Numerical Simulation of the Aircraft Wake Vortex Flowfield

Abstract

The near wake vortex flowfield from a NACA0012 half-wing was simulated using a fully unstructured Navier-Stokes flow solver in three dimensions at a chord Reynolds number of 4.6 million and a Mach number of approximately 0.15. Several simulations were performed to examine the effect of boundary conditions, mesh resolution and turbulence scheme on the formation of wingtip vortex and its downstream propagation. The standard Spalart-Allmaras turbulence model was compared with the Dacles-Mariani and Spalart-Shur corrections for rotation and curvature effects. The simulation results were evaluated using the data from experiment performed at NASA Ames' 32in x 48in low speed wind tunnel.