NASA Logo

NTRS

NTRS - NASA Technical Reports Server

Back to Results
Compressible flows with periodic vortical disturbances around lifting airfoilsA numerical method is developed for solving periodic, three-dimensional, vortical flows around lifting airfoils in subsonic flow. The first-order method that is presented fully accounts for the distortion effects of the nonuniform mean flow on the convected upstream vortical disturbances. The unsteady velocity is split into a vortical component which is a known function of the upstream flow conditions and the Lagrangian coordinates of the mean flow, and an irrotational field whose potential satisfies a nonconstant-coefficient, inhomogeneous, convective wave equation. Using an elliptic coordinate transformation, the unsteady boundary value problem is solved in the frequency domain on grids which are determined as a function of the Mach number and reduced frequency. The numerical scheme is validated through extensive comparisons with known solutions to unsteady vortical flow problems. In general, it is seen that the agreement between the numerical and analytical results is very good for reduced frequencies ranging from 0 to 4, and for Mach numbers ranging from .1 to .8. Numerical results are also presented for a wide variety of flow configurations for the purpose of determining the effects of airfoil thickness, angle of attack, camber, and Mach number on the unsteady lift and moment of airfoils subjected to periodic vortical gusts. It is seen that each of these parameters can have a significant effect on the unsteady airfoil response to the incident disturbances, and that the effect depends strongly upon the reduced frequency and the dimensionality of the gust. For a one-dimensional (transverse) or two-dimensional (transverse and longitudinal) gust, the results indicate that airfoil thickness increases the unsteady lift and moment at the low reduced frequencies but decreases it at the high reduced frequencies. The results show that an increase in airfoil Mach number leads to a significant increase in the unsteady lift and moment for the low reduced frequencies, but a significant decrease for the high reduced frequencies.
Document ID
19910011747
Acquisition Source
Legacy CDMS
Document Type
Thesis/Dissertation
Authors
Scott, James R.
(NASA Lewis Research Center Cleveland, OH, United States)
Date Acquired
September 6, 2013
Publication Date
January 1, 1991
Subject Category
Aerodynamics
Report/Patent Number
NAS 1.15:103742
NASA-TM-103742
E-5984
Accession Number
91N21060
Funding Number(s)
PROJECT: RTOP 505-62-52
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Work of the US Gov. Public Use Permitted.
No Preview Available