Characterisation of a horizontal axis wind turbine’s tip and root vortices

The vortical near wake of a model horizontal axis wind turbine has been investigated experimentally in a water channel. The objective of this work is to study vortex interaction and stability of the helical vortex filaments within a horizontal axis wind turbine wake. The experimental model is a geometrically scaled version of the Tjæreborg wind turbine, which existed in western Denmark in the late 1980s. Here, the turbine was tested in both the upwind and downwind configurations. Qualitative flow visualisations using hydrogen bubble, particle streakline and planar laser-induced fluorescence techniques were combined with quantitative data measurements taken using planar particle image velocimetry. Vortices were identified using velocity gradient tensor invariants. Parameters that describe the helical vortex wake, such as the helicoidal pitch, and vortex circulation, were determined for three tip speed ratios. Particular attention is given here to the root vortex, which has been investigated minimally to date. Signatures of the coherent tip vortices are seen throughout the measurement domain; however, the signature of the root vortex is only evident much closer to the rotor plane, irrespective of the turbine configuration. It is postulated that the root vortex diffuses rapidly due to the effects of the turbine support geometries

An experimental investigation of the recirculation zone formed downstream of a forward facing step

An experimental investigation of the recirculation zone formed downstream of a forward facing step immersed in a turbulent boundary layer has been undertaken using particle image velocimetry. Bluff body flow is observed with the fixed separation point located at the leading edge of the step. The recirculation region dimensions are characterised over a range of Reynolds numbers (1400–19 000), with Reh based on the step height and the free stream velocity. Turbulent perturbations are produced in the free shear layer which develops between the recirculating flow close to the step and the free stream flow. Contour maps of amplification factor, streamwise perturbation velocity and Reynolds stresses are constructed, providing insight into optimal placement of structures within such topographical features. The mechanisms affecting the reattachment distance, namely the turbulent mixing within the boundary layer and the velocity deficit in the boundary layer, are discussed

Vortex-induced vibration of a square-section cylinder with incidence angle variation

Vortex-induced vibration (VIV) occurs when vortex shedding from a body results in fluctuating forces that, in turn, cause the body to vibrate. This can result in undesired large-amplitude vibrations leading to structural damage or catastrophic failure. While much has been done on the VIV of a circular cylinder less has been done on other canonical bluff bodies, such as rectangular cylinders. The present experimental work studied the VIV of a square cross-section cylinder in a water channel, with three different incidence angles (α 15 , 30 and 45 ). The influence of geometry on the body’s oscillation amplitude and frequency response, and its wake structure over a range of reduced velocity were investigated. The oscillations were measured at a low mass damping ratio of m ζ 0.013 , which was comparable to the circular cylinder system with m ζ 0.013 studied by Khalak & Williamson (1997)1. The comparison showed that the incidence angle change had a significant impact on amplitude response. For α 15 the maximum non-dimensional amplitude was A 1.11, 10% larger than the circular case, as shown in figure 1 (a). Asymmetric amplitudes with respect to the cylinder’s equilibrium position in still water were observed in α 15 and 30 cases, due to the one-sided nature of the mean lift force. Compared with the circular cyinder, the square cylinder locked on to the structural natural frequency in water over a smaller reduced velocity regime. An oscillation frequency drop was found in the α 15 case, during which the cylinder experienced its largest amplitude response. The wake structure for each case in the different flow regimes was determined using particle image velocimetry and will also be presented

The interaction between flow-induced vibration mechanisms of a square cylinder with varying angles of attack

This study examines the influence of angle of attack of a square section cylinder on the cylinder’s flow-induced vibration, where the direction of the vibration is transverse to the oncoming flow. Our experiments, which traversed the velocity–angle of attack parameter space in considerable breadth and depth, show that a low-mass ratio body can undergo combinations of both vortex-induced vibration and galloping. When the body has an angle of attack that makes it symmetric to the flow, such as when it assumes the square or diamond orientation, the two mechanisms remain independent. However, when symmetry is lost we find a mixed mode response with a new branch of vortex-induced oscillations that exceeds the amplitudes resulting from the two phenomena independently. The oscillations of this higher branch have amplitudes larger than the ‘upper branch’ of vortex-induced vibrations and at half the frequency. For velocities above this resonant region, the frequency splits into two diverging branches. Analysis of the amplitude response reveals that the transition between galloping and vortex-induced vibrations occurs over a narrow range of angle of incidence. Despite the rich set of states found in the parameter space the vortex shedding modes remain very similar to those found previously in vortex-induced vibration

