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Unsteady thrust, lift and moment of a two-dimensional flapping thin airfoil in the presence of leading-edge vortices: a first approximation from linear potential theory

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 July 2018

R. Fernandez-Feria*
Affiliation:
Fluid Mechanics, Universidad de Málaga, Andalucía Tech, Dr Ortiz Ramos s/n, 29071 Málaga, Spain
J. Alaminos-Quesada
Affiliation:
Fluid Mechanics, Universidad de Málaga, Andalucía Tech, Dr Ortiz Ramos s/n, 29071 Málaga, Spain
*
†Email address for correspondence: ramon.fernandez@uma.es

Abstract

The effect of a leading-edge vortex (LEV) on the lift, thrust and moment of a two-dimensional heaving and pitching thin airfoil is analysed within the unsteady linear potential theory. First, general expressions that take into account the effect of any set of unsteady point vortices interacting with the oscillating foil and unsteady wake are derived. Then, a simplified analysis, based on the Brown–Michael model, of the initial stages of the growing LEV from the sharp leading edge during each half-stroke is used to obtain simple expressions for its main contribution to the unsteady lift, thrust and moment. It is found that the LEV contributes to the aerodynamic forces and moment provided that a pitching motion exists, while its effect is negligible, in the present approximation, for a pure heaving motion, and for some combined pitching and heaving motions with large phase shifts which are also characterized in the present work. In particular, the effect of the LEV is found to decrease with the distance of the pivot point from the trailing edge. Further, the time-averaged lift and moment are not modified by the growing LEVs in the present approximation, and only the time-averaged thrust force is corrected, decreasing slightly in most cases in relation to the linear potential results by an amount proportional to $a_{0}^{2}k^{3}$ for large $k$, where $k$ is the reduced frequency and $a_{0}$ is the pitching amplitude. The time-averaged input power is also modified by the LEV in the present approximation, so that the propulsion efficiency changes by both the thrust and the power, these corrections being relevant only for pivot locations behind the midchord point. Finally, the potential results modified by the LEV are compared with available experimental data.

Information

Type
JFM Papers
Copyright
© 2018 Cambridge University Press 
Figure 0

Figure 1. Schematic of the problem.

Figure 1

Figure 2. Schematic of the oscillating airfoil with an LEV.

Figure 2

Figure 3. The LEV trajectory (a) and circulation (b) for $h_{0}=0.1$, $a_{0}=20^{\circ }$, $a=0$, $k=5$ and $\unicode[STIX]{x1D719}=10^{\circ }$. The continuous lines correspond to the downstroke and the dashed lines to the upstroke. The circles in (a) mark the position at which $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6E4}_{1}$ reaches a maximum and the LEV is shed, whose instant is marked with a dotted vertical line in (b).

Figure 3

Figure 4. As figure 3, but for $\unicode[STIX]{x1D719}=90^{\circ }$.

Figure 4

Figure 5. As figure 3, but for $h_{0}=0$.

Figure 5

Figure 6. Plot of $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6F7}$, defined in (4.36), versus $k$ for several values of $\unicode[STIX]{x1D719}$.

Figure 6

Figure 7. The functions (5.5)–(5.7) (a), and the force and moment coefficients (5.1)–(5.3) (b) for the case depicted in figure 3 ($h_{0}=0.1$, $a_{0}=20^{\circ }$, $a=0$, $k=5$ and $\unicode[STIX]{x1D719}=10^{\circ }$), for both the downstroke (continuous lines) and the upstroke (dashed lines). The vertical dotted line marks the instant where $|\unicode[STIX]{x1D6E4}_{1}|$ reaches a maximum value.

Figure 7

Figure 8. Plot of $k\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}_{m}/\unicode[STIX]{x03C0}$ versus $k$ for a pure pitching motion with $a=0$ (a) and $a=0.5$ (b), and increasing values of $a_{0}$, from $10^{\circ }$ (bottom curve) to $30^{\circ }$ (top curve) with increments of $4^{\circ }$.

Figure 8

Figure 9. Plot of $\overline{C}_{T_{1}}$ versus $k$ for a pure pitching motion for increasing values of $a_{0}$, from $10^{\circ }$ (top curves) to $30^{\circ }$ (bottom curves) with increments of $4^{\circ }$, for $a=0$ (a), $a=0.5$ (b) and $a=-0.5$ (c). (It should be remembered that the non-dimensional pivot axis ranges from $a=-1$ at the leading edge to $a=1$ at the trailing edge.)

Figure 9

Figure 10. Plot of $\overline{C}_{P_{1}}$ versus $k$ for a pure pitching motion for increasing values of $a_{0}$, from $10^{\circ }$ (top curves) to $30^{\circ }$ (bottom curves) with increments of $4^{\circ }$, for $a=0$ (a) and $a=-0.5$ (b).

Figure 10

Figure 11. Quasisteady drag $C_{T_{0}}$ versus $a$ measured by Mackowski & Williamson (2017) for an NACA 0012 foil at $Re=17\,000$ for $a_{0}=8^{\circ }$. It should be remembered that $-1\leqslant a\leqslant 1$ for a pivot location inside the foil.

Figure 11

Figure 12. Comparison of the experimental data of Mackowski & Williamson (2017) for $\overline{C}_{T}$ (a) and $\unicode[STIX]{x1D702}$ (b) versus $a$ for $k=2$ and $a_{0}=8^{\circ }$ (dots, from figures 6 and 7 of Mackowski and Williamson) with the present results (dashed and dotted lines), with the results without the LEV effect (continuous lines) and with Garrick’s (1936) results (dashed lines). The different theoretical results are presented in two ways, adding the experimental value of $C_{T_{0}}(a)$ given in figure 11 to $\overline{C}_{T}$, and without adding it.

Figure 12

Figure 13. Comparison of the theoretical results with the experimental data of Anderson et al. (1998) for $\overline{C}_{T}$ versus the Strouhal number based on the total excursion of the trailing edge, $St_{TE}$, for a combined plunging and pitching motion of an NACA 0012 airfoil with $a=-1/3$ in two cases: $h_{0}=1.5$, $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}_{max}=21^{\circ }$, $\unicode[STIX]{x1D719}=75^{\circ }$ (case 1 from figure 1 of Anderson et al.) (a) and $h_{0}=1.5$, $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}_{0}=15^{\circ }$, $\unicode[STIX]{x1D719}=75^{\circ }$ (from figure 9a of Anderson et al.) (b). The theoretical results are presented adding a constant quasisteady drag $C_{T_{0}}$ to $\overline{C}_{T}$, given in the legend (estimated from Mackowski & Williamson (2017) for a similar amplitude), and also without adding it.