Incoming Turbulent Flow Research Articles

Исследование развития локализованных возмущений в пограничном слое плоской пластины в условиях повышенной степени турбулентности набегающего потока за уступом поверхности

In a wind tunnel on a flat plate in a separated flow behind a rectangular step, the emergence and development of localized disturbances generated by low-frequency impulse deviations of the local surface section under conditions of low and moderate degrees of the incoming flow turbulence is studied. The results were obtained by hot-wire anemometry at low subsonic flow velocity. It was found that impulse deviations of the wall generate disturbances, which are socalled Streaky structures and wave packets of oscillations. The separation of the laminar boundary layer accelerates the growth of wave packets with subsequent turbulization of the near-wall flow. The specific features of the behavior of localized disturbances under conditions of moderate degree of free-stream turbulence are revealed.

Experimental error examination and its effects on the aerodynamic properties of wind turbine blades

Uncertainties associated with aerodynamic properties of wind turbine blades, such as the lift coefficient and its first derivative with respect to the angle of attack, measured in the wind tunnel, are not negligible. Uncertainties are due to random experimental laboratory errors. Uncertainties are examined by high frequency force balance tests in Northeastern University's wind tunnel. Experiments are conducted on various scale models of airfoil sections, derived from a benchmark wind turbine blade. Effects of angle of attack, Reynolds number and incoming turbulent flow conditions are considered. First, basic statistical descriptors and statistical inference are utilized to characterize experimental errors in lift coefficients and their first derivative. Second, two methods, based on polynomial representation and linear interpolation of empirical histograms, are investigated to synthetically generate random samples of the lift coefficient derivative. Suitability is verified by hypothesis testing. Finally, samples are employed for Monte-Carlo-based stochastic flutter analysis of a full-scale blade.

Training convolutional neural networks to estimate turbulent sub-grid scale reaction rates

This work presents a new approach for premixed turbulent combustion modeling based on convolutional neural networks (CNN).11Code and data for the deep learning in this work is available at https://gitlab.com/cerfacs/code-for-papers/2018/arXiv_1810.03691. We first propose a framework to reformulate the problem of subgrid flame surface density estimation as a machine learning task. Data needed to train the CNN is produced by direct numerical simulations (DNS) of a premixed turbulent flame stabilized in a slot-burner configuration. A CNN inspired from a U-Net architecture is designed and trained on the DNS fields to estimate subgrid-scale wrinkling. It is then tested on an unsteady turbulent flame where the mean inlet velocity is increased for a short time and the flame must react to a varying turbulent incoming flow. The CNN is found to efficiently extract the topological nature of the flame and predict subgrid-scale wrinkling, outperforming classical algebraic models.

Boundary layer numerical modeling in a strongly turbulized liquid flow

Already in the first Taylor and Dryden’s works it was discovered that besides incoming flow turbulence intensity (measured in percent and defined as the velocity mean squared deviation ratio to the flow averaged velocity), the turbulence influence in an aerodynamic tube is connected with one more parameter, which characterizes the turbulence disturbances size in the flow at large Reynolds numbers (so called turbulence dissipative scale). Turbulence scale is the physical value, characterizing the large eddies size, obtaining its energy from the turbulent flow. Investigation results of the scale and the free-stream turbulence high intensity influence in the boundary layer on a smooth flat plate with a rounded off leading edge (experiment PP169-60) under zero pressure gradient are presented in the study. Using well-known experimental and calculated data the modeling problem of the initially laminar boundary layer transfer to the turbulent one was investigated by numerical methods on the basis of the near-wall modified turbulence model with two additional transfer equations for the turbulent kinetic energy and the turbulence dissipation rate. Turbulent flows modeling near the flat surface with the incoming flow turbulence high level is complicated by two general problems: the definition and description of the laminar-to-turbulent transfer along the surface and the viscous sublayer precise resolution under the developed turbulent mode. While flowing along the flat plate the inviscid liquid with high turbulence degree it is more than 1%, the turbulence scale and the free-stream turbulence intensity joint influence on the flow dynamic and integral characteristics in the boundary layer and turbulence parameters was studied in detail.