Flow over a cylinder subjected to combined translational and rotational oscillations

The experimental research reported here employs particle image velocimetry to extend the study of Nazarinia et al. (2009a), recording detailed vorticity fields in the near-wake of a circular cylinder undergoing combined translational and rotational oscillatory motions. The focus of the present study is to examine the effect of the ratio between the cross-stream translational and rotational velocities and frequencies on the synchronization of the near- wake structures for multiple phase differences between the two motions. The frequencies are fixed close to that of the natural frequency of vortex shedding. The results are presented for a fixed amplitude of rotational oscillation of 1 rad and a range of ratios between the translational and rotational velocities ðVRÞ 1⁄4 1⁄20:25,0:5,1:0,1:

Streamwise forced oscillations of circular and square cylinders

The modification of a cylinder wake by streamwise oscillation of the cylinder at the vortex shedding frequency of the unperturbed cylinder is reported. Recent numerical simulations [J. S. Leontini, D. Lo Jacono, and M. C. Thompson, “A numerical study of an inline oscillating cylinder in a free stream,” J. Fluid Mech. 688, 551–568 (2011)] showed that this forcing results in the primary frequency decreasing proportionally to the square of the forcing amplitude, before locking to a subharmonic at higher amplitudes. The experimental results presented here show that this behavior continues at higher Reynolds numbers, although the flow is three-dimensional. In addition, it is shown that this behavior persists when the body is a square cross section, and when the frequency of forcing is detuned from the unperturbed cylinder shedding frequency. The similarity of the results across Reynolds number, geometry, and frequency suggests that the physical mechanism is applicable to periodic forcing of the classic von Ka ́rma ́n vortex street, regardless of the details of the body which forms the street

Modification of three-dimensional transition in the wake of a rotationally oscillating cylinder

A study of the flow past an oscillatory rotating cylinder has been conducted, where the frequency of oscillation has been matched to the natural frequency of the vortex street generated in the wake of a stationary cylinder, at Reynolds number 300. The focus is on the wake transition to three-dimensional flow and, in particular, the changes induced in this transition by the addition of the oscillatory rotation. Using Floquet stability analysis, it is found that the fine-scale three-dimensional mode that typically dominates the wake at a Reynolds number beyond that at the second transition to three-dimensional flow (referred to as mode B) is suppressed for amplitudes of rotation beyond a critical amplitude, in agreement with past studies. However, the rotation does not suppress the development of three-dimensionality completely, as other modes are discovered that would lead to three-dimensional flow. In particular, the longer-wavelength mode that leads the three-dimensional transition in the wake of a stationary cylinder (referred to as mode A) is left essentially unaffected at low amplitudes of rotation. At higher amplitudes of oscillation, mode A is also suppressed as the two-dimensional near wake changes in character from a single- to a double- row wake; however, another mode is predicted to render the flow three-dimensional, dubbed mode D (for double row). This mode has the same spatio-temporal symmetries as mode A

Unlocking the potential of public sector information with Semantic Web technology

Governments often hold very rich data and whilst much of this information is published and available for re-use by others, it is often trapped by poor data structures, locked up in legacy data formats or in fragmented databases. One of the great benefits that Semantic Web (SW) technology offers is facilitating the large scale integration and sharing of distributed data sources. At the heart of information policy in the UK, the Office of Public Sector Information (OPSI) is the part of the UK government charged with enabling the greater re-use of public sector information. This paper describes the actions, findings, and lessons learnt from a pilot study, involving several parts of government and the public sector. The aim was to show to government how they can adopt SW technology for the dissemination, sharing and use of its data

The Effect of Ambimorphic Epistemologies on Robotics

In recent years, much research has been devoted to the development of operating systems; nevertheless, few have deployed the deployment of evolutionary programming. Given the trends in event-driven technology, system administrators famously note the evaluation of gigabit switches, which embodies the unproven principles of machine learning. In order to overcome this grand challenge, we construct new client-server communication (FaecalSwatch), which we use to argue that the well-known interactive algorithm for the emulation of online algorithms by F. R. Anderson [7] runs in Ω(n2) time