Control of a Semi-Circular Planform Wing in a "Gusting" Unsteady Free Stream Flow II: Modeling and Feedback Design

Active flow control has been demonstrated in Part I of this article to modify the lift, drag and pitching moments on a semi-circular wing during "gusting" flow conditions. The low aspect ratio wing, AR = 2.54, is mounted on a captive trajectory system that responds to the instantaneous lift force and pitching moment and the "gusting" flow is simulated by a 0.2 Hz oscillation of the free stream speed of the wind tunnel. The mean chord Reynolds number of the wing is 70,600. Active flow control occurs along the leading edge of the airfoil, which contains 16 spatially localized micro-valve actuators. Details of the experimental setup, a quasi steady state lift model and results involving open-loop proof of concept validation are provided in Part I of this paper. Here we outline principles and considerations associated with close loop design that will be discussed in our talk

Lift Response of a Stalled Wing to Pulsatile Disturbances

The transient lift response of a low-Reynolds-number wing subjected to small amplitude pulsatile disturbances is investigated. The wing has a small aspect ratio and a semicircular planform, and it is fully stalled at a 20 deg angle of attack. Microvalve actuators distributed along the leading edge of the wing produce the transient disturbance. It is shown that the lift response to a single pulse increases with increasing actuator supply pressure and that the lift response curves are similar to each other when scaled by the total impulse. Furthermore, for fixed actuator supply pressure, the amplitude and total impulse of the transient lift response curve increases with increasing external flow speed. In this case, the lift response curves are similar when scaled by the dynamic pressure. The lift response to a single pulse can be treated as a filter kernel, and it can be used to predict the lift time history for the arbitrary actuator input signals. The kernel is similar in shape to transient measurements obtained by other investigators on two-dimensional wings and flaps. Comparisons between the model predictions and the experiments using multiple pulse inputs and square-wave modulated input signals at low frequencies are presented

Reduced order Galerkin models of flow around NACA‐0012 airfoil

The construction of low‐dimensional models of the flow, containing only reduced number of degrees of freedom, is the essential prerequisite of closed‐loop control of that flow. Presently used models usually base on the Galerkin method, where the flow is approximated by the number of modes and coefficients. The velocities are computed from a system of ordinary differential equations, called Galerkin System, instead of Navier‐Stokes equation. In this paper, reduced order models of the flow around NACA‐0012 airfoil are presented. The chosen mode sets include POD modes from Karhunen‐Loeve decomposition (which require previous direct numerical simulation), as well as different eigenmodes from global stability analysis of the flow. First Published Online: 14 Oct 201

Control of a Semi-Circular Planform Wing in a "Gusting" Unsteady Freestream Flow: I - Experimental Issues

Active flow control is used to modify the lift, drag and pitching moments on a semicircular wing during "gusting" flow conditions. A longitudinal oscillating flow component has an amplitude of 10 percent of the freestream speed and a frequency giving k = 0.048 (f = 0.2 Hz). The aspect ratio of the wing is AR = 2.54, and the chord Reynolds number of the wing is 70,600. Pulsed-blowing flow control actuation occurs along the leading edge of the airfoil via 16 spatially localized micro-valve actuators. Feed-forward control based on a quasi-steady lift model is used to stabilize lift fluctuations generated by an oscillating free stream, which simulates the longitudinal component of a gusting flow. The quasi-steady system model reduces the amplitude of the fundamental and first harmonics of lift oscillations, but does not account for time delays. The time delay between the lift and the freestream oscillation was measured to be τ_(u)^(+) = 4.8. The time delay between the lift and the actuator input signal was found to be τ_(a)^(+) = 11.3

Some Issues Related to Integrating Active Flow Control With Flight Control

Time varying control of CL is necessary for integrating AFC and Flight Control (Biasing allows for +/- changes in lift) Time delays associated with actuation are long (APPROX.5.8 c/U) and must be included in controllers. Convolution of input signal with single pulse kernel gives reasonable prediction of lift response

A Finite-Time Thermodynamics of Unsteady Fluid Flows

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.Turbulent fluid has often been conceptualized as a transient thermodynamic phase. Here, a finite-time thermodynamics (FTT) formalism is proposed to compute mean flow and fluctuation levels of unsteady incompressible flows. The proposed formalism builds upon the Galerkin model framework, which simplifies a continuum 3D fluid motion into a finite-dimensional phase-space dynamics and, subsequently, into a thermodynamics energy problem. The Galerkin model consists of a velocity field expansion in terms of flow configuration dependent modes and of a dynamical system describing the temporal evolution of the mode coefficients. Each mode is treated as one thermodynamic degree of freedom, characterized by an energy level. The dynamical system approaches local thermal equilibrium (LTE) where each mode has the same energy if it is governed only by internal (triadic) mode interactions. However, in the generic case of unsteady flows, the full system approaches only partial LTE with unequal energy levels due to strongly mode-dependent external interactions. The FTT model is first illustrated by a traveling wave governed by a 1D Burgers equation. It is then applied to two flow benchmarks: the relatively simple laminar vortex shedding, which is dominated by two eigenmodes, and the homogeneous shear turbulence, which has been modeled with 1459 modes

Closed-Loop Control of a Wing in an Unsteady Flow

The lift response of the separated flow over a wing to different actuator input disturbances is used to obtain linear models useful for closed-loop control design. The wing has a small aspect ratio, a semi-circular planform, and is fully stalled at a 20° angle of attack. Individual pulse-like disturbances and step-input disturbances with randomized frequency were inputs to the actuator, and the lift coefficient increments were output signals. The "prediction error method" system identification technique was used to obtain two linear models of the separated flow. A 4th order model reproduced the non-minimum phase behavior of the pulse input, but did not work well for control purposes. The second model identified was limited to first order. The first order model proved to be useful for designing a proportional-integral feedback controller capable of suppressing lift oscillations in unsteady flows. Good suppression of lift oscillations was observed in the experiment after a step change in wind tunnel flow speed occurred. When the control system was tested with a randomized freestream velocity, it reduced the root-mean-square lift oscillation by 50 percent relative to the uncontrolled case