Evaluating vortex generator jet experiments for turbulent flow separation control

Abstract

Separating turbulent boundary-layers can be energized by streamwise vortices from vortex generators (VG) that increase the near wall momentum as well as the overall mixing of the flow so that flow separation can be delayed or even prevented. In general, two different types of VGs exist: passive vane VGs (VVG) and active VG jets (VGJ). Even though VGs are already successfully used in engineering applications, it is still time-consuming and computationally expensive to include them in a numerical analysis. Fully resolved VGs in a computational mesh lead to a very high number of grid points and thus, computational costs. In addition, computational parameter studies for such flow control devices take much time to set-up. Therefore, much of the research work is still carried out experimentally. KTH Stockholm develops a novel VGJ model that makes it possible to only include the physical influence in terms of the additional stresses that originate from the VGJs without the need to locally refine the computational mesh. Such a modelling strategy enables fast VGJ parameter variations and optimization studies are easliy made possible. For that, VGJ experiments are evaluated in this contribution and results are used for developing a statistical VGJ model.