On-going efforts to reduce aircraft drag through transition delay focus on understanding the process of boundary-layer transition from a physics-based perspective. For swept-wings subject to transition dominated by a stationary crossflow instability, one of the remaining challenges is understanding how freestream disturbances and surface features such as surface roughness create the initial amplitudes for unstable waves. These waves grow, modify the mean flow and create conditions for secondary instabilities to occur, which in turn ultimately lead to transition. Computational methods that model the primary and secondary instability growth can accurately model disturbance evolution as long as appropriate initial conditions are supplied. Additionally, transition delay using discrete roughness arrays that exploit known sensitivities to surface roughness has been demonstrated in flight and wind tunnel testing; however, inconsistencies in performance from the two test platforms indicate further testing is required. This study uses detailed hotwire boundary-layer velocity scans to quantify the relationship between roughness height and initial disturbance amplitude. Naphthalene flow visualization provides insight into how transition changes as a result of roughness height and spacing. Micron-sized, circular roughness elements were applied near the leading edge of the ASU(67)-0315 model installed at an angle of attack of -2.9 degrees in the Klebanoff-Saric Wind Tunnel. Extensive flow quality measurements show turbulence intensities less than 0.02% over the speed range of interest. A survey of multiple roughness heights for the most unstable and control wavelengths and Reynolds numbers of 2.4 x 10⁶ 2.8 x 10⁶ and 3.2 x 10⁶ was completed for chord locations of 10%, 15% and 20%. When care was taken to measure in the region of linear stability, it was found that the disturbance amplitude varies almost linearly with roughness height. Naphthalene flow visualization indicates that moderate changes in already-low freestream turbulence levels can have a significant impact on transition behavior.

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The research on transition in supersonic and hypersonic boundary layers has been reinvigorated in the last decades because of the increased interest in high-speed flight. The receptivity to environmental disturbances of high-speed boundary layers developing over flat plates or curved surfaces is a very important problem because the transition process is directly impacted by it. The main objective of the research is to determine the effect of small steps on laminar high-speed boundary-layers that are excited by freestream disturbances in the form of vorticity and acoustic waves. Both supesonic and hypersonic regimes are analyzed using a high-order compressible Navier-Stokes numerical algorithm. It is found that both the backward and the forward steps are capable of stabilizing the disturbances that propagate inside the boundary layer. This will potentially delay the formation of three-dimensional disturbances that are precursors to transition into turbulence.

<div>A sharp, circular 7° half-angle cone was tested in the Boeing/AFOSR Mach-6 Quiet Tunnel</div><div>at 6° angle of attack, extending several previous experiments on the growth and breakdown of</div><div>stationary crossflow instabilities in the boundary layer. </div><div><br></div><div>Measurements were made using infrared</div><div>imaging and surface pressure sensors. Detailed measurements of the stationary and traveling</div><div>crossflow vortices, as well as various secondary instability modes, were collected over a large</div><div>region of the cone.</div><div><br></div><div>The Rod Insertion Method (RIM) roughness, first developed for use on a flared cone, was</div><div>adapted for application to crossflow work. It was demonstrated that the roughness elements were</div><div>the primary factor responsible for the appearance of the specific pattern of stationary streaks</div><div>downstream, which are the footprints of the stationary crossflow vortices. In addition, a roughness</div><div>insert was created with a high RMS level of normally-distributed roughness to excite the naturally</div><div>most-amplified stationary mode.</div><div><br></div><div>The nonlinear breakdown mechanism induced by each type of roughness appears to be</div><div>different. When using the discrete RIM roughness, the dominant mechanism seems to be the</div><div>modulated second mode, which is significantly destabilized by the large stationary vortices. This</div><div>is consistent with recent computations. There is no evidence of the presence of traveling crossflow</div><div>when using the RIM roughness, though surface measurements cannot provide a complete picture.</div><div>The modulated second mode shows strong nonlinearity and harmonic development just prior</div><div>to breakdown. In addition, pairs of hot streaks merge together within a constant azimuthal</div><div>band, leading to a peak in the heating simultaneously with the peak amplitude of the measured</div><div>secondary instability. The heating then decays before rising again to turbulent levels. This nonmonotonic</div><div>heating pattern is reminiscent of experiments on a flared cone and earlier computations</div><div>of crossflow on an elliptic cone.</div><div><br></div><div>When using the distributed roughness there are several differences in the nonlinear breakdown</div><div>behavior. The hot streaks appear to be much more uniform and form at a higher wavenumber,</div><div>which is expected given computational results. Furthermore, the traveling crossflow waves become</div><div>very prominent in the surface pressure fluctuations and weakly nonlinear. In addition there</div><div>appears in the spectra a higher-frequency peak which is hypothesized to be a type-I secondary instability</div><div>under the upwelling of the stationary vortices. The traveling crossflow and the secondary</div><div>instability interact nonlinearly prior to breakdown.</div>

