Unsteady Flow Predictions around Tandem Cylinders with Sub-Critical Spacing

Abstract

In the quest to better understand landing gear noise sources, the complex unsteady flow around a simplified configuration of a Tandem Cylinder Arrangement is considered and investigated in the current study. Recent experiments from the Basic Aerodynamics Research Tunnel (BART) and Quiet Flow Facility (QFF) at NASA Langley Research Center have provided extensive aerodynamic and aeroacoustic measurements around Tandem Cylinders with Subcritical spacing, which can be used to validate Computational Fluid Dynamics codes. In this study, Lattice Boltzmann simulations with a very large eddy simulation (VLES) approach were performed around the tandem cylinder arrangement with sub-critical spacing using the commercially available CFD code, PowerFLOW 4.1. Timedependent, three-dimensional simulations with a limited span of six cylinder diameters were conducted to compute the mean and unsteady flow structure and validate computed data using experimental data. Further, an in-depth analysis of the associated aeroacoustics is planned for future work.