Doctoral Dissertations

Date of Award

5-1997

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Major

Engineering Science

Major Professor

John S. Steinhoff

Committee Members

John Caruthers, Remi Engels. Bruce Whitehead

Abstract

The development of the Vorticity Confinement Method has been driven by the need to compute large scale flow solutions with thin vortical regions. Currently used flow solvers artificially spread these vortical structures, or use Lagrangian markers to prevent their spreading. The problem arises when these vortices interact with the solid bodies. The artificially spread vortices give too weak an effect and Lagrangian solvers use special logic to simulate these interactions. This special logic, if it is to work under a variety of flow conditions is quite extensive, thus computationally inefficient. The Vorticity Confinement Method relies only upon the primitive vari-ables of the flow field, thus providing a more general and much simpler approach to computing the flow field, while keeping the vortical regions thin. An investigation of the Vorticity Confinement Method for flows with separation will be conducted. This work will examine three aspects pertaining to the Vorticity Confinement Method and boundary layer separation. First will be a limitation, where confinement will be applied to an exact Blasius Layer profile subject to separation. The second, will involve an extension of the technique to accommodate the shape of the computational grids near the boundary layer. Finally, a new capability of the Vorticity Confinement Method will be explored, where a simple boundary layer model will be applied to flow undergoing dynamic stall. All these findings will combine to better define the applicability the Vorticity Confinement Method could be utilized.

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