This thesis deals with the problems of scaling aerodynamic data from wind tunnel to free flight  conditions. The main challenges when this scaling should be performed is how the model support, wall interference and the potentially lower Reynolds number in the windtunnel should be corrected. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations have been performed on a modern transonic transport aircraft in order to reveal Reynolds number effects and how these should be scaled accurately. A methodology for scaling drag and identifying scaling effects in general is presented.  This investigation also examines how the European Transonic Wind tunnel twin sting model support influences the flow over the aircraft. When the Reynolds number is differing between the wind tunnel and free flight conditions, a change in boundary layer transition position can occur. In order to estimate first order boundary layer transition effects a correlation based transition prediction method, previously presented by Menter and Langtry, is implemented in the CFD solver Edge. The transition model is further developed and a novel set of equations for the production terms is found through a CFD/optimizer coupling. The transition data, used to calibrate the CFD transition model,  have been extracted from a low Mach number wind tunnel campaign. At these low Mach numbers many compressible CFD solvers suffer of poor convergence rates and a deficiency in robustness and accuracy might appear. The low Mach number effects are investigated, and an effort to prevent these is done by implementing different preconditioning techniques in the compressible CFD solver Edge. The preconditioners are mainly based on the general Turkel preconditioner, but a novel formulation is also presented in order to make the numerical technique less problem dependent. / QC 20100903

low about a periodic array of quasi-random distributed roughness is examined using an immersed boundary spectral method. Verification of the code used in the simulations is obtained by comparing solutions to LDA wake survey and flow visualization experiments for a periodic array of cylinders at a roughness height-based Reynolds number of 202 and a diameter to spanwise spacing d/[lambda] of 1/3. Direct comparisons for the quasi-random distributed roughness are made with experiments at roughness height-based Reynolds numbers of 164, 227, and 301. Near-field details are investigated to explore their effects upon transition. Vortices formed as the flow moves over the roughness patch create three distinct velocity deficit regions which persist far downstream. Simulated streamwise velocity contours show good agreement with experiments. Additional geometries are simulated to determine the effects of individual components of the full roughness geometry on near-field flow structures. It was found that the tallest regions of roughness determine the overall wake profile. / text

<div>A 7° half-angle cone with a highly-swept fin was tested in the Boeing/AFOSR Mach-6 Quiet Tunnel at 0.0° angle of attack. Previous measurements of the surface heat transfer using temperature sensitive paint revealed heating streaks on the cone surface related to streamwise vortices generated by the fin shock. High-frequency measurements of the cone-surface pressure fluctuations revealed that transition occurs in the streak region at sufficiently-high freestream unit Reynolds numbers under quiet flow. In this work, high-resolution measurements of the surface heat transfer are obtained using infrared thermography and a polyether-ether-ketone wind-tunnel model. In addition, a novel model design made it possible to measure pressure fluctuations throughout the streak region on the cone surface.</div><div><br></div><div>A slender cone with a sharp nosetip and a fin swept back 75° with a 3.18 mm leading-edge radius served as the primary geometry for this work. Two laminar heating streaks</div><div>were measured on the cone surface. These travel along a line of nearly-constant azimuth. A hot spot develops in the streak farthest from the fin, which then moves upstream with increasing freestream Reynolds number. Downstream of this hot spot, the streaks begin to spread in azimuth. The heat transfer along the outer streak shows a threefold increase near the hot spot before decreasing back to nearly two times the laminar streak heating. The amplitude of the pressure fluctuations increases simultaneously with the heat transfer, reaching a peak of nearly 9% of the Taylor-Maccoll pressure for a 7° straight cone. Power spectral densities calculated from these fluctuations demonstrate spectral broadening, which is indicative of boundary-layer transition. Using surface-pressure-fluctuation and heat-flux measurements, transition onset was estimated to occur at an axial length Reynolds number of 2.2×10⁶. Pressure sensors that were rotated through the streak region showed that multiple instabilities amplify between the heating streaks, upstream of the transition onset location. Downstream of transition onset, the highest-amplitude instabilities are localized to the hot spot in the outer streak. The effect of freestream noise on transition was also investigated with this geometry. Under conventional noise levels, transition onset was estimated to occur at an axial length Reynolds number of 0.93×10⁶, and only one instability was measured in the streak region with a frequency similar to the second-mode instability.</div><div><br></div><div>Four configurations were tested to investigate the effect of fin sweep and nosetip bluntness under quiet flow. Fins with 70° and 75° sweep were each tested with nominally sharp and 1-mm-radius nosetips. Increasing fin sweep was shown to move the heating streaks on the cone closer to the fin and to decrease the peak-to-peak spacing of the streaks. In addition, transition onset occurred at lower freestream unit Reynolds numbers for the 70° sweep case. Increasing nosetip radius had little effect on the heating streaks, other than to delay the transition location. A blunt nosetip was shown to delay transition more for the 75° sweep fin as compared to the 70° fin. Similar instabilities were measured for all four of the configurations in this work. The frequency of the instabilities appears to be correlated with the peak-to-peak distance of the heating streaks, which can be viewed as an indirect measurement of the vortex diameter.</div><div><br></div><div>Lastly, the first quantitative measurements of heat transfer on the fin were made using the infrared thermography apparatus. Peak heating on the fin, not including the leading edge, is lower than peak heating rates on the cone. One broad heating streak was measured close to the corner, and smaller low-heating streaks were measured farther outboard. The heating within the streak closest to the corner was shown to agree well with a fully-laminar computed basic state, indicating that the flow on the fin is laminar up to at least 6.31×10⁶ m⁻¹. Using miniaturized Kulite sensors, pressure fluctuations were measured at twelve locations on the fin surface. No obvious conclusions could be drawn from these Kulite measurements, and there is no clear indication that transition occurs on the fin within the maximum quiet</div><div>freestream conditions.</div>

