The wing-tip vortex test case

J.-E. Lombard, D. Moxey, S. J. Sherwin

European Congress on Computational Methods in Applied Sciences and Engineering, Crete, Greece (2016)

@inproceedings{lombard-2016a,
  title = {The wing-tip vortex test case},
  author = {Lombard, J.-E. and Moxey, D. and Sherwin, S. J.},
  booktitle = {European Congress on Computational Methods in Applied Sciences and Engineering, Crete, Greece},
  month = jun,
  year = {2016},
  abstract = {We present a spectral/hp element discritisation, using the Nektar++ code, for performing a Large Eddy Simulation (LES) of the formation and evolution of a wingtip vortex as a test case involving a 3D geometry. The development of these vortices in the near wake, in combination with the large Reynolds numbers, make this test case particularly challenging to simulate. We consider flow over a NACA 0012 profile wingtip at 1.2 million Reynolds number, based on chord length and compare them against experimental data, which is to date the highest Reynolds number achieved for a LES that has been correlated with experiments for this test case. The jetting of the primary vortex and pressure distribution on the wing surface in our model were successfully correlated with the experiment however the vortex formation over the rear wing tip has some discrepancies which lead act as a motivator for further testing of high-fidelity methods in this test case. The formation of the wingtip vortex test case is of general interest for the modeling of transitioning vortex dominated flows over complex geometries which is of particular interest to industries such as high-lift configurations in aircraft, wind-turbine or propeller and automotive design.},
  url = {https://davidmoxey.uk/assets/pubs/2016-eccomas-2.pdf},
  month_numeric = {6}
}

The conference version of our wingtip vortex work: a large-eddy simulation using Nektar++ of flow over a NACA 0012 wingtip at a chord Reynolds number of 1.2 million, compared against experiment. The jetting of the primary vortex and the pressure distribution on the wing surface correlate well, while the vortex formation over the rear wing tip shows discrepancies that motivate further testing of high-fidelity methods on this case.