Numerical simulation of the transverse flow over spans of girder bridges

Introduction. The technique of numerical modeling of the transverse flow over span structures of bridges on the basis of the two-dimensional URANS (Unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes) approach used in the modern methods and software packages for computational fluid dynamics is verified. The work objective was debugging and experimental substantiation of this technique with the use of the database on the aerodynamic characteristics of the cross-sections of span structures of girder bridges of standard shapes pre-developed by the authors.Materials and Methods. A numerical simulation of the transverse flow of low-turbulent (smooth) and turbulent air flows around the bridge structures in a range of practically interesting attack angles is carried out. SST k − ω turbulence model was used as the closing one. The technique was preliminarily tested on the check problem for the flow of the rectangular crosssection beams. Calculations were carried out using the licensed ANSYS software.Research Results. The calculated dependences on the attack angle of the aerodynamic coefficients of forces (drag and lift) and the moment of the cross sections of the girder bridges of standard shapes are obtained. These data refer to the span structures at the construction phase (without deck and parapets, without parapets) and operation phase, under the conditions of model smooth and turbulent incoming flow. The latter allows us to outline the boundaries for more weighted estimates of the aerodynamic characteristics of thegirder bridges in a real wind current. The best agreement with the experimental data was obtained from the drag of the cross-section. The magnitude of the lifting force is more sensitive to the presence and extent of the separation regions, so its numerical determination is less accurate. The reproduction of the angle-of-attack effect on the aerodynamic moment of the cross-section is the most challenging for the majority of configurations.Discussion and Conclusions. Comparison of the calculated and experimental data indicates the applicability of the URANS approach to the operational prediction of the aerodynamic characteristics of the single-beam span structures. In the case of multi-beam span structures, where the aerodynamic interference between separate girders plays an important role, the URANS approach must apparently give way to more accurate eddy-resolving methods. The results obtained can be used in the aerodynamic analysis of structures and in practice of the relevant design organizations in the field of transport construction.

An Aero-acoustic Noise Distribution Prediction Methodology for Offshore Wind Farms

Recently attention has been paid to wind farm noise due to its negative health impact, not only on human beings, but also to marine and terrestrial organisms. The current work proposes a numerical methodology to generate a numerical noise map for a given wind farm. Noise generation from single wind turbines as well as wind farms has its basis in the nature of aerodynamics, caused by the interactions between the incoming turbulent flow and the wind turbine blades. Hence, understanding the mechanisms of airfoil noise generation, demands access to sophisticated numerical tools. The processes of modeling wind farm noise include three steps: (1) The whole wind farm velocity distributions are modelled with an improved Jensen’s wake model; (2) The individual wind turbine’s noise is simulated by a semi-empirical wind turbine noise source model; (3) Propagations of noise from all wind turbines are carried out by solving the parabolic wave equation. In the paper, the wind farm wake effect from the Horns Rev wind farm is studied. Based on the resulted wind speed distributions in the wind farm, the wind turbine noise source and its propagation are simulated for the whole wind farm.

Experimental Investigation of Vortex Structures in Wake of Hyperboloid-Shaped Model by Means of 2D Particle Image Velocimetry Measurement

This paper deals with flow around a bluff body of hyperboloid shape. It consists of results gathered in the course of research by means of Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV). The experiments were carried out by means of low-frequency 2D PIV in a range of Reynolds numbers from 40000 to 50000. A hyperboloid-shaped model was measured in a wind tunnel with a modelled atmospheric boundary layer (and additionally, in a low-speed wind tunnel with low turbulence). The model was tested in a subcritical range of Reynolds numbers and various planes in a wake of the model were captured with the intention of getting an estimation of 3D flow structures. The tunnel with the modelled atmospheric boundary layer has a high rate of turbulence, so the influence of the turbulence of incoming flow on the wake could be outlined. The ratio of the height of the model to a thickness of the modelled boundary layer in the tunnel was 1/3, meaning the turbulence in the boundary layer strongly influenced the flow around the model; it suppresses the wake which leads to a lot shorter area of recirculation than low turbulence incoming flow would cause.

