Starting vortex

About: Starting vortex is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 4785 publications have been published within this topic receiving 100419 citations.

Numerical simulation of the interaction of a vortex with stationary airfoil in transonic flow

Abstract: A perturbation form of an implicit conservative, noniterative numerical algorithm for the two-dimensional thin layer Navier-Stokes and Euler equations is used to compute the interaction flow-field of a vortex with stationary airfoil. A Lamb-like analytical vortex having a finite core is chosen to interact with a thick (NACA 0012) and a thin (NACA 64A006) airfoil independently in transonic flow. Two different configurations of vortex interaction are studied, viz., (1) when the vortex is fixed at one location in the flowfield, and (2) when the vortex is convecting past the airfoil at freestream velocity. Parallel computations of this interacting flowfield are also done using a version of the Transonic Small Disturbance Code (ATRAN2). A special treatment of the leading edge region for thin airfoils is included in this code. With this, the three methods gave qualitatively similar results for the weaker interactions considered in this study. However, the strongest interactions considered proved to be beyond the capabilities of the small disturbance code. The results also show a far greater influence of the vortex on the airfoil flowfield when the vortex is stationary than when it is convecting with the flow.

Instabilities of two-dimensional inviscid compressible vortices

Abstract: An investigation of the linear stability and subsequent nonlinear evolution and acoustic radiation of a planar inviscid compressible vortex is presented. The effects of the entropy gradient are investigated, and for the particular entropy profile chosen, the positive average entropy in the vortex core is destabilizing, while the opposite is true for the negative average entropy gradient. Finite-difference methods are used to study the linear initial value problem. These methods are found to be capable of accurately computing the frequencies and weak growth rates of the normal modes. When the initial condition consists of random perturbations, the long-time behavior is found to correspond to the most unstable normal mode in all cases. The numerical solution of the Euler equations is used to study the nonlinear development of an elliptic-mode perturbation.

Flow regimes in a single dimple on the channel surface

Abstract: The boundaries of the domains of existence of flow regimes past single dimples made as spherical segments on a flat plate are determined with the use of available experimental results. Regimes of a diffuser-confuser flow, a horseshoe vortex, and a tornado-like vortex in the dimple are considered. Neither a horseshoe vortex nor a tornado-like vortex is observed in dimples with the relative depth smaller than 0.1. Transformations from the diffuser–confuser flow regime to the horseshoe vortex regime and from the horseshoe vortex flow to the tornado-like vortex flow are found to depend not only on the Reynolds number, but also on the relative depth of the spherical segment. Dependences for determining the boundaries of the regime existence domains are proposed, and parameters at which the experimental results can be generalized are given.

Simulation of aerodynamic performance affected by vortex generators on blunt trailing-edge airfoils

Abstract: An investigation was carried out by numerical simulation on a wind turbine airfoil and a blunt trailing-edge airfoil with and without vortex generators (VGs), and the performance of the airfoils was analyzed. By the simulation of airfoil DU 91-W2-250 it was verified that the numerical method and model were credible. Based on this airfoil, a new one with a blunt trailing edge of 6% chord was blended by symmetrically adding thickness, and its characteristics curves were obtained through computing at key angles of attack. Additionally, the pressure distribution on blended airfoil was analyzed by comparing to the airfoil without blend. The interaction of streamwise vortices induced by VGs with trailing vortex or separation vortex was considered, followed by the uncovery of how VGs can suppress the boundary layer separation.

Theoretical and computational aspects of the self-induced motion of three-dimensional vortex sheets

Abstract: Theoretical and computational aspects of the self-induced motion of closed and periodic three-dimensional vortex sheets situated at the interfaces between two inviscid uids with generally different densities in the presence of surface tension are considered. In the mathematical formulation, the vortex sheet is described by a continuous distribution of marker points that move with the velocity of the fluid normal to the vortex sheet while executing an arbitrary tangential motion. Evolution equations for the vectorial jump in the velocity across the vortex sheet, the vectorial strength of the vortex sheet, and the scalar circulation field or strength of the effective dipole field following the marker points are derived. The computation of the self-induced motion of the vortex sheet requires the accurate evaluation of the strongly singular Biot-Savart integral whose existence requires that the normal vector varies in a continuous fashion over the vortex sheet. Two methods of computing the principal value of the Biot-Savart integral are implemented. The first method involves computing the vector potential and the principal value of the harmonic potential over the vortex sheet, and then differentiating them in tangential directions to produce the normal or tangential component of the velocity, in the spirit of generalized vortex methods developed by Baker (1983). The second method involves subtracting off the dominant singularity of the Biot-Savart kernel and then accounting for its contribution by use of vector identities. Evaluating the strongly singular Biot-Savart integral is thus reduced to computing a weakly singular integral involving the mean curvature of the vortex sheet, and this allows the routine discretization of the vortex sheet into curved elements whose normal vector is not necessarily continuous across the edges, and the computation of the self-induced velocity without kernel desingularization. Numerical simulations of the motion of a closed or periodic vortex sheet immersed in a homogeneous fluid confirm the effectiveness of the numerical methods for a limited time of evolution. Numerical instabilities arise after a certain evolution time due to the ill-posedness of vortex sheet dynamics. The motion may be regularized by desingularizing the Biot-Savart kernel using either Krasny's (1986 b ) method or spectrum truncation. Depending, however, on the physical mechanism that drives the motion, the instabilities may persevere.