Flow over a hydrofoil with trailing edge vortex shedding at high-Reynolds number

At high Reynolds number, the flow of an incompressible fluid over a lifting surface is a rich blend of fluid dynamic phenomena, and the individual elements of this process have been the subject of much prior work. However, controlled experimental investigations of lifting surfaces at Reynolds numbers typical of heavy-lift aircraft wings or full-size ship propellers (chord-based Reynolds numbers, Re_C ∼ 107–10 8) are largely unavailable. This paper presents experimental results from the flow over a two-dimensional hydrofoil at nominal Re_C values from near one million (1M) to more than 50 million (50M). The tests were conducted in the U.S. Navy's William B. Morgan Large Cavitation Channel with a solid-bronze hydrofoil (2.1 m chord, 3.0 m span, 17 cm maximum thickness) at flow speeds from 0.25 to 18.3 m/s. The foil section, a modified NACA 0016 with a rounded trailing-edge bevel, approximates the cross section of a generic naval propeller blade. Trailing-edge geometries with bevel angles of 44° and 56° are investigated.; Flow field velocities are measured with laser Doppler velocimetry and planar particle imaging velocimetry. Pressure measurements are made with static pressure taps along the foil chord and test section walls and with unsteady pressure sensors near the trailing edge. Results are presented from the time-averaged flow (part I), as well as turbulence statistics, pressure and velocity spectra, and instantaneous velocity fields (part II). Geometry and Reynolds-number dependencies in the mean flow are linked to similar dependencies in the dynamic flow. A correlation is shown between the suction side time-average shear rate near the trailing edge and the strength of the near-wake vortex shedding. Peaks in spectra of vertical velocity fluctuations associated with vortex shedding near the trailing edge are strongest when the suction side shear layer, which separates upstream of the trailing edge, most effectively induces roll-up of the pressure side shear layer, which separates at the trailing edge. A scaling law based on the velocity induced by the suction side vorticity on the pressure side shear layer at the trailing edge collapses measurements of shedding strength on both trailing edge geometries for 1.4M ≤ Re_C ≤ 50M.