Flow Regimes and Drag Characteristics of Yawed Elliptical Cavities With Varying Depth

Abstract

The effect of yaw angle and cavity depth on the resulting flow field of cavities with elliptical planform areas embedded in a low velocity turbulent boundary layer was investigated experimentally. A 2:1 elliptical cavity with depth to minor axis ratios ranging from 0.1 to 1.0 was tested in a wind tunnel facility. Surface pressure measurements and wake velocity measurements, using hot-wire anemometry, were conducted to examine the resulting flow regimes. The results indicated several different flow regimes for the different yaw angle and cavity depth configurations. Cellular structures were observed when the minor axis was aligned with the streamwise direction. Yawing the cavity with respect to the streamwise direction resulted in a highly asymmetric flow regime. This flow regime was also associated with high drag for certain cavity depth configurations. A nominally two-dimensional flow regime was observed for large yaw angles, when the major axis of the cavity was aligned with the streamwise direction. The yaw angle had only a minor effect on the flow regimes associated with the shallowest and deepest cavities examined. A strong resemblance was found between the flow regimes associated with elliptical and rectangular cavities for similar yaw and depth configurations. This similarity was also observed in the lift and drag coefficients for the different yaw angles and cavity depths. This indicated that the wall radius of curvature of elliptical cavities has a negligible effect on the resulting flow regimes when compared to rectangular cavities.