Investigation of the flow physics of airfoils under dynamic stall using large eddy simulations and post-processing techniques

• Grant number: 19/02335-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate
• Effective date (Start): May 01, 2019
• Effective date (End): April 25, 2020
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Aerospace Engineering - Aerodynamics
• Principal Investigator: William Roberto Wolf
• Grantee: Renato Fuzaro Miotto
• Supervisor: Datta V. Gaitonde
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Engenharia Mecânica (FEM). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Research place: Ohio State University, Columbus, United States
• Associated to the scholarship: 17/10795-1 - Investigation of Turbulent Compressible Flows Past Airfoils Using High-Fidelity Simulations, BP.DR

Abstract

The current proposal describes the research plan associated to the overseas internship (BEPE) of graduate student Renato Fuzaro Miotto. Mr. Miotto is currently a PhD. student in the School of Mechanical Engineering at University of Campinas, FEM-UNICAMP. The internship period abroad should be held at The Ohio State University, OSU, located in Columbus, OH, USA. During this period, Mr. Miotto will work under the supervision of Prof. Datta V. Gaitonde, who is the John Glenn Chair in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department. Professor Gaitonde is a Fellow of the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), and the American Society of Mechanical Engineering (ASME). He is also a member of the American Physical Society. In this project, Mr. Miotto will also collaborate with Dr. Miguel Visbal, who is a Principal Research Aerospace Engineer and Team Leader of the Multidisciplinary Computational Aerodynamics at the Aerospace Systems Directorate in the Air Force Research Laboratory. Dr. Visbal is an Air Force Research Laboratory Fellow and a recipient of the Air Force Basic Research Award for the development of high-resolution numerical methods for multi-physics simulations. Prof. Gaitonde and Dr. Visbal are internationally recognized for pioneering contributions to computational sciences and their research work is directly related to the present proposal.The main objective of the present work is the application of computational techniques for the investigation of unsteady flows past airfoils under dynamic stall. This phenomenon often occurs on the rotor of helicopters at high forward flight speeds or during maneuver and it is responsible for large torsional airloads and vibrations on the rotor blades. Several mathematical models and methods of computational fluid dynamics have been used in the literature to predict the effects of dynamic stall. However, they failed in providing satisfactory results under conditions consistent with those encountered in rotorcrafts, where compressibility effects are frequently prominent. In this project, we will perform large-eddy simulations (LES) to capture the unsteady aerodynamic mechanisms found in airfoils under dynamic stall conditions. Advanced post-processing techniques and flow modal decomposition will be employed to the massive unsteady datasets obtained by LES to analyze the flow physics of the current flows. (AU)