The structure of turbulent flow around vertical plates containing holes and attached to a channel bed

High-resolution, 3-D large eddy simulations are conducted to study the physics of flow past 2-D solid and porous vertical plates of height H mounted on a horizontal surface (no bottom gap) with a fully developed, turbulent incoming flow. The porous plate consists of an array of spanwise-oriented, identical solid cylinders of rectangular cross section. The height of the solid cylinders and the spacing between the solid cylinders, corresponding to the plate’s “holes,” are kept constant for any given configuration, as the present study considers only plates of uniform porosity. The paper discusses how the mean flow and turbulence structure around the vertical plate, the unsteady forces acting on the plate, the dynamics of the large-scale turbulent eddies, the spectral content of the wake, and the distribution of the bed friction velocity on the horizontal channel bed vary as a function of the plate porosity (0% < P < 36%), the relative spacing between the solid elements of the porous plate (d/H), and the roughness of the channel bed surface. Simulation results are used to explain how the bleeding flow affects the dynamics on the larger billow eddies advected in the separated shear layer (SSL) forming at the top of the plate and the wake structure. It is found that the main recirculation eddy in the wake remains attached to the plate for P < 30%. For larger porosities, the main recirculation eddy forms away from the porous plate. The energy of the billows advected in the SSL decays monotonically with increasing plate porosity. For cases when the recirculation eddy remains attached to the plate, the larger billows advected in the downstream part of the SSL are partially reinjected inside the main recirculation eddy as a result of their interaction with the channel bed. This creates a feedback mechanism that induces large-scale disturbances of the spanwise-oriented vortex tubes advected inside the upstream part of the SSL. Results also show that the mean drag coefficient and the root-mean-square of the drag coefficient fluctuations increase mildly with increasing d/H. Meanwhile, varying d/H has a negligible effect on the position and size of the main recirculation eddy. The presence of large-scale roughness elements (2-D ribs) at the bed results in the decrease of the mean drag coefficient of the plate and, in the case of a solid plate, in a large decrease of the frequency of the large-scale eddies advected in the SSL.

Separation control and drag reduction for boat-tailed axisymmetric bodies through contoured transverse grooves

We describe the results of a numerical and experimental investigation aimed at assessing the performance of a control method to delay boundary layer separation consisting of the introduction on the surface of contoured transverse grooves, i.e. of small cavities with an appropriate shape orientated transverse to the incoming flow. The shape of the grooves and their depth – which must be significantly smaller than the thickness of the incoming boundary layer – are chosen so that the flow recirculations present within the grooves are steady and stable. This passive control strategy is applied to an axisymmetric bluff body with various rear boat tails, which are characterized by different degrees of flow separation. Variational multiscale large eddy simulations and wind tunnel tests are carried out. The Reynolds number, for both experiments and simulations, is $Re=u_{\infty }D/\unicode[STIX]{x1D708}=9.6\times 10^{4}$; due to the different incoming flow turbulence level, the boundary layer conditions before the boat tails are fully developed turbulent in the experiments and transitional in the simulations. In all cases, the introduction of one single axisymmetric groove in the lateral surface of the boat tails produces significant delay of the boundary layer separation, with consequent reduction of the pressure drag. Nonetheless, the wake dynamical structure remains qualitatively similar to the one typical of a blunt-based axisymmetric body, with quantitative variations that are consistent with the reduction in wake width caused by boat tailing and by the grooves. A few supplementary simulations show that the effect of the grooves is also robust to the variation of the geometrical parameters defining their shape. All the obtained data support the interpretation that the relaxation of the no-slip boundary condition for the flow surrounding the recirculation regions, with an appreciable velocity along their borders, is the physical mechanism responsible for the effectiveness of the present separation-control method.

