Fundamentals of vortex formation on high advance ratio rotors

Event Date/Time

Friday, February 22, 2019 - 12:30

Location

Bowen Hall
Bowen Hall Rm 222

Series/Event Type

MAE Departmental Seminars

Experiments were performed on a Mach-scaled slowed rotor at high advance ratios along with several more canonical models of this complex flow. Time-resolved particle image velocimetry was used to characterize the flow field around a blade element in the reverse flow region of the rotor and at the mid-span of the non-rotating experiments. On the rotor, four dominant flow structures were observed: the reverse flow starting vortex, the blunt trailing edge wake sheet, the reverse flow dynamic stall vortex, and the tip vortex. As advance ratio increases, the duration of reduced time that the blade element spends in the reverse flow region also increases. This affects the strength, trajectory, and predicted vortex-induced pitching moment of the reverse flow dynamic stall vortex. The results of this characterization and sensitivity study are found to have many similarities to canonical two-dimensional models.

Speaker Bio

Anya R. Jones is an Associate Professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Maryland, College Park. She received her PhD in Aerodynamics from the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom, her S.M. in Aeronautics and Astronautics from MIT, and her B.S. in Aeronautical and Mechanical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Her research is focused on the experimental fluid dynamics of unsteady and separated flows. Her current projects focus on the flow physics of large-amplitude gust encounters, separated and reverse flow rotor aerodynamics, and flight through airwakes and other unsteady environments. Prof. Jones has been awarded the AFOSR Young Investigator Award, NSF CAREER Award, and the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE). Recently, she was awarded a Fulbright Scholar Award to the Technion in Haifa, Israel and an Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellowship to TU Braunschweig in Germany. She is currently chair of a NATO Research Technology Organization task group on gust response and unsteady aerodynamics, an associate fellow of AIAA, and a member of the Alfred Gessow Rotorcraft Center.

Semester

Spring 2019