La cavitation hydrodynamique, et plus particulièrement la cavitation à poche attachée, peut apparaitre et se développer dans des écoulements turbulents complexes à l’intérieur de décollements de la couche limite laminaire. Ce phénomène s’avère être également sensible aux autres gaz présents dans l’écoulement comme l’air. Pour mieux comprendre l’attachement de poches de cavitation dans des décollements laminaires et l’influence de l’air sur celles-ci, nous proposons d’étudier des écoulements laminaires décollés d’huiles silicones visqueuses, contenant une grande quantité d’air, autour d’une géométrie Venturi lisse. Dans notre étude nous observons l’apparition de plusieurs types de poches, d’air ou de vapeur, qui peuvent s’attacher dans différents décollements de l’écoulement laminaire. Le dégazage joue alors un rôle important à hautes pressions, générant des poches d’air attachées présentant des dynamiques particulièrement intéressantes.À très basses pressions, des poches de cavitations peuvent s’attacher provoquantselon la stabilité de l’écoulement une transition à un régime transitionnel laminaire/turbulent dans leurs sillage. Cette même transition peut également apparaitre de façon intermittente à plus hautes pressions dans le sillage d’une bulle d’air recirculante, caractéristique du dégazage dans les écoulement laminaires décollés. Le régime transitionnel laminaire/turbulent, beaucoup moins sensible au dégazage, est caractérisé par de la cavitation de tourbillons, générés à hautes fréquences, dans le sillage d’un bulbe de décollement laminaire “court” le long de la pente du Venturi. Le bulbe se développe jusqu’à transitionner brutalement en bulbe “long” pour une taille de poche assez élevée, on peut associer ce phénomène à la supercavitation. / Hydrodynamic cavitation, more specifically attached cavitation, can emerge et develop in complex turbulent flows within laminar boundary layer separations. This phenomenon might be extremely sensitive to the gaz content in the flow. For an easier understanding of the attachment of cavities into laminar separated flows within the influence of air content, we propose to focus our study on viscous silicon oil laminar separated flows, presenting high gas content, within a smooth Venturi geometry. In this study, the inception of several types of attached cavities, filled with air or oil vapor, can be observed into different laminar flow separations. For high pressures, the degassing phenomenon is dominant in the flow, generating attached cavities filled with air presenting interesting dynamics. For low pressures, attach vapor cavities can emerge inducing, if the flow is unstable, the transition to laminar/turbulent transitioning regime in their wake. This transition can also occurs intermittently at higher pressures in the wake of a recirculating air bubble, characteristic to degassing into laminar separated flows. The laminar/turbulent transitioning regime, less sensitive to degassing, is characterized by vortex cavitation, occurring at high frequencies, at the rear of a “short” laminar separation bubble along the divergent Venturi slope. The “short” laminar separation bubble grows until transitioning to a “long” bubble within an large attached cavity. This transition can be associate to thesupercavitation phenomenon.

In an effort to understand the behavior of the laminar separation bubbles on NACA 0012 and Liebeck LA2573a airfoils at different Reynolds numbers and angles of attack, the boundary layers on the solid airfoils were investigated by measuring the mean and fluctuating components of the velocity profiles over the upper surfaces of the airfoils. Surface pressure measurements were carried out to complete the mapping of the laminar separation bubble and to calculate the lift generated by the airfoils. The experiments were carried out at Reynolds numbers of 150,000 and 250,000. The locations of separation, transition and reattachment were determined as functions of angle of attack and Reynolds number for the two airfoils. The drag was estimated from wake pressure measurements and was based on the momentum deficit generated by the airfoil. The size and location of the laminar separation bubble did not show significant changes with Reynolds number and angle of attack for values of the angle of attack between 0 and 6 d grees. The baseline results of the size and location of the laminar separation bubble on the LA2573a airfoil were used to design a suction distribution. This suction distribution was designed based on Thwaites’ criterion of separation. The effects of applying suction on the size and location of the laminar separation bubble were investigated. The results showed that the suction distribution designed in this work was effective in controlling the size of the laminar separation bubble, maintaining an un-separated laminar boundary layer to the transition point, and controlling the location of transition. The effects of different suction rates and distributions on the drag were investigated. Drag reductions of 14-24% were achieved. A figure of merit was defined as drag reductions divided by the equivalent suction drag to assess the worthiness of the utilizing suction on low Reynolds number flows. The values of the figure of merit were around 4.0 which proved that the penalty of using suction was significantly less than the gain obtained in reducing the drag.

