scholarly journals Study of Flow around a Trapezoidal Model of a Small-Sized UAV into Turbulent Wake

2022 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 14-28
Author(s):  
A. M. Pavlenko ◽  
A. V. Bykov ◽  
B. Yu. Zanin ◽  
M. M. Katasonov

Investigations of the structure of the flow near the surface of a trapezoidal model of a small unmanned aerial vehicle were carried out when it enters a narrow turbulent wake. All experimental data were obtained in a wind tunnel at subsonic flow velocities. A feature of the work was that the study of the flow around the model was carried out at full-scale (flight) Reynolds numbers. Using the soot-oily visualization method, data on the features of the flow around the model were obtained, taking into account such factors as the angle of attack, the presence and absence of a source of external disturbances that generated a turbulent wake. The experiments were carried out in two flow regimes: at a zero angle of attack, when there are local separation bubbles on the wing, and at a large (supercritical) angle of attack of 18 degrees, when there is a global stall of the flow from the leading edge. It was shown that the turbulent wake has a significant effect on the nature of the flow near the model surface in both cases. Local separation bubbles gradually decrease in size with a decrease in the distance between the sources of disturbances and the wing. Large-scale vortices significantly decrease in geometrical dimensions and shift towards the side edges in the event of a global stall of the flow, thereby increasing the region of the attached flow on the model surface.

2012 ◽  
Vol 134 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason E. Albert ◽  
David G. Bogard

A significant challenge of utilizing coal-derived synthetic fuels for gas turbine engines is mitigating the adverse effects of fuel-born contaminant deposits on film cooled turbine surfaces. A new experimental technique has been developed that simulates the key physical, but not the chemical, aspects of coal ash deposition on film cooled turbine airfoil leading edges in order to better understand the interaction between film cooling and deposition and to produce improved film cooling designs. In this large-scale wind tunnel facility, the depositing contaminants were modeled with atomized molten wax droplets sized to match the Stokes numbers of coal ash particles in the engine conditions. The sticking mechanism of the molten contaminants to the turbine surfaces was modeled by ensuring the wax droplets remained somewhat molten when they arrived at the cooled model surface. The airfoil model and wax deposits had thermal conductivities such that they matched the Biot numbers of clean and fouled turbine airfoils at engine conditions. The behavior of the deposit growth was controlled by adjusting the mainstream, coolant, and wax solidification temperatures. Simulated deposits were created for a range of test durations, film cooling blowing ratios, and controlling temperatures. Inspection of the resulting deposits revealed aspects of the flow field that augment and suppress deposition. Deposit thickness was found to increase in time until an equilibrium thickness was attained. Blowing ratio and the difference between mainstream and wax solidification temperatures strongly affected characteristics of the deposits. Model surface temperatures greatly reduced under the deposits as they developed.


Aerospace ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 23 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Communier ◽  
Ruxandra Mihaela Botez ◽  
Tony Wong

This paper presents the design and wind tunnel testing of a morphing camber system and an estimation of performances on an unmanned aerial vehicle. The morphing camber system is a combination of two subsystems: the morphing trailing edge and the morphing leading edge. Results of the present study show that the aerodynamics effects of the two subsystems are combined, without interfering with each other on the wing. The morphing camber system acts only on the lift coefficient at a 0° angle of attack when morphing the trailing edge, and only on the stall angle when morphing the leading edge. The behavior of the aerodynamics performances from the MTE and the MLE should allow individual control of the morphing camber trailing and leading edges. The estimation of the performances of the morphing camber on an unmanned aerial vehicle indicates that the morphing of the camber allows a drag reduction. This result is due to the smaller angle of attack needed for an unmanned aerial vehicle equipped with the morphing camber system than an unmanned aerial vehicle equipped with classical aileron. In the case study, the morphing camber system was found to allow a reduction of the drag when the lift coefficient was higher than 0.48.


2009 ◽  
Vol 113 (1142) ◽  
pp. 253-262 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. C. Wilkins ◽  
K. Knowles

AbstractThe aerodynamics of insect-like flapping are dominated by the production of a large, stable, and lift-enhancing leading-edge vortex (LEV) above the wing. In this paper the phenomenology behind the LEV is explored, the reasons for its stability are investigated, and the effects on the LEV of changing Reynolds number or angle-of-attack are studied. A predominantly-computational method has been used, validated against both existing and new experimental data. It is concluded that the LEV is stable over the entire range of Reynolds numbers investigated here and that changes in angle-of-attack do not affect the LEV’s stability. The primary motivation of the current work is to ascertain whether insect-like flapping can be successfully ‘scaled up’ to produce a flapping-wing micro air vehicle (FMAV) and the results presented here suggest that this should be the case.