Vortical structures in the near wake of tabs with various geometries

The vortical structures and turbulence statistics in the near wake of rectangular, trapezoidal, triangular and ellipsoidal tabs were experimentally studied in a refractive-index-matching channel. The tabs share the same bulk dimensions, including a 17 mm height, a 28 mm base width and a $24.5^{\circ }$ inclination angle. Measurements were performed at two Reynolds numbers based on the tab height, $Re_{h}\simeq 2000$ (laminar incoming flow) and 13 000 (turbulent incoming flow). Three-dimensional, three-component particle image velocimetry (PIV) was used to study the mean flow distribution and dominant large-scale vortices, while complementary high-spatial-resolution planar PIV measurements were used to quantify high-order statistics. Instantaneous three-dimensional fields revealed the coexistence of a coherent counter-rotating vortex pair (CVP) and hairpin structures. The CVP and hairpin vortices (the primary structures) exhibit distinctive characteristics and strength across $Re_{h}$ and tab geometries. The CVP is coherently present in the mean flow field and grows in strength over a significantly longer distance at the low $Re_{h}$ due to the lower turbulence levels and the delayed shedding of the hairpin vortices. These features at the low $Re_{h}$ are associated with the presence of Kelvin–Helmholtz instability that develops over three tab heights downstream of the trailing edge. Moreover, a secondary CVP with an opposite sense of rotation resides below the primary one for the four tabs at the low $Re_{h}$. The interaction between the hairpin structures and the primary CVP is experimentally measured in three dimensions and shows complex coexistence. Although the CVP undergoes deformation and splitting at times, it maintains its presence and leads to significant mean spanwise and wall-normal flows.

Wind loads and structural response: Benchmarking LES on a low-rise building

The correct and safe design of structures subjected to the wind actions requires a realistic estimate of the wind effects on their resisting systems. In this context, the present paper proposes a complete numerical study that, starting from Large Eddy Simulation of the turbulent flow around a low-rise building, arrives to the assessment of the wind loading effects, that is the evaluation of design forces in all structural elements. Since it is well known that a realistic representation of the turbulent features found in the lower part of the atmospheric boundary layer is required in order to obtain accurate predictions of the structural response, firstly, the incoming flow turbulence is synthetically generated by means of the Modified Discretizing and Synthesizing Random Flow Generator technique. Then, the obtained synthetic fluctuation field is used as inflow condition for the subsequent Large Eddy Simulations taking into consideration different angles of attack. Results in terms of pressure distributions statistics are analyzed and systematically compared to experimental data. Finally, starting from both simulated and experimental pressure fields, dynamic structural analyses are performed and results directly compared in terms of design forces in the structural elements.

Large-scale unsteadiness in a compressible, turbulent reattaching shear layer

The large-scale unsteadiness that occurs in shock-wave/boundary layer interactions imposes severe aero-thermo-acoustic loads on high-speed aircraft. Much progress has been made on this problem in the last two decades: these interactions can now be tackled with large eddy simulation, at least for relatively low Reynolds numbers. Further, a large body of evidence now suggests that the physical mechanism for the unsteadiness lies in the selective amplification, within the separated flow, of large-scale disturbances originating in the incoming turbulent flow. The present paper examines the kinematics of these incoming structures in a turbulent boundary layer, and the scaling of the corresponding response of a reattaching shear layer flow. In particular, it presents an overview of the influence on recent research of experimental work carried out by Smits’ group at Princeton University in the 1990s.

