Analysis of transonic buffet using dynamic mode decomposition

Abstract

AbstractThe buffet flow field around supercritical airfoils is dominated by self-sustained shock wave oscillations on the suction side of the wing. Theories assume that this unsteadiness is driven by a feedback loop of disturbances in the flow field downstream of the shock wave whose upstream propagating part is generated by acoustic waves. High-speed particle-image velocimetry measurements are performed to investigate this feedback loop in transonic buffet flow over a supercritical DRA 2303 airfoil. The freestream Mach number is $$M_{\infty } = 0.73$$ M ∞ = 0.73 , the angle of attack is $$\alpha = 3.5^{\circ }$$ α = 3 . 5 ∘ , and the chord-based Reynolds number is $${\mathrm{Re}}_{c} = 1.9\times 10^6$$ Re c = 1.9 × 10 6 . The obtained velocity fields are processed by sparsity-promoting dynamic mode decomposition to identify the dominant dynamic features contributing strongest to the buffet flow field. Two pronounced dynamic modes are found which confirm the presence of two main features of the proposed feedback loop. One mode is related to the shock wave oscillation frequency and its shape includes the movement of the shock wave and the coupled pulsation of the recirculation region downstream of the shock wave. The other pronounced mode represents the disturbances which form the downstream propagating part of the proposed feedback loop. The frequency of this mode corresponds to the frequency of the acoustic waves which are generated by these downstream traveling disturbances and which form the upstream propagating part of the proposed feedback loop. In this study, the post-processing, i.e., the DMD, is highlighted to substantiate the existence of this vortex mode. It is this vortex mode that via the Lamb vector excites the shock oscillations. The measurement data based DMD results confirm numerical findings, i.e., the dominant buffet and vortex modes are in good agreement with the feedback loop suggested by Lee. Graphic abstract