This work is focused on the aerodynamics for a proprietary laminar flow airfoil for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) applications. The two main focuses are (1) aerodynamic performance at Reynolds number on the order of 10,000, (2) the effect of a conventional hot-wire probe on laminar separation bubbles. For aerodynamic performance, pressure and wake velocity distributions were measured at Re = 40,000 and 60,000 for a range of angles of attack. The airfoil performed poorly for these Reynolds numbers due to laminar boundary layer separation. 2-D boundary layer trips significantly improved the lift-to-drag ratio. For probe effects, three Reynolds numbers were investigated (Re = 100,000, 150,000, and 200,000), with three angles of attack for each. Pressure and surface shear distributions were measured. Flow upstream of the probe tip was not affected. Transition was promoted downstream due to the additional disturbances in the separated shear layer.

This work is focused on the aerodynamics for a proprietary laminar flow airfoil for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) applications. The two main focuses are (1) aerodynamic performance at Reynolds number on the order of 10,000, (2) the effect of a conventional hot-wire probe on laminar separation bubbles. For aerodynamic performance, pressure and wake velocity distributions were measured at Re = 40,000 and 60,000 for a range of angles of attack. The airfoil performed poorly for these Reynolds numbers due to laminar boundary layer separation. 2-D boundary layer trips significantly improved the lift-to-drag ratio. For probe effects, three Reynolds numbers were investigated (Re = 100,000, 150,000, and 200,000), with three angles of attack for each. Pressure and surface shear distributions were measured. Flow upstream of the probe tip was not affected. Transition was promoted downstream due to the additional disturbances in the separated shear layer.

The later stages of separated shear layer transition within separation bubbles developing over a NACA0018 airfoil operating at a chord Reynolds number of 105 and at angles of attack of 0, 5, 8, and 10 degrees were investigated experimentally in a wind tunnel. Several experimental tools, including a rake of six boundary-layer hot-wire anemometers, were used to perform measurements over the model. Novel high-speed flow visualization performed with a smoke-wire placed within the separated shear layer showed that roll-up vortices are shed within separation bubbles forming on the suction side of the airfoil. The structures were found to convect downstream and eventually break down during laminar-to-turbulent transition. Top view visualizations revealed that, at angles of attack of 0, 5, and 8 degrees, roll-up vortices form coherently across the span and undergo significant spanwise deformations prior to breaking down. At angles of attack of 5 and 8 degrees, rows of streamwise-oriented structures were observed to form during vortex breakdown. Statistics regarding the formation and development of shear layer roll-up vortices were extracted from high-speed flow visualization sequences and compared to the results of boundary layer measurements. It was found that, on the average, roll-up vortices form following the initial exponential growth of unstable disturbances within the separated shear layer and initiate the later stages of transition. The onset of these nonlinear stages was found to occur when the amplitude of velocity disturbances reached approximately 10% of the free-stream velocity. The rate of vortex shedding was found to fall within the frequency band of the unstable disturbances and lie near the central frequency of this band. The formation of vortices has been linked to the generation of harmonics of these unstable disturbances in velocity signals acquired ahead of mean transition. Once shed, vortices were found to drift at speeds between 33% and 44% of the edge velocity. Vortex merging at an angle of attack of 5?? was investigated. It was found that the majority of roll-up vortices proceed to merge with either one or two other vortices. Vortex merging between two and three vortices was found to occur periodically in a process similar to vortex merging in plane mixing layers undergoing subharmonic forcing of the most amplified disturbance. The flapping motion of the separated shear layer was investigated by performing a cross-correlation analysis on the high-speed flow visualization sequences to extract vertical displacement signals of the smoke within the shear layer. The frequency of flapping was found to correspond to the unstable disturbance band. At an angle of attack of 5??, it was found that the separated shear layer has a low-frequency component of flapping that matches a strong peak in velocity and surface pressure spectra that lies outside the unstable disturbance frequency band. The spanwise development of disturbances was assessed in the aft portion of the separation bubbles by performing a cross-correlation analysis on signals acquired simultaneously across the span with the rake of hot-wires. The spanwise correlations between signals was found to be well-correlated ahead of shear layer roll-up, after which disturbances became rapidly uncorrelated ahead of mean reattachment. These results were found to be linked to the coherent roll-up and subsequent breakdown of roll-up vortices.

No description available.

Numerical simulations of particle image velocimetry (PIV) experiments conducted with vortex generating jets (VGJs) on a flat plate, at a Reynolds number based on plate length of 50,000, were performed for three flow conditions using a time-accurate hybrid Navier-Stokes solver. Time-averaged steady blowing of angled jets, subjected to a zero pressure gradient, yielded excellent agreement with the PIV data in terms of vortex formation and strength. Observed flow features include primary and secondary vortices, where the primary vortex eventually dominates the downstream region. A shell wall structure, created by smaller vortical structures surrounding the developing vortices, was also observed. A pulsed jet in a zero pressure gradient was then initialized from a no-control case. A qualitative comparison between averaged experimental and instantaneous numerical results was performed with good agreement in terms of the convected size and distance of the wake. Analysis of the instantaneous numerical flow field agreed well with various flow visualization experiments describing the formation of "kidney" vortices. Various indicators point to the production of a primary vortex by the reduced mass flow of the pulsed jet. Finally, an adverse pressure gradient was applied, inducing a laminar separation zone on the plate. A pulsed angled jet induced strong spanwise vortices in the separated shear layer which appear to weaken the separation zone and allow the bulk jet fluid to flush the remaining low-momentum fluid out of the domain. It is reasonable to assume that reduced blowing ratios and duty cycles would produce similar shear layer vortices and comparable loss reductions. Influences of both turbulent transition and dominant vortical structures were observed, though the spanwise shear layer vortices appear to be critical to the laminar separation reduction scenarios observed in this study.

