Now showing 1 - 10 of 16
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    Control of Laminar Boundary-Layer Separation on a Rectangular Wing using Decambering Approach
    (01-01-2022)
    Roy, Aritras
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    This paper investigates an improvement of the aerodynamic performance of a rectangular wing by re-designing its camberline to control the laminar separation of its boundary layer. This is experimentally implemented using an Aluminium secondary skin on the wing surface, which aligns itself to the separated boundary layer, such that the flow remains attached to it, which otherwise would have separated on the baseline configuration. The shape of the skin, which is now regarded as the effective flow surface, is essentially a decambered version of the baseline shape of the wing and is predicted numerically using an in-house code based on two linear functions that account for the local deviation of camber by accounting for the difference in coefficients of lift and pitching moments. Aerodynamic characteristics of the effective decambered configurations using numerical analysis, CFD, and wind tunnel experiments are reported. Results indicate that significant improvement in aerodynamic performance can be achieved for laminar separation control through this active flow surface.
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    Numerical morphing of a rectangular wing to prevent flow separation
    (01-01-2020)
    Roy, Aritras
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    The surface of a rectangular wing is morphed numerically at high angles of attack such that it still operates at the reduced coefficient of lift at which the baseline wing operates but while the flow is separated on the baseline wing, it remains attached on the morphed wing. The aerodynamic characteristics of the baseline wing are obtained experimentally and that of the morphed wing is obtained numerically. The morphed surface at high angles of attack is obtained using a novel ‘decambering’ technique, which accounts for the deviation of the coefficients of lift and pitching moment from that predicted by the potential flow. Two wings with different airfoil sections, N ACA0012 and N ACA4415 are tested and compared at high α. Numerical morphing of wing surface for design coefficient of lift (CL ) (in terms of percentage increment) is presented at angles of attack 50 and 150 . This concept of design CL of a morphing wing is one of the possible solutions to fly at different flight conditions with corresponding targets and maneuvering requirements. A significant addition to the present numerical approach is to provide some comparison of the flow separation behavior with CFD at the root section of both the wing sections. The effects of morphed surfaces on drag penalty, coefficient of lift and post-stall angles of attack are studied and compared in terms of aerodynamic performance.
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    Aerodynamic analysis of basic and extended lead-trail formation using numerical technique
    (01-01-2020)
    Gunasekaran, M.
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    This paper uses a numerical post-stall predictive tool based on ‘decambering’ approach to study the aerodynamic characteristics of a lead-trail formation in pre and post-stall flow conditions. A basic lead-trail formation consisting of 2 wings and an extended formation consisting of 5 wings are studied with a view to the possibility of fuel savings, increase in range of operation, delayed flow separation and efficient positioning of the wings with respect to each other. Whether increasing the number of wings in a configuration is more useful is also looked into. The optimum operational angles of attack for maximum advantage in terms of fuel efficiency of all wings is studied including post-stall angles of attack. Numerical results for CL, CDi, section Cl distribution and their dependence on vertical offsets and angle of attack are reported.
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    Publication
    Effect of aerospike on unsteady transonic flow over a blunt body
    (01-01-2021)
    Gireesh, Yanamashetti
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    Singh, Dheerendra Bahadur
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    Suryanarayana, Gargeshwari K.
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    Blunt-nosed launch vehicles featuring large nose-cone angles experience high levels of pressure fluctuations over the payload region at transonic Mach numbers due to shock-wave/boundary-layer interactions. The main cause for this phenomenon appears to be flow instability associated with separated flow and formation of a vortex pair. Interactions between the induced velocity of the vortex pair and oncoming mean flow cause oscillations of the λ-shock system and high levels of fluctuating pressures. An aerospike causes flow separation at the nose and reattachment of the shear layer downstream, energizing the boundary layer. Consequently, flow separation and vortex formation are prevented: shock oscillations are stabilized. Dramatic reductions in the pressure fluctuations, around 95–35% in the low-frequency range, are observed along the payload region at small angles of attack. The observations are based on wind-tunnel tests involving unsteady pressure measurements, surface-flow patterns, and high-speed shadowgraph recordings on a blunt nose cone with various cone angles.
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    Time series behaviour of laminar separation bubble at low reynolds number
    (01-01-2021)
    Roy, Aritras
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    This paper identifies the laminar separation bubble at the root or span-wise midsection of a rectangular wing using direct surface pressure measurements and analyses their behavior. The locations of separation, transition, and reattachment are identified from surface pressure measurements and oil flow visualizations. Surface oil flow visualization results also clarified the wing-tip and separation bubble interactions near the leading edge of the wing. The transition structure and turbulence characteristics in the separated shear layer locations are studied using Laser Doppler Velocimetry. Time series analysis is carried out to distinguish the flow patterns of transition and later transition locations along with chordwise locations of the root section of the wing.
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    Study of Rayleigh–Bénard Convection in Jet-A fuel with non-Oberbeck–Boussinesq effect
    (01-03-2023)
    Egambaravel, J.
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    Vashist, T. K.
