Experimental and Computational Investigation of Transverse Gust Encounters

• Published in: AIAA journal 2019-11, Vol.57 (11), p.4608-4622
• Main Authors: Biler, Hülya, Badrya, Camli, Jones, Anya R
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Computational fluid dynamics; Computer simulation; Flat plates; Fluid flow; Mathematical models; Numerical methods; Reynolds number; Unsteady flow; Velocity; Velocity distribution
• ISSN: 0001-1452; 1533-385X
• DOI: 10.2514/1.J057646

The flow over a flat-plate wing passing through a transverse gust was investigated using both experimental and computational methods. The gust created physically in a water-filled towing tank was found to have a sine-squared velocity profile and was modeled as such in the computations. The physical gust system was designed so that the gust velocity could be varied, thereby allowing for independent variation of the Reynolds number and gust ratio. Dynamically scaled numerical simulations of the physical flow were performed using a three-dimensional Navier–Stokes solver, where the field velocity method with the source term was implemented to simulate the gust. Küssner’s function was also used with Duhamel superposition to find the analytical lift response of a flat plate for the aforementioned transverse velocity profile for comparison with experimental and numerical results. During the gust encounter, forces were found to increase significantly relative to the steady values but fully recovered after the wing exited the gust. The measured forces on the wing were found to scale with the exposed projected area of the wing. Computational forces broadly agreed with experimental and analytical data, and it was shown that the proposed numerical method captures the force trends observed in this transient flow.