Hostname: page-component-74656f9884-j7cmm Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-11-08T14:05:42.613Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Unsteady lift for the Wagner problem in the presence of additional leading/trailing edge vortices

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 March 2015

Juan Li
Affiliation:
Department of Engineering Mechanics, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, PR China
Zi-Niu Wu*
Affiliation:
Department of Engineering Mechanics, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, PR China
*
†Email address for correspondence: ziniuwu@tsinghua.edu.cn
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This study amends the inviscid Wagner lift model for starting flow at relatively large angles of attack to account for the influence of additional leading edge and trailing edge vortices. Two methods are provided for starting flow of a flat plate. The first method is a modified Wagner function, which assumes a planar trajectory of the trailing edge vortex sheet accounting for a temporal offset from the original Wagner function given release of leading edge vortices and a concentrated starting point vortex at the initiation of motion. The second method idealizes the trailing edge sheet as a series of discrete vortices released sequentially. The models presented are shown to be in good agreement with high-fidelity simulations. Through the present theory, a vortex force line map is generated, which clearly indicates lift enhancing and reducing directions and, when coupled with streamlines, allows one to qualitatively interpret the effect of the sign and position of vortices on the lift and to identify the origins of lift oscillations and peaks. It is concluded that leading edge vortices close to the leading edge elevate the Wagner lift curve while a strong leading edge vortex convected to the trailing edge is detrimental to lift production by inducing a strong trailing edge vortex moving in the lift reducing direction. The vortex force line map can be employed to understand the effect of the different vortices in other situations and may be used to improve vortex control to enhance or reduce the lift.

Information

Type
Papers
Copyright
© 2015 Cambridge University Press 
Figure 0

Figure 1. Vortex system with a vortex sheet (VS) and an LEV and a TEV (which may both be composed of a number of discrete vortices). Along the airfoil there is a distributed bound vorticity (${\it\gamma}$) and along the VS the distributed vorticity is $k$. This model is compared with figure 5 in § 3.3, where the vortices are obtained by discrete vortex simulation.

Figure 1

Figure 2. Additional vortex force map for $O({\it\tau})$ at ${\it\tau}=0$ (a), 1 (b) and $\infty$ (c).

Figure 2

Figure 3. Additional VFL map at ${\it\tau}=0$ (a), 1 (b) and $\infty$ (c). The curves with arrows are VFLs, similar to streamlines but with the velocity vector replaced by the vector ${\it\bf\Lambda}_{A}$. The curves without arrows are contours of ${\it\bf\Lambda}_{A}$.

Figure 3

Figure 4. Total VFL map. The curves with arrows are VFLs, similar to streamlines but with the velocity vector replaced by the vector ${\it\bf\Lambda}_{B}$. The curves without arrows are contours of ${\it\bf\Lambda}_{B}$.

Figure 4

Figure 5. Discrete vortex method (DVM) and CFD results for ${\it\alpha}=20^{\circ }$.

Figure 5

Figure 6. The lift coefficients. (a) CFD and the original Wagner model for ${\it\alpha}=1^{\circ }$ and $5^{\circ }$. (b) CFD and results of method A for ${\it\tau}_{0}=0.1$ and ${\it\alpha}=20^{\circ }$ (fine, ${\rm\Delta}{\it\tau}=5\times 10^{-5}$; coarse, ${\rm\Delta}{\it\tau}=0.003$).

Figure 6

Figure 7. Time evolution of the lift coefficients obtained by various methods: (a) ${\it\alpha}=10^{\circ }$; (b) ${\it\alpha}=15^{\circ }$.

Figure 7

Figure 8. Lift coefficient for ${\it\alpha}=20^{\circ }$. (a) Time evolution of lift coefficient obtained by various methods and comparison with CFD. (b) Force decomposition according to locations of vortex shedding.

Figure 8

Figure 9. Lift coefficients due to vortices above several sections of the flat plate, obtained using method B for ${\it\alpha}=20^{\circ }$.

Figure 9

Figure 10. Time evolution of lift coefficient and streamlines at typical instants, obtained by CFD for ${\it\alpha}=20^{\circ }$.

Figure 10

Figure 11. Vortices and streamlines at (a) ${\it\tau}=4.5$ and (b) ${\it\tau}=6.0$ by the discrete vortex simulation for ${\it\alpha}=20^{\circ }$.

Figure 11

Figure 12. The mesh around the flat plate.

Figure 12

Figure 13. Modified Wagner functions for several values of ${\it\tau}_{0}$.