Large-eddy simulation of separated leading-edge flow in general co-ordinates

Author(s):  
Zhiyin Yang ◽  
Peter R. Voke
Author(s):  
Souvik Naskar ◽  
S. Sarkar

Abstract Modern commercial airliners use multi-element aerofoils to enhance take-off and landing performance. Further, multielement aerofoil configurations have been shown to improve the aerodynamic characteristics of wind turbines. In the present study, high resolution Large Eddy Simulation (LES) is used to explore the low Reynolds Number (Re = 0.832 × 104) aerodynamics of a 30P30N multi-element aerofoil at an angle of attack, α = 4°. In the present simulation, wake shed from a leading edge element or slat is found to interact with the separated shear layer developing over the suction surface of the main wing. High receptivity of shear layer via amplification of free-stream turbulence leads to rollup and breakdown, forming a large separation bubble. A transient growth of fluctuations is observed in the first half of the separation bubble, where levels of turbulence becomes maximum near the reattachment and then decay depicting saturation of turbulence. Results of the present LES are found to be in close agreement with the experiment depicting high vortical activity in the outer layer. Some features of the flow field here are similar to those occur due to interactions of passing wake and the separated boundary layer on the suction surface of high lift low pressure turbine blades.


2014 ◽  
Vol 137 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Sarkar ◽  
Harish Babu

The unsteady flow physics due to interactions between a separated shear layer and film cooling jet apart from excitation of periodic passing wake are studied using large eddy simulation (LES). An aerofoil of constant thickness with rounded leading edge induced flow separation, while film cooling jets were injected normal to the crossflow a short distance downstream of the blend point. Wake data extracted from precursor LES of flow past a cylinder are used to replicate a moving bar that generates wakes in front of a cascade (in this case, an infinite row of the model aerofoils). This setup is a simplified representation of rotor-stator interaction in a film cooled gas turbine. The results of numerical simulation are presented to elucidate the formation, convection and breakdown of flow structures associated with the highly anisotropic flow involved in film cooling perturbed by convective wakes. The various vortical structures namely, horseshoe vortex, roller vortex, upright wake vortex, counter rotating vortex pair (CRVP), and downward spiral separation node (DSSN) vortex associated with film cooling are resolved. The effects of wake on the evolution of these structures are then discussed.


2010 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 24345-24370
Author(s):  
V. Anabor ◽  
U. Rizza ◽  
G. A. Degrazia ◽  
E. de Lima Nascimento

Abstract. An isolated and stationary microburst is simulated using a 3-D time-dependent, high resolution Large-Eddy Simulation (LES) model. The microburst downdraft is initiated by specifying a simplified cooling source at the top of the domain near 2 km. The modelled time scale for this damaging wind (30 m/s) is of order of few min with a spatial scale enclosing a region with 500 m radius around the impact point. These features are comparable with results obtained from full-cloud models. The simulated flow shows the principal features observed by Doppler radar and others observational full-scale downburst events. In particular are observed the expansion of the primary and secondary cores, the presence of the ring vortex at the leading edge of the cool outflow, and finally an accelerating outburst of surface winds. This result evidences the capability of LES to reproduce complexes phenomena like a Microburst and indicates the potential of LES for utilization in atmospheric phenomena situated below the storm scale and above the microscale, which generally involves high velocities in a short time scale.


2015 ◽  
Vol 138 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Sarkar ◽  
Harish Babu ◽  
Jasim Sadique

The unsteady flow physics and heat transfer characteristics due to interactions of periodic passing wakes with a separated boundary layer are studied using large-eddy simulation (LES). A series of airfoils of constant thickness with rounded leading edge are employed to obtain the separated boundary layer. Wake data extracted from precursor LES of flow past a cylinder are used to replicate a moving bar that generates wakes in front of a cascade (in this case, an infinite row of the model airfoils). This setup is a simplified representation of the rotor–stator interaction in turbomachinery. With a uniform inlet, the laminar boundary layer separates near the leading edge, undergoes transition due to amplification of disturbances, becomes turbulent, and finally reattaches forming a separation bubble. In the presence of oncoming wakes, the characteristics of the separated boundary layer have changed and the impinging wakes are found to be the mechanism affecting the reattachment. Phase-averaged results illustrate the periodic behavior of both flow and heat transfer. Large undulations in the phase-averaged skin friction and Nusselt number distributions can be attributed to the excitation of the boundary layer by convective wakes forming coherent vortices, which are being shed and convect downstream. Further, the transition of the separated boundary layer during the wake-induced path is governed by a mechanism that involves the convection of these vortices followed by increased fluctuations, where viscous effect is substantial.


