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Passive control of unsteady-wing tip vortex via a slender half-delta wing in both reverse and regular configurations

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Abstract

The passive control of the tip vortex generated by an oscillating NACA 0012 wing via a tip-mounted half-delta wing, in both regular and reverse configurations, was investigated experimentally at Re = 2.45 × 105. Velocity and vorticity measurements, performed using a miniature triple hot-wire probe, show that vortex breakdown occurred when the regular half-delta wing (HDW) was mounted, but not for the reverse half-delta wing (RHDW) configuration. The HDW vortex breakdown led to a rapidly diffused tip vortex, suggesting an enhanced wake-vortex decay. For the RHDW wing configuration, the tip vortex remained concentrated but had a smaller size and also a weaker strength and rotation compared to the oscillating baseline wing. In addition, the vortex center of the oscillating RHDW wing-generated tip vortex was also found to be greatly displaced, especially in the transverse direction, which could translate into an increased blade-vortex-impingement miss distance and, as a result, an alleviated blade-vortex interaction.

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Abbreviations

AR:

Aspect ratio

b :

Semi-span

c :

Chord

C L :

Total lift coefficient

C l :

Sectional lift coefficient

f :

Frequency

r c :

Vortex core radius

Re :

Chord Reynolds number

S BW :

Baseline wing area

S HDW :

HDW surface area

S total :

Total wing area, =S BW + S HDW

t :

Half-delta wing thickness

u, v, w :

Mean axial, transverse and spanwise velocity

u c :

Axial core velocity

u ∞ :

Free-stream velocity

x, y, z :

Streamwise, transverse and spanwise direction

α :

Angle of attack

α d :

Pitch-down α

α max :

Maximum angle of attack

α ss :

Static-stall angle

α u :

Pitch-up α

κ :

Reduced frequency, =πfc/u ∞

v θ :

Tangential velocity

v θ,peak :

Peak tangential velocity

ζ :

Streamwise vorticity

ζ peak :

Peak streamwise vorticity

Γ :

Vortex circulation

Γ b :

Bound circulation

Γ c :

Core circulation

ω :

Circular frequency, =2πf

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Acknowledgments

The work was supported by the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada

    T. Lee & J. Pereira

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  1. T. Lee
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  2. J. Pereira
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Correspondence to T. Lee.

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Lee, T., Pereira, J. Passive control of unsteady-wing tip vortex via a slender half-delta wing in both reverse and regular configurations. Exp Fluids 54, 1564 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00348-013-1564-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00348-013-1564-9

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