No description available.

This thesis presents the results of an experimental study that investigates the effects of steady vortex generator jets (VGJs) integrated to a low pressure turbine blade to control the laminar separation bubble occurring on the suction surface of the blade at low Reynolds numbers. The injection technique involves jets issued from the holes located near the suction peak of the test blade which is in the middle of a five-blade low speed linear cascade facility. Three injection cases are tested with different blowing ratio values ranging from low to high. Surface pressure and particle image velocimetry (PIV) measurements are performed. The results show that steady VGJ is effective in eliminating the laminar separation bubble. Also it is observed that to have fully developed attached boundary layer, blowing ratio should be chosen accordingly since a very thin separation zone still exists at low blowing ratios.

Le décrochage est un phénomène aérodynamique instationnaire susceptible d'apparaître sur de nombreux profils aérodynamiques. Il résulte d'un décollement important de l'écoulement vis-à-vis de la paroi de l'aile et dégrade considérablement les performances de vol. Sur certains profils de pales d'hélicoptères, d'éoliennes ou de rotors, ce phénomène se produit dans des conditions d'utilisation normales et justifie la recherche de méthodes de modélisation accessibles industriellement. Le décrochage est initié au bord d'attaque par l'apparition d'une petite région de recirculation de fluide appelée bulbe de décollement laminaire où l'écoulement transitionne de l'état laminaire vers l'état turbulent. Ce phénomène encore mal connu met en jeu transition et écoulements hors équilibre auxquels les outils de modélisation RANS habituellement employés ne sont pas adaptés. Dans cette étude, un bulbe transitionnel typique d'un écoulement de bord d'attaque de pale d'hélicoptère (profil OA209 à un nombre de Reynolds Rec∞=1.8x106 et 15° d'incidence) est isolé sur une plaque plane. Une simulation DNS de cet écoulement est réalisée à l'aide du logiciel FUNk de l'ONERA afin de servir de base de données pour l'amélioration des modèles RANS. L'évolution des bilans de l'équation de transport de l'énergie cinétique turbulente ainsi que les principales hypothèses RANS (isotropie de la turbulence, Boussinesq, équilibre production/dissipation) sont analysées. Une étude des principaux modèles RANS développés dans le logiciel elsA de l'ONERA est ensuite réalisée en pondérant les grandeurs turbulentes par une fonction de transition reproduisant l'intermittence de la turbulence. Le modèle k-ω de Wilcox couplé à une fonction de transition optimisée a donné les résultats les plus proches de la DNS et a donc été l'objet d'une analyse plus approfondie, notamment une évaluation des principales équations bilans et une application de ce modèle et de sa méthode de transition à un cas de transition naturelle de plaque plane. / The stall is an unsteady aerodynamic phenomenon that may occur on many aerodynamic profiles. It consists in a large separation of the flow from the wall of the wing and significantly deteriorates the flight performances. On some blade profiles such as helicopters, turbines or rotors, this phenomenon occurs under normal conditions of use and justifies the research of industrially accessible modeling methods. The stall is initiated at the leading edge by the appearance of a small region of fluid recirculation called a “laminar separation bubble” where the flow transitions from the laminar to the turbulent state. This still poorly understood phenomenon involves transition and non-equilibrium flows for which commonly used RANS modeling tools are not suitable. In this study, a transitional bubble typical of an helicopter leading edge flow (OA209 profile at a Reynolds number Rec∞=1.8x106 and 15° of incidence) is reproduced on a flat plate. A DNS simulation of this flow is performed using the ONERA FUNk software to serve as a database for RANS models improvements. The evolution of turbulent kinetic energy budgets as well as the main RANS assumptions (isotropy of turbulence, Boussinesq hypothesis, production/dissipation balance) are analyzed. The main RANS models developed in the ONERA elsA software are then studied by weighting the turbulent quantities with a transition function reproducing the intermittency of the turbulence. The k-ω Wilcox model coupled with an optimized transition function gave the best results and was therefore kept for a more in-depth analysis, including an assessment of the main budgets and an application of this model and its transition method to a natural transition test case on a flat plate.