Author(s):  
Harish Babu ◽  
S. Sarkar

The unsteady flow physics due to interactions between a separated shear layer and film cooling jet apart from excitation of periodic passing wake are studied using Large Eddy Simulation (LES). An aerofoil of constant thickness with rounded leading edge induced flow separation, while film cooling jets were injected normal to the crossflow a short distance downstream of the blend point. Wake data extracted from precursor LES of flow past a cylinder are used to replicate a moving bar that generates wakes in front of a cascade (in this case, an infinite row of the model aerofoils). This setup is a simplified representation of rotor-stator interaction in a film cooled gas turbine. The results of numerical simulation are presented to elucidate the formation, convection and breakdown of flow structures associated with the highly anisotropic flow involved in film cooling perturbed by convective wakes. The various vortical structures namely, horseshoe vortex, roller vortex, upright wake vortex, counter rotating vortex pair and DSSN vortex associated with film cooling are resolved. The effects of wake on the evolution of these structures are then discussed.


Author(s):  
S. Katiyar ◽  
S. Sarkar

Abstract A large-eddy simulation (LES) is employed here to predict the flow field over the suction surface of a controlled-diffusion (C-D) compressor stator blade following the experiment of Hobson et al. [1]. When compared with the experiment, LES depicts a separation bubble (SB) in the mid-chord region of the suction surface, although discrepancies exist in Cp. Further, the LES resolves the growth of boundary layer over the mid-chord and levels of turbulence intensity with an acceptable limit. What is noteworthy that LES also resolves a tiny SB near the leading-edge at the designed inflow angle of 38.3°. The objective of the present study is to assess how this leading-edge bubble influences the transition and development of boundary layer on the suction surface before the mid-chord. It appears that the separation at leading-edge suddenly enhances the perturbation levels exciting development of boundary layer downstream. The boundary layer becomes pre-transitional followed by a decay of fluctuations up to 30% of chord attributing to the local flow acceleration. Further, the boundary layer appears like laminar after being relaxed from the leading edge excitation near the mid-chord. It separates again because of the adverse pressure gradient, depicting augmentation of turbulence followed by the breakdown at about 70% of chord.


Author(s):  
Yueqing Zhuang ◽  
Hui Liu

Since the unsteadiness of tip leakage flow has profound effects on both aerodynamic performance and stall margin of axial compressors, it is important to accurately predict the transient tip flow at affordable computational cost. Limited by the high requirement of grid resolution of wall turbulence flow, large eddy simulation (LES) method is greatly restricted in engineering application. In the present work, a Reynolds-stress-constrained large eddy simulation (CLES) method has been introduced, in which the whole domain is simulated using LES while Reynolds stress constraint is enforced on the subgrid-scale (SGS) stress model for near-wall regions aiming at reducing the near-wall grid resolution. The CLES simulations have been performed to investigate the flow behaviors of the unsteady tip leakage flow in a transonic compressor NASA Rotor 67 at near-stall conditions. Reliability assessments have been conducted through comparisons of experimental measurements and numerical results obtained by RANS, DES, CLES as well as LES, respectively. Both the total pressure ratio and isentropic efficiency calculated by CLES agree well with experiment. The turbulence statistical results show three distinct high flow fluctuation regions near the blade tip. The first one is a long and narrow strip ahead of the leading edge of the rotor caused by the movement of the passage shock wave. The second one is formed on the suction side from the leading-edge of the rotor blade due to the oscillation of the tip leakage vortex. And the third one, which occupies most of the blade passage from the middle part of the rotor blade, is generated under multiple factors. The frequency characteristic of the unsteady tip leakage flow has been analyzed. The energy spectrums of the local transient pressure signals are highly related with the local unsteady flow features. The originating mechanisms of the flow unsteadiness in the rotor tip leakage flow have also been discussed, and the results show that the flow unsteadiness is mainly caused by a combined interaction effect of the double leakage flow, the tip leakage vortex flow spilled from the adjacent blade passage, as well as the involved main flow.


