Shock wave/boundary-layer interaction control using a combination of vortex generators and bleed

To investigate whether vortex generators can be an effective form of passive flow control an experimental investigation has been conducted in a small-scale wind tunnel. With specific emphasis on supersonic inlet applications flow separation was initiated using a combined terminal shock wave and subsonic diffuser: a configuration that has been developed as a part of a program to produce a more inlet-relevant flowfield in a small-scale wind tunnel than previous studies. When flow control was initially introduced little overall flow improvement was obtained as the losses tended to be redistributed instead of removed. It became apparent that there existed a strong coupling between the center-span flow and the corner flows. As a consequence, only when flow control was applied to both the corner flows and center-span flow was a significant flow improvement obtained. When corner suction and center-span vortex generators were employed in tandem separation was much reduced and wall-pressure and stagnation pressure were notably improved. As a result, when applied appropriately, it is thought that vortex generators do have the potential to reduce the dependence on boundary-layer bleed for the purpose of separation suppression. Copyright © 2012 by Neil Titchener and Holger Babinsky. Published by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc.

The effects of various vortex generator configurations on a normal shock wave/boundary layer interaction

A number of VG configurations have been examined in a inlet relevant fiow-fleld which includes a terminal shock wave and subsequent subsonic diffuser. The flow-fleld was found to be highly sensitive to VG configuration. While the performance of one vane VG configuration was good over a wide range of streamwise positions, another quite similar vane configuration tended to perforin less well-especially when positioned further from the separation-and work is ongoing to determine the reasons behind tliis behavior. In addition, it was found that vane-type VG configurations were appreciably better at reducing separation than their micro-ramp counterparts. When combined with bleed in the centre-span region upstream of the VGs, the performance of vane type VGs was further enhanced and was the best of any configuration. © 2013 by Neil Titchener, Holger Babinsky and Eric Loth.

Canonical normal shock wave/boundary-layer interaction flows relevant to external compression inlets

The normal shock wave/boundary-layer interaction is important to the operation and performance of a supersonic inlet, and the normal shock wave/boundary-layer interaction is particularly prominent in external compression inlets. To improve understanding of such interactions, it is helpful to make use of fundamental flows that capture the main elements of inlets, without resorting to the level of complexity and system integration associated with full-geometry inlets. In this paper, several fundamental flowfield configurations have been considered as possible test cases to represent the normal shock wave/boundary-layer interaction aspects found in typical external compression inlets, and it was found that the spillage diffuser more closely retains the basic flow features of an external compression inlet than the other configurations. In particular, this flowfield allows the normal shock Mach number as well as the amount and rate of subsonic diffusion to all be held approximately constant and independent of the application of flow control. In addition, a survey of several external compression inlets was conducted to quantify the flow and geometric parameters of the spillage diffuser relevant to actual inlets. The results indicated that such a flow may be especially relevant if the terminal Mach number is about 1.3 to 1.4, the confinement parameter is around 10%, and the width is around twice or three times the height. In addition, the area expansion downstream of the shock should be limited to the conservative side of incipient stall based on incompressible diffusers. Copyright © 2013 by the authors.

Active control of normal shock wave/turbulent boundary layer interaction using "Smart" piezoelectric flap actuators

This paper looks at active control of the normal shock wave/turbulent boundary layer interaction (SBLI) using smart flap actuators. The actuators are manufactured by bonding piezoelectric material to an inert substrate to control the bleed/suction rate through a plenum chamber. The cavity provides communication of signals across the shock, allowing rapid thickening of the boundary layer approaching the shock, which splits into a series of weaker shocks forming a lambda shock foot, reducing wave drag. Active control allows optimum control of the interaction, as it would be capable of positioning the control region around the original shock position and control the rate of mass transfer. © 2004 by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc. All rights reserved.

