zugänglich.This publication is with permission of the rights owner freely accessible due to an Alliance licence and a national licence (funded by the DFG, German Research Foundation) respectively.A combined theoretical and experimental investigation was carried out with the objective of evaluating theoretical predictions relating to a two-dimensional airfoil subjected to high amplitude harmonic oscillation of the free stream at constant angle of attack. Current theoretical approaches were reviewed and extended for the purposes of quantifying the bound, unsteady vortex sheet strength along the airfoil chord. This resulted in a closed form solution that is valid for arbitrary reduced frequencies and amplitudes. In the experiments, the bound, unsteady vortex strength of a symmetric 18 % thick airfoil at low angles of attack was measured in a dedicated unsteady wind tunnel at maximum reduced frequencies of 0.1 and at velocity oscillations less than or equal to 50 %. With the boundary layer tripped near the leading edge and mid-chord, the phase and amplitude variations of the lift coefficient corresponded reasonably well with the theory. Near the maximum lift coefficient overshoot, the data exhibited an additional high-frequency oscillation. Comparisons of the measured and predicted vortex sheet indicated the existence of a recirculation bubble upstream of the trailing edge which sheds into the wake and modifies the Kutta condition. Without boundary layer tripping, a mid-chord bubble is present that strengthens during flow deceleration and its shedding produces a dramatically different effect. Instead of a lift coefficient overshoot, as per the theory, the data exhibit a significant undershoot. This undershoot is also accompanied by high-frequency oscillations that are characterized by the bubble shedding. In summary, the location of bubble and its subsequent shedding play decisive roles in the resulting temporal aerodynamic loads

An experimental and numerical investigation of flapping and plunging wings

Micro air vehicles, or MAVs, are of current interest for a multitude of uses to which they, being small, unmanned vehicles, are uniquely suited. Among the proposed uses are exploration, reconnaissance, and communications. They can be deployed inside buildings, where their small size, hovering capability, and maneuverability, are important factors. Due to their small size, they operate at low Reynolds numbers where conventional flying mechanisms are not advantageous. Thus, attempts have been made to learn from natural flyers like insects and birds. Natural flight is accomplished by flapping wings, and this idea has been proposed for certain types of MAVs termed ornithopters and entomopters. This dissertation investigates the aerodynamics applicable to low Reynolds number unsteady flow, and consists of four stages. The first stage is CFD for fixed wings at low Reynolds number. In the second and third stage, experiments are conducted on flapping and plunging wings. The final stage consists of dynamic mesh CFD for a plunging airfoil --Abstract, page iii

Development of the wake behind a circular cylinder impulsively started into rotatory and rectilinear motion: Intermediate rotation rates

The temporal development of two-dimensional viscous incompressible flow generated by a circular cylinder started impulsively into steady rotatory and rectilinear motion is studied by integration of a velocity/vorticity formulation of the governing equations, using an explicit finite-difference/pseudo-spectral technique and an implementation of the Biot-Savart law. Results are presented for a Reynolds number of 200 (based on the cylinder diameter 2a and the magnitude U of the rectilinear velocity) for several values of the angular/rectilinear speed ratio alpha = (omega x a)/U (where omega is the angular speed) up to 3.25. Several aspects of the kinematics and dynamics of the flow not considered earlier are discussed. For higher values of alpha, the results indicate that for Re = 200, vortex shedding does indeed occur for alpha = 3.25. The shedding process is; however, very different from that which gives rise to the usual Karman vortex street for alpha = 0. In particular, consecutive vortices shed by the body can be shed from the same side and be of the same sense, in contrast to the nonrotating case, in which mirror-image vortices of opposite sense are shed alternately on opposite sides of the body. The implications of the results are discussed in relation to the possibility of suppressing vortex shedding by open or closed-loop control of the rotation rate

