Aaron Boomsma

Direct numerical simulation of sharkskin denticles in turbulent channel flow

The hydrodynamic function of sharkskin has been under investigation for the past 30 years. Current literature conflicts on whether sharkskin is able to reduce skin friction similar to riblets. To contribute insights toward reconciling these conflicting views, direct numerical simulations are carried out to obtain detailed flow fields around realistic denticles. A sharp interface immersed boundary method is employed to simulate two arrangements of actual sharkskin denticles (from Isurus oxyrinchus) in a turbulent boundary layer at Reτ ≈ 180. For comparison, turbulent flow over drag-reducing scalloped riblets is also simulated with similar flow conditions and with the same numerical method. Although the denticles resemble riblets, both sharkskin arrangements increase total drag by 44%-50%, while the riblets reduce drag by 5%. Analysis of the simulated flow fields shows that the turbulent flow around denticles is highly three-dimensional and separated, with 25% of the total drag being form drag. The complex three-dimensional shape of the denticles gives rise to a mean flow dominated by strong secondary flows in sharp contrast with the mean flow generated by riblets, which is largely two-dimensional. The so resulting three-dimensionality of sharkskin flows leads to an increase in the magnitude of the turbulent statistics near the denticles, which further contributes to increasing the total drag. The simulations also show that, at least for the simulated arrangements, sharkskin, in sharp contrast with drag-reducing riblets, is unable to isolate high shear stress near denticle ridges causing a significant portion of the denticle surface to be exposed to high mean shear.

Effects of spanwise blade load distribution on wind turbine wake evolution.

In this paper, the effect of two different turbine blade designs on the wake characteristics was investigated using large-eddy simulation with an actuator line model. For the two different designs, the total axial load is nearly the same but the spanwise (radial) distributions are different. The one with higher load near the blade tip is denoted as Design A; the other is Design B. From the computed results, we observed that the velocity deficit from Design B is higher than that from Design A. The intensity of turbulence kinetic energy in the far wake is also higher for Design B. The effect of blade load distribution on the wind turbine axial and tangential induction factors was also investigated.

Wind turbine wake interactions at field scale: An LES study of the SWiFT facility

The University of Minnesota Virtual Wind Simulator (VWiS) code is employed to simulate turbine/atmosphere interactions in the Scaled Wind Farm Technology (SWiFT) facility developed by Sandia National Laboratories in Lubbock, TX, USA. The facility presently consists of three turbines and the simulations consider the case of wind blowing from South such that two turbines are in the free stream and the third turbine in the direct wake of one upstream turbine with separation of 5 rotor diameters. Large-eddy simulation (LES) on two successively finer grids is carried out to examine the sensitivity of the computed solutions to grid refinement. It is found that the details of the break-up of the tip vortices into small-scale turbulence structures can only be resolved on the finer grid. It is also shown that the power coefficient CP of the downwind turbine predicted on the coarse grid is somewhat higher than that obtained on the fine mesh. On the other hand, the rms (root-mean-square) of the CP fluctuations are nearly the same on both grids, although more small-scale turbulence structures are resolved upwind of the downwind turbine on the finer grid.