Comparison of pneumatic jets and tabs for Active Aerodynamic Load Control

A fast, efficient way to control loads on utility scale wind turbines is important for the growth of the wind industry. Microtabs and microjets are two Active Aerodynamic Load Control devices, which address this need. Both act perpendicular to the surface of the airfoil, and these actively controlled devices are used to mitigate changes in aerodynamic loading experienced by wind turbine rotors due to wind gusts, wind shear, or other atmospheric phenomena. This work explores the aerodynamic effects of microjets and then compares them to those of microtabs. Flow around an airfoil with an activated microjet at the trailing edge has been simulated using the Reynolds‐averaged Navier–Stokes solver OVERFLOW‐2. Using a Chimera overset grid topology, a microjet has been placed near the trailing edge of the lower surface of a NACA 0012 airfoil. For a jet velocity about half of the freestream velocity, the microjet can change the lift up to ΔC_L = 0.2, but the amount of change varies with the momentum coefficient of the jet. The change in lift is not symmetric for positive and negative angles of attack due to changes in the boundary layer thickness with angle of attack. Increasing the Reynolds number reduces the effectiveness of the microjet only slightly. The effects of jet velocity, jet activation time, and airfoil angle of attack on airfoil lift, drag, and pitching moment are compared with previous work, which illustrates the deployment of a microtab at the 95% chord location of a NACA 0012 airfoil. This study shows that microjets and microtabs have very similar responses in lift and pitching moment, but the drag for the microjet is noticeably lower. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Comments on the research article by Gross et al. (2012)

The purpose of this Letter to the Editor is to present a discussion on the physics of rotational augmentation based on existing work. One of the latest works by Gross et al. (2012) is highlighted here, and its conclusions are discussed. Based on the existing understanding of rotational augmentation, some inconsistencies seem to be present in the analysis of Gross et al. These are identified and discussed here, along with a brief survey of relevant literature. Copyright 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

叶轮机械弯扭叶片的研究现状及发展趋势

弯扭叶片在20世纪90年代已在英、美等发达国家较普遍地得到应用,在我国也成功地应用于蒸汽轮机,在航空发动机涡轮中的应用也有了良好的开端。文章就叶片弯曲降低能量损失的机理以及静态和动态实验对采用弯曲叶片的效果做了综合评述,对压气机采用弯曲叶片的科研进展,以及遇到的难点也作了概要的介绍。根据我们的设计经验,在文章的最后总结了弯曲叶片级设计时应遵循的几条原则。     

尾部扩散器对某跑车气动性能的影响

以某跑车模型为研究对象,探讨尾部小型扩散器对于车身气动性能的影响。在初始模型的基础上,进行CFD(Computational Fluid Dynamics)数值模拟计算,并对比风洞试验数据,验证仿真的可靠性。对初始模型的扩散器进行改进设计,加大扩散器的工作区域,研究其对于气动力的影响,并将改进后的扩散器与带有仿生凹坑型非光滑扰流器结合起来,通过数值模拟方法,得出压力和速度等流场参数,比较不同形式的扩散器对于气动性能的改进效果,分析气动力改善的原因。结果表明:通过对扩散器与非光滑扰流器的优化组合,能有效地提高气动负升力,减小气动阻力,达到了调谐车辆气动升力与气动阻力之间的耦合关系的目的。     

高超声速飞行器多学科优化建模方法

为建立高超声速飞行器多学科设计优化软件系统,研究了一种面向多学科设计优化的建模方法.通过分析系统分解带来的学科设计冲突,建立了两种多学科连续性条件.据此连续性条件,结合现有飞行器设计流程,提出了一套建立多学科设计优化模型的方法,包括系统分析模型和系统优化模型.针对高超声速飞行器方案设计,研究了包含弹道/控制、气动、超燃冲压发动机、结构、热保护系统等五个学科的多学科设计优化问题.采用所研究的多学科设计优化建模方法,构造了系统级模型,并在框架软件中按照此模型集成各学科软件,建立了高超声速飞行器多学科设计优化软件系统.     

汽车侧风稳定性动态耦合方法研究

针对静态耦合方法对汽车侧风稳定性预测不足等问题,通过对流体仿真分析软件FLUENT中动网格及UDF技术的研究,结合双向耦合数据通信技术,提出了一种动态耦合数值仿真计算方法,实现了空气动力学与汽车动力学之间的动态耦合,并将该方法与静态耦合数值计算方法进行了对比分析。利用动态耦合数值计算方法分析了不同侧风风速条件对汽车侧风稳定性问题的影响,结果表明:动态耦合下汽车侧风稳定性较静态耦合下汽车侧风稳定性差;随侧风风速的增大,汽车侧风稳定性降低。     