Effect of vortex generator on the boundary layer detachment on NACA0015 2D foil

Control of detachment of the boundary layer around a foil found many applications in various configurations for aircraft the ability to suppress or delay the separation phenomenon leads to enhanced levels of lift, reduce noise and drag. Many studies have been experimentally conducted to test the effectiveness of different actuators. For example, regarding the methods called "active" which introduce external energy into the fluid, it distinguishes the use of movable walls Modi et al. [1], methods based on suction or blowing Wygnanski [2], McCormick [3], acoustic methods Collins [4], thermal Chang [5] or electromagnetic Gad-el-Hak [6]. In recent years, synthetic jets have been used to control flow separation and to stabilize the boundary layer by adding/removing momentum with the formation of vortical structures Wygnanski [7]. More recently, Gilarranz et al. [8] performed a study of flow separation over NACA0015 airfoil with synthetic jets control, but the modification by the control of the boundary layer has not been clearly identify

Analysis of two-dimensional incompressible flow past airfoils using unsteady Navier-Stokes equations

The conservative form of the unsteady Navier-Stokes equations in terms of vorticity and stream function in generalized curvilinear coordinates are used to analyze the flow structure of steady separation and unsteady flow with massive separation. The numerical method solves the discretized equations using an ADI-BGE method. The method is applied to a symmetric 12 percent thick Joukowski airfoil. A conformal clustered grid is generated; several 1-D stretching transformations are used to obtain a grid that attempts to resolve many of the multiple scales of the unsteady flow with massive separation, while maintaining the transformation metrics to be smooth and continuous in the entire flow field. Detailed numerical results are obtained for three flow configurations (1) Re = 1000, alpha = 5 deg., (2) Re =1000, alpha = 15 deg., (3) Re = 10,000, alpha = 5 deg. No artificial dissipation was added; however, lack of a fine grid in the normal direction has presently led to results which are considered qualitative, especially for case (3)

Experimental study of the effects of Reynolds number on high angle of attack aerodynamic characteristics of forebodies during rotary motion

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Defense Research Agency (United Kingdom) have ongoing experimental research programs in rotary-flow aerodynamics. A cooperative effort between the two agencies is currently underway to collect an extensive database for the development of high angle of attack computational methods to predict the effects of Reynolds number on the forebody flowfield at dynamic conditions, as well as to study the use of low Reynolds number data for the evaluation of high Reynolds number characteristics. Rotary balance experiments, including force and moment and surface pressure measurements, were conducted on circular and rectangular aftbodies with hemispherical and ogive noses at the Bedford and Farnborough wind tunnel facilities in the United Kingdom. The bodies were tested at 60 and 90 deg angle of attack for a wide range of Reynolds numbers in order to observe the effects of laminar, transitional, and turbulent flow separation on the forebody characteristics when rolling about the velocity vector

Characterization of Vortex Development and Thermo-Solutal Transfers on Confined Wall Jets Submitted to Suction or Blowing: Part 2

A computational study is conducted to explore the effect of vertical wall suction or blowing on two-dimensional confined wall jet hydrodynamic characteristics. Using an implicit finite volume technique in Cartesian coordinate system, several parameters have been investigated for a wide range of Lewis numbers by fixing the Prandtl number at 7 that corresponds to water. The main purpose is to analyze the control size and location effectiveness on the flow pattern as well as heat and mass transfer rates. Detailed numerical simulations demonstrated that as the local blowing is moved downstream, discrete vortex formation begins at a critical location then shedding phenomenon occurs behind the slot at advanced positions. Since the flow dynamic structure is mainly altered, averages skin friction and thermo-solutal coefficients distributions are largely influenced. Approximately for x_s≤4 (upstream of the natural vortex emission position), Nusselt and Sherwood numbers slightly increase with the control location x_s. However, they gradually decrease as the blowing slot approaches the domain exit. Optimum values were obtained when locating the slot just downstream of the uncontrolled Kelvin-Helmholtz instability onset. Furthermore, computations illustrated that an appropriate suction slot length selection could be a simple and efficient tool to delay or even suppress natural structure emission and development. This choice is essentially related to the recirculation cell size