Control of normal shock wave / turbulent boundary-layer interaction using streamwise slots

The effect of streamwise slots on the interaction of a normal shock wave / turbulent boundary layer has been investigated experimentally at a Mach number of 1.3. The surface pressure distribution for the controlled interaction was found to be significantly smeared, featuring a distinct plateau. This was due to a change in shock structure from a typical unseparated normal shock wave boundary layer interaction to a large bifurcated Lambda type shock pattern. Boundary layer velocity measurements downstream of the slots revealed a strong spanwise variation of boundary layer properties whereas the modified shock structure was relatively twodimensional. Oil flow visualisation indicated that in the presence of slots the boundary layer surface flow was highly three dimensional and confirmed that the effect of slots was mainly due to suction and blowing similar to that for passive control with uniform surface ventilation. Three hole probe measurements confirmed that the boundary layer was three dimensional and that the slots introduced vortical motion into the flowfield. Results indicate that when applied to an aerofoil, the control device has the potential to reduce wave drag while incurring only small viscous penalties. The introduction of streamwise vorticity may also be beneficial to delay trailing edge separation and the device is thought to be capable of postponing buffet onset. © 2001 by A N Smith.

Spin current diode based on an electron waveguide with spin-orbit interaction

We propose a spin current diode which can work even in a small applied bias condition (the linear-response regime). The prototypal device consists of a hornlike electron waveguide with Rashba spin-orbit interaction, which is connected to two leads with different widths. It is demonstrated that when electrons are incident from the narrow lead, the generated spin conductance fluctuates around a constant value in a wide range of incident energy. When the transport direction is reversed, the spin conductance is suppressed strongly. Such a remarkable difference arises from spin-flipped transitions caused by the spin-orbit interaction. (c) 2008 American Institute of Physics.

Broadband external cavity tunable quantum dot lasers with low injection current density

Broadband grating-coupled external cavity laser, based on InAs/GaAs quantum dots, is achieved. The device has a wavelength tuning range from 1141.6 nm to 1251.7 nm under a low continuous-wave injection current density (458 A/cm(2)). The tunable bandwidth covers consecutively the light emissions from both the ground state and the 1st excited state of quantum dots. The effects of cavity length and antireflection facet coating on device performance are studied. It is shown that antireflection facet coating expands the tuning bandwidth up to similar to 150 nm, accompanied by an evident increase in threshold current density, which is attributed to the reduced interaction between the light field and the quantum dots in the active region of the device.

Effects of Magnetohydrodynamic Interaction-Zone Position on Shock-Wave/Boundary-Layer Interaction

A third-order weighted essentially nonoscillatory and non-free-parameter difference scheme magnetohydrodynamic solver has been established to investigate the mechanisms of magnetohydrodynamics controlling separation induced by an oblique shock wave impinging on a flat plate. The effects of magnetohydrodynamic interaction-zone location on the separation point, reattachment point, separation-bubble size, and boundary-layer velocity profiles are analyzed. The results show that there exists a best location for the magnetohydrodynamic zone to be applied, where the separation point is delayed the farthest, and the separation bubble is decreased up to about 50% in size compared to the case without magnetohydrodynamic control, which demonstrated the promising of magnetohydrodynamics suppressing the separation induced by shock-wave/boundary-layer interactions.

Numerical modeling of water wave interaction with a soft mud bed

A vertical 2-D numerical model is presented for simulating the interaction between water waves and a soft mud bed. Taking into account nonlinear rheology, a semi-empirical rheological model is applied to this water-mud model, reflecting the combined visco-elasto-plastic properties of soft mud under such oscillatory external forces as water waves. In order to increase the resolution of the flow in the neighborhood of both sides of the inter-surface, a logarithmic grid in the vertical direction is employed for numerical treatment. Model verifications are given through comparisons between the calculated and the measured mud mass transport velocities as well as wave height changes.