表面空气对制动力矩的影响

研究了摩擦表面流动的空气对摩擦力的影响。通过制动模拟试验，对4种不同表面形状衬片的制动力矩-时间曲线的波动幅度进行了比较分析，根据摩擦表面中流动空气的不同工作特性，建立了相应的简图进行了详细的说明：试验结果表明：在摩擦热的作用下，表面空气的温度升高，气压增加，从而削弱了工作载荷对表面的作用力，使摩擦力矩产生波动。随着制动速度的下降，热空气对摩擦力矩波动的影响减小。制动时，摩擦盘带入表面的空气越多，空气对摩擦力矩的影响就越大；摩擦表面存留的热空气越多，热空气对摩擦力矩的影响就越大。     

Influence of floor motions in wind tunnels on the aerodynamics of road vehicles

The effect of a moving floor on the flow around a simplified car with a typical fastback geometry is investigated. Two large-eddy simulations of the flows with stationary and moving floors are made and both instantaneous and time-averaged results are compared. It is found that the floor motion reduces drag by 8% and lift by 16%. Changes in the flow are found to be global but are largest close to the floor and on the rear slanted surface of the vehicle. The wake flow is found to be relatively insensitive to the floor movement, in agreement with previous experimental observations. The periodicity of the flow events is found to be dependent on whether the floor is moving. Power spectral density of both the lift and the drag contain only one dominant frequency peak when the moving floor is adopted as compared to scattered spectra in the stationary floor case. Changes in the qualitative picture of the flow are limited to the flow near the floor and on the slanted surface of the body. However, changes in the surface pressure on the body and the history of the flow show the need of a moving floor in experimental and numerical simulations.     

LES study of the influence of the nose shape and yaw angles on flow structures around trains

Large-eddy simulation (LES) is made of the flow around a generic train model at two different yaw angles of 90^° and 35^°. The Reynolds numbers, based on the freestream velocity and the height of the train, are 3×10⁵ and 3.7×10⁵ for the yaw angles of 90^° and 35^°, respectively. The primary objective is to investigate the influence of the nose shape and yaw angles on the flow structures and the train aerodynamics. Both the time-averaged and instantaneous flows are explored. In the case of the 90^° yaw angle, the LES results show that the influence of the three-dimensional flow from the nose of the train on the time-averaged wake flow is limited to a region of a length of 3.5 train heights from the tip of the nose in the direction of the length of the train. The instantaneous flow shows an unsteady vortex shedding due to the shear layer instabilities on the periphery of the recirculation region and the exterior flow. In the case of the 35^° yaw angle, weak vortex shedding is found in the wake. Instead, unstable vortices are found in the lower part of the recirculation region. These vortices detach from and reattach to the train surface in a regular fashion leaving disturbances on the train surface and hence affecting the aerodynamic coefficients. The influence of the shape of the nose on the flow structures is investigated by repeating the simulations at the 90^° yaw angle on a short nose model. The short nose model is identical to the long nose model whilst the length of its nose is half that of the long nose. The short-nose simulation shows highly unsteady and three-dimensional flow around the nose yielding more vortex structures in the wake. These structures result in a surface flow that differs from that in the long-nose train flow. They also influence the dominating frequencies that arise due to the shear layer instabilities.     

On the boundary-layer control through momentum injection: Studies with applications

The concept of moving surface boundary-layer control, as applied to a Joukowsky airfoil, is investigated through a planned experimental programme complemented by numerical studies. The moving surface was provided by rotating cylinders located at the leading edge and/or trailing edge as well as top surface of the airfoil. Results suggest that the concept is quite promising, leading to a substantial increase in lift and a delay in stall. Depending on the performance desired, appropriate combinations of cylinder geometry, location and speed can be selected to obtain favourable results over a wide range of angle of attack. Next, effectiveness of the concept in reducing drag of bluff bodies such as a two-dimensional flat plate at large angles of attack, rectangular prisms and three-dimensional models of trucks is assessed through an extensive wind tunnel test-programme. Results show that injection of momentum through moving surfaces, achieved here by introduction of bearing-mounted, motordriven, hollow cylinders, can significantly delay separation of the boundary-layer and reduce the pressure drag. The momentum injection procedure also proved effective in arresting wind-induced vortex resonance and galloping type of instabilities. A flow visualization study, conducted in a closed-circuit water tunnel using slit lighting and polyvinyl choride tracer particles, adds to the wind-tunnel and numerical investigations. It shows, rather dramatically, the effectiveness of the moving surface boundary-layer control (MSBC). The Sabita Chaudhury Memorial Lecture The models were fabricated in the Mechanical Engineering Workshop. The assistance of M/s E Abell, P Hurren and D Camp in the design and construction of the models is gratefully acknowledged. The investigation was supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Grant No. A-2181.