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Master Thesis 2013-2014

When flexible structures are subjected to a flow, small deformations due to aerodynamic forces can be amplified by the interaction between the structure motion and the flow. This phenomenon is called flutter. If the flow speed is large enough, structural damping might be insufficient to damp out the motion, which can lead to catastrophic failure of the structure. Therefore, it is critical to account for flutter in the design of those structures. Flutter can be observed not only on aircraft wings

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12 views7 pages

Master Thesis 2013-2014

When flexible structures are subjected to a flow, small deformations due to aerodynamic forces can be amplified by the interaction between the structure motion and the flow. This phenomenon is called flutter. If the flow speed is large enough, structural damping might be insufficient to damp out the motion, which can lead to catastrophic failure of the structure. Therefore, it is critical to account for flutter in the design of those structures. Flutter can be observed not only on aircraft wings

Uploaded by

nadji100
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Master Thesis 2013-2014

CFD of unsteady aerodynamics and


fluid-structure interaction
OVERALL DESCRIPTION
When flexible structures are subjected to a flow, small deformations due to aero-
dynamic forces can be amplified by the interaction between the structure motion
and the flow. This phenomenon is called flutter. If the flow speed is large enough,
structural damping might be insufficient to damp out the motion, which can lead
to catastrophic failure of the structure. Therefore, it is critical to account for flut-
ter in the design of those structures. Flutter can be observed not only on aircraft
wings, but also in many other cases like bridges (see the Tacoma bridge collapse
below), cables...

To investigate this phenomenon, the “Aeroelasticity and Experimental Aerody-


namics Laboratory” at ULg has conducted experimental measurements for dif-
ferent geometries. This large database of experimental measurements is now to
be extended to numerical results. The goal is to use numerical approaches, like
Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), to investigate these aeroelastic phenomena
and, thus, improve our understanding of the underlying physics.
TOPICS
In the following, different topics associated with the CFD of unsteady aerodynam-
ics and fluid-structure interaction are proposed
• Optimization of the Discrete Vortex Method (DVM) for bluff bodies by the
Fast Multipole Method (FMM)
• CFD of stall flutter for two-dimensional streamlined bodies
Note, however, that you are welcome to propose your own topic related to this
thematic. Also, some of the above topics can be adapted to your specific interest.
In any case, you should come and talk to us to discuss it in details.
Title: “Optimization of the Discrete Vortex Method for bluff
bodies by the Fast Multipole Method”

Laboratory: ULg-MTFC, ULg-AEA


Location: ULg
Date: February - June 2014 (early start recommended)
Target sections: Aerospace Engineering, Engineering Physics
Contacts: Vincent Terrapon
Advisors: Vincent Terrapon, Greg Dimitriadis

BACKGROUND
The Discrete Vortex Method (DVM) is a numerical method that can be used to
simulate unsteady separated flows. It consists in a Lagrangian approach where dis-
crete vortical particles are tracked after being shed from the surface of the body.
As such, it does not require the meshing of the computational domain and, thus,
constitutes an interesting alternative to classical CFD methods (e.g., finite vol-
ume), and is of great advantage for moving and/or deforming bodies.
The major drawback of the method is the relatively high computational cost of
the velocity evaluation. In particular, the calculation of the displacement of the
vortices induced by all other vortices requires the pairwise interaction of the N
vortices, which amounts to O(N 2 ) operations. In other words, the computational
cost increases rapidly with the number of vortices used. Different acceleration tech-
niques exist such as the Tree algorithm and the Fast Multipole method (FMM),
which reduces the cost of the velocity calculation to O(N log N ) or O(N ) opera-
tions. This leads to a tremendous reduction in computation time.
The combined Tree algorithm and the FMM is a hierarchical method. It relies on
four key features: i) a specified accuracy, ii) a hierarchical subdivision of space
into panels/clusters of sources, iii) a far-field expansion of a kernel, and iv) the
conversion of the far-field expansions into local expansions. As such, the method
is only an approximation of the exact solution.

OBJECTIVE
The objective of this project is to accelerate an existing 2D DVM code in Matlab
for the study of aeroelastic instabilities of bluff bodies. In particular, the project
will focus on the implementation of the Tree algorithm and the Fast Multipole
Method for the velocity evaluation.
TASKS
• Perform a literature survey
• Get acquainted with the existing 2D DVM code in Matlab
• Implement the new acceleration algorithm
• Test and demonstrate the improvement achieved by the new implementation
• Illustrate the use of the code for a specific fluid-structure interaction problem
(e.g., square cylinder, bridge section)

PROFILE
The student must have some familiarity with fluid mechanics and Matlab, and be
highly motivated.

REFERENCES
• “Experimental and Numerical Investigation of Aeroelastic Stability of Bluff
Structures”, T. Andrianne, PhD thesis, 2012.
• “The Rapid Evaluation of Potential Fields in Particle Systems”, L. Green-
gard, MIT Press, Cambridge (1988).
• “An Implementation of the Fast Multipole Method Without Multipoles”,
C.R. Anderson, SIAM J. Sci. Stat. Comput. 13, 923947 (1992).
Figure 1: Simulation of the aeroelastic response for a bluff body with the DVM
approach (click on the image to start the video).
Title: “CFD of stall flutter for two-dimensional streamlined
bodies”
Laboratory: ULg-MTFC, ULg-AEA
Location: ULg
Date: February - June 2014 (early start recommended)
Target sections: Aerospace Engineering, Engineering Physics
Contacts: Vincent Terrapon
Advisors: Vincent Terrapon, Greg Dimitriadis

BACKGROUND
In the case of aircraft wings, a general type of flutter is characterized by the in-
teraction of pitch and plunge dynamics. In particular, small rotations of the wing
along its axis change the angle of attack and correspondingly the lift on the sur-
face. This is then accompanied by a simultaneous vertical bending of the wing.
Dynamic stall is a phenomenon characterized by periodic flow separation and reat-
tachment along the airfoil. The flow separation can be either partial or complete.
When dynamic stall takes place around flexible structures, a strong coupling be-
tween the flow and the structure can lead to stall flutter, i.e., large oscillations,
in particular along the pitching direction. Stall flutter plays an important role in
helicopter blades, wind turbine blades, and low stiffness wings operating at high
angle of attack. Despite numerous studies of the phenomenon, it is still very hard
to predict.

OBJECTIVE
The objective of this project is to perform a CFD analysis of stall flutter around a
two-dimensional NACA 0018 airfoil using OpenFOAM, and to compare the results
with experimental data.

TASKS
• Perform a literature survey
• Compute the static flow around the airfoil
• Compute a dynamic case with imposed pitching motion
• Compute a dynamic case with a free pitching degree of freedom
• Identify for different angles of attack the critical airspeed

PROFILE
The student must have some familiarity with fluid mechanics and turbulence (a
course in turbulence is offered in the Fall), and be highly motivated.

REFERENCES
• “Experimental Investigation of the Aerodynamics and Aeroelasticity of Flap-
ping, Plunging and Pitching Wings”, N. Abdul Razak, PhD thesis, 2012.
• “Unsteady airfoil stall, review and extension”, L.E. Ericsson & J.P. Reding,
Journal of Aircraft 8(8), 609-616 (1971).

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