Recent advances in coaxial rotor design have shown benefits of this configuration. Nevertheless, issues related to rotor-head drag, aerodynamic performance, wake interference, and vibration should also be considered. Simulating the unsteady aerodynamic loads for a coaxial rotor, including the aerodynamic interactions between rotors and rotor blades, is an essential part of analysing their vibration characteristics. In this article, an unsteady aerodynamic analysis based on a vortex particle method is presented. In this method, a reversed-flow model for the retreating side of the coaxial rotor is proposed based on an unsteady panel technique. To account for reversed flow, shedding a vortex from the leading edge is used rather than from the trailing edge. Moreover, vortex-blade aerodynamic interactions are accounted for. The model considers the unsteady pressure term induced on a blade by tip vortices of other blades, and thus accounts for the aerodynamic interaction between the rotors and its contribution to the unsteady airloads. Coupling the reversed-flow model and the vortex-blade aerodynamic interaction model with the viscous vortex-particle method is used to simulate the complex wake of the coaxial rotor. The unsteady aerodynamic loads on the X2 coaxial rotor are simulated in forward flight, and compared with the results of PRASADUM (Parallelized Rotorcraft Analysis for Simulation And Design, developed at the University of Maryland) and CFD/CSD computations with the OVERFLOW and the CREATE-AV Helios tools. The results of the present method agree with the results of the CFD/CSD method, and compare to it better than the PRASADUM solutions. Furthermore, the influence of the aerodynamic interaction between the coaxial rotors on the unsteady airloads, frequency, wake structure, induced flow, and force distributions are analysed. Additionally, the results are also compared against computations for a single-rotor case, simulated at similar conditions as the coaxial rotor. It is shown that the effect of tip vortex interaction plays a significant role in unsteady airloads of coaxial rotors at low speeds, while the rotor blade passing effect is obviously strengthened at high-speed.

The disturbance flow due to the motion of a small sphere parallel to the streamlines of an unbounded linear shear flow is evaluated at small Reynolds number using the method of matched expansions. Decaying laws are obtained for all velocity components in a far inviscid region and viscous wakes. The z component (in the direction of the shear-rate gradient) of the disturbance velocity is cylindrically symmetric in the inviscid region. It decays with the distance r from the sphere like r−5/3, while the y component (in the direction of vorticity) decays like r−4/3. The widths of two viscous wakes, located upstream and downstream of the sphere, grow with the longitudinal coordinate x as yw ~ zw ~ |x|1/3. The maximum x and z components of the velocity are located in the wake cores; they scale like |x|−2/3 and |x|−1 respectively. For two particles interacting through their outer regions, the migration velocity of each particle is the sum of the velocity of an isolated particle and of a disturbance velocity induced by the other one. Particles placed in the normal or transversal directions repel each other. When each particle is located in a wake of the other one, they may either attract or repel each other.

A Lagrangian style vortex simulation technique is used to study the flow fields past a stationary flat plate at various angles of attack in the range 1° to 90°. Time mean values of oscillating lift and drag coefficients, and the Strouhal number versus angle of attack are computed and compared with experimental results. Time-mean and root-mean-square values of stream-wise and transverse velocities in the wake region are also calculated. Self-similar defect velocity distribution is obtained far downstream. Owing to the interaction of free shear layers, highly root-mean-square values of velocities appear at the downstream vertex of the triangular low velocity region, which exits behind an inclined flat plate.

On observe souvent dans la nature que l'ascension ou la chute d'un corps peut présenter des mouvements oscillatoires (spirale, zigzag) ou plus désordonnés. Nous nous sommes penchés sur les causes des instabilités du mouvement d'un corps en ascension sous l'effet de la gravité, dans un fluide au repos.Nous avons conduit une étude expérimentale des mouvements oscillatoires de corps légers montant librement dans un fluide peu visqueux.Des résultats originaux concernant la cinématique de cylindres minces sont présentés ici pour une large gamme de nombres d'Archimède (flottabilité sur effets visqueux) et du rapport de forme (diamètre sur épaisseur).Nous avons analysé les oscillations de la vitesse et de l'orientation des cylindres (fréquences, amplitudes et différences de phases), ce qui a mis en évidence l'effet crucial du rapport de forme dans le couplage entre la translation et la rotation.

The Instability modal behavior of coherent structures in a jet-small cylinder impinging flow field is extensively studied by hot-wire anemometry measurements. The free jet is employed with a small cylinder of 3 mm in diameter located in the potential core region at the impinging length of L/H = 1.5 for the near field impingement and L/H = 4 for the far field impingement. The jet exit velocity is operated at 10 m/sec with the Reynolds number of 1.03 × 104 based on the nozzle exit width H = 15mm. The impinging jet is locally excited at the nozzle exit with varicose mode (m =0) and sinuous mode (m = 1) disturbances at the fundamental frequency of the natural jet flow. Data indicate that the jet flow is greatly altered and significantly enhanced by strengthening the coherent structures of the flow due to resonance according to the feedback mechanism. Although the original natural jet preferably exhibits the varicose mode, the strong sinuous mode is dominant in the flow field owing to the presence of the small cylinder in the potential core region. In the near field impingement, the wake region behind the cylinder preserves the pure sinuous mode to where the jet vortices merge and then mildly fades out. Whereas in the jet shear layer, the sinuous mode exists in the initial portion and gradually transforms to the varicose mode. In the far field impingement, the alternate mode dominates in each frequency stage in pure impinging case and the modal behavior follows the selected mode with the introducing acoustic waves in the acoustic excitation cases.