Turbulence Integral Length Research Articles

Aerodynamic Noise from Circular Cylinders Under Turbulent Inflow Conditions

The aerodynamic noise generated by a circular cylinder in a subsonic crossflow is a classical problem in aeroacoustics, which has been investigated experimentally and numerically in the past. The presence of a turbulent inflow is known to have an effect on the generation of tonal noise due to vortex shedding, although the available experimental data are sparse. The present paper describes an experimental study on the noise generated by a set of circular cylinders in grid-generated turbulence conducted in an aeroacoustic wind tunnel facility. Acoustic measurements were performed using microphone array technology. The results show that the free stream turbulence broadens the spectral peak of the vortex shedding tones, especially for cylinders with a diameter that is small compared to the turbulent integral length scale. One key result of the study is that the turbulent inflow leads to an increase in the vortex shedding Strouhal number compared to the case with clean inflow as well as to an additional increase of the Strouhal number with Reynolds number. This trend can also be observed qualitatively in the velocity power spectral densities measured in the wake of a selected cylinder using hot-wire anemometry.

Wind Field Characteristics of the 13 June 2014 Downburst Event in Beijing Based on Meteorological Tower Records

Understanding the characteristics of downburst wind fields is crucial for studying structural resistance to downbursts. Based on measured data from the 325 m meteorological tower in Beijing, this paper investigates the spatiotemporal evolution of mean and fluctuating winds during a non-stationary downburst. Key wind field parameters such as the mean wind speed, turbulence intensity, turbulence integral length scale, probability density function, power spectral density, evolutionary power spectral density, and gust factor are statistically analyzed. The results show that the wind speed of downburst undergoes rapid changes, with wind direction significantly influenced by outflow vortices at low altitudes and relatively stable at higher altitudes. When the event happens, the temperature decreases sharply. The mean wind speeds and turbulence integral length scale of the downburst exhibit pronounced “nose-shaped” profile characteristics at the moment when peak wind speed occurs. The turbulence intensity at lower altitudes predominantly exceeds that at higher altitudes. The probability density distribution function of the reduced fluctuating wind speed matches the standard Gaussian distribution curve. The fluctuating wind speeds of the downburst exhibit significant non-stationary characteristics, with their energy mainly distributing in the period of rapid change of wind speed in the time domain and concentrating in the vicinity of 0–0.1 Hz in the frequency domain. The gust factor reaches its maximum at the moment when the peak wind speed occurs.

Influence of freestream turbulence and porosity on porous disk-generated wakes

This study aims to evaluate the effect of freestream turbulence (FST) on wakes produced by disks with different porosity. The wakes are exposed to various freestream turbulence “flavors,” where turbulence intensity and integral length scale are independently varied. The turbulent wakes are interrogated through hot-wire anemometry from 3 to 15 diameters downstream of the disks. It is found that disks with low porosity behave similarly to a solid body, in terms of both entrainment behavior and scaling laws for the centerline mean velocity evolution. Far from the disks, the presence of FST reduces both the wake growth rate and entrainment rate, with a clear effect of both turbulence intensity and integral length scale. As porosity increases, these “solid body” FST effects gradually diminish and are reversed above a critical porosity. The entrainment behavior in disk-generated wakes is significantly influenced by the presence of large-scale coherent structures, which act as a shield between the wake and the surrounding flow, thus impeding mixing in the near wake. We found that higher porosity, turbulence intensity, or integral length scale weakens the energy content of these structures, thereby limiting their influence on wake development to a shorter distance downstream of the disk. This, in turn, potentially reduces the influence of large-scale engulfment on the overall entrainment mechanism to a shorter distance downstream of the disks as well. For low-porosity disks, freestream turbulence intensity initially promotes near-wake growth through the suppression of large-scale structures; however, farther downstream, the wakes grow faster when the background is nonturbulent. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Acoustic effects on aerodynamic characteristics of a surface-mounted square cylinder

