The Experimental Investigation of Vortex Wakes from Oscillating Airfoils

• Author / Creator

  Bussiere, Mathew

• The ability to control large vortices in the wake of an unsteady body is studied experimentally. A single airfoil in a uniform flow is forced to oscillate sinusoidally about its aerodynamic center and the resulting wake is expected to be dominated by large coherent vortices The wakes for several different oscillation waveforms are studied and a model describing the evolution of the vortices as they progress downstream is developed and compared to the experimental data. The investigation then expands to 2 airfoils in a tandem configuration where an upstream airfoil produces a predictable and well studied wake which a downstream airfoil attempts to modify in some prescribed manner. The resulting velocity field is measured experimentally with PIV and custom vortex detection software is developed.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • NACA 0012 airfoil
  • PIV
  • Unsteady flow
  • Vortex detection
  • Wake characterization
  • Tandem airfoils

• Graduation date

  Fall 2012

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Science

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R3RC9W

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.