Numerical analysis of the three-dimensional aerodynamics of a hovering rufous hummingbird(Selasphorus rufus)

Hummingbirds have a unique way of hover- ing. However, only a few published papers have gone into details of the corresponding three-dimensional vortex struc- tures and transient aerodynamic forces. In order to deepen the understanding in these two realms, this article presents an integrated computational fluid dynamics study on the hovering aerodynamics of a rufous hummingbird. The original morphological and kinematic data came from a former researcher＇s experiments. We found that conical and sta- ble leading-edge vortices （LEVs） with spanwise flow inside their cores existed on the hovering hummingbird＇s wing surfaces. When the LEVs and other near-field vortices were all shed into the wake after stroke reversals, periodically shed bilateral vortex rings were formed. In addition, a strong downwash was present throughout the flapping cycle. Time histories of lift and drag were also obtained. Combining the three-dimensional flow field and time history of lift, we believe that high lift mechanisms （i.e., rotational circulation and wake capture） which take place at stroke reversals in insect flight was not evident here. For mean lift throughout a whole cycle, it is calculated to be 3.60 g （104.0 % of the weight support）. The downstroke and upstroke provide 64.2 % and 35.8 % of the weight support, respectively.

Influence of Surrounding Structures upon the Aerodynamic and Acoustic Performance of the Outdoor Unit of a Split Air-Conditioner

DC-inverter split air-conditioner is widely used in Chinese homes as a result of its high-efficiency and energy-saving. Recently, the researches on its outdoor unit have focused on the influence of surrounding structures upon the aerodynamic and acoustic performance, however they are only limited to the influence of a few parameters on the performance, and practical design of the unit requires more detailed parametric analysis. Three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics（CFD） and computational aerodynamic acoustics（CAA） simulation based on FLUENT solver is used to study the influence of surrounding structures upon the aforementioned properties of the unit. The flow rate and sound pressure level are predicted for different rotating speed, and agree well with the experimental results. The parametric influence of three main surrounding structures（i.e. the heat sink, the bell-mouth type shroud and the outlet grille） upon the aerodynamic performance of the unit is analyzed thoroughly. The results demonstrate that the tip vortex plays a major role in the flow fields near the blade tip and has a great effect on the flow field of the unit. The inlet ring＇s size and throat＇s depth of the bell-mouth type shroud, and the through-flow area and configuration of upwind and downwind sections of the outlet grille are the most important factors that affect the aerodynamic performance of the unit. Furthermore, two improved schemes against the existing prototype of the unit are developed, which both can significantly increase the flow rate more than 6 %（i.e. 100 m3·h～（-1）） at given rotating speeds. The inevitable increase of flow noise level when flow rate is increased and the advantage of keeping a lower rotating speed are also discussed. The presented work could be a useful guideline in designing the aerodynamic and acoustic performance of the split air-conditioner in engineering practice.

Aerodynamic optimization of 3D wing based on iSIGHT

A method for combining the CFD software,Fluent,with the iSIGHT design platform is presented to optimize a three-dimensional wing to ameliorate its aerodynamics performance.In the optimization design,two kinds of genetic algorithms,the Neighborhood Cultivation Genetic Algorithm（NCGA）and the Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm（NSGAII）,are employed and the Navier-Stoke（N-S）equations are adopted to derive the aerodynamics functions of the 3D wing.The aerodynamic performance of the optimized wing has been significantly improved,which shows that the approach can be extended and employed in other cases.

THE FUNDAMENTAL SOLUTION METHOD FOR INCOMPRESSIBLE NAVIER STOKES EQUATIONS

A complete boundary integral formulation for incompressible Navier Stokes equations with time discretization by operator splitting is developed by using the fundamental solutions of the Helmhotz operator equation with different orders. The numerical results for the lift and the drag hysteresis associated with a NACA0012 aerofoil oscillating in pitch are good in comparison with available experimental data.

Multi-Objective Multi-Variable Large-Size Fan Aerodynamic Optimization by Using Multi-Model Ensemble Optimization Algorithm

The constrained multi-objective multi-variable optimization of fans usually needs a great deal of computational fluid dynamics(CFD)calculations and is time-consuming.In this study,a new multi-model ensemble optimization algorithm is proposed to tackle such an expensive optimization problem.The multi-variable and multi-objective optimization are conducted with a new flexible multi-objective infill criterion.In addition,the search direction is determined by the multi-model ensemble assisted evolutionary algorithm and the feature extraction by the principal component analysis is used to reduce the dimension of optimization variables.First,the proposed algorithm and other two optimization algorithms which prevail in fan optimizations were compared by using test functions.With the same number of objective function evaluations,the proposed algorithm shows a fast convergency rate on finding the optimal objective function values.Then,this algorithm was used to optimize the rotor and stator blades of a large axial fan,with the efficiencies as the objectives at three flow rates,the high,the design and the low flow rate.Forty-two variables were included in the optimization process.The results show that compared with the prototype fan,the total pressure efficiencies of the optimized fan at the high,the design and the low flow rate were increased by 3.35%,3.07%and 2.89%,respectively,after CFD simulations for 500 fan candidates with the constraint for the design pressure.The optimization results validate the effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed algorithm.

Improvement of Baldwin-Lomax turbulence model for supersonic complex flows

Entropy represents the dissipation rate of energy. Through direct numerical simulation （DNS） of supersonic compression ramp flow, we find the value of entropy is monotonously decreasing along the wall-normal direction no matter in the attached or the separated region. Based on this feature, a new version of Baldwin-Lomax turbulence model （BL-entropy） is proposed in this paper. The supersonic compression ramp and cavity-ramp flows in which the original Baldwin-Lomax model fails to get convergent solutions are chosen to evaluate the performance of this model. Results from one-equation Spalart-Allmaras model （SA） and two-equation Wilcox k-x model are also included to compare with available experimental and DNS data. It is shown that BLentropy could conquer the essential deficiency of the original version by providing a more physically meaningful length scale in the complex flows. Moreover, this method is simple, computationally efficient and general, making it applicable to other models related with the supersonic boundary layer.

