A Vortex Sheet/Point Vortex Dynamical Model For Unsteady Separated Flows

Abstract

This paper presents a hybrid vortex sheet/point vortex method for modeling unsteady separated flows. We use vortex sheets to capture the dynamics of the shear layers immediately behind a wing in motion. The sheets provide a natural way of capturing vortex shedding, a feature missing from many point vortex models. We overcome the high computational cost traditionally associated with vortex sheet methods by approximating the spiraling cores of the sheets using point vortices with time-varying circulation. Circulation is continuously truncated from the tips of the vortex sheets and fed into their associated point vortices. To compensate for the discontinuous force response that results from this redistribution of vorticity, we adjust the velocity of the variable strength point vortices. We demonstrate the viability of the method by modeling the impulsive translation of a wing at a fixed angle of attack. We show that the proposed model correctly predicts the dynamics of large-scale vortical structures in the flow by comparing the distribution of vorticity from results of high-fidelity simulation, a model using only vortex sheets, and the proposed model. For the test cases attempted, the hybrid model predicts similar force responses to those of the sheet-only model, while being orders of magnitude faster.