Large eddy simulation of aircraft wake vortex with self-adaptive grid method

A self-adaptive-grid method is applied to numerical simulation of the evolu- tion of aircraft wake vortex with the large eddy simulation （LES）. The Idaho Falls （IDF） measurement of run 9 case is simulated numerically and compared with that of the field experimental data. The comparison shows that the method is reliable in the complex atmospheric environment with crosswind and ground effect. In addition, six cases with different ambient atmospheric turbulences and Brunt V^iis/il^i （BV） frequencies are com- puted with the LES. The main characteristics of vortex are appropriately simulated by the current method. The onset time of rapid decay and the descending of vortices are in agreement with the previous measurements and the numerical prediction. Also, sec-ondary structures such as baroclinic vorticity and helical structures are also simulated. Only approximately 6 million grid points are needed in computation with the present method, while the number can be as large as 34 million when using a uniform mesh with the same core resolution. The self-adaptive-grid method is proved to be practical in the numerical research of aircraft wake vortex.

Relationship between wall shear stresses and streamwise vortices in turbulent flows over wavy boundaries

The relationship between wall shear stresses and near-wall streamwise vortices is investigated via a direct numerical simulation(DNS) of turbulent flows over a wavy boundary with traveling-wave motion. The results indicate that the wall shear stresses are still closely related to the near-wall streamwise vortices in the presence of a wave. The wave age and wave phase significantly affect the distribution of a two-point correlation coefficient between the wall shear stresses and streamwise vorticity. For the slow wave case of c/Um = 0.14, the correlation is attenuated above the leeward side while the distribution of correlation function is more elongated and also exhibits a larger vertical extent above the crest. With respect to the fast wave case of c/U_m=1.4, the distribution of the correlation function is recovered in a manner similar to that in the flat-wall case. In this case, the maximum correlation coefficient exhibits only slight differences at different wave phases while the vertical distribution of the correlation function depends on the wave phase.

Development of inflow turbulence in microscale urban atmospheric environment

The sensitivity of turbulence-development to inflow turbulent statistics is investigated in microscale urban atmospheric environment flows. Large-eddy simulations （LESs） are carried out, in which the inflow error is brought in by transforming a fully developed turbulent field according to the Reynolds stress or energy spectra. A theoretical analysis is performed by neglecting the diffusion term in the budget equations of the turbulent kinetic energy. The results show that, （i） the error caused by the Reynolds stress decays until the fully developed level is achieved, and （ii） the error caused by the characteristic length scale increases immediately and then decreases. The streamwise changing rate of the inflow error weakens when the vertical coordinate increases. Further testing of the effects of the inflow inner- and outer-layer data shows that, the inflow inner- layer data dominate the near field, and the inflow outer-layer data dominate the far field.

A new vortex sheet model for simulating aircraft wake vortex evolution

A new vortex sheet model was proposed for simulating aircraft wake vortex evolution.Rather than beginning with a pair of counter-rotating cylindrical vortices as in the traditional models, a lift-drag method is used to initialize a vortex sheet so that the roll-up phase is taken into account. The results of this model report a better approximation to a real situation when compared to the measurement data. The roll-up induced structures are proved to influence the far-field decay.On one hand, they lead to an early decay in the diffusion phase. On the other hand, the growth of linear instability such as elliptical instability is suppressed, resulting in a slower decay in the rapid decay phase. This work provides a simple and practicable model for simulating wake vortex evolution, which combines the roll-up process and the far-field phase in simulation. It is also proved that the roll-up phase should not be ignored when simulating the far-field evolution of an aircraft wake vortex pair, which indicates the necessity of this new model.

Flow patterns and dissipation of turbulent kinetic energy in near-wall turbulence

It is disclosed the flow patterns of turbulent flows in near wall region by means of topological analysis. It has found that there exists a close relationship between the topological characteristics and the spikes which are dominated by the strong normal velocity fluctuations near the wall. It is also shown that the dissipation of turbulent kinetic energy is closely related to the spike events.