In this case study, we examine the effect of airfoil shape/camber on the formation and existence of stall cells. A series of experiments using a NACA0012 wing with a trailing-edge flap has been carried out over a range of angles of attack ($11.5^\circ$–$21^\circ$), flap angles ($0^\circ$, $5^\circ$, $10^\circ$) and chord-length-based Reynolds numbers (100 000–500 000). The influence of these parameters on stall cell formation has been explored. Tufts have been used to identify the flow behaviour near the surface, while forces have been measured to relate the surface flow behaviour and wing performance. The results from the tuft analysis on the wing indicated that two different Reynolds-number regimes exist with respect to stall cell formation criteria. A preliminary estimate of the airfoil shape influence on stall cell formation is presented. A data-driven approach is used to relate the aerodynamic parameters (lift coefficient and lift-curve slope) to the formation criteria of stall cells for the wing (and flap angles). The lift coefficient can be used to implicitly take into account the change in airfoil shape in addition to the angle of attack and the Reynolds number. It is hoped that the results presented in this case study could be extended to various other airfoil shapes and that the stall cell formation angle of attack can be deduced from just the mean lift behaviour.

This paper deals with studying fluid flow and heat transfer of nanofluid through a forward facing step channel which is affected by a uniform magnetic field transverse to fluid flow. All the channel walls are assumed to be in constant temperature and the fluid temperature at the channel inlet is less than that of the walls. Also, the nanofluid is considered as a single-phase Newtonian fluid and the proper correlations were utilized to determine the thermophysical properties of nanofluid. Therefore, a code has been developed and two-dimensional continuity, momentum and energy equations were solved, using CFD technique. The computations were conducted for different values of the Reynolds and Hartmann numbers, and contraction ratio and an extensive range of nanoparticles volume fraction. The results indicated that flow separation and reattachment phenomena, in vicinity of the step edge, could be influenced strongly by magnetic field and the average Nusselt number is increased significantly by increasing nanoparticles volume fraction and Hartmann number.

Shock-tunnel experiments are carried out to study the strong interaction between an impinging shock wave and boundary layer on a flat plate, accompanied by large separation bubble with a length comparable to the distance of the location of shock impingement from the leading edge of the plate. For nominal freestream Mach numbers ranging from 6 to 8.5, moderate to high total enthalpies of 1.3MJ/kg to 6MJ/kg are simulated in the Indian Institute of Science's hypersonic shock tunnels HST-2 (a conventional Hypersonic Shock Tunnel) and Free Piston Shock Tunnel (FPST) with freestream Reynolds numbers ranging from 4 × 106/m to 0.3 × 106/m. The strong impinging shock is generated by a wedge (or shock generator) at an angle of 30.96° to the freestream. From the time-resolved Schlieren flow visualisations using a high-speed camera and surface pressure measurements on the flat plate using fast response sensors, a statistically steady flow field with a large separation bubble was established within the short test time of the shock tunnels (around 600µs in HST-2 and 300µs in FPST). The role of various parameters on the interaction – Mach number, location of shock impingement and flow total enthalpy – are investigated from the measured separation length and surface pressure distribution. For the nominal Mach number of 8.5, with shock impingement at 100mm from the leading edge, the separation length increased from 60mm to 70mm as the total enthalpy is increased from 1.6MJ/kg to 2.4MJ/kg; whereas it dropped drastically to 30-40mm at 6MJ/kg. This is due to the prominence of real gas effects at higher enthalpies.

Rocket motor nozzle flow geometry is considered through its influence on the thrust vector control (TVC) performances. Extensive research is conducted using theoretical and software simulations and compared with experimental results. Cold and hot flow test equipments are used. The main objective of the research is to establish the methodology of flow geometry optimisation on the TVC hardware system. Several geometry parameters are examined in detail and their effects on the system performances are presented. The discovered effects are used as guidelines in the TVC system design process. A numerical method is presented for the determination of dynamic response time upper limit for the TVC system based on the gas flow dynamics performances.

The understanding and accurate prediction of turbulent flow separation on smooth surfaces is still a challenging task because the separation and the reattachment locations are not fixed in space and time. Consequently, reliable experimental data are essential for the validation of numerical flow simulations and the characterization and analysis of the complex flow physics. However, the uncertainty of the existing near-wall flow measurements make a precise analysis of the near-wall flow features, such as separation/reattachment locations and other predicted near-wall flow features which are under debate, often impossible. Therefore, the periodic hill experiment at TU Munich (ERCOFTAC test case 81) was repeated using high resolution particle image velocimetry and particle tracking velocimetry. The results confirm the strong effect of the spatial resolution on the near-wall flow statistics. Furthermore, it is shown that statistically stable values of the turbulent flow variables can only be obtained for averaging times which are challenging to realize with highly resolved large eddy simulation and direct numerical simulation techniques. Additionally, the analysis implies that regions of correlated velocity fluctuations with rather uniform streamwise momentum exist in the flow. Their size in the mean flow direction can be larger than the hill spacing. The possible impact of the correlated turbulent motion on the wake region is discussed, as this interaction might be important for the understanding and control of the flow separation dynamics on smooth bodies.

Compressible flow past a circular cylinder at an inflow Reynolds number of 2 x 105 is numerically investigated by using a constrained large-eddy simulation (CLES) technique. Numerical simulation with adiabatic wall boundary condition and at a free-stream Mach number of 0.75 is conducted to validate and verify the performance of the present CLES method in predicting separated flows. Some typical and characteristic physical quantities, such as the drag coefficient, the root-mean-square lift fluctuations, the Strouhal number, the pressure and skin friction distributions around the cylinder, etc. are calculated and compared with previously reported experimental data, finer-grid large-eddy simulation (LES) data and those obtained in the present LES and detached-eddy simulation (DES) on coarse grids. It turns out that CLES is superior to DES in predicting such separated flow and that CLES can mimic the intricate shock wave dynamics quite well. Then, the effects of Mach number on the flow patterns and parameters such as the pressure, skin friction and drag coefficients, and the cylinder surface temperature are studied, with Mach number varying from 0.1 to 0.95. Non-monotonic behaviors of the pressure and skin friction distributions are observed with increasing Mach number and the minimum mean separation angle occurs at a subcritical Mach number of between 0.3 and 0.5. Additionally, the wall temperature effects on the thermodynamic and aerodynamic quantities are explored in a series of simulations using isothermal wall boundary conditions at three different wall temperatures. It is found that the flow separates earlier from the cylinder surface with a longer recirculation length in the wake and a higher pressure coefficient at the rear stagnation point for higher wall temperature. Moreover, the influences of different thermal wall boundary conditions on the flow field are gradually magnified from the front stagnation point to the rear stagnation point. Moreover, the influences of different thermal wall boundary conditions on the flow field are graduallymagnified from the front stagnation point to the rear stagnation point. It is inferred that the CLES approach in its current version is a useful and effective tool for simulating wall-bounded compressible turbulent flows with massive separations.

Numerical simulations are performed to study three-dimensional hydrodynamic flows in a sudden expansion of rectangular ducts. Separation phenomena are investigated through the analysis of flow topology and streamline patterns. Scaling laws describing the evolution of the reattachment length of the vortical areas that appear behind the cross-section enlargement are derived. The results discussed in this paper are required as a starting point to investigate the effects of an applied homogeneous magnetic field on separation phenomena in a geometry with a sudden expansion.