A High Resolution Low Dissipation Hybrid Scheme for Compressible Flows

In this paper, an efficient hybrid shock capturing scheme is proposed to obtain accurate results both in the smooth region and around discontinuities for compressible flows. The hybrid algorithm is based on a fifth-order weighted essentially non-oscillatory （WENO） scheme in the finite volume form to solve the smooth part of the flow field, which is coupled with a characteristic-based monotone upstream-centered scheme for conservation laws （MUSCL） to capture discontinuities. The hybrid scheme is intended to combine high resolution of MUSCL scheme and low dissipation of WENO scheme. The two ingredients in this hybrid scheme are switched with an indicator. Three typical indicators are chosen and compared. MUSCL and WENO are both shock capturing schemes making the choice of the indicator parameter less crucial. Several test cases are carried out to investigate hybrid scheme with different indicators in terms of accuracy and efficiency. Numerical results demonstrate that the hybrid scheme in the present work performs well in a broad range of problems.

Physical Body Impact After High Altitude Bail-out

In most of the emergency circumstances,the aircrew leaves the aircraft under unsatisfied conditions,such as too high relative velocity to the ambient air or low partial oxygen pressure.The aircrew must pass through this area as quickly as possible before opening the parachute safely,viz.,free-fall.Numerical simulations are conducted in this paper to explore the major characteris-tics of the aircrew free-fall process by using a commercial computational fluid dynamic（CFD） software,FLUENT.Coupled with the classical pressure-altitude and temperature-altitude relations,Navier-Stokes（N-S） equations for compressible flow are solved by using finite volume method.The body velocity and the attitude are predicted with six-degree of freedom（6DOF） module.The evolution of velocities,including horizontal,vertical components and angular velocity,is obtained.It is also analyzed further according to the particle kinetic theories.It is validated that the theories can predict the process qualitatively well with a modi-fied drag effect,which mainly stems from the velocity pressure.An empirical modification factor is proposed according to the fitting results.

Multi-domain Spectral Immersed Interface Method for Solving Elliptic Equation with a Global Description of Discontinuous Functions

This paper presents the extension of the global description approach of a discontinuous function, which is proposed in the previous paper, to a spectral domain decomposition method. This multi-domain spectral immersed interlace method（IIM） divides the whole computation domain into the smooth and discontinuous parts. Fewer points on the smooth domains are used via taking advantage of the high accuracy property of the spectral method, but more points on the discontinuous domains are employed to enhance the resolution of the calculation. Two that the domain decomposition technique can placed around the discontinuity. The present reached, in spite of the enlarged computational discontinuous problems are tested to verify the present method. The results show reduce the error of the spectral IIM, especially when more collocation points are method is t：avorable for the reason that the same level of the accuracy can be domain.

A Scalable Infrastructure for Online Performance Analysis on CFD Application

The fast-growing demand of computational fluid dynamics（CFD） application for computing resources stimulates the development of high performance computing（HPC） and meanwhile raises new requirements for the technology of parallel application performance monitor and analysis.In response to large-scale and long-time running for the application of CFD,online and scalable performance analysis technology is required to optimize the parallel programs as well as to improve their operational efficiency.As a result,this research implements a scalable infrastructure for online performance analysis on CFD application with homogeneous or heterogeneous system.The infrastructure is part of the parallel application performance monitor and analysis system（PAPMAS） and is composed of two modules which are scalable data transmission module and data storage module.The paper analyzes and elaborates this infrastructure in detail with respect to its design and implementation.Furthermore,some experiments are carried out to verify the rationality and high efficiency of this infrastructure that could be adopted to meet the practical needs.

A second-order numerical method for elliptic equations with singular sources using local flter

The presence of Dirac delta function in differential equation can lead to a discontinuity,which may degrade the accuracy of related numerical methods.To improve the accuracy,a secondorder numerical method for elliptic equations with singular sources is introduced by employing a local kernel flter.In this method,the discontinuous equation is convoluted with the kernel function to obtain a more regular one.Then the original equation is replaced by this fltered equation around the singular points,to obtain discrete numerical form.The unchanged equations at the other points are discretized by using a central difference scheme.1D and 2D examples are carried out to validate the correctness and accuracy of the present method.The results show that a second-order of accuracy can be obtained in the fltering framework with an appropriate integration rule.Furthermore,the present method does not need any jump condition,and also has extremely simple form that can be easily extended to high dimensional cases and complex geometry.

Aerodynamic Design Methodology for Blended Wing Body Transport

This paper puts forward a design idea for blended wing body（BWB）.The idea is described as that cruise point,maximum lift to drag point and pitch trim point are in the same flight attitude.According to this design idea,design objectives and constraints are defined.By applying low and high fidelity aerodynamic analysis tools,BWB aerodynamic design methodology is established by the combination of optimization design and inverse design methods.High lift to drag ratio,pitch trim and acceptable buffet margin can be achieved by this design methodology.For 300-passenger BWB configuration based on static stability design,as compared with initial configuration,the maximum lift to drag ratio and pitch trim are achieved at cruise condition,zero lift pitching moment is positive,and buffet characteristics is well.Fuel burn of 300-passenger BWB configuration is also significantly reduced as compared with conventional civil transports.Because aerodynamic design is carried out under the constraints of BWB design requirements,the design configuration fulfills the demands for interior layout and provides a solid foundation for continuous work.