Unsteady aerodynamics of wings in extreme conditions
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Southampton
Department Name: Faculty of Engineering & the Environment
Abstract
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Organisations
Publications

Badoe C
(2019)
Large Eddy simulation of a heaving wing on the Cusp of transition to turbulence
in Computers & Fluids

Badoe C.
(2018)
Large eddy simulation of a finite swept wing undergoing plunging manoeuvre
in 10th International Conference on Computational Fluid Dynamics, ICCFD 2018 - Proceedings

Boye T
(2024)
Impact of large-scale free-stream turbulence on a pitching airfoil
in Flow

Zauner M
(2019)
Direct Numerical Simulations of Transonic Flow Around an Airfoil at Moderate Reynolds Numbers
in AIAA Journal
Description | We have developed techniques to simulate airfoils under gust conditions and are currently preparing papers for publication. Direct numerical simulations (DNS) and modal analysis techniques are applied to investigate the effect of sweep on the transitional separation bubbles forming on the suction side of a NACA-0012 airfoil. Three different sweep angles are considered. An independence principle was found to be a good approximation for configurations with a fixed ratio of thickness to the chord perpendicular to the leading edge, allowing the lift and drag coefficient to be scaled from a zero sweep case. The transitional flow structure changed with sweep angle, with both swept cases showing more coherent large-scale structures. At moderate sweep angle these structures are perpendicular to the free stream direction, whereas at high sweep they are parallel to the leading edge. A good agreement between Fourier analysis of the DNS data and global stability analysis suggests that the changes are due to the emergence of a strongly unstable global mode. The global modes have coupled acoustic and vortical support, suggesting a coupling between trailing edge sound production and shear layer instability. However the swept cases show increasingly broadband rather than tonal noise characteristics. Dynamic mode analysis shows, additionally, the presence of lower frequency non-acoustic modes in the highly swept case that are not present in the unswept case. Additional simulation of heaving airfoils and wings are under way, with confernec papers accepted for presentation and jounrla papers to follow. |
Exploitation Route | The simulations have demonstrated the feasibility of open source software (OpenFOAM) for large-eddy simulation of unsteady aerodynamics problems. |
Sectors | Aerospace Defence and Marine |
URL | https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0045793019300970?via%3Dihub |
Description | During this project we first developed techniques to simulate airfoils under gust conditions. Direct numerical simulations (DNS) and modal analysis techniques were then applied to investigate the effect of sweep on the transitional separation bubbles forming on the suction side of a NACA-0012 airfoil. Three different sweep angles were considered. An independence principle was found to be a good approximation for configurations with a fixed ratio of thickness to the chord perpendicular to the leading edge, allowing the lift and drag coefficient to be scaled from a zero sweep case. The transitional flow structure changed with sweep angle, with both swept cases showing more coherent large-scale structures. At moderate sweep angle these structures are perpendicular to the free stream direction, whereas at high sweep they are parallel to the leading edge. A good agreement between Fourier analysis of the DNS data and global stability analysis suggests that the changes are due to the emergence of a strongly unstable global mode. The global modes have coupled acoustic and vortical support, suggesting a coupling between trailing edge sound production and shear layer instability. However, the swept cases show increasingly broadband rather than tonal noise characteristics. Dynamic mode analysis shows, additionally, the presence of lower frequency non-acoustic modes in the highly swept case that are not present in the unswept case. In the latter stages of the project we carried out simulations of heaving aerofoils using OpenFOAM at various reduced frequencies. The results showed good agreement with laboratory experiments and were published in a paper (Badoe et al). The project paved the way for a continuation project on extreme events in the transonic flight regime, the impacts of which are listed separately. In addition the methods developed have been applied to wind turbine blades, for example in Boye and Xie (Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics, 2022. |
First Year Of Impact | 2016 |
Sector | Aerospace, Defence and Marine |
Description | Extending the buffet envelope: step change in data quantity and quality of analysis |
Amount | £311,065 (GBP) |
Funding ID | EP/R037167/1 |
Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 09/2018 |
End | 03/2022 |
Description | UK Turbulence Consortium |
Amount | £693,229 (GBP) |
Funding ID | EP/R029326/1 |
Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 09/2018 |
End | 09/2022 |