Can Wing Tip Vortices Be Accurately Simulated

摘要

Modeling and Simulation (M&S) computational fluid dynamics (CFD) techniques were used to better understand wing tip vortices about a wing section. The CFD results were compared to experimental wind tunnel data derived from the University of Iowa (Ref. 2). The experiment used Stereoscopic Particle Image Velocimetry (SPIV) to measure the flow field. The SPIV data from the experiment illustrates the vortex core development and behavior downstream of the trailing edge of the wing section. Three CFD simulations using various mesh sizes and time steps were completed and compared to the experimental results. Two dimensional plots of modeled local flow field velocity over freestream velocity were visualized using VisIt. VisIt is used to graphically represent the numerical results of the simulations. Once the M&S results were visualized, the approximate vortex core size and position were measured and compared to the experimental data. The results show that the larger meshes closer approximate the experimental data. Further refinement of the mesh sizes in future simulations are expected to improve the approximate numerical solutions from the simulations, which would allow for more accurate predictions of vortex formation and behavior.