Spectral behaviour of the turbulence-driven power fluctuations of wind turbines

Field and laboratory experiments were performed to unravel the structure of the power output fluctuations of horizontal-axis wind turbines based on incoming flow turbulence. The study considers the power data of three wind turbines of rotor sizes 0.12, 3.2, and 96 m, with rated power spanning six decades from the order of 100 to 106 W. The 0.12 m wind turbine was tested in a wind tunnel while the 3.2 and 96 m wind turbines were operated in open fields under approximately neutrally stratified thermal conditions. Incoming flow turbulence was characterised by hotwire and sonic anemometers for the wind tunnel and field set-ups. While previous works have observed a filtering behaviour in wind turbine power output, this exact behaviour has not, to date, been properly characterised. Based on the spectral structure of the incoming flow turbulence at hub height, and the mechanical and structural properties of the turbines, a physical basis for the behaviour of temporal power fluctuations and their spectral structure is found with potential applications in turbine control and numerical simulations. Consistent results are observed across the geometrical scales of the wind turbines investigated, suggesting no Reynolds number dependence in the tested range.

Effect of spur dike length on the horseshoe vortex system and the bed shear stress distribution

ABSTRACTTurbulent flow structures forming around isolated spur dikes in a horizontal channel are investigated in this study. In the analysis detached eddy simulation is used under fully turbulent incoming flow conditions at a channel Reynolds number of 45,000. Changes in the structure of the horseshoe vortex system, bed shear stress and pressure standard deviation on the bed are investigated for three different spur dike lengths. In all of the cases the main horseshoe vortex undergoes bimodal oscillations, which leads to an amplification in the turbulence quantities such as turbulent kinetic energy and pressure fluctuations along its axis. The main horseshoe vortex disappears over a much shorter distance in the flow direction for the short spur dike than those of medium and long spurs. Large bed shear stress values and pressure standard deviation values observed around the tip of the spur dike, beneath the upstream part of the main horseshoe vortex and beneath the separated shear layers increase with the increasing length of the spur dike. Different from the long and medium spur dike, in the short spur dike case, it is shown that the secondary horseshoe vortex is as coherent as the main horseshoe vortex and it contains bimodal oscillations together with the main horseshoe vortex.

Probing wind-turbine/atmosphere interactions at utility scale: Novel insights from the EOLOS wind energy research station

Despite major research efforts, the interaction of the atmospheric boundary layer with turbines and multi-turbine arrays at utility scale remains poorly understood today. This lack of knowledge stems from the limited number of utility-scale research facilities and a number of technical challenges associated with obtaining high-resolution measurements at field scale. We review recent results obtained at the University of Minnesota utility-scale wind energy research station (the EOLOS facility), which is comprised of a 130 m tall meteorological tower and a fully instrumented 2.5MW Clipper Liberty C96 wind turbine. The results address three major areas: 1) The detailed characterization of the wake structures at a scale of 36×36 m2 using a novel super-large-scale particle image velocimetry based on natural snowflakes, including the rich tip vortex dynamics and their correlation with turbine operations, control, and performance; 2) The use of a WindCube Lidar profiler to investigate how wind at various elevations influences turbine power fluctuation and elucidate the role of wind gusts on individual blade loading; and 3) The systematic quantification of the interaction between the turbine instantaneous power output and tower foundation strain with the incoming flow turbulence, which is measured from the meteorological tower.

Experimental investigation on the aerodynamic behavior of square cylinders with rounded corners

The influence of corner shaping on the aerodynamic behavior of square cylinders is studied through wind tunnel tests. Beside the sharp-edge corner condition considered as a benchmark, two different rounded-corner radii (r/b=1/15 and 2/15) are studied. Global forces and surface pressure are simultaneously measured in the Reynolds number range between 1.7×104 and 2.3×105. The measurements are extended to angles of incidence between 0° and 45°, but the analysis and the discussion presented herein is focused on the low angle of incidence range. It is found that the critical angle of incidence, corresponding to the flow reattachment on the lateral face exposed to the flow, decreases as r/b increases and that an intermittent flow condition exists. In the case of turbulent incoming flow, two different aerodynamic regimes governed by the Reynolds number have been recognized.

