Simultaneous surface pressure and high-speed PIV measurements in stalled airfoil

Abstract

The time-resolved velocity field (2D2C high-speed PIV) and surface pressure (pressure taps) of a stalled NACA0012 airfoil have been simultaneously measured. These measurements enable cross-evaluation of the velocity field and pressure time series. The present paper evaluates the flow field and surface pressure using POD, cross-correlation and conditional averaging. First, the flow and surface pressure are analysed independently. Both the time-average and the dynamic structures of the flow are presented. Distinct frequency bands are observed in the energy spectra of the surface-pressure signal. It is shown that a high-pressure event at the foremost pressure port (at x/c = 0.34) is followed by high-pressure events at the other pressure ports (x/c = 0.51-0.93), indicating a decaying pressure wave that travels over the surface with roughly half the free-stream velocity. Next, the link between the flow field and the surface pressure is explored. Using cross-correlation, it is shown that the pressure signal correlates with specific regions in the flow. Conditional averages of the flow fields, conditioned to high-pressure events at the surface, indicate that these pressure events are caused by coherent structures in the flow. These structures consist of a train of alternating vortices that induce velocity components toward and away from the surface, causing high-and low-pressure events at this surface. By filtering the pressure signal with different frequency bands, the flow structures responsible for different peaks in the energy spectra are recovered. A POD analysis indicates that the energy of the coherent flow structures leading to surface-pressure fluctuations only contain a fraction of the total energy of the flow. While POD and cross-correlation are applied to a full time-series, the conditional averages show that coherent structures in the flow can be identified in real-time using the surface pressure. Identification of coherent structures in the flow using only the surface pressure signal enables real-time control of such structures.

More information

Identifiers

ORCID for Giovanni Lacagnina: orcid.org/0000-0002-8038-1127

ORCID for Bharathram Ganapathisubramani: orcid.org/0000-0001-9817-0486

Catalogue record

Export record