2014 ◽  
Vol 136 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Saeed Jamei ◽  
Adi Maimun Abdul Malek ◽  
Shuhaimi Mansor ◽  
Nor Azwadi Che Sidik ◽  
Agoes Priyanto

Wing configuration is a parameter that affects the performance of wing-in-ground effect (WIG) craft. In this study, the aerodynamic characteristics of a new compound wing were investigated during ground effect. The compound wing was divided into three parts with a rectangular wing in the middle and two reverse taper wings with anhedral angle at the sides. The sectional profile of the wing model is NACA6409. The experiments on the compound wing and the rectangular wing were carried to examine different ground clearances, angles of attack, and Reynolds numbers. The aerodynamic coefficients of the compound wing were compared with those of the rectangular wing, which had an acceptable increase in its lift coefficient at small ground clearances, and its drag coefficient decreased compared to rectangular wing at a wide range of ground clearances, angles of attack, and Reynolds numbers. Furthermore, the lift to drag ratio of the compound wing improved considerably at small ground clearances. However, this improvement decreased at higher ground clearance. The drag polar of the compound wing showed the increment of lift coefficient versus drag coefficient was higher especially at small ground clearances. The Reynolds number had a gradual effect on lift and drag coefficients and also lift to drag of both wings. Generally, the nose down pitching moment of the compound wing was found smaller, but it was greater at high angle of attack and Reynolds number for all ground clearance. The center of pressure was closer to the leading edge of the wing in contrast to the rectangular wing. However, the center of pressure of the compound wing was later to the leading edge at high ground clearance, angle of attack, and Reynolds number.


Author(s):  
John A. Redford ◽  
Mark W. Johnson

This paper describes the modifications made to a successful attached flow transition model to produce a model capable of predicting both attached and separated flow transition. This transition model is used in combination with the Fluent CFD software, which is used to compute the flow around the blade assuming that it remains entirely laminar. The transition model then determines the start of transition location and the development of the intermittency. These intermittency values weight the laminar and turbulent boundary layer profiles to obtain the resulting transitional boundary layer parameters. The ERCOFTAC T3L test cases are used to validate the predictions. The T3L blade is a flat plate with a semi-circular leading edge, which results in the formation of a separation bubble the length of which is strongly dependent on the transition process. Predictions were performed for five T3L test cases for differing freestream turbulence levels and Reynolds numbers. For the majority of these test cases the measurements were accurately predicted.


1964 ◽  
Vol 68 (638) ◽  
pp. 106-110 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. K. Harvey

SummaryIn this paper an experiment is described in which a detailed study was made of the flow field associated with a slender sharp-edged delta wing which was rolling steadily at zero angle of attack to an air stream. The investigation was made by performing two pressure surveys: first , one of the static pressure acting on the wing’s surface and second by measuring the total-head distribution in the neighbourhood of the wing. From the former the local rolling-moment coefficients, Clp, are evaluated and these are compared with the predictions for attached flow, thus assessing the contributions to the forces acting on the wing which arise as a consequence of the leading-edge separations. The second set of surveys is used to construct a picture of the flow-field details and this is compared with that known to occur on a similar wing when it is set at an angle of attack to the airstream. One interesting finding is that the secondary separation which appears to cause the discrepancy between the theoretical predictions and the measurements made on slender wings at incidence, is absent in this configuration and thus it is concluded that these data could be used for a more meaningful test of the theory.


1979 ◽  
Vol 93 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Maxworthy

From a series of experiments using simplified mechanical models we suggest certain minor modifications to the Weis-Fogh (1973)–Lighthill (1973) explanation of the so-called ‘clap and fling’ mechanism for the generation of large lift coefficients by insects in hovering flight. Of particular importance is the production and motion of a leading edge, separation vortex that accounts for virtually all of the circulation generated during the initial phase of the ‘fling’ process. The magnitude of this circulation is substantially larger than that calculated using inviscid theory. During the motion that subsequently separates the wings, the vorticity over each of them is convected and combined to become a tip vortex of uniform circulation spanning the space between them. This combined vortex moves downwards as a part of a ring, of large impulse, that is then continuously fed from quasi-steady separation bubbles that move with the wings as they continue to open at a large angle of attack. Such effects are able to account for the large lift forces generated by the insect.


