On the Stability and Transition to Turbulence of the Flow over a Wind-Turbine Airfoil under Varying Free-Stream Turbulence IntensityShow others and affiliations
2022 (English)In: 12th International Symposium on Turbulence and Shear Flow Phenomena, TSFP 2022, International Symposium on Turbulence and Shear Flow Phenomena, TSFP , 2022Conference paper, Published paper (Refereed)
Abstract [en]
The present work investigates the laminar-turbulent transition of the flow around a typical section of a wind turbine blade under different levels of isotropic inflow turbulence at a Reynolds number of Rec = 105. Wall-resolved large-eddy simulations are performed under different turbulence intensities (TI) up to TI = 2.8 %. The results are analyzed with tools based on the linear stability and optimal-perturbation theory. At TI = 0%, transition to turbulence via the breakdown of Kelvin-Helmholtz (KH) rolls formed over the laminar separation bubble (LSB) is seen. These modes start to grow upstream of the LSB as an inflectional instability. At TI = 1.4 % rolls are also seen; but, instabilities formed by the interaction between streaks and the LSB also contribute to transition. The streaks are estimated to have a spanwise wavenumber around β = 100 (βδ∗ = 0.19 at 20 % chord; δ∗ is the displacement thickness) and a frequency in the range f = 5-8 (f δ∗/ue = (1.4-2.3) × 10-2 at 40 % chord; ue is the boundary layer edge velocity), close to that of the shear-layer instability. In the TI = 2.8 % case, the flow is heavily influenced by the presence of streaks, which stabilize the flow concerning inflectional/KH instabilities, but, at the same time, undergoes varicose-type instabilities and breakdown to turbulence.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
International Symposium on Turbulence and Shear Flow Phenomena, TSFP , 2022.
National Category
Fluid Mechanics
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-329533Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85143811843OAI: oai:DiVA.org:kth-329533DiVA, id: diva2:1772314
Conference
12th International Symposium on Turbulence and Shear Flow Phenomena, TSFP 2022, Osaka/Virtual, Japan, 19-22 July 2022
Note
QC 20230621
2023-06-212023-06-212025-02-09Bibliographically approved