The coupling between sound and flow likely influences the aerodynamics of bluff bodies, which deserves in-depth investigations. This paper presents a comprehensive experimental study of the effects of sound on the near wake flow and aerodynamic forces of a finite three-dimensional (3D) square cylinder in smooth flow and grid-generated turbulent flows. The study centers on the respective influences of a wider range of sound frequencies (1–2000 Hz) and sound pressure levels (60–100 dB) compared to previous studies. Employing a combination of particle image velocimetry and pressure measurements, the effects of sound on the aerodynamic characteristics, specifically, the near wake flow field, vortex shedding dynamics and pressure distributions are investigated. The spectral analysis and proper orthogonal decomposition analysis are conducted to gain deeper insights into the effects of sound on the coherent structures of the aerodynamic forces around the square cylinder. The results demonstrate that the influences of sound in modulating the wind pressure distributions on the cylinder are dependent on both the sound frequency and sound pressure level. The findings also highlight the occurrence of acoustic resonance and its impact on vortex-shedding behaviors and flow fields, demonstrating the sensitivity of these phenomena to specific sound frequencies and sound pressure levels. Furthermore, these sound-induced change phenomena can be weakened when turbulence is added to the approaching flows. The degree of this attenuation is found to vary depending on specific characteristics of a turbulent flow, such as turbulence intensities and integral length scales.

Impact of freestream turbulence integral length scale on wind farm flows and power generation

Impact of freestream turbulence integral length scale on wind farm flows and power generation

Impacts of inflow turbulence on the flow past a permeable disk

A permeable disk serves as a simplified model for the conversion of wind energy by a horizontal axis wind turbine. In this study, we investigate how inflow turbulence intensity (TI), $I_\infty$ , and inflow turbulence integral length scale, $L_\infty$ , influence the flow recovery in the wake, the capability of a permeable disk in extracting turbulence kinetic energy (TKE) of the incoming flow, and the statistics of wake-added turbulence using large-eddy simulation. The simulated inflows include various TIs (i.e. $I_\infty =2.5\,\%$ – $25\,\%$ ) and integral length scales (i.e. $L_\infty / D =0.5$ – $2.0$ ) for two thrust coefficients. Simulation results show that both inflow TI and integral length scale influence flow recovery via enhanced ejections and sweeps across the wake boundary, with the former strongly affecting the position where the wake starts to recover and the latter mainly on the recovery rate. Moreover, it is shown that increasing $I_\infty$ and $L_\infty$ increases the TKE extraction by the disk, occurring mainly at scales ( $s$ ) greater than $0.5D$ and frequencies depending on the inflow integral length scale. As for the wake-added TKE, the inflow TI mainly affects its intensity, while the inflow integral length scale affects both its intensity and the sensitive frequencies, with the spectral distributions in scale space ( $s$ ) being similar and the peak located around $s/D=1.0$ for the considered inflows.

Effects of turbulence intensity and integral length scale on wind-induced vibrations of a three-dimensional aeroelastic square cylinder

Effects of turbulence intensity and integral length scale on wind-induced vibrations of a three-dimensional aeroelastic square cylinder

Requirements for partial turbulence simulations using nondimensional turbulence energy contributions

Requirements for partial turbulence simulations using nondimensional turbulence energy contributions

Isolating effects of large and small scale turbulence on thermodiffusively unstable premixed hydrogen flames

Isolating effects of large and small scale turbulence on thermodiffusively unstable premixed hydrogen flames

Experimental study on characteristics of methane-coal dust explosions and the spatiotemporal evolution of flow field in early flame

Experimental study on characteristics of methane-coal dust explosions and the spatiotemporal evolution of flow field in early flame

Effects of turbulence integral length scales on aerodynamic characteristics and displacement responses of a square prism