Turbulent flow over a rough backward-facing step

This work characterizes the impacts of the realistic roughness due to deposition of foreign materials on the turbulent flows at surface transition from elevated rough-wall to smooth-wall. High resolution PIV measurements were performed in the streamwise-wall-normal (x–y) planes at two different spanwise positions in both smooth and rough backward-facing step flows. The experiment conditions were set at a Reynolds number of 3450 based on the free stream velocity U∞ and the mean step height h, expansion ratio of 1.01, and the ratio of incoming boundary layer thickness to the step height, δ/h, of 8. The mean flow structures are observed to be modified by the roughness and they illustrate three-dimensional features in rough backward-facing step flows. The mean reattachment length Xr is significantly reduced by the roughness at one PIV measurement position while is slightly increased by the different roughness topography at the other measurement position. The mean velocity profiles at the reattachment point indicate that the studied roughness weakens the perturbation of the step to the incoming turbulent flow. Comparisons of Reynolds normal and shear stresses, productions of normal stresses, quadrant analysis of the instantaneous shear-stress contributing events, and mean spanwise vorticity reveal that the turbulence in the separated shear layer is reduced by the studied roughness. The results also indicate an earlier separation of the turbulent boundary layer over the current rough step, probably due to the adverse pressure gradient produced by the roughness topography even before the step.

Large Eddy Simulation of Wind Turbine Wakes

We present the coupling of a vortex particle-mesh method with immersed lifting lines for the Large Eddy Simulation of wind turbine wakes. The method relies on the Lagrangian discretization of the Navier–Stokes equations in vorticity-velocity formulation. Advection is handled by the particles while the mesh allows the evaluation of the differential operators and the use of fast Poisson solvers. We use a Fourier-based fast Poisson solver which simultaneously allows unbounded directions and inlet/outlet boundaries. The method also allows the feeding of a turbulent incoming flow. We apply this methodology to the study of large scale aerodynamics and wake behavior of tandem wind turbines. We analyze the generators performance, unsteady power, loads and aerodynamics they are subjected to. The average flow field of the wakes is also computed and turbulence statistics are extracted. In particular, we investigate the influence of the type of turbulent inflow used—precomputed or synthetic—, and study wake meandering.

Calculation of the flow about a sphere and the drag of the sphere under laminar and strongly turbulent conditions

To investigate the influence of a strongly turbulent incoming flow on the hydrodynamic drag of a body and occurrence of the early crisis of drag, a numerical experiment is conducted in which a free gas flow about a sphere is simulated for two cases, namely, for a laminar flow and for a strongly turbulent flow. Turbulence is simulated by assuming a high kinematic coefficient of turbulent viscosity. Calculation data lead us to conclude that the early crisis of drag at Reynolds numbers near 100, which shows up as a considerable (four-to sevenfold) decrease in the hydrodynamic force and the drag coefficient of the body, can be explained by the strong turbulence of the incoming flow.

Atmospheric Turbulence Effects on Wind-Turbine Wakes: An LES Study

A numerical study of atmospheric turbulence effects on wind-turbine wakes is presented. Large-eddy simulations of neutrally-stratified atmospheric boundary layer flows through stand-alone wind turbines were performed over homogeneous flat surfaces with four different aerodynamic roughness lengths. Emphasis is placed on the structure and characteristics of turbine wakes in the cases where the incident flows to the turbine have the same mean velocity at the hub height but different mean wind shears and turbulence intensity levels. The simulation results show that the different turbulence intensity levels of the incoming flow lead to considerable influence on the spatial distribution of the mean velocity deficit, turbulence intensity, and turbulent shear stress in the wake region. In particular, when the turbulence intensity level of the incoming flow is higher, the turbine-induced wake (velocity deficit) recovers faster, and the locations of the maximum turbulence intensity and turbulent stress are closer to the turbine. A detailed analysis of the turbulence kinetic energy budget in the wakes reveals also an important effect of the incoming flow turbulence level on the magnitude and spatial distribution of the shear production and transport terms.