Insights into the periodic gust response of airfoils

DOI10.1017/JFM.2019.537zbMATH Open1419.76402arXiv1811.10485OpenAlexW3103577187MaRDI QIDQ5229947FDOQ5229947

Authors: Nathaniel J. Wei, J. Kissing, Tom T. B. Wester, S. Wegt, Klaus Schiffmann, Michael Hölling, Cameron Tropea, Suad Jakirlić, J. Peinke 

Publication date: 19 August 2019

Published in: Journal of Fluid Mechanics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: The unsteady lift response of an airfoil in a sinusoidal gust can be modeled by two transfer functions: the first-order Sears function and the second-order Atassi function, albeit leading to different results under certain conditions. Previous studies have shown that the Sears function holds in experiments, but recently Cordes et al. (2017) reported experimental data that corresponded to the Atassi function rather than the Sears function. In order to clarify the observed discrepancy, the specific differences between these models are isolated analytically in this study and are related to physical gust parameters. Gusts with these parameters are then produced in wind-tunnel experiments using an active-grid gust generator. Measurements of the unsteady gust loads on an airfoil in the wind tunnel at Reynolds numbers ($R{e}_c$) of $2.0imes10^5$ and $2.6imes10^5$ and reduced frequencies between 0.09 and 0.42 confirm that the decisive difference between the Sears and Atassi functions lies in the character of the gust and not in the characteristics of the airfoil. The differences in the gust-response data between Sears and Atassi gust conditions are shown to be significant only at low reduced frequencies. These findings are supported by numerical simulations of the experimental setup. Finally, the influence of boundary-layer turbulence on experimental convergence with model predictions is investigated. These results serve to clarify the conditions under which the Sears and Atassi functions can be applied, and they establish the validity of both in an experimental context.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/1811.10485

Recommendations

• Note on the limitations of the Theodorsen and Sears functions
• The Sears problem for a lifting airfoil revisited - new results
• The unsteady lift of an oscillating airfoil encountering a sinusoidal streamwise gust
• Direct measurement of the sears function in turbulent flow
• Prediction of loaded airfoil unsteady aerodynamic gust response by a locally analytical method

zbMATH Keywords

aerodynamics

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

General aerodynamics and subsonic flows (76G25) (k)-(varepsilon) modeling in turbulence (76F60)

Cites Work

• A new approach to modelling near-wall turbulence energy and stress dissipation
• Compound wall treatment for RANS computation of complex turbulent flows and heat transfer
• The scale-adaptive simulation method for unsteady turbulent flow predictions. I: Theory and model description
• A complete second-order theory for the unsteady flow about an airfoil due to a periodic gust
• The Sears problem for a lifting airfoil revisited - new results
• Note on the limitations of the Theodorsen and Sears functions

Cited In (6)

• Aerodynamic lift fluctuations of an airfoil in various turbulent flows
• Prediction of loaded airfoil unsteady aerodynamic gust response by a locally analytical method
• Unsteady aerodynamics of porous aerofoils
• Coherence of unsteady wake of periodically plunging airfoil
• Title not available (Why is that?)
• Cascade aerodynamic gust response including steady loading effects

Uses Software

• TsAGI

This page was built for publication: Insights into the periodic gust response of airfoils

Report a bug (only for logged in users!)Click here to report a bug for this page (MaRDI item Q5229947)