Vorticity Growth Formed in Vicinity of a Wall on a Moving Elastic Airfoil

The flow field around moving airfoils capable of flexible elastic deformation has become a focus of attention. These flow fields may be understood as a fluid-structure interaction (FSI) problem, and the motion and deformation of elastic airfoils, as well as the associated vortex flow phenomena in their vicinity, are complicated. Many studies on the flow filed around the elastic moving airfoil have been investigated by experimental and numerical approached. The macro scale vortex structure and the dynamic forces acting on the elastic moving airfoil have been understood. However, the growth process of the vorticity in a vicinity of the wall of an elastic airfoil has not been clarified sufficiently. In this study, the authors focus on the dynamic behaviors of vorticity in the vicinity of the wall on the elastic heaving airfoil and investigate the growth process of the vorticity in a vicinity of the wall of an elastic airfoil by the fluid structure interaction and LES simulations using ANSYS 17.0/ANSYS CFX 17.0. The vorticity in the vicinity of a wall of the elastic airfoil spreads along the wall simultaneously with the increase of the spatial gradient of the wall, and discrete vorticity regions coalesce into a single layer. The time variation in spatial gradient contribute greatly to the growth and development of vorticity.