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    Two-dimensional Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS) of Rayleigh–Bénard Convection of Jet-A fluid (Pr=19.17) is performed in a square cavity. The Rayleigh number of this study is Ra=107 with a temperature difference ΔT=40 K between hot and cold plates to account for non-Oberbeck–Boussinesq (NOB) effect. The Jet-A fluid has higher viscosity and lower thermal conductivity compared to water and the Prandtl number is approximately 4.4 times higher than water at mean temperature of 40 °C. The fluid properties of the working fluid are defined as a polynomial function of temperature. The Boundary layer thicknesses, the Centre line temperature, Flow reversals and the Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD) modes are investigated. We report the standard and cessation type flow reversals for the Jet-A fluid with Prandtl number of around 19. The power spectral density (PSD) of velocity follows the Bolgiano–Obukhov (BO) scaling.
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    Three dimensional rectangular wing morphed to prevent stall and operate at design local two dimensional lift coefficient
    (01-12-2020)
    Roy, Aritras
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    The surface of a rectangular wing is morphed at high angles of attack such that it continues to operate at the reduced coefficient of lift (Cl) at which the baseline wing operates, but unlike the baseline wing, where the flow is separated, the flow remains attached on the morphed wing. A morphed surface is also generated to operate at a local design 2D (two-dimensional) Cl, which is obtained by incrementing the baseline Cl by a percentage at pre and post-stall angles of attack. The morphed surface is generated numerically using a novel ‘decambering’ technique, which accounts for the deviation of the coefficients of lift and pitching moment from that predicted by potential flow, analytically, using CFD and implemented experimentally by attaching an external Aluminium skin to the leading edge of the wing. Two different wing sections, NACA0012 and NACA4415, are tested on a rectangular planform. The effect of morphing on the aerodynamic performance is discussed, and aerodynamic characteristics are reported. Results indicate that significant improvement in aerodynamic performance is achieved at high angles of attack, especially at post-stall through this active morphed flow surface.
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    Experimental validation of numerical decambering approach for flow past a rectangular wing
    (01-07-2020)
    Roy, Aritras
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    Vinoth Kumar, R.
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    Experimental investigation on two rectangular wings with NACA0012 and NACA4415 profiles is performed at different Reynolds numbers to understand their aerodynamic behaviours at a high α regime. In-house developed numerical code VLM3D is validated using this experimental result in predicting the aerodynamic characteristics of a rectangular wing with cambered and symmetrical wing profile. The sectional coefficient of lift ((Formula presented.)) obtained from the numerical approach is used to study the variation in spanwise lift distribution. The lift and moment characteristics obtained from wind tunnel experiments are plotted, and change in the maximum coefficient of lift ((Formula presented.)) and stall angle (α stall) are studied for both of the wing sections. A significant addition to the novelty of the present experiments is to provide some comparison of the numerical induced drag coefficient, (Formula presented.) with experimentally fitted model coefficients using least square technique. A novel method is used to examine the aerodynamic hysteresis at high angles of attack. The area included in the lift- Re curve loop is a measure of aerodynamic efficiency, and its variation with angle of attack and wing plan forms is studied.
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    Passive control of transonic flow over a blunt body using aerospikes
    (01-01-2020)
    Yanamashetti, Gireesh
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    Singh, D. B.
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    Suryanarayana, G. K.
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    Blunt nose cones used in launch vehicles can excite buffet due to shock oscillations over the payload fairing on the leeward side at transonic Mach numbers and small angles of attack. Wind-tunnel tests show that the overall aerodynamic characteristics, such as the pitching moment and location of the center of pressure, experience sudden jumps at these conditions. Thus, the longitudinal stability and controllability of a launch vehicle, as well as unsteady loading on the payload fairing, can be affected. The cause of these oscillations is found to be interactions between the stream wise flow and reverse flow induced by a pair of counter-rotating vortices over the payload fairing. An aerospike was found to prevent the formation of counter-rotating vortices, shock oscillations, as well as jumps in overall aerodynamic characteristics, with no significant changes in the drag coefficient. The observations are supported by high-speed shadowgraphs and surface-flow visualizations. Computational fluid dynamics studies suggest that the shear layer from the tip of the aerospike envelops a significant region of the heat shield in a reverse flow due to the formation of a separation bubble. Mean-flow models of the topologies of the flow field for the model without and with aerospike are proposed.
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    Experimental Study on the Behaviour of Local Laminar Separation Bubble at a Rectangular Wing Section
    (01-12-2021)
    Roy, A.
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    This paper identifies laminar separation bubbles at the root or span-wise midsection of a rectangular wing using direct surface pressure measurements in the wind tunnel and analyses their behavior at different Reynolds numbers and angles of attack. The separation, transition, and reattachment locations are determined as functions of the angles of attack and the Reynolds number. The transition structure and turbulence characteristics in the separated shear layer are studied using laser Doppler velocimetry. Surface pressure data and simultaneously acquired velocity signals are correlated to show the pattern of growing disturbances in the shear layer. Surface oil flow visualizations clarified the wingtip and separation bubble’s interactions near the leading edge of the wing at the higher angles of attack. Turbulence statistics are also calculated from the streamwise velocity distributions, and an apparent deviation is observed for the skewness and flatness values from the normal distributions in the near-wall region. The separation bubble effect on aerodynamic coefficients of a 3D rectangular wing root section is studied and reported.