This paper investigates the influence of the inflow turbulence integral length scales on the aerodynamic forces on a surface-mounted finite-length square prism and its displacement responses by computational fluid dynamics simulations. Four turbulent inflow conditions with the same mean wind speed and turbulence intensity but different longitudinal and transverse turbulence integral length scales are generated for the simulations. First, the wind pressures and forces on a rigid square prism model and the shear layer characteristics are simulated by large eddy simulations. The simulation results show that the mean characteristics of the wind pressures and shear layers are not sensitive to the turbulence integral length scales. However, the root mean square (RMS) wind pressures on side faces and RMS across-wind forces are increased with the longitudinal turbulence integral length scale, and the mechanism is analyzed by the proper orthogonal decomposition. Second, the displacement responses at the mean wind speed of vortex-induced resonance are computed based on an aeroelastic square prism model by fluid–solid interaction simulations. The RMS displacements of the model are observed to be more sensitive to the transverse turbulence integral length scale rather than the longitudinal turbulence integral length scale. Finally, the influence of the turbulence integral length scales on the Reynolds stresses around the square prism is presented and discussed.

Onsite measurements of pedestrian-level wind and preliminary assessment of effects of turbulence characteristics on human body convective heat transfer

Onsite measurements of pedestrian-level wind and preliminary assessment of effects of turbulence characteristics on human body convective heat transfer

The lidar probe volume averaging effect: A wind tunnel investigation in streamwise turbulence with continuous-wave lidar

The main limitation of lidars to capture the turbulence is the filtering of small-scale fluctuations within the probe volume, which is far less significant with conventional anemometers. In this study, the probe volume averaging effect on the streamwise turbulence statistics is investigated in the wind tunnel. Different turbulent flows, which exhibit distinct turbulence intensities and integral length scales are generated and subsequently captured using a short-range continuous-wave WindScanner with different probe volumes. Hot wire measurements are performed as a reference. The results indicate that the turbulence intensity (TI) is underestimated using conventional lidar methods compared to the hot wire measurements. The relative error increases with the increasing ratio of probe volume over integral length scale (l p /L) which is the indication of probe volume averaging. The TI is underestimated by 4 % at l p /L = 0.5 and by 63 % at the largest tested l p /L = 11.3 with the conventional lidar method. However, the TI estimated from the averaged Doppler spectrum of the lidar compensates for the probe volume averaging effect and shows a better agreement with the hot wire measurements with an average overestimation of 7.8 %. This study shows that the continuous-wave lidars have the potential to estimate the TI under different flow conditions using the averaged Doppler spectrum method.

Buffeting characteristics of cable-stayed box beam bridge based on pressure measurement test of full bridge aeroelastic model

Buffeting characteristics of cable-stayed box beam bridge based on pressure measurement test of full bridge aeroelastic model

Broadband Noise Reduction of a Two-Stage Fan with Wavy Trailing-Edge Blades

In this paper, a numerical investigation is performed to study the broadband noise of a fan stage with wavy trailing-edge blades. A study of the wavelength and ratio of amplitude to wavelength (H/L) is conducted to better understand the noise reduction effect of wavy trailing-edge blades. A rotor–stator interaction broadband noise prediction method based on the result of a Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes equation is used. The results show that all wavy trailing-edge configurations reduce the sound power level of the fan stage. The noise reduction effect of H20L10 is the best among all the wavy trailing-edge configurations, and the sound power level is reduced by 2.4 dB at 1000 Hz. When the H/L remains unchanged, the noise reduction effect of the wavy trailing-edge configuration increases with the increase in wavelength. When the wavelength remains unchanged, the noise reduction effect of the wavy trailing-edge configuration with an H/L of 2 is the best. The use of wavy trailing-edge configurations reduces the turbulent kinetic energy and turbulent integral length scale upstream of the stator by changing the wake of the rotor, thereby reducing the rotor–stator interaction broadband noise of the fan stage.