Measurements of ocean wave and current field using dual polarized X-band radar

A new ocean wave and sea surface current monitoring system with horizontally-(HH) and vertically-(VV) polarized X-band radar was developed. Two experiments into the use of the radar system were carried out at two sites, respectively, for calibration process in Zhangzi Island of the Yellow Sea, and for validation in the Yellow Sea and South China Sea. Ocean wave parameters and sea surface current velocities were retrieved from the dual polarized radar image sequences based on an inverse method. The results obtained from dual-polarized radar data sets acquired in Zhangzi Island are compared with those from an ocean directional buoy. The results show that ocean wave parameters and sea surface current velocities retrieved from radar image sets are in a good agreement with those observed by the buoy. In particular, it has been found that the vertically-polarized radar is better than the horizontally-polarized radar in retrieving ocean wave parameters, especially in detecting the significant wave height below 1.0 m.

Second-order Stokes wave solutions for intefacial waves in three-layer stratified fluid with background current

In this paper, interfacial waves in three-layer stratified fluid with background current are investigated using a perturbation method, and the second-order asymptotic solutions of the velocity potentials and the second-order Stokes wave solutions of the associated elevations of the interfacial waves are presented based on the small amplitude wave theory, and the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability of interfacial waves is studied. As expected, for three-layer stratified fluid with background current, the first-order asymptotic solutions (linear wave solutions), dispersion relation and the second-order asymptotic solutions derived depend on not only the depths and densities of the three-layer fluid but also the background current of the fluids, and the second-order Stokes wave solutions of the associated elevations of the interfacial waves describe not only the second-order nonlinear wave-wave interactions between the interfacial waves but also the second-order nonlinear interactions between the interfacial waves and currents. It is also noted that the solutions obtained from the present work include the theoretical results derived by Chen et al (2005) as a special case. It also shows that with the given wave number k (real number) the interfacial waves may show Kelvin-Helmholtz instability.

Time dependent electric, magnetic and hydrodynamic interaction in aluminium electrolysis cells

The waves in commercial cells for electrolytic aluminium production originate at the interface between the liquid aluminium and electrolyte, but their effect can spread into the surrounding busbar network as electric current perturbation, and the total magnetic field acquires a time dependent component. The presented model for the wave development accounts for the nonuniform electric current distribution at the cathode and the whole network of the surrounding busbars. The magnetic field is computed for the continuous current in the fluid zones, all busbars and the ferromagnetic construction elements. When the electric current and the associated magnetic field are computed according to the actual electrical circuit and updated for all times, the instability growth rate is significantly affected. The presented numerical model for the wave and electromagnetic interaction demonstrates how different physical coupling factors are affecting the wave development in the electrolysis cells. These small amplitude self-sustained interface oscillations are damped in the presence of intense turbulent viscosity created by the horizontal circulation velocity field. Additionally, the horizontal circulation vortices create a pressure gradient contributing to the deformation of the interface. Instructive examples for the 500 kA demonstration cell are presented.

Chlorophyll enhancement in the central region of the Bay of Biscay as a result of internal tidal wave interaction

A multi-sensor satellite approach based on ocean colour, sunglint and Synthetic Aperture Radar imagery is used to study the impact of interacting internal tidal (IT) waves on near-surface chlorophyll-a distribution, in the central Bay of Biscay. Satellite imagery was initially used to characterize the internal solitary wave (ISW) field in the study area, where the “local generation mechanism” was found to be associated with two distinct regions of enhanced barotropic tidal forcing. IT beams formed at the French shelf-break, and generated from critical bathymetry in the vicinities of one of these regions, were found to be consistent with “locally generated” ISWs. Representative case studies illustrate the existence of two different axes of IT propagation originating from the French shelf-break, which intersect close to 46°N, − 7°E, where strong IT interaction has been previously identified. Evidence of constructive interference between large IT waves is then presented and shown to be consistent with enhanced levels of chlorophyll-a concentration detected by means of ocean colour satellite sensors. Finally, the results obtained from satellite climatological mean chlorophyll-a concentration from late summer (i.e. September, when ITs and ISWs can meet ideal propagation conditions) suggest that elevated IT activity plays a significant role in phytoplankton vertical distribution, and therefore influences the late summer ecology in the central Bay of Biscay.