2020 ◽  
Vol 61 (9) ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Fujiwara ◽  
R. Sriram ◽  
K. Kontis

Abstract Leading-edge separated flow field over a sharp flat plate is experimentally investigated in Reynolds numbers ranging from 6.2 × 103 to 4.1 × 104, using particle image velocimetry (PIV) and its statistics. It was observed that the average reattachment length is nearly independent of Reynolds number and the small secondary bubble observed near the leading edge was found to shrink with increasing Reynolds number. The wall-normal profiles of the statistical values of kinematic quantities such as the velocity components and their fluctuations scaled well with average reattachment length lR and freestream velocity U∞. Their magnitudes compare well with previous investigations even though the current triangular shaped sharp leading edge is different from previous flat-faced or semi-circular ones. The shear layer was observed to exhibit 2 different linear growth rates over 2 distinct regions. Instantaneous PIV realizations demonstrate unsteady nature of the separation bubble, whose origins in the upstream portion of the bubble are analysed. Bimodal nature of the probability density function (PDF) of fluctuating streamwise velocity at around x/lR = 0.08–0.15 indicates successive generation and passage of vortices in the region, which subsequently interact and evolve into multiscale turbulent field exhibiting nearly Gaussian PDF. Shedding of vortices with wide range of scales are apparent in most of the instantaneous realizations. Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD) of the velocity fluctuation magnitude field revealed that the flow structures of the dominant modes and their relative energies are independent of Reynolds number. In each of the dominant modes (first 3 modes), the length scales corresponding to the large scale structures and their spacing are the same for all Reynolds numbers, suggesting that their Strouhal number (observed to be ~ 0.09–0.2 at Reynolds number of 6.2 × 103) of unsteadiness should also be independent of Reynolds number. A single large structure- comparable in size to lR—was apparent well before reattachment in a few instantaneous realizations, as compared to multiple small-scale structures visible in most realizations; at Reynolds number of 6.2 × 103, realizations with such large-scale structures occurred approximately after every 20–30 realizations, corresponding to non-dimensional frequency of 0.4–0.6, which is identified to be the “regular shedding”. It was possible to reconstruct the large-scale structure during the instances from just the first 3 POD modes, indicating that the Strouhal number of regular shedding too is independent of Reynolds number. Graphic abstract


Author(s):  
Huoxing Liu ◽  
Baojie Liu ◽  
Ling Li ◽  
Haokang Jiang

Accurate prediction of flow field is the most important factor during the design of high performance compressors. In some cases the agreement of pressure ratio and efficiency between predicted and measured is excellent, but it is common for the efficiency to be in error by perhaps one or two percent. This error is enough to render the calculation unable to replace expensive experiment testing. One of the important matters in need of more study is the mechanism of boundary layer transition from laminar to turbulent flow. The objective of this fundamental research work is to acquire the detailed structure of separation bubbles on the suction side of the blade by using the PIV and pressure taps. This paper presents an experimental study of the influence of 2d leading-edge geometry on behavior of separation bubbles. The measurements on a nose of enlarged blade were conducted on a special large-scale experimental facility, the pressure distribution and flowfield of flow were measured. The test model used in this study consists of circular leading edge and elliptic leading edge. Results are presented for a range of incidence. The measurement result indicated that the leading edge shape has a large influence on flow details separation and transition as well as the boundary layer properties after reattached point. The wedge angle appears to be an important role in leading edge geometry parameters.


1996 ◽  
Vol 63 (2) ◽  
pp. 543-550 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. J. Mourtos ◽  
M. Brooks

This paper presents a potential flow model for the leading edge vortex over a two-dimensional flat plate at an angle of attack. The paper is an extension of a model by Saffman and Sheffield (1977). A sink has been added in this model in an effort to satisfy the Kutta condition at both the leading edge and the trailing edge of the plate. The introduction of the sink was inspired by the fact that most steady vortices in nature appear in combination with a flow feature which can be interpreted as a sink at their cores when the flow is analyzed in a two-dimensional observation plane. As in the Saffman and Sheffield model, the presence of a vortex results in increased lift; however, in the current model a unique vortex/sink position is found at each angle of attack. A comparison has also been made between the lift and the drag of this model and the corresponding results for two classical solutions of flow over a flat plate: (a) the fully attached flow with the Kutta condition satisfied at the trailing edge only and (b) the Helmholtz solution of fully separated flow.


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