A new probability-distribution scale synthetic eddy method for large eddy simulation of wind loads

A new probability-distribution scale synthetic eddy method for large eddy simulation of wind loads

A numerical framework to investigate isotropic turbulent inflow interacting with an airfoil’s leading edge

A numerical framework to investigate isotropic turbulent inflow interacting with an airfoil’s leading edge

Impact of High-Pressure-Turbine Purge Flow on the Evolution of Turbulence in a Turbine Vane Frame

Abstract This paper describes the measurement and postprocessing of turbulence data. The experiments were carried out in a two-stage, two-spool transonic turbine test rig at the Institute for Thermal Turbomachinery and Machine Dynamics at the Graz University of Technology, which includes relevant purge and turbine rotor tip leakage flows. The test setup consists of a high-pressure turbine (HPT) stage, a turbine vane frame (TVF) with turning struts and splitters, and a counter-rotating low-pressure turbine (LPT) to allow engine realistic measurements. Time-resolved area traverse measurements have been performed for three different operating conditions in three measurement planes downstream of the HPT rotor, which enable the measurement of the turbulence quantities at the TVF inlet and outlet as well as the LPT outlet. The turbulence quantities are evaluated using triaxial- and single hot-film probes by means of Constant-Temperature-Anemometry, and their results were validated with five-hole probe (FHP) measurements. Ensemble- and time-averaging, as well as Fourier transforms, were applied for data reduction. It is shown how the turbulence intensity and integral length scale vary over different purge flowrates (PFR). The acquired measurement data illustrate that the interaction of the ejected purge flow with mean flow enhances the turbulent mixing in the secondary flow structures at the TVF inlet and TVF outlet, respectively. Furthermore, the flow downstream of the LPT rotor is affected by TVF and LPT rotor secondary flow structures, which are identified as high turbulence regions. These regions strongly depend on the purge flowrate. These results acquired under engine realistic rig flow conditions enable a deeper understanding of the relationship between loss and turbulence quantities and will help improve the application of computational fluid dynamics turbulence models to turbomachinery modeling.

Experimental Study of Wake Evolution under Vertical Staggered Arrangement of Wind Turbines of Different Sizes

During the expansion of a wind farm, the strategic placement of wind turbines can significantly improve wind energy utilization. This study investigates the evolution of wake turbulence in a wind farm after introducing smaller wind turbines within the gaps between larger ones, focusing on aspects such as wind speed, turbulence intensity, and turbulence integral length scale. The flow field conditions are described using parameters like turbulence critical length and power spectral density, as determined through wind tunnel experiments. In these experiments, a single large wind turbine model and nine smaller wind turbine models were used to create a small wind farm unit, and pressure distribution behind the wind turbines was measured under various operating conditions. The results indicate that downstream wind speed deficits intensify as the number of small wind turbines in operation increases. The impact of these smaller turbines varies with height, with a relatively minor effect on the upper blade tip and increasingly adverse effects as you move from the upper blade tip to the lower blade tip. Through an analysis of power spectral density, the contribution of vortex motion to wake turbulence kinetic energy is further quantified. In the far wake region, the number of small wind turbines has a relatively small impact on wind speed fluctuations.

Measurements of Turbulence in Compressible Low-Density Flows at the Inlet of a Transonic Linear Cascade With and Without Unsteady Wakes

Abstract In the present work, hot-wire anemometry was employed for the characterization of the turbulent field at the inlet of a high-speed low-pressure turbine cascade, in terms of turbulence intensity and integral length scales. This work addresses two major topics relevant to the turbomachinery field: the application of hot-wire anemometry in transonic and rarefied flow regimes and the decoupling of the deterministic and the stochastic fluctuations when measuring unsteady phenomena. In compressible and rarefied flows, a hot-wire is strongly sensitive to both density and velocity fluctuations, and the commonly used Nusselt–Reynolds correlations are not valid. In this article, a nondimensional calibration methodology, based on Nusselt, Reynolds, and Knudsen numbers, was coupled with a sensitivity analysis and employed to postprocess the experimental dataset, allowing to decouple the fluctuations of density and velocity and to compute the turbulence parameters. In the presence of unsteady wakes generated upstream of the cascade, two different phase-locked averaging techniques were employed to distinguish the wake deterministic fluctuations from the background turbulence intensity.