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Projecte llegit

Títol: Active flow control of wingtip vortices via synthetic jets

Estudiants que han llegit aquest projecte:

Director/a: ALTMEYER, SEBASTIÁN ANDREAS

Departament: FIS

Títol: Active flow control of wingtip vortices via synthetic jets

Data inici oferta: 03-02-2025     Data finalització oferta: 03-10-2025


Estudis d'assignació del projecte:
    GR ENG SIS TELECOMUN
    GR ENG SIST AEROESP
    GR ENG TELEMÀTICA
Tipus: Individual
 
Lloc de realització: EETAC
 
Paraules clau:
Active flow control, Synthetic jets, Winglet, Wingtip vortices, Aerodynamic efficiency
 
Descripció del contingut i pla d'activitats:
This project deals with the investigation of aerodynamic and performance parameters of airfoils in a Low-Reynolds number regime with main focus on winglets in order to minize the formation of wing-tip vortices and with this minimizing drag and thus optimizing the overall aerodynamic performance. Active flow control techniques such as (multi-) sweeping/blowing jets will be investigated.
Different jet configurations are studied and modified to obtain reduction of viscous drag, improvement in pressure distribution and interference effects over and below the airfoil and maximize lift coefficient.

Pre and Post processing stage would include the generation of a wing with different winglet designs with built-in sweeping jets using software as Gmesh or Solidworks. It requires parametric inputs like altering the position of jets in order to calculate the induced drag and thus decrease the drag effects. The use of this open source also results in advanced visualization capabilities of airfoil and parallel further analysis and simulation would be carried out using AnsysFluent.

The required software tools for the project are SolidWorks, Gmesh, Matlab, Ansys, Fluent to carry out implementation and simulations.
 
Overview (resum en anglès):
Wingtip vortices represent one of the most significant aerodynamic phenomena affecting modern aviation, creating substantial challenges that extend beyond individual aircraft performance to impact the entire aviation ecosystem. These vortical structures, which form as a natural consequence of lift generation, can account for up to 40% of the total drag experienced by commercial aircraft during cruise conditions, directly translating into increased fuel consumption and additional carbon dioxide emissions.
Wingtip vortices pose serious safety concerns through wake turbulence hazards, with the intense vortical structures shed by aircraft persisting in the atmosphere for several minutes and creating dangerous conditions for following aircraft that can result in severe turbulence, loss of control, and in extreme cases, structural damage or accidents.
The goal is to study the effect of SJA in mitigating wingtip vortices when combined with winglets. To reach the overall objective, several specific goals were established. First, the theoretical framework was developed by analyzing vortex formation mechanisms and reviewing existing passive and active flow control techniques. Then, a simulation methodology was created and validated using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations, including the implementation of SJA modeling and a mesh independence study to ensure reliable results. The baseline performance of a wing with a winglet was established to create reference conditions for vortex and flow field characteristics without active flow control, followed by the evaluation of the effectiveness of complementing winglets with synthetic jet actuators at different locations on the winglet surface.
From the comparison between cases, there was a clear improvement in terms of vortex dissipation, with the vorticity generated at the wing splitting into two vortices in both cases, but in the presence of synthetic jets, that separation occurred earlier and the vortices had lower intensity. While the synthetic jets did not change the vortex core location or the vortex radius evolution, the drag coefficient remained the same and the lift coefficient increased 14.46%, which translates to the same increase in efficiency. It was concluded that the combination of passive winglets and active synthetic jet control techniques can effectively help in the mitigation of wingtip vortices, particularly in terms of vortex strength and dissipation.

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