Author(s):  
Ali Rozati ◽  
Danesh K. Tafti

A numerical investigation is conducted to study leading edge film cooling at a compound angle with Large Eddy Simulation (LES). The domain geometry is adopted from an experimental set-up (Ekkad et al. [14]) where turbine blade leading edge is represented by a semi-cylindrical blunt body. The leading edge has two rows of coolant holes located at ±15° of the stagnation line. Coolant jets are injected into the flow field at 30° (spanwise) and 90° (streamwise). Reynolds number of the mainstream is 100,000 and jet to mainstream velocity and density ratios are 0.4 and 1.0, respectively. The results show the existence of an asymmetric counter-rotating vortex pair in the immediate wake of the coolant jet. In addition to these primary structures, vortex tubes on the windward side of the jet are convected downstream over and to the aft- and fore-side of the counter-rotating vortex pair. All these structures play a role in the mixing of mainstream fluid with the coolant. A turbulent boundary layer forms within 2 jet diameters downstream of the jet. A characteristic low frequency interaction between the jet and the mainstream is identified at a non-dimensional frequency between 0.79 and 0.95 based on jet diameter and velocity. The spanwise averaged adiabatic effectiveness agrees well with the experiments when fully-developed turbulence is used to provide time-dependent boundary conditions at the jet inlet, without which the calculated effectiveness is overpredicted.


Author(s):  
Salar Taghizadeh ◽  
Sumanta Acharya ◽  
Kong Ling ◽  
Yousef Kanani ◽  
Xuan Ge

This study presents a transient three-dimensional numerical study on fluid flow and heat transfer of flat-tube array using large eddy simulation (LES) covering both laminar and turbulent flow regimes. The simulations were performed in a rectangular region containing only one tube with periodic conditions specified on all boundaries. A staggered flat-plate array was first studied, and an existing solution was used for validation purpose. The numerical models were then applied to an in-line array composed of flat tubes with an aspect ratio of 0.25 and fixed tube spacings. By varying the in-flow velocity, the tube array was studied over a wide range of Reynolds number (600–12000). Temperature, velocity, and turbulent kinetic energy distributions as well as the interactions between them are presented and analyzed. Furthermore, the local heat transfer rate was analyzed along the various parts of the tube (leading edge, flat-top and wake or trailing-edge regions). Heat transfer correlation for each region of the tube and the entire tube array is proposed.


Author(s):  
Ali Rozati ◽  
Danesh K. Tafti

A numerical investigation is conducted to study compound angle leading edge film cooling with Large Eddy Simulation. The leading edge has two rows of coolant holes located at ±15° of the stagnation line. Coolant jets are injected into the flow field at 30° (span-wise) and 90° (stream-wise). Mainstream Reynolds number is 100,000 based on the free stream velocity and cylinder diameter. Jet to mainstream velocity and density ratios are 0.4 and 1.0, respectively. It is found that during startup the stagnation line at the leading edge is not stationary but moves on a timescale much larger than the characteristic turbulent scales generated by the jet-mainstream interaction. To alleviate the long time integration necessitated by this feature, only half the domain is calculated (fixed stagnation) by showing that there is very little correlation in the flow structures generated by the jet-mainstream interaction on either side of stagnation. A comparison is made between a laminar uniform profile at the coolant pipe inlet with a time-dependent turbulent profile extracted from an auxiliary turbulent pipe flow calculation. The former over-predicts the span-wise averaged effectiveness, while the latter promotes better mixing in the outer region of jet-mainstream interaction and lowers the adiabatic effectiveness showing good agreement with measurements. In both cases, a characteristic low frequency interaction between the jet and the mainstream is identified at a non-dimensional frequency between 0.79 and 0.95 based on jet diameter and velocity. Even in the absence of any free-stream and jet turbulence, a turbulent boundary layer is established within a diameter downstream of the jet due to the strong lateral entrainment downstream of injection. The entrainment is primarily driven by an asymmetric counterrotating vortex pair in the immediate wake of the coolant jet. The driving mechanism for the formation of these vortices is a low pressure zone in the wake which entrains mainstream flow laterally into this region.


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