<div>Wind-tunnel experiments with a sharp 7-degree half-angle cone and a 33% scale Boundary Layer Transition (BOLT) model were performed in the Boeing/AFOSR Mach 6 Quiet Tunnel to investigate the effects of forward- and backward-facing steps on boundary-layer instability and transition. Each model was modified to include intentional steps just downstream of the nosetip. Experiments were performed at different freestream Reynolds numbers and varying step sizes. Infrared thermography was used to calculate surface heat transfer, and high-frequency pressure sensors were used to measure pressure fluctuations. A replica measurement technique was used to accurately measure step heights on the BOLT flight vehicle and the wind tunnel model.</div><div><br></div><div>A 7-degree half-angle cone was tested at 0-degree and 6-degree angles of attack. Step heights ranged from 0.610 mm to 1.219 mm. At a 0-degree angle of attack, no significant increases in heat transfer were observed with any of the forward- or backward-facing steps. However, a 250 kHz instability was measured with the forward-facing steps. Growth of the instability was similar to a second-mode. At a 6-degree angle of attack, an increase in heat transfer was observed on the windward ray with the forward-facing steps. Sharp increases in heating rates and increased pressure fluctuations were indications of boundary-layer transition. Elevated heating rates and pressure fluctuations were not measured with the backward-facing steps.</div><div><br></div><div>The BOLT model was tested at 0-degree, 2-degree, and 4-degree angles of attack and 2-degree and 4-degree yaw angles. Step heights ranged from 0.076 mm to 1.016 mm. At a 0-degree angle of attack and 0-degree yaw angle, thin wedges of heating were observed with the backward-facing steps. Instabilities were measured near these wedges of heating and are thought to be caused by a secondary instability. The effects of the steps were magnified on the windward side of the BOLT model at angles of attack. Wedges of heating were wider and more intense. At higher angles of attack, the onset of heating was further upstream. Sensors near and directly underneath the wedges of heating measured pressure fluctuations that were indicative of a turbulent flow. Wedges of heating were also observed at a 4-degree yaw angle, but only with the 1.016 mm backward-facing step.</div>

No description available.

Wind energy industry thrived in the last three decades, environmental concerns and government regulations stimulate studies on wind farm location selection and wind turbine design. Full-scale experiments and high-fidelity simulations are restrictive due to the prohibitively high cost, while the model-scale experiments and low-fidelity calculations miss key flow physics of unsteady high Reynolds number flows. A hybrid RANS/LES turbulence model integrated with transition formulation is developed and tested by a surrogate model problem through joint experimental and computational fluid dynamics approaches. The model problem consists of a circular cylinder for generating coherent unsteadiness and a downstream airfoil in the cylinder wake. The cylinder flow is subcritical, with a Reynolds number of 64,000 based upon the cylinder diameter. The quantitative dynamics of vortex shedding and Reynolds stresses in the cylinder near wake were well captured, owing to the turbulence-resolving large eddy simulation method that was invoked in the wake. The power spectrum density of velocity components showed that the flow fluctuations were well-maintained in cylinder wake towards airfoil and the hybrid model switched between RANS/LES mode outside boundary layer as expected. According to the experimental and simulation results, the airfoil encountered local flow angle variations up to ±50 degrees, and the turbulent airfoil boundary layer remained attached. Inspecting the boundary layer profiles over one shedding cycle, the oscillation about mean profile resembled the Stokes layer with zero mean. Further processing the data through phase-averaging technique found phase lags along the chordwise locations and both the phase-averaged and mean profiles collapsed into the Law of Wall in the range of 0 < y+ < 50. The features of high blade loading fluctuations due to unsteadiness and transitional boundary layers are of interest in the aerodynamic studies of full-scale wind turbine blades, making the model problem a comprehensive benchmark case for future model development and validation. / Ph. D. / Wind energy industry thrived in the last three decades, environmental concerns and government regulations stimulate studies on wind farm location selection and wind turbine design. Full-scale experiments and high-fidelity simulations are restrictive due to the prohibitively high cost, while the model-scale experiments and low-fidelity calculations miss key flow physics of of the full-scale models. The current study adopted a joint experimental and computational fluid dynamic approach to design a surrogate problem that features the unsteady flow physics presented in the full-scale wind turbine blades. A new hybrid turbulence model was implemented and validated against the complementary experimental results. The new model improves the accuracy of the current industry-standard turbulence models without excessive computational cost, making it a viable solution to the high-fidelity full-scale simulations in the future.