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Article
An Experimental Investigation of Unsteady Flow Separation on a Maneuvering Axisymmetric Body
Journal of Aircraft
  • Serhat Hosder, Missouri University of Science and Technology
  • Roger L. Simpson
Abstract

An experimental study on maneuvering-undersea-vehicle geometry was conducted to give detailed information on unsteady turbulent flow separation and to investigate different time-lag models for approximating the unsteady separation locations. Both unsteady and steady results are presented for the axisymmetric configuration of the model, which can also be thought of as a missile or aircraft-fuselage geometry. Steady and unsteady skin-friction magnitudes were measured using hot-film sensors. The minimum of the circumferential skin-friction distribution at each axial-measurement station was used to detect the separation locations. The linear pitch-up maneuver studied is comparable to the dynamic motion of full-scale vehicles of interest, in terms of the nondimensional time. Significant time lags observed between unsteady and steady crossflow separation locations indicate the increase in attached circulation over the maneuvering model, which may explain why unsteady forces measured on similar geometries lead the steady values. A first-order differential time-lag model approximates the unsteady separation locations reasonably well. This model can be considered as a method of correlating the unsteady measurements to the quasisteady data with a time lag. Using this model, the prediction of the unsteady flow characteristics from the steady data can be possible with the development of methods for estimating the time lags that vary based on the geometry and the maneuvers performed. The results of the unsteady experiments presented in this paper show that the time required to displace the volume of leeside inviscid fluid during a maneuver with vortical separated flow may be the main factor creating the difference in the time-lag magnitudes and their spatial variation observed for different axisymmetric geometries and points of rotation.

Department(s)
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Keywords and Phrases
  • Axisymmetric Body,
  • Maneuvering-Undersea-Vehicle Geometry,
  • Skin-Friction Magnitudes,
  • Unsteady Turbulent Flow Separation
Document Type
Article - Journal
Document Version
Citation
File Type
text
Language(s)
English
Rights
© 2007 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), All rights reserved.
Publication Date
1-1-2007
Publication Date
01 Jan 2007
Citation Information
Serhat Hosder and Roger L. Simpson. "An Experimental Investigation of Unsteady Flow Separation on a Maneuvering Axisymmetric Body" Journal of Aircraft (2007) ISSN: 0021-8669
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/serhat-hosder/10/