| Previous research at RMC has cataloged the occurrence of limit cycle oscillations at low-to-moderate Reynolds numbers for an elastically mounted aeroelastic airfoil. These oscillations were attributed to boundary layer separation and the formation of a laminar separation bubble. For this thesis, an instrumented and motor-driven oscillating airfoil rig was designed and fabricated for the purpose of investigating the boundary layer of a NACA-0012 airfoil. The oscillating airfoil was driven by a servo motor to mimic the observed aeroelastic pitching with a sinusoid of matched amplitude and frequency. Hot-wire anemometry was used to investigate the near wake of the new motor-driven airfoil and compare it with the aeroelastic experiment. A chord-wise array of hot-film sensors captured the boundary layer state during the airfoil pitching oscillation. A novel analysis technique is introduced; A sliding window (in time) cross-correlation of adjacent sensors was used to detect dynamic laminar separation. Wind tunnel tests were performed at static angles-of-attack, for quasi-static very low frequency sweeps to verify the technique, and for selected cases of oscillations obtained with the aeroelastic rig. The new detection method was verified against the existing static techniques of phase reversal signature detection and signal cross-correlation by comparing quasi-static and static results. A map of the laminar separation bubble was produced for fixed angles of attack as well as for the pitching airfoil. The presence of a laminar separation was linked to the occurrence and characteristics of the limit cycle oscillations.;Keywords: laminar separation, NACA0012, hot-film, hot-wire, anemometry